Run In A Relaxed Manner

Isn't it funny that we are always getting to somewhere, always doing something; needing to finish this or start that and usually in a rushed and harried manner. Our bodies and minds are programed from birth to achieve and  seek success in this modern society. We are tense, tight and anything but relaxed. Even though I'm a practitioner of mindfulness I still struggle with transferring the mindfulness during sitting practice through to 'being' practice (everyday life). 

This occurred to me today while I trudged along on the treadmill trying to turn myself from a non-runner to a runner. Thud, thud, thud; pant, pant, pant. Teeth gritted, determined with the wise words of, "There is only one way through this... and it's the hard way'. Trying to push from 1 minute running before I drop back to a walk, to 1 minute 30 seconds, to 2 minutes. What a joke when people run for hours and kilometers. So with curiosity I started to play with just relaxing. I began my run focusing on my feet as they hit the treadmill - heel strike, ball of foot and off the toe; moved up to both legs feeling an easy stride, looking for tension and relaxing it; moved up to my body, shoulders, neck, arms, checking in on my lungs - all good. Getting out of my head and 'being' in my body.

My head wants to check the time and I refuse to look as I know that will burst the bubble, as head stuff always does. Bother, like Lot's wife I couldn't resist, I looked - 3 minutes my record, yippee ... and then I stopped. Now I will have to work on that head game. Ha ha.

Double pic-ing (reusing picture) - for my benefit - I'm sure not yours.  

Learn to Run- Bahaha That's a knee slapper!

On Your Mark,    Get Set,    GO!

What?   Who me?    Now?

Really?   You're not kidding?   You want me to run?

Look out that stop watch is ticking.

OK, OK,   I'm going ....

......And going....

........................And going!

How many ..... laps ..... for 1 Km???

Ok, I'm walking it in - this time.

I'm Having a Mental Event

I am prowling the kitchen agitated. Home late from work, school event from 6 - 7pm, quick groceries shop in a empty shopping center (as everyone else is at home), then home. It is late, dinner preparation time is long over, so toasted chicken and salad sandwich was decided as a sensible healthy quick fix for all. Now I'm stressed and wanting some soothing. I'M STILL HUNGRY. My son has a chocolate bar in the fridge which is for school - can't eat that; there is flat sparkling wine in the fridge from visitors on the weekend - I put that down the sink; spotted the raisin bread crusts left over from breakfast on the bench - my hand reaches out for it and then I remembered what this is - I'm having a mental event. This hunger is above the neck so I've come here to type to get out of that kitchen. Thanks for reading, the moment has passed. I can now go back to the kitchen to clean up and stay 'clean'. :)

Gooving with Benny Goodman to Sing, Sing, Sing

 

Grooving in Grandpa's garage to old vinyls from Hooked on Swing, Benny Goodman (you must look him up on iTunes), Caramba (Roberti Delgado)  to Johnny Cash. My younger sister Lauren, Mum, Dad and I were getting our 30 minutes a day. Actually Lauren and I danced, exercised and gym machined for 1hour and 36 minutes, and donated 800 plus calories to the universe each. That is my best effort to date. It always amazes me how effortlessly this happens with music, great company and 'no-bodies looking' dancing.

Lauren is getting into shape to walk Cradle Mountain in Tasmania this Christmas and has done a marvelous job so far. Dropped at least 2 dress sizes, she looks marvelous. So the baby of the family becomes the leader of the way and mentor to her older sisters. She is such great value. As you can see Mum has always been a groover from old and as for my Dad, he is a National level masters kayaker. Wow, I do come from good stock so I'd better get over this hump and get cracking. Shake that tail feather, rattle that roll,

"...And all the Jazz"

JFDI - Just Fricken Do it

 

Yes that is me just about to head off to the gym at 5.20am - again. It was dark and freezing - JFDI, JFDI, JFDI, was racing through my head. 'Robot mode' was another manta I was reciting that morning. However once in the gym it was warm, well lit and filled with other fellow insomniac Eskimos. It was actually very enjoyable as I had the Queens Diamond Jubilee concert on the large flat-screen to exercise to. I was grooving with Cliff Richards who was doing some really inappropriate hip gyrations for a chap of his age and Grace Jones who looked just plain silly singing and doing her own gyrating with a hool-a-hoop. But when you think about it they were out there moving and grooving and living life just as I am trying to do, though I usually save that kind of moving to the privacy of my kitchen dance sessions.

Woo Hoo!! Look at me Mum!!

Yes that is me up at 5am and ready to go by 5.20am. (I need to work on that turn around). It was dark, raining and very cold out, but I'm grooving to go for my first work out. Actually I was awake at 4.35am with the flannelette sheets pulled over my head cursing my enthusiasm, or more likely, my anxiety for this first day. I bet that will wear off quick smart. 

Once in the car with the dark morning surrounding me, demister on (and not working), windows down to reduce the fog inside the windscreen, I drove down my road when a deranged laugh ripped from within me - this is madness, who does this sort of thing. In disbelief I noticed so many other cars on the road and wondered where on earth were all these people going at this ridiculous hour of the day. I decided to think that they too were all heading off to their gym to put in a healthy 50 minutes to start their day. And even more encouraging once at my gym there were actually people in it. I was certain it would be deserted until the more decent hour of 6 or 7am but no at least 10 others where there, and so I thought there must be hundreds more in my town alone, at that time of day, doing the same thing, and thousands and thousands more through out this country. Now that thought was encouraging. Wow there is a whole other, unknown, world out there with many fellow compatriots going about, doing their own healthy thing to draw encouragement from. 

So tomorrow and the next day, and the next, and the next at 5am when my alarm blares and I think "NOOOOOOO!! I CAN'T", I'll remember all my buddies out there getting up in the dark and cold, and I'll think "Hold up, wait for me, I'm coming!"

 

On the Eve of the New Round

It all begins tomorrow. All the preparation of pre-season have been attended to and ticked. However for the last week solid I have been down with a flu. Not a bad head cold that we self-sorrowfully call a flu, but the type that one realizes how silly it is to call a head cold the flu. I have rested, had cold tablets, lemon drinks and olive leaf extract to move this on before start date. I will take it easy with Mondays work out but work out I will. Wish me luck!!!

My Renewed pledge to myself and to all who care to read!

Below is my commitment rejigged for Round 2, 2012 of the 12 week body transformation. This pledge has been seriously considered, refined and recommitted to. It has been printed, laminated and posted on the blessed refrigerator, a most worthy noticeboard.  P.S. I lost 6kg last round, decreased in 1 dress size, I laugh more and I let a lot more go through to the keeper than I use to. So round 1 I do call a success and I have signed up for more, which in reality means I have signed up for more life and more living.

  I am committed to do the work it takes to get me there. I am committed to losing 10kgs this round of the 12-week body transformation program (12WBT). I am committed to losing 20kgs by the end of 2012. I am committed to my mindfulness practice (MBSR) to improve my focus, my personal inner strength and integrity. I am committed to being the best version on myself here and now - forever growing. I am committed to dancing in my kitchen, laughing out loud and singing in the shower. I am committed to supporting my fellow 12wbt family members and I am committed to trusting in the process.

I accept the outstretch hands of all my supporters; my cheer squad, my family friends, my dear girlfriends, my sisters, my extended family here and far away, my mother, my father, and most precious of all my children. I shake your hands, each and every one of you and in return for the support and love you all give me and the faith you have in me, I commit this to you – I will be growing longer legs for bigger strides NOW!!!

So…, with 3 quick Hail Mary’s and Our Lady of the Way pray for me, the journey has begun again in earnest. How could it go wrong with so much support and love behind me, including myself - the strong, determined, committed, intelligent, caring woman that I am.