It has been a while since my last workout and it’s a little disappointing that I still haven’t finished my 30 day challenges. It’s already nearing the end of January and I’m still stuck on day 22. There were a few reasons of the halt, first of all, a crazy public holiday weekend travelling 3 hours+ to go and celebrate my friend’s housewarming. Getting a slight ankle injury whilst walking around in the ‘woods’, then a flood that came through my area where I had much of my time spent recovering a few things.
So I guess I’m making excuses of my lack of exercise, but sometimes, you just don’t have the chance to do the exercise. Whether it’s the lack of time, physical injuries or other priorities. Although the 30 day challenge is on halt (it really takes a long time now…) I did get back into the pilates class. One advantage of my pilates class is that it is just far away enough for me to go for a slight run on my way home. So an hour of pilates (it was much harder today after my few week break from pilates) and a small run. At least I’m getting back into it.
This may be a bulk post, but it was Australia day public holiday, and hence I was out and about for the whole extended weekend. Monday night was a dinner out at my friend’s local. It was a Monday hence we decided let’s find anything open, and ear there. How bad could you go on Bridge Road in Richmond?
But this place was a little cutie waiting for us, with Monday night specials.
I can never say no to a special deal, so I ended up ordering a goulash, whole my friend ordered a pork schnitzel.
The interior was quite cute with obviously a European touch, and I thought might as well join the European ambience with a grape and apple fizz from Austria. You can also use your time waiting for the food learning hungarian. The waitress is more than happy to teach you the correct pronunciation.
All in all a delightful place to visit for an affordable meal whilst reminiscing the times I spent in Europe. Great service too. Only downside is the surcharge in credit card use and no split bills.
It’s the weekend! Meaning I have more time for my workout.
So today I decided I will finish off the whole of day 22. Nothing much to add today, other than the fact that I caved into my cravings for chocolates (and biscuits with chocolate in them). In fact, I think it gave me more energy to exercise!
Day 22
Warm up:
25 minutes on exercise bike (lost track of time watching the tennis on the TV)
ABs:
95 x sit ups
140 x crunches
75 x leg raises
85 s plank (this is getting really difficult… I’m contemplating to stop here until I get better at this)
ARMs:
42 x push ups
85 x dips
95 x jab-cross on each side
It is a semi-long weekend, where most people are taking Monday off to enjoy a longer weekend thanks to Australia day(26th Jan) being on Tuesday. On this weekend, there are many different events, but I think this one will be a fun one to go to if you like.
The ‘Festival of Sails’ is an annual event that has been happening since 1844. For those sailing enthusiasts, it is a celeboratory yacht race, and hence you’d be able to see quite a few yachts sailing into Geelong. But for those who are not sailing enthusiasts, you get to enjoy the free entertainment and an abundance of stalls selling food, crafts and even just simple trinkets.
Map of the events happening during the festival
There are definitely more food trucks than the normal Geelong festivals, and even a great coffee van! (This was what made my trip worth it as I wasn’t expecting decent coffee at a festival, and their iced coffee was just a touch of magnificent.)
cofffee!!!!!
From the abundant food choices, we had a spud and some Indian. Both the food was quite amazing, but I would highly recommend the spud. There are burgers, tacos, pizzas, hot dogs and all the more, including ice cream. If you venture further, even the local restaurants like taco bell have a stall too.
Butter Chicken on Saffron Rice
Beef nachos with guacamole, sour cream and cheese on potato & sweet potato
There are many different activities for the Kids to try (I didn’t have any kids with me so I shied away from it) including waterslides, beach volleyball and other rides they may enjoy. Feel like flying in the sky? The water ski spectacular might make you feel like either a hero or villain from an action movie.
Flying over the water
water slides and ferris wheel
Also, for anyone looking for a nice car to try four-wheel driving (or sitting in one), there is a land rover ‘experience’ area too, where you get to ride in a land rover as it goes over bumps and hills showing off its grip and power.
So I guess there is plenty to see other than ships, yachts and boats (never know the difference between these) so have some fun and venture out. V-line is free this weekend anyway! 🙂
And a token photo of a wooden ship that is on display. You can pay $2 for children or $5 for adults to go inside and have a look Apparently, the only wooden ship left in Victoria!
Dates: 22nd January – 26th January
Cost: free for entry, tickets required for certain sections
As I am not going out often enough, I am tending to post all the places I go to. I think this post will be like that.
I have been to Alfa bakehouse originally in Yarraville. I remember it fondly as I used a voucher with my friend and they had given us good food and service.
Now it has expanded to Seddon too. The place was nothing like the normal Melbourne Hipster quirkiness that I have come to like. It is very professional looking and clean, and the place is huge. Even with the size of a double shop-front restaurant, you have to wait for a table on weekends. If it’s not the crazy Melbourne breakfast culture, there must be something to this place then I guess.
As you walk in the door the first thing you notice is the line of fruits. Apparently their smoothies are very nice, but I didn’t get a chance to try. There is definitely enough choice for breakfast, and if you are a lazy person, you can come have your very late breakfast at this place with their ‘all day breakfast’ option.
Menu featuring all day breakfast
The coffee was just a normal quality that you would expect from a cafe. Nothing grand, nothing extraordinary, but not a total waste of your money. The food was great though. And the service very profficient. The serving size is quite big though, so I couldn’t eat much for the rest of the day.
All in all, a great place to catch up with friends if you’re in the area, with the clean and neat interior making you feel like you’re in a restaurant. As long as you don’t get the mean eyes from people waiting for a table you could spend a good morning/afternoon catching up with friends over a decent breakfast meal.
So, I wasn’t feeling that great recently. I was also struggling with time as I was coming home too late, and as the days go by in this challenge, it is only the reps that are increased, and hence becoming very time consuming. So, I didn’t really do a full workout for Day 21.
It was a Friday, and hence I thought I can sleep later, might as well try the workout. The weekend is golden time to catch up with my workouts I guess.
Now, I am not a fan of inefficient use of time, so I am going to say, once I finish this challenge, I don’t think I’ll do it again. I will seek out workout plans that will make more use of the time it takes. But, at least finish this challenge once before saying quits.
Day 21-2
Warm up:
10 minutes on exercise bike
ABs:
90 x sit ups
80 x crunches + 40 x side crunches on each side
70 x leg raises
80 s plank
ARMs:
40 x push ups
80 x dips
90 x jab-cross on each side
SQUATs:
150 x squats
Cool down:
15 mins on bike
I can’t wait until I get back into the gym and do some workouts with weights. Gosh am I missing that.
I love going out for breakfast and brunches. I find it is harder for me to go out on weekends, so I end up meeting up with people who are like me(loving breakfasts or brunches) on weekday mornings. Kinfolk cafe is a convenient location for me to meet my friend as we both go through the cbd to get to work. It is a short walk away from Southern Cross station, on Bourke st.
I have had takeaway coffees from this place, and they had always been good. So I was looking forward to finally having something to eat too.
This place not only does great coffee, but also makes you feel good about it. The interior is neat but homey in a way, but not the most comfortable seating.
I sat down near the window waiting for my friend, and ordered my flat white. It was as delicious as I remembered. I like it that this place doesnt overheat the milk, and the coffee is just strong enough for my taste.
The menu is quite simple, and I had the eggs special. It was a 63 degree poached egg (just that little bit runny!!) And broccoli, zucchini, eggplant and mushrooms on sourdough. Beautiful!
It doesn’t have the hipster decoration touch such as flowers, but the food was amazing. I was saying to my friend, “could easily be the best breakfast I have had!”
So feel good whilst eating out and drinking coffee, and support a great cafe who really deserve all the $ they charge anyway.
So, now I am fully back at work, it is a little more difficult to get all the exercise in the day. I guess I will have to make do with what I can in a day. Although I didn’t get to finish the workout, at least I can say I tried.
Day 21:
Warm up:
10 minutes on exercise bike
ABs:
90 x sit ups
80 x crunches
30 x side crunches on each side
So, today, I need to touch upon a topic that could be quite sensitive, or maybe too out there. It isn’t a topic that is talked about by people openly. As you may already know, I am a woman. A female. Which means, I get affected by hormonal cycles. Sometimes I get affected more, sometimes less. But I physically as well and mentally feel a difference.
I had read a while back about adjusting your workout routine depending on your menstruation cycle. I didn’t take much notice of it back then but now I am getting older, I want my workouts to be more effective and less likely to result in injury.
According to Ben Greenfield there seems to be a link between hormones and an effective workout. Although there is also counter arguments I seem to agree to the former.
My body does feel different depending on where I am in the cycle, and I don’t feel like a heavy workout some days.
Today was a day like that, and I believe this will continue on for a little while. Which brings me to a dilemma…“what do I do about my workout plan for the 30 day challenge?”
I can’t just stop for a week and start again… or could I?
Anyway, I couldn’t make up my mind so I did progress to day 19, but I took it easy and didn’t push myself. Sigh. The joy of being a woman.
Day 19: Warm up:
17 minutes on exercise bike
ABs:
85 x sit ups
120 x crunches
70 x leg raises
75 s plank
ARMs:
38 x push ups
75 x dips
40 x jab-cross (each side)
SQUATs:
140 x squats
I think I might be resting from workouts for at least a day or two for now. Seems I do believe in modifying the workout schedule according to your hormones and right now I feel a little unsure about pushing my muscles.
It was going to be another sunny (not scorching) saturday, so we decided to go for a small trip to the Yuulong lavender farm. I did see that the lavender festival just happened last week (at another farm) where they harvest all the lavenders. So I thought I’ll give this place a go since they never mentioned anything about harvesting yet.
This place is located near Ballarat, so if you were coming from Melbourne, you could do a quick pitstop on your way to Ballarat, and then enjoy a visit to the gold mines as well. As I’m not coming from Melbourne, and I have already been to Ballarat, we went through the backways to this local beauty.
It’s not an easy place to find since the entry is not marked with flashing lights or anything. Just look out for a few flag-like things, but google map’s location setting was quite accurate, so the location that google maps sent me to was the start of the entry way.
Entry into the cafe and shop
After the subtle climb up with the car, we found our ways to the car park for the cafe and shopfront. The surroundings are quite serene, and I was excited to get some food inside me. (It was about an hour drive for me)
Entry into the cafe and shop
We stopped by the garden on our way into the cafe. So we ended up going in the back door of the cafe, but the garden was a good start to our visit. It isn’t a huge garden, but very cute and set like a little maze. So we had a bit of fun trying to go through all the little road ways that was open.
The shop sells lavender plants as well as all sorts of lavender products you could imagine. It also had lavender flavoured white hot chocolate or lavender cookies!
lavender products inside shop
lavender plants
inside the cafe
We ordered some food and enjoyed it outside in the cafe deck. Although I wanted to sit inside as it looked so bright but cozy, my mum likes to sit outside looking at the open space.
Considering this is the view you get from the deck, I didn’t mind either.
view from the cafe deck
The typical devonshire tea (scones and tea/coffee) is here, but most people were going for the lavender cookies. (Now, I couldn’t try it at the time.. but I will try one day..)
After filling my growling stomach, we went and had a walk around the lavender plants. Apparently, this place was where a new breed of lavenders were found, so it was named ‘yuulong lavender’. Until I came here I never knew there were so many different types of lavenders!
As we were walking around the lavenders, I felt like I was in a bee hive. There are so many bees around the lavender plants, so you have to be careful when taking pictures. It’s an interesting feeling when you sit down next to a flower to take a picture and all you can hear is the buzzing of bees.
stretch of lavenders on the hill
Unfortunately, many of the plants had been harvested or cut, and the remaining flowers were mostly dry. It seems lavender season is December to January, so I’ll have to come again at the end of this year.
Yuulong lavender estate
admission: free
open: weekends and public holidays (10:00-16:30)
address: 58 Sharrocks Rd, Mount Egerton VIC 3352
love lubullu 