The pleasure of walking, yoga noob + social sport?

Yesterday I went on a glorious 4k walk with Kristine and her dog Max

The weather was so perfect, spring is definitely kicking in! It was so great to actually go for a walk just for the sake of walking. I haven’t done that in months and it was so refreshing. The dog seemed to have a great time and I can’t wait until my puppy Coco is trained to walk on a leash I wanted to take either her or my Granddad’s dog Veeta for a walk this afternoon but the sky is BLACK!

So instead I’m snuggled up at home in front of the fire with a cup of green tea and the August issue of Australian Women’s Health magazine.

Oh, and this beautiful face to keep me company

I would really like to give Yoga a good go, every time I’ve been to a class I’ve really really enjoyed it but I don’t know what classes there are available here in Whakatane. Does anyone have any good classes to suggest or any websites with podcasts I can download with good yoga moves? I’m a total newbie and I’m not flexible at all and pretty horrendous at yoga really, but I love the feeling of satisfaction you get afterwards.

I’m struggling a lot right now to find exercise that isn’t extremely painful with my knees. Running is pretty much completely out of the question now and even long distance cycling. Jiu Jitsu is proving to be painful and a challenge as well, hence why I want to give Yoga a go and start walking a lot more. I might start swimming a bit more too because the outside swimming pool is now open down town. I’d also really love to have a social game of something each week on like a Friday or something. Soccer or Basketball etc, just something fun and relaxed, no pressure or anything. If anyone is interested in joining me, let me know! Leave a comment or send me an email: jennyeatliverun@hotmail.com

Personal Spring Health Challenge 2010

As you know I’ve had this little unofficial “lose weight, get in shape before December” sort of a challenge going for myself, but it’s been pretty difficult to keep it together and so I’ve decided to make it a little different. However, I do not want to put too much pressure on myself in case I struggle with it but basically this is how it’s going to work:

I’ve a had a particularly bad Winter in terms of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and it’s not something you can just snap out of overnight, after all- old habits die hard. Instead, I’m going to make a list of goals and steps to achieve them. They’ll consist of smaller steps to reach the bigger picture because I’m really struggling to get my eating habits in shape. Everyday I’m going to set a mini-goal like “go one day without any junk food whatsoever” and just aim to achieve that particular goal, as opposed to setting a MASSIVE goal like “no more junk food at ALL” because that’s simply unattainable for me. I set these enormous goals and then fail because they’re unrealistic and feel really stink and my self-esteem and self-confidence just plummets… It’s not helpful at all.
Here’s a list of some of the goal I’m setting myself for day to day use:

• (As above) Go one full day without any junk food, such as ice cream, chocolate, confectionary etc.
• Be active for at least 30 minutes
• Do something nice for myself such as a muscle soak bubble bath
• Get at least 30 minutes of fresh air
• (For weekends and holidays) Learn how to garden and do it for 1 hour
• Learn how to cook a new, healthy recipe
• Try a new form of exercise
• Take the dog for a 1 hour walk
• Teach a friend a new form of exercise
• Attend a yoga class (although they are hard to come by in this small town)
• Do 1 hour of strength training
• Go one full day without any beverages other than water (although aside from water the only thing I drink is cranberry juice or Inka [a caffeine free coffee substitute])
• Implement a proper skin care routine
• Go one full day without bread (not because I’m against carbs, but because it presents the opportunity to be more creative with my food choices)
• Try a new healthy breakfast that I’ve never had before

Those are a few of the ideas I’ve come up with and I’ll add to my own personal list when I think of something else. I think these are far more attainable goals that I’ll be able to achieve and as I succeed in these, the bigger picture and the bigger goals will become far more attainable. I’ll also have rewards for success which aren’t food related, things like treating myself to a new bikini or a movie etc.

Oh! Something else I wanted to add to this post is a little nutrition/health tip which was pretty much my FUEL last year/beginning of this year when I was at my fittest and healthiest… GREEN TEA!!! I’m serious, that stuff is like liquid GOLD! It might not taste that great but you honestly get used to it and even start to enjoy it after a while. I love it and usually drink it like it’s crack but lately we haven’t had any and tonight we just bought some new tea bags. I’ve already had two cups in the space of like an hour. It’s so good for you, it’s antioxidant rich, it boosts your energy levels, I found it helped me maintain my weight and I truly believes it even helps with sugar cravings. I’ve also bought White Tea to try and I had a cup and I can’t even tell the difference between it and green tea, but I’ll chug it back until it’s all gone.

Anyways, that’s all from me for tonight folks! Tomorrow I’m spending the day GARDENING and getting our vege garden up to scratch Very exciting.

Willpower is a glorious thing

Since trying on the most perfect ball dress of all time, I’ve been really getting back on track with my diet and—when I’ve been able to squeeze it in—exercise. My progress so far has been really good and I’ve felt great about my food choices and amazingly enough, my willpower to stay on track and be fit and healthy is stronger than the cravings I have for sugary foods. These particular cravings are something in which I have battled for the most part of my teenage years… I believe it’s genetic It makes it so hard to stick to a healthy diet when all you want is to gorge yourself on all the wonders of ice cream, chocolate and biscuits. I’m not sure what’s different about this time, but it’s like as soon as I laid eyes on that ball dress something inside me clicked, and I just knew I wanted to look fabulous in it. I have barely struggled with cravings, only having trouble on Sunday when I longed for anything sweet, be it lollies, cake or plain old chocolate. I treated myself to a small chocolate sundae because hey, we all need to treat ourselves every now and then and I’d done so well. Later that evening cravings returned with a vengeance, but were nipped in the bud the following morning after a good night’s sleep.

Unfortunately, since it’s the end of the term I’ve been absolutely snowed under with homework. I’ve been 150% committed to getting all my assessments finished and this morning I had a mild panic attack when I thought I may have bitten off more than I can chew with some of them. Because my afternoons, and mornings and intervals and lunchtimes, have been dedicated to completing work I haven’t gotten in as much exercise as I otherwise would’ve liked. Not to worry though because I got heaps of work done today which has lightened up my work load. I plan to get some form of exercise done tonight after dinner, 30 minutes at least.

I’m looking forward to the increase in temperature once spring kicks in a little more and hopefully decrease in rain!! There’s too much!! Speaking of mother nature, my thoughts are totally with the people of Christchurch. For those of you outside of New Zealand (because every single New Zealander should be aware by now), Christchurch is a large city in the South Island that was hit with a 7.1 Magnitude earthquake on Saturday 4th September. It caused massive damage and destruction but fortunately there are no reports of death. It will take years and millions of dollars to rebuild Christchurch and return it to it’s former glory. So many residents have lost their homes and have damaged possessions and are also facing water contamination and power outages. I wish there was something that I could do to help!

Here are a few photos that I got off tvnz:

It’s the biggest earthquake in New Zealand history and I really wish all the best for the people of Christchurch and I hope they find their bearings soon and that things get up and running again.