ha ha ha....LOVE THE BEEFCAKE PLAN!
Congrats to you felici on winning a gym membership! I never win anything!
of course I never try to either..lol
Just wanted to say hi...have a great day

Thank you. The mental side is actually pretty interesting and stimulating in this environment.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie....

Things are great thanks and I appreciate your support also!

Absolutely! I am really looking forward to it!

I do like this as a fantasy...

Tom - I should think the only reason the plan hasn't been tried out on you yet is that the folk at your gym are not as quick witted as Mal....I'm not sure how much I could manage of "concentrate... and bre-e-eathe into the stretch" with one hand on a muscle instead of a lampost though.

Thank you. It's a great night anyway!

It wasn't hard to win this one - just a free chocolate wheel type raffle. I was in too much of a hurry to stop, but a gym membership seemed kind of irresistible.

I feel the need to respond to that wth an

OI OI OI

(and I don't know why.. except that when I was in Oz that's what people did and i was a good follower

That is absolutely the correct response. Doing it automatically is part of the deal.

Which part of Australia did you visit?

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Breakfast ~7:00 2 weetbix, 1/3 C diced peaches. 1C lowfat soy milk. 1 boiled egg. 1 slice wholemeal toast with minimal margarine and strawberry jam. ½ glass tomato juice. 1 C coffee with 40 ml Hilo.

Snack 10:30 Coffee with milk. 1 pear.

Lunch 12:30 2 slices wholemeal bread, 100 gms cottage cheese. A small carrot.

Snack 3:30 2/3 C Velish vege soup.

Snack 7:00 2 tspns light french onion dip. Celery, carrots, capsicum, broccoli.

Exercise 9:47 pm Walk.10 min warm up. 25 minutes - intervals of 1min fast 2 min normal walking. 8 sets. (The same distance for fast and normal).10 minutes cool down.

Definitely an improvement on last night.

I was very late getting there - busy, busy after school. I thought I would be right to help my son pack for camp at 7:30 and then walk. Well that was true. It just took a lot longer than I expected. Complete with a trip out to buy toothbrushes, because he would "look like a dork" using the electric one. Not forgetting that a thief detector tag had been left on his new jeans (by the sales assistant ), and needed husband help for removal. I was really hanging out to do this workout tonight though. I thought I could use my (substantial) feelings of frustration to work out more intensely. Well that was a good idea, that I've used before and been reminded of in other people's posts, however, once I got down to the oval I just felt very relaxed and happy to be there!

I was warmed up enough this time. Including the ankle grab stretches. No beefcake down at the oval though! However, I was surprised at hard the first set was - not nearly the distance I was finishing with last night. It made me remember that I had intended to have some carbs before starting but had forgotten and I felt a bit unsure for a minute if I could train on the amount of food I'd had. However, I then remembered that my first one yesterday wasn't as long as the others, and the rest were fine. I can tell where the nasty bit will start now, and it's not long compared to the whole thing.

For a while I was wishing I'd left my water bottle at the end of the fast bit instead of the end of the slow bit, but then I figured that as it was marking the start position that wasn't so bad - giving a positive vibe to conteract the sense of something unpleasant starting! I'm feeling good now - I don't know if I got into it more, or just did more of it but I definitely felt more puffed than yesterday and consequently am feeling better now.

Dinner 11:00 Gourmet toasted sandwich. Toasted wholemeal bread, lots of thin sliced lightly fried mushrooms, 75 gm sliced leftover roo steak, 25 gm grated hard low fat cheese. Yum. Sliced salad of tomato, cucumber, olives. 1 pear.

Water: ~2000 ml Yesterday’s Bedtime: 12:30

On plan:114 days. Achieved food target: 96 days. Exercised: 97 days. All goals: 7 days.

Over the course of 4 business trips I spent about 5 months in Chattswood -which is about a 20 minute train ride from Sydney -but I also went to Canberra - and swimming with dolphins in South Australia - and an amazing trip to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock.. the wine country area in NSW was probably one of my favorite places though..

Australia was an amazing experience - I've never come across friendlier people...

You got around!!

I have visited all the states and am hoping for a few days in Sydney with my family on our way to New Zealand later this year. I haven't been to the Hunter Valley though. It will have to wait a while now, but I'm interested after hearing your recommendation. I loved Sydney when I was there briefly a few years back.

It's interesting how the friendliness increases as you move out of the cities. Once you're on the long roads up north it's usual to wave to every other driver you pass! I've noticed though that even in my local area the happier I am the friendlier everyone else is. So I guess you didn't bring crankyville with you down here.

Well I've just seen how late it is, and need to be up amazingly early to finally get the boy off to this amazingly time consuming camp he's going on. I think I will just delete the pear off that food list! Tomorrow.

If you do get to sydney -- give the bridge climb a shot - it's kind of a hoot -you get to wear a goofy outfit that hides all your pockets and get chain ganged to everyone else doing the climb -and then you walk up and over the bridge - incredible views from the top... (oddest part of that is they breathalyze you before you go - and a few guys in our group weren't allowed because they were at the legal drunk limit

Hunter valley -that's the name of it - i was drawing a blank completely...

I'd love to climb the Bridge. I know my kids would want to give it a try too. I don't know about my husband. When we there, and it was still ok to do so, I climbed Uluru with my new best mates, but he turned back pretty quickly and waited for us at the bottom.That's not a fitness thing - it's a heights thing. It's nice to think I'm fit enough now to contemplate it though.

a-lo matey

omfg, that 'Aussie Aussie Aussie, OI OI OI' drove me nuts when Joe Hachem won the 2005 world series of poker !! not sure where or why I spell it O-y-e, maybe it's the buccaneer in me 'Yarrrrr'

Here's to you having a great day half a world away

OI OI OI - is the yiddish in me that will never leave - way too many years living in a very orthodox jewish section of manhattan - I became jewish by proxy but still hate gefilte fish

Just droppin in to say hi You've been busier and your being missed

I looked up oi oye. They're both used.

I do feel like I've been busy. I should say that I'm mostly busy doing things I like . Except for packing for school camp...I keep thinking I could work off a lot of calories if I gave my house a good scrub... but don't seem to find the time for that somehow.

Breakfast ~7:00 2 weetbix,. 1C lowfat soy milk. 1 boiled egg. 1 slice wholemeal toast with minimal margarine and strawberry jam. ½ glass tomato juice. 1 C coffee with 40 ml Hilo.

First I missed my fruit for breakfast because I decided to have watermelon and then I got a call to work and didn't have time to finish. Then I put a lid on the watermelon to take for morning tea and left it on the bench!

Oh well I was glad to work. Someone asked me how I felt about getting an early morning call today and I meant to say, “Well I really want to work.”, but actually I said, “Well, I really want to walk...” LOL. They’re both true.

Lunch 3:30 2 slices wholemeal bread, 1 small grilled skinless chicken thigh. 1 box V8 vege juice.

Snack 3:30 Finally got my watermelon! Also a coffee with milk.

Exercise 8.00. A most exciting walk! I didn’t do any kind of interval, just flat out as much as I could – not like the extreme sprints I was doing last night - umm different kind of flat out – sustainable. Yet another thing I have never done before. I thought I would time myself on my old route. The first time I ever went on that route I timed myself, walking at what I was then calling a “brisk” pace and it took 47 minutes - a 27.6 min/ mile. That was on December 31st. Later I used to try to go as fast as I could on that route and was pleased to get down to 35 minutes by 10 January, but disappointed to find out that was a 20.5 min/mile or “moderate”. The fastest I ever got to before changing the route was 33 minutes. Tonight it was 26 minutes – a 15.5 minute/ mile. I dropped my speed a couple of times after I got half way but not for long.

I did my warm up in the house, so I could time the exact route I used to time when I wasn't pushing myself enough for warm ups. I don’t know if I was technically walking or not. I am still banging my heels down first, but maybe have both feet off the ground at once some of the time. My knees did not hurt at all until the left one started a tiny ache when I was nearly home.

When I got here my face was burning. I was about to rush for the shower when I suddenly felt all my muscles turning to lead, so I went back out again for a cool down walk, stretch thingo. I did a nice long cool down last night and my legs were fine today, not sore at all.

Dinner 10:00 100 gm light tuna with lemon and cracked pepper mixed with 100 gm corn. Microwaved carrots and broccoli with a little mashed potato and gravy. (which I forgot was here, so also), a little salad of mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicum and olives. Maybe a yoghurt.

I don’t really want to eat, I want to type. LOL I haven't actually eaten any of this, but it's ready next to me.

Water: ~3000 ml Yesterday’s Bedtime:

On plan:115 days. Achieved food target: 97 days. Exercised: 98 days. All goals: 7 days.

nice going with the days

hmmmm, a page out of my future. In celebration for no more smoking, it stands to reason the interior of my dwelling is in a much need state of cleansing with a fresh coat of paint to be applied forthwith.

Like most bachelors, wall scrubbing has never been my strong suit and just re-plastering it with nicotine seemed like a wasted effort. I have plans to spend most of May doing my revamping - and yes, I DO expect a good workout in the process

Thanks, Mal. I like how days has turned into some nice big looking numbers. I have no plan to convert them to years at this stage.

T2
I hope you are not suggesting that after attempting to follow you in pleasant/magnificent but never ending walks to the ends of the earth, in future I will need to follow a massive example with regard to effort inside my home also.....