Where do you want to go?

Yeah, got you all - you thought this was going to be some enlightenment on the virtues of mapping out the future but it's not true.

Do you ever think that there's a message for you in the relatively humdrum events of the day? My day consisted of many many people asking me for directions. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, just my usual Thursday visit to Indro and the CBD for RPM, but at least four people stopped me in the street to ask me where to go. I can only conclude that I am the keeper of the keys. For today anyway (giggles).

My more serious post is in relation to my shoulder - yes, I've got a definite lump/cyst /who knows on my acromioclavicular process. Possibilities - calcification, degeneration (gosh getting older is a joy!) or something more serious. Actions to be taken - my awesome physio, Miss Lou has referred me onto my sports doc up here, Nifty Nev (well that's what Shelley and I call him). No lifting super heavy shit until it settles but rehab work and lighter stuff OK.

Now it's off to kick back with a magazine and slop around like the champion that I am on the lounge. If there was an award for ingrained slugdom tendencies, it would be a toss up between me and the nearest greyhound.

The Beauty of it All

Pied Beauty
Gerald Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spáre, strange;
Whatever is fickle, frecklèd (who knows how?)
With swíft, slów; sweet, sóur; adázzle, dím;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is pást change:

Práise hím.

One of my favourite poems relating to beauty - ever woken up with the sky an intoxicating blue, a gentle breeze blowing and the soft morning light dancing across your bedcovers (only today to become stinking hot later on, but that is for another post!)

On Wednesdays I teach two classes, an early early RPM and Bodystep in the mid morning. My RPM class is a small but very loyal bunch who I love to teach every morning - a few come to High Performance, but Wednesday has a very different vibe to it. It's as if I come to a small family celebration. I deliberately chose pretty complex choreo to learn for Step this week in my quest to be a banging step instructor and was delighted to teach my whole class with only a few minor mistakes.

I then met hubs (today's task was purchase of new dining table (Recycled Aussie Hardwood - blissfully beautiful) and an outdoor setting (lightweight and easy to clean..woot) and commented that the reason I love teaching so much is what I get in return for making the effort. I get friendship, I get smiles, I have a laugh, I am challenged and I feel so good about myself. I swear I need to bottle this feeling to see me through the downtimes..".Eau de StinkyBike Shorts Liz perfume", perhaps?

The only downside of my day is that perhaps I got too vigorous with the mattress testing yesterday - I have a very odd painful lump on the border of my clavicle/acromion (near shoulder). Ah well, a sniff of "Eau de Stinky" and I'm thinking "I'm sure this problem can be solved!"

Time for dinner - leftovers! It's about all I can afford after our few days of Economic Stimulus..

Horizontal Workouts with My Husband

Before you start getting all hot under the collar, I'd like to advise that this is a strictly G rated post. Kitty, if you're reading this, I can't put the "adults only" disclaimer on my blog just yet - but who knows, one day that may come (pardon the pun).

No, today, it was decided with the move into our new home imminent, that it was time to buy ourselves a new bed and look at outdoor furniture for the new deck. I got up early and squeaked out a good run and stretch at FF Jinders as well as some pulling/posture exercises and foam rolling. We dropped the car off for its scheduled service and then headed off to Fortitude Valley to check out the homemaker precinct.

We had coffee at the awesome smelling Merlo (well I had tea, love the smell of coffee but not so keen on the taste) and then ended up at Forty Winks and ended up spending about two hours trying out mattresses and choosing a bedroom suite (we ended up with the one in the link). I have always found the concept of testing out mattresses hilarious and I commented to the salesperson with a bit of mirth that it must be an odd job selling mattresses. He replied with something along the lines of "we take our customer's sleep needs very seriously". OK, Liz, back in your box and try not to laugh, OK?

Then after all of the ups and downs of lying down on what seemed like a gazillion mattresses, we went to Meccabah for lunch. I had to use the powers of mindful eating and not clean my plate of the three cups of delicious rice that were adorning my plate! I would have certainly felt really uncomfortable if I'd eaten the whole shebang (which further solidifies the need to focus on the intuitive side of things even if you choose to log your calorie intake - there will be events/meals where you can't log them so you need to be able to learn to listen to the wisdom of your body's satiety signals and learn appropriate hunger and fullness cues when such things occur). And in long term maintenance, as opposed to short term action where a food diary can be very useful, it's more important to focus on lifelong changes to lifestyle and personal growth.

Time to go and eat a chook, lovingly made by hubs, prepared in the Stephanie Alexander tradition (I have a budding Masterchef on my hands!) No, seriously that show scares the living daylights out of me - I love to watch it, but I'd hate to be in the kitchen under pressure doing those Challenges. Yikes!

Chuggering

Not much to report in my world today.

Had a good sweaty cardio session this morning (mixed up elliptical/stairclimber and treadmill) for 70 minutes of heart pumping action and then did lots of foam roller and trigger point release for the old hip flexors and glute activation drills - my poor old hips and quads are as "tight as" - probably from the five RPM a week that I teach. Needless to say, my glutes were rudely awoken from their slumber and my hips are a little bit looser.

The above pic is the house about 4 weeks ago - we've now got render, plaster and a garage door and we're tracking for a January move. I'm really looking forward to it all.

Better go and prep my lunch for work. Sometimes I wish that I could just buy my lunch but nothing in the centre is never as nice (or as cheap) as home made so I'm going to make the effort.

Amy Bento Specials

I'm clearing out my Amy Bento DVDs - they're 2007 stock and all brand new in shrink wrap. Originally 24.95 to 29.95 , I have a few copies of each left at 14.95 (plus postage). You can visit my site to check out the workout descriptions and contact me via the site to purchase. My personal favourites are the kickboxing and the Hi Lo (yes, I'm a cardio gal, through and through!)

Australian/NZ customers only.

I also have one tub of Ladybird Crunch and a couple of 500g Figure Tone (vanilla )to sell at cost price - get in touch with me to purchase.

It All Counts

A different perspective

I have to admit that lately I feel like I've been playing a "waiting game" with my life. Do you ever feel like you're in 'flux' for want of a better expression. It's as if the light has been on, but I haven't been home. There have been so many changes this year, where I started off with a thriving PT business and online business, a goal of a figure comp and a budding career as a fitness writer... I'm finishing the year as someone who has dialed back their online business big time, resumed her pharmacy career, albeit part time and become a banging (I've picked this one up for Shelley, I'm banging everything) RPM instructor who's ready to take it up a notch in step.

After suffering from depression, I've been totally reassessing everything from the way I eat to the way I train to the way I sleep and how I choose to live. The SSRIs help but sometimes you just need the penny to drop so you can rocket your way out of there. Last night, the penny dropped. It was a moment I've been anticipating for a long time. I was reading about someone's struggle with something or other and they said something to the effect of "BEING A GROWN UP MEANS YOU DON'T DO EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO." Bingo!

If that isn't a good reminder to get on with the job, I don't know what is!

Had a great training session with Shelley yesterday - we threw around 50kg bench presses without blinking - can't believe the improvement really! Taught RPM this morning - had a big class for a Wednesday morning and backed it up with Step later on. I'm looking forward to taking the "Step Improvement" journey - if nothing ever comes of it, then I can rest easy in the knowledge I have become a better teacher anyway.

Here's another great quote from Roger Gould: "The only way failure is sure to happen is if you don't try to meet the challenge. If you put in sustained intelligent effort, you will learn something and that is automatically a success" (that's how I'm thinking about my RPM!)