Oh whoops – where did that year go?

Hi there,
Back online and writing again. A proper psot by then end of the week I PROMISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In short: not much change from last time I wrote, no bigger, no smaller. Attitude is much better though
Blog again soon!
EM

results from the Girl’s night in

A great night was had last Saturday and I am happy to report that we raised $2020, which the Cancer council will use to support those who have been effected by breast, ovarian and other cancers that effect women. It will also help fund vital research.
Thanks to all who participated and donated!

A break from our usual program

So tomorrow night is my 5th Girl’s Night In, which Tim and I hold every year to raise money for research and support into cancers that most affect women – namely breast, ovarian and uterine cancer. It started as a celebration for mum, as this time 5 years ago she was just growing her hair back from having chemo and was about to start radiotherapy. The Cancer Council launched the idea of a girl’s night in and the event has just grown from there. This year the theme is “angels and demons” and it is VERY interesting to see just how many people are coming dressed as what – at the moment demons out number angels around 5 to 1. It is always a great night and if we are on track, this year we should raise between $1000 and $2000. This would be awesome, as it means that in the last 5 years our parties alone will have raised over $11 000 for the cancer council. You can online here. There are lots of reasons why I do this, but one of them is it makes me stop and remember (amongst all of my whining about my health, hard training and other stuff) that all in all, my life is pretty bloody good. In nearly all cases, I have choices in what I can do when it comes to getting healthier and fitter and I can do it (more or less) on my own terms. When you get something like breast cancer, that world of choices shrinks to a few choices, all of which have some incredibly unpleasant elements. So yeah, this post is a break from our usual program – this is the time to stop, think and work out what difference you can make and what you would want someone to do if you were the one who was diagnosed with a pretty scary disease.

OK, that’s the serious part done with. Some of you I will see tomorrow night and the other will be relieved to hear I will be back to posting about how  hard my life is in the near future

October stats are done!!!

I managed to track down a tape measure, so October stats are done. You can check them on my “Vital statistics” page.
Em

a few setbacks and a few steps forward

I know – long time, no post. Those who know me may know why and those who don’t (or weren’t paying attention when I was crapping on to them over the tea-table at work) well, listen up. I have been off the radar, so to speak, while the doctors work out why on earth I have been (literally) so damned sick and tired for the last 4 months or so. And when I say tired, it is not just “gosh I need a bit more sleep” – this is something that had me sleeping 10 hours each night, waking up exhausted and needing to have a lie down most afternoons after work so I could get through the evening.  The results are in and the news isn’t exactly great – it would seem I was slowly working myself towards chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as a high level of insulin resistance, non existent iron levels and vitamin D levels that were so low that the pathologist couldn’t actually get a reading from the two blood samples I have provided. This all means that my immune system is, in the words of the doctor, “significantly compromised”. That’s the “suck” part of the news. The “not so suck” part is that:

1.  I do have CFS but  it’s the early stages and in terms of how bad it can be “I managed to pull up the nose just in time” (those are my drs words, not mine) That said, I have had to make some fairly significant  changes to my lifestyle, including nanna bedtimes and  dropping my training to less energetic levels (not allowed to get heart rate above 155 bpm at the moment and am experiencing the joy of having to wear a heart rate monitor EVERY time I exercise). I am taking this as best I can – being a  chronic night owl and competitive, pushy over achiever in training has helped SO much in that regard. Not.    
2. Insulin resistance is not type II diabetes, but it’s pretty damn close. Part of this is because I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS or PCOD for those who want to do research) and also because basically my diet had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many carbohydrates in it. This can be fixed with a combination of medication and diet changes.
3. The vitamin D problem can be fixed with supplements, so can the iron, so I am now rattling like a pill bottle.

There is also a  solution in all of this. Part of it is that common sense advice that you get from your mum or someone equally as wise – lots of rest, lots of water, patience to get better and give my immune system a chance to get better. It needs TLC, good fuel and time. Sounds easy huh? I am the world’s worst patient and so this represents a bit of “thing” that gives me the shitty pants big time. I am coming to terms with the fact I can’t just “fix it” in the space of 4 days, but I have to admit it still monumentally pisses me off some days.

The insulin resistance and problem with carbohydrates are being addressed by a new way of eating. Doctor, nutritionist et al are encouraging me to not call it a “diet” as this is probably going to have to become the way I will eat more or less for the rest of my life.  Now, can I just get this out f the way first before I start to talk about diets etc. I am well aware that EVERYONE out there has a friend/friend of friend/associate/favourite episode of 60 minutes that told them all about how I will fail. So now you know that I know that you will be dying to tell me the I am eating will kill me and/or make me miserable/farty/sick/feral/turn me into an alien, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just listen to this next statement – this has been agreed upon by my doctor and a nutritionist as the best way for me to continue to lose weight, address the majority of my health problems and ensure I get better. So, “what is this “not diet” you’re on?” I hear you ask? It’s a low carb, higher protein and so-many-veggies-I-could-have-a-salad-named-after-me eating plan, very close to the Atkins (the new one, not the old one written in 1972) Diet. I have been given a lot of the recipes from the website and the nutritionist has “tweaked” them to make sure that they aren’t too high in any saturated fats etc. 

Out of all of the changes I’ve had to make, the ones that have sucked the most are

1. Cutting down coffee to one cup per day. All I can say to this is FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. I LOVE my coffee and this well and truly sucks big hairy ones.
2. Giving up alcohol. I didn’t have to completely give it up, but I have decided that maybe it would just be better to go “cold turkey” as, for me, it is better to work out the really special occasions where i can have a drink or two rather than relying on good old self-control.

Got to be honest here – it took a lot not just to go “fuck it” and not listen to what the quack had to say, but I really deep, deep down that’s just not me. I’m approaching this as though someone has said to me “You can’t do it” because there is nothing more motivating to me than to prove someone wrong. I set myself the challenge of not cracking once on the eating plan once for the first 5 days to “prove” to “someone” I could do it and guess what? I worked. I have no idea who that “someone” is but it is working, so I’ve set myself the next challenge of 10 days without cracking. Will let you know how I go.

So onwards and upwards – or downwards. Forwards? I have no idea. Will be posting more regularly now that I am not falling asleep pretty much as soon as I get in the door from work in the afternoons, so I am hoping you will forgive my tardiness last month. Also, I will keep doing my measurements and weight etc, so that will keep you entertained. They will go up as soon as I get  a new tape measure – have no idea where the old one has ended up – was last seen being used as a belt/scabbard for a papier-mache sword. Don’t ask.

Fitness tests and hello lunch

I have talked about Mistress Pain before and bitched and whinged about the kind of torture sessions she puts us through (I train in a  group with people from work) but there is one particular thing she does to us every 5 weeks which is probably the thing that goes beyond the usual personal trainer sadism and takes us to a whole new level of “are you freakin’ SHITTING ME?????” when it comes to training. It is known by a very innocent sounding title of “fitness test” but don’t be fooled – even those amongst us who are really fit (no, not me) find this one tough going. It even looks innocent – 1 witches hat every 10 meters, all the way up to 100 meters. The illusion of innocence is quickly dispelled when Mistress Pain fills you in on what you have to do. Run to the first witches hat, drop and do 3 push ups, run back to the start line, run back to the second witches hat, drop and do 3 push ups, run back to the start line and so on. You progress one witches hat at a time, all the way up to the last one. Once you’ve run up to the witches hat at the 100 meter mark, do your push ups and run back, you start all over again. Basically you do this 3 times – which means all up you run 2700m and around 60 push ups. The first time I did this I was only able to get through it in 33 minutes and walked a fair bit of it, the second time I got it down to 27 minutes, 30 seconds and yesterday I managed 26 minutes 18 seconds. I would feel really great about this if I hadn’t staggered to the finish line and promptly said hello to my lunch again and in the process manage to get some stray bits of spaghetti stuck in my pontytail (when I chuck, I really put some effort in), which needed to be rinsed out before I could lie down (a long way away from the spaghetti) and get some more sit ups and push ups done. Yep, Oli is hard-core and a little (or a lot) vomit is not likely to put her off getting to you to achieve your best. Even if it means you have to brush your teeth and wash your hair afterwards.

stats update done

Hi all! Stats for this month are done – you can read them here.

Spring has sprung

Every year Spring catches me by surprise. And every year I end up sick – that whole change of season thing (which I am REALLY tired of) seems to work for me. So I have spent the last 18 days with a rather disgusting cold, which migrated from my head, to my chest, back into my head, took a side trip to my throat and then settled back in my chest again. It is nice to know that the virus I had was well-travelled, but I was well and truly sick of being sick by the end of last week. I decided to throw caution (and a fair bit of mucous) to the wind and get back into training last Friday, which was ok but Mistress Pain had us doing boxing drills, which is great for those who have eye/hand co-ordination. I don’t. I really, really don’t. In the end I think I looked like one of the world’s more unfortunate people (you know the ones – they have another reality and just visits ours from time to time), swinging my hands around my head and making odd noises like I was being attacked by imaginary killer bees. This was followed up on Saturday with more training at the gym and well, dang, it was more boxing. Arms were a bit sore on Sunday, so I decided to Wii instead and hula hooped my arse off (not literally, but I managed 20 minutes and it felt like my arse was going to drop off).

The rest of the week has been more Wii-ing and today was another session with Mistress Pain. Today it was good news and bad news – the good news is that no eye hand co-ordination was needed. The bad news was that it was a combo of sits ups (with weights) and a particular favourite of MP’s – squat jumps. Sounds good eh? My calves are SCREAMING at me right now and the whole “you need to do 300 sit ups today, up to you on the combo” has resulted in a strange, slightly distressing feeling that I know will mean involuntary pain noises tomorrow every time I sit down or stand up. Maybe I should try some more Wii hula hooping - why not completely stuff myself for the weekend. At least the cold has buggered off – I reckon it took one look at what my body was in for this week and thought “stuff this, I’m out of here”.

Mountains and F1-11s

I bet that’s got your attention. Over the last weekend, I decided that I had got enough training under my belt to try the new part of my fitness regime challenge – the part of the program I like to call Back Into The Climbing of Hills, or B.I.T.C.H for short. I have to say, standing at the base of mount Ainslie on Monday morning in my sex goddess tights and t-shirt, I was somewhat apprehensive about the whole B.I.T.C.H concept, but I had my iPod, new sneakers and clean undies on – I knew I had it in me to at least make it 500m. Maybe. Hmmmmmm…

The thing about Mt Ainslie is it doesn’t ease you into the climb – some walks in my B.I.T.C.H repertoire allow you a good 10 minute warm up before it starts to put serious strain on the legs, but not Mt Ainslie. She is a tough mistress – within the first 5 minutes you are climbing steep hills and STAIRS – and the word BITCH comes to your mind often, interspersed with involuntary pain noises and a little bit of breathing that sounds like an ad for the latest asthma inhaler “before” scene.  Anyway, I struggled my way up and I am proud to say that I made it all the way to the top, even if I had to have a little lie down on one of the picnic tables once I got there. I was spurred into an upright position by the sound of the voices from two work colleagues (both of whom are much fitter than I am) and by the time they came into view, I was giving an excellent impersonation of doing a stretch on one of the picnic table bench seats. OK. In truth I probably looked like an overweight  giraffe trying to touch its toes, but hey, at least I wasn’t actually lying down, making “hueafgh” noises. The trip back down was a lot less painful (I LOVE gravity) and in the end, it wasn’t so bad. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. No, it was actually pretty hard, but I wouldn’t say bad.

On Wednesday a work colleague joined me and although she was quick off the mark, in the end we reached the top together and I didn’t feel as comprehensively rooted as I did on the Monday, so I saw that as progress. I was distracted from the SCREAMING my quads were doing momentarily by the fly past of  an F1-11. These planes are being retired from the RAAF and it was doing a flypast to mark the 44th anniversary of Long Tan. I’m not sure how the people on Anzac Parade felt about it but it was pretty fricken’ spectacular for Kristina and I, as it zipped up over Mt Ainslie at around 20m above our heads. Let’s just say it was noisy and close enough to make me really glad I had been to the loo before we had set off, as otherwise the sex goddess tights would have been in a very sorry state.

So, in short, I am happy to report that the B.I.T.C.H program has had a successful first week and I am aiming to add more names such as Black Mountain and Mt Rogers (STOP SNICKERING!!!!!) to my B.I.T.C.H list. Maybe without the flypasts – only so  much sex goddess tights can take before something has to give.

New stats entered

Hi!! Just a  quick post to let you know I have entered my new measurement stats on my vital statistics page. I am pretty happy with the results and am gunning towards something similar for next month (measurements will go up on or around September 12). In terms of exercise, I can now confirm I am a wii fit junkie and am also getting in around 60 minutes of training each day – walking, running, weights, RPM and other such fun stuff. I Wii fit on the days when I can find a good excuse and when it is too disgusting to go outside – mmmmmmmm got to love Canberra winters.