Ups and Downs...

Well its been awhile.

This is going to be a bit of a short one....been really busy with buying the house, going away and my first week of my new job this week.

Work is good, I think I am gonna like....food has been really hard and haven't been that great with my wheat etc...tonight I am unfortunately having a chocolate night...

So I have put on quite a bit of weight in the last couple weeks, I've really been all over the place.

No excuses, I have to train harder, end of the line, that's the answer.

I actually had a really good train last night but unfortunately didn't back that up tonight. I kinda gave myself this week to regroup after adapting to my new work hours and being back from over east. So tomorrow is a new day and I am determined to get that healthy feeling back, so tomorrow is a big fruit, vege shopping day, gotta work in the morning, then some exercise - but I am going to bounce back and shed the heavy kilos...

Right I am going to go for a surf and see how you are all holding up AND to see how the Perth Bloogers Meet went!

Melly.
x

Phew!!!

I can't believe its already been 10 days since my last post. Things have been soo hectic...have lots of news.

Non Fitness Stuff....

Ok, on Sunday we went out looking at houses - our rental property is up in March and we hadn't decided if we would continue on or buy again. The houses in Vic Park are sooo expensive and for the price a wrought - really tiny and lots of work to do or massive mansions that you could only dream about. So on the spur of the moment we ducked across to look at a place in Lathlain to compare what you get in the two suburbs. OMG, we fell in love with the house straight away, it was perfect, it was us. We put an offer on it that afternoon and that evening they accepted!!! So we move in in March. I'm soo excited, its such a beautiful house and we walked past it with our boys last night and checked the area out and its such a great location and the whole street is being done up so I can only see that area going up in value - we are right near Burswood Casino etc, so the river is now even closer, say a 5-7 min walk and we have views of the skyline from our front garden and of the hills at our back patio....oohhhhhhh...can you tell I am excited.

What else?? I accepted a job offer today. I am really really nervous. I have no idea how I am going to go out in the "real" world again but I guess you never know til you try. It sounds like a great job for me to go back into and its soo close to home and the pay is awesome and all the people seem nice - I start is about 2.5 weeks, so I gotta get my butt into action here and find someone to work here and organise all our personal stuff to take home to our home office...aghhh!!!

Fitness Stuff...

I've been really good - exercising 5-6 days a week as planned. Eating better etc. I have started saying little mantras to myself every morning before I get out of bed to remind me of my goals

"I will eat healthily today"
"I will eat smaller portion sizes"
"I will exercise harder"
"I will lose weight"

I love mantras, I find they really do work after a period.

On Monday I also visited a naturopath in South Perth. I think I have mentioned in previous emails about my problems with my stomach, well its been getting beyond a joke so I thought I would try something other than the useless doctors I have been trying.

I loved my naturopath, he was awesome. He really took the time to find out about me and my life and everything, not just the symptoms!!! So at the end of the day I now have a whole bunch of herbal liquids, drops & tablets to take and the bigger...for the next 3 weeks NO GLUTEN OR WHEAT and to cut back on dairy!! Its only been a couple days but my system seems to be starting to process again and other problem was my anxiety of late was really flairing up for no apparent reason - apparently my nervous system is completely out of whack and that is actually reacting badly with my digestive system so if we get my nervous system under control it should fall in line with digestive system.

Sorry about the raving on but I'm just soo excited, I haven't felt this good for ages - its nice when you can really feel a difference.

So in respect to not being able to eat that much stuff coz bloody gluten/wheat is in most things, I am eating soo healthily and I am sure with my exercise this is going to pay off big time soon...motivation and determination!!!!

Take care all,
Mel.
xxx

A Title??

I always try to think up a really catchy and fabulous blog title to set a really good blog up, think of the title and run with it. But to be honest , today I can't, i just can't think of anything at all to be a good blog title..sooo my lovelies, you'll just have to trust me on this blog.

Things in the world of Mel have been up and down to say the least. Why do we find motivation to only lose it soo quickly? I haven't lost my motivation, its still there but it did go into hiding for a few days. But never fear I willed it to come back out and in the end I think I've found the key!

We all lose that complete drive and motivated feeling at times but the key is to remember the feeling and keep trying to get it back, remember how good it felt to be motivated and soo determined, imaging you could take on the world. Remember that feeling and take one day at a time and it will come back and before you know it you've actually strung a few days, a week, a month in a row! Without knowing it you've been motivated, you've done it - the tip is just not to give up when the going gets rough, keep plodding along because it will happen.... even if not as perfectly as you hoped!

So there you go, a little bit of insight into my last week. I've been here, I've been reading blogs...

I had Monday off and I did pretty much nothing all day - i know to some people that would be the worst thing ever, my Mum couldn't quite get her head around the concept that I did absolutely nothing all day but you know what I love doing that, its my "me" time...

Unfortunately today I am sick. I did go into work but only to come home mid morning. I have some antibiotics from the doctors and am starting to feel heaps better so I'm sure the drugs have kicked in and I'll be up and at em tomorrow. I am soo grateful that yesterday I dragged myself outside and went for a jog down near Burswood, because today I can't do anything - it really pays to just push yourself and do it on days you don't want to coz you never know when you CAN'T.

Now tomorrow I have two job interviews, one before work and one after, so I am going to try and get up at 6am and do a quick 30 min jog, coz I don't have enough time to get to the gym and back and then be all ready for my 8am interview...its gonna be tight but if I don't make the effort to jog, I won't get to do anything for the whole day...

Well today I finally finished the complete series of Sex and the City....a bit sad really, not sure what I am going to do without my daily dose of Carrie, Charlottoe, Samantha and Miranda....

Exercise this week:-

Sunday: Walked into the city from Vic Park , shopped and walked back (total 3 hrs without sitting down)
Monday: Jog - approx 45 mins, on/off jogging with the first 20 mins non stop
Tuesday: Sick - sat on butt!
Wednesday: 30 mins jog (morning), situps, lunges, push ups (evening)

Planned for the rest of the week.....(let's see how I go)

Thursday: 1 hour cardio (gym)
Friday: 1 hour cardio (gym)
Saturday: Weights, 30 - 40 mins cardio

**You'll note the one little weights session, reason being I am still getting the confidence up to hit my new gym weights area but next week I'm on it!**

Love to you all bellas....
xxx

2007…New Year, New Mel!!!


Yep I just as the title says….I am all determined to make myself really happy this year, to complete the challenges and goals I’ve wanted for ages but never got to!

I’m not a big New Year’s Resolution person so I’m not gonna call this new found motivation a resolution, its more of a life changing attitude!

Quick run down of the silly season

Surprisingly I’m sure I have been a lot better than previous years. I’ve continued the gym or walking the river daily only missing the days it was closed, so I’m really proud of that. I only drank on the actual special days, not before or the on the eve etc….and I did eat chocolate and naughty stuff but tried to be as good as possible around those times…so all in all I’m pretty happy with those little achievements to start.

Our Xmas was good – very busy. Did the usual lunch with Stu’s family and then dinner at our place with my family. I got Stu a table tennis table so we had fun playing that with the family – love table tennis! And I got the complete DVD series of Sex and the City – OMG, just my favourite show ever, so now must plan a “SATC marathon” with my girlfriends and cosmopolitans of course…haha

My birthday was the 28th so I had a champas brunch with my girlfriends and my Mummy and then went to Mindarie’s to a new pub up that way with my brother and sister-in-law and drank the afternoon away, it was really good fun! And then that evening Stuart to me for a picnic down at the river. He was soo cute he even took our little glass outdoor table and chairs so we just on the riverbank with all sorts of yummy nibbles and champagne…as you can guess, I pretty much just passed out by the time I got home…best birthday is many years!

New Years Eve, was ok. Not the best actually but so be it…am over it. Had people over to ours for pre-drinks and then went to the Broken Hill. It was quite good. I was meant to go to Perth Cup the next day but I just couldn’t be bothered and was feeling a little sorry for myself so I had a 12 hour marathon of SATC by myself at home – I did eat crap but the consolation was that I didn’t drink…so that’s gotta be something!

The New Year….

Well to start with, I think I am going to find a new job. I work with my husband, only 3 days a week but I think it would be good for me to get my own life a little more and start working back in the city. It does mean I will have to work 5 days a week so I get the same money and I won’t just have flexibility to do what I want and when Stu flies over east I will have to fly out by myself on the Friday night and come back early Mondays or late Sundays but so be it…I think it will be really good for me to meet new people and try to become the “social fun Mel” I once was. Working with mechanics in the hills does not help….

On top of that I’ve really looked at my life and what I want. I want to be happy, I want to be independent and more carefree, I want to have the body I have always wanted and I want to see my friends more. I’m too young to be as old as I acting and feeling for the last couple years.

So its now time for me to make more time to do things I want to do, go see my friends after work more etc… I feel really good about getting into tip top shape – I just have this sudden motivation that I don’t think I have had ever before, I know what I want and I will do it – maybe its because I have been good the last month and gyming it and I am starting to feel the positiveness from it….

**Oh also I have my food under heaps better control at work now and its made such a huge difference already!! No picking on my husband’s food at work now, I just have my fruit and my salads and I’m happy…la la lahhhhhh**

Anyways that’s about it from me for this blog, think I will start blogging what my exercise routines are, help me stay on track and up the anti a little bit!

Love to you all,
Melly.
x

Merry Christmas!!

***

I hope you and your families all have a wonderful Xmas.

Stay safe, stay motivated, have fun

& I look forward to hearing all the Xmas/New Years events soon!

It's a new year coming, time to re-evaluate how we went over the past year and learn from the year!

We all have it in us to become what we want

- we just have to believe in ourself.

Luv Mel.

xxx

PS - would have posted fun Xmas icons but have no idea how to do it!!

Holiday Goss....

Hello lovelies!!

Well I guess you have figured that I’m back.

So I am just taking a "moment" from all the backlog of work here to fill you all in on our "Eating and Drinking Tour of Australia"....yep that's pretty much all we did - eat and drink! From the moment we left I said I won't drink today, I will have a break and what happened....two and a half full weeks of alcohol every day - it took its toll, trust me!! Hehe

So I am back on the wagon and after 2 days of being sober I am feeling much better, not to mention looking much better - my skin was soo tired looking. Can’t wait to get into some exercise, I am all pumped up and have made some goals for myself, which I will write up later in the week.

Right now we just did soo much in a short time so I kinda have to remember back to what we did! Its gonna be long.....

New South Wales - Sydney

We arrived very early on Thursday morning into Sydney and as Hubby was working for his race team we actually stayed out near the Eastern Creek track....I would equate the suburb to being along the lines of Midland (an improvement from last time's Oran Park which was like Balga!!).

We went and saw Priscilla Queen of the Dessert that night, had dinner along the harbor and some drinks and I have to say that Priscilla was awesome - I recommend seeing it when it comes over and I think I will buy tickets from me and Mum to go see it, as it was really good - very very funny! They even did the PING PONG bit from the movie...hehe

Friday & Sat Hubby went out to the track so I just went shopping at the centre near where we were staying - got a few good bargains...not mention spent 4 hours in the hairdressers trying to fix the BAD job I got done before I left. Yep went back to my old hairdresser up here the day we left and she (for some reason beyond me) coloured my hair in stripes of blonde and VERY DARK BROWN, I was mortified but she insisted it would wash out in a few days. Well by Saturday it didn't and I had had enough, with the mix of colours my hair looked grey - honestly! So I had to get my hair stripped and recoloured. Its not the best now but its heaps better....$500 from both jobs later...Hubby is not happy - he wants the hairdresser up here to give me my money back...I will let him handle that!

We got to finish up early and booked into the Sebel Pier One hotel right to the left of the Sydney Harbor Bridge on the Sunday....Oz Idol was on that night and we could see the fireworks and hear them from our room. We went for a walk along that way as it was like a 5-10 min walk to the Opera House - it was soo busy...didn't get too close!

We also had our first Yum Cha experience - it was amazing, we pigged out, its now our fav! Did some shopping, went to the Minus 5 bar - yep that is an ice bar. Its like minus 18 degrees. You go in for only 30 minutes and you have to put on big boots, gloves and a big furry jacket with hood. It was soo spun out. Everything was made of ice, chairs, tables, the glasses you drank from - it was a vodka bar so you only got to have vodka cocktails - very yummy.... Then after that we went downstairs to this very trendy (very $$) vodka bar and had some Polish vodkas...was heaps fun!

We also did the ferry trip to Manly for the day and walked across the harbor bridge, checked out Luna Park and Hubby's favourite of the holiday - we walked to Harry's De Wheels and he had a Pie topped with mashed potato and mushy peas - a specialty, its like our Alfred's Kitchen in Guildford. Its a caravan take out place and has been there for like 40 years or something and there are photos everywhere of stars visiting it etc...anyways Hubby was in heaven (I've got pictures!), and actually it was the best pie I had tried before!

Then we made our way along the coast, driving, to Victoria. Our first night we stayed in Batemans Bay and it was just the cutest little town - it was awesome and the holiday village we stayed in was just the best - if we had kids it would be the best holiday ever for them and even with a group of friends it would be awesome - again will send pics so you know what I mean. Plus all along the coast they just have the best seafood - so I am an addict now :)

It took us 2 days to get to Melbourne- full days, the next night we stayed at the Lakes Entrance, which is just inside the Victorian border - again nice, a coastal town, yummy food.

Victoria - Part 1

We arrived in Melb on the Thursday which was Hubby's birthday and we stayed at Crown Casino that night. OMG its awesome, the rooms are deluxe. That night we went out with friends for dinner.

Friday Hubby had to do work so I hit the streets of Melbourne - OMG, OMG, OMG. The shopping is awesome. I still really love Chapel Street but I spent pretty much the entire afternoon in the Myers store - yes, I got lost soo many times and almost gave up after an hour of being stuck in the electrical goods section but alas I finally found the clothes..aghhh...stupid me, the Myers goes over like 4 blocks and I was on the wrong floor, wrong block - of course!

By the time I saw Hubby that arvo I had told him to not let me go shopping for the rest of the holiday, that's how shopping mad I went (it didn't last long).

Launceston, Tasmania

Hubby’s boss decided he wanted to ride his new motorbike in Launceston over the weekend, so he organised for us to catch the "Spirit of Tasmania" Ferry overnight on the Friday to take his bike over. He then flew over where we met up with him and some friends. The ferry was really cool but I must admit that I did wake up about midnight in our cabin thinking we were going to die....it was really rough and scary (apparently Stu says it wasn't but it WAS!). It takes about 10 hours to get across so we got in early Saturday morning.

In Tassie it actually rained and sleeted and was freezing. We went along past Cradle Mountain to the other side of Tasmania (so east to west) and stayed the night in a coastal town in this really nice hotel with fantastic views of the bay! Sunday was spent driving/riding back and having lunch etc....

We flew back to Melbourne on the Monday morning - being our ONE YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY...yes we made it ;)

Victoria - Part 2

So we took a little A3 Audi and headed to the Great Ocean Road. Hubby was in his element, it’s some turbo charged little beast with the same engine as Audi TT...again, thought I was going to die on numerous occasions but Hubby being the expert driver did a fantastic job at top speed around the VERY windy cliffs....he had fun!

So if you haven't done Gt Ocean Rd, you really gotta!!!!!!!! It is soo beautiful along there and the little towns and beaches and everything are gorgeous. We checked out Bells Beach, but the surf just wasn't big enough for us to even bother entering the water (ha!). We saw the 12 Apostles, London Bridge & the Arch, all amazing! WE also did the treetop rainforest walk whilst we were down there - I sprinted through as it was a bit high and windy for me but Hubby spent awhile looking around up there and going up the big tower and on the hanging bridge up there...

WE stayed from Monday to Thursday morning down at Chris' Beacon Point Restaurant & Villas, which is just outside Apollo Bay. Again, highly highly recommended. We were perched on top of the hill overlooking the ocean with floor to ceiling windows everywhere in our villa and nothing in front of us (its very secluded only like 4 villas up there)...it was just amazing, had dinner at the restaurant on our anniversary (I saw it on Getaway so that's how I picked it) and then the other nights ate on our balcony - it was very relaxing. Its all very beachy and surfy and laid back along there with great little pubs and stuff...and the beaches are amazing, I have now changed my tune on the beach and love it!

Came back to Melbourne on Thursday. We caught up with a friend of mine out in the 'burbs', I used to work with her over here, it was really good to see them and their kids! That night we went out to dinner with another friend in the city. Then he took us to a few very "spun out" bars. The first one was like this reggae hippy bar, which was really just an alley way full of alternative type folks smoking and drinking....was different. Then we went to a cozy little like jazz bar - bright red and very laid back, that was cool and then the last place was called MOO and it was quite an expensive place where you can eat or just drink, it was all antique and felt like you were back in the 1920's, it was very groovy. It was good to see him - it was all a very tame night though!

Oh and on the Thursday Stu’s boss had bought a new collector’s item car or something so Hubby had to pick that up (this is before dinner) and I had my first driving experience in Melbourne being Chapel Street, peak hour in the work Ute, yep I was packing myself especially as Hubby just zoomed off...and you have to give way to pedestrians in Melbourne, so a few near misses, but all good...everyone alive still ;)

Friday Hubby had meetings for hours so I got my shopping bug back and since the workshop (where we were staying) is just off Chapel Street, I walked myself down there and shopped my little heart out. Funnily enough Hubby was feeling neglected so I actually mainly bought him stuff that day, he is very funky now. Now I love the Playboy shop over there so I spent quite a bit of time in that shop buying for myself....got a cute belly ring and a dress come jacket, yep its kinda short...agghhh it was fun!

That night we headed out with some more friends - ended up back at there place after dinner and stayed til ummm 3.30am when we realised our flight was at 6am and we had to get back to the workshop to get our stuff and hightail it to the workshop....I have no idea how we made it or how I managed to get our contact outs in a drunken state and change etc in the space of like 5 mins - it was certainly from super Hubby's efforts of packing everything up whilst I floundered around disorientated - sorry sweetpea!!!

So that's it, we are back - it is good to be home but perhaps not at work :)

I will post photos when I get some time during the week!

xxx

Wahooo…

Hey everyone!!

Weight loss

Yep that’s right, last Friday I had a PT session and I weighed in and had lost a kilo. I was soo happy. Now after my weekend I have probably put that kilo back on but the thing is I finally actually got the scales to move DOWN which means they can, which means I can do it! I hope that makes sense, basically it put some enthusiasm and more determination back into me. I can achieve what I want to make myself happy – so yah for Melly ;) haha

This week I am cramming what I can into the 3 days we are here as we go away on Wednesday night…I just got back from another PT session and then tomorrow and Wednesday have some body circuit classes.

I have to say, I’ve noticed my upper body is becoming a bit more defined which I am really happy about as I just love defined arms!! My body circuit classes are really paying off and last week I was just soo sore so that’s a good sign that I am actually working out!!!

Weekend

As ever, it was pretty full on. Saturday we spent all day cleaning out the final parts of our house, cleaning the windows etc…oh yes it was fun – NOT! But am happy to say its all done and now I am just waiting for Tuesday morning for the settlement to go through and that’s one more tick off the ole list. Yippeee. I shouldn’t sound soo happy as we really did love our house but its just gone beyond that and having to look after 2 properties whilst being away heaps was a bit tiring…at least we aren’t all sad that we are saying goodbye to our “first” house!! After jump starting my car, yes Mel left the key on just to top off a busy day *whoops* we headed home and had people over for a bbq, so needless to say the bed was very welcome that night!

Did anyone go and watch the Red Bull Air Race yesterday???!!!! We went down and I have to say I thought it was awesome. Now I am kinda scared of flying but I can realise talent when I see it and boy are those guys talented and fearless! It was very impressive. We had about 5 of us head down from our house, we just walked down with our esky and picnic basket and had a great day of lunch and drinks in the sun. It was sooo hot though and we had to constantly apply suncream, I am happy to report I did not get burnt, I just have a very nice brown tan at the moment J It was also good to see that (where we were at least) there were no fights or anything, everyone was happy and cheery and the police were really good and let people drink as long as no one went over the top, fair call!!

Holiday

Yep we are off on our holiday on Wednesday night. I soo can’t wait. We are off to Sydney for 6 days and I have booked what looks like an awesome hotel in the Rocks so hopefully I can enjoy the Sydney I didn’t get to see properly a couple weeks ago. We are then going down to Melbourne, where we will spend hubby’s birthday and our one year wedding anniversary – we are planning on going along the Great Ocean Road and staying down there for a couple nights. I’m really excited, I’m just soo looking forward to a holiday, finally just relaxing and taking in what’s been a full on year. Bring it on baby!!

So I won’t be blogging for a good 2 ½ weeks, I’ll be back mid December – everyone stay safe, stay motivated and I will catch up on everyone’s blogs when we get back – and I promise to update with some holidays piccies!!!

Love,
Mel.
x

Now where do I start....

I'm back and busy...there just seems to be no "me" time at the moment....but diet & exercise are certainly still on my mind..will go into that shortly...but to update the adventure so far...

Mt Buller & Melbourne

Let's see...we flew out on the Thursday night midnight flight, I was a little stressed out so I got really nervous about the flight and almost didn't hop on but in the end did (as Stu said he was going without me anyways..what choice did I have?) and actually fell asleep so again was in Melbourne in no time! We got in about 6am and then went to the workshop, which has a loft with a bed, shower etc, and had a 2 hour sleep before heading off!!

Got to MB about 6pm just in time for dinner and a night of drinks....

Anyways Saturday arvo I went down the bottom of the mountain with hubby, that is where the rally starts and the cars climb there way up the 16km winding road. Now let me just say, its a bloody scary road without racing up it, in summer or winter, so I have no idea how these people do it (I stress at doing just 60km)! There were a few accidents but nothing to major. Unfortunately the turbo on the Subaru we were working for went so Saturday was the end of our weekend...so we actually got to go back to Melbourne on Sunday morning and spent 2 days there before flying back home - it was pretty boring during the day as hubby just worked the whole time on cars - oh the fun!

BUT....I saw Jennifer Hawkins (aka Miss Universe) and her boyfriend Jake walking past me whilst I was checking our Chapel St - she is absolutely stunning, not sticky thin either but just perfect and very stylish and OMG Jake is just sooo spunky - I had to try and be cool and not stare too much but it was hard.

**I soo wished we lived in Melbourne its just the hottest spot and it just feels like "home" every time we got back!**

So there you go my weekend in a nutshell - it was actually a really funny weekend and certainly not as busy as when Stu races...

Diet & Exercise

Well I had a little sad the other night, everything just caught up on me on the realisation of my 1kg weight gain hit me. My trainer had really told me off about the gain and now every time I see him he really lays into me and questions everything I eat/do...so I think it finally hit home and I just cried.....but then I was like "all this crying is not doing me any good, I gotta start doing something rather than just saying or thinking about!".

To be honest I am still in the mentality of when I was really thin and although I am not massively overweight or anything I'll be heading that way if these increases still continue. I realised that I am not that "thin" person that I once was and that I have to do something about this to get back to being happy because I'm not happy with myself at the moment and the only person I can blame is myself. There is no point asking people if they can tell I have put on weight because in reality not many people are going to tell you the truth, so I have been deluding myself and with my weight gain it kinda hit home that this is the biggest I have been since I was overweight in high school...boom, lightening has struck - I've finally got it.

Soo in that respect I am trying the best I can at the moment, considering how busy we are. Our house sale goes thru next Monday (19th) and the place is still full of junk as we have been away soo much. Today we have to go sort out what we are selling in our garage sale there tomorrow and setup for that, then tomorrow is the garage sale and trying to empty the house out...then we only have next Saturday to get everything else out and clean it - I have absolutely no idea how we are gonna get this done, but I'm not thinking too far forward because I will only get stressed out.

Work is also flat out with a lot of changes being made and a lot of afterwork paperwork and agreements to work on - aghhh!

So I'm still doing my PT sessions, my body circuit classes, I went to our local gym yesterday and did some cardio and unfortunately its the weekend and raining but I'm really concentrating on doing exercise each day and have salad with dinner and no pasta or heavy carbs and to be honest I am feeling better already. So 2kg is the goal for before Xmas, I think that's realistic, if I can manage my nightly meals I can do this as I think that is where this weight is coming from.

I also bought some XLR8 tablets from the health food shop to help speed up the ole metabolism and burn some fat, so we'll see how I go with those, has anyone tried this before??

Right I'm off to check on everyone's blogs - will update on the ole new "determination and lightening bolt" adventure soon...

Love,
Mel.
x

Inspiration...

I know I've posted this pic before but it was months ago and I thought a bit of re-newed inspiration in the form of Kate Bosworth (pre her well too skinny days) was needed!!!

The Chaotic Life of Mel....

Yep life is just a tad busy at the moment.

Last Wednesday night we flew out to Sydney...of course, we got stuck sitting in the plane on the tarmac for 90 mins (yes this is at midnight!!) whilst some alpacas were removed from the cold storage section on the plane and put into a slighter warmer cargo hold...so they wouldn't freeze to death!!! Yes, strange I know but true...I thought my tablets were having wierd affects on me when I heard the pilot make that announcement..haha

So really the weekend was a blur. We were non stop busy. We stayed out in Campbell Town because it was close to the track - I hope no one is from Campbell Town reading this because but I have to say, it was horrible (equivalent to our Balga/Midland) - I walked into town once and didn't dare go back again by myself, so lesson learnt and consequently no gym due to that fact as I didn't have a car when Stu wasn't with me.

But moving on, spent our days at the track, I did the very good "wife" thing, I worked on my lap top whilst Stu played with his car etc and also did some video cameraing of his races - but I didn't do too well with that as my hand was shaking soo much from nerves watching him...hehe...but he did awesome as usual!

Friday night we went into the Rocks and went to dinner at this chinese place, Imperial Peking, or something like that. OMG, it was just the best chinese I have ever had. I actually haven't had chinese for years as I prefer Japanese or Thai but this was just amazing. Stu's boss took us and picked out what we ate and it was just brilliant - I can't say enough about it!

Saturday night we all went to the Sydney Motor Show, I got to sit in the new Audi R8, and it was pure bliss, I could only dream of buying one of those, it costs as much as our first house cost us!! The guy we were with has purchased one...hmmmm....anyways finally at like 10.30pm, with me looking to eat the artificial flowers on display, we finally went down to the harbour and had dinner. We ordered this massive seafood platter with lobster, crab, prawns, oysters etc...it was soo nice. I have never had oysters before but now am addicted!!

Sunday night we had a presentation night to go to and again the food was absolutely brilliant - finally had a bit of a big night that one - alcohol wise...was not good going to bed at 1am and having to be up and out of our hotel at 5.30am to get to the airport...very ill....

So really I had a great weekend - a little annoyed I couldn't do any exercise but anyways...I have made up for it a bit this week. I've done my 2 body circuit classes, which I love and this arvo is my PT session - we have measurements today and I am meant to have lost 2kg but its more like I have put on 2kgs, so I'm really not looking forward to it...things are just soo hectic at the moment but I have my goal in mind and I know that when I can exercise I certainly do, so it will happen....

AND we actually fly out to Melbourne (my most favourite city!!) this evening. We are off to Mt Buller for a rally this weekend. We are staying at a realllllly nice hotel this weekend and I've been to Mt Buller before so I'm hoping the uni gym is open so I can go there - Stu's not racing this weekend, so things will be a bit more relaxed and we can be a bit more flexible, just gotta so stuff for his boss, but otherwise we can drink and gym it and stuff...sooo yah!

Anyways I am outtie, I hope everyone is going well and I'll be catching up on blogs later today - see ya next week!

Melly.
x

Quick update...

Just a quick one as we fly out tonight for Sydney - we get back on Monday - yah! And I just found out that we pretty much have all of Thursday to ourselves so we can actually venture into Sydney and do some sightseeing and then we don't have to pick up the rest of the team til 10pm that night so we can even eat in town there...am getting excited...except for the plane ride part, which is freaking me out!!! (I have flown heaps of times, I am just a whimp).

Otherwise things have been good. I did the John Hughes Big Walk on Sunday. 20km, Perth to Fremantle. This is my 4th year of doing it and it was easy peasy, although I was over it by the end of it!!!

Anyways I kicked my butt into action with regards to food this week and have been feeling heaps better. Although today for lunch I succumbed to my favorite turkish bread roll for lunch and now i feel all stodgy and yuk - lesson learnt, they are no longer my favorite! Plus I couldn't make my body circuit class this morning because we are just soo busy trying to sort work stuff out before we leave....I am taking my laptop so that whilst Stu is on the track I can draft up some new work changes that need to be implemented by our staff etc...

And I also found a Fitness First just near where we are staying over east so I intend of doing some exercise whilst I am there otherwise I know I will start feeling gross.

Ok, so I better go - I've had all my waxing done today, so I am hair free and also did a quick bit of shopping so I look somewhat stylish before hitting Sydney...wonder if they will have any good bargains over there (note to self...must save myself from splurging til our "proper" holiday at the end of November)...

Kick ass crew!!
Mel.
x

Feeling a bit …..

Well I should be feeling quite good as I have (like I promised myself) upped my exercise a bit but food is still the major culprit in ruining my good efforts.

Let’s start with the exercise…starting from where I left off last Thursday…(I’ve had a horrible cold for like 2 weeks now so Friday was a write off as it kinda fully kicked in…or maybe alcohol from the night before may have been part of it?!)

Ok so I’ve been really good since last week and walked around the river (with little jogs in there when I could, just easing my knee into it) on Saturday and Sunday and yesterday (Tuesday) as well.

Then yesterday I also did Jacob’s Ladder in the arvo, my legs were already tired from my morning walk/run and I pushed myself to do a bit more running than normal on my walk, so I could really feel them. I haven’t done JL for years so I was quite proud of 6 sets in just over 20 mins. It’s probably pretty tame but I am definitely going to go a couple times a week and build up to more and quicker….

Today I did another one of the Body Circuit classes, which I love.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I have a PT session and my trainer promises he is going to kick my ass for going out drinking and eating thai last night (doh).

So then it’s Friday, I actually have to work this Friday so dunno if I will get a chance to do any exercise, probably just walk the boys in the morning and then it’s the weekend and I can get stuck into JL on Saturday and walking/jogging the river again.

So I’m getting there with upping my exercise, I just have to keep pushing myself.

At the moment my legs, and I mean all of my legs not just my calves, are so soo sore. I can’t imagine what they are gonna be like tomorrow, coz at this stage its very hard to walk…haha…also they are soo tight and thick feeling – I actually feel worse than usual, I feel soo thick and fat. Grrrr…I know its just that my muscles are swollen and full of blood but still….

Last Thursday night my feet were soo swollen from wearing my new shoes in for 2 days and when I got home my legs had actually got all swollen too and I couldn’t do up my knee high boots without the zip pinching my calves….yes, there were tears – luckily Stu came home and promised me I hadn’t just put on a huge amount of weight in one day and that I was all swollen up – eeek! Not nice at all.

Right so food – this is where I seem to be going wrong. Numero Uno problem is after dinner – I seem to be craving something sweet these days…I never never used to and now in the last couple months I have become a complete chocolate/sweet tooth…the next major problem is I cannot stand “salads”. I really don’t like lettuce, any type, it boring and flavourless…so no matter what my good intentions are to plan a meat and salad dinner by the end of the day I just cannot do it, I can’t stand lettuce/salads, unless of course we are talking lots of cheese or avocado…see soo slight problem. Tonight is a prime example I have chicken out and we are meant to have a salad (and Stu will have chips as well as he needs more) but just thought of the gross salad is doing my head in – so I’m trying to think of what else I can be having instead, some veges…oh yes, I think some sweet potato and some nice steamed veges…we could be on a winner…

Baby steps…its all about baby steps….

PS – my pysco PT reckons my aim for the month is to lose 2kg, well the month is almost up and I am more than likely to put on 2kg than lose it….great!

xxx

Party Pic...

Stu and I had to go to a "G" themed fancy dress party the other weekend. Just to clarify, we do not look like this normally and Stu = a Gothic and I = Gwen Stefani...just if you couldn't tell...it was soo much fun!!!

xxx

Crazy, Crazy…

Wahoo….we accepted an offer on our house on Wednesday morning. So a week on the market and its all gone now! We are really really happy with the offer we got and we didn’t want to be too greedy and what we loved is that the people that put the offer on it loved it the first minute they saw it just as we had. And it was a really good offer so its all smiles all round. Its also a quick settlement and should be all done by mid to late November!!!

On Wednesday morning I did my first body circuit class at my gym. I have been putting it off as I am just such a whimp at trying new things and have already cancelled twice but alas I dragged myself to it and I loved it, totally!! It was awesome fun, really hard but got your cardio right up. So I am gonna try and do that class twice a week. Plus an RPM class down at Vic Park.

I don’t think food is my problem I think its pushing myself harder to do more intense exercise.. I am such a whimp and get really shy so always put things off – even going for a run in public, I know stupid but that’s me. But this body circuit class was really good for me as it got me out of my groove and kinda got a little competitive streak happening with me. So I have promised myself to up the anti and I reckon that will do it as I have just been cruising with the same/easy-ish cardio for ages now. No wonder I am not seeing any results and slowly losing the battle of the bludge! But never fear, I’m gonna be kicking my ass and looking hot for summer very shortly!

Tonight we are off to dinner and drinks at Burswood with a friend that has flown over from Melbourne for business, so I'm really looking forward to that - I really like Sirocco's down there...hmmmm

Tomorrow I have off so I’m gonna go do Jacob’s Ladder in the morning before heading out for more furniture shopping with my Mum. Then its just the usual cleaning the house and walking the boys in the arvo. That night I think I am meeting a friend for Friday night bevvies and the rest of the weekend is just a go with the flow one at the moment, although I think dinner out at our new favourite Italian restaurant with friends is in the pipeline…

What else? Oh bring back the summer weather – pllleaaasseeee!!!

Ohhh how could I forget? Last night we went motorbike looking for Stu and he picked the one he wants, he's hoping to get it delivered for the weekend then I get to get a leather jacket...wahoo - I can just see us cruising around in summer...haha

Ok, I'm off....have a great weekend all :)
Mel
x

Rolling along...

Howdy all….agh, what a weekend. Yuk, I ended up getting gastro on Friday night and recovered properly on Sunday!

Well exercise is getting more on track. Did my first big walk around the river on Friday morning. OMG it was just soo lovely, the weather, the views etc…I am building up my summer tan (on my upper body) already – I just gotta break out the shorts one of these days, I’m just too scared of scaring people with the shade of white that they are!

Yesterday I went for another walk around the river on my day off but this time in the other direction and as stupid as it sounds it was harder in that direction – I was puffed but mainly my knees got really weak and I couldn’t wait to get home!

So finally exercise is getting on track and I see our local recreation centre has RPM classes in the mornings. I’ve never done one of those before but Stu’s keen to go so I think we will schedule that into one of our mornings before work – I’m looking forward to it.

I’m actually just about to hit the gym for my weekly PT session – I seriously hope its not as hard as last week, he tried to kill me, I’m sure!

Eating is going ok, I never eat chocolate but lately I have just wanted some each day so I gotta keep from giving in each night – I am strong I can do this….I wish I loved fruit but I’m just soo damn picky!

Not sure what the go is tonight – normally I would just veg on the couch but strangely since we have moved I have loved going out and doing something each night and the thought of just plodding home is a bit boring so maybe Stu and I will go for a quick walk just for something different (ha) near the river and then cook a stir fry or something together – or perhaps we should have a spa before dinner…aghhh, decisions..haha

Ok, off I go…. Xxx

PS – Em, if you had seen me walking the boys this morning you would have been in hysterics!! Seriously they were soo overexcited and Basil kept eating things off the ground (i.e. slice of pizza), he was soo quick I could never catch up and then when I did he refused to open his mouth even with me sticking my fingers in it to get the food out – he is very strong when it comes to food ;)

The Adventures of Chester & Basil….

Well my baby beagles. They have actually taken some adjusting to the new place. I really didn’t expect, I didn’t think about it that much really and just thought they would settle in as normal. But no so, there has been lots of crying and Chester, who is normally the most well behaved of the two, has been quite naughty whereas Basil has been amazingly well trained – except for the running off with my favourite Napolean lip gloss – but never fear I did retrieve…the end did get pulled off but if I transfer it into a little lip gloss pot it will be re-usable…thank god…!!

Anyways so yes this post is about our “boys”….

As part of moving to a smaller property and closer to the river, I have to walk them every morning before work (I work 3 days a week) and then each day of the weekend – on my days off I dare say I will take them out too….they love it. They get soo excited. We have just been soo busy up here in the hills lately that we have really neglected walking them during winter and to be honest I just didn’t want to walk anywhere around here. I am now excited about walked around the river and even along Albany Hwy if I have to go the shops – the boys just love all the attention they get from other people walking. They are soo cute and look pretty much exactly the same.

But let’s get onto my adventure of walking the boys before work for the first time this morning. Yep I braved it…actually I bounded out of bed at 5.50am – Stu went off to swimming and I collected two very over excited beagles and headed out. Now to start with it was a hassle even putting the leashes on them. One of them jumps all over the place and one of them is scared of the chain, so yes it is very amusing to watch me…I am sure!

So off we headed…two mad dogs and one getting very “over it” Mel. Normally Stu and I walk one each. I have walked them both before and they aren’t too bad but seriously this morning they were just soo excited.

I have to say it is just soo beautiful along the river – the view is sensational.

Now my little adventure is about “dog poop” – so just a pre-warning. Anyways as I said Stu and I normally walk them together so I always get him to do the picking up off and in Kalamunda there is heaps of bushland so we are normally lucky to get away with having to pick it up.

So the entire way I prayed and prayed that they wouldn’t stop to “do” anything. But I know Chester always just loves to save himself up for our walks whereas Basil rarely does. Now Mr Chester somehow found a vacant lot with bush on it and hid himself in a bush that I couldn’t get to – so yah, very happy about that. I have to say it was soo trying walking them this morning, for anyone that doesn’t have beagles or know beagles, they love sniffing…nose to the ground and sniff – once on a scent it can be hard to deter them…so here I have two hyperactive beagles on sniffing missions and luckily for me, going in opposite directions today – NOT! I was very very over it. Then to top off my morning walk as I am thanking my lucky stars that Basil hasn’t gone and we are a mere 100 metres from home. Out comes a lovely old gentleman to his front lawn to put out some bins and before I know it Bas has stopped dead set in front him and you can imagine what he did. I swear, I was soo embarrassed but then I had to face my fear and pick up…so double bagged I went, both dogs pulling on me…to pick it up and pop it in the bin, breathe held, eyes closed – I am sure I looked a sight, but I did it and I survived!

First “poop” adventure done – am now bracing myself for tomorrow morning – haha J

Long Weekend – the Big Move!

Howdy all,

Yahh…we are all moved in (well kinda) to our new pad. It feels like a little holiday house – even my father in law said that the other day when they came down to check it out.

Now let’s see if I can remember back to how the weekend went, it feels like ages ago already!

I spent Friday madly running around with Mum shopping. I ordered some bookcases, which I will get this Friday. I also bought a lovely new mirror for our entrance way, a big cream shag pile type run and a funky square coffee table. All from Freedom – I totally love Freedom. We did go into Ikea, but it was just madness.

We also had our new plasma and our fridge/freezer delivered and all set up. The new telly is awesome – even better that they connected it to our stereo and dvd player etc…so all I had to do was learn how to use it.

Friday night I went to the casino for drinks with my friend – got home about midnight, it was fun. Paddy’s had a really good fun band playing so we jumped around for a bit…made me feel better about drinking…kinda working it off at the same time…haha!

Saturday was very hectic. I accidentally looked at my watch wrong and got us up an hour early and was at the truck hire place at 7am instead of 8am – whoops! But it turned out ok coz my Mum flew up to Broome to go on the True North boat for a week and I had to pick her car up from the airport so we got that out of the way nice and early…anyways then the boys moved all our big furniture to the new place and set I all up looking good in time to watch the GF. WOW, what a game… After that we all had drinks so we retired for the day and just sat around chatting and drinking, had a bbq and then had a spa – got out about 2am…yep, oophs again – but it was awesome fun and a great way to celebrate our “proper” first night at the new house!

Sunday was up at 7am to take the truck back (YUK). Then we took our beagles for a walk along part of the river (they are not fit enough for longer than an hour at the moment). The rest of the day we did house stuff i.e. put up extra fencing to keep the Chester & Baz safe and then we had friends come over to check out our new place. It was nice but we were soo exhausted. We both just managed to keep our eyes open til 11pm to watch the first lap of the Formula One – we both soo wanted to watch it on our new big screen….haha

And then there was Monday – I got a call from the real estate agent to say he had two people that wanted to see our house on Tuesday so we had to go up the hill to clean the house – a good 4 hours later and it looked spic! Then Stu’s folks came down to see our new pad – yes, we are having lots of visitors now…haha

Soo our weekend was really go, go, go…we are just exhausted at the moment and things haven’t even slightly slowed down.

We have however managed to start our fitness regimes this week – I had a kick ass PT session, he almost killed me I swear….or I almost killed him with my whinging…haha. And this morning I walked the boys along the river again – more of that in my next post! Tonight is squash (if we can make it, as work is really busy and not sure if we will be out by 6.30pm!).

I have to walk the boys every morning before work so I get that extra bit of exercise too plus on my days off I will do Jacob’s Ladder and walk/run around the river (if my knees hold up, whole other story, yet again). Plus my pilates and PT session so I reckon summer is gonna be great – bring it on!

I totally love Vic Park at the moment – I’ve found an awesome butcher and fruit/veg place and its just soo close to everything and everyone. This Friday night we will go and check out a couple of the pubs…our new locals!! Wahoo…with all this exercise and watching my food, I am sure my social drinking will balance it all out – and pleasseee, you have to have some fun in life!

Right this has been a tad long – I wonder if anyone made it all the way thru…haha

Cheers bellas,
Melly.
x

Back again...

Well I am back again - I've been reading posts but just not posting anything from my end.

This week and last weekend have just been crazy with packing and moving. How does one end up with soo much stuff? Seriously I feel soo good about myself as I have donated soo much "good" stuff to Anglicare and the Good Sammy's - my good deed for the year! But I hate clutter and I just looked at all this stuff that is virtually new that I never use or wear and thought "why hold on to it when there are lots of people that would need this stuff"....

Anyways so we got the keys to our new little pad on Tuesday and I had the day off to move and unpack stuff there. I was all happy about the place until I got home late that night to our home up here in the hills and realised just how big our beautiful house is compared to the Vic Park one and I had a bit of a cry...yes silly I know its just a house but I guess its my first house and I was feeling a bit sad. Plus all our gardens have been freshly done and mulched so they look hot and the weather is getting warmer and I just want to jump in our pool and have a swim, which won't be able to happen anymore as the new place doesn't have one - oh well, at least our spa is coming with us. I just keep thinking, we can stay in this place for 6 months and then if we like Vic Park I will start looking at buying our own place again but down there - I'm toying with the idea of buying an older house and doing it up as I notice there are some gorgeous looking houses down that way that are soo cute and very "melbourne-ish" when done up....will see.

As far as food and exercise goes - well exercise has been non existent. As soon as I finish work we head to the house take boxes to the new house and unpack and then head home about 10pm and then start the day all over. I'm not stressing about it, there's not much I can do and we will be in on Saturday (having a Grand Final BBQ and drinks at our place with friends) and Monday is a public holiday so I plan on starting fresh then with a walk around the river and doing JL a few times...so there's no point stressing myself even more with worrying about exercise. Food has been fine, too busy to over eat. Dinner have had to be take out stuff but I've managed to keep that healthy i.e. Nando's chicken and a bought salad with no dressing from Coles and then japanese and miso soup, no deep fried stuff and I'm actually feeling quite light in my stomach and good.

I've had a bit of a stressful day with other crap that is going today so I'm thinking I might have to have an alcoholic beverage tonight - but we'll see how I go.

So I guess my next post will be next Tuesday with all the goss on the new place and what I think of the new suburb - bring it on baby!!!

Mel.
x

Quick Update...

Hi all,

Well just i have been quite absent lately...in the last week soo much has been happening. A few really bad things - which I'm not going into but a few major changes have been made in ole Melly's life.

Anyways just wanted to let you know that I am still hear and reading everyone's blogs.

My diet and exercise was total crap last week - it was just the last thing I could do or think of. But I am getting back into exercise this week and starting to eat and eat better....

One last bit of exciting news is we are actually moving. I am really excited but sad at the same time. We are selling our absolutely beautiful house up here in the hills and leasing a lovely house down in Vic Park, just a 10 min walk from the foreshore!!! Basically we are just going to invest our money until we decide if we like Vic Park etc....the house up here is too big to manage when Stu goes away all the time i.e. the gardens etc and I will know be travelling with him so it will make it doubley harder so we are moving to something with a smaller yard and also closer to the city and my friends and family and all the nightlife etc...so in that respect I am really excited. We get the keys next Tuesday and then will start moving small stuff next week then next Saturday (yes Grand Final day) will move the big stuff in the morning, then we will well and truly deserve a rest to watch the GF. But so at the moment I am madly trying to organise stuff to move. Once we are settled we will have a big garage sale to get rid of stuff we don't want and also the other stuff get put into storage and then the house will be put on the market.

So I think my exercise will be put on the back burner for a bit - still doing my Pt sessions and yoga but once we move down near the river, we will be walking our dogs daily and now I have my totally wonderful orthodics I will start running again - yah!

Ok, things are majorally hectic up here so I gotta mosey - big smiles :)

Mel.
x

RIP

Not much I can say, being bought up with motor racing everywhere, Peter Brock was an icon and did soo much for Australian Motoring racing...I feel for his family and for his supporters - this is very sad, again an unbelievable tragedy - regardless of the risks involved in his profession, this is still a sad day...