I had repeat bloods done to see the state of affairs with the health issues I had after my last comp. The doctor was absolutely amazed and astounded!! My thyroid, which I was told by more than one practitioner, was irreversible,my liver, my iron levels, my kidneys have all normalized, ow and so has my white cell count.

So there you go that’s what raw vegan food can do for you.:)

If you have not watched FOOD MATTERS and get a chance please do yourself a favour and watch it

Ali xxx

I have two unopened 5 lbs tubs of vanilla ice cream flavored Optimum Nutrition protein powder I am anting to sell, if anyone is interested make me an offer.

Other than being particularly tired, I am going great Had some repeat blood tests still waiting to see the Dr for the results, I go next Tuesday arvo.

Had a full on weekend, did lots of gardening, went to the markets, worked at the food co-op, went out and saw a mates band play, that was a hoot and good to have a dance and caught up with some friends, ow and got a brand new program that I started today, can’t believe the decline in cardiovascular fitness and my strength, it’s always amazing how quick they come back though isn’t it. It is more of a circuit program and a few core weight training exercises to see if it boosts my fat loss. I have entered a competition with family members and I want to win!!!

I have lost 1.8 kgs over the last 2 weeks so pleased about that, obviously my thyroid has settled down :) YIPPY!!! and with no medication!!

Tomorrow is public holiday here!! So I'm up early off to see a mate who lives out of town, back to food shop for the kids, catch up around the house, garden and then back to do something fun with Jacob and his dad :)

Above is a pic of Jacob and his dad (who is dressed up as a clown for Jacobs 5th Birthday Party), ow and that is my 19 year old in the back ground.

Been such a looonnggg time since I have blogged, and lots has happened.
Firstly congratulations to all the girls who competed, pics look awesome of what I have seen.

Secondly, we moved house. It is great much more room, but much less garden space, so that meant I could join the local organic community garden, alwaysed wanted too however had always had heaps of space to grow veggies. I still have a garden at home but will have more space at the community garden.

Been working flat out lately, both teaching and at the ANU food co-op. CIT is going along doing psychology of nutrition. Been going to Yoga again and loving that. ON the gym front very subdued, well was advised by more than one DR. and therapist to take it easy for a while so I sure have. I have got the go ahead to get back into training by my Dr. though, so by the end of the week I will get my bum into the gym.

Still eating 100% raw and LOVING IT!! Never felt or looked healthier, having repeat bloods done tomorrow so will be interesting in what they show. Now I am wanting to focus on shifting some of the weight gain from all this hassle. I am hoing that once everything normalizes the weight will shift. Got on the scales in Adelaide and had lost 7 kgs over the last 7 months LOL!! At least it hadn’t gone in the opposite direction as it was so dramatically 7 months ago, and must say I have not been focusing on weight loss just health and repairing my thyroid, liver and kidneys, ect.

My gran passed away a couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to have spent the previous week with her, still hurts like hell, however she is in a better place. My gran, unlike my parents had been my only true care giver growing up, and has alwayesd loved me unconditionally, my childhood was filled with all sorts of abuse and my gran was one person I could depend on. Enough said there. My kids and I will miss her dearly.

Well I had better get on. Will try and make an effort to blog a little more often.

Food Matters

Hi all,

there are a lot of people I care about here in blog land so ... Please do you self a favor and make sure you see FOOD MATTERS!!

I'm going great, been going to yoga lately, and loving it! I forgot how good it is for me, it helps ground me ;) among other benefits.

Had a wonderful day, dehydrated some marinated eggplant and tomatoes, made onion bread, so YUMMY, onion, ground flax, miso, sea salt usually sunflower seeds ground, had none so used pepitas, think I prefer pepitas they are very high in zinc as well :) and some good raw oil, today I used macadamia. Mix spread on trays and dehydrate.

Went to Farmers Market, worked at the Food co-op and caught up with a mate and brought some supplies off the internet, cant wait for them to arrive.

Well enjoy your week ahead all :)

Well I sure haven’t posted for a long time now have I.

So I have been absolutely awesome!! I have now been eating totally raw organic foods now for almost 6 months and at this stage I cannot ever see myself returning to cooked, dairy, meat, fish or chicken ever again, in fact the smell of thee foods makes me feel sick.

I wondered if I would be tempted to eat cooked or other foods I used too well I take each day as it comes but in all honesty I am not tempted at all and in fact the food I east now shits on ANY food I have EVER eaten in taste, quality, vitamins, enzymes goodness, appearance and texture.

My health is still improving by the day and I cannot believe some days how bloody fantastic I feel and how I can just feel better and better every day. I have so much energy hence I've taken to walking the dog at night along with everything else I do just to use up some of the extra energy.

CIT is going well, doing circuit training and nutrition this term (haven't started nutrition yet) and I have also been doing a few massages for people which I haven't done for ages (I was a remedial therapist before studying to be a teacher)

Other great things are happening in my life and synchronicities and possibilities are opening up everywhere. I’ve gone back to yoga and full on meditation and am feeling the benefits from these as well.

Tomorrow night I am off to see Food Matters with quite a few mates, which is a documentary about what is happening to our food I recommend everyone here please go and see it if It is screening in your town or buy the DVD or pay to watch it on line, we all need to be aware of what we are eating, how it efeects us and how we can help ourselves to great health.

do your self a favour and check it out

http://www.foodmatters.tv/
Food Matters is a documentary film informing you on the best choices you can make for you and your family's health. Helping you save time, money and effort.
In this groundbreaking documentary you'll learn how to...
• Conquer Cancer naturally without chemo or radiation
• Overcome Depression and Mental Illness without the nasty side effects
• Prevent & Cure Heart Disease & High Cholesterol no matter what your genes
• Lose Weight Fast in a safe, cheap & effective way and how one man lost over 150 pounds!!!
• Choose the most ideal foods for Optimum Health and Longevity
In this day and age with so many companies interested in profiting from your misfortune and ill health this film will help keep your money in your pocket and your health in your hands.
We all know someone with Cancer, Heart Disease, Stroke, Diabetes, Obesity, Mental Illness, Depression, Asthma, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Chronic Fatigue, Allergies and on and on...
• Knowing what to do and where to turn has become unbelievably complex.
• Find out what really works, what doesn’t and what’s killing you.
Becoming informed about the choices you have for your health and wellbeing can save your life.

WHAT ARE THE WORLD'S LEADERS IN NUTRITION SAYING
• "Food Matters is to getting healthy as The Secret is to becoming wealthy."
- Ed Bauman, Bauman College: Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts

• "Thought provoking, informative, and compelling, this film matters."
- Rory Freedman, Coauthor of #1 NY Times Best Seller Skinny Bitch

• “An informative look into what’s wrong with the modern food supply and why we must act now to change it.”
- Linda Page, Ph.D., Traditional Naturopath, author of the bestselling book, Healthy Healing 12th Edition: A Guide to Self-Healing For Everyone

• " Remember when The Secret created a huge online buzz last year? Well, new doco Food Matters looks set to be its successor..."
- Women's Health Magazine, August 2008

• "FOOD MATTERS is invaluable - engaging and inspiring..."
- Nova Magazine, August 2008


WHEN CAN I WATCH IT?

Food Matters is now available on DVD or to watch online in a Pay Per View format. We ship out all of our DVD orders within 24 hours to a global market and offer a 30 Day money back guarantee.

Well I would love to write more, will try and come back and catch up with everyones blog. Must go and mediate before bed.

Ali xxx

MID WEEK

Today I had the day off and re learnt how to co-ordinate at the food co op where I buy a lot of my organic produce.

I intend to work there on a regular basis. I love the atmosphere there and have not co ordinated since Joshua was around two and Dylan seven months. Quite some time oag!! LOL. Actually Dylan is 18 in just over a month. Jolly Gosh!!

Once I got home I made onion bread using flax seed, sesame seeds, onion, brags amino acid and few other things; kale chips using kale dipped in a dipping sauce with tahini, lemon, garlic coriander and cheese sticks using sesame seeds, brags amino acids, lemon juice and garlic put in a piping bag and piped out, all these items are then dehydrated on a very low temperature until ready. And no I don't eat them all at once!!! They all last very well and are just some of the foods I have been including in my diet. Will post some pics later in the week.

Yesterday I made the above carrot soup for Jacob using carrots, goji berries, lemon and orange juice blended in my high powered blender. It was delicious ;)

Enjoy the rest off your week

The picture at the top is something I drew a couple of years ago. Then I coloured it in with adobe photoshop.

Machu-Picchu

Well another week gone by. I’m still rocking on and day to day I cannot believe I can feel better and better, some of my close friends and family are so intrigued with my abundance of energy, state of mind general appearance that they are eating more and more raw food as well! My Auntie has gone completely raw as well. Jacobs’s dad left for Peru today, were not long home from taking him to the airport, and when he gets back he is going to include as much raw food to his diet as he can as well.

Ok some people have asked where I get protein from, well greens, such as carrot tops, spinach, kale, wheat grass, rocket… the list is endless have far more protein than people generally think.

Goji berries have all essential amino acids and they are berries!
Spirulina and blue green algae are loaded with protein along with many other foods such as macca, bee pollen, hemp seed and quinoa.

The advantage of these sources of protein is that they are incredibly bio available.

I've been more consistent with my training, still room for improvement though so as of next week I'm thinking of including early morning cardio back in, Tomorrow I will nut out what and when. I've trained for years during ACT morning winters, but this one I've just not been inclined or inspired to at all. However I'll suck it up and get on with it. Think I will decide on some goals and set them out on here.

I've been including green smoothies lately in my diet, enjoying them, but a lot to get through as all the fibre is within them, unlike juice. But they have had a remarkable effect on my energy levels.

Been meditating regularly, anther bonus, and learning EFT.

I have to come to terms with the fact my gran is not going to be here for much longer and this is somewhere I just don't go!! As some of you are aware she is the most important adult in my life and probably been the only adult who has 'always' been there for me growing up. I reckon the EFT will greatly assist in helping me let her go and deal with the grief once she passes. I spoke to her in length the other day. She hasn't been up for a chat for quiet a while previously. For some the chat she was very with it, some parts well lets just say it is great to just hear her voice, she is not going to have and more radiotherapy, the lot she had was just to make her more comfortable.

It was a gorgeous day today!! Went to the Farmers Market early, took Nikita for a good walk, visited my cousin and took Warren to the airport (Jacob is beside his self with grief at present) I've got him to have a sleep, nothing like sleep for soothing the soul, and before he knows it his dad will be back.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend and live each day like there no tomorrow.

I love the above pic, how cute!!! Jacob and his dog Nikita.

The pie in the picture is a raw chocolate pie that I recently made, well a few weeks ago now for my birthday. It was a raw chocolate, banana pie and it was delicious, all organic and all raw, who says raw vegan food needs to be boring.

So after eating an all organic raw vegan diet for almost 4 months now, I have decided to stay with it. I have never felt better and my health just keeps improving! Initially I wondered how I would get enough protein, could I maintain my weight training and keep my condition, would my energy levels improve or decline. Well all I can say is the proof is in the pudding and I feel better than I have since I can remember, I have also been meditating again which is about time.

So one reason I got ill in the first place was the high level of animal protein in my diet. Interestingly many practitioners I saw over the period of time while I was trying to get to the bottom of what was going on with my health including my Chinese alternative Doctor, the naturopath I saw and the Sandra Cabot Dr. I saw in Sydney suggested I was consuming too much dairy (whey)and animal proteins. That greatly contributed to affecting my liver, then eventually my whole endocrine system, including my adrenals, my thyroid and my kidneys. They eventually all jacked up, causing the symptoms and conditions I had.

Initially when told this I questioned it, I didn’t want to hear that or believe it, as like many of us I believed this was an effective, safe and healthy eating regime.

However after extensive researching I have done for myself, I would have to agree with them, so eliminating all non vegan protein out of my diet is what I have done and will continue to do so. You can get much better sources of protein from vegan sources and they are far more bioavailable to your body.

So I have been having a tremendous amount of fun and pleasure in experimenting with all things raw and vegan!! However now I have set myself a challenge. I initially dropped some weight, however I have stagnated a bit in that department lately due to lack of consistent cardio, I sprained both ankles would you believe and recently managed to hurt my left calf muscle. Along with this I have been consuming to much wonderful raw fat foods that contain fat, and although they are good for my health, like anything they need to be eaten in moderation. LOL

So the challenge over the next three months is to maintain the wonderful health I’m developing and loose the remaining excess fat I put on due to my thyroid and liver and kidneys not functioning properly.

I am committing to regularly blogging my results at least once a week.
Have a great weekend all!!

I am rocking!!! I can honestly say I have not felt so good for I cannot remember when, every day I am feeling better and better and it starting to physically show as well. I am learning more and more about nutrition and I doubt I will ever return to the way I ate before I started raw. I appreciate everyone is on a different journey, and everyone is on their own path ect…but shit....the crap we are lead to believe about nutrition is astounding. My training is rocking and my energy levels are just sky rocketing, so all is great in my world :)

BEST RAINBOW EVER :)

Well I’m trucking along ABSOLUTELY WONDERFULLY!, still having my green juice and all raw food every day. I truly believe I may have found the best health option for myself, I have never felt so good!! It’s unbelievable!! At this point in my life I don’t know that I will eat animal protein ever again (or cooked foods). Every day I am feeling healthier and healthier, the foods I am eating are awesome. Over the last few months I have learnt so much about nutrition I DID NOT KNOW(still have heaps too learn). Somethings I have often suspected, but for whatever reason didn’t want to know or pursue the knowledge at the time. Along with this I am learning a whole lot of other incredibly informative and enlightening information. Also trying some super foods I have never had before like raw chocolate and goji berries smoothies, organic young coconut, hemp seed and oil (amazing nutritional properties all these foods have). Been dehydrating sprouted and soaked grains and making raw pizza, sprouted crakers, nut pastes, the list goes on, I think I’ve found my heaven :)I truly feel like I have come home.

I have just completed personal training two people as part of my assessment for my cert 4. One of them was my cousin; she is now going to join my gym which is great. Also we are both going to go on a raw vegan food, spiritual, meditative, yoga, enlightenment retreat in Hawaii at the end of the year. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!! One of the guys presenting, is so remarkable and knowledgeable about health, raw food, nutrition, alchemy among other things the list goes on and on! and everything he writes and says just seems to resonate with me. He’s on fire! Funny it resonates with Jacobs’s dad as well, which is awesome because although we are not in a relationship we are great mates, I am so very happy as this means that Jacob will be influenced by both of us.

Life is a journey so here I am for the ride!!!
I have even started to mediate more regularly.

Funny how such a negative thing (my health situation recently) has lead to what I believe is the best thing that has happened for me since I can remember. I think it is no coincidence that things like this happen often in people’s lives.

Well have the BEST weekend ever, as I sure plan too!!

Once again long time no post!!

Well that should end as from now; you see I have made a pact with my good mate Kimmy that we would both post at least once a week.

So what has been happening in my world? My kids are all good. The eldest one going through exams at uni, he seems to have. a handle on it so all good there. My daughter well let’s just say she is 16, and along with that are some challenges for me to face with her and my sons would NEVER speak to me how she does sometimes. The other son I am lucky to see these days, however he has joined my gym and has been going quite regularly, which is great. And my wonderful JACOB is growing up so fast. In just over 7 months he will be in primary school.

My certificate 4 course this semester has been full on!!! We have had so many assignments it’s not funny, I actually had to make a decision a while back as to what keep up, the cert 4 or my masters, well for the present time cert 4 won, as I am much further into it than I am my Masters. One more week and we have a four week break, so I am looking forward to that.

My health feels like it is still improving, although I have had a couple of small bouts of tiredness, but over all good. I have a new program that I am just getting into. I have been slack with cardio and my Boot Camp lately, so that is changing as of now.

With my nutrition I am still having lots and lots of raw organic juices. Lately I have been having salads, nuts, sprouts, avocados, dehydrated biscuits I make out of various sprouted grains mixed with an assortment of herbs & spices. I have also been trying alternative vegetable based protein sources. Actually you get quite a lot of protein from green juice. At this point in time I am not sure if I will return to eating cooked food or animal protein sources at all. The more I research the more unlikely actually.

Well hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Well hope you are all having a good week.

Thanks for the welcome back.

I’ve had the week off work, had lots of things to get done, and spring cleaned my whole house, long overdue! I tend to hoard things and decided enough was enough, can’t believe how it feels like a load off, so to speak getting rid of so much clutter and shit. How many pairs of Levis can a girl own hehe, I was quite fond of them when I was younger but for gods sake I haven’t worn some of them for years!!

What I have been doing is not fasting; I have up to 3-4 litres of organic green juice and some fruit juice every day. Recently I have included some raw foods and nuts as well. I am going to go back to just the juices for healing purposes again. Also I wanted to function as per normal, and with fasting sometimes you need rest. I found some great web sites and books about juicing and raw food, so I am learning heaps from them.

I also buy my veggies from a local market, called trash and treasure, I have done for years and a lot of what I buy is grown locally without pesticides and chemicals. They are considerably cheaper than buying organic from the shops over here. I also shop at the ANU food co-op, who sell organic food for non-profit where I have been a member on and off since my late teens.

Although I want to get rid of the weight I have put on from my endocrine system being out of wack, my main concern is to get my thyroid, liver and kidneys healthy again. I think they must be getting there considering I feel so much better. I will eventually go back to Sydney and have further blood tests, but not in the near future. All the tests were doing my head in. Nothing concrete could be discovered, and I worried due to having all these antibodies floating around in my blood.

I also decided not to weigh myself and just get on with getting healthy, well I’ve lost lot of weight and it’s still coming off, this is probably due to my body correcting itself, as well as the Chinese medicine I have been having every day along with acupuncture and massage weekly. I have backed off from exercise, still training but not nearly with the same frequency or intensity. I’ve been thinking it is about time now I get stuck back into it more consistently now.

So what lead me to try juicing initially was as I said both the Naturopath and the Dr I saw in Sydney’s recommendation. Some of my family members have been in to juicing for years. My father actually was a vegetarian when I was young and I was frequently fed juice. However my mum was not that open too it. So it didn’t continue. I experimented with vegetarianism as a teenager as many kids do, however I chose to eat meat but not a lot of it really. I also thought as a woman we need the iron form red meat and I like the taste of meat, although not sure if I still will.

I have always believed though that it was hard work getting complete proteins from non meat forms of proteins, we also call animal protein good quality proteins, well recently I discovered that that is just because the protein make up of flesh protein is so similar to ours as humans and it certainly doesn’t mean that is necessarily good for your health, just because it is called good quality :)

From what I have been reading it is very questionable as to weather we can digest flesh proteins correctly and how much we actually do digest seems to be minimal. I still have lost and lots of reading to do before I completely make up my mind.

I do know though, that I have not felt this good for a long time!! I have also discovered through reading and research that your body can get enough protein from greens, and certain seeds have all essential amino acids and some vegetarian foods have all amino acids within them. So it’s all interesting.

LONG OVERDUE POST

Well to say I certainly haven’t posted for a while is an understatement!!!

So everyone in blog land is going along wonderfully and accomplishing all their desires and dreams,

Me well I have been on an interesting journey this past couple of months. Funny how good things often come out of unfortunate circumstances. For example, my health issues have prompted me to research nutrition in a very broad way, and some of what I have been discovering certainly questions my beliefs and probably yours as well.

For example the Dr I saw in Sydney asked me some time ago if I would consider including organic juice into my diet, my initial response was well no, she asked why not?? I responded well it’s so bloody nutritionally dense in calories, high in sugar if fruit is included and high in carbs and low in protein. So that was that.

Some time later after researching ect… I thought to myself, why am I paying this Dr good money not to follow her advice, anyway I researched juicing talked to my wonderful Aunt who detoxes regularly with juice. I discovered some interesting facts, I won’t go into them just now though and they certainly contradict what we are led to believe, especially about protein intake and where we get the best quality protein from.

Anyway For a week I had fresh organic juice and honestly I could not believe the improvement in my health, my moods, my energy levels sky rocketed, My weight started to go down a little, the oedema I have had stabilised and disappeared and I started to feel myself again. Then I went on a holiday to Adelaide, went off the juice. Came back and got stuck into it again, I’m still researching. I’m certainly not fasting with juice, but consuming quite a large amount of green juice and some fruit juice, supplemented with a little hemp seed oil, and recently I have been including a little raw food as well.

Not sure where this will all lead, but shit I honestly can not remember feeling so good, other than last week I sprained my ankle which put a bit of a dampener on my training, went back to Boot camp this morning and my ankle was ok, so all good in that department.

All I can say is my liver and kidneys have improved but are still not 1005 However my thyroid hormones have stabilised, so that is GREAT!

I have not gone back to the Dr in Sydney, she was great and I may go back in the future, however I have been to a Chinese medicinal practice here and am getting great results there. Combined with the raw foods and organic juces, I think I will be healthier than I have ever been soon, and don’t get me wrong, I have had good health until recently, but I can’t explain this but I am starting to feel remarkable.

So that’s where I’ve been at.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORTIVE AND KIND COMMENTS I LOVE YOU ALL,

I will endeavor to blog more often once again. And when time permits drop by all your blogs as well,

Have a wonderful weekend all and live life to the fullest xxx

update

Top pic is Jacob and his cousin Above is my daughter and her youngest brother.

Yesterday I went up to Sydney to see a Dr at the Sandra Cabot clinic. After a long consultation and looking at the blood tests I have already had done the Dr decided I was to have a lot more blood tests for various things. I don’t understand all of these at this stage. I am also to have an extensive food intolerance test, along with an ultrasound on my liver. Due to the fact that although my thyroid obviously isn’t behaving normally she thought it was important to find out what else is going on, Some reading for my liver were considerably elevated, I also have particularly elevated iron levels for no apparent reason. So I’ve booked in to have all these tests and must admit I can’t wait to see the results, and get on with a plan to get over this. After the blood testing I am to go dairy free until I see her again in one month on the Dr’s advice, I may have to go grain free as well! I'm still seeing the TCM practitioner and am sure I'm not quite as tired overall, a good sign. Although yesterday and today was buggered.

So my weight is continuing to go in the upward direction and to date I am close to 20 kgs heavier than before this whole thing started in late October last year. Now that’s progress for you!! Just in the wrong direction. So I sure will have my work cut out for me once we work out what and how to correct what ever it is that is exactly going on. I’m trying to not let it do my head in and remain positive, sometimes this is hard.

On a brighter note my certificate IV is going along well, my beautiful daughter is 16 on Friday and Jacob wrote his name for the first time today.

So take care all I’m off to bed, I taught kindergarten today and tomorrow I have a feisty year 5/6.

catch up

So long time no post, I have been plodding on. Have had a few assignments to do for CIT and uni, some are completed more to go. The appointment with the Alternative Chinese medical practitioner went well, and was very interesting, no promises that it will cure it though, but it may greatly assist, time will tell. Actually yesterday was the first day in a long time I didn’t feel totally stuffed by 1-2 pm. I good sign I think, I’m wondering what will happen today. For those who know anything about Alternative Chinese medicine, I had no kidney pulse at all. Not good!! I go back on Wednesday.

Training has been quite challenging at times, I have decided to back off a little, the therapist said that it was obvious I was pushing through sickness and tiredness and that this was detrimental to my recovery. It is her opinion pushing myself to much is what triggered the condition in the first place, and I am just self perpetuating the condition by doing so now. So I have not pushed (as much), if I have been feeling horrid I haven’t gone to the gym and I have cut back on my cardio for the time being, we will see how this goes, I will train tomorrow and Sunday, and will continue Boot Camp at this stage, just not push as hard through it if it's too much.

I have lots of domestic stuff to catch up with today; I have been looking forward to the extra days off. I have had plenty of work. When uni gets more full on I may have to cut back a little, we will see.

Anyway have a wonderful Easter everyone

HURRAY!! I had a mind shift today, not sure what caused it, but I’m more than ever determined to fight this condition I have. As I mentioned in my last post I haven’t been eating that well the last couple of weeks, and training this week was crappy as well. So I thought to myself yesterday, that would be contributing to me feeling so shithouse. DEEEERRRR!! I know from my own experience that when I eat processed carbs and foods with added sugars I tend to feel lethargic and have highs and lows in energy. So although Hashimotos causes this as well, I don’t want to be exacerbating the condition, which I have been. So, as off tomorrow I am back on track, and I see the Dr on Wednesday, so it’s onwards and upwards from now on.

Thank you so much for all your supportive comments, they are much appreciated.

I am very much looking forward to Wednesday as I see the Alternative Chinese Medicine Practitioner then. I so hope that it is going to be helpful for the hashimotos. My weight has consistently kept going up. I am running out of clothes that I can wear to work LOL not good!! I haven’t helped this the last 10 days or so, as I must admit to thinking what’s the point, and been seeking out foods I know aren’t the best choices once I’ve finished work! However, even when my diet is clean I have put on weight. My energy levels are not at all good either, when I feel very flat and tired it contributes to me making food choices that aren’t productive as well.

I have not trained nearly as much as I normally do this week. However I have decided to just let this slide and make the most of the break. I will start afresh next week.

Funnily enough I have met a few people of the last week two who have hashimotos and one who have an under active thyroid, but no due to hashimotos. I am thankful that my Dr picked it up as one person had to deal with the symptoms for over a year as her Dr had missed the signs; by this time he thought she was going mad.

We have a long weekend her in ACT, I would have liked to have gone away however, I had to attend uni yesterday and today I had arranged to do a CIT assignment with two girls from my class. So it will be good to get them out of the way.

Uni is going to be very interesting and very informative; I had to change subjects due to a conflict with my CIT course. So this particular unit will focus on teaching us about and how to implement a teaching strategy called TeacCH with people on an Autism Spectrum. It includes a full on 4 day workshop in about a month, I am very much looking forward to this and am hoping I feel a lot better energy wise by then.

I ill let you know how my appointment goes later in the week; I have a god feeling about though so we will see!

Well I saw my own Doctor this week he diagnosed that I have Hashimotos, which is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid. Where antibodies attack the thyroid until eventually it’s stuffed. It’s one of the causes of hypothyroidism, He said it can be hell and don’t expect it to be easy to treat; the tyroid hormones may swing from high to low. I have been referred to one of Australia’s leading endocrinologists in April. I am also going to see a Chinese Herbal Medical practitioner as well in two weeks time. Depending on the outcome, I may or may not go up to Sydney as well.

So I’ve been keeping up my training, some days this has been challenging because I feel so tired at times Not normal tiredness, I get this overwhelming flat lethargic feeling come over me, like you hit a brick wall, I not only get tired, but foggy, forgetful and irritable, and it is not pleasant.

A positive here is that I managed to break all my records in my Boot Camp Fitness Testing on Friday morning; I paid for it though ;) I felt like crap for a lot of the day after. However this is affecting enough of my life I do not want to give up training as well.

This week my food has been good, but not great, so will address this, I can not believe how shit house I feel at times, the doctor said this may get worse as the condition progresses. Overall I have a very healthy diet though, The Thyroid book Sandra Cabot wrote was very informative and there are diet suggestions in it, although she does suggest cutting out certain foods altogether which I am quite fond of such veggies from the cruciferous family so cabbage, brussel sprouts, ect. I will read it again and may put, these suggestions into place, a least until I see the other practitioners.

I worked four days, sometimes it was challenging with feeling so bloody lousy, I had a great week with the classes I taught though. I’ve been dong a lot of work at the same school, helps to build up a relationship with the kids I think.

Well I am off to my aqua assessment, have a great weekend.

Well never got to post this before my practical assessment, I did great so all is good here.

Okay I won’t go into explaining the results of my tests because I don’t understand then all yet, other than various things were picked up to do with my thyroid, liver and kidneys. I then had to have further blood tests. This picked up thyroid antibodies, but another thyroid result had normalised, so what that means the Dr couldn’t say. I have a referral for an ultrasound of my liver as some things were not right there. My kidney filtration process is not up to scratch either apparently. Along with this my iron levels are actually elevated to high. So what does all this mean… well he couldn’t actually tell me!!! So I have an appointment with and endocrinologist at the end of May. I can not wait that long. So yesterday afternoon, I managed to get on to my own Dr. who I have not seen for 4 years, (haven’t been sick enough too) I will see him on Thursday, he will be able to explain things I hope, and I also made an appointment at a Sandra Cabot clinic in Sydney at the end of March. Have emailed results t naturopath and haven’t heard back there either.

I’ve being feeling very average the last few days, I’m not working today and I am going to take it easy. Fern suggested I get Your Thyroid Problems Explained, by Sandra Cabot and I will read this today.

I will get to the bottom of this ASAP. Interestingly I had a whole lot of blood tests done June last year after my first competition prep, everything was fine then. Then I did my second comp prep and it was during that prep that my body starting jacking up, by not responding to diet measures and cardio. Can’t help but wonder if this contributed, caused, triggered, or exacerbated my current situation. I wonder how many girls who have competed or still do who have developed similar conditions

Well the results for the blood tests have warranted further testing of my thyroid, seems I have hypothyroidism, don’t know the severity or degree of this or what has caused it at this stage.

My initial reaction was one of a kind of relief and optimism, I know this may be strange but considering I have been eating to plan and training very hard and getting no results what so ever in regard to body fat loss, at least this explains why!! Must say though my cardiovascular fitness is coming along in leaps and bounds, BOOT CAMP ROCKS!!!! Let’s just hope also that I’ve built some good muscle as well over the last 5 months under this insulation . LOL.

I have another Dr's appointment tomorrow after work, so I am very much looking forward to this and finding out more information. At this stage I have no idea what has caused it, apparently there are a few causes, or how severe it is and what the Dr’s suggestion will be. The naturopath has postponed giving me anything else for it until we know more.

LOVELY DAY HERE TODAY

I have had a pretty good week, did three Boot Camp classes, I could actually feel and see an improvement in my overall performance in these, so that’s good.

I caught up with some mates and will see another one this afternoon, that’s always good.

Started to organise work for next week, don’t find out the year level I am teaching until Monday, I will be on a release role, which means I have a variety of year levels each day I am working. At this stage I’ve got three days next week. Pretty good, because school has only just gone back and we don’t always get work this early in the term :)

I went to see a naturopath last week, due to not understanding why or being able to do something productive about losing the weight I have put on post comp, don’t get me wrong I do not have unrealistic expectations at all in regard to post comp weight gain. I had a break from training at the end of last year, I have consistently been training again, feel good, energy levels are good, sleep is good. But body fat does not want to shift. My normal day to day clothes just don't fit.Not sure as to why this is occurring that annoys me in its self. I like to know why.And when I say I have stuck to my nutrition, I have.

Although her approach and her beliefs towards nutrition differs quite a lot to mine and what I would do and how I would go about trying to get the fat off, my approach hasn’t been working, so I agreed to follow her suggestions for one month. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I also had a blood test done yesterday at the Dr’s, so will wait for these results and hope all tests are good.

I am off to do a spin class and get some shopping, hope you all have a great weekend, it's a lovely day here today

I love this quote

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility."

- Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady

QUIET SUNDAY

Yesterday I did a spin class; today I will go and do legs and cardio, quite humid here actually. I’ve been a bit tired for the past few days, not sure why.

I did Boot Camp again on Friday. It is so much harder too run on land compared to the machines at the gym; suppose that is one reason cross training is such a good idea, and doing different types and combinations of cardio can be important depending on your goals. I have BOOT Camp in the morning.

Schools go back tomorrow here in the ACT, so I suppose soon enough they will be in need of relief teaching so my life of leisure will soon be coming to an end, once again.

Found out my dates for uni study during the week, looks like a lot of it will be online combined with whole weekend workshops, will be interesting way to learn, I know myself and therefore I will have to be very disciplined with study, I can procrastinate when it comes to study and assignments, funny I generally never procrastinate when it comes to training. My family tells me I took far too much on last year, so I will think about listening to them this year and make sure not to allow myself to do this again.

Anyway I had better hit the gym, enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Eat well and train hard!!

Well last night after my Boot Camp class (once I recovered) I was wired!! So I didn’t get to bed until late. I do tend to stay up late to often, just love the solitude of night time. I got a lot of things done though, such as grocery shopping and cleaning, with four kids I seem to spend quite a bit of time shopping for food, all good though, I see there is going to be an enquiry into our food prices, which is good.

As of next week school is back here so I will not be able to stay up so late. I have just been sorting out my study load, seems the face to face teaching for my Masters will be condensed into weekend attendance, the rest will be online learning. My fitness certificate course will be a mostly face to face.

Training is going well my legs are kind off adjusting to full on training twice a week. There are some new exercises in my program which I hadn’t done before, a couple of them I find challenging to say the least. I’m noticing an improvement in my cardiovascular fitness, which would be due to Boot Camp no doubt, honestly they are so bloody hard, and I would not be able to consistently push myself that hard for a full hour.

I really noticed an improvement in my interval training I did on the weekend, I was able to push a lot harder for longer durations, and was recovering quicker than I was a couple of weeks ago. Today I train legs and tonight I do spin. hope everyone is trucking along wonderfully :)

This is a painting Warren did of Jacob, it's before it was quite finished though, I just love it :)

So my diet and training is going along well and I have done more Boot Camp classes. I can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever pushed myself quite as hard doing cardio before, I thought I had… but … no…last Wednesday I nearly vomited, must have been a lactic build up. I try not to think about them and just do them to the best of my ability, push and know that in one hour they will be over, and I will feel great for accomplishing them. Got another one at 6.30am in the morning.

Weights are going well and touch wood my shoulder has been holding out very well. If it plays up again I will have acupuncture instead of physio or oesteo.

My spin class has been cancelled for tonight so I will have to amuse myself with cardio after I train chest and tri’s.

I am slowly staring to see some of my muscle definition, or at least a glimmer of it ;) as this lovely layer of padding is beginning to come off….. that’s always motivating.

I have a pair of jeans and once I comfortably fit back into them I will decide where to go comp wise. I have put no pressure on myself at this stage as to what comp, federation, when or where; all depends on how my body responds.

Well I had better get on with it, have a wonderful nights girls!!

I was clearing up my folders on my computer and I found some illustrations that I did on the computer for a book we had to design and write for uni a couple of years back. This is one of them.

FRIDAY ALREADY.

Well did another Boot Camp class this morning, so all up I did the three for the week. I am going to try and do all three each week.

Yesterday I did my chest workout, minus one exercise I have to get clarification on and a spin class. I have one leg day to go and will have completed my new program once through then. My abductors have been quite sore, probably due to the running in the Boot Camp classes. Tomorrow I will do spin. On Sunday I usually do legs, however I will probably do back as I will have done legs later today. My new program has legs twice a week.

So tomorrow it is 2 weeks down for sticking to nutrition and training. Been loving bean salad.

I have been sorting out all my relief teaching resources still got a way to go before it is all done, but will be thankful once it is out of the way. I got confirmation that I got into post grad studies for uni yesterday, so I got my enrolment into a masters degree sorted out, 'Inclusive Education in Autism'. Just waiting to find out lecture times, ect so I can work out a schedule. Tech starts back on feb 11 as well, This year tech is just one night a week, Wednesday, instead of three. That was madness last year. Hope it all fits nicely together.

Anyway have a great day everyone!!

BOOT CAMP

Had a great weekend, went to a mates birthday, hadn't laughed as much for ages, watched American Gangster, don't often rave about movies, however it was very well done I thought, and I really enjoyed it.

Did a spin class on Saturday and Legs yesterday, I got a great new program last week, really looking forward to getting my teeth into all of it. Did one of the leg day yesterday.

Nutrition over the weekend was good, on Saturday at the party I could have taken a bit more food as I stayed a lot longer than expected. I had a few nuts to compensate, but certainly didn't over do it.

This morning I did my first BOOT CAMP class, shit I thought I was fit .......my goodness we honestly worked at our anaerobic threshold for the whole hour (good for your metabolism, fitness and fat burning), gotta be good for ya'!!!...... she says .......now that it's over..... so it's all worth it. they are running three a week so I will hopefully do as many as I can fit in.

Things are going great here, training and food wise, I just had to share this wonderfully insightful article I found that Cassandra Forsythe wrote, every girl should know about it, I'll never complain or think bad thoughts about my ab training again, I'll just prey the below happens from now on whilst doing them LOL. On that note I best get to bed and prey :) have a great day tomorrow everyone,


http://www.musclewithattitude.com/readArticle.do?id=1538908&cr=mwaTraining

Exercises You Should be Doing: The Coregasm
by "Cassanova"

Men are really at a disadvantage when it comes to ab training.

Despite covering all the Eastern and Western European bases — weighted Swiss ball crunches, Russian twists, and Saxon side bends — the best they can hope for is a 6-pack of washboard abs.

Women, on the other hand, get something much, much better: sexual gratification.

Sexual gratification? Are you kidding me?

Not one bit.

Ladies, I'm going to let you in on something that some of you may already know, but were too embarrassed to tell anyone else about. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of experiencing this little discussed subject, you're about to be fulfilled.

This secret is called the Coregasm and it's going to revolutionize your desire to exercise your abs.

I mean, what better motivation to work your core than if the end result is an "Oh, oh, Ohhhhh!"?

Yes, it's an orgasm that you can have anywhere, anytime without the use of any tool or any man.

Now don't get me wrong. We women still need our toys and we still love our men, but if we knew we could finish every workout with a smile on our face, wouldn't we start working our core more often?

You better believe we would! So, how do we actually do this and why hasn't someone told us about this before?

A brief history of the coregasm

The coregasm has probably been around since the advent of abdominal training for women. It's kind of like when you started masturbating when you were 7, but lied about it until you were 16.

It starts with just a little feeling of pleasure between your legs when performing certain core exercises, and then leads to a wonderful euphoria that sweeps over your entire body. Women who experienced this for the first time probably thought it was just a one-time gift, but then soon came to find out that they could reproduce it when they contracted their pelvic floor muscles in just the right way.

Women have likely been hiding this completely enjoyable, satisfying, knee-weakening, jelly-legs-inducing (sorry, I lost control of myself there for a second... ) experience, because they weren't sure that it really was happening, or because they thought someone would say they were sex-crazed or perverted. So, they kept their mouths shut.

Until now.

Just a few weeks ago, Adam Campbell of Men's Health posted about the "coregasm" on his blog. He'd co-authored an article with Alwyn Cosgrove of T-Nation who mentioned that he'd seen some interesting things in the gym through his many years of being a personal trainer. One of his observations was a female adult film star who would have an orgasm whenever she did hanging leg raises. Alwyn didn't think much of it, because, hey, she was an adult film star...

However, since that article, both Adam and Alwyn have received numerous emails from women telling them that they too have had this exact same experience (in his blog, he called it an "issue," but I would never categorize an orgasm — of the core variety or otherwise — as an "issue").

Some women would experience a coregasm when they were doing vertical knee raises, while others would have it while doing supine leg-lowering contractions. Either way, the coregasm was big news and women all over the country wanted to know more.

Fast-forward to today and you'll see that the coregasm is being talked about everywhere, from general gym gab to serious fitness forums (check out one such thread here: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1457656) Some men are claiming that they too have a coregasm when they train abs, but I'm calling bullshit.

In any event, the coregasm is no longer something you have to hide. Tell all your girlfriends about it, and tease your man about it. No one needs to be left in the dark.

Give it to me, baby

If you're not interested in the Big "O" as a side effect of ab exercises, you can stop reading now. But, if you don't care that your face turns a little red (or redder) while doing leg raises, read on.

Every woman is a little different, but the basics behind the coregasm involve synchronized contractions of the lower abdominal, pelvic, and pubic muscles leading to increasing excitement and then a blasting surge of ecstasy.

One woman described her coregasm like this:

I have to be lying down and usually put a small towel or pillow under my lower back. I get the best "coregasm" when I lower my feet close to the floor. But my real secret, the thing that sends me to the moon and back is when I use my vibrator at the same time. WOW! It totally vamps up the intensity.

Now the additional vibrator probably wouldn't go over too well at your gym, but the basic idea of arching your back while slowly lowering your legs during bench knee raises could help you experience the coregasm.

I first had a coregasm while doing knee raises on the Vertical Leg Raise unit (and what a unit it is... ). Thankfully this apparatus was in the corner of my gym because when it happened, I just stayed hanging in one spot with my knees raised, closed my eyes, and savored every moment.

I don't think anyone caught on to what I was doing, but really, I didn't care. Needless to say, since that experience, the Leg Raise unit is my favorite piece of gym equipment. That experience was the beginning of what would become a meaningful relationship between me and "Vertie the Unit.

For most women, though, the most fruitful coregasm exercises are the ones that target your lower abdominal muscles (a.k.a. your orgasm-getters).

The coregasm doesn't happen right away, though. Almost like during intercourse, it takes a little while to build up. You'll most often get one after about the 15th rep — after a bit of fatigue has set in — of either hanging knee raises, hanging leg raises, or a supine leg-lowering bench exercise.

You don't really have to concentrate on it for it to happen, you just let your body take over and when it does, you'll know.

Long time no post!!

This is taken on my Aunt and Uncles property who live up in the hills

This is where my other Aunt and Uncle live

We are back from SA, had a good time with mixed emotions. While I was there my gran was diagnosed with oesophagus cancer. I have very mixed feelings and emotions towards this and have kind of just avoided thinking about it too much at this stage.

For those of you that don’t know my grandmother is the most important adult in my life, as my uncle said she has been my rock. She is 97 this May and her quality of life has deteriorated greatly the last couple of years, even so I find it hard to accept her situation and let her go.

So I didn’t get to the gym over there, but did a reasonable amount of cardio.

Went to the gym on Sunday and did back and legs, I now wish I had taken it easy and DOMS is an understatement, *lol* don’t get me wrong I like DOMS, but not when it hurts to even walk, let alone sit and get up. Just goes to show how quickly you can get unconditioned to weight training, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. At least your body adjusts quickly. ;)

I’m following a diet around 1500 -1400 cals. With moderate amount of carbs, good fat and protein aiming towards loosing the extra weight I have put on. I tried a high protein moderate to high fat diet for 5 weeks towards the end of last year; it certainly didn’t agree with my waist line, I stupidly stuck to it as I thought I might just need to adjust too it, I stacked on the weight quickly and felt shit for it. Well I’m over feeling shit for it and took my lovely friend Sam’s advice and just got over it let the feelings involved go, forgave myself and am now determined as ever to just getting on with it to correct the damage from post comp and the above approach. I suppose you have to try different approaches to find what works for each individual.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!

HOPE ALL YOUR DREAMS AND GOALS EVENTUATE IN 2008