Health

Health

21-Day Stress challenge: The background

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I know I’ve been a bit AWOL from my blog recently, and there’s a reason for that.

I’ve just been through one of the most stressful periods of my life, and in a nutshell it has affected my health physically. I got to the point where one day I was sitting in my car and didn’t want to get out. I wanted to go home, climb into my bed and put the covers over my head. I forced myself out, and got on with things. The next day I struggled to get out of bed. The day after that, I called in sick.

I spent the entire day lifeless on the couch, and it wasn’t until I looked at my fiancé that it clicked in my head: there were other people in my life being affected. My stress pushing me to the point of feeling sick physically wasn’t the only issue, it was also bringing other people down. On top of that, if I ever wanted a family (which obviously brings a lot of challenges and stress with it) I had to sort it out. On the plus side, while it was a serious problem, it wasn’t severe. Yet. I had to fix it before it got any worse.

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First 52 down – mole biopsy

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I’m still very much trying to get into the swing of being back at work after what felt like quite a long holiday over the Christmas break. I’ve been back now for a week, but man it’s hard! I’m starting to get back on track with projects and get back into the swing of things, … Read more

The one in which Kel finds out she’s going blind

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Well, it’s happened. My eyes are finally starting to turn square from too much tv watching, just as my mum always told me it would. Or as my optometrist put it, my eye muscles are struggling from too much computer usage at work and thus getting incredibly fatigued. Once they reach that point, it feels … Read more

12 Week Challenge: The Goals Edition

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As part of preparing for the 12 week challenge, they have asked each of us to fill out a sheet with our goals. On the information night, they explained about goal setting and ensuring you use the SMART approach: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely. Since I aim on documenting my entire journey, I figured why … Read more

12 Week Challenge: What is it and why am I doing it?

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One of my 52 in 52's for this year was to join the 12 week challenge at the gym. I go to the Goodlife Health Centre in Maroochydore, and I'd been seeing signs about it since we signed up last year. They finally opened for registrations for the February challenge, and for my birthday, Mario signed me up. Enrolling one's girlfriend in a weight loss challenge is probably not the most romantic-sounding present, but in his defence, he knew it was something I really wanted.

To be clear, I know that most PT's will groan over 12 week challenges. They believe that it promotes a short-term “quick fix” and then people will just go back to their unhealthy ways after the challenge. In my view, I think anything that can encourage someone to start looking at diet & exercise as a means to lose weight is not a bad thing. They're not encouraging plastic surgery and the shake diet after all! Plus once you start to see the changes, it can become addictive and you'll want to keep pushing to keep the numbers on the scales going down.

I know that I have demonstrated I can be consistent with exercise. I enjoy getting out there and doing something energetic. I like the feeling of finishing a race, and doing something I never dreamed possible.

My problem lays solely in food.

I'm the living proof that appearance is 80% nutrition, otherwise I'd be freaking sexy right now.

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