Friday, October 16

Post Kapooka Adjustments









Last night was the first night that I didn't completely dream about being at Kapooka. Since Sunday night, I've been waking up every morning being very confused and disorientated, thinking I'm in Kapooka. I wake up with the need to be dressed correctly in my cams and look down to find I'm in my PJ'S and for a few seconds have gone into a tizzy, until I realise I'm back at home.



It probably didn't help that I watched 'Band of Brothers' series either last night. It was recommended as a good watch while we were down there, and I watched parts 1 and 2. I quite enjoyed it, so I'll be checking out parts 3 and 4 tonight.


The last couple of days I'm been unwell. It's amazing how the body responds to stress. A whole month with full vaccinations including the flu vaccine, plus being pushed to your physical and mental limits every day, and being exposed to weather extremes, and I did not get sick. I think I sneezed about twice, and did have the sniffles, mainly from the cold. Apart from that...nothing! I get home, the body relaxes and decides to have a delayed stress response! I haven't got the flu, but I've got a cold, sore throat, my head has been pounding and I feel like I've done 10 rounds with Muhammid Ali, I've been so exhausted.


I've posted some pics above. The second one is dinner on Sunday night. My wonderful husband cooked dinner...Beef Cannelloni...yummmo! He even bought some wine (which I rarely drink) for us. For me, it has to be Brown Brothers, and it's usually Moscato. I polished off the bottle over two nights. I went to take the photo and he said that if he knew I was going to take a photo, he would have dressed the table to look much better. Coming from a hospitality background, he's very particular about this. I didn't care. I just thought it was great that he went to so much trouble for me. It was a lovely way to end my day, and the last four weeks.

Photo 3 is just me doing a semi-bicep pose (I didn't flex them completely). I'm sure my biceps are bigger since returning. There was alot of upper body work during the month, and carrying rifles and guns around all day I'm sure gave me my own set of big guns. Apparently my calves are bigger too, according my massage therapist, who gave me a fully body massage on Tuesday night...ahhhhh... He said I looked like I'd 'beefed up'....ha..ha..ha..

And the last photo I took this morning. The nail off my big toe finally came off. My poor feet! They took a battering, not to mention my hands. Though everybody had extremely sore and ravaged hands and fingers by the end of the 4 weeks. No blisters of any description, as I made sure I took my worn-in boots down with me.

I should get my official photos from Kapooka today, so I'll scan them and I may post one up (just added it then...photo no.1). Though the photos were taken when we got back from the bush, so we're all dirty, smelly, and covered in cam paint.

Anyway...that's about it. On the food front it's been a little mixed. I couldn't wait to get back to my oats and cottage cheese for breakfast. I haven't quite got back up to my 5-6 meals per day, but I should be back to my normal diet by the end of the week. I ended up losing weight while away. You wouldn't think so, considering the amount of food we tucked away, though only eating 3 meals a day, with about 15-20 mins to line up, eat and get back , we would basically 'inhale' our food to get it all down. You just ate whatever there was, because you would be so damned hungry. There was no room to be choosy about your meals.

Training-wise, I'm having a break. I probably won't be back to a normal exercise week for at least another week and a bit. I had to put off seeing my physio until Tuesday next week, so we'll see how we go from there. I've also got so much to organise here at home on the domestic front as well as organising finances, paperwork, etc. My poor garden is barely alive and the house looks like it's been hit by a bomb!

Apart from the dreams, I've had no major problems re-integrating back into my normal life. The first couple of days was a bit surreal, but nothing too worrying. Once everything settles down, then I'll be re-assessing my goals. They won't be changing that much, but now I have a more clear idea about what I want to achieve as far as my own personal fitness level goes. I'm excited about where the next 12 months will lead.

And lastly, I just wanted to say hallo to Dewayne Heal (though he probably won't be reading this). He competes as a bodybuilder in the teenage division. He competes in both the ANB and INBA, and I hope to catch up with him during future competitions. He was hard to miss and got the nick name 'Big Unit' from our female PT instructor. A lovely, down-to-earth, all-round nice guy, I've attached a link to his Bodybuilding.com profile.

Well time to say ciao ! Back to my motherly duties and time for meal 2, i.e. morning tea. Ahhhh...what a wonderful life I have! Have a great weekend all, and good luck to all those competing in Olympia.

8 comments:

Raechelle said...

Very nice of hubby to cook such a lovely meal.
Bummer about the toe!
Looking at the pics you had on FB...I'm guessing most of the recruits are quite young...and yet you hung right with them! Good for you girl.
Was it what you were expecting?
Cheers and enjoy your down time!

Sandra said...

How lovely does your table look?...how sweet :)
Hey, I also prefer Brown Brothers wine...(when I drink it)
I "grew up"on war movies, my mum LOVES them, but I haven't seen Band of Brothers, will definitely check it out.
xxx

Kerry W said...

Raechelle...there was quite a spread of ages, but mostly younger people. The youngest was 17, and the oldest 48. What was I expecting?...for it to be tough...and it was! Definitely enjoying 'downtime' thank you. :)

Yeah Sandra...hubby is sweet. ;) I'm not actually into war movies as such, but my interest has grown in military history since enlisting. I think you'll enjoy Band of Brothers.

Nicole said...

Hi Kerry. So good to have you back. How lucky are you to have your husband cook you a nice meal. x

LizN said...

Kerry, nice to see you back. Those toes tell me you did a touch of work whilst you were away. It was interesting to read about your experience and sounds tough.

Glad to have you back.

Cheers
Liz N

Kerry W said...

Thanks Nicole and Liz for the welcome back! :) And yes...how damned lucky am I? :P

Anonymous said...

Those toes bring back memories..when I went through basic training we had to do a 3 day field exercise with about 3 hrs of sleep allowed, then we had to "hump" a combat load 25 miles back to barracks. I had toes like that with blisters the entire surface of my soles...ugh!

The trick is "just doing it"..like you said in that other post..."fuck it". In the US Army the term was "suck it up and drive on"...want to quit? "drive on"...toenails falling off? "drive on"...drill sergeant in your face? "drive on".

I think the current crop of soldiers are calling it "embrace the suck".

Kerry W said...

Yeah Nicole...I think I said in an earlier post...I'm damned lucky!

Tom...your comments brought a smile to my face...it's nice to have someone who can truly empathise (though you had it much tougher)and who gets TFIF in the military sense. And yes, I believe you when you say I'll look back on this period as a high point in my life.

 

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