Hi everyone, I thought it might be a good time to update on my fitness plans.
I have to say it has actually been a very good experience so far, with a lot of hard work in the gym, as well as plenty of discipline in the food department (most of the time).
So, the gym side of things has seen the most obvious improvements. When I started, I am ashamed to say that my fitness was akin to a three-toed sloth, only moving if absolutely necessary. I was advised by a fitness freak at work that the very best way to improve fitness was to run, as it was the most effective at improving cardiovascular fitness. When I started at the gym, the best I could muster was around 45seconds of running at 10kph (more of a jog really) before my legs would decide to go on strike. I have always HATED running, just ask my old PhysEd teacher at school - it was more of a dreadmill rather than a treadmill. Sure, I was strong - I can bench press over 200lbs, but my fitness and stamina was shocking.
As I have alluded to in a past posting, my blood pressure was a worry. When I joined the gym, they did a routine check, and machine kept malfunctioning. they tried it 10 times, and only once did it actually read my BP. It was 167/135, and my A:B index was 1.62. (the AB index is an arbitrary measure of peripheral vascular disease, the ideal result being 1.0)
This was a wake up call. I could continue to bury my head in the sand and ignore this and suffer the consequences, or I can do something about it.
Thankfully I am still young and my body is fairly malleable, and over the past 7 weeks I have seen a real transformation in myself. Granted, there isn't too much on the surface - my weight loss has been very gradual, around 9lbs (4Kg) so far. But for me the most astounding changes have been below the surface.
As of last night, my BP is 135/85, resting HR of 58 and the AB index is down to 1.28. In the space of 14 visits to the gym in the last 42 days, I have surprised myself in what I can do. I can now run in 3-4 minute segments, with brisk walking in between, and am achieving 5km in each session. My current aim on the treadmill is to keep to the 5km distance, but to improve the timing. Yesterday I did it in 40mins flat.
Another aspect that has surprised me is how I feel during and after the treadmill. I guess it is the endorphins that are released, but I have found myself smiling when I am reaching a goal, and here's the odd thing - there is small voice in the back of my mind that I haven't heard in a VERY long time saying 'go on, just a bit further, you can do it!'
Maybe it's the little voice of addiction, instead of craving cheezels and crisps, is now craving those endogenous opiates hehe ;o)
So that's it really, sorry for going on about me so much, I guess I'm just proud that I have turned a corner. As I was discussing with Helen last night about a completely different subject, but this is an 'epoch' event in my life!
Enjoy you week,
C
Monday, June 25, 2007
Scrap Booking
For our 2nd wedding anniversary Chris bought me a pile of scrap boooking resources. It's something I have been going on about for ages but just never got round to doing. But I reckon Chris thinks he needs more time to spend on Big Bertha (the monster truck) so he has given me somethjing to keep me busy!
For those of you not in the know, scrap booking is a way of displaying photos and journalling that is very personal to you. It is quite time consuming cause you have to make all the little bits for the page layout. However, I love it!! It is so much fun to see my photos turning into a piece of art and something I will look at for years.
I would put a picture on but I am rubbish at putting them on this web site so maybe Chris can do it for me later!
Gotta go to work now,
Love Helen***
For those of you not in the know, scrap booking is a way of displaying photos and journalling that is very personal to you. It is quite time consuming cause you have to make all the little bits for the page layout. However, I love it!! It is so much fun to see my photos turning into a piece of art and something I will look at for years.
I would put a picture on but I am rubbish at putting them on this web site so maybe Chris can do it for me later!
Gotta go to work now,
Love Helen***
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Oh my, how time flies!
I can't believe it has been over two seeks since the last blog update! Life has been insane for us both.
Anyhow, what have we been up to, I hear you ask?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, at the turn of the month, the weather here in Melbourne took a decidedly chillier turn, and with it a fair amount of rain too. I recall in the midst of this gloominess, Helen said, why don't we get away for a night? So we settled on visiting Bright , a place many of our friends rave about.
I was fortunate enough to finish work early last Friday, and was home by 1pm. Helen had already packed her bag the night before, so there was little for me to do to get ready. At the stroke of 3.45, Helen rolled up and transferred to my car where there was even a traveller’s mug of hot tea waiting. The route was typed into TomTom and of we went. It was a good 4 hour drive, over 330km, and we finally arrived in the pitch black, so we couldn’t appreciate the surroundings immediately.
I had already booked a cheap room for the night - we didn't want to spend too much as we were after all only there to lay down our heads for the night. Oh boy, what a mistake that was. I should have done my homework first.
Granted, it was only $90 for the night, but oh boy, you cannot put a price on smile. The receptionist (I think the owner too) was a lady, probably in her late 50's, and gave me a look that made last summer's heat wave seem like a crisp winter's morning. I felt like I was intruding. So we were given our key to room two (bates motel style) and made our way over. Suffice to say it was a very cold night, it was touching on freezing by the time we arrived there, and not surprisingly the room was pretty cold.
So, I dutifully powered up the only form of heat in the room - a 70's style split system AC unit. It clattered to life and we stood together, teeth chattering waiting for the heat to filter through. After five minutes of trying to squeeze some life out of the heater, it died. So off I headed to see my favourite Ice Maiden receptionist to find her on the phone. She glanced at me and carried on her conversation. For a further 5 minutes I stood there, with a very strange feeling. A feeling that I have not felt since I was at high school - standing before the headmaster up to my neck in trouble – very odd indeed.
Sub-zero lady was very animated and friendly on the phone, and after she ended the call, it started getting decidedly chilly again. As we had been driving for over 4 hours, we were famished, so I told her of our problem. She didn't believe me, and actually argued with me that I hadn't powered it up correctly! I was having none of this, and stated simply 'we are going out for dinner, I want a warm room by the time we get back!
So we wandered up the main street in Bright and came across a place called 'The cosy kangaroo', and we dropped in and had a lovely warming meal. On our return to our palace, we could hear the Ac unit clattering away as we walked up to the door, signalling that it was working again. Some chance! it was warmer, but still barely 17c. We quickly jumped into bed, abandoning our plans to open a bottle wine (nothing worse than icy cold red wine) and game of cards. Then came the problem of trying to get to sleep with all that noise. I really wasn't in the mood to confront that woman again, so we switched it off, and threw on an extra (brown) blanket.
I will be submitting a scathing report to TripAdvisor.
Anyhow, whinge over, the rest of our stay was fabulous. The original plan was to just stay for the one night, but we soon decided to stay longer as there was much to do. On the Saturday morning, we headed out of the igloo as soon as possible, and found a little cafe that was open for breakfast. It was gorgeous! We got the newspapers, and settled in for an extended late breakfast of muffins, beans on toast and piping hot coffee. We soon found out why our mates love this place so much. Here are a few pics of the main street and river that runs alongside:
After brekky, we jumped into the car on what was a gloriously crisp winter morning, with not a cloud in the sky. We headed up to Mount Beauty, so called because it is really quite beautiful (DUH!). This was the first place in Australia we have been to that felt truly alpine. Below is Helen overlooking Mt Beauty
We soon dropped back down into the valley and were heading up towards Falls Creek, supposedly the premier ski resort of Victoria. Now this weekend was the official opening of the somewhat short Aussie ski season, so we weren't expecting too much.
By the time we got up the mountain, the sun had gone and we were enshrouded in cloud. We doubled up our clothing and wrapped up for the worst. Now, on the opening weekend, all lifts are open for free so we quickly headed up to the summit and the heavens opened. There was a moment on the lift when we hit a wall of icy cold wind that ripped through my bones. I can't remember when I last felt this cold! Once we shivered our way to the top, we bolted straight into the restaurant for some warmth, and happily paid extortionate amounts of money for some tucker - we had two hot drinks, a bowl of potato wedges and a bowl of soup - it came to $35!! Captive audience I guess.
Having warmed up, we ventured outside where the foul weather had abated, and we messed around in the snow, Helen making a slush, erm I mean snow man.
There was enough snow to ski on, and there were plenty of people giving it a go, but under the conditions, I wouldn't have gone out there for love nor money. I hope it improves this season, last year sucked.
Helen was still very excited so we headed down the hill again, and then up another lift to the village centre where we watched a group of guys who had made an impromptu ramp and were doing allsorts of fancy tricks. She took great pleasure too in building herself an igloo, all the while I was getting frostbite - my trusty old CAT boots finally giving up the ghost and were leaking like a sieve. Here's the view that greeted us on the way home: WOW
We headed back to bright and found another place to stay, primarily looking for somewhere warm! That we did, and however 70's style it was, it did the job.
Later, after I had got the feeling back in my toes, we wandered down into the town with our first stop the local microbrewery. Using local alpine water, they make some lovely tipples - Belgian beers, Irish stouts etc. very good stuff, and a wee dram of all their offerings was a nice aperitif before tea. The thing was, as it was the opening weekend of the season, the town was packed, and we struggled to get in anywhere for food, so we ended up at the pub, and had a hearty dinner - chicken parma and chips! Not exactly gourmet, but worth every dollar.
And so we trundled back tot he motel, and cracked open a bottle of wine we brought with us that had defrosted from the night before. Very noice!
We awoke the following morning to a thick frost, which got me very excited – the first proper frost I have seen in nearly 2 years! You can see below that Helen wasn’t too impressed!
After another lazy morning reading the Sunday papers in our new favourite purveyors of breakfast, we headed off home, the long way round, cruising through the 'Wine and Gourmet food trail', consisting of several well known wineries and centred on the town of Milawa. Our first stop was the Gapstead Winery, and when we parked the car found that the cellar door was closed! However a small sign on the door said 'head down to the big green shed'. It was bedlam - they were doing their annual clearance sale day - I was told that they normally sell 2,000 crates of wine on this open day every year, and we got ourselves a lovely deal - a crate (12 bottles) of 2004 vintage cabsav. And it is lurrrrvly!
So off we went and arrived in Milawa town and joined in the hordes visiting the Brown Brother's Winery. There was hundreds of people there and we had to fight to get served at the cellar door. However, because of their size they offer a wonderful range of wines to taste – to quote Ferris Beuller – ‘if you have the means to pick one up, I highly recommend it – it is so choice!’ Sadly I was driving, so only got to try a select few, but Helen was insistent on trying them all! I really liked the 7year old shiraz, mmmm.
That was pretty much it for our little trip, it was lovely to get away, in spite of the poor experience at the first place we stayed, but that’s ok. It was also a warm up for the following day – it was our anniversary – 2 years! we had a lovely day together – maybe Helen will blog about that soon???
Ok, is bedtime so I better go…
C
Anyhow, what have we been up to, I hear you ask?
Well, a couple of weeks ago, at the turn of the month, the weather here in Melbourne took a decidedly chillier turn, and with it a fair amount of rain too. I recall in the midst of this gloominess, Helen said, why don't we get away for a night? So we settled on visiting Bright , a place many of our friends rave about.
I was fortunate enough to finish work early last Friday, and was home by 1pm. Helen had already packed her bag the night before, so there was little for me to do to get ready. At the stroke of 3.45, Helen rolled up and transferred to my car where there was even a traveller’s mug of hot tea waiting. The route was typed into TomTom and of we went. It was a good 4 hour drive, over 330km, and we finally arrived in the pitch black, so we couldn’t appreciate the surroundings immediately.
I had already booked a cheap room for the night - we didn't want to spend too much as we were after all only there to lay down our heads for the night. Oh boy, what a mistake that was. I should have done my homework first.
Granted, it was only $90 for the night, but oh boy, you cannot put a price on smile. The receptionist (I think the owner too) was a lady, probably in her late 50's, and gave me a look that made last summer's heat wave seem like a crisp winter's morning. I felt like I was intruding. So we were given our key to room two (bates motel style) and made our way over. Suffice to say it was a very cold night, it was touching on freezing by the time we arrived there, and not surprisingly the room was pretty cold.
So, I dutifully powered up the only form of heat in the room - a 70's style split system AC unit. It clattered to life and we stood together, teeth chattering waiting for the heat to filter through. After five minutes of trying to squeeze some life out of the heater, it died. So off I headed to see my favourite Ice Maiden receptionist to find her on the phone. She glanced at me and carried on her conversation. For a further 5 minutes I stood there, with a very strange feeling. A feeling that I have not felt since I was at high school - standing before the headmaster up to my neck in trouble – very odd indeed.
Sub-zero lady was very animated and friendly on the phone, and after she ended the call, it started getting decidedly chilly again. As we had been driving for over 4 hours, we were famished, so I told her of our problem. She didn't believe me, and actually argued with me that I hadn't powered it up correctly! I was having none of this, and stated simply 'we are going out for dinner, I want a warm room by the time we get back!
So we wandered up the main street in Bright and came across a place called 'The cosy kangaroo', and we dropped in and had a lovely warming meal. On our return to our palace, we could hear the Ac unit clattering away as we walked up to the door, signalling that it was working again. Some chance! it was warmer, but still barely 17c. We quickly jumped into bed, abandoning our plans to open a bottle wine (nothing worse than icy cold red wine) and game of cards. Then came the problem of trying to get to sleep with all that noise. I really wasn't in the mood to confront that woman again, so we switched it off, and threw on an extra (brown) blanket.
I will be submitting a scathing report to TripAdvisor.
Anyhow, whinge over, the rest of our stay was fabulous. The original plan was to just stay for the one night, but we soon decided to stay longer as there was much to do. On the Saturday morning, we headed out of the igloo as soon as possible, and found a little cafe that was open for breakfast. It was gorgeous! We got the newspapers, and settled in for an extended late breakfast of muffins, beans on toast and piping hot coffee. We soon found out why our mates love this place so much. Here are a few pics of the main street and river that runs alongside:
After brekky, we jumped into the car on what was a gloriously crisp winter morning, with not a cloud in the sky. We headed up to Mount Beauty, so called because it is really quite beautiful (DUH!). This was the first place in Australia we have been to that felt truly alpine. Below is Helen overlooking Mt Beauty We soon dropped back down into the valley and were heading up towards Falls Creek, supposedly the premier ski resort of Victoria. Now this weekend was the official opening of the somewhat short Aussie ski season, so we weren't expecting too much.By the time we got up the mountain, the sun had gone and we were enshrouded in cloud. We doubled up our clothing and wrapped up for the worst. Now, on the opening weekend, all lifts are open for free so we quickly headed up to the summit and the heavens opened. There was a moment on the lift when we hit a wall of icy cold wind that ripped through my bones. I can't remember when I last felt this cold! Once we shivered our way to the top, we bolted straight into the restaurant for some warmth, and happily paid extortionate amounts of money for some tucker - we had two hot drinks, a bowl of potato wedges and a bowl of soup - it came to $35!! Captive audience I guess.
Having warmed up, we ventured outside where the foul weather had abated, and we messed around in the snow, Helen making a slush, erm I mean snow man.
There was enough snow to ski on, and there were plenty of people giving it a go, but under the conditions, I wouldn't have gone out there for love nor money. I hope it improves this season, last year sucked.
Helen was still very excited so we headed down the hill again, and then up another lift to the village centre where we watched a group of guys who had made an impromptu ramp and were doing allsorts of fancy tricks. She took great pleasure too in building herself an igloo, all the while I was getting frostbite - my trusty old CAT boots finally giving up the ghost and were leaking like a sieve. Here's the view that greeted us on the way home: WOW
We headed back to bright and found another place to stay, primarily looking for somewhere warm! That we did, and however 70's style it was, it did the job.
Later, after I had got the feeling back in my toes, we wandered down into the town with our first stop the local microbrewery. Using local alpine water, they make some lovely tipples - Belgian beers, Irish stouts etc. very good stuff, and a wee dram of all their offerings was a nice aperitif before tea. The thing was, as it was the opening weekend of the season, the town was packed, and we struggled to get in anywhere for food, so we ended up at the pub, and had a hearty dinner - chicken parma and chips! Not exactly gourmet, but worth every dollar.
And so we trundled back tot he motel, and cracked open a bottle of wine we brought with us that had defrosted from the night before. Very noice!
We awoke the following morning to a thick frost, which got me very excited – the first proper frost I have seen in nearly 2 years! You can see below that Helen wasn’t too impressed!
After another lazy morning reading the Sunday papers in our new favourite purveyors of breakfast, we headed off home, the long way round, cruising through the 'Wine and Gourmet food trail', consisting of several well known wineries and centred on the town of Milawa. Our first stop was the Gapstead Winery, and when we parked the car found that the cellar door was closed! However a small sign on the door said 'head down to the big green shed'. It was bedlam - they were doing their annual clearance sale day - I was told that they normally sell 2,000 crates of wine on this open day every year, and we got ourselves a lovely deal - a crate (12 bottles) of 2004 vintage cabsav. And it is lurrrrvly!
So off we went and arrived in Milawa town and joined in the hordes visiting the Brown Brother's Winery. There was hundreds of people there and we had to fight to get served at the cellar door. However, because of their size they offer a wonderful range of wines to taste – to quote Ferris Beuller – ‘if you have the means to pick one up, I highly recommend it – it is so choice!’ Sadly I was driving, so only got to try a select few, but Helen was insistent on trying them all! I really liked the 7year old shiraz, mmmm.
That was pretty much it for our little trip, it was lovely to get away, in spite of the poor experience at the first place we stayed, but that’s ok. It was also a warm up for the following day – it was our anniversary – 2 years! we had a lovely day together – maybe Helen will blog about that soon???
Ok, is bedtime so I better go…C
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
