Change is in the air

Being my first week off from Uni means the stress levels have come down, and it is about time I tackled a couple of my vices and made some changes. I got abhorrently drunk at my end of Uni drinks on Friday night, I knew I would as I needed a blow out after all the stress build up from having five assignments due all within the space of a week (sometimes you wonder if the lecturers really do want you to pass?). I very rarely go out as I have my boys fulltime, and quite frankly I am quite over the pubs, bars and clubs scene, I am enjoying my nanarism and at this age getting off your tit has nasty consequences the next day. 

So I polished of my bottle of wine, had a few more bottles of beer and chain smoked through a pack of cigarettes, and it brought me to one mother of a hangover on Saturday. A sore head, dashes to the bathroom to bring up the last bit of water I had drunk to try and keep myself hydrated, luckily I had no children home and could spend the day recovering. As I lay dying in bed, I swore to myself and I swore to God, that I was never drinking alcohol ever again, the same old story that we all do when we are trying to recover from a hangover. I made a pact with myself that now that Uni was over, it was time that I started putting sometime into me and improving my lifestyle. It was time to give up smoking and eating crap food, time to start exercising and eating right, and clearing the fog out of my brain that had inhibited it over the past month of assignments, crap food, and lack of sleep. It was time for change.

Approximately 6 weeks ago, a new gym opened up locally that I had been waiting to open since March last year. As I had been on the waiting list for it to open, I was contacted when they had their opening date to organise a pre-signup deal. Off I went and signed up, but their opening date fell in the first weekend of the school holidays which meant I could not start until my boys were back at school, or that was the excuse I told myself. The school holidays came and went, and then the pressure of the final few weeks of Uni mounted. I had huge amounts of study, assignment writing and group meetings to attend. I never made it to the gym.

Yesterday being Monday and the start of a new week, I decided it was time to start at the gym. The usual nagging of excuse finding littered my brain, but it was time. If I was serious about making change, then I had to start now. On Sunday night I texted my friend Rob whom attends the same gym to find out if he was going for a work out, he was, so we made a time to meet at mine at 9.30am Monday morning. 

Monday morning I was nervous, I hadn't been to the gym for about a year and a half, and I had piled on the weight. And unfortunately for us larger people, the majority of people who attend the gym are fit good looking people. I weighed myself once I had risen for the morning, as weighing yourself in the morning before anything passes your lips gives for a more consistent weight reading. I looked at the scales; a whopping 86kgs, I was officially the biggest I have ever been, even heavier than when I was 9 months pregnant with each of my sons. I remembered one of my colleagues from when I was on my Fieldwork Placement earlier in the year, who had also undergone the same degree as I, stating that on average her and her class mates had put on 12kgs throughout the 3 years of the degree. I had said in return that there was no way I could afford to put on that amount of weight, and here I was not far from it.

Monday was the start to a healthier lifestyle, I also had decided to start my diet of natural foods. I was to only eat food that was made by nature, and not in some factory somewhere. This diet consists of eating fruit, vege, nuts, legumes, seeds, healthy oils such as extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil, meat from grassfed animals, chicken and seafood, the gifts from mother nature that provide all the nourishment that our bodies need. There was to be no processed man made foods, I knew if I was to get healthier and lose weight then I had to stick to this diet, and I knew that it wasn't going to be easy.

After weighing myself, I went downstairs and woke my boys up to get ready for school. I normally skip breakfast, eat a banana or grab something once I get to Uni which is normally the gorgeous sushi from the local sushi shop. I made us all porridge for breakfast, which my eldest loves, and the youngest likes it when it suits him. I gave the boys a light sprinkling of brown sugar over their porridge and milk, whilst I kept to plain porridge and milk which I have eaten plain for a longtime before the decided lifestyle change. Half an hour later we piled into the car for the school drop off, when my eldest reminded me that they had cross country that morning at school. Ok, it looked like I wasn't going to the gym at 9.30am, so I thought I would ask Rob if he minded going to watch the kids cross country, he worked at the schools afterschool care program so I didn't think he would be too fussed. When I arrived home, he had arrived and was waiting for me. I put the cross country past him and he agreed to go and watch before heading to the gym. I'm glad that we did watch, as my eldest came in third for the year 6 boys, and my youngest came in fourth for the year 1 boys, another proud mama moment - I was rapt. I also have a little sister whom is four months older than my eldest (we have different fathers, and is another story for a different day), and who also attends the same school, she came in sixth for the year 6  girls, so I was also very proud of her.

Cross country over, and we were heading for the gym. The nerves started to kick in, I don't know why, but they did. I told Rob that he had to take it easy on me, I hadn't exercised in a long long time, he laughed and agreed. We started on the treadmill, I made the pace a few notches slower than what I used to have it at when I had worked out previously. 20 minutes down, and we moved on to the weight machines. I know to burn fat faster, you have to build muscle, so I went with doing two reps of 10 on each machine. Afterwards, we headed back to the treadmill for another 15 minutes, then over to the mat area to do some abdominal exercises. I said to Rob that I hated planking, and was hopeless at it, he agreed with the dislike and we decided to have a competition to see who could plank the longest. I knew that I was about to get my butt kicked as Rob is quite fit and frequents the gym on a regular basis, but if it was going to add a little bit of fun to planking then I was all for it. Rob started his timer on his phone, I was expecting to last 20 seconds, I was shaking like crazy and felt a little wobbly, my poor body started aching, Rob called out 45 seconds and dropped. Oh my gosh, I had just beaten him, I couldn't believe it! Neither could he, so he called for a rematch. "Ok, lets go again then" I said, I felt a bit more confident this time. "One minute, stop" Robbed called out when we had reached a minute, and then he dropped, I had beaten him again! And boy did I give him some cheeky stick, he came back with the excuse that it had hit a minute and he said stop so I had not beaten him, I guess it was a blow to the male ego to have the fat girl beat him, but it was the boost I needed to get me into the fitness mode. We did our stretches and headed home.

Today is a new day and the start to kicking my disgusting smoking habit. I was out of ciggies, and did not want to buy anymore. I had started my healthy eating yesterday, and was feeling good from that and the gym. My friend Claire, and her 2 year old daughter were coming over for a visit after lunch. Claire smokes also, so I knew I would most probably end up having a ciggie.

I headed to the gym in the morning with Rob again, and bumped into one of my class mates there. Yay, I knew someone else who was attending the same gym, someone else I could talk to while working out to make it less boring. As it is with me, if my brain is distracted while I am exercising, then I don't really notice the challenge of exercise, but when it's not distracted I notice it, and I start making excusing to myself to shorten whatever exercise I am doing, I'm very good at self sabotaging at times.

During Claire's visit I had two ciggies, I thought that it was ok and that I would start a fresh tomorrow. When she offered me a third one, I thought no I don't need it, I will be ok. I didn't tell her I was giving up, as I don't like telling people in advance in the case that I don't follow through.

So here I am on Tuesday night, about to head off to bed. I haven't had a cigarette since 2.30pm, and I have come to the conclusion that I won't be having another one. I gave up smoking 6 years ago for 3 and a half years, and started again when I relocated back to Auckland 2 and a half years ago as everyone else around me was smoking so I thought what the hell why not join them - it was one of the stupidest things I have ever done. I learn from my mistakes, and that is not one I am likely to make again. When I gave up 6 years ago, I did it because I actually didn't want to smoke, and as I really didn't want to smoke, it was not hard to do. Over the past two years I have quite often played with the idea of giving up smoking, but I never wanted to give up, so I didn't. This time round, I actually don't want to smoke, so I know that the last cigarette I had today, will be the last one that I ever have addicted to nicotine. Thank goodness for carrot sticks, bananas and nuts that have gotten me pass the urges tonight. 

Change is in the air, and change is happening! My life is about to change for the better, join me as I blog my journey.