What a difference a year makes.

Last September I weighed 98.5kg, and was an inactive unenthusiastic lump.
If you have been following my blog, you will know that a lot has changed since then.
Only 8 days into this September, and I have achieved a couple of amazing things this month alone. 

First of all, my hubby and I went on a 3 night 'Lifestyle' cruise, a cruise to nowhere out of Brisbane. My first cruise, something I had always wanted to do, and it's now ticked off my bucket list (I plan to go on a longer one now I know I can handle my sea legs). The best thing being, the cruise was free... a competition prize I won.  I prefer to think of it as the Universe rewarding me for making such positive changes in my life.

HERE'S TO MY NEW LIFE

SAILING AWAY

WATCHING BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS WITH MY MAN

Now today I ran in "The Stampede" I signed up months ago, as a challenge to myself, and all these months I was secretly packing myself... until today. Today it was truly excitement, not nerves. 

I decided that any obstacle I encountered I would tackle, and I did, every last one of them, from crawling through mud under barbed wire, jumping over burning logs, climbing over a bus, to running through live electrical wires (yes I willingly got zapped by 10,000 volts - and it hurt!) - and that is to name only a few.

No times, no medals... just downright dirty fun, and my goodness was it ever. I am exhausted now, my feet hurt, and I am still finding mud in my hair, ears, and other bodily crevices, and I can't wait to do it again. 

BEFORE

AFTER

The old me would never have had the courage to do this, would never have believed that I could. If I can make such huge changes in a year, I can only imagine what I can achieve in 2 years, or 5 years,
Anyway, September is here, the Sun has decided that our Spring should be more like a Summer, and we are definitely going to make the most of it.

Next big adventure?...I'm booked in to go abseiling on Sept 29th. 

I'm So Lucky

I've been having a little 'feel sorry for myself', stamp my feet cos "It's not Fair" moment, brought on by the fact that some lucky buggar won the $50Million PowerBall lotto last night...and it wasn't me.

I'm driving around in an old dunger of a car, my bank balance is pathetic, we'll probably never own our own house again, I am trying to raise a family on a single salary, my husband, and daughters have health issues, and sometimes it all just feels too much... It's not fair! When is it our turn to have some good luck.

Then I saw this post on Facebook...

Labels

It done stood up and slapped me in the face!  Of course I'm not Unlucky, I don't have to sleep on the streets.

I've been trying to practise the principles of the Law of Attraction, and feel like I have been putting in my order to the Universe, practising gratitude daily on The Grateful List but I'm not sure I really 'got it' until tonight.

I was parked next to my dream car tonight, not some sporty unrealistic car, but my favourite... what I wish I drove, a white BMW X5 (or Audi q7 - I'm not fussy), and I went through the little bargaining, with the Universe,  in my head.

"We really need a new car, I think I am a good person, surely you can see your way to make this happen for us?  That car is top of my list of things I want...."
and I stopped in my tracks! 

The penny dropped...You idiot... No it's not.

The top 5 of 'What you really want', in order of most importance is:

1. For my husband to be healthy again
2. For my children to grow to old age, with a full life of adventure, achievements, love and sensible decisions.
3. to always have a roof over my head, and food on the fridge.
4. to stay happy and healthy myself
5. to travel and see the parts of the world that I have always dreamt of.

A BMW doesn't even register in the big picture.... and this little realisation reminded me of the picture above, and...

PING! Light Bulb Moment.

"Don't complain about your life because you don't have the car or house that you wanted... being unlucky means something else."

I am lucky.

I am lucky to have a husband who adores me.

I am lucky that he has survived some serious close calls, and lived to tell the tale.

I am lucky that my daughters only have a bone disease, and not something that threatens their life on a daily basis.

I am lucky to have given birth to 3 healthy babies.

I am lucky that all my children are smart, and doing well, and get a free education.

I am lucky that we live in a nice 4 bedroom house, near a lake, with water, electricity, and plenty of food.

I am lucky that I have transport.

I am lucky that I have a good job (I may not be enjoying it right now but..) 

I am lucky that I work for an great company with amazing opportunities.

I am lucky that I have wonderful friends that really care about me.

I am lucky to have been born in a wonderful country, and I am lucky that I get to live in another equally wonderful country.

I am lucky to have two arms, legs, eyes and ears that do what they were designed to do.

I am lucky to have loved and lost, so that I learned to appreciate what I have.

I am lucky to have been raised by two loving parents, who demonstrated commitment, taught us values, and showed us how to laugh as a family.

I am lucky to have realised that I don't need riches to feel rich. I have all the riches I need in what is listed above, and more.

Message received, Universe, Loud and Clear.

Universe, I put in my order...

I've been singing this song in my head since I wrote the last post.
It's prophetic in a way. I have nowhere to run and hide, not now that I have put this out here in cyberspace... 
but I do have somewhere to run to.

You see.. this is me

and this is who I want to be.

I have long dreamed of the life I want to have; I have read The secret, watched Oprah, made vision boards and 'put it out there'.

Of the many things I told the universe that I wanted, one was a life where I was fit and healthy, where I would get up in the mornings and go for a run along the water before work.

Problem was, I was obese*, lazy, undisciplined.. the list really could go on. 

I told the universe what I wanted, and sat back and expected it to come to me.  The universe (or God if you prefer that name) is amazing and can provide the most awesome things, but you need to do the work to recieve the rewards.

You would have heard the story, and if you have read or seen Eat Pray Love, by Liz Gilbert you would know the following anecdote 

So, I hadn't even realised that since I originally 'put in that request' with the universe in 2006, 5 years later I am living in a house which is less than 100m from a lake with an awesome 4km track around it that I could run every morning. The universe had fulfilled my request, all that was missing was me.

As much as I want it, I have to do it, no one can do it for me. I needed to get up every morning and buy a ticket for the life I asked for... and for goodness sake the ticket is free.  What the hell was i waiting for?

At 101 kilos (the heaviest i got - that I know of) starting to run is a bit daunting. I couldn't do it. My body didn't want to. It hurt, and cried and pleaded to stop every time I tried. 
The truth is I hated exercise, and would avoid it an any cost.
Excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse....
Then the universe gave me a helping hand.  It gave me Zumba.
It took me about 8 weeks of saying I was going to give it a try, before I actually got brave enough to walk into that hall on my own and try a class!


That was the first day of the rest of my life.
Moving my body to music, ...they call it dancing, ... is exercise, and I loved it.  I was buzzing from the first class, I was uncorordinated, unfit, sweating, puffed, but it was ok.. the music pulled me through. 
An hour once a week, quickly became not enough, increased to two, then three.  
I felt different. I joined in on a workplace challenge to increase activity, and started walking the lake to increase my 'minutes' of activity.
Before i knew it Zumba had me fit enough to actually try running, starting at a certain mark on the track, and each time trying to improve on that if only even a few steps.

The route around the lake - I have increased my run to 

So there we have it! The universe has given me my request, and I hadn't even realised. I am running around the lake.  I have a long way to go to reach my goals...which you will hear about tomorrow.


*World Health Organisation says a BMI greater than 30, is in the Obese category.