Ultra fit

Friday:

I borrowed a couple of "Ultra Fitness" magazines from the library yesterday. I enjoy reading all sorts of Health and Fitness literature, from the very basic stuff to the more complex, and these ones are at the higher end without being boring or only for super-elite athletes who want to improve their race time by 0.3 seconds by doing 2 hours of pylometric exercises every day. Anyway, there was lots to inspire me.

It is just over 12 weeks to my next birthday (I will turn 43). I haven't been to the gym for ages but I rang them to check when my membership runs out and coincidentally it will end the day before my birthday. So I have 12 weeks of neglected gym to use. It's a good time to return to the gym as the weather is starting its slide towards winter here in chilly Canberra.

One article suggested that my best time for exercise would be 12-2 (to do with cortisol levels of an unfit person) so I am going to try lunchtime exercise classes for a while. A mix of Pump and Step, plus some dance at home and climbing mountains on the weekend. This gives me my alert morning period for getting brain work done.

Speaking of which, I am finding my current editing job really hard going. It is an intense traumatic true life story which is giving me flashbacks to some bad periods of my own life so I am working in fairly short bursts with lots of breaks.

My son is home sick from school today with a barking cough; he's sick enough to stay home but not sick enough to need to be in bed. Bad combination for me getting anything done today, but I'm trying. Shopping and going to the gym are out, but I can get him interested in his Lego or whatever and squeeze in some work and later dance a bit at home.

I've been lurching up and down with my diet plans. Every Monday or so I try again with a new variation of lower carb: cutting out just sugar and flour, or all starchy carbs including potato and quinoa, or all processed foods... then I have a binge and fall snout-first back into junk food. My fitness mag is all about clean eating -- ie no processed food -- so that is the current focus.

Oh, I haven't trained for running for more than a week, only one week to go until the race. My current feeling is I won't be doing it at all, but my husband suggested I have made a committment to do and paid my money... I don't know! Arg! If I do, it will mainly be a walk.