essential claire

Wellbeing Weekend

Had my good friend Beryl Whiting to stay last weekend. She brought her eLybra Bio Resonance machine with her and ran it on me for a couple of sessions.  Besides being an eLybra practitioner, Beryl is also a highly skilled coach and by the Saturday afternoon I'd gone out and bought a rebounder and a Swiss ball with those stretchy pull things attached.  You see, slthough there's a residents' gym and pool in this development, I've not really been using it. Despite knowing only too well the benefits of regular exercise, even that short walk across the development and past the builders, was proving demotivational. With the rebounder, I don't have to leave my flat and I can do it to my favourite music!

We didn't walk as much as we'd planned owing to the cold -  and some great movies we wanted to watch together... Down The Rabbit Hole, The Secret (about my 5th time) and Brokeback Mountain (are Heath Ledger and Jonny Wilkinson long lost brothers? - see pic above)

We treated ourselves to ate delicious and nutritious home-cooked food and laughed a lot at our obsession with it!  Here's a quick rundown of the weekend's menus... lentil and veg curry with brown rice, carrot, chickpea, lime and ginger salad with halloumi, green leaves and oatcakes, roasted tomato, pepper and butter bean soup with rye bread, roasted root veg and tofu with peas and carrots and breakfasts of fresh fruit (blueberries, raspberries, apple, mango and pineapple) with various seeds and natural yoghurt.)

For me, that was a perfect 'wellbeing' weekend. What's your idea of a perfect weekend as far as your wellbeing goes?

Madonna, New Video

Have you seen Madge's new video?

Windows Media Broadband: http://www.warnerreprise.com/asx/madonna_hungupdkaassdlslsdk_300-v.asx 

Windows Media Dial Up: http://www.warnerreprise.com/asx/madonna_hungupdkaassdlslsdk_56-v.asx

As I push 40, I find her even more of an inspiration than I did when I was 16 and footloose tights, bangles, lace and ripped knitwear were serious business. She was born in '58, so I think that makes her 47.  Have you seen her body?!  It is incredible.  And the thing with her is that she has a better body now than she did when she started out. She's been into macrobiotics for years apparently.  And doesn't have dairy in the house either.  She, Goldie Hawn, Olivia Newton-John, I'm going to find pics of them all and paste them into to my Illustrated Discovery Journal. They all give me hope and remind me of what is possible.

More pics and album info at www.madonna.com

Shall I let you into a secret?...

Before today, I hadn't worked out since last Thursday!  I don't remember what happened last Friday... I checked my blog for clues, but the entries don't help much.  What I think happened was that I got glued to my PC that day and since it was raining, I didn't go up on the roof so I didn't get any fresh air or sunlight and I didn't do my Morning Pages and I didn't exercise!  Lot's of unhelpful decisions there then!

I know I had a late night that night too, because I slept very late on the Saturday.  Another dodgy decision; I had promised to help out a friend by working as a waitress at a private function that evening and I had to leave the house by half three. So instead of exercising when I woke up, I went straight into breakfast and emailing and ironing waitressy-type clothing and before I knew it it was time to go. 

I wore heels that night.  Out and out bad decision! 

I had a great time actually, loved serving the 100 or so guests who were all members of the same family, but English, French and German.  I came away with an invitation to a Brazilian 21st birthday party in South London next weekend and was kissed by a total stranger on the bus in Brixton on the way home!  I wouldn't usually be so delighted by that kind of behaviour, but Jason (as I learnt he was called) was rather handsome and well-mannered, despite being rather pished!   Anyway, I digress...

The point is, by the time I got home, I could barely walk my feet were so sore. I thought the pain would pass once I got my boots and socks off, but no - it felt as if I had a pair of hardback books strapped to the bottom of my feet - ones with bumpy covers.

Sunday morning, I woke thinking - right - on with the sports bra and the exercise channel and away we go, but as soon as my feet hit the floor that idea melted away! 

My feet were better by yesterday.  Hardly surprising since I did very little but sit at my PC all day Monday, but that's the challenge, you see.  Besides coaching, I build websites for myself and other people.  There's an image that web geeks are very pale and spotty because they never get out from their darkened techy lairs.  I'm not saying I'm like that, but I do understand how they get 'stuck' in front of their PCs.  Once I get on a roll with something tech related, I don't like to stop.  Your head occupies a different space from when you are in a communicative mood.  And time moves in a different way.  You think, I'll just finish this one graphic, or page or whatever and then you look at the clock on the screen and realise it's 3 hours later!!  Strange.

Anyway, I broke the pattern today.  I've exercised - only for 25 minutes mind you, but I've done it and I shall do it again tomorrow and the day after and build it back up to an hour a day.

Bit by bit

Last night, for the first time in - well a very long time indeed, I stood naked in front of a full-length mirror and though "- yeah!" instead of "oh, god!"

On Friday, I upped the duration of aerobic exercise I do to 35-40 mins instead of 25-30.  Not a huge increase I know, but that extra ten minutes will make a difference.  I had already increased all my toning reps to 75 instead of 50 and its already showing.  I have a line running all the way down from between my boobs to my pubic area and I have a dipped curve on either side of where the six pack will eventually be!!  How exciting is that.  Well, maybe not to you, but it is to me I can tell you.

I haven't actually exercised yet today.  Think I'll do it later tonight instead of during the day - even though those who know about these things seem agreed that for fat-burning, first thing in the morning before breakfast is the best time.  Although I have to say, with the amount of fat I still have left to burn, I doubt that it will make that much difference! 

Nose down!

He hee!

I did it again today - got my nose on the floor whilst sitting with my legs at 90 degrees.  Just over a week ago, I wrote that I wanted to be able to do it again.  I actually managed it last week but didn't work out the following day and when I tried again the next day, it wasn't happening.  Now although I worked out today and yesterday, so I had expected to manage it, it was a lot easier today.  I had my entire face on my knees and my forehead and nose both touched the floor!  Looking forward to trying again tomorrow! Little things...

Upping the Ante

If you are an exercise and fitness fanatic, then you will find my performance rather lame I suspect.

But bear in mind that only 3 or 4 months ago, I couldn't even stand long enough to clean my teeth and a trip across the road from my house would leave me breathless, faint and in need of a snooze, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself!

Once I felt strong enough, I started doing a beginner's work out session here at home using HomeChoice's On Demand Exercise channel.  The whole thing lasts just 20 mins including warm up and cool down.  In recent week's I have started rewinding once I get to the cool down section and doing it all over again. This makes it about 30 mins of aerobic exercise.  I then get down onto the floor and do some toning work.  The last post in the Exercise Talk category talks about 140 crunches done in sets of 20 per muscle.  These days, I'm doing sets of 50 of 5 different stomach exercises and a further 50 x 6 on core, legs, arms and bum.  That's 550 repetitions by my reckoning.  I then finish off with some lovely stretching exercises and can finally get my forehead onto my knees easily when I sit on the floor with my legs at 90 degrees.  I am very supple and in my twenties I was able to get my nose on the floor in the same position.  That's my goal this time around.

The whole session takes about an hour I guess and I generally do it every morning after a grapefruit and a mug of dandelion tea.  I then reward my sweaty self with a bowl of my own oat, seed and raisin muesli with almond milk.  And I've finally got to the stage where if I don't do the session, I miss it.

I've just said in another post, that I haven't done it since Thursday; I'm really feeling the lack of it. Tomorrow I start again!

Naughty Girl

I've been a bit naughty this week as I've had far too many very late nights. But I have been good in other areas.

The bad news is: I woke up this morning with a sore tummy.

The good news is: It's cos I did 140 stomach crunches yesterday!

Sounds like a lot doesn't it, but as they were in sets of 20, it didn't feel like a lot when I was doing them - particularly as each set was a slightly different type ie. 2 sets on the uppers, 1 sets on the lowers and 1 set each left and right uppers and then lowers. Does that make sense?  I haven't done them today yet, but I will.  I'm finding that the greatest motivation for me at the moment is looking in the mirror and seeing my body changing.