I'm a tortoise: glute 1/30...

Walking is guest glute exercise numero uno - you think thats a cop out? Mayhaps, but it fits my criteria of an everyday doable exercise.

I love the idea of an exercise you do basically anywhere - throw on your gear and off you go. Running is much the same, but I am a tortoise and runners are hares, I learnt this lesson long ago for Aesop himself and I'm embracing it; so walking it is for me.

Walking can give you as much or as little as you put into it. Do a quick search on google and you'll get loads of recommendations about how to get more bang for you buck when it comes to walking for fitness and toning.

I've mentioned that I walk most days. I have been rather remiss with this recently - Mr C has had some odd working hours and our usual routine would have had us walking in the wee hours, and thats just plain crazy people. We've been back in our usual routine for walking for a couple of days now. The first day coincided with the beginning of this awesome challenge so I paid a little more attention to my technique and how I felt afterwards.

So for technique; I have done research on this before and Jillian had a whole segment on her radio show about it a while ago. We all know Jillian knows how to do every exercise like a rockstar so I take her advice with much seriousness :)

Posture: starting top down, I try to stand straight up or slightly leaning forward, neck neutral and eyes looking about 3-4 meters ahead of me, keep my shoulders back and engage my abs.
Movement: I let my arms swing naturally, I never "pump" them like a speed demon, if I notice my fingers get that swelling feeling I walk with my arms stretched up over my head for a little while (Mr C loves this, because it makes us look like we are completely normal :) ). I try to keep my stride natural but longish, so I move my hips and legs through a good range, and at the moment before I lift my foot before another stride I try to have my corresponding glute engaged and present in the movement. I try to keep my feet facing forward or perhaps a little outward when they strike the ground.
Speed: I don't pay alot of attention to how fast I go, I try to get to that point where I find it difficult to hold a conversation without puffing a little bit between words. Somedays I seem to fly through the usual kilometers and others are a struggle. The time for my standard walk is pretty consistent day-to-day and has gone down steadily over the past couple of months.
Afterwards feeling: I have never discussed this before, but I can always tell if I've done a good workout by these odd little pings I get in my muscles. I notice when I pay more attention to my posture and movement during walking the pings in my glutes, quads and hamstrings are far more noticable. I have no idea what these pings are, but they are like tiny tiny muscle spasms or something, not unpleasant at all, its like a little sign from the muscles that they think they've done good. I might have to look these up and see if I am some kind of muscle pinging freakoid.

Personally I think walking is a great exercise for everything - it may well make a re-emergence as another glute exercise with some alterations.


On a totally different note: A massive shout to Skinny Latte who got married yesterday! Yay for  Mrs and Mr SkinnyLatte, much love and happiness is sent your way!

lets get fresh...

So one of my big big loves in life, is clothes - call me superficial but I love looking at clothes, mixing and matching things together and fantasizing about the "perfect" wardrobe. When I can't sleep I use a simple technique of choosing a topic (for example, capital cities, fruits, people I know, almost anything works) and running through the alphabet and coming up with something from the topic that begins with each letter. It gets me off my treadmill of thinking about whatever worry is circling and forces me to relax.

My favourite topic is "items in my ideal wardrobe"! I pretty much go from A is for A-line skirt in interesting pattern, B is for Black pant in a classic cut and C is for Camel trench coat and I'm off in the land of nod; occassionally I get to L is for Leopard print skirt and I have never gone past P is for Perfect jeans (probably because the thought of ever finding said jeans is so unrealistic that I figure I am already fast asleep and dreaming) but it is extremely relaxing to image my ideal wardrobe and should I ever get one I will no doubt fall asleep every time I open its doors. You get the idea, I like clothes alot and give them some significant part of my brain power.

Since beginning on this blogging effort I have come across several other types of blogs that I really like to read. One is the foodie blog; oh my how I love to see what other people eat, my favourites are ones where people post every meal, sometimes even photographing the preparation and cooking of each meal. A voyeur of food I am.

And another is the fashion blog; again my favourites are the ones that get updated almost daily and show everyday people rustling around in their wardrobes coming up with amazing outfits. Recently one of my favourites, Kendi, re-ran her 30-for-30 challenge. You must check her out, but basically for 30 days she concocted 30 different outfits using 30 clothing items. And she didn't shop during those 30 days - a tough thing to do for any victim of fashion-love-ola. Apart from seeing the cute outfits she pulled together, it was interesting to read how it made her feel and inspiring because ultimately it seemed to give her more appreciation for what she already had. Lots of fellow bloggers joined her movement and by and large seemed to have similar outcomes.

So I got thinking, is there a version of this challenge that might suit me and make me better appreciate what I already have and perhaps even make those things even better. Something exercise or food related. Initially I thought perhaps 30 minutes of exercise for 30 days might work, but realistically, I already do this and I don't think forcing myself to exercise would result in a very positive experience. Likewise, I thought 30 different meals in 30 days but that would never happen, because my brain is small when it comes to meals, 10 meals on some kind of rotation is about what we manage. But neither of these really embodies the essence of the challenge - I need to think of something I already have, that I can use, adapt and mould to re appreciate it. And bingo, guess what? I have something something that needs use, adaption and moulding. And so I am beginning the challenge of 30 different glute exercises for 30 days.

I am not convinced I can do 30 days in a row - not even Kendi did 30 continuous days - it will probably be more like 5 days a week. I'll incorporate 30 different glute exercises into my workouts, report what I think and who knows, maybe I'll find an exercise I love and my soft landing might become a soft and taut landing :)

So here we go...30 days of gluteus maximus

frump...

I'm amazed at how quickly my view of myself can change - the past couple of days I have been feeling like a big ol' frump. I can't put my finger on exactly why but I feel bloated and in need of some serious beautifying.

Mr C's hours have been odd and perhaps this has thrown my normal sleeping hours some. But it might have more to do with the consumption of too many sugary and salty goodies. I think I have safely proven that the less I sleep the more rubbish I eat, lesson learned.

This morning I realised I wasn't feeling my usual self so I did a long cardio session and added some weights afterwards - I'm not sure it completely worked but I do feel better. We are heading away for a few days of fresh air, sunshine and good times, which is sure to reverse the frump factor.

rockin the rinse...

So Mr C is working some odd hours at the moment, in fact he is working german hours in america, which translates to working in the depths in night. I am not someone who does well when its dark out and I'm not curled up in bed; I think my body clock is ruled by the sun or, perhaps if I am to be honest, by my inner-nanna.

This persona can be seen in my love of tea and biscuits, rose scented bath products and dolly parton. I have managed to curtail my love of doilies and meat terrines but my body is programed to hit the hay at a regular time each night, read a book for one or two minutes and promptly fall asleep. Mr C is not this way and, in fact, working in the wee hours is the time when magic happens for him. For me, first thing in the morning after a good night's sleep is when I am firing. Aye, it is a gift and a curse :) I also really want to do a pink or blue rinse when I ultimately go completely grey and rock matching pink or blue themed outfits, perhaps get a small poodle that I can have dyed to match; this is probably more curse than gift.

I can't complain about Mr C's schedule as my future is filled with night shifts and weekend hours; so I am filling the good wife karma cup and being as adaptable and supportive as I can be. In fact, it has gotten me thinking about how I will cope when my life is busy busy again and I am juggling full time work with this healthy life drama I have found myself in. I really hope my love of the feel good chemicals in healthy food and after exercise is addictive and I am uncontrollably pulled towards the good stuff. But the more I think about it, the more I think I just need to prepare - put time aside to get organised for whatever is coming and make making healthy choices easier.

bananarama...

I feel like I am back on track and am motivated to make more change. I'm ready to challenge myself more, make my body work harder, try some new foods and become the hard unit we all know I'm meant to be :) Kidding, of course, I'm a curvy unit and thats totally ok.

Adding resistance training into my exercise mix has made some big changes. I think so, anyway. I feel stronger and kind of tough doing weights; seeing my biceps bulge (what is a lesser version of bulge? pulge, an abbreviation of petite-bulge, might be a better description) is very cool. Call me superficial but the best thing, by and large, is the reduction in wobble. I was washing my hair the other day and suddenly noticed my arms are far less wobbly, I couldn't resist showing Mr C over and over again. Then I made iron woman like poses and made him watch, I am very cool ;)

It might all be in my mind but whenever I increase my lifting weights I have a proportional increase in my craving for bananas. Maybe my muscles use lots of potassium. Or maybe they are more directly descended from our ape-ancestors than the rest of me. Do apes even like bananas? Surely they do? If I were a muscly ape I would love bananas, I'm sure.

choc mint, mmm.....

The DragonLady left yesterday. Was beyond sad to see her off at the airport, she was wise and went mascara-free, I was not so clever. But, onwards and upwards for LandSoftly.

I have long thought of myself as a non-emotional eater, unless eating for every possible emotion with the slogan "a girl's gotta eat" counts. Being uncomfortable or uneasy doesn't tend to make me reach for the chocolate.

However, I felt I was in need of comfort yesterday and indulged in several (ie. seven!!) peppermint Freddo Frogs. The DragonLady brought me a huge bounty of these minty delights knowing they are one of my most favoured Aussie-treats; I felt the love on their arrival because, for starters, I do mean a bounty of Freddos, she presented me with one of those boxes that convenience stores have on their counters filled with the green blighters, it holds something like 75 frogs! And also because, her and my dad had hunt them down and buy them online (sadly they are not from the future like me) as they don't sell them everywhere anymore. Freddo was good to me, indeed he saved the day, I loved every single bite and felt like the gooey centers were liquid parental love.

quick check in...

One of the things The DragonLady loves to do is shop. I fully encourage this behaviour and we have been having a right old time digging through many a store. This has been keeping me away from my beloved laptop more than usual - I feel like my mad computer skills have exponentially deteriorated.

The DragonLady hasn't seen me in about 10kilos, like any mother she is quick to notice any change in her progeny. She has been lovingly complimentary.

Weight wise I'm steady. Food wise I'm doing ok. Exercise wise I'm getting in plenty of store strolling, credit card usage and bag carrying, and, on average, gym one out of two days.