2012 goals 01/13/2012
As you have watched i am doing Weight watches this year to help me on my weight loss journey. I will still be working out with my personal trainer as well as attending Fun and Fitness bootcamp and Zumba. I still have my goal of completing the Taupo Bike challenge. My ultimate goal is to lose 30 kilos this year! SO BRING IT ON!!! 1 Comment Child poverty 11/22/2011
Everyone is talking about a doco that was on tv tonight which show cased Child Poverty in NZ. Talk about eye opener! Alot of people are focusing on the people living in the houses, how many children they each had etc.......... no one is really talking about the state of the houses. Cold, damp with black mold on the ceiling, walls and window cills. The question i want to know is are these privately owned houses or are these the government houses? If they are government housing then i would expect them to be at least insulated! Just your basic living..... houses in general should not be built without insulation. This made me start thinking about Government housing. obviously the people who live there need too. They can just afford the basics. The houses are built for people who cant afford much and yet i see the land around the houses are usually barren. Here is my idea. Goverment houses should all have fruit tree's established on them! Imagine living in poverty in a state owned house, not having much food but being able to go into your own back yard and have a feed of the fruit that has grown. I grew up raiding our fruit trees. weeks and weeks of plums, apples, grapes and fijoias. This not only saves parents a bit of money but it also helps children get their fruit intake. Even in public places like a park having a section of fruit trees for the kids. of course this would be hard to manage but wouldnt it be magnificent being able to play at a park and then grab some peaches before heading home. This is inline of having a community garden, which i am sure is a huge undertaking as gardens need alot of work. What about schools, schools could have fruit trees? Oh i could go on..... no child should go hungry, live in sub standard houses especially in a country like New Zealand. I feel ashamed to say i am a New Zealander for this one fact. What ever government gets in i hope they take this seriously. 
A year is up 11/20/2011
Well my year is up. In 5 days i will be doing my first huge event. I have had many challenges, my biggest has been myself! I joined the gym in February with my best friend. Its crazy now that i think about it but i wouldnt go to the gym if she wasnt going. If i found out she couldnt make it i refused to go. How silly. Now of course i just go to the gym without thinking about it. After a few months and small weight loss i decided to try out a Personal Trainer. I hired Laurinda and learnt my very first session two important things 1. I wasnt working out hard enough the last few months. 2. She is tough and doesn't put up with my bullshit.. Im a complainer............ i would complain about everything! i have no idea how she put up with me. i am pretty sure she dreaded those earlier appointments. i complained and had excuses! What finally snapped me into place was her telling me if i continued she would fire me as a client! I couldn't believe it..... Fire me! Who does she think she is..... she couldnt fire me! It was the fire in my belly i needed. to be fired would be a huge failure and something inside me just clicked and i complained alot less.... Laurinda built me up, helped me achieve small goals and she was tough the whole way through. The best thing i ever did was hiring her and though we now have become good friends, i would be lost without her. Even though Taupo is in 5 days i have already planned a triathlon in Feburary. Laurinda is doing it with me and we will start our training again I havent finished. Taupo is the first step to a healthier me. Another person who has been there by my side is my husband. He has supported me on my journey and even decided a few months back to jump in and join in! it has been an amazing journey having him along side me. He is a great motivator and he has discovered his love for biking. Doing this Journey with him has made us closer, i didnt think we could get closer. Without these two people in my life i dont think i could of got through the year. And here i am 5 days out and i may not complete the race but that is not the focus. The focus is doing it and next year i will smash what ever i do this year. 
The life of a child 11/16/2011
When a child is born, they have a strong cup filled to the brim. Full. As years go by and that child gets older situations around them knock the cup around. All big situations effect the cup. Parents divorce ............... The cup chips Parents fight.......................The cup chips Each chip can be healed with love, patience, understanding and time. The liquid inside the cup can be replaced. Chips can be fixed. Parent beats child................... The cup cracks Parent tortures child.................The cup cracks Parent sexually abuses child.................The cup smashes. The child cannot fill the cup because every time they try the liquid leaks out. There is nothing more painful in a child's life than having a cup that is smashed. A child doesn't have the tools to fix their own cup. When i child has nothing inside the cup they feel lost. They dont know who they are. They have no trust. They are empty and they spend the rest of their life trying to fix the cup and fill it. As they grow they try different ways to fix the cup, some try to stick a plaster, some try to buy a new cup........... but nothing but healing slowly will heal the cup. Some heal but no crack is fully fixed. Sexual abuse leaves the cup weakened........... the joins can get stronger but there is always bits that never heal. Sexual abuse is Rampant in New Zealand. It is a silent killer......... it kills souls~ Weekend ride 11/06/2011
 The ride started out ok until we hit the country road where we were hit with a head on wind. I can tell you now i have a instant hate for the wind, you feel like you are peddling but getting nowhere. We just went slowly, chipping at the k's. I was struggling a little with the hills as i am still getting used to my new bike, it doesnt have the low gears like the mountain bike (which i love). I got just outside of Helensville where i was nearing the top of a huge hill and slide out on some gravel, falling head first onto the road, where are car was passing, 5cm closer i would of been dead. My bikes handle bars went south and my legs are grazed and very blue from bruising. I had to continue at that point as i was a kilometre behind hubby and i had to catch up with him to tell him i fell. We continued on but i was seriously struggling, at that point all i could think about was "just keep turning, just keep turning" i must of said it a million times. We stopped in helensville for a snack... i lay down and made hubby stretch my legs, it would of been a sight to see. We headed off on our way to Kumeu where the wind got stronger and then it started to rain..... when i past woodhill turn off i think i lost the plot and started to cry. We got to the Muiawai turn off and i decided that i could go no further, my knee had started to swell and thats about when i started to cry. Husband just looked at me bemused, not sure he understood why i was crying, he was so proud of me when all i could see was failure. I had failed to meet my mark. I felt that i had let myself down. This morning i woke up with a different outlook, (after lots of thinking and talking with hubby in the night) i realised i just made myself a starting point and next time i ride the same circuit i am to better myself. Thanks for reading. Balanced parenting 10/20/2011
Being a single parent is usually not a choice you make; it is a choice that can be forced on you. My parents spilt up when i was young and the mistakes my parents made i swore i would never make. They hurt each other with their bickering and name calling, and it only ever hurt us kids. When i became a single parent i made a promise that i would NEVER say a bad word about my daughters father. I swore that i would make sure that we were a family unit, or as close as we could be. This included (while my daughter was young) having family holidays together, talking each week on phone to discuss week events and always including her father in conversations. I always told my daughter about her father’s good traits, always told the funny stories of what we got up too. Even though we as a couple didn’t work out, there were a lot of things we did together. As a couple you were in love once, telling stories about your life before children helps them feel grounded and connected to you both. Of course i know not everyone can do this due to all sorts of circumstances. Just always remember your child knows they are part of you both so if you bag their father essentially you are bagging them. Make a rule and stick by it. These were mine ( i hope they help ) 1. Never say bad things about him in ear shot of child 2. Always talk about the good times 3. Weekly updates, Sunday at 7pm 4. Never stand in the way of him seeing child 5. Your child is the most important, always be accommodating and negotiate 6. Include him in your life, invite him to all child events. Training take two 10/17/2011
So after my little spaz out yesterday. I got back to my desk after lunch to find alot of emails from friends, family and people i know in the virtual world all telling me how i just need to snap put of it and to keep up the good work. I think i just had over done it and i was mentally tired as well as physically tired. I had planned to go for a bike ride but changed plans and headed to the gym with a friend and it was a good work out. I pushed myself and felt great afterwards. What i have come to realise is that i have taken years and years to put on this weight, even though it has creeped on slowly, i have to accept that it is going to creep OFF slowly... as most of you know i am not a very patient person! I have the tendency to want things NOW! So with that in mind i just have to keep going. This is a life style change. I made this commitment to get myself moving and i am doing that, but at the end of the day my journey doesn't end on Nov 26th, this is only the beginning. To date i have lost 19 kilos. This week i have a challenge to do over 1000 skips, last night i did 500. I remember when my daughter brought her skipping rope home and i gave it a go, i swear i couldnt do 20 without sweating and breathing like Darth Vader! Look at me now! Training 10/16/2011
Well i can tell you i am over training, over exercising. It feels like that's all i do..... and when i am not training i am in pain.......... no pain no gain right? The massive task i have set myself is starting to dawn on me the closer i get, and i am seriously freaking out. There just aren't enough hours in a day to get everything i need done. I have tried hard not to complain online (though i complain to my personal trainer Non stop) but crying out loud........i hurt! I wont stop training, i will keep going............... but i am finding it hard. The last few months have been an emotional roller-coaster, i have had a lot to deal with and through it all i have managed to keep training. I am proud of my efforts so far, though some times i feel like i am not doing enough. I have 5 weeks of training left.......... Destiny 10/10/2011
I made a comment of facebook and twitter recently “No one can tell you who you are......... Dont let anyone put you in a box........ you are who you want to be.. just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and be that person who you are destined to be.” A few people asked me how are they to know who they are destined to be and when will they find out. I started to think about this, i know when i was younger i would write in my diary asking for things like, to be thinner, rich and to be somebody. I am only one of those things and it is HAPPY. I have learnt over time that being somebody or being destined to be something can be everything and anything that means something to you. I don’t want to be Rich, don’t get me wrong money is nice but when i had lots of it, i was never happy, and i found i wasn’t as creative. I just ended up buying more stuff, stuff i didn’t need. I figured out my destiny was small and simple. To help enrich childrens lives. Through fun, creativity and knowledge. I do this every day. I don’t need thousands of children, i have my treehut children. I makes sure everyday i enrich their lifes, some days it can be as small as laughter, others it can be that i taught them how to shade an apple. Your destiny can be as simple as “ Being the best Mother or grandmother you can” All you have to do is find something you love and do it. You don’t have to produce anything massive or be anything huge. To many people think success has to be huge, but it doesn’t. Being successful is being who you are, having fun doing it. Just because we get to an older age doesn’t mean we as people should stop learning, as i always say ‘knowledge is power’ and if you want to make a change in your life, do the research, get out a book and learn, then explore and then DO. These are just my thoughts on the subject.......... The 9th Month 09/01/2011
 So here we are 9 months down the track. In January i had ONE Goal and that was to lose weight. 9 Months later i am still going strong, if not stronger. I have been 80 per cent focused most of the year but stepped it up to a 100 per cent maybe 2 months ago. The Lake Taupo Bike Challenege was getting closer and i had to step it up, mostly because of the purchase of my bike. I decided earlier in the year that i was going to do the relay and accomplish 40k. At the time i thought it was a HUGE number and didn't think i could ever bike that far. Well with all the training throughout the year 40 k's will be a breeze in the park. :-) So when i was confronted with my team disintegrating due to team members work commitments i was surprised that i didn't take the opportunity to just back out. The old Pauline would of been "Well that's that!" The perfect excuse "My team failed me" No No no what did i then do.................I decided i would then pull my Husband into the mix and make him relay with me and do 80k. Well what a can of worms i opened. Hubby smiled, took up the challenge and then ran past me! Bloody Husbands! My darling husband is addicted to riding his NEW bike and now i am having to try to catch up with him and not only that, he has decided that we can accomplish the 160k's!!! So my small little goal of 40ks, has now turned into me doing the WHOLE bliemen race! And all i can think is BRING IT ON!!! What also has been great about this challenge is how it has progressed, at the beginning it was just me working out and now Hubby and Miss 12 are right along beside me. We are riding out together and it has brought us closer as a family. You seriously cannot get better than that. So people put Nov 26th aside and come on down to Taupo and support me, cause i am going to need it! | AuthorPauline Stockhausen is the Director of Kids Treehut, Graphic Designer, Artist, Photographer,Teacher, Community Leader, Youth Focussed, Mother. CategoriesAll ArchivesJanuary 2012 |
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