Day 8: Monday 7 Dec
“I’m going to strap your shoulder blades together today” says Tim, the physio. “Is that to teach them to be good?” I asked. “Yes – they’re being naughty. It’s teaching them to be in a better position. It’s for postural correction." When I feel it pulling it means I’m rolling my shoulders inwards. So, here I am, my scapulae strapped. Nice work, Tim!
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Day 9: Tuesday 8 DecI love Tuesdays. Tuesday nights, in particular. At 7:30PM I hit the dance floor (err, the group exercise studio) and Jam for an hour! WOOP WOOP! Here we all are – the Tues night Wynnum Fitty First Jammers. Big shout out to Rach, Jazz and TK. How special did I feel when Jazz shouted out to me a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR SUNDAY, JULIA” during the warm up track? Luv you tons, Jazz! … and YAY – Rach, was so good to have you back teaching on stage, honey. I missed you. We all missed you. And thanks to you too for dedicating the track titled ‘My house’ to me. “This song is dedicated to Julia who woke up at 4:30AM and this song was in her head!” Luv you tons, Rach. You’re the Real McCoy of the Jammin’ World! Yes, yes, and I luv you too, TK! You rock! Jamming contributes to my mental health – it really does give me so much joy. I have so much fun. I was never into the going out clubbing thing, so this for me is like going out! It turns into a social thing too – I stay and chat with the Rach, Jazz and TK and a few other regulars, although tonight I didn’t stay for too long as I was really tired and needed to get to bed for some much needed rest.
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Day 10: Wednesday 9 DecI had PT with Gav yesterday morning at 9:30 and it didn’t take a brainiac to observe I wasn’t doing very well. I was stalling at every opportunity. I’d be talking to Gav and mucking around. I burned a grand total of 250 calories in our 45 min session. Like that is shithouse for me. I usually burn around 500-600. I was struggling for sure. Gav gave me the ‘overtraining’ pep talk not to punish me, but because he cared and was concerned that I’ll lose my passion for the gym and my training and/or get a nasty injury. I don’t want either, so thanks tons, Gav. You’ve been the best thing that’s happened to me for a long time. Anyway, the take home message from the pep talk yesterday was that it’s important I get to bed at 8:30PM each night. I’ve been going to bed at 9:30-10:00 and typically waking at 4:00AM. So, instead of fighting the early start, we need to work around it so that I get adequate rest and recovery time by going to bed earlier. And, here it is, a picture of the kitchen/dining room clock at 8:30PM. It actually didn’t happen last night as I was stubborn and went to my 7:30PM Jam class. It didn’t happen tonight either as I was grilling 3kg of chicken breast fillets in the George Foreman Grill. It really needed cooking. I also was gathering stuff together for my day at Sea World tomorrow. Time just got away, you know…
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Day 11: Thursday 10 DecYes, so hear I am, back at Sea World. Last Thursday I had my Lifeguard interview which I was unsuccessful with. However, on Tuesday Sam, my bestie (best friend), calls me and says she has two (free) tickets that she was given by a random person at work who was going to be unable to use them on the specified day (Thurs 10 Dec). “Do you want to come?” AHHHHH – hell yes, I do! I rescheduled my Thurs 4:00PM studio pilates class to Fri at 4:00PM and couldn’t put a lid on my excitement in anticipation of spending the day with Sam on Thursday at Sea World! And, to be honest, because I hadn’t forked out nearly $70 for the ticket, I was more excited about spending the day with Sam than Sea World! We had a ball though. The highlight would have had to have been the Imagine Dolphin Show… and also seeing Huddy (Hudson) feeding. Everyone say “awwww – cute!” Sam had to leave the Theme Park at 3:30PM to get to her PT session at the gym at 4:30PM but I hung around and lined up on a couple of rides and browsed the Gift Shop and spent lots of money! Thanks tons, honey, for a magical day. Sam paid for my $5 entry into the Water Park and also for my lunch – a yummy chicken, salad and sun-dried tomato wrap, and also a bottle of water. You’re so sweet – love you so much.
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Day 12: Friday 11 DecYesterday was my parents 37th Wedding Anniversary. Congratulations, Mum and Dad! This is the individual mud cake I got for them at Michel’s Patisserie on my way home from Sea World last night. It had a chocolate template with Happy Birthday written on it. But I whipped that off and placed four heart candles that I had found in a discount store, and two bee shaped icing decorations from a Pooh Bear collection I found in the cake decorating section in Coles Supermarket. I had got a blank card in the newsagent on Wednesday too, with ‘On Your Special Day’ on the front and some yellow flowers. Inside I wrote the following quote that I found from a website
Love is like waterMy parents loved the cake and the card. I love giving. And doing special things for the special people in my life. To me, this represents mental and emotional health as it gives me so much joy to brighten the lives of those close to me. You don’t have to spend $50+ to let someone know you love them. I spent less than $20 on the cake, cake decorations I added and the card. In fact, the card was $1 but because I had taken the time to find a beautiful quote and write it in my handwriting, I think it is more special than picking up a $6 card with something already printed. It shows I’ve given it more thought.
We can fall in it
We can drown in it
But we can’t live without it
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Day 13: Saturday 12 DecTim had said last Wednesday that if I’m having issues to give him a call on Monday as he may be able to see me before Wednesday. I called on Monday because my neck was still really stiff and yukky. Turned out Tim was fully booked anyway when I phoned just after 8:30AM. But it would have been 5 or so minutes later that I had a phone call from Nicole, the receptionist, saying she had had a cancellation for 2:30PM if I wanted it. “Yes please.” Although, I’m not sure why I was so excited – Tim gives my neck and muscles a thrashing. Ouch +++! I said to Nicole to keep the Wed 8:00AM appointment at this stage and see what Tim says. Clearly, I still have some underlying soft tissue ‘issues’ that we need to address as he said to me as we finished on Monday, “I think we better keep our Wednesday [physio] appointment.”
My ‘homework’ from Wednesday’s session, in addition to a bunch of stretches and exercises for my neck, was to try going for a swim before next [physio] session. “Just 10 laps, breathing both sides. That’s 500m.” Yes, Tim, I know 10x 50m = 500m! I went for this swim this afternoon at 1:45PM, at Manly pool which has only been open for a few weeks following major refurbishments. It was a 33m outdoor pool, not heated and it was shit! I had been there once or twice before. Now, it is a 25m heated salt water pool, still outdoors and it looks fantastic. I’ve really missed not being in the water. I love swimming. The last time I’d been in the water was on 15 November when I did my Pool Lifeguard Update course, and shit, did I pay for it the following day – my neck was really, really sore on the Monday morning. I saw Tim that afternoon, and I swear, had he gone near it that morning I would have punched him because it was already so sore. It had calmed down a bit though. Anyway, my swim this afternoon felt OK on the neck. I guess time will tell in the coming days if my neck continues to stay ‘happy’ (as happy as it can be!). By around 7:00PM tonight my neck and right scapula cracked it and was experiencing a weird pinching and pulling sensation again. (And it was shitty all day Sunday too, and was no better Monday morning either).
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Day 14: Sunday 13 DecIn my second PT session for the week, it was Gav’s turn to do some talking – err, I mean, teaching/instructing. It continued on from Tuesdays discussions about overtraining (where he had me Google ‘overtraining in sport’). He wrote out a weekly training schedule for me to address this issue. He says I’m doing too much training given I’m not sleeping enough. Another ongoing concern is that I’m also not eating enough for the training I’m doing each day. So, he has instructed me to wear my Polar heart rate monitor for 24 hours today to get a baseline figure on the calories I burn on a rest day. Here is my Polar heart rate monitor transmitter belt. I commenced the 24-hour study at 7:00PM last night. Total calories burned were 2405. That was really interesting. I wonder what my HR got down to? I’m going to download (?upload) the whole 24 hour file to my computer and find out.
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