Operation Kickstart

Last week I was feeling sore and stressed out of my eyeballs. Life is really good, but it reached the point that even the things I love doing such as spending time with wonderful friends was stressing me. I needed some me time.

I had a bath on Saturday night with crystals, oils and candles, and it occurred to me that I haven't taken my crystals out since well before the wedding which was seven months ago tomorrow(!). Nor have I been to the hills and out on one of my sanity saving hikes through the ferns for around the same amount of time.

Even though life has been great, I haven't been focusing on the things that make me truly happy or that make me a better person. And so Operation Kickstart was born.

Operation Kickstart - because every campaign must have a wanky name. 

I decided that I needed to make some changes in my life, both on a personal and a physical level. And the best way of doing that is to do one small thing every day towards that goal. 

Sometimes it's about changing habits, or sometimes it's about taking tiny steps towards something big.

There's lots of ways Operation Kickstart can work. The point of it is to make a promise to yourself to start making changes, and then actually doing them. It's a good way of being mindful of the fact that you do have something you want to work towards and keeping it in the front of your mind rather than forgetting about it (tax returns are a good example of this!).

To start it off, here's a couple of my pledges:

• Go for a solo hike in the forest (Sunday)
• Having bircher muesli for brekkie yesterday rather than toast (Monday)
• Having a delicious noodle and vegie soup for dinner rather than pasta (Monday)
• Catching up with family today and it will not be strained. 

And most importantly, I bought a new bike!! A friend was selling it so I snapped it up. I rode it home on Sunday and it rode like a dream, so I'm very much looking forward to many lazy bike rides this Spring and Summer!  

Meet Susan

It will definitely help with getting more exercise in and since it has a basket I will be able to ride it up to the shops. This will assist with Operation Kickstart I'm sure.

I'm looking forward to Operation Kickstart. I hope you join me :)

Stuff

I haven't posted in a while, so here's a picture:

:)

Final pole class

This week was my final class in beginner's pole. Since I couldn't make it on Monday as I was in Sydney, they were able to fit me in on Tuesday, which was absolutely fantastic. 

The first thing I noticed about the girls in the new class is that they were good. We had to climb three times and then invert, which they all did easily. Compared to my class where it was only me and another girl (who was on her third round of Beginners and is also doing Intermediate) that could invert, it was really inspiring and made me want to lift my game! 

We had to do a performance for the other group and vice versa, so we learned a routine based on most of what we'd learnt over the past 8 weeks. I always forget what comes next in things like dances, tai chi or karate (which is why I no longer do them), so this was an interesting challenge. For the most part it was fine -  I did better than expected, although I did forget a step which meant that Fan Legs didn't work. And because a lot of it was on the floor my knees are still bruised, several days later. But all in all, it was fun! 

Someone took a photo and put it on FB, so you can see what it was like! 

I'm in the green shorts

We did our routine in front of the girls doing Fan Dance 2, so we had an audience. It was pretty good when they'd cheer at an awesome move, particulalry when we all slid down in Fireman's pose at the same time. We then watched the them do their routine, and it was great to see. It really is quite body affirming as there are all these women of different shapes, fitness and colours doing their thing wearing not a lot. It takes balls to do it, so well done to them!

Unfortunately both Beginners and Intermediate 1 are booked out for term 5, but I might be able to do a casual pole strength class. I'm interested to see what that is like. I'm hoping it will be a heap of conditioning and stretching exercises and will fill the void until next year. Fingers crossed!

Pole dancing

Unfortunately, this was my last class in pole dancing tonight. And due to a last minute (yet awesome) work trip I couldn't make it!

My friend K and I had been deliberating whether or not we'd do another class. I was keen to, but she wasn't sure. If we weren't going to do it I had plans to follow my physio's instructions and do Pilates instead.

In the last session I was the only one who was able to do the basics for Spiderman ( I still don't think that's it's real name). Basically it's where you jump upside down on the pole, wrap your legs around it and then slide down to the bottom. Next class would have been removing my hands so it was just being held up by my legs, but unfortunately I wasn't in class today. Boo!

It looks a little something like this, minus the arms holding on. And in this photo doesn't look nearly as awesome as it is:

I realised after spending a tram trip to work thinking about how I could do a vertical splits move up the pole and what grip I'd need my hands to be in for maximum effect, that I should probably do another class. Luckily, my friend decided she wanted to continue so we've reenrolled in Basics again. I could probably do Intermediate, but it will be good to perfect some of the moves and keep on practicing them.

After looking at a lot of the Sillygirrl archives where she had been trying to get stronger and more flexible, it inspired me to do the same. So now I am pledging to do the splits by the end of the year (which I haven't done in about 12 years), and open up my hips so my middle splits are more splitty (which they're so not at the moment).

I'm really looking forward to it. It's nice to have something where being strong and flexible is a requirement. rather than just a nice to have tacked on the end. I'm really looking forward to getting bendy flexy again. To goals!

Running

Two runs in two days. Life is good. 

Pole progress

It's been ages since I last posted! Things have been good but crazy. Fitness-wise, not a lot has been happening. Injury (shin splints/tight calf and bad neck/back) has meant that I've been out of action for a while.

Pretty much the only thing that I've been doing is pole dancing. Which is pretty awesome.


We've been doing a lot of climbing lately, and this is one of my favourite tricks/positions: The Seat

It takes a bit of strength to clutch the pole with your thighs, and it hurts a fair bit, particularly on your foot as you've used it to climb and it's now gripping the pole. Both of my feet have massive bruises from the climbing! 

Last night was a mixed bag in terms of performance. We learnt some new spins which just didn't really work, and even practising some older ones just wasn't working, so it was all a little hard. And then we did a final trick which involved going upside down. It was the basis of an intermediate trick, and I was the only one to do it, so that was kind of awesome. I thought it was called spider legs, but trying to Google search that got me some weird responses :-/ 

It it pretty much this one, which is the start of the Eagle. 

We have a couple of weeks left of the class and I'm weighing up what to do from here. I think it's hurting my neck and shoulders so it may not be a long term thing. But it's really fun, and I'm enjoying doing something different that incorporates both strength and flexibility (I don't really have the sexy/coordinated aspect so am not going to focus on that!). We could do the Beginner course again to perfect everything, which many people do, or move onto Intermediate which I'm technically good enough to do but not as good as I'd like to be. 

Decisions, decisions! 

F*ck Yeah Friday!

it's been an interesting week this week. I had grand plans of being very active and doing lots of running and weights. Unfortunately things like the weather, Olympics and general laziness laid that to rest.

What awesome things have been making me smile this week?

• First pole dancing session this week.
• Nurofen Plus. I hurt my back (I think from too much sitting on the couch watching the Olympics) and they are the only things getting me through today. 
• Trying to find balance:



via pinterest

• Getting tickets and album on order for the Tread album launch tomorrow. Woot!
• Going for a fast 5km run listening to Disturbed after work and having it STILL BE LIGHT!
• This post on Running off the Reeses on being angry if you're hungry. Amen sister!
• Words of wisdom:

Via Run the Edge (facebook)