"Graduation" - !!!

Glen sat me down tonight and asked if I would be willing to do a permanent roster shift - every second Saturday morning, commencing two weekends from tonight. Of course I said yes! Minutes later, he declared that he was putting me through my graduation ceremony. He opened a cupboard which was filled with boxes...

I thought to myself, "Oh, right, he's inducting me in as a newbie by getting me to clean out and organize this cupboard."

But actually it was much nicer than that - I got to rummage through the boxes and pick out my uniform!

Wanna see pics? Here they are!

1. With my jacket on:


2. Without my jacket on:


3. James and I were so impressed with the apparent growth in size of my bicep since the last time I took bicep-flexing pics, that we had to take another, more revealing photo:

4. And finally, my favourite ~ the don't-I-look-cool-with-my-jacket-over-my-shoulder pose:

Bee Stings? Forget it!

Did my First Aid course today which is a requirement to be registered as a Fitness Instructor. I guess they must automatically expect us to pass because I received my certificate, hand-delivered to me by my instructor, before I'd even packed my bag ready to leave at the end of the day.

The exam consisted of 50 multiple choice questions. I got 49 correct. So if you choke, or need CPR, or have an embedded object in your arm and lots of blood pouring out of the wound, according to my test results I should be competent enough to give you First Aid.

...but if you get stung by a bee, watch out! That was the question I got wrong.

My New Favourite Shopping Street

Smith Street, Fitzroy.

Home of the sports outlet stores. James, Ash & I spent a couple of hours there yesterday. The Nike outlet store... I love it! I love Nike's running attire. I wanted a Nike running jacket. Not only did I find myself a spunky jacket but it is rain-proof and from the Nike+ range, which means it's got a cool hidden sleeve for my iPod and protects it from a downpour! It also has little elastic hooks that travel up one arm towards my ears, especially made for the headphones.

The jacket was outlet-priced AND had an additional 30% off because of a store-wide sale. I just love a bargain.

Work Experience

I just got back from my first shift at the gym. You've been wondering when I was finally going to start, so there's your answer. I haven't finished my classes yet though - these next three weeks I will work a total of 6 shifts as a part of my training to complete my course.

The Group Fitness Instructor course didn't end up going ahead. Instead, I'll probably be signing up for a course that commences in September. Maybe it was a God-send, because I had a chat tonight with a fitness instructor ~ his opinion was that the September course is the best one around and he had very high recommendations for it.

Think... then Act

Ever had one of those moments where you did something, and in a split second right after acting, you realized how stupid it was, but by then it was too late to do anything about it, so all you could do was stare in horror as the consequences of your actions unfolded before your very eyes?

On Monday night, we had to take turns leading our classmates in a short group fitness class. Somehow I ended up being the last one to have my turn. And for reasons beyond my control, my turn started at 10:15pm, 15 minutes past the end of class time.

Needless to say, I felt the urgency of the matter.

In trying to pass Swiss balls to people at the other end of the room, for some reason I decided to throw one in that general direction. Of course I didn't think to take note of the height of the ceiling. And of course it was too low. So of course it bounced straight back off the ceiling and hit the girl next to me in the head.

What was I thinking? Clearly, I wasn't. Thank God it wasn't a medicine ball!

Footy Tipping

The last time I joined a footy tipping competition was at Whitley College, when I lived there. I was given two options:

1. Put in all my tips for the entire season
2. Tip each week, round-by-round

Knowing that I would probably forget to submit my tips each week, I chose option #1.

Having no knowledge whatsoever of which teams were good and which weren't, I asked a friend to tell me the top four teams and bottom four teams from the previous year's season ladder. I then created a "fool-proof" system for my tips choices - for each game, if one team was top four the previous year, I chose that team and if one team was bottom four, I chose the other team. If neither team was top or bottom, I guessed. Simple.

And it took me less than 10 minutes to complete.

My system proved to be more fool-proof than I would every have imagine, because at the end of the season, they announced the winner... me!

So this year, when I was approached to join the footy tipping competition at my gym, I thought, why not? I have a little more of an idea of the teams' performance, and this time around I am actually committed to a team - Go Sainters!! Besides, James could always help me. So I entered.

My results so far (i.e. number of tips I got correct):

• Round 1 - 4/8 - tipped with James' help
• Round 2 - 2/8 - tipped without James' help so you can see how hopeless I am at it
• Round 3 - 7/8 - tipped with James' help
• Round 4 - 4/8 - forgot to submit tips, allocated "away" teams as my tips
  

Based on the above results and my past, I have made the following observations:

1. Ignorance isn't just bliss. It also helps me to tip better.
2. People who don't support a particular team will probably tip better - if James and I can't decide between our beloved Saints and the team they are playing, we tend to tip our team.
3. If James wasn't available to help me with this, I would probably get better results from not submitting any tips at all.

Deal or No Deal?

James and I made a Deal today. It was actually a pretty important one, which will have a huge impact on our future together. What were we thinking?

Before I go on, let me give you the background on this one.

In our two and a half years of marriage so far, there are two major topics which have been points of disagreement between James and I. We haven't argued about these topics, we have simply had different life experiences which have contributed and influenced our differing opinions.

What are these topics and what are our views?

TOPIC #1: PETS
James has always grown up with dogs and cats as a part of his family. It therefore follows that James would love at the very minimum for us to get a dog one day. At least. Maybe two, and a cat too whilst we're at it.

I, on the other hand, never grew up with pets (except for the kind you keep contained such as goldfish, hamsters and birds). So I don't want a dog... or a cat. Dogs leave hair everywhere. Sometimes they chew or scratch important things or furniture. Dogs don't smell nice, especially when they're wet. You can't have a two-way conversation with a dog. Dogs are great to pet and to play with, as long as they belong to someone else, because then you reap the benefits without having to bear the burden. And when you go on vacation, you can't always bring your dog, so you have to find a pet-sitter or pay $$$ to put him in some form of doggy accommodation.

TOPIC #2: CHILDREN
I am happy with THREE. THREE children plus TWO parents equals FIVE people, which is the number of seats in a standard car. I have one sister and one brother, so three worked just fine in my family.

James wants FOUR - at least. More if possible. I think his absolute ideal would be FIVE, but he toned it down to four for my sake.

James believes that the more we are able to have, the better. I feel that less is more - with less children, I can devote more of myself to each one.

THE DEAL (you're gonna love this one)
James and I went for a run this week and the topic of pets came up... again. After our run, as I was getting ready for work I started thinking about having pets, or more precisely how much I didn't want to have them - ever. Just before leaving for work, I said to James - more jokingly than seriously - "James, I'll cut you a deal. If I agree to willingly and cheerfully have four kids, would you agree to willingly and cheerfully not have a dog or cat or any sort of pet that I am not okay with... ever?"

The response I got was more intense than I could have anticipated. James' eyes immediately lit up, he jumped out of his seat, came running over to me, hand outstretched, ready to shake on it. Just like that.

I was taken aback by how quickly and excitedly James responded. I told him I'd have to put some serious thought into this Deal before shaking on it, because I had meant it more as a joke than seriously.

Well, we went for another run today. We discussed the Deal, and we shook on it.

So, blogosphere, you are now witnesses to The Deal - ten years from now you will find James and Fiona with FOUR KIDS in tow, and NO DOGS.

Group Fitness Instruction

Today, I faxed my enrollment for the Group Fitness Instructor part of my course, which is the final stage of my learning.

However I was disappointed to learn that there is a possibility the course will not go ahead because there are not enough people enrolled for the course at this point in time. There are still 3 weeks to go before the course is schedule to begin, so maybe there will be a bunch of last minute enrollments.

I really hope so!!!

I am just so disappointed. The reason for the growing lack of interest in this course is due to recent changes in the industry, in particular the growth in popularity of Les Mills classes. Les Mills is a company that pre-choreographs group fitness classes to pre-determined music tracks and sells the music with accompanying choreography to group fitness instructors. This means that in this day and age, the average group fitness instructor no longer needs to employ his/her personal skills and creativity to choreograph a unique class. Instead, ANYONE can teach the class if they buy the instruction manual and matching music tracks.

If you have been to any class labeled BODY-something (e.g. BODYpump or BODYstep) you have been to a Les Mills class. I have been to BODYpump classes and I do think they are great. But in the end, it is mass-produced fitness that does not involve individual and unique creativity.

Pros: an average or even not-very-good group fitness instructor can take one of these programs, teach a class and be great at it. I guess the level of choreography in every class becomes more standardized because someone else out there is doing all the choreography for everyone. You're much less likely to go to a "bad" class.

Cons: less individuality (e.g. I have favourite instructors who have their own style of choreography and teaching - if these instructors had limited themselves to Les Mills I would never have experienced their wonderful creativity in one of their classes).

I guess it's like the difference between James and I at a restaurant. James will try new things, but he is more likely to find his favourites on the menu and stick to them most visits. I, on the other hand, will always want to try new menu items. Sometimes I will get a complete dud of a meal, but when I stumble across that never-to-be-forgotten dish, it makes all the duds well worth finding that delectable gem.

In my opinion, pre-choreographed classes are mass-produced fitness. They are the convenience of this day and age - convenience for instructors who want great results (an excellently choreographed class) without putting in the study and preparation required to create their own classes.

It disappoints me, because I feel it makes it more difficult to distinguish truly excellent instructors from the "good" or the "average". Yes, at the end of the day, group fitness instruction is a job for many - a way to put food on the table. But it can also be so much more than that!

A Tribute to Damien

Tonight on The Biggest Loser, Damien was eliminated.

Damien is easily everyone's favourite contestant on The Biggest Loser. Not just viewers and fans, but also the other contestants on the show.

Why? Because he is a natural leader amongst the contestants, leading not by force or manipulation, but rather through encouragement and by setting an example that inspired others to follow. Where other people would irritate one another due clashing personality types and character traits, Damien was loved by all. He always had an encouraging word - a genuine one too - for the black sheep in the house. He was always able to see things from other peoples' perspective.

And my favourite quote of his: "I am not saying I deserve to be in this house more than the others, but I do feel that I need to be here more" - in other words, Damien never once had an inflated view of himself. He recognized what an honour and privilege it was to have the opportunity to learn how to lose the weight he needed to lose.

Damien was not just the greatest guy on the show. He was also the biggest. He started the show weighing 216kg, which is the most anyone in the history of the entire show (all countries, not just Australia) has weighed. Up to this point he has lost over 68kg, which still puts him at 148kg. But his weight loss journey has been amazing. He was especially inspiring because typically in past seasons, the biggest contestant has often been the first one to be voted out of the show because he is the weakest player on the team, but Damien's determination allowed him to continue in the show well past any other over 200kg contestant.

Damien has been an inspiration to thousands of Australians - contestants, non-contestants, other people struggling with their weight, and even those who don't. James, Asher I absolutely love the guy and we were devastated to witness his elimination tonight.

I really hope Damien achieves his goal of a healthy weight, and that he goes on to live a long life so that he can continue to be an inspiration and hope to others who struggle to control their weight.

Half Marathon? Or 14km?

All this week I was torn between whether to run the half marathon (actually 23km) or 14km event at the Great Ocean Road Marathon weekend.

I have finally made my decision - the half marathon it is.

Why?

1. This week I have been suffering from a mild case of post-race apathy, i.e. the attitude that says, "Fi, you just ran 15.2km! You can take it easy for a week... or two". I have learnt in my recent studies that for every week of training you miss, you need 2 weeks to get back to the same level as before. So in order to avoid this happening, I need that extra challenged to keep me training.

2. On Thursday I found a running partner for the event in Niro.

Running 15.2km for the Kids - report back

9:00 - 10:30am, Sunday 1 April 2007
We had a blast! "We" being Daniela, Pete & Katie, Brett & Rehana and me! Devi ran it too, but unfortunately we did not see her all morning. I am hoping to get some piccys from Pete & Katie to post here... soon!

Run for the Kids is probably one of - if not THE - biggest running events in Victoria. This year, the event boasted an attendance of about 26000 people. Furthermore, $21 out of our $34 race entry free went to The Royal Childrens Hospital Good Friday Appeal. That is an impressive proportion - my commendations to all the race coordinators for managing funds so well to enable such a massive proportion to be given to charity!

For me, the race was yet another stepping-stone in an effort to continue to challenge myself onward and upward in my fitness levels. To achieve this was a milestone! Three years ago I couldn't even run 5 minutes without stopping, and on Sunday 1 April 2007 I ran for 90 minutes! 15.2km is now officially the furthest I have ever run without stopping.

Running with Katie was such a pleasure - Dan & Pete ran with us too, but they could easily have run faster and at different points in the race they were ahead but then would pull back to stay with us. Katie and I run at about the same pace - although I suspect she is faster than I - and we took it at a pretty easy pace, chatting about all sorts of things along the way. Our main goal was to complete the full course without walking; speed was not of concern that day.

This race was quite an amazing experience. The route was one which you would not normally be able to run because it included major roadways such as the Domain Tunnel, a portion of the Westgate Freeway and the Bolte Bridge. All these roads were closed down for several hours to allow us to run them. It was also an amazing sight at particular points along the way to look ahead of myself and see just thousands upon thousands of other people running in the same direction as me.

I will try to post some pictures soon, but they probably will not do justice to the atmosphere and feeling that accompanies those photos.

P.S. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

BOB AND JILLIAN ARE BACK!

I just saw the ad on TV which confirmed my suspicions. YAYAYAYAYAY.

I do love Shannan and Michelle, they are great. But Bob and Jillian are the originals.

New Purchases

I haven't been shopping in ages! But today I made a few purchases that I am particularly excited about:

• My first pair of proper running leggings. I tested them out today too, because didn't want to wear them for the first time on race day next week. Went for a 12km run with Katie - you can read about it in TRAINING bLOG.

• Two books entitled "Exercise Analysis Made Simple" and "The Exercise Guide to Resistance Training". One of my tasks before this coming Friday is to learn all the names, actions, origins and insertions of the muscles in the human body. These two books will prove not only helpful in my study, but useful in future as I begin learning to write programs for people.

Now on my wish list: a pair of Skins (size: XS, style: 3/4 length leggings). Skins are a brand of compression garment. In laymen's terms... they are really tight! I tried a pair on today - they felt really good. You would have laughed to see me testing them out by jogging on the spot in the change room.

According to scientific research, one of the benefits of compression garments is that the support reduces the amount of muscle movement (or "wobble") which therefore reduces muscle damage due to prolonged exercise.

So, yes, I would LOVE to have a pair of Skins! But not right now I guess... they're $140 a pair! Too much of a chunk out of my purse for now.

Some Fi-Nominal Websites

If you want to see what I've been up to in my fitness course in the last week or so, check out getbodysmart.com. Choose "muscular system" and then any tutorial listed that tickles your fancy. That's what I have been memorising - every muscle's name, origin and insertion (i.e. where on the skeleton it joins to) and action. My next exam is two weeks from yesterday.

I haven't yet checked out the skeletal, physiology, circulatory or respiratory tutorials yet but this is also all a part of this module of my course... meaning I have to also know all that in two weeks' time. Thankfully I am already familiar with it from uni, I just have to re-learn the memory-related stuff.

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Hoctro's Place is an awesome blog I recently came across in my Google search for a unique Blogger template. I didn't end up finding one, however this awesome blog had tutorials which taught me to change The Snarchives into a 3-column layout, as well as put a photo collage banner across the top. Check out our spunky new layout if you haven't seen it already.

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You will think I am an absolute doofus for recommending this website - but I will anyway: The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology - in particular, the official Melbourne Weather Forecast. I hate that sometimes when I check the weather online that some forecasts can be off by several degrees (there's a big difference between 18 and 23!) or predict a fine, sunny day when it's really drizzly and overcast. The official site is way more reliable, for sure!

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One of these days James and I will finally get around to having our own website - at jamesandfi.com! For now, we simply own the domain license for the next 5 years, which my brother bought us for Christmas. What a clever gift!

For now... don't bother going there, you won't see anything of interest. In fact, right now i think it just redirects you to some sort of advertising site or credit card site or something that's not worth me looking into to find out what it is just so I can blog about what site it is.

Don't Dehydrate. Rehydrate!

Wonderful James came running with me yesterday. You can read about that run in my TRAINING bLOG if you're curious.

The day before yesterday I learnt about dehydration and heat stress. One of the things I learnt was that after exercise we should aim to replace our fluid loss through sweating by 150%.

Naturally, I was curious to see how much fluid James and I would sweat out during a 10km run. So we weighed ourselves before and after the run (note: 1L water weighs 1kg, hence weight loss is a good estimate of amount of fluid lost from the body during exercise).

I was so surprised to find out the results! I lost 0.9L of water, and James lost a whopping 1.2L. I was expecting much less - maybe, oh I don't know... 0.4L for me?

Therefore, to adequately rehydrate post-exercise, James and I needed to drink 1.8 and 1.4L of water respectively.

Now I know for a fact that I am a person who doesn't sweat very much - not only am I female, I also don't seem to work up much of a sweat, even compared to other females. So if not-very-sweaty me can sweat almost 1L of water during a 10km run in cool-to-warm conditions, you can see how easily many of us can become dehydrated due to prolonged exercise and not enough fluid intake during and after, especially in warmer conditions.

Dehydration is not good. You cannot train your body to tolerate dehydration better. With training, other aspects of your bodily functions will improve, e.g. your body might sweat less. But you will never tolerate dehydration better.

So be sure to adequately hydrate your body before, during and after exercise.

The Butcher, The Mousse and The Butterscotch Sauce

I love working at Meal Magic. I just love it. I have learnt so many new things about food in the short weeks I have worked there. Here are some of them...

New butchering knowledge:

• I now know how to take an entire beef rump (i.e. cow's bottom), cut off all the fat and sinew, and make it into steaks and/or diced bits. One month ago if you'd slapped a beef rump down on a kitchen bench in front of me, I would have had absolutely no idea where to begin, apart from pick up a knife and stare at the thing.
  
• On a chicken breast there is a bit that tears off quite easily known as a chicken tender. When I excitedly told James about this new piece of knowledge as soon as I got home, he informed me he already knew this. I was crushed.
• Cutting a hole in a chicken breast so it can be stuffed with filling... okay it's not a big deal to do this at all but I never would have known that if I hadn't tried doing it myself.
  
• Chicken thighs are definitely my least favourite cut of chicken to work with. Yes they are nice and tender in stir-fries but they are so annoying to try and cut the fat out off and there are just so many tendons everywhere. Give me chicken breasts or tenders any day.
• I can (sort of) tell the difference between lamb and beef mince. I can't do it with my eyes closed like Dan (j/k!) but if I stare at them long enough I think I can almost spot which one is redder (and therefore the lamb)
  

New dessert skills:

• In the last two or three weeks, I have made litres (and litres!) of chocolate mousse, raspberry mousse and tiramisu. I was up to my elbows in the stuff... literally! I know they probably cost hundreds or maybe even thousands of $$$ but I would love to have one of those giant mixers in my kitchen that can whip up 5L of cream in minutes! For now I will just settle for wishing for one of my own home-sized cake mixers one day.
  
• Butterscotch sauce! Yum, yum, yum!

Overall, I am way more confident in the kitchen. I used to think I didn't like cooking, but actually I tend to like things I think I'm good at or dislike things I think I'm not good at. And at this point in time, I think I could actually one day be good at cooking... all I need is practise and the opportunity to continue to pick Daniela's brain.

After all, I love eating... so why not learn to make all that yummy stuff too!

Precious, Precious Tickets

I guess I'm just trying to make up for not blogging so regularly as of late. I am excited to announce that today James and I purchased tickets to see Miss Saigon.

I AM SO EXCITED, I have wanted to see this musical since I was 16! I used to know most of the words to all the songs despite never having seen the stage production.

I just wanted to announce my excitement to the entire world. Two weeks from now I will be walking out of Her Majesty's Theatre, with a sigh in my heart and a smile on my face.

Training bLog!

I have started a new blog - my TRAINING bLOG. I don't really expect anyone to read it regularly because it's more for myself, but I just thought you might like to know.

The website is http://fitnessfi.blogspot.com.

The people I can think of who would want to read this blog are people who are curious about what I get up to on a daily or weekly basis, people who want to keep me accountable, or people who want to check out what I do and give me feedback.

Running to Race

I subscribe to and love reading Ultra-FIT magazine.

My friend Daniela introduced me to it - she cleverly did it only a few weeks before my birthday party last year, which I later discovered was so she could suss out whether or not to get me a subscription for my birthday. Isn't she a star?

Better yet, a part of my personal trainer course is a compulsory membership to FitNation which includes a year subscription to Ultra-FIT, so I am pretty much set until mid-2008! Woo hoo!

Being me, of course I couldn't help but notice that every issue has a "letters" section, and they award a heart rate monitor to the "star letter". Well I have been contemplating what to write for my "star letter" for the last few months, and finally wrote and emailed it off today.

If this doesn't win me the much-desired award, I don't know what will! Save for the fact that this letter is possibly several months too late because I've just been too busy to write it (we're on issue $102 now).

Oh well... if it doesn't, I will just continue to save up for one.

Before I show you the letter I wrote, I also just want to thank Daniela: without you I would never have had the opportunity to read the below-mentioned article. It was also you who encouraged me to act upon my inspiration after I told you about the article, and you who came and ran the race with me (and made me run for my life for the entire last km!). So thank you!

Dear Ultra-FIT,

I want to thank and commend the entire team for the awesome work you do each and every issue. I have been a subscriber and avid reader since August 2006. In particular I want to thank you for your feature article "Running to Race" (issue #99).

As a teenager, I was not very active. I had definitely never run before, couldn't run, and wouldn't ever dream of running. In mid-2005 I decided to give running on the treadmill a go, simply because I'd tried every other cardio machine in the gym except for that dreaded treadmill! One year later, I was regularly running 2-3 times a week. Up to that point I had never run more than about 5km.

Then Issue #99 was released. Your article inspired me to give racing a try. Before reading it, I thought racing was only for professional or amateur athletes, and definitely not for people like me!

I ran - and completed! - my first race in Nov 2006... 8km long! I had never, EVER run that far before! In the short months leading up to that race I ran distances well past 5km, because I had to prepare for an 8km distance!

Since then, it's been nothing but onwards and upwards for me. Next month (April), I will run my second race, a whopping 15.2km long. I am even considering a half marathon in May!

When I first started in 2005, running for more than 5 minutes was a huge challenge! If you had told me back then that I would be contemplating a half-marathon in 2007, there is no way I would have believed you.

Thank you, Ultra-FIT, for the inspiration you gave me through "Running to Race". In it, you wrote that "racing is one of the best ways to help improve your running". I am living proof that you were right!

Running to Race,
Fiona

Pinch and a Punch ... and a 15.2km run

Ah yes, the old "first day of the month" poem.

Well I can't write too much today. I am actually supposed to be finishing off my assignment for my first subject right now ~ Nutrition and Body Fat Management. Shh! Don't tell James ~ he's in the living room with me right now happily playing on his Nintendo Wii. We shall soon learn if he has been diligently reading my blog or not, depending on if he ever reads this. :)

I recently realized that I forgot to blog about something very important: in January I signed up for my second race. It is exactly a month away now ~ Run for the Kids on 1 April 2007. This one is a huge step up from my first ever 8km race. In fact, 8km seems like nothing compared to... wait for it... 15.2km! That's almost double!

Another cool thing about this race - I have at least 7 friends running it too. Half of us regularly train together once a week as a Running Group, and the others have all joined our Running Group at least once.

I am looking forward to this race with a little anticipation and a little more fear. It's kept me running regularly when probably nothing else could. However, I am probably not running enough, currently averaging approx. 3 times a week. The furthest I've run so far is about 9km, so I've got a little work to do to up my km in time for race day.

At least, thanks to what I have learnt on my course so far, I know what I'm supposed to be eating now! Speaking of which, I'd better get back to my assignment.