So I wanted to make a blog post this month, and I started writing it the day after I got back to Canberra after the holidays. The day I went for an early morning run and was feeling great about life. I set myself a goal to work off my Christmas fat which according to my scales was only about 4kg. And so I started my healthy month of January. Of course, I never finish a blog in just one day, and getting back into work meant I didn't really have time to write the blog. So the spare of the moment blog has turned into a recount of the entire month of exercise, healthy eating and cutting back alcohol and me losing more than the Christmas fat. So here goes.
Friday 4/1/19
So its early in the morning and I'm eating breakfast, I just got back from a 4km run. I woke up at 5.30am and actually got up this time and now I feel so great. January is the best time to get back to being fit. I put on about 4kg over the Christmas holidays with all the booze and yummy food. So it feels amazing to do some physical activity and get back into shape. This year I want to climb harder, run harder and get back into yoga.
I'm doing the 30 day yoga challenge that Yoga with Adriene is doing for January. Its day 3 today and surprisingly I'm still keeping it up. This is the perfect way for me to get back into yoga, since I usually find myself too lazy to do it. If you want to join me in this challenge you can find the youtube videos here. Yoga with Adriene is my favourite yoga instructor and being able to do it in my living room whenever I want makes is so much easier to do. It feels like I'm trying to sell it but I honestly enjoy yoga when I'm alone at home and can look as stupid as I want.
This month is going to be very busy for me as I work towards getting my thesis done. So I think it's important to keep up my physical fitness and wellbeing. I find exercise really helps with the stress and anxiety that comes hand in hand with the PhD process. So I'm going to train, I mean really train, at least that’s my goal.
The view was truly beautiful this morning as I pulled up at Black mountain Peninsula. I took it all in for a few seconds and took a few photos and then started my run. I walked for the first 5 minutes to warm up, something I found really helps to make me feel less stiff before I start hammering down on my joints. Then I started Strava to log my run and pressed play on Spotify, listening to the album Zombie Hyperdrive by Hyperion.
This is my favourite running music right now because it matches my pace for most of the songs and when the pace picks up, the music motivates me to run faster. Its retro-wave at its finest. I love the sci fi feel to the music.
I run to the National museum of Australia, check my Strava, that’s 2km so far, so I turn back and head to my car. I was aiming for at least 3km for this run so a 4km run is really good. I tell myself that I have to be kind to myself (something that Adrienne says frequently in her yoga videos), I'm still getting back to it after Christmas holidays and 4km is a decent effort for me. My furthest run so far has also been 4km. So I make my way back to the peninsula. I run up the slight hill to the car park and feel pretty good about myself with what I accomplished today. And I find a bunch of super cute cockatoos hanging around next to my car and try to say hello to them (I'm one of those people that enjoys talking to animals).
I love the feeling I get after a long run (something I didn't realise before I started running), the feeling that I have achieved something by making my body move like that, it makes me feel healthy. After my run its still not even 7am and Canberra is still waking up. I drive past a bunch of other people also out for a run today.
I'm not a morning person, if people try to talk to me before I've had my hour or so of waking up time, I'm usually grumpy. But I do love waking up early when it does happen. I just love how much time it adds to the day to do things! After my run, I still have over 2 hours to relax before I have to start work, how cool is that! (You can probably tell that this is not my usual routine).
So after my morning run I decided to work from home to get back into things which was not really productive but I needed to go slow. One thing that yoga with Adriene has taught me is to be kind to myself so thats my motto for this year, Be Kind to Myself. I usually have a hard time dealing with perfectionism and blame myself for being slow or unfit way too often which just leads to stress about my performance and me thinking I'm not good enough when I'm probably doing an ok job of things. So I'm being kinder to myself. I take things at a slower pace sometimes and this has a lot to do with how much calmer I feel if things are slow moving. And it has a lot to do with the fact that I have IBS and because of that I don't like to rush things.
So anyway, after working from home I did a short session of bouldering at Blochaus, just trying to take it easy and get back into climbing. It didn't feel great, I was actually much worse than before the break. Amazingly that little bit of extra weight made it so much harder for me to lift myself. So I'll have to get back into it as I get back to my regular self.
After climbing I did my yoga session at around 8pm. And that was it for the day. Getting up super early made me tired super early at night.
Monday 7/1/19
It’s the start of the work week! Finally going back to working hard after a much needed break. The next few weeks are going to be crazy busy.
I've started the week feeling pretty healthy and I've just had my yoga session. I was two days behind, having not done it over the weekend but now I'm only one day behind and if I do it twice today and tomorrow then I can catch up!
The weekend was a good chance to recover from the unusual amount of fitness I did the previous two days. So Saturday was a total recovery day with no training, just spending time with friends instead. And Sunday was a day for outdoor climbing at Red Rocks (near Kambah pools). That’s right, we went back to Red Rocks! Unfortunately Red rocks is closed during spring time for the Peregrine falcon nesting season and it only just opened up this month. So finally we have a chance to get back to the best sport climbing crag in Canberra.
It's about a 40 minute hike from the car to the crag, along the Murrumbidgee Discovery trail. Luckily Sunday was a cool day in comparison to the sweltering summer we have had, only a top of 27 degrees C. We left early in the morning for the day and got to the crag before 9am. The day got hotter as we climbed, with the sun heating up the rock more and more until about midday when we had had enough of the heat. Apparently Red Rocks gets the afternoon shade which we now know and people usually show up after about 2pm to climb in the shade, although by this point the rock is pretty warm anyway.
The climbing was really fun. Pat did all the leading as usual (I'm not feeling the whole leading thing lately) and I got to do some really fun, really hard moves on top rope.
Back to Monday night, and I'm climbing at Blochaus again, it feels a little easier but still taking it slow to get back into it. It's really easy for people who take a break from climbing to come back to it and go too hard too fast and end up with a shoulder or finger injury so I always take it super easy when I've been away from it for a while.
After Monday I stop writing the blog, getting too busy with work stuff. But I have started keeping a journal of all the fitness activities I do in a day so that I can look back at them and make sure I stick to my goal. So heres how the rest of the month goes for me:
Tuesday 8/1/19- Today is a rest day, and by rest day I mean I'll just do a hard session of yoga! What I am trying to do for the new year is make sure I always ride in to work.
Wednesday 9/1/19- Wednesday is a total rest day and I go out for Korean fried chicken at Gami for dinner.
Thursday 10/1/19- Ride in to work
Then go for 3.4km run with my running group aka the theory group.
Friday 11/1/19- Wake up early but I don't do any exercise.
Saturday 12/1/19- Wake up early and do yoga by the lake before driving to Kingston foreshore and having coffee while I read a paper.
After this I join my family to do some Go boating on the lake. It's really hot and really sunny, the boat is hot anywhere not in the shade and the only shade we have is umbrellas. But its fun and good to be outside. We all wear lots of sunscreen and I don't get burned so I'm happy. Then we go for ice cream :D
After this I work on my thesis for the rest of the day.
Sunday 13/1/19- This is the first time I go swimming with my sister Ashley at Gungahlin pool and we have lots of fun. It's amazing how tiring it is to be moving around in water. And my shoulders are exhausted afterwards.
Monday 14/1/19- Because its so hot this summer, Pat and I start bouldering early in the morning just before work. Its a quick session, only about 45 minutes and so theres no time for shoulder exercises, just climbing for fun. Today is the day I send off my Visa application for the UK!
Wednesday 16/1/19- More early morning climbing (Monday and Wednesday are the days it opens early).
Thursday 17/1/19- Swimming early in the morning with Ashley again before heading into work. I'm starting to like this early morning routine of climbing and swimming because I can get out of bed and just go and be back in time for work.
Saturday 19/1/19- Another day of exercising outside! Pat and I are off on more adventures.
Sunday 20/1/19- Sleep in until 8am (this is a sleep in for me now!) and go to the bus depot markets with my mum and sister. This is the first time I've been to the bus depot markets in Kingston. Then we head to the art gallery to see Love and Desire exhibition that has artwork from the Tate (which I have already seen but felt the need to see again).
Monday 21/1/19- Some night time yoga, no climbing this morning.
Tuesday 22/1/19- More swimming, this time at the Dickson pool which is close enough to ride to. I think I like it much better than Gungahlin pool because it's outside.
Wednesday 23/1/19- Early morning climbing.
Thursday 24/1/19- Early morning swimming at Dickson.
Friday 25/1/19- Early morning yoga at home.
Its been pretty hot this week so I've been working from home. I've had a sale of my Etsy store and I shipped off some artworks today at the post office.
Saturday 26/1/19
Its now Saturday and I slept in till 9am this morning! Time for a rest day. I've just had my morning coffee and I'm still feeling the mind fog that comes with my coffee addiction. I might need a second coffee today to start feeling like my normal self. I might also do some yoga today. So far my month is going pretty great, I've lost more weight than I gained over Christmas, I'm noticing that my body is leaner lately. I've been eating healthy this month and I hardly drink alcohol lately which has probably helped with the weight loss quite a bit. I'm feeling less sick from my IBS.
I'm really enjoying the early morning exercise routine. Swimming and climbing are becoming a habit for my weekday mornings. I'm trying to keep up with the yoga but I really struggle to do it every day. I'm falling behind on the 30 day challenge. I'm up to day 11 and the videos are up to day 24 I think. But thats ok, I'm being kind to myself and I won't give up even if I'm a bit slower.
I've been experimenting with my cooking lately. On Thursday night I made crumbed haloumi and made my own low FODMAP aioli which was so amazing. I spent most of the night in the kitchen batch making food for the week ahead which really helps with dealing with the work load. So I roasted a lot of vegetables and made a pasta sauce by blending roasted veggies. I also cooked tofu for the first time and it turned out pretty good.
So yeah it's been a really healthy month for me and I'm proud of myself so I am shamelessly telling you everything.
Update on the progress with moving to London:
I got my visa and I have finally booked my flight. I'll be leaving Australia on the 26th of February! That's only a month away, thats so crazy. I'm still looking for accomodation for when I'm there, I've booked a hotel for a week and after that I don't know what's going to happen but I'll need to find something more permanent. I've already applied for a conference in Europe and I'll be travelling to Venice in April to give a talk. My life is possibly going to be crazy hectic for the next few months so we'll see how I'm doing after I settle in. Check back to see how I'm going. It might be a while before I write another blog post. So its ok that this one is really long.
I've also done some research on the bouldering gyms in London (theres a lot of them) and have a list of places I'm going to check out.
Anyway I guess I should stop there, this post is already a 10 minute read. See you all later!