back to the daily grind

Please excuse my sporadic attempts to keep my blog updated...I am back in Australia although I left my soul on a sandy tropical island in Fiji.

Upon my return (to work and to uni) I have faced a few "spanners" which a few years ago would have sent me in a spiral of negativity and woe-is-me behaviour. Thank goodness for the good things in life! So unfortunately I cannot complete my final year of university off campus...this is rather inconvenient as uni is a half hour trek in good traffic and the parking costs are rather heavy. More over, I need to rely on someone else to mind my gorgeous boy 3-6 extra hours a week which we all know I dont really enjoy. On top of this a few work issues have seen me battle "the man" which could have back fired drastically although I believe things have been resolved.

All I can say is that there is a reason I'm doing this. I work to put food on the table...good, wholesome, organic, vegan food. I study so that my knowledge can help my clients, empower people from Aus to Canada and Belfast (come on guys I know you must check out the blog sometimes!), and lead me to a profession that combines my passions and has further reaching positive effects.
On with the show.

Thanks to my holiday I have decided to decrease my "screen time", not an easy feat when you blog, attend university and are slightly addicted to social media. Whilst you are surfing the net check out www.mobilitywod.com  http://www.yogaindailylife.org.au/ and http://www.crossfit.com/ my latest interests, and http://www.gefreeaustralia.org/images/PCALL.pdf to make a small difference.

A few other things to jot down today include the sadness in Jimmy Stynes passing. What a gun that man was. May your thoughts be with his friends and family.
On a lighter note, my baby sister turns 21 this week, she had her braces removed today and looks stunning. She is another person that really makes an impact on almost everyone she meets, I am very lucky to have her in my life.

My homework for you all today is inspired by a conversation this morning. I would like you to take a moment to think about WHAT YOU WANT. In life, in health, in your day...what do you want to achieve by 7pm this evening, by this time next week, next year? Today I want to read topic 1&2 with accompanying quizzes, inspire my little movers at tonight's dance class, dance beautifully at ballet and be patient with my husband and son. We all just have to realise that "the difference between a dream and a goal is a plan".

Cheers & Giggles
xx

Bula!!!

For those of you reading this for fitness inspiration: my challenge to you today is to PUSH yourselves. Yesterday I confused my workout...I thought that 200m was equal to 2km...and my Xfit workout from Eric was 200m sprint, 20 squats, 10 pushups, 5 rounds. And as I started to run my 2km, I thought there is NO WAY I can do that...so I ran 1km each time and completed 4 rounds in 30mins. Ladies & gents, I am NOT a runner so for me that is an amazing feat! So, calculate incorrectly, go further than you planned, give it everything you've got and I promise you will feel awesome. I also tried to do some headstands on the uphill part of the sandy beach, it ended like this:

with alot of sand in my hair!

So for those of you wanting to know about my honeymoon, Fiji is brilliant although not 100% what I expected. It is extremely difficult to be a vegan here which surprised me, there isn't as much fruit & veg as I thought would be available. So I have relaxed my diet abit and definitely can tell :s
The poverty here is also really bad. We went into town today to Sigatoka and were really confronted by the lack of resources and the amount of people, I actually think that the villages might be better off without any "western" influences. The Fijian people seem to be very friendly while the Indian people seem to be slightly less tolerant/accommodating to travellers. It must be hard and I can see why people would resent tourists. We got stuck at the worst restaurant where River kicked up an absolute stink (he must have felt the creepy vibes too) and I was positively appalled at the host when he suggested that he could give River a bottle of formula so I could get a massage. Um...no effing way.

Which leads me to my next point. While Fiji is touted as a family friendly destination, I have only run into ONE other breastfeeding mum. It seems more like "here babysit my kids while I get pissed" than "welcome parents who want to holiday WITH your children". It is for this reason I can see myself coming back here when my kids are in primary school *wink, wink!

Anyway I'm off for a snorkel and a sunbathe.

Cheers & Giggles
xx

Breathe.

Once again I am reminded to do this.

It seems to me that I'm constantly working, that I'm never able to just "be". And I know that it is my own doing, I am addicted to being busy and I love my work, but sometimes it would be nice not to have to schedule a day where I "relax at least for one hour" and to just relax!
It was a stinking hot night and far too sticky to sleep, we have one fan and for DS first sleep both it and he are in their own room. So I began to fret about all the upcoming events. Thinking it a good idea I broke the upcoming months into sections:

The next 4weeks entail: work, study, training and dance with Sunday's off to plan wedding things.
The wedding & honeymoon comprise the following two weeks, then three weeks back into the swing of things before a two week break from dance. When it came to looking at the ten week period between April 16th-29th June, I just about had a cow! Somewhere during that time I am meant to organise a first birthday party, and continue to work, run a dance school, dance, complete my last year of uni and write, while being an attached mummy!! The worst part is that is only halfway through the year.

SO. How do we do it? How do we achieve the perfect balance, is there such a thing? Unfortunately I am one of those people who feel guilty when they stop doing things. I feel like I need to keep working on and improving my life, making other people feel good about themselves, sharing my knowledge, empowering people to be their best...I do all this because I know the rewards are great. My life is good because it is FULL of good things, knowledge from studying, friendships, health, activity and achievement. When a client feels more confident in themselves, that is a job well done. When a student can not stop practicing the steps, that is a job well done. When my friends know they can call me because I will listen and care, that is a job well done. And when my son has grown healthy, strong, secure and happy, that is my job well done.

It is impossible to live without making mistakes, and feeling like crap. Some days I am a horrid nasty swamp creature who hates everything and blames everyone else for everything wrong in my life. But these days are rare. If we think positive, it attracts positive. My challenge to you all today is too try to be grateful for the things in your life, to try to see things with your optimistic glasses on, to forgive yourself and LEARN from your stuff ups, and to CHANGE whatyou need to.

Cheers & Giggles
xx

"I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wacky Wednesday...

Sorry guys, I will post an exerise blog tomorrow...we had an interesting day and the weather has been foul. I managed to wake up to do some early morning pilates but a testy bub and a delayed flight left me feeling less than spritely. We had brunch with our Wedding Caterer of which I ate little, ok yes I ordered pancakes but I only ate two smallies! 
Our besty then decided to heard us to the shark & ray feeding place in Dandenong, where he wanted to check out job opportunities and where he said my shark phobia would be cured. Along the way our car broke down. And the help got bogged. And this is our only functioning car. Shit. My sister saved the day and came with us for me to overcome my fears. Well, it almost seemed a little cruel on the animals and STANK. To be honest the service wasnt crash hot either. But all five of us (River included) waded in tank after tank of fish...the rays were cool and friendly. The sharks scared me to bits but I got in with the small ones. There is always a fat, orange haired little shite to terrorise the poor animals, but most kids were gentle and enjoyed the experience...DS got sleepy.
To be honest with you all I am FREAKING OUT. Our wedding is in 6 weeks, I feel as huge as a whale and as stressed as a pair of really old jeans. Opperation hot stuff is in full swing...but I'm being a bit of an osterich about the wedding.
Off to rest my weary head

C&G
xx

The ugly...

Ok, one of the main things that I want to portray is that life is NOT a fairytale all of the time, that how we deal with situations that arise is what matters. Today I am not proud of my mothering...to be frank I was so angry at my child for being unsettled and unpleasant, so angry at myself for being a sleep deprived angry boots, SO frustrated that it is MY body that nourishes my child, MY attention that needs to be focused on him, MY stress level that affects him, MY body & mind that cook for him, clean for him, soothe him, and ME that shapes his world pretty much 24/7...I had had enough! Thankfully my sister soothed him to sleep after I had tried feeding & rocking him to no avail, although this in itself brought on tears " you fail as a peaceful mother" " you can't even soothe your own child" " now your sister thinks you are a bitch" and such thoughts raced through my mind. I am thankful that there have only been a handful of times when I have just been so fed up with being DS everything that I've needed reinforcements! It shames me that I am not always the loving, calm mother I aspire to be. So I ate a bunch of junk food, watched some Greys anatomy, and switched off for a few hours.
At home I trained two of my gorgeous clients before a late nap, a walk, a shop, scrumptious dinner, and bedtime routine. Asleep at last I began this blog only to be awoken less than an hour after bed...so rocking him didn't work so I screamed at my fiancé on the phone instead of repeatedly bashing my head into the wall...which I actually have done in the roughest stage of my parenting journey. Where is the humour in this? Where is the joy? What the Frick makes it all worth it? (Now that I've possibly scarred him for life by feeling so vile)...the smiles and the sounds of a contented babe, I guess. And well isn't Breastfeeding just a blessing and a curse?! When the milk starts flowing I'm far less likely to throw myself out the window...