New Glasses

I got my new glasses today!

Here is me with my old ones:


And my new ones:


These ones show the colours a bit better:




They are very different but I like them! My eyes are still adjusting to them, the ground looks like its all curved when I look down towards my feet and driving home I felt a tincy bit whoozy but it should settle down in a few days once I've adjusted.

I can see clearly now (well soon!)

Since the start of the year I have known that my eye sight has been getting worse and that I needed new glasses, but I just kept putting it off out of lazyness and also due to the cost that would be involved. On Friday I finally got my eyes tested and I was right, my eyes are worse - a lot worse. My prescription, I am short sighted, has gone from 0.50 to 1.00 - that's two steps (or is it stops?) worse and considering they were only two to begin with - I am not doubly blind compared to 18 months ago! It also means that I am now legally required to wear glasses to drive, but I've been wearing them for driving since I got these ones anyway.

I also have reading glasses with mostly prism's in them, but the lowest script available for long sighted people - to assist with reading as my eye muscles aren't the greatest in that instead of looking inwards easily, they really struggle and tend to focus more straight on, so the prisms help to bring everything into focus for my eyes. I have noticed recently that the focal point of my reading glasses isn't great for when I am on my work computer, which is the only time that I really use them - with the old CRT monitors, when I am on my laptop I strangely don't need to use them. Anyway, as the prescription in my normal glasses is now a lot stronger she wants me to see how I go just using them instead - something I am more than happy to do, having two sets of glasses is really annoying! I am wondering though if it has anything to do with the type of monitor I have at work and if it would be better if I got an LCD monitor - anyone have any thoughts on that?

So, I am getting new frames as well and they are extremely different to my current ones and I should have them at the end of the week and I am getting some daily contacts again instead of monthly ones as I don't wear them as much at the moment with my slight change of focus on my cycling - which is the only time I wear them, for long rides.

Challenging

Today I had some weakness, need to remind myself to be strong. To remind myself of what I want to achieve and to say no! No! It is empowering to say No! It is harder to say no than to just agree!

Bleh!

At long last

It is done. Completed. No more. It has been finalised and it is FANTASTIC!!!

My legs my legs...I can't feel my legs!

The other day I tried to figure out what it was that worked really well for me last time when I got fit and lost all my weight and it was having a regular routine. Come home from work, get change and go to the gym and then come home and cook dinner. So, I decided to join a gym.

I didn't want to go back to my old gym, I wanted something different so I went past my local Curves (a 30 minute circuit work out) and didn't really like the feel of it - it wasn't inviting. The weight machines are hydraulic but the resistance can't be adjusted which seemed silly as everyone can do different weights on different machines. I then went past my local Contours, another circuit work out, this one is 29 minutes and I really liked the feel of the place, so much so I made an appointment for the following day and joined!

How it works is that you do 45 seconds on each station and they alternate between a cardio station and a weights station with proper weight equipment and you can adjust the level of weights to ensure you work to what is right for you and you can increase it as you improve and get stronger.
Last night I had my first introductory session, a one-on-one with an instructor and I did one lap of the circuit doing just the weights equipment to get technique right and then on the second lap I did the cardio as well. Today, my arms weren't really sore/tired but they certainly could feel the workout! Tonight at my second one-one-one with an instructor I did the whole thing but tonight we sorted out what weights I would be doing on what machine and I tell you what, by the end of the 29 minutes I was stuffed! My arms were really tired and could barely push the weights but I kept going while I could and now my arms are telling me that they have certainly done some work! If I reach out for anything they hurt, if I bump them on the arms of my recliner, they hurt, if I reach my arms up my shoulders hurt... it all just hurts but it is a GOOD hurt! Tomorrow is going to be somewhat interesting to see how they feel!

I have my final one-on-one session on Saturday morning (you get three all up) and then I am on my own to come and go as I please and work myself as hard or as easy as I want (hard!) I really like the feel of the place, they aren't that busy and the staff are fantastic! They also have a 6 week challenge coming up which I think I am going to partake in for extra motivation.

While I have joined the gym and hope to go at least 3-4 times a week, I am not going to be solely doing the gym work. I am still going to ride to work a few days a week and go for walks on the days I don't ride (and maybe even on the days I do!) and try to get my step count consistently over 10k

Like a baby

I have finally managed to get a couple of good nights sleep and I feel fantastic! Of course it could also have something to do with no alcohol, eating right and exercising more - but who cares, I feel great!

I also did something last night that should be great for me getting back into a good and healthy routine again - now I just need to focus and stay on top of everything, which I should be able to do as I want to do it.

This Friday I am going to be paying off, in full, two debts that I have and THAT is going to be a bloody awesome feeling! I can then focus all that money onto my last remaining CC and if I stick to it, I should also have that paid off by about March/April and then I can go hardcore on the savings plan. It feels great knowing that the headway I have been making on my debts is paying off and I can see an end to it all! Of course then once I have saved for another 12 months or so I will be probably getting myself into a massive amount of debt, but I will own a house so it's ok! :D

In need of a good nights sleep

What a week! While work is still ramping up due to where the projects are at, I have tried to keep myself busy by being more pro-active in chasing stuff up and trying to become familiar with the new systems I am going to be testing. I also had a trip to Sydney this week for work which in itself is tiring. I stayed at the Radisson this time and it was OK but the room service wasn't great (cold over steamed vegies are yuck!). It was greatly beneficial being up there though, I had a great meeting with my new manager and also had several other meetings which I think achieved more from me having been there in person. I also got to meet a few more people that I talk to on the phone - it's great putting names and faces together :)

My manager was in town today so we got my previous manager on the phone and did the final bit of my annual review - it only lasted about 15 minutes but the result was very positive. I had marked myself as having 6 met's and 1 exceed and my manager put me down as having 2 met's, 4 exceeds and 1 outstanding! :D I find it weird because I do my job, I love my job and I like to do a good job - no half arsed efforts, so to be told that I have overall achieved an exceed for the year is fantastic! :D That makes two years in a row! :D I'm also going to be getting a new PD soon once the structure is worked out a bit further and refined more which will be good to have KRA's that match more closely to what I do. It also looks like my area could be expanding and we could be getting some Test Analysts on board - awesome!! :D After being at the company for over 8.5 years, I still love being there and love my job! :D I am very lucky!

I haven't been sleeping properly for the past week. I keep waking up around 4am and then just tossing and turning until my alarm goes off. I think the reason could be because I haven't been going for my daily walks because of my sore foot, so now it's OK again, time to get walking every day again! Next week I am also going to get into gear and going to be riding to work most days and eating right and all that jazz - I really need to eat well and get back on track and stop being lazy. Doing all of it in combination makes me feel fantastic and I will then sleep better and you i really need to ask myself why am I doing this crap to myself when it makes me feel sluggish? It just doesn't make sense, so I am fixing it! :D I am the only one who can - so I will!

Delicious!

Being a really crappy day weather wise (it was 6 degrees at midday and raining) I decide to do some cooking. I made some lasagne from my left over Bolognese sauce which I have frozen in serving sizes - yum!
I also decided to cook roast beef for dinner with roast vegies. I marinated the beef in some fresh garlic, herbs and olive oil and then sealed it in a fry pan before whacking it in the oven. I then cut up some potatoes, pumpkin and carrot, par cooked them in the microwave and then added them to the baking dish in the oven. After about an hour of cooking and turning the vegies once, I removed the meat and cranked the oven up to try to get the potatoes crispy - which they did! The meat was PERFECTLY cooking, nice and pink all the way through the roast and it had a lot of flavour, all served with some gravy - yummo!! I forgot to cook my green vegies though :(

I now have a heap of left over roast vegies and beef to eat during the week at work for lunches :D Mmm roast beef and potato sandwiches!

It is good pain... I hope

I am currently in a world of pain! I can barely walk and even now sitting in my reclined arm chair my foot is hurting... a lot! For the past, I don't know how long, I have had this callous type thing on the heal of my foot, a few months ago I started to get more of them on my foot and soon realised it wan't actually a callous, I didn't realise this though because they are under the skin and not protruding at all. Two weeks ago I went to the Dr about them and had them frozen, which was an experience. It was ok while they were being frozen, however with the little ones it was really painful when normal skin would get frozen. A few days after them being frozen they were sore a bit when I walked, so I wore socks with my slippers and wore my sneakers each day with thicker sports socks for even more comfort and it was mostly ok and this continued for about a week and then they stopped hurting.

Today I went to the Dr's again to get them re-frozen and get two more done as well that I had noticed during the week. Before he re-froze the ones previously done, he scraped the dead skin from the tops of them and then did it all again... well this time it didn't hurt much more during the freezing process but afterwards - hooly dooly am I in a world of pain!! Having work done on each edge of my foot (heal, ball of foot, side of foot and base of my toes) means I can't favour a side to avoid the pain and discomfort. Over the past hour or two walking has become extremely difficult due to the pain and like I mentioned above, even now sitting here, in my arm chair with it reclined and my foot in the air, it is really painful!

I am now wishing that I had done some food shopping before going to the dr's today as I don't think I will be doing much at all this weekend if it hurts to leave my chair. I'm glad the Olympics are on - lots of sport to watch on TV :D

Just in time for the weekend

I'm getting a cold :( My head feels like it is under pressure. Everytime I bend down or sniffle or cough or blow my nose or laugh it hurts! I only came into the office today because I couldn't connect to my work machine from home... turns out that I have a new IP on my PC.

Blergh!

Sorting my feet out

For my orthodics, I go and see the students at La Trobe Uni. The other day I noticed that the vinyl top layer on one of mine had lost its bonding to the actual orthodic for my left foot, so I made an appointment to get a new cover put on it. Last time I did that, with the right one, I didn't make an appointment with a student as there were no classes on, and it took 5 mins to get done. I arrived this afternoon to discover that I had an actual appointment for a 5 minute job so to make it worthwhile I asked them to shave down the heel on both my orthodics to try to reduce the wear being caused on the heel area of my shoes. My sneakers have had a big issue with this... because my heel sits higher in my ortho's they don't sit in the 'right' spot so I get these wear spots and that causes blisters unless I have all this brown physio tape all of the shoes.... not a good way to treat $260 pair of sneakers! So my appointment tonight took about one hour all up and lets hope it is all sorted. Tomorrow I also head back to my Dr's to get these things on my foot sorted so it is all being taken care of.

Commuting - Just Do It!

I need to pull my finger out and HTFU and start bloody well commuting to work on my bike! If the forecast is for showers later in the day and not storms, then I still need to ride! I have to remind myself that riding home and getting wet is OK! I am heading home to a warm shower and dry clothes - I must repeat this over and over until I believe it and think it and it gets into my head! Especially seeing as most of the time it doesn't even end up raining.

I am still really struggling mentally with my back, I'm scared I will do something to damage it or hurt it again and the only thing I can do to mentally get past that is to get out and ride more and just see how it goes - it's a scary thing to do. I have been thinking of changing my focus to commute riding only for a while. Focus on trying to ride to work and build up my fitness and then think about weekend rides.

Early to rise

Last week, to ease myself back into getting up early for work, I was getting up at 6:45am and not doing my 20 mintue morning walk. This week I have gone back to getting up at 6am and going for my walk - it's only Tuesday and both days have sucked getting up so early! I have to though, because that's also the time that I get up to commute to work by bike - if I get up at the same time each day then it all makes it easier in the long run... I just have to get used to it again.

I didn't ride today because I am donating blood this morning and now the weather forecast for the rest of the week looks really crappy so I may not end up riding to work at all this week :( I may just have to suck it and HTFU and ride anyway... even if it means catching the train home if it is pouring with rain.

Does it really?

Do you think true love really exists? Do you think think that one day you meet someone and you just know? Do you think that some people are destined to be alone... That they either dont have 'the one' out there for them or that they aren't destined to find love and they are to be alone... That that is what is meant to be... Do -you- wonder?

A year already?

Today is the first anniversary of my Nana's death. She went from living independently on her own on the Sunday, to a friend convincing her to go to the Rosebud hospital on the Monday to being transported to the Frankston hospital over night to Intensive care being diagnosed with pancreatitus and then by Thursday....

I didn't see my Nana much in her last few years due to the whole situation with my parents and it is something that I will always have to live with, but then she never made the effort either - doesn't really matter, but I miss that she isn't there, that her house is no longer in the family and that she was my last living grandparent.

I even bought a bottle of sherry today to have a glass of it tonight as that is what she drank... although having looked at and researched a bit I have nfi what kind she drank - I went with a dry one and it was OK if not somewhat strong. I really should have had pavlova and ice cream with ice magic and sprinkles - as that is what I remember most about visiting her.

This weekend has really made me think about my parents. I am in touch with my dad again, have been for the past few years and I love it, but I no longer talk to my mum... talk about a turn around! I love my sister, I love my brother Aaron, I love my dad's wife and I say hello to my other brother Cameron. Cameron has only ever merely tolerated us since we got back in contact with out dad. He says hello and that's about it. Yes, it bugs me that this is how it is, but I have really tried to not let it bother me that much. A year ago he came back from overseas for Nan's funeral and he tried a little bit, but it all faded. I am actually looking forward to Dad and Maureen moving house - that way when we visit and Cameron is there it may not feel like we are intruding... he wont have any hold over that place, as the place that he grew up, so it will almost feel like a level playing field... or at least I hope I don't get the feeling from him that I am not welcome.

I am so glad that I have pretty much spent the whole day alone... I needed it today.