An Incredible Six Months

It has been quite the while since I made an entry, though in my defence I will offer essays, exams, breaking in a pair of boots and being a father.

I've also made the climb back to rude good health after the Salmonella in May. So in 6 months I've gone from this:

to this

to this:

I have used the philosophy of food and exercise as medicine. The diet/lifestyle that I have mentioned here has stayed. My diet is Flexitarian. I eat meat occasionally and am about to give Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian a 6 month try. So I've been eating a lot of leafy greens, tofu, chickpea, oats, Lite Milk, and Burghul.

I have also been exercising as often as I can with the Sun Salutation being very prominent. Now that I'm no longer so busy with Uni, the Moon Salutation has joined the Sun more mornings than not. From mid-December, I will be adding the Great Salutation until I return to Uni. Weights have been periodic. Often it's been just one workout a week. I have walked as often as possible

The Eastlink Trail has been walked in its entirety from Heatherdale to Carrum Railway Stations. I've been training for the Great South West Walk, so lately Eastlink has had a 20 kg backpack attached.

Six months to the day after being side swiped by Salmonella I did the Mt Donna Buang Walk. It nearly killed me. I was breaking in new boots and the blisters on my heels were large. However our first son is buried just a couple of hundred metres from the summit and I've made a vow to visit him about every 8 weeks.

There is something inherently wonderful when I was stressed after my oral exam for Indonesian that I chose to do the walk up Mt Donna Buang rather than get drunk as a way of dealing with stress. Even on the walk I thought to myself that I would give my bottle of grappa a fair nudge when I got home, the next thought was "Why poison yourself after spending the day being so healthy?" The grappa, needless to say, didn't get drunk.

The Great South West Walk is the 252.4 km walk in a loop from Portland to the South Australian border.http://www.greatsouthwestwalk.com/intro/

I'm starting with a 30 kg pack, which is the heaviest I would want it to be and then eating my way through the food, so that by the time I reach Nelson, I should have a quite light and relatively empty pack. Which will be great because there is 50 km of beach walking...and doing that with a full pack isn't my idea of fun. Nothing says "I'm healed!" quite like a 250 km walk. I am looking forward to it.

Last weekend we finally made our way to the Hare Krishna Temple in Danks Street, Port Melbourne. We liked it and feel that it is a place we can return to on a regular basis.

Well this is it for now. I'll blog on my return.