I am going to learn to ride a surf board

This is my third round of 12WBT. Hard to admit that as my last round was not a great one. This round I decided to put the hard yards in to planning. Problem was that I found it hard to think of non-food rewards. I came up with some rewards that I quite liked but nothing really captured my imagination.

This week I booked a flight to Brisbane. I go there each year in November or December for a little under a week. I spend a couple of days in Brisbane catching up with friends followed by a couple of days somewhere else. Usually it is with two friends but neither of them is available at the time I have booked (of course, in my usual fashion I did not consult them about my plans before I booked, that would have been too sensible). I usually head to the Sunshine Coast with them for a three-night girls' long weekend. With them not being available I thought to myself that I would just head up to the Sunshine Coast anyway and spend a few days relaxing. Somewhere in all my thinking I came up with the idea of going to Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. I had been there a couple of times when I lived in Brisbane but had never stayed. I always meant to go back and spend a weekend or so there but I had never got around to it.

Anyway, one thing led to another. I booked some accommodation at Broadbeach and then, while I was mulling it over about what I would do with myself while I was there, a thought popped up in my mind. Learn to surf! And rather like that character in the Dice Man I did a deal with myself and decided that if there were surf board riding classes at Broadbeach then I was going to do it - I was going to give it a go and learn to ride a surf board. A few seconds of Googling later and yes, there are classes. A quick email asking about it and requesting that I not be put in a children's class (my only stipulation) and I am going to do it.

It is always something I have wanted to do. I am terrified and excited all at once. I know I won't master it in one or two lessons, and I am not sure how the old knee replacement is going to cope but bugger it, I am going to give it a go anyway. In fact, I even Googled some exercises I can do to prepare.

It has only just dawned on me that I have just actively sought out an exercise-based reward. Who would have ever thought that possible - certainly not me! I love being over 50 (I am nearly 57) as I now have the courage to try things that in my younger days I would have been too embarrassed to give a go.

I am feeling sad

Tomorrow, 21 August 2013 it the 5-year anniversary of my Dad's death. He was a good man. Honest and reliable. A good dad. I miss him.

It's not often I feel like vomiting when I exercise

I have only twice felt like vomiting when I exercise. Once when I was doing burpees (for the first and only time) and today when I was doing a boxing class.

I signed up this week for a 10-week group boxing class. The first class was today. Quite challenging for my coordination and I am basically a wuss so the idea of someone actually punching me is a tad scary. Not that I am actually going to punch somebody. But in the drills we did today you do different  punches with a partner. You hit the glove contraption they hold and then swap. Apparently we did 1000 punches. We also did press ups, tricep dips, bicep curls, planks (yes, on our toes), and ab crunches (100 of them). Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would like doing crunches but I was just so grateful to be lying on the floor!

So, one boxing class down and nine to go. If this doesn't get rid of my tuckshop/bat wing/CWA arms, nothing will.

I am not Sisyphus

Yesterday I did my weigh-in for Round 3 of 12WBT. I weighed in at 1.4 kgs more than I started Round 2. Yes, I acknowledge it is still a lot less than I weighed last year, and my ‘wall sit’ and the other fitness tests show that I am a lot fitter, but I am pretty down on myself for falling off the wagon so much so quickly. It only took three weeks to gain that weight. And what is worse I did it knowingly. Did I enjoy it? Well, yes, sort of. But in the back of my mind was my voice always saying to myself, “Why are you doing this to yourself?” The only thing I didn’t do was eat chocolate. It was like somewhere is those recesses of that complex mind I knew that if I succumbed to chocolate then that would be the end, the absolute end.

So why was my second round of 12WBT pretty much a dead loss? Believe me, I have given this some thought. I did too much travel. I wasn't organised enough. I set lousy goals that I didn't give enough thought to. I didn't eat clean and fresh. I just wasn't on board. I went through the motions. I wasted the opportunity of those 12 weeks - not completely, but close enough.

I managed my first three-week trip quite well. I never quite got back into the groove and when my second three-week trip came around I got complacent. My total 22 kilo loss is now 18.6 kilos. So I have some catch up to do. I take full responsibility for my lapse. I have also learnt a few good lessons from it and everything Mish says about getting organised, eating fresh and healthy and consistency being key is so, so true. So I am back for Round 3 and really excited about it.

It is crazy that I now have to again lose weight I have already lost. I feel like Sisyphus, who, in Greek mythology, was punished for chronic deceitfulness by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever. A life made meaningless because it consists of bare repetition.

Sisyphys (1548-1549) by Titian

I don't want to keep losing the same kilos over and over again for the rest of my life. That is just plain stupid. And I am not stupid!