extreme

i'm starting to think that this blog is getting a bit too radical for most of my friends and i should open it up to a worldwide audience - where there will be people who understand why i would choose to drink my typical breakfast smoothie of:

soy milk
low fat plain yoghurt
chia seeds (excellent source of omega 3)
LSA (linseed, soy, almond)
frozen raspberries
protein powder
and, wait for it
raw spinach (it's taken me a long time to try this, but you really can't taste it).

and why i have decided to avoid sugar (it's pretty much impossible to escape it) for about 360 days of the year - meaning no cakes, biscuits, slices, lollies, chocolate, icecream, desserts etc - because sugar was kind of starting to rule my life. i've spent the past few days doing google research and i'm happy with my choice. already i feel better, too.

and even why i'm vegetarian.
to me, none of it is extreme, it's just healthy and smart.
i'm sure you (my 2-3 loyal readers) would beg to differ.

So if I've decided to swim after work you'd think it would make more sense for me to stay in town and go up to the pool then catch the bus home afterwards, rather than ride home in the car and then turn straight back around and drive myself back to the pool.

Not so.

10 reasons why this idea sucked:
1. Having to lug my swimming gear to work from the parked car in Battery Point, across town to the pool, and then back across town to the bus.
2. Getting to the pool before 6.30 thus being squashed into the one lane available for all the after work swimmers doing anything faster than breaststroke. Thanks, swimming clubs. If I drive back I arrive at 6.30 when the lanes are free.
3. Not having 10 minutes for a shower at the pool because had to race off to get the bus, which only goes every half hour.
4. Spending 30 minutes on the bus winding through Taroona to Kingston, and feeling nauseous because of it.
5. The nearest the bus gets me is central Kingston, so I either have to spend another 20 minutes walking home (with my handbag, swimming bag and work bag) or inconvenience the family by making them all hop in the car to get me.
6. The whole operation taking longer than if I had just come home and then driven back.
7. Not being able to quickly pop into the supermarket on the way home because am on the bus, though it is close to where the bus ends up.
8. Looking weird on the bus because I have goggle marks around my eyes, wet hair etc.
9. Ending up too tired and pissed off to come up with the last 2 reasons I won't be doing again.

but what about the food?

as you know i'm a vego and i try to eat healthily. it doesn't always happen (the eat healthily, not the vego bit), but hopefully it's more often than not. like everyone, my eating habits have their ups and downs and are related to what is going on in the rest of my life ie fatigue etc. it's not all good, but it is, mostly.

the exercise continues regardless of what is happening on the eating front, because it's not an all or nothing scenario. and exercise gets pretty miserable and disheartening when you are doing it for the sole person of burning calories. i exercise to be strong and fit and reduce stress. to motivate me to maintain healthy eating habits. so that i don't lose the fitness gains i already have. not because i've eaten 3 mini-cupcakes today, or mushrooms cooked with butter for breakfast. i've found when diet and exercise get linked up in a causal relationship in my head things go wrong. i might force myself to do too much (run 10k on sore knees for that pizza and icecream last night), give up altogether because i've had a bad eating day, or dash out a quick 5k so i can gollop down a cherry ripe. none of them are very useful causes to exercise for. it takes the fun out of exercise, too.

in the coming weeks i'm going to publish some of my tips explaining what works best for me - how i control my natural urge to eat my own bodyweight in junkfood every day.