Emerald Eagle

Update: Friday Night I completed my run (YAY!) which makes it 3/3 this week. Feeling quite chuffed that I managed to stick with it. Tonight I did my run on the treadmill at the gym. This is definitely not my favourite way of running, I would much prefer to be out in the world, but thanks to the unpredictable weather in Melbourne the treadmill was the best choice, and I would prefer running on a treadmill to not running at all (building habits - yay!). The run felt pretty good tonight as well - the third time that I've done this type of interval run (60 seconds on, 90 seconds recovery) and tonight it felt good. I know the treadmill is completely flat and not like the real world, but I was definitely not flagging after a minute the same way I was on my first run. I definitely count that as a win! LOOT UNLOCKED: Race Entry For every week between now and the 5K race I plan to run (Sunday 9th April 2017), if I complete 3 training runs in the week following the plan in the C25K App I get to unlock some loot. This week's loot was entry into the race. I am now registered, it's really real! Also posted it on Facebook so that all my friends and family could see. It's going to be a lot harder to back out now! Bring on a weekend of domestic bliss and a gym session or two.

I think probably. For me I had a gut feeling that Rangers was where I belonged. When I read Steve's article all those years ago it was where I had an affinity. I always thought that not having a passion for one particular thing was detrimental to my fitness - I didn't want to a strong man and *just* lift weights, and I didn't want to be a marathon runner who runs all day. It took a while to realise that being a Generalist was ok, and could even be a strength.

Update: Thursday / Friday Morning Yesterday was a "rest day". I did pack my gym bag just in case but work was too busy to get to the gym before Rovers (yes the same group who are going camping next weekend). We had a chilled night around a campfire, which was really lovely. We spent time chatting and planning our camp, menu etc for the weekend. We always eat pretty well at camps, and people are happy to put in a bit more money to eat better quality food which is great for me! I would have catered for myself if absolutely necessary, but now I can be a part of the group and be satisfied I'll be able to not completed sabotage my eating. There was still a bit of peer pressure to let loose and drink excessively over the weekend. I understand why they were saying what they were saying, I have a track record of drinking hard on these weekends, and it is my last event as a Rover. It's hard when that's not the person I want to be anymore, but your friends still remember the old you. Anyway, the point of my story was going to be that there were snacks all around the fire (it's Rovers, there is ALWAYS food somewhere) and I ate a handful of nuts and nothing else. No chips, no smores, no chocolate, NOTHING. I went home and ate the nutritional dinner I had planned with my husband. I'm calling that a win! It is now Friday morning, I was meant to go for a run this morning, I did not. The weather here today is stormy, and when my alarm went off at 6am I could here the rain pelting down on the roof. I decided to roll over and go back to sleep. Not ideal, but I still have the rest of the day to get my run in. My gym bag is packed and in my car - the plan is to go to gym and if it is still raining run my intervals on the treadmill. Running on the treadmill is not something I've done very often and I generally do not like it at all. I figure tonight is not a bad night to try it out for my current run a 5K challenge and see how it goes. I'm also thinking about coupling my run with a weights session afterwards, to see how that goes. Might be a terrible idea but worth a try! Even if the weights session doesn't go so well I have a PT session Saturday morning that I know will give me a good work out. Will check back in to advise on whether I follow through and complete the run today! P.S. Even if no one is reading this I think writing in this thread is helping with my accountability. I know it has been less than a week and it is yet to be seen if I will follow through long term, but my current feeling is that I will. *fingers crossed* that is the case!

Update: Wednesday. Run Completed! As stated previously I did sleep in, however didn't break my plan to run today and found 30 minutes between finishing work (late) and heading to a Scout meeting tonight. Actually a really good way to kill time between the two thing (home is too far away to drive to and have any meaningful time before leaving again for the meeting). Now I just have to avoid the temptation of sweets at the meeting and I can tick off an almost flawless day of health and fitness. Win!

A Decision to be Made. Next weekend is a massive weekend for all Australians (National Holiday) and for my friends and I, who are all Rover Scouts, one of two enormous camping / partying weekends on the calendar. This will be my last Aus Day weekend camp before I am too old, and the last state level camp where I can party as I will have responsibilities with the organising committee for the winter event. I am currently very torn. A part of me really wants to let loose on the weekend. Eat and drink what I want, including a lot of alcohol, party late into the night, sleep in, visit the chocolate factory and the local fish and chip shop etc etc. I know all of these things are going to affect my health and fitness journey in the short term, and may be in the longer term as well. I have realised in the last six months that this particular group of friends are not a good influence on me. Almost all of them do not have a healthy lifestyle, when you hang out with them there is always food around and its always junk food. Drinking alcohol, and drinking to excess, is also a big part of the culture of the group. So my choices are: - Attend the event, stick with my goals and try and make the best choices I can, and have a relaxed weekend with friends without over-indulging. Pros - help with my health and fitness. Cons - peer pressure, potentially falling off the wagon anyway and feeling bad about it, feeling like I didn't get a "proper" final send off and having regrets. - Attend the event, go with the flow and what I want for the weekend, probably make bad food and drink choices. Get back on the hose on Monday and repair the damage. Pros - get to have an awesome weekend. Cons - probably feel sick, probably take several steps backwards, have to work to get back to where I am now (a place I don't really like anyway) to get past here and move forward to the place I want to be. - Not attend the event and avoid the temptation, miss out on the experience and enjoying the time with my friends. Pros - stay on track with my health and fitness. Cons - miss out on a great weekend away. Lose money for pre-paid ticket already bought for the event. There is an internal battle between my head and my heart. I honestly don't know which one will win out. For now I will continue on my current path and think more on it. I still have just over a week to decide what to do.

Reporting for duty! Got an after work run planned for this evening, more miles for the rebellion! *huzzah*

Hi! *sneaks in through a side door and finds somewhere out of the way to sit*. New to the forums but been following NF for nearly 3 years. Identified as a Ranger from the start.

Battle Logs: Tuesday Had a crappy day at work, eating was not perfect but not terrible. I did not fall into a hole the same way that I have in the past when something knocks me around at work. Was craving baked goods in the morning (old habit, stop at the bakery on the way to work for breakfast). Managed to resist and ate fruit and my breakfast instead. There is something in my salads for this week that does not agree with me, but I don't know exactly what it is. My stomach was not happy most of the afternoon. Ended up going downstairs to the bakery (oh the irony) and getting a plain savory roll which did calm my stomach down. I have the same things to eat today (Wednesday) so will monitor and see if the same feelings come up again. On the way home from work stopped at the gym. Was a good way to work off some of the frustration. It was upper body day. Notes from workout: - Couldn't get a rack to do my bench press so used one of the gyms smaller bar bells, weight 20kg. - Definitely prefer to setup in a rack for bench press but it is the one lift I don't feel comfortable completing without a spotter. - Military Presses were challenging, definitely working on making those stronger. It is now Wednesday morning. I did not get up and go for my scheduled run this morning. I did pack my bag with all my running gear and brought it with me to work. I am going to go for a run after work. I am going to go for a run after work. Will report back at the end of the day with run update.

Goals for 2017 include: - Complete a 5K in April - Make gym workouts a regular habit (consistently get 3 sessions a week in) - Focus on lifting at the gym (no more cardio circuits, barbell lifting working on form and adding weight) - Complete a Whole 30 (probably March or May) - Climb the 1000 Steps near home without stopping - Get 1 set of 10 proper push ups - Learn to love myself and not be so negative

Thanks!

Just started running and the cables from my dodgy headphones that I got with my phone were very annoying. I also have stopped listening to my own music at gym after a dumbbell ripping a headphone out of my ear. And so I turn to the might of the NF community for a recommendation - bluetooth / wireless headphones. Any advice appreciated! NOTE: They will probably be loot I reward myself with and I prefer to invest once in quality so I am willing to spend a bit of money on them.

Monday morning, 6am. Second alarm goes off and I get out of bed (despite getting to sleep WAY later than planned the night before). Go downstairs so I don't disturb my husband and put on my pre-laid out clothes, strap my phone to my arm and head out the door. Today's run consisted of: - WARM UP: 5 min brisk walk - RUN: 8 rounds of 60 sec run, 90 sec walk - COOL DOWN: 5 min walk I ran up my street to the local aquaduct trail, along as far as the local shops (which got my almost exactly half way through the run) and back home. OBSERVATIONS: - Interval running mentally really worked for me. - 60 seconds was about my limit and I had to push every time, but I also never stopped before the voice in my ear said "Start Walking". - The aquaduct trail is nice and flat, a good way to start. (Though I do realise the world isn't flat and I'll need to incorporate a few hills etc eventually). - Headphone cables are really annoying. (Recommend bluetooth headphones as loot ASAP). - Need to drink some water after I wake up and before I go running. Stoked that I did it, excited to continue. Maybe I will be a runner after all!

For my first challenge, I choose running! Dum, dum, DUUMMMM!!!! All my life I have never been good at running. When I was 15 years old I was selected to run in the Queen's Baton Relay in the lead up to the 2006 Commonwealth Games (CG equivalent of the Olympic Torch relay) and I nearly said no because I was so scared I would look like a fool running 500m. Thankfully I had mentors that reinforced to me that this was an opportunity not to be missed and I did do the run, but I was SUPER self conscious the whole time. Fast forward to 23 year old me who starts with Nerd Fitness two years ago and was completely relieved to find a system that told me I didn't have to do cardio to be fit! Winning! I dived right in to strength training, first with dumbbell work outs and now with a barbell. I recently came to a couple of key realisations that I needed to be training more broadly than just weights in the gym. 1. My endurance was not improving as much as I had hoped. 2. The body type I admired and wanted to have myself was one of a diverse athlete, not a strong man. In fact I particularly admired heptathletes that are my definition multi-skilled. (Prompted by the awesome NF article: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-building-any-physique-or-skill-set/ When I started reading NF I loved the "Classes" idea, and identified immediately with the Ranger guild. I want to by like Orlando Bloom in Lord of the Rings - able to run for days, shift heavy stones, and kill all the uruk-hai (ok, maybe not that last one). My husband would describe it as being a Swiss-army knife, having the tools for every situation. And all of this leads me to: my first attempt to really learn to run. PLAN: Using the C25K App, run 3 times a week for 12 weeks (I know the program is only 8 weeks long but I think I need buffer time to repeat weeks when it gets hard). BOSS BATTLE: Run for the Kids, Sunday 9th April 2017. 4.8km run in Melbourne CBD. I have not registered yet, I am giving myself a week to try it and chicken out if I don't think April is reasonable. It will be my loot for staying on track in training. So, feeling excited, nervous, pumped, hopeful, a little doubtful, and ready to blow my nose at every PE teacher who told me I needed to get my fat butt running.

Hi! *waves* My name is Gemma, alter ego "The Emerald Eagle", and I live in Melbourne Australia. I am a country girl at heart, taking every opportunity to get out of the city and head into the bush - camping, hiking, 4WDing, or any other adventures we can find. In my 9-5 life I am a Product Owner for an IT company which works with the education industry. I have followed NF for about 2 years, and been a member of the Academy for about 18 months. In that time I have yoyo-ed up and down, and some huge successes and some definite road bumps. In 2017 I have not made new years resolutions, but I have re-prioritised my life to make the important things a priority; myself, my family, and my health. As part of that I wanted to grow and so, despite never really using a public forum like this before, I wanted to jump feet first and start documenting my journey here.