...Time for Change...

So what started off as essentially a fitness blog tracking my progress after I'd joined the gym, may now just grow into something far more varied.  

At the suggestion of a dear friend...and may I add, a brilliant suggestion and a VERY dear friend... this blog is about to diversify!  Yeah baby!  

It's time for change!  There is so much random "stuff" that I want to write about and I find myself thinking "ooooh no I can't put THAT on my FITNESS blog".  So we're going to move away from the pure gym oriented "stuff"  and we're going to write about anything we wish...I am of course referring to the royal we!!  

Sunset over Cape Town....stunning!

Yes...it says "Ass Cakes"!!!!

Very blessed to have this girl as a friend and colleague!

So people...watch this space....

I got a huge surprise....from myself!!!

Isn't life just crazy sometimes?!  You know if you had told me six months ago that I would be bitten, and bitten hard, by the trail-running bug, I would've openly laughed out loud in your face!  Me!  Run! In the mountains!  Ai wena!!  No my friend...firstly, running is boring, secondly, I just can't run...I feel like I am dying after about 50 metres, and thirdly, I don't have that graceful stride when I attempt to run...I look more like a rhino!  So one day I'm going for a walk through the vineyards with friends and I'm thinking, mmmmm, this is so pretty, it wouldn't be bad to actually take a little jog through here and take in all the beauty that surrounds us.  Then a couple of months later I do a walk with a friend again and I realize that this trail running thing is calling me.  Trotting through all the amazing natural beauty we have around the Cape can only be wonderful.  So I'm convinced to enter the Spur Cape Winter Trail Series.  I go online and enter all four races in the series...the short ones of course which I was under the impression were no more than 5km each.  Well, turns out they were all just under 10km each - gasp!!  I also had in mind that the series started at the end of July but again I was wrong and see that they start 20 June!  That left me with about two weeks to train.  Another gasp!  Oh man I'm gonna die!!!  I get hold of one of my best friends, someone who has known and supported me in all my craziness for the best part of our lives!  I ask her if she is keen to enter and run with me... and she says yes!  Whoop whoop!  Us two old ducks are going to do this thang!!  

The two Old Ducks!!

Well, our first race was 9.15km long.  I had two goals - not to come in last, and not to injure myself.  I attained my goals!  I'm telling you it was the most amazing feeling to finish that race!  It was run at the Paul Cluver Estate in Elgin.  Such magnificent beauty and fairly even dirt road running.  Two killer uphills, but those we just plodded.  We ran where we could and walked where we had to.  It was muddy, and slippery, and awesome!  I felt like superwoman when I was done.  The people, the vibe, the beauty, the exercise, the endorphins, the joy of attaining a goal...just awesome, and the bug had bitten!  

I missed the second run of the series which was at the Tygerberg Nature Reserve.  Chatting to fellow runners at the third race, I was rather pleased I had been unable to run that one as they say it was very muddy, very slippery and the hills were super hectic!  

The third race in the series was held at the Taal Monument in Paarl.  That race was 7.8km long, but it was more technical than Paul Cluver Estate.  The race started with a long uphill climb then wound through some amazing paths, single track, big obstacles to climb over, and then a long downhill to the finish.  I surprised myself (again!) and ran the entire last 2km non stop, however, by the time I got to the finish my left knee was hurting so badly that I was limping like crazy.  Something to do with downhills that I am doing wrong.  The wonderful thing was that I improved on my time - even though it was shorter than the first race, as I said it was far more technical so I didn't think I would be able to improve my time!  Elation!

The fourth and last race was run in Kleinmond.  That was 8.44km long and took us along the coastline, over a stretch of killer beach sand and then onto the golf course, into the mountain and down and back to the finish again.  I had read some tips for newbies to trail running and one of them was on downhills, lean into the downhill, lengthen your stride and let the momentum pull you down!  I tried this and voila! no knee pain at all!  Again I improved my time!  This was a major surprise to me as I didn't feel strong on the day and there were several bottle-necks where the race came to a stand still. I was absolutely ecstatic to receive my series medal.  One had to run at least three of the four races in order to receive a medal and I had achieved this!  

So here I am on the other side of three trail runs, having survived, having loved every minute, having received my medal and having surprised the living daylights out of myself!  Life is short people...go out there and surprise yourselves!  

Addiction....it's wonderful!

Yes, I am an addict.  And a very proud one too!  What am I addicted to? I'm not really sure myself whether it's one specific thing or whether it's a mash of ingredients.  I cannot survive without exercise!  I don't think it's only zumba, or spinning, or the circuit, or the amazing, crazy, beautiful and quirky personalities I've befriended, or the sheer buzz after a fabulous workout, or the way one feels just being fitter and leaner, or driving oneself to achieve goals and ticking them off one by one...it has to be all this rolled into one!  

I checked my stats over the last year earlier this evening on the VA website and realised with glee that I have progressed from the "poor" zone of body fat percentage, to the "fair" zone!  How awesome is that?!!  My weight has dropped by 15 blocks of butter!  I am getting there people, slowly, but I am getting there, and I tell you, it feels awesome!  

Speaking of awesome and quirky, I have to share a little of a Saturday morning zumba class with you. You know I've heard a saying bandied about - "white men can't dance".  Well, I guess that implies that black men can, and who could possibly be thought any less of for thinking that black men would have some sort of inborn rhythm.  I can attest to the fact that not all black men have that rhythm thang going!!  We have three sometimes four awesome guys who usually join our zumba class on a Saturday morning.  They turn it into an absolute party!  They whistle, they clap and they have a fantastic time....doing entirely their own brand of zumba!  It's just wonderful to watch and experience!  They are the perfect examples of "putting your personality into the dance"!  Do they have rhythm?  No.  Are they the most uninhibited dancers?  Yes.  Do they have an awesome time? Absolutely!!  

TwentyFourteen....already?!!

Well, I surely am the most neglectful blogger out there!!  How does that happen? Just like that nearly three months have slipped away and we're almost at the end of the 2nd month of 2014! Slow the bus down - someone - please!  

I got a sudden burst of inspiration from the new goings on at the gym.  Let me take a step back to the end of 2013 for a moment.  I get all philosophical and introspective at year ends and see where I've been, how I've improved on the year before and where I'm headed, or to be more precise where I am going to attempt to steer this ship!  I was quite disappointed that I had not attained some goals that I set for myself in 2013.  I find I am very quick to start that nasty internal dialogue and really beat myself up.  I stopped this nasty cow in mid sentence, told her to shut up and get lost and thought rather about what I had achieved and what I had learnt during the year.  What lessons would I take to heart and carry with me in the brand new, shiny and much better sounding TwentyFourteen?  One of the best lessons for me was pretty fundamental and probably one that you all know anyway!  Consistency and small lifestyle changes equals progress.  Lightbulb moment!  Looking back, I realised that I am dropping about 1kg per month, slowly dropping body fat, glob by glob, and all the while getting fitter and having a blast!  I've also gained a lot too....in the form of amazing friends.  It's wonderful to be amongst like-minded, crazy, beautiful people!  They add the sparkles of colour to the whole gym experience! 

You all know by now that I am a zumba addict.  Due to work constraints, I am unable to do the morning zumba classes, but thankfully VA Waterstone added another evening class on a Thursday.  It's quite a mission to get there on time, but thanks to an awesome boss who lets me dash out the door a little earlier, I make sure I am there.  Enter 2014 and VA came up with a new twist to zumba...or should I say... step.  Yip, zumba step.  So you're still doing your booty-shaking dancing to latin rhythms, but you have the little added challenge of a step!  As a step-class virgin, this was something completely new for me.  What a blast!  It's just amazing how that little step makes a big difference to your workout!  Ok so sometimes everyone is up on their step and I've fallen off the edge, or everyone's on the left and I'm on the right, but I'm getting the hang of it, and having great fun in the process.  I glanced in the mirror in class the other day and nearly burst out laughing as I noticed this one chick with an idiotic grin pasted across her beetroot red face....then with another glance I recognised the T-shirt....oh dear...it was me!  So you see, it's not just the lower body that gets the workout...it's the face muscles too as you dance, sweat and grin for an hour! And the soul...oh it's so good for the soul!!  

So zumba step wasn't the only thing that VA dished up.  They introduced a 12-week challenge.  Now really, I must have some sort of genetic short-circuit somewhere...my brain hears the "challenge" word and it's like "yes, I am in, I am there...so what is the challenge".  It's dreadful! I'm in and signed up before I've even considered what I'm letting myself in for.  I'm still debating whether this is a good or bad trait to have!  I'm in week 3 of the challenge now.  What they do is assess you.  Oh ja friends...with the caliper thingies....uh huh.... body fat....eeeuw.... they measure you with a tape measure...weigh you....take your height....put all of this info into their computer and voila! you're registered.  Every three weeks, they re-assess you so that you can see how you're progressing.  My second assessment is coming up this Friday, so I need to be extra extra strict this coming week.  

I've added spinning to my gym regime on a Monday and this morning, yes, on a Sunday morning, I was in the gym at 08h15 for Chantal's Shape Mix class.  I think I may need assistance fastening my seatbelt and turning the steering wheel tomorrow morning!!  That tiny, petite girl is dynamite I tell you.  As I sit here typing I can feel muscles I never knew existed freezing up!  I will definitely need to do a lot more of those classes!

On my wishlist this year is the Colour Run which is in October I think.  It's just a 5km run.  For me, that seems impossible.  I am not a runner!  I am probably the most clumsy, ungraceful runner ever...not that I can run very far!  It's crazy - I can dance at quite high revs for an hour, but as soon as I attempt a little jog, I feel like I am dying after about 100m or so!  So I will have to build this up and hopefully by October I will be able to shuffle along for 5km!  I'm trying to organise a huge bunch of friends to all do the run - should be quite a party!

So all in all, it looks like a pretty positive year that lies ahead!  

We didn't do the safety dance.... it was the charity dance!

...and so we reach the final day of the 2nd last month of 2013.  Wow!  Everyone seems to be getting into the festive spirit and there is lots of charitable work going on.  What we did this morning was a 90 minute zumbathon.  It was the Movember zumbathon and we were each given a stick-on moustache!  The "entry fee"  was a toy which Virgin Active will donate to under-privileged children.  Well, are we not just the most blessed zumba class this side of the equator?!!  Why?  Well, we have the two hottest zumba instructors ...like...ever!!  They are really like chalk and cheese, but they each bring their own brand of sexiness to the class.  Elroy, with his awesome body, flamboyance and wit, and Sakkie with his ...how do I describe him.... Afrikaner boy sexiness, rhythm and great sense of humour.  They are ruthless mind you, and make us work really hard, but we are having such fun that before we can do another booty shake, the class is over!  A 90 min class every Saturday would be great - especially now that we need to be "beach ready".  I have a feeling though that tomorrow morning I am going to be moaning their names as I attempt to get out of bed!!  And not in a good way either!  

So with only 4.5 weeks of 2013 left, I need to get the booty into gear and burn off 3.8kg.  If - no, no, no - when I do this, I will have achieved my 2013 goal weight. How wonderful that will be to enter 2014 with a brand new goal.  Yessss!

Year Three

It's been eight months since my last post...I would call that severe neglect!  So much has happened in those eight months, it's difficult to know where to start, so I'm just going to ramble!

I'm in year three of being a gym member and, I am proud to admit, a regular gym bunny.  I love going to gym - for various reasons.  I think the biggest plus for me is the de-stressing factor.  I can pour out all the day's frustrations in sweat and I can pound that stepper or shake my booty unashamedly in the zumba class, and the world just seems like a better place afterwards.  Of course that's not the case at all...I'm just a better me afterwards!  The most wonderful spin-off of being a regular at the gym is the friends I have made who have added a wonderful spice to my life.  I think they add to the de-stressing factor hugely.  We laugh - a LOT!  I can't leave out the fact that being fit or fitter at least, adds a quality to ones life that is absolutely awesome.  Everything is brighter and better.  Unfortunately my appetite too!  They... you know who I am talking about, those people that know... they say that your results come from 80% diet and 20% exercise.  Well, I have to admit that they seem to be right!  Ok, so I am not 20kg overweight anymore, I have only 9kg to lose now and my body fat has dropped a bit, but given that I have been working at this for three years, my progress is a tad slow.  I admit freely, I'm not quite getting that 80/20 thing right!  I can attest to the fact that by dropping a large percentage of carbs, ensuring you get enough protein and keeping a positive frame of mind, the results do appear.  I know what I need to do - it's implementing it that gets a little tricky!  I am a Gemini and it really does seem as if there are two of me who have constant arguments about food consumption.  I walk past the snack shelf in the local Kwikspar, unfortunately located directly next to the healthy fresh veg, and those Doritos Late Night Chilli Ribs call my name... I swear!  My inner gym bunny says "blegh, walk on by, you know you don't eat those disgusting high GI carbs" and my inner couch potato says "oh come on now, you work so hard, life is short, you can have a few delicious, crunchy, awesome Doritos".  I casually look around to see if anyone else has noticed the argument going on, but everyone seems oblivious.  Sometimes gym bunny wins, and sometimes couch potato wins.  Now if I can get gym bunny strong enough to challenge couch potato to a burpee competition, it would shut that slouch up once and for all!

A month and a half ago I had the most amazing experience.  I went overseas for the first time in my life!  Not only that, I went to a place I have been longing to see for years - Thailand.  What an awesome, mind expanding, wonderful experience.  It's as if you brain has been wired to deal with work and domestic issues, work and domestic issues and more work and domestic issues for the last 25 years.  Suddenly those centres of your brain get to shut down and this whole new department of your brain sparks.  You suddenly have new smells, new tastes, new climate, new sights, a new language, rain that is warm, sea water that feels like bath water, people who are non-aggressive, food that is absolutely divine and many other awesome experiences.  There is nothing quite like walking through warm tropical rain, the steamy climate, the temperature in the thirties, then stopping at a roadside pub and having an ice-cold Chang beer.  It's crazy to swim in crystal clear, warm sea water.  The nature of the Thai people is just beautiful.  The whole experience has given me a whole new take on life.  I need to go back and experience more of that!  On the fitness and fatness front, in general, although the Thai people have a staple diet of rice and or noodles, there are few overweight people.  My theory is that Thai food is quite spicy so you tend to eat small amounts.  This points back to Granny's advice of "everything in moderation"!

Anyway, before I turn this into a travel blog, let me sign off with the promise that I have the best intentions of keeping this blog up to date with at least a weekly post.  I have plans to enter 2014 4kg lighter than I am now.  Let's hope I can beat that couch potato into submission!

Whisky Tango Foxtrot! We've entered the last month of the first quarter!

Good grief, but 2013 is going like a boeing!  I'm finding it hard to deal with all the Easter goodies in the shops when I feel like I'm still trying to catch my breath from all the Christmassy stuff.  Talking of catching my breath... last week on Wednesday, I went to my mid-week zumba fix.  Shame man, Elroy was not well.  He said he had a bit of a cold and his voice was pretty much non-existent.  To make matters worse (for the hearing humans that is!)  the sound system was giving problems and his microphone was not working.  He resorted to hand signals only - something which suits me down the ground being a deaf one! Respect brother!  This guy took us through the whole class, sick or not, and ensured we had our fix.  As always, it was an awesome, de-stressing class.  

Due to time constraints along with a dose of demotivation, I had not made it to gym on Monday evening and so Wednesday was my first workout of the week.  Yikes!  I would be short for my total calorie burn for the week.  Friday afternoon saw me in the gym - on my off afternoon nogal -  to make up for Monday.  I had a quick, intense workout.  I was desperately looking forward to the weekend as I'd planned to go away for Saturday/Sunday with a couple of friends.  You know, leave the husband and the sons to fend for themselves for a few hours!  I was delighted that we were only leaving late morning as that meant that I could still get my Saturday morning zumba fix.  Yeah!  I got to the gym and noticed that the queue was not as long as usual for a Saturday morning.  Immediately I was concerned as I was not sure what was going on.  On my way back from the water fountain where I had filled my water bottle, I saw a friend in line who said that Elroy was off sick.  Oh no, I practically felt the blood drain from my face.  She noticed my worry and said that there was a replacement instructor - allegedly named Sakkie.  Oh dear, my heart sank.  What kind of zumba class would Sakkie give and who was he and where did he fall out of?  I had no hope.  Fortunately, I needed my fix and so stood in line and entered the class along with the other die-hards.  Well, in bounded this dude - T-shirt, track pants, tackies, and muscles.  Mmmmm, nice to look at.... but would he perform?  I almost felt sorry for him as to attempt to fill Elroy's shoes must be an awfully daunting task.  I mean Elroy makes us laugh, he makes us feel special, sexy, positive and to top it all he gives us one phenomenal, booty-shaking, calorie burning workout!  

Let me say straight off the bat - Sakkie did not disappoint!  Sakkie has a very different style to Elroy.  Sakkie has a fantastic sense of humour though and he can move that gorgeous body of his - let me assure you!  Man, that guy can dance!  We even did the zorba!!  Of course without the plate breaking and ouzo.  

It amazes me, how you have a simple change like a different zumba instructor, and suddenly different muscles come into play.  Divine!  I could feel it when my friends and I went for a walk on Saturday afternoon.  Sakkie, my booty and my thighs just love you man!

I am very motivated for my Monday workout, and naturally, I'm looking forward to my Wednesday/Elroy/Zumba fix - but I have to say - I wouldn't mind crossing zumba paths with Sakkie again sometime!!