6.55am wake up, 8am yoga

You read right... on my first day off in aaaages, with no alarm clock set and the intention ready to have a great old sleep in, my eyes peeked open and my mind was wide awake at 6.55AM this morning. eep.

So I got out of bed, pottered a bit and went up to an 8am $5 yoga class with one of my favourite teachers of all, Amelia, at Samadhi Yoga in Newtown.

What a refreshing way to start my day off! With a month of solid 7-day a week work behind me, I was literally aching to get back on the mat and I'm on a high right now. The class was mixed level so was quite easy going, but I found it worked me hard! That is one of the things with all things fitness, I suppose, it takes some hard work and determination and committment to build up to a certain level, but it can so easily disappear.

But challenging is good - and now I'm going to snuggle up on the couch with some new yoga books I've got, and dream of some more classes : )

She's a Cinema lovin' girl

Hip hip hooray!

My new job (just found out this week!) is going to mean I get to see lots and lots of great, arthouse and indie movies. And I'm so excited!

This ties in perfectly with Goal 9 - to relax, and watch movies. How often do we fall in the trap of living to work - instead of the other way round? Finding a couple of hours to sit and watch a flick seems indulgent at times, but we have 24 hours each and every day, that is 168 hours each week, so if we can't spare 2 or so of those for some escapism, something is wrong with this scenario!

Stay tuned for some fab movie reviews heading your way soon ;)

Bend & Flex!

Only 2 mins to write, but update I must!

In the first weekend of Feb I’m doing a weekend workshop with Simon Low from the UK. I did some training with him during my actual teacher training course, and this will be fantastic.

I am also going to go for some power vinyasa yoga classes on my first day off, and I’m considering doing a Sutras course (theory) at Yoga Sanga. It all comes down to money so perhaps that won’t happen as yet and I’ll save the money, putting it towards the A&P course at Yoga Synergy. We’ll see.

But in the meantime, I’m SO excited to go and do a bunch of yoga classes.

I’ve been sitting at a desk way too much this month and while going for a buggy ride around site the other day, I actually got out and started to do some forward bends and warrior poses. Am sure I looked a bit loopy but I felt SO good. Wasn’t aware of how tight I’d become in just a few weeks, but it just goes to show how much I love it.

Dust Off That Passport!

I have 2 lots of tentative plans. Both involve Shiny!

1. I have airpoints to use and weight to lose so the plan is to give myself a certain amount of weight to lose (I'm thinking a kg a week-ish) by May 21st - the week my airpoints expire. If I achieve this - I get a trip to Sydney on my airpoints some time in July/August. If I don't - I lose $220 worth of airpoints. I'm REALLY hoping this will motivate me big time!!

2. Shiny and I are going to Thailand in November to celebrate her 30th in style - preferably on top of elephants!

Yipee!

How Do I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

One of my biggest barriers to creativity is myself - or more specifically, my mind! "I'm not good enough", "My work isn't as good as theirs", or the perennial favourite "I can't do it". Tonight I showed my first lot of photos at the photography course I'm doing and got a rousing reception. So what I've found out is that I am good enough, my work is as good as theirs and I can do it pretty damn well actually. Still not stoking on the whole Summer theme I have to do but I think I'm going to be able to come up with something pretty interesting involving some or all of the following themes - drunk women, tools for beautification and normal women enjoying life. There's definitely a thread of feminist thinking running through there but I still need to work out how I'm going to tie it all together...

Massages & Green Tea

Stop working 7 days a week? Phooey! January is actually the month when that won’t happen at all. But looking further ahead, I actually declined taking on a class on Saturdays. Do you know how hard that was? Gee, normally I’d jump at the chance to take on another class, but I’m very definite that I’m going to have one proper day OFF each week.

As far as doing something conducive on days off, I had a half off a couple of weeks ago and booked in for a massage – and actually went! That is my thing, I get excited, know what I should do, book things in, then cancel them as I’d just prefer to sleep. But this was great – felt so good after it.

So this goal is off to a positive start.

Elephants in Thailand!

Overseas trip – on the horizon! After I get paid for BDO, I’m putting a deposit down on this trip, which will then truly make me go on it! It’s great to have a solid goal like this.

So yep, the trip is Thailand, with the gorgeous Muse, and the options are: Thailand Unplugged, Treasures of the North, and Kingdom of Thailand. They’re all with Intrepid so they’re gonna be small groups (no more than 12) and we’ll get to ride elephants, best yet – we’ll get to hang with the locals! Some of them have home stays, others have trekking… all look amazing.

Have passport – will (finally!) travel! And we’re also going to go during November, so I’ll get to spend my 30th overseas!!!

Moving - but in the wrong direction

Now that I am all about health, it's time to address Goal 4. I will lose 20 kg this year. But first to remove that pesky stray kilo that just popped on last week.



No more coke. No more chocolate. Lots of water. Lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. My body is my temple etc etc.

Mantra

My primary focus this year is on my health not my job.
My primary focus this year is on my health not my job.
My primary focus this year is on my health not my job.

Repeat until sunk in.

I have to keep reminding myself of this because: I have lost no weight, I have not started an exercise routine and I am still drinking coke. Sigh...

Summer Goddess

I have just started a brilliant course on creativity using photography as the medium. I have to admit my photography skills aren't that great but I figure I'm going to be learning pretty quickly! I have to produce a conceptual piece using the words 'Summer' and 'Goddess'. It would be really easy to do something really literal with this, however I have had to abandon the idea of the photo essay on Miss Whangamata since it's been and gone and was too cold for bikinis anyway. Here are some of the ideas I have been brainstorming so far:

• a little girl as an emerging goddess
• women dancing at the Organic Festival - bound to have a Woodstock vibe about it
• something around Wellington's summer weather which can best be described as "wintery"

Gobble gobble gobble

Oh how tempted I am to try 'Eat Fit Foods' 10 day detox - however, the $500 + cost screams out a big NO!!! January is an insanely busy working month for me so I tend to not eat well at all - too tired to cook, too tired to do anything. So the idea of home delivery - be it from a healthy food place or the local & not so healthy takeaway - proves extremely appealing.

However, I really must commence with a healthy eating plan in 2007. More fresh foods, less processed crap, and an abundance of healthful meals. All of this will give me energy (woohoo!) which my body is crying out for.

Tonight is the last day of 9 days straight working, and I'm going to whip up a quick tuna, mushroom and tomato wheat free pasta dish. This will be the first meal I've cooked in 2007 (hangs head). So here's to many more home-cooked meals and fresh, healthy food.

Shiny, in the writing room, with a beret

Very excited to confirm that I am doing a writing course come February. I've paid my deposit for the "Feature Writing for Magazines" course at the Sydney Writers' Centre, with journalist Valerie Khoo, and I'm so excited!

I love courses and learning but lack of money has always dictated what I've done (or have't done, as the case may be!) so I’ve really bitten the bullet here, paid the deposit, and have a month to come up with the rest of the money. And indeed I will!

After studying journalism at Uni but then falling into publicity (which I do love), I have an urge to follow my heart and really dive head first into the writing again. I am currently in the process of writing an article for a glossy teen mag at the moment, but would love to get even more work.

So here goes! You can check out the details for the course right here. Sounds fab!

Money makes the world go Round...

so they say : )
And as this is my money-focussed year, I'm starting work on my goal of having a nice little savings account. I haven't really had one of these for a long time.

By the end of 2007 I hope to have $1000 in a proper savings account - somewhat of an emergency fund that is not to be touched, but stays there for a rainy day. In 2008 I'll work on growing this emergency fund into a 3 months of salary full emergency fund... perhaps.

But pleased to say that as of today, I have $530 in this account.

I got paid from my last 8 working days - crazy & long hour, insane working days, and gee, was it ever worth it! I am paying one month's rent from it, and have managed to put a tidy sum into the savings account, so I'm happy.

Here's to being well on the way to debt free!

Cock-a-Doodle-Doo

Become an early bird – especially during the week: Mornings have never been my thing. I drag myself out of bed kicking and screaming most days...well if I had the energy I would kick and scream. Instead I seethe silently directing all the anger I can muster at the alarm clock. Most of last year, my relationship with my alarm clock reached an all-time low. So did my punctuality at work. I'm not too proud of it and I recognise it's time to get back on track and make time and space in the mornings to get things done.

I've been on holiday for the last 2 weeks and have been staying up late and waking up late. With work looming on the horizon it's time to start having earlier nights and getting ready to wake up earlier than 10am again. Oh, and I need a new alarm clock so I'm shopping for one tomorrow. After getting up at 7am.

The Only Way is Up

Have my fitness at the level of "good": How committed am I making an appointment for a fitness test at the gym on New Year's Day?! The idea is to shock myself into action as well as set the tone for the year. I'm going to have a fitness test of the first of every month this year and watch my fitness soar. So I guess you're wondering about the result of my January fitness test? Poor. Luckily it wasn't Very Poor. Okay so there is no Very Poor - Poor is the lowest you can get but I'm not looking at this as failure...it's a starting point. I felt suitably shocked to trot over to the cardio area afterwards and cycle away (at 80% of my maximum heart rate of course) for 30 mins so this could be the start of a whole new me. But don't worry, I'll still be the same person on the inside.