Random Things

Bit of a cliche post... but it's Friday and I feel like throwing some random things out there. What I've been doing, eating, whatever!

1. Kicking butt at Words with Friends with a 71 point word... yep, triple word, triple letter, using all my letters.... ok so I'm a nerd.. who cares ;)

2. Making amazing overnight oats... this was oats, vanilla soy milk, and half the banana cooked in the microwave for three minutes, heaps of cinnamon added... then extra banana added on top after. Pretty simple, but I think the vanilla soy milk really took it over the edge because it was AMAZING....

3. Taking gross pictures of my broken toe... this is after one month of injury... looking kinda angry, and still super fat :( I won't show you the pics I took closer to the injury... eww!

4. Getting up at 5 am to volunteer to take photos at the running club's weekend race - going again this weekend. I figure while I'm out of action, might as well help out! First actual "volunteer" work I've done. Felt good! I think a lot of people didn't like me taking multiple photos of them though... there was like 100 people in the race and I took 1000 photos (it was an out and back multiple times race) :S

This pic is just the view I had before the first runners got to me... that's my tiny little city across the other side of the river :)

One of the better shots I got... blurred the dude out coz I don't know him!

5. Uni starts back on the 27th of Feb! After sitting around on my butt for four months (well, not totally - I did work for a month of it) I'm wondering how I'm going to take being extremely busy again. I do love being busy, and routine, but I have (slowly!) gotten used to not having much to do.

6. Totally random, but I'm in a job which requires me to travel (sort of by choice, though), and have been debating whether to go away for six months at the end of this year. It means delaying the half-marathon I was going to run, as well as deferring uni in second semester, missing some of uni this semester, moving my exams around, quitting the gym & kickboxing, putting my stuff in storage, sorting out finances and bills, living in a foreign country, and STRESS STRESS STRESS... I'm so gonna do it though! Face the fear and do it anyway...

7. One other thing... I've installed intensedebate and I so don't get it. None of the comments that have been sent to me by email are showing up on the blog. I've checked on the moderation and all that and "accepted" all the comments, but none of them show up except my "testing" comment??! Anyone got any idea, or should I just can the stupid thing and return to blogger comments? Grrr arrrgh...

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...

Fitness... & Alcohol

I'm debating taking a blogging break, even though I only started a couple of months ago. I'm just in a funk a lot and negativity is no fun. But before that, I'm going to blog a bit of a fitness survey and then rant about alcohol. 

Five Fitness Things I can’t Live Without:

• My Nike Lunarglide +2, they are the comfiest running shoes I've ever had, they have great support and fit my feet so well, plus they are pretty haha.
• My iPhone - so I can use Runkeeper and log my runs and see where I'm struggling, where I'm doing well, etc... gives pacing, km's, calories, speed, etc.
• Decent running shorts. I've got two pairs of Nike tempo and a couple of Running Bare shorts that are fantastic. Definitely a good pair is underestimated, as if you're not wearing them... shorts ride up, get sweaty, all that kind of thing... a worthy investment methinks.
• I'm actually struggling to think of five. OK, hair ties. I can't stand my hair flying all over the place.
• Good sports bra for support, even though I don't need much ;P

Most Embarrassing Song I Listen to While Working Out:

• Hm, Pitbull - Shut it Down... lol... it played a lot in BodyPump for a while I think and I started to like it. Same with "Ravers in the UK". 

Favorite Pre-Workout Snack or Meal:

• It changes, I don't have a go-to... sometimes I'll have a banana, sometimes jam on bread, it depends on what I'm doing. Most of the time I'll go before breakfast though or a couple of hours after breakfast, so it's not an issue.

On My Fitness Bucket List:

• Run a half-marathon
• Run a full marathon
• Join a running club (There's a huge lack where I live, though, so will be a 30 min + drive...)
• Do well in the kickboxing tournament
• Try all the classes at the gym I haven't tried yet
• (There is LOADS more on my fitness bucket list...)

Must-Have Tech Tools:

• See above, the iPhone! or if I didn't have that, I'd probably get a Garmin.

Top Exercise Gear:

• This is pretty much the same as my gear I can't live without...

Motivational Mantras:

• I don't have any - maybe I should get some!!

Next Big Exercise Goal:

• At the moment just increasing my mileage up to the point where I can run 30+ km a week, but doing it as slowly as possible without making myself crazy ;)

Favorite Cardio Exercise:

• running, kickboxing... they kinda tie.

Favorite Strength Move:

• pushups, funnily enough.

ALCOHOL

I so had all these ideas to say about alcohol this morning while sitting on the train, and should have blogged then. OK, so basically I used to drink when I was 20-21 ish. Not a lot, but whenever I would go to parties it would ease my anxiety, and I was able to interact with people in a way I definitely couldn't before. Instead of being the shy girl that never talked, I turned into a crazy, fun, hyperactive person who would talk to ANYBODY and everyone thought I was funny and entertaining. That could have been something which turned into an addiction for me as I have an addictive personality, but it ended up just being left like that... something I did at the occasional party.

As my social anxiety started to get better and I started to talk to people on my own without alcohol, I started to dislike alcohol more and more, and wonder why people even drink, especially if they don't have social anxiety issues? I tried to quit, but gave into peer pressure most of the time, and ended up acting stupid a lot and regretting it.

Then the eating disorder came, and all of a sudden I had so many great excuses not to drink, not to go to parties, not to see my friends... so I stopped.

Anyway fast forward to now... I drink probably 1 or 2 times a year, feel intense guilt each time and tend to restrict the next day. I also get disgustingly, intensely ill from even the smallest amount of alcohol. You could say that's just what happens when you get older, but I mean it's ridiculous. So I went to see my friends on Saturday night, and it was like impossible not to drink. It's so ingrained in Australian culture, and all the things I do - skydivers are pretty much alcoholics, and they've known me to be a drinker in the past. So how could I not accept their "gifts" of beers, which they paid for, as a "welcome back" sort of gift? Wow I'm good at getting off drift... I'll come back to that though.

Anyway so Saturday night I had a grand total of three beers. I had a meal of roast beef with potatoes, peas, beans and pumpkin. I drank water before my first beer, after my first beer, and after my second beer. I then took a 600mL bottle to bed with me and sculled it. I did ALL THE RIGHT THINGS. I was not drunk, was barely even tipsy.

Sunday night I wake up with a horrendous headache, throbbing like a heartbeat. I feel sick to the stomach as if I've been up all night downing vodka or something deadly, and I spend the entire day lying on the couch with an icepack on my head groaning. It was ridiculous! All that from three beers. So henceforth I am completely and utterly off the booze. If it can make your body react like that from only three drinks, how can one drink supposedly be good for you?

So back to the culture thing. I hate that Australian culture is so, so, so RUN around the culture of drinking. Every weekend... have a barbecue - with drinks. Go to the beach - with drinks. Have a party - with drinks. Catch up with mates - over a drink. Go to a mate's house for the night - have drinks. Watch the footy - have drinks. Australia Day - let's get drunk. Christmas - drinks at the beach. You get the idea. Every event quickly turns into an excuse to drink. It's not healthy and something needs to be done about it.

Skydiving is similar - you do something for the first time, you owe a "carton" of beer to your friends. It's good in a way, in that it encourages you to get to know people and celebrates something new, all that kind of thing. But why with booze? Why does everything centre around booze?

This is one of the reasons why I am studying Health Promotion. There needs to be more done to reduce the prevalence of it, or perhaps encourage more activity without alcohol - like ads on TV or something, "Go for a jog with a friend" instead of "catch up for drinks" on the weekend. That kind of thing...

WOW, seriously gone on a rant now... and there's more I could say too... in fact I could probably go on for ages ;P

In other news - today I had my first exam and am confident of passing. One down, two to go...

Things that make me happy

I'm feeling pretty down... again... story of this week. So I decided on doing a post of things that make me happy to try to cheer myself up.

The fact that all the rooms in my house still have those awesome glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the ceilings, and they still work after 20+ years. I hardly remember to look at them these days, but when I do they cheer me up.

Skinny cow icecream cookies :)

Eating random dinners with all sorts of stuff. Like, vegetarian sausages wrapped in turkey, and mushrooms spread with vegemite.

Eating lunch in the form of brown gloop. 

Mixing stuff with raspberries up so it turns pink!

Taking stupid photos of myself, so then I can look at them and laugh at how dumb I look.

People who dress like this in races :D

Pretty flowers, and photography in general.

Sunsets, the beach.

Kicking some butt! (Or getting my butt kicked)

Chocolate, in all its variations.

Dumb jokes on the back of toilet doors. The bit I thought the funniest is: "Don't fight for femmenism, fight for equal rights!" to which someone has replied "Fight for spelling!"

And the most important? Friends.

Yes, I have sacrificed my friends for the sake of my study this year. And you know what? It was stupid. I've burnt myself out because I've had little to no time with my friends, I've spent every weekend studying and this semester I just couldn't hack it. The only me time I've had is watching TV and exercising. I have literally said no to EVERY SINGLE INVITATION this year. It has turned me into a recluse, brought back social anxiety symptoms, and made me focus even more on food and diet, something I want to get away from.

So having completed absolutely no study today because I just can't face it, I'm now going to drive 3.5 hours to a dropzone where there's currently a big party, and see the friends I've been neglecting for way too long. Some things should come before study, why did it take me so long to realise this?

Yes, I've got three exams this week. But I just can't take it anymore, I need relief!!!!

(I am kinda going to listen to lectures on the car stereo on the way, but still!!)

WIAW, WIWW, WIWW

(What I ate Wednesday, What I wore Wednesday, What I worked Wednesday)

Woohoo my favourite blog day of the week!

Already been drooling over many of the blog foods posted so far...

So at 6.30 this morning I was happily munching away on my oats (a fairly boring mix of 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup hazelnut chocolate milk, and a few spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg) when my mum came in my room with...

My Amazon package!!! I ordered this September 9... so I have been stalking the letterbox ever since then, and it FINALLY arrived. YAY! Umm, excuse the bed hair.

It consisted of these three books. Awesome timing, just in time for exam week and procrastination... I did manage about five hours of study today though.

I also happened to buy this book yesterday while partaking in retail therapy.

And these magazines... think there was another one, but I couldn't find it at the time of taking the picture.

So this is my super-hot outfit for the day... pyjamas! Well, the pants and shirt are. The jacket is just a random jacket I decided to wear over my pyjamas. And sooo matching too! (P.S. Purple is awesome.)

I did actually manage to get out of the pyjamas to go to a BodyPump class at 10.30 am. It was a good class, but the bicep track was super easy for once, although maybe that's because the instructor turned the music up really loud and started singing in a whiney voice, so I was busier trying to block that out... abs are killing me though!! 

(I totally got back into my PJs after BodyPump)

Second workout of the day was kickboxing tonight, which was an all boxing night.. but we did a bit of sparring at the end and I went with a guy who managed to get in a good kick to my kidney, stomach and a good punch to my face... yowzer! The instructor said I did good fighting back though, so yay! I also entered myself into the tournament at the beginning of Nov. I entered as a novice though since I've been away from training for three years. Can't wait!

Part of my daily routine always includes hugs with the kitty, so here's a pic of him chilling out on my lap...

One of my snacks. These are good!

One of my pumpkin / almond muffins with ABC spread on top.

Self-explanatory snack bar :D

This was my lunch (PB & marmalade)... I dunno, I felt like a lot of simple stuff today because my tummy is not feeling right the last couple of days (Not just from all the situps, though!)

Dinner was a beef stir fry and rice and vegies. I think there were other snacks in there too that I forgot to take pics of. Oh well!

All or Nothing

This is somewhat of a "negative nancy" or "debbie downer" post *and there may be triggering material*, but I'm getting increasingly frustrated at several things. First, my perfectionist attitude. Last semester at uni, I got all high distinctions, and was upset because they were not 90% high distinctions, but 80%. This semester I know I can't get high distinctions and therefore I don't feel like putting the effort in. What's the point if I can't get the highest mark? I know I've already passed all my topics before the exams, so that motivation isn't there either.

Then I did a fitness test this morning. I got the exact same score for 2.4 km (1.6 miles) of 12:40 mins as I did last year, when I was way more unfit(?) and doing way less running... it just frustrated me, especially as I definitely did not hold back this morning!

Also this morning I weighed myself and I had gained 1kg (2 pounds) from last week. Which makes my BMI now 24.5. (Much too close to overweight category for my liking...) This is beginning to be a really irritating constant struggle for me. Gain, lose, gain, lose, gain, lose, gain... it's the same as maintaining, I suppose, but it's almost like... one week am I doing it right, and the next I'm not? Or is that just normal fluctuation of maintaining? Am I eating enough, too much? Am I exercising enough? What am I doing wrong? Sometimes I think... well, the only thing that has ever worked for me to lose weight has been eating disorders, so maybe I should just do that again. But then my rational brain takes over, and says hell no! No WAY am I going back to that.

Anyway, I know I've lost it healthily before, but that was before I had ever known about calorie counting. I think it's pretty difficult once you have calorie counted for a long time to stop. After all, even if you do stop, you still know the calorie, fat, carb content of the majority of the food you eat from counting it for so long. I've tried stopping so many times, but I can't help but still count in my head. Or I go the other way and eat way too little or too much.

It doesn't even seem to make a difference when I make small changes, like increase intensity of exercise slightly / amount, or eat slightly less, or eat slightly more. I've tried all these little experiments... the main one I did was eating at "maintenance" calories for a month or two - which made me gain two kilos (4.5 pounds) which I just cannot lose again (A really GREAT experiment that was.... :( )

Even when I went on that hike for a week last month, and did 30 hours of hiking in a week.. I lost nothing.

I should not be still obsessed with my weight, because I am supposed to be recovered. I mean, I'm not obsessed the way I used to be... but I think it's just hard the days I weigh myself more than anything. At least now I'm doing exercise because I enjoy it rather than to burn calories. Honestly, I am so deeply in love with running and kickboxing right now. If only I could do it more often than I do! I've been sore a lot lately.

Because I don't like being a negative nancy for too long... I went to the shops for retail therapy... and bought TWO new running shorts, THREE running magazines, and some other stuff. One of my pairs of shorts is fluro orange :D How do you spell fluro, because blogger says that's incorrect?

So one of my plans is to incorporate more HIIT into my training schedule... I'm just not sure where to fit it... this is another problem of mine. How do I fit in one week:

Running x 3  (at the moment just increasing mileage, but eventually want 1 x long, 1 x intervals in that)
Kickboxing x 3
Weights x 2
Swimming x 1 (I use this to work on my breathing / as a recovery)
HIIT x 1
Yoga x 1 (usually after long run day)
Rest day x 1

... That's 11 days worth of workouts! Unless I double up on four of those days, it doesn't really work. There's the all or nothing again... this is kind of what I did before I got my ED - running every day, kickboxing every night.

OK... / end confusing rant.

Procrastination in many forms...

It's study week for exams, so naturally there is loads of procrastination through the form of delicious foodstuffs, exercise, and... there is always so much stuff to tidy up! (Don't forget the blog I am writing right now...)

I don't know what it is with me this semester, I think I've kinda broken or something... but I just don't have the motivation I had last semester. 

The uni has shortened all the semesters, so instead of two weeks off, we have one. Instead of a long mid-year break, it's only 4 weeks. So basically the entire year of teaching is squished between March and October, and then we get an insane four months off. Don't get me wrong - I'm seriously looking forward to those four months!! But it means I've been super stressed for the other eight, with little break in between, and I'm sooo over it. Anyway...

One of those weird apple-apricot-oat muffin-brownie things, covered in yoghurt mixed with peanut flour. It kinda made an icing!

Baby poo pudding. Well, it actually looked more baby poo coloured in real life... this was avocado, banana, spinach, cocoa powder, protein powder... and probably other stuff, I've forgotten now. It tasted better than it looks!

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and had a sweet potato with almond spread & greek yoghurt. Now I see. I understand!

Finished my Justin's Hazelnut Butter and of course had oats in a jar... bittersweet moment.

Peanut flour mixed with the last of my greek yoghurt.

As much as I dearly love blogs that are full of foodie pictures and exercise stuff, and as much as I want to include that in mine, I don't want it to be all about that stuff. I've never been part of "mainstream" or "popular". I've always been on the outskirts. So I guess I kind of want my blog to reflect that. 

I'm not a goth or emo or anything like that, I guess it's more that my social anxiety has led me to become more isolated than I would like to be, and while people seem to like me, that's as far as it usually gets. OK, gone off on a tangent there!!

I would like to actually write more often though. Probably after exams. I have three - Chemistry, Anatomy & one that is pretty much social / environmental / biological etc determinants of health, but has a much longer name.

All right I'm going to have to stop writing now and actually start studying.

Oh.. PS. Thanks for all the great comments on my last post :D

Carbalicious Wednesday.

I love What I ate Wednesday. It encourages me to eat more of a variety of food :D

So here's my eats from today... plus one pic from yesterday because it needed documenting ;) I've been in a bit of a rut lately  which has led me to be totally uninterested in food in general - I've had to force myself to make food. Somehow it's led me to making and eating totally different food to what I normally would... and some of it has been pretty great.

I made this for breakfast yesterday. I call it "breakfast trifle". I don't know if Americans eat trifle...?? It's usually cake, jelly, fruit and custard with whipped cream on top, I think, but can be modified a lot. Anyway, mine included: 

a Mini Chocolate PB Muffin

blueberries

 strawberries

"diet" peach jelly (as in the gelatinous stuff)

and "custard" which was... umm... cashew spread, greek yoghurt and a banana whizzed up.

Believe it or not this totally tasted like yoghurt! Anyway a pretty random breakfast - but so good!

This morning I was up at 6.00 am to drive to uni... I have to get up that early or I have to spend hours looking for a car park, and I just can't be bothered with that. So today's less inspired and quick breakfast - instant oats!

I did add a spoonful of cashew spread to spice it up, though (I so love overcooked oats when it goes all dark in the corner...)

When I got to uni (7.30 am) I was feeling pretty tired. I didn't get my usual eight hours of sleep, and anything less than that makes me super cranky. So I got a cappuccino (plus it's half price this week, so how can I say no?)

I ate this after the cappuccino to 'freshen the breath' ;P You can see the riveting chemistry study that consumed my hours from roughly 7:30 am - 1:30 pm. Organic chemistry is evil. I pretty much sat in the one spot in the library all that time, only moving for coffee and the toilet. It was super fun.

I was hungry again in like, 30 minutes after the coffee... so I ate these both in quick succession! (Brain food?)

Quick lunch grabbed before sitting my test at 2pm, salmon sushi & a selection from the salad bar. Think there was pumpkin, capsicum, onion, couscous, spinach... dunno what else, random stuff!

Then I sat my test, after waiting for one hour!!! (There was like 100 people trying to sit the same test in a tiny room, so I had to stand in line... ugh!) I got 85% which I am fairly happy with, as it was a difficult test. I may have dreams about 1,2-dichloro-cyclo-hex-2-ene tonight or something though...!

On the way home there was traffic because of a car accident. Seriously, every single time I drive to uni there is a car accident. I usually take the train because traffic makes me crazy. So I got home at 4.30 and was starving, I immediately dug into one of these that I made yesterday...

Not sure what to call it - peanut flour apple apricot oat bread/brownie/cake? They were based on a banana sultana bread recipe, but they came out super fudgey. I won't share the recipe because they aren't that great... like, the batter tasted AWFUL and I almost threw it out, but I added stevia quickly before putting it in the oven and now they taste good :) Which is good - because I doubled the recipe!

I also had a bunch of roasted chickpeas.

And an apple with some water.... (I was sooo hungry..)

Then I went for a walk for about 30 mins. I wasn't feeling up to a workout since I was tired - plus yesterday I went for an hour walk, 20 min run & kickboxing - which ended up being quite a difficult session!

Dinner was light after that with spinach, beetroot, cauliflower and carrots... but then I followed it with the best dessert ever...

Chocolate Avocado Banana Pudding!

I've had chocolate avocado pudding heaps of times before with just the avocado and cocoa powder, but this time I mixed in a banana, some protein powder, a splash of almond milk, and a tsp of greek yoghurt and it was soooooooooooooooo good. Then obviously strawberries and blueberries - I even prettified it for the blog ;P

This picture makes me drool.

I kinda want to jump on the outfit bandwagon as well, because honestly most of the time I am way too lazy and just wear jeans and a shirt and don't make much effort. I think if I take pics of my outfit it might encourage me to make the effort?

And I'm not the question kind of person but... have you ever had chocolate avocado pudding??? It's amazing...

Oh and if you're American I have a few questions: What is candy corn? Do you guys eat trifle? aaand... have you ever tried vegemite! (I guess we all ask that lol!) ;)

Just for my own curiosity!