#temperancetrail

[mari-musing]

That beautifully-wrapped box is a gift, from me to me, and it is going to stay wrapped until my next 60 days alcohol-free are completed. The book is a ‘hollistic health journal’ - my 30-day AF reward to myself (which also happened to coincide with Valentine’s Day - vive self love!) I will use it to map my health goals and achievements over the next 60 days. I’ve always liked journalling; planning, writing things down, ticking off lists, reviewing my progress. Who else enjoys this form of order? 📖🖊🎁

[mari-musing]

In the middle of last year, the penny finally dropped: there was a correlation between my worsening ulcerative colitis symptoms and my nightly wine habit. For the sake of my health, I decided quietly to do Dry July. But tragedy changed my mind and I decided to make it official. At the celebration service of a beautiful young woman cut down by cancer, her dad spoke of how she championed cancer support services, so I signed up to raise money. Charlotte’s parents gave out white pebbles with a blue heart at her celebration service; to remember her by, but also to keep close as we pursued dreams or goals, if it felt right. My Charlotte Stone became my alcohol-free talisman. I was dry 42 days until I reached my fund-raising goal. Since then, I’ve waxed and waned, but here I am again, having completed the @oneyearnobeer 28 Day Alcohol-free Challenge, and about to begin the next 32 days, before the 30 after that. I am not saying I will never raise a glass of champagne in a toast again, but it will be a conscious, controlled decision, not a reflex. Quite simply, it’s a matter of life or death. 💙

[mari-musing]

My #alwayssmiling ethos is a little wobbly today. No Snakes & Ladders trail race for me tomorrow. 😭😭 I have an itchy red post-prednisolone rash around my eyes, but worse, shooting sciatic pain is disabling my right glutes. I can barely walk. 😣 I broke my right lower back molar last week too and had it drilled out, filled and rebuilt yesterday. What a stressful experience! It wasn’t painful as such, but the tugging, the pushing, the high-pitched noise, the neck and mandibular joint strain traumatised my nervous system. It’s done and all good now but phew. 😅 So, I am feeling a bit glum. But, as I type this, I have half an eye on the Tour Down Under, watching a Movistar rider in the breakaway with a grated bloody left buttock and both arms bandaged. Ow! Cyclists are tough cookies. 💪😎🚲 And I saw Insta #ibdwarrior friend @lillythelegend taking her first painful steps post-ileostomy - you go girl! 💜💜💜 As perspective shrinks my troubles to inconvenience, I can focus on the positive: meditation and stretching done, four straight #alcoholfree days on the #28dayalcoholfreechallenge and physiotherapy booked for Monday. ✔✔✔

[mari-musing]

Lazy Sunday: Here I am at 3.00pm in my pajamas; reading the paper, scrolling social media and watching sport on TV. (How about the Australian Womens Sevens Rugby team? Sheer awesomeness - outclassed the rest of the world and did not concede a point the entire series. 💪😎👊) Anyway, I just ate leftover pizza for lunch. 🍕 I am always setting goals; striving for this; ticking off that… not today. My L5 injury is giving me gyp. 🤕 Rest & recovery from injury is mentally taxing but essential. It takes discipline not to rush it. Meanwhile, the sun is out and the wind has dropped, so I will roll into the pool soon, as I’m not up to much else. 💊🌞💦

Later: Finally got out of my pajamas & into my bathers for a swim at 4.00pm. The question is, what shall I put on after my shower? Clean jamies I guess. 😄

[mari-musing]

Does anyone else feel like a giant cannibal when they eat gingerbread men? 😨 Wait… are you all being healthy and avoiding sugar bombs? 😏 The last of the Christmas cookies were dipped in ginger tea and crunched up today - blowing the low-carb diet. Never mind - back on track tomorrow; 80/20 rule. 😉 Where I have stayed steadfast is my @oneyearnobeer 28 Day Alcohol Free Challenge - 12 days straight including Australia Day. 🇦🇺 Can I have a Hell Yeah? 💪 On the physical rehab front; I did a 1.6km walk and am feeling some renewed pain tonight dammit. I obviously have to take it even slower and lighter than that. 😟 So it’s back to the hot-pack and Panadol Osteo. I had better stick to water exercise for another week. 🔥💊💦

[mari-musing]

Mangoes! I have a herniated L5 disc and my trail running goals are on the back-burner until I am healed. But I have other challenges on the go, including the 28 Day Alcohol-Free Challenge with the @oneyearnobeer tribe. With the first week successfully completed, I rewarded myself with a box of delicious, sweet ripe mangoes. 🌞

[mari-musing]

I may not be able to walk, run and ride right now but I can stick to my healthy food and alcohol-free goals! Together the husb and I cooked up our fav Sunday brunch for lunch and the bacon was crispy perfection. Evening meals the past two nights have been noodle bowl variations; eaten al fresco of course to make the most of these divine summer dusks. Emphasis is on the crunchy stir-fry vegetables and spicy Thai flavours, with prawns on Saturday and pork balls on Sunday. Note the tall green glasses of sparkling mineral water, flavoured with fresh lime on Saturday and ginger syrup on Sunday. I didn’t feel tempted to numb the sciatic pain with wine so winning! 😁🌅🍤

[mari-musing]

Medal Monday! I still feel excited after yesterday’s Wallygrunta 10km trail race. I do get a kick out of running in the bush on varied terrain - I think I’m hooked! I feel justified investing in some trail shoes now - I could feel those sharp rocks. My goal is always to finish an event smiling, upright, uninjured, and not last! I had one finisher behind me on the results table so scraped in there! (I also passed a man who DNF.) And not spending 2 minutes taking photos would not have made the slightest difference to my placing haha. 😂🏃🏆

[mari-musing]

I just finished my first run of the year; my regular 5.5km Zamia Trail loop, and phew it was a struggle - lots of walk breaks. It’s not a fitness issue; just that my body is struggling to make its own cortisol now that I have weaned off prednisolone. But medication side effects are part of my life so I just have to deal with it. I suspect I will be walking much of Sunday’s 10km Wallygrunta trail race - the first 5km is a climb! 😲🌄🏃

[mari-musing]

FINISHED! Upright & uninjured. The Stay Puft Trail Race was HARD. It was HOT. Boulders. Roots. Single trail. Sand. Ticks. Hills. I only spat out one fly. But it’s DONE! I entered the 12.4km short course. I had to walk a lot of the final few klicks, I was that knackered. I didn’t suffer any joint pain though, so the training and strengthening has paid off.

I knew it was going to be a lot tougher than a road race but I wasn’t prepared for how many people fell over! The sloshing of all the camel packs made me laugh at the start, then it was a series of ‘Ow!’ 'Are you okay?’ 'Argh!’ as the person who turned to offer help then went down as well.

Next up is the Wally Grunter on 7 January. It reportedly has a crawlably steep hill, so hill sprints are on the training program once my calves recover from this one…

PS This jolly photo was taken a good half-hour after finishing - after I’d flopped on the ground and drank 600mL of water without pause. I went to a Christmas party in the afternoon and was on my feet for hours until I realised that actually, I could sit down, most people were by then! 😅🏃💦

[mari-musing]

Everyone on the #oneyearnobeer forum has been talking about alcohol-free beer, so I thought I’d give one a go. A lot of alcohol-free alternatives are too sweet and sometimes, you just want a break from water, booch or herbal tea in the evening. This one was pleasantly dry and low-carb. Instant belch though - couldn’t finish the bottle. 🍻🙄

[mari-musing]

Presenting my OWN #2017bestnine based on what I feel reflects my year and what is important in my life. 😎

From the top: . Good times with my beloved young adult children (and the dog snuck in too 😉). 🐶 . A daily homemade breakfast is part of my healthy lowcarb diet. 🍓 . I ran my first trail race in December! Running is now part of my life as I train for the testing summer series. 🏃 . This pic represents cycling for fun and friendship and a love of pretty lycra I share with gorgeous Insta friend Shae. 💋 . I loved my rewarding job prescribing exercise as medicine to people undergoing cancer therapy (unfortunately the role was cost-cut before Christmas 😢). 💪 . Hanging out with my hubby and best mate - we run together, eat together, cook, garden, talk and of course, go on coffee rides together. ☕ . The biggest challenge in 2017 was overturning my nightly wine habit, with some help from Pukka herbal teas and home brewed kombucha. 🍵 . Training for and completing my 6th Three Dams Challenge was a big commitment and a tightrope walk, balancing training and health. 🚲 . Coping with inflammatory bowel disease is an inescapable part of my life: the IV infusions, the pain, the drug side effects, the fatigue; but I aim to stay jolly, do hard things and spread sunshine along the way. 🌞💊🙆

[mari-musing]

I had a giggle and labelled my weightloss money jar today. You’ll note it is empty, despite my setting goals nearly three weeks ago. It probably isn’t very PC either, if you’re a whale, but they have a need for blubber and I don’t. (Also, they are oblivious to human machinations on social media.) Anyway, I live by the ocean and the whales come past every season, so here’s my cute whale, waving its tail at me every time I sit at my desk. “I need that extra tonne of krill, but you don’t need that biscuit Mari”. 🐳 But seriously, maybe having the jar dressed up in plain speak will fire me up to shift that 7.7kg of menopausal and prednisolone fat I’ve been adding to for five years. Certainly nothing else has kicked me into gear this past year. I weighed in yesterday expecting to have lost something, but I’d gained 200g, which is neither here nor there (a good crap, my brother would say) but… You can see why people say, “throw the scales away”. But I like numbers and am perfectly capable of patting myself on the back for the things I have achieved - like cutting the wine, completing trail races. Cheers if you’ve read through this musing. I know lots of people are in the same boat. Certainly, as a female, you don’t grasp the effects that menopause will have on your body until you get there. I recall an older school mum bemoaning her struggles, but I was 40-something, fighting fit and slim as a whippet - pfft - wouldn’t happen to me! Hmmm. Quite often there will be a health set-back around that time which compounds the issue, which is what did happen to me. Some people are happy letting go but that’s not who I am, so don’t chide me to go with the flow. I’m not aiming for anything unrealistic. In fact, a 2018 version of 52-year-old me is where I want to be. (I’m looking at the photos now - I looked AWESOME at 52! 😅) I am interested to hear your stories. Let me know where you’re at 😀. 🚤🐳🚣

[mari-musing]

Mitzy’s resting schnauzer face pretty much sums up how I am feeling. 😦 I am her ‘walker’ but my injury won’t even let me get up the driveway. Happily her dad took her for a bound and cooked up a delicious Dinner Twist meal, which we ate outside. 😢🐟🐶

[mari-musing]

Here is where I am at today: This antique walking stick belonged to Rob’s Great Aunt Alice and I need it! Rob’s well-meaning thumb pressure in the sore spots last night aggravated them big-time. I am a cripple with an ice-pack down my pants this morning. I can’t take oral NSAIDs so am using topical gel and panadol for pain relief. It’s a beautiful summer day. I definitely will be using the pool. My meditation this morning focused on acceptance that I missed the much-anticipated Snakes & Ladders Trail Race today, and that I may not be be healed for the next one; acceptance that I must take time to heal properly and reset my goals; visualisation of that healing; and gratitude for what I have. 😣🌀🌞

[mari-musing]

I set goals: challenging goals; small goals like stepping stones to get me there; and lofty goals looming large over the challenges.

In 2018 all goals centre on health and fitness. The loftiest goal is achieving ulcerative colitis remission. Inflammatory bowel disease has thrashed me so hard for the past five years that remission seems unreachable; yet I have been there so I know it is achievable. Healing habits I commenced in 2017 will help me get there:

. Alcohol temperance - track alcohol-free days and never let the wine habit get a grip. . Maintain a low-carb diet - almost there but for the sweet treats! . Daily meditation and visualisation. . Daily stretching and mobility. . Resistance training 2 × week. . Continued commitment to run training.

Implementing these overarching goals will help me achieve some very specific goals too: . Reach my 59kg goal weight by 1st April. . Complete the Summer Trail Series. . Pick up my 5km pace - sub 8min/km average. . Run my first half-marathon. . Try something new. I have registered for a trial with @movementco - I just need to book in.

So there is my big picture. I will set my stepping stones at the beginning of each month. Doubtless there will be splashes as I fall off and retrace my steps! 🌏👋🍀