Few people realize that consuming alcohol after a workout can cancel out any physiological gains they may have received from a workout. Not only does long-term alcohol use diminish protein synthesis resulting in a decrease in muscle build-up, but even short-term alcohol use can impede muscle growth.

• Because of alcohol’s effect on sleep, your body is deprived of a chemical called human growth hormone or HGH. HGH is part of the normal muscle building and repair process. Alcohol, however, can decrease the secretion of HGH by as much as 70%.
• Alcohol triggers the production of a substance in your liver that is directly toxic to testosterone. Testosterone is essential for the development and recovery of your muscles. As alcohol is absorbed through your stomach and small intestine and into your cells, it can disrupt the water balance in muscle cells, altering their ability to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is your muscles’ source of energy. ATP provides the fuel necessary for your muscles to contract.
• Speeding the recovery of sore muscles and injuries is essential to the gains from a workout. On occasion, when a person is injured or sore and doesn’t work out, they may see this as an opportunity to use alcohol. The use of alcohol causes dehydration and slows your body’s ability to heal itself.

Source: Office of Alcohol and Drug Education

Oh look… still haven’t had time to give my blog an update yet! Where does the time go these days? The days and weeks are just flying by and that scares the heck out of me!! I’m going to wake up 60 years old one morning and wonder where all that time went.

I am so looking foward to this weekend. I have very special guests sleeping over on Saturday night (my sis, nephew and niece in case you couldn’t guess). Sis is coming down early to come shopping with me for some outdoor furniture. Everyone on facebook has pretty much been bombarded with this, so I am going to post it up here for me to reflect back on further down the track! LOL!!

It’s time for me to sort out the back yard. It is still looking more bare than this (as the previous owners took their gorgeous filagree table setting with them). Darnit… should have asked for it to be included in the settlement… LOL!!

Under cover just outside the door I am thinking of something like this… which will match the dining setting just inside the door as it is made of water hyacinth too.

Then a few months down the track, I am looking at something like this up on the decking for outdoor dining. Up there I am going to need something that can withstand weather and will also look at a big market umbrella or sail shade over the area.

I think eventually I might like to put a ceiling fan on the roof of the patio for hot weather and a gas heater on the wall. Then perhaps either some cafe blinds to enclose it in cold weather, or maybe even bifold doors around the area. Lots more decisions to come, but will stick with the outdoor lounge first. I am getting ahead of myself!!

Thursday morning this arrived on my doorstep, and I had only ordered it Tuesday evening online at home. I have my first green juice for afternoon tea this afternoon and have been getting quite bored with the old healthy eating staples for afternoon tea… as is to be expected after 5 years of similar eating. It’s going to be nice to be able to change it up a bit!!

Tomorrow it is off to see my Aunty, who recently lost her hubby. I miss Uncle Jim so much. It’s just not the same without him. Then next week we are catching up with my mum’s bestie and her hubby. Two people that have been in my life since I first entered high school. It’s going to be nice catching up with quite a few very important people in my life over the next coming week.

On health related topics, I was watching a morning show yesterday as I was getting ready for work and was quite impressed with this new iPhone app out called the FoodSwitch app. It has just been released and can assist people with making healthier food choices when grocery shopping in regards to fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. While it doesn’t give you the whole nutritional panel, it does give you the main offenders when it comes to unhealthy food. You scan the barcode of the item and it provides you with healthier choices if there are any. The results are displayed using a traffic light system – red for unhealthy, amber is OK and green is the healthier option. I haven’t tried it out yet as I am pretty good with reading food labels now, but I think it’s a fantastic idea for people who haven’t had experience and don’t have any idea how to decipher the labels. It can be quite confusing for some! Details of the app can be found here, and the app itself is available from the iTunes store.

Anyway guys, must be off! Have an awesome weekend…

Love Rae xxx

“Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Not with training of course, training never frustrates me… in fact it actually eases the frustration.

The frustration was with work. I always find it so hard to ease back into work when I’ve had time off. Give it a couple of weeks and I will be settled in, but it’s definitely hard the first week or so, especially when work is slow. The time has just been draaaaaaaaagging!

The grief counselling is going really well and what I am about to write is very personal, but it may help someone else who is struggling with forgiving someone who has hurt them badly, and it is for this reason alone that I am going to share.

My last counselling session was on New Year’s Eve. As I woke up on that morning, an alarm popped up on my iPhone reminding me that it was my older sister’s birthday the next day. Not that I really need reminding that her birthday is on New Years Day! As I looked at the reminder, I said out loud “Happy birthday, I hope you are happy with the choices you’ve made.” I didn’t mean it in a nasty way, I actually do hope that she is happy and happy with the choices she has made because, despite everything that has happened between us, she is still my sister and still someone I used to love very much.

So I brought this up in counselling. I’m pretty sure by now that everyone that reads my blog knows that I have Christian beliefs. When I told my counsellor about this incident, I also admitted that I am really struggling with forgiving her, which is something we are supposed to do.

Mark 11:25
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.

She asked me what forgiveness meant to me. I thought about the question for a while and answered that I thought it was not necessarily saying that what they did was okay, but that you let go of the hurt and anger and move on with your life instead of dwelling on what someone has done to you and let it eat you from the inside.

Then she asked me if she wasn’t my sister, would I still want her in my life. I had to answer no. My older sister is not somebody I would choose as a friend. Even though I feel embarrassed about admitting this about a family member because you are supposed to love your family, I just don’t like her as a person. I don’t like her selfishness, I don’t like her victim mentality, I don’t like her sense of entitlement, I don’t like her narcissism and I don’t like the part of her character that tramples over other people she is supposed to care about in order to get what is most important to her… money.

I then said something that made my counsellor’s face light up. I said…

Perhaps instead of struggling with forgiving my sister, maybe I should start with trying to forgive myself for not even liking someone I am supposed to love.

So that is what I am currently doing, and it is working well. It has taken a load off my shoulders, or perhaps that should be my heart that the weight has been lifted from. I feel light and feel as though I am really working my way to a place where I can be happy with the choice I made not to have my older sister a part of my life. I need to keep reminding myself that my sister too made that choice, so it wasn’t mine alone to make. It’s not like she tried to build any bridges, so I am sure she feels that same way about me that I do about her.

All I know is that I can sleep at night because I made a stand in order to honour my mum and ensure her last wishes were granted. My younger sister and I spent many hours talking to my mum before she passed away, so we knew exactly what she wanted. My sister would rarely call mum and only spent the last few days with her. She was not close to mum and therefore didn’t know what was in mum’s heart. The only thing that saddens me is that I have been cut off from my nieces. I can only hope one day that they will come looking for me when they are old enough to run their own lives and choose who they want in them. I have faith that they will remember the times we shared, how much I loved them and the bond we had when they were growing up.

And on that note, I am off to spend the weekend with the lights of my life… my sister and her children… after a session at the gym of course

Have a great weekend everyone…

Lots of Love,
Rae xxx

Luke 23:34
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” Mother Teresa

Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a very happy New Year and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

While everyone else is posting about what their plans are for this year, for the first time in a long time I have no firm plans. Seeing a counsellor has made me realise I need to sort my head out before I attempt anything major. Not that last year wasn’t major with buying a house! I do have a sense of this year bringing a lot of changes, mostly due to the counselling sessions I have had helping me work through a lot of things. I cannot believe how much ground we have covered already and seeing this progress so quickly has generated excitement over the possibilities.

So no matter what this year brings, the only resolution I am going to make is to remain true to myself and true to my loved ones. I hope you have an amazing night and that this year sees all your dreams come true.

Love Rae xxx

“The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!” Edward Payson Powell