Cruel vs Kind

Being kind. When someone is cruel to you, approach them from a place of softness, show them humanity and they will react human in kind. People act badly because that's defense, they don’t know how else to behave when they're in a position of weakness. However if someone is in your immediate vicinity, you don’t know them well enough to tell them to pack in their ideas and they refuse all manor of help, focus on yourself instead. Make yourself feel better about this situation or event. Godly or not I believe this message is important “God grant me the courage to change the things I can, serenity to accept the things I can’t and the wisdom to know the difference”. And if you’re curious I’m baptized Christian, but I don’t know if I believe in “God” yet. I believe in the bible’s teachings, and I believe in the lifestyles, ideas, and concepts within Christianity 100% and my God loves me for it.

My laptop finally died and my will to save money caved in! Bought myself a super sensible GORGEOUS laptop, very cute, very affordable AND an extended warranty to go with it. 100% worth the extra $110. This means I am guaranteed a working laptop for the next 3 years :D Did you know that if you send a laptop back for the same or related problem 3 times while its under warranty that (in most cases) the product provider must provide you with a free brand new replacement? I learnt this when I bought my first Uni laptop. Crapped out halfway through the second year. Sent it in heaps and on the fourth round they send a brand new laptop that was actually much better than the one I originally bought :D No more random shut downs, over heating, overweight, non saving, freezing, or blue screens (or purple, or pink, or yellow, or black) for me! A shout out to my friend Sam, who introduced me to Google Drive to save me spending up large on an unnecessary Microsoft package! Keep an eye out for my up and coming Google Drive review blog :D Should vlog this one too eventually. #bravery

Massive health focus?? Nope.

It might look like I have thrown up a whole lot of health focus material, that'd all archived documents i dredged up to sort of fill my page. All really good info, information junkies eat your heart out.

Moving onto newer posts now! Working out a YouTube channel. That'll be mostly product reviews looking forwards.

AHHH! Blogging! So much fun! Barely have the confidence to put this on Facebook least my family and friends think I'm and a massive weirdo. What do I want them to think?

It makes you wonder why people blog, or blog. To get the word out? Express talents? Exposé themselves? I have no idea but if it works for people like Jenna Marbles and Justin Bieber I don't see what I find interesting cant be exciting too.

Positive places!

Winter workout survival

1. Bright Light- this lifts your mood and encourages positive thoughts. It will energize you first thing in the morning.2. Let out the child within- when you were a kid, the cold didn’t matter, and you would get excited as anything about the leaves on the ground or the snow falling. Channel that inner child by taking the time to observe your environment and find a way to play accordingly. All movement is good movement. Don’t forget winter sports teams!3. Sleep in your workout cloths!- That way you can keep that warm feeling and all you need to do is chuck on a jumper, grab the keys, and head out the door, instead of having to get changed and let the cold winter air touch your skin. Reward yourself with a hot bath that night.4. Afternoon commitments make you sleepy as it gets darker?- Take your gym gear with you, and head straight to the gym afterward, it doesn’t matter if all you do when your there is a half hour on the treadmill, you went!5. Enjoy the great indoors! – Youtube D.I.Y yoga or pilate’s and get busy on the lounge or bedroom floor.6. Pump up the music!- make a CD of music that gets you singing in the car, dancing with the vacuum, and feeling confident and play it a half hour before you plan to go to the gym and continue it on your Ipod while you’r there.7. Guilt trip…. Yourself- Just got home? Going to seed on the couch with the “I can’t be bothered’s?” Ask yourself “what’s stopping me going to the gym right now?”… If you can come up with an answer challenge it! i.e. “my gym cloths are in the wash.” Solution: get a second set!... “My car wont start.” Solution: Forget the gym, hit the pavement!8. Set a Summer goal- whether it’s about getting the body, or being able to run a marathon, set a summer orientated goal that you want achieve by the end of winter!9. Indoor sports- Speaks for itself.10. Help out a friend- Don’t know what to do with all this bad weather? Have a date, pick a house and work out there.11. Stop, Puzzle time!- Sitting indoors in front of the T.V. in the warm is lovely, but trade shortland street for calling a friend or relative, Sudoku, a book, crossword, or other puzzle and you will be burning more calories with your brain than you would watching the tele, up to 60% more!12. Can’t get the negativity off your mind?- It’s hard to be excited about winter, when summer was such a happy time. But instead of comparing pro’s and con’s just write a pro’s list, think about all the things winter allows you to do that you rather not do during the summer. Tips• Don’t overdress, the legs and feet stay warm from the increase in movement, so to stay cooler during your workout leave the legs exposed, but pack some long pants post workout to avoid cramping from rapid cooling.• Re-motivate by visiting old goals and giving them a makeover i.e. “go for a run every morning before work” to “swim in a heated indoor pool every day before work”.

Get a good nights sleep

1. Have a routine you go through one hour before your target bed time every night. This might include showering and other pampering, reading, etc2. Turn off all electronics, including your cell phone, at least 2 hours before bed. This may mean investing in an alarm clock, which can be bought for a couple of dollars from the local junk shop.3. Remove electronics from the bedroom like t.v’s and computers.4. Try a relaxation or meditation CD/DVD. Try trade me for some cheapies. Also great to help distress after work and tune into home life.5. Stress monkey? Invest in some herbal based stress relief tablets or sleep aid tablets that contain no chemical base. St. Johns wort is highly recommended.6. If there is something worrying you, guilting, or angering you and keeping you awake, while you lie there come up with a good solution to the problem. Problem solving the anxiety will often send you off to sleep. Focus on being specific, when, where, why, who, what, how.7. Listen to your body, if you need more sleep, then adjust accordingly.

Rewards that aren't food!

- Magazine / a subscription- Beauty products (body shop)- CD's, itunes track- A collectable item- Jewelery- Items you want but dont need- A night at the movies- A professional treatment, wax, mani, pedi, massage, hair treatment, etc- A day off from exercise (which is easier said then done when you'r on a roll)

My personal motivators

- Skinny people off face book (i.e. people I actually know not hollywood celeb's)- Sexy celebs that have a similair body type to me (Kim K, she has curves and she rocks them, those thighs are massive!)- Powerful words and quotes- Simply being outdoor's, 5 min leaning on the fence often inspires a power walk- Party/club music - Day dreaming about what I WILL spend my money on WHEN I HAVE my dream body- The people I love- The hater's, I wanna make them so mad that I laugh!- Making an effort to look good in the skin I already have- Cleanliness, having everything done engages me to go above and beyond- Sunlight- Good Smells- Good Coffee- Laughter (find a site online that gets you giggling)- Being kind and generous to others- High energy movies- imagining exercise causes toxins and stress to leave my body Make your own list! DO IT IN YOUR BRAINS BOOK that way you will never loose it :)

Morning person motivation

1. Exercising early in the morning "jump starts" your metabolism, keeping it elevated for hours, sometimes for up to 24 hours! As a result, you’ll be burning more calories all day long—just because you exercised in the morning. 2. Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing you’ve done something disciplined and good for you. (Much better than a worm!) 3. Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental acuity—a benefit that lasts four to ten hours after your workout ends. Exercising in the a.m. means you get to harness that brainpower, instead of wasting it while you’re snoozing. 4. Assuming you make exercise a true priority, it shouldn’t be a major problem to get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier—especially since regular exercise generally means a higher quality of sleep, which in turn means you’ll probably require less sleep. (If getting up 30 to 60 minutes earlier each day seems too daunting, you can ease into it with 10 to 20 minutes at first.) 5. When you exercise at about the same time every morning—especially if you wake up regularly at about the same time—you’re regulating your body's endocrine system and circadian rhythms. Your body learns that you do the same thing just about every day, and it begins to prepare for waking and exercise several hours before you actually open your eyes. That’s beneficial because:o Your body’s not “confused” by wildly changing wake-up times, which means waking up is much less painful. (You may even find that you don’t need an alarm clock most days.)o Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc.o Your metabolism, along with all the hormones involved in activity and exercise, begin to elevate while you're sleeping. As a result, you’ll feel more alert, energized, and ready to exercise when you do wake up. 6. Many people find that morning exercise has a tendency to regulate their appetite for the rest of the day. Not only do they eat less (since activity causes the release of endorphins, which in turn diminishes appetite), they also choose healthier portions of healthier foods. 7. People who consistently exercise find, sometimes to their great surprise, that the appointed time every morning evolves into something they look forward to. Besides the satisfaction of taking care of themselves, they find it’s a great time to plan their day, pray, or just think more clearly—things most of us often don’t get to do otherwise. 8. Exercising first thing in the morning is the most foolproof way to ensure that other things don’t overtake your fitness commitment, particularly if you have a hectic family life. (It’s so easy to wimp out in the evening, when we’re tired or faced with such tasks as rustling up dinner and helping with homework.) 9. More than 90% of those who exercise consistently have a morning fitness routine. If you want to exercise on a regular basis, the odds are in your favor if you squeeze your workout into the a.m. 10. Non-morning people can always trick themselves in the a.m. Having trouble psyching yourself up for a sunrise jog? Do what I did—tell yourself that you’ll still be so fast asleep that you won’t even remember—much less mind!

Busted exercise excuses

I’m tired and it’s very early in the morning1. Go to bed earlier the night before TO SLEEP2. Allow “wake up” time and activity like flicking on the light, washing your face, swinging your legs out of the bed, before going to exercise.3. Sit up in bed with the light on for 10min, and make an effort to have your eyes open. If you really feel near falling asleep after this, maybe some extra shut eye is what you need. I have somewhere to be/something to do I don’t have the time this afternoon.1. Pre-empt busy periods and exercise accordingly beforehand i.e. going around the block an extra time the day before or getting up a bit earlier that morning.2. NEVER make the promise of replacing that exercise later, it’s too easy to break that promise3. Make an effort to incorporate physical activity into your daily routine, i.e. take the stair’s, walk the long way to the café, take a walk around during your lunch break The “I can’t be botherd’s”1. Sit down, with the T.V off, and try and think of one reason you truly cannot get off your ass for even a walk around the block, one true reason.2. If something is stopping you from achieving your usual form of exercise, find an alternative. Get creative or Google.3. If the I can’t be bothered is a regularly occurring excuse, place your gym/exercise cloths and equipment where you will see it as soon as you get home i.e. the dining room table to kitchen bench, that way you won’t be able to relax before remembering about exercise. Weather1. Buy a light weight rain jacket that doubles as a wind breaker2. Make sure you have secure sunglasses and an appropriate water bottle3. Buy a workout DVD, like pilates or yoga if you find that the rain or snow makes you mellow, low key exercise is still exercise.4. If it’s just too cold outside to face the weather, then head off to the local indoor pool, most of these are heated plus it will make things seem a bit more summery. Make sure to take a hot shower after swimming, to take any chill out of your skin from leaving the water. Sick or genuine fatigue1. Again a low key workout DVD like pilates or yoga will be great for this, however both of these require good breathing so if your congested, grab some recommended decongestant from the local pharmacy medicate a half hour before exercise.2. If you have something more sinister than a cold or cough, have someone pick you up a puzzle book, like Sudoku, crossword, “Feeling Lucky” magazine, download a couple of free puzzle apps, or jump on the net, using your brain to think uses up to 60% more energy than watching T.V.3. If you have a regular or on-going condition talk to your family doctor about a suitable form of exercise or medications that will stop this condition from holding you back. Remember it is important to have good control over any existing conditions before starting a new exercise regime. DO YOU HAVE AN EXCUSE I HAVENT COVERED? GARUNTEE I CAN PUT IT TO SHAME. I challenge you to come up with one decent excuse you could use on a daily basis to avoid exercise.

Easy snacks under 100cal

- celery sticks with peanut butter and rasins (or lite cream cheese)- Rice cakes- Low fat cheese products (remember portion size)- Scrambled, hardboiled, or poached egg- Yogurt- Trail mix- Cucumber with hummus- Frozen vege- Tuna or deli meat on a crisp bread (cruskit)- Cereal- Pickled vege- Dried fruit- Half a bagel with a lite cream cheese- Any fruit- Frozen berries Remember your portion sizes for all these snacks

You're new fat kicking routine

1. Wake up to water. While your messing around in the morning carry a water bottle around with you, aim to get 1L down within an hour.2. Grab a quick 10min work out in the morning off sparkpeople.com before hitting the shower, to save time organize the video on your computer before you go to bed3. Eat a hearty healthy breakfast like eggs scrambled or in an omelet so you can cut out the bread. The more protein in your breakfast the less you’ll want to eat during the day.4. Have a coffee with your snack, preferably black coffee or minimal milk. Caffeine combined with carbohydrates refuel your muscle glycogen levels 34percent faster than without coffee. 5. Fill up on salad’s containing lean and protein packed meat like chicken or tuna, red meats are ok but only in smaller amounts. Try adding a citrus or vinaigrette based dressing, the amino acids will help break up fat particles. 6. Make your afternoon snack a protein based shake to help restore what you have used during the day with minimal calories.7. Find 30min for cardio, whether its hitting the gym or the pavement 30 minimum of cardio is essential to successful fat loss. For beginners a decent power walk will be sufficient.8. Hit the sack. Start a relaxing night time routine that lasts about an hour before bed time, bedtime should leave you with 8 hours minimum sleep. i.e. if you get up at 7am you need to be in bed by 11pm the night before, having started your relaxation routine by 10.An example routine may include, a shower, pampering, reading.

Bible to Anti binge eating

1. NEVER eat directly from the whole carton, bag or box. Take out your portion and put the rest away.2. For sweets and treats, use small bowls and plate with cocktail spoons or forks. A half a cup of ice cream or pie will look like a lot more food if you put it in a small bowl, rather than a large bowl with lots of extra empty space. Using smaller spoons and forks will make smaller portions last longer and slow down your eating.3. Set a kitchen timer or monitor the clock and try to extend meal times to 15-20 minutes. Take small bites and put your fork down in between bites. Have a conversation, chew slowly, and have a sip of water between each mouthful so you enjoy the full flavor of each bite. These strategies will allow your body to have enough time for its fullness cues to kick in. It takes about 15-20 minutes for your tummy to send a single to your brain that you are full. It's really hard to do when your super hungry, and not easy to remember to do but the benefits are HUGE!4. Learn to differentiate between hunger and cravings. Cravings are usually for something specific (brownies, French fries, bread, candy, etc.). However, if you are truly hungry, you will most likely eat anything, including raw veggies dipped in hummus or a small handful of nuts. The lines between hunger and cravings are often blurred, especially with the abundance of food options we have. Listen to your body and learn to decipher between cravings and hunger.5. Sometimes, we can confuse hunger with thirst. If you find yourself staring into the fridge looking for something to eat, but don’t know what you want, you are most likely experiencing boredom cravings. Grab a glass of water and walk away.6. Make keeping a water bottle with you more important then carrying a cell phone or your wallet, everything is ok aslong as your waterbottle is full.7. Pre-prepare, pre-empt, pre-think your food meals, it will give you something to look forward and STOP you from eating willy nilly.8. When a craving for a specific food strikes, have an answer for it: Go for a walk, read a good book, take a hot bath, TXT A FRIEND whatever you have to do to get your mind off of the craving.9. Sometimes binge eating isn’t really about the food or the craving at all. Instead it’s more of a stress reliever after a really bad day or a difficult breakup. Often without realizing it, we eat the whole bag of cookies or that entire bowl of pasta as a coping mechanism for stress or personal struggles. One of the most important things to prevent these types of binges is to stay present. Slow down and savor each bite of food. Better yet, seek out stress relief by going for a walk around the block or taking a hot bath.10. When life's stresses are over bearing say this "why I am I taking this so seriously, is it really that bad?" I dont mean thinking it, I mean really saying it out loud. Eventually you will laugh at how high strung you were.11. Do snack, have a fruit or vege, or other healthy ulternative, of a pre determined portion size, about 2 hours after your last meal.12. When a packedged food has a predetermined portion size, i.e 25g of almonds, use that as a guide to how large your snack size would be. Light weight kitchen scales are useful for this, and you can pick up some cute snack containers.13. Stay present while eating. Be aware of what you are eating and how much. Focus on your food and minimize any other distractions: Avoid eating in front of the TV or computer. Clear off the kitchen table. Don't read, study, write or talk on the phone while you eat. By eating more mindfully, you will enjoy your meals more, notices fullness, flavor and satisfaction better than ever before, and feel less of a desire to overeat.14. Know how you respond to trigger foods. You'll hear differing opinions about whether people prone to binge eating should keep their trigger foods in the house or far, far away. I think this depends on the person. Only YOU know your own limits. If you are the type of person that simply cannot stop at just one cookie or one serving of ice cream, it might be best to keep these foods out of the house for a while. However, I think the goal would be to work towards enjoying a small serving of a trigger food whenever a craving strikes in order to avoid the inevitable binge that usually follows bouts of restriction. For some, allowing a small serving of a trigger food throughout the week can prevent binges—because you allow it versus labeling it off-limits. Others have a harder time staying in control.

Brains book vol 2

A brains book is a book with clear or lind pages for you to download all your thoughts, ideas and goals into so you don’t have to juggle them in your head with everything else being added to the pile. It means that you will be able to focus clearly on specific tasks and be assured that because everything is written down, you can come back to it without the stress of forgetting bits and pieces of any topic.I usually spend a portion of my week (or day depending on my needs at any time) to download everything I am thinking into this book, the book doesn’t need to be structured, although if something needs to be highlighted for constant attention, a post it note that is flagging the page is often good.Some of the things I write into my brains book are:• Budgets• Ideas on any topic (I circle these)• Goals (and plan them out)• Keep records of scores, dates, hours worked etc• Weekly schedules• Receipts (usually paper clipped to the back page)• The odd diary entry to get things off my chest• Birthday gift ideas• Wise things I want to remember• Wish lists• Need lists• Shopping lists• Car rego and warrant dates• Names, numbers, address, directions etc• Most importantly TO DO LISTS Pretty much everything that I would ever need to remember! Best kind of book to have I think is one that’s big enough to comfortably write in, and fit in your hand bag. I choose something with a cover that tells a story about who I am.Some of the things I have recently added to a brains book are:• An attack plan for completing all the work set in class by their due dates (this is pages long but it is all in the same place which is important)• A list of things to do during down time that I can include my partner in There is no limit to what you put in this book, the rule I follow is ‘if it can be written I will write it’ that way its out of my head and on to a page, like a filing system but more fun.The benefit of this type of book compared to a diary is that it has no structure, no set dates, no set amount of lines per day, its simply going to be however you need it to be…Deciding to start this sort of book has helped me to do several things, first and best of all was learn to budget and save! Now handling money isn’t a problem coz I can write out a budget, take it with me anywhere, and not have to rummage through the house or handbag to find my budget. Plus week to week, it helps me track what I’m spending money on. The biggest helper points I can give you are• Get some little possibly arrowed post it notes• Paper clips• Give this book faith, and dedicate time to it, it will detune you from stress, before bed is when I do most of my booking• Date EVERYTHING you put in this book I will have to have to show you mine sometime for sure, if I plan on being at the polytech on a Thursday, which I should be so I’m getting work done, I will let you know so we can met up during your lunch break for you to have a squizz.Best place for variety is Whitcolles, if your feeling rich get a nice pen too

Helpful health for gentle & effective change

* Make a poster of people that are motivator's for you * Are you in "fatitiude" or "ripatude" state of mind? Are you thinking fat thoughts or positive thoughts? How can you change your frame of mind right now, when its hardest to change it, how can you prevent the fatitude attitude coming back?* Food is not the enemy, you just need to learn to deprioritise food. Think of it like water, you need it to survive, you dont have it around for entertainment.* Communicating through cravings, bad moods, stress's, hardships, happiness and success is soooo important! Talk about it all! It's only gonna help ease the problems and make the celebration of success better.* The first 5kg is sooo important! If you can tackle that first mole hill, then the rest of the mountain will bow to you.* Remember you wont always be loosing weight, at some points you will plataue when your body is creating more muscule, dont worry your not becoming the hulk, its healthy.* A biscuit here, a lollie there isn't ok, your body doesnt want to touch your fat, thats its emergency fuel, it DOES NOT WANT TO TOUCH IT so to an extent you do have to starve yourself OF BAD FOOD. Remember not to over eat on the good stuff either.* For at least an hour before after you have been to the gym DONT EAT! You may be crazy hungry, but that is your body trying to tell you it doesnt have the energy to continue, thats your body avoiding the fat reserves. Use these hunger pangs to get involved with house work, personal chores, and homework! That hour will pass in no time, all else fails call someone you havent spoken to in a while. Failing that, reserves specific daily habit for this hour post gym, things like checking emails, posting on the class forums, txting up a storm, pampering, etc.* It is possible to be social without food, its just a matter of being creative with your surrondings and spending time with people who can appreciate your weight loss efforts.* There is more power in holding the cookie and saying "do i really need this" then promising to work it off tomorrow. Challenge yourself, question yourself, argue it out of you, eventually you will be so sick of fighting your own desires that the cookie will be majoily inferior to your power.* DO NOT EVER promise to do more exercise tomorrow to make up for what you missed today, plans can change, things can pop up, its easier to let it go, tell yourself 'there is only now, there is no tomorrow". At the same time, if you do miss a workout for a legitamit reason, dont beat yourself up about it. If this is a regular occurance, buy a workout dvd for at home.* Keeping a food diary is an amazing tool if you are choosing to work soley with food (instead of meal replacents). What is even more powerful, is taking a photograph of everything you eat, physically seeing what you put in today, may be enough to make that chocolate bar less appetising.*It takes the average person 3 days to digest a meal from mouth to.. well... This is unhealthy, it should only take 24 hours. A correct metabolism willl come from eating healthier and maintaing a healthy lifestyle, there are supplements to assist with metabolic rates, but take these as a last resort.

A brains book

So u see all these pretty books in stores but would never keep a diary. Keep a brains book!!
It's a book u take almost everywhere, n write down everything like...
- lists
- to do's
- reminders
- budgets
- goals and ideas
- nonsense
- a journal entry
- a drawing
- future FB status's
- dates for future events
Pretty much anything u can put on paper. I find its a great way to log what I do in a day so I can pick on flat mates later.