Sometimes its hard to say goodbye to people.

This evening I had the news that my (great) Uncle Vic passed away earlier today. It's been a long time since we last saw one another, but it's hard to know that that amazing man has gone from this world. He was my grandads best friend and the lifelong support of my grandmother (his sister) and for that I can only thank his memory and commemorate him as leaves us to go and do whatever it is that happens when we pass on.

I'm just sad that I never got to see him that one last time. I think we never realise how quickly things can change, how quickly people can be gone never to be seen, or spoken to again and once more I'm reminded of the utter frailty of our lives. We are simply a speck in the running of the world, yet each of us has potential to change everything. Even the smallest changes can echo into eternity. So what will you leave behind when it's time to move on? Who will miss you? What will you have achieved with your eye-blink of a life?

I know for one that I want to be able to stand before those "pearly gates" and say that I have lived my life. That I don't regret the things I've done and I've lived a life well loved. I hope that's how my Uncle felt as he approached the unknown.

For a while now I've been resolving that life is for living. Each passing year a testament to the year we've left behind, our own fingerprint on the life we're leaving behind, every second of the day.

I want to live a life where, in the words of the great "Blue Oyster Cult" I "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" because I know that if my life is to be gone in a second, then I need to take every opportunity I can with open arms. The challenge we set this week has been based on this resolve and today has helped me clarify that I want to TRY EVERYTHING!

Life may be fleeting, but in the moment everything is an adventure. People leave you, people come into your life. Every moment you change into the person you wish to be. I am me.

Today several lovely things happened, which I feel is appropriate to move on to, because what is death without life? Those little things that make every day worth waking up for and I'll share some with you, just so it's not all doom and gloom from my corner!

• Firstly one of my lovely year (almost) 13's donated 30p into the fundraising we're doing - very sweet :) Every penny counts!! Thanks Colette!
  
• I have also made an application to be a #sweatpink ambassador, which is really exciting! I love spreading the message, I love telling you all how amazing it is to be fit, to be healthy, to be unafraid of myself. So basically on that note: squee!
• Pole this evening was amazing!! I'll blog more about that tomorrow (I have an awesome video to share!), but tonight I feel it's appropriate to leave you with one last thought:

In the words of Heather Small - What have you done today to make YOU feel proud?

Today I'm going to scoot my food bowl around until you can't bear the sound any more and then I'm going to meow pitifully like I haven't been fed in oh, about 2 hours.

No. Wait. That's my cat Dave.

Dave the cat is on one of my fitness programmes. I've been getting him to jump through hoops to get a treat.....wait, am I missing something here? ;P

j/k

but really.

Thanks to everyone today - we've raised £0.85 from Google Ad-Sense so far TODAY! Whoop, keep those clicks going. Check out the ads, they're all through Google :)

Thanks also to Lesa, who is my ninja inspriation - today I will be trying to make tiny, ninja gerbil bookmarks :D Keep an eye out for them in our store!! Whoop, go ninja gerbils!

Remember, day 1 of this week's challenge starts today - say yes to any opportunity that comes your way!! :D If you want to join us on the challenges all you need to do is let us know that you're playing (pm or the comments box) and then send us proof you did it!!

So today was the day after the biggest training walk so far. Did it hurt? Well, not so much for me, although I got a volley of abusive Whatsapp messages from my dear sister Tasha regarding the blisters she's formed. Hmph.

The worst pain for me was in my burnt shoulders. I'm talking crispy roast Squidgey. Sheesh, who'd have known. Ok, fine. Most of you. But who wants to wear sleeves when it's a million degrees celsuis outside!! ./melodrama

Anyway, I know you're not here for me...you're here for the photos from yesterday.....I'll admit to being the OUTSTANDING photographer here ;) (you can follow our photos/products on squidgeypaws @ Instagram!!)

It was shortly after this that there was a small mutiny regarding the camera and me talking.

Some people.

I love eloquent speech. I love eloquent speakers. Dan Gilbert is one such man. He is a "Harvard psychologist who says our beliefs about what will make us happy
are often wrong" This is a "premise he supports with intriguing research".

Whilst writing this I was listening to "Pain" by Jimmy Eat World (oh shush. I know...) and there's a lyric that always rings true to me "I never thought I'd walk away from you.
I did. But it's a false sense of accomplishment. Every time I quit".

What is it that makes people happy? Well, Dan here has done a lot of research on happiness and in this video he looks at our expectations.

If you're a TL;DR kind of person he basically says that what we
expect is that our expectations don't change. Actually, we change hugely beyond
our own expectations from decade to decade. In this, our expectations of
happiness and satisfaction change - consequently, the things that we want, and the things that make us happy change. We change from day to day, we're not static in ourselves. The only constant we have IS change.

My favourite
quote from this is "when is the point that we become the person we want to be?
NOW. Now is that time".

So why do people not make the changes they have been meaning to? They're waiting
to be: better, richer, slimmer, faster, prettier, older, braver....but
essentially, surely we are all of those things whenever we want to be them?

[mushy stuff inc] If I think back over the past few years I can recognise who I have changed from - that girl who can be quoted as saying "I don't like to exercise because it makes
me sweat" to someone who can also be quoted as saying "Ooooh, I'm positively
amphibious....that was a good workout" (don't I just have the nicest way with
words... :p).

How much have you changed in the past few years? And what kinds of
changes do you WANT to make? Because as Dan here suggests - you don't have to
wait until you're at a certain point to make a decision to change. You're that
person RIGHT NOW. In the words of Nike - "just do it".

Talks courtesy of www.TED.com

The usual updates - £2 made from clicking around this site. Following the links allows us to claim back money from Google Ad-Sense so don't be shy about investigating these advertisers :) It's totally free for you to do too - unless you see an amazing deal!

More eBay auctions up - Today it's Eddie the Gecko! He's £9.95 via our eBay store, he's hand made completely from scratch (I didn't use a template) and he turned from a blob of clay into something I'm really proud of!

He's on eBay at this link.

We also have a range of cute little owl bookmarks coming along, Brenda the bookmark will soon be joined by Alan, Jeff and Judy!! I'll upload finished pictures, at the moment they're still white and rough!

Tom's talking reptiles have also agreed to sponsor us here, you can find more information about them on this page. Kiddies parties (I'm sure a fair few adults would like their parties too) that actually dispel misconceptions and allow kids to get up close to reptiles!! Awesome :D Check out the link :)

So what was today's adventure I can hear you saying?

Well everybody, today I tried ballet! I never took ballet lessons as a child - they appeared to be reserved for the skinny, rich, popular girls that I didn't seem to fit in to at primary school. Mostly because I was an awkward lump. Ah, not much changes does it ;) Well, at least I'm not socially awkward anymore (shush you people that know me. Don't dispel my illusions....I'm happy with the silences....).

Evening.

This is going to be a short one. I know, I know, you'll miss me but I'll be right back tomorrow don't worry!

To update you on the Google Ad-Sense fundraising - we're now at £2.00 into the pot via your clicks!! Thank you!! <3 It all adds up! Remember it's completely FREE for you to fundraise this way (unless you find some awesome deal of course!) and you might actually find something you like :)

We have several eBay auctions up at the moment and we have lots of products in our store - so please check these out here (for our store) and here (for eBay).

To take part in our challenges you can sign up here on our Facebook event page - I'm even going to push the boat out and say for EVERY NEW COMBATANT WHO TAKES THE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK, WE WILL DONATE £1 TO OXFAM.

Remember it's also not too late to submit yourself for the challenge this week and get your face and adventures in our blog!!

Why is tonight's blog so short? Well, Eddie the gecko is finished!! Whoop :D He's up and ready to go to a good home, along with Brenda and Ollie the owls :)

You can find more details and prices here. These little guys are super cute though! And at £2 for Brenda the bookmark owl they'd make someone a nice little (handmade and lovingly crafted) gift!

Anyway, you're here for the dirt on today's challenge right?

Today I did the 30 day ab challenge.

So lets start today with our general updates:

£1.84 has been raised so far through Google Ad-Sense. Thanks to everyone who has been investigating the advert links - please keep doing it!! It's completely free for you (unless ofc you buy something) but we generate revenue from it which ALL goes to Oxfam.

We have several eBay auctions up at the moment and we have lots of products in our store - so please check these out here (for our store) and here (for eBay).

I'm just in the process of painting Eddie the candle-holder and I'll get some pictures up of my other clay projects!

To take part in our challenges you can sign up here on our Facebook event page - I'm even going to push the boat out and say for EVERY NEW COMBATANT WHO TAKES THE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK, WE WILL DONATE £1 TO OXFAM.

What did we try today?
Today we decided that rock climbing was going to be our goal as something new. I feel it's about time to confess that I'm actually a little jittery around heights. I don't think that's an irrational fear - it's adaptive, cmon, surely some caution around high things is common sense...

As it turns out, so is Tash. I got a call this morning saying that she'd lost the money she was going to use to pay for the session....ooops, I paid on booking sis - no backing out now *laugh*

Amber has done rock climbing before, so when she left Crawley earlier she was still brain storming what she could do for her challenge...we'll have to see what she came up with ;)

So, anyway, rock climbing. I've wanted to go rock climbing for quite a while now but have never had the guts to book a session. This challenge gave me a perfect excuse to do so!

After doing some research I can see that there are some great health benefits to rock climbing! Check out this site, or this one and definitely this one if you need more information on what rock climbing can do for your workout routine!!

So we booked through High Sports at K2 Crawley yesterday and turned up at around 12:30pm and prepped for our session - the harnesses were a little alarming, but James (our instructor for the session) patiently explained how they fitted on and where to put everything (there are so many holes.....!!).

After a few minutes and doing the signature of certain death (you know the one - when they hand you the piece of paper it was time to become acquainted with the walls....

James took us through the safety (don't walk under other people's lines - see I remember!) and then explained that we were attached to him and he'd help us down. At this point I looked him up and down and wondered whether I'd actually lift him off of the floor when I was coming down....he didn't look like he weighed more than me! I could just picture the see-saw motion of me and James stuck in an eternal struggle to reach the floor....

Turns out he was fine. Apparently though he does have to plug himself into the floor when slightly heavier people come climbing - is it bad that at that point I was just glad he hadn't attached himself to the floor?!!

Getting to the middle of the walls was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. The last wall I even touched the top xD That's progress for you. Although, at the top I made the mistake of looking down. Ooops. That's the moment when the "oh crap, what am I doing? I'M GOING TO DIE" kicks in - how am I going to get down? That's so far. Um. Drop and roll? NO NO DROP AND ROLL. Never. Look. Down.

We tackled 4 walls in total and O...M...G, my forearms (and my butt muscle that was pulled in the multiple handstand incidences). What a workout. If you're looking for a workout that combines endurance and resistance and fun you NEED to try rock climbing!! I am officially hooked and planning on going again next week!

Our instructor James was upbeat and really, really supportive of both me and Tash when it came to declaring that we were scared of heights. He even complimented us a lot on progressing and made a big deal of the steps we took - spot on!! As you can see in the video he allowed us to try out going up and abseiling down and made no comment on what must have looked really silly!

I'm so glad I finally found the courage to book this - it's something everyone should try at least once in my opinion.

After the rock climbing we went for a short walk around the gorgeous Tilgate Lake, which was beautifully sunny (the weather, not the lake...) and then into town for some shopping and a coffee courtesy of Amber. Great training session. We definitely need more coffee though... xD

After all the excitement I came home and logged into WoW. Yes, I play World of Warcraft. Yes, I raid. Yes, I know. A few weeks ago I cancelled raiding to go and see the new Captain America movie. That is when I realised (and one of my lovely friends pointed out) that I had hit ultimate geek status.

In fact, it was when I'd got to fat to bend down and face-tank that I decided it was time to lose weight....thanks WoW ;) Sweating profusely when you're playing should be reserved for those tricky "YES WE'RE GOING TO DOWN THE BOSS" moments and not just when you're walking about the nearest town....

Anyway, I was talking to one of my friends (who dropped a couple of comments about my hand-standing abilities....git) when I got the comment "well, handstands can't be that hard can they". Well. I've told him to go away and film himself trying. I'll post up the footage if I get any ;)

So, look forward to that moment peoples!

That's me done for tonight. Over and out!

Lets start off with some general updates...

£1.20 has been raised so far through Google Ad-Sense. Thanks to everyone who has been investigating the advert links - please keep doing it!! It's completely free for you (unless ofc you buy something) but we generate revenue from it which ALL goes to Oxfam.

We have several eBay auctions up at the moment and we have lots of products in our store - so please check these out here (for our store) and here (for eBay).

There are lots more necklaces coming up and I'm experimenting with modelling clay at the moment, so we'll soon have some candle holders and other knick-knacks coming along :D

To take part in our challenges you can sign up here on our Facebook event page - I'm even going to push the boat out and say for EVERY NEW COMBATANT WHO TAKES THE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK, WE WILL DONATE £1 TO OXFAM.

Now, onto today's adventures...

Today was a gym day, so I thought it'd be fun to rope one of the personal trainers at my local gym into this challenge. Sophie had a definite gleam in her eye as I explained what I'm doing and said that she had free license to think up things for me to do....uhoh!

I have a bad feeling that she started me off easy....

You'll have to excuse the sweat and the mussy top - this was post workout Michelle!

So these are the *affectionately* tagged "Death Burpees".

They look easy right.

Ha. When I finished doing them Simon turned to me and said "you know, they're the kind of thing that looked really easy to do". Didn't see him doing them! :O

Death burpees are well named (there was some discussion on what to name these things, Sophie came up with a much more technical burpee battle rope star jumps). They make you want to stop. Stop jumping, stop moving, stop breathing.... *laugh* It was about half way when the shorts decided it was time to play about (I have two pairs of the same brand - great for weights day BAAAAD for cardio day). I thought I was going to flash you all....(a bit like I flashed the gym when Sophie originally showed me what to do).

I did flash the gym when I tried handstands (Simon *might* have lifted my bum and legs into the right position and I *may* have started squealing shortly before I faceplanted). The guy on the treadmill next to us got an eyeful. Poor guy. He was grinning though so I'm sure the damage wasn't too severe.

I also flashed everyone when I did a shoulder stand. I mean, what do you do at that point? Oh crap...my stomach is out. I'm upside down. Uhoh, it's even started coming out of my shorts. Ooops, my shorts have rolled down when I was getting into position, now I'm showing ALL of my midriff and a little more than that. Crap. Drop and roll DROP AND ROLL.

Anyway, training today consisted of a gym session (weights). For good measure I even tried a new strength move - Front Squats. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE squats (just ask Tom who loves legs day with me *sarcasm font required* or Simon who when last doing a squat with me and was told to "go lower" just sat down and refused to get back up..../sigh) but these squats are really...interesting...! The technique feels really odd, I'm not entirely sure I had it right but it felt like it was constricting my wind pipe.... 0_o They work everything though, so I think I'll be incorporating more of those (look guys, legs day is just as important as uppers day).

Know what I'm sayin'

Anyway, gym done, challenge done it was time to head home and go play on my pride and joy Beena. Beena is amazing. Beena is fast. Beena is bright pink.

Now, just a side note that's not to do with training (oh come on, I don't do it a lot....ok, well, sometimes. But you love it...) when you see a motorbike don't slow down. There's no need. If we're going to overtake you, we'll do it. Frankly, slowing down is slightly insulting for a machine that can tear your hair out from the roots in acceleration. We appreciate the sentiment, but just go at a steady pace. It's safer for everyone involved and you know, maybe we were never intending on overtaking at all until you decided to slam your breaks on, slow down to 20mph and crawl along at the side of the road in the gutter. Thanks though to the people who do notice us and try to be safe - it is noticed and appreciated!!

So, yeah. Several cars later I'm home, safe and writing this. I might have to go find something to eat. Something with protein in naturally. I have done two days of Kenny's challenge and every time I see a piece of bread I start salivating. All anyone has to do is mention the word cake and I'm gone (apparently even TYPING the C word makes my mouth water...).

What have I learnt today? I have issues with cake *drools*

Moral of the story? Be careful who you ask to dream up challenges for you ;) (no, but really, thanks to Sophie for playing along - she even shot that video off duty :) ).

Tomorrow is rock climbing....this will be fun.

Happy clicking friends - come play with us :D

After a years worth of begging, wheedling, reasoning and ordering my dear hubs finally persuaded me that he should buy a BIG TV.

What I didn't forsee was the conversation upon leaving the store.

"Hey Babes, you're doing that challenge right? Do something new every day?"
"Yep that's the one..." *something starts feeling suspicious*
"Have you actually decided what to do yet?"
"Well, I was going to go to Pilates but I'm too late now...." *definite suspicion forming*
"How about you carry this thing to the car then? Get going"

*sigh*

It's the kind of thing that doesn't feel heavy at first....you know, wow, it's even easy - but 5 minutes down the line it starts weighing a lot. Then a minute later the weight doubles. And then triples.

The damn thing eventually got to the car, with a lot of "hey, be careful" and "don't drop it".
I'll drop him.

You can't imagine how the conversation went when I suggested that money could have been put to charity. Apparently that's not even something to joke about.

I didn't feel that that was quite enough to class as a "new" thing, so I also decided to try out a couple of new yoga moves....boom, day one.

Tasha and Amber opted for gardening today. Apparently that's completely new to them - I didn't want to have the conversation that wondered how you can get to 21 without doing any gardening....

This morning I also decided it was time for W3D1, and that because I *can* already run, that I'd use it as fartlek training (speed intervals). Now there's one thing you probably don't know about me. I'm asthmatic. It's not usually a huge problem, I manage it well. But today was humid. You know, that sort of air that feels like you're breathing water. Apparently my lungs don't like that.

On the first interval I realised that my heart was actually going to explode and that my lungs would crawl out of my throat.

The second interval I realised that I sounded like Godzilla's overweight, aged mother. Oh well, just keep going....

The third interval was downhill. Oh sweet blessed downhill, I felt like my feet had grown speed boosters. That was until my shorts started falling down. Oh come ON. So as I'm speeding downhill, faster than a decrepit snail....I mean, speeding bullet....I realise that my stomach is hanging out over my shorts and that my top has ridden up. Crap. Time to try and pull my shorts up without losing stride. Uhoh, not possible. Ok, look cool dammit. Great, now they're falling down at the knees. Ah man. So with the trademark hop, skip and a jump I managed to install my shorts where they were supposed to be. For about 60 seconds.

At this point I made an executive decision that Crawley would just have to put up with my stomach. Sorry to anyone who passed me, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made and I feel that it is only fair that the populace of Crawley makes a sacrifice at some point.

The rest of the run passed in much the same way, until one of my favourite running songs came on.....and there was a bus. It was full. So I decided to do my "real runner" face and run. It felt pretty good :D Shame that after I'd slowed down round the corner the bus came round the corner too. Oooops.

It only took 30 minutes, but I'm pretty sure my lungs will never be the same again. They'll learn....

Firstly, after the "incident" with my computer a couple of nights ago we got Google Ad-Sense working (yay!). So far through your clicks we have raised 64p towards our fundraising - so please keep investigating the links that look good to you :D Big thanks from us and from Oxfam (I'm sure, i mean, I can't speak on account of them but i'm pretty sure they'd be happy with that....)!!

Secondly, after the incidences (yes, plural :p) with the handstands I'm officially lame (lol). I am taking a rest day (don't judge me....).

So - onto the main event!

This week's challenge:

Starting tomorrow (Friday 30th May) we challenge you to try at least ONE new thing related to exercise for one week.

That could be a new exercise class (Tash and Amber are currently toying with coming to Pole for their new thing!!), it could be a new strength move, it could simply be a technique you've been dying to try - but what it MOSTLY is is an opportunity to have some fun!

Often we get caught into routines that maybe we don't actually enjoy anymore...so take this challenge and get yourself out there xD

The rules:

• It has to be exercise based
• You have to complete it - if you don't, you need to try something else out
• It has to be NEW to you
• You need to take a photo or a video of yourself doing whatever it is!
• If you miss a day YOU FORFEIT

This week's forfeit:
You will be asked to go into a busy town centre and whilst you're walking along, suddenly stop and start dancing. Remember, you need to video your forfeit too for it to count. *grin*


If you need a recap on how it works, check out my blog from 23rd May!

If you've been playing along and would like to renew a previous challenge remember for every ADDITIONAL week that we complete a set challenge we will donate £1 to our charity!

There have so far been NO forfeits.

Previous challenges:
Week 1: No fizzy drinks for the duration of the challenge.
Week 2: Complete (at least) 10 minutes of running every day of the challenge.


Remember: You can either renew a challenge or pick this weeks challenge up. Members of the challenge can choose to take the ultimate challenge and run challenges together....!
(For every renewed week we will donate £1 to our fundraising - for a maximum of 5 weeks per challenge).

The combatants:

Want to take part? Want to accept our challenges? For everyone who takes a challenge and completes a RENEWED week (so two weeks of a challenge) Snailstalkers will donate 50p to our charity (for a maximum of 5 weeks renewal). Maybe you could make it about your own donations to charity and match our donation?

You'll also get mentioned in the blog (of course!!).

You can join us at any time!

Want to think of the forfeits we do? For suitable forfeits submitted (and approved) we will film ourselves doing them and put them on the website. Please though, nothing that will endanger health or anything that is outrageously inappropriate!

We will also consider any challenges put our way (we generally try to keep them health oriented! The more devilish the better!! :D)