I’m back, at last! To cut a long story short we have had nothing but trouble from Telstra. We’d been without a home phone and internet since early last week in Sale. Then the home phone and internet was delayed in Melbourne. My Mum taught me when I was growing up that “if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all”. So now I’m sitting in the Quest Sanctuary Lakes Apartments as I’m officially homeless this evening. LOL!! But that’s okay because I have internet access. Unfortunately though, I don’t know when I’ll be back online in our new home but hopefully it should be sometime this week.
This is going to be long, you have been warned. LOL!! Sunday 22nd June 2008 I went to the “Renovate Your Life Workshop” conducted by Craig Harper. I’d been looking forward to this day for quite some time as I have been a big fan of his blog www.craigharper.com.au as well as having purchased and read his book Fattitude.
WOW what a day! I’m going to start by explaining the title of today’s post so that there’s no confusion. LOL!! Craig had asked the audience for a volunteer (of which I obliged) to run through a training session with him. Resistance Training is just that training with resistance. What he did was showed us all how you don’t need a gym membership or a personal trainer to effectively work out. All you needed was another person, a towel and resistance. So what he did was he ran through an entire body workout using just these tools and yes they were very effective. So much so I experienced doms the following day in my chest, arms, back and quads. It’s certainly given me some really great ideas for pumping up backstage at competitions as well as those times when you need to train but don’t have the usual resources.
Now getting down to the workshop as I’m sure you’re all interested to hear about it. We all received a “Renovate Your Life Workbook”, it’s a hardcopy overview of everything we covered that day. So whilst I was listening intently and reading the workbook I was also taking a whole bunch of personal notes. I’m a human sponge, I always have been and always will be. This was my window of opportunity and I was going to soak up as much information as I possibly could. I mean, who wouldn’t.
For me, this experience was a well needed reality check or to put it quite simply a good kick in the pants. Some of the things that hit home most were relatively simple messages. Things like “We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are” – Anais Nin. I mean, how true is that! When we see things we interpret them as we see them not as they actually are. I guess we sometimes complicate things that really are simple. Why because we don’t know any better or we simply aren’t aware of what we’re doing. Ignorance is a bliss for some but not any longer. Be responsible, be accountable, don’t complicate, accept simple. Life’s too short for anything less than this.
Another thing we all talk about often on our blogs is motivation. Did you know that motivation is a temporary emotional state? That’s right, a temporary emotional state. It’s not going to last you a lifetime, that’s why they call it temporary. So if you expect to stay motivated in the gym or even to diet day in day out you are kidding yourself and setting yourself up for disappointment. Motivation comes and goes and it’s different from one person to another so stop worrying about things you can’t control and start focusing on things you can control. For example, are you motivated daily to brush your teeth? No…..then why do you do it? You know why because you have to do it for hygiene reasons. So irrespective of whether or not you’re motivated get up, get out of bed and go and exercise then eat a healthy well balanced diet. This is a non-negotiable behaviour and the sooner we accept this the better. Why because you have to do it for your longevities sake. Otherwise here are your future possibilities; diabetes, stroke, heart attack, colon cancer, bow cancer just to name a few. The choice is yours. I know which one I prefer. If I don’t eat a healthy balanced diet and exercise on a regular basis I know what my future holds for me, diabetes, obesity and renal failure due to my family history and pre-existing PCOS & FSGS. Being of good health is an absolute blessing these days so don’t abuse it by bad lifestyle choices.
Commit to change and finish what you start. Following through, irrespective of where you end up it doesn’t really matter as long as you finish what you start. Let’s all stop with the excuses and justifications, enough is enough. We all have our sad hard luck stories to tell, but that doesn’t give us permission not to follow through. Life is about choice. We obviously chose to not finish what we started and then shifted the blame to something or somebody else. Life’s challenging, that is a given so what are we going to do about it then? That’s easy, we’re going to chose to follow through with the things in life we start.
Did you know that it is statistically proven that the average time that we watch television per week is 19.25 hours? That’s ridiculous to say the least. 4 x 30min is an absolute minimum per week you need for exercise to make a difference and the most common excuse being “I don’t have time”. Well then, if you have a spare 19.25hrs every week to sit on your big backside and stare at that idiot box then you definitely have time to exercise for two hours. That’s all it takes a week at an absolute minimum and people have the hide to say they don’t have the time. My response to them would be “then you obviously have the time for a heart attack”. That’s the truth of the matter and it doesn’t get any realer than that!
Craig mentioned a couple of articles worth revisiting from his website, they are: “Dealing With Energy Vampires” & “Losing Weight The National Geographic Way” . I’m going to re-read them and I suggest you do the same. If you welcome change into your life then you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by reading or re-reading these articles. Just click on the links provided.
At the end of the workshop I obviously got the opportunity to get a photo taken with him. Have camera will photograph, that’s me. LOL!! He’s also a hugging type of guy so there was no escaping, you had to hug before leaving. I had also arranged to speak with him. When I finally finish my studies I want to watch and learn from the best of the best in Melbourne. Craig (although recently retired from personal training) and his team at Harpers Personal Training are allowing me to come in and observe them working with clients. So once I’m unpacked and settled I’ll get in contact with and go from there. I’m pretty damn excited as you could imagine. This opportunity is incredible and to say I’m grateful is an understatement. Thanks Craig.
So what else has been happening? Lisa contacted me to say that everything is ready to go. She’s been really thorough to ensure that everything’s in place to work harmoniously together. She’s even met and talked with the guys at excelgene so I know I’m receiving the best possible package. As soon as I receive all the information I’ll be sharing it with you along with monthly photos and measurements so you can follow my preparation from the very beginning. I’m excited about the future possibilities. In order to create different I have to do different and this is why I’ve chosen this path.
Mum now has her bedroom suite from her home here so she’s much more comfortable and settled. She also only has one more chemotherapy treatment to go. On the down side she’s lost a total of 10kgs. Unfortunately rapid weight loss is a side effect that comes hand in hand with chemotherapy treatment. Once it’s over and done with they’ll run all the applicable tests and scans to determine the effectiveness of it and map out the next course of action.
Well ladies, time for me to get going. I still have a whole house to unpack. Until tomorrow, keep smiling. 
)
UPDATE:
I’ve just logged onto Google Reader to catch up on the 115 posts that have been blogged since I went offline. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of time online tonight so I’ve skimmed over them so appologies for that. I don’t know when I’ll be back online this week, things aren’t working out as I had expected. Keep everything crossed for me that it won’t be for to long.
I’ve also received some very interesting and exciting emails tonight. Nothing I can reveal just yet but as soon as I can you’ll be the first to know. I will say that good things do happen. ;o)
