Body woes

Today's exercise:

• 8km walk
• 800m swim

Good exercise right? But I’m not feeling good.

When I awoke Thursday afternoon (I’m working nights this week, so I’ve been sleeping during the day) something was very wrong.

My neck and shoulders on both sides, but mainly the right were all locked up and sore. Panadol, Neurofen and a heatpack made no difference. Driving is painful, and to turn and look at something I basically have to turn my whole body, since I can’t rotate my neck.

I’d made a physio appt for Monday, because I thought the SI joint injury that plagued me throughout December was starting to return. Yesterday I called up and was lucky enough to be able to nab a Friday afternoon appointment slot someone had cancelled.

Physio dude was nice enough, but not as wonderful as my Wollongong physio. Or maybe I’m just grumpy to get the bad news. C2 joint is screwed up (thus the neck pain), my thoracic spine is tight due to bad posture causing shoulder pain. And my SI joint is out of alignment again, causing the hip flexor and knee pain I’ve been experiencing when walking.

I forced myself to go walking last night, and I don’t know if that was a good idea. By the end of the walk both hips were hurting and my knee was throbbing. And of course my neck felt no better. It’s probably the worst my body has ever felt.

Today it’s still all locked up despite painkillers and heat. I hope I magically wake up better tomorrow. I have another physio appointment on Wednesday, but I don’t know if I can wait until then.

I hope the walk today and the swim have loosened things up a bit. The walk was less painful than yesterday so I’m hoping that’s a good sign. The swimming was sore on the neck/right shoulder, but not unbearable.

As for the neck? If it’s still causing me grief tomorrow I’m going to treat myself to a massage. Boo!

See more progress on: exercise every day for 30 days

YLF challenge

Over on you look fab, there's another wardrobe challenge happening. I'm first up, having been challenged by the lovely Sarah to:

"try a look with trousers or trouser jeans while defining your waist line. If you don't have trousers or trouser jeans, a pencil skirt would be lovely. To make this a wee bit more challenging, try to incorporate at least one pattern, one textural element, and one "wow" accessory."

Talk about a challenge and a half! As an undeniably apple body shape, I *have* no waistline, and most of my wardrobe is spent trying to disguise that fact. My waist:hip ratio is > 90% - no waistline there baby! Surrendering the surrender of the waistline is enough of a challenge alone for me!

But I've endeavoured to rise to the challenge in two ways. Firstly with trouser jeans.



Now for the challenge elements:

• The buttoned-up waistcoat is an attempt to show the waist and "girdle" me up :)
• The pattern is the houndstooth print on the Me Too Swann flats.
• Textural elements? Hmmm do denim jeans, fabric/patent shoes and cotton tops count?
• Wow accessory - new long-strand bead/pearl necklace from Target & cocktail ring from H&M.
  

Next I wanted to try surrendering the waist with the new pleated skirt I bought from Cue. For bonus points I styled it 2 ways. This was a brilliant exercise for me to work out what tops I can wear with this skirt, something I had been wondering since I bought it the other day!



Challenge elements:

• Showing the waist: look, tucked top! Possibly a first ever! The pleats on the skirt pouf out my hips so make me look like I have a waist, yay!
  
• Pattern: microfishnets (tenuous I know!)
• Textural elements: microfishnets, leather shoes, ponte skirt, knit top
• Wow accessory - red antique beads from Ecuador, black booties from Hong Kong
  

And the biggest challenge of all for me? Pencil skirt + belt. Something I have *never* tried before. This belt came with a Stella dress I bought last year and that's the only time I've ever worn it. Not sure if I would be game to wear this one out of the house, but it is fun!



Challenge elements:

• Showing the waist: pencil skirt + belt. Oh my!
  
• Pattern: microfishnets, zebra print op
  
• Textural elements: microfishnets, leather shoes, ponte skirt, patent belt, cotton top
  
• Wow accessory - red BD booties, patent back belt
  

Whew, that was exhausting! :)

day 1 (again) - 9/3/10

Well I’m starting up the exercise for 30 days challenge (again)!

To make it fair to myself, I’m only doing this on days where I work less than 13.5 hours, otherwise there just isn’t time to do this and keep my sanity. Days like today where I’m doing a 10 hour shift it is manageable.

So this is only the second time I’ve gone jogging in Melbourne, but it’s a start, right?

My right knee is still not 100%, so I really need to get myself to see a physio. I’m hoping this isn’t a lingering symptom of the SI joint problems I was having in December, but there’s only one way to find out. That’s on tomorrow’s todo list.

Only 3km so far, but the only way is up right!

See more progress on: exercise every day for 30 days

Colour quiz

I took this fun colour quiz as I sat drinking my morning hot lemon drink. For me its suprisingly accurate. Turns out I'm a red - who'd have thought?


Anyone else find this quiz to be exceptionally accurate?

RIP emerald shoes

Well it's been a long time between blog posts. I'm not going to make too many apologies, and I don't have too much time right now to update on everything that has happened in the last month (I'll try and do that soon).

I have officially moved to Melbourne, just so you know that all forthcoming posts are coming from the deep South :)

What has prompted today's post is the death of my beloved green pointy toed flats. I got these custom made in Vietnam and have worn them to bits. They're not real leather, but they are as comfy as a pair of slippers (although a bit sweatier).



Unfortunately their lack of quality is truly showing as they are not withstanding the test of time to the point at which I fear a wardrobe malfunction every time I put them on. The toes are scuffed, and the stitching on the heel is fraying apart. I fear they are now officially unwearable, so I'm turfing them.

The dilemna now, is how am I going to replace them? An online search of like.com, zappos and endless have all failed to find me anything approximating these beauties. The closest thing I have found is these Mia Hepburn flats, but they are turquoise rather than emerald, and lack the fun detail my current pair sport on the front.

Do you know of anything closer to what I'm after? Should I settle for the Mias or keep on looking for my perfect emerald pair?

p.s. the photo above highlights how well my current pair match the dining chairs that I bought at an Op Shop last week. I loooooove Melbourne Op Shops!!

When animals attack

I tend to be all or nothing about posting here. Much like a lot of things in life: eating well, exercise, alcohol, sleep. I really think I need a bit more moderation!

Anyway here's another bonus 2-outfit post, both featuring animal print.

This first outfit has been sitting on my camera since early December. It was clearly taken before I even moved house, that's how slack I've been about posting even the pictures I have managed to take!

I paired this great snakeskin print skirt with some nude microfishnets to provide a bit more leg coverage, as this skirt is quite short on me otherwise.



Do the prints in the skirt and tights look too similar however? Making me look like one big snake/fish hybrid?



And here's what I wore yesterday. This time we have moved onto the mammal kingdom, featuring the zebra.



When I first tried this dress on I thought it was a tad too long. In actual fact it hits me right on the lower knee so it may be just right after all. I had trouble deciding what necklace to wear with it, as there is obviously already a lot going on with that print. I went for a safe white option. What else do you think I could have gone with?

Headcold and liver failure

Cheery title huh? Well I've been home sick with a headcold today, so what can I say, cheery I am not! If I was doing any other job I would probably have gone into work today and just tried to keep a low profile. You can't really fly under the radar too much in ED though. You still have to go see your own patients, hunt people down to talk to about them etc. Exhausting sometimes, and I knew I just couldn't do it today.

Instead, I lounged around most of the day. I ventured outside for about 45 mins to go to the post office and the supermarket and that's it. I dressed up a bit more more than I normally would for such an outing, because I didn't want to look as bad as I felt.



Loving the drapey SS cardie. It's cozy and I kicked about in this outfit for the rest of the day. Does it look funny that the sleeves of the aqua t-shirt poke underneath the shorter cardigan sleeves?

I picked up that necklace from Forever 21 in LA many years ago but have only worn a handful of times for some reason. I'm not sure if the length works too well on me; is it too short to be a long necklace? It's definitely too long to be a short one.

And just as a bonus, here's an outfit I wore to work recently, featuring a yellow top. I know that doesn't sound earth shattering to anyone else, but for me it's literally been 20 years since I wore a yellow top. I have a clear memory of my mother telling me I looked jaundiced in a yellow top I used to wear when I was much younger.



What do you think? Can I get away with it, or does it make me look like I have liver failure?

To wear inside the frigid conditions at work, I popped a cardie over the top. That made me feel a lot less self-conscious.



After braving the supermarket, I've come home and made a pot of Thai Chicken noodle soup. It's now 8:30pm and I'm going to take myself off to bed. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow I'll feel human enough to face work!!