January 30, 2009 at 1:40 pm (exercise, fitness)
Tags: exercise, health, healthy living, pain, pushups, stretching
I cannot move today. I could not move yesterday. I despise push-ups with all my heart. I would punch my trainer out for making me do them on Wednesday except I cannot lift my arms.
I have a persistant itch on my back that I can’t scratch – I can’t get my arms to move into position.
Look, I know that push-ups are one of the best exercises around but really, moving my arms and legs would be appreciated. I’m not asking for a lot – perhaps not having to take 10 minutes to put on my sweater in the morning? Perhaps not having to contemplate not going to the bathroom in the middle of night because, really, is it that uncomfortable that I have to actually get up?
I know too that this pain shall pass but I’m hoping it will pass in the next, oh, say, 3 hours. Why 3 hours you ask? I have plans to go dancing tonight and at the moment, the only dancing I’m doing is the Robot. While some things might be coming back into fashion, I highly doubt the Robot will ever come back and I’m thankful for that.
I’ve tried Epsom Salts and hot showers and stretching and advil. Nothing helping so far. Seriously, I feel like I’ve never exercised before and this is my punishment. I never expected to feel this way after exercising for over a year.
Damn pushups.
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January 28, 2009 at 2:30 pm (General life)
Tags: diet, food, health, portabello mushrooms, recipes, vegetarian
Grilled Portabello Mushrooms in a balsamic marinade = insane yumminess and so-close-to-steak goodness.
The only downside is the my apartment is now all smokey. But really – if I am the last person in the world to taste this deliciousness, why did nobody tell me?
For those who’re interested: I found the recipe here
Go forth and grill!
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January 28, 2009 at 10:02 am (General life, Rants and Vents)
Tags: attitude, body odour, cooking, diet, life, portabello mushrooms, volleyball
It’s snowing like crazy outside so I’m working from home. Or rather, I’m musing about random things and little bit of work stuff. I find quiet days allow me to think about a lot of “stuff” – you know, that stuff that being busy usually pushes out of your head. So this post will probably have absolutely no point at all. Just a warning.
Last night I played volleyball for the first time and, as predicted, I sucked. This is why I hate team sports. And I have another 9 weeks of it to feel like shite. I keep forgetting that the rest of the team have been playing for at least 3 seasons already so they know how to play. The last time I probably played volleyball was in the phys ed. at school and I probably found a reason to skip that class. So, essentially, I’ve never played. And I forget that and I feel initimidated and then stupid for not being able to serve or actually make contact with a ball. I would just not go back but this is the work league so somone would come by my office and pick me up – it’s a bit difficult to avoid that. Oh well, here’s to getting better?
After the game last night, a few of us stayed around for dinner and a drink. One of my friends – love her, lovely girl – was really grating on me. She just doesn’t stop talking. Ever. It’s difficult to get a word in edgeways when she’s in that mood. And normally, I can take it. Because, you know, you accept your friends with all their flaws. But last night, she was going on and on about work and how it sucks and how our manager sucks and how this and that suck. I’m sorry, but I don’t accept that it all sucks and there’s nothing you can do about it. I don’t accept that you have no control. If you’re so unhappy, have you spoken to anyone about it? If not, then it’s your own fault. Nothing is going change just because you want it to change. I hated my life a few years ago and I changed it. Nobody else. Me. I made the decision to change both my attitude and my circumstances and sure, it didn’t happen immediately but it happened. I felt like a fool to be sitting there and actually liking my job and my life. I’m actually happy. No ifs and buts. Of course, I’d like to share my life with someone, but I’m not pining. Sometimes sitting and listening to people bitch and moan about things that they have no intention of changing really pisses me off.
I know that there are some situations that are beyond your control – death, illness, lay offs etc – but when it comes to the other stuff, it’s your life, it’s your attitude. If you go through life expecting things to change when you do nothing to change yourself, you’re bound to live a crappy, unhappy life, in my opinion.
In other news, I’m going to try make grilled Portabello Mushrooms today. This is big for many reasons:
- I used to hate mushrooms and, in fact, have only recently started “re-eating” them. Long story.
- I’ve never made this dish ever before, nor have I tasted it so I have no idea what it should taste like or look like
- I’m using a brand new grilling pan so wish me luck!
Exciting stuff, isn’t it?
Back to last night, I had to get off the subway 6 stops early due to the insidious, vicious BO of the person next to me. She got on and within one stop I knew that there was no way I could deal. I don’t know how anyone else did either. I got off, intending to get onto another car but the doors closed really quickly so I waited for the next one. Seriously, don’t people REALISE that washing is kinda good for you? I can’t even describe this smell without just saying think of the worst smell you’ve ever experienced. It was worse.
Okay, enough rambling.
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January 26, 2009 at 9:27 pm (General life)
Tags: bikini, body image, fitness, healthy body, life, Self-Esteem, women's health
I want to share a quote from an email I just got from a friend:
Distraction: Model thin and gorgeous girl from woman’s wear just walked past. My self esteem just plummeted to non existence. I HATE her and wish her lots of calories.
Why do we feel so competitive when it comes to appearance and weight? Why does a stick thin colleague elicit such a reaction? Normally I’d say it’s just X friend but really, we all do it. I was talking to some work friends today on the way back from lunch. Somehow we got onto the topic of bathing suits and how traumatic it can be to shop for a new one. I haven’t bought a new bathing suit in years and got around it last year by simply not going anywhere that required one. But I NEED one this year, hence the discussion. But it was interesting. Another quote, this one not verbatim because, well, I didn’t record the conversation:
The thing about going to the beach or whatnot is that you always know that there will be someone there who looks better than you and someone who looks worse. You just have to find that person who looks worse and use that to make yourself feel better about being in a bikini.
Again with the competing. The whole “am I the fattest person here?” If yes, then you feel like shit. If not, then you’ve been let off the hook until you notice the tiny girl in the corner or the girl with the muscles or the girl with the perfect flat stomach. And then you’re down. And you’re covering up, hiding, trying to reassure yourself that you don’t look AWFUL.
And none of these girls I was talking to had anything to worry about – all healthy, beautiful girls. And yet they were all talking and competing.
Is this something we’re conditioned to do as women? Men, do you guys do this kind of thing at all? Instinctively I’d say not but maybe I’m wrong. I’ve been wrong before.
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January 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm (General life, Weekly roundup)
Tags: diet, exercise, healthy lifestyle; health and fitness; health, weekend
that my “diet and exercise THING” was now a lifestyle.
Yesterday (okay, and today – yes, that’s 2 days but still, work with me here).
I woke up yesterday still absolutely WIPED from my week and from a super fun night out with the girls from work. It was a long day (almost 22 hours awake, broken up by a 1 hour nap) and it left me exhausted. I barely did anything all day Saturday and I was bummed.
Why, you ask?
Because I felt so exhausted, I couldn’t make it to the class I wanted to go to at the gym and nor could I stay awake long enough to make it to the gym before it closed for the day. I was super disappointed that I packed my gym bag so I could go first thing this morning.
Now THAT, my friends, is weird. That is something that I never used to do. Voluntarily go to the gym on a weekend? Get bummed that I couldn’t make it on a Saturday? Not me. And yet. Her I am, having done very little all weekend but stoked that I made it to the gym today.
And another thing – I made low-carb blueberry muffins and a yummy Red Curry Chicken stirfry. And I bought apples and all that healthy stuff. My healthy lifestyle truly is a lifestyle now.
Enough of that. I’m reading a very interesting book at the moment and I have to think about what I want to post about it – it’s called Rethinking Thin and it’s all about the science behind obesity and myths etc about diets. Very interesting – I don’t know how much of it I agree with but that’s for the next post.
Hope you’re all having a super Sunday night!
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January 22, 2009 at 8:23 pm (General life)
Tags: fitness, health and fitness, life, tennis elbow, working, Working out
I’m oh so tired today. Could possibly be because I woke up at 5:30am, got to work at 7:15 and worked a frigging long day until 4:30, then went to the gym for 1.5 hours. Maybe that’s why I’m so tired?
And guess what? I’m probably going to do it all again tomorrow. This workload is challenging and awesome but massive. I’m delegating majorly but still having to do a lot of it myself.
I’m refusing to let it get in the way of my health. I’m eating good food (just lots of it – working long hours makes me hungry) and still working out because you know, I kinda need a sanity check and sweating buckets on the bike or lifting weights is my sanity check.
Oh, and I seem to have ‘tennis elbow’ – any ideas on how to make it all better?
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January 20, 2009 at 6:27 pm (General life, Working out)
Tags: excuses, fitness, fun, health, health and fitness, life, new things, new year's resolutions, volleyball
Last year (and the year before that and the year before that …) I found excuses for why I couldn’t do stuff – I’m uncoordinated, I’m weak, I’m not fit, I can’t this and I can’t that. And I missed out on many, many things.
Last year they put up the notice for our Publisher’s League Indoor Beach Volleyball teams and I looked at the sign up sheet and walked away. After all, I’m uncoordinated. I don’t do team sports. I’m not fit enough. I’m not good enough. Then I listened to my friends who had signed up – they sucked at the game but they were having a blast – they told stories about how much they sucked, how cold the sand was, what funny things someone had done.
Monday the sign up sheet went up. I looked at it. I picked up my pen and I signed up. 10 weeks starting next Tuesday night, straight from work. This should be hilarious – I will kinda suck, I know that, but you know what? I don’t really care!
Be prepared for some stories and mishaps. I’m sure there will be plenty!
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January 20, 2009 at 8:36 am (Rants and Vents)
Tags: health and fitness, never say diet, overweight, plus-size, role models
Okay bear with me. I’ve been percolating on this topic for a while. In fact, since reading Leslie’s post on Never Say Diet about a plus-size weight-loss editor. When it comes to health and fitness, does and should the size of the person giving advice matter?
On the one hand, we’re after knowledge, aren’t we? We want someone who has all the information at the tip of their fingers; someone who can tell us why X diet is good and why eating or doing Y is really really bad. We want someone who is up on all the current health and fitness trends.
We also want someone we can relate to in some ways. I don’t want a size 0 chickie giving me weight loss advice if they’ve never ever struggled. I don’t want someone telling me that they know how hard it is to exercise with severe asthma if they’ve never been sick a day in their lives.
But I want to get advice from someone who has walked and walk and still talks the talk – someone who has run the race and crossed the finish line – not someone who tried and tried but never got there. I don’t want an unfit personal trainer telling me how to get fit – would you really want to work out with an obese personal trainer, who may have all the training in the world but doesn’t practice what they preach?
So I’m a little torn on whether it matters if a weight-loss editor is overweight – on the plus side, she knows the struggle and gets it but on the minus side, she’s never managed to beat the bulge. I know that I sound seriously judgemental here, which is why I’m struggling with this.
Am I being overly judgemental? Am I the only one who thinks that someone giving you health and fitness advice should themselves be healthy and fit? Do I need a slap on the side of the head?
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January 15, 2009 at 12:37 pm (General life, Nutrition)
Tags: chicken, choices, food, food choices, meat eating, red meat, vegetarianism
It’s been happening slowly slowly – so slowly in fact, that I barely noticed it. At first it was simply a case of availability and ease. I’m really just lazy and this happened to be the easiest thing to do. But then, slowly, I realised that I didn’t miss anything and really, it made a lot of sense to make it official.
I’m cutting out red meat.
I’m not going completely vegetarian – still going to eat fish and probably chicken (although at the moment, after all the chicken breasts I ate last year, I’m slightly ill at the thought of cooking chicken) but definitely no red meat – no steak, no burgers, no lamb. Nada.
And really, I don’t think I’m going to even notice really. Why?
- I am, as mentioned above, inherently lazy. Cooking meat takes more effort than fish or chicken from my experience. It’s also usually more expensive and not always available in the cuts I like at the store, so I end up sticking with other options.
- It’s usually more expensive at restaurants too and, since we’re all on the money-saving kick, I end up bypassing the meat options. Unless it’s a burger but really, I could always choose the chicken burger instead.
But it’s a step. And I’m making it official. I could say that this is a step in being more religious and keeping the laws of kashrut; I could say that I’m appalled by the treatment of animals and am making a stand. But really, I’m just making my laziness official.
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January 14, 2009 at 3:48 pm (General life, fitness)
Tags: 2009, fad diets, fitness, goals, health, new year's resolutions
Firstly, I need to start this post off by saying that I’m DAMN cold. I’m craving carbs and my body is hating the fact that there’s less fat to keep me warm. This weather is inhumane.
Now that’s off my chest, I’ve been reading a lot of New Year’s/January themed articles relating to, you guessed it, losing weight. It is of course the top New Year’s Resolution every year, which results in packed gyms and sold out aerobics equipment until the middle of the month or, at the latest, the end of January. Then all the resolutionites give up, get back on the couch and the rest of us normal people continue on. Some resolutionites end up becoming part of the crowd every year but most tend to crave the quick result and, when that fails to materialise after 2 sessions in their brand new lululemon workout gear, they give up.
Every paper and magazine and website seems to be filled with easy ways to lose weight – A good laugh works your abs, so get telling jokes and you’ll lose weight! Drink this tea 8 times a day to lose weight without trying! Spend 15 minutes a day strapped to a vibrating belt and you’ll lose weight and get fit! Amazing – all these things you can do without any effort and look amazing!
It’s all bollocks of course. The only way to get healthy is to BE HEALTHY. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? The January articles all seem to focus on the quick detox and quick results but in my opinion, that’s the surest way to disappointment.
I’m tempted to follow Charlotte’s lead and follow a “Lose 10 lbs” exercise and eating plan for a month and see if it actually works because, really I have my doubts.
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I'm a twenty-something Aussie living in Canada, moving to New Zealand and trying to be somewhat strong and healthy while I navigate the perils of a long-distance relationship, freelancing and planning a long-distance wedding without losing my mind. Welcome!
