I've been having the strangest time lately. I keep oscillating between feeling amazing and feeling like crap. With the exhibition coming up in a few days though, I guess it's understandable. I'm excited and terrified at the same time. I don't want anyone to read my zine, but I want everyone to read it at the same time! I'm scared I won't get it done on time. I'm scared people will think my paintings are too weird. I'm scared no-one will buy any, and I'm also scared of letting go of my babies.
Monday was a very strange day indeed. I put a lot of concentrated effort into working on the zine and feeling really good about it. Then I did a 20-minute indoor walk video. Then I did 5 Kpop dance videos! And I still felt great! Then after Husband got home, I went out and mowed until the battery on the mower ran out! And I still didn't feel exhausted! I wish I had that sort of energy all the time.
Also on Monday, I'd been watching some youtube videos at lunchtime, and was feeling relly inspired by some of the vlogs I watched. I thought to myself, I want to start vlogging! I mean, what kind of crazy talk is that? I started thinking to myself, it's a new year, I should try something new! I have more way personality than the people in a lot of the vlogs I see! I'll wow them with my funny face and offbeat wit! I even went into the bedroom and made a really short video, just to see what it was like. I discovered several things:
* the camera on my ipad is actually not that bad.
* the light coming through the bedroom window isn't actually that bad.
* I might scrub up ok if I wore makeup and did my hair nice and wore a nice top.
* wow, I look like my Mum! (but not in a bad way!)
* I didn't hate my voice as much as I thought I would. In fact, I quite liked it.
I even googled how to make a vlog, but that was when the doubts flooded in. All the photos of celebrity youtubers and articles on how to engage with your viewers and increase your views and ugh! I remembered that my life is boring and I'd never have anything to talk about and I can't talk to real people let alone a camera and my anxiety would kill it and I gave up on that idea. But still...
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exercise. Show all posts
18 January 2017
09 January 2017
Yoga
One of the people whose blogs I read recommended to me the YouTube channel Yoga with Adrienne. She had mentioned it on her blog before, but when I posted about my gwishes for 2017, she commented saying there was a new 31-day practice on that channel which she is doing. It's called Revolution. I decided to give it a go.
Day 1 was about easing into the practice. That was nice. There were a couple of moves I couldn't do, but it didn't bother me too much. I really liked Adrienne's manner and way of speaking. It's very calming, not too giddy, but not too new-agey either.
Day 2 was a lot harder. There were only a couple of moves I could do as-is. Some I could do sort-of, if I modified the moves. Quite a few, I couldn't do at all, so I tried to do easier moves instead. I still enjoyed it, though I wasn't as enthusiastic about it as on Day 1.
Then it was the weekend so I didn't do it for a few days. You receive an email every day of the practice, and before I knew it, I was 3 days behind. I was feeling quite discouraged. This morning, I had Day 3 on my to-do list. When I looked at the email, it said that today would be harder than the previous days. I decided to just watch the video as a preview and then go ahead with it if I felt like I wanted to. Well, there were so many moves that I knew I wouldn't be able to do. Some I might have been able to do with blocks, but I don't have any and can't really justify purchasing any at the moment -- aside from the fact that I'd have to wait for them to arrive if I ordered them online, and I'm not making Husband drive me to the shops just to buy yoga blocks.
So I gave up; I unsubscribed to the daily emails. I knew that I wouldn't do all of the videos, and I didn't want to have more emails coming in every day to remind me that I was getting more and more behind. I'm at the point in my life now where I'm fairly happy to give up on something that doesn't work for me, rather than persist half-heartedly and become more and more disappointed in myself. It's a bit sad because I really love Adrienne. So I looked at her other videos and there is one especially for beginners that she posted a few months ago. I'll try that one today instead.
Day 1 was about easing into the practice. That was nice. There were a couple of moves I couldn't do, but it didn't bother me too much. I really liked Adrienne's manner and way of speaking. It's very calming, not too giddy, but not too new-agey either.
Day 2 was a lot harder. There were only a couple of moves I could do as-is. Some I could do sort-of, if I modified the moves. Quite a few, I couldn't do at all, so I tried to do easier moves instead. I still enjoyed it, though I wasn't as enthusiastic about it as on Day 1.
Then it was the weekend so I didn't do it for a few days. You receive an email every day of the practice, and before I knew it, I was 3 days behind. I was feeling quite discouraged. This morning, I had Day 3 on my to-do list. When I looked at the email, it said that today would be harder than the previous days. I decided to just watch the video as a preview and then go ahead with it if I felt like I wanted to. Well, there were so many moves that I knew I wouldn't be able to do. Some I might have been able to do with blocks, but I don't have any and can't really justify purchasing any at the moment -- aside from the fact that I'd have to wait for them to arrive if I ordered them online, and I'm not making Husband drive me to the shops just to buy yoga blocks.
So I gave up; I unsubscribed to the daily emails. I knew that I wouldn't do all of the videos, and I didn't want to have more emails coming in every day to remind me that I was getting more and more behind. I'm at the point in my life now where I'm fairly happy to give up on something that doesn't work for me, rather than persist half-heartedly and become more and more disappointed in myself. It's a bit sad because I really love Adrienne. So I looked at her other videos and there is one especially for beginners that she posted a few months ago. I'll try that one today instead.
10 October 2012
Wednesday Musings
I mentioned in my last couple of posts that I'm scratching around for a new challenge to keep me motivated, exercise-wise. I haven't had much time to think about it since the Baby Elephant Walk ended. I had a quick look at some distance-based ones, but didn't have a chance to think about whether they'd suit me or not. I don't know if "distance-based" is the right description, but basically it's a challenge where you go for your normal walks etc, and then after each session, measure the distance you walked along a famous road, walking track etc. Like the one I did earlier in the year, the Great Ocean Road challenge. The good part about a challenge like that is that the towns or other landmarks along the way can be like intermediate goals. Plus, you have a well-defined finishing point. The downside is that you have to spend time working out the distance you walked (or converting if you did a different type of exercise) and then measuring it up against the route.
Another type of challenge I thought of, is to walk to various landmarks in the city. The upside of this is that it keeps interest local and I'll find out more about my city. The downsides are: it's very similar to the BEW challenge so I might get bored easily; how do I measure the exercise I've done?; questions as to how many landmarks? which ones? how do I know when I'm 'finished'?
Then there are weekly or monthly challenges: e.g. spend _ hours exercising in a week, or walk _ kms in a month. The merit of a challenge like this is that I can build on them week after week or month after month. The downsides are: deciding what is reasonable and achievable; giving myself a time limit means I'm wary about being able to achieve it; it doesn't have an interesting hook (e.g. getting to see art).
Yes, I tend to overthink things.
So far I'm leaning towards the first type of challenge. It's a bit more glamorous than the others, and the defined finishing point is appealing. (I get a sense of achievement and then I can go on to the next challenge!) If I work out the length of the route and intermediate landmarks ahead of time, then measuring my progress against them won't take that much effort. Especially if I also work out pre-determined ways to calculate distance from time and vice versa. (e.g. I walked 30 minutes yesterday in the city, can I pre-determine an average distance for that, taking into account stopping at traffic lights, etc.?)
That could totally work.
Now I just have to decide which route I want to walk. Where do I want to virtually go? The Great Ocean Road is a popular one, but perhaps something a bit more exotic, one of the famous highways or walking routes throughout the world? A tour of the arrondisements of Paris, perhaps?
Anyway, now I'm being silly, but I want to get it all set up soon, while my motivation is still high.
09 October 2012
I'm back!
I'm back! Hello! I've been on holiday! Yup, you didn't see that one coming, a ninja holiday. The main reason Husband and I went was to attend our friends' wedding and to support them in organising it, etc. We also had some fun times. But let's get the whingeing and whining out of the way first. I had suspected the tropics weren't for me, and I was right. I just can't cope with the heat and humidity. Beforehand I thought: this is gonna be great! 8 days where I can go for lots of walks, swim every day, maybe twice a day! I'll be nice and trim and fit by the end of it! Or further along the way, at least.
Well, I went for one single walk, along the beach. That was a social walk, not a cardio session. (A lovely experience, but not much fat was burned, I suspect.) The rest of the time, it was either too hot, too humid, or too rainy. Sometimes, all 3 at once!
As for swimming, I went for 3 short swims, the kind where you're just floating around in the water, nothing strenuous. I wanted to get up early and swim before it got too humid and sunny, but the pool didn't open til 8am. Most of the time the situation was - well, we're meeting up with the other people we know up here soon, don't wanna get my hair wet and have to take another shower and get changed again, so I'll just hang out in the room and read or work on my puzzle book in the air-conditioned comfort.
We went on a tour of the rainforest. Which was great! I really loved it. From a physical activity point of view though ... the description said we were going on a bush walk. Don't get me wrong, the walk was interesting, but it was about 10 minutes in duration, along a flat concrete path. So my hopes of getting some good exercise that day didn't come true, plus we stopped off and ate ice cream on the way back! Gosh, it was delicious ice cream, though.
Speaking of food, I ate like all get-out. We cooked for ourselves in the room for most meals, actually. Hoping to save some money - groceries were very expensive there, but I'm sure eating out every night would have cost even more. So therefore my eating patterns were similar to what they normally are on weekends: largish breakfast, smallish lunch, no snacks, medium healthy dinner, and largish unhealthy dessert. Yes you read right, large unhealthy dessert! I've yet to kick that habit. More on that later. The only difference was probably less coffee and tea (no time/too hot). Come to think of it though, we almost definitely ate healthier than if we'd eaten out for every meal, anyway.
I weighed myelf when I got back, and wished I hadn't. I've put on over 2kgs in the last month or so. However, I did weigh myself sometime after lunch, not first thing in the morning, so I'm not going to put it officially on record. I'll wait til next week and see what the scales say then.
On the bright side -
I didn't get sunburnt!
I had a lot of fun on the 2 tours we went on, and with the other people up there for the wedding. The wedding itself was really beautiful and it was wonderful to see the bridal couple so happy.
I slept really well. I got to sleep so quickly and slept through the night, unlike at home. There was only one night near the start where I woke up in the middle of the night. Even though I woke up early in the mornings and didn't sleep in, I felt refreshed. The dark circles under my eyes had just about vanished by the time the holiday was over!
I discovered I love snorkelling! We went on a tour of the coral reefs, and I went snorkelling and saw the most amazing corals and fish. It was brilliant! I'm going to buy my own snorkelling gear and use it every chance I can. I don't know if there's anywhere to go snorkelling near home, but I'll find out!
On the plane on the way home, I had one of those epiphanies, you know those ones where you start out dreading having to go back home to your old routine. But then you decide that things are going to be different!. Don't worry, it wasn't a big one, I'm not going to quit my job and go live in a teepee or anything. It was only a mini-epiphany. I just want to actually do the things that I tell myself I'm going to do. Not even big things, either. Just little things like: go for a walk at lunchtime, drink a whole bottle of water (I've gotten out of these habits the last month or so), do something from my Things To Do List, meditate after work, or do something active on the weekend. They're perfectly easy and reasonable things to do, but I haven't been doing them. They would be so good for my wellbeing, but still, I haven't been doing them. The reasons why are a bit too full-on for me to go into right now. (This post is long enough already!)
There's been some Good Stuff, though. I had the day off yesterday, but after Husband got home from work, we went to the supermarket and bought lots of fruit and veges! Normally we buy a few things, and we run out during the week, or don't have them at every meal. But this time I bought extra. (I'm having celery sticks with my mid-morning rice cakes, a banana for afternoon tea, and we're having lots-o-veg in our paella tonight.) I was feeling a bit bad that I hadn't done any exercise, but after we got home from the supermarket it was still light (yay daylight savings!) and I still had some energy, so I went for a walk. At first I'd be gone for 15-20 minutes max, but somehow I kept deciding I could go that little bit further, and it ended up being 30 minutes. Yay me! I haven't had time to think about what my next challenge will be, or even how I'll record what I've done in the meantime, but at least this is recorded here on my blog. ;)
When I was on holiday, I started reading 2 books I downloaded onto my iPod. (I read a lot of short stories as well, but only these two are relevant here.) They were Lose Weight Without Dieting: The Animal Kingdom Way and How to Sleep Well. I was about a chapter into each one by the time I got home, and after the horrendous night's sleep I had last night, I decided to concentrate on How to Sleep Well first. Cos I figured, the stuff in the other book would be just that bit harder to do if my sleep bank were running on empty. =) I'll report back on my findings.
Well, I went for one single walk, along the beach. That was a social walk, not a cardio session. (A lovely experience, but not much fat was burned, I suspect.) The rest of the time, it was either too hot, too humid, or too rainy. Sometimes, all 3 at once!
As for swimming, I went for 3 short swims, the kind where you're just floating around in the water, nothing strenuous. I wanted to get up early and swim before it got too humid and sunny, but the pool didn't open til 8am. Most of the time the situation was - well, we're meeting up with the other people we know up here soon, don't wanna get my hair wet and have to take another shower and get changed again, so I'll just hang out in the room and read or work on my puzzle book in the air-conditioned comfort.
We went on a tour of the rainforest. Which was great! I really loved it. From a physical activity point of view though ... the description said we were going on a bush walk. Don't get me wrong, the walk was interesting, but it was about 10 minutes in duration, along a flat concrete path. So my hopes of getting some good exercise that day didn't come true, plus we stopped off and ate ice cream on the way back! Gosh, it was delicious ice cream, though.
Speaking of food, I ate like all get-out. We cooked for ourselves in the room for most meals, actually. Hoping to save some money - groceries were very expensive there, but I'm sure eating out every night would have cost even more. So therefore my eating patterns were similar to what they normally are on weekends: largish breakfast, smallish lunch, no snacks, medium healthy dinner, and largish unhealthy dessert. Yes you read right, large unhealthy dessert! I've yet to kick that habit. More on that later. The only difference was probably less coffee and tea (no time/too hot). Come to think of it though, we almost definitely ate healthier than if we'd eaten out for every meal, anyway.
I weighed myelf when I got back, and wished I hadn't. I've put on over 2kgs in the last month or so. However, I did weigh myself sometime after lunch, not first thing in the morning, so I'm not going to put it officially on record. I'll wait til next week and see what the scales say then.
On the bright side -
I didn't get sunburnt!
I had a lot of fun on the 2 tours we went on, and with the other people up there for the wedding. The wedding itself was really beautiful and it was wonderful to see the bridal couple so happy.
I slept really well. I got to sleep so quickly and slept through the night, unlike at home. There was only one night near the start where I woke up in the middle of the night. Even though I woke up early in the mornings and didn't sleep in, I felt refreshed. The dark circles under my eyes had just about vanished by the time the holiday was over!
I discovered I love snorkelling! We went on a tour of the coral reefs, and I went snorkelling and saw the most amazing corals and fish. It was brilliant! I'm going to buy my own snorkelling gear and use it every chance I can. I don't know if there's anywhere to go snorkelling near home, but I'll find out!
On the plane on the way home, I had one of those epiphanies, you know those ones where you start out dreading having to go back home to your old routine. But then you decide that things are going to be different!. Don't worry, it wasn't a big one, I'm not going to quit my job and go live in a teepee or anything. It was only a mini-epiphany. I just want to actually do the things that I tell myself I'm going to do. Not even big things, either. Just little things like: go for a walk at lunchtime, drink a whole bottle of water (I've gotten out of these habits the last month or so), do something from my Things To Do List, meditate after work, or do something active on the weekend. They're perfectly easy and reasonable things to do, but I haven't been doing them. They would be so good for my wellbeing, but still, I haven't been doing them. The reasons why are a bit too full-on for me to go into right now. (This post is long enough already!)
There's been some Good Stuff, though. I had the day off yesterday, but after Husband got home from work, we went to the supermarket and bought lots of fruit and veges! Normally we buy a few things, and we run out during the week, or don't have them at every meal. But this time I bought extra. (I'm having celery sticks with my mid-morning rice cakes, a banana for afternoon tea, and we're having lots-o-veg in our paella tonight.) I was feeling a bit bad that I hadn't done any exercise, but after we got home from the supermarket it was still light (yay daylight savings!) and I still had some energy, so I went for a walk. At first I'd be gone for 15-20 minutes max, but somehow I kept deciding I could go that little bit further, and it ended up being 30 minutes. Yay me! I haven't had time to think about what my next challenge will be, or even how I'll record what I've done in the meantime, but at least this is recorded here on my blog. ;)
When I was on holiday, I started reading 2 books I downloaded onto my iPod. (I read a lot of short stories as well, but only these two are relevant here.) They were Lose Weight Without Dieting: The Animal Kingdom Way and How to Sleep Well. I was about a chapter into each one by the time I got home, and after the horrendous night's sleep I had last night, I decided to concentrate on How to Sleep Well first. Cos I figured, the stuff in the other book would be just that bit harder to do if my sleep bank were running on empty. =) I'll report back on my findings.
18 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elepants 40 - 44
AKA The Great Monday Walk 2012!
On Monday I went for a great, big, long walk! I scooped up some of the elephants that are furthest away from me. I knew it would be a long slog, and I'd beendreading anticipating it for a while. I wasn't sure if I could do it all in one go, or even if I'd have the energy to do it at all. But, seeing as I'm such an awesome winner, I did it! I walked all the way up to the Royal Children's Hospital, back past Melbourne Uni, through the squares of Carlton and back into the city. I'm a total champ. It was over 6kms, and almost 2 hours (accounting for a short rest stop and admiration session at the new children's hospital building). I have created a mega-funky collage to illustrate:
The new children's hospital building has an A.Mazing 2-storey high aquarium with sharks and everything inside! I hope you never have to go there for any other reason, but do check it out if you're ever in the area!
Distance Walked: 6.59 km
Elephants Found: 5
I only have one more elephant-finding mission to go before my quest is over. (The last 6 elephants are at Federation Square / Birrarung Marr, so I'll be sweeping them all in one go.) I already feel a little sad that the challenge is nearly over. I've been trying to think of other challenges I can do to keep me motivated, but none I've come up with so far seem quite as exciting as the Baby Elephant Walk.
On Monday I went for a great, big, long walk! I scooped up some of the elephants that are furthest away from me. I knew it would be a long slog, and I'd been
The new children's hospital building has an A.Mazing 2-storey high aquarium with sharks and everything inside! I hope you never have to go there for any other reason, but do check it out if you're ever in the area!
Elephants Found: 5
I only have one more elephant-finding mission to go before my quest is over. (The last 6 elephants are at Federation Square / Birrarung Marr, so I'll be sweeping them all in one go.) I already feel a little sad that the challenge is nearly over. I've been trying to think of other challenges I can do to keep me motivated, but none I've come up with so far seem quite as exciting as the Baby Elephant Walk.
16 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elepants 38 & 39
Yesterday I did the big one! I went direct to the horse's mouth itself (well, elephant's mouth technically) - the Melbourne Zoo! The Husbandy One and I spent all afternoon walking around, looking at all the animals and having a lovely time. These were the two elephant artworks on display just outside the front gates:
And of course, how could I forget seeing little Mali herself?!
Isn't she adorable!??! She stayed close to her mother Dokoon while we were observing her, but seemed to be very curious and playful as well. I was so excited to see her, and the other elephants too. We also saw seals and gorillas and orang utans, and lions and heard them roar and so many other things! It was a very enjoyable afternoon. We spent about 4 hours there wandering around - it would be impossible to track how far we went exactly, so I calculated from the time we spend there instead, and I estimate approx. 8 kms. Nice stuff!
Distance Walked: 8 km
Elephants Found: 3 (2 statues, one real!)
And of course, how could I forget seeing little Mali herself?!
Isn't she adorable!??! She stayed close to her mother Dokoon while we were observing her, but seemed to be very curious and playful as well. I was so excited to see her, and the other elephants too. We also saw seals and gorillas and orang utans, and lions and heard them roar and so many other things! It was a very enjoyable afternoon. We spent about 4 hours there wandering around - it would be impossible to track how far we went exactly, so I calculated from the time we spend there instead, and I estimate approx. 8 kms. Nice stuff!
Elephants Found: 3 (2 statues, one real!)
14 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elepants 36 & 37
Today I ummed and aahed over whether I felt like hunting more elephants. I certainly wasn't up for a long trip, as I hadn't brought a change of clothes etc to work. I'm starting to feel the pressure: 15 more elephants to go and I only have a week to find them! All of the remaining ones now are too far to make it there and back at lunch time, so I decided to head out to Chinatown after work. The excitement of the bustling streets and enticing Chinese food smells didn't deter me from my mission!
I found these two lovely Malis -
Distance Walked: 2.92 km
Elephants Found: 2
They were both adorable but my favourite has to be Rusty Mali (top), which was welded all over with scrap metal parts: including spark plugs for toenails and a tap on the end of her trunk! Then, as others were choosing their restaurants or heading to their shows, I walked back to the tram stop to start a night snuggled up at home watching TV while Husband was at a bucks night. It's promising to be quietly lovely. =)
I've walked over 30 kms now in my quest to find the elephants. I'm so proud of myself! Next up will be my trip to the zoo to see the statues there, and the real animals, of course!
I found these two lovely Malis -
Distance Walked: 2.92 km
Elephants Found: 2
They were both adorable but my favourite has to be Rusty Mali (top), which was welded all over with scrap metal parts: including spark plugs for toenails and a tap on the end of her trunk! Then, as others were choosing their restaurants or heading to their shows, I walked back to the tram stop to start a night snuggled up at home watching TV while Husband was at a bucks night. It's promising to be quietly lovely. =)
I've walked over 30 kms now in my quest to find the elephants. I'm so proud of myself! Next up will be my trip to the zoo to see the statues there, and the real animals, of course!
13 September 2012
Looking Good
Things are looking up at the moment. I'm really looking forward to my holiday, I'm still feeling good about my long walk the other day, and yesterday morning I weighed myself and I've lost 0.5 kgs. I'm so happy! I know it's not a huge amount of weight, but to finally see the graph going down instead of up is a huge boost. I'm using an app called Weight Diary Free. It's pretty basic, but it has everything I want: a pretty graph, and a satisfying green arrow next to every entry showing I've lost weight. (Well, that's the plan, anyway.) Tonight I think I'll have a look at the full version and see if I want to upgrade.
Keeping it short today because I want to go out for a walk in the rest of my lunch break.
Keeping it short today because I want to go out for a walk in the rest of my lunch break.
11 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 29-35
Today was an absolutely mammoth effort. I walked all the way from the city to the Botanic Gardens and back, found 7 elephants, and I'm very proud of myself! So here's the story:
I started out at Southbank, where I found these three lovelies:
The bottom one was so beautiful, and it was hidden away in a dark courtyard. What a shame! I had trouble finding it, and only found it when I saw someone coming out from the courtyard who I'd seen taking photos of the other elephants just previously. (Sometimes you need to resort to underhand measures to hunt these elusive elephants!)
Then I walked past the Arts Centre and through the parklands until I found this baby:
I love how the elephant's eyes were also the eyes of the other animals painted on it. A few artists have gone with this concept. I pushed on then and made it to the Botanic Gardens! I hadn't been there for years, and forgotten how much I loved it. I grabbed a map, and working between it and the Zoo app, found my way to these two:
They both have a natural, jungle theme, one with Chinese style painted animals, and the other with a tropical jungle scene. They were both beautiful.
The last elephant of the day was the hardest to find. The app was a bit off as to its location. I wandered around for a bit, then I saw a woman taking a photo of something. She seemed to be on her own, so I didn't think she was taking a photo of another person. I followed my instincts and - yes! she was taking a photo of this lovely:
Normally I don't really like butterflies as a motif, but I loved how they seemed to be coming out of the ground and flying into the sky. After that I sat down and had a rest and a snack. When I checked the time I was amazed at how long I'd been walking for: about an hour and a half! Before I started my walk, I'd assumed that I was going to take the tram back into the city and home from there. But! I felt like more walking! I decided to walk back to the city, and that I did. I walked along the Tan, and saw all the different sorts of people that walk/run along there. It was very interesting. Then when I was getting close to the tram stop, I was still feeling invigorated, and I actually wanted to walk more! But my feet hurt badly, so I called it a day. I've had my sneakers since 2008. Perhaps I should think about a purchase. =)
When I calculated how far I walked today, I was astounded! Over 6 kms! And I barely even noticed it until my feet started hurting. The more I went on, the more I felt I could do. I'm so proud of myself!
Distance Walked: 6.57 km
Elephants Found: 7
I started out at Southbank, where I found these three lovelies:
The bottom one was so beautiful, and it was hidden away in a dark courtyard. What a shame! I had trouble finding it, and only found it when I saw someone coming out from the courtyard who I'd seen taking photos of the other elephants just previously. (Sometimes you need to resort to underhand measures to hunt these elusive elephants!)
Then I walked past the Arts Centre and through the parklands until I found this baby:
I love how the elephant's eyes were also the eyes of the other animals painted on it. A few artists have gone with this concept. I pushed on then and made it to the Botanic Gardens! I hadn't been there for years, and forgotten how much I loved it. I grabbed a map, and working between it and the Zoo app, found my way to these two:
They both have a natural, jungle theme, one with Chinese style painted animals, and the other with a tropical jungle scene. They were both beautiful.
The last elephant of the day was the hardest to find. The app was a bit off as to its location. I wandered around for a bit, then I saw a woman taking a photo of something. She seemed to be on her own, so I didn't think she was taking a photo of another person. I followed my instincts and - yes! she was taking a photo of this lovely:
Normally I don't really like butterflies as a motif, but I loved how they seemed to be coming out of the ground and flying into the sky. After that I sat down and had a rest and a snack. When I checked the time I was amazed at how long I'd been walking for: about an hour and a half! Before I started my walk, I'd assumed that I was going to take the tram back into the city and home from there. But! I felt like more walking! I decided to walk back to the city, and that I did. I walked along the Tan, and saw all the different sorts of people that walk/run along there. It was very interesting. Then when I was getting close to the tram stop, I was still feeling invigorated, and I actually wanted to walk more! But my feet hurt badly, so I called it a day. I've had my sneakers since 2008. Perhaps I should think about a purchase. =)
When I calculated how far I walked today, I was astounded! Over 6 kms! And I barely even noticed it until my feet started hurting. The more I went on, the more I felt I could do. I'm so proud of myself!
Elephants Found: 7
07 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 27 & 28
Today was just a skip and a jump to see a couple of elephants hanging out on Swanston Street. It was a typical Melbourne day, raining one minute, sunny the next literally!).
Distance Walked: 1.76 km
Elephants Found: 2
Distance Walked: 1.76 km
Elephants Found: 2
06 September 2012
Midweek Ramblings
I'm tired again today, but as The Husbandy One pointed out this morning, it's a different kind of tired to normal. It's more of a 'I walked a really long way yesterday and now my body needs a little bit of time out' sort of tired. Because I did walk a really long way yesterday: 3.42 km! I thought perhaps I'd have to catch a tram back from finding the elephants to where I normally get on public transport, but I walked all the way back. I'm proud of myself. I find that after I do a goodly work out, I feel a bit less anxious, more centred and content. I'm certainly not a zen master or anything! But it goes a little way to helping.
I thought I'd weigh myself this morning.
Hm!
I thought, surely with the exercise I've been doing lately, perhaps I've lost a little weight? No, not only have I not lost weight, but I've put on 0.8 kgs. It was a blow, but then I reminded myself: you're in this game to become healthier and fitter, not to try and force a number on a scale to change. You've been doing great things lately, so feel good about those!
Speaking of achieving things, I haven't had the time or energy (or the money, really) to reward myself for the milestones I've reached for the Baby Elephant Walk challenge. And I've realised: it's not really that important to me right now. I'm really focussed on planning what I'm going to do next, rather than looking back on what I've already done. I found some more potentially useful websites yesterday, but I'll talk more about those later.
In Other Ramblings ...
Meanwhile, Ithreatened promised to talk about food recently. I think my diet is mostly pretty good these days.
Sorry for the interruption, but gosh I hate the word 'diet'. I want to use it in a neutral way to describe what I eat, but it's not a neutral word. It implies a lot of things I don't want to be associated with, like deprivation, restriction and extremism. I want to come up with a new term that describes what I eat/drink in a way that feels good for me. Now back to your regular programme...
As I was saying, I think my eating is mostly pretty good. There's definitely room for improvement, though. I can feel a bullet point list coming on!
Things I'm doing well on:
* healthy, filling breakfasts on workdays
* eating enough fruit
* drinking at least 1.5 litres of water a day
* cut back alcohol consumption to 1 or 2 drinks a week. I've been known not to drink alcohol at all on a Friday or Saturday night now! *gasp!*
* saying no to food when I'm not hungry; not eating too much just to finish off a meal when I'm already satisfied
* I (still) don't drink soft drink, or eat donuts, biscuits or chips. I just don't really like these things anymore.
Things I'm still working on / only do sometimes:
* eating a healthy, balanced lunch
* having a milo instead of a chocolate bar in response to sweet cravings at work in the afternoons
* cutting back on coffee. It's just so good!
* eating a home-cooked, healthy dinner - I'd say I'm at about 90% on this one.
* eating and drinking enough/appropriately when exercising.
Things I'm not doing so good on:
* not eating enough vegetables - I usually only eat veges at dinner time.
* giving in to cravings, and eating too much and/or unhealthy snacks when I get home from work
* unbalanced eating on the weekends - i.e. a huge breakfast and then very little throughout the day, plus not that healthy either.
* dessert. Too much and too unhealthy!
I don't have time to analyse all this right now. More in future posts.
I thought I'd weigh myself this morning.
Hm!
I thought, surely with the exercise I've been doing lately, perhaps I've lost a little weight? No, not only have I not lost weight, but I've put on 0.8 kgs. It was a blow, but then I reminded myself: you're in this game to become healthier and fitter, not to try and force a number on a scale to change. You've been doing great things lately, so feel good about those!
Speaking of achieving things, I haven't had the time or energy (or the money, really) to reward myself for the milestones I've reached for the Baby Elephant Walk challenge. And I've realised: it's not really that important to me right now. I'm really focussed on planning what I'm going to do next, rather than looking back on what I've already done. I found some more potentially useful websites yesterday, but I'll talk more about those later.
In Other Ramblings ...
Meanwhile, I
Sorry for the interruption, but gosh I hate the word 'diet'. I want to use it in a neutral way to describe what I eat, but it's not a neutral word. It implies a lot of things I don't want to be associated with, like deprivation, restriction and extremism. I want to come up with a new term that describes what I eat/drink in a way that feels good for me. Now back to your regular programme...
As I was saying, I think my eating is mostly pretty good. There's definitely room for improvement, though. I can feel a bullet point list coming on!
Things I'm doing well on:
* healthy, filling breakfasts on workdays
* eating enough fruit
* drinking at least 1.5 litres of water a day
* cut back alcohol consumption to 1 or 2 drinks a week. I've been known not to drink alcohol at all on a Friday or Saturday night now! *gasp!*
* saying no to food when I'm not hungry; not eating too much just to finish off a meal when I'm already satisfied
* I (still) don't drink soft drink, or eat donuts, biscuits or chips. I just don't really like these things anymore.
Things I'm still working on / only do sometimes:
* eating a healthy, balanced lunch
* having a milo instead of a chocolate bar in response to sweet cravings at work in the afternoons
* cutting back on coffee. It's just so good!
* eating a home-cooked, healthy dinner - I'd say I'm at about 90% on this one.
* eating and drinking enough/appropriately when exercising.
Things I'm not doing so good on:
* not eating enough vegetables - I usually only eat veges at dinner time.
* giving in to cravings, and eating too much and/or unhealthy snacks when I get home from work
* unbalanced eating on the weekends - i.e. a huge breakfast and then very little throughout the day, plus not that healthy either.
* dessert. Too much and too unhealthy!
I don't have time to analyse all this right now. More in future posts.
05 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 25-26
Today I went for a lovely long walk around Docklands, and bagged two elephants. The weather was a bit touch and go there for a while, but by the time I finished work, it was all cleared up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was meant to be.
Distance Walked: 3.42 km
Elephants Found: 2
Both of these elephants are more about the message than being aesthetically pleasing. I did like them both, though. #26 (right) originally had a lotus flower in its mouth, but it's disappeared now. Bit of a shame. I took many photos of other things while I was on my walk, and I'm thinking of starting a Pinterest board for them or putting them on my Flickr.
It was a longer walk than I'd been anticipating, so I'm quite proud of myself. I may be able to do a shorter walk on Friday, but the next long one will have to wait until next week. I'm planning already, though!
Distance Walked: 3.42 km
Elephants Found: 2
Both of these elephants are more about the message than being aesthetically pleasing. I did like them both, though. #26 (right) originally had a lotus flower in its mouth, but it's disappeared now. Bit of a shame. I took many photos of other things while I was on my walk, and I'm thinking of starting a Pinterest board for them or putting them on my Flickr.
It was a longer walk than I'd been anticipating, so I'm quite proud of myself. I may be able to do a shorter walk on Friday, but the next long one will have to wait until next week. I'm planning already, though!
Today is Wednesday
Today is Wednesday: Hump Day as the wage slaves and salarymen call it. And I include myself amongst that group! Aside from feeling particularly cynical today, I'm revved up to go on a nice, long elephant-finding walk after work! I've got my shoes of speediness, clothes of casualness and backpack of lugginess all ready! I need to stop off and buy water of re-hydratedness and snack of energy-replenishingness, but other than that, I'm all organised! I'm fairly tired today (though not as bad as some days), and my back hurts a bit, but I'm still feeling motivated. I really hope I'll still feel that way at knock-off time!
Also, the weather forecast is looking a bit dodgy (winds, possible thunderstorm) so I'll keep an eye on the Bureau throughout the afternoon. I've been known to walk in the rain before, so it won't necissarily put me off if it's not too heavy. The sun is out at the moment though, so perhaps I'll be OK!
Meanwhile ...
I'm not quite half-way through my Baby Elephant Walk challenge yet, and I'm already thinking about ways I can keep my motivation high after I finish it. I did a 'normal' (non-elephant-finding) walk at lunch time yesterday, and I was thinking it would be a bit sad if that effort just got forgotten about. I wanted to channel it into a new goal or challenge. I thought to myself: I'll do a virtual Walk Around Australia! That's a bit far, maybe Walk Around Victoria! Walk Around Melbourne??!Hmmm. I did a bit of googling last night, and there are also various hiking tracks and other famous routes that you can 'walk' virtually. It works like this: every time you go for a walk, no matter where or when, you measure the distance you walked and super-impose that on the famous route. Then you can be like, "I made it to Paris today!" when in actuality you never left your own neighbourhood. Sounds like fun!
One website I found has quite a few routes already mapped out - and when you reach certain goals, you get sent a newsletter with interesting facts and some with recipes from the region you're 'walking' through. It sounds really good, but there's a membership fee, so I'll have to think about it. Then there's another site advertising Walktober, which is an initiative where people walk (obviously) and then enter their details on the site and the aim is to collectively walk to the moon. It's measured in number of steps though, and I can't be arsed faffing around with a pedometer again. Been there, done that, threw it against a wall. (In reality I put it in a drawer, but I was so frustrated with it that I felt like doing that!) I'm sure there are other sites out there, and I could always draw up my own routes. (I get to pore over maps, yay!)
I'm putting way too much thought into this at the moment, considering - as I mentioned earlier - I'm not even half-way through the Baby Elephant Walk challenge yet. I'd like to waffle on for a bit about food too, but I'll save that for tomorrow.
Also, the weather forecast is looking a bit dodgy (winds, possible thunderstorm) so I'll keep an eye on the Bureau throughout the afternoon. I've been known to walk in the rain before, so it won't necissarily put me off if it's not too heavy. The sun is out at the moment though, so perhaps I'll be OK!
Meanwhile ...
I'm not quite half-way through my Baby Elephant Walk challenge yet, and I'm already thinking about ways I can keep my motivation high after I finish it. I did a 'normal' (non-elephant-finding) walk at lunch time yesterday, and I was thinking it would be a bit sad if that effort just got forgotten about. I wanted to channel it into a new goal or challenge. I thought to myself: I'll do a virtual Walk Around Australia! That's a bit far, maybe Walk Around Victoria! Walk Around Melbourne??!Hmmm. I did a bit of googling last night, and there are also various hiking tracks and other famous routes that you can 'walk' virtually. It works like this: every time you go for a walk, no matter where or when, you measure the distance you walked and super-impose that on the famous route. Then you can be like, "I made it to Paris today!" when in actuality you never left your own neighbourhood. Sounds like fun!
One website I found has quite a few routes already mapped out - and when you reach certain goals, you get sent a newsletter with interesting facts and some with recipes from the region you're 'walking' through. It sounds really good, but there's a membership fee, so I'll have to think about it. Then there's another site advertising Walktober, which is an initiative where people walk (obviously) and then enter their details on the site and the aim is to collectively walk to the moon. It's measured in number of steps though, and I can't be arsed faffing around with a pedometer again. Been there, done that, threw it against a wall. (In reality I put it in a drawer, but I was so frustrated with it that I felt like doing that!) I'm sure there are other sites out there, and I could always draw up my own routes. (I get to pore over maps, yay!)
I'm putting way too much thought into this at the moment, considering - as I mentioned earlier - I'm not even half-way through the Baby Elephant Walk challenge yet. I'd like to waffle on for a bit about food too, but I'll save that for tomorrow.
04 September 2012
Good morning sunshine.
Good morning sunshine.
Well, I can't decide if I'm feeling optimistic or pessimistic today. On the one hand, the sun is shining, spring is beginning, I'm in the mood to get out there and move my body and experience the world and the fresh air. On the other hand, I feel really mentally tired today. One of my colleagues has been away sick, so I was even more busy yesterday. I felt good in the morning yesterday, but by the time I finished work, I was exhausted. Today, I don't even feel good in the morning, so I'm expecting to be even more exhausted tonight. But ... I felt good in the morning yesterday! Which is a development. Sometimes I get extremely frustrated by the fact that, when I do have energy and feel like doing something physical in the mornings, it just happens to be when I've just arrived at work and I have to sit on my butt for the next 8 hours and while away all my energy doing worky things. But ... such is the dilemma for millions of office workers all around the world. There's no point whingeing about it, I need to find ways to solve it, or work around it.
Meanwhile ...
Last night I discovered Fitblrs. They're Tumblr blogs with Fitspiration. I didn't go looking for them: I found them after linking from some fashion tumblrs that I like to look at. (It seems that in many people's minds, fashion and weight loss are inextricably linked, which I think is very sad.) I'd certainly heard of thinspiration before, but I was never interested in it, with it's awful quotes about how eating even one mouthful of certain foods will ruin your life, etc. I'm sure there are positive inspirations in there as well, but it's not the kind of inspiration that works on me. As I mentioned the other day, I seem to be more motivated by goals of becoming fitter rather than goals of losing weight. And I'm much more into anything positive (moving towards) than negative (moving away). I'm not about to chuck a whole bunch of fitblrs onto my my reader - I already have waaaay too many blogs on there already - but I did have a bit of a peruse last night. There were lots of pictures of yummy healthy foods, people doing exercise, and inspirational quotes. The photos of ladies in elaborate yoga poses were kinda intimidating. And ladies with manly 6-pack abs. But in general I found them pretty inspiring. If I find some I really like, I might add a few to my inspirational links page. In fact, afterwards I even did some work with my weights! In my jammies, sitting on my fit ball in front of an episode of The X-Files.
I also found 3 more elephant models yesterday, though I'll do a separate post on that later.
Well, I can't decide if I'm feeling optimistic or pessimistic today. On the one hand, the sun is shining, spring is beginning, I'm in the mood to get out there and move my body and experience the world and the fresh air. On the other hand, I feel really mentally tired today. One of my colleagues has been away sick, so I was even more busy yesterday. I felt good in the morning yesterday, but by the time I finished work, I was exhausted. Today, I don't even feel good in the morning, so I'm expecting to be even more exhausted tonight. But ... I felt good in the morning yesterday! Which is a development. Sometimes I get extremely frustrated by the fact that, when I do have energy and feel like doing something physical in the mornings, it just happens to be when I've just arrived at work and I have to sit on my butt for the next 8 hours and while away all my energy doing worky things. But ... such is the dilemma for millions of office workers all around the world. There's no point whingeing about it, I need to find ways to solve it, or work around it.
Meanwhile ...
Last night I discovered Fitblrs. They're Tumblr blogs with Fitspiration. I didn't go looking for them: I found them after linking from some fashion tumblrs that I like to look at. (It seems that in many people's minds, fashion and weight loss are inextricably linked, which I think is very sad.) I'd certainly heard of thinspiration before, but I was never interested in it, with it's awful quotes about how eating even one mouthful of certain foods will ruin your life, etc. I'm sure there are positive inspirations in there as well, but it's not the kind of inspiration that works on me. As I mentioned the other day, I seem to be more motivated by goals of becoming fitter rather than goals of losing weight. And I'm much more into anything positive (moving towards) than negative (moving away). I'm not about to chuck a whole bunch of fitblrs onto my my reader - I already have waaaay too many blogs on there already - but I did have a bit of a peruse last night. There were lots of pictures of yummy healthy foods, people doing exercise, and inspirational quotes. The photos of ladies in elaborate yoga poses were kinda intimidating. And ladies with manly 6-pack abs. But in general I found them pretty inspiring. If I find some I really like, I might add a few to my inspirational links page. In fact, afterwards I even did some work with my weights! In my jammies, sitting on my fit ball in front of an episode of The X-Files.
I also found 3 more elephant models yesterday, though I'll do a separate post on that later.
03 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 22-24
Today I went for a bit of a wander over to Swanston Street and found three elephants. They were so close together, it almost felt like cheating, but that's the way it is.
Distance Walked: 1.54km
Elephants Found: 3
All of these artworks were just amazing. Again, I can't choose a favourite! I loved the airbrushed trams and skyline on #22, the exquisite animals paintings on #23, and the beautiful mosaic on #24.
I'm planning a nice long walk to balance out this short one, so keep an eye out for that soon.
Distance Walked: 1.54km
Elephants Found: 3
All of these artworks were just amazing. Again, I can't choose a favourite! I loved the airbrushed trams and skyline on #22, the exquisite animals paintings on #23, and the beautiful mosaic on #24.
I'm planning a nice long walk to balance out this short one, so keep an eye out for that soon.
01 September 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 17-21
Yup, I bagged 5 elephants in one go last night, not to mention walked further than I have so far in the challenge! I had my change of clothes and my backpack, water bottle and a snack all organised - overall it was much better than my last long walk. This time I saw quite a few other people admiring the elephants too, which was really great to see. I enjoyed walking through the gardens so much, I just stopped to look at things and wandered around, as well as power-walking in sections. It was wonderful, good for my soul. ツ
Distance Walked: 3.99 km
(There & to Transport)
Elephants Found: 5
Just a little further and I would have hit 4 km! ツ
In total now I have walked over 15 km! I'm amazed! I'm nearly half-way to my elephant-finding goal, and I wonder how far I will have walked by the end of it!
Distance Walked: 3.99 km
(There & to Transport)
Elephants Found: 5
Just a little further and I would have hit 4 km! ツ
In total now I have walked over 15 km! I'm amazed! I'm nearly half-way to my elephant-finding goal, and I wonder how far I will have walked by the end of it!
30 August 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephant No. 16
Only one elephant yesterday as I was busy with many other things. It was beautiful down by the river, though:
Distance Walked: 1.28 km
Elephants Found: 1
I'm currently in the process of planning out how I'm going to do the rest of the walks, so hopefully there'll be more progress soon.
Distance Walked: 1.28 km
Elephants Found: 1
I'm currently in the process of planning out how I'm going to do the rest of the walks, so hopefully there'll be more progress soon.
29 August 2012
Midweek Ruminating
Welcome to the middle of the week.
I'm pretty much recovered from my mammoth walking session on Monday. On the one hand, I'm proud of myself that I walked so far; on the other hand, feel ashamed because I used to be able to walk much further! I started to get worried that I wouldn't be able to find all 50 elephants before the exhibition is over (21st September). Many of them are an even longer walk away than the ones I found on Monday. But then I started to think about the situation on Monday: I had just finished work and my energy levels were depleted to begin with (I'm doing the jobs of 2 people plus writing up a new procedures manual at the moment); I was wearing my work clothes, which I think is a psychological disadvantage because I don't want to do anything too strenuous in them and ruin them; I was lugging all my work stuff with me, plus the stuff I'd bought at lunch time; all my stuff was in a sling bag which I'd bought cheap at lunch time, so the weight of it was on one side and constantly pulling me off balance; the sling bag had a thin cord strap which dug into my shoulder; the air was quite cold and that makes it harder for me to exercise because of my asthma. Some may call these excuses. I call them facts, and reasons not to beat up on myself. After all, I did complete the walk as intended, didn't I? I can do this! I just have to be more organised and realistic next time.
So these are the things I need to do (in no particular order):
- find my backpack and see if it's suitable, if not, buy a new one;
- look at the locations of the remaining elephants and plan out routes: I may be able to combine up to 6 in a single walk;
- divide the routes up into long and short, and decide which are short enough to do at lunch time, which I need to leave to after work, and which are long enough to merit bringing a change of clothes to work
- the matter of the ultimate 2 elephants: the ones at Melbourne Zoo itself. Aside from being the furthest one away, I don't know if these ones are actually inside the zoo or just outside. If they're inside, and I go after work, then the zoo will be shut by that time and I won't be able to see them. Even if they're outside, and I do get to see them, then it would be pretty disappointing being at the zoo and not being able to go inside! So perhaps Husband and I would have to go on the weekend? But if we do that, then where should I start my walk from?? What a dilemma!
- do it!!
Other thoughts: I should probably make sure I space them out evenly and don't do all the short walks in the beginning, leaving all the longer walks to the end. If it takes me a couple of days to recover from a really long one, then it makes sense to alternate with short ones.
Right, I'm gonna log off right now and start planning!
I'm pretty much recovered from my mammoth walking session on Monday. On the one hand, I'm proud of myself that I walked so far; on the other hand, feel ashamed because I used to be able to walk much further! I started to get worried that I wouldn't be able to find all 50 elephants before the exhibition is over (21st September). Many of them are an even longer walk away than the ones I found on Monday. But then I started to think about the situation on Monday: I had just finished work and my energy levels were depleted to begin with (I'm doing the jobs of 2 people plus writing up a new procedures manual at the moment); I was wearing my work clothes, which I think is a psychological disadvantage because I don't want to do anything too strenuous in them and ruin them; I was lugging all my work stuff with me, plus the stuff I'd bought at lunch time; all my stuff was in a sling bag which I'd bought cheap at lunch time, so the weight of it was on one side and constantly pulling me off balance; the sling bag had a thin cord strap which dug into my shoulder; the air was quite cold and that makes it harder for me to exercise because of my asthma. Some may call these excuses. I call them facts, and reasons not to beat up on myself. After all, I did complete the walk as intended, didn't I? I can do this! I just have to be more organised and realistic next time.
So these are the things I need to do (in no particular order):
- find my backpack and see if it's suitable, if not, buy a new one;
- look at the locations of the remaining elephants and plan out routes: I may be able to combine up to 6 in a single walk;
- divide the routes up into long and short, and decide which are short enough to do at lunch time, which I need to leave to after work, and which are long enough to merit bringing a change of clothes to work
- the matter of the ultimate 2 elephants: the ones at Melbourne Zoo itself. Aside from being the furthest one away, I don't know if these ones are actually inside the zoo or just outside. If they're inside, and I go after work, then the zoo will be shut by that time and I won't be able to see them. Even if they're outside, and I do get to see them, then it would be pretty disappointing being at the zoo and not being able to go inside! So perhaps Husband and I would have to go on the weekend? But if we do that, then where should I start my walk from?? What a dilemma!
- do it!!
Other thoughts: I should probably make sure I space them out evenly and don't do all the short walks in the beginning, leaving all the longer walks to the end. If it takes me a couple of days to recover from a really long one, then it makes sense to alternate with short ones.
Right, I'm gonna log off right now and start planning!
28 August 2012
Baby Elephant Walk Check-In: Elephants 11-15
Yesterday I went up Victoria Market way to find some more Malis. All of the Malis I found on this walk were so beautiful, I couldn't pick a favourite. This walk was longer than my previous ones, and I really felt it! I was lugging my hand bag and work stuff with me too, which didn't help. I'm quite stiff and sore today. Next time I need to be more organised on the longer trips. I think I need to buy a backpack!
Distance Walked: 3.45 km
(There & to Transport)
Elephants Found: 4
P.S. I have created a page to keep a record of my rewards. It's in the tabs at the top. =)
Distance Walked: 3.45 km
(There & to Transport)
Elephants Found: 4
P.S. I have created a page to keep a record of my rewards. It's in the tabs at the top. =)
27 August 2012
Monday again!
Monday and I'm blogging again! I think I've realised what it is with Mondays - they're like a new beginning. I always make new plans and think about how I'm going to change things on Mondays - and even sometimes in bed on Sunday nights! Whether I wake up with energy, or wake up already tired, I'm still in the mood to think about positive changes. Monday mornings are like a little mini New Year for me. This is much better than it was up until recently - Mondays were a day of beating myself up and regretting not doing all the things on the weekend that I wanted to do and/or should have done. Not only were they the traditionally subdued day, being the start of the working week, but they were a day when I made myself feel miserable and berated myself for my lack of motivation. As I think I mentioned a little while back, I'm doing a lot less beating up of myself now - it wasn't a conscious decision, I just slowly started to realise I wasn't doing it anymore. And I guess this new attitude towards Mondays is a reflection of that. I often get in the mood to make lists of my intentions, like: I'm going to: drink a bottle of water every day; drink a cup of green tea every day; go for a walk every day; draw every day; craft every day, wear a quirky accessory every day, etc etc! So much to do!Even (as I did last night in bed) making declarations to myself like: "I'm going to lose __ kgs by this time next year! Yeah, it'll be great, I'll look better and feel better about myself and as a reward I can wear a really cool costume to next year's Convention!" Sheesh, the things you think about when you're lying in bed with insomnia! In the warm light of day, I think it would work much better for me if I focused on becoming healthier and achieving fitness goals, rather than losing x no. of kilos. I feel good about the start I've made with that - my Baby Elephant Walk project. Husband and I went for a walk on the weekend as well. At first I felt really stiff and achey (well, I'd been sitting still in front of the computer all day!), not to mention embarrassed, hoping no-one saw me, but after a little while, I started to loosen up, and by the end of it, I felt really good. It was only 20 minutes, but it was better than what I've been doing for the last however-many weekends, which is nothing!
Speaking of doing better things, for about the last week, I've been really feeling like I want to continue developing my spirituality. And, in a linked way, doing things that make me feel more calm and peaceful. For example, I had an urge to write some haiku last week. I dunno, I was feeling really attuned to the change in seasons, and I wanted to express it somehow. Then I had an urge to write a short essay about that form of poetry (cause I'm such a dork-ademic, hehehe), which I posted on my Craft Blog. I had to write it during my lunch breaks, as by the time I get home from work, I'm too physically and mentally tired to concentrate on anything like that. On the weekend I don't feel so bad, but my brain is in a different space: my time is taken up with socialising, and surfing the beauty blogs and inspirational tumblrs (and exercising last weekend, for the win!). But when I step away from all that and remember the core things, that's when I feel the best.
I don't really like to talk about my spirituality. It's very private for me. It's a bizarre mixture of Western, Eastern and elements that most people wouldn't even consider to be related to spirituality. I was about to write that it's irrelevant to this blog anyway, which is supposed to be about my health and fitness. But I don't think that's 100% true. I try to take a holistic approach where I can. That's why I've decided to try acupuncture.
Meanwhile...
Meanwhile, on a slightly more earthy and only vaguely related note, my dandruff problem seems to be clearing up. If you've never had dandruff, then you won't understand how embarrassing it can be and how much of a blow to a person's confidence it is. When it started to appear, I got a bottle of trusty Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp, which always worked for me in the past. But after using up 3/4 of the bottle, I finally had to admit it was making the problem worse. My hair was even feeling greasy, which is a problem I don't normally have. So I switched to Selsun Blue. I only used it for the first time yesterday, but I can see an improvement already. Things are looking up!
Speaking of doing better things, for about the last week, I've been really feeling like I want to continue developing my spirituality. And, in a linked way, doing things that make me feel more calm and peaceful. For example, I had an urge to write some haiku last week. I dunno, I was feeling really attuned to the change in seasons, and I wanted to express it somehow. Then I had an urge to write a short essay about that form of poetry (cause I'm such a dork-ademic, hehehe), which I posted on my Craft Blog. I had to write it during my lunch breaks, as by the time I get home from work, I'm too physically and mentally tired to concentrate on anything like that. On the weekend I don't feel so bad, but my brain is in a different space: my time is taken up with socialising, and surfing the beauty blogs and inspirational tumblrs (and exercising last weekend, for the win!). But when I step away from all that and remember the core things, that's when I feel the best.
I don't really like to talk about my spirituality. It's very private for me. It's a bizarre mixture of Western, Eastern and elements that most people wouldn't even consider to be related to spirituality. I was about to write that it's irrelevant to this blog anyway, which is supposed to be about my health and fitness. But I don't think that's 100% true. I try to take a holistic approach where I can. That's why I've decided to try acupuncture.
Meanwhile...
Meanwhile, on a slightly more earthy and only vaguely related note, my dandruff problem seems to be clearing up. If you've never had dandruff, then you won't understand how embarrassing it can be and how much of a blow to a person's confidence it is. When it started to appear, I got a bottle of trusty Head & Shoulders Dry Scalp, which always worked for me in the past. But after using up 3/4 of the bottle, I finally had to admit it was making the problem worse. My hair was even feeling greasy, which is a problem I don't normally have. So I switched to Selsun Blue. I only used it for the first time yesterday, but I can see an improvement already. Things are looking up!
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