On the first of NOvember my true love gave to me...

... a new place for the couch and TV!

As I said before I'm participating in a blog challenge for the month of November. Today's prompt is:

Your current relationship.

So here it is... my fairy tale come true...

We met about 3 and a half years ago, through eHarmony. We breezed through their guided communication in about 3 hours, the next day we were chatting on the phone, and we met in person for a drink 3 days later. That drink extended into dinner, which morphed into a movie, and ended over 24 hours later after a sleepover (no naughty stuff, I promise!) and a walk in the park.

I moved in with him after 9 months, and he proposed at my 30th birthday party in front of 150 of my closest friends and family. The proposal took me by surprise because he had said there was no way he'd be getting up in front of everyone to make a speech, so when he did, I was blown away. We married on New Year's Eve 2013, honeymooned in Canada.... and now here we are. We moved house recently and today decided that the lounge wasn't set up in an ideal way, so we moved the furniture around. (as mentioned above)

There's our relationship in a nutshell, but it doesn't come close to describing how I feel. I absolutely love this man with all my heart. I love the way he makes me feel. I love that I can be myself around him, that I don't feel like I have to wear makeup and designer clothing every day. He's happy when I'm in trackies, and he loves when I 'dress up' in nicer clothes (or that special nighty!). He supports me in my effort to better myself without making me feel guilty when I slip up or go off track for a while. He's yet to work out where the bin is, or have any sense of preparation when it comes to thinking about washing, cooking, cleaning or running a household..... but I bloody love him. He always has the best intentions and brings out the best in me.

NOvember Rules:
1. No weighing
2. No fast food in Drive Thru form. Minimal fast food/takeaway/delivery food.
3. No laziness. At least 30 minutes of purposeful movement each day
4. No dehydration. At least 2 litres of water each day. Minimal soft drink.

Rocktober is over... onto NOvember!

Today is the last day of Rocktober, and it's fairly safe to say I didn't Rock in October.

I'm not calling it a failure, but it certainly wasn't a success. Here's what went right in Rocktober:

-Operation Move has been amazing. I'm really enjoying the program and although the runs aren't a breeze, it's more enjoyable than previous attempts at running. I made a point of making sure that the running was about enjoying the run, making time for myself, and just going with it. Previous attempts have focused on calories burned, times, splits, pace.... DROVE ME NUTS. I hated the times when my pace dropped, when it got too hard and I had to slow down, and that made me give up. Now I'm just running to say that I can. To enjoy the feeling of pushing myself, or not pushing myself. Just listening to the music (thank you Pandora), waiting for the beep and the lady who tells me what's up next. It's easy. I'm also enjoying not being on a treadmill. I don't really like the treadmill because I'm not that steady on pace so can never find the comfortable running speed. The footpath doesn't move, so there goes that problem.

-Operation House-Unpack is going well. Mostly everything is done, we just need to do a little rearranging in the lounge room which we should get to tonight, and then attack the spare room. We have too much stuff (and I thought I culled when we moved!!) but I'm working on it. The house is looking much more lived in, much more homely. I still get lost going to the toilet sometimes, but that's because I'm a numpty...

-Operation Drink-More-Water is gathering momentum. I got some fancy new Tupperware bottles and keep the fridge well stocked so am making an effort to drink water instead of soft drink and am regularly getting over a litre a day. I need to make that 2.5-3 litres, but hey, who's perfect?

That's about all that's gone right.

My lack of a job has put a halt on all of the other things I want to do. No money means no starting the new food program I want to start. Needing to buy a month's worth at a time means that we'd need to have a little more spare than we have (or dip into savings) so that's on hold until I get paid work.

I had an interview yesterday that I felt went well, but today got the call that I was unsuccessful. It was only a part-time position, but I'll take anything I can get at the moment. I do have another interview for a different full-time position on Wednesday next week so hoping that one goes better and I get a job out of it. I just want to work.

We also applied for government assistance and were knocked back. It's a real shame that my husband is employed in a minimum wage job and we actually have some savings... because we don't qualify for any payments. After working for 12 years and paying tax, being unemployed twice in that time and never claiming anything... I feel kinda jibbed. While I'm glad that we're considered 'well off' in the eyes of the government, it doesn't really help with the day-to-day living costs. It sucks for my husband too as we have to cut down on all unnecessary spending so he misses out. The guy at Centrelink told me I'd be better to have a baby ASAP and then we'd qualify for a range of assistance. No worries Champ. I'll get onto that.

So... what's next? NOvember. I'll be saying No a lot. Mainly to unnecessary spending, but also to junk food, laziness, unhappiness and soul-suckers. I've downloaded an image for a 30 day blog challenge which I plan to complete for the month, and I'll also weigh myself on the 1st and then not weigh again until the 30th. This will be hard (and is one of the No's for the month) as I'm a daily weigher!!

See you tomorrow...

Rocktober is nearly over...

I can't believe it! Nearly the end of October! When did that happen?

So much has happened in the last few weeks, I don't even know where to begin...

Food Stuff:
I've been wanting to try something new but right now it's not possible - money is tight and the initial outlay is more than we can afford right now. The program is a nutritional cleanse and is bought 30 days at a time so quite a pricey start. I'm totally bummed because I really want to give it a go, but understand why it's not possible.

Work Stuff:
I still don't have a job. This makes me sad. Rejection emails flood my inbox, and the only phone calls I get are people telling me I'm not successful but 'can we interest you in this Certificate that is free to you but gets us a Government grant for training you'. I have no idea why I need a piece of paper telling me I can do all the things I've been doing for years in the workplace, but apparently that piece of paper is more highly regarded than 10 years of experience when it comes to applying for work. I'm headed down to Centrelink in the morning to see about benefits. This also makes me sad.

Fitness Stuff:
My running program is the best thing going on right now. I'm enjoying my runs and getting better at pacing myself so that I can last the distance in the intervals. I'm not setting any records, but I'm doing it and I don't particularly care if people see me huffing around the streets. I've given up caring what I look like to others and begun focusing on getting myself sorted out instead. It's working. I also have done a bootcamp-style workout that left my thighs and bum screaming for 4 days... I don't think I'll go back to that one for a while as I quite enjoy going to the toilet pain-free.

Weight Stuff:
It went up, now it's coming down. This made me sad but is making me happy again.

Love Stuff:
I am smitten. I am overwhelmed by the support my husband shows me on a daily basis - he's just the best.

Home Stuff:
We moved. We're now closer to my family and friends and I just love it. It's only been a week and I've already reconnected with heaps of people and feel a little less isolated. We just have sooooo much stuff that needs to be unpacked and sorted through and garage-saled. Urgh.

Cali Stuff:
The big competition for the year is over. This makes me sad. I've retired from competing (again) after this competition, to make babies... which makes me happy. But 26 years of doing the thing I love and I'm not ready to give it up completely, so I'm continuing coaching both teams and solos next year. The girls I am coaching this year are all due for skills exams in a few weeks so I'm caught up teaching them the new syllabus and getting them perfect at it.

Baby Stuff:
We're gonna make some. Not sure when, but the conversations are getting more and more serious. This makes me happy.

Happy things and sad things. A few of each.

Just a small bite, not a huge chunk!

I was asked today how I feel about the program I signed up for, over at Operation Move. My reply was that I love not having access to the entire 10 week's worth of program - because I can't look ahead and freak myself out about how I can't do that yet. I'm loving the OpMove program - it's low key, I don't have to do too much to follow the program, just follow the instructions in the weekly email and check in on the Facebook group page if I feel like it. I do feel like it. I like that it's a small group and that we interact daily.

My food intake has been horrendous this last week (let's be honest.... this last month!) and I've put on weight rather than lost it. I've eaten many things that I haven't eaten for a while - some I've loved just as much as I remembered, and others I've thrown out before finishing as they taste gross or don't make me feel like they used to. I've spent more time in the toilet than I should, and a lot of time with stomach pain from eating all the wrong things.

Next week is a big week. I have the final (big, most important, super fun!) competition for the kids I teach. I'm excited and nervous, they're excited and nervous. It's going to be a blast, but tiring and a super long day. The next morning I get the keys to our new place, which is exciting in it's own right, but frustrating because the new place is 50km from this place so any trip over there will involve filling the car with some of our crap and driving a lot. We're getting the moving trucks and big strong men to help on Thursday so I'm hoping most of the move will be done in one go, with minimal trips back and forth with carloads of crap.

I'm packing this week - and while we don't have as much crap as we used to have (another couple of trips to the opshop), we still have too much crap that I'm not yet prepared to get rid of. I'll probably end up putting a heap of stuff on the local buy swap sell Facebook page after the move as some of those unwanted presents we got for our engagement and wedding cannot be saved to regift if we have nowhere to store them.

Anyway, back to the point of this post - biting off small chunks. I've researched Home Manuals and really want to make a small one for our new home, mainly a food plan and cleaning schedule, and possibly a budget. I'm so disorganised and just leave everything instead of planning and executing that plan effectively. Once the plan is set out, I only have to do small chunks each day instead of looking at a whole week's/month's/year's worth of cooking and cleaning and just giving up.

So until then... I'm taking it one day at a time. Food is going to consist of whatever is in the fridge, freezer and pantry - because I don't want to waste things I've cooked or bought when we move if they spoil in transit. My exercise is planned out (run/jog on certain days and a walk on the other days), and the next two days are devoted solely to packing up the rest of the house and getting everything ready for the move. I just need to remember to leave out anything I'll need for the comp and for the last few days before we go.

Small chunks.

Any tips for me?