April

April 17: Morning yoga, new yoga and sounds against silence

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The day is so grey it’s felt like dusk all morning. If it wasn’t for the lawnmower noise from the neighbour’s property, my brain would be saying it’s time to get ready for bed.

So to wake myself up, I did my morning routine (yesterday was the first time I’d done the 15 minutes in two weeks. Two weeks! Holidays threw me out, and then I was out of the habit – back now) and went straight into Sadie Nardini’s 30 Min Morning Wake Up Yoga Flow, which I’ve done a few times before. You can find the video here.

I do enjoy Sadie’s workouts, but lately, I’ve really noticed how much she talks. She talks and talks and sometimes that’s great, but I find it frustrating when she says “Here we’ll take five breaths while we blah blah blah blah (30 seconds worth) … Ok now for the five breaths.” I’ve done 10 already. For me, this really interrupts the whole flow of the routine. Some poses we’re in for longer while things are explained and some poses are done quickly. I need to learn it off by heart so I don’t have to rely on the video.

With the idea of finding something with a better flow, I went searching and came across Dagmar Spremberg from Soft Music & Yoga – YogaYak. From just watching parts of it quickly (didn’t have time to do another routine!) it looks like a peaceful yet energetic yoga routine with just the right amount of talking and a constant, calming flow. Being on a beach with melodic music at the start and end also makes it appealing.

It’s a little longer than Sadie’s but that’s because you lie quietly at the end listening to the music. Ok! I think I may have found my new favourite yoga workout. Can’t wait to try it. There are others in the YogaYak series as well, including Hatha and Vinyasa routines. You could start with the beginners series and move through the routines. Here is the YogaYak website where they have plenty of options. As per usual, I have no affiliation with any of the links I post, just putting them out there for us all.

While searching their site, I found 11 hours of Tibetan bowl sounds for meditation purposes. What a resource! You could paint to this, or write, or read. It’s great for people with tinnitus because we focus on the ringing in our ears when there’s silence, and before too long that becomes overwhelming. This is ‘music’ without being a distraction. I might even start writing more (long-form stuff) thanks to this. I had no idea these videos were out there. Maybe you’d prefer to listen to the ocean? Or listen to birds in a garden? (I found one bird highly repetitive and irritating, so this is not the background noise for me!)

Using two tabs on my computer, I was able to play the Tibetan bowls with the ocean sounds at the same time. That’s also a lovely combination. I could write all day with that softly in the background. Hearing all these sounds makes me realise how much time I spend in silence. Not good. So … Yahoo! What a find!

  • Physically Fit: 30 Min Morning Yoga with Sadie
  • Mentally Fit: Finding the new sound recordings and yoga routine; meeting Pastora
  • Nutritionally Fit: A non-fasting day today but I’ll be good
  • Minimalism: Finally wearing the trench coat I hauled from storage at mum’s. Will I love it?

Wishing you a wonderful day.

April 16: Skipping, a nice surprise and day two of fasting on the 5:2 Diet

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While outside this afternoon, putting seed into the bird feeder, I heard the sound of alphorns from a neighbouring village wafting on the breeze. I love the sound of those horns – it’s so melodic and calming. Swissrose, are you often surprised by such sweet sounds too?

To make the most of it, I abandoned my plans to do yoga and grabbed my skipping rope for 15 minutes. Luckily, the constant (and sometimes sporadic!) thwack on the concrete terrace didn’t drown out their songs. A huge falcon was circling over the forest as well, so right now, after listening, exercising and nature spotting, I feel very relaxed.

A day with no plans meant a day of fasting. After the success of the first fast day on Monday, where I almost gave myself lockjaw eating a massive salad, I knew today was going to be more than achievable. So here’s how I broke down the 500 calories allowed on the 5:2 Diet:

  • Breakfast: 100g natural yoghurt with 5g goji berries – 64 and 16 calories
  • Lunch: 63g boiled egg – 102 calories
  • Snack: 104g kiwi fruit – 63 calories
  • Dinner: Stir fry thingy: 54g carrot – 22 calories, 214g zucchini – 36 calories, 50g bacon – 157 calories, tspn olive oil – 40 calories
  • Grand total: 500 calories exactly

By not having Monday’s glass of milk with protein powder, there was room to make a more appealing dinner. But I’ve promised I won’t waffle on too much about the 5:2 Diet, so here endeth my talk of food.

It’s been a day spent on the computer. I wrote another book review, sent a job application and sorted out my iPad’s detachable keyboard, so I now know what the function, alt and command keys actually do. And no, I didn’t find the exclamation mark. (Oh no, I hear you say!) I did find an upside down exclamation mark and a lot of Greek-looking symbols so I think this keyboard isn’t set up for English typing! Not to worry! (Can you tell I’m using my normal computer?! … !!!)

For giggles, I also looked at my stats for posts on fitfor15in15. By far the most popular story I’ve written is “The KonMari Method, with gusto!” Published on February 2, the story has been read every day without fail, and as of this afternoon, it’s been viewed 478 times. I have no idea how readers are being led to it, but I’m guessing most traffic comes from searching the internet for information about decluttering expert Marie Kondo and her KonMari Method (read my review of her book here).

Living with less is a very popular topic, which has been gaining momentum for years. And this month it cracked the bastion of buy buy buy consumerism – Vogue Magazine. I originally read the story of Prerna and Parag Gupta on LifeEdited.com and went to the Vogue website to read the whole story, here. All these kinds of stories make my eyes widen and my pulse race. I love hearing about people who’ve packed it all up and in, so to speak, to downsize, de-stress and hit the road.

Sometimes I wish I’d sold or given away all my things in Australia. They’re all currently stored in mum’s unit block, and I pay for the privilege of keeping memories. Every time I visit, I check to see it hasn’t flooded or isn’t infested with cockroaches and occasionally search for something I think I’ll need (like a trench coat, which I didn’t wear once this winter). I know, in the future, I’m going to wonder why I kept this stuff. I’m beginning to wonder about it now.

  • Physically Fit: Skipping for 15 minutes
  • Mentally Fit: Sorting out my iPad keyboard; applying for a job in Zurich; alphorns and the falcon
  • Nutritionally Fit: Fasting on the 5:2 Diet, 500 calories
  • Minimalism: Reading about Prerna and Parag Gupta; thinking about storage woes

Wishing you a wonderful day.

Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark

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Some light reading

This is a book I possibly normally wouldn’t pick, but I went to a different library which had a smaller English selection. Where Are You Now? by Mary Higgins Clark, published in 2008, is an easy-to-read mystery about a woman searching for her missing brother.

Every year for 10 years, Carolyn MacKenzie and her mother receive a phone call on Mother’s Day from missing brother and son Charles, known as Mack. He says he is fine and not to worry. But they do worry, because Mack had everything going for him when he disappeared. Why did he go? This time, Carolyn decides she’s had enough of Mack’s games and goes on an elaborate and dangerous hunt.

She encounters people from his past, struggles with police who believe she should let sleeping dogs lie, and learns more about those close to her. When a young woman goes missing, the race is on to find out if the two cases are connected.

There’s a clever twist, just when you think you know what’s happened and ‘whodunnit’, and despite a schmaltzy ending, it was an entertaining story. I’ve never read any books by Mary Higgins Clark before, but the cover says she’s the queen of suspense and a bestseller.

I’m not sure I’ll actively seek out another of her books, even though I did enjoy this one in a “I need to read something easy” kind of way. It would be suitable to reach for before bed or to pass the time on holidays lying on the beach or rugged up by a fire.

To sum it up? I wasn’t blown away, but I was left feeling satisfied.

April 15: New 20-minute HIIT routine with a happy trainer

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I chose today’s workout because of the trainer’s magical striped socks! How cool are they?! It’s called Burn 200 Calories in 20 Minutes (I don’t care so much about the calorie element) and it turned out to be no easy-peasy, candy-coloured workout. Sweat was dripping and I couldn’t do all the exercises properly.

The push up inch worm ones were especially tough and my balance was really out of whack on the lunge to knee lifts. Overall, I really enjoyed this workout and look forward to doing it again, and going deeper into those lunges. It’s a great beginners-intermediate HIIT routine and at the end, the instructor was also feeling exhausted, which is pretty cool – it shows she’s human! And she had an infectious fun outlook during the whole routine.

Right now, I’m in the library in Langgasse using the free wifi on my iPad. I still haven’t worked out where the exclamation mark is, so from now on you’ll be spared the excitement.

Part of my Christmas present from Leo was a membership at the Kornhaus Bibliotek (library) in Bern. I hadn’t been an active member of a library for years and it was strange how comforting it was to walk back through the compacted rows of books. Today’s the first time I’ve come in here to work *in inverted commas but I don’t know where they are on this tiny detachable keyboard either. And now I can’t find that star again to close the train of thought. The first one was a fluke. Grrr …

Do you have a library you regularly use? I’ve found books I’d normally never look for, which has its pros and cons of course. Not all of them have been winners. See the Books section in the top menu for book reviews. I’ll be adding another one tomorrow.

Free libraries are popping up in unexpected places, but not everyone seems happy about them. A free library is a box on the corner with a “take me or swap me” sign on it. Would you like a free library in your area? Should they be allowed to be free? Here’s a story about them being banned and here’s a lovely story from Free Our Kids about one that is thriving.

I met Claudia for lunch today and stayed in the city to meet Sandra for a drink after she finishes work. The sun is outrageously glorious again – I’ll post photos when I get home tonight. Here are today’s photos:

  • Physically Fit: Today’s workout; walking to the bus
  • Mentally Fit: Meeting Claudia and Sandra; being in the library
  • Nutritionally Fit: A healthy day until this evening’s beers
  • Minimalism: Using the library for travel guidebooks and novels

Wishing you a wonderful day. Now … where’s that exclamation mark?

April 14: 15-minute workout with Tabata

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Two days ago this tree was just in bud, and now look at it! It was humming with bees

This is a new workout I’ve found which involves Tabata. What on earth is Tabata? It’s a version of HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and you can read more if you’re interested here and here.

Jessica Smith, whose workouts I have done previously here, here and here, put this 15-minute routine together for the shape.com website. I did it tonight before bed, which was probably a bit silly because now I’m a bit sweaty. I couldn’t do the plank/push-up thing on my feet – had to drop to my knees. And I still can’t really get my knees up to horizontal when jogging.

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In December, I planted some bulbs and they’re starting to blossom. It’s a mixed collection of tulips and unknowns (to me!)

Doing fitfor15in15 has made me much more interested in my health. By looking for new routines for you and me, I occasionally stumble on some other interesting stuff too. Such as this:

Taiwanese research conducted over a 12-year period on more than 400,000 people found 15 minutes of exercise a day increased life expectancy by three years. Published in The Lancet in August 2011, Dr Chi-Pang Wen, lead author of the study, said, “The 30-minute a day for five or more days a week has been the golden rule for the last 15 years, but now we found even half that amount could be very beneficial. As we all feel, finding a slot of 15 minutes is much easier than finding a 30-minute slot in most days of the week.”

I hear you brother! (Sorry, we finished watching “The Killing” Season 2 (American version) tonight and the character Stephen Holder says brother, or bruvva, all the time. He’s in my head.) More people than I can possibly imagine are putting in their 15 minutes a day. In cases like this, it feels good to be part of a pack.

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The tulips in the self-pick garden plot are starting to sprout!

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This pink beauty was the best of the first blooms I saw

Yesterday’s dinner on the 5:2 Diet was huge – a massive salad in a bowl I would normally use for four people. I actually got bored of chewing – couldn’t finish it all! Without dressing it was a bit dry, but I plowed through as much as possible, before the whole thing just became a bit tedious. Leo finished his in record time. Maybe I didn’t have the energy to bother?! No, seriously, I felt fine and the first day of the 500 calorie plan was a success.

Today, I met my friend Leonie in the city on her lunch break and what did I order? A salad! The 5:2 Diet research did say people tend to eat healthier on the five days when you can eat whatever you want. I’m part of the pack again. But I did have fettuccine carbonara for dinner … and a chocolate rabbit ear for dessert. 🙂

If you’re thinking about doing the 5:2 Diet, this could also be a good resource for counting calories in food. Have a poke around the New Health Guide website. And there’s always Google, mentioned yesterday. But don’t worry, there’s no chance of this happening to me!

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This yellow tree is in bloom in the big farmhouse garden

In an attempt to make me even more accountable, I’ve decided to add a new section at the bottom of every post. It will highlight things from the four main themes of fitfor15in15 that have happened that day.

  • Physically Fit: 15-minute workout
  • Mentally Fit: finished a book and finished season 2 of “The Killing”
  • Nutritionally Fit: Muesli, salad, pasta, chocolate, tea
  • Minimalism: bought a Diva Cup, at last, to cut down on waste. I hope it works/I like it
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I’m trying to minimise what I throw away as a contribution to this

Wishing you a wonderful day.

April 13: 4km run, 40 minute walk and day one of the 5:2 Diet

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Sunshine, garden lights and purple blooms

What a glorious day! Best day of spring so far. A light, warm breeze, 20 degrees Celsius and plenty of sunshine – perfect conditions for a run.

Because I’ve been eating like a queen the past week, I decided to do the 4km circuit rather than the new 5km track, to ease myself back into the running swing. It all felt good – I was powering through the course and did the second kilometre in under 6 minutes which is a first for me. I actually felt like I was running today, rather than shuffling.

Then at 2.5km, I saw a friend of Liliane and Rene’s in her garden with her grandchildren, so stopped for a decent chat.

Then at the 3km mark, the cows from my favourite farmhouse were being taken from the sheds into the little field across the road, so I watched and waited as they made their way into the sunshine.

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Achtung! Cows crossing

Thinking I was home and hosed for a good sprint to the finish, I ran into the neighbour from the big farmhouse who has two small children. She was pushing them in a pram, so I walked the final 500m with them.

Even though it was a stop-start run, it was still great to be outside and I’m happy with the way I was feeling. Maybe another day this week I’ll try the circuit again and see what time I can manage. Today, I would have been on track for my best time, I think.

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How’s that for a view? Taken on the run home

Once home, I put on a wider brimmed hat and walked down to the local supermarket to buy some dinner things. That round trip is 40 minutes. I waved to a friendly farmer and felt my toodles (wobbly fat on the upper arm) swing in the breeze, but I’m pretty confident there’s less than the beginning of the year!

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This friendly farmer gave a wave, so I gave him a doubly enthusiastic one back, toodles and all!

Today is the first day of the 5:2 Diet. I’ve been planning it in my head for a little while. So far so good.

  • Breakfast – a medium grapefruit – 80 calories
  • Lunch – a boiled egg, 50g – 78 calories
  • Two cups of peppermint tea – 0 calories
  • After-run snack – vanilla protein powder in a 200ml glass of milk – 71 calories and 136 calories respectively (the milk needed to be used. Normally I don’t drink cows milk but didn’t want to waste it!)

That totals 365 calories. Dinner is going to be a mixed salad:

  • 100g lettuce leaves – 7 calories
  • Two medium tomatoes – 44 calories
  • Half a cucumber – 32 calories
  • A spring onion – 12 calories
  • Two small carrots – 41 calories

That totals 136 calories (no dressing – a teaspoon of olive oil has 40 calories!), for a grand total of 501 calories. So that’s that! If you can see anything wrong with my calculations, please let me know – being a novice calorie counter means I’m bound to make some mistakes. But hopefully not.

I was dreading the whole calorie counting rubbish but found an excellent service on Google. We have a small set of kitchen scales which made the measurements very easy. In Google search, I typed in “how many calories in a tomato” etc and this came up – how convenient! You can put in any food and it will tell you. My friend Bec also sent me a list of veggies and calories she compiled when she did the 5:2 Diet a while ago, which is a great help.

So there you go. Hopefully I can make it through another few episodes of “The Killing” tonight without getting the munchies, because there’s nothing left for today (that milk was a doozy!). How many calories are in 100g of oil-popped popcorn? The whole day’s allowance! Damn. Maybe tomorrow 🙂

Wishing you a wonderful day.

April 12: Lorena’s special day and bedtime yoga

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Lorena with her godparents

Today was Leo’s niece and goddaughter’s first communion (her name is Lorena), so we were near Zurich with his family. First up we had the service, then 23 of her nearest and dearest drove to Germany (doesn’t that sound hilarious?! We drove 40 minutes to Germany – still freaks me out) for lunch at an Italian restaurant in Erzingen.

Lorena’s extended family from her father’s side come from Sicily and all the relatives there today were Italian (and still are, surprise surprise!). Hence the choice of this restaurant because they know it has amazing food and brilliant red wine. I’d drive there regularly, too, if we lived so close.

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Lorena in her first communion dress. She looked like a princess

After four hours of eating, we drove home and made a beeline for the couch to watch four more episodes of “The Killing”. It’s now 10.22pm (22.22 for those who like numbers) and I am totally stuffed. Literally and figuratively.

It’s been a great week – I’ve consumed like a queen and been to France and Germany twice – but the time has come to say goodbye to eating whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it, in an attempt to shift a few pesky kilos and try a self experiment to see if food holds more sway than exercise.

Tomorrow I’ll do my first ‘Fast Day’ of the 5:2 Diet, which means I’ll eat 500 calories. Heaven knows what 500 calories looks like (I need to do more research on that) but I think a bowl of homemade natural muesli with seeds, nuts and natural yoghurt for breakfast will be a good start, and whatever lettuce leaves I can scrounge together might make a main meal. 🙂

Would it be superfluous to say I really, really … REALLY … don’t feel like exercising tonight? My body’s a lump of lead. So I’m going to do 15 minutes of bedtime yoga – again! – then send my weary lump to La La Land.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

April 11: 20-minute core workout

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Leo taking an arty shot of me eating breakfast in Neuf-Brisach – a chocolate bun thing AND a nut croissant WITH a hot chocolate. Sugar overdose!

It was nice to be at home for the day, mooching. Grand plans for a run in the forest took a hike thanks to the rain, but after all that glorious weather we had last week, shut up! I’ve updated the post from the holiday to include photos. Click here if you’re keen on seeing parts of the Alsace Region. I didn’t take any photos of the vineyards. They were everywhere. Vines, vines and more vines.

We’re off to Zurich soon for Leo’s niece’s first communion early tomorrow morning – it wasn’t worth risking dodgy traffic tomorrow so we’re overnight-ing with Leo’s dad.

But first I have to do some exercise. We walked a lot in the Alsace but I didn’t do any stomach exercises (and ate a lot of bakery products) so I found a core workout which should make me wince if I sneeze tomorrow. It’s from the Men’s Fitness website but, hey, we all have abs.

I don’t have all the equipment (or skills) needed for these workouts (but you might!) so I had to do Exercises 1 and 3 from Workout 3, and Exercise 1 from Workout 5. There are seven workouts to choose from, and they say they should take about 20 minutes to complete.

Did I do something wrong? Did I read the instructions incorrectly? I finished the three reps of 20 each side in around eight and a half minutes. And no, I do not feel like doing it one more time! Maybe it’s because I chose three floor exercises which may not take as much time as some of those hanging ones? Let me know if you do it and work out my timing mistake!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

April 7-10: The Alsace Region – updated with photos

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I’m back! We came home this afternoon after a great four-day/three-night adventure in the Alsace Region on the border of France and Germany.

Sorry for the absence, but as mentioned before, I find it hard to write while on exploring holidays. And we did a lot of exploring! I’ll write more about it over the next few days. (I’ve decided to just do this one post with photos.)

How are you feeling? I’m feeling mentally and physically fit, but definitely not nutritionally! We ate a lot of yummy/bad things while away and my body’s ready to attack healthier food from Monday.

And now? We’re off to dinner to celebrate Rene’s birthday (our neighbour). More meat and potatoes I’m sure!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

April 6: Walking the favourite new path again

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A very late post – again – because we binge-watched more episodes of ‘The Killing’ TV series on Netflix – again. My eyes are popping out of my head as I type this, but we’ve finished season one! Yay. (Where’s the bed?!)

It turned out to be another sunny, cold and windy day today, so we decided to walk the new path behind the property again. The first time we walked, and ‘discovered’, this path, there was still plenty of snow, but now it’s all gone and the grass is a sweet green.

A well-decorated house made our jaws drop. Last time it had Christmas decorations everywhere, but we didn’t have a look at the actual exhibition. Today, we checked out the Easter offering, and I’m glad we did, because I won’t forget it in a hurry. Wow. How many years would it have taken to collect it all?

The round trip took just over an hour, I think. Our favourite restaurant wasn’t open, so we didn’t stop for a soft drink on the way home. Three men were playing boules in the gravel pit and kids were using the swings, so despite being closed, it still felt alive.

Here are a few photos.

We’re off on a driving holiday to the Alsace region (the capital is Strasbourg where we went for my birthday) on the border of France and Germany. We liked it so much we thought we’d spend a few more days there, exploring and walking. I hope to have time to write a post or two. Never fear, I’ll be doing my exercises too!

Wishing you a wonderful day … and maybe a wonderful few days.