Showing posts with label 30 Day Beach Body Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 30 Day Beach Body Challenge. Show all posts

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Day 10 - It's All About Strategy

I almost wanted to cry when I see 200 crunches last night. Yes, Day 10 means 200 crunches and 50 squat jumps. While squat jumps is something new to learn today, thinking of the 200 crunches still makes me wanted to cry.
I know I cannot do 200 crunches at current fitness level, so I decided to split into 100 crunches, 50 squat jumps and 100 crunches again.
When I tried to execute this, still too ambitious. I can survive until 70 crunches. That's it! So I have to do 50 squat jumps first, then only come back to the balance 130.
I changed my strategy. I used a few songs with different tempo so that I can complete my 130 crunches with fast-slow-fast pace and I survived the balance 130 in one go!! :)
It's all about strategy I guess :)


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Monday 9 December 2013

Day 9 - My Mum is Always Right

My mum told me that the ache on my shoulder was not muscle pain. Now I confirm she is right.

I had fever started yesterday evening. I guess my body must have worked very hard to fight all the toxic in the system. Around midnight, I recovered from fever and started to have diarrhea, flushing out the toxic I think.

This morning, I woke up at 6am. Still doing my stretching, still continue the 30 Days Beach Body Challenge. Day 9 is easy. 25 squats and 100 skaters. I made it 50 skaters, 25 squats, and 50 skaters with dumbbells. Everything is easier than I thought until after I finished my workout. The shoulder angel and shoulder devil were debating again, should I or should I not, to get an mc and rest at home. (Well, you know the outcome of this debate since I'm now resting in the garden, writing this blog post.)

 I went to Taman Mutiara after shower. I thought there are 24-hours clinics but apparently most of them open at 8am. I was early. I had 30 minutes to kill. Luckily I'm smart enough to bring my new novel along :)
I have forgotten how quiet is Taman Mutiara in the morning. Most shops are closed. The only 2 coffee shops that are operating also have only about half of the food stalls open. I ordered a bowl of porridge and happily reading my novel. About 20 minutes later, that area started to come alive. More and more stalls owners arrived and start to get prepared. More and more customers walk in, some with uniform, some don't.

I walked back to the clinic after my breakfast and I'm the doctor's first customer of the day. Everything went so smooth that I completed the whole process in about 10 minutes :)

And here I am, resting in the garden, writing this blog, while my body continue to release gasses from my mouth and you-know-where.

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Sunday 8 December 2013

Day 8 - Muscle Pain or Lymph Node Inflamation?

As I said earlier, this program is well design. When I thought I cannot move my legs anymore, after the squatting and jumping jacks, surprisingly, I can still do well in the 50 donkey kicks. I kind of love the donkey kicks. However, I think I need a mirror to check if my posture is correct.

After 100 bicycles, I noticed obvious ache on my shoulder. I think I strained my muscles but my mum said I must have lymph node inflammation. I hope this won't affect my squats and skaters tomorrow.


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Saturday 7 December 2013

Birth Month Concluded

OK, I'm crazy. I admit. But I think I am"experienced" enough to have the privilege to celebrate birth-month instead of birth-day.

First of all, Wei Wei and En En came back on the first weekend of November. So we had a very nice dinner at Miraku.

The next day, we had a very simple afternoon tea in the garden. Second aunt and my cousins were here too. It was a rainy day. We enjoyed the cool breeze, had great chat and great fun and great nap in the garden.

Wei and I went to Haagan Dazs to collect my free scoop of ice-cream. We met a sort-of-OCD worker there. We ordered "ice-cream-on-brownie". He said "ON brownie? Not at the side?" We said yes, on brownie. The photo on the right shows how it was served. Brownie on one side, the scoop of ice-cream at the other side, and all the cream / peanuts are separated too. I guessed he must have hate people mixing everything together :) 
Anyway, after the short break, I bought home 3 pints of Haagen-Dazs so that we can share with everyone. Mum always loves the fruity flavor and dad always loves Belgium Chocolate. 



The day before my birthday, I received a extremely thoughtful gift from a lovely friend. I was so touched! Really can't thank her enough. This gift also started to make me think of getting a craft class in year 2014. I haven't learn a new skill for too long already!

The night before my birthday, I had a very simple dinner at Patio with a group of energetic youth. I'm charged :)

When I reached my office on my birthday, there's a lovely note on my table. I love this small little surprise. The even more surprise fact: that ribbon is an origami! Hand made! By that little girl herself!
I love it :)











Though everyone was super busy, we managed to have a very simple and sweet birthday celebration at one of our favorite lunch spot. I enjoyed that to the max.
Too bad that we have to leave BH eating alone as all of us have to rushed back to factory before the gate is closed. 

The night of my birthday, I be the best daughter in town, having the simplest meal with my dad and mum at home :) After the dinner, I sat in front of my computer writing thank you notes to everyone that sent their wishes.







The next morning, another lovely gift on my desk. That Gerbera really made my day! It has this vibrant orange that says "cheer up and be happy"



The week after that, we had our usual "selves-birthday-celebration" but this round the guys have more important things to do so two of us had a ladies night out at Abbey Road instead. Lots of catch up to do.


The next night, meet up with another 2 girl friends for catch up too. Most of our friends are already married with kids, so it is always easier to make the appointment happened if it is only 3 of us...... Sign of getting older....

En came back again for bridge run. I forced him to buy me dinner again. Haha! Though the credit card bill will be settled by me later but it is really fun to let your brother start practicing to buy you dinner.

After we sent En to airport, finally I can have mother-daughter date. Mum is an expert shopper. We shopped for hours until even her cannot stand anymore so she called home, asked papa to settle his own dinner, while we had some simple food at Canton-i. So, finally the real 母难日celebration.

Of course, Christmas is just one month away. How can I not set up the Christmas Tree in the office? (Why is this my birth month celebration too you may ask? Well, THIS is something that never fail to make me happy too)

Then, on the last week of my birth-month (ei, my birthday falls on 7th of November so of course 1st of December is still the last week!), I suddenly decided to give myself some challenges. I picked 30 Day Beach Body Challenge because it is more challenging than anything else (at least for me la~). I have been a lazy bum for years and it is sure hard to break the inertia (My physic teacher said 动者恒动、静着恒静）. I'm glad that I have progress well so far :)

To conclude my birth-month, I decided to buy myself a birthday present.

I have a lot of excuses to ease my guilt in buying this: it is my birthday present, this thing is much cheaper than it used to be, this is a delayed gratification, i don't want to get sick in a backpack trip so i need to properly keep warm but all my current winter jackets are too bulky......









So, this is how I concluded my birth-month celebration. I'd like to thank everyone of you, everyone in my life, for giving me such a wonderful, blissful, meaningful life.
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Day 7 - Another Victory

Day 7 is probably the hardest. It's Saturday. I have been waking up early for the last 6 days and this is Saturday! My shoulder angel and the shoulder devil had almost 30 minutes of debate before I finally determine that I MUST DO THIS. To have the discipline to do what you want to do is the real freedom afterall. I see this as a personal small victory, beating the stepping bugs :)

Day 7 = 200 jumping jacks + 3 60 seconds plank

So I started a simple warmup (have you noticed my procrastination causing I skipped my normal stretching routine?) and went straight to jumping jacks. I thought I will suffer for this routine as my tight muscles are still crying in pain after Day 6 50 squats. Apparently they designed this challenge well. Each day you are forced to use different sets of muscles. I can still easily make it to 100 without problem. (Most probably because this exercise brings back a lot of memory. I bet every Malaysians does this in their primary school days)

I stopped at 100th and started the 60 seconds plank. I thought this should be easier than it was since I have had planks on the first 2 days. Well, I'm just being naive. These planks still kill me as always.

How I did it on Day 7: 100 jumping jacks --> 60s plank --> 100 jumping jacks --> 60s plank --> dumbbell lifting (to rest my abdomen muscles) --> 30 planks --> (rest again) --> 30 planks


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Friday 6 December 2013

Day 6 - Oh My Back!

I'm not sure which has more truth: Day 4 onwards the exercises are easier, or because my body is fitter compare to few days ago so I don't feel as much pain during the process as before?

Day 6 consiste of 50 supermans and 50 squats. I warmed up with 20 high kicks, then started with the 50 supermans. Though now I can carry on the full set exercise without breaks in the middle, still, while I'm sitting here writing this blog, I still can feel the pain in my back! I seldom use the muscles over thee so now I have to pay the price.

For the squats, instead of following exactly the 30 days challenge, I modified it to the 3-1-2 squatting so I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone :)


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Thursday 5 December 2013

Day 5 - Relatively Easy

Day 5 consist of 100 high kicks and 75 Russian twists. Though the names sound intimadating, to my surprise, these are relatively easy.
High kicks are good warming up exercise. Though not as challenging, but you will start to feel your whole body getting warm after around 20 of these. I think I'll use these for my warm up in the future.
Russian twist is more challenging. To me, the balancing act of "sitting-on-the-ground-with-your-knees-bent-and-your-heels-about-two-feet-from-your-bum-and-lean-back-without-rounding-your-spine" is harder than the twist itself. So I actually took some time to practise the balancing act first before I start the twisting with dumbbells. Though not as challenging, I still have to do these 75 in 20-20-15-15 four sessions.
Overall, because of relatively easier, I did enjoy my session today :)


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Day 4 - Start to Fall in Love with This

Ok, maybe not REALLY fall in love, but at least I enjoyed today session.
Day 4 is 200 crunches (ouch!) and 100 skaters. Crunches are killing me as usual, but skaters are fun! You can just imagine yourself as a Winter Olympic speed skating athlete, trying your best pursuing the gold medal. It's so cool that I didn't even notice that I have done much more than the Challenge required.
Even during my usual dumbbell session, I unintentionally ended up doing the skaters with dumbbells.  I guess after this 30 Days Beach Body Challenge, I'm going to put skaters into my daily routine :)


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Tuesday 3 December 2013

Day 3 - Don't Ever Over Estimate Your Capability

OK, so staying in my bed for the visualization may not be a good idea. I accidentally fell asleep when I was half way to the future. When I gained my consciousness again, it was already 6:20am!! (I better change my "Get Grateful and Visualize" session from lying comfortably on the bed, to a sitting position on the floor.) I have to skip the normal stretching exercise. Instead, I immediately started the burpees after warm up.

I watched the burpees video last night, and I thought it must be more fun to do it a bit faster, maybe do it with some upbeat music. So today, I started at a very fast pace. It's fun at the very beginning, but I almost had heart attack at my #15th burpee. Apparently I have over estimated my physical capability.

So instead of continue and finish the 50 burpees, I rested in a lying position, and continued with kickdowns instead. My stomach muscles were already in pain due to the first 2 days crunches, planks and bicycles, so it was actually quite hard to complete the 50 kickdowns in a row too.

So this was how I completed my Day 3: 15 burpees --> 20 kickdowns --> 15 burpees --> 15 kickdowns --> 10 burpees --> 15 kickdowns --> 10 burpees


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Monday 2 December 2013

Day 2 - Hour of Power

I felt that something was missing from my Day 1 of 30 Days Beach Body Challenge. So, last night I searched my feelings, and 'ting', a light bulb!
It was the first CD of "Get the Edge" program that fired up my desire to change. Naturally, I missed the "Hour of Power" so I made some modification to my routine.

I woke up at 5:50am this morning. Still lying on my bed, I started the 1:4:2 breathing exercise (inhale for 1 count, hold for 4 counts, exhale for 2 counts), while I visualize about everything that I'm grateful for. I visualize everything I want in my life as if I had already achieved.  (I always love this part!)

After the breathing and visualization exercise, I started my stretching exercise on my bench. 15 minutes on each leg.
I normally don't time myself so I get Chinese Traditional Music 流水and平沙落雁 (these 2 pieces add up to around 15 minutes) as my stretching music so that I know when to switch side. Besides, these pieces are calm and peaceful, good for meditation while stretching.

After stretching and warm up, I finally came to the actual "30 Day Beach Body Challenge". Day 2 is 100 bicycles and two 30s planks.

To make sure it's not too boring, I break the planks into 2 different sessions. I started the workout with 30s plank (much easier than yesterday) and followed by the bicycle then 30s plank again.

The bicycles part was easy, but the bicycles crunch part was killing me. So instead of doing 100 bicycle crunches, I did 20 bicycles, 20 bicycle crunches and alternate doing this for 140 times.

After the Day 2 of "30 Day Beach Body Challenge", I had some fun with dumbbell session, dancing to the Faye Wong's 浮躁 before I went to shower and off to work.


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Sunday 1 December 2013

Day 1 - Accidental Healthy Start (relatively)

I woke up at 6:30am as I promised. (trust me, this is super hard for me, almost never happened on Sundays!) Instead of start my day with warm ups and stretching on my bench, I headed to toilet for "colon cleansing". I guess I had too much oily food the day before, and the 大肠经 really working effectively during this hour.
7am, I started my stretching routine for 30 minutes. Then, I start to follow the 30 Day Beach Body Challenge. The first 60s plank was easy. The 50 crunches were not terribly hard too. It was the second 60s plank that killed me. I couldn't hold. Arms muscles not strong enough, stomach muscles not strong enough, even my back pain! To ensure I won't give up easily, also base on the advice online, I broke this 60s plank into two 30s sessions with a brief 30s rest in between, and I finally made it.
To end my early Sunday workout session, I had some simple dumbbell dance to 蓝莲花(no joke!)
After the workout, I'm super hungry. Mum still sleeping so I ended up with relatively healthy breakfast (山药薏米芡实莲子drink, Jacob's Hi Cal biscuit with tuna, some guavas and a cup of coffee), not what I intended to but there's all I can find with no cooking involve :)


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Saturday 30 November 2013

Challenge Accepted!

I used to wake up at 5am every morning to workout before I go to office. That felt like centuries ago......
I know I am not as healthy as I wish to be, and I have been wanted to restart this habit, but I have been procrastinating. (When it comes to procrastinating, I'm a PRO.)

Somehow, TODAY, out of sudden, I decided that I want my old self back! I searched the web for some fitness programs. Instead of "get fit in x weeks" programs, I have decided to challenge the "30 Day Beach Body Challenge". I just want to tone the muscle so there are no diet plans involve here.

To make sure that I keep this promise to myself, and to prove that I can achieve anything if I wish to, I decide that I MUST announce my plan here. I'll monitor my progress and this blog is my journal. I'll start to workout again, start from 1st Dec 2013.

Tomorrow, I'll wake up at 6:45am for my usual stretching, and I'll continue with 60 second planks, 50 crunches, and 60 second planks again.




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