Jeez Louise...

I changed the route on my run this morning and ran through the city. Only problem with this is you can see your reflection in the shop windows when you run. Yeesh. While the fact you can run without dying is a good thing, you don't want to be looking at yourself when you do it. Scary stuff. It'd put you off exercise for life. Exercise. Don't look - don't see - just do it.

"Exercise is done against one’s wishes and maintained only because the alternative is worse." - unknown

You're a freak...

So, I hauled arse down to the local podiatrist due to the whole issue of muscle pain in the side of my knee after running. It’s called, funnily enough, ‘runners knee.’ Anyway, I figured due to my lovely flat feet – I feel having flat feet means you have a better grip on the earth - that the issue may lie there. Yes, I’m big on self diagnosis and generally I’m right because I’m such a smart arse. The foot doctor person analysed, prodded, flexed, measured and made me walk back and forward on this computerized mat thingy. The diagnosis? Did you know you are very flexible? Yes I did. It's my party trick. You have very flexible ligaments. Well, I’m proud of them. Your feet are very flexible. Oh stop it, now you’re just making me blush. But your feet are a weird shape that’s not normal. So, I’m a freak? I can’t say that of course. But we both can think it. She just smiled. Thankfully I have no wish to be normal and with that I ordered bright green orthotics and will start running again, freaky feet and all. You can't keep a good, freaky-footed woman down. I think Mao Tse Tung said that...or maybe not. 

I'm now thinking one of my heroines will be a freaky footed person too and the hero - so taken with her freakiness - will not be able to control his love/lust for her. It could be some weird sexual thing. We've seen everything else in ebookland.   

Two things...

I was at the gym this morning running 5km. It was either do it at the gym and sweat a lot or do it along the Cairns Esplanade and sweat a lot. I chose door number one due to air con. Anyway, I ramped up the treadie and ran faster than I ever had before – I feel this pain deeply now. But the point of my story is this – there was this woman on the next treadmill who was running fast as well. However, she was making the most interesting sounds. I swear to god it sounded like she was in the throes of the most amazing sex and on the verge of orgasm. I thought two things – 1. How bizarre. 2. I want that treadmill tomorrow.     

A-mazing...

 There’s this dude that exercises every morning on the Cairns Esplanade. When I say exercise, it’s that he walks around in circles within circles and then detours off to a wonky square before dancing backwards down the boardwalk. The things you see at 5:30am. Anyway, he wears enormous headphones that have to be from the 1970’s and sings at the top of his lungs. Badly. Really, really badly. I know bad singing. I excel at being atrocious at it. But, in saying that he’s really into belting out whatever the hell song he is singing. It could be rock. It may be punk. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was opera on speed. It just could be the alphabet backwards. Anyhow, I can’t fault him – but for the headphones – because I also sound a-mazing when I sing along with Pink.

Actually I expect any day now Pink will call me up as a backing singer.    

It could happen...

Same diff...

Yep, that'd be right...no diff between the benefits of chocolate and running. Gee, hmmm...which one to choose to do...really, eating chocolate saves your life.

• Running for Health Benefits
  Studies have shown the health benefits of running to be tremendous, reducing your chances of everything from the common cold to cancer. Running is among the best aerobic exercises for physical conditioning of your heart and lungs. It helps ensure the efficient flow of blood and oxygen throughout the body, things that are proven to help to decrease the risk of a heart attack.

Running -- like other types of exercise -- is a great stress-reliever and may even relieve mild depression. Many runners enjoy reaching the "runner's high" -- that euphoric, clear, and calm state they feel after a long run.

Research shows that healthy adults who exercise regularly are generally happier than those who don't. As a runner, you'll likely feel more energetic and creative.

Running helps you improve your fitness and stamina. As a weight-bearing exercise, running also increases bone density, which can fend off osteoporosis.

http://running.about.com/od/runningforbeginners/a/whatisrunning_2.htm

Ten benefits of chocolate…

High in Antioxidants

Cocoa contains flavanols, a type of flavanoid that is only found in cocoa and chocolate. Flavanoids are naturally-occurring compounds that occur in plant foods that act as antioxidants and help counteract free radicals in the body.

Blood Pressure Benefits
Dark chocolate has been shown in studies to lower blood pressure in people with elevated blood pressure.

Lower LDL Cholesterol
Eating dark chocolate on a regular basis has been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol by as much as 10 percent.

Natural Anti-Depressant
Chocolate contains serotonin, a natural anti-depressant. Chocolate also stimulates endorphin production, which creates feelings of happiness and pleasure. In fact, one study found that melting chocolate in the mouth produced feelings of pleasure longer than passionate kissing. This may explain why many people naturally reach for chocolate when they're depressed.

Cancer Fighter
Several studies have found chocolate to be one of the best cancer-fighting foods along with foods like red wine, blueberries, garlic, and tea. Two ways that chocolate works as a cancer fighter is by inhibiting cell division and reducing inflammation, though research is ongoing and will probably find additional ways in which chocolate fights cancer.

Prevents Tooth Decay
Research has found that the theobromine in chocolate prevents tooth decay by eliminating streptococcus mutans, a bacteria found in the oral cavity that contributes to tooth decay.

Longer Life and Less Disease
One Dutch study followed 200 men over 20 years and found that those who consumed large amounts of chocolate, both milk chocolate and dark, lived longer and had lower overall disease rates than men who ate little or no chocolate.

High in Magnesium Cacao is higher in magnesium than any other plant. Magnesium is an important mineral that helps in the regulation of the digestive, neurological, and cardiovascular systems

Artery Cleanup
Studies have shown that the antioxidants in cacao work like brooms in sweeping plaque out of the arteries.

Brain Health
Many studies have shown that dark chocolate is good for the brain. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that it can protect the brain after a stroke by shielding the nerve cells from further damage. Dark chocolate has also been found to improve memory. Researchers at California's Salk Institute found that a chemical in chocolate called epicatechin improved the memory of mice.

longer life with less disease than your non-chocolate-eating peers.

http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-chocolate.html

People tell me...

So, I’ve decided to change my fitness stuff around and just concentrate on running. No boot camp. Just plain old guts for effort, determined running. I’ve decided that’s the best for me to shift weight and build muscle tone. Running is hard. I hate it. People tell me I’ll get sick of doing it. Other people tell me they’d give up after a couple of days running.  More people tell me they lack the determination to get up early in the morning to do it. While there are those who tell me they couldn’t do it alone. 

If I listened to people I would never have done a quarter of the things I’ve done in my life.

People who tell you stuff are out there everywhere. Watch out for them. 

Pacesetters...

I was standing, waiting for someone, watching these kids around 10 or 11 years old – they looked like a football team – running around a sporting field. Every lap they took, one kid, behind them all, got slower and slower but he kept on running. He didn’t stop for a second. He didn’t give up because he was last. He just ran. When they finally finished their run and the rest were waiting for him, he ran it in, stopped and looked at them as if to say ‘what next?’ These are people I call pacesetters. Nope, they’re never at the front. They don’t aim to be. How are they pace setters then? Maybe because they motivate less strong individuals fearful of being last to try harder. Maybe it's because they can keep up that pace forever as the front of the pack generally dies after their sprint. Or maybe, they just don’t give a crap that they come last because their pace is their own and they don’t have to be like everyone else at the front.

Pacesetters…never underestimate them.     

Weird thing…

 ….I was running up a hill Monday morning thinking I hate this, it hurts, I’m going to die or at least drown in my own sweat, that is if I don’t run out of breath and expire before my legs drop off – and then, when I got to the top and went back down and looked back up the hill, ready to run it again, as only the insane do, it occurred to me that I need the challenge of doing the seemingly impossible. I need to feel exhausted and broken knowing that I can and I will regenerate and do it all again.

Weird the things we need.

So tell me what you want what you really, really want…

So, I was running along the Cairns Esplanade this morning at god-awful 5:30am, nodding and hello-ing the usual crew of walkers and runners who are all up and about cursing the need to be fit, when I saw a group of shadowy people ahead of me. Now, I’m not a scared person by nature but neither am I about to thrust myself into trouble in the half dark. I kept up a steady pace as I ran towards them, sussing them out. As I came closer I heard loud voices, saw people pushing each other and jumping on and off skateboards. Right. Possible trouble I thought until I heard - “…So, tell me what you want what you really, really want…”

Hmmm…urban thugs cranking out the Spice Girls. I ran closer. “If you wanna be my lover...” Yes, scary, scary stuff. I ran up to them. A couple of young blokes said ‘good morning’ as they moved off the pavement to let me through. One warned me to watch out for a skateboard nowhere near me. I said ‘no worries’ and ‘thanks’. As I ran on further I heard a young woman singing along with - “Make it last forever, friendship never ends…”

Spice Girls. Crank it up and have a good time.

“I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ha”

I hate running...

“Run like hell and get the agony over with." ~Clarence DeMar

Exactly...

The kiss...

I was running along the Cairns Escapade at about 6:30am, hot, sweaty and wondering why I kept putting myself through this torture when I saw this man pull a woman into his arms and kiss her so passionately that I almost stumbled at the sheer, hungry beauty of it. How do you write something so intense and raw with need like that? I've never read a writer that could. How does a kiss like that feel? Hot? Crazy?Like something you never want to stop? Are you so lost in the moment that you don't care what's going on around you because nothing else matters but that kiss? I was quite overcome just watching it. 

As I continued running along, still hot and sweaty, I was mesmerized by the moment but realistic enough to know that kisses like that are not for everyone – they should be but they’re not.   

Lucky woman…lucky man…sweaty Amarinda…

Hands down pants...

Okay, I’m talking to the real women out there – the ones with real, fleshy thighs – not the Barbie simulated ones. What I want to speak about is cruel and unusual punishment. Thigh rub. There is nothing worse than finding a split in in the inside seam of your leggings or trackie dacks and having flesh rub against cotton/lycra as you run. And trying to fix it so the rubbing is minimized without everyone wondering why your hands are down your pants? Degree of difficulty? High. Hands down your pants in public are hard to explain. Trust me. Try re-adjusting your pedometer on your knicker elastic mid stride. But that’s another story. 

But back to split seams and thigh rub...you could say “I’m trying to stop my bare thigh rubbing against the other” but this then brings up the question by weirdo, simulated, perfect people who have no flesh on their bones of “why are your thighs rubbing together?”  I defy anyone to run without inner thighs brushing against the other unless you run bow-legged. And then there’s the fact that people want to look at the bare thigh in question because bare thighs arouse interest. And if you say nothing and adjust stuff, hands down pants? Weirdo. Pervert. Hello, are you available?

Sometimes you just have to put your hands down your pants...

Too much information....

So, before the long, hard, sweaty oh-my-god-is-she-serious-or-nuts Weekend Warrior climb up the Red Arrow in Cairns, I wandered off in search of the ladies loos at the Cairns Botanical Gardens Visitors Centre. It is fitted with 2400 mirrored panels and it’s designed to mirror back the beauty of the tropical beauty of the Gardens. It’s a great building until you walk pass several dozen of those mirrored panels, on all sides and in front of you, dressed in stretchy exercise gear and you see yourself, at different angles and think ‘way too much information.’ It’s like looking at a train wreck - you want to pass by quickly but you can’t help but look and wonder and think oh-my-god. Yeesh. But in one way it’s good. It makes you more determined to get rid of the fat…that or run really past fast the mirrors to burn off fat. Win-win really.  

Bizarro world....

So, I got asked to run in this du-athon thing. Huh. I looked at them in surprise. Why me? Why not you? I pointed out that I generally come in last on a run. “So?” they said. “This is about fun.” Riiight…running. Fun. Huh, again. They also added it’s a ‘team thing.’ Well, fuck…fancy willingly being in a team? I don’t do teams. I am a solo artist who enjoys individuality and I make no apologies for it. So running in a team for fun? Was that legal? I did contemplate the idea that at that moment I had stumbled into a parallel bizarre world universe where everything was the opposite of my own. But no. They were and are serious. As for me? Jeez, I don’t know. While I’ve been running at boot camp for fitness and yes, I’ve been killing myself trying to improve my time – which I have through sheer bloody minded determination - I just can’t see me running for fun...in a team of people...who take running seriously. Triple huh...

The things people ask you…

Goodliness…

....I’m in the pursuit of it at the moment. No, it doesn’t mean I’m going to shut up and not say what I think or not do what I want nor do actual work during work hours. Come on. Get real. Let’s not get crazy. All that would kill me. I’m trying to transform my Greco-Roman ruins body into a temple that doesn’t have doom in the title. To this end I’m running and eating fish. Lots of it...no, not fried...the fish that is...as for the running? I'm mainly frazzled and sweaty.

No, not preaching at anyone. I’m just an ordinary yet fantastically, amazing woman who is making some changes. Benefits of eating fish? Cows grin at you. Go on. Make a cow happy.