Cooking with gas

Last night I was worried I wouldn't sleep properly after a 2 hour nana nap... needn't have worried though because I slept 9 hrs before my alarm woke me up! The red oval on my arm is still warm but has now turned brownish so hopefully it is fading.

My gas heater was finally fixed today and now it works really well and is really quiet - I can hear my TV while it is on and I can actually barely hear the heater running! I much prefer gas heating to having to use my air con for heating because when you turn up a gas heater it actually pumps out warmer air and it feels warm all the time.

Yesterday at work I got free tickets to today's footy match, Collingwood V West Coast Eagles and it was an awesome match! Collingwood won by 100 points and the sun was shining the whole match and it was a great afternoon.

Exhausted

It was so difficult to get up this morning I didn't end up getting on the bike before work cos I just wanted to keep sleeping. Sitting at work this morning I really felt like I was going to fall asleep at my desk and again after lunch I had the same problem so I decided to head home an hour or so early to have a bit of a nana nap... 2 hours later I woke up! Ok, so 2 hours is probably a bit long to class it as a nana nap, but you get the idea. The scary thing is that I didn't even want to get out of bed when I woke up, I think I was only woken up by the need to go to the bathroom.
I still feel extremely tired and it is definitely going to be an early night tonight

Time to get organised

The next few days I am going to try to get on the indoor trainer each day. Probably not tomorrow morning, but tomorrow arvo, Sat morn and then Sunday arvo - time to get back into a regular routine otherwise I wont get back out on the road.

One thing I enjoy about traveling to Sydney and back for work is the people watching. You see people in such a confined space and you can get a slight insight into their lives. The guy next to me on the flight home was nice, we spoke a few words, comments about observations more than anything, but we didn't bother each other - it was nice :)

I got the flu shot yesterday and I am using that as my "excuse" for my crappy nights sleep in the hotel and it is definitely the reason for the red oval about the size of my palm on my arm. Lets just hope that it does it's job and I don't end up with the flu this year.

Yes you can

Today I was talking to someone about some testing that is being done for a project and I mentioned that they will need to put at least one order through for each transaction type, even if we aren't changing that type, to ensure that they haven't been impacted by the change. The reply I got was "We can't possibly know every type of transaction that goes through the system!"

-blink-

If a requirements document doesn't outline what a system can and can't do, then what does it do?!?

Fighting the lazyness

Yesterday I went with my niece and my sister to the newly opened Plenty Valley Shopping Centre in Mill Park. The new section only opened on Thursday and to encourage all the families to turn up and spend money, they had LOTS of entertainment for the kiddies and my niece loved it! She saw the Care Bears stage show, went on a jumping castle and went on a seat spinny around thing. She also saw a magician and it was awesome seeing her have sooooooo much fun! The magician had her mesmerised and he really was fantastic - he seemed like he loved what he was doing and he was very good at it. It was great seeing my niece have such a great time - she is so cute!

One thing I have suffered from greatly since my reduced inactivity is PMS. When I am exercising a lot and riding most days I didn't seem to suffer PMS that much, but since I have been injured, each month I really noticed being overly grumpy, moody and I seem to crave chocolate mud cake! So being slack in getting on the indoor trainer this week probably hasn't helped. Another thing is that each month my back just seems to have a constant dull ache which puts me off getting on the bike (due to the discomfort and ache) and yet getting on the bike would help improve my mood!

I have been a bit lazy again this week, so I need to pick up my game again and stay focused on my goals

Congratulations & Welcome!

A massive congratulations to Steve and Trudy Kirk on the arrival of their first child a boy they have named Wilson Riley Captain Kirk!
More info here and here with photo's

Results

I made mention in my last post that I was enthusiastic and breaking out of my lazyness slump - I am happy to report that I am still making good on this. I have been eating (mostly) well all week, heavily reduced my alcohol consumption and while I only got on the indoor trainer twice due to my back flaring up, I still managed to lose 1.2kg's this week! It's great to see the changes I have made working and I am generally just feeling better which is the best bit.

After last weeks flare up, I am seeing the physio tomorrow for a general de-tension of all my muscles relating to my back issue. I think this is something I may need to do every 4-6 weeks in general even if I am not in pain, either that or maybe get a massage - oooh mmmm massage :D

I have borrowed a friends copy of The Cyclist's Training Bible (Third Edition ) by Joe Friel and it is quite an interesting read - I think I will get quite a bit out of it.

My gas wall heater is getting fixed tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to no longer needing to use my air-conditioner as a heater - all that electricity!

Enthusiastic

I am doing very well at breaking out of my lazyness slump. In the past week, I have been on the trainer a couple of times and become more focussed about eating properly and have even started taking some multi-vitamins each day.

This morning I upped my time on the trainer to 25 minutes and tomorrow I plan to increase it again to 30 minutes.

I am very focussed and very excited about doing the right thing again. I have my excitement back to get back on the bike. For the past few weeks I have been saying to myself that I will get on the bike and whenI do I enjoy it and I have been, but now I am REALLY eagre to get back out on the road and really foucssed on the changes I have to make to get there. I still have to build up a bit more fitness/stength before I do though, but I have my enthusiasm back so all I have to do now is to not get frustrated by my siutation at the moment :D

By the end of today I will have done 25mins on the indoor trainer, a 19 minute walk and a 30 minute pilate class :D

I need to remember

Almost four years ago, I was told that the surgeon had removed a lump from my bowel. It was tested and it showed that it was pre-cancerous. What that meant was that if they weren't trying to investigate what was causing my abdominal pain which turned out to be my appendix, then a few years from then I would have had bowel/colon cancer. It wouldn't have been found until it was too late, until it had turned i.e. symptoms showing and life would be drastically different. They don't know how long it would have taken to reach the point of symptoms showing to diagnose it, but that doesn't matter, I managed to avoid it by almost pure fluke. Everyday I take a fibre supplement to try to flush out my bowel so that my three yearly checks (colonoscopy's) come back clear. Last year I had a check up and it came back OK, which is great! But what about when it doesn't, or what about if the three yearly check is too late? The specialist said that bowel cancer takes 5+ years to develop so getting checked every 3 years is enough... but what if it isn't? I have the cells there, I am pre-disposed to it because it has already been found in me... in ME! I try not to think about it but sometimes it does just get to me. It is also in my family to get breast cancer, my grandma had a double mastectomy and ovarian cancer is also in my family.

Just thinking out loud...

All clear now?

I donated blood on Tuesday for the first time since August and I have a nice bruise still on my arm. I found out just how much weight i've gained through my injury and having all my illness' from the past 6 months documented was really quite an eye opener. I had an ovarian cyst burst, inflammation of my bowel which involved an intense course of two lots of antibiotics, a colonoscopy which involves a GA and then steroids (prednisolone) and antibiotics for my asthma flare up at the start of the year. When you consider all of that actually happened in a 3-4 months period, it really is quite a lot! Combine that with my back problem and no wonder I've gained weight.

But I am working on the weight issue and I haven't been sick for a while now and I am starting to feel better and this week I have been trying to deal with my lazy mood so it is hopefully all coming into place.

I started my new pilates program on Thursday night and its tough! I came out of the class on wobbly legs and some of the muscles in my back had the feeling of being used for the first time in a long time! It is certainly challenging and it's going to be good because I was kind of getting sick of the doing almost the same ones for 4 months with only increasing the resistance. The new program is also aimed towards cycling muscles.

Getting there

Well I got on the trainer yesterday, only 10 minutes, but I didn't want to just jump back into 20 minutes after more than a week off the bike - good news is that my back was ok with it, so tomorrow I will do 20 mins before work.

I had to work from home today as someone was coming around to check my gas heater. It makes so much noise that I can't use it and try to relax of an evening, let alone try to watch tv. He said that the fan needs replacing as the bearings are shot - fingers crossed that my landlords will give him the OK to fix it.

While working from home today I decided that I was going to take advantage of it and I made a BIG pot of beef n vegie soup and it's really yummy! Which is kinda good seeing how much I made.... I think I will be freezing most of it. I am also going to make some vanilla bean rice pudding tonight for even more yumminess.

I also read this article by Catherine Deveny about the whole shit storm that has been created by Sam Newman on the Channel 9 Footy Show and I agree with her so!

My thoughts are with Susan

For quite some time now I have been a regular reader of Elden "Fatty's" Fat Cyclist blog. For quite sometime his wife, Susan has been battling cancer, a couple of months ago they got told that things were looking OK and her latest round of treatment could be delayed, but last week things turned really sour for them. Susan was told that her cancer has spread to her brain and that there are no real options and she may only have months to live.

Today Fatty received an email from Lance Armstrong with a photo of him holding a sign for Susan to Win! I find it amazing that he has sent this email, that he found out about this turn around - the internet really does make the world a smaller place. It probably helps that Fatty runs several competitions with the entry fee being a donation to the Live Strong Lance Armstrong Cancer Foundation.

I am not really sure why I am writing about this in my blog, but I just felt the need to do so.

Gotta get going

I haven't really felt much like writing in here the past week or so, was busy with work in that I was in Sydney so my spare time on a PC was reduced with all the meetings and then just being tired in the evening zoning out and watching tv.

I haven't been on my bike on the indoor trainer for over a week or two due to sheer lazyness. I need to snap myself out of this massive lazyness cloud/fog that I am in - I just can't be bothered! I am still doing my 20 min walks almost each morning but I am still feeling extremely lazy and bleh. I know I need to eat more vegies so I will try to make a concious effort to do so this week. Doing my food shopping would also be a good start. I am also going to get back on the indoor trainer this week to get the HR up a bit to try to snap myself out of this lazyness cloud. I think I am also sleeping too much which isn't helping, the less active I am the more I seem to sleep which then seems to make me less active again - weird I know, but that's how it feels. Maybe I should start taking some multi vitamins too.