100 happy thoughts

About 3 months ago I was reminded of a post that I did 2 years ago – a post that made me focus on finding the happy things in my day-to-day life.

I had been feeling a bit out of sorts for the longest time at that point and so I thought it would be a great idea to once again find something each day to be happy and/or thankful for…. and here are my 100 days! Enjoy 🙂

Day 1 (18 April 2017) – Being reminded of 100 days of happy Hazy

Day 2 – Peanut butter cookies for lunch snack

Day 3 – Cheese and wine night at home

Day 4 – Excellent night out at dinner and partying afterwards

Day 5 – House hunting

Day 6 – Public holiday: went for a run, escape room, visited a friend who’s just had a baby

Day 7 – Fabulous easy-paced 5km run

Day 8 – Random dinner with friends – home-cooking, wine, dessert, giggles

Day 9 – Bonkers Bingo!!!

Day 10 – Landlord agreed to drop rent so no need to move; Eddie Izzard live in Dubai!!!

Day 11 – Hilarious day / night out with friends

Day 12 – Total lazy day on the couch with loads of laughs, and even managed my 2km run!

Day 13 – Last day of running for run.every.day challenge – 140 km’s!

Day 14 – Wings & Rings dinner – YUM! (1 May)

Day 15 – Skype chat with the parentals ❤

Day 16 – Sports massage for tired & achy legs

Day 17 – Curry, wine & movie night at home

Day 18 – AWESOME brunch afternoon / night out

Day 19 – No hangover; random movie night at cinema

Day 20 – Wings for life run!

Day 21 – Just a typical day – nothing bad; nothing overly good

Day 22 – Olly being silly and jumping into the fridge

Olly playing hide and seek 🙂

Day 23 – Excellent 7km run at autodrome

Day 24 – Girls night out

Day 25 – Mary Poppins at The Opera!!!

Day 26 – Looooong breakfast & lunch at Crumbs with the girls 🙂

Day 27 – Cheeky, unexpected HazAl evening

Day 28 – Excellent night out at pub quiz, very funny!

Day 29 – Great training session; reminiscing on photos; great night’s sleep

Day 30 – 2 very successful & interesting job interviews – what will be the outcome?!

Day 31 – Bolognese pizza at Jebel Ali Club!!!!

Day 32 – Football tournament scorer, followed by great night out on the dark side

Day 33 – Minimal hangover, ending the day off by being photographer at football awards evening

Day 34 – OFFERED A NEW JOB!!!

Day 35 – Fabulous morning run

Day 36 – Fun night out at work social – tenpin bowling

Day 37 – Hardcore hill session at autodrome

Day 38 – Tough A – Z session at gym which felt great to be able to complete

Day 39 – Night away in RAK – clear the head a bit!

Day 40 – Chilled evening on the couch with the housemates after a night away

Day 41 – Received contract for new job offer

Day 42 – Fun night out at quiz

Day 43 – Spontaneous night on the couch with the girls, eating cheese & drinking wine

Day 44 – Signed contract for new job

Day 45 – Resigned! (1 June)

Day 46 – Fun morning on the beach, hilarious night out with friends

Day 47 – Found a brilliant new TV show to watch – The Handmaid’s Tale

Day 48 – Enjoyable short run to clear the head

Day 49 – Excellent workout at gym

Day 50 (HALFWAY!) – Wrote speech for sister’s wedding

Day 51 – Just your standard Wednesday

Day 52 – Very quiet night at home – finished The Big Bang theory (Amy & Sheldon?!?!?!)

Day 53 – Early morning gym session, catching up with friends, games night at home

Day 54 – Burj al Arab for dinner with the girls!!

Day 55 – Paid off teeth loan early

Day 56 – Smashed my 10-minute rowing PR

Day 57 – Blue Orange prize dinner  – mini birthday celebration for Daniel

Day 58 – Chit chat with new boss

Day 59 – Couple of beers with ex-work colleagues

Day 60 – Last morning run with Nat; Nat’s farewell – sad day, but great time out

Day 61 – Braai at a friend whom I’ve not seen in a while

Day 62 – First Pilates class at gym

Day 63 – Dinner with friends

Day 64 – Interval training – good run in this heat!

Day 65 – Work iftar / final dinner / farewell

Day 66 – Prague

Day 67 – Prague

Day 68 – Scored my first-ever goal (plus 2 more!!)

Day 69 – Very happy to make my flight home after oversleeping and missing my taxi by one hour!!!!

Day 70 – Packed for my trip home; lots of kitty cuddles

Day 71 – Fly to South Africa!!!

Day 72 – Family ❤

Day 73 – Went for a fabulous 5.5km run at home 🙂

Day 74 – Bootcamp with mom & Stretch – surprise hen party for my sister

Day 75 – Stretch’s hen party (1 July)

Day 76 – Sleepover at Maaitjie

Day 77 – Sleepover at Kimmie

Day 78 – Saw Kimmie’s baby on the scan!

Day 79 – Milo milkshake & chicken mayo sandwich with Stretch

Day 80 – Dinner with Kimmie – soooo many laughs and memories ❤

Day 81 – Girlie day with mom, Stretch, Feather – breakfast & massages

Day 82 – Fantastic day at the Fairway with Stretch & Dwayne ❤

Day 83 – Just being in South Africa!!!

Day 84 – Mauritius!!!!

Day 85 – Hilarious night with the bride, bridesmaid & one of the groomsmen 😀

Day 86 – STRETCH & DWAYNE GET MARRIED!

Day 87 – Catamaran cruise

Day 88 – Hassle-free travel with zero queues at JNB airport with transfer

Day 89 – Catching up with Villa Kunterbunt 🙂

Day 90 – Start new job!!

Day 91 – Catch up at HazAl!

Day 92 – Game of Thrones, with popcorn

Day 93 – Hot but enjoyable 5km run in the park

Day 94 – Chilled night at home, on the couch, on my own

Day 95 – Great 9km run in the morning; fab night out with friends

Day 96 – No hangover; fabulous neck & shoulder massage

Day 97 – Given news that BRACES ARE COMING OFF after only 9 months of being on!!!

Day 98 – Paid for the first level of my degree; Slow enjoyable run with Sara & Ellie

Day 99 – Shopping for stationery for my degree LOL

Day 100 – Hill Training! (26 July)

Be happy!!! ❤

April Challenge: Run Every Day

A while back I tried to complete a run-every-day challenge that I set myself, however I was unable to complete it… so I decided to try again, but this time instead of announcing it and then feeling foolish when not able to complete it, I kept it to myself except for telling a few running buddies.

And you know what?! I did it! I ran 30 times during the month of April. I had 2 slight ‘adjustments’ during the month 1) I actually started on 31st March & skipped 1st April for a bunch of reasons; 2) I was unable to run on 5th April due to time constraints so I ran twice on the 6th 🙂 So, a total of 30 runs, in 30 days, for a total of 140.06 km’s for the month!

I had 2 simple rules:

1. Run every day, a minimum of 2km’s per day
2. HAVE FUN!

And here’s how it went:

Obviously I started off all gung-ho and ready to go, and runs were easy-peasy. I had to really force myself to cut runs short knowing that this was going to be a big month in total.

I had a 10km race in the middle of the month, which ended up being a bit of a fail. My body was feeling fine but mentally I wasn’t ready for the race nor did I want to be racing, so I struggled for most of it, until about the 7th km where my body and mind decided to work together and I flew through the last 3 km’s. Go figure.

The rest of the time was pretty neutral – getting out there every day and doing my thing. Sometimes going a bit hard (especially when it was an interval training session!), sometimes just plodding through my 2 km’s, and sometimes enjoying a nice long, slow run at the track with friends.

The last 5 days were incredibly difficult to get motivated to run. Not that my legs were tired or sore or anything, just that mentally I had had enough. I was thankful that one of those days included a ‘long’ run with friends on the weekend which made that day much more bearable and enjoyable…. while the other days were simply awful and I only just managed the 2km minimum I’d set myself as a rule.

However, on one of those days in the last week, I had scheduled it to be a 5km run-day. I got changed after work to head over to the autodrome, but on my way there decided to head home and run within JVC instead. I made it home, but then only made it as far as lying on my bed for a while, while I argued with myself to get out there and RUN! I eventually convinced myself that I just need to do 2 km’s… not even 15 minutes of running… so get. out.there! And I ended up absolutely loving the run, and doing 4km’s by the end of it! What a great feeling it was 🙂

And then last night when I got home from work I laced up my shoes and headed out the door, with a 5km run in mind, as that would give me 140 km’s for the month.

Not even halfway into the run my body started telling me that it’s time to rest – 30 days of running is now enough. But I was determined to get my 140 km’s so I did around half of the ‘run’ as a walk, but the last km was thoroughly enjoyable as my legs opened up and I dashed home – looking forward to putting my legs up and NOT running.

140.06 km’s in the bag 🙂 The highest monthly mileage I have ever done – the next closest month was 101 km’s in November last year.

Week 20 – FIRST!

My something new (first time) for this week is that I have come FIRST in this week’s gym challenge!!!

The challenge lasts a month and each week there is a new set of exercises that need to be done – as any reps as you can, in 10 minutes. There are 3 exercises, each with a number of reps, and you then repeat those 3 exercises as many times as you can to tally up a total number of reps completed in the 10 minutes.

Last week I finished in third place in the challenge, and this week I have finished first (just for this week – overall standings I am second place, for now).

The challenge was:

10 box jumps; 15 push ups with a step; 20 sit ups with 7 kg ball

For the box jumps you were able to just step up onto the box to a) reserve energy, and b) it was actually faster than doing a jump. 10 times.

For the push ups with a step, you do a push up on the ground while in between 4 steps laid out, then you step your hands and feet up onto the step, then back down into a push up on the floor (kinda like the dude in the video below, but only with ONE step!). 15 times.

And finally you end off with sit ups, holding a 7 kg ball – you need to take the ball over your head, touch the ground, then bring it all the way up and touch your toes / the floor in front of you. 20 times.

Now repeat that as many times as you can! Go!

I managed to smack out 4 full rounds (180) plus an additional 4 steps which immediately took me to first place 🙂 Now I just had to hold my breath for the next few hours until all participants had finished their rounds, and hope that I stayed on top!

And when the results were released last night, there it was: Hazel in First place!