Ladies, if you haven’t seen this video yet, do.
Take a moment.
Watch it.
Think about it.
Mull it over. In your own time.
Share it with someone else.
Then tell me, do you think you’re more beautiful than you say?
Yes. Yes, you are.
Snack Planking: a new kind of hell
Boot camp has been getting better and better – and I definitely feel it in between! There have been plenty of body weight exercises, more boxing, and suicide sprints.
The latest ‘thing‘ seems to be what our trainer calls snack planking. Ummmm… what the?! What the indeed.
I had never heard of it – and googling it isn’t much help either. For those of you who are as confused as I was when I first heard the phrase, the idea behind snack planking is multiple bursts of planking with limited rest time in between.
10 second plank.
4 seconds rest.
Repeat. Forever.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
It is in the beginning…
…Then you just want to collapse into a pile of sweat and tears.
We did them yesterday at the end if our session in a car parking building (wet weather back-up plan). I have never been so thankful for being able to lay on a dirty car park floor in my life. Any tears were tears of joy, once it was over.
Ouch. My arms.
‘One More Nail in the Coffin of Discrimination’
I know I usually shy away for politic-fuelled posts on this blog, and I will continue to do so – but I wanted to give you all the opportunity to break from your usual blog perusal and consider something a little bigger than ourselves.
Last night New Zealand Parliament passed legislation to legalise same-sex marriage. One of only 13 countries in the world to do so.
“marriage means the union of 2 people, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity”
The Bill to re-define marriage in these words passed 77 votes to 44, in front of a packed house.
I’m proud of you, New Zealand.
(And it’s about bloody time!)
A Week in Pictures
It’s been a quiet week on the blog.
I hit one of these:
And felt like one of these:
So I ate plenty of this:
And did plenty of this:
This week will be much, much better.
Boot Camp: Fitness Testing & Progress!
After a week’s break, the April boot camp sessions kicked off this morning. With more fitness testing!
My very first session as testing too – I wrote about it here. And I’m glad I noted my results, because it gives me a standard platform to compare my progress.
Progress indeed!
- Beep test results: still ‘good’ (above average) per the normative data based on age and gender, but my specific score was a touch better than last time.
- Push ups results: from ‘very poor’ (lowest score) to ‘average’ – an increase of ~10 push ups!
- Lower body wall squats results: from ‘above average’, almost excellent, to ‘excellent’
- Sit up test results: from ‘above average’ to ‘excellent’… by a fair bit.
- Plank test results: ‘average’ – right in the middle of the ‘average’ band – no change.
After the last test, I mentioned that I was going to focus on my upper body and core. And I certainly feel like I’ve improved – though my planking results don’t show it.
Next focus will be on my mental stamina: got to improve those planking and wall-sits times! Maybe crack 60 sit-ups, too?
The Things We Do For Love
Oh, the things we do for love (and to rock a bikini)!
Tomorrow has an early start – not only does boot camp start at 6am, but I’m planning to run/walk/zombie-shuffle my way there, across the other side of town. It’s not far… only about 6km, and I’ve walked home in under an hour before, but I don’t want to be too tired before I even start the boot camp session (Boxing – yay!).
Thankfully, work has a coffee machine that even I can use. And it doesn’t even taste foul! *
*just not particularly nice sometimes.
Is Your Spare Tire Flat?
We’ll all just pretend that I didn’t adopt the American spelling of tyre.
It’s Not You…
Dear Gym
I like you. A lot.
Sometimes I feel we should take it to the next level, but I don’t think you’re cut out for that.
Our little break over the last month or two actually went surprisingly quickly. You were always at the back of my mind – some might say that I missed you, but the space gave me a little more perspective.
This relationship of ours… it’s a little too… comfortable. Where is the passion? The sweat? The burning desire to see you from the time I wake to the moment my head hits the pillow at the end of the day?
I’m sorry, there’s no easy way to say this: I think I’ve found something else.
It’s my reason for getting out of bed in the morning, more than an hour before you used to sneak into my conscious. It gets my heart pumping straight away. If I’m being honest, it’s very physical. I’ve been moving in ways I didn’t know I could.
I’m sorry, really I am. I thought what we had was good – but my eyes have been opened to this whole new world. I wish you could join me in this part of my life, but I think we’ve just grown too far apart.
Don’t cry. Please, understand that it’s not you, it’s me.
I’ve moved on, and we’re just not as compatible any more. You’re a fantastic gym. Really, you are. I have every confidence that you’ll make another girl very happy.
Can we still be friends? I’d like to hang every now and then – we can have some quality time when it’s raining. Winter’s coming up – we’ll probably see each other every now and then.
Thank you for understanding.
Love,
Amy
Teeny Weeny…
… yellow polka dot bikini.
I bought my first bikini.
It’s not yellow. But it’s definitely a lot smaller than any swimwear I’ve ever owned. Teeny weeny even.
For $8 I picked up a mottled blue/red string bikini as a goal for next summer.
Out of curiosity, I tried it on when I got home. Holy heck guys – it fits! It’s an Easter miracle! Okay, it doesn’t look good I have a lot of work left to do. But I will do it.
I’ll be wearing it on the beach next summer.
Easter Weekend
This weekend will not be one of chocolate and sleeping.
It will be one of intense study and running.
What? Stop laughing.
