Not long to go...

Monday February 28th  Day 13

It’s my day off. What am I doing up at 5.20am? Oh yeah, that’s right. I want to lose weight and get fit.  That inevitably means early morning quality time J and the boys.  Workout gear-check. Banana-check. Monavie and L-Carnitine –check. Guess that means I’m ready.

These morning workouts on this detox diet are killing me! I just don’t have the same endurance that I had before. Still, I sweat it out as best I can, grateful that I don’t have to go to work when I’m finished.

Home. Thought about relaxing on the lounge with a protein shake, but I feel energised. So, I hopped on the treadmill for another workout. Made it through another 32 minutes. NOW I’m tired. Bone tired. Exhausted, actually. Not too tired to fore go stepping on the scales. If I could take that back I would. Still 1kg heavier than yesterday. How did this happen? I’m working so hard. Damn this is disheartening. All this hard work and no pay off.

Disgruntled, I put on some laundry and started to make my shake. Soy milk, pea protein powder, 100g yogurt and a frozen banana that I’ve saved especially for this occasion. The only thing I hadn’t thought about was how tricky it is to peel a frozen banana!! The peel breaks off in small chunks. My fingers are numb from trying to hang on to a very cold, unyielding piece of frozen fruit. The only thing that seemed to work was ‘shaving’ off the peel with a paring knife.

Into the blender. Press the button. Grab the silver stainless steel milkshake cup from the freezer and PRESTO. Instant breakfast! And, a yummy one at that! It is actually quite filling.

I try to relax, but it feels a bit weird to be home without S on a Monday. Perhaps some retail therapy will do the trick. It didn’t. I wondered around the shopping centre aimlessly. I couldn’t focus. I could hardly function. I am so tired. Drained.

I want to go home and sleep. Not sure it will make me feel any better. Just sitting here on the lounge will be enough- at least I hope so. Definitely early to bed tonight.

Sunday Feb 27 Day 12

College again for day 2 of 3. The past couple of weeks have definitely been busy. I could sure do with a sleep in. I drove myself to St Leonards; it’s free parking on Sundays.

I’m still really enjoying this course. He is taking us through some really interesting techniques. Not so sure about the assessments though. I’ll need to spend some time going over them.

Home to exercise. This time, I changed the program and made it through without holding on. Totally awesome! I can actually run for 2mins at a speed of 10km/hr. Never thought it was possible. Very impressed with myself.

Saturday Feb 26  Day 11

Up early. No rest for the weary. I have a weekend intensive course today at the college. It’s only 2 hr parking on Saturdays and so G offered to drive me to save me having to run outside to feed the parking meter.

Our course is about relationship issues and relationship counselling. It should be interesting. The lecturer is male which I’m also looking forward to since all of our lecturers have been female so far. I wonder what kind of view he’ll have on relationships?

He seems nice enough. The prospect of ‘holding the space’ for 2 people simultaneously is rather daunting. Sometimes, holding it for one is tricky enough. I’m looking forward to finding out what skills he’s going to share with us.

The break for lunch is much needed. Taunted by the spinach and ricotta rolls, the vegetable pies- even the spelt pizza with avocado (which I’m not overly keen on) I finally settled on the vegetable lentil curry- without rice. It looked yummy.

Sigh…looks can be deceiving. It had a very strong vinegar taste that I found hard to get past. In the end, I couldn’t’. So, I threw out what was left and made myself a protein shake with water. That didn’t go down so well on top of the vinegar lentils. Good thing I could chase them both with a soy dandy.

In the afternoon, we did a role play that was pivotal for me. I played one of the characters. It was amazing to watch how I responded and reacted to the various counselling techniques put forth by each counsellor in the ‘fish bowl’. I was particularly struck by the use of ‘immediacy’. Whenever they used that technique, it nudged my character to face ‘his’ emotions. Very powerful.

Then, G picked me up and took me home. The Best surprise was waiting for me there. G had spent the day cleaning and the house sparkled!! Totally wonderful thing to come home to!

I changed into my workout gear and hopped on the treadmill, hoping to repeat last night’s experience. It was not to be. I ran the whole time, but unlike last night, I had to hang on to the rails to get through it. My knees are sore. My left ankle is sore.

Time for a quick shower, some dinner, a little TV and then definitely bed.