There's something about Post-It notes

MY ROUND 2 GOALS

Work stuff inspires personal stuff

Sometimes very often I go off track.  What gets me pepped up and motivated to keep at what I am striving for, is to reassess my goals.  Make new ones, cross out old ones, celebrate done ones, dream of exciting ones.  It keeps me encouraged and motivated - two very important things to me to stay "on track".

I was in a work meeting yesterday - it was a brainstorming workshop.  It was essentially about something very boring - but as soon as I walked inside and saw these coloured Post-Its on the desk, I got excited.  Post-It's, stationary, colours, organisation - all of that stuff makes me go weak in the knees.  I love it.  So I got stuck into my own Post-It's at home, and I started planning out my next 12WBT round.

For a couple of rounds now, I have set weekly challenges for myself - they are listed here.  It's like Mish's 'Mini/Major Milestone' idea but weekly instead of monthly.  The first round that I did weekly ones, they were a mismatch of different things I had been wanting to achieve.  This current round they have mainly been running events.

But for Round 2 I wanted something a little different.  The running events will continue - that's a given and I have the whole rest of the year mapped out in the event world.  But for my weekly stuff, I tried to think a little deeper and a little more out of the box.  I decided to do stuff that means something to me.  Feel the fear and do it anyway type of things.  What have I held myself back from because of my weight?  What would make me smile?  What do I have trouble doing?

Home.  #whateverworks

That's the kind of stuff I wrote down.  And this is what I came up with:

Week 1: "Two Worlds Combine"
Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I currently have 2 lives.  I have Coco Girl - who writes this blog, who posts on Instagram and Twitter, who is open about her weight, who bares her soul, who is on this weight loss journey.

And then there's Kate: the rest of me.

I completely separate Kate and Coco.  When I started 12WBT my profile picture was a picture of a butterfly.  The next photo was one of the top of my head.  There were no recognisable photos on this blog.  I didn't tell anyone I was doing 12WBT.  I would not allow any photos of me exercising or anything fitness related onto my personal Facebook.

Slowly I have loosened the reigns a bit.  I have been letting some photos of me at events appear on my Facebook.  In person, I discuss my weight, fitness, heaps of things with family, friends and a random guy I met at work last week (!)  I have done a 180.

But truthfully?  There is still a devide.  I have never done a status update about my weight.  Coco and Kate simply do not mix.  No-one outside of 12WBT and a very small handful of friends have read this blog.  Even on Instragram, I usually don't post photos that aren't 100% fitness related.  Because Coco is about weight stuff!  I realised though, that I need to stop separating them so much.  And I no longer mind.  I don't care.  Kate is Coco Girl and Coco Girl is Kate.  People who lose weight are human!  And random chicks like me on Facebook, we can have a weight issue!  No more alter egos.

When I have allowed fitness photos onto my personal Facebook, the response I have gotten from family and friends has been nothing short of overwhelming support.  And if a friend talks publicly about their weight loss, I am so inspired by and proud of them.  So I don't know why I'm scared about being generally open that I am losing weight.  They all know it!  They can see it in photos.  I just haven't verbally confirmed it.  So much so, I have never 'Liked' anything on the 12WBT Facebook page, in case my friends see this and realise that I am doing 12WBT!  I'm not hiding 12WBT, I'm hiding the fact that I'm losing weight.  Coz they don't know, you see? ;)

Time to not be so secretive.   And as a wise friend said to me once: "The truth will set you free."  Time for my two worlds to combine and become one. :)

Week 2: "Relax, Submerge, Survive"
This weeks challenge for myself is to go swimming.  Like swimming swimming.  Head under

Pick the girl who won't put her head underwater

water, submerge myself in a pool and relax.  This adult breathing anxiety thing that I have developed is frustrating and I want to fix it.  I was a water kid - I was always in the pool.  I don't know what happened for me to now be so scared about putting my head underwater.  But I need to relax and spend some time re-acquainting myself with submerging.

Week 3: "Eye Am Ok"
In Brisbane we have a ferris wheel called the  Wheel of Brisbane, or Brisbane Eye.  It's a landmark and it's got really pretty views.  Apparently - I wouldn't know, because I've

been too scared to go on it because I believe that I'm too heavy.  Friends told me recently that each carriage can fit a few people in it, like their whole family.  6 adults and 2 kids: I looked it up.  Yet on the inside I still don't feel comfortable, believing I am too heavy, and I have been too scared to do it.  Week 3 I will bite the bullet and go for a ride.  I am not heavier than a whole family, despite what my head says! :)

Week 4: "Start The Crazy"
At Sydney Round 3 2012 finale, a certain spectacular friend and I made a pinky promise

Starting small: I did the mini fitness challenge at Brisbane finale!

that we would do the finale fitness challenge at the end of round finale of Round 3, 2013.  I'm still holding us to that!  The fitness challange is insane.  And I have about 6 months to make it happen.  So I need to start training.  So Week 4 I will attempt the challenge for the first time.  Just at home, with probably shocking technique, taking as long as it takes.  It's a crazy challenge- if I start practising now I might hold some hope of being good enough just to enter it come the end of Round 3! :)

Week 5: "Girls On Glass Mountains"
I want to climb one of the Glasshouse Mountains here in South East Queensland.  For no reason other than a year ago I wouldn't have thought of doing this.  And this year I did think of doing this.  So I will do this. :)

Week 6: "Kate Jordan"
My favourite challenge from this list.  Playing basketball!  I LOVE basketball!  I have never played it in a team.  But my grandfather used to teach me how to aim to shoot baskets when I was a little kid.  And

My beloved basketball afternoon days

years ago when I was working overseas, I had this really cool ritual.  My workmates and I would get dropped home after work.  My flatmate would go upstairs and have a nap.  And I would rush across the road to a compound and play a fun game of basketball with the guys I worked with and some locals.  I loved it.  Each afternoon we would do the same thing.  We'd then go and buy heaps of beer, order McDonalds or KFC home delivery, get drunk and have a party each night.  Healthy lifestyle, huh!  But the basketball - this was a highlight of my day and is probably the only time in my life, apart from this year, where I have chosen to do any form of exercise for fun.  I want to revisit that!

Week 7: "Breathe...And Repeat"
I can't relax.  Like, ever.  I just can't.  Well, I should say, I don't know how to.  I can not just settle down and truly relax.  So my challenge this week is to make this happen.  I don't know how, but I will figure out a way and do it.

Week 8: "The Most Amazing Thing I Have Ever Done"
This week is my goal of all goals: it is my first half marathon.  I decided last year to do it and have had everything focussed on it ever since I made that decision.  It is my huge thing, my really special personal goal.  I have been training for it and visualise it each and every day.  This will be the most amazing thing I have ever done (yet!)

Week 9: "1, 2, 3, 4, Do It Just A Little More" 
This one is just coz I love it: each round I have to have some sort of Mt Coot-tha event. :)  There’s

Post-It

a track on this mountain that I just love: the Kokoda track.  It was a huge deal when I did it the first time and I’ve done it a few times since.  Last round I accomplished a goal of doing it twice in a row.  So this next round I plan to double that and do 4 loops in a row!  It's 5km per loop and part of the way feels practically vertical - it's used for real Kokoda training.  Bring on the 4!

Week 10: "Fly Like A Bird And Glide Like A Swan"
This is a tough challenge.  Years ago I went to a theme park.  They had this water ride - where two people sat in a big plastic 'swan' boat, and paddled it around a 'lake'.  I went to hop on the ride with a friend, and our swan tipped to the side - my side.  We were a little confused at first.  And

This was the ride

when my side started filling up with water, this feeling of terror started to sweep over me.  Always the optimist (?), I swapped sides of the swan with my friend, at the ride operators request, to see if that would fix it.  The opposite side, my side again, tipped and started to fill with water - I was flooding the ride.  The ride operator started to laugh.  I don't believe he was trying to be cruel, but his intentions weren't exactly the point.  He laughed, and in front of a whole line of people waiting to get onto the ride, he said that I was too heavy for the swan and I had to get off and walk away.  Mortifying is an understatement.  No words come close.  Soon after this incident, at another theme park, I was so heavy that I rode a mini rollercoaster off its tracks.  I have had a fear of theme park rides ever since.  I can't do them.
So - in Week 10, I will go on a ride - a rollercoaster or something, and find a water ride and go on it and not flood the ride.

Week 11: "For: Me"
This week I plan on doing something for myself.  I don't know what it is yet, but I want it to be meaningful and just awesome.  I want to be able to sit back and take stock of where I have come from and where I am at this point.  I'll work out how to do this closer to the time. :)

Week 12: "The Ultimate Goal"
This is the week that I plan to get to my goal weight and everything associated with it. :)  This is a huge undertaking - I have a big task ahead of me.  But the way to get there is pretty simple.  A friend was talking about weight loss etc. last week and she just shrugged her shoulders and said "you just have to do it it."  She was flippant in speech but it's the truest thing that she said.  It reminded me of how you do this thing.  The secret, the key to success.

If you want to do it, all you have to do is do it.

Ok, then.