As John is My Witness....

I'm up to 30 raised push ups now...woohoo! It really helps to have an audience folks...if you have a goal like this-doing a certain number of push ups, sit ups, pull ups, bench press, a distance to run-whatever it is, get someone to watch-it really and truly makes a difference to keep you pushing to the next one. I had done 27 the week before so was shooting for an increase of just two push ups this week, but having John sit there watching, and of course motivating me with "come on, you can do it" etc...I made it to 30. Yeehaw!

Goal is still to get 50 by the end of January...but I just might get there earlier!

In other news...well-nothing terribly interesting or exciting really; but I've been weeding out my Facebook pages; getting rid of groups I'm just not that interested in anymore, and deleting "friends". The only reason I'm mentioning this is because I may have accidentally deleted folks I've met through blogging and various forums. If I didn't recognise the name, I deleted-and I just wanted to apologise and ask that if you are a blogger pal, (or forum friend!) and you are so inclined, please feel free to add me back, just send a message that you know me from the blog or forum etc.  Plus Facebook was doing some weird stuff-and I think I truly did make some unintentional deletions.

I want to get to "know" people, not just have people selling me stuff-products or themselves! And I don't just want to be a number on someones list of 1,000 friends.  I wasn't even seeing the status of people I know; now I can actually see what's going on with people that I've either met, or want to meet and family members.  Very refreshing!

That's about it; Have a great week!
Ciao for now!

Quote for the weekend...

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Guest Post at Kelly O!

My best blogger pal, Kelly Olexa over in the states interviewed li'l ol me for her Wednesday Woot Factor!
Check it out HERE.
Enjoy the rest of your week!

Find what you love!

Continuing on with my personal push up challenge-I am up to 27! Woohoo! My plan has been to increase by 2 or 3 each week; I started  a couple weeks ago with 20, upped it to 25 the second week and then now I'm at 27 raised push ups. I really do think I will reach that 50 mark earlier than the end of January; I have been feeling quite strong. I was made for dong things in small energetic spurts-like pumping out push ups or bench press or pull ups or even sprints; I was not built for anything that requires energy for long periods-such as long distance running.

I am not giving up on running-I'm still doing it three days a week for my cardio...but I know what I LIKE  to do and what my body was made for, and distance running is not it! Give me my weights baby! LOL

That's the key folks, find what you love. If you don't like weights-then don't do them; but don't just got straight back to the couch with your bag of chips. Find something you like because exercise, in any shape is just so good for you; for your mind, spirit and body. There are so many forms of exercise out there-there is one that is right for you, and once you find something you enjoy, you will never look back! I've been doing strength and resistance training for over 20 years now because I love it, and I can't imagine NOT lifting weights-and I know that I reap the benefits daily.  Strong bones & muscles, high metabolism, alert mind...all benefits of consistent and regular work outs-and of course eating right helps too! You can gain these benefits from swimming, running, regular walking (as long as it's fairly up tempo), aerobic type classes and videos, yoga, dancing, tennis, the list goes on.

There is something for everyone-and the benefits are immense!

Stay fit!

Have a good week!

Push ups, Pull ups & Rainforest Animals

I know, bizarre title; well, there is more to me than just fitness! Did you know, some may remember, when I first started blogging, about 3 years ago, I first called the blog "Raechelle's Rainforest Experience"? I changed it after a few months, when I felt more confident to make it a true fitness blog. You won't find any of those first ones, though, I deleted them since they were quite random.

So, anyway, I still like to blog about the unique animals we see here in North Queensland and over the weekend we got some great pics and video of a daddy Cassowary and his chick cruising through the front yard.

Excuse the veranda mess, we weren't expecting to film that day! We had just been working in the gardens. And on the video, I was so surprised that he came straight towards the veranda I did a hop back to get into the house! They can be quite dangerous-especially since they are protecting their chicks; but he really wasn't too terribly bothered.



So, now for the fitness stuff!
Last week, I blogged about my goal of doing 50 raised push ups by the end of January; I started with 20-shown HERE. Well, this last weekend I already got 25! I was only going to do about 2 or 3 extra each week; I just might have those 50 by the first of 2011!

And lastly, inspired by ABBY'S pull up mission (see her November 8, progress vid), I thought I should get back into doing pull ups myself since I hadn't done them in quite some time and was very please that I got 4 & 1/2 on the first set and then two sets of 5! Can you say stoked! I didn't video it as I wasn't really expecting to get too many. May have to video that next week...yes, I like to show off! hehehe!

How about you? Are you working on those New Year's goals yet or just putting it off until some time next year? Get on it people! Live now!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Bring on Summer!

Well, here in Aus anyway...hehehe.
I am feeling fabulously reinvigorated today-and love it! The last couple of weeks my runs were just so sluggish-and of course the whole left hip thing; but I think that is finally healed since I stopped doing drills. Today I spotted John on some 250lb bench presses and felt quite inspired by his performance and ended up running my best time yet. Only ran 3.9K....but it's the longest run I've done in a while-and the first one I've done without stopping in about 2 weeks. I even sprinted the last 150m or so. Not ready for any races yet, but I don't care; I feel awesome!

Must be the increased amount of sunshine we've had over the last couple of weeks; plus John & I have some fun new changes on the horizon. Not sharing yet, but I'm excited!

Hope you have a fantastic and energizing weekend!
Ciao for now!

Keeping It Real and Shootin' for 50

Last month I read quite a few fitness type blogs about other bloggers that might not be "walkin' the talk", so to speak; so here's to keeping it real!
Below is a video we shot this weekend-I'm at 20 raised push ups right now...my goal is to have 50 by the end of January. 
The video serves multiple purposes; one is to show that I really can do 20 now and to compare for the end of January; second purpose-last week I blogged about starting on your goals now-so that's what I'm doing; and three just to show that even though I'm not doing any figure comps anymore, I'm still keeping fit simply because I love working out!
How about you? Have you started on those new goals yet? Do you think fitness bloggers should prove that they practice what they preach a bit more? And I'm not pointing any fingers here-JUST CURIOUS! :-)
Ciao for now!