Early Morning Energy

Before I met Bianca, I looked on her website and read her blog and one thing that stuck out was the fact she was up incredibly early and off exercising before dawn. I thought she was mad. How could anyone survive on a few hours sleep and wake up with energy to burn. I have always suffered from "Just another 5 minutes" syndrome when the alarm goes off. Although I couldn't get to sleep last night until after midnight, as the room was a bit stuffy and I have a few things on my mind, I was still awake and reading at 5.20 and not feeling too tired. One of my aims at the start of this challenge was to capture this energy Bianca wrote about and I sleep better, get up earlier and have found this energy which is fantastic. Between 5.30 and 7am I can get lots done. I iron, read, write my blog (!), watch the sunrise, catch up on emails and best of all, get to see and speak to my husband while he has his breakfast before heading off to work in Brisbane just before six.


Last week was tough, Monday I struggled through the class. It was really hot and the dust from the recent storm was still hanging in the air. Both Karlie and I got quite puffed and breathless and at one point when I was running and imagining I was being chased by a tiger (the only way I can get round the circuit sometimes!), I actually thought " let the bugger eat me" I felt that knackered.


Wednesday, I missed the class as I was at the airport picking up my mother in law who is staying with us for a month. On Thursday I went to the session and met Karlie and Kirsty but Seb was nowhere to be seen. We did a warm up and some stretches and then waited a while longer. I called Bianca and left a message as we thought the session may have been changed back to Fridays. On the way home, Bianca called back and said Seb had been there waiting near the tennis courts, which were blocked by some trees from where we were waiting in the hut where we train on Mondays and Wednesdays. So I am back today and as I said last week, going back having missed two sessions in a row, is really hard. Though I did go to our local gym in Mapleton on Friday morning from 6-7am and did an hours circuit training which hurt, then stomped round Aussie Zoo for most of the day (but avoided being chased by the tigers!) before coming home and going out to work in a restaurant waitressing, so I suppose I must have exceeded the recommended 10,000 steps a day by a fair few!

Karlie, by the way, is featured in this month's 'Profile' magazine. I have only known her for 4 or 5 weeks, so to see the 'before' picture in the magazine was amazing. She was bridesmaid at a wedding this weekend and I bet she looked stunning. She had to change her dress from a size 12 to a 10. She must be very proud of the weight she has lost and how she has toned up. It will be me next and I hope I inspire people to sign up for Bianca's programme.

I have also found the last few weeks hard with having visitors, the kids off school and it being my birthday. I have still made better choices than before such as not having a cake and swapping chips for salad with my steak when I went out for my birthday meal, but have felt out of routine and have only been following the food plan about 60%.

I think this is the start of week 11, so I have the next two weeks to really pull my finger out, follow the plan, bring exercise back into my daily routine before the initial challenge comes to an end. My mother in law is supporting me and is happy to eat what I eat, so that makes it easier to prepare meals over the coming weeks and grab something healthy when we are out. We will also be active during the day, walking along beaches, doing the Glass House Mountains and visiting Kondalilla and Mapleton Falls, so fair bit of walking which should benefit both of us.

Don't know if she will be up as early though, but I like my time in the mornings, it's quiet. Any how it has reached 7am and the kids are up, that peace is broken, so off to tackle packed lunches, fill school bags, sort out uniform, do the school run and get to training on time!