Getting past the busyness of life

Do what it takes to get to where you want to be.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

Be a woman of your word.

These are all part of my personal philosophy, for lack of a better word. I started out this year with a workout in Mawson's park on New Years Day with Bernie, Lesley and Toni. Lesley and I had been sitting with our Perth Crew girls after the New Years Eve run and it must have been about 11pm by this stage, and we didn't have plans for new years day. We weren't drinking and we decided to get together for a workout. So we did...and this is how my year is working out for me! 6kg lost so far this year (since Dec 28 weigh in) and a dress size as well - now able to buy clothes in a size 14 and so excited for this round!

I often get comments from people about how much I do and that they just don't have time to exercise, so I thought I would demonstrate how I am fitting in my exercise around my crazy life. I'm not doing as much as I did in January when I was on holidays, but I am still training 6 days a week.

I work full time as a music teacher and Head of House at my school, I run my own business self-publishing music workbooks and I am studying (doing my masters externally online). So, I know about busy lifestyles but I also know that if I don't exercise I just won't lose the weight, I will become depressed, I will eat more and I will be so tired all the time and the cycle just begins again. Well, I'm not going back there!

Sarah's SUPER Saturday :)
So, yesterday was a pretty crazy day for me. My day started with catching up with Erin and Carolyn from the Perth Crew (and it was Erin's first time at a Perth Crew event so I was stoked to see her!) for ocean swimming training at Hillarys Nodes. Then I came home and made my awesome ricotta pancakes for breakfast (at 150 calories for 2 pancakes why say no??); organised the five orders I was sending out to schools and then did the post office and bank run (like I can get to a bank during the week!!!). Then it was lunchtime :)

The afternoon consisted of meeting Nat for a workout. I picked her up (only about 4mins late...I was very impressed with myself) and we headed off to Arena for PUMP! Being the crazy chicks that we are, pump was not going to be enough so we had planned to do an hour of cardio in the gym afterwards. So...10 minutes on the bike, 15 on the crosstrainer (both on foothills) then 5 mins on the rower and 15 mins on the treadmill (where I ran for 15 mins straight!).

So, now it is 4pm and I was meeting another Perth Crew awesome chick Nicole at 5:30pm in the city so I dropped Nat home, showered changed and glammed up for the school ball I was going to after coffee...Made it into the city basically on time and had a great time catching up with Nicole (so love meeting people for coffee and getting to share stories!) and then over to the ball I went!

6:30pm until midnight I was 'on duty' at the school ball and I had a great time. I made good choices from the buffet (filled most of my plate with green salad, a bit of cous cous and then salmon) and only had fruit for dessert. No softdrink, no cakes, no creamy pasta or potato salad - all the things that in the past I would have had (especially seeing I had worked so hard at the gym).

So that was Saturday...today I made the mistake of not exercising when I woke up - in hindsight I should have just gone for a walk to clear my head! But, I met up with the Perth Crew for the WAMC twilight run and got a new PB for 5km with a head wind...so I'm pretty impressed with that.

So, what does my week look like this week?

Monday - early rehearsal at school 7:30am and a meeting after school until around 5pm
WORKOUT PLAN: Early walk or run (depending how I pull up) and then my lean and fit weights session after work.

Tuesday - SWIMMING CARNIVAL DAY! Workout plan - cycling to and from school, possibly with a 3km run before hand (did this last week and loved it!)

Wednesday - early rehearsal at school 7:30am. Workout plan - Lean and fit weights at 6am. Massage booked with the AWESOME Tara Mitchell from Dynamic Massage and Fitness and then the weekly dinner with mum and gran.

Thursday - Excursion to a concert in the evening. Workout plan - 5.6km run at 6am followed by cycling to and from school (10km each way).

Friday - MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Nat and I are having a special PT session with my trainer at 6am. I get to leave school at lunchtime to fly to Sydney for the long weekend.

Amongst that schedule (which includes working from approx. 8am-5pm each day) I will be doing about an hour of readings/forum discussions/course work for my ICT units. So, I think you can see that I know busy...but I choose to work in my exercise and make sure I'm eating well. Most of my friends just expect it of me now and rather than just ask what I've been up to, I get asked what training I've been doing...I think that says a lot about where I am at now.

Upcoming events in the life of Sarah...stay tuned for more craziness!

March 2-5: Visit to Sydney for long weekend. Workout plans - hotel gym, running at bondi, opera house steps...
March 10: Birthday dinner with my friends (with a killer SSS before that you can count on!)
March 11: Rottnest cycling and snorkling
March 18: Freeway Bike Hike - 70km from Mandurah to Perth
March 25: Triathlon (250m/10km/2km)
April 1: Bridges Fun Run - 10km

So...now that I've exhausted you with my crazy life...get moving people!

Sarah