So been pretty busy lately so you will be getting one blog post every night for the next few days.

The big one each year as my site goes offline for 24-48 hours is pretty much looking at what has happened to me over the last 12 months since I am now a year older.

This time last year, it was coming up to my massively epic trip to North America. Things were counting down quickly and I was struggling to get a new credit card ready to go, deal with birthday stuff, hit up the ekka, and then get last minute trips and planning done with Weddings and stuff happening in the precluding weeks.

Then my big trip. 2 months, in the USA & Canada with a quick stop (23 hours & 5 hours) in Narita. What can i say. One of the big parts of my life was that trip. I had a fantastic time and met some amazing people who I still speak to EVERY day (you guys know who you are). Saw so many new things, so many new experiences, so many new airports and airlines and planes, so many phootos (i think it worked out about 8000 photos all up).

Then I came back from that trip, I was lost, I didn’t know what I was going to do, do i stay at work, do I travel, do I look for a new job, confusion abounded. Then the owner of the company I work for made an offer I couldnt refuse. He would pay for my training if i could lose down to 100kg and if i could do all that, he would send me to Kokoda (if i was ready).

Well now look at me. I am a changed person. I look different, feal different, Have run 10km, can box (although if andy reads this he will probably tell me I still suck), I can run, I can walk long distances, I can hike to! I have met some awesome new people through this as well, and they just keep suprising me each day with the way they help to support me!

I have done a bit of traveling domestically in the last 12 months. Cairns x 2, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Norfolk Island (work), Numerous trips to the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast. Lots of points earned and burned and loving every minute of it all!

Now to see what this next year will bring!

ok well ive been so busy the last few weeks I havent really had a chance to update everyone. But Kokoda is a go. I have had my medical clearance, my trainers are keeping me going and they believe I can do it, the only hurdle left now is for me to believe I can do it.

This is a big big thing for me. This will be the ultimate conclusion to everything I have done. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure there are going to be other experiences in my life that will be mindblowing. But to come so far and now have a real chance at actually doing this. Will be fantastic! It will be this crazy experience where I can just soak in the atmosphere and take the challenge and run with it. Surely I will be able to do anything by the time I get back from this.

Training for Kokoda is not easy though. I have 3 sessions a week specific to Kokoda. Tuesday nights is hiking around the gym area in Bowen Hills & Teneriffe (Dunkenfeld & Down Sts if you know them) and then Friday morning (530am mind you…ewwwww) is a gym session with lots of cardio and leg work. And then Sundays is the big session. Hiking at Mt Cootha. Not just one journey up the hill. at the moment it is 3 hours worth and the sessions will increase a LOT apparently. But if i can keep the falling over to a minimum, I will be very happy (two stacks at Mt Cootha so far).

In other news, My warddrobe has been emptied and some new clothes purchased. It has been crazy just buying clothes at normal stores. I can’t believe that i never thought i would do that. The one thing is though, I still find it hard to shop on my own. Places like target etc don’t phase me as I have shopped in their before. But other stores, I can’t do it on my own. That may sound really stupid but I get to overwhelmed and if I don’t know I just have to run out.

To give you an example yesterday I went to this Jeans store down the road from me which had 2 pairs of Levi’s for $40 which is a total bargain. Figured i could get rid of the old jeans that are way way way to big for me (and i only bought them in april so havent had much wear either). But i didn’t have any clue what size i was meant to be and so I go in and since its a factory outlet their was no real staff around, and after just looking and thinking to myself “what size am i” i just ran out of the store. I am so chicken. But after talking to Kat this morning at training she told me to just suck it up, put on the first pair and if they fit, they fit.

So i grabbed the biggest size (38) and I just put them on, and they fit. It felt wierd trying on a pair of jeans. I was like ummm but soon enough the fear went away and I managed to shop on my own. It’s not as bad if I have someone else with me though as I can usually just look at them for guidance/help/support.

The weekend is finally over. I can sit back and just think about what has happened over the last few days.

I will give a brief run down of how my day went yesterday:

6am – Phone alarm goes off, get up, grab a juice, get changed.
6:20am – Voicemail from Trainer, “You better be awake”
6:21am – Ring back, yes im awake, are you?
6:30am – Tracey Parks Car on other side of Nerang River bridge and our warm up walk begins
6:45am – Arrive at the Race Precinct, Run into Meg, Scare Meg & Vinnie with how different I look
7:00am – Wander round the race precinct
7:20am – Hear the gun go off for First Wave as Andy & Tracey have a coffee
7:30am – Find a Spot in the line up
7:31am – What the hell am i doing this for again?
7:35am – Lots of people around, am i gonna get trampled wtf!
7:40am – Everyone else has their ipods in, stuff this no need to hide it
7:44am – WHY THE HELL AM I DOING THIS!
7:45am – BANG!
7:46am – WHY DID I SIGN UP FOR THIS!
7:55am – Ummm was that the leaders running past… what the hell i just left!
8:00am – In a Rhythm so far, Cadence is helping well

I dont really have any times to put now as i really don’t know what times i passed certain things but i will use km marks instead

1km – Looking good
2km – Rhythm set lets kick this shit
3km – Umm was that a black bib going the other direction… what the hell (black big is my wave)
4km – laughing at girls in capes running along side
5km – TURN POINT! thank god… now to go back over this bridge
6km – Wow… still seeing people running the other way, 4km to go, just a run from the gym to the powerhouse and back
7km – Theres the end of the line running past now, fighting with andy about how far 3km to go would be back at the gym (its the boats btw :P)
8km – Digging Deep now, focus on breathing, 15 mins to go
9km – HOLY CRAP I AM REALLY DOING THIS
9.5km – End coming in sight
9.7km – Tracey yelling me on
9.8km – Meg & Vinnie, Then Ross, Suz & Brendan
9.9km – Mum & Dad and Marcia & Richie
9.95km – the end shute, Dig Deep, hammer it home, dont run into the ladies
10km – Hear the words “get your arms up for the photo”, so raise my arms and hope that i get a good photo
10.1km – Feel a tap on my back and its Andy wishing me well, try not to vomit or fall over, stumble towards the cool off area, grab a water and an orange. Drink down a sports drink (bad idea i think this is what stuffed up my stomach later on), and try to recover, congratulations from a few other people. Walk towards the exit and grab my medal and tshirt….

What a feeling it was to come out of the exit of the recovery area, to my friends, beaming smiles, hugs, cheers and photos…. what an experience. I will definatley try to do it next year if I am around, but I am gonna help out Yena and help her with the 5k at Bridge to Brisbane (although i will see what others are doing with the Bridge to Brisbane, i may walk it instead).

I would really like to thank everyone who gave up their morning to come and support me. Marcia & Richie, thx for the sign and for suprising me on the start line! To meg & vinnie, guys thanks so much for coming down and staying for the race, it was great to see you both again. Ross, Suzanne & Brendan, you guys are always there for me and for coming down and putting up with me all weekend, I thank you! Jeremy & Yena, thanks for trying to make it there in time for me to cross the line, but i know you guys will always be good friends. (ps thx for the shirt, i love it). To Tracey, thx for the lift and for being there to take photos for me. To Adrian, dude, thank you for running with me, in bad shoes and not your running clothes. But most of all, a big thank you to Andy. Thank you for being there every step of this journey so far mate, your the best trainer ive ever had 😀

As for what else happened over the weekend other than the race. It was good times with friends and family. Friday was pretty relaxed, wandered around Robina and did some shopping (mainly food for the BBQ). Found 2 new awesome hoodies at Footlocker for University of Texas & Duke so that was cool. Then just relaxed and chilled out at Q1 on Friday night. After the race on Saturday i went back to the Apartment, and just tried to recover for a bit, Ate some breakfast and felt really sick. Then people started arriving for the BBQ and i slowly started to get food ready to go. We all moved down to the pool area and had an awesome feast.

Sat night after a good afternoon of just really doing nothing but having fun I felt fantastic. Went out for dinner in Surfers Paradise and had some Teppanyaki Kangaroo (yeah yeah i know, not very authentic), played some Uno and just had some fun with my friends.

This morning after waking up late and missing the Half Marathon and Marathon Starts (i did watch the Marathon runners go through Surfers though) i cooked breakfast and had a pancake for the first time in 8 months. Then after checking out and dropping some stuff off to the parents, Suzanne, Brendan & I went shopping at Harbour Town. What a haul I had today. You can see the photos of the haul in the picasa link but I am really happy to have clothes that fit now!

Anyway Masterchef is about to start and I need to have some dinner!

GC Marathon 2010

So apparently I had my affirmations wrong so lets try this again:

* I have put in the efflort and I am reaping the rewards
* I have achieved what I have set my mind to
* I have put in the hard work and i have seen the results
* I have thought positively and i have had positive outcomes

I am still gonna leave the ones below to help enspire everyone else.

So my trainer Andy told me to write these affirmations down before the race on saturday:

* Hard work gets results
* If i put in the effort I can reap the rewards
* I can do whatever it is i put my mind to
* Positive thinking leads to positive outcomes

and one that i cant even think about without saying it like I am He-Man

* I have the power

So you all know that i had 4 goals when i started this new part of my life.

1. Run 10km
2. Get my weight down to 100kg
3. Get some strength in my arms
4. Trek Kokoda

Well its official. I have run 10km. On wednesday i was out with Andy (my trainer) only going to run 9k as part of my training for the GC Marathon. We got to the turn point for 9k and Andy says to me “what time do you start work?, lets keep going and do 10k” I was so fired up I just kept going. It was a little dumb considering it started raining on the way back but I sucked it up.

I managed to do the 10k in 1 hour 20 mins. Now I still need to run the 10k at the GC Marathon and that will still be my official completion of the goal in my head (cause thats always what i wanted to do) but its good to know that I can at least keep at this.

The biggest thing that has been helping me other than Andy is what i have been listening to during the run. I have a small ipod shuffle with just one type of music on it called “Cadence” It really helped keep me at a certain pace for the whole run and kept me going. I just hope that i can get away with using it at the Gold Coast. Might have to sneak it into my stuff 😉

So here is hoping. This time next week I will be coming to the end of my run!

Saturday night made me think a little. After getting a late notice invite to come out and then crashing someone elses drinks for the hell of it. It was good. I proved to myself i can go out, not drink and still have a good time (been a long time). But I have noticed that the Bar Culture in Brisbane is slowly evolving.

I mean when I first started going out way back in the days of the dinosaurs, it was all big ass pubs like The Victory etc. Now on Saturday night I headed out to the valley. And look at all the new bars etc there. I mean yeah you do have the Mega Clubs/Venues like Family & Cloudland but then you have tiny itty bitty bars like Mana.

Mana is like my favourite place. It may be tiny, but its awesome. Where else can you play video games on a night out with a drink in your hand. AWESOME. And you don’t have to hide being a geek. Even Better!

Then if like me, you dont mind a good well made cocktail, then somewhere like Bowery would be the place. A very small bar, long and thin, you could walk past it and not even know it was there. The windows are covered with curtins so you cant really see it from outside, but once your in. You don’t want to leave. A good well made cocktail, made with passion and finesse is a wonderful thing. The kind of thing your not really worried about paying $15 or so for.

But now I have a problem. I need to go out with my friends and scout out where to have my birthday this year. I want somewhere good that I can go and enjoy myself thats not some more than usual blah blah pub.

any ideas?

So 6 months ago i made the first post about how my life was going to change. And change it has. I will run through some stats in a bit but my life has really changed. I feel better. Even though I always feel tired, i know that i can accomplish more than what I did when i started. I feel better in the morning after a work out and the same in the evening. I can walk & run however I want and i dont have a problem (although we wont go into hills right now) with feeling like I am going to die after the first 10 seconds.

Don’t get me wrong, this has not been an easy 6 months. I started this journey with a Groin Injury, and I have had niggles in my legs and knees and joints ever since. But I continue to follow the motto that keeps me going. I am pretty sure I have posted it here before, but when Navy Seals go through their training they are told time and time again. “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday.” It pretty much means that yesterday was only easy because it is over. Each and every Day is a new challenge that I need to work through and get past so that I can continue on in life.

I have met some amazing new people who I never thought I would meat. They help me every day in getting through all of this and I have to thank them as without their help, I wouldn’t be here. I know a lot of people come up to me every day and say how good I look, and it is reassuring to know that all of this hard work I am putting in is working.

But day in and day out, I just have to keep myself going. I test myself all the time with little things to keep myself going (and this is apparently a good thing). But as this weight loss challenge starts to come towards its end, a new challenge begins. And thats keeping it off. Its going to be a whole new challenge with a whole new way of thinking. I need to be able to manage it all, I am sure I can do it, I know you will all be there to help me to.

Now for some stats.

Weight:
6 Months ago i weighed 172kg. On Monday at the last weigh in, I weighed 117.5kg Thats around a 55kg loss in 6 months. Thats a LOT. There is a backpack at the gym that is full of weights, it couldnt fit anymore at 45kg. Probably need another one to get the rest of it in. I still have that remaining 17.5kg to lose but thats a challenge I know i can do. I have had my ups and I have had my downs. Ive had weeks of 3kgs of loss and I have had a week of a 300g gain and that really affected me. I have had to try and get my mind around not getting on the scales every day and then beating myself up over every little thing. Its all in your head!

Fitness:
6 months ago when I first started. My trainers took me on a 2k walk and timed it to see how long it would take. Took me about 30 minutes. Thats pretty slow. These days, my 2k PB is 15m 30s This is still not as fast as people I know but this is a good improvement for me. 6 months ive knocked that time in half. I couldnt walk that far when I started. 2k was killing me, I have more and more gone up and up in my distances. I started doing 2k on the treadmill every evening. then up to 2.5k, then 3k, then 3.5k. Its now up to 4k in around 43mins. I have started to walk longer distances, Around christmas time I did a 5k walk in the morning and it took about an hour. I didnt even realise I had walked that far it was my trainers way of introducing me to distances. Then I started walking 7.5ks, then 10ks, then 11k, then 12.5k and I have done one 15k walk. I am now on average walking 10k in around 1hr 34min. I have walked on my own a lot but a few people have come with me and I really thank them for this. You guys know who you are and when you walk with me, it takes my mind off the usual things I do when i walk and thats beat myself up over everything.

Eating & Drinking:
Last year when I was in the USA you would of seen some of the foods I had eaten. Loco Moco, Mixed Plate, Giant Cheeseburgers, Pancakes the size of dinner plates or man hole covers. I have had to move away from those foods. The foods I love. Because they would put me in a grave earlier. But eating healtheir doesn’t mean that I have had to give everything up. I can still eat (hell I feel like i eat more these days then I did before) but I have had to adjust these eating habits and just replace things. Getting hungry, have a snack of some fruit. Need something sweet after dinner, some diet jelly should do it (ps i am addicted to it now, Aeroplane Diet Jelly ftmfw). Adjusting recipes so that I can try and still have those things I love while still being healthy. I have almost given up alcohol (1 drink in 5 and a half months) and I don’t really miss it. Don’t get me wrong, there is no way I would go fully sober. But i think I will need to go back to the way I used to drink years and years ago. And that is drink for the taste, not for the alcohol. No more binge drinking. This means the return of the high end booze for me really. The more exxy the booze the less of it I am going to drink. Seems good on my brain but not good on the wallet unfortunately. But then i would only be having one or two drinks.

So there you have it guys. 6 months down and many more months to go. Thank you all for your support, god knows I have needed it!

Its been a little bit since I updated but i should really give an update. Ive been working hard at the gym and after some time where I would rather not be in my head to much I have managed to get through a 5k run. That felt really good to be able to get through that since like 6 months ago I couldnt even run 100m. Its been an experince almost every day.

In the coming weeks though things are gonna have to knuckle down and keep at it. I have to increase the run by 1k every week as on July 3rd I have to run 10k at the Gold Coast Marathon. and when I say have to i mean i really have to. Ive paid my entry fee already. So if your not doing anything that saturday morning I would really love to have everyone’s support. If you can be there I would love it even more.

So i just got back on Saturday from a week away in Port Douglas. I went away with my friend Ashina and it was a great time. It was so good to get away from work and just really in eseence do nothing. Managed to read 4 books during the week away and just generally have a good time.

We stayed the first two nights at the Treetops Port Douglas which had an awesome pool area (which i spent a solid day sitting by it reading on the lounges). Then we headed north to a favourite of mine. Silky Oaks Lodge. Located about 10 mins from Mossman the place was fantastic!!! I got to spend 2 days relaxing in the rainforest. I found that the chairs in the room were the most comfiest I have ever sat in. So thats what i did most of the time. It was FANTASTIC! We also had a day tour included up to Cape Tribulation and that was such a good day. Silky Oaks Lodge has a very good Day Spa called the Healing Waters Spa. They do some very good treatments which a lot of ladies love but we had 2 treatments for free. So rather than having a massage, which I don’t normally like cause I always end up feeling worse than when I started i decided to try something different. I went for a “Man Maintenance Facial” It was a very different experience. I had never done something like that before and it was totally unfamiliar.

I managed to enjoy myself up there, the food was great and I managed to keep myself on track as well. Once we left Silky Oaks we headed back down to Port Douglas and stayed at a hotel on macrossan st. Spent a day in Cairns doing a bit of shopping and doing general stuff. The rest of the time was spent just walking the streets of Port Douglas or reading. What more can you want from a Holiday.. relaxation and recreation.

Now its back to work, apparently i might make top 10 this year if i work a bit harder. I will have to crack down and really get into it! But otherwise its 6 weeks till the Gold Coast Marathon and the 10k run which I have entered. Lets see how it goes!

Port Douglas 2010