To read about the background of participating in this event, please visit my previous blog post.

Basically we were going to do it in 2020, but COVID-19 meant the event was cancelled/postponed. And we were then able to participate in 2021 (in between further lockdowns). In fact, as I write this on 2nd June 2021, we are in our fourth COVID-19 lockdown!!

…

So, just popping in to say. My friends are better than yours! So bloody proud of these guys, and the 26km team members who were gone by the time we finished.

Massive thanks to our personal support crew Joe Amelia and Archie, top work from these guys

Follow my Strava profile: https://www.strava.com/athletes/30265198 

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• Wednesday Walk from 5.15pm at Naroghid
• Friday Night – Noorat-Terang Fun Run (6km) and then we will turn around and walk back to Noorat Pub for dinner. Please let me know numbers by about Thursday night so I can let them know.
• Sunday – Great Ocean Walk – Wreck Beach to 12 Apostles.

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A couple of days before my 39^th birthday, I kicked off with a solid long weekend of walking. I set myself the goal to walk at least three times a week. By the end of June, I was achieving this, and had, in fact, walked every day straight from the 20^th June to the 30^th June.

I devoted some time to reshuffling my work calendar so that I could finish work earlier a couple of days a week, in order to squeeze in a one-hour walk before it got too dark during the winter months. Big thanks to the GBM technology team, for making this possible!

A great team of friends supported this new adventure. We organized catch-ups that involved walking 6 kilometres to the Noorat Hotel, having Sunday brunch, and then walking 6 kilometres back to Terang (in the rain). What a team! By the end of September, I had exercised (closed my Apple Watch Green Ring) every single day – 102 days in a row! As an added benefit, I had lost 11kgs, and felt more confident about going backpacking in Europe for a then-upcoming one-month long trip! 

Around about this time, I threw around the idea of joining the Surf Coast Trek – a 40km fundraising trek on the Surf Coast Walk, to be held on Saturday 28^th March 2020.

I was blown away by the ongoing support from my crew. Our team The Tactical Wheeze now have 12 registered participants! Massive thanks to Alison Buccheri, Lisa Bernoth, Mali Glendinning, Craig Cole, Steven Welsh, Sharna Whitehand, Melissa Rees, Clare Dunn, Belinda Bennett, Ulick Napier and Simon Buccheri for supporting this idea, joining the team and being all-round top people.

We have been training both individually and on team treks. Team treks have included:

• Sunday treks to Noorat from Terang, with a stop at the Mount Noorat Hotel for brunch
• An epic 33km walk from Naroghid to Timboon, via the Rail Trail. The ice cream and whisky at the end was an awesome reward
• A 17km walk along the Old Beechy Rail Trail from Barongarook to Gellibrand – ending with a yummy pub lunch at the Gellibrand Hotel
• Walks up Mount Leura
• A 17km walk from Naroghid to Cobden and back to Naroghid on Melbourne Cup Day
• Followed by a long walk (25km) on the beach from Port Fairy to Warrnambool on the Saturday following Melbourne Cup Day
• Mount Noorat Summit and Crater (to and from the pub)
• Narrawong Mount2Mouth Beach Walk (17km)

Wow, when you put it into a list like that, it seems crazy! But it has been fantastic to work together towards this goal.

We now have less than two months until the big event, and in addition to the ongoing training, we need to raise some funds for the Surf Coast Trek beneficiaries – Kids Plus Foundation and Give Where You Live Foundation.

Our team has a combined target of $3000 to raise, and we have currently raised $461.

Your fundraising dollars will be split evenly between charities Kids Plus Foundation and Give Where You Live Foundation.

Kids Plus Foundation is a community organisation that delivers programs for babies, children and young people with neuro-development conditions including cerebral palsy, brain injury and stroke.

Give Where You Live Foundation raises funds and allocates them to the less fortunate in the community within Geelong and district.

If you would like to support our team, please visit https://givewhereyoulive.secure.force.com/Fundraise/surfcoasttrek2020/TheTacticalWheeze

To follow our training treks, follow my Strava profile: https://www.strava.com/athletes/30265198 

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The author referred to her other books frequently – as if I, the reader, knew who she was and what her claim to fame is/was. Sorry Rachel, this is the first time I had heard of you, and will probably be the last time I read one of your books. (Sorry, not sorry!)

The whole premise seemed to be about the author’s success in life and business, while seemingly having it all. The husband, four kids, businesses etc. Things we should stop apologising for: having a nanny to look after our children because we try to have it all. Demanding first class airfares when being booked to speak at an event. It just seemed a but braggy, and not particularly useful. I am not sure how many times the author mentioned being a New York Times Bestseller – so many I lost count. Same with the boob job.

The book seemed poorly structured and quite rambling. The content could have been covered in a couple of one hour podcasts.

I think in another setting the author is probably quite motivating and inspiring – but I just couldn’t see it with this example alone. If you’re interested you could follow her social pages, visit her website etc.

OK, so the good parts:

I did like the author’s commentary around setting good habits. There was one part in the book about the number of decisions we have to make a day, and how many of them we do on autopilot. Therefore if we form good habits, we will be making the right decisions for ourselves more often. This could be related to work, home, health, or lifestyle.

Some of the examples given were really excellent. In one such example she tells the story of an acquaintance who wants to become a writer. This person asks Rachel about the best way to set up a writing nook or office in order to write their book. I did have to agree with the author that it is a case of just getting started, without the luxury of a dedicated space. Whether you need to put on headphones to block out the hubbub, or get out of bed before the rest of your household awaken – the answer is just doing it! Set aside time to achieve the goals you are setting for yourself!

Another example was the people who attend a Gary Vaynerchuk event who want to be just like him – but instead of learning anything stupidly invest their time in scrolling their Insta feed. Like Gary Vee, Rachel insists that the key to success is in the hustle and working hard, and I did like this comment and found it one of the more relatable pieces in the book.

It was an easy enough listen, and I wouldn’t discourage anybody from downloading the book…Gyou might get more out of it than I did.

The audiobook also comes with a PDF add-on, which is 5 pages of motivational quote posters.

All-new Kindle Paperwhite – Now Waterproof with twice the Storage (8GB)

All-New Kindle Paperwhite Leather Cover (10th Generation-2018) – Indigo Purple

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I am currently working my way through the free library of content available to Prime subscribers, including the Lonely Planet books: Europe, England, Great Britain and Scotland. This is in preparation for a month-long trip later in 2019. There is also heaps of other free content including novels, which I am keen to work through.

My Prime Reading List:

Lonely Plant Europe

Lonely Planet England

Lonely Planet Great Britain

Lonely Planet Scotland

Rivers by Martin Michael Driessen

The Well at the World’s End by A.J. Mackinnon

So Much Owed: An Irish World Word 2 Story by Jean Grainger

In addition to free reading material there are other benefits which I am keen to check out including Prime Music.

Check it out here

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After listening to the book I kickstarted the program and followed it for just short of three weeks.

During the almost three weeks I lost 4 kilograms, and more importantly my skin cleared up considerably. This should be no surprise given the cause of my skin problem is inflammation and keto claims to reduce inflammation.

So about the book! Mark Sisson has been following a primal diet for many years and has written at length about this in other books. He also has a very informative blog, Mark’s Daily Apple.

Mark’s combines his own experience and research with peer-reviewed medical research and breaks it down into an easy-to-understand formula for the rest of us.

In this book, Mark provides a 21 day meal plan and recipes. These can be used in a prescriptive way, or just as a basis for your own keto journey. I utilised some of the recipes, and found them useful in order to adapt my own recipes to be keto-friendly. There is something like 100 recipes in the book.

After having a week off the plan, I will be resuming in a couple of days. I found it reasonably easy to commit to, and look forward to enjoying the long-term health benefits on eating in a way to reduce inflammation in my body.

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Over the past couple of years, I have had to learn ways by which to reduce stress in my life.  This is due in large part to a stress-related illness (psoriatic arthritis) that I first suffered three years ago, which left me unable to walk, write or do any of the things I enjoy. In addition to these limitations I was in constant pain, and had to rely on a mixture of medications to reduce pain and inflammation and provide me with a way to regain mobility.

Not wanting to rely on medications long-term, I had to learn more about the causes of my illness, and found that stress is a major contributing factor to inflammatory illnesses.  I spent considerable time reading and researching methods to reduce stress.  The first step for me was to identify my stressors, and learn how to remove or reduce the impact of these stressors.  For me, I was working full-time in a stressful occupation, with management who I was constantly at loggerheads with, I was studying a full-time workload, and I was a board member on three separate community committees.  By anyone’s reckoning, I was working far too hard.  For me, I needed to take a different approach to my work, which was to become a 9am-5pm worker with minimal involvement after hours and weekends, where previously I had committed up to 15 hours per week of voluntary contribution in addition to my forty paid hours.  I resigned from all three committees of management, still remaining involved for small parts of the events that these committees run.  By making these changes, I had more time to spend resting, planning, exercising and being a happier, healthier and less stressed person.

The second step was to maintain this new routine.  As my health improved, I found myself wanting to give more to my community, which meant depriving myself of rest, relaxation, exercise and a healthy lifestyle.  Learning to say no was the most important lesson I have ever learnt in my life.

After learning to say no to the things that didn’t matter, or didn’t interest me, I had more time for me, and the things that matter most.  In turn, this meant that I had more time for thinking about where I want to be, and how to get there.  I reassessed my career path, and found that the study I was doing was for progression in a field that I didn’t want to continue in.

The third important thing I learnt was to celebrate small wins by finding fulfilment in personal goals rather than work goals.  I had been measuring my self worth through annual work-related performance appraisals, and had to spend time assessing myself on different measures in order to realise that I was successful and achieving great things.  Kaplan (2008) writes about the importance of knowing yourself in terms of writing down your strengths and weaknesses (Kaplan 2008, p. 46).  I think this is a very useful process.  This means that you are measuring yourself against yourself and your personal potential, not against  standardised criteria, such as a performance evaluation.  You can then use the results from this personal assessment to determine what training, coaching and other personal development you require to get where you want to be. 

For me it took a personal crisis to learn some important lessons in self-management with a particular focus on stress management, but also learning more about myself in order to achieve the career and life that I want.

References

Kaplan, RS 2008, ‘Reaching Your Potential’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 86, no. 7/8, pp. 45-49.

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