for bootcamp!

I started this blog when I started 12wbt last year and when I had to 'say it out loud'... It's one of the pre-season tasks where you have to tell as many people as possible that you are doing the challenge as a way of being accountable and gaining support from your friends and family.

Well it's been a while since I did an update on how I've been travelling. It's been almost 6 months since I reached my goal weight.

Looking back on it now I'm thinking that that weigh in may have just been a little bit of a fluke. I don't think I weighed that much again and to be honest, the scales have gone up ever since.

Not drastically, not quickly but over time I started to lose a little focus. I have never been a really bad eater, if 12wbt taught me anything it was probably that my biggest problem is portion sizes. I would say that I follow the 'eating healthy 80% of the time', but I do probably eat a little too much. So I guess there were a number of reasons that the weight started to creep back up. Work, Time, Exhaustion all being high on the list. I guess I probably went a little silly during the silly season and holidays, indulging in a few too many 'coffee and cake' catch ups with friends.

So while I may sound, and I am, a little disappointed it's not all bad news. I haven't had a massive weight gain, and despite what I have put on, I know that I am fitter and stronger than I was 6 months ago, so am happy with that.

I have signed up for an 8 week bootcamp here in Toowoomba and we started on Saturday with our first season! IT. WAS. AWESOME! Loving it already! It is going to come with challenges of it's own as it runs 6pm-7pm and I am usually well and truly curled up on the couch refusing to move at that time of night!

I decided to do all my stats and share them with you as a way of saying it out loud! When I compared them to my last lot of stats I am quite disappointed and knew immediately where the weight had gone! (and I didn't need a tape measure to tell me that, my clothes are screaming it at me loud and clear!)

So here goes, my initial before stats for my new bootcamp:

Weight = 63.9kg (it was higher but managed to get it down 2kg prior to bootcamp starting)

Chest = 80.6cm
Waist = 84.5cm
Hips = 107.2cm  :(
R Arm = 28.8cm
L Arm= 28.5cm
R Thigh = 49.3cm
L Thigh = 49.6cm

Stay tuned for Bootcamp updates over the next 8 weeks!

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT!!

for new TV shows!

Heading in to the confessional again this Monday for My Home Truths I must confess prompt:

After a month’s worth of wall to wall cricket and tennis, have you had enough, are you keen for more or are you completely and utterly indifferent?

To be honest I am a big lover of the Summer of Sport that overtakes our television over the Christmas break. I love tennis and fulfilled one of my bucket list dreams a few years ago by attending Wimbeldon! I am ok with the overload of Sport on TV over the Summer holidays as it means that I don't have to worry about missing my favourite shows.

It's probably no real confession to those who know me that I watch a lot of TV. Asking me what my favourite TV show is a lot like asking a parent to chose their favourite child (I imagine)... Impossible!!! We confessed about our TV watching some time ago.

Now with a New Year comes new TV shows to fall in love with and enjoy so here's what I am looking forward to this year....

Yep, more sport! I LOVE the Olympics...Summer or Winter I don't mind! Can't wait to see how our Aussies do!

There is so many wonderful Australian drama series on our telly's at the moment and I think we have so much talent in our country.. here's 2 I am looking forward to watching

What's the bet these 2 are on on the same night at the same time!

..then there are some 'oldies' returning for a second season that I am pretty excited about...

With so many great Aussie shows to choose from what are you looking forward to watching this year? Are you a drama addict (like me) or a Reality TV tragic? Head over to My Home Truths to link up your confessions!

to smile..

This week's 52 weeks of memories photo prompt is....

SMILE... 

(Totally stole this super cute pic of my nephew from my sister for this week!

 Bet you can't look at it without smiling!)

to go back to work..

I must confess.... I am not looking forward to going back to work...

Probably not a big confession in the grand scheme of things but it has to be said.

Technically I have already been back at work for 3 days but tomorrow is the first day back with students and I am not excited at all. I think I am suffering from a severe case of workitis. The holidays seem to have flown by and to be honest I have done very little. I bought home work to do over the holiday, just some reading (nothing major) but it still sits in my bag. I spent a fair amount of my holidays on the couch, often flicking between the tennis and the cricket.

It's not that I hate my job, I don't.... I don't wake up dreading going to work and thinking of a reason to not go, but I don't love my job either...perhaps that's my problem.. It's just my job, I get up and I go and more often than not I feel nothing, it's like I am running on autopilot most of the time.


Perhaps it's just that there is so much to love about holidays. Sleeping til whenever o'clock, strolling to the gym and taking my time with my workout, lunching with friends, going to the movies, staying up late, cruising off to the coast mid-week because we can, my time is mine and I am not constantly rushing and trying to stick to a tight schedule!

Despite everything I just said though, I am looking forward to getting back in to a routine, when I am on holidays it seems to be so much harder to stick to my healthy eating routine. I find myself constantly going to the fridge/pantry hoping that somehow things have changed in the half hour 10 minutes since I was there last. I find I pick all day and with all these friend catch ups over coffee and cake and eating out my weight does go up.


When I was still a classroom teacher, I must confess the night before school started was always a nerve-wracking one. Believe it or not I would lie awake thinking of what I was going to wear, what I would say, what we would do those first couple of hours, nervous about meeting the parents and hoping they would like me and be glad that their child was in my class. This year it's a little different. Being in a High School now and not working in the classroom I imagine my day will be a little less nerve-wracking. To be honest, I have no idea what I will be doing. I have a few kids to check in on but given that it's only our year 8 and 11 students in tomorrow am hoping it will be pretty low key. Despite that I still went and got my nails done today and have a new outfit all ready to go! (and am hoping for a full nights sleep tonight given that 'nanna naps' are no longer an option!)

I have enjoyed the slight career change I have taken over the last 12 months but I still feel like there is something more out there I could be doing. I am not sure what that is just yet, but am hoping to work it out...soon!

So I must confess...this year I hope to work out what it is I want to be when I grow up!

How do you get back into the swing of things after a holiday?

Linking up with Kirsty, off topic this Monday for I Must Confess..

to play

The 52 weeks of memories challenge prompt for this week was Play...

I play this game way too much and after weeks, actually probably more like months, of failing this level I decided to delete it...It was not fun, it was not enjoyable, I was getting frustrated beyond belief and I thought why am I doing this....?

So Candy Crush....be gone with you!

Linking with Finding Myself Young, My Little Drummer Boys and Twinkle in the Eye .

for my first book review.

In case you missed it, I am doing a reading challenge this year. I have joined with many other reading lovers to complete the 2014 Australian Women Writers Challenge, where we read, review and promote stories written by Australian Authors.

My goal is 6 books for the year and so I am so excited that I have finished my first one as I am such a slow reader!

Book number one was actually given to me as a Christmas present from my sister, she chose it after I told her I like to read real life stories and country romance novels. Well this book ticked both those boxes.

The year was 1959 and Mary Groves was just fourteen years old when her parents uprooted their family from Melbourne and moved to Mataranka; a small, isolated town in the Northern Territory, to run the Post Office and General Store.

This autobiography follows Mary's journey from Melbourne to Mataranka and beyond. She was just 17 when the handsome horse-breaker, drover and rodeo rider Joe Groves wanders into the store and catches her attention. Despite him being 15 years her senior, their relationship develops and not everyone is happy about it.

We travel through the relationship with Mary and Joe as they bunny hop their way around the Top End working on, managing and sometimes owning cattle station after cattle station. We see the birth of their 4 children and follow the trials and tribulations that come with being in such a remote part of Australia in the 1960's and 1970's, often living in little more than a caravan, as they pursue their dream property and dream home.

The stories she recalls are set in a time in Australian history that I think many people would know little about. A time of such change and development for our white society, but more so for our Aboriginal people and Mary treats these changes with, what I think, is a great deal of respect.

Whilst I did not find this to be a book that 'you can't put down' I did find Mary's stories interesting, her life intriguing and it kept me turning the pages ready for the next yarn til the very end.Anyone with an interest in Australian history, the Outback and rural life in general will find this story appealing.

Linking my review to Essentially Jess for IBOT but also to the Australian Women Writers page.

to confess my hatred of photos..

I must confess.... I wish I was more photogenic...

There are people in my life, who I am extremely jealous of. They are not supermodels (although some of them should probably think about it!), they are not movie stars, they don't have personal stylists and makeup artists at their house each morning (at least I don't think they do!) but yet with each and every photo they post they look amazing!

We all have those people in our lives I am sure, some of you reading this are those people! Doesn't seem to matter what they are wearing or what they are doing they seem to take really really amazing photos. I am NOT one of those people.

However, it appears Google begs to differ.. Doing some intense research for this post, Google tells me that everyone is photogenic...There's even a website called 'Everyone is Photogenic'.
Wikihow says that 'Being photogenic is not an inborn talent, but an acquired skill that can be learned through practice'.. So one would think that after having had my photo taken for the best part of 34 years I would be as photogenic as all hell!! But truth be known, I must confess, I actually really do NOT like having my photo taken, as it is a rare occasion that I actually like the end result.

Perhaps it's because all this time I have been doing it wrong and it is my hatred extreme dislike (hatred seems so harsh) of having my photo taken that is resulting in me being unphotogenic (totally a word...I'm sure!). According to the Wikihow article 'How to be Photogenic' I can be more photogenic in just 3 simple steps:

1. Clarify my skin - Apparently you need to have clean beautiful skin to be photogenic. Considering acne and uneven skin tone is something that I have struggled since puberty hit me at a young age and spent oodles of money on over the years, I am yet to achieve this and not sure I ever will...

2. Focus on what makes me unique - mmmm... not sure about this one, apparently photogenic people are confident in their appearance, but when you struggle to meet step 1 then step 2 is difficult!

3. Show your emotions - supposedly it's easy to tell someone who is posing compared to someone who is photogenic. You have to always smile your natural smile and not fake it. When I smile my top lip seems to disappear, I really don't like my uneven teeth, I almost always have red eyes and look like the devil and when I do the 'squinch' the eyes trick, it seems to just emphasis my bags! (and I have an unbelievably 'sleepy eye' in photos)..  The advice says that I need to spend some time perfecting this in the mirror!

It is also said that fear of having your photo taken is what can make you look unnatural and not happy with the end result.

Now Kirsty has asked us to be brave and share some of our photo shockers and she has no idea how much this is making my stomach turn, but, not wanting to be a spoil sport I am prepared to share just one photo..

I absolutely hate this photo of me, despite it being taken at a time when I was very happy and enjoying the live tunes of my beloved Keith Urban.....

Adult acne sux!!

Now head over to My Home Truths to link up your photo shockers!