Resume vs Eulogy

So I recently read an article that made me think… like hard.  It was debating resume virtues vs eulogy virtues.  Which should you live for?  Basically resume virtues are just that, you put them on your resume.  They are skills you bring to the marketplace and the eulogy ones are, funnily enough, the ones that get mentioned in your eulogy.  They’re deeper, they define who you are as a person, the nature of your relationships, what are you like?  Are you deeply good?  Bold, loving, dependable, constant?  So which should I live for? 

I’m at that point in my life where I’m attending friends’ weddings rather than family ones.  I support myself and have a clear idea about who I am and where I want to go in life... I’m actually becoming an adult *internally screams* and I’m actually kinda loving it!  I’m about to cease being a Uni student, balancing full time study and a part time job.  I’m about to join the ‘adult’ working world, well, a profession that I have worked my butt off to become a part of.  Nearly six years at University and it is nearly over.  That’s a resume virtue.  To be a successful member of contemporary society you need to sell yourself.  Ok, not completely literally, but hear me out.  Think about social media, Face Book and Instagram, the idea of these networks is to highlight yourself, tell the world about who you are and what you do.  Isn’t that the point of the resume?  I decided to commit six years of my life to higher education (resume goal), to get myself a job that I could help people in, one that would make me happy… that makes it a eulogy virtue.  So why can’t I live for both?  Nobody is stopping me, I can be who ever I choose to be.  You can be who ever you choose to be.  It’s your choice, no one else’s.  The question is whether or not you’re willing to put in the hard yards, to work towards your goal.

On this blog, I’ve mostly written about my health and fitness goals and achievements.  This year I haven’t had a solid health and fitness goal.  It has become such an ingrained part of my life that I no longer have to set myself the goal to get to the gym five days a week, or eat nutritious meals.  As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been sick on and off for a lot of this year so my fitness goals have taken a backseat.  So what am I focusing on this year?  I’m working on me and securing my future.  As mentioned above, I am so close to completing my degree however I’ve been at Uni for longer than I was in high school!  I’m feeling rather burnt out, combining nearly a full time working load, full time study and maintaining a home and all of the relationships in my life.  But that is nearly over and I’m thinking about the future.  Who do I want to be?  I want to live for my resume but also for my eulogy.  I choose to be a constant loyal, kind and caring person, for my partner, friends and family.  I choose to help people where I can and to put smiles on the faces of those around me.  I want to inspire people to be the best that they can be, and I’m going to be able to do that in the profession that I have chosen.  I am a good person, and that’s who I want to be on my resume and how I want to be remembered when I am gone.

Liz Xox

Good days, Bad days… That’s life

Ok, ok… It’s been a long time since I wrote.  I’ve been meaning to, I just haven’t got around to it, you know how it is… life gets in the way.  Thanks to a few of my regular readers who haven’t let me slack off!! They’re holding me accountable and I like that!! So here I go.

Yep... All of this Gelato was consumed (over a week) while I was sick... and I have no regrets

I’ve been sick quite a bit this year.  All of a sudden, my immune system sucks!  I’m not gonna lie, I’m getting pretty sick of it too.  But hey, that’s life, I just have to deal with it as best I can.  So just last week, I spent five days straight in bed.  I could hardly move.  Ok, yeah, I mean… five days to bum around in bed, sounds like a dream come true, right?  Yeah, for the first few hours it was great!  Bed… Movies… Gelato (yes you read that correctly!) then I got bored and quickly went stir crazy.  I’m not the sort of person who is happy to sit around doing nothing.  Heck, I can’t even sit still through a one hour lecture!  A two plus hour tute and I have to go for a mid lesson walk!  Yep, my Uni friends can attest to that one!  So, while the gym was off limits to me (FOR TWO WHOLE WEEKS! URGH!) I decided that I was well enough to go for a walk (truth be told, I couldn’t bare the thought of losing my position on the fitbit leaderboard!).  Well, that was a bad idea, I was having trouble breathing and had to sit down on the curb!  Well, that was a slap in the face.  I felt totally useless and BORED! So I begrudgingly admitted defeat (and gave up top 10 on the leader board) and went back home to bed… and a delicious hot cross bun.  Sometimes I still console myself with food, that’s a deeply ingrained part of me, one that I still struggle with every day.  Somehow I think it will always be there to a certain extent.  However saying that, I’ve progressed, I can now stop at one, I don’t need the entire packet.  So that’s a win, and hey, you gotta celebrate every win, big or small.  Over two years and it’s now a part of me, it’s my life.  Healthy is my lifestyle.  Healthy is for life, and life has good and bad days, sometimes you just gotta do what you can with what you have.

Oh and on a side note, I went to visit my ‘best mate Mish’ on her Powerful Living Book Tour a few weeks ago too… Got smashed and then had a nice little chat!  Let the good days out number the bad =)

Liz Xox

Celebrating my 2nd Fitversary!

Fitaversary.  It’s the anniversary of the day I decided to take control of my life.  Two years ago I decided to get healthy… get fit.  Exactly two years ago I was fed up with life.  I spent a lot of my time angry, depressed and eating my emotions… but pretending I was ok.  Eventually I did it; I took the first step and made myself a plan.  It wasn’t very elaborate or particularly detailed, but it was a plan and I followed it through.  Realistically, the plan never ends.  Healthy eating and regular exercise are now very much a part of my everyday life.  “Healthy” has become my lifestyle.  Funnily enough it was my new housemate Claire who convinced me to join the gym with her, and then later convinced me to try a round of Michelle Bridge’s 12 Week Body Transformation with her.  So really, that’s where it all began and I’ve learned a lot in that time frame. 

I started off with the headset that I “wanted to be skinny”.  I quickly learned that this wasn’t a very smart goal.  I had to be precise in what I wanted to achieve and put in place specific goals to achieve what I wanted to.  I’ve learned a lot about myself.  I had to identify early on who I was and who I wanted to be.  Everyday I’ve had to strive for that person, work towards being that person.  Every little decision, every comment I made to others, but most importantly, to myself.  I had to learn how to treat myself kindly and eventually how to love the person I was rather than the person I thought I should be.  I learned that friends come and go.  A lesson I’ve learned many times over.  But this time I accepted the lesson as part of life.  We all have different friends for different stages of life and if you’re lucky enough, you’ll find those few who stay with you right through this whirlwind we call life.   

I’m a very organised person.  My diary is like my most prized possession.  I don’t think I could have achieved what I have if I wasn’t so organised, I made the time to train, and I made the time to shop and cook healthy nutritious meals, I also work and study full time, so it was hard.  I found it hard to find time to do everything, but being happy and healthy was important to me, so I made the time to focus on my goals. I had a strong head when I went out (no, I never stopped socialising) and simply made the healthiest decisions I could.  Slowly, I got stronger, slowly I started to drop the weight.  I need to make it clear here that NOTHING WAS PERFECT!  I had fantastic days and totally crap days, I had to deal with emotions, binge eating, hunger pains, sore muscles, gym tantrums, cravings and body dysmorphia.  I had weeks where I lost 3 kilos, 1 kilo, stayed the same.   There were also weeks where I PUT ON weight.  Yup, nothing has been perfect, and every day has been struggle.  But I also learned that the more healthy choices I made, the easier it got to keep making those same choices.  It became a habit.  It’s just what I do now.  Even though I have lost 30 kilos and hit my goal weight, the journey doesn’t end.  To maintain my weight and stay happy I have to keep making healthy decisions.  I still have emotional binge days but I’ve learned how to pick myself back up and keep plodding along.  It’s life.  I count myself lucky that I’ve learned all these lessons now, and that I didn’t wait.  I have achieved and learned so much about life and myself that I can’t help but be totally proud of myself. 

If you’d like to see some of the highlights from my “journey” head over to this page.

So how did I celebrate my 2^nd Fitversary?  By doing what I strive to do every single day.  Eating well, training, and simply being happy with and grateful for my life.

Boxing, abs and back sesh!

Liz Xox

My one and only Claire Bee.  Thanks for giving me the push I needed to change my life Xox

Pole Dancing

So, two years ago, heck, even a year ago there is no way I would have agreed to take a Pole Dancing class.  Pft! I mean, it’s the sort of activity that requires self-confidence and physical strength.  Two things I was severely lacking.  Fast forward a couple of years, drop a few kilos, gain some self love and confidence, and I’m there, swinging around on a brass pole in a skimpy sequined outfit… (totally convinced I was going to somehow concuss myself) laughing my ass off!  Only for my good mate Em’s Hen’s day/night.  Seriously, only for you Em!  Clearly I love you to bits!!

                                         What I thought appropriate Pole Dancing attire was...

Nervous, anxious, scared… basically shitting myself, I rocked up not knowing anyone either.  A glass of champagne helped to calm my nerves and before I knew it I was told to go and “dress up” in the “costume room”.  Oh dear God, what had I got myself into?!  Everything was pretty, well, “blingy”.  I ended up in a velvet, sequined bodice with tassels and a sequined “tutu” (no it didn’t cover anything) over my bike shorts thanks!  Needless to say, I was SUPER self-conscious… But I told myself I COULD, that I WOULD do it and that I WOULD have fun.  So I did.

I had plenty of trouble coordinating my lefts, rights, spins, 6 O’clock’s, 12 O’clock’s, kicks etc etc but I was laughing.  I was actually doing it and having fun.  I was falling smack to the floor and getting friction burns, but I was doing it!  I eventually learned to spin forwards and backwards and (somewhat) gracefully, slide down the pole and land in a (kind of) graceful position.

                                         What appropriate Pole Dancing attire actually is...

So thanks to a slightly twisted ankle, countless bruises and multiple blisters, I learned that I’m still ridiculously uncoordinated.  Somehow, these minor misfortunes aside, pole dancing made me think about how far I’ve come and how much I have achieved physically and mentally.  I know that whatever I tell myself I can do, I will make it happened.  I told myself I’d have a blast and I did.  Most importantly, to anyone out there who needs a reminder, a push, it’s never too late to turn your life around.  You’ve got to make it happen for yourself, but seriously, the results (doing things you never even dreamed of doing) are so worth every tear, every work out, nutritious meal, and simply every ounce of hard work!

Liz Xox

A New Year, new beginnings and jumping around on TV with MB

So I spent my first day of the New Year pretty much packing up my life.  Packing up my childhood bedroom ready to “become a real adult” *cough, cough*… a dramatic way of saying ‘move out of home’.  So that’s where the first two weeks of the New Year have gone for me, and why… yet again, I haven’t posted in awhile!

                                                     The mess that was my bedroom...

Packing up my room took a fair bit of effort, I mean, it’s been my bedroom for 20 of the 22 years I’ve been around for… I had a lot of sorting and throwing out to do.  It made me really think about the year I’d had, massive highs and depressing lows, peaks and troughs.  I guess that’s just life.  Good things happened but bad things happened too.  I learned a lot last year, and it wasn’t until I packed up and moved, that I realised.  2014 was the year I became strong, on the inside.  I realised that I had to look after myself but more importantly that I COULD look after myself, I could pick myself up, dig my way out of that dark ditch, and brush myself off, get up and tell the world to come at me.  I realised just how strong of a woman I have become.  It wasn’t until I was in front of a camera voicing my inner demons, things I had never said out loud before, that I realised how far I had come.  A year ago I could never had had the courage to tell the world how I felt, why I wanted to lose weight in the first place.  I tried every day to act like I was happy with the way I was, people around me bought it.  Fast-forward two years and I’m jumping around on TV with Michelle Bridges telling the world my story, hoping to inspire others to make the change, to learn how to be truly happy.  That’s what I am now, and how I have chosen to start the New Year… simply happy. 

Liz Xox

                                                         Screenshot from Youtube!! =D

                                                           Watch the TV advert here =)

                                                   Moving in, apparently I had my priorities right! ;)

Pushing boundaries and conquering fears on set with Mish and the 12WBT crew!

Ok, ok… again, it has been awhile since I’ve written, but you know how it is… life gets in the way!!

Talking about life, in my world living life to the full comes from constantly pushing your comfort zone, testing the limits and doing new and exciting things.  I think it’s safe to say that being flown to Sydney to shoot for the 2015, 12WBT advertising campaign has COMPLETELY taken me outside my comfort zone! 

Exactly one week after being contacted by 12WBT to feature in the advert, I found myself leaving work to board a plane to Sydney.  Before I knew it, I was on Oxford Street, in a dressing room with three lovely stylists throwing combination after combination of apparel at me to try on.  So, yeah, apparently mint is my colour!  Wait.  I haven’t yet mentioned how incredibly nervous about this whole thing I was.  Like super nervous, like “what have I gotten myself into?” nervous!  This was SO out of my comfort zone!  But every single one of the crew were wonderful, very relaxed and easy to talk to and work with.  Once I realised this I started to relax and simply enjoy the moment.  So once our outfits had been chosen and deemed to be a good balance of colour and styles, we were treated to a beautiful dinner at a gorgeous little Thai street food restaurant ‘House’ - I highly recommend it!

So I’ll give you one guess where I was at 6am the next morning… yep, you got it! The Hotel Gym!   It was a great way to mentally prepare myself for the day ahead.  Yet before I knew it I found myself at the Royal Hall of Industries, in our waiting room, sitting in the hair and makeup seat, listening to the stylist talk about exactly what the Director had requested for me… wow! I was definitely feeling like a star!  They even had the cool movie star mirrors with the light bulbs around the edge!  Then in Mish’s words “welcome to the glamorous world of television, hurry up and wait!”  So we waited, waited and waited!  Yep, there is a lot of waiting in film!  There were so many wonderful people to talk to and get to know though, that time flew regardless of the waiting times.  

Yep time was flying because before I knew it I was in front of a huge camera, with the other lovely ladies literally standing behind Mish as we shot the final scene for the TV advert.  It was so exciting; I mean we were literally standing in the spotlight with stylists running around us making sure every piece of hair was in place!  It was nerve racking, but exciting, and when we starting karate kicking, all we could do was laugh and have a blast!  Then came the individual shots… I found that really hard, being the complete and utter center of attention on camera?  Yep- I struggled and was hardly natural, well the lovely Lara made me laugh, and I got into a heated discussion with the photographer about the correct lunging technique!  All in good fun!  My final shoot was a video testimonial.  It’s safe to say that this was the one shot I was super nervous about.  Just me, on camera… talking about my experiences with 12WBT.  They wanted raw and natural, well lets just say, that’s what they got!  I’m very interested to see what they do with that footage.  This is where I mention that even a year ago, there would have been no way in hell I would have agreed to be featured!  I agreed to do this shoot for two main reasons; it was about pushing my boundaries and conquering my fear of the camera.  If I can do what I did that day, I can do anything!

Liz Xox

Look out for me in the TV advert!! =D

Commando Bootcamp!!

So I find myself at the top of a mountain in the Gold Coast in the presence of Steve Willis, aka “The Commando” from The Biggest Loser Australia, one of my fitness idols.  When he entered the room, I turned to jelly, a huge grin slapped across my face, all I could do was pinch my mate Kayla who I’d dragged along with me.  I’d been waiting for this trip all year, the day had finally arrived.  

Showing of my guns with Steve after the final 3 hour training session!

I’ve always been very independent, never relying on others.  I organise myself, my meals, my training.  I get the job done for me.  The first training session included a fitness test from which we were split into four teams (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta).  This scared me a little more than it should have.  I would be putting my fate in the hands of other people.  People I’d just met.  I realised during my time with Steve, the importance of being in a team and how you have to trust and support each other to make it through the tough times.  Yes I knew this before, I knew team work was important, but training has always been me, alone, pushing for myself.  I’ve always associated team work with a professional environment.  At work.  At Uni. In schools.  It wasn’t until I was faced with a HUGE rope and a 300+ kilo tyre and told to drag it 500 meters up a hill and back down again without looping the rope or letting it touch the ground, that I truly realsied the importance of being in a team and working together.  It was an insanely grueling task and the mere thought of it had me in an absolute panic.  All the old thoughts of “it’s not possible.” “Pft! He’s kidding right?!”  “I should just give up now,” fleetingly flashed through my mind, but I know I’m stronger than my excuses.  I knew I had my team there to support me.  We did it.  We won the challenge!  It was a euphoric moment.  It wasn’t easy by any means, the rope constantly slipped off the tyre, we kept stopping, had to wait for cars to pass etc, etc… But we worked together and got the job done, of course with the encouraging words of The Commando in front of us!

Tyre flipping, Commando style!

Dragging the tyre up hill...

I did and leanred amazing things during the camp.  It was during our second training session on the second day (10am) that something simply “clicked”.  I can’t really explain it any other way than that I was in excruciating pain, DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) but was pushing through… hey, only for Commando!  Something inside me broke and I became a machine, some kind of demon I didn’t recognise.  My face was crewed up in pain and determination and I was making some foul grunting noises I’ve never heard before, as I punched out a 2.5km run up and down hills, followed by dead lifts AMRAP in 20 minutes.  That was followed by 50 dumb bell snatches, 800 meter run up and down a hill with a 15 kilo sand bag, 50 more dumb bell snatches and another sandbag run… I was ontop of the world!  My heart was racing and I was gasping for breath but I was elated.  I’d done it.  I’d broken through the pain barrier I’d set and smashed the workout.  It was at that point I refocused, remembered that I could do anything I wanted, and that I am SO MUCH STRONGER than I ever thought possible.

I came away from the camp totally elated yet absolutely smashed.  I feel like I’ve changed.  I got the kick up the butt I needed to keep pushing, to push harder, give everything a go and always believe I can.  Thanks to Steve for bringing out a side of me I didn’t know existed, for coaching me and working with me, even after training had finished, when I’d gone back to give something a go alone, Steve popped his head out and was there to help me achieve.  Finally, to the incredible group of strong women and men in the group who made me realise that it is never too late, if you want something, work for it, go out and get it.  To the ladies who pushed me through each and every workout, when I was ready to quit or slow down and take a break, they wouldn’t let me, encouraging me to keep going every step of the way.  Finally thank-you to the inspirational Mums who took it upon themselves to look out for Kayla and I!  You guys rock! 

Liz Xox

The wonderful group, minus a few!

Kayla and I, disgustingly dirty, with Steve on the last day

I may have asked Steve to sign me ;) He he! 

Unnecessary wall squat... the things i'll do for clean hair!!