I've been reflecting lately on how amazing the human body is. How is it that we can grow another perfect little human being? It certainly feels amazing (although not at 2am when you can't sleep with reflux) & is such a huge journey to go down.
I am half way through my pregnancy & all is healthy & well. I'm keeping as active as possible with mostly walking, pregnancy yoga & the occasional light circuit workout. I am finding that I get a very sore tailbone if I overdo it & my body certainly doesn't hesitate to tell me when I have! So the walking isn't as much as I would like, but you just gotta listen & do what you can with what you have. I have walked 905kms now & still intend to keep going until I'm otherwise told! I think it is so important to move & keep active during pregnancy for so many reasons, but a big one is your sanity!! There are so many hormonal changes going on (poor Michael) & some days you feel like absolute shite - so if you can keep moving & get in lots of fresh air then that's gotta be healthy for you. I absolutely cannot wait until daylight saving starts in a few weeks. I do struggle with the darkness at the moment. Pre pregnancy it didn't worry me in the slightest, but now I feel a little more vulnerable out there on my own at 6am or 7pm! I have been meeting a friend for early walks on Tuesdays & just get in what I can on Thursdays (my admin day for Focus) or the weekends. Thanks again for your continued support! I am always being asked about how the walking is going, it's really nice to have people genuinely care about this journey & the charities I hope to keep raising money for. Until next time! Jo x Thanks to everyone who has continued to support me on my walking journey! It am still chipping away at the km's but a little slower than before. For those of you who have not seen any updates recently, I am currently 15 weeks pregnant! I suffered from morning sickness & fatigue throughout the first 12 - 13 weeks & was not able to do much exercise at all so my jowalksnz kind of went on hold for a while. Exercising while feeling like you have the worst hangover was not the best feeling haha!
Over the last 2 weeks I have had the energy to start back into exercise & have been walking & doing some light weights along with slow stair climbs. I have low blood pressure & get heart palpitations which get quite bad when my heart rate is elevated so I just have to take it easy & remember to stop & breathe when I'm getting puffed - ah the joys of it :o) I've been contemplating about what to do with jowalksnz going forward - it's pretty clear at this stage that I won't complete my 2081.6kms by October 21st this year as planned as that's only 13 weeks & 5 days away. But I would really like to see this through & complete my challenge that I set myself on January 1st this year. Giving up is not an option for me, so I have decided to carry on & reset my end date to January 1st 2017 which is exactly 24 weeks away & one year to the day I started. Our baby is due on Jan 7th & my plan is to stay as active as possible right up until my body tells me otherwise. Our lovely clients & friends at Focus came up with a plan to take an allocated amount of km's for each person to walk & if anyone doesn't walk those km's they have to pay an amount to get out of doing them. I thought this is a fantastic idea! I was very tempted to take up this awesome offer, but after talking with Michael & thinking about it I have decided to give this a shot on my own for now. I always knew this would be a challenge & I would need to overcome obstacles to get to the end, just as I would if I was physically walking the tracks. PT in the park are holding an SPCA fundraiser session on Saturday July 30th. As you know the SPCA is one of my chosen charities. It's a $5 donation on the day & we have tonnes of spot prizes to give out from generous businesses around Christchurch. Come on down for an hour of fun - 9am Saturday 30th July in Hagley Park (Carlton Cnr end). Where am I on the map? I am somewhere between Kaikoura & Picton with a distance of 846kms completed & 1235.14kms to go. Wish me luck!! Remember I am doing all of this for the amazing SPCA & Ronald McDonald House South Island. So if you would like to donate to them to support me then head to my givealittle page here - https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/jowalksnz Actually I've been here the whole time haha just been a tad busy & distracted lately :)
So here is a wee update on my walking for you all as I have promised many people I would get this done!! Well as I sit here & write this I have a wheatpack on my back & I'm trying to get comfortable with not much luck, my back issues are here again & seem to get pretty aggravated by walking at the moment. I'm just managing it with magnesium cream & getting a good balance between not sitting for too long & making sure I'm correcting my posture whenever I can. Thanks so much to everyone who has checked in with me recently & asked how my walks are going, it's so nice to know your support is there as that keeps me going! We popped into the SPCA yesterday & dropped off a load of old towels & blankets as they were getting pretty low. I've never been out there before so we had a good look around & visited all of the animals. It's heartbreaking to be honest! But really nice to see how well cared for they are, all of the animals were comfortable & happy, most relaxing & sleeping. Damn hard to drive away without a car load of animals though!! Most of my walking lately has been around the area I live as it's full of hills & river walks with gorgeous views. Today & last weekend I have added some stairs into my walks as an added fitness challenge, it's always good to keep challenging yourself - walking for me these days is pretty easy & my body is very used to it, so I've got to keep it interesting for my mind & body! Winter can be such a challenging time to keep up a good exercise routine. The shorter & colder days tend to make us want to swap that walk, run or gym sesh for a hot cuppa & a comfy seat on the couch. True fact there is only 11 more weeks of Winter left before we jump into Spring! That will fly by as it always does & where do we want to be when those warmer days come around? How do we want to feel? Spring is my favourite season as it's full of new beginnings & freshness & it gives me a boost of energy, I feel excited just thinking about it :-) So embrace the season - grab your warm gear & get out amongst the cool Winter air, take deep breaths & enjoy the beautiful ever changing scenery around Chch & Canterbury. Take care everyone, keep active, stay healthy & I'll update you all again really soon :o) Jo _It's crazy to think it's been 19 weeks since New Years day when I started my Jowalksnz journey! I have been soooo lucky with our warm Autumn, it's been such amazing weather that I have not had to deal with walking in the rain lately. I think in the whole time I've been doing this it's rained twice, that's pretty good going - thanks Chch! I'm back into my regular Rapaki walks with my walking crew & loving the company again, it makes 8-9km seem like 5km when you have people to chat away the time with. My favourite walks are my Sunday morning coffee & catch ups with Michael, it's such a relaxing way to start Sunday & a great way to spend time with Michael away from work. I've hit 646kms as of today, not quite where i need to be for the halfway mark but I'm not getting stressed about it. I'm just really enjoying the process, my walks are my time & I love that. I'm still making sure I keep the resistance training going as that is really important to maintain muscle & keep strong. I've also been adding in yoga once a week & I am about to start pilates which I'm really excited about. We are off on holiday to Port Douglas next Sunday so I'll get some amazing walks in over there which I am so looking forward to! I'll be sure to take some stunning scenic pics to put on my next update when we get back. As always if you are keen to join me for a walk, just get in touch & we can meet up! Plus if you are keen to donate to my chosen charities to help them keep doing the awesome work that they do then head to my givealittle page & show them some love :o) So far I have raised $370 & I'd love to get this up to $500! _ Click here for the link! Thanks! Jo x Hi guys,
Michael & I shifted into our new house this weekend & I'm now relaxing in our sun drenched lounge loving having our own place to call home! For the last 12 months we have lived with our parents, going between both mine & Michael's. While we are so thankful for the ability to stay with family while we were in our first year of starting Focus we are now so happy to have our first house without a flatmate in 3 years! I also now live by the hills & it's like I have a playground in my own backyard! Previously I have been travelling for around 90 minutes each day from North Canterbury which has eaten into my day & could be time for extra walking, am definitely aiming to use that time each day to get in some more kms & get into the hills for a good challenge. I'm up to 601kms now which is pretty much exactly in Woodend. The half way mark is hurtling towards me & will be here in 4 weeks. So yep I have to get my legs moving a little bit more. My focus now is to use my extra 90 mins a day & also add some longer 20kms back in on the weekends. I've really noticed the temperature drop in the mornings so it's time to invest in some warmers gears. I've got some thermals from Kathmandu which were only $9.99 each - love a good bargin! haha. Next on the list are some good quality gloves & a rain coat for those drizzly mornings. A special mention to my brother James & his fiance Val for their generous donation all the way from Melbourne! So appreciated - thanks heaps guys xx If you would like to donate & help support me & my chosen charity's then head to my give a little page here: _ https://my.givealittle.co.nz/pages/ Until next time! Jo Happy Sunday evening everyone! Thought it was time for another update of how my #jowalksnz journey is going. So far I am 529km in with 1552km to go & I'm heading into week 15. Quite some distance to go yet!! For those of you who have just started following me I am walking the length of NZ (in distance not physically) in 42 weeks. I started on New Years Day & will finish on Oct 21st. I am doing this to raise money & awareness for SPCA Canterbury & Ronald McDonald House South Island. I am a Personal Trainer & I co-own my own gym with my partner Michael, I also work 32 hours in an office admin role over 4 days per week. So needless to say I am pretty damn busy! Mon - Fri my days start at 5am & I don't finish work until around 7pm. On the weekends I still get up at 6am on Saturday & sometimes sleep in till 7am on Sundays but I actually prefer to get up & head out for a nice walk to the beach instead of sleeping in. I work most of the weekend helping run PT in the park on Saturday morning & catching up on admin tasks in the afternoon & Sundays are spent setting up for the week ahead with food prep, programming my sessions for the week & generally getting organised. In saying that we still get time to head out & do the things we enjoy, Michael & I relax with lots of walking or just coffee on a Sunday morning. We cherish the downtime we do get & feel very lucky to spend our weeks working on creating & building our dream life helping others live a healthy way of life. We do get very tired sometimes & we do struggle like everyone else to find the motivation for exercise & to eat well. We have become very good at prioritizing exercise & fitting it in where we can because exercise is really important to us for many reasons. Eating well is also really important, we function better when nourished with good fuel to keep up our energy levels for the hours of work we need to do. So this challenge to walk 2081.6km in 42 weeks is definitely a challenge for me as I just don't have a huge amount of spare time up my sleeve to be out walking. I exercise every morning Mon - Sun whether that be one of my walks, some strength training or a team training session at Focus. I sometimes miss the odd day if I'm feeling exhausted, but I normally end up feeling worse off for not exercising so I do it anyway. Anyway - where I'm going with this is I want to show you that you can fit exercise into your life no matter how busy you are. It's just about making it a priority in your life & being organised enough to make it happen. I never used to be a morning person, sometimes when my 5am alarm goes off I just want to kill my alarm & hide under the covers but I don't & I can honestly say I never regret getting up & I never regret working out. So this week how about you give it a try? Do something a little different to your normal routine & shake things up a little. Whether that be getting up early to fit in some exercise, heading outside for a walk around the block in your lunch break, when picking up the kids from school park a few blocks away & walk to meet them, instead of a Friday happy hour drink how about meetings friends at the gym or for a walk? Come to PT in the park on Saturday & surround yourself with other people who are getting active too. (9am Hagley Park, Carlton Corner www.facebook.com/ptinthepark) I'd love to hear your story of how you #gotitdone this week so send me a message & tell me about your activity & how you managed to fit exercise into your busy week :-) Have a good one! Jo https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/jowalksnz Here's the link to my Givealittle page for any donations to the SPCA & Ronald McDonald house! Hey everyone! I'm into week 13 & only have 29 weeks to go until October 21st. I need 2016 to put the brakes on a little haha :) One thing this challenge is doing is making 2016 go way too fast!!! I am still absolutely loving it & enjoying every moment of this challenge. I am up to 450kms which is roughly Temuka. I had an awesome week of walking last week & did reach my 50km goal which I must admit is a little rare! I normally end up hitting in the early 40s each week because of my busy schedule. I have been fitting in walks where ever I can, in my lunch break, parking further away & walking to places, plus using my time to catch up with friends & family by walking with them instead of coffee or food dates. I have also discovered I find it alot easier to walk the long distances if I am dropped somewhere & have to walk back. For example, after my strength workout on Good Friday I left Michael at the gym & walked to Hagley Park, around the park & back which was 11km. I had no choice but to keep going & get back to my car at the gym! Then on Saturday Michael dropped me back at the gym & I walked to meet him in Hagley Park which was 5km, again I had no ride home unless I got to Hagley & I had to be there by 8.30am so my legs were motoring along. One great thing with all of this time to myself while out walking is that I actually have time to stop & think clearly. It's like a form of meditation & I really look forward to it each day. I find when I'm walking & listening to my motivational podcasts that I come up with creative ideas for Focus, more ways to help my clients & other areas of my life that I may ignore sometimes because I'm busy & they get overlooked. One of these ideas was to organise a large walking event later this year to help me catch up on some kms. I was thinking of a 12 hour walkathon & getting a large team together to walk with me. All proceeds will go to my givealittle page for SPCA Canterbury & Ronald McDonald House South Island. I'll keep walking & thinking & let you know more details! If you are on snapchat - follow me for some videos & pics of my walks. Here is the link to my Give a little page for any donations :) They are all so very gratefully received! https://my.givealittle.co.nz/pages/ Have a great week Jo Hey guys & gals... Time for an update! It's been a while because I have been super busy walking & walking & more walking!! I put up a post on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/JoCrossPersonalTraining/ last week about how my walking has felt like it is at a stand still at the moment. I am still loving the journey but everytime I update my spreadsheet & look at the numbers I just feel like I am not even moving! I came to the conclusion that I was looking at the bigger end goal too much & not focusing on the positive gains I am making on a daily basis. So with a swift kick up the butt & a serious pep talk to myself we are away again & feeling all good. I really enjoy the walking as a timeout & a form of meditation & I hardly ever have to force myself to go walking as the motivation is there because of the charities, the enjoyment of getting time out for me & the satisfaction I get of reaching my new mini goals each week. On Saturday I had my body composition tested by The Zone who come to our gym Focus every 6 weeks. I have been having this done for the past 6 months to track my progress. This last test showed I have dropped some muscle & put on some body fat. But my overall weight on the scales is the same. My goal at the start of jowalksnz was to only do the walking on top of my current training program which was based around strength & intervals to build muscle & lose body fat. I have noticed lately that I have been dropping a few strength sessions in favour of hitting the pavement because I am so keen to keep clocking up the kms. This is the reason I have lost the muscle. Since the testing yesterday I have been re evaluating my training & re planning my schedule to fit my strength sessions back in & keep them a priority. I am going to start incorporating some sprints & intervals into my walks from this week. This won't be for every walk, most likely 2 x per week plus I'll still do a longer hill walk each week too. I am now on snapchat! I'll be sharing videos & pictures of my walks with you all. Find me by my user name jocrosspt11. Remember to contact me if you are keen on coming for a walk. I always love the company, feel free to txt me on 021 118 7429 or email [email protected] or you can comment on here or contact me on facebook. Have a great week everyone! J x Another week down & feeling great! I am now just finishing week 8, time is going by soooo fast! I have 34 weeks left to go until Oct 21st. This week the lovely team at Ronald McDonald House South Island joined me on one of my walks. We grabbed a coffee first & headed off around Hagley Park for 5kms. Above is a picture of me & the girls after our walk back at RMH, we are so sweaty (well I was!) as it was a very hot ?& humid morning. Also above is from a walk at Pegasus sporting my SPCA t-shirt, I know the team there are battling with the influx of animals at the moment, so any support or help sent their way is hugely appreciated. This week they were asking for some help with wet kitten food. So maybe do a good deed & head on down there to visit them with some food for the kittens. Here is the link to my give a little page to donate to my chosen charities, Ronald McDonald House & SPCA Canterbury https://my.givealittle.co.nz/pages/ Alot of people have been interested in finding out a little about what I do. So I thought I would post some information about Focus the gym I run with my partner Michael. Here is our website www.focus.kiwi.nz. Here is the link to my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/JoCrossPersonalTraining/?fref=ts Here is some info we put up on our facebook page earlier this week explaining what Focus is all about. Focus - a way of life What are we? At Focus we aim to walk alongside you to empower you to establish long term habits that are realistic and sustainable, to maintain your lifestyle. We enjoying guiding people who are willing & realistic in making changes that are challenging but often needed. We offer 1on1 personal training, team training, 1on1 nutrition coaching, a free option on Saturday mornings at PT in the park (here is the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PtInThePark/?fref=ts) & regular testing with CPIT - The Zone Sports & Wellness Centre. We recognise people have different goals. Some want to simply keep moving & enjoy the feeling of being fit and healthy others have quite specific goals around body composition & training for events. Join us Join the team Thanks Jo & Michael [email protected] [email protected] #teamfocus #gettingitdone Only 5 more week until day light saving comes to an end which will definitely throw me some extra challenges. I don't get home most days from work until around 7.30pm, but I will just get out there in the dark & get it done :o) I'm off to find a head lamp tomorrow so I can use it up Rapaki as the mornings are getting pretty dark too - not too many street lights up there! This week I'll be walking Monday in Hagley park at 6am, Wednesday up Rapaki at 6am plus a longer walk on Thursday & early on Saturday morning not sure of those locations yet. Feel free to message me & come along. The more the merrier. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog this week. Thanks again for all of the support, it really means alot. Jo :o) |
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