Week 1, the beach, a competition, and taking a step back

Thank you for the lovely support I've received from my last blog post.  It was slightly more 'heart on sleeve' than usual - if that is even possible - so it helps a lot.

I promised a Part 2, and that is coming (!) but it's even more emotive than the last, and as such I need to be in a particular writers head space to write it.  I'll write it soon but for now I have an urge just to blog about my Week 1, so this post is in between Part 1 and 2!

Firstly though I wanted to share details of a competition that I'm running!  The Australian Fitness & Health Expo is on in Brisbane next month and I've got 3 double passes to give away to my Brisbane followers (or anyone who'll be in Brisbane that weekend!) 

Details are in this picture - just email me (cocogirlbutter@gmail.com) your first and last name by the 30th September and I'll draw 3 winners at random. 

If you haven't been to the expo before, I really recommend it. I've been for the last 3 years. The first time I went was soon after I started my weight loss journey, and I remember that day

Coco comp!

that I was just in shock that I, Kate, would actually want to go to an expo...about fitness...and about health?? Haha who was I?! For someone who never exercised and used to be 141kg, such an expo was never on my imagined radar. Other than the personal irony making me smile to myself, I smiled a lot that day because it was just awesome. So much motivation and inspiration in one room, (and a tip, there's so many freebies and showbags!) I loved it in 2013 and 2014 too, and I put it in my calendar for this year as soon as I heard the dates a few months ago.  Good luck to those who enter and to anyone who is planning to go anyway, enjoy. :)

So, it's now Sunday of Week 1 of the September Round.  I'm happy with how I've gone.  I haven't achieved anything out of this world wonderful, other than finding the strength to pick myself up last Monday.  That in itself is a feat to outshine the whole week.

• I haven't done a huge Kate style cook-up/ prep but I did do a 'planned at the last

  

  Last minute mini cook-up: my first in WEEKS

  minute while in Woolies' cook-up / prep and managed to prepare 10 full meals and 5 half meals to stick in the freezer, and these have helped me through the last couple of days.  (The half meals are because my prep was so last minute, and I didn't buy the right quantities of stuff - doh.  I made up them up to full meals the following night).

Love this

• I haven't gone nuts with the exercise this week.  I allowed myself this week to re-find my way with food, and to get back to boot camp after a 2 week hiatus.  I did that, and got myself along to parkrun, too.  I decided not to walk to and from work the other day, because it made me feel so down.  So that's posed a little issue, as I now need to move my exercise around, to get done what those walks were doing for me.  This damn knee injury + other body things limit my options, so I have to work some stuff out.  I saw this quote --------> the other day, and it's sort of how I'm thinking in regards to the walk.  But Week 1 wise, I'm happy with not doing everything on the exercise front, and just doing something.

• I haven't done any pre-season tasks yet other than weighing and measuring myself at the start of the week.  This was another thing I didn't push myself with this week - I just wanted to ease back into habits and food.  I have faith I'll get them done.

• I've allowed myself to feel okay about going back to basics this round, and only doing the basics of what I want and need.  This includes....drum roll....not going nuts with weekly milestones and challenges like I usually do.  Whoah Kate.  12WBT only suggest 3 milestones each round, yet Miss 'Obsessed with Goals' Kate here, well, I've been doing 12 a round for almost 3 of years now.  I've loved doing them weekly; I've achieved so much for myself personally, and the feelings of achievement and personal satisfaction that I've gotten from each of them has been incredible.  I've also made an effort to do the weekly challenges that 12WBT set, too.  

Kirra parkrun

         But I'm going back to basics, for this round at least.  I'm here to lose weight, and I need to put my energies into nutrition and exercise.  I have so much going on in my life that I just can't keep up - my stress and anxiety levels are evidence of that.  So to allow myself more 'brain space', and so that I can spend my energies on my main task at hand, I'm cutting them back for now.  I'll do my Week 4, 8 and 12 mini and major milestones, and that is it.  I have huge goals outside of weight loss that I set myself each year, too, and I guess I realised that it's September and I want more time to focus on them.  Each one takes time, and we each have the same 24 hours in the day.  So, I'm back to basics, trying to be efficient and streamline what I do, to foremost focus on getting the things done that are most important to me.  I'm trying to offload and not get bogged down with so much.

        I've updated my Goals (and links to reports about them) on the Goals page above.  My mini milestones for this round are very simple...I want to try cooking with pork (I've never done so - I've rarely even tasted pork let alone cook with it (for no particular reason)), and I want to try eating brussel sprouts, as I've never tried them before.  People talk about them being gross, but I wouldn't know!  I haven't set my major milestone for Week 12 yet; I will soon. :)

• I looked after myself a little bit, too.  I took a long weekend this weekend, simply for me.  I planned for a quiet few days, with very little stuff on, trying to spend most of it as Kate Time.  It's so

  

  Road trip snack pack...trying to make good choices!

  far only been about 50% successful, but at least I'm trying, and I haven't forced myself to get a million things done.

One thing I did though, was yesterday visited a heap of Gold Coast beaches that I fell in love with when running my 30km Kurrawa to Duranbah event, in December 2013.  Running through them made me want to visit them and I set it as one of my goals this year, to get there and just see these beautiful beaches.  I ended up having little flashbacks all day, of where I ran, and the things that happened along the way.  (Have any runner readers ever done that, driven along a running course after the event?  It's a pretty full on feeling.  Not to mention, lovely to do in an air-conditioned car!)

My two favourite moments were visiting Elephant Rock at Currumbin, which was my 15km

The view from Elephant Rock: those buildings in the background....

turn around point in the run.  My friend Courtney shared the day with me, and we climbed the rock that overlooked the beach I turned around at.  In the distance, we could see Surfers Paradise, and that was where the event had commenced.  I remember looking back at the view when I was turning around that day, and being in awe that I had run that distance.  And, almost 2 years later, I felt the same feeling yesterday.  I had run the whole way from those buildings (and back again).  

It was a bittersweet feeling - I was in awe of my 2013 self, but also a little down that yesterday I was lucky enough to walk up those stairs on the rock without struggle, let alone be in a place to run that distance like I used to.  I comfort myself a lot these days, and remind myself that I will get back there, and get excited and hopeful again.  This stage is just part of the journey. :)

Can you see why I was relaxed? :)

The other awesome moment from yesterday, was just a quiet moment on Mermaid Beach, watching the sun rise with a chamomile tea that Court had made for me.  From a very awful start to the week, to a very draining end of the week, this was just so peaceful, and I felt so relaxed.

The end result

While we were at the Gold Coast, we did Kirra parkrun, which was great to try out.  I was forgetful in my clothing choices for the day, and this week have been nervous about my knee holding up (never ending saga), so I wanted to walk, and Court walked with me.  It was so lovely to do it alongside the beach.  We were lucky to happen to be walking past the finish site on our way to do the last little loop at the time that we did, because we saw the volunteers start to pack up, not realising we were still out on the course. :(  They were lovely when we called out to say that we were still going, and they waited for us.  It made me feel so grateful for my home parkruns that have a volunteer who brings up the rear to make sure that no-one gets left on the course.

That's about it for now, but I also wanted to update you on how my little Christmas in July charity food drive went!  I explained what it was about, in this blog post.  

OzHarvest collecting the food

It went well!  The day itself didn't go so well, only in the sense that I somehow managed to get the time wrong of my own event.  .....KATE!  With heartfelt intentions but too much on my (extremely blonde) mind, I set up everything in the park and sat there from 8am-9am.  Not one person came along (I now know why!) I was a bit down and embarrassed at 9am and packed up and left. Just after 9:30am a text and phone call alerted me to the fact that I had actually advertised for it to be 9am-10am.  I rushed back and managed to catch a few people, and later met up with another that I had missed.  I felt so bad and embarrassed!

But it all worked out in the end.  I ended up collecting 135kg worth of food, which I think they told me was the equivalent of going on to make about 400 meals.   
 

This video shows a snapshot of my food drive!

OzHarvest Brisbane came to collect the items and sent me a message to explain where it had all been distributed.  The food was sent to "young people who come to school with empty tummies and no lunch; to organisations supporting refugees and asylum seekers; and also to refugees who are escaping from domestic violence situations who generally leave with only the clothes on their backs and have no way of supporting themselves."

Thank you so much to everyone who helped out and donated food, both directly to me, and those who donated to local charities but wanted to help.  Every single item has gone on to mean something to someone; and I can't tell you how heartwarming it was to see people wanting to help.  Personally for me, it's kick started an idea where I want to do something to help the world, ongoing.  I don't mean food drives, but all kinds of things.  I'm no longer overwhelmed in thinking that little actions that I can make alone can't make a difference.  #rememberthestarfishstory is now my thing...where I'm going to remind myself that I don't have to single-handedly help the world.  I can single-handedly help one person, and still make a difference.

Slightly off topic there, away from my weight loss journey, but I still wanted to update you on the outcome of the food drive as I hadn't done that yet.

Week 2 starts tomorrow, and I'm feeling positive that I can achieve a whole lot.  A few weeks ago, I realised what I wrote on the quote below....that 2015 is not over yet.  I/we can still achieve heaps.  I have big dreams for all kinds of time frames, including Christmas and NYE.  September Round Week 12 is early December...perfect timing to get me a whole lot closer to where I want to be by the end of 2015...by focusing on the important stuff.