Going Down The Rabbit Hole

This weekend just gone, celebrated the 21st birthday of a guy that use to swim with me. During the real prime of my time as a competitive swimmer, there was a core group of around 8 of us that were committed to the sport 100%, were at every single session, spent all our time in and out of the pool together and really pushed each other for a good 6 years or so. We had multiple trips away together to state and national competitions. It's safe to say we knew each other pretty well.

This guy one of the first of our little group to call it quits. He started to get into his work more and more and ended up becoming a FIFO worker. Due to his schedule, I haven't really had too many opportunities to catch up with him, so when his invitation to his 21st arrived...so excited.

Birthday boy was really the baby of the group even through we were all of very similar ages. He was the year below me in school, but because I'm born in February and he is in December, I am almost 2 years older then him. It feels like my 21st was so long ago, and the baby is finally catching up.

The party theme was Alice in Wonderland and was held in his mum's backyard. His older sister is a florist by trade but has started getting into more event décor and planning and did an AMAZING job of decorating the party space....seriously amazing. As soon as you walked through the garden gate you felt like you were at the Mad Hatters Tea Party. There were cups and clocks and empty bird cages strung from the trees, completely random objects put together in the most interesting ways that just made sense....sooo cool!!

And what was even better then the décor, was having the crew back together again, in one place at one time...coaches included. It was like no time had passed at all. So really I'm thankful for two things here today. Getting to catch up with a  great group of people who know far too much about each other and have done things that are completely normal for swimmers, but absolutely bizarre for the rest of the world (eg shave each others legs)! And the creativity of the very talented lady who put together such an amazing set up in just a regular suburban backyard.

Handstands

Tried viewing the world from the wrong side up lately? I recommend it. The blood comes rushing to your head and it's feels a little like it's going to explode. If you think it was full before you get into the handstand, think again. 

I have just started adding hand stands in to some of my workouts. Actually more handstand push ups which to be honest are not going so well, particularly on this day. I've found it to be slightly easier if you kick up onto a wall that has a slight incline away from you. A straight up and down wall was just plain difficult. Just a little tip for next time your doing push ups with you legs up in the air. 

When I am up in a handstand, I am thinking very much about where I should be looking. Is it easier to hold the position if your looking straight down at your hands? Thats what you see most people do, but doesn't that changed the curvature of your spine, which changes your core stability and position, making it harder to hold that position? So do you change it to look out between your hands? But then I feel like I'm going to fall into a forward roll...thoughts? 

 

But being butt up in the air, everything stops. You stop thinking, you stop noticing your surrounds. All you can do is try and remind yourself to breathe and tense every muscle to hold yourself there. It's like for those few seconds, the whole world freezes...how long can you freeze the moment for?

Good Veins

I have to get regular blood tests done and I'm not the biggest fan of needles. Growing up when we had to get vaccinations done, Mum tried various approaches to try and limit my scream crying and protesting...and spare the others in the waiting room.

She would try telling me weeks in advance to give me time to get my head around it, she would try not telling me what we were doing and that we were going to the doctors for her appointment not mine. There was bribery and there were distractions. I don't know what worked best for her...probably none of the above.

Now that I'm grown up (apparently), still not a fan of needles and I'm having quite a few of them, but I manage to hold myself together in the waiting room. I've always know that I have quite prominent veins which along with my great habit of drinking a lot of water, makes taking my blood a hell of a lot easier. As was complimented to me today by the phlebotomist who regularly takes my blood. Only ever one attempt at getting the needle into the vein and the blood tends to pour out pretty quickly.

But the big I think that's worse then the needle going in is when they change the canister. The lady I normally see for my blood tests is very good at what she does, but even so I can still feel the needle shift just slightly in my arm as the canisters are changed, and I have to go through around 4 each time.

But every time I go, I am SOOOO thankful for my good veins, I don't think I could handle more then one poke with that needle!

My Brother

I'm a little bit surprised I chose this one today. Don't get me wrong, of course I love my brother, he's family! But more times then not I have wanted to throw something heavy at him to knock some sense into him...in the nicest possible way. And the reason I have used the photo above, aside from the extremely fashionable head piece he constructed at the beach the other day, is because there is no way he would let me show his face when I'm going to say something nice about him!

Growing up he was your stereotypical teenage boy, grunting in response to questions, moody, would never smile, slept the day away and most of the time pretty horrible to me. Up until around 6 months ago. What changed? He met a girl. One he really liked. Prior to now he was Mr I Don't Do Commitment, a little bit of a player. But this girl changed all of that. And it wasn't just me that noticed, a couple of the girls that work with him also mentioned to me that he was much more 'pleasant' at work, what had changed?

Prior to this year, the last really big athletic challenge that I took on was my solo swim across the Rottnest Channel. It was an early start for me and my team, up at 3am and leaving the house at 4.30. He rocks in the door at 4.15 am completely drunk and walks straight through to bed, expected to make it to the ferry to get over to the island before me 3 hours later. Not a word to me. Since the girlfriend, I had my next big athletic event - Tough Mudder. He made the effort to get up early and wish me luck, telling me I was going to smash it....wow!

Now I have had problems in the past, which were kind of brushed under the carpet in my family. I'm not sure how much my brother knew about because my parents tried to shelter him a little as he was quite young at the time. However in the weekend just passed, he actually approached me and expressed his concern about what I'm taking on at the moment and how my body is responding. Again, wow he does care.

So to cut a long story short, I am thankful for my brother, his new found sense of compassion and I think his new girl friend...she has made a human being out of my brother!

Australia Day

The 26th of January is Australia Day. The day the first fleet landed and Sydney Cove and the British set foot on land in 1788. Since that day, the meaning of Australia Day probably hasn't changed all that much, but the way it's celebrated probably has.

Particularly in Western Australia, this day is culturally huge! The day is typically spent involving the water - whether that be the beach, the river or the backyard pool, BBQ's with friends and family, beer and fire works. People are walking around the suburbs with Australian flags fashioned into items of clothing, yelling 'Happy Straya Day Mate' to complete strangers (half the time being completely sober as well) and people of all walks of life coming together to celebrate the day our country became a country.

Australia Day would be easily the biggest and most celebrated public holiday in our country, well particularly in WA. I have never celebrated in another state so I can't comment on how they do it (I did once celebrate it in Japan...not the same). But it is a day the Aussie spirit is truly shown to the world in all it's glory.

Getting It Right

Physiotherapy is a profession where the outcome can vary greatly between practioners. This can depend on so many different factors such as the clinicians education and staying up to date with the current evidence based practice, treatment plans and clinical skills, powers of observation, getting information from the clients and piecing it together...the list is endless.

Recently I have had a couple of patients come to me that have seen other Physio's in the past and not received the results they were after. The first two were referred to me by someone else I know, as she knew my approach to treatment was not to tell the patient what the can't do - a lot of Physio's tell their patients to stop exercising or doing their sport to allow the body to recover. I instead work out what the problem is and see if there is a way the client can continue participating in their chosen sport or exercise routine by modifying their technique or their participation, allowing them to continue to be involved but also resting their injury.

These two clients had previously been managed with the 'total rest' approach, which was not sitting with them, and no matter how long they were resting for, their injuries were not getting better. One of these clients was getting knee pain on walking stairs and hills and running. After two sessions with me, through modifying her squatting technique and postural loading, along with a fairly strict home exercise program she was pain free on stairs and 6 weeks later she has recommenced running pain free.

The other client that was referred to me - when seeing his previous physio, a diagnoses could not be made and therefore there was no treatment plan in place. Frustration was building. Through really specific muscle testing, and going through the process of elimination, I was able to come up with what I thought was causing his groin pain, which I ended up deciding there were two sites on injury instead of one. Again with really specific exercise prescription, and eliminating exercises that put excess length through the abdominal insertion/adductor origin region (eg Burpees - which he was really devastated about :P ) this client was managing his pain down at a 1-2/10 and had returned soccer which he had been experiencing pain with for over 3 months, within 2 weeks. Another YES moment.

The final one that came to see me yesterday lives rurally and has had hip pain for over 3 years. Every time he came to Perth he tried Physio and saw no improvements within 2-3 session, at 3 different Practices. He told me that no one was able to tell him what was wrong. After assessment, I was able to tell him it was not his hip causing the pain, it was a nerve in his back that had been irritated and was sending referred pain to his hip. This was also what was causing the tingling in his toes which he didn't think was at all involved. By the end of one session, he was able to touch his toes, his tingling was gone and there was no hip pain. He took 4 of my business cards to give to his friends.

I'm not saying I always get it right, because I am constantly learning and sometime you learn by making mistakes. But when I do get it right and I can help people that have almost lost hope in Physiotherapist...good feeling!

Noodle Races

You are never too old for a good noodle race, as was proved by my seniors during their hydro session with me yesterday!

I have been covering these classes while another Physio has been on leave and this morning was my last session with them before he returned, so I decided to have a little fun. And who knew these 'Spring Chickens' as they like to be called, could be so competitive?

Though the hardest part of the race for them was actually getting onto the noodle, once they did finally get on, they were off! They went to any length to get their team ahead. We had some powerful frog kick, a lot of doggy paddle, but my favourite was one particular lady who whipped out the goggles and was face down swimming freestyle with the noodle wedged between her legs! Everyone was laughing so hard they were struggling to keep their heads above water.

Team blue came out on top in the end, with team pink in a close second. With the tactics and determination shown by these ladies, you would of thought they were a group of 7 year olds, not 70 year olds! Which just goes to show, no matter how old you are, you never lose your fighting spirit and a bit of healthy competition is good at any age!

Being Real

What even is perfect? Does it actually exist? Surely there is always something you can do better, a way to work harder, do something you have never done before.

I will admit I use to focus so heavily on perfection. I strived for perfection in every aspect of my life - studying, sporting arena, as a friend, as a daughter, as a person. I wanted perfection and rarely settled for anything less. If what I did wasn't perfect or in my opinion wasn't good enough, I had failed. and failure was almost as bad as not being perfect. It was a vicious cycle and it went on for years.

A couple of times when I fell short of my perception of perfection it really messed with me. I was inadequate, and not worthy of having a lot of what I considered to be the good things in my life. I had let myself down and I had let down the people I cared about. I was a failure. 

It wasn't until recently that I realized that perfection is no more then an idea in my own head and my idea of what perfect is, could be completely different to the person standing next to me...so does it actually exist? I started to second guess everything I had thought about myself and my abilities and where I was headed. Someone said to me at this point, that if we succeed all the time, it gets boring. If you fail, you get to start over and work out what went wrong, change it, and when you do get it right, it feels like you have earnt it. 

Why do we get so caught up on our perception of perfection? Instead we should try to be the best versions of ourselves, and that is constantly changing and growing. So stop chasing perfect and start chasing yourself.

First Blood Blister

In the world of Kettle Bells, calluses blisters and skin tears occur on a regular basis. This is due to the metal handle you send swinging around in your hand for up to hundreds of repetitions. Although I have some nice calluses on my hands, I have never had a skin tear or blister...until today. 

In the middle of another heat wave here in Perth, we were training at 6.30pm and the temp was still 36 degrees. It was hot. We were doing lighter bells and trying to get as many reps done in a time limit so I think the repetition and heat built up a lot of friction and caused this little beauty to form.  Luckily for me I noticed it early and avoiding the popping of the blood blister. 

At another recent session one of the guys did a great job of tearing up his hands. Such an inconvenience! This is just another one of those costs we pay for working hard...man hands! I have to say I feel a little sorry for my patients, my hands are now so rough. 

On the bright side though, the blister will heal and my hands will cope better with the load and the heat next time!

Perth Summer

 

 

I'm not normally a summer person, but this year so far we have had a pretty good one. In the years gone past we have had days on end of temperatures above 36 degrees and it has felt that the heat is just never going to let up. These super hot days tend to start in December and keep going as far as into March/April when its not actually summer anymore!

 

When it's hot like this, I don't function well. I'm easily flustered, worked up, stressed all of which makes me hotter and it's hard to come down from there. If it's hot, and I'm hot, I feel like I can't make rational decisions and I'm easily stirred up.

 

This year though, summer has been relatively mild. It is the first Christmas I can remember that has been under 36 degrees, we have had only 2 heat waves for temperatures over 38 degrees which have lasted around four days each time (they usually last two weeks plus!) and the average temp has been a much more bearable 32 degrees.

 

Weather like this has made each day so much more enjoyable, I have been able to appreciate my days and the people I have spent them with so much more. I've gotten out and taken in the cleanliness of the city I live in, appreciated the views it has to offer and how lucky I am to be here.

 

If I can embrace this summer, anyone can. So get out there!

Role Reversal...kind of

I am finishing off the final assessment for my Certificate III in Fitness...yay!! In order for finish this certificate I had to film a whole help of physical and health assessment skills, put together a training program designed to meet a clients goals and film myself putting them through this program.

So instead of putting me through pain, this lovely lady had to take it in return...payback!! This one loves her strength and resistance training, so when I sent her the aerobic or cardio program, I think her heart may have skipped a beat or five. However I was nice, I put her through a resistance program with the functional goal of over hand chin ups and only made her do 5 minutes of cardio as a warm up.

But my point here is, try living out of someone else's shoes or taking on someone else's role. It gives you a new challenge and you have to think from someone else's point of view. When your trainer is really killing you and you want to throw the dumbbell at their face, remember they are not hurting you just for the sake of hurting you...well most of the time their not. They have your goals in mind and your best interest at heart and are doing what they are doing to help you to become better.

So take another role, it will change your perspective...and can be fun!!

Good Timing

Today has been crazy! Actually this whole weekend has been crazy! Today I was running my bootcamp in the morning (had to move it due to the craziness of the afternoon), then was going to film my final assessment for my Cert III in Fitness, before helping to set up for and attend a clothes swap party, before shooting off to a set of twins birthday party tonight. I also had to prep everything for the upcoming week as I am still working extra shifts for the Physios that are away.

So I was up and had started packing, organising, prepping for the day and the week to come. I've run a pretty hard and hot bootcamp and come home so continue with the above. You know when you work yourself up, stressing about all the stuff you need to do, to pack, things you need to remember that you spend more time thinking about all that stuff then getting anything done? I was there.

I came onto my computer to print out some of the documents I'm going to need for my assessment when my desktop picture loaded. My desktop is on a slideshow setting where a different picture pops up every time you go back to it. I logged on to see this one. Perfect timing. It made me stop for a second, take a deep breath and try to calm down a little. I was so not functional and just needed the reminder that despite what happens, whether I remember to pack everything or not, whether I stuff up a part of my assessment, everything was going to be ok.

Despite the fact that I'm not even half way through this crazy crazy day, I can do it and 

It's Gonna Be Ok.

First Run In New Shoes

My running shoes cop a beating. I'm in them twice a day every day and they cover a lot of km's, take a lot of squats, burpees, lunges, various jumping skills, they take the extra weight I'm training with...my shoes are very well used. I like to have two pairs of running shoes in rotation to try and get longer life out of them, but after Tough Mudder and at Colour Run last year, my older pair were retired from training.

So I was left with one pair of running shoes and my pair of light weight cross training shoes. The cross trainers though have very little cushioning in them so I would always choose not to run in them and would wear them to my more bootcamp sessions, but there would always be some running or jumping involved in these sessions anyway and I ended up with shin splints for a couple of months there.

My remaining running shoes I bought in Feb 2013 and was determined to get through to my birthday in Feb 2014...silly me! Late December, during my couple of days off from work, it was a fantastic idea to do a 10km run in the morning and then a 12km run again that afternoon...my body got through the runs absolutely fine...everything but my feet. When I got my shoes off at the end of the second run I had two massive blisters in the arch of my foot.

Throughout that night they continued to grow and for the next 4 days I was not able to wear shoes at all. Not even thongs. So the order was put in for two new pairs of running shoes and in the week it took them to arrive, I was using blister blocks and strapping my foot up twice a day every day.

But yesterday they arrived!!! There was that amazing feeling of putting on new running shoes and feeling half a cm taller compared to the old squashed down running shoes. My feet actually felt like they were bouncing off the ground while I ran. Best feeling ever!

Being The Sober One

The best bit about not drinking alcohol is that I'm the one to remember all the stupid things that my alcohol drinking have done and said the night before. There are also the added bonuses of waking up the next morning feeling absolutely fine, being able to go about my day as per normal and being productive. There are many good things about choosing not to drink, which people often question me about.

This girl normally joins me in sobriety, but on this particular night she went over to the dark side. Due to not being a regular drinker, and her little distance runners frame, the little alcohol she did consume went straight through her. I thought she was giggly without alcohol...woah!!!

Being my typical sober self I was able to capture this giggly mess on camera which was fantastic to watch back with her again the next day. The look on her face makes it all worthwhile. I'm not so sure she is going to leave our sober bubble in a hurry anytime soon.

People ask me all the time why I don't drink and I have many reasons. I don't like the taste, I don't like feeling any loss of control in what I say or do, I don't like not being able to make good decisions and I don't like wiping out my whole next day. There are many of those points that people argue with me, such as don't you get bored while everyone else is all loose and happy? That's the one I get the most, but my answer is if your around good people who are having a good time, you can't help but have a good time as well.

Being sober you can have just as much fun as if you were drinking, you just have to be with the right crowd in the right place. Give it a go, be the designated driver one night and embrace the water with lemon!

Bear Crawling

If you've never done a bear crawl, you should give it a go. Start on flat grass and go forwards crawling on your hands and feet (knees off the ground and butt low). Then try the same thing but going backwards, make sure you keep that butt low! Too easy? Now try a backwards bear crawl up a hill...a big steep hill!

During our Tough Mudder training last year, we were introduced to the backwards bear crawl up a hill. During most sessions we would be crawling up a fairly steep hill which was probably around 40m from bottom to top. and that was tough. During some of out other sessions at a different location we would crawl backwards up a hill no where near as steep and only around 20m long...barely even a challenge after the first one.

Bear crawling pretty much became a staple exercise in our workouts. So much so that we joked we would cross the line of Tough Mudder as a team doing a backwards bear crawl. Carrying on from Tough Mudder, we have kept up the crawling, and on the weekend just gone, three of us decided to take it to the extreme and backwards bear crawl up Mount Street, clue in the name 'Mount' as to how steep this hill is. Most people walk this hill, the really keen ones will run it, so the fact that we decided to bear crawl it...nuts!

As expected, it was brutal!! Throughout the crawl everything was burning, including the lungs but what stands out to me the most is how sore my hamstrings were for the two days to follow. It takes a lot to give me DOM's and to be in amount of stiffness I was in for those following two days tells me just how tough that hill was.

So want to challenge your whole body? Go bear crawl!

The Not So Pretty

To tell you the truth, I don't even know what this is! It's like a giant horned caterpillar. And really my photo doesn't do it justice, this thing was huge! I'd say a good 12-15cm long and it was on a mission down a flight of stairs. I took this photo as the caterpillar was on the vertical part of the step clinging for life.

I was walking with a friend up Kokoda (a tough flight of trail stairs in Kings Park) when we saw this beast and we stopped to watch is power down the steps because we were so fascinated by the huge ugly caterpillar.

We continued on our merry way and on our way back to our starting point, which took us back down the Kokoda stairs. I was on look out for this bug and kind of pointed and screamed when we came across it again, however this time it was a squashed giant horned caterpillar...may it rest in peace.

But my point here is that it's not always the pretty things you have to notice in life. Notice the things that are left of centre or a bit different. Not everything is bright and shiny but by noticing the strange and quirky things around you, you appreciate the bright and shiny even more. So find something that doesn't stand out to you because it is pretty, but stands out for a different reason.

Morning Mobilisers

This morning I ran an Injury Prevention and Mobility Workshop for teen athletes. The objective of the workshop was to teach this athletic population how to maintain their muscle length and flexibility to get the most out of their athletic performance and achieve their goals.

Many of them had never done this kind of mobility before so we were in for a fun and painful two hours.

Teenagers tend to think they are pretty invincible. They are stubborn and keep pushing until they brake. So it was of no surprise to me, but of a great surprise to them how much these exercises hurt and just how tight their bodies really were.

There were cries and screams and horrible faces pulled ... in the warm up.

But they pushed through. They embraced everything I had to throw at them, they released muscles their didn't even realise they had and by the end of the two hours with me, they were all doing a full depth squat with good hip knee and ankle alignment.

These athletes learnt that they weren't as invincible as they thought they were, and sometimes they needed to stop, repair and maintain their bodies if they want to continue to compete and achieve at high levels. Something I also need to remind myself from time to time

Green Leaves

I love those leafy green trees that you often see lining streets. The really big over grown ones that spread their branches so far that they meet with the branches of the opposing tree from across the road. The ones that almost make the street look framed and block out the sky. Those trees are my favourite.

They look fresh and smell crisp and make the best rustling sound, there is just so much life about them....I am still talking about a tree.

I took this photo a couple of days after Christmas. I had just finished a session with a friend. It was a humid morning and we were both really struggling, so by the end we were both lying on grass, not yet prepared to move. I looked up and saw these leaves which reminded me of my favourite trees and as weird as it's going to sound, they brought the life back into me again....yep still talking about trees.

It's the small things like green leaves on a tree that can change the way you see your day, how your feeling and the energy you have.

Determined

It's another hot one here today. The minimum over night was 32 degrees at 3am this morning. When I was out and running this morning at 7am it was already 37 degrees. So I decided that I would run in just my crop top and shorts instead of sweating through another shirt as well. My favourite crop top is my black Determined Lorna Jane one. So wacked it on, with some shorts and shoes and with my iPod in was out the door pretty quick.

I was just doing an out and back type run this morning (not my favourite but was struggling a little). I got to my half way point and turned around to start on my way home again. I was about 500m into my way back and I was starting to catch back up with some of the walkers I had passed on my way out. One particular older man stepped off the path onto the grass as I approached him and started trying to say something to me.

So I stopped and pulled an earbud out expecting to have to give him directions or something, but he smiled at me and said 'Determined seems like a very good name for you!' ....Awwww, so sweet! I thanked him and we both continued on our way.

Water

It's forecast to be a hot one here in Perth today. Predicated max is 44 degrees and could potentially set records. But warm weather was not going to stop us from getting out and working hard. I left the house at 7am to meet a couple of people at a near by bridge before running to our training location for this morning. I checked the temp as I was walking to the bridge, it was already 25 degrees. Brace yourself!

As expected, it was flipping hot! By the time I got home two and a half hours later, the only thing I could think about was my bottle of water. I quickly sculled two bottles before even thinking about taking my shoes of to shower, and another one after hopping out of the shower.

It's 1pm now, the temperature is currently 40.2 degrees and still on its way up. So I think this arvo I will utilise water in a different way...submerge myself in it! Keep hydrated!

Mornings

I have not put a filter on this photo. I was sitting outside at the gym this morning waiting for the people in my boxing class to arrive, and down where this class is run, sometimes the grass is really wet and flooded from the sprinklers. This makes doing kicks and burpees and what ever else I put in the program interesting as there is grass flying everywhere. Today I was happy to see the grass was completely dry and there was no flooding around the area at all. I was thinking that I was happy for dry grass, but then I took this photo, and in it I am thankful for so much more then just dry grass.

People ask me all the time how I get up so early. But with mornings like this, I ask them how could you sleep in? I believe early morning is the best part of the day. Everything is still, quiet and fresh, nothing has been disturbed yet and the sun is only just coming up. It's these moments where the hustle and stress and going from one thing to the next and the next hasn't yet started and you can take a second to sit and watch the sun. So much better then dry grass.

So if your not really a morning person, just give it a go one morning, get up that little bit earlier so see the sun come up, trust me you won't be disappointed.

Better Late Then Never

 

I ordered my brothers Christmas Present online well over 6 weeks before Christmas. I bought him a waterproof blue tooth speaker for him to take out on his paddle board, in the pool at the beach etc. Perfect for him. 

 

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, so when week after week it didn't arrive and I was starting to get nervous, I convinced myself that it was ok, it would be here next week, it would be here in time. One week out from Christmas, no present. Starting to get very worried. So I emailed the company that was suppose to be sending it to me.

 

Turns out it had been lost in the mail...fantastic! They were going to send out another speaker, but it was not going to make it in time for Christmas. So what I ended up doing was printing out a picture of what was on it was and made him a fill in present/gift voucher...a batch of cupcakes of his choice.

 

Yesterday, the speaker finally arrived in the mail, and perfect timing as well. He is flying out to Bali with his girlfriend today and the speaker has been packed into his suitcase to be used by the pool. So I'm still glad I chose the gift for him that I did and although it didn't really work out the first time round...didn't make it in time for Christmas. When it did arrive it was still greatly appreciated and did arrive with good timing in another aspect.

 

There is always a silver lining.

One Week In

Did you realise that we are one week into 2014? There are only 51 weeks left before its 2015.

I remember saying at the end of last year that it felt like 2013 had gone by so quickly, so when I realised this morning that we have already been through a whole week of 2014, I was stunned. I swear I blinked and missed it! So far 2014 has definitely been full speed ahead, so it's no wonder we get to the end of each year and wonder where it has gone.

Like I said I'm a full speed ahead person and the point of this blog for me was to try to notice and appreciate one thing every day that I was thankful to have in my life, to have happen, to have witnessed, anything really. But by pumping my way through the way I realised I have in this past week, it's hard to stop, notice and appreciate the small things.

It has been brought up to me by a few people that I need to take out more time in the day as 'down time' where I stop and breathe a little. I tend to run around like a headless chook and find it very hard to relax when I do have the time to...sleep doesn't come easy to me for that reason.

Two of my goals for 2014 and onwards are to watch 1 movie a week and I am going to make more time to stop and breathe, doing something that is not work/study/training related.

So how are you going? Is your plan to achieve your goals and make your changes in place. Have you worked out where you want to be by the end of 2014 and how your life is going to be different to how it is now. Or do you still have a bit of work to do! Get onto it, only 51 weeks to go!!

Senior Citizens

We have a few Physios on leave at the moment. One of them runs the community exercise classes at three different retirement villages around our practice, and I tend to be the one to cover these classes when he does go away. These classes make my days pretty huge, so Monday morning I packed up everything I was going to need for the day and set of much earlier then I would normally ready to take on my seniors.

To tell you the truth, the thought of what I was taking on for the next 4 weeks was a little daunting and after a very unsettled and sleepless weekend, I was probably starting my week out on the wrong foot. I was tired before I'd even started.

I walked into the first of the classes I was teaching, and I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the attendee's remembered me from the last time I covered these classes. I wasn't expecting that. It also turns out that the regular Physio had pre-warned them that I'm a hard task master. So they were pumped and ready to go.

As was the next big class of 14 for hydrotherapy. The participants were very high energy and chatting away, laughing and gossiping about the happenings around the villages, who had done what over Christmas and New Year and were happy to try really hard for me. By the end of my morning with these lovely elderlies, I was feeling better. More positive and optimistic about how the next 4 weeks is going to pan out, and they set me up for a better afternoon of treating my regular clients.

A Chin Up

Although it may not be a big deal to some people, well probably most people, I have never been able to do a chin up but always wanted to. Growing up as a competitive swimmer, we were known for the upper body strength required to pull us through the water. I was an endurance swimmer, so my muscle endurance was pretty up there. My muscle strength on the other hand, not so crash hot.

I would always get funny looks when people found out I couldn't do a chin up....But your a swimmer?! they would say. Yep I know, a weak one! Since quitting professional swimming and changing my training program, I would like to think my strength has improved.

So one of my goals for 2014 was to be able to do a chin up. After doing a Crossfit event at the end of last year, where one of the workouts was to do a 1 RM weighted chin up (couldn't even do a body weight one), I, along with a friend who had been at the event also decided we were going to start chin up training. So I wrote us a program and we started it, this morning. At the end of it, she was like...go on, just try. Excited to say, I did one. So 6 days into the new year and goal is achieved....next is 10 in a row!

Words of Advice

I have some big decisions to make. I hate making decisions almost as much as I hate change. And this decision is about change. Fantastic. Where I am right now, what I want to do and what I should do are not matching up and what I am currently doing is really meeting neither. So what do I do?

I am currently taking advice from anyone, even Instagram. This photo popped up and the first part really struck a nerve. Let Go Of What Doesn't Serve You. That reaffirmed that I do need to make a change. The bit I'm finding difficult...Do More Of What Does.

What I want to do, is more closely associated to my passion and is what I love to do every day, but what I want to do may or may not put me in a strong position for my future as there is currently a bit of uncertainty along that path. What I should do is in my mind, just ok. I don't mind that pathway, but I don't love it. However I may be better off in the long run.

So do I take a risk and do what I love and take the chance on not finishing off in a stronger position (but it could potentially end really well...its just so unknown), or do I take the sensible route and secure my future now? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Smile Reminder

I'd gotten some bad news today and was having trouble finding something to smile about. I tried really hard to remember all the positive things I have in my life, and things I am thankful about, things to look forward to....but nothing could bring about that smile.

So I did what I always do, went for a swim. I smashed through 5 km, shared my lane with a lovely guy who I have seen around the pool a couple of times before, who complimented my on my swimming speed and technique and said that I keep myself very fit. Small grin resulted. A good warm up, but a little more was required.  

I then got back to my bag and checked my phone to see the screen shot above. About a week ago I downloaded the Smile More App. 3-5 times a day at random times, a text gets sent to you phone, the point to give you more reasons to smile. And after the news I had received earlier this morning, this gave me some hope...cue smile.

Puzzling

I find it very difficult to stay still. I get bored very quickly and think of other things I have to do which I get up and do right then are there. I have been told many times before that I need to learn to chill out a bit and slow myself down, but finding things to help me do that has definitely been hard!

People have suggested to try watching a movie, reading a book or a magazine...lasted around 20 minutes, then later two even less. I'm just so easily distracted and my mind is in a million places at once that I barely even notice myself getting up and going away.

So, someone gave me a puzzle. I was sceptical. But I had to sit down and use my brain to sort out pieces and work out where they belong. There was less opportunity for my mind to wander away from what I was doing and I didn't get bored as quickly because I was thinking so much about the task that was right in front of me. I managed to stay still for a whole 30 minutes before I was ready to get up and go do something else. Progress!

Glow Sticks

I don't know what I find so exciting about glow sticks, but I love them...almost as much as I love glitter! They are a pointless piece of glowing plastic that last 6 or so hours and then its all over. But how cool is the glowing?

Growing up we always use to snap glow sticks when we were going to watch fireworks, which brings back great memories of being amazed by the exploding glittery lights in the sky. It was either those days or at Leavers, sitting on the floor of the shack we were in at Rottnest, snapping them open so the liquid would come out which we would use as paint.

Both of which, fun times. Glow sticks remind me of great memories so when a 4 year old girl was walking around on New Years Eve handing glow sticks out to everyone...excited!

A Fresh Start

Welcome to 2014! How strange is that? I've only just got use to writing 2013 and now I have to change that last number again?! People often ask 'What is your New Years Resolution?', The one I hear most often, getting fitter and healthier, and it's normally by the same people every year...so how's that going for you?

Personally I don't believe in setting New Years Resolutions. What I do believe in though is making a change, not just for a year, for life. But it needs to be specific, just 'Getting Fit' is not enough. Try 'I'm going to run 5km three times a week' or 'I'm going to train for and complete in the Women's Triathlon'. So instead of saying this year I'm going to get fit set a gal and change for life.

For me? I won't let myself dwell on the past, not worry about what may or may not happen in the future, but take each day as it comes. Happy New Year and make 2014 your year!