AFL's Newest Fans... Sort of...

Last Saturday night James went with Tammy, Dad, Jonny, Robbie and Jonny's old mission friend to an AFL game.  It was the first live AFL game for at least James and Tammy, and they seemed to have an awesome time.  Robbie is a die hard fan, and I think he was excited to share his passion with the fam a little bit :)  The Gold Coast Suns (who apparently aren't great this season) were playing... some other team, who needed this win to get into the final.  Our family contingent decided to go for the Suns - the closest to a home team playing :)

Tammy sent me some pictures on her phone while the game was on:

This made me grin - such a fun photo!  I asked James later why the sign said 'SUPER'.  He said he asked Robbie the same question, and Robbie said that's just the way it is at AFL  :)

James tells me he was looking up at a ball coming through the goal for this photo - they were right behind the posts.

The other half... :)

James got home 'SUPER' late (haha).  He said every quarter was about 30 minutes... give or take... as in, the refs just call quarter time whenever they feel like it.  He asked Robbie about it, and Robbie said that the refs are usually biased to the home team - so when the Suns were doing well, the quarters went for longer, and then when they weren't doing well, the refs called time at 26 or 28 minutes.  I told James that sounded ridiculous and not legit at all, but he said that's what Robbie said, and Robbie IS the AFL fan after all!

James, Dad and Tammy also seemed very impressed with the refs, and the 'dancing with flags' they do.  I was given demonstrations by half the family :)  Very entertaining.  The refs in AFL are exceptionally intense, and there are strict routines they follow for different calls.  The refs, were James' favourite part of the game.

They also enjoyed the fans.  Apparently they were surrounded by supporters of the opposing team, who were extremely passionate.  Because they were sitting right behind the posts, the ball came into the crowd when the goals were kicked.  There were nets up before the start of the game while they practised their kicking.  Then when the game started they took the nets down, and James said Tammy was horrified - lol!!! :)  But anyway, once when the ball came into the crowd, and a Suns player came to get it off whoever had caught it, and the guy in the crowd who had it seemed to hate the Suns, and he pegged it at the Suns player as hard as he could, then started cheering his head off, all by himself.  By the end of the game the opposing fans were pretty distraught though, because the Suns had an awesome game and won, forcing the other team (whose name I really could have looked up but didn't...) out of the finals!!  (this did not push the Suns into the final - they were already too low :P).

Anyway, sounds like it was a really fun/ny night, and they all enjoyed the experience, even though I didn't hear a word from any of them about the actual game involving players/great kicks, etc!! :)  Tammy actually has a goal to get to a bunch of different sporting events this year, and so hopefully we hear more about it all from her sometime soon :)

I'm excited for when the girls are old enough to go out for fun experiences like this!! :)

Fitness Challenge: Week 4

A lot of this week was great.

On Monday we had Tim Tam slams for Family Home Evening treat, because after last week I was NOT waiting around for a measly peanut slab on Saturday afternoon! They were great. Heaps of chocolate, totally satisfying. I bought a new tin of Milo and 4 packets of Tim Tams to make sure there were enough... :)

On Tuesday I was tired and it was late when I was going to work out, so James suggested we had our 'off day' (ie. day off) on Tuesday instead of Thursday, which we did, so I worked out on Thursday instead of Tuesday.

On Friday everything was still going well, and I hung out with Andrea, who's from Utah, and we had fish & chips for lunch because I thought it was Australian, and when James came home he said I lost my junk food points for eating fish & chips. This had not occurred to me.

Friday night was our date night, so when we went out, seeing as I had already lost my junk food points, I got a hot chocolate and a slice of pecan pie and ate a cookie Mum gave me when we dropped Maggie off to be babysat. THEN when we got home, I went to bed, without working out....!!!! This is the first day I haven't worked out, EVER(inthelast4weeks), AND I didn't read my Scriptures before bed. I was quoting scripture to myself as I fell asleep to make up for it, but when I woke up Saturday morning I realised that I was basically asleep at the time and I couldn't honestly count it :(

Saturday was a busy day, and in the evening we went on our fabulous cousins dinner (and witnessed the World's Worst Date EVER as discussed in the previous post..), and dessert was at Freestyle...mmmmm....and I wasn't going to get a dessert, but then Claire had no one to share with, and being the dedicated, kind, loyal, caring and sharing cousin that I am (reminding myself here of The Lady and the Chocolate - maybe I'll type the text here one day...), I couldn't let the poor girl be left to eat an entire dessert by herself when she didn't want to, and once you've already lost your weekly bonus it's kind of easy to keep losing points, so I shared dessert with Claire! It was really good. But when I got home late again, I didn't exercise again! :S

It's like sin...or Pringles - once you start, you can't stop! Sigh..

Just to prove it, on Sunday night after I had finished dinner before 7 and everything, I was cleaning up, and some cookies Mum & Dad had been given and dropped some over were sitting on the bench and I ate one.

Can you believe it? It was 7:05 - I broke my eating before 7 rule, AND my junk for the day, for ONE COOKIE!!! A little one too! And I didn't even really want it that bad! I just felt like breaking all those rules, because I already had.

Isn't that ridiculous?! I can't report on my weights/walking progress, because I can barely even remember the last time I did it! Sigh...

But back into it today! Fortunately I weight exactly the same amount as last week and at least haven't gone up!

This week I'm not going to let myself slip in ANY area, because if you let yourself slip in one part, you (or at least I!) seem to collapse in every area!!

So watch this spot next Monday for reports of my super impressive perfect week and incredible weight loss!!

PS: I'm pretty sure James has decided to throw the junk food part of the challenge to make his calorie count. Not that I would gloat about him losing some serious points every day, but if I did, I would totally be doing that now...
PPS: So on our date on Friday night in addition to eating junk food we saw Captain America - I can't help but love all these Marvel comic movies - they're not an overload of violence or scariness - they're funny and light and comic strip action rather than horrific stuff, AND I like the whole Mr Stark being in them all and stuff - I can't wait for the one they're gearing up for when they're in it together!
PPPS: There are still some of those cookies on the bench and 2 packets of Tim Tams in my cupboard! - Aren't I just Little Miss Self Control?!?
PPPPS: Tonight's workout is going to be hell!
PPPPPS: Actually I'm sort of looking forward to it a little bit - at least he cardio bit, if not the weights (yeah...not the weights). I love feeling fit - I feel like I'm back in high school and have a strong desire to play sports again.
PPPPPPS: I also emailed the Fitness Challenge to a couple of people who were thinking of doing their own this week - any reports on those fronts?!

Fitness Challenge: Week 2

So I started off this week feeling aMAzing! On Monday when I did my 'unassisted squats' (ie. not the ones with my back pressed up against the wall - fancy term I know - I have trouble keeping up myself! :P), instead of feeling like an underqualified bowl of jelly wobbling my way up and down in agony and helplessness on the verge of collapse, I actually felt muscles doing what they're apparently meant to do, lifting me up and down, and I had a brief glimpse of why superfit people with muscles don't hate exercising!!

I even told James about it!

BIG mistake!!

Apparently, if it's not hard, it's not working. That's what James says. What he means is, if you don't feel like a hopeless mess who's on the verge of collapse, you're not working.

(sigh)

By Saturday's routine I was actually sobbing between sets.

YOU try squatting with 15kgs! (If you do this all the time, I don't want to hear about it.)

After picking the weight up I put it back down and started laughing - I really thought it was a joke. James looked at me like I was a little left of center and assured me he wasn't joking. I realised he was serious and tightened my position - "No James, I literally, can't do that! I can barely pick them up, let alone lift them as part of an exercise!". James then looked at me very seriously (but still like I was a crazy person) and promised me I could do it. He wasn't budging! I tried to reassure him again but he remarked with a little irritation that I just needed to stop 'sooking'. I think that's when I lost it - I wasn't sooking, I was serious!! So James said 'Okay, do whatever you want then' and walked away (to go and do the dishes - isn't he great? lol) leaving me to it. So I channelled my immense anger at his overconfidence and the 'sooking' remark into sobbing through 4 sets of squats, lunges, pull-ups and some arm thing that absolutely killed with the horrible impossible weights wobbling at the ends of my pathetically weak arms!

I then began my tread-milling with a vengeance, but sadly my heart rate was high from the crazy weights and I had to walk a ridiculously slow 0.8k/hr till it calmed down. It was like trying to make a dramatic exit and closing your dress in the door behind you or something - a little bit pathetic. It did calm me down eventually though, enough to apologise to James for getting upset when he was trying to help me. I did point out in my apology that he was pretty hard on me though! James: Hard on you?! You did 4 sets, completely unassisted! I was being easy on you, you just need to stop sooking and do it! (sigh). We are definitely from different planets lol.

BUT guess what ?! I am 2kg's down!!! Only 6ish to go!! And I look better and feel better and fit clothes better!!! :)

No matter how much I complain to him when I feel like he's giving me impossible tasks, I am so grateful that James is helping and supporting me so much, and watching the girls to give me time to work out!! I'm going to have to stop trying to tell him things are too hard because he said he doesn't want to have to argue with me every day and may stop helping me if I keep 'sooking' (hmph!). James assures me building the weight won't make me look too muscled, just help me be fit and strong, so I'll try really hard.

This week some friends came over for dinner and I made chocolate profiteroles for dessert for my one treat for the week and I've got to say - having one fabulous treat a week instead of lots of everyday treats may even be worth the wait! And the weight! :)

2 weeks of this crazy fit lifestyle down, 10 to go - unless I become bodywashed and have to keep it up! I wonder :)

PS: I'm sooo winning this - I get like, 500 bonus points for every kg I lose! Our children are going to be sooo impressed by my name on that trophy ;)

Fitness Challenge: Week 1

SO I really am very motivated to lose weight right now. I don't want this whole getting fat when pregnant thing to accelerate till I'm just fat all the time, so I really want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight quickly before I get pregnant again!! With Ana I put on WAY less weight than I did with Maggie, but I was already too fat, and I've been eating too much post-labour and putting it back on! :P I know, I know, it's not like I'm huge, I look fine, 'like a mother', bla bla bla, but regardless of all the lovely things people say and think, I don't feel good at this weight, and I would really like to fit back into that cute pre-pregnancy wardrobe sitting in a box in my cupboard (sigh). Oh, not to mention be healthy and strong! :)

Enter our Family Fitness Challenge! Back in 2007 my family did a fitness challenge and it was really fun, and some members of my family are re-doing it at the moment, and James and I decided to do our own :)

My goal is to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes at my pre-pregnancy weight before we head down to Adelaide for my Aunty Leah's wedding (yay!!!) near the end of September, and James wants to put ON at least 6kg's lol - I could TOTALLY do that! :)

Each day I need to get up by 7:30am (It should be earlier but I get a late mark until night feeds stop, yay!), eat no junk food (with the exception of 1 treat per week - please, I'm only human!), drink at least 2.5L of water, do my weights training that Mr PT James oversees with authority Mon-Wed and Fri-Sat as well as at least 1/2hr Heart Rate pace on my beautiful treadmill (I almost feel guilty for how much I'd prefer to run inside on my treadmill than 'enjoy nature', but I detest running outside and I LOVE my treadmill :) I enjoy nature a lot more while sitting amongst it...), not eat after 7pm (this one's hard to keep - I'm always breaking it by accident - not by late night fat snacks in bed, but just by like, living, and every dinner being held at 7pm), say personal morning & evening prayers and do personal scripture study daily (getting our spiritual fitness up also :)).

Of course there are points and a winner - plus we both get prizes if we reach our goals. It's a little bit lame how much more motivated I am by points than by getting healthy and slim, but it really works for me! - I seem to be able to easily say 'no' to chocolate, and haven't missed a workout!!

Sunday marked the end of 'Week 1' of our 12 week challenge.

I lost....(drumroll)............. ZERO KILOS!!!!!

(sigh)

But my fat seems to have gone down, so apparently the weight is the fat turned into muscles. That's all very well and good - it would be fun to have some little muscles for a change, and in fact when I tense my arms right now, something actually happens - one bit lifts and there's an itty bitty bit of definition checking itself out down there, but I would also at some stage like to lose this weight?! I complained to James and he told me to stop eating so much bread, which I may or may not have replaced junk food with - I really like bread. So this week I'll cut down on carbs too (sigh). I do feel pretty great though, and I do actually fit a couple of things better, so maybe I'll be able to fit some of my clothes even if I have bulging muscles stopping the actual weight loss thing from happening - it's hard being this strong!!

Wish me luck in week 2!!! :)

PS: I reckon I may be able to kick James' buttocks and get the trophy (yes, we're actually having a trophy lol) - it turns out it's hard to consume 3500 calories a day like he has to, without losing his 'no junk food' points - ha! :)

xo

Ode to Netball...

Growing up here in an Australian school, netball was hard not to play,

I played from a young age, continued through highschool and that's where till now, it stayed.

Volleyball and basketball were also on the cards, but netball was probably my best,

Basketball's easier to play casually, so I really gave netball a rest.

This year I joined a mixed touch football team, 'Slim Pickings' our proud team name,

I wrote about it a few weeks ago, said I'd update you after the first game,

But it was so bad, I felt so very dumb, I wanted to quit right away,

There's a kid from my school and my dad on the team, whose yells threaten to keep me at bay.

"Who the heck is that number 3 there? RUN UP RUN UP 3, NO! NOW RUN BACK!!!"

I couldn't figure out which direction to go, which was the up or back that I lacked.

And then last game I mixed up the times and arrived as my players walked off the field,

They seemed a little grumpy, I wonder if shame is all my turn on this footy team will yield.

Last night I was called by a friend who needed a player on her netball team,

I knew I'd be worse for not playing 6 years, but was eager and bursting at the seams,

The time drew close, I got pretty nervous, I drank water and cut my nails short,

I've been making a fool of myself on the field, hopefully I'd be better on the court.

They needed a center and a goalkeeper too, I used to play center a lot,

But I jumped in goal keeper so I could watch the game and remember the rules I've forgot.

3 seconds in saw me standing in eagerness at the third line which marked my prison,

As soon as my first touch of the ball in defence all my sleeping autopilot knowledge had risen.

After first quarter I was bucking to get out of my third, I gratefully swapped out of keeper,

And jumped on as center much to my delight, then quickly found the skills needed much steeper!

I switched again to GA for the last half of the game - my shooting has not yet awoken,

Actually that's an understatement - that part of me actually seems to be broken.

But I love the game, the whistle, the court, constantly being told to 'stand aside',

The defence player trying to trap me out of play, secretly jabbing me in the side,

The fact that when I shoot the players stand three feet away,

Intercepts, center passes, rebounds and sprints, it's the game I most love to play.

And whenever I did something not completely stupid, I could almost hear in my head,

My dad yelling 'THAT'S MY GIRL!!', as he used to, but all I could hear instead,

Was James who'd come along and joined the husbands who are on his rugby team, cheering,

And they shouted so enthusiastically for their wives that they received a preliminary warning.

They only have 2 more games this season but are down 2 players next week,

So I'll probably get another chance to enjoy a game in which I feel less like a geek.

And next year when 'Slim Pickings' starts picking up, and getting ready for the season,

I WILL SAY NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! And hopefully play netball somewhere. Bethy? Tammy? Mama? Jessima? Anyone? :) xo

Slim Pickings

On the very first teacher development day at my school, which was my first ever day of work, I was sitting at the 'year 6' table, getting ready to start work. I had just met the year 6 teaching team, and could barely remember their names. I was very shy and nervous. There's one guy on our year level, a nice family guy, who asked if I liked sport. I said I did, and then he said the staff were forming a touch footy team to play in a club competition, and if I was keen they'd be happy to have me. I said 'OK', and suddenly I was eagerly trekking down a path that would lead me through embarressment, then onto ... hopefully fitness and new skills.

In highschool I played netball, basketball and volleyball. I danced a LOT and was pretty fit overall. I am very bad with sports involving bats. As soon as there is a third party involved, my hand and the ball begin to disagree. I end up looking like an idiot, as I make contact with tennis balls at the part of the raquet enclosed by my fist. I have a hard time judging the distance and where to make contact when something other than just my hand is involved. Touch, however, does not involve much besides players and the ball. I have cheerlead for leage, union and AFL a lot in the past, so I thought had a bit of an idea about footy games in general... Touch, as I understood it, simply required fitness, and as I have had fitness in the past, I figured I'd pick it up quickly.

Little did I know the 'fitness training' aspect of the lead-up to games would be quite so public and humiliating. On the last day of school last term we had a scratch match against the best touch players in the school, including a few district players and a kid who just made the state league team. I jokingly asked if we couldn't just have training after school somewhere where nobody could see us, but I wasn't joking at all.

It was a little bit of a disaster for me personally. Here are some things I learnt:

• I am unfit.
• There are 6 players on each team.
• I am... excessively unfit.
• When you are touched with the ball, you simply place it down on the ground between your legs, and if necessary roll it backwards a few inches. If you throw it backwards between your legs, your teamate will end up running backwards to pick it up, cursing you all the way.
• Impressively unfit, even!
• Touch has a whole other language! If you don't understand it, the excessively fit woman beside you who is twice your age but could run 20 laps around the oval for every one of yours will at intervals between speaking this language at the top of her lungs suddenly burst into action in front of you, murmuring 'don't worry Ab, I'll just do it myself!'
• If there were a word, which meant 'unfit', but more, that would be me.
• In touch, you basically have your own player to mark. If you don't realise this and start running in the opposite direction, they will get past you (despite the hasty attempts of cranky teamates) and score a try for their team.
• If unfit were a competition, I would actually be in the running for first place!
• You can sub anytime you want. The only catch is that if you decide you're going to sub with a teamate when you are back on your line in defence, as you obliviously stroll off the field whistling, you're leaving behind a rather conspicuous gap, through which the other team will inevitably score. When I explained to James the way I learnt this rule he looked at me as if I were crazy. How was I supposed to know??!
• I am so unfit that when I run, my face turns such a peculiar shade of red, that my class and other students in the school think I have a rare disease.

I learnt all of these the hard way, in front of the entire school. My class were so cute and hilarious. They were soooo supportive, screaming "GO MRS E!!!" over and over, then as the game went on and it became increasingly apparent that I was incredibly unfit and had no idea what I was doing, they seemed to become almost embarressed for me, and the encouragement became constructive critisism and instruction, and "Don't worry Mrs E, we'll teach you the rules!!!".

Our first game against an actual team of people who are not 11 years old, is on Tuesday night. We are wearing shirts, in which we will glow in the dark. Although I laughed out loud when I first saw them (much to the dismay of our team captain who ordered them) and asked whether we were doing community service or playing touch, I am grateful that I will probably be able to recognise who to pass the ball to in the dark. I am number 3. James just got released from YM and into Ward Mission Leader so he has Tuesday nights free and can come and play too. I am excited for this because I will feel more useful to my team, as bringing him along will compensate for bringing me along! :) I will let you know how we go :) xo