2011 in Pictures

Starting the positivity with a post of the fun things I did this year :)

This is really the only photo I have of me doing a fun run this year haha, and you can barely see me! I'm behind the dude with the white shirt and red bits - wearing blue shorts. But this year I ran in three - Bridges 10k, Run for a Reason 14k & City 2 Surf 12k. Next year, many many more races!

Hiked about 100 km of the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia, in four days. It was stunning.

A sunset on the track.

Another evil hill, this is the part where I would always get separated from the group (That's me in the red jacket).

Looking exhausted on day four (me on the right)

Went to Vietnam, here is where I rode on the back of a motorbike up the Hoi Van Pass... it was about a four or five hour ride and with some amazing scenery.

A sunset on one of the small islands I stayed at overnight in Vietnam. This was one of my favourite nights there. After spending the day picking fruit, cycling around the island and chilling in a hammock... we watched the sunset and then had a traditional Vietnamese dinner. So relaxing.

I stayed in a five star hotel in Vietnam for my birthday, and when I had returned from the day's travelling, the hotel had left me a card, cake and a REAL bunch of roses!! It made me so happy to receive that when away from home :D

Did boot camp for a month. I LOVED it, but it was really inconvenient! 20 km from my home meant that on my busiest uni day I would be getting up at 5 am, driving there, doing the session, driving to uni - changing in the car!! (No showers at uni unless you pay!) and then being at uni from 7 am to 7 pm... driving home... which took another 40 mins. Was a REALLY long day... plus boot camp is super expensive and not feasible on a student budget. But I would love to do it again!

Got back into kickboxing and fought in a novice tournament after being back for one month :) I forgot how much I missed it till I got back, and can't wait to return after Christmas break.

One of the very few skydives I did this year - There was a Christmas themed party where we jumped in santa suits and elf suits, etc. I am the one I suppose you could say "facing" the camera. Was a fantastic day and so good to catch up with people I hadn't seen for months!

I wish I had more photos to share, but I think I got pretty slack with my camera... so there's not too many. I am not making new year's resolutions for 2012, but I hope to run the City 2 Surf half-marathon and to run as many 5k's as I can find. I also hope to adopt a more positive mindset in general, and to take more photos! :)

Ending the negativity

I've realised lately that I'm actually not as recovered as I thought I was. 

I've written several posts - about five, in fact - that I have decided not to post as they were just so negative. 

This isn't what I wanted this blog to be about at all. I'm confused about everything.

There is no need for another blogger out there who posts negative things or talks all about their ED, or seems to "encourage" the idea... I wanted this blog to be about being fit, healthy and happy - not counting calories and being unhappy - which is really the place I am at. I hate reading other blogs and seeing that people think they are better, when really they are not. It just makes me sad.

One thing that made me realise I am not recovered was how hard Christmas was for me. It wasn't that I was forced to eat anything I didn't want to, but I was constantly on edge and bit my whole family's head off with my attitude. They were mad at me for it. I did not enjoy Christmas at all.

I have made an appointment with a dietician, but I couldn't get in until the end of January. I don't know what the problem is, exactly... I'm not anorexic or bulimic as before, but I seem to be leaning much more towards the orthorexic ways and it's just not cool. I also think the fact that I've been quite depressed plays a big part, and eating healthy is something else to focus on. It's completely complicated by so many other factors!!

But as I said, I don't want this blog to be about that. So from now on, expect an end to the negativity - it means I will post much less, most likely - and a return to posts about my passions in life - running & kickboxing. I suppose that will become easier next year when I start doing more races.

I think I will make a start to posting positive posts soon, perhaps with some more "things that make me happy" type posts.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas all!! :)

Not going to lie, I love christmas, presents, the christmas spirit... but it's this time of the year that both the social anxiety (family get-togethers) and ED thoughts hit pretty hard!
Here's hoping for a better Christmas this year and not letting negative thoughts ruin things.
Hope everyone has some good times planned and is not struggling with their own thoughts too much over the Christmas break to stop their enjoyment :)

Progress!

It's really strange that the busier I am, the more posts I write. Since finishing exams, I have hardly written a thing in this blog! I guess because there is more to say when you're busy. I'm going to mix it up and write a post with random list type things, because lists are awesome.

I am, ever so slowly, increasing my running speed without trying. To be completely honest, although I've been "running" for a year... I've actually only been consistently running 3x a week for 16 weeks now. So I'm super happy that my pace has gone from roughly 6:50 to 6:00 in that time (KM paces), and who knows what it can improve to with time, maybe if I actually start doing intervals and tempo runs and all that kind of thing... all in good time though!! Too injury paranoid - plus I'm not training for anything in particular right now.

Well, that was point 1.... point 2.. I attempted to make the peanut butter protein cookies featured in my WIAW post. The batter was amazingly awesome. When it cooked, the texture came out strange, and the flavour wasn't quite the same. I haven't figured out where I went wrong yet, but I will give it another go at some point!! Would love to have some daily protein cookies mmmmmm....

OK, that's actually all I've got ;) My iPhone has stopped being able to import photos for some stupid reason, so I've got no photos and probably no WIAW tomorrow :(

WIAW #9 or #10... Random goodness.

I originally started WIAW for a few reasons - meet new bloggers, find new recipes & to encourage myself to try new foods - mainly vegetable related as that is my weakness (love veg - can't be bothered preparing it) But I've gotten a bit lazy with it and end up just taking pictures when I eat something interesting - and mainly only stealing recipes for sweet foods ;). Oh well, at least I'm trying! :) 

Here's some eats from the last week or so.

One of the ugliest bowls of oats - steel cut oats soaked overnight and then cooked in the microwave this morning, mixed with a banana, tbsp maple syrup, cinnamon and about a tsp of peanut flour. Great combination :D

Peanut butter protein cookie by Titan. Only seem to be able to buy these at my gym, but it was sooo good! Soft and gooey like a cookie should be. Should definitely try making my own.

These were some peanut flour pancakes that didn't really go to plan... needed waaay more liquid because they were super tiny and fat. Tasted great though! Topped with mixed berries & cottage cheese.

A packed breakfast for Sunday since I was out all day Sat up until Sunday afternoon. Chocolate Hazelnut milk + Dark Choc, Cranberry & Almond Bar.

Packed snacks for Sunday - cherry tomatoes, blueberries & medjool dates. 

Saturday's packed lunch - my attempt at a bento box!! Included: 1 PB & J sandwich (in roll-up form), chocolate animal cookies, 2 medjool dates (stuffed with chocolate cookies), blueberries & a luna bar (nutz over chocolate?)

This was a bit of a challenge... was over a friend's place one night and we had cocktails and chocolates. First time I tried Blue Caracao... wasn't a huge fan!

A peanut & choc chip banana bread from the freezer, yummooo

Gummy vitamins... cheers to whoever's blog I saw these on. Best way to get vitamins ever :D Who cares if the packet has "Kid's vitamins" on it hehehehehe.

Here's my workout for today - I missed the BodyPump class I was going to attend due to my car having a flat battery, so I devised my own home circuit. This is copied from dailymile:

Circuit sesh 00:36 mins

Missed BodyPump but made up for it with a wicked home circuit. Had 10 "stations" with bits of paper telling me what to do (something I do often) and went around in a circle in the room 3 times (no rests). All weights used 2.5 kg per hand (or bodyweight)
1st station: Biceps x 15 & 1 min wall squat.
2nd station: chest press x 15 & tricep dips x 15
3: Lunges 15 each leg & bicycle squat thing
4: Shoulder lift thing x 15 & shoulder side lift thing x 15
5: wall squat again
6: 15 x pushups
7: situps with medicine ball x 15
8: squats with medicine ball x 15 & upright row x 15
9: plank 1 min + side plank each side 30 seconds
10: deadlifts x 15 + army situps x 15

After doing that 3 times I did this mini circuit once (all the exercises I hate ;)
mountain climbers x 15
burpees x 15
turkish getups x 15
toe taps x 15
jackknifes x 15

And then lay down for five minutes catching my breath ;)

It was a pretty good circuit, might have to repeat it next time! Definitely had my heart going a lot more than in a BodyPump class.

2012 Running Goals

I've been pretty slack with both blog posting and blog commenting, even though I have been reading people's blogs. Not really sure why! I even missed WIAW because I was too slack to take pictures ;) Actually I've been pretty slack in everything. I've still been keeping to my running plans but all my other fitness plans have fallen by the wayside... this happens to me every now and then so I suppose I'll just take it in my stride and know that the motivation will be back again :)

I have been playing a disturbing amount of The Sims 3.... hey, don't judge me, I've got a 4 month break and have to fill my time somehow ;) I've had this legacy family that I've been playing with for years, and I'm almost up to the 10th generation! It's begun to go all slow and laggy though and is a pain to play... anyway, END that nerd talk! Ha!

Anywho, back to my original topic... or beginning my original topic? Instead of doing December goals I'm thinking of my goals for 2012. It's early, I know, but I have some pretty big goals for 2012.

Today I joined the WA Marathon Club (WA = Western Australian), who run a heap of fun runs throughout the year (3-4 runs every month!) and I plan on pretty much doing as many of those as I can. You have to do eight to get recognition in the yearly award things, so I'll aim for at least eight. There's a few cross-country runs too, which I have never run, so I'm excited for that.

I also plan on running a half-marathon in August, and have made myself a super-conservative rough plan on increasing mileage super slowly up until then. I figure I'd rather slowly up it instead of doing one of those 12 week super-quick increase plans. Makes sense to me, anyway. I've made it so it stagnates for a couple of weeks, then increases by 10% for a couple of weeks, then drops every 4 weeks by about 5 km for a "rest week" followed by going back to the previous week's mileage. If that makes sense?

eg:
Week 1: 25 km
Week 2: 25 km
Week 3: 27 km
Week 4: 29 km
Week 5: 25 km
Week 6: 29 km etc etc

The club also runs a couple of free training sessions during the week, so hopefully I'll be able to make those occasionally. Excited!!!

The difficulty again is fitting in kickboxing and strength work ;) I always find that difficult! Running is so much easier for me to stick to, because I can go at any time in any place.... kickboxing is at 7:45 pm at night, which is super late and I often spend all day finding reasons not to go (I'm always happy when I do go though!). Strength work... well sometimes I like it, but mostly I don't. Necessary evil to me.

Next semester I'm excited for my classes:
Cancer Control
Introduction to Psychology
Mental Health Promotion
Sexology.

None of them really have much to do with Nutrition but I think these will be very interesting. Not really sure what Sexology will involve just yet but I think it has to do with what makes your sexuality or something?? Only one of these classes has an exam so that's pretty cool too :) The rest are assignment based.

Anywho enough rambling for today. I'm off to decide what to make for dinner...

Banning myself from grocery shopping!

I have come to the conclusion that I need to ban myself temporarily from grocery shopping. With all the free time I've had since being on uni break, I have seriously been to the grocery store FIVE times this week... there were so many new products that I had to buy... like, I actually can't leave a new product on the shelf. I'm beginning to think it's a problem!!! I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on food I do not need! Of course it will get eaten but there is already plenty of food in my house.

I am going to *attempt* to fill the grocery shopping time with going for a daily walk instead, every day of December (Unless I'm going for a run that day, in which case I will run). This ties in with my (again) efforts to try and lose weight. I want to do it, but there's no pressing need. I'm in the healthy weight range, it's just that I have put on 8 kg since last year (I have no idea how... but moving back in with the parents probably didn't help) and my clothes don't fit the way they used to. Losing the 8 kg again will still put me in the healthy weight range, considering I am right at the upper end at the moment.

My plan is to hopefully see a dietician, as all of this "eat back your exercise calories" "don't eat back your exercise calories" and conflicting information all over the place has confused the hell out of me, to the point where I seem to switch between the two and probably confuse the hell out of my body. Obviously 1 year of uni has not taught me enough yet to figure out how to do it myself!

As well as that, continuing on with increasing my running mileage should help + more weights sessions...

I'm sure this blog entry had a point, I just can't remember what it was... anyway, the sea breeze is now in so it's time for a walk. (36'C / 96'F today!!)

WIAW #9 - getting back to healthier eating.

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I spent the last two weeks in the bush eating very processed food and doing no exercise, so today's and yesterday's food has been an attempt to return to my usual diet. I think after eating crappy food for two weeks it's been a little more difficult than I anticipated - I've actually craved two minute noodles!

Anyway here's some new things I found at the store today - MAN did I miss grocery shopping - plus it was like CHRISTMAS with all these exciting new products.

Rice crackers, a healthy cookie (fruit & nut) and caramel rice cakes in SINGLE SERVES! Awesome...

Chai Latte sachets in berry flavour. I plan to probably mix these up with some oats rather than drink them ;)

Um, this doesn't fit the "healthier eating" bill, but I have never seen this in Australian supermarkets so it had to be bought, and had to be sampled as soon as I came home - with a spoon.

OK, so here's what I ate today:

BREAKFAST:

Banana protein sachet + 5 or 6 frozen raspberries + sprinkle of oats + greek yoghurt.

SNACK 1

RAW food bar - spirulina & cashew + 

My favourite iced tea guzzled in the car on the way to the shops.

LUNCH:

Salad made with leftovers: Couscous salad, some mince, a boiled egg, a sprinkling of feta cheese, baby spinach, peas, cherry tomatoes, carrot, asparagus.

The cherry tomatoes in my backyard have gone mental:

This is a much bigger bowl than it looks like... and there's still a bowl's worth on the bush that I couldn't be bothered picking!! They taste AMAZING, like candy almost...

SNACK 2:

Banana with PB + an unpictured apple.

My unhealthy vice. No matter how many times I want to quit, it never happens...

What I worked: Nothing yet... I'm still trying to get my mojo back after two weeks of inactivity :( Hopefully I'll have the energy / motivation to go for a run later on. If not I won't beat myself up about it.

In the meantime... anyone have any good recipes for mountains of tomatoes?

Challenging myself.

So I'm back from my two week trip into the bushes of Australia. As per the previous post on Introversion, it was not all sunshine and roses. Far from it.
The challenges I thought I would have the trouble with was eating unhealthy food and not being able to exercise. In reality the most trouble I had revolved around being bored and dealing with an extremely arrogant, chauvinistic pig who was basically a "workplace bully".

The food challenge went really, really well though. I ended up eating m & ms a couple of times, usually a forbidden type of food. Takeaway pizza one night. Went out for dinner twice - once I ordered steak with fries and ate them all, another time I had deep fried zucchini "balls" (with salad). I also went out drinking with the boys - after which I had bacon and eggs. I also ate the most forbidden food of them all in my mind - a donut. The good part about it though, is that while I felt guilty each time I ate these unhealthy foods, I did not beat myself up about it (too much) or dwell on it to a large degree.

I was not able to work off anything I ate. We were not allowed to wear anything but our uniform and as I only had two pairs and we had no access to showers.... yeah. It would have also been too difficult as we couldn't leave the small square area of bush we were based in, so unless I ran 100 m back and forth!! I decided to just use the two weeks as a break / rest. Although I suspect it will be VERY difficult to get back into it all. It always is after a break! My plan tomorrow is to go for an easy run and just see how I feel, run as many k's as my legs feel good for.

The weirdest part of all? After eating rubbish food and doing NO exercise for two weeks... I lost 1.6 kilos (3.6 pounds). Honestly, every time I do something like this, I ALWAYS lose weight. It's really confusing and frustrating. While I know when I'm away I don't count calories and tend to eat a little more intuitively, it still doesn't seem to make sense that I can eat food with no nutritional value and generally treat my body in a crappier way yet it responds with weight loss. Then I go back home and return to my normal ways and it comes back on.

I usually either respond by attempting to eat more intuitively when I get home (usually backfires and ends up with weight gain) or increase my calories to match what I thought I was eating when away (usually ends up with weight gain too). Hopefully it's not muscle loss or something, and that's the reason why I always lose when I go away somewhere and then it returns when I resume exercising. Hmm... curious.

I will be back tomorrow with a WIAW post. I'm probably going to be eating some sort of "detox" kind of foods. I'm not into the whole detox thing, but basically I mean getting back to eating healthier wholesome foods to rid my body of all the processed rubbish I've been eating. Had a lunch for my grandma's birthday today and there was lots of salad and fruit salad, so that was a great start. I missed fresh food!!!

Introversion

I'm seriously struggling with constantly being around people, especially as I have a severe personality clash with one of them. It has totally ruined the experience out here. I just binged on 1000 cals worth of muesli - the first binge I've had in months. I am truly miserable :(

I almost never dont get along with people, mainly because I put myself out there in a way that makes it hard for people to have a problem with me / I don't argue, put forward opinions, or tell people much about me. Part of perfectionism I think, can't stand people disliking me.

When we first had words, I cried half the day and cried myself to sleep. I usually cry less than once a year. I vowed to apologize the next day, even though I had essentially done nothing wrong. But the next day he was even Nastier, so I crawled into my shell and said nothing. Since then I have hidden out in my sleeping bag and not said much to anyone.

The days drag along, with two hour shifts every six hours and nothing to do between but feel sorry for myself and sleep.

Everyone is planning drinks at the end, but no one has actually spoken to me about it, in fact I walked past as they mentioned it and then it went quiet. I feel so alone. It's like high school all over again.

I'm thinking when I get home I will see about seeing someone again. My social anxiety has slowly been coming back this year, and something like this experience has really hurt my confidence a lot.

Set about to challenge myself and only dig the hole deeper, story of my life.

Also - haven't done any exercise at all because of where we are, and can't - only serves to make me sadder.

Out of the comfort zone

Just a quick post to say I'll probably be AWOL for the next two weeks as I'm going out bush with work, leaving tomorrow. I have no idea what kind of access to the internet I'll have (probably none!).

It will have its benefits though - I likely won't be able to complete my goal of 100 km running for November because of this (Currently at 40 km, probably doing 10k tomorrow), but I WILL be able to complete the goal of getting out of my comfort zone for the entire time. I will have absolutely no control over the food I have access to, and likely will have no chance to exercise at all (Unless I do situps in my sleeping bag or something!!). I will also know NOBODY at all. Kind of an eating disordered / social anxiety person's nightmare, right?? Exactly why I should be doing it! Plus I get $...

I'm flying to the capital of Australia (Canberra) for this, so hopefully if I'm lucky I'll get a short amount of time to sightsee, as last time I was there I was 2 years old :)

Anyway, I will be back to stalk everyone's two week's worth of blog posts soon! Ciao!

Oh - I was going to mention, for those of you in the US - check out Earndit, it's a site that rewards you for your workouts. You get points for everything you do and then can cash them in for rewards - there's clothes, food and stuff. I've been a member for a while and have heaps of points but can't cash them in because most of the stuff is US only. I'm staying a member though because one day there might be something I can get, haha - and then I'll be rolling in the points!

Perfectionism.

I'm bored, and I hate it. I hate having nothing on my to-do list that's productive to do. I've been on holidays now from university for a week and a half. I've got my haircut, been to the doctor's, got my car fixed, moved into my brother's old room, cleaned, baked, went grocery shopping, went window shopping, played The Sims 3, and socialised.

I have a long list of other things to do but most of them are exercise related, and it's supposed to be a rest day. I don't actually feel like having one, but I didn't have one for the entirety of last week and last night at kickboxing I was feeling kind of unfit and almost overtrained, and when I got home my shin hurt.

I feel good today but I'm taking last night as a sign to rest up... but I feel guilty for it, ugh! I'm not sure it's eating disorder related though - I think it's perfectionism related.

I was reading a blog the other day where someone talked about perfectionism and I looked up the exact definition on Wikipedia and the entire thing describes me, to a T!:

Particularly these points:

"people who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment"

procrastination, fear of failure, the all-or-nothing mindset

Perfectionists can suffer anxiety and low self-esteem. Perfectionism is a risk factor for obsessive compulsive personality disorder, eating disorders, social anxiety, social phobia, body dysmorphic disorder, workaholism, self harm, and clinical depression as well as physical problems like chronic stress, and heart disease 

<--- hello! Personally suffered from low-self esteem, eating disorders, social anxiety AND depression in the past.

It's interesting, reading that made me wonder if I'm actually able to relax properly, the way a "normal" person might. The first day of my uni holidays I was all over the house, unable to relax, couldn't sit still, and was mad that I slept in (7.30 am). "I've wasted half the day!" I said to my mum. So what? It's not like I needed to be anywhere, or really had to do anything.

Then I tried to "drag out" the things on my to do list that I needed done over my four month break. (Isn't that a ridiculously long break?) But it's been a week and I've done 90% of them already. I feel lost without things on a to-do list that must be done, especially on a rest day. This is how I felt on Sunday until I went for my run, then I felt infinitely better, because I had DONE something, I had achieved something for the day - I had worked out.

I feel horribly guilty if I go one day where I haven't achieved anything at all. Why can't I just spend a day relaxing, watching TV, reading and doing absolutely nothing without it just being a chilled out affair?????? THAT makes me mad.

I look at my to-do list daily to try and find something new and productive to do, but all that's actually on it now is lazy stuff like "sort out pile of magazines" and "read a book" (or exercise related ideas).

I'm one of those people that simply could not go on a holiday where the idea is to chill out by the pool and tan. I would seriously go crazy. I need to be doing something all the time, busy, seeing the world.

To give an example, here are the lists I currently have (just the ones stored on my computer / blog):

Study schedule

Things to do on 4 month break

Things to do today

Things to do this week

101 goals in 1001 days

November goals

Stuff to bake

Stuff to blog

Stuff to buy.

I imagine I'm not alone in this, though. I imagine most people who have suffered an eating disorder, depression or anxiety in the past probably feel similar. 

The question is, how do you change this thinking so that you can relax and be happy with not being perfect at things? I've always been one of those people who is OK at everything - never really bad at something, never really great at something and I guess that I just want to find just one something that I'm really good at. Maybe if I find that the perfectionism will calm down?

---------
EDIT: I apologise for the fact that a lot of my blogging lately is so negative!! I am generally not that negative a person, just a couple of things I've been thinking about lately needed venting... and I thought others might be able to relate. Positivity returning at some point, hopefully.

Also, I'd love to see more people join up with me on dailymile, if you have accounts. My dailymile account here. I get quite a kick out of seeing different people's workouts and learning from what they do.

The Tournament

 So today I fought in the novice (questionable?!) tournament in kickboxing. I'm half happy with how it went. I fought in two fights. But first of all, here's how I fuelled up:

Breakfast was a crumbled up pumpkin almond muffin in peanut flour mixed with yoghurt. Delicious! Pretty much after I ate this the nerves set in and I couldn't eat much else - so lunch was two pieces of plain toast with jam, and I didn't eat anything else till dinner - not like me at all!

The first fight was scheduled for 3.30 pm, but we pretty much knew it wouldn't go to schedule. The kids fights always go over, which is OK since they are super cute and fun to watch, and some of them have some serious talent. Warmed up upstairs but it was so long before my fight I'd practically cooled down again. Anyway, on the "fixture" it had me fighting a girl who had been doing kickboxing since she was like, 5, appears on all the club's promotional posters, fights in international competitions and I was like... umm... I entered the NOVICE comp right? It only intensified my nerves, but I tried to calm myself down with positive thinking.

Anyway so the idea was that I would fight her and then the loser would fight another girl (who had 20 years experience - compared to me with 6 years - and having just had 3 years off!!!) So you can see why I was struggling to feel positive...

Just before the first fight. We had "coaches" sit behind us, but honestly, this woman said absolutely nothing to me at all. The last tournament I fought in I had a great coach, told me areas I could improve and the other fighter's weaknesses etc, gave you water, calmed you down... this woman just freaking sat there. So mad! 

I'm pretty happy with that fight. I was definitely feeling the unfit-ness of having had three years off though. Although I've been running and doing other sport, it's not the same kind of fitness. Kickboxing is like intense bursts of super high activity for three minutes at a time, and I was half dead before the first minute was over!! I still gave it my all and think I did pretty OK considering. I've got no idea how many points either of us got, but she won. It was also good because I fought somebody I knew, and we were pretty chilled out talking to each other beforehand and hugged after, etc. Made it more fun. As the other girl pulled out and I didn't have to fight her, I was given a silver medal. Score? Kinda feels unearned but I'll take it!!

Before the second fight. I'm on the left with a slightly better coach who at least introduced himself! (Sorry, my mum kinda sucks at photography ;) Sorry mum. This one was against a girl I didn't know, but she was a third dan black belt whereas I am one (requires at least 3 years more training).

The difference was, I felt like I had this one. She looked tired and "over it" after her first fight. I felt good. I got in quite a few good punches, but unfortunately punches are worth 1 point and kicks are worth two. So while I got about 4 punches and she got 2 kicks, that kept us even. Then one of my kicks wasn't counted because somehow they didn't see it (Pissed off.) and they counted one of hers which I blocked. Like what the??! And that fight was over really quick, without me feeling like I had quite put in the same effort as the other one. :( It was 1 point difference, and I lost again.

(I'm the black blur)

Despite losing both fights to much more experienced competitors (after less than one month training...) I had a great time and learned a fair bit. The adrenalin rush is insane, which is possibly why I've been contemplating bed since about 7.30 pm!!!

A little annoyed about the lack of coaching, being placed against international competitors despite wanting to go in as a novice, them missing my kick etc... but I should just suck it up and get over it! Finding it hard though. On the plus side, I had a great time and will definitely be entering again next year, hoping for a rematch ;)

WIAW #8 - Late to the party!

I've been having an annoying problem post-workout a lot of the time lately. If I run more than about 40 minutes or do a medium - hard run, I wind up with a full blown headache and bad nausea - unless I get serious with post-workout recovery:

- Stretch straight away.
- Drink diluted gatorade immediately while putting legs up on wall.
- Eat high protein item within 30 mins of coming back (Lately has been my peanut flour slice thing)
- Eat a spoonful of vegemite (super salty + B vitamins)
- Have a cold shower / ice shins

If I miss doing this, the sickness comes. It's kind of strange, you would think this would only happen after particularly difficult workouts, but it pretty much happens on any run unless it's super easy. I don't think it's dehydration, because I always make sure I have a big cup before I go and drink at least two or three after my electrolyte drink when I get back... then I thought it was the salt thing hence why I started having vegemite - which might be key? I don't know... anyway maybe I don't get enough salt in my diet generally. So I had Subway for lunch today, because everyone knows their bread is super high salt.

So without further ado (adieu?) here is Wednesday's foodstuffs...

Had the most simple breakfast ever. Kashi Golean with rice milk. That's it!

Went to the gym for a 30 min weights sesh + 3 km run, and afterwards downed this protein bar. Delicious!

Wanted to wear these shorts. I love these shorts - but I can't find a shirt that really goes with them! :( Maybe I'll have to go shopping again to find one ;) But what colours?!

Instead wore this shirt (with dark grey shorts) - this shows the heat / humidity here at the moment!! I'd like to believe it was my effort but I think the heat held most of the reason for the uber sweat.

This was lunch - almond spread & blackberry jam on wholemeal grain toast. Super inventive...

The other piece of bread held a baby banana with almond spread & cinnamon. So good!

Well, as for my November challenges... the eating more vegetables is going so so. I made dinner last night and it was a huge salad with tuna & goat's feta cheese.

The 100km for November? I've done 13 km so far on Nov 3 which is a great start, but I've found out that the work I'm doing for 2 weeks at the end of November will be out field camping, so there won't be much opportunity for ANY kind of exercise, let alone running. I've decided I'll just do what I would have done in the weeks I'm home and see how I go. (Plan was Week 1 - 24km, Week 2 - 26 km, Week 3 - 27 km, Week 4 - 23 km) or thereabouts.

And facing things that scare me - fighting in the kickboxing tournament this Saturday - will definitely recap that on here and how I go. I'm not expecting to win or even do great but I'm in it for fun and anything else is a bonus!

I really miss my blender and its ability to make creations like the above. :(

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's halloween posts and about things like how big pumpkin is!. We don't do any of that stuff here really so it's been really interesting to me. I never would have thought of having a coffee with pumpkin pie spice (which I'm assuming is kind of like nutmeg & cinnamon together?!). That sounds so delicious!!! And all the cool foods made into shapes of scary stuff. Love it!

And wow, I just realised how close it actually is to Christmas!! Oh noo....

P.S. I hate Summer and I am jealous of everyone that has winter coming up.

November Goals.

1. Eat more vegetables.

You would be surprised how little vegetables I actually eat. Considering I am an ex (sometimes questionable?) ED sufferer and 95% of what I eat is super healthy, I still don't consume enough vegetables! I'm a little paranoid about them actually... when I was eating super massive amounts in the past with my purely vegetable lunches, I had really bad gas.

2. Run 100 km in November.

I ran 75 km in October, so I'm upping the ante for November. Shouldn't be too difficult.

3. Do one thing each week to get myself out of my comfort zone. This can be anything - food related, social related, exercise related, whatever!

As for my October goals? I don't think I thought them out very well! They were:

1. Reduce the amount of coffee / diet coke I drink - this didn't happen. I drank only one diet coke a week the first three weeks, then had like four in the last week!

2. Prepare my lunch for the week on the weekend - this wasn't necessary as I only had one teaching week left, and the rest I was at home!

3. Actually schedule me-time that isn't exercise related into my study schedule, rather than procrastinating being my me-time - managed this one, though!

October Summary & Broken blender

I'm pretty stoked with how October has gone. 

I managed to do:

Bodypump 3 times.

My own weights sessions 2 times.

Kickboxing 6 times (not as much as I'd like, but exams held me back here....!!)

Swam 2 times

75km of running (average around 18km / week)

Yoga x 1 (not great!! Need to work on this...)

Elliptical twice.

So I'm thinking for November I'm going to aim for 100km running, and increase weights sessions. It's going to be much more difficult as I'll be away for three weeks with work and I have no idea what the hours are going to be like and whether I'll be able to access gyms and that kind of thing. I'll do an update on November goals later though.

I also finished uni for the year (1st year over! Woo!).

Yesterday morning's breakfast. It was meant to be a smoothie. In the middle of blending, the blender died. DEVASTATED. So I had berries floating in oat milk & yoghurt... I ended up draining the liquidy part and drinking that and eating the rest as a kind of oaty yoghurty mess thing. But... this means no smoothies for a while, and that makes me so so so sad!!! NoooooOOoo....

I've been really bored with food lately and have had to get inventive, so most of my meals have been mish-mash mixtures of totally random stuff - for example this was a piece of bread with cheese, chopped up falafel, and an egg mixed with mushroom and cajun spice... with a bit of spinach thrown on top. (SUPER ugly, isn't it? ;)

Falafel sandwich with random salad... it had pickles and bits of goat's cheese and other stuff.

This is probably the most random :) Some of mum's AWESOME pumpkin soup, two vegie sausages on bread, two mini falafels, and two mushrooms with vegemite on top.

I'm super hungry right now, hopefully dinner will be ready soon. We're having the full roast with all the trimmings for my brother's birthday.