Things I Love Thursday

The good thing about not writing a gratitude list this morning is that everything that I write here is new and exciting! What things are making me smile today?

• The idea of doing a long and epic hike, like this one through the Sierra Nevadas 
• Sunny Thursdays
• My amazing 17km run through the rain on Saturday (yes, it was that awesome)
• Meeting interesting and inspiring people at and through work
• Giving leftover (but still good) food to my local homeless people, and to the Salvos. 
• Puppies. 
• Feeling inspired by blogs 
• Do life

via Pinterest

Blog love - Ben does life

I just discovered a new blog. http://bendoeslife.tumblr.com/

There was a link to a youtube video on Runners World, so I had a look. It was about a guy who was morbidly obese and depressed, and one day decided to start running. He ended up losing 120 pounds (54.5kgs) and and ran races, marathons, and even an Ironman. There was a link to his blog, and I've been reading it all afternoon.

I just read the bit about completing the Ironman, and got a little teary. I feel SO inspired right now!

I also bought the shirt.

Things I love...Friday?

It may be a little late, but sometimes you have to stop and think about the little things that make you smile. 

Things making me smile this week are: 

• My best friend having an amazingly wonderful wedding! <3
• Impromptu riverside ciders with friends
• Eating well all week (it was only one cider!) and feeling good about it
• Rediscovering The Living End. White Noise is a brilliant album!
• Finally finishing of a task at work that has been lingering
• Starting a new exercise challenge
• Seeing my kitty gorge herself on fish (she can be fussy at times)
• Knowing that I have many opportunities available and am very lucky
• Summer weather
• Bananas being cheap enough to buy again. Oh how I've missed them!
• This: 

30 Day Shred

After reading about Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred here, I became a little intrigued to try it as she was talking about how she only used to love running but thought she should try something different. Since I'm still a little cautious running because of my knee, doing something else apart from running and random workouts seems like the way to go. Then a friend on Facebook mentioned she wanted to start it, and that it was it.

For those that don't know, the 30 Day Shred is a DVD by Jillian Michaels, who is the trainer on the American Biggest Looser (which I've never watched). I've seen some of her quotes on Pinterest and like her vibe, so figured I'd give it a go. There are 3 levels with 10 workouts in each, and they are meant to be done daily. Each workout has 2 circuits, so there will be strength for 3 mins, cardio for 2 and abs for 1 minute. Repeat. The entire workout goes for 30 mins with a warm up and cool down.

How did it go?

I did the first workout last night, and it was good. Some of the exercises were tough (i.e. the side lunges with the dumbbell lift - my arms!), but the rest were pretty cruisey although I could still tell I was working. I'm a little sore today, but nothing major. All up I would like a little more ab work, but since it's the first session it's probably just starting slow.

Despite the name, I didn't really realise that it actually meant 30 days, and that there is a workout for each consecutive day. I don't think I'll be doing it every day, since I'm not sure that's the best thing for your body (what about a day of rest?), and there's other workouts I'd like to do. But I'm looking forward to it, and will update on how it's going.

Things I Love Thursday

• Scoring a perfectly fitting white deb/wedding dress for a Halloween gig.
• Defacing said dress and dressing up as a corpse bride complete with wounds
• Seeing one of my favourite bands at said gig!
• Having a Halloween party with my wonderful housemates and tarting the house up evil style
• Dressing as Flora, the Goddess of Spring because it's actually Beltaine in Australia on October 31st
• Running 15kms for the first time in a long time
• Deciding on some new fitness and health goals 
• Purring kitties

Because I haven't really spoken to people about whether they are OK with their images in a blog, I'll only show you me, Bear Grylls, and those that can't actually be seen...

Can you pick which movie the cupcake one is from??

I love Halloween!!

Camping trip to the Grampians

This weekend Dan and I took a much needed camping trip to the Grampians, which are a mountain range located in Victoria's north-west. I had only been there once before, and even then it wasn't really a proper trip there. So I was pretty excited to be going somewhere new!

Working for a farming organisation, I was pretty excited to be driving through new country and able to check out the tiny baby lambs and canola that's currently flowering. The country side looked amazing!

We stopped off at a couple of wineries on the way, because that's how we roll (This may be the time to comment that the detox of last week was...well, not a fail, but not really a win). Mount Langi Ghiran was the second winery we checked out, which was actually by the same people as the first one. Langi means 'home' in aboriginal, but the meaning of Ghiran has been lost in the sands of time. Which is sad considering this is our culture that is lost, the culture of our land and it's original inhabitants.

Once we reached the Grampians and decided where we were going to camp, it was a 30km drive on a very crappy road which our little girl car didn't handle well. I couldn't get over the terrain though - it was very Outback/desert -like, which I just didn't expect at all! Red earth, grass trees, and even an friggen emu! In the wild! In Victoria! Phenomenal. We also saw a black snake, an echidna, and an overturned four wheel drive who had lost control trying to avoid one a stumpy tailed lizard

When we reached our campsite it was perfect - gorgeous view, far enough from other people but not too much to feel isolated. Sadly it was my first camping purely for the sake of camping trip - every other time has been at festivals or hiking. So it was nice to not have much to do at all. Dinner was cuppa noodles with broccoli (yes, I love that shit), and plenty of toasted marshmallows over the open fire. We then gazed awestruck at the night sky for a good several hours. Living in the city it's easy to forget that there are SO many stars out there. Absolutely stunning.

After waking up early with the dawn chorus and seeing a kangaroo just hanging out near the tent, it was time for the best meal of the day - breakfast! After scoffing at how Dan was making the cheese toasties, I realised it worked and had to get in amongst that action.  

A cheese toastie, two coffees and some vegetarian sausages later and we were ready to ROCK! First stop was Hollow Mountain, a two hour walk which was hopefully not going to destroy my knee. I dosed up on anti-inflammitories and off we went. It was a lot of fun. The first section was again quite desert-y, and then the rest of rock scrambling to the top. The view was phenomenal. Stupidity was had.

All in all, it was a great weekend! 

Monday Detox time

I did it again. This weekend I ate entirely too much cheese, drank too much, and didn't do enough exercise. In my defense, I have Runners Knee, or Girls Knee as my doctor likes to call it (thanks doc). Basically this means that my knee cap isn't tracking smoothly and is rubbing against one side of the knee joint so the cartilage surface is irritated. It can be fixed with a lot of exercises to strengthen the (non-existent) muscle near the knee, so I am allowed to keep running. But it hurts and I am worried about damaging it further so I'm taking it slow and cautiously.

But I really miss running, and when I don't run or exercise I tend to eat a whole lot of crap and feel sluggish and tired. So this week is semi-detox and exercise week! I think I said something similar a couple of weeks ago, but I swear, I mean it this time... ;)

Semi-detox rules:

• Coffee is allowed. I mean, really. I don't want to lose the will to live now do I? 
• More fruit (at least two pieces a day)
• More herbal tea (one-two cups a day)
• More water (1.5 litres, plus the herbal tea. It's all good). 
• More plant based foods 
• More 'real' foods (eg oats are OK, toast and Vegemite preferably not). 

Exercise rules: 

• Just do something decent every day

Dan and I will be embarking on the exercise thing together. Today I think it will be a run and then chin-ups, tricep dips and push ups at the park. Tomorrow a walk and ab work, Wednesday a run and yoga, Thursday some more arm exercises etc. We're going camping on the weekend so there will be hiking, but probably bad food. But that's ok. Every bit of nutritious food helps :) 

In other news, I really want to sign up for a half marathon in November. It is in Marysville, which got decimated in the bush fires a couple of years ago, so it will be a bit emotional I think. But it's regenerating well, and there will be trails rather than just roads, so if I train properly and cautiously, I think it will be doable. And it will supporting a region that lost so much, which in itself makes it worthwhile.

Steavenson Falls, Marysville