One huge shot

Great weekend in more ways than one. We are finally having a summer! Saturday we decided to have a BBQ and invited our neighbours (also good friends), which also motivated me to give the garden a quick tidy up. Such a lovely still night and we sat outside for ages. On Sunday we took a drive and headed to the local beach, drove down from there on the sand to Foxton and went and had a coffee, then headed back home stopping to visit friends on the way and also get a few groceries.

On our drive along the beach yesterday we got talking about lots of things. Will tell you about a few of them. I now have a huge incentive to be motivated and get to my goal! We are planning a holiday - overseas, maybe just a week and not sure where but definately somewhere warm, thoughts are maybe Port Douglas, New Calendonia or.. we'll just wait and see what specials are about and what appeals. Both of us love travel (we met overseas on our OE) so many places left to see and life is really to short to not take the opportunities. Also it was also my very ambitious reward when I reached goal to have a holiday somewhere warm in the Pacific - so I'm on a mission!!

Second topic we talked about and one that has been buzzing around in my head for ages is whether I keep going on with the Diploma. Well I don't think it's going to happen. I did the first paper because the introduction was a paper for $99 (plus I could cross-credit two papers from another course) now the papers are(from memory) around $500 each and I need another 9 to complete. I got a lot out of the one I completed and enjoyed also achieved an A+ but and a big but here, if I were to go on, even if I did find myself back job hunting once more, I feel I don't want to ever work in a high pressure job again. Big expense to complete and really for what? I know I would gain a lot but have been thinking more along the lines of looking at classes I can do in loads of different areas. Being the stubborn person I seem to be turning into though - I'm still
thinking!! Deep down I want to do it - but I also want to wind down and take life a bit more cruisy..... I also stress hugely when it's time to study, not good!

Mentioning the stubborn word - what's got into me!!?? Not sure but I like it! I'm so bloody determined that this is the year that I'm not sitting on my backside thinking - oh well I've reached a plateau, I will never get to where I want, too hard..... medication, blah blah. OK I lost weight reasonably well to start with - then it didn't happen - then deep down I thought it wouldn't happen. Don't get me wrong because I really have tried, but also I'm realising now that just sitting thinking about it will make sure it won't happen! I'm giving it one huge shot.
Once more a lot of thinking about how?
Well to start with
I'm counting - for me I've realised quite a bit different to tracking, I'm doing double checks as really have started to guess a fair bit. (I can bury my head in the sand a bit with tracking, a banana is always one point - big or small, who am I kidding, really only me.) All little things - but they do count!
I'm walking - not just aiming for 70,000 steps a week, I'm going to do it (aqua, well I love it but it's not enough now for me)
Walking - I've realised it doesn't have to be huge walks - some days if my steps look low I do a quick walk down to the end of our road, which clocks up around 2,000. Small bits add up.
Water - not too hard to drink in this weather!
Gym - well watch this spot.....

I'm trying different foods:
tonight coucous, with currants and almonds, I added a little bit of stir fried chicken and aspargus, also cherry tomatoes and red onion.

Also I know last year I ended up a bit stressed with work, life in general and then added further stress by doing the diploma paper. Looking back instead of sitting in a class room maybe I could have been at the gym. The gym - OK I can't say I like it - but once again maybe just small bits to start with. And if it boils down to achieving what I want then I'm looking. Mayve a few small sessions than my previous attempts at 2-3 longer sessions.

By the way so far this week:
Sat - 12,739 steps
Sun - 4,920 steps - going to have one cruisy day each week
Mon - 10,314 steps so far - 2 x aqua jogging

Catch you later:)