The big 3-0

Happy Birthday to Nathan!

The big boy turns 30 today! Hurrah!

Some facts about Nate at thirty:

- He's dedicated to achieving his goals. Any goal he has he will commit 100% of his efforts into achieving it

- He eats, A LOT, and very frequently. His work mates think all he does all day is eat!

- He is keen on learning more and more about nutrition and how the foods that we eat affect our bodies and well being

- He's becoming quite the bodybuilder

- He's a positive person and always strives to be a better version of himself

 - He makes me laugh all the time

 I will be flying back from the Philippines tonight and then we'll celebrate his birthday tomorrow.

(Special thanks to my work colleague, Ferdie who drew that caricature of him)

Rosemary Cutting

Tuscan Blue Rosemary cutting

Earlier in the year I bought a couple of rosemary plants. I took a cutting from the Tuscan Blue variety and placed it in a clear cup of water. After about 3 weeks the roots started shooting from the cutting and began growing. I waited until yesterday to plant it out, when the roots were strong and plentiful. Hopefully it'll continue to grow now that's in the ground.

#fuckcancer

My dad went  and had a prostate biopsy done on the 12th March 2014, just two days after his 66th birthday. A week later on the 19th March the urologist told us his biopsy was positive for prostate cancer, gleason 7 score. This means that it is "medium/intermediate" risk of growth.

I hate that C word and I never thought it would happen to us.

Dad seems to be ok, it definitely is shock and at times I don't think he quite believes it himself, after all he hasn't felt 'sick' and he has had an elevated PSA level since 2009. 

I went with him yesterday to get CT scans and we were delivered the good news that the cancer is contained within the prostate and hasn't metastasized. Thank you Lord!

We're looking at robotic surgery for treatment and the urologist told us that he has a 85% cure rate. So the prognosis is definitely positive! Still it is still very scary and surgery, like any surgery has risks.

Right now we are just trying to get our heads around everything. We are very lucky in that nothing is deemed 'urgent' so we can take our time making decisions. My dad will need to see a cardiologist next week so they can run some stress tests to make sure his heart is fit enough for surgery and he'll need to have a physio session at least twice before surgery so he can learn how to do pelvic exercises.

The tentative date for surgery is the 9th May. In the meantime dad has been given the go ahead to go on holidays before surgery.

New Lens

About a month ago I purchased a 50mm 1.8 lens for my DSLR. I took some practice shots yesterday. All were taken on the auto mode.  Here are my unedited favourites. Unedited because I still don't know how to use photoshop hah!

Hectic year so far

It's been a while because it's been so busy. After a relaxing start of the year things are in full swing now.

Earlier this month my dad went and done some routine medical check ups and found the issue with his prostate to be getting worse. For the first time his PSA levels went above 10. He consequently had an ultrasound done which confirmed the enlarged prostate, which has "heterogeneous echotexture," which the doctor believes to be cancerous. He will go and get a consultation done in about a week and then a biopsy done a few days later so they can take samples of the prostate and confirm for sure if it's cancer or just a benign enlarged prostate. We're hoping and praying it's not cancer but either way something needs to be done about it.

This past week I started a new secondment role at work and while it is non stop busy I am loving it so far. I am working as a Real Time Officer in our Workforce Management team. We manage the call centre queues and rostering. It sounds easy enough but it sure gets complicated a lot of the times!

Two nights ago Nate's dog got really sick suddenly and without going into too much detail Little passed away. It was so sad. She was such a cute and good dog and as strange as it sounds it feels a little empty and strange without her. It's amazing the way animals or pets can have an impact on one's life. I will miss Little.

I've been back at the gym these past two weeks as well. No weights though, just cardio until I get a little motivation back I guess. I went to the doctor last week and she said I had high blood pressure (the first ever for me) so I am hoping exercise fixes that too.

That's pretty much the last little while. I am really wanting life to just slow down a little and no more bad news or events. I don't think I can take any more!

Squats and Lat Pull Downs

I love waking up sore the day after a workout because it makes me feel I did something right lol.

Yesterday afternoon I worked my leg (frontal high and hip) and lats. As always I was paranoid about doing compound exercises with bad form because I don't want to hurt myself but I think I did pretty well with my barbell squats yesterday.

Barbell Squats

Bar (8kg) x 5 reps

15kg x 5 reps

17.5kg x 5 reps

20kg x 5 reps

20kg x 5 reps

25kg x 5 reps

25kg x 5 reps

Lat Pull Downs

10kg x 10 reps

20kg x 10 reps

20kg x 10 reps

20kg x 10 reps

20kg x 10 reps

20kg x 10 reps

I rested today and probably wont work out again until Friday as I'm pretty sore but love this feeling!

Deadlifting

I had my first workout of 2014 at Nate's Gym. The plan was to do some deadlifting and squats but I only managed to get through deadlifting as I was too exhausted to continue after. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't eat enough to give me the energy that I needed, if it was just too hot (because it really was!), if it's because I did one extra working set than normal, or because I haven't really done it in a while, but it was a lot more challenging than I expected.

Deadlift for core strength

3 min rest after each working set (first 3 are warmups)

18kg x 5reps

20kg x 5 reps

25kg x 5 reps

30kg x 8 reps

30kg x 8 reps

30kg x 8 reps

30kg x 8 reps

30kg x 8 reps

I think i will keep working with the 30kg weight for a bit to ensure I'm lifting with proper form. I noticed that when I'm a little fatigued my left knee would begin to twist on the way up, this isn't good and will surely lead to injury if I don't correct it, or go heavy too soon.

Nathan had a tough time of his own and felt quite ill in the middle of his workout, to the point where he thought he was going to throw up. He thinks it may have been caused by consuming a double dose of his pre workout supplement. He too didn't complete his workout to schedule.

Also it was really really hot today!