Blaidd Cycles through 2015

[Blaidd]

I know that this is very early, but starting 20 December I am travelling around Mauritius until mid Jan, so I thought I'd get my thoughts in here now and then I can update it with goals and the like closer to the time (and it'll be on my Tapatalk, lol).

 

In 2014, I prepared to train for an endurance race, that unfortunately we couldn't get entry to (can you believe they sold out 30k entries in an hour).  So instead it's given me an additional year to get fit and train for the 2016 cycle tour (if my best friend doesn't have her wedding on the day - I think she said I'm maid of honor) and make more adjustments to my lifestyle.

 

I have 5 really big goals that I'll be focusing on this year and every little goal I make will be moving towards achieving these big goals.  I've also taken the decision not to take part in a 6 week challenge in 2015, but rather to do monthly challenges here on my battle log (I will still be active in the challenges though, not going anywhere).  I just need to take the time to focus on small, short goals (6 weeks sometimes feels too long). You can see my 2014 battle log to find out what worked for me and what hasn't.

 

So the Big 5 (oh lol, just realised how funny that is me being from South Africa):

1. Get down to 100kg (so lose 27.2kg) and/or down to a size 42/18/117cm pants
2. Up my cycle game - at the rate i'm going, the endurance race is years away - by establishing and being firmly entrenched in a training program
3. Have brought on enough retainer clients to quit my day job and focus on my company full time
4. Have paid off at least R60k in debt
   1. Jan 2015: R5'747.25 paid - Total: R5'747.25
5. Have saved up R40k for our Holland trip and put at least R20k into an emergency/wedding fund

I think they're pretty lofty, but totally attainable by the end of 2015.  As long as I remain focused and disciplined (I've even worked in some wiggle room for illness, travel, emergencies etc).

 

Here's to 2015 being a success.

 

Challenges:

v2015.1: Slowing it Down

v2015.2: Month of Love

[Blaidd]

Blaidd's Cycle v2015.1: Slowing it down

January is a month to slow it down, take what's working and starting over again. So goals for this challenge are:

1. Slow down at dinner time:  put my fork down after every second bite, count to 5 once I'm done chewing and then pick it up again
2. (S)low the carbs: Get down to 135gr carbs - keep cycling down
3. Slow the exercise: Rebuild a workout schedule by doing at least 5min activity every day. This includes cycling, intended walking, gym, free weights, body weight and/or yoga/stretching.
4. Slow the thoughts: Journal every evening before bed (even a gratitude for the day if nothing else comes to mind)
5. Slow the routine: Brush my teeth before bed every night (not something I do all that regularly - although I apparently have great teeth).

[Sambalina]

Hey! Hey Blaidd! Long time, no see you beautiful human being!

I'm so sorry you didn't get entry into your event, but you sound like you've got a kick-ass plan here to not lose motivation on the goal. I like it!

And an emergency/wedding fund? I totally read that as 'emergency wedding' fund, like "OMG PANIC! We gotta get married right now!". I'm assuming you're at the marriage fund stage with you man, and if you are, HUGE hugs and congrats.

 

Also - I LOVE LOVE LOVE your business goal. I'm about to embark on the baby stages of something similar, so will be super keen to hear about how it goes for you.

 

Enjoy your vacation, I know you've earned it.

[Blaidd]

Hey! Hey Blaidd! Long time, no see you beautiful human being!

I'm so sorry you didn't get entry into your event, but you sound like you've got a kick-ass plan here to not lose motivation on the goal. I like it!

And an emergency/wedding fund? I totally read that as 'emergency wedding' fund, like "OMG PANIC! We gotta get married right now!". I'm assuming you're at the marriage fund stage with you man, and if you are, HUGE hugs and congrats.

 

Also - I LOVE LOVE LOVE your business goal. I'm about to embark on the baby stages of something similar, so will be super keen to hear about how it goes for you.

 

Enjoy your vacation, I know you've earned it.

Hey Sam, It's been a long time indeed.  How are you doing? Would love to hear about the project you're working on.

 

Haha, well I've been informed that we would only be engaged for about 6 months (or so) so it might land up being an emergency wedding fund dependent on when the engagement happens.  LOL!!

 

Vacation is going well but I've only got 7 days of it left   We fly home in a week.  But i still have a week after that before I head to work again, so the home section of my vacation

 

I hope you (and everyone) has a wonderful 2015!  Oh and that we see you around more often

[Blaidd]

Day 1.1: today we lounge at Trou aux Biches, sipping piña coladas out of coconuts. It's sounds totally glamorous and it was mostly really cool. The coconut itself was pretty awesome, the rum a little strong. The beaches here are really nice for swimming but the sands should be whiter, hehe.

I remembered to do everything and my 5min exercises today were squats. My legs were rather wobbly after 5min of squats, no lies there. I enjoyed doing it though. I need to think of what to do tomorrow for 5min. I forgot abt the fork thing at first for dinner, but remembered a few bites in and then did it. Must admit I got fuller faster and felt much more sated by a small portion of food because of it.

It's hard remembering these things on holiday, that's for sure.

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[joedog]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read it as "emergency wedding" fund. Hee hee! Drinking rum from coconuts sounds totally glamorous. Hope you are having a lovely vacation! 

[Blaidd]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read it as "emergency wedding" fund. Hee hee! Drinking rum from coconuts sounds totally glamorous. Hope you are having a lovely vacation!

It's been a lovely vacation, but I'm ready for my own hometown and my family and my bed we have also now been all over the island and apart from our swimming with the Dolphins thing tomorrow, we have literally done everything

Day 1.2: we made it out to Flic en Flac. Can't say I understand why everyone was telling us to go. The beach isn't the best on the island. Hell it isn't even a close 4th best. We did have a lovely pub lunch though and the drive there was relatively illuminating. I love catching the bus in foreign countries because you get to go through places you'd not normally walk through on your own or be taken through with a tour guide.

I'm remembering to do all my little things - this tiny goal thing is so much easier. Unfortunately due to 5min of squats yesterday (after a very long time of not doing them), I've managed to develop DOMS so my 5min exercise this morning was stretching out my quads. It really does make walking around a little difficult, especially when it's kilometres of beach (which is already hard to walk on ).

We are now hiding in our apartment watching pawn stars, because it turns out that today is actually a public holiday (which they take very seriously it seems) so everything is closed (even most of the restaurants). A nice night at home in the air con.

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[Blaidd]

Day 1.3: we went in search of Dolphins to swim with today. Alas we didn't find any coz we arrived pretty late (the people we had to pick up along the way to yacht were on island holiday time, grrr). But we had a lovely long day chilling on the yacht, swimming in the sea, snorkeling and being plied with many drinks and freshly grilled fish and chicken and fruit. I only really had water because I've discovered that I'm not really partial to Mauritian rum. Also my last yacht trip saw me with sun stroke so I took it easy this time.

My DOMS are insane. Try walking on a bobbing yacht or swimming in the ocean (never mind trying to climb back on the yacht after) when your quads want to know nothing about it. Very hard work. So I didn't do a 5min today, not even stretches, but I spent a while rubbing some muscle soother in. Doesn't count though.

Everything else is still on track.

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[Blaidd]

Day 1.5: skipped journaling yesterday, sorry. Dunno why or how it happened, but it did (everything else was on track though). We also changed suites at the apartment we are renting so we didn't do much anyway.

So today we caught a bus to our favorite beach, hired a "plot" (lounge chairs, umbrella, side table and little changing tent thing) and lounged there all day. The water here is lovely (compared to my normal Atlantic freezing waters) so there was also plenty plenty of swimming.

We have eaten soooooo much seafood too and it's great, but all the salads have cabbage in it so finding veggies and salads is proving very very difficult, so I just skip it. Anyhow, we are heading to the capital tomorrow to do final souvenir shopping for our families (cheaper further away from the beach) and I'm heading to bed cos too much food and the heat but first, Skyfall.

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[Sambalina]

Your vacation sounds lovely and relaxing, Blaidd. Do you have any photos for us?

I know what you mean about it being tricky to remember stuff/goals on vacation. I have the exact same problem with food logging.

 

Also, I with you on trying to slow down when eating. I've been hearing how important it is for digestion from a few different people and I definitely feel better when I don't gulp my meal down. How's it making you feel? The only drawback is I am left eating long after everyone else is finished, so I feel a bit self-conscious!

 

Enjoy the final few days of the island!

[Blaidd]

Your vacation sounds lovely and relaxing, Blaidd. Do you have any photos for us?

I know what you mean about it being tricky to remember stuff/goals on vacation. I have the exact same problem with food logging.

Also, I with you on trying to slow down when eating. I've been hearing how important it is for digestion from a few different people and I definitely feel better when I don't gulp my meal down. How's it making you feel? The only drawback is I am left eating long after everyone else is finished, so I feel a bit self-conscious!

Enjoy the final few days of the island!

Yeah slowing down is freaking awesome. I'm literally eating less cos my brain is getting messages from my tummy before I'm finished with the food in front of me. I'm also finding that I'm chewing better too. All good for digesting.

I promise to post some pics when I'm home and I've gotten onto a proper pc. The holiday has been relaxing, but I need some time recover and relax from the holiday

Day 1.6: it's our second last day and Jax has started getting annoyed so it's a good time to be heading home. This country is beautiful and a relaxing holiday but they really like totally doing the tourist in. I shake my head some times at it but it doesn't irritate me. I knew we might need to haggle some of our stuff.

I think it annoyed him that my haggling was working and his wasn't. Haggling needs a little finesse and he's a lawyer who, when arguing, gets rather anal So it doesn't always come across as the fact that he is a nice guy. I on the other hand am a smiley sweetheart and so many people just wanna give me what I want. The side of the coin is that they think they can rip me off easier. Sweet doesn't equal dumb, ya know!

Everything on track for goals, cept exercising. Our new suite is a little too tiny and I can't even go to the bathroom in the middle of the might without tripping over Jax feet. So it makes even doing squats difficult. We do a lot of walking and swimming here so I'm not terribly upset about it.

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[joedog]

I'm with Jax on haggling. I'm terrible at it and I don't want to do it. It's a skill I wish I had but none of us get to be good at everything. 

[Blaidd]

I'm with Jax on haggling. I'm terrible at it and I don't want to do it. It's a skill I wish I had but none of us get to be good at everything.

True. Rather good at something than good at everything, honestly

Day 1.7: it was our last day here and it rained pretty much the whole day. We are pretty tired so we spent the day watching walking dead and Jax did some work. We enjoyed an incredible seafood platter with so much seafood (imagine lobsters, tiger prawns, king prawns, swordfish, crab, squid, calamari and actual veggies) as our last meal here.

We've just finished packing and we are leaving for the airport in the next 6 hrs so I better get some sleep.

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[Blaidd]

Day 1.8: we made it half way home (basically to Jax family as a stop off on our way home). I'm exhausted and have been all day. Literally falling asleep at the most random times (like on the front steps of his brothers new place while they moved a few boxes. So after a nice bbq with bro and Jax best friend (and their other halves), I'm officially calling it a day and saying goodnight - almost 24 hours awake!

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[Sambalina]

Sleep well!

[Blaidd]

Sleep well!

I've done plenty of that thanks and still doing some more

Day 1.11: I know I skipped a few days but all I've really done is watch the Hobbit and hang out waaaay too late with Jax friends and family.

But today I made it home to my own bed. Yay! And that is where I'm going to pass out right now. Hugs xxxx

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[Blaidd]

Day 1.12: I tried so hard to get to gym and do groceries and get to various appointments and whatnot and time just wasn't on my side. Seriously when did I become so bad at managing my time? I need to rectify this asap!

I'm a blonde (kinda) now. I've resisted my whole life, but then decided on a whim on New Year's Eve that I was gonna go blonde (it's kinda the only normal color my hair hasn't been yet). So I set off to my aunt for the transformation. Unfortunately because of how dark my hair is, it didn't take (duh), so I kinda looked like a tiger, but my aunt is a professional and she mostly fixed it. We chopped off about half of my hair (my ends were the most stubborn but we're mostly dead anyway), then put highlights in (which made it a little blonder and funnily the left over hair took to that) after which we washed my hair with purple shampoo (Gentian violet in normal shampoo) and miraculously went from Orange tiger to mostly blonde tiger. I will post pics tomorrow. Oh and some advice for dark haired folks like me who wanna go blonde: gentian violet in your shampoo is your best friend, also invest Ina good conditioner. Jax was also highly frustrated because of money issues. His mum and brother keep pressing on his buttons for cash and this time it was money so his brother could pay for rent or a deposit on a place with the promise he'd have it back before we even got home. Needless to say he doesn't have it and his mum hasn't paid her monthly car installment either! So he's broke after clearing out his account for them and had to ask me for cash to have drinks with his friends. It was a huge knock to his ego and pride and that really made it worse, then he had a really shitty DotA game (his first in a month) with a loser who forgot he was playing a team game and that set him off on a cuss word whirlwind, which I got pulled into. I told him where to stick it, coz I won't stand for that! He eventually calmed down after some choice conversations from me too. I understand. He wants to be the provider for me, for us, so asking me for cash is not ideal. Also his family take so much advantage of him because they think he's Mr Moneybags, the hotshot lawyer. Honestly just works hard and knows how to use his money wisely. Not his fault if they can't. Drives me mad, but I can't say anything abt it cos it's not my family.

Day 1.13: I decided to spend the day with my (adopted) mum. She had chemo on Friday so when I briefly saw her after landing on Sunday she wasn't feeling well and cow I'm not back at work yet, we picked today to hang out. We went to one of our harbors (we have a few that are all viable) for some fish. Kalk Bay is a fishing harbour and little community fisherman use it to dock their boats and sell their wares. We went for some fresh fish for lunch and I got some freshly caught Silver fish for dinner tomorrow night, we then went for a walk through the vintage and secondhand stores that are found on ever corner in Kalk Bay. It literally took up my whole day. Jax and I then went to a Thai fusion place for dinner and I had pad Thai while he had sushi (I just couldn't face more fish), unfortunately this took me over my carbs for today, so I need to reel it back in tomorrow.

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[Endor]

Sounds like a pretty cool holiday. I hate haggling too, my haggling style is "i'll pay this much" and there's no further movement!!

 

I reckon Tiger hair would be a good look, it sounds awesome!

[Blaidd]

Sounds like a pretty cool holiday. I hate haggling too, my haggling style is "i'll pay this much" and there's no further movement!!

I reckon Tiger hair would be a good look, it sounds awesome!

Yeah was lovely, albeit hot. But for me the best part was spending three weeks with my beau. They say your true colors come out when you're spending that much time together on a holiday and if that's the case then we are most likely to be together forever - not a single argument or fight or frustration with each other. Re haggling, I got some tips from my uncle living in Hong Kong

Day 1.14: it was my last day of vacation today and I just hung out at home not doing a thing. Ok that's lies - I did plenty but all of it was small admin stuff that just needed to be done and I ticked a bunch of stuff off my list. Also I seemed to have skipped the heat wave that was apparently going on outside. My apartment was relatively cool (without air on) and I didn't even realize it was almost 40c outside. Oh and I've eventually finished all the laundry from our trip. It was a lot - there was a whole load just for towels and another just for my sarongs, lol.

Some awesome news: after dinner tonight Jax decided he was signing up for gym at the end of the month. It wasn't my dinner, I promise (we had baked fish, which I picked up from the fishermans harbour yesterday, grilled tomatoes and green beans), but he looked at his tummy after and declared he needed to transfer his belly to his arms (ie lose the teeny belly and build some biceps). Our health insurance covers a huge chunk of gym fees, but we have to pay the hefty joining fees. I've never had the money for the joining fee (I have other things to save/pay and I already belong to a gym), but he wants us to go together to be gym buddies, so he will pay the fees for me I suspect he also wants me to show him how to lift

Anyhow, got another enquiry for business today too. Everything is on track so I'm heading to bed and getting a good nights rest before work tomorrow. I'm dreading it and excited all at the same time.

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[Blaidd]

Day 1.15: back to work today! Sigh. But at least the boss is not back until Monday. Thank goodness cos honestly I have no time for him right now.

Dinner was a rib eye steak with side salad (so I could have dessert-seadras something or other. It was yummy).

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[joedog]

Sounds like Jax and Amy are having the same idea! That's great! 

 

Can't wait to see the new hair and congrats on the business leads. 

[Sambalina]

I wanna see Blaidd Tigress! I reckon if you just treat it like that's what you meant to do, you'll rock it

 

[Endor]

How's work going Miss? Not too stressful I hope x

[Blaidd]

Work is good, I'm looking a less tigress and I'm happy (for the most part)!

I just watched Hector and the Search for Happiness. It made me think abt happiness. What makes me happy or rather why am I happy. I consider myself a relatively happy person (not just a mask, I actually feel happy a good percentage of the time). I feel that I'm like this because I don't hold onto the past. I learn from, pick the memories I want to hold onto (the good ones that made me happy and the bad ones I learnt a lesson from) and I let go of the rest. I don't let it haunt my present often and when they do pop up for the occasional haunting, I employ what I learnt to deal with it. That's why I'm happy! As to what makes me happy, well unfortunately I can't pinpoint everything, but memories created with Jax make me happy. And doing things I am passionate about and spring and the ocean and the smell of rain in summer and babies' laughter and marshmallows and cycling and......the list really does go on. After the life I've lived so far I've learnt to find joy in everything (where possible).

So what makes you happy and why are you happy?

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[Endor]

Seeing my wife smile, travelling and discovering new places, friends, small acts of kindness (giving and receiving), my dog's wet nose on my arm when he wants a pat and his bursts of speed and lolling happy tongue, my cat's purrs when she cuddles up, physical tasks or games that busy my mind with doing instead of thinking, accomplishing something mentally complex, learning a new skill, watching people realize how amazing they are, seeing the swifts arrive in spring, driving my car with the roof down, listening to an old song I have heard many times and still love, finding a new song that I know will one day fit in that category, watching a movie on my own in the cinema, eating a delicious meal someone has prepared for me, seeing my chilli plant growing, reading books, listening to the rain while I'm safe and warm inside.

 

Wow there's a lot more that makes me happy than I think there is, that's worth reflecting on.