Day 3 - a good day!

Gosh, today feels like its flown! I've just collected the big girl from school and I've hardly stopped so far. (One of my brothers came for a visit so I could help him set up his new bank transfers as he is trying to get his finances sorted too, so by the time I did that it was time to do my own chores!).

Fitness
Walked 2.2km's (around 1.3 miles I think) in around 25mins, and when I arrived home my heart rate was 132bpm.

Now I have no idea what a reasonable time to walk that distance (pushing pram & child with a combined weight of around 20kgs/44lbs) would be, and I had no idea if that was an adequate heart rate or not either! So thanks to Google, I found out that for my age, my target heart rate for exercise should be between 113 -151 bpm. So, my 132bpm was in the middle of this, and I'm pretty happy with that considering how unfit I am. I was certainly puffing and sweating!

But, I need to replace the tubes in the tyres on my pram! I pumped them all up last night and 2 of them are fairly flat already. So I'll phone the shop later and sort that out. It wasn't a problem to push, but it was a bit difficult to steer with a couple of flat tyres!

My little girl was fabulous! She didn't get bored and want to walk which was good - although I suspect the older one would be the one with the problem sitting still so I'm glad she was at school LOL. But I made a point of getting the little one involved in the scenery and what was around us - learning more about her numbers and colours etc.

And, I actually didn't even walk where I was planning on! I was a bit worried about walking around at home because the roads are narrow and reasonably busy - so that's why I was thinking of driving up to the main beach and walking along the esplanade - safety. Anyway, because I knew my brother was coming and time would escape me, I decided to walk from home instead. The road was busy as usual, but everyone was very respectful and made room for me so I didn't have to get off into the gutter etc.

I ended up walking from my house up to the cross roads at the nearest main road. I figured it was a nice highly visible place to get to as a first goal - the "Stop" sign is clear to see!

Once I get this short route going at a faster pace and start to notice its not raising my heart rate as much, I'll work out where to go from there - one direction up the main road will probably be safer than the other... I'll suss it out though!

It may not have been a huge walk, but it was certainly a start.

Clothes
Today I'm wearing my new ebay top! I love it and feel so super comfy and chic in it. Actually, I feel really good today in my whole outfit! I had a meeting at school with the principal and my daughters teacher first thing this morning and I felt calm, confident and an equal, rather than past meetings when I have felt like I was "less equal" and not as confident. So I think that says a lot!



I have discovered I need a cami under it though as the neckline can be quite revealing if I lean over and considering my children are not overly tall, I'm leaning over a LOT!!! And I'm not sure how to accessorise it yet, or if it needs accessorising...

Throughout the week there has been some discussion on YLF about the best length for tops when worn with pants vs skirts. Now because of my ample bottom, and full thighs, I tend to prefer tops that land a little shorter than Angie's rules, purely because I really start to widen once I get a little lower down my body so I'm conscious of things ending at the widening area, and also because anything longer ends up creeping up to get above the distinct curve of my bottom anyway. I'm wider from front to back higher up, and side to side a little lower down - if that makes any sense.

Now this top is the longest one I own in a fitted style, and is a lovely fabric mix, so does actually sit at the lower length nicely from the front. I think, due to the interesting neckline, its not so noticeable when its a touch longer than I prefer, also. BUT, its still creeping up over my bottom at the back :(

This is what I mean about the creeping up - this was taken only a few minutes after going to the mirror and straightening myself up :(

The only way to get a top to sit level at front and back would be to either stick it in place somehow (superglue? LOL) or wear it shorter. I'm not a fan of having to fiddle with my clothes constantly so I still think that wearing tops a little shorter on my body works better. Especially because if I pull tops down any lower on my bottom, I think it really emphasises my curvey spine and I'm not sure I like how much my bottom pokes right out the back... (This is my butt muscles relaxed - you should see how high and pokey outy it gets if I tense my muscles LOL).

I want to experiment with this top a bit more though...I have lots of ideas!

But perhaps the biggest thing I need to think about is this... is this the wrong sort of top for me? I simply adore fitted clothing and am not big on bagginess or sloppiness, so pretty much only have reasonably fitted tops in my wardrobe... Should I be looking more to tops that are fitted at the bust and then looser? Should tops like this only be worn tucked in and with a belt to hold the pants/skirt in place and further help to break up that curve that is my spine and bottom?

I actually tend to think that its my bottom and side view that cause me far more concerns than my thighs... Even my actual hips are quite lovely! (If I could use my high-hip measurement as my "hip" measurement on things, I think I would actually be hourglass shaped... but all my big curves start below the high-hip line).

Gosh, between pondering what suits my actual body the most, and trying to work out exactly what I want in my wardrobe to portray the image I want, this is all getting awfully complicated... or perhaps I'm just overthinking it as usual...

Spending
Again today, no official spending! Yes, my health insurance came out of my bank account but that's ok.

Actually, today was a good day in that an ebay sale I made recently has been paid, so I'm just waiting for the funds to clear in paypal and I'll be $16.05 richer LOL

Last night in reply to Tam's comment though, I touched on something that I believe will be my biggest challenge to overcome. I came in under budget for my groceries, so my initial response was... "Cool there's an extra $60 to spend!". This is a BAD MENTALITY to have! I thought perhaps I could get the next thing of my winter wishlist early, or go buy a bottle of wine, or something...

But, two things have occured to me...

1. Even if I get to the end of my current winter wishlist a little early, I'm sure there will be more things added to the list by then. I can already think of things I'm going to need for next Summer! And for now, I think surplus is best spent reducing my credit card debt quickly so I can pay it off and pay minimal interest.

2. What happens if we all have a ravenous week and I end up needing to get extra groceries next week (I usually only shop fortnightly) and I've spent the money on a cardi or wine... I can't exactly feed them to my daughters!

And, after this mornings walk, it looks like I'll no doubt have to spend some money on fixing the prams wheels.

So, I'm going to try and stay strong, stick to my budget and wishlist timeline, and hope that fixing the wheels isn't too expensive so I still have funds left over in case of that ravenous week!

This is probably the first time in the past 18 months that I feel strongly about wanting to stick to my plan... I felt financially trapped in my marriage, so "busted out" for a while, but now its time to knuckle down and get back on track.