Saturday, January 15, 2011

Flooded!

Well QLD is underwater and everything has come to a screaming halt! While we weren't directly affected with water, we are right next door to suburbs that were and ended up being blocked off of a few days.

The aftermath is something else, the destruction is devastating to see. People have had their entire homes inundated with water, and others who were only halfway underwater still lost everything. It's getting to the point now where the anger is settling into the community, Steve has been out helping with the clean up the past two days and he was amazed at how many people are there to help, but there are more sightseer's and they are disgusting, people dressed up to the nines in their cars just gawking at other peoples misery. They not olnly block the road for genuine helpers to get through, yesterday people who were there to help were being turned away because there were too many sightseers breaking through the lines just walking around taking photos :(

The common thread down in one area is that they weren't told to evacuate until very late, and when they were they were told they were given 5mins to get their things and get out. Inlcuding shop owners, one of which was a pet shop and dog motel where animals had to be left behind. A lot of people hadn't prepared because the news was very vague for our area. There were numerous people who were told they couldn't take their cars etc so how they were supposed to get things out is beyond me. Complete and utter chaos and the people who were helping evacuate had no idea what they were doing except get the people out, mind you they were evacuated in the mid afternoon and the water didn't even reach near there till past midnight.  We were down on the other side of the river to the dog motel the following morning when it was underwater and could see them down there struggling to get the dogs out, turns out there were 70 dogs that were being housed in there. They got them all out, but it was heartbreaking to watch.

Anyway, as horrible as it all is, the clean up is well underway people have slowed down on the panic buying and although Steve will be out of work until his boss works out how to tackle everything we're all fine and feeling very lucky and grateful that we weren't directly affected by the waters.

Needless to say that my 'diet' efforts kind of got forgotten this week, feels very trivial to even be thinking about it, but life does go on and my life isn't going anywhere fast this week! So back to it on Monday, will be trying to restart food diaries and keeping a record of things a little better.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Two Strengths or Talents

So the new challenge yesterday was to ask two people what two of your strengths or talents are. I was a little apprehensive asking because as usual thought people would have a problem coming up with one thing, let alone two LOL Then I told myself to stop being stupid and just ask.

My mum said that I am good at cooking and that I am good at helping people/problem solving. 

My husband said that I am good at being supportive and good at cooking. 

So that pretty much sums it up LOL I enjoy cooking and put time into it so that's why I enjoy it. Maybe if I start trying to enjoy exercise again then I can be good at that too!

Sometimes I feel like I focus on other peoples problems so much I use it to get away from my own. I've been doing a lot of reading over the past few days and have found some stuff that comes very close to home about why I eat when I'm bored. I'm going to try and start to make some positive changes and try to change my mindset when I feel that stuff creeping up on me again.

I can't change the past, it is what it is, but I can change my future so that it's a brighter one.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New Year, New Me

New year rolls around again, and there are some major changes headed my way this year. First of which is my health. I need to lose about 30kg, I need to get fit and healthy and start taking care of myself. I've been struggling with just how to go about this stuff, since I hurt my back it's been so hard to find the motivation to get up and get out there being active. I know that if I'm in the right frame of mind I can push through the pain, but I just haven't got there yet.

So a friend of mine posted a link to a new app on Facebook call the MeYou Health Challenge. It gives you a different challenge to complete each day, not just physical exercise challenges, but emotional and wellbeing challenges as well. I think it's going to be an excellent tool to help me come to terms with a few things in my life that I don't like, and it'll help me focus on the things I need to improve.

First challenge was My Bucket List. Couldn't have come at a better time being the New Year and all the resolutions floating around. I realised how sad it was that I didn't really have any huge achievements on my horizon, and that was mainly because I've let my life slip away from me again and it's all about everyone else. So here's my Bucket List for the  next 5 years.

1. Lose 30kg and get to my goal weight
2. Do more things just for me, not for everyone else
3. Get a new hobby with new people
4. Survive my 30th :)
5. Have another baby, preferably when I'm at a healthier weight!

I realise that some of them aren't really that aspirational, but they're the things that are the most important to me. I feel a bit down about turning 30 this year, with very little to show for my accomplishments in life except for my beautiful kids. So I'll be working on making some big changes this year and getting ahead.

Todays challenge was to think of a negative experience that happened recently which was still upsetting me, the lessons learnt and what I could have done differently.

So I was thinking today about recent issues that have popped up between myself and my husband, and me and my family that made me feel like I was worthless, well actually less than worthless, I hit my absolute rock bottom. I got myself out of it by thinking about all the good things that I can do, and the nice things about myself that I am proud of, I remind myself every day when I start to feel low. I don't think I would have done anything differently so far, but I know that I still have to work hard at being a better person, a better wife and a better friend, and I also know that I am worth the effort and it's also up to other people to realise that too :)

See? This thing is really making me think about things in a good way! I went for a walk this afternoon even though I didn't feel like going, I haven't pigged out on food, and I'm going to start looking into different things I can do away from home. I'm also going to plan a girls weekend away just for the hell of it :)