Monday, April 29, 2013

RPM and a Gym Buddy!






At the end of March (I think) I asked the MMNZ members if anyone went to Les Mills Britomart as I needed a gym buddy. There were a couple of members who went there and I ended up arranging to go to RPM with Caroline at the beginning of April; best decision ever!  I also went to Pump on Tuesday night with Tara!



We have been going regularly to RPM at least twice a week since then. I really love RPM; it is absolutely addictive! I think I went to RPM 4 times in one week; which is fantastic as I had not been going to the gym at all. The thought of just going and sitting on the cross-trainer for 45 minutes was boring the pants off me. So now I have an awesome, fat-burning, fitness-increasing 45 minute workout.



My favourite instructors are Tony (Kath’s old flatmate) who only teaches a couple of classes at the moment (New Lynn and Takapuna), Tommi (AMAZING) and Charlotte (Tuesday am at Britomart). I really think that having someone to go with and an awesome instructor help me get out of bed each morning.



This morning I was all booked in and I woke up at 5am and thought “I will just rest my eyes until 5.15/5.30” and then the alarm went off again and I talked myself out of it. You know how it goes “I am too tired, I want to sleep, it is too cold, and I will go on Tuesday/Thursday/Friday”. The mind is a powerful thing for talking yourself out of doing something. So I am not going to let it foil my plans again. I am going to make sure that I get to bed earlier and that my gym bag is always packed. 

I will no longer be my excuse!!



The exciting thing is that from the 7th May, our Shake Ups start again twice a week! So I need to change when I do RPM. So my exercise week should look like:



Monday ~ RPM (am)

Tuesday ~ Shake Up (am) / Pump or RPM (pm)

Wednesday ~ Rest

Thursday ~ Shake Up (am)

Friday ~ RPM (am)

Saturday ~ Weights (am) or Combat / Pump (am)

Sunday ~ Walk/Rest or Event



My goals for May are:

  • No pasta
  • No takeaways
  • Stop treating myself every day; because treats should only be treats!
  • Be under 140kg by the 1st June; achievable? Definitely!
  • Get out of bed and exercise!



What are your goals for May?

Monday, April 22, 2013

Am I Repulsive or Remarkable?



 
Before the Orewa Half a Half
Yesterday, I posted this on the MMNZ Private Group:

“Things I am really not going to miss when I'm no longer overweight. 1. People looking me up and down with disgust or making comments behind their hands (even more heartbreaking when you've got out of bed to go to a walking/running event). 2. People yelling out their car windows that I'm fat (because obviously I don't realise that I am).”

What actually blew me away after I posted this were the amazing messages of support and outrage from a lot of the members of MMNZ. I realised that when I workout or even just walk down the street I am accompanied in spirit by 300+ women who I in turn support in their journeys. To the MMNZ crew: Your support and love is invaluable. I cannot find the words to express how you all made me feel yesterday. You helped fix something (me) that was broken.

It is really not the sort of thing that I would put out there as these are things that I have experienced a lot over my life. Mostly, I would choose to feel bad and then internalise the rest of my feelings and move on. I took it for granted that this is what I was going to come to expect from my life.

It wasn’t until I put it out there publically that I realised that some people just did not realise that this sort of thing happened; Makaia (founder of MMNZ) was really angry.

As I was driving to work this morning I realised that it has not just been perfect strangers that have made me feel bad, but particular members of my extended family of whom being slim seems to be the most important thing. Obviously, to some people slim = healthy. So what about all the slim people that die from heart attacks or cancer? Also, slim does not necessarily mean fit…I have seen some really small people that cannot lift as much weight as me and others that simply do not have the muscle strength to pull their shoulders back to walk tall.

I know that I am carrying far too much weight for my frame and from a BMI standpoint I am considered morbidly obese. However, I do not have any major health issues such as type 2 diabetes and surprisingly I am pretty healthy. The only thing that I have noticed as I get older is certain things which my age probably kept at bay have started to appear i.e. a bit of Asthma. My weight is not because of any hereditary issues, and my thyroid works fine. It comes from having some emotional baggage and also eating far too much and not exercising enough. 

So remember when you see someone out there exercising who is overweight then I challenge you to not consider them as repulsive; instead consider them as remarkable. They are out there trying to make a difference in their lives; to make a choice to live rather than shorten their lives. Take it from me; it is such a huge feat for me to get out of bed on a stormy Sunday morning at 6am to get ready to drive to a 10.5km event. I do not want to be made to feel like shit when you look at me like I am worthless or disgusting. It is hard enough motivating myself to get out there without having to worry about what you think.

This is what I realised:

“Some beautiful things happened today. Firstly all your amazing, inspiring, loving posts were incredible to read both before and after the race. Just beautiful. I think every single MMNZ member feels the support every day (from everyone here) when they workout, eat clean and also the days when they fall off the wagon or have a rough day. Secondly was walking the first 2 Km's with a friend and then seeing her partner and their children supporting me at different parts of the course and cheering "go Ness". Lastly was the young boy (maybe 10-12 years old) saying to me on the home straight "keep going, you're nearly there". Plus all the Marshals and professional competitors who can see beyond weight to what someone is trying to achieve.”


I have decided that I will compete in my first half marathon next year in April for the Whenuapai Half. I will probably run and walk it however that is my goal. I figure if the walkers at Orewa can do a half in 2.5 hours then surely I can do it faster than 4 hours!


Who is with me?!
 

 
 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The Roaring 20's




Last week my cousin posted some very old photos on her Facebook page and they brought memories flooding back!

Some of the photos were from one of her work dinners that ended in drunken karaoke (which so many of our nights often did) and another was from a well-planned New Year’s Eve that got a bit turned around.

As I sat and talked to my friend on Friday night I contemplated bed. I turned to her and said that I could not believe how different my life is now. In my 20’s Friday and Saturday nights were the nights that we hit town. 9.45pm meant getting ready to drive into town and not contemplate sleep. 

How I managed to go to University all week, go out on a Friday night, drive everyone home at around 3.30am, sleep, get to work by 9am and then do it all again. Oh that’s right…I had youth on my side.

There are weekends when I actually miss going out into town until the early hours of the morning, dancing until I could barely stand on my feet. Now the closest that I have to loud, pumping music is aerobics at the gym. A few years ago I really wanted to go to a rave at New Year’s so that I could just dance with wild abandon…suffice to say I stayed home!

The other day when I went to pick up our race packs for Motutapu I drove by Lenin and remembered all the nights spent there. It feels like a life time ago!

I remember the Waterfront and ending our nights at c. Now where the Waterfront was I can sit at a cafĂ© and enjoy a coffee instead of wading through water and bubbles at their ‘Wet and Wild’ Nights. How times have changed. Oh and who remembers Stanley’s Nightclub on Queen Street? This was the first club I regularly frequented.

Oh and Bar of the Stars! Best Karaoke venue EVER!


Would I go back to my 20’s? Yes, just for a weekend though!