2006 Life Makeover

Resolutions are so sanctimonious and dull – they are the things you should be doing and that’s never fun. So for 2006, I’m having a life makeover instead. Definitely more fun. And these are the things I’m going to do:

Health and Body:

The word for 2006 is tone. Weight-wise, I want to lose 11.4 kilograms to get to my goal weight of 70 kgs but the largest task ahead is to firm up all the jiggly bits.

I really want to get to my goal weight before the end of March – that’s when my friend is getting married and my other friends will be home from the UK.

I want to be able to run 5 km by the end of the year and continue pushing myself at the gym. I’d like to have the stamina to do a RPM hi performance (1.5 hour) class. Once I start working again and probably studying as well, I want to find ways to ensure that I still get in my gym time.

I want to get off my diabetes medication and control it by lifestyle only. I also must have all the diabetes checks – I’m a real slacker about these. Must go to the eye doctor and the podiatrist and try to get an appointment with a dietian as well.

Healthwise, I’d also like to be weller in 2006. In 2005, I had all manner of little worries – colds and flus galore, not to mention back problems. You would think getting healthier would have stopped this but it seems to have made it worse. I think one of the problems has been not cooling down properly at the gym. Also, I used to leave the gym all hot and sweaty and then shower at home. I’ve been thinking this isn’t the best, especially in winter. I’m going to make sure I’ve cooled down completely before leaving from now on. Lucky I have my new gym with nice showers

Get a massage once a month. Sometimes I go to the massage school in the city and get a massage for $30. The place is fantastic and the students all do a fantastic job. Every time I leave, I think why don’t I do this more often? So this year I will.

Appearance and Self Image:

I want to work on being more confident on the inside and less slovenly on the outside.

One of my big issues is my teeth. I hate my teeth and am very self conscious about them. In 2006 I will go to the dentist and get them fixed. I want to check out getting private health insurance to make this more affordable.

Work/Career:

For me, work is a two pronged thingie. On one side is the stuff I do to make money – usually IT or admin work and on the other is my writing. In 2006, I want to find a good way to balance these two things. Ideally, I’d like to find a part time job that gets me enough money to live on but leaves time for other things.

I want to finish the final draft of my novel and get it sent out to publishers by mid year.

I want to get at least 6 short stories written and published.

I want to get into my course (which, for those who asked, is the Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing) and get higher distinctions in the subjects I do.

I’d also like to write and publish some freelance articles. I’m a bit less sure about this one because if it comes to time, the novel is top priority and short stories second. This is definitely last.

Finances:

I want to stay out of debt this year and save money.

I want to buy a laptop. I want to spend some money getting my car in tip top condition.

I’d also like to travel a bit this year.

Living Environment:

This is a hard one – I’m not 100% happy with the place I’m living mostly with my housemates but I’m dead lazy about moving and there are definite advantages to living here – it’s cheap as chips and I have a huge room. I think I’ll take this one as it comes – see how things go here but save some money once I start working so if I want to move, I can.

In the meantime, I want to work on making my living space nicer. I might start by declaring war on the ants.

Friends/Social Life:

This is a doozy. I’ve not been happy with my social life at the moment and there are things I want to do -

meditation classes – I started doing this last year but I didn’t like the spiritual context of the classes. I’ve since found one that is more to my liking and want to start in the new year.

life drawing classes

volunteer at the dog’s shelter

But underlying all this, I want to change the way I relate people. I can be incredibly insular but it’s no point going out, doing things and huddling by myself when I do them. I want to work on being more open towards people. I think a lot of the problem is that I changed schools a lot as a kid and got so that I’d sit by myself, reading a book, pretending that I didn’t care if I had friends or not. But I have to get over that.

I am rarely “myself” around new people but I should be – sure not everyone will like me but too bad. It’s a hard one.

I also want to go back to counselling this year. I had to quit last year when I stopped work but the other day I remembered a place my doctor told me about ages ago. They have a sliding scale of fees which makes it a much more affordable option.

Relationships:

I’ve realised lately that I have a lot of ambiguity towards the idea of a relationship. On the one hand, I like the idea but on the other I have this fear that if I have a man in my life, I won’t have enough time for me. I have a lot of things in my life that require much me time – writing and the gym – and I don’t want to sacrifice these things.

I guess the fear is that if I start a relationship, it will consume me and everything else will be abandoned.

So that’s it. That’s how I want my life to go in 2006.

Happy 2006 everyone.

Happy New Years!

Have a good (and safe) one everyone.

I’m going to post my serious goals/resolutions tomorrow but in the meantime I was thinking i need something that is crazy fun – something that will take me out of my comfort zone. I’ve mentioned wanting to do this before and I think in 2006 I want to learn to surf.

So what are you going to do that’s crazy fun in 2006?

OMG!

I can’t believe this – it is so frigging weird. I did my weight and measurements this morning so I have a year end total and when I got on the scale it said – 80.2 – I got on three times just to be sure my sleep-befuddled eyes weren’t playing tricks on me and it’s true. The only explanation I can think of it is that was such a scorcher yesterday and I drank truckloads of water then I went out last night and stuck to water, loads more of it.

If I can work out how I did it, I can market that and be like the richest woman in the world!

So measurements:

10/2 31/12 change

waist 122 80 42
hip 104 112 28
boobs 127 105 22
thighs 50 50 0
arm 36 29 30
weight 110.1 80.2 29.9

Wow. I’m happy with that. I’m especially glad to get my waist measurement down to 80 cm because that helps with the diabetes. And I’m not surprised at the no change in my thigh measurement because I’ve always been like one of those kid’s drawings – you know when they progress from stick men to the people with the circle middle and stick arms and legs. Plus the thighs are less fat and more muscle now.

So tonight I’m going to drink and dance and have a good time and not get back on those scales for a week cos I’m sure the numbers will be up again tomorrow. And by the way, I’m rounding it to a 30 kg loss cos what’s 100 grams between friends.

On a completely different subject, yesterday when I was at the gym I asked the receptionist about their starter packs. In the book I got when I started, it said you got a pack with a sweat towel and I’d seen many people with the nifty little sweat towels around the gym. I didn’t get any pack when I joined up. So she said she’d find one for me and to collect it on my way out.

So on the way out I reminder her and she grabbed me one. I was expecting a plastic bag with some crap in it but it was a really cool backpack. I’ve been meaning to buy a backpack for my gym gear for a while so score! Inside was a cap, some headphones, a drink bottle and a pen cap – I’m perplexed about the pen cap – but no sweat towel.

The session with the PT went well but, to be honest, he pushed me not nearly as hard as I push myself. He also told me that going to the gym every day is too much. That got me worried but I figure that’s the way I do things. If I have a day off, it leads to two days off then three…. I spoke to a friend last night and he said doing cardio every day should be fine. He also said that Olympic athletes train twice a day so if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. I figure too that I vary my workouts enough. Plus too, the gym is air conditioned and my house isn’t.

Weigh In

Woohoo – I lost this week. I’m down to 81.4. That’s a loss of 1.2 kgs but still not as a low as a few weeks ago when I was 81.3, dammit.

But hey, I lost over Christmas week and that’s got to be good. I think I’ll do a weigh in and measurements on Sunday too so I can work out my total loss for the year.

Hot

I decided I’d go to the St Kilda branch of my gym today because they have a pool but the pool was not functional. Damn it. So I went upstairs to do a workout and they had no airconditioning. What kind of primitive conditions are those? Still I soldiered on and did 50 minutes of cardio. I was going to do an hour but I faltered. Well truthfully, I needed the toilet and I wasn’t going to run all the way down to the change rooms (down 2 flights of stairs) and then back to the workout room so I quit.

It was weird being there. Many years ago, before Fitness First took over, I used to go to this gym to workout and play volleyball and netball (both incredibly badly). The best part about the old gym was the bar. You could get a vodka tonic after your workout. That’s all gone.

Being there made me remember a friend who played on our teams. He was killed in a car crash not long after the team disbanded so I had a sad moment but it is good to remember these people in our lives.

On a brighter note, someone in my house who isn’t me bought toilet paper today. Miracles do happen. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my Christmas miracle. Christmas Eve I made a last minute trip to the supermarket to get gravy because Andrew wanted it on his turkey. The thought of gravy with cold meat would never occur to me. On the way home, my car started going wonky. A guy sitting at a cafe on the street pointed to my tyre so I pulled over and it was flat as a tack.

The guy came down and offered to change the tyre for me. I unburied the spare from the piles of junk in the back of the car and that was pretty well flat too. I said if he could put it on, I only had to get around the corner. I could sort it out after Christmas. But he said no. Instead he carried the tyre back to his car and drove up to the servo and got it pumped up then came back and changed it for me. What a wonderful guy. He was my hero.

I must remember to get the flat tyre fixed now.

Bits

My favourite summer snack at the moment is Nestle Refresh Citrus Mousse with some mango. I highly recommend it.

***

Last night I was in the kitchen and one of my housemates came in and was telling me how much weight I’ve lost. He always talks about his plans for losing weight and getting in shape but I’ve never seen him do anything but lay on his bed watching tv. It’s like Dee’s motto for last week – “action not words”.

You know those moments where you think of things you should have said much later? Well it was only later that I thought – I should have let him in on my weight loss secrets. You know, doing things like putting out the bins and buying toilet paper and maybe sweeping the floors once in a while. Dang.

***

It truly sucks that I have no cash at the moment. I found the sports bra I want for heaps cheaper the other day but I can’t justify spending $45 on a bra at the moment. But boy do I need one.

***

I have a personal training session at my gym tomorrow. Fun but scary.

***

I worked out my budget yesterday. I think I can survive for about a month tops before getting another job becomes urgent. That was a real eye opener. The whole point of not working is so that I can write. But I’ve done no writing – lots of moping around and lots of playing spider solitaire but no writing. Lots of gym time too. I think I need to organise myself so I do gym in the mornings or evenings because I find it hard to write when my day is broken up. Starting today, I’m going to put in a major effort. It just seems like such a huge task at the moment – I have a stack of rewriting to do – but like any big task, I guess the secret is break it into manageable chunks. I have got one thing done though – my application for the TAFE course I want to do next year. I’m going to post that off today.

Bums

My Christmas bootcamp isn’t going so well. The exercise is up to scratch – well except the tricep dips. Who was I kidding when I said that? Tricep dips are satan’s own exercise. I’d do crunches before I’d do tricep dips. I’d even do chin ups.

But my downfall is food. It’s like I have the sugar in my system now and I want more. Well that another itty problem. A problem called banana bread. See I’ve been going into the city to go to my gym and in the city is Borders. And in Borders is the irresistable banana bread. But no more. None. Banana bread, bad. There will be no banana bread while I’m over 80 kgs. And no alcohol either. Except for New Year’s Eve. I mean, come on.

So today I went into Melbourne Central (I caught the train, I might be a machine but walking into the city two days in a row is fool talk). I did an RPM class. Not just an RPM class but a killer RPM class. Then I moved into the Relaxation Zone – steam room, sauna, aromotherapy room and monsoon shower. Have I said how much I love my new gym?

Then, to get my money’s worth, I went to Pump tonight. Man, my first Pump class since I hurt my back. If I can get out of bed tomorrow, it will be a miracle.

I think a lot of the problem lately is that I’ve been feeling rather glum. Christmas can be hard – I just feel like it gets too big and I don’t have enough family and friends to fill it. I think it’s something I need to work on. I’m going to think about that for a while.

Does the day after Boxing Day have a name?

Because my (new) gym is on holiday timetable, the only class on offer today was Body Balance. When I’m paying as a casual member, I tend to go for the most bang for buck cardio classes but since I’m paying a flat fee now, I decided I’d give it a whirl.

For those who don’t know (like me this morning), Body Balance is a combination of tai chi, yoga, pilates and meditation. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, you’d think. But you’d be wrong. Man, some of those moves are tough – a couple of the newbies walked out before the class ended. I’d really recommend it though – I’ve been in the best mood ever since.

So I walked into the city (5.5 km) then did the class then half hour of cardio – yes, I am a machine. I really wanted to do the cardio before the class but I mistimed it. I had planned to go to see Narnia afterwards but didn’t have time for that so headed to Borders and persued the new Slimming magazine and some other books.

Does anyone else read Slimming? What do you think of the change of focus? This month’s issue had a ‘Lose 5kgs in 2 weeks swimsuit diet’ – a bit of a change from their usual healthy weight loss emphasis in the past. I think that’s why I flick through it in Borders instead of forking out the cash now.

After that, I got caught up in the post-Christmas sales frenzy. Well I tried to – damn clothing manufacturers – they know I’m losing weight, I swear to god. Once you could never find a thing in the shops over an 18. Today every shop I went to had either size 10s or size 20s and nothing in between. I’d have liked some 3/4 jeans but no dice.

I did get finally get a body scrub – Sugar Plum. It smells so purty and it was reduced. Woohoo. I went into the Nike shop to try on shoes so I could I knew my size to buy them at a much cheaper price on ebay. I’ve never been in Nike before because I have ethical concerns about the way they treat their sweat shop labour although I’m never sure if Nike are any worse than other companies or if they are just targetted because they are the biggest. I do know a few years ago they paid more money to Michael Jordon than their entire workforce in SE Asia and that just isn’t right. But, on the other hand, they are the only company that has the kind of shoes I want. Dilemma, dilemma. It was bedlam in there anyway so I left.

On the way home I called into a shop on Smith Street and found a Bond’s yoga wrap top. I so wanted one of these when they first came out but they only went up to a size 16. Now they are discontinued and cheap and I’m a 16 so woohoo!

I think I need to take some time out of my busy schedule to laze in the backyard and work on my tan.

Christmas and other things

Like everyone else, I ate too much yesterday. Andrew made a chocolate ripple cake – his favorite – and I thought I was safe because I hate chocolate ripple cake. Trouble was, he told me to have a taste and it was the best chocolate ripple cake ever. He is the king of chocolate ripple cake. So I had three (small) pieces. He also made truffles (I’m not sure if what our family call truffles is the same as what other people call them – those balls made from crushed biscuits mixed with cocoa and condensed milk and rolled in coconut). They are my absolute faves. Luckily he’d eaten half of them before yesterday. Well he’d made one batch and eaten them and had to make a second batch – that is definitely a Christmas tradition in our family.

I picked him up yesterday morning for lunch and we exchanged presents. I’d gotten him a cheese grater. Aren’t I the bestest mummy in the world? Ha ha. Well he wanted stuff I couldn’t wrap – cash and tickets the Boxing Day Test – and I wanted to get him something. He said he didn’t want chocolate and he is always complaining about not having a grater. I also got him some Ferrer Rochers so I could nick one.

He gave me some dvds – Bruce Springsteen unplugged (I’d already bought myself another Bruce dvd so I had a Bruce marathon last night) and the John Saffran Music Jamboree dvd. He’d promised to buy me the Music Jamboree dvd about 2 years ago and never did so that was really a late present rather than this years.

We had a yummy lunch – too much potato salad. That stuff is like crack for me. Then we watched the whole Music Jamboree dvd.

I took him home and went to the gym. It was deserted except for a family who had obviously never been in a gym before. It made me wonder if they were related to the dude working there because one of the girls was wearing thongs. She was telling the others what to do and how to use the equipment but she had no idea herself and I think they will all be very sore today.

I wanted to go see Chronicles of Narnia today but Andew said the movies would be bedlam so we are going later in the week. I should go do some walking before it gets too late.

At the gym yesterday, I realised just how happy I am to join my new gym. Half their treadmills don’t work. They work okay for a while then suddenly stop, sending you flying across the room. Well not really, but they do jar you. They also don’t have any air conditioning or any fans; they just open the windows. But the only windows that open are near the dodgy treadmills – so you can either risk jarring and stay cool or else sweat your arse off.

Gym

Since I started with this whole weight loss thing, I have not joined a gym. I’ve said before, I’m a gym slut doing casual classes at several different gyms. Over the past few months, I’ve also been using guest passes at Fitness First to do some freebie classes there. So today I did something I’m not sure if I’ve done the right thing: I joined up for a one year Fitness First membership.

Since I signed on the dotted line (well it was more like a shaded box really) I’ve been screaming inside. I am such a commitment-phobe. I can’t even buy a weekly train ticket. And now I’m a gym member. Damn it, people make decisions to join nunneries with less angst than this.

I thought I’d write down some of the reasons for joining to reassure myself:

1. Boxing. I’ve been to a few boxing classes and the ones at FF are the best by far. I love these classes prolly more than any other class I’ve done. And one of the instructors is great. I have a wee crush on him.
2. They have lots of gyms so it doesn’t matter where I’m working or if I move, I’ll be close to one.
3. They have lovely clean showers. When you live in a share house, you appreciate that. The Melbourne Central gym also has an aromotherapy zone and monsoon showers and other lush stuff.
4. The FF gyms are really nice gyms and since I spend a lot of time at the gym, I deserve to go somewhere nice.
5. It isn’t going to cost any more than I pay for casual visits and I can go as many times as I like.
6. I can do pilates on a reformer bed.
7. I can hang out in the cafe area reading fitness mags for free.

The cons of it are the expense and the commitment – arrrgh! And, I think, at the back of my mind is the thought that I don’t deserve this. Fitness First is a pretty fancy gym compared to what I’m used to and part of me is saying – what is someone like me doing in a fancy gym? But you know something – I do deserve it. I spend at least 5-10 hours a week at the gym and I want to spend that somewhere nice. If worse comes to worst financially, I’ll just quit smoking to pay for it.

In other news, weigh in today was arse. I am now 82.6 kilograms. That is a 1.5 kilogram gain. I reject what the scales tell me. It’s not true. Screw them. But if it’s true, which I’m not saying it is, I don’t think I can lose 2.5 kgs before the end of the year. Aint gonna stop me trying though.