Thursday, 2 January 2014

Day 29 - Still In Progress

I know I know, i supposed to complete my 30 Day Beach Body Program by now. That's what I determined to do too but sometimes things just don't unfold as per our plan, and this is definitely one of those.

28th Dec 2013. We went to Grand Palace (under the hot sun, of course), and went shopping at Siam Paragon. By the time we reached Waterford Service Apartment, it was around 8:30pm and I had terrible headache. I wanted to go for massage but Ah Wei and En insisted that there's no fun to go shopping without me. So I followed them to Siam Paragon again, as a kind hearted gesture. We ended up in night market after Siam Paragon was closed. By the time we reached our service apartment, had hot-water-foot-soak, showered, and finally climbed up to our bed, it was way passed midnight.

29th Dec 2013, aka Day 29 of the program, I woke up at 7:45am. Felt slightly better than previous night but I knew I haven't recover fully. I decided to do the 50 Curtsy Lunges as per the program, and I did. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough energy for the 100 I didn't want to over stress my body so on 29th Dec 2013, I completed only half of Day 29. 'Catch up at home next year', I told myself.

I gave myself 2 days off after came back from Bangkok, and today supposed be the day I catchup on the workout. I woke up at 5:50am, and started some simple punching, followed by 10 froggies as warmups. While doing the lunges, out of sudden, I had unstoppable sneezing. After 30 lunges and maybe more than 100 sneezes, I decided that I shouldn't insist to continue using my mind power, but listen to my body instead. I went back to my bed, hid under my blanket, and rested until 6:45am.

First working day of 2014, I sneezed and sneezed and sneezed. My boss shooed me to get mc. So here I am, after a good 2 hours nap, now sitting in my garden writing this blog post during working hours.

What a way to start 2014.


Tuesday, 31 December 2013

Day 27 & 28 - Staying Healthy in Bangkok

I kept my promise to myself: I still woke up early for my 30 Day Beach Body Challenge, even when we were on family trip at Bangkok.

Day 27 = 100 Russian Twists + 4x60s planks
Day 28 = 25 push ups + 200 seal jacks

First day in Bangkok, I woke up at 6:30am. Had some skaters as warmup before i started the program. The parquet floor was cold but I have no choice but to place my butt on it for 100 Russian twists. Without the dumbbells, the twists are slightly easier. The killing part was the planks. Maybe because Bangkok is furthers away from the equator, I felt harder to support my own weight :p

Second day in Bangkok, I delayed my wake up time to 7am. Day 28 workout consists of one of the workout that I hate most, and one of the workout I love most:
En taught me how to do the pushups correctly. Right posture or not, push ups are still extremely difficult for me. Luckily Wei also couldn't do it so this actually made me feel not as bad. Haha!
I love seal jacks because it's exactly those workouts that your primary school PE teachers want you to do. This makes me feel youthful :)


Thursday, 26 December 2013

Day 26 - Boxing Day

How can I not start my Boxing Day with Punches as warmup? :)
 
After the punches, I started with 100 bicycle crunches. Now I'm getting better at this, at least I can do 80 bicycle crunches in a row without break. Not to discourage myself, I completed the first 100 by doing only bicycle (without crunches) for the balance 20.

Then, I switched to 50 butt kicks. Seems easy but I can only manage to do 50 before the break. So I decided to do 25 crunch kicks on each leg to make it 100 butt kicks.

Before I headed to work, I did another 100 bicycle crunches.

However, Day 26 actually consists of 200 bicycle crunches and 200 butt kickers. It means I still owe myself 100 butt kickers this morning.

How to catch up? Well, I completed the balance 100 with 50 side crunch kicks on each leg after work, before we head to airport :)


Wednesday, 25 December 2013

Day 25 - You Better Workout, You Better Not Cry

"You better workout, you better not cry, you better not shout I'm telling you why, supermen and plank jacks are fun."

I started my Christmas holiday with 100 supermen and 200 plank jacks.

I broke the 100 supermen into two sessions with yoga cat pose in between to balance up the strain.

For 200 plank jacks, I broke into two sessions two. In between I squeeze in some mountain climbers so that my bare feet could relief from the impact of jumping jacks.

This is a great way to start off my holiday as this set of workout is great for my self esteem. Something I need during the break, after the hectic year end schedule.


Tuesday, 24 December 2013

Day 24 - Keep Moving

I started my day with 25 wood chops on each hand as warm ups. I used dumbbell for this workout as I want to make sure my arms got enough resistance when doing this.

After the warmups, I started the 200 mountain climbers. Mountain climbers are slightly harder than i wish, but as fun as I want. You can vary the pace as you wish, as if facing slopes with different difficulties. You have to keep moving because you need the momentum to push you through. I observed tights muscles, core muscles, and arms muscles working real hard.

Wei asked if I'll continue this program when we are at Bangkok later. Of course I will! I have completed more than 80% by then, why should I stop? I must keep moving! That is something I promised myself. This month is a preview and 2014 will be the real start :)


Monday, 23 December 2013

Day 23 - Piece of Cake :)

Today is one of the easiest day, 50 reverse lunges and 100 skaters. Both are my type of workout, not too hard, good enough to tone muscle, and can have lots of fun if you have good imagination :)
After a hectic weekend, I was not able to jump start to my workout. Instead, I snoozed and snoozed until I have to sacrifice my stretching and breathing exercise. Went straight to warm up using skaters then reverse lunges. 
I still have time to do a quick browsing through Facebook before went off to work. So, I think I really burnt a piece of cake worth of calorie with piece of cake workout.


Sunday, 22 December 2013

成功

昨天,一行人出席了年长一届学兄学姐们的二十周年回校晚宴。
除了话当年叙旧,大家也免不了谈起某某近况如何、谁干了什么大事业。

我觉得每个人对成功的定义固然有不同的诠释,但当晚有一个典范是我的答案。

当司仪宣布杨旺成校长到达现场时,未等司仪宣告仪式,大家早已自动自发地、由衷地起立热烈鼓掌欢迎校长,直到他走到席位上坐下来为止。过后有人问:"咿,我们怎么都站了起来?"我笑。是的,我们都未经思考衡量,激动地以行动向校长致万二分的谢意。

在社会打滚了二十年,大家都明了要把一所学校管理好是一件多么艰难的事,更何况这是一所大型国民型中学。我们都明白校长对华教的贡献,我们都理解严格背后的爱。敬重,是必然的。

校长桃李满天下,对社会的贡献功若丘山,受到几代人的尊重。这,就是成功的典范!

当年严肃的校长现在可以和我们一起玩自拍了

Day 22 - Happy Winter Solstice

Mum woke me up early in the morning for last minute tangyuan disaster rescue op. Hence I didn't start my workout as soon as I wake up as per original plan. I started my day by preparing the tangyuan instead. I always love preparing tangyuan as that's the only time that adult playing Play-Doh and not being weird.

After getting the tangyuan ready, I nt back to my room, and started the 35 burpee pushups and 200 standing sided abs crunches. As you can predict, I hate anything with the word pushups. It added a hint of 'almost impossible'. With will power, I did 17 of burpee pushups, followed by 200 standing sided abs crunches, and completed the balance 18 burpee pushups.

It's tiring, but it's Winter Solstice! Cool breeze, family gathering, and managed to complete 35 burpee pushups. Satisfying :)


Saturday, 21 December 2013

Day 21 - Catch Up

Because I didn't complete my Day 20, I redesign Day 21 to catch up what i missed yesterday.

Original design of Day 21 = 200 punches + 200 bicycle

My Day 21= 15 burpees + 2x30s planks + 100 bicycles (alternate between 20 bicycles and 20 bicycle crunches) + 200 punches + 100 bicycles (alternate between 20 bicycles + bicycle crunches) + 1x60s plank + 15 burpees.

It's fun to do the workout with so many variety. But I have to pay the price. Now I'm resting in my garden. My core muscles are crying in pain.

Lesson of the day: Never procrastinate! or you will have to pay the price.