Burning Calories for Free in the Rockhampton Region

So you find yourself in Rockhampton and you don't want to let your fitness slide. Your money is for your holidays so you're looking for a cheap way to burn some calories. Here are some worthwhile options that I highly recommend:

Mt Jim Crow
Mt Archer
Rockhampton Botanical Gardens
Bluff Point Walking Track
Double Head Walking Track
Stoney Creek Walking Track
Yeppoon - For this one you will need to open up the 10,000 Steps Brochure

And two that are on my to do list that I haven't yet conquered:

Zamia Walk
Mt Etna

All of these are for varying fitness and varying times. As long as you take your time and only push yourself to your own fitness limits you should be fine. I've pasted the links under each of the above so if you click on the name you should be taken there.

If there are more that I am not aware of within 1-2 hours drive, please share them as I'd like to explore as much of this area as possible.

Happy Exploring!!

Updated Progress Pics - 27/04/12

I've come a long way and I've got a long way to go but finally I'm comfortable with being me :)

Warrior Dash Anyone? Tough Mudder?

What a week it’s been! I’m sorry I’ve been slack on the blog front but life is seriously starting to take over. I’ve never had so many social engagements in my life. In the past, even if I had, I’d be too afraid to go and feverishly be making up excuses as to why I couldn’t go. I never admitted it’s because I didn’t want to and that I wasn’t game. I am like a spider – the webs I can weave are so intricate and overlaid that to the naked eye it was almost impossible to pick it. In fact I had people believing that I had the most active social life ever. I’m surprised I lived a lie for so long.

With only one week left of 2012 Round 1 of Michelle Bridges’ 12 Week Body Transformation the end is drawing near very quickly.

I’ve spent a little time reflecting and I’m personally amazed at how far I’ve come and how much I’ve achieved. If somebody had told me at Christmas that I’d lose 15kg in 5 months I’d have laughed. If someone had told me I’d be running within 3 months I think I’d still be on the ground laughing.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve started running, I regularly go to the gym, I’ve started fuelling my body with nutrition instead of crap. I now climb mountains, go on bushwalks and physical challenges, although they still daunt me, I’m not scared of them and I don’t turn my back on them. The barriers I’ve overcome are huge. I’m no longer too fat to do things.

In turn, my attitude and my lifestyle has changed, I’m happier within myself and within my life. This is noticeable to those around me and now, finally also to myself. I am so proud of where my journey has taken me and I can’t wait to close this chapter and open the next one. I’ve already committed to the next round and I plan to take it on with more vigour, more passion and more energy than you’ve ever seen before. I’m already starting to work out what recipes I’m going to convert. New topics I’m going to discuss and also the dreaded mind games we all play with.

So back to challenges: I’ve decided that once I commit to something I shall not withdraw. So I’ve registered and committed to the Rocky River Run in June for 10 km. It’s going to be a challenge and I’m aiming do run it in under 75 minutes.

The next challenge is Warrior Dash. The wonderful team in the 30+ Crew found this AWESOME physical challenge. It’s an obstacle course for adults. It’s held at Mt Kilcoy at the wonderful Hunting Lodge Estate (I’ve been a huge fan of theirs for a while – their Verdelho wine is fantastic!!) in November. So now I’m locked and loaded and the team are coaxing me in to doing Tough Mudder next year – I’m not quite ready to commit to that one yet, but it’s on the cards. How much my life has changed in a few short months.

This weekend is another mini milestone challenge. I have committed to completing the Zamia Walk up Mt Archer. The bush walk is a 14km, one-way, up to five hour trek through difficult grade scrubland (according to DERM Mt Archer and Zamia Walk ). I’m glad I’m going with an experienced hiker and I’ll be planning on wearing my HRM to record this one. I’ve decided to reward myself for completing Round 1 2012 12WBT I will be getting a day pack. For now I’ll happily let someone else carry the food and first aid kit.

Stay tuned for the next progress update….

Dental Floss GStrings and Saturday Night Blues

Here we are again. Another Saturday night at home on the couch.
During the week I am flat chat. Between working two jobs, working out and keeping on top of life, I don't have a lot of down time.
On the weekends I'm normally out and about doing stuff again.
This weekend was a little different.
I had decided for 12WBT Finale in Melbourne next month that I would get a fake tan. As I was a fake tan virgin I thought I'd better give it a go before the day so I knew what I was in for. That appointment was today.
I turned up promptly for my appointment and was shown into a little room with what looked like a pop up camping shower with curtains around it. The girl pointed to a box and told me there were disposables in there and to get undressed. Luckily I'd asked around and I knew what she was talking about.
I picked up a "disposable" it's a disposable gstring to be worn during the tanning process so your fancy knickers aren't stained.
For those of you who have never had a fake tan and experienced a disposable before, let me describe it to you.
It looks (and feels) like a "Wet Ones" wipe that's been dried out and held together by dental floss. Very sexy in anyone's language I'm sure.
Before I knew it I was being guided into the black shower thingy and I was getting sprayed. Nobody warned me it was cold. I was highbeaming and highly embarrassed. The whole tanning/spraying process took about 10 mins and I was then given the applicator without the tanning solution and advised to use it to "dry off". I had become a human bounty bar. White underneath, covered in gooey brown stuff and smelling like coconut. After 10 minutes of drying myself I started to wonder how dry I should be?! I mean I'd never done this before and after 10 minutes I was still very tacky. Not wanting to streak through their office, I googled their phone number and called them. When the girl came in she told me I was fine. So home I went with the instruction not to shower or get sweaty for at least 2 hours.
Today is Saturday. I'd only smashed out 100 cals for the day. What was I going to do? Not much it seems. I surfed the web, played around with my webcam and entered my vlog (as per below post) for this week's competition.
Then it dawned on me. I hadn't done a workout and my body was screaming for one. I've already worked out that my lounge room is nowhere near big enough for dvds which is why I make an effort to get outside.
Today was the first day off in a very long time with no exercise and I'm feeling it. My body wants me to make it up to it by eating. I'm craving anything and everything I can find. I've already made some diet jelly about 4 hours ago but it's still not set. Starting to get that 'claw the crap out of the door to get out' feeling.
I'm looking all tanned and surfer like and it's night time and I'm bored.
There's not much on tv and as I've spent so much of my day on the computer already I'm getting bored with that too.
I'm coming to the conclusion that Saturday night is the lonliest night in the week. Every other night I don't have time to get lonely.
I guess part of this process is learning how to deal with that. How the hell do I deal with that? Avoidance has been the key in the past. I guess I need to do some soul searching tonight and work it out.
Signing out for now. To all of you enjoying your Saturday nights - ciao!