What a day!

Every so often I get to do something that afterwards I just know I will remember.

Today was one of those. Not the work part though!

I had taken my running gear to work with the idea of doing a 6km run at lunchtime, by myself or maybe with one of my workmates who seems to be getting more obsessed with this fitness stuff.

(Me obsessed with fitness??Maybe.)

Last week I had done the run from work (NZ Sugar Ltd) to a place called Kendall bay. I had taken my swimming gear and a towel. That was a good day, except for a little incident that "messed it up" . When I got to the beach, while I saw nobody there, I thought to go behind some bushes to get changed. Following a beaten path into the bullrushes I thought to stop and think to myself that this is the sort of place people use for a toilet and backed out a bit, and got changed. After a very nice swim I returned and when I went to put my running shoes on I realised I had stood in something nasty. It had to get washed off, but it still lingered to I had to wash them thoroughly when I got home.

Which took the gloss off that particular day.

Anyway, today, my workmate suggested we go there. Then he said he would try and rustle up some more people, and he managed to get two more.

It is a really nice walk (we did not run much) along the tops of the cliffs in the bush as you can see from the photo above. When we got there we had a nice swim in our running gear.

After winter in Auckland where it did rain every day, this is surely paradise.

Badminton trip away

This is the view from the deck:

Recently, I had to play tow Veteran's ties in Whangerei, which is a city about 160km north of Auckland, which is where I live.

It involves a day's playing of badminton with other silly old folks. We won one and lost one. Oh well, cie la vie.

To grab the opportunity, we decided on a four day weekend, staying at a place called Tutukaka, which is about 30 minutes from Whangerei. We stayed at Pacific Rendesvous Motel.

On the Sunday we did the trip to Russel and back, which seemed a lot longer and windier than it did on the map!

Big deal:I moved my computer.

Yay! Moved my computer from the garage (freezing cold and drafty!) to Rose's "sewing room"

I have moved her one too, so we are now sitting in the same room when computing. That is, me doing this sort of thing and her doing Runescape. I'm not sure if Runescape is a good or bad thing. On the plus side, it allows contact with other people and a certain amount of brain exercised might be involved! On the negative side I cannot see where you actually accomplish anything.

Running: does not seem to be getting easier-in fact it seems just as hard as ever.

Where I work has just been bought out by a Singaporean firm- It should be fairly interesting in about 3weeks time to see what changes this might bring.

Body Revolution

Here it is: at the end of a 6 week course of exercise and diet called "Body Revolution", I have just celebrated by having 2 glasses of wine and an icecream!

This program was put on by the company I'm working for - even me as a lowly contractor! All that was involved was 2 gym sessions per week and advice on diet. I started out at about 100.7kg and now I am 97.7kg (with shoes and shorts and tee shirt!). That makes a 3kg loss.

I suppose I should be happy with that, but one of the other guys did 5kg. The sessions were quite high intensity-I'm still yet to do more than 4 pressups so I maybe I should continue the torture. The diet was essentially, eat more vege, eat more at the beginning of the day, less at the end. He recommended no alcohol, or tea or coffee. I attempted to follow that plan but occasionally fell off the rails.

You got a diary to record what you ate, how much you exercised and what your weight was at a weekly weigh in.

I have in the past considered going on some sort of diet, but this time I think I have really made an effort, and have some good results. I think that more fatties should try this technique: all you have to do is go to the green grocers and buy a bag of carrots and a bag of tomatoes at the beginning of the week. Chuck in some bananas, mandarins or whatever and you are set for morning teas. The plan is to keep yourself fed so that when lunch rolls round you are not too hungry and will not need to pig out.

Lunch might be buying 1/4 chicken and having this with a tomato.

Normally I used to have porridge every morning, but now I'm trying the following for two people:

1 carrot grated
2 sticks of celery
1 pear
1 tomato
1 orange
yogurt
pumpkin seeds/pine nuts and whatever

The sweetness of the orange lifts the whole mix and it just tastes great.

Have this for breakfast (with just warm water-no coffee), and you will start the day feeling terrific.