Snoskred Health

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February Goals

4 Comments Posted on February 4, 2019April 24, 2019 by Snoskred

This year I am getting back on the focused exercise train. Too much work, allowing some undesirable foods to creep back into the diet and not enough walking or running have seen a small weight gain on the scales. Not much, because I am doing something about it before it continues, but enough to make me feel slightly uncomfortable.

I wasn’t really sure what kind of goal to set. I did a few walks in January and generally felt they went ok, but I would like to get back to running again. I also wanted to get some serious distance in across the month BUT I have to be realistic about it.

In general I work 3 days a week at the moment but that could increase without much notice as a surprise to myself, in fact I could be called in to cover at the last minute. Making plans and appointments is a bit difficult for that reason. I just have to be prepared.

What I’d like to do at the end of the month is take my mileage and divide it by 28 and it works out to 5km per day. That means I would have to walk 140km in the month of February. I could do it as 14 10kms, which leaves me free days if I don’t get a chance to walk. Is it doable? Who knows. But I know when I set a goal I like to smash it, so.. we will see. I’ll check in once a week to let you know how I am going. We are now 3 days into Fitness February so here is the first check in.

I kicked off the day before February began – this walk will not count to the February total, but I’m just going to put it here for the record.

On Friday February 1st, I did my first 10km for the year. I divided it up into two 5kms when I tracked it on my Fitbit because I set two different pace goals – 8 minutes per KM for the first half, and 10 minutes per KM for the second half.

Friday was a really good day for it, overcast with cool temperatures of just 22C (71.6F) and not much breeze – it would have been too cold for me if there were one.

For the first 5km I ran 100m out of every 500m, which might have been a bit ambitious but felt ok at the time. The next day I was a bit sore and I had to work plus we had family over for a BBQ so I couldn’t go for a recovery walk on Saturday. But I made up for that on Sunday.

I did not set pace goals for Sunday, I really just wanted to stretch out and try to sort out the muscle soreness. My plan was to walk 45 minutes in one direction, then return back to the car.

It was a gorgeous hot sunny day, about 27C (80.6F) with a strong sea breeze. It turned out I needed a bathroom visit mid-walk and I decided to keep going to my preferred bathroom rather than stop at the most used one at Moona Moona creek, which was absolutely packed. This added an extra 1.5km onto my walk, and some extra time as well. It was ok, I wasn’t in a hurry.

In fact every carpark was packed and I couldn’t get my usual favourite spots, so I will have to keep that in mind for Saturday and Sunday walking this month.

February Total so far – 21.08

exercise, Fitness February 2019, Snoskred Lives

Mathematical Protein Soup

5 Comments Posted on April 4, 2018April 3, 2018 by Snoskred

I’ve been buying Whey Protein Isolate in bulk from Bulk Nutrients since 2016 now. The quality is excellent. I get the raw flavour AKA totally unflavoured because I like to add my own flavours to my shakes, and if you get raw protein you can add it to soup without even blinking. Yes, soup. Sounds crazy? It actually isn’t, though I suspect I am one of the few people on the planet who do this.

I bought 5kg of protein in December 2017. One serving of protein is 40g though sometimes I use a little less depending on how active I have been and how long it is till my next meal. My protein shake is very filling so if I have left my shake a bit late, I will not be hungry enough for dinner unless I cut down the amount of protein to 30g.

So a quick math workout – 1000g of protein = 25 servings. Therefore each 1kg bag of protein should last me 25 days.

I should have got 125 days of protein out of this last order, right? However on weekends we often both have a shake, which muddles up the maths. There is now a new variable, which is The Other Half having protein shakes for lunch at work. It would be fine maths wise if it were X days a week. But it never works out that way.

What I usually do is wait until I open my last 1kg bag and make another order of 5kg. But this time I did a little maths first.

It costs me $7 flat rate shipping no matter how much I order. Also when you buy more, the price is slightly cheaper. Here is a quick table. OMG listen to me doing maths like I like it! ;)

.10 cents per serving does not seem like a big saving. When you consider there are 375 servings in 15kg, it works out to $37.50. But you also have to consider, if I bought 3x 5kg, I would have to pay an extra $14 in shipping. Suddenly we are up to $51.50 in savings. I’m going to buy the protein anyway, it keeps long term, and I won’t have to order it again for some time, so we bought 15kg.

We’ve worked a rough calculation for how many protein shakes The Other Half might have, and essentially we think this is enough protein for the two of us for 250 days. If that turns out to be correct, I will next need to order protein in December 2018, but I might be able to make it to January 2019, because I only just opened the final 1kg bag from the last order.

Protein Soup

If you do a quick google there are not a lot of places talking about adding protein powder to soup, so it is not Officially A Thing. But I did it all last winter and it worked out great for me. With my present thyroid issues I really feel the cold so a shake with frozen stuff in it is not the most optimal for me on very cold days.

It works best in soups you have whizzed up to a creamy consistency. You do need to stir it in well – whisking might work best but I just use a spatula and stir like a person possessed. You could also use a immersion blender, like the Thunderstick.

If you want to see other places you could squeeze in some extra protein, here are a couple of good articles – 15 Genius Ways to Add Protein Powder to Foods – 41 Sneaky Ways to Add Protein Powder Into Every Meal.

health, Soup

Sunny

4 Comments Posted on March 21, 2018March 21, 2018 by Snoskred

The new Volkswagen Polo ad which you may have seen, though likely the shorter 30 second version, features a very fascinating transformer car costume. The logistics of which are somewhat blowing my mind, but I try not to think too hard about it. Unfortunately the song they have used gets stuck in my head, which leads me to think about it, and what I have figured out is, this costume might be technically impossible to actually make.

I love the colour of that car, how gorgeous. Funny that we have never once got the car colour we initially set out to buy. On at least two occasions we have tried to buy an electric blue car, but it has never worked out that way.

After a few days of this ad music running through my head, I googled to see what it actually is. Now I am not at all surprised that it got stuck in there. “Sunny” is a song by Boney M.

Another thought I had, while trying to go to sleep and having this music on loop in my head, the end of this ad shows the Polo self parallel parking. I’ve had my Polo for nearly 8 years and I cannot recall a time I ever once parallel parked. In fact, I cannot remember ever parallel parking once since my drivers test over 20 years ago. Not once ever.

I asked The Other Half if he ever remembers me parking parallel and he said no. Maybe my Polo feels a bit short changed, that I never do this feat of parking. Or maybe it is super happy about that?

I do not think I would ever use a self parallel parking feature. I would like a shiny yellow/gold Polo, but how would I stop hearing that song if I had one? I’m 100% sure once these Polos start arriving on the road, the song Sunny will appear in my mind if I see one that colour.

I have established a collection of what I like to call “Polo Parks”. There are rules about where I feel comfortable parking my car. They go like this –

1. Must have one side where no other car can park next to it, eg a garden or concrete edging or a large concrete pole like you find in carparks. Preferably, it would have *two* sides where no other car can park next to it, like the park you see above.

2. Must allow me the ability to park right up against that side leaving ample space for idiots to open their car doors without their car doors ever going anywhere near my Polo.

3. Must be easy to get in and out of. Preferably no turning when reversing AKA I can go straight backwards.

4. Must not have a time limit of less than 1 hour, because usually I am quicker than that but sometimes I wander about.

5. Must provide a decent walk to my destination. I never park near to the shop(s), and sometimes I will park extra far away just to get the steps on my fitbit.

There are probably 10-12 specific carparks in the Shoalhaven which I always head to first. If they are taken by another car, I head for the next nearest Polo park. Sometimes this can mean going to another carpark altogether and then I have to walk back, but I do not think that is a downside.

Sephyroth often receives photos of my Polo parked in Polo parks. He sends Focus park photos back to me. I might have to ask him which particular carpark he has received the most photos of. That would be interesting to know! ;)

I did not park the Polo here, and you can tell that because it has been reversed in. I never reverse into a park. :) I also tend to steer clear of trolley returns. But The Other Half does not mind them as much.

One of my Aspergers “Special Gifts” is recognising numberplates. It is not a conscious thing at all, it happens magically somewhere in my brain. When I see a Volkswagen Polo out on the road, I can tell you where I normally see that one parked.

I can’t explain why my mind has decided to place the usual locations of these particular cars into a mental filing cabinet and keep track of all the numberplates.. like I say it is not a conscious thing at all, and I don’t very often think about it. But when I see a numberplate without a file already present, my mind will let me know that I have not seen that car before.

My mind does the same thing with phone numbers. When I worked in the call centre any number – particularly mobiles – I called was filed safely away. I could not *tell* you the numbers off the top of my head, but when I saw that number pop up on the caller ID, I knew who was calling me and would answer the phone with “Hello name” – it sometimes freaked people out, how did you know it was me calling? I just do, I can’t explain how, sorry. :)

Asperger Syndrome, driving

Fitness At Home

4 Comments Posted on February 26, 2018February 25, 2018 by Snoskred

My main fitness goal for 2018 is muscle toning and core strength. I’m great at cardio, I can run a full 5km without stopping thanks to the couch to 5k program. I did a pilates and yoga class last year and it nearly killed me. For two weeks afterwards anytime I moved a new muscle screamed at me, one that I never knew existed before.

I decided it was time to invest in some new fitness equipment. In December 2017, I bought the Pilates Body Toner from TVSN. I have been using that at least 5 days a week and can feel a big difference. I’ve cobbled together my own workout which I follow, it is based on this 11 minute express workout, but I have added in some other exercises and removed some of the ones I consider to be quite silly, like the Statue of Liberty.

I combine that with yoga at least twice a week. I follow this youtube video “Yoga for Dummies” which is quite long time wise, it runs about 52 minutes and a lot of that could easily be edited out to make it shorter. What I most like about this workout is, she fully explains how to get into these positions properly. I’m already better at these positions, I can do positions I never could before eg Tree, and I tried her second shorter video, too.

I have always loved step aerobics. I used to go to the gym super early in the morning and do a step aerobics class, it was fantastic. Youtube has made it a lot easier to find step aerobics classes I can do without having to go anywhere. All you need is a step and a way to watch the video.

I grabbed about 10 different step classes and added them into a folder, and I have been working through them. My favourite instructor so far is Jenny Ford. She has quite a lot of classes available on her youtube channel.

If you’ve never done step but would like to give it a try, you could start with her beginner class – it runs for 25 minutes and it has 4-5 very easy to follow steps. I love the simplicity of this workout and it *really* is a workout. The music that kicks in when it hits 62% is my favourite and I love the side to side steps around that time.

I do find her shoes quite distracting and I don’t love that she waits until right before changing the move to tell you what the next move will be, but once you have followed the class once you can pretty much remember what the next move is. If you want to have a longer workout, you can just skip back to the start. I wait until I get to 83% and then I skip back, adding in an extra 20 minutes.

Another great channel which is a hard core workout and not recommended at all for beginners is Yvette Bachman. These are recordings of real classes, which is fun. This was the first step workout I tried and I made it about 25 minutes in. This is a very tough workout, and I am working my way up to being able to finish a whole class.

Happy cat is helpful. She likes to join me for any workout, and will quite often sit on my yoga chair and swipe at me while I am trying to do tree position.

exercise

Good News Protein

4 Comments Posted on February 14, 2018February 15, 2018 by Snoskred

I do not “preach” about many things in life. Sure, I can suggest solutions on a myriad of subjects based on my personal experiences, and I do that here on my blog.. Travel. Eating out. How to avoid scammers. The importance of booking directly with a company rather than a via third party website. How to go from not running at all to running 5kms at a time without stopping – these are either already written posts or they are posts for another day.

I have struggled with my weight all my life. Guess what? It is no longer a struggle for me, and a big reason for it is my lunch time protein shake.

When I talk about protein shakes, I sometimes feel like I am trying to spread the good news and often folks just aren’t buying it. I want to be very clear about this.

Protein shakes changed my life forever

When I mention protein shakes to folks who ask me how I lost my 25kg (55 pounds), I will hear the same things over and over. They sound like this –

“I had a protein shake and it tasted terrible”

Yes, it probably did. I’m guessing you had a pre-flavoured protein shake. Those shakes contain artificial sweeteners and they all taste bad as a result. I do not know why flavoring must = sweetener, but apparently everyone involved in protein thinks it must be super sweet to make people drink it.

MY FIX – I buy raw protein without flavouring. I add my own flavour. I could serve my shake in a milkshake glass with whipped cream on top and you would have no idea that you were drinking a protein shake. You would think you are getting a frappe from Starbucks or Gloria Jean’s.

But unlike the frappe from Starbucks or Gloria Jeans which on average contains 30g of sugar, my shake has just 2 grams of sugar, which comes from the frozen banana. I do not add any sweetener to my shake because I feel the banana gives me all the sweetness I need, but if I did need to add some I would go with a touch of maple syrup.

Their shake might have between 6-10g of protein – mine will have 37g of protein. Their shake will have around whopping 30-40g of carbs, mine has just 13g. Their shake will be 300+ calories. Mine is 220.

“I can’t just have a shake for lunch”

Actually you can. I do it all the time. I tell you, if I drink the shake and wait 20 minutes, I will no longer be hungry and I will remain not hungry for at least 2-4 hours after I drink the shake, maybe even longer.

And you don’t have to just have a shake if you don’t want to. You can add healthy snacks on the side. My go-to snacks are usually olives, hommus with carrot sticks, or nuts of some kind. However all the nutrition you need is more than likely right there in that shake, and adding snacks adds extra calories.

“How can I do a shake at work?”

Preparation is key. If you are like me and you don’t mind taking a bag or box in with you, then you can take your Nutri-Ninja with you to work. I measure out my protein ahead of time and have that in small containers and I take a small freezer pack with my 1/2 frozen banana and frozen coffee ice cube. I drink my shake right out of the cup, rinse it in the sink when I am done, take everything home with me when I go, then wash the cup and blender attachment at home that night.

You could buy two Nutri-Ninjas and keep one at home and one at work, or you could invest in some kind of cheap second blender to keep at work.

“Shakes are so boring”

Shakes certainly do not have to be boring. I can drink a different flavoured shake every day of the week if I want to and I can get a little creative about it. Because my shake is so low in calories I do not mind adding something decadent to it once in a while.

I might throw in some dark chocolate to give an extra dimension. I like to add peanut butter powder for a bit of extra savory flavour and if I don’t have any PB2 on hand I might add in a scoop of peanut butter. I sometimes treat myself on weekends by adding a few teaspoons of whipped cream. Salted caramel sauce is a good way to add extra taste.

The bottom line is, I love how my shake tastes and I don’t see any need to change it. I am a big coffee lover, I love chocolate, I love cinnamon, put these things into my shake and I am happy.

I wrote back in 2016 about my adventures with protein. My current shake recipe looks like this –

40g RAW flavour WPI protein powder
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
35g-40g frozen banana – I break them into pieces and freeze.
100mls almond milk.
100mls brewed espresso coffee
1 frozen espresso coffee icecube.
(instant or filtered coffee will also work)

food, health

7 Days Of Jervis Bay

4 Comments Posted on October 2, 2017October 1, 2017 by Snoskred

Day 1 – a group of tourists take a selfie on the beach while the dolphin boat heads out.

I have lived near Jervis Bay for over 10 years now. You would expect that the stunning effect would eventually wear off. I’m here to tell you, it does not. There are days when the beauty stops me in my tracks and I cannot help but stare.

Day 2 – swimmers are surprised by a pod of dolphins on their way to meet the Dolphin Boat.

There are days when I reach my “goal” of however many KM that I set myself, and decide to just keep going instead. However the past 2 days I have not been able to get to the bay due to a long weekend and I knew this would happen so I made sure to add on an extra 5km to my 10km walk on Friday. Traffic was bad on Friday. I got stuck at one notorious intersection for over 20 minutes.

Long weekends are great times to do a lot of work at home when you live in a holiday destination but you have to plan ahead, make sure you have everything you need well before the weekend, and choose your moments – and places – if you do need to get out and get something as a surprise. Between 5-8pm on Saturday and Sunday are generally good times to go places as long as you are not wanting to eat out in a restaurant.

Day 3 – The dolphin boats await their passengers.

I have been trying to get to the walking tracks at least 6 out of 7 days for the past 3 weeks. The weather has been excellent. I would actually prefer it to rain because we really need it. If it did rain, I would still go for my walk. Thunderstorms and lightning, not so much.

Day 4 – Kayakers head out into the bay.

Lately my photos have not been doing any justice to what I am seeing with my eyes. It might be time to replace this camera. Here you see 7 photos from my most recent 7 days at the bay. Most of the photos should enlarge if clicked on, except for day 6.

Day 5 – Rays of sunlight break through the clouds.

It is school holidays here. I don’t mind the extra people about. It is so lovely to see more people enjoying the bay. Everyone I pass says hello. I do mind them being endlessly inconsiderate of others walking the path – and alternately being completely unaware of anyone around them which means I tend to scare them when I walk or run past them – littering – and somewhat memorably last week someone set fire to the toilet paper in our public toilets.

Day 6 – I made a lizard friend.

I do think sometimes I could use a bike bell to let people know I am approaching, but I wonder exactly where I would put it. Both my wrists are spoken for – one with my fitness watch, the other with my camera cord. Maybe I should wear a bell around my neck, like a cat or dog.

Day 7 – Shark Net beach is usually very calm, perfect for swimming.

I also do mind when they cannot allow the beauty of the bay to distract them from their problems and issues. I overhear things. Who cares about work, you are not there right now, you are here in the bay, enjoy it!

Sure, none of the overheard things are “No Mummy, PLEASE, NOT the mineral water, Mummy!” which was our most remembered overheard snippet of conversation ever, in a supermarket in Adelaide and we have been laughing about that ever since. We have no idea what Mummy does with the mineral water but we have imagined many things. More than likely the child wanted Coca Cola instead.

What is your most remembered overheard snippet of conversation?

exercise, Fitbit, Jervis Bay

I kinda got nothing.

8 Comments Posted on August 30, 2017August 29, 2017 by Snoskred

Trust your Snoskred to schedule a pedicure for a day which does not exceed 14 degrees C. I struggle to wear flip flops on a hot summer day here in Australia. I parked as close as I could to the nail salon and walked as fast as I could.

Going there was ok. While I was in there, the local August winds picked up. Walking back to the car was an icy adventure, made more difficult by the sun catching the sparkly in these toes and distracting me from the wind. It is amazing what nail artists can do now – this is a black base with a large, thin glitter applied which makes it look like black opal with highlights of teal, blue, purple, orange and pink. Photos do not ever seem to do justice to these things.

I don’t usually do pedicures other than when I am going on holidays. This year I am going to make more of an effort to take better care of my feet – not so much the painted toes part, but a regular pedicure and I have a referral to a podiatrist. My feet have lost nearly 2 sizes recently and it has changed where my foot is developing the thicker skin so I want to get some advice on that.

My past couple of manicures I have let my qualified nail artist do whatever she liked. It has been a fascinating experience, and I wasn’t really quite sure about this most recent artwork to begin with. I did not realise at the time she did this, but I’d had an outfit in my mind for a while and it was not until I put it on that I twigged – this matched my outfit perfectly! I like to think I mentally transmitted my outfit to her and she did my nails to match.

My mind is blank at this time. I’m going to blame the cold weather. I just want to huddle up wearing all the clothes plus beanies and gloves.

Fingers crossed my blog mojo returns and I can schedule some posts ahead of time again!

Fashion, sparkly, Vitamins

Manicure Fiesta

5 Comments Posted on June 5, 2017March 12, 2018 by Snoskred

I have never been a “girly” girl – there was never any nail polish in our house growing up. It wasn’t a thing we were into. I am terrible at nail painting due to a lack of experience, talent, and skill. I probably could become good at it with a lot of time, effort, and learning to use my left hand as well as I use my right hand. But realistically that is unlikely to happen.
In late 2016 I was having a Good Nail patch – thanks to my daily hair skin and nails vitamins, they were growing stronger and healthier than ever before. I was using Hard As Nails by Sally Hansen which I would paint on every few days to make the nails shiny and slightly more protected from breakage.
I had wanted to try getting a proper shellac – or gel – manicure for a while but I was very wary. I had heard tales of woe, of unsterilised equipment, of fungal nail infections UGH. I did some serious research and asked around, and one local place kept popping up in the conversations. After a bit of umm-ing and ahh-ing, I bit the bullet and made an appointment.

So what is a shellac manicure? This excellent post tells the story of shellac better than I probably could. The photos do not really do these justice, it is hard to get a good photo of these nails.

To summarize it quickly for you, after each coat of nail polish is applied, your nails “cure” with the help of a UV lamp. When you walk out of the salon you do not have to worry about wet nail polish.

The other benefits include much stronger nails and the polish lasts for 2-3 weeks – and sometimes 4 depending on what you get up to hand wise. Since I started getting the gel nails I have not had a single nail break, and I don’t baby them, they do what they have always done.

I have occasionally done a bit of damage to the manicure but you have to work pretty hard to damage it. Most times when I have damaged a nail it has involved metal coathangers, the ones you use to hang up jeans etc. Gel works for me but it does not work for everyone. In particular it would not work well if one had their hands in water a lot.

Until I did this, I never realised how having great looking nails can improve your mood. It makes sense now, given that during any day you look at your hands more than any other body part.

I prefer the French tip style manicure because if you have colour down to the bottom of the nail you notice a gap as your nails grow. But the French manicures are no longer just white tips, as you see from my many examples here. You can choose a colour, you can add some glitter on the top, and probably my favourite manicure so far was black tips with red holographic glitter.

I also loved the ones with electric blue and the pastel but very sparkly green. One appointment I arrived early and sat down with the colour charts and made a memo in my phone of all the colours I wanted for future manicures, so I usually know before I arrive what colour I want to try this time. I’m thinking gold is coming up this week but The Other Half loved the black with red glitter, so I see a repeat of that in my near future, as well.

My manicurist thinks I am strange because I always ask her to trim the nails back, she said everyone else wants to keep the length. I don’t need my nails to be long. I just want them to be neat, shiny, and sparkly. If I let them get too long I begin to have trouble typing.

Fashion, Nail Art, Vitamins

Softsole Express VS Milky Foot

7 Comments Posted on October 26, 2016July 9, 2017 by Snoskred

In Australia, it is heading into that time of year again where you might want to get the feet out of their shoes and socks. I like to do a foot peel from time to time in spring and summer. I’ve used Milky Foot before – it is usually $25+ where I live, so when I saw Softsole Express for $8.99 in Priceline, I thought I would give it a try.

I found it to be slightly less efficient than Milky Foot but at that price you can nearly have 3 of them for the price of one Milky Foot. You have to leave it on for longer than Milky Foot. I would buy Softsole again. Weirdly it cannot be found on the Priceline website. Maybe that is a lack of talent on my part, though.

Six tips I would give you –

1. You need to get yourself organised before you put these things on your feet, because walking will be virtually impossible in fact it is downright dangerous. Use the bathroom first. Have everything you are going to need for the next 60-90 minutes handy eg water, your cup of tea, a snack, whatever. Make sure your phone is nearby.

2. If you have a spare pair of older socks which you don’t mind if they get the solution on them, you can put socks on over the booties. This will not enable you to walk safely, but it will keep your toes warm if it is a cooler day.

3. Keep your feet flat on the ground while you have the treatment socks on, otherwise you may notice some solution begin to leak out of the back.

4. After the treatment moisturize your feet twice to four times a day for the first few days as you will get a better result this way. It can take 3-4 days for the skin to begin peeling off. You will probably notice small bits coming off to begin with usually on the underskin of the toes.

5. Once your feet start peeling, if you want to speed up the process a little you can soak them in hot water with some peppermint oil added.

6. Don’t do this treatment if you have a special event coming up in the next couple of weeks where you will have your feet out on display. The peeling can happen for 2-3 weeks.

Here is a review of the product you can read, and also the Softsole website, if you want to know more.

Milky Foot is excellent and worth a try but at the price you will likely only want to do it once over the summer. That is not a bad thing because you don’t want to do a foot peel more than once a month. Here is the Milky Foot website.

Between the two – softsole smells a lot better than milky foot does. The softsole packet is less optimal than the milky foot one is – it is more prone to splitting on the top. I could walk very carefully with the softsole packet on, I could not with the milky foot one. I think there is a lot more liquid in the milky foot packet.

My Korean friend tells me these treatments are super popular in Korea. My Chinese Aunt tells me these treatments are very popular in China. A couple of years back Milky Foot did a big advertising drive here in Australia and that is where I first heard about them.

health, reviews

It Turns Out, I Am A Runner.

5 Comments Posted on September 5, 2016September 1, 2016 by Snoskred

My windows desktop background image. Why did I choose this, when I was not a runner?

At the start of 2016 I set myself a simple main goal for this year. Eat less, move more.

I love to walk, I always have. I was never someone who enjoyed running. I saw the value in it, especially in short sprints to raise my heart rate during workouts. I did it, but I did not LOVE it. Nor did I think I ever would love it.

I began aqua jogging regularly and discovered that I quite enjoyed that. Though I find people look at one weird, when one is doing it. Or maybe that is just me and the way I do it, because I do sprints in the shallow end to get my heart rate where I want it, then I walk the pool for a lap, back to sprints, back to the walk.

As time went on, I got better at running. I could do it for longer. I began to feel STRONG when I did it. I watched my legs change the more I did it. The muscles started to stand out more.

One day, I ran for a full kilometre on the treadmill. It took somewhere around 7 minutes. This was amazing to me. How is it possible that I could do this, when I used to struggle running for just one minute?

After that, I began to increase my running time during workouts. I began to challenge myself, to watch my times, to note personal best times. I walked, then *ran* up and down beach stairs. I worked on my cardio at Aqua Aerobics. I got my 1km time down to 6 minutes.

My fitness level is the best it has ever been in my 41 years on this planet. I have lost over 20kg (44 pounds) now. My nutrition is the best it has ever been. I am drinking protein shakes daily, which I never expected I would do. The best part – I am actually enjoying all of this.

I still never thought I would want to – or be able to – run long distances like 5km or 10km. One week, I walked 75km and some of that – in fact quite a bit of that – was running.

Then August 21st happened. For weeks I had been seeing signs down at the my usual walk, telling me of running events due to happen on the 21st. HA, I thought. I won’t be down here that day, it will be crazy busy.

When the day happened, it was gorgeous out. Grumpy was due to have surgery that week and I knew this might be my last chance to get out for the next week, so I checked the times for events online and found it would all be over fairly early, but there was another run due in the afternoon. If I went right then, chances were I would have the path pretty much to myself. Within 20 minutes I was in the car and on my way.

I thought – I’ll just run a little bit, then walk, then run a little, then walk. It turned out more like Forrest Gump. I just kept running, pausing only 7 times to take photos.

(the blue line = pace, the red line = heart rate)

That is my personal best time for a 5km, ever. I did not stop there – I went on to walk/run another 5km that same day. The second 5km was slower and I did walk for more of it.. however the running in this case was sprints rather than an even pace. In total, I ran more that day than I ever have before. I expected to be in a world of pain the next day, but I was not. I did a recovery 5km walk, and the following day I ran 2.5km out of my 5km.

I have since run another full 5km with only 3 pauses for photos. I would not call them stops, because it was literally pause, take the shot, back to running. I am running 2.5km out of my treadmill 5kms, and that is only because my treadmill gets too hot if I run a full 5km.

I enjoy running.

I am as shocked to type those words as you likely are to read them. :)

exercise