Top ten reasons for morning exercise

I'm trying to get back in to the morning gym routine (and out of the rationalisation that I cannot do without those two extra hours of sleep) and I found these tips - courtesy of sparkpeople.com a helpful shove out of bed in the right direction!

1. Exercising early in the morning "jump starts" your metabolism, keeping it elevated for hours, sometimes for up to 24 hours! As a result, you’ll be burning more calories all day long—just because you exercised in the morning.
    
2. Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing you’ve done something disciplined and good for you. (Much better than a worm!)
    
3. Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental acuity—a benefit that lasts four to ten hours after your workout ends. Exercising in the a.m. means you get to harness that brainpower, instead of wasting it while you’re snoozing.
    
4. Assuming you make exercise a true priority, it shouldn’t be a major problem to get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier—especially since regular exercise generally means a higher quality of sleep, which in turn means you’ll probably require less sleep. (If getting up 30 to 60 minutes earlier each day seems too daunting, you can ease into it with 10 to 20 minutes at first.)
    
5. When you exercise at about the same time every morning—especially if you wake up regularly at about the same time—you’re regulating your body's endocrine system and circadian rhythms. Your body learns that you do the same thing just about every day, and it begins to prepare for waking and exercise several hours before you actually open your eyes. That’s beneficial because:
   
   
   • Your body’s not “confused” by wildly changing wake-up times, which means waking up is much less painful. (You may even find that you don’t need an alarm clock most days.)
   • Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc.
   • Your metabolism, along with all the hormones involved in activity and exercise, begin to elevate while you're sleeping. As a result, you’ll feel more alert, energized, and ready to exercise when you do wake up.

6.  Many people find that morning exercise has a tendency to regulate their appetite for the rest of the day. Not only do they eat less (since activity causes the release of endorphins, which in turn diminishes appetite), they also choose healthier portions of healthier foods.
    
7. People who consistently exercise find, sometimes to their great surprise, that the appointed time every morning evolves into something they look forward to. Besides the satisfaction of taking care of themselves, they find it’s a great time to plan their day, pray, or just think more clearly—things most of us often don’t get to do otherwise.
    
8. Exercising first thing in the morning is the most foolproof way to ensure that other things don’t overtake your fitness commitment, particularly if you have a hectic family life. (It’s so easy to wimp out in the evening, when we’re tired or faced with such tasks as rustling up dinner and helping with homework.)
    
9. More than 90% of those who exercise consistently have a morning fitness routine. If you want to exercise on a regular basis, the odds are in your favor if you squeeze your workout into the a.m.
    
10. Non-morning people can always trick themselves in the a.m. Having trouble psyching yourself up for a sunrise jog? Do what I did—tell yourself that you’ll still be so fast asleep that you won’t even remember—much less mind!  

I am grateful...

Carrying on with my new positive mindset, the month of November is dedicated to me showing what I am grateful for. Every day, one reason (in no particular order):

1.  I am grateful that I am alive and have the ability to experience and interact with the world around me. "Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed" - Sister Corita Kent.
2. I am grateful that I have an enormous family of cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents who cherish me and are an awful lot of fun to be around. Family teas with Nannavon's scones, cousin weddings and group photos that take forever will always make me smile. I hope that I can have a family of my own as amazing as the one I've grown up with one day.
3. I am grateful that I have friends who laugh with me, love me, deal with my psycho days and my happy days, and even when I have not acted like a good friend, they still stay true to me.   "Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world" - John Evelyn. 
4. I am grateful for technology and the Internet. Being able to stay in contact with friends all over the world is amazing and catching up via email or skype brings lots of laughs and memories and erases the distance. 
5. I am grateful for new opportunities and never knowing what's in store for me! 
6. I am grateful for our amazing Creator, who hold me in the palm of his hands and keeps his arms waiting for me to run in to them.
7. I am grateful for Curly - my one. Who makes me laugh at myself, who listens, who comforts, or spends ages talking shit to me every weekend. For being my best friend and my Deli.
8. I am grateful for a job that I enjoy and an office full of people that I like and care for.
9. I am grateful that my parents sacrificed so much to give me the opportunity of going to a private school and amazing university. I will be eternally grateful.
10. I am grateful for a close relationship with my brother. So many siblings don't get that lucky as to have a friend and brother rolled into one. And I can't wait to see him in two weeks time! 
11. I am grateful for the holidays that are coming up - something to look forward to and work for...and the end is nearly in sight! 
12. I am grateful for growing up in a small town - for knowing half the customers when I go shopping, for staying friends with people right through to now and knowing that it will always be home whenever I go back. 
13. I am grateful for friends and family to give me sound advice. 
14. I am grateful for weekends - sleeping in, relaxing, braais, drinks, dancing, concerts, eating out, spending time with everyone I care about. You never appreciate weekends until you're working!
15. I am grateful that I am able to exercise and take care of my body. And even if I don't always like what I see - I need remember to be grateful that I have a fully functional body that doesn't limit my life (except maybe getting into a bikini :)
16. I am grateful for yummy food - like the delicious orange and vanilla cake my colleague brought for his birthday - and being able to savour and enjoy each morsel (well that's the theory...and then I ate two pieces....and now I feel sick)
17. I am grateful for being a South African - what a wild mix of people, culture and beautiful scenery to experience!
18. I am grateful for grandparents - to have grown up with three of them has been something I have taken for granted but a lot of people have not been so lucky. Now that Grandad is so frail though, makes me realise how precious my memories are. 
19. I am grateful for a safe and reliable car to get me from A to B everyday. - Thank you Dad for the most wonderful gift of Splashy (named after an unfortunate incident with a water meter).
20. I am grateful that Mum has found someone to love and cherish and who loves and cherises her back wholeheartedly.
21. I am grateful for music - the stuff that gets me going for a party, relaxes me in my car when I'm stressed or is just there on the airwaves to enjoy. Also, the opportunity to watch music live, like the 30 Seconds to Mars concert I went to on Friday is awesome!
22. I am grateful for learning. To be able to learn something new everyday is a gift and a privilege - something that I should not waste or take for granted.
23. I am grateful that I live in a digs full of cool, chilled people, who motivate me to be more sporty (yes I am contemplating my first 21km) and are just there to talk to when I get home from work.
24. I am grateful for this blog entry because right now I am seriously struggling to find something more to be grateful for as I have reached burn out point. But I will be thinking of some shortly.
25. I am grateful for being paid (and having a job to get paid for at all!) - and not feeling sorry for myself with R5 in my account - and now to actually manage my money properly.
26. I am grateful for beautiful scenery. I take the world around me for granted too often. A beautiful view over the sea and sand at Brass Bell in Kalk Bay reminded me of that.
27. I am grateful for the timelessness of family friendship. Cousins I haven't seen in months are just the same easy-to-chat-to-easy-to-jam-with-easy-to-enjoy as when we were little kids playing in Nannavon's garden.
28. I am grateful for such easy working hours. 8.30-4.30 really isn't a tough day to go through...although increased workload does mean longer hours...but I can always make up for it the next day and leave early :) (well that's what I tell myself!)
29. I am grateful for organisational skills (something I am learning anyway) to keep things on track on my desk! I've never used a diary so meticulously in my whole life!
30. I am grateful that are memories are entombed in our senses - and how a whiff of lavender as I walk around the block takes me back to my childhood home and picking pecan nuts off the ground under the tree,next to the lavender bush.

Awesome wedding idea

I recently attended a wedding where there was a photo studio set up with an enormous trunks of masks, hats and wigs.
It was a great way for guests to enjoy that awkward in-between stages after the first course and before speeches.
Definitely going to do this at my future hypothetical wedding!
Joey's Photography set it up - Contact details = info@joeysphotography.co.za or 083 282 2359 www.blog.joeysphotography.co.za
Take a look at the result:

Where the past and present meet

I recently visited Constitution Hill in Braamfontein and was struck by how easily it is to 'forget' the history of this country when we are so focused on the present and the daily grind of our lives.
So here's a little look at the highlights of the tour and a bit of information about what Constitution Hill is all about.

Constitution Hill is the site of Johannesburg's notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, "where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished before the dawn of democracy in 1994," reads the tour brochure. Many of our political activists - Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Winnie Mandela and Barbara Hogan spent time there during the struggle years.
It is now home to the Constitutional Court - the protector of our basic rights and freedoms. A fitting place wouldn't you say?

Barbara Hogan, a political activist and now member of the current Government, was housed in the Women's Prison. Political prisoners were put together with criminals, although black and whites were obviously housed in separate cells.

Part of the wall in the Constitutional Court is made up from bricks from the demolished Awaiting Trial Block. The gaps between the bricks is said to allow the spirits of the past to be present as Constitutional rights are defended and upheld within the court.

Ex-prisoners were invited back to contribute to the process of remembering and reclaiming their dignity that they lost in Number Four. 

 

 

 

The Bill of Rights is portrayed at the entrance of the Constitutional Court, making use of all of the 11 official languages, as well as Sign Language and Braille.

Dear Fluffy

This is a letter to myself because I think my whinging has got out of hand.
I am seriously lacking any sense of gratitude, self-achievement or observation of the wonder around me that I think I could rightly be classified as a pessimist these days...or a serial whinger - and that's not the kind of person that I want to be around. So thank you to all the friends, family and Curly people that put up with me on a regular basis.
Of course, it's alright to have a bitch and a moan...SOMETIMES...but I need to stop making every conversation a session to complain about work, being tired, having no time for gym (kiff excuse) or other general grumbles.
I am therefore undertaking a new month's mission to write about something positive every single day. Judging by my claim of many posts in September, which didn't nearly happen' this is going to be a tough ask. But I have stuck a sticky note on my computer to remind me each day because seriously, positive thinking is how we all have to live our lives.
Imagine realising that your last conversation on this earth was a whinge.
A sobering thought.

A beautiful heart

Beautiful words from a beautiful friend that started my day...


A young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it.

But an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said,
“Your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.”

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly but full of scars. It had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in … but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. The young man looked at the old man’s heart and laughed.
“You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine … mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

” “Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking … but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love….. I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them … and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges.
“ Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away … and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges … giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too … and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man.
The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart.
It fit …. but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.
The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his.

What I am learning as Editor

1. Be assertive.
I can no longer rely on being told what to do (so much easier that way!). There's now not really anyone to tell me anyway - well other than the big boss but he just wants to talk about the trade.

2, Have an opinion and speak up.
Before, I tended to keep quiet or just go with what the boss's opinion was because I felt 'inferior' in my lack of knowledge to actually be entitled to one. Now I'm expected to have an opinion - meetings and other decision-making places.

3. Stick to my guns.
It used to be so frustrating to watch my boss always be convinced to change deadlines, allow late entrants and do basically do whatever the sales people wanted.
But I refuse to be their door mat. I set deadlines and expect them to be met and I speak to the salespeople directly if I have a problem.
If I have to write an entire magazine in a set time, they can jolly well get their ads in on time.

4. Confront.
I have always been terrible at confrontation and while I may not be good at it yet, I am learning. Case and point today, when I spoke to a salesperson about an issue I had and we agreed to a way forward.
I always find that email can be an effective way in getting my stern voice on.

5. Fill those shoes.
I am the editor. At 22. No pressure. That means that I have to step up to the plate and act like one. I need to be confident when meeting the bigwigs of the industry and have something useful to say.

** New challenge to myself - learn something new everyday about the trade and write it down so I remember it.

I'm gonna rock this magazine. BOOM.