Watch this

Got this clip from Roni's Thursday Thoughts, I think I'll play it when I'm going through my next Too Hard moment.

I hope this post makes up for it's lack of size, by having a high word to links ratio :)

Some nonsense......

Last night I went to see an incredible piano performance at the City Recital Hall. Two wonderful musicians playing together in a beautiful space, creating what I can only describe as sound for the soul. It's nothing but inspiring to hear music like this performed live, to see the faces, the fingers, the smiles, the light in the eyes of the performers that says, "I'm totally diggin this, life is good". I left invigorated, walking home through the city in the cool night feeling like I could do anything.

Today that feeling remains as a quiet hum and I'm musing on what exactly happened there in that acoustically perfect room. Was it the sake with dinner before the show, the air conditioned relief from the sticky streets, or the opportunity to watch two dudes do what they love with such passion, lightness and love? Maybe it was the music, damn that music was good. Whatever it was it got me thinking about life and the road that I'm on, how I got here and where I'm headed. I fantasize a fair bit about where I'm headed, some might call this daydreaming I like to think of it more as positive affirmations, not the manifest a car park, borderline loopy affirmations, more like............ ok ok it's mainly daydreams.

So what am I trying to say here, I'm inspired, inspired to create a life of daydreams, inspired to keep on keeping on, to see this road and all it's twists and turns. Life isn't about a number on a scale, yet it is about being who you want to be, and with some focus, practice and dedication I too can be like the two dudes bashin on the keys thinking... damn life is good.


"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities".

Dr. Seuss

5 Things I'm Proud Of Today #2

I've written about this exercise before and have been thinking about making it a regular thing. So here's a few little things I was proud of today.

1. Attempting Tabata style hill sprints in the park- Geeezuhs, that surely gets the heart a pumping and the lungs a thumping.

2. Pasting code into my blog all on my lonesome- nothing like some good old trial and error to get things done.

3. Making a kick ass salad to munch on- great food is so good for the soul

4. Completing week one of The Push Up Challenge- 5 real push ups here I come!

5. Not caving and weighing myself before the Feb 1st deadline- 5 days to go, the countdown is on.

Feel free to share things you're proud of in the comments, would be great to hear about what everyone else is doing out there.

"Just don't give up on what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."
Ella Fitzgerald

The Push Up Challenge

One of my New Years Resolutions was to do 5 push ups. I haven't been doing anything about it, unless thinking... hmm how on Earth will I ever do 5 push ups counts. It must be said that I have zero upper body strength, I am amazed that I can even carry my groceries with these feeble yet generously proportioned arms. So I had no idea how to start achieving this goal until I came across this site in a frenzy of blog lurking tangent following time wasting internet gorging.

Luckily for me the creator of this program saw people like me coming and provided options for those of us who are a little challenged in the area of negotiating our body weight in a horizontal position. Enter the knee push up, I don't look quite as graceful or at ease as the dude demonstrating on the site, in fact I felt a bit like my shoulders where going to pop through my back and render me armless, but I managed 3 so that qualifies me to start.

Push ups have always been a dream of mine, something I fantasize about being able to do in my perfect "skinny" life where nothing goes wrong ..... I would get up in my beautiful serene bedroom, white curtain dancing in the breeze coming from my window over looking the sea. Hunker down on my polished floorboards admiring my manicured nails and proceed to launch into a set of perfect form push ups in my co-ordinated sleepwear, never breaking a sweat. I'd jump up, swish my immaculate hair and saunter out to the deck where my cook would have prepared a delicious breakfast with the papers waiting...... HA!

Back in the real world, I'm logging in and going for the 6 week challenge. Anyone want to join me?

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal"
Pamela Vaull Starr

January's Challenge Update....

So my challenge for January was to stay away from the scales. There are many reasons I decided to stop weighing myself for a while, the main one being that my mood was being defined by that number that appeared and it wasn't such a pretty picture. Since not weighing myself I've found that I don't think about my weight or weight loss so much, I just seem to be getting on with things, which is nice, having some space to stroll around in my head has proven to be promising.

I must admit Feb 1st is looming in my mind, what if I've put on weight, not lost any weight, lost a puny amount of weight... what then? Will all those weeks of not weighing myself and feeling OK about it dissipate and leave me with a months worth of bad weigh days in one? I guess I will find out when the day comes.

"The key to change.... is to let go of fear"
Rosanne Cash

5 tips on walking

What a morning! I've done some exercise, reviewed some Japanese, had breakfast, read all the blogs I love to read, done some measurements (lost 2 cm off the old waist) and organised some stuff I've been promising to do for weeks, maybe even stalked some people on Facebook. And it's only 930 AM. Just thought I'd mention my good doings, this feeling rarely lasts and I figure you gotta make the most of it while you can.

I do think that exercise has something to do with this burst of energy and focus, Facebook is all about the focus.... This last week I've been doing two things on the exercise front.

• I'm trying to form a habit by doing 15min minimum on the Wonderfully Fandangled Exercise Machine, before breakfast.
• Walk walk walk walk. I am a fan of walking, I get some of my best ideas pounding the pavement and I've been walking for at least an hour each day, you should hear some of my ideas, shame most revolve around what clothes I'll wear when I'm skinny rather than ways to make the money needed to buy said clothes.

I don't know if it's the endorphins, the car fumes or just getting out of the house, but I'm feeling good, SM has gone back into hiding and I feel like I can do this.

I know walking isn't the exercise of choice for alot of folks, but it's free, easy and doesn't involve mirrors and reflections of gym bunnies in lycra pumping iron, and that's the guys in my neck of the woods, don't even get me started on the gals. So for your reading pleasure I thought I'd give you my 5 top tips on walking.

1. Wear good shoes. I suffered for some time with plantar fasciitis and now fully appreciate the need for good shoes, and orthotics. Especially when walking in the City on all that concrete you need support for those arches.

2. Walk somewhere. I find this is what gets me out there, need to do some shopping, want to find some obscure book, give yourself a reason for walking, walking to work is always a winner. I also like to make the walk an event, there's some great coastal walks here that are always a total joy, not to mention a fab people perving experience.

3. Cover up. You don't want to get all stunning and lithe only to have the skin of an elephants arse on your face to deal with. Get out that dorky hat and slather on that greaseless sunscreen, no-one should ever wear that heavy duty sweat like you're in a sauna crap.

4. Walk at pace. it's no good strolling around the shops for an hour thinking you're doing yourself a favour. You gots ta sweat, and not just because you've got thick pasty sunscreen on, get that heart rate up and keep it up.

5. Stretch. Oh it's just a little walk, I hear you say, but if any of you could see my impersonation of an 80yr old woman shuffling down the hall in the mornings, you'd know that to stretch is to be comfortable, I mean look at Madonna, she stretches her shit all day long and she looking Hhot!

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking"
Nietzsche

Everyone loves a good before and after

So here I am upping the ante. I was inspired by by Giyen over at baconismyenemy, and her video post on CNN iReport. It takes some serious balls to shout out to the world like she has and it got me thinking, I gots ta get more serious here at Yo-yo No More. Although it makes me feel like pooping my pants, I'm going to start recording my measurements out here in the real world, eeeek. No-one likes a story without pictures so I am going to also post some progress pics.

I like the idea of starting from January, New Year, new life, clean slate. I found this glamorous pic of me treking through the rivers over New Year. Whilst the locale is beautiful and my wonderful Soul Sistah in the background is a stunning example of my genetic make-up at it's physical best, the headgear is somewhat embarrassing, hopefully it detracts from the similar shapes encircling my mid section.



So folks, here are some stats, starting from the day I started this very blog.

13th November 2008
Weight: 109.9kg (ahhhhhhhrgk)
Bust: 115cm
Upper Arm: 36cm
Waist (narrowest part): 95cm
Waist (at belly button): 114cm
Hips: 127cm
Upper Thigh: 76cm
Knee: 49cm
Calf: 46cm



18th December 2008
Weight: 108.5kg
Bust: 113cm
Upper Arm: 35cm
Waist (narrowest part): 91cm
Waist (at belly button): 102cm
Hips: 126cm
Upper Thigh: 74cm
Knee: 47cm
Calf: 46cm

Watch this space for monthly updates.

"He who is brave is free"
Seneca

Ganbatte Bunny-chan!

See look at that, I'm speaking Japanese already, ha! Ganbatte translates roughly to "go for it", so here I am cheering myself on.

The Inspired Wanderer sent me a great link about exercise requirements needed for weight loss yesterday. 60mins of moderate intensity per day is needed to get you and keep you looking trim and taut, some researchers even suggest up to 90mins of sweatarobics per day. Hmm, I guess my meager 15min on the Wonderfully Fandangled Exercise Machine and an occasional stroll up the shops isn't really cutting it.

Handy piece of info to have, crazy what my brain does when I get said info and try to process it through my chipped and rusty neurons. If you haven't already noticed, I seem to have a very strong self sabotaging switch that gets turned on rather regularly, and even though said switch flicked on last night I seem to have returned to the land of the living within record breaking time and even managed to do 60mins of exercise today. What is going on here, could it be? Could I be actually trying to change?

Just so you don't think I've turned into a super positive, crazy, together type, I'll let you in on what remains of the melodramatic me.

Input: 60min of exercise is required per day to lose weight

Stage 1: Hmmm an hour of exercise sure is more than what I'm doing right now, maybe I'll just increase it slowly.

Stage 2: (SM appears, she's been on holiday and is back with a tan and a mighty foul mouth) "Who are you kidding, you f#@ing loser of all losers, you won't even last the c#$@ing week doing the 15mins/day, and you dare to entertain the idea of b%$#dy increasing your exercise, HA! I laugh at you and your wobbly thighs Ha!"

Stage 3: Go to bed crying and feeling like a lost cause.

Stage 4: Get up in the middle of the night, freak out about having gestational diabetes (note, there is no impending pregnancy, just midnight madness) do some research online and freak out some more, go back to bed dreaming of my diabetic offspring and their medical bills.

Now what usually happens here is a period of a few days to a week of feeling pretty shit about life, eating like a newly released POW, with the idea of exercise being not much more than watching Run Lola Run. But something strange happened last night, it could have been the cool breeze, maybe it was the clean sheets, but a whole new stage emerged, and I am awed by it's simplicity and it's courage.

Stage 5: Wake up feeling determined to rid myself of the risk of gestational diabetes, and endeavor to do 60mins of exercise today.

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anybody can start today and make a new ending"
Maria Robinson

Happy New Year

For the last few years I've made the same vague resolutions and not kept them, so for a change this year I thought I'd use these resolutions and solidify them a bit so I actually have a tangible goal to reach for. This is them:

Lose weight- For this I think I'll give myself a number, I know I know, it's not about the number it's about being healthy and feeling good about yourself blah blah blah blah.... but I need to get somewhere on this one, and I'm hoping a solid goal will help me. So this year I resolve to lose 20kgs.

Get fit- Hmmm, fit, what does that mean exactly? Well usually, in my mind, it means looking buff and having some kind of lean body mass to speak of. It's never really had anything to do with physical ability, speed, endurance or stamina, I want to be fit so I look hot, is that too much to ask? In keeping with my idea I've simplified this one into one task. So this year I resolve to be able to do 5 real push ups.

Learn Japanese- A long time wish of mine that I hoped would just come true one morning, I've got the books, the flash-cards, and the CDs but my conversation skills are somewhat lacking. Now this one has some importance, last year after a flurry of New Years Resolution madness I enrolled in an intensive summer course, got inspired and wrote my nephew a birthday card in Japanese!! In this said birthday card, I spoke of becoming somewhat fluent in Japanese so that he and I could shoot the breeze one day. I can't let him down, he is the cutest, most adorable wonderful human ever to walk the Earth and he's now started talking. So this year I resolve to learn hiragana, katakana and 100 kanji, as well as do a chapter each month from my text book.

So there you have it, New Years Resolutions, its' a bit scary, turning them into something real like that. It means that there is a possibility that I will fail in a quantifiable way. But this is it folks, this is my life and it's time to live it failures and all.

"My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents, and I lay them both at his feet"
Mahatma Gandhi