Things that make you go aaaahhhhh

In the rush of life (and anyone who knows me knows my life is HIGH OCTANE INSANE) it's easy to forget to just chill out for a bit.

When you add workouts 6 days a week to an already full schedule, your body starts to feel it.....

So today I visited my beautiful friend Morgan, who is studying massage.

What followed was an hour of peace, dozing and dare I say, a little drooling from the most relaxing massage I have had.  While I was lying there, trying to not dribble on the floor, I got to thinking......why have I never considered massage an important part of my workout plans?

Humans thrive on touch, we're very friendly that way.  Massage has been a centuries old remedy for all sorts of complaints.....Hippocrates (5th Century) recommended that physicians should learn 'rubbing' techniques. It is prevalent in many cultures, for example Chinese, Indian,even Australian aboriginal cultures.

Massage aids in relieving muscle soreness from a good workout, and assists in recovery. It's as important for you as stretching is!  Massage can manipulate the muscles and flush out the waste and boost blood circulation, feeding those hard working muscles oxygen and essential nutrients.

But back to me....( LOL) I walked in a sore, frazzled rushed mess with wooden arms and legs from the weight workouts....I dropped the car off for a service, been banking, taken my daughter to the shops to organise a new phone, picked a few odds and ends and ran errands and could hear that clock tick ticking away in my head " Hurry up!  You've only got a few minutes before you have to go! You don't have time!"  That  was added to the thousands of worries that wander through my head at any given time.

The room I was shown into was warm and had muted lighting.  Morgan was her cheery self but once I hopped on the table it was just soothing music, warm hands and that delicious sensation of hovering between sleep and awake.

I left Morgan's feeling energised, relaxed and refreshed.  My mind was clear, the rushy feeling I had when I walked in had gone and I felt just content to just be. I had escaped the pressure that was on my mind and my body was fluid, (not made of concrete) and felt just like sinking into your favourite pair of pyjamas.

Now that I've experienced the effectiveness of a massage, not just physically but mentally, it's been slotted into my workout schedule to be a regular fortnightly 'reboot'.

So I have a new dare for you all.....I dare you to have a massage! Relaxation, therapeutic, whatever! Try a hand massage, our poor hands do so much and get very little attention.  It's amazing how good you feel just after a hand massage. Or go the whole hog and get a full body massage!   Treat yourself....you deserve it.  If the cost puts you off, do a swapsies with a friend for a hand and arm massage perhaps...a I'll do yours, if you do mine type of deal.

Would love to know what you think afterwards!

Skinny vs Curvy?

This is a debate that splits a lot of people. It comes down to what is aesthetically pleasing to the viewers eye. A curvy woman can be considered sexy, as can a skinny woman. There's a myriad of posters such as this that ask the same question.

I have been shown these images by some friends I love dearly, as a reason why they live their life the way they do { and subtly, gently,  disapproving  the choices I make :-) } 

But the question we all should be really asking is....

Are these women HEALTHY?

It has been reported thousands of times that a waist measurement over 94 cms for men and 80 cms for women makes a person more at risk of a wide variety of diseases that can be eased or 'cured' with losing weight and dropping the waist measurement.  It's an easy  layman's 'unhealthy' measurement guideline. Diabetes , heart disease, high blood pressure and difficulty in falling pregnant can all be reduced or eradicated with healthy food options and exercise.  So let's look at our gorgeous curvy women, according to their official fan club pages.

Bettie Page : Weight 128 lbs (58 kilos) Height 165 cms  36-23-35 inches or 91.4-58.4-88.9 cms

BMI: 21.3 = normal weight

Shirley Jones: Weight 143 lbs (65 kg)   Height 166 cms 34-21-35 inches or 86.4-53.3-88.9 cms

BMI: 23.6= normal weight

Elizabeth Taylor: Weight 116lbs (52.5kg)  Height 160 cms    36-21-36 inches or 91.4-53.3-91.4 cms

BMI:20.5= normal weight

Marilyn Monroe: Weight 118lbs (53.5 kg)  Height 166 cms 35-22-35 inches or 88.9-55.9-88.9 cms

BMI: 19.4= normal weight

Curvy?  Absolutely...and HEALTHY!

Hmm...and the skinny models?  Well measurements were hard to get!

Heidi Pratt/Montag  Weight 100 lbs (45 kg)  Height 165 cms   *no measurements available

 BMI: 16.5= underweight

Nicole Ritchie  Weight 95lbs (43 kg)         Height  152 cms    32-25-31 inches or 81.3-63.5-78.7cms

 BMI:18.6= normal weight ( I know I had to double check too! she just makes it)

Keira Kneightly  Weight 115 lbs  (52 kgs)  Height 170 cms   32-22-33 inches or 81.3-55.9-83.8 cms

 BMI: 18= under weight (but only just!)

Kristen Stewart  Weight 133lbs (60.5 kg)   Height 168 cm    33-23-34  inches or 83.8-58.4-86.4 cms

BMI: 21.4= normal weight

Surprising, isn't it that only 2 of the skinny versions were underweight, and one of those only just under by 0.5? So you could consider skinny as healthy too, just a different body shape.

I'm all for choice and everyone's circumstances are different so don't think I'm sitting in judgement here!  I am taking the opportunity to stop the spread of what could be considered misinformation and to be able to have right of reply to the many caring friends who have expressed concern for me, some even using the above example to prove their point.  Here's a poster I'd like to share, each of these women are at the peak of fitness for their sport, all different shapes, all looked after nutritionally so they are at optimum health:

 So the debate should REALLY look like THIS!

So where do you fit in?  Let's leave curvy or skinny out of it, I hope I've shown that what you see doesn't always mean healthy or unhealthy.

Are you healthy and fit or unhealthy and unfit?

Motivation shmotivation

I wish I had more motivation....I'd take over the world!

Truth is, I don't use motivation to get things done, especially workouts or saying no to that new Cadbury chocolate with the beanies, jellies and popping candies......mmmmmmm

Sorry, off in a fantasy world there.

Motivation makes things a little easier....yes.  Motivation makes things way more fun......yes. Motivation is necessary?

NO!

I certainly wasn't motivated to get up at 5.30 this morning to do weights with my husband on a cold winters morning.  My motivation was more in the realms of pretending to still be asleep snuggled up in my warm bed. But, I treat my workouts as a job to be done.  It's there, it's not going to change or go away if I ignore it so I might as well just do it. It's become a habit to work out 6 days a week and man, I notice it when I can't!

I'm more motivated to Facebook than to housework, but the housework gets done, I'm more motivated to coffee with friends than ironing uniforms, yet the ironing gets done. I'm motivated to eat out as opposed to cooking every night but where does that lead?

The trick to it all is DON'T WAIT FOR MOTIVATION! Motivation is a transient thing, it is based on your feelings not your actions. Your actions may make you feel good which gives rise to motivation to repeat it. But motivation is a little like the sunshine in Melbourne.  It's here one minute, gone the next.

What do I do?

I put my workouts on my daily to do list.  I plan the time and what I will be doing.  I plan my meals and snacks so I know exactly what I should be eating and when I've planned it. I plan around eating out or going out. Yes its nerdy to a degree ( I swap meals around and times are flexible by necessity) but it gets results.....it gets me into the HABIT of doing this and THAT is what makes things easy. Now I can read posters or books to fire me up but they are more tools to support and inspire not to drive me. Its the habit that drives me.

Doing Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation (www.12wbt.com) gives me shopping lists, meal plans and my exercise plans each week.  I dont have to think about anything, apart from building and strengthening the habit of living well.  It's one of the best habits I'll ever have in my life!

And even after all the planning and habit building, when that alarm goes off and I can hear the rain pelting on the roof and the last thing I want to do is pull on my runners and go to gym, I use this tool I got from Michelle Bridges.

JFDI......Just Freaking DO IT! By the time I've finished arguing with myself, bargaining with myself and sulking with myself, the workout would be done!  So cut out the middle man and just do the workout.  I have even finished workouts still whinging to myself in my head!!!!

So tomorrow, when you catch yourself thinking " I'll do it later" or " I'm just not motivated" get up and 

                                          JFDI!!!!!!!

Sunshine on a rainy day

Grocery day today, yuk, BORING! But necessary.  I trudged the first two aisles and then thought, why should I let this one boring job take away my sunshine?  So I made a point of smiling at every person who passed me.

You know what?  Smiling is CONTAGIOUS!

At first, I felt like a fool, smiling at everyone, I got a few double takes ( Crap! Do I know this smiling chick?  Where do I know her?), a lot of smiles back and quite a few 'good mornings.'  I turned a mind numbing weekly chore into fun and hopefully, passed on some of that sunshine to others. Or at the very least, made them wonder what I was up to!

Then I hit the checkout.  If grocery SHOPPING is boring, can you imagine that job! " Hi how are you, do you have an everyday rewards card, cash out?" over and over and over, hundred of times. Scan, beep scan, beep, thousands of times. Shoot me now.  So I tried the smile and jumped in first with a "Good morning, how are you today?"  Well, it was almost like throwing a bucket of cold water on her! I got a smile back and she even picked up a mis-scanned item (helloooo free muesli bars!)  She helped me put the heavy bags in the trolley, asked what I was up to today and we had a quick checkout chat.

After paying, I approached the manager....and told her what a wonderful pleasant staff member she had in Arti ( Werribee Woolworths...great job Arti!) The manager was happy to hear it and assured me she'd pass it on.  More sunshine.


Spread your sunshine around. Why waste a minute of life in blahness? Why accept things to be mundane and boring? Who cares if you smile and they don't smile back or think you're a fool?  They don't know you!! INFECT EVERYONE with your sunshine and you know, you just might make not only your day but theirs that much better.

Go on, smile. I am. And the sun is shining.

Earlybird gets the treadmill!

Who's idea was it to get up at 5am to go to gym for a run?  My husband's, bless him, and yes we are still married after that :-)

But he's struck upon some gold there.  It was freezing when we arrived at gym but I knew running would very quickly change that.  The gold is having the treadmill section all to ourselves until 6 am, and seeing only a handful of people in the gym total!

Now those who know me know I HATE running on a treadmill.  Pointless, boring, hot....give me a run along the river any day. But you know, Winter is upon us, it's dark, it's quite often raining and with all the kids winter sports, there just is not enough time to do an outdoor run.  So, after taking a spoonful of concrete, I ran 4 km in 25 minutes at an easy pace.

The biggest gold nugget of all....I walked in cold, dragging and wishing I was still in bed...warm, cosy and snoozing. I left so full of energy I could have lit all the lights at home and then some.  The day started with a smile instead of groans. My housework all done before 8 am which gave me the added pleasure of not only having the rest of the day to watch movies with Mr 11, home sick from school, but also to ride my bike with Miss 7 to school.

So think about it.....

4k early morning run       288 calories

3k school bike run          154 calories

Burning 442 calories before 9am......AWESOME!

Are you a Wonder Woman of your word?

It's commitment time. Time to lay it out in black and white for you all to see.  Time to draw the line and say it out what I am standing up for....for me. This list is for the next 12 weeks and beyond....and I hope you guys will pick me up on it if I start straying from the path!

I AM COMMITTED TO:

• Taking responsibility for my thoughts, my actions and my choices
• Eating clean, portioned healthy meals and making them for my family too
• Training 6 days a week for up to an hour each day
• Retraining my mindset from negative, pessimistic and destructive towards positive, uplifting and building instead.
• Meeting any and all challenges with a smile and a WILL SMASH IT attitude
• Living the best life I can possibly make for myself, seizing every opportunity I can.
• Making AWESOME memories for myself and those around me for the future.

Broad as they are, they are my promise to you and to myself.  

LET THE AWESOMENESS TAKE OVER!

I DARE you!

" God you are so stupid, why'd you go and say/do a thing like that for?  You're too fat to wear that, you're too old to wear that, who are you trying to kid anyway? Oh my God, would you just look at yourself, you are disgusting, pathetic, a joke, a loser....who would look sideways at you anyway? Why do you even take up room in this world you waste of space?  You're too dumb, too loud, too shy, too selfish.  You look like crap, your hair is crap, your face is crap, your clothes are crap. Who the hell do you think you are anyway?  Noone likes you, they're just being nice. Noone COULD like you, just look at you."

Now if anyone said that to one of my children they'd be picking their face up off the floor.

So why do we say that to ourselves?  Why do we let that little voice in us defeat us, belittle us and kill our soul with every nasty poisonous little word?  Because it IS poison.  It's an insidious poison that when we hear it often enough, we believe it.  We become defeated little people, trudging through a life of unending greyness and blackness.

But what if we decided to stand up for ourselves and change our life? For me, a change came when a friend died of complications arising from cancer.  Her funeral, while breaking my heart, had so many funny, happy photos of her, before, during and after treatment. If there was ever a time you felt less than beautiful I would imagine it would be during chemotherapy! But what shone out in every picture was her smile.  And I realised.....if I died tomorrow, what pictures would my kids have of their mother? Do they have happy faces to look on, or absent faces because Mum was always behind the camera?( I'm too ugly to be in the photo!)

Life is too short to be ruled by the voices putting you down.  You only get one chance at this, so why not make it as fun, as shiny, as meaningful as you can possibly make it? Fight back words with words.....you are more than what you think you are. Hit every negative word with a positive.  Fake it til you make it if that is too hard! Smile (even when you don't feel like it) and you will get smiles in return.  Try it and tell me about it!

Go on ....I DARE you!  :-)

New Blog, New Start!

Hello and welcome! 

This will be a chronicle of my efforts to become as WonderWoman like as possible.  WonderWoman possess not only brains but strength, moral courage, love and fairness. She stands up for the weak and fights for right. She lives with no regrets!

So I have signed up for another round of Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation to achieve the strength of body and strength of mind I want.  I am focusing on body strength this time round....last round  the focus was on cardio fitness and weight loss...all goals achieved!

This blog will be different from the last one I did. (livinglifewithkipwil.blogspot.com) Last blog was a fairytale which was fitting as it was a transformation, like Cinderella from servant to princess, or Sleeping Beauty waking up to her potential.  This time, it's different.  I'm awake.  I have learned and am learning and I'm not as tentative and as worried about being able to do it.  I CAN AND I WILL!

I love the support you get from the program and I'm looking forward to see what I can really do! I loved the food from last round, and this round will prove the same I'm sure. And let's not forget the Finale Party!!!


Ultimately this blog will be a record of what I learn, what I achieve, what I want to do and what I can improve on.  A story of the next 12 weeks of Awesomeness, and beyond.  A story to keep me accountable for the choices I make during this time and to share my enjoyment and struggles.

So, let's get rolling! Who's with me?! LET'S GET AWESOME!