Fab Feb - The First

Fabulously Fresh

✅Fitness - #28bysamwood ‘Final Score’

✅Free of Alcohol

✅Shut Up and Write

✅Freshly washed car

✅Frajitas

✅Free lunch at Macquarie University Incubator

✅Firstborn came home

The day I learnt about alliteration (thanks Mrs Thew in Year 8) I felt my writing life open up. Then again, I have had many such experiences, like learning alternatives for ‘said’ (thanks Mr Gaudron, my Year 3 teacher) and qualifying words such as ‘rather’ and ‘quite’ (thanks Mr Fielder, my Year 6 teacher).

Feb Fast is appealing for its alliteration and the idea of becoming healthier after the indulgences of December and January. Except I don’t like the word Fast due its representation of denial and sacrifice, thus Fab Feb. Fab Feb, for me, will represent all the choices and experiences that make my life fabulous, a bit like a gratitude journal, but hopefully less insipid.

The main guidelines, not steadfast rules, are:

- Five Fitness days per week

- Five Free of alcohol

- Fast Food Forbidden

It’s also going to be about being mindful of appreciating the fabulous moments in each day.

So, Day One. 

I’m currently following the 28 By Sam Wood program. By following, I mean I pretty much follow the food component, but often eat more than one serve and supplement with healthy snacks (usually). I’m better with the fitness side of things, when I’m able to follow the routine I established mid December. I wake around 6am. John brings me a cup of tea in bed soon after that. I do the rounds of social media and check email, including news from The Squiz, New York Times and The Briefing. Sometime after 7am I’m out of bed, possibly putting on a load of washing, and preparing for my 28 minutes of low impact fitness. Preparation includes laying out a mat, placing a towel on top, opening my hand weights case, grabbing the IKEA step stool if needed, dressing in fitness clothes, putting on good sports shoes with my orthotics for plantar fasciitis, strapping on my heart rate monitor, choosing a podcast to play, starting the Wahoo app, starting the 28 video. I then have breakfast while I cool down and finish the podcast (Guilty Feminist is a favourite). Shower, dress and off to university where I am a PhD candidate, hopefully by 9.30am but sometimes domestic chores demand more time.

My Fridays are generally fabulous because once I arrive at university I meet with other PhD candidates at a cafe where we Shut Up and Write. I have yet to use it for academic writing but instead, dedicate the time to blogging (like right now). There were five of us today. After a bit of chat as we meet and greet and order our coffee we work in silence, although there have been times that the instigator of this group has needed to kindly ask some of us to shut up.

Friday the First of February was fabulous for a few other reasons. My car is now all fresh after I washed away the dust gained from Wagga last week and John cooked frijatas for dinner. I also attended a free lunch for women leaders and innovators, of which I’m neither, but interested because it relates to my research. It was held at the university ‘incubator', a hothouse for budding entrepreneurs. My research focus is enterprise education in secondary schools. Cecily Zhu spoke about her area of expertise, mediation and negotiation. It was a lovely little interlude for the day, only slightly marred by a mansplainer. He appeared to need everyone to know he knew just as much as the guest speaker, if not more. Finally, the most fabulous part of the day was the arrival of the firstborn, home for a few days from Canberra.

I'll ease off the alliteration next time.