We're here for a short one tonight folks! So after a weekend of busy fabulousness - hours of yoga, being a macho-man (shaping metal with my bare hands.....meat-head style) and forcibly fitting into my first ever "real" size 10 items of clothes (and by forcibly I mean so long as I don't eat for a few days beforehand or breathe when I'm actually in them it'll be ok....) we're back at Monday!

What a weekend. It still hung on a little when I woke up this morning from the very pronounced stiffness in "that" shoulder (I had finished my warm-up set of bench-press with an EMPTY bar when I sat up and my shoulder clicked and popped itself into a gnarly little knot. An EMPTY bar. Sheesh) and the decided determination with which I had to leave my gorgeous warm bed. Still, yoga is always worth getting up that bit earlier for - I've found I'm really quite markedly more amenable when I've done the yoga (queue last Wednesday when I almost ate Simon for speaking to me when I'd only been up for 5 minutes....he was asking me to make a decision guys - WITHIN five minutes of opening my eyes, I mean, eating him seemed fair....).

So, yeah, Monday. This Monday was my half day. I love half days. I went poling :D (oooooh yeah). I'll show you a little bit of what I did today....

This is a spin Tom and I decided to learn off of a lovely DVD he got for his birthday - I think it's very pretty :D Although, my personal new fave has to be this....

A fairy spin....how cute is that xD Lots of work to do on it, but it's a fun one!!

So this has been an awesome Monday for me - nice and chilled with a pole session. What more could I ask for?


Anyway, time for your Monday motivation.....this is a picture I picked up trawling the net looking for something else, but it encapsulates EXACTLY what I think is important in life - choice. Choice is a big thing. We often make good choices, but just as easily, a bad choice can seem like the end of everything.

Still - you have the choice whether you think that or not....

My choice today was to make sure I enjoyed the day. Regardless of the cat puking (everywhere) or the late lunch or the piles of marking. We always have that choice (to enjoy the day, not have a puking cat...).

What has been your best choice today?

I love pole.

I realised what I had become earlier today when after about an hour of me talking non-stop about pole my sister looked about ready to throw herself under a car.

Before that, this afternoon in the office I showed everyone my photos of Marley, Gemini and Gold Rush, explaining in intricate detail what these moves required and how exciting the thrill of doing them was to anyone who would listen (thanks Nicky and Tafrina ;)). Luckily I share an office with a dancer and a runner. They understand.

This morning at the swimming pool (I actually mistyped that as pole....seriously) Tom and I discussed in-depth about how well we thought we'd done, the things we needed to work on and the bruises that were coming up.

Tom thought he'd broken his toe. I think I've pulled a muscle in my forearm. Both of our partners look at us with a sort of dismay - you know, the type where they know there's no use actually trying to dissuade you from your course. Although the broken toe almost got Tom in trouble ;)

The other day my dear hubs decided I needed to go to the doctor since I have tingling in my hands. After calmly explaining that it was simply nerve damage from slipping off of the pole a couple of weeks ago I got the raised eye-brows. Thankfully he's stopped commenting otherwise.

I'm a pole addict. And there's no help for it!

There are other things though, like this morning I realised that walking with your head up and looking at people as they pass you often gets a smile. Sometimes you get a hello. After years of looking at the pavement it's nice to finally look the world in the eyes.

It's not just in the amazing progress you see from week to week (you won't know what I mean until you try it), or in the burst of confidence you get from knowing you are strong. And not just strong for a girl. You're strong. It's not even about the rush of excitement you get from thinking or talking about pole, or re-watching your videos to work out how you can improve. The feeling of getting a "well done, you look awesome". The feeling of KNOWING you rocked it before anyone even says anything. You also get to build a community, new friends, you discover things you never knew about yourself.

For instance, I never knew I could hold my own body weight off of the floor. I never knew that bruising your inner arm hurts like the devil is pinching you (;P). I never knew that my body could (sometimes) move gracefully (admit it Karen, it happens sometimes!!).

Last night, for my "something new" this week (see challenge week 5 for more info!) I did a gold-rush. I'm not going to post the video - yes my confidence has come along in leaps and bounds but there is NO WAY I'm publishing my stomach on that pole :p A gold rush looks a bit like this:

Of course I don't look like THAT, but one day. One day ;)

I also managed to get "Gemini" down - got some work to do on it, like putting my legs back, but both hands off the pole....eeek and SQUEEEEEE . It's a rush xD

There was an incident where I managed to get myself stuck half-way between a Gemini and a Gold-Rush. It was an interesting experience. Like being caught in limbo. Eventually I squeaked enough that Tom helped me down <3

The pink shorts of power REALLY helped. It's amazing what clothes can do to your pysche, but I felt invincible! I even took on the inverted fly-hold and held it. Twice :D

Now, the pink shorts are NEON pink, I really am the day-glo girl again in them. I'm afraid though that they'll get washed out when I wash them so I'm not washing them till they're crusty. I mean it....Tom may have to move poles.

In the tradition of the new-things video I got a video of my Marley. This is something that a few weeks ago I was too nervous to do. Amazing what a few weeks can do. I'm not nervous, I'm raring to go. Instead of Karen looking at me and trying to reassure me that everything will be ok, I'm now seeing that all too familiar glint in her eyes as she decides what she's going to get me doing this week.

Release the shackles and find out what you can do! You'll never know until you give yourself permission!!

Now, in other news:
(see, it's so easy to talk forever about pole xD)....ooops, almost got sidetracked again.

Happy Birthday to Amber!! She's 20 today :D she's spent the day being pampered, which is just about right - I hope she's had a great day :D

Tasha is doing well with her kebab challenge - no kebab meals, great job :D

Well, that's all I really have for today. I'm done ;)

Remember guys, every legitimate ad-click round the site gets us money for fundraising - so don't be shy, check them out :D we're up to £5 already so HUGE thanks to everyone clicking those ads - wub you!!

I also have to say I am humbled by the amount of people who come and read what I have to say. Some people even think what I have to say is worth retweeting, or putting into their daily/weekly story summaries....it's amazing. Thank you. I hope I'll be seeing you again :D Maybe you'll introduce yourself one day xD

Do you do everything in your life just so other people notice? What exactly does that contribute to your life?

I know what this is trying to say, but if you're only trying to match someone elses standards when do you know when you've reached your goal? Yes, getting compliments are nice but if that's the only thing that makes you happy you may want to review what you're doing.

I guess what I'm trying to say is do it for yourself sisters (and brothers). Don't try and conform other people's expectations

Eeeeek. These ones make me cringe. Both externally and internally.

Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels? Really? Surely being healthy tastes just as good as skinny feels.

Want to have control? Want a PERFECT body? And a perfect soul? Yes, we all love Radiohead but this really does smack of obsessive eating/health behaviours. How does having a perfect soul correlate to having a perfect body? Is control something that makes you perfect? I think you need to be very careful with this sort of wording, because underneath it you have an undercurrent of "eating "bad" food" makes you imperfect.

The concept of "bad" foods make me cringe (maybe) even more than these photos. I don't think it fosters a healthy relationship if you start saying "this is a good food" or "this is a bad food". Rather they need to be choices independent of how you feel about them and taking into account the nutritional value of each item.

You're already in pain? You're already hurt? Goodness what on earth are you doing? YES working out is hard. YES you should push yourself to work hard. YES it burns. If you're in pain though you're probably doing something wrong. Don't substitute good form just to feel like you're working harder, it's a quick way to get long-term injuries.

I find this one hard to take seriously. I hope that it was written that way.

I'll often joke when someone says "omg, all you talk about is X (insert sport here. Usually pole)" that "yeah yeah, you just can't recognise dedication". Maybe that is the case. Maybe I'm a bit crazy. Maybe it's a bit of both.

I think you need to be VERY careful when using the word "obsessive" in conjunction with exercise. There are some very serious disorders associated with fitness, health and food and they can make people very ill.

This just really reads like someone trying to justify something that could be a very serious illness. Obsessed is a word that people use to describe someone they're slightly worried about.

Dedicated is a word people use to describe someone who has the balance right but they love what they're doing and work hard for it. Know the difference.

Really.

Is this all women aspire to? To be a "fit soccer mom".

Really? Is that all we are? Aspiring mothers?

How about "Reason: So my joints don't give in when I'm 40."

Jus' sayin'. I don't think I have any more words for this one.

Right. There are no excuses. I kind of agree with that. You want it, you work for it.

You need those fries? Sometimes.

You need that burger? With extra relish, cheese, salad and the bun. Yes, please.

Trust yourself - yes of course!

When I look like that? What if I don't WANT to look like that? What if I want muscles? What if I want to be ripped? What if I want to be a sumo wrestler? Who states what healthy looks like. Why should we conform to one ideal?

This one is again doing it for someone else. You're doing it to look like society wants you to. Not because you want to be happy, healthy and fit.

This doesn't ACTUALLY state what you're trying to do either. Are you trying to motivate yourself to eat *bad* things? (actually if you think about the fat and the protein in the burger and the carbs in the chips it sounds good to me!).

Think about your goals. Decide what YOU want to achieve. It's not for someone else to decide, you're the only person who can change you.