Tomorrow I get to try to watch the last month of the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation twice a week videos, I am looking forward to this. This fantastic component of the 12WBT is something I miss so much living in the country on a wireless internet connection I just cannot afford to 'blow', my monthly high speed allowance (and I am on an $80. plan cannot afford to spend more to get more), to watch the videos until the last day of my month as my speed get's slowed down (I go over my high speed limit), when I watch them.

Today was a beautiful sunny day here in Mooroopna and I had to drive to Kialla through Shepparton to collect my Toyota from the service center and this involved travelling through three flood areas and I fond the views of the flooded eucalyptus red gum forrests spectacular and reg and I got out and walked a lot, then we returned to Mooropna my home town which where the Goulburn River is still at major flood level of 11.1 meters and I set to, then Reg my 70 year old husband joined in with me and with a rake, bucket and wheel burrow we cleared about 30 metered of debris blocked storm water drain. 
My garden then benefited as I used all the small leaf and branch litter to mulch and build up my garden beds.

Last night it was the banked up waters in the storm drains that threatened to enter the shopping area and it would be the storm water drains banked up that might endanger my home so I have become used to going out on the roadside and clearing them after a heavy downfall.    I can tell you, it was harder work than any pump class. 

Aquamoves the main gym in Shepparton is closed due to the flood waters until further notice.

Tonight I am resting and satisfied with the amount of exercise I got done during this clean up.

We need to boil all our water until further notice on a rolling boil for 2 minutes so tomorrow I will be heading back to the town to buy drinking water just to be sure I am not drinking contaminated fluids due to the flood.

Yesterday I blogged about how I was needing to listen to my body and reduce my physical activity while I wait for a small operation to remove a lump on a muscle on my back that is causing me pain and inflammation when I exercise. 
This has made active participation in the round 2 of 12WBT, I had enrolled in, impossible.

I have been pleased with how I have managed to listen to my body, having learned from my past mistakes when I have not slowed down when my body told me it needed to and making things worse and thus, taking longer to recover. 
This time I am listening to my body.

I have been able to maintain my weight perfectly even with the reduced physical activity.
This has been largely done by not thinking 'dieting', (something I refuse to do), but thinking delicious, nutritious and portion controlled for my body's needs.

I have also worked very hard to keep myself emotionally satisfied during this semi sedentary period of my life. 
The actions I took to achieve this were to:-
* Toured home from QLD to Victoria, 3,000 K
* Soaked in hot thermal spa pools in Morree over a one week holiday in the area.
* Spring Clean the house (OK that was almost more than my body was up to doing, but less exercise that the 12WBT program.
* I wrote a 10,000 word short story and I am having it published.
* Re worked the themes for all of my 10 blog/web sites, radically altering 6 of them and making them add free (as this one will be) from now on, a vote f confidence in my own ability to earn some income from my writing without needing to accept adds that clutter my blog. 
* Discovery walks (gentle exercise)of the Rivers and lakes around our summer home in the Goulburn valley.
* Reading more fiction and non fiction that I have had time to do for years and loving it. I keep a book with me and read during every moment I have to sit and wait (hospital outpatient visit's etc.) better that 10 year old magazines,lol :-).
* Gave my front and back gardens the after winter tidy up, a few pretty flowering seedlings added and the spring vegetable garden planted and more gentle exercise and stretches.

Mostly I have kept myself feeling like I am moving forward and achieving great things rather than dwelling on a temporary physical setback.

I am believing in a positive outcome from the operation.
If a negative outcome thought enters my mind, I decide my mind is simple being too idle and I get stuck into something I love doing.

At this stage of my life,nutrition and fitness, are the high priority in my mind.
My belief is that my body will find it's own best weight if I continue to nurture and care for it.

I am so turned off by obsessions over what the scales say.  How much do I weigh?  I do not know, I do not care. I DO CARE about my fitness and I am working on maintaining and improving this as a lifelong goal. the goal is NOT to be a certain kilo weight on the scale.

The only scale that interests me is the BALANCED LIFE scale. 

Right now my balance is a little 'off', due to the rest prior to surgery factor.

I am however adapting as best I can to this by listening to my body.

I am listening to my bodies need for food and responding to my stomach hunger, eating only when i am hungry and stopping when I am satisfied and not eating the same amount I did when I was more active, out of habit or emotional hunger.

I have gone to great lengths to ensure I have satisfied my emotional hunger.

I can look back on the past few months as a great success and a time of fantastic achievement even if there was no running or long swims to brag about, lol :-), or feel exhilarated by doing last winter. 
I had a great winter, just the same.

I now know I can manage my weight even when I have to slow down for a little while.

I still get out and walk as much as I can, bend and stretch, I am probably as active as most women of my age, I am simply not following any of the 12WBT exercise program now.
I enjoy reading about how my 12WBT friends are going and encouraging people to get active, make that extra effort and  enjoy the benefits of a fit body. :-).

The image above is from a card made from the image of an original oil painting I created.
If you are interested in my creative works, my home page is http://www.KathrynShell.com

I took a quick scan through the forums, as I relaxed to prepare to go to sleep and saw an interesting post concerning how much the social networking in the internet was adversly, affecting a person’s life.  This is only one thing that can eat into our self care time and yet if it is kept within a balance, social networking even on the internet, can include positive mentoring sites, and may be, very valuable, self care. 

I try to find the balance where I can say my time spent on social media, benefits me.

I know the time when I lost the bulk of my weight, happened in conjunction with being very active in a weight release forum. I also know my blogging keeps me focused and moving forward to all the goals that matter to me and that my networking on facebook puts me in touch with positive mentoring and supporting people, I value these contacts even if I need to restrict the amount of time I can spend doing these things.

My balance system is not perfect, or equal, sometimes it weighs more heavily to the physical to the neglect of my creative needs and sometimes as in the last two weeks it leans heavily toward the creative me, nurturing the emotions. Balance is never perfect, it is in constant motion and requires constant work and I need to be aware and remember I am striving to focus on having a balanced lifestyle. 

The balance point, how we combine our physical and emotional needs, will be very different for each of us. Best of luck in finding your own balance.

It is very easy when we give up an addiction, such as the one I once had of overeating that we might replace it with another, such as excessive time on facebook, in forums or in creative work, and it’s something I need to remember; that I want to replace habits that do not support the new me with good habits, not another addiction. 

This past fortnight has been a good one for me in seeing my being able to add more of my creative fulfilment interests back into my life and develop my plan for the creative work ahead,  I am using an efficient document management system to make sure this new creative activity stays as a balanced part of my life and does not ‘take over’ and cause me to neglect my physical needs of planning and eating balanced meals and taking sufficient time to exercise.

I am very aware now of the importance of keeping a balance of the physical and the emotional, in my life.  As an artist writer I will always be tempted to allow the emotional creative self to dominate, that is why I wear a simple leather Pandora bracelet with one Pandora bead, the yin yang (balance), bead on my wrist these days, below my heart rate monitor watch, as a constant reminder of this, ‘Balanced Lifestyle’, commitment I have made to myself.

I do NOT diet. I strive for a ‘Balanced Lifestyle’.