Kisses...

This is Elke just about to give mummy a little kiss on the cheek. I love this photo, despite the fact that it gives everyone a good look up my nostril, Elke is so cute!

I cant believe its Wednesday already - where are the days going? Its almost October!

Our weekend was spent renovating... My very clever and talented OH ripped tiles off walls, and did some tiling and grouting in our soon-to-be ensuite and main bathroom, he also assembled our 3 new bathroom vanities (lucky he's a chippie, hey). I painted! I undercoated the walls in our new 4th bedroom, over the plaster in the dining/lounge room, and I also painted ONE linen cupboard, which took forever! Just think how many shelves, corners and edging there are in your average linen cupboard. I had globs of paint in my hair, and paint all up my arms. There was also speckles of paint on my face from using the roller. I'm such a messy painter. Do you realise that painting is a good shoulder workout?? My forearms have DOMS from the up and down motion of the paintbrush!

On Saturday morning I did an Amy Bento Aerobics DVD in my lounge room (thanks Liz!) - although my lounge room is not really big enough for all the running and travelling moves she does. I either run into the TV, or the lounge chairs. There's plyometrics in between the cardio sequences... so its a pretty good cardio session. I ended up starting to get blisters on my feet though - so I stopped before the finish and took the dogs for a walk instead. No exercise on Sunday, I think I did enough with all the painting.

This week has been going great, except for this morning I was too tired (lazy) to get up to go to gym. I stayed up last night to watch All Saints, which I've unfortunately grown a bit partial to. I say 'unfortunately' because now I have to stay up late to watch it. Our VCR isn't hooked up properly (we are both VCR-challenged when it comes to setting those things up) so I cant even tape it. Oh well, I'll just have today as my rest day I guess.

Enjoy hump day!

Positive attitude

This week I'm having a much better week, and I think a lot of its to do with consciously having a better attitude.  I wake up in the morning and decide I'm going to have a good day.  I'm sleeping better, so I've got the energy to go to gym.  And training always makes me feel good.  A positive attitude always makes everything seem so much better!

On Tuesday when I got home from gym at 7am, our little one Elke (Border Collie X Keeshond) was missing.  God I almost had heart failure!  I did 3 full circuits of the yard, checking behind things, calling her name continuously, trying not to panic.   Shavez was super excited, so I knew somthing was up.  Luckily the neighbour heard me and let me know she was over in their yard.  Obviously, after a year of living next door, she'd decided she wanted to meet the neighbours dog face to face!!!  So she dug a hole under the fence in order to meet him (he's a border collie too)  So now we have to lay bricks all along the fence to stop her digging her way out again.  Little monkey.  She'd be in big trouble if I didn't love her so much.

Not much else to report - I'm plodding along.  I have surprisingly lost weight this last week, despite last week's disaster.   I have stopped consuming artificial sweetener, and I'm loving the flat stomach that goes with this!!  No more bloating - no more grumbly stomach.  I also feel a lot 'cleaner', and I'm hoping this will sort out all my stomach issues.  I only have one cup of tea per day, so I have one teaspoon of real sugar with that.  The rest of the day I'll drink green tea if I feel the need for a hot drink.  I've stopped drinking coffee too and I dont really miss it. 

Thats about it from me - a bit of a post about nothing in particular!

Time for an update

Time for an update I guess. I've struggled this last week. The car accident really played on my mind a lot. I've been jittery ever since. I had to continue to drive all that way for another two days afterwards, which really did nothing for my nerves. It has really opened my eyes to how often people take stupid risks on the road - its like every 10 minutes you see someone drive like a dickhead, and it has really rattled my nerves.

I'm very jumpy - the other night OH came to the top of the stairs to tell me something and I nearly leapt out of my skin. I had my mobile phone earplug in the other day and almost had heart failure when I looked down and saw the clip (I thought it was a spider!!) I know it will pass, but it will take a little time.

There's also a lot of crap going on at work, and its very stressful, and I'm very unhappy. So when I get stressed I dont sleep. So I havent really slept much this week. Even when my eyes have been hanging out of my head, cant keep them open - I go to bed and am wide awake. I have tried meditation this week, after which I felt very refreshed and calm. Then I went to bed at 9pm and was still awake at midnight.

I haven't had any energy. I only trained once because I just didn't have anything in the tank. Stupidly I kept setting the alarm for 5am, cos I kept thinking "oh I'll sleep tonight and will be fine for gym in the morning" but when that alarm goes off - there is no way I could get up to train.

I didn't even eat off plan all week - until Friday that is. I suddenly realised I had PMT too! Then I ate sugar!

Anyway, I'm feeling better now. Two full nights of sleep have really helped. Putting this all behind me now and focusing on having a much better week this week.

irony or fate?

I dont know whether its irony or fate, but yesterday my mum was saying that she was glad I wasn't going to be driving all that way to work every day now, because she worries about me on that highway...

So what happens? I was in a car accident last night. Driving down the Pacific Highway (4 lanes each way on this stretch between the Gold Coast and Brisbane) minding my own business but still doing the speed limit (110klm) when the car on my left swerved out and straight into my car. This caused me to veer out of control into the two lanes to my right, I steered wildly, back to the left into the middle of the highway, then veered crazily back to the right (I just could NOT control the steering wheel), where I ploughed into the bushes that they plant in the middle between the north and south facing lanes. This slowed me down enough so that I could stop.

Nobody was hurt - we were all badly shaken, but not hurt. My fingertips are sore though from gripping the steering wheel so hard. The girl who hit me in the first place was trying to avoid a truck that swerved into HER. The truck didn't stop. Somebody got his number plate. Two separate good samaratins pulled over immediately and came to my aid, for which I am soooo thankful for - I was so freaked out I didn't know what to do. One girl stayed with me for over an hour.

The car isn't too bad, lots of dents and scratches, and I've lost a side mirror. I drove it home ok. I'm just glad no one was hurt. It could have been so much worse, I'm so lucky that nobody was in the two lanes to my right when I got hit - I could quite easily have collected somebody. The girl who hit me said she thought she had killed me.

So I ate off plan last night, and had a glass of wine. I was freaked out for most of the night, kept replaying it all over and over in my head. So didn't sleep well, so I didn't go to gym this morning. Thank goodness I only have today and tomorrow for driving back down there.

Sleeeeepy

I'm feeling really good and less bloated this week, I've definetely got my mojo back (thank goodness, its been gone for so long!) 

I'm very tired though and I just cant seem to catch up on sleep this week.  One of our neighbours has this dog, its a labrador I think, and it howls whenever it hears a police or ambulance siren.  But it doesn't just howl for a minute - oh no - it howls for 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after.  I know some dogs have sensitive ears, and I sympathise, but its getting very hard to be sympathetic at 2.30 in the freakin morning - and the owners dont seem to care!  So this happened on Sunday night (it happens at least once a week - always in the middle of the night) and then we heard a couple of loud "booms" - who knows what THAT was, so OH leapt up in bed to peer out the window - not realising that he'd put his knee on my pillow... while my head was on it... - yeah not a lot of sleep that night.

Last night I just couldn't sleep because my mind was a whirr - sometimes its just random thoughts spinning around and around - can be hard to stop it!.  So I thought I'd put it to good use and visualise my workout for this morning - shoulders, bi's and tri's.  So I mentally practised what I was going to do - I guess its no bloody wonder I was so tired this morning when I physically did it - I'd already done it once!! LOL

So I vaguely entertained the idea of staying in bed this morning, but seriously, once that alarm goes off I'm awake anyway.  So not much point staying in bed.  And as always, it feels so GREAT to have done a fantastic workout, then you're all pumped and ready for the day. Its only when I'm driving home in the afternoon that I feel realllllly tired.

Only two more days of travelling to NSW to work.  Yay I'm back at my regular office on Monday, which is only 20 minutes away from home - heaven!!  No more getting ready for work at the gym and dropping breakfast all over myself in the car!  Although from what I hear there are still lots of germs rampaging around that office - lots of people off sick this week, so maybe I'm better off down here in the cane fields and fresh country air!