My current predicament

I love exam time, which I understand not everyone can understand, but each to his own, right? What me and my fellow student colleagues do all have in common is the impending decision time: what are we going to do with the rest of our lives, and are we ready for the big bad world?

I am majoring in three pretty different subjects, because I couldn't decide which path I wanted to follow, not much has changed, but now I actually kind of have to pick a path... Man I hate making big decisions! Faced with so many choices, I keep telling myself that I am lucky to have choices at all. I just have too many options. I also can't choose the one that will make me happiest, the one I really want to do, or the best one, because I know they will all make me happy, or work out really well in the end.

Option 1: Stay at Rhodes next year and do Human Kinetics and Ergonomics Honours (Then possibly option 2 after that, which we can combine into "Option 3")...

Yay, exercise! 

Option 2: Stay at Rhodes next year and do Health Journalism Honours (provided they actually offer it for 2014, which there is rumour that they won't do...)

I took this photo for a health journalism piece last year.
This is also the studio where I instruct indoor cycling,
which is something I am loving doing.

Option 4: Go back home <3 study Sports Science or Biokinetics at Tuks or at UJ (provided I get accepted...) (this is a bunch of options in one. I miss home so much, I am truly torn as to whether I should go back or not...

Some of my favourite people that I miss terribly in Jozi

An old photo but probably the early days of one of my
closest friendships. I miss this girl so much! 

Option 5: Move to England

One of the streets leading away from Buckingham
Palace. I'm pretty British, I look forward to a
bustling London lifestyle

Problem: I miss home, I have jobs and independence in Grahamstown, I don't know what I want to do with my life.

So I have to make some of these choices soon, so that I can start applying for them and applying for "funding", which will be a challenge as well, people haven't been too clear on the process, so amid my exam prep I have to look into it perhaps.

In the meantime, if I do apply for Honours (which I will do "just in case" I do decide it's what I want to do), I need to have the marks earning me a position, which will be these marks from these exams now...  You could say I'm a little stressed right now, or you could understand by the fact that I'm eating 3x my "daily calorie allowance", which is steadily pushing "looking good"for my 21st in 5 weeks out of the equation...

Riding in buses with strangers, and riding bikes with Branson

You will never get as close to someone as you do when you travel next to them on a bus. Somehow we still manage (mostly) to maintain our personal space when travelling on a plane, even though there isn't a huge difference in allocated space.

One thing that was noticeably different when travelling by bus (as opposed to flying, which is my usual mode of transport to further-away places), was the ability to use your cellphone. This was an inconsiderately loud discovery. I now know all of said cellphone user's gossip from her weekend in Cape Town, and not by choice. I was also excessively exposed to her KFC dinner, which, as we all know, has the power to hone out an entire building, never mind just the upstairs section on a Greyhound bus from Cape Town to Grahamstown.

My travel-partner was, luckily enough, not this person. However, though I only met them two days previously, we ended up getting pretty cosy with each other. When suffering with another, you do not condemn the other for snoring on your shoulder. At least I had good company.

Cape Town was gorgeous as ever, and this weekend gave me yet another way to view it: a 109km tour from the saddle of a bicycle, with over 31 000 other people.

The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour 2013 was my first Argus race, and I loved every moment of it. I completed the course in a time of 4 hours and 10 minutes, which is not a bad time for a first-timer, and not a bad time at all considering I only started cycling properly in January. A friend's response to my time: "you kicked Richard Branson's ass!" His time was 5:33, so I think I concur!

There are too many aspects of the race for me to share about the event: the weather was ideal, the organisation was great (well done again city of Cape Town). I was disappointed in my time because it was so close to sub-4 and I could have pushed myself harder (I expected the race to be more difficult, according to what everyone had been saying). But that's neither here nor there, and I now have a time that I can significantly improve on for next year.

Bring it on!

Confession time

Ok, I have a confession. I am an addict. But I'm going to say it's not a problem. We are all addicts in a similar way. The content of mine is just different. Some people have Facebook, some have computer games. Some people are addicted to YouTube, while others are addicted to 9Gag. Me? I'm addicted to something a little more unhealthy (but sometimes it can be good for you...).

I am addicted to food porn...

"What is this "food porn" you speak of?" you may find yourself asking. Well, my dear friends, behold...

Rolo brownie trifles from Bakingdom.com

Coconut cake with chocolate chunks and coconut
drizzle from Heidirobb.com

Easy pad thai from Browniesfordinner.com

Sweet & spicey bacon chicken from
diaryofarecipeaddict.blogspot.com

Food porn holds the wonders of all sorts of magical food. Sometimes it comes with a recipe that you will never be able to follow, because it either is way too complicated, or you live in a third-world-country where you don't even get half of the ingredients!

And never mind the healthified recipes: if you are lucky to have access to the ingredients (should you know where to even find them!), the ingredients are worth quadruple the value of just buying a simple packet of biscuits. Which is much quicker than having to make all these delicious things from scratch. I want my brownies, and I want them NOW!

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n’ Oreo Fudge Brownie Bar from

www.kevinandamanda.com

Ever worried about being unhealthy? Ever felt concern that the massive, fudgey, ooey, gooey, chocolate brownie mess with the melted marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles might just go straight towards making those gym pants even tighter? Never fear! Food porn won't make you fat! As I've mentioned, I'm a Calorie counter, but, luckily for me, poring over delicious food doesn't add any fat or calories or carbs to your food diary.

Apparently this light BBQ chicken pizza from
pinchofyum.com only has 150 Calories per piece...
And it looks delicious! Mmmm pizza...

Hey look! Healthy-ish food! I made this
one pot pasta from Marthastewart.com,
and it was really delicious

What does sometimes happen, however, is that it consumes your time. There is also the chance that you do end up getting fat anyway because you were too busy staring at the food, and not going to exercise instead. I find this happens a lot with looking at inspiringly slim girls as well... Too much time looking and wanting, and not enough time getting off my ass and doing something about it!

Maybe I'll go into the evils of "planning" instead of "doing" one day. Today is not that day. Instead, I'll just leave you with some deliciousness. Which, luckily for you, is silent, and does not require that you instantly shut your laptop screen should someone walk into the room. Enjoy!

Caprese lasagne roll ups from cookingclassy.com. I
don't think we have easy access to such long pieces
of lasagne here. So I thought I could find a recipe for
fresh pasta, and I can make my own! Lol that's not gonna
happen...

My brother is desperate for me to make him molten
cupcakes. I'll find a recipe similar to this Betty Crocker
one (another product we can't get here...   

To count the calories...

As I've mentioned in the "About Me" section of this blog, I love exercise. And I love food. And I struggle to maintain a balance between the two. I am self-diagnosed with some condition in which I find all food hyper-palatable. Once I start eating, I don't want to stop, and I just want more of the flavour. Which results in me eating whole slabs of chocolate and whole packets of biscuits, and massive packets of chips. Even the "healthy" snacks: I eat them all! Because, hey, if I eat it now, it won't be there to tempt me! When it is gone, it's gone. I wish I could convince myself of this while I am eating it though...

In my attempt to never let the effects of "first-year-spread" afflict me again, I Googled, of course. I feel I have to work hard to stay at a certain weight (and then lose some perhaps as well). Thus, I came across "thinspo". An evil word in many cultures, this form of blogging/media sharing is a way for girls (and sometimes guys) to get inspiration for being thin (makes sense, right?). What it ultimately results in, is you sitting on tumblr, scrolling through endless posts and reposts of girls who just make you feel crap about yourself because they are so gorgeous (ahem, so professionally airbrushed).

While that last comment is true for a lot of the pictures, there are actually some really motivational before and after pictures that girls share of themselves (so brave!). There are also innumerable posts with advice on what the right foods are to eat, healthy alternatives, and even, as you move towards the Fitspo side of tumblr, exercises routines and advice for targeting particular areas (most commonly, that booty of course. And enter: the squat!).

Eventually I learnt that in order to lose weight, it was not just about eating less overall, it was about eating fewer calories. If you ate veggies to fill up your Cals, you could eat forever and still not reach your "calorie goal". If you ate pizza, however, one slice was the equivalent of a whole meal in some cases (basically a whole pizza could be the same as a single day's allowance...). So I began to count the calories.

The good news: it works! Basically. So now, in order to maintain a below-first-year-spread-maximum, I count how much energy each thing that passes my lips will give me. If I overeat, I want to burn those calories (or, if I burn the calories, I get to eat more, yay!!!). This might be borderline some kind of purging bulimia thing, but that is probably best reserved for another post. Because, as passionate as I am about exercise and my body, I know what I'm doing.

I thought I'd share this with you as a precursor for what is likely to follow in future blog posts...