Week Three of #fmsphotoaaday

Another week of the #fmsphotoaday challenge for January - happiness theme!  I have noticed that many things make me happy on a daily basis and I love how I can see something or think of someone and just smile. Built in happiness.

The Week three prompts were:

1. Bright

One of my work colleagues has found fitness and is passionate about classes.  This makes me so happy that is the one thing I always wanted for people when I was a PT was for people to find fitness FUN!  She had forgotten her gym shorts and instead of using it as an excuse (and because she so badly wanted to do the class) she ducked out to Lorna Jane and grabbed the brightest orange shorts I have ever seen. Made me smile.

2, Lucky Number

Have always had a few different lucky numbers, from houses I lived in to birthdays of relatives or a number that I won blackjack on a few times in the Burswood Casino back in the day.  Always loving Chinese traditions and cultures I have been fond of the number 8 for many years.  When looking at houses to move into I do always hope that the number is made up of the number 8.  Number 88 symbolizes fortune and good luck in Chinese culture

3. New

After dropping my old Mason jar a few weeks ago I finally got around to buying a new one.  I love the oats in a jar concept because it allows me to be prepared the night before and have a delicious breakfast at work.  Something delicious about adding oats, berries, cacao powder, protein powder, almond milk and honey into a jar and letting it all absorb its goodness overnight to get a gooey pile of deliciousness!

4. Old

Since I was little I have always loved trains and history (thanks to my Pop).  I love the sound of all trains (old locomotives my favourite).  Something tranquil about train sounds.   Growing up in  mining town also allowed me to listen daily to the sound of the iron ore train as it passed by our house up to 2-3 times a day. No matter what city I visit I am always drawn to the history of their trains.  Sydney has an amazing history with the City Line.

This photo was taken at St James Railway station.  This station was originally intended to be a major interchange for the Eastern suburbs railway line, but they could never decide over the routes so became the city loop.

5. Nature

Sunflowers are my favourite flower of ALL time.  They are tall, golden and appear nearly everywhere and make people smile.  I love that they are bright and stand tall like they are so proud to be a gorgeous flower and want to be noticed and make people smile.

6. Jump

My favourite sport I competed in ever has to be basketball (closely followed by swimming) and I still love watching it to this day. It was a hot day in Sydney on this date and I found myself in a cool bar watching NBA!  Boy can they JUMP!

7. Today Is

Sunday, a day spent with family celebrating brother-in-law Nick's 35th Birthday!  A lovely ourmy niece entertain us with her cuteness.  We had a gorgeous lunch and was nice just to spend time with family.

Not missing Facebook at all.....

It has been 14 days off Facebook (with a slight slip the other day when I heard about a family friend's mother passing away and wanted to send my condolences and wishes & seeing the odd picture or video on the husbands phone as he waves it in my face saying "check this out").  I haven't missed knowing exactly what everyone is doing every second of the day.  It feels quite free and liberating. 

 

Saying that I have doubled my time on Instagram and Twitter.  I have followed new peoples and reduced a whole lot of fitness fanatics people on both social media platforms.  Following more colourful creative people who love photography, food, creativeness, play and fun!  This allows me to tap into my creative Yin side of my brain and not focus on "having to know exactly where people are checking into every five seconds".  Yes I was one of those people, because you weren't really there if you didn't check in to let the world know you were having a coffee, lunch, dinner.  People probably assume that you eat during the day and that you like to partake in cafes (namely because you take a picture of everything you eat and upload it to Instagram BEFORE you eat it)!

 

My curious nature (otherwise known as bloody nosey personality) has actually resorted to calling people and sending text messages to find out about what friends/family are up to and how they are. Good old fashioned telephone calling/texting hey, who woulda thought it?  I wonder if they see my name come up and think "oh fuck not her again, didn't I talk to her like four days ago"!

 

Twitter has been my "go-to" news feed and quite refreshing to click on my groups and just flick through subjects that I feel like for the day - mostly photography and US news. Interesting. The New York times and the Huffington Post are two of my favourites and I am finding out more about charities and social media business learning.  I did search #goldenglobes on the bus ride home on Monday that left me entertained for the entire 30min bus ride that I didn't really need to watch the show when I got home!  I knew who the winners were and also had heard about that "Cosby" joke made by the Tina and Amy (Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for those who aren't on a first name basis with them).

 

Having reduced my pages followed down from 112 to 20 it will be interesting to see what appears on my Facebook feed on the 1 February.  Unless I continue to stay off Facebook as part of the Febfast challenge (no sugar and no alcohol this year).  Last Febfast I did no sugar, no social media (at all, killed me), no alcohol and no coffee (why on earth would one do that to themselves, bloody overachievers).  You can read my blog posts here and here.

 

Knowing me my nosey personality will win and I will want to know exactly what people are doing because It makes me happy most days.

 

Week Two of #fmsphotoaday

Another fun week of the #fmsphotoaday challenge.  I must admit I did not put too much thought into the prompts, was first week back at work and had to actually use my brain which obviously shut out any creative thoughts! Continued on with my happy theme for the month. 

5th Square - INXS Shabooh Shoobah album listening too. One of my favourite albums of all time and have it on vinyl.  The One Thing  is the ultimate INXS song.  Most people know I was obsessed with Michael Hutchence.

6th Round - Love when the lights go green, go go go!

7th Currently Reading - Mindfood magazine - the mixture of health, fitness and psychology articles makes me happy as I hate reading trashy magazines.

8th Landscape - an ocean shot from doing the Watson's Bay walk, mixing the love of the ocean with walking with a friend and having coffee.

9th Pattern - Seeing lovely flowers make me smile, then I realised it was for Marc Jacobs "Daisy"  that smells divine. Gorgeous pattern.

10th Hello - I always greet my coffee with a "hello lover" with my best impression of Marilyn Monroe.......ahem. Divine coffee at Cafe Morso, Saturday brunch with friends.

11th I see - I was watching a National Geographic documentary on one of my favourite mammals, the penguin (after seeing the new penguin movie last week too) and I was so happy on the couch chilling that I thought, "this is my prompt for today".

Photo-a-day Challenge

 

I have decided to take my #fmsphotoaday challenge a little further and write a little about the pictures and the prompts/themes associated with the piccies.

 

For January as I am off Facebook I have only been publishing my photo's to Instagram, linking to Twitter (think a couple I accidentally linked to FB, habits are so darn hard to break).

 

Normally Chantelle (aka Fat Mum Slim) would pull together a month of word prompts to take a photo.  I always tried to keep it to that exact day when taking a picture of the word prompt as it made me step outside my comfort zone and look around me a little more in my adventures during the week (namely the bus to and from work)! 

 

This year Chantelle has mixed things up and is releasing only the word prompts for the week ahead. LOVE THIS. Means I can just check in on Sunday's, add the prompts to my Google calendar and have my words ready for the week. No planning ahead or taking a months photos in a day (even though this may work for some people).

 

January's theme for me is Happiness.  I wanted to find a happy moment for each word prompt. Something that either made me smile or one of my many interests (people, animals, wine, chocolate, love, photography, storms, nature).

 

 

 

 

1st Jan - The Sky - waiting at the bus stop severely hung-over I was heading to a friend's birthday lunch (she turned 30 on New Year's Day).  I remember looking up at the sky and thinking what a gorgeous day it was an thought I would capture the plane flying over also as a little happiness moment, wondering where the people on the plane were going to/coming from.  Always makes me smile.

 

2nd Jan - Something Yellow - Went for a walk from Coogee to Bondi  return with my husband on such a gorgeous day.  The sun was shining and I couldn't stop seeing yellow flowers!!  I tried to take a few pictures of the better ones but the path was too busy and Drew had to stop and keep waiting for me!! My favourite flower has always been a sunflower, they make me smile. Flowers make me happy. Perfect for my happiness theme.

 

3rd Jan - Me Today - Was in such a great mood today. Went to a few outlet stores to try on sneakers/trainers ready for the New Year fitness regime (and because my old Nikes are, well old).  Had a great time checking out shops and decided that we needed to grab some vino for dinner and headed to Dan Murphy's.  I was so happy to get a nice bottle of Rose from The Watershed in Margaret River (one of my biased favourite wine regions). So happy.

 

4th Jan - I hear - Further to my blog post below I finally visited Wyles Bath's at Coogee Beach.  I did an hour yoga and then had a great swim in the ocean pool.  Lying on my towel after the swim I was enjoying the sun, the sound of the surf, children laughing, seagulls chirping and was in my happy place. Great way to end the last day of the year before going back to work.

 

So Week 2 has commenced, it is never to late to join anything. So go on join me for Week 2!

 

 

 

 

Wyles Bath Coogee

Having walked past the Wyles Baths at Coogee for over 9 years I finally WENT in today!!

I used to walk past it many times and see the signs "yoga by the sea", "massages by the sea" and thought I must do that.... if I had a dollar for everytime I said it I would probably have about $45 (half a massage or a few yoga classes perhaps).

Maybe it was the New Year looming or the fact I am more familiar with hatha yoga now, I decided a couple weeks ago to "just do it". Thanks Nike for the slogan.

Thinking Coogee wouldn't be "that" busy at 8am on a Sunday was a big oversight on my part. Every family within a 15km, no 20km radius was here with families galore.  Runners, walkers with cute doggies (lost count after patting about five cuties) it seemed this was the normal time to use up ALL the carparks near Wyles!

So a good 15min walk either way had been added to my morning routine, excellent. No worries.  Love a good warm up.

Finally met up with our instructor Daniela, lovely lady who thought it would be best to take the morning class up onto the grass as they were still cleaning up from a wedding the day before (now that would of been a great place to get hitched, slapshead) maybe if I had of come here earlier......

So up under cover joined by swedish sisters Nadine & Nadia (two very fit, young blonde, lovely girls) we completed the hour hatha class. Worked up a right sweat and managed to stretch out any stiffness from holiday activities (golf, sleeping in, riding my new bike, napping on the couch, sleeping, eating).

A quick shower and change into my togs/bathers/swimmers for a swim in the nipply ocean. Brrrrrr first swim of summer for me in the sea. It was refreshing and just floated in there for what seemed like forever, sat in the sun, enjoyed the sounds of the waves crashing, children laughing, the squad coach yelling at his swimmers in the far lane (strangely comforting) and enjoyed a nice latte near the water. What a perfect way to start my Sunday and finish off my two week break!

New Year - Time for ME changes!!

Second day of the New Year and I am excited about the challenges I have set in place for myself. Project ME 2015.

A few things to start for January:

Creative
Going off Facebook and utilising other social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest (not to forget blogger)!

#fmsphotoaday challenge - have done this for a couple years off and on. Every day of the month there is a word prompt and you take a picture to reflect your interpretation of the word. Some people have a theme attached to the month (like black & white, m&m's) and for January my theme is #happiness.

Pinterest - collating information,  pictures, recipes,  home/creative tips, gardening advice etc

Workbook/Journal
Creating ideas, writing stories,  tapping into the Yin side more and coming closer to publishing a book.

Education
Finishing the nutritional psychology course I signed up for over a year ago. Making time to complete my realm reading certificate (have always been interested in doing card readings and would love to learn more about tapping into the spiritial realm).

Health
2014 was a busy year & quite stressful really with a few things (planning a wedding, turning 40, my cat going missing just before the wedding, getting married, injuries which led into winter, then I went off the pill,  which led into a cannot be fucked making an effort which contributed a little to the weight I had gained). Despite my clothes being tight i am super happy despite having put on many kgs, my injuries are getting proper maintenance & rehabilitation due to improving my body & mind with hatha yoga. I feel in a much better head space and now need to stop being so relaxed with food, wine etc.

Eating well, making smarter choices,  moving my body everyday whether it is a 30min walk, weights smash session, yoga, swimming, bike ride, walk etc. I am going to shed 16kgs. The husband is also looking after his health, reducing weight and getting us both healthier as we head into our forties!! (41 in March,  for me).

Changing Habits
Coffee is something I have a love & hate relationship with. I love the smell, taste & the social interaction of "coffee" but feel it has become a habit to make it through my day/week & is associated with being stressed/frantic. Grabbing a coffee on my way to work daily costs $3.50, I think I need it but in reality I don't always.  So coffee only 2-3 times a week instead of 7-12!! Drinking more tea (green, ginger,  white tea) which will save money and also reducing milk intake (waste of fat calories). I will really enjoy the few cups I have.

Changing habits can assist changes in other areas of my life to being healthier (bringing lunch, walking to a different bus stop, not sitting on Facebook every 10mins, positive affirmation challenges etc). I also got given a second hand bike for Christmas so I can join hubby in outdoor activities more to mix up walks with rides and exploring different areas in and around Sydney!!

So January should be a productive month!! Weighed myself today purely as a starting point and measured as well. Excited to mix things up this month.