Inspired by The Biggest Loser

I have to admit I LOVE The Biggest Loser. I don't watch much television but I love seeing those unhappy, overweight people go from life threatening obesity and depression to thinking more positively, changing physically and mentally completely, overcoming their biggest fears and achieving massive goals. It really inspires me. I was watching this year's competition and their goal was to run a 42km marathon after 12 or so weeks. Some of them couldn't even walk 4km at the start without throwing up so to see them achieve a marathon had me in tears over and over again as they crossed the finishing line. I was so excited for them.

Which gets me thinking. I know I don't have masses of weight to lose. I know I am quite fit and healthy compared to many women my age but I look at those people on the television, some who are still 20 or 30kg heavier than I am and they are finishing a marathon!! While that sounds like a doable task, while I was watching the marathon episode, I hopped on the walker for an hour and walked what I thought was quite a good pace and only walked 6km in an hour. That means it would take me at least 7 hours, that's if I could keep at the pace of 6km an hour the whole way, let along getting through the mental barriers. My admiration for these competitors increased immensely as some of them finished it in 5 hours. I was amazed.

So I have set myself another goal. I want to be physically and mentally strong enough to walk/run a marathon. First of all, I thought about doing it on my walker and just plod along. Then T suggested I do it around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra which is 35km around and would be not only different scenery so I would get less bored but I would be out in the fresh air as well. I would just have to make up the other 7km by doing a bit further.

I have googled beginner marathon runner websites as I have never been a runner, the furthest I have ever run is about 500m (gulp!) but I don't mind walking as much as I can and then break into a run where possible. I am going to train for the next three to four months and see what happens. Anyway, it's good to have lofty goals - even if I make half a marathon, it's more than I have ever done. I'm really excited about this and have the support of the kids and T so we'll see!

Great North Walk Hornsby to Crosslands

Yay, we started back working on one of my goals - to walk the Great North Walk from Sydney to Newcastle. The last time we did a leg of it was about 18 months ago. Last year we were quite overwhelmed with the trampolining commitment but this year we are determined to get quite a few legs done. After yesterday we have completed 51km out of 250km so a fair way to go.

We were laughing about our "date" as we had K minded and the boys just stayed at home. It was so lovely to have a day just the two of us, in the bush where it is so peaceful and quiet and just talk, walk and exercise without being interrupted.
The scenery as usual for this walk passed by and over a lot of water which always makes it a pretty walk.

This walk had a few extra challenges with a ladder helping us go down this tricky section.
Even though it was overcast most of the day and a lovely temperature, it was still humid and this little waterfall was a welcome relief for cooling us down.
This was the last section of the walk, lovely and flat, a nice stroll alongside a river. We really enjoyed it after the medium to hard grade up and down sections we had been through. This was the hardest leg of the walk so far, being 14km long and through Galston Gorge but we really enjoyed it. My perfect date - great company with my favourite man, exercising physically and mentally and walking surrounded by nature.

Vision Boards

Mine












We all got a vision board for Christmas along with our gratitude journals. They came with about 100 inspirational sayings and words which you can choose, along with some instructions to choose photos, pictures or words to describe what you want to do, be and have. We finally got around to doing it today and it was great. I read out all of K's (5) words and sayings and she chose those she loved - dance, music, truth and sparkle to name a few and asked for descriptions on all of the words she didn't understand. Then she placed them on her board (with a bit of help from me) and decorated it with feathers and jewels. She didn't quite get the concept of choosing pictures so she could visualise things she wants but she lives such a great, free, easy life with the majority of her needs met so I think she sees the world as abundant already. Her board will obviously evolve over time but I was really thrilled to watch her choose certain terms through either an affinity with those words or her intuition or just that she liked the sound of the word.

D (17) did his a couple of weeks ago in secret and surprised me with the finished product. I wasn't sure if he would do it but was absolutely thrilled when he presented it to me. Some of the words and sayings inspire him, some he knows he needs to work on and some of the pictures of things he wants are already on their way to happening.

N (13) and M (15) also took a lot of care in choosing from the wide range of sayings. Things that are relevant to where they are in life right now, things they want to work on and things that inspire them were also chosen. They googled images to print out, colour and put on and cut out pictures from magazines to either match their words or set goals for the future. I was amazed at some of the discussions that this project instigated and got to know my kids a little bit more. It became quite evident that they really do have their own thoughts, feelings and values and I can also see the influence their own life experiences have had on where they are right now.

I have started my own as well, cutting out a heap of pictures and just need to go through my sayings and words (or make up my own) and arrange it on my own board. Powerful stuff! (Finished now)




D (17)




M (15)




N (13) Not quite finished





K (5)

Front Garden

I have managed to pretty much tick off one of my goals for this year - to complete the front gardens. We have been here over three years and they have been in various stages of mud, dirt, weeds waist high and grass. A lot of digging,planting and love later and we have some pretty cool gardens to get established over the next couple of years.

We only want to add a bird bath in the larger garden, some mondo grass along the front to stop run off onto the path as it's quite steep there and a couple more ground covers where there are spaces once the larger plants have spread a bit. We also want to add some sort of pine bark to finish it off but that's just a quick job which we can do anytime. The sugar cane mulch is fine at the moment.

We have used a lot of natives to reduce watering - grevilleas, kangaroo paw, seaside daisy and the vine out the front (can't remember it's name)- but I couldn't resist the cottage-y garden feel with the lavender, thyme and rosemary and colour with the rhoeo. Those ones have lasted really well in the heat we've had lately so once it's established, it should need minimal care. I love watching it grow and have really grown to love gardening over the last six months or so - very soothing and artistic.

Love Karen

Baby Steps

I am sitting here watching the Australian Open tennis marvelling how at such a high level each point is vitally important. Every point represents a baby step to the ultimate goal, winning the match. This can be translated to any area of your life - step by step, any goal can be reached.

When I was 30, I decided I was going to fulfill my fifteen year dream of visiting Europe, mainly France, for my 40th birthday. I loved French classes at school and had a funny, caring, inspirational French teacher and I never stopped questioning him about his experiences to do with France. It was like I had a connection to that country. At 30 I was a single mum with two young boys, 5 and 3 years old and I was a stay at home mum at the time, my values being I wanted to be there for them at such a young age. There was no way, on a pension, I could imagine how to save for a European holiday but I was absolutely determined. Step by step, I methodically put away whatever I could towards my dream.

As it turned out, my husband and four children ended up coming with me - the three boys on the proviso that they save their airfare and spending money. It took them three and a half years to do it by saving pocket money, Christmas and birthday money, washing cars, taking people's garbage bins in and out and baking and selling cookies but I'm so glad (and so are they) that I set the bar that high. I can see in their ideals now how much of an effect it has had on their goal setting and savings capacity. Also, I didn't require my little dream fund after all. We were able to take the money out of our business as dividends to pay for it. At 30, I could have never imagined where the money was going to come from to provide the fabulous experience we had but I strongly believe that setting the intention with complete conviction and taking baby steps to achieve that manifested the experience beyond my expectations.

Spanish Steps Rome

The Italians were lovingly fussing over D climbing the steps on his crutches, directing him to the nearby lift. D just said, "But then I would have missed out on the experience of climbing them."

Another area of my life I take baby steps in is my health and fitness. Daily habits of diet and exercise are really important to me and I notice that when I let these habits slip, other areas of my life are affected in a negative way. That doesn't mean complete discipline. If I miss a couple of days of exercise, there is no guilt or beating myself up. Just move on and start again tomorrow. Transitioning to a higher raw lifestyle at the moment, I have set myself a goal of one new recipe a day so that I can increase my repertoire of quick, easy and delicious healthy meals and is another step by step process. A little bit each day adds up to a massive difference by the end of the year.

There are many other areas this can also be applied to - starting a business, parenting, home educating your children, walking the Great North Walk one leg at a time - one baby step at a time can lead to massive results.

Love Karen

Raw Choc Avocado Pie

We got home quite late last night after going on a wonderful walk organised by Lake Macquarie City Council at Catherine Hill Bay. It was run by an extremely enthusiastic ecologist who talked until the sun went down but it was worth it. It was such a hot day and we were in the best spot for it, right down near the beach and then swimming in these amazing rock lagoons. Very refreshing!

Anyway, T was feeling like a dessert after a long hard week so I whipped up this raw dessert in about 20 minutes. One of my goals is to try a new raw recipe every day and I am really enjoying it. I am no cook and I have never had a passion for cooking, it is a real chore for me but the raw recipes are so easy, as long as you have the cupboard stocked with the ingredients. It is absolutely delicious and as it sets in the fridge, always tastes better the next day!

Love Karen

Being Inspired

I have been immersing myself in motivational and inspiring reading/MP3s and work since about September last year. It started with my bestie Global Jewels asking me to transcribe all of Dr Joe Dispenza's work from a Video Q & A show he has as one of his products. There were 25 hours in total of talk time which equates to over 100 hours of typing time. Dr Joe made the movie What the Bleep, has written a book called Evolve Your Brain and is about to release another book called Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. He writes from a very scientific perspective which suits me because I like to know how things work in the body, as well as describing the quantum field and how it affects us, an amazing phenomenon.

So I have been re-inspired for life - to live the most ecstatic, blissful, purposeful life I can. I have always been a goal setter and a list maker and have achieved a lot of things this way but still feel I am falling way short of the mark. I think this has to do with having my baby girl five years ago. When I have babies, I tend to let it take over until I can manage adding a few things at a time. I have always read and kept educating myself informally but it's like my life is on hold until I have the energy/time/space to move into another direction. I find I can't have a career and children, it's one or the other. When I have tried to do both, because of my all or nothing personality, I have fallen in a heap. This time, I have been very careful to look after myself and have most of my needs met so as to manage for my sake and my family's.

As you can see, I have listed things that are inspiring me at the moment plus goals I would like to achieve in the short term. As I complete them, I will post a little update on how I went about it, they are really just reminders for me to follow through instead of just writing them on a list :) One of the goals is to write a list - I got that out of Philip Humbert's newsletter http://www.philiphumbert.com/Free/ and it's quite comprehensive. The reason I haven't done it (no, I'm not procrastinating) is that I am away next week and I have been thinking and brainstorming how I would like my life to be so when it comes to filling in those little boxes, I will be well prepared - that's a Virgo for you!!

One of the goals running around in my head is to inspire people this year. I have been blessed to have many people in my life who constantly inspire me - friends and family and also books, blogs, websites and MP3 recordings. I replied to a question on teens on one of my yahoo groups and, not only did quite a few people respond saying that my answer inspired them, but the moderator asked if she could publish it in an Australia wide magazine. Wow, the power of affirmations. I am constantly amazed at how easily things can manifest if they are put into the field of quantum phemomena, surrendering and not controlling the outcome. I had no idea how this inspiring other people would come about but had a good belly laugh full of joy when I received those emails in my inbox thanking me for my words. Very encouraging.

Looking forward to whatever else is going to unfold in this blissful, free, ecstatic journey.

Love Karen