Tuesday, August 31, 2010

12WBT Task 2: "excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse"


Our dear old friend Mr Shakespeare said, "and oftentimes excusing of a fault doth make the fault the worse by the excuse.”

To what extent do you all agree or disagree with this phrase? I think its perfectly valid. If we keep on making excuses for our behaviour, we will never succeed. How can we succeed if we aren't even able to admit our own faults? How can we improve if we keep making excuses?

According to Michelle Bridges, there are three types of excuses:

1. Internal Excuses: The self talk that goes on between the Jekyll and Hyde in your head. For example: I’m too tired, I’m not motivated, I’m so far gone it’s not worth even trying, I’m too unfit, I might fail, I’ll look silly.

2. External Excuses within your control: These are excuses prompted by external factors but which you still have some control over. For example I’m too busy, it’s too hot/cold, I can’t afford it.

3. External excuses outside of your control: These are external factors that you have absolutely no control over, real emergencies. For example a sick child, family crisis, work crisis. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to get out of these and yes your training or diet may be affected by them.


Pre Season Task 2 called on us to look at what excuses we have used in the past, and list them into the three categories. Interestingly enough, most of mine were internal excuses. I've listed my excuses below:

I’m unmotivated: this is a cop out – just freaking do it!


I'm so far gone it’s not worth even trying: hello you’ve been heavier than this – stop making excuses you’ve done it three times now you can do it again!!

I’m too tired. I always use this excuse. I actually believe it most of the time, although when I think back to when I was healthy (and happier in general from exercising like a demon) I used to just go the gym, tired or not.

My back hurts. Although this is viable, I need to lose weight. I also could do some form of exercise which was low impact like walking or pilates/yoga. Or the cross trainer or swimming. If I lost weight my back wouldn’t hurt so much. If I was more mobile, my joints more lubricated, It wouldn’t hurt as much.

I can’t exercise as hard with my back injury: there’s other exercise I can do, just because I have an injury doesn’t mean I have to quit the game.

My back made me put on weight: this is stupid, I should have eaten well and not used this as an excuse to regain the weight and ruin my hard work. My back does not control my hands and mouth!

I’m so much less fit than what I was before when I was doing bootcamp and weight training etc: I can work at my own pace. I don’t need to train super hard every session. If I train consistently I will improve. Everyone has to start somewhere. I will remember what that feeling was like to run 10km – and I will do it again.

Every Christmas/Easter: it’s the holidays and I deserve a treat. I know that once I start I can’t stop – so I need to stop starting all the time. I am addicted to food.

I’m not confident enough to go to the gym. I started at this weight years ago. I just went to the gym and did my own thing. Then the weight came off faster. Then I joined fernwood and made friends there.

Everyone will be disappointed with me when they see I’ve put on so much weight. I don’t get disappointed with people when they put on weight, because I know how that feels - I’ve piled the weight back on three times now – each time I’ve changed gyms. If it is really that bad – I can change again.

I missed the gym class and I hate machines: Should have gone for a run Lady B! Or a walk, or danced in your room for an hour to fun music. Could have done something but YOU chose not too.

There’s no point because I’ve eaten something bad today. I’d be better off negating the bad food I’ve eaten than not exercising at all.

I have too much uni work. This is true in exam time, but I do better at uni clear headed and less stressed from exercise. Surely I can find one hour – or maybe I need to start doing my assessments earlier.

What’s the point I always put the weight back on. The point is that I’m healthier, happier and more confident at a lower weight. It just means i need to figure out WHY i put the weight back on.

I’ll start tomorrow: tomorrow never comes unfortunately

I can’t afford the gym right now: look outside, your front door is the gym. Go for a walk!

It’s too hot/cold: I could have stayed inside and done one of my work out dvds or the treadmill

Too busy/no routine: Hello – you found room in your timetable to exercise. You just need to get off your lazy bum and do it!! Even with extra uni work and work!!

Are there any excuses you guys use that are different to mine?

Lady B xoxo

Monday, August 30, 2010

Learning to breathe again for the first time in so long now...

All the talk and buzz of exercise on the forums has inspired me to go for a walk/jog. First I looked for a Zumba class near me. Then when that failed I checked out the local timetable of the closest gym which was also a fail because it only had pump on which I can’t do with my back injury.


So then I thought walk/jog it is. Then I thought – how long can I actually jog for these days? That’s a scary thought. I used to be able to do about 11km up and down hills. Now I don’t know if I can even jog for 5 minutes these days. Then I heard men outside laughing and talking to each other. So then I started thinking – oh no they will laugh at me if I walk/jog by in my tights.



The cycle of negative thinking is endless! So what am I going to do? Put on my damn tights, sneakers and t-shirt and get my astronaut out onto that pavement. Its negative thinking that has gotten me here in the first place and I NEED to quash it now.

So I ended up walking 7.5 kms, well walk jogged depending on the song on my ipod, coupled with how frustrated I was at my tights falling down. And no, it isn’t because I’ve lost weight, merely because they’re old and need to be replaced. I’m quite proud of myself. I power walked most of the way, imagining I was either a) part of the glee cast or b) in a Britney filmclip or c) playing guitar along with Korn. Bit weird I know but it takes my mind off the fact that I’m simply walling. I tend to mouth along to the songs too – lucky you aren’t my walking partner hey?

What’s your fave work out music? This is about getting healthy and being happy and trying new experiences. So far so good! What i realised while I was powerwalking my booty down the road was I felt great. I felt pumped. It made me realise how much I miss exercise. I didn't tell you guys before but I used to spend 6 days per week at the gym - between 1 and 2 hours per session.

Tomorrow hopefully I’ll get a chance to let you all know about my Bikram yoga experience. I’ve tried it once, and would like to try it again tomorrow night before posting

So long,

Lady B

Sunday, August 29, 2010

A General Introduction to Lady B

When I am not playing the lute, reading love sonnets and attending to my tapestry, I am a 26 year old lady law student. I like to play guitar and sing (when I have time but mostly in the privacy of my bedroom and/or the shower). I love reading novels and have done so all my life. I love the warmth in general – blankets, heaters, sun etc. I am not married nor do I have children, but I have a 30 year old boyfriend (hereafter to be referred to as Lord B) and a couple of nephews. I love life, animals, family and friends (but not necessarily in that order).

Dance magic dance! My foray into dance (after 15 years)

As a child I loved dancing. I used to sing and dance and prance around (alongside David Bowie to both dancing in the street and the labyrinth). I would shake my booty and get down at every opportunity. I attended Jazz ballet (like every 80s female child), gymnastics (at which I sucked horrendously) and danced at primary school. I was much taller than all the other girls but that didn’t bother me when I got out on the stage. I would twirl in neon coloured outfits, my belly, bum and thighs not a concern. I got chosen to dance on stage from the audience at a Westfield, offered a scholarship to a dance school (which mum turned down due to the proximity of the school to my house).

As I grew up I didn’t continue with dance, however, I still loved to dance with my friends in our lounge rooms, in my car, at school, anywhere really. Although a bigger child than most it never hindered me. I danced alongside to my friends to the spice girls to choreographed steps.

When I turned 18 my friends and I hit the dance floor. We didn’t even need alcohol – we would just dance the night away.

Now as a 26 year old, I decided to start some dance classes. I needed a good reason to exercise (other than my expanding waistline). A place where I could enjoy exercising or rekindle my old high heart rate flame. I used to do aerobics at the gym and I love jumping around to the music but since I hurt my back it was advised against. So dance it is.

I dragged my best friend along to hip hop classes. Our teacher is so awesome. He dances like he is liquid, his body just flows – he keeps telling us to give it flavour. If flavour is what makes a good dancer, he is Aria 3 hat style dancing, and I am the hole in the wall kebab shop where people are a little worried to eat at.

Anyway. The dance classes start off with a few simple steps facing the mirror. Then we start choreography, ‘left and right, and front and back. Now pump, and roll and left and right – no left and right! Not right and the other right!’ At first it was a little confusing. Especially since the only other dance class I took was about 3 years ago and the warm up was so intense that when we started choreography I thought the class was finished. That class left me giggling nervously - a lot. A big, strong, lean African man was up the front drop, rock and rolling his body from side to side. I was just trying to avoid getting hit by lithe ballerinas as they attempted to hip hop around me.

This class is different. I think there is more emphasis on getting the moves right. Vincent is patient and wonderful really. And you can speak to yourself out loud without looking crazy, because it is encouraged – if you say it out loud your body will follow.

This Sunday saw me taking a thriller workshop after 2 dance classes (happy birthday and RIP MJ). We showed up a little late but picked up the first moves pretty quickly. Kaylene our teacher was amazing. She had us all yelling out the moves so we would remember them, and giving them funny names like clawy move, pump it move and the Egyptian. She also emphasised the importance of confidence in dancing. She told us it was important that you just throw your worries to one side. Who cares if you stuff a move, keep going. If you stop you cannot pick it up again because your brain freezes, whereas if you keep moving you have a better chance of picking up the next one.

At the end we split into two groups and danced – no one cared if there was a small collision or if I ran out of room, headed into the wall and then did the animal move the wrong way. Because everyone was having fun, and concentrating on what they were doing rather than what was going on around them.

As Kaylene says, attack dancing like martial arts. Throw yourself into it. Have fun. It is actually a good life message I think – stop worrying about what others think and just keep going. You are bettering yourself and that is the main thing. Avoid brain freezes!

Now I’m thinking about starting bike riding, rollerblading and horse riding because they were things I loved as a child. Soccer and netball when I get a little more fit – except my knees and ankles aren’t what they used to be (10 years of netball will do that to you).

So what were your favourite childhood things? Can you see yourself picking it up now?

Lady B xox

In the very beginning everything was black...

And in the beginning of my life, everything was black and white. Now, as I grow and mature I realise that there are many complex shades of  grey.

I’m embarking on this soul searching life changing experience right? Well I thought I would just start by giving you a little information about how I got to this point.


I was born in 1984, a definite 80s child with side ponytails and hand me down check off the shoulder tshirts (with neon paint splotches). I was a chubby little thing growing up. What can I say, I enjoyed food, and so did my family. Some of my happiest memories are from spending Sunday at my nonna’s house, scoffing down a mortadella and cheese sandwich to start, pasticcio and gnocchi to follow, pasta, baked dinner, schnitzel, and all the trimmings. Granted, I stopped at the gnocchi – but I guess what I am trying to convey is that food has always been an important part of my life.

I would both reward myself with food for achievements, and I would also make myself feel better by eating food. I’d eat when I was happy, sad, bored. And therein lies the start of the dieting cycle. I was always either passionately dieting, or passionately not dieting. There was no in between stage – no ‘moderate lifestyle’ so to speak. I always threw myself head in the deep end, almost obsessively.

So all in or nothing can have its disadvantages – of course you all know what that means. The whole, ‘oh I ate something bad which means I’m not on a diet anymore so I may as well eat what I want’ sort of attitude.

I got cancer in 2005 which was a wake up call. While (some) people are under the impression that cancer patients are thin and reedy – this isn’t so when you have bone cancer and they put you on steroids and things to combat your nausea. This is great for nausea, but not for cravings. Add to that growing depression (which of course I bottled inside behind my happy ‘everything is peachy’ mask) 12 months of chemo, intense surgeries, long stays in hospital. My weight ballooned.

After all that I wanted to be healthy. I don’t want to get cancer again. It’s shit, honestly if anybody is out there reading my little blog, please quit smoking. It’s hard, I know because I was smoked on and off til the end of my treatment – but then when you actually manage to give up the fags life is better. Healthy people don’t treat you like a leper for one. Plus smokes are about $20 a pack now! Give it up, you will feel better and save loads of money which you will need for new clothes. You will get drunk and have a fag and wake up the next morning remembering why you gave it up.

Anyway, I read the ‘abs diet’ by David Zidenko (men’s health editor) and it changed my life for the better. Although I couldn’t adapt every principle to my life, I was able to adapt a lot of them, learn about the right foods, and WHY they are the right foods. I lost weight, 10kilos at a time.

I joined a gym, whittled away with variances of the abs diet and the liver cleansing diet feeling great. Then somehow I put all the weight back on.

Then I fell back down a black hole of being tired, sad, angry all these emotions. I thought I was sick and saw my doctor who did every test under the sun. He said – you are stressed. You need to exercise, and stop worrying about everyone else. So I joined fernwood gym, met lots of wonderful people and spent a year whittling away until I got down to almost my goal weight AGAIN.

Then I put half back on again. Then I took it off AGAIN. Now I’ve put it ALL back on again, which is what has lead me HERE today. Oh, I also hurt my back – but that didn’t tell me to scoff all the tim tams.

I watched three seasons of ruby. THREE seasons of Ruby made me realise there’s a psychological thing happening that we need to address. There’s a reason why I keep piling it all back on and it’s not just about nutrition and exercise. Because if that was all – I’d still be a size 8-10 and not where I am now!

Ruby and Michelle keep telling us – no more excuses! So – that’s where I am now. NO MORE excuses ya’ll.

The first pre season task was about introducing ourselves (I’ve done that – ya’ll will see me floating about commenting here and there). The second was about excuses and responses – so I’ll be posting some of mine in the next couple of days.

I think I’ll finish by stating something my best friend told me the other day. We were speaking of what celebrity we remind each other of, and he told me that i remind him of Sarah Murdoch. Now that is HIGH praise girlfriends (and boyfriends if there’s any out there). He says because I present well and am attractive, because I’m intelligent and because I’m a philanthropist like she is. So within this challenge, I want to keep in mind that no matter what happens on the outside, that people will always view me kinder than what I will view myself.

So, when you are out there, jogging – wiggly wobbly bits bouncing with enthusiasm, I want you all to remember that NO BODY CARES but YOU. When you are at that gym class, there’s a couple of ballerina like beauties seemingly floating and twirling around you while you do your best impersonation of a baby elephant - all that matters is that YOU are giving it a go. And having fun! Attack everything with enthusiasm and you will be rewarded.

My blog rules

1) Post not less than once per week for the duration of the challenge;

2) Keep accountable with my posts;

3) Tell ya’ll about any new type of exercise or recipes I’m trying;

4) Give advice about what’s helping and hindering me;

5) Complete the 12wbt – tell you all how I’m going, and how I’m juggling it with the last semester of uni and life in general.

Thank you for reading. I hope I can be an inspiration as well as continue to be inspired by everyone on their journey

xoxo