Category: Exercise

Aussie life, Exercise

A pretty standard evening

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Coming back to this after an evening in the gym isn’t all too bad! Going to miss this when I move out!

Hello my dears!  I for once behaved like an okay blogger and remembered to get some pictures from the gym yesterday evening. Em helped me out, thanks girl! We went in to do the extra cardio for the week. It was a combination of dumbbell box walk overs (or whatever you call them) and for the remaining time each round you had to get as many calories on the ski erg. Then you three minutes rest between each round. It was the first one in a while where I felt like I did alright! All the other extra cardio programming Dave has done so far I’ve felt like I’ve been dying. I suppose I like all kind of strongman/woman stuff where you pick up heavy stuff and move it hehe so dumbbells over box is something I thought was really fun.

It was over fairly quickly and then we moved on to mobility. Mobility is something I think a lot of people neglect but is so important for your training. Especially if you want to perform movements correctly then good range of movement is essential. For instance overhead squats and snatches require a lot of mobility in your body. It doesn’t matter how heavy you can lift when you can’t get your arms back properly in the bottom of the squat. With my lack of yoga in my life at the moment, remembering to at least stretch and roll out my body for a bit each session has become even more important. One of the things this week was to put some weights on the barbell and roll the barbell on your inner thigh. Ouch!! It was so painful and the faces I made were not pretty haha. I definitely don’t have a good poker face…

Once we were done with the mobility for the week I was starving. I hadn’t eaten proper lunch and I cannot cope well with life when I’m hungry. So I hung about for a bit but then had to head home and stuff my face with all the food. When I’m this hungry I eat until there is no food left. I feel like a bottomless pit and the food just runs through me! I do eventually feel full but it takes forever. Good thing I had leftovers in the fridge I could just heat up. I would not have been able to wait for any kind of food to be made at that point. I needed it urgently!

Preparation is so important and I can really see why people can struggle to cook a meal from scratch when they’re busy with work or school. Then coming straight from the gym in the evening when you just want to sit down and have a meal, it’s easy to reach for the convenient and maybe unhealthier options because they’re quick, like a ready cooked meal or a take away. All I can say is, a lot of the time it takes about the same time to make a quick healthy meal in these cases. It’s just having it available in your fridge. Veg cook quickly in a pan. Have quinoa or rice prepared and then beans, lentils, chickpeas and tofu are quick to cook too. It may feel like a chore when you just want food then and there but your body and health will thank you for it.

Then I just lied down on the carpet in front of the TV with Taylor and cuddled her for a bit before having shower. She’s just the cosiest and our evenings together are the best. She’s such a lovely dog to take care of that little old lady. Don’t know what I’ll do when I don’t have her to snuggle with every evening hehe. I’ve really missed having a dog around in my life, they’re such great company.

 

Aussie life, Exercise, Thoughts

Feeding lambs

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Em is getting her driver’s license and needs to get a certain amount of hours of driving until then so she took the wheel!
Preparing the milk solution for the lambies

All good to go

How happy does cute animals make you?!


Our creation in the woodwork classroom haha

Hello my lovelies! Time has run away with me once again and here I am once more with a couple of days without posting anything. I get to a point where I’d rather wait another day and write properly rather than just throwing something on here for the sake of updating. What do you prefer?

Today marks a week in the house with Taylor and just under two weeks left of my stay here. So far so good. I’m really happy to have Taylor with me, she’s such a sweetie and a dream to take care of. Every evening we lie in front of the TV and snuggle. It’s great! I’ve really missed that about having a dog. She also gets me out walking without any distractions, which is really nice. Usually when I’m out I listen to music or a podcast but when I’m with her I just wander about with my thoughts whilst she’s sniffing. I’d also slightly forgotten how much your life is planned around your dog! Always keeping her at the back of your mind so she doesn’t go too long without a toilet break or company. Small things you don’t think about when you haven’t been a dog owner for a while.

Yesterday my gym friends Mich, Em and I drove down to another gym friend Paul’s (also known as PC) work to feed lambs. Paul works at a school and they have farm animals there. How amazing is that? Amongst the many things he does there he helps out with feeding the animals and yesterday morning it was his turn to feed the lambs. When asked if I wanted to come and see them I could not turn down such an opportunity. Who doesn’t love cute farm animals? We helped out making the milk solution for lambs and then got the incredible chance to bottle feed them. It was the cutest thing!

When looking and holding these cute little things loads of thoughts came up. Like how could I possibly eat you? I haven’t really been faced with a lot of farm animals since I stopped eating meat and I was a bit caught off guard when it came up when I was standing there. I used to eat lamb. I used to love lamb. My curry of choice when ordering Indian used to be with lamb. Now I couldn’t do it. I’m not saying that I’ll never eat meat again because things change and I don’t like putting barriers on what I can and can’t do, of who I am or not, but as it feels now I’m not tempted at all by the thought of meat. I love little lambs and want them to run around in the fields, not end up on my plate. That’s of course only personal reflections and preferences, each to their own but it was an eye opening experience facing these animals from a different point of view than before. I feel more at ease and like I’m true to my beliefs when I don’t eat meat because I couldn’t bare the thought of killing a lamb or a cow myself in order to eat it.

After feeding and petting lambs we carried on to look at the other animals on their little farm. I got to see alpacas up close for the first time ever. They’re such funny looking animals I think! Luckily they didn’t spit on us as they’re so renowned for doing luckily! Then we moved on to the hen house, not my favourite part I’ve got to admit. For those who don’t know, I’m a bit scared of birds or they just make me feel uncomfortable. I don’t know why haha.

We then headed to PC’s classroom where he teaches woodwork. Goodness, that took me back to the school days in Sweden. We made a little lego head out of plastic pieces we cut out on one of the machines. It was a team effort of Em doing the hair, Mich the eyes and me the mouth. He’s now in Red Bluff by the whiteboard.

At this point I was starving, I only had a small nibble for breakfast in the morning so we headed for some food at Soul Press (a blog post of that will be up soon!) before it was time for another stop on our little day trip, the piercing salon. Em had been wanting to get her nose pierced for a while and when she said she was going I figured I’d get my left ear done. I’ve been thinking about getting two more holes done in my ear lobe for a long time. I even told myself I’d do it when Rainhill was over as a present for myself for competing but just never did it. Therefore I thought why not now when we were going anyway? Was it painful? Yes a bit but it was over quickly and I’m so happy to have had it done. It felt special having it done with my friends here in Melbourne. I can’t wait for the holes to heal so I can get some new earrings in. I think it’ll look really good! Fun to try something new.

Mich, Em and I then waved bye to PC and headed back to pick up the dogs (Mich and Em have a dog and I’ve got Taylor). It was quite cramped in the car with all of them but we made it work! We had a nice long walk in Dendy Park with all of them. The dogs were so happy and I was glad Taylor got a chance to socialise and run off the lead for a bit. She’s an oldie so we don’t get very far on our walks and I know how much she loves going to Dendy Park so it was great Mich offered to drive us all.

The day finished off with a Friday night gym session. Em, Mich, Matty and I did an interesting workout where you did 50 cal row to start then did 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of squat cleans and handstand push ups. The weight for girls on the cleans was 75lbs if I remember correctly. The handstand push ups got juicy towards the end! Then once you’d done all of those reps you had to finish with another 50 cal on the rower. Then we did an ab circuit, it killed my core haha. We were all struggling towards the end!  Em and I practised some toes to bar and double unders before it was time to head home. I didn’t think I did much but now writing it all it was quite a productive evening!

At the moment as I’m typing this it’s Saturday afternoon. This morning we had a good session in the gym of overhead squats. We were meant to find our three rep max. My upper body is feeling quite tired after a heavy weak for the shoulders and arms but I still managed a new three max at about 50kg! I was thrilled. We then did a workout of snatches and muscle ups (kipping pull ups for me) and I got blood blister in both my hands hehe. Painful! At least I didn’t rip.

Oh yeah, speaking of PBs and the other day I got a new three rep max on my deadlift at about1 06kg! My previous three rep max was about 98kg for my Rainhill seeding and that was a massive struggle for me even with a belt on. This time around I had no belt and it felt manageable, my technique went a little bit but that happens with the heavier lifts sometimes. I feel like I’ve gradually been doing a lot of improvements these past couple of weeks and I’m getting stronger. It’s a great feeling!

Speak soon, M xxx

Aussie life, Exercise

Friday at Red Bluff

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Got introduced to Jade’s Joy

Then finished off with Fight Club

Adam and Tara rescued this guy

Finished off with burgers and a trip to the arcade in Southland

Happy Saturday my dears! Hope you are well. We walked into the gym last night with a plan of action Mich and I, we were going to the extra programmed cardio session and then a Crossfit workout called Fight Club. This was all scrapped when our coach Adam suggested joining in on “Jade’s Joy”. Jade is an incredible Crossfitter in our gym, she also helps out with coaching. She moves like nothing else and is so strong! This workout was named after her due to her stealing some of other coach’s Pete’s chips. I’ve been told about this workout several times and it’s a bit dreaded at Red Bluff to say the least.

The workout is just a full on cardio session and it’s meant to push you to your very limits. It’s three rounds of 90 seconds row, 90 seconds 10m shuttle runs and 90 seconds air bike with one minute rest in between each movement (it did not feel like a minute). Depending on your level of fitness there are certain number of metres, number of shuttle runs and calories you need to hit within these times and if you don’t you get punished by having to do burpees after the workout has finished to make up for it, different amounts of burpees depending on what you’ve missed. It is intense and you’re pretty much kind of expected not to make it through towards the end unless you are super fit.

There are four different levels you can do and Adam told Mich and I to do intermediate. I’m glad we just got thrown into it without any time to reflect on what we were getting ourselves into. The one tip Adam really gave us before starting was pacing is key and finishing as close to the time cap as possible is good because it means you’re not using up extra energy going faster.

We got started and I went a bit too hard on the row to begin with but quickly fixed this. The shuttle runs ended up being my recovery, whilst I don’t love running I am quite good at it then the assault bike is just never a fun story but you push through. Adam said at this point he probably should’ve made us do the advanced since we made all our targets with quite a lot of time to spare.

Then we went again, this time I really made sure to stay close to my target on the row and not row at all faster than absolutely needed. It felt a lot tougher this time around. The shuttle sprints felt good again and the bike killed and this time I cut it quite finely on making my target but I did it.

The final round was gross but since it was the final round you just pushed through each movement since you knew it was the last one. During the final 15 seconds on the assault bike I had no clue if I was going to make it or not. My legs were giving up but I was determined not to get any burpees, Stubborn Maddie definitely came out and refused to admit defeat and just before the 90 seconds were up I finished. I could taste blood in my mouth and I got burpee cough on top of my normal cough but it felt so good to have survived through our first “Jade’s Joy”. Considering we just marginally made all of it, the advanced is going to be a challenge but I’m excited to give it my best shot at some point and see how I go. There will be quite a few burpees after that attempt I’m sure haha.

It’s safe to say we scrapped the idea of doing the extra cardio and moved straight to “Fight Club”. Em joined Mich and I for that. I was still recovering from the previous workout but gave it my best go and it went alright. Didn’t go super fast or slow just at a steady pace.

The feeling after having done those two workouts was amazing, you feel so good when you get a proper sweat on. I can’t get enough of it. Adam then had come back after being away for a bit and he had a dog with him that he and his girlfriend Tara rescued the other day. Poor thing is 9 years old and has lived outside his entire life in a family’s backyard. It’s quite chilly at the moment so it can’t have been the most pleasant experience and he’s not really socialised with any other dogs. They’ve already found a potential new home for him, fingers crossed it works out! It’s tough rehoming older dogs but we’re all hoping for the best.

We then had a quick shower and got changed before heading to Southland to get tickets for the cinema. Unfortunately the film was sold out when we got there (we should’ve booked ahead but didn’t really think of that). Disappointing but not much to do so we headed to Grill’d for burgers (it’s a big burger chain here in Australia, supposedly “healthy” but I’m not convinced, I’m pretty sure our burger “patty” is deep fried haha). Grill’d’s vegan burgers, the ones I’ve had so far anyway, aren’t great and the sweet potato chips aren’t that good either. So yeah don’t go haha. Anyway, after that we headed to the game hall and played some air hockey, basket ball and other games. It was so much fun. We even got enough tokens to get a monkey mascot for the gym. He’s now hanging off one of the bars.

Not quite the night we were planning for but we’ve learnt our lesson and next Friday we’re giving it another go. We’re booking tickets ahead this time around haha.

I’m happy to say I’m all packed and ready to move into Perry’s family’s house this afternoon. I’ve loved my time at Mich’s but it’ll be also nice to know I’ll be at the next place for a bit longer and not be living straight out of my suitcases 😛 It gets quite messy having all your stuff packed up and trying to find what you’re looking for. Plus looking after Taylor will be so nice hehe. I know I keep on bringing that up but she’s so cute and I’m so excited to do it!

Time to soon walk Moosie with Mich! Speak soon xx

 

Aussie life, Exercise, Wardrobe additions

Grey but beautiful

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We took Moosie to the beach, she was loving it! So was I, how stunning is it?!

We got an invite to the pre-sale launch and got first dibs on the all the product from Anna at the gym who works at the lululemon outlet. Dangerous!!

Finished our eventful day off with a takeaway from The Grazery

Hello crew! It’s Friday and almost time to move again. Tomorrow me and my stuff are heading up to Brighton to house and dogsit. Excited to see Taylor and give her loads of hugs, haven’t seen her for a while now! These past couple of days have flown by and I’ve had such a good time hanging with Mich. Yesterday she was off work and we had a very busy day from start to finish. We went to the 9.30 morning class at Red Bluff together, what a session it was. I really liked it.

The first part of the class we did sets of 10 bench presses with increasing weights each round. Bench press is not something I’ve done a lot of but I’ve been enjoying trying to get stronger on it. Mich is a machine on them and I want to be able to keep up with her one day! To break up these longer sets of bench we practised some dead ball clean technique in between. I looove dead ball cleans. I love really any kind of strong man/woman stuff like farmers carries and prowlers. Basically lifting heavy stuff and moving it, there’s something empowering about it. Could it be my inner Swedish viking coming out? Possibly! Haha.

For the workout we did a classic Crossfit workout “Diane”, which is 21-15-9 of deadlifts (155lbs about 70kgs for women) and handstand push ups. I decided to do the prescribed weight for the deadlifts because it’s one of my strongest movements and then I did the handstand push ups with two ab mats underneath. I’m still working on my handstand push ups and can do a couple now unbroken with one mat but getting through the volume of them like in Diane would take me far too long with just one mat and I honestly I couldn’t have been able to finish them even haha. Silly me forgot to look at the clock when I finished but I’ll do it again at some point so I know for next time how long it took me. It’s good to knwo for future so you can compare and see if you’ve improved. Then we finished off with some core strength doing hollow rock holds (they are juicy). Great session!

After our gym session we came back and had a shower and some food. Second breakfast for me, which was a smoothie ( my standard one I always make with peanut butter, you always need peanut butter) just so I don’t pass out from starvation before lunch.

Then it was only fair for Moosie to get a walk and some exercise after we had had our exercise session. Mich took us down to a beach nearby and it was absolutely stunning. It was grey and quite chilly but wow, I can only imagine what that place would look like in the sunshine. I’ve been to quite a few beaches along this coast now and everyone is different and unique in their own way. All of them breathtaking.

It’s funny because I feel like I haven’t done that much touristy stuff but for me every walk and the everyday life is an adventure on it’s own, figuring Australia out and just seeing things you can’t see in Europe. There’s something small everyday that’s new. I will be venturing out of Melbourne and Bayside eventually too for more exploring but for now I’m really happy seeing all these beautiful places nearby.

In the evening we went to the lululemon outlet store, Anna at our gym works there and had invited everyone to their after hours event where they launched their sale. If you went you were amongst the first to get first dibs on all the things that went into the sale. Mich and I could not say no to that invitation so off we went! I was a bit worried how this outing was going to end. You guys know how obsessed I am with gym gear and lululemon. It’s the only things I wear pretty much… I was wondering if it was going to be mayhem (that’s what it was sometimes in the Glasgow showroom during crazy sales) but it was a very nice and relaxed evening and I tried on so much stuff. Luckily there wasn’t much I liked in my size, otherwise I would’ve struggled resisting with the generous discounts they had on not to buy it all. I left with some sport bras, a top and a pair of leggings. It was a steal at the prize I paid. I really needed new sports bras and when they had a pair Train Times leggings I couldn’t not get them because they are one of my favourite styles to train in ever. I felt like I was smart about it all only bought things I knew I would wear and get loads of use out of.

Before we drove back to the house we made a little detour and picked up dinner from The Grazery, a salad bar. We didn’t have energy left to make dinner and were starving so this was the perfect quick fix to our problem! They were so nice in there when we couldn’t make up our minds of what to put in our boxes and let us choose a bit of whatever we wanted. We had things like miso glazed pumpkin, roasted veg, falafel, cauliflower salad and other delicious things as well vegan pesto and hummus. Yuuuum! The smell when I received my box all packed up was divine, I couldn’t wait to tuck in. As soon as we got to the house we put on Bridget Jones’s Baby and dug in. It was delicious and super filling as well. It’s amazing they have places like these open at night so you can get a quick healthy meal in the evening too. I love it.

So yes, a very eventful day to say the least! This day is a bit more chilled. I’ve got some stuff to sort out this morning, Mich is away for a couple of hours during the day. I’ll be taking Moosie out for a walk a bit later and then this afternoon it’s gym time and then we’re heading to the cinema a couple of us to see Ocean’s 8. Fun times! I should probably start packing up my stuff again to be ready to go tomorrow. Somehow the contents of my bags look like they’ve exploded… No idea how that happened hehe.

Speak soon lovelies, M xxx