Biking Around Waiheke Island

I said I wanted to accomplish just a minimum of 20 minutes exercise a day. Well… done and done.

Yesterday we took a ferry ride over to Waiheke Island. The ride itself was quite nice, as there is plenty to look at leaving Auckland and heading toward the island.

Once we got to the island we had to decide what to do and our choices were between sea kayaking, riding a scooter, or riding bikes around the island. We chose the bikes because it would be fun and exercise.

It was a lot of exercise as the island is pretty hilly, so we were going up a pretty steep hill ever five minutes or so. I guess I made it harder on myself by keeping it in a higher gear sometimes, but that’s how it went. My legs didn’t really appreciate all the work they had to do after getting to be so lazy lately, so they weren’t happy after like half an hour.

We biked over to this beach and took a little water break underneath a tree.

In the end we cut across the traditional loop they had for bike riders. I did this around the point where I realized I didn’t want to make it the whole way because my legs hurt, I had a weird pressure that was majorly uncomfortable in my knee at some points, and I was getting sunburned (despite wearing lots of sunblock). I had to hop off my bike and push it up hills a couple times. It felt a lot like giving up by not doing the whole loop and I felt bad about it but at the same time I knew I would have just been miserable forcing myself to do the whole thing… and the day was supposed to be about having fun, not killing myself.

Since we cut it short it turned out to be a fun time. I did end up with a decent sunburn and super tired muscles, but all in all the next day I feel fine. I’m glad we did it! And next time? Next time we will do more and I won’t be so tired/unprepared.

And if you would like to see the food I ate that day, check out my new food blog. I’m not sure exactly what or how long this project will last. I’ve tweeted pictures of my food before and I’ve even taken pics of everything while I was at Green Mountain. I enjoy the process and it’s a lot easier for me than journaling/tracking what I eat. I know that is something that tends to make people more successful with weight loss. Awareness of what you are eating is huge, so this is my best way to do it. I like taking pictures, and I like blogging… all other attempts at writing down my food have failed. Just the simple act of logging food makes me feel like I’m on a diet and deprived, even if I’m eating anything I want. So, instead I have to do something more creative like photos, that makes me feel like it’s something I want to do instead of a chore.

Since I enjoy taking pictures of my food and know that in the end will make me more accountable for what I’m eating, but don’t want to post them here every day as I felt bad for “making people hungry,” instead, I’m keeping them on the site, just in a different place. If you want to see them, then check out the link. I’ll put a permanent link up in the sidebar soon.

1. Vacation Eating
2. November Fitness Log
3. Blogging and Beaches
4. Over Eater. Nosh Nosh Nosh.
5. October Fitness Log

Tagged as: beach, biking, food, food blog, New Zealand, travel, vacation