My Life: A Juggling Act. Scene 1

Have you ever seen those juggling street performers? Or sometimes on TV they may have a juggler who has 5 things in the up in the air, one of them is a sword, perhaps another is an egg, and you think to yourself there is no way that they can possibly fit anything else into the mix, then BOOM, the 'helpful' assistant throws a stick of dynamite in there...

Well that is my life at the moment... Except the sword is my children, the egg is my diet, then there are all the other parts I need to keep going...  Well, the BOOM would be my Masters degree...  I started back at uni last week and I dont think my feet have touched the ground since...

Intensive uni means instead of a 3-4 course per week full time load we do 5 courses per week and as we are Masters students we are expected to do at least 3 hours homework per contact hour at uni...


I have 11 contact hours, plus the 33 hours homework means I will be spending 44 hours on uni, which leaves precious little time for anything else...  I am tired just thinking about it! But it's only for 18 months!!! ONLY... ARGH!


Needless to say the first ball I dropped was the exercise ball...  I hadn't done any structured exercise until yesterday (I had 3 days off)   I was itching to get back into it but somehow I kept making and finding reasons not to...  Until yesterday!

I got up at 7am on a Sunday (that's my only sleep-in day) and I ran 7kms without stopping, sprinting the last 500 metres!  I felt great - it was great (a bit slow 57 mins) but I have decided I am going to get the distance first then work on my speed.. 

I had quite a bit of fuel left in the tank after my run too - so at some stage this week I am going to try for 10kms - I can't even imagine it!  Mind you I didn't think I would get to 7kms either!!  I am hoping for a bit of a reprieve from the SA heat though... for the past month or so it has been in, or around, the mid 30's  every day (with the exception of 2 days) and the forecast is for more of the same for the entire next week...  Which means I need to get my training in early - not easy with 2 kids who need to get up and ready for school but aren't old enough to do it without supervision...

I think I will have to be getting up earlier to get something done before Matt leaves for work, but I guess that depends on how much homework I can get done during the evening... and what time I get to bed... but although I think the exercise ball may drop more than the others I will make sure that the diet ball stays in the air...

It was suggested that I should up my calorie limit from 1200 to 1300 to see if that helps increase my weight loss... I tried it for 2 days and unfortunately it hasn't made any difference, but perhaps I need to go longer?  I am just worried that it will be counter productive and actually have a worsening effect (as in I gain or maintain my current weight)  I only have 2kgs to lose to get to a healthy BMI... That's scary! (Scary good)

I have attached a picture of me at the park on the weekend with my amazing 91 year old Nana, who still does Yoga!!  She occasionally teaches the class when the instructor goes away!

I wish I had more pictures of us together but I assume, like the rest of you, I never wanted to be in photos...