Thursday, 5 December 2013

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 :)


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


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.


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 :)


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.




Sunday, 24 November 2013

A Little Bit of Curiosity Never Killed Me

I'm currently reading "In the Plex", and I couldn't help but amazed by Google.

(Well, I am always a fan. It's not a secret. I always love to tell the younger generations how painful it was to search for information online during the "pre-Google-era". The "physically finding information in library" way of research is almost unspeakable.)

When I read about the stories behind AdSense, I decided to add an AdSense to my blog too. Not for making money, since I never plan to draw any audience to this half-diary, but more for better understanding. I'm not those genius geeks so I don't really plan to understand the algorithm behind. However, I'd love to test it out, to randomly check what are the advertisements showed. I haven't really completed the appropriate setting so Google crawler now unable to access my page to determine its contest and display relevant ads. I shall monitor for at least a month before I allow the crawler to access. 



So excited to see the results :)

Thursday, 24 October 2013

在KK山水之间:四天三夜(三)

我其实已经很懒惰提起几个月前的旅程了,但承诺了就必须实践。

话说,在KK的最后一天,大伙儿都懒了,只决定无所事事。我们浩浩荡荡到附近吃早餐,可是同行有个小妹妹病倒了,早餐后我负责给她买药,其他人则购物去了。

我俩在公寓内呆了不久就开始觉得对不起自己,小妹妹坚持得买手信,又嚷着到了KK不买海产有些说不过去,于是我顺她意,就真的带她到Handicraft Market物色珍珠项链去了。

我相中一位看起来非常忠厚老实的马来妇女,然后非常认真地和她讨价还价。最后我们俩以少过半价成交了几对耳环、手链等。基于她的随和与诚恳,我们答应她一定会到自己的部落格给她打打广告的:
铺名:Sana Kraft
那位和蔼可亲忠厚老实的售货员:Aishah (019-8804676)
老板:Noriman binri Sirad (019-8520821)
Cawangan Pusat Kraftangan Sinsuran
Jalan Tum Stephen
88000 Kota Kinabalu
之后,我们因朋友‘指点’,顶着烈日千里迢迢(其实也不是很远啦~)走到KK邮政局附近的大街找海产店。兜了几圈,问了几个路人,终于让我们找到了“海城海产”。我们俩平时虽不走巴杀,但原来在亚庇买海产容易之极。你只要告诉店员你想找些什么、几个人吃的分量,他们就会一一给你介绍,你付钱后他们会问你还有几个小时才能抵达自家门,并以此预测帮你做保温包装让你无忧无虑带回家。
Ocean Seafood
Lot 9, Block F, Segama Complex,
88000 Kota Kinabalu
Tel: 088257824
Email: oceanseafood_kk@yahoo.com

到了机场,才发觉原来不需要千里迢迢去寻找。Departure hall也有一家海产店,虽然选择较少,但方便得多了,价钱也和外头不相上下。反正亚航业只允许handcarry海产,即买即带就是了。


请你也读:
在KK山水之间:四天三夜(一)
在KK山水之间:四天三夜(二)

Monday, 14 October 2013

Work Happily

I've said this a million times, and I still want to repeat this: I'm a Disney baby. I grew up believing you can just whistle while you work; you can get all the animals sing along "we can do it, we can do it"; you can think of the happiest things and it's the same as having wings......

"In every job that must be done there is an element of fun" is what my pseudo-nanny, Mary Poppins taught me.

So, in my work area, I focus in cultivate a team that laugh in the face of challenges and difficulties. We do great in physiology. Sometimes, just like the rest, we do feel down, but we always try hard to uplift each others' spirit. We passionately discuss about works, about life, about dreams and about everything else.

So if you choose to stress yourselves at work, if you envious of our happiness, I am sorry for you. If my happiness affect your moral and make you depressed, I am sorry for you. I am sorry that you can't understand how this team works. I am sorry that we have different perspective of "professionalism".

All of us spend more than 1/3 of our daily life at work. Please learn to be happy. Please learn to enjoy. Please learn to find all the fun elements at work. Even if you are not depressed but only emotionless, that is still sad.

I am sorry. I just can't go to the dark side......

Thursday, 19 September 2013

在KK山水之间:四天三夜(二)

九月一日(Gaya Street; Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park; Waterfront; 宿Marina Vacation Condo @ Marina Court Resort Condominium

这一天,我们一早就起床到Gaya Street Sunday Market逛。或许是我太久没有逛街市,我总觉得这儿挺好、特别的,五花八门、琳琅满目。而且那些小狗呀,鱼儿呀,特别可爱。不过,由于我们并没有什么特别想买的,也就走马看花地绕了一圈,然后往Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal走去,和不愿早醒的另一群汇合。一路上,我们尝试靠海岸走,发觉KK虽然是首都城市,但海水基本上还非常干净,在码头往下看仍然可以看见海底和小鱼,KK居民真叫人羡慕。

我们在Jesselton Point五号柜台要了往Sapi Island和Manukan Island的两岛配套,每人二十五元,外加RM7.50的税收,以及RM3的入门票,我个人觉得非常便宜。从KK往这些海岛只不过二十分钟左右的船程,方便而简易,再加上这儿椰风树影水清沙幼,真的值得一游。


当然,你要是期待像Sipadan岛那种顶级潜水地点那么迷人,你毕竟还是得恶补地理常识,并调整expectation。可是,要是你以平常心来这儿游玩,这儿必定不会让人失望。

Gaya Street牌坊


我们乘下午两点半的船回KK。累了的乘的士回去休息,精力充沛的则选择步行回去,以便可以好好的看看这个美丽的城市。可是,或许适逢星期天,大多数商店并没有营业。

我们在朋友大力推荐下,在Gaya Street的怡丰咖啡店喝了非常香浓的双层拉茶,是非常好喝香滑,但是要RM2.50一杯哦!我们又观察到这家咖啡店的客人多点“辣沙”(咖喱面),我才想起做功课时曾经看过这家店以辣沙闻名,于是又点了一碗尝尝。咖喱是挺香的,不过这样的咖喱面并不合我口味。这么一碗要马币五元!亚庇食物真正贵!








傍晚,我们到Waterfront等待日落。这一次运气好,我们看着那“咸蛋黄”缓缓地跨过水平线,跌入地球的另一端……
日落完毕,我们经过一番周折才来到著名的大茄来吃晚餐。原来虽然说是在Star City,但毕竟隐蔽,是得绕到建筑物后头才看得到这家店面。我们十六人两桌共点了下图这一些食物。每桌食物包括招牌豆腐、两道青菜、甘香螃蟹1kg、咸蛋螃蟹1kg、七星斑800g、东风螺1kg以及生蚝(每只马币七元)。
这一顿丰盛海鲜餐正适合作为一天的句号。











(Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park入门费每人共RM35.50,浮潜用具一套RM10;Sapi Island上的快熟面午餐一碗RM3;Waterfront饮料一杯RM6;大茄来海鲜晚餐RM509)


请你也读:
在KK山水之间:四天三夜(一)

在KK山水之间:四天三夜(三)

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

在KK山水之间:四天三夜(一)

今年四月订下亚航槟城直飞亚庇的机票后,还以为这次必定要攀爬中国寡妇山了!谁知道原来国庆日假期是超级旺日,上神山的固打早就满了,真是“明年请早”!征服寡妇山的计划取消,我们只好把焦点转至KK的锦绣山水之间。

一如往常,先容我略谈行程及费用(除非特别声明,否则费用皆以十六人计),改天再细说各处印象。

八月三十日(宿J. Residence
Excitedly waiting for our flight at Penang Airport
到达KK机场,已经是中午一点多了,再加上十三人互等的,拖拖拉拉直至我们离开机场已经是两点多的事了。我们原本的行程是随便买了一些食物在车上解决直奔京那巴鲁国家公园,但团内孕妇喊饿,我们也就乖乖的在市中心解决午餐。我们的司机Penny姐说沙巴人普遍上较西马人早吃午餐,中午两点过后其实已经难找吃了,只好草草把我们放在小贩中心解决(我们就这样子错过了著名的生肉面)

首尝Buah Tarap
午餐后直奔J. Residence。一路上风景不错,卖水果、蔬菜的摊子比比皆是。我们听说上山前那个小镇的黄梨特好吃,又听说这儿的玉蜀黍比金马伦的美味上百倍,所以我们总是走走停停的。司机极力推荐buah tarap,我们孤陋寡闻,第一次看见这貌似nangka / cempedak混合体的水果,也就乖乖掏腰包以马币三元买了一粒尝尝。我不爱重口味的水果,对这实在没什么兴趣,尝过就算。




一路上山路蜿蜒,偶尔一阵冷风,我们立刻堕入白茫茫的云雾中。要不是有经验的司机,这条路还挺危险的。

到了J. Residence,大家都懒惰了,哪儿都不想去,就呆在大自然中休息。晚餐到附近的“仙园”吃火锅,又贵又不好吃,服务态度又差, 我们的大厨忍无可忍,回到J. Residence立刻大展身手,为我们准备了非常美味的“满汉全席之蘑菇篇”作夜宵。


(J. Residence三人间RM99,Villa(三间双人房)RM480;包两辆van两天一夜RM1,700;仙园十三人火锅晚餐RM218.90)


八月三十一日(Desa Dairy Farm+Poring Hot Spring+Rafflesia Flower Viewing+Mari Mari Cultural Village;宿Marina Vacation Condo @ Marina Court Resort Condominium

我们早上起床看日出,然后享受了几个小时的树林中的静谧。早餐后check out往Desa Dairy Farm出发。
途中停车和害羞的寡妇山拍照


大家都说这可媲美纽西兰的农场,我没到过纽西兰,没法做比较,但这农场倒真是值得一游。

广阔蓝空下绿油油一片,叫人心广神怡。在这儿大伙儿最卖命摆‘匍士’拍照,团体照也拍了不少,很有八十年代游神州的旅游照片的感觉,那种大地任我游的豪迈感觉。而给小羊儿喂食也很有趣呢!羊儿吃草吃厌了还会攻击背包、衣服,热情过度。



大家拍了照片、买了奶制品就继续往Poring Hot Spring 出发。

泡温泉也用得着这个?
或许因为假日,人潮汹涌,看起来像公共泳池甚于温泉。

幸好我对马来西亚的温泉从来不抱任何期望,所以也没什么好失望的。

最叫人跌眼镜的是那久仰大名的Canopy walk。我们读了这么多部落格,个个猛赞,又说山路有多难行,结果我做了周全准备(还特地穿长裤怕雨林地上的草丛),没想到轻轻松松就走完了,canopy也不算太长,真的没有传说中这么震撼咯~


非常青绿的入口

在Canopy Walk听参天古树细说当年……


在开往Poring的路上,司机Penny姐一直盆算着我们遇见臭名远播的莱佛士花的几率(花只盛放七天左右,而且通常在深山里头要步行好久),把我们搞得心痒痒的。所以从Canopy下来,一听说每人马币二十元有得看离山路不远的莱佛士花我们就决定机不可失(真的,反正可能一生人就只看一回),立刻要了!不过,我们想象的是可以蹲在花旁细看,可以嗅一嗅这大花的尸臭,当然也包括了把头贴近花儿拍照然后在脸书上炫耀。谁知道进到林里,才发觉得隔着木篱远观,一朵枯萎了,另一朵已近生命尾声尽了传宗接代的使命所以不再发出尸臭味。十六人共给了马币三百二,大家心痛,只好轮流和莱佛士花拍张远远的合照弥补钱包的大洞。


从林间走出来,我们到邻近的Round Inn吃午餐。套餐分量相当大,味道普通,在这样子的旅游区我们倒不太在意食物品质,免得自己懊恼。

吃了午餐我们就从Poring赶往Mari Mari Cultural Village

一路上Penny姐讲着许多天马行空的故事,大家却渐渐睡得昏昏沉沉,只有我非常尽责地entertain Penny姐,因而有幸认真地看了这片土地。车窗外蓊绿高山延绵不绝,在蔚蓝天空下显得特别辽阔,于我一种云山堆里看青山的淡然。


大伙儿总是在停车购物时苏醒,对这一排开阔的水果、蔬菜摊子特别感兴趣。蔬菜水果都卖得非常便宜,而且新鲜好吃。
我们因为一早听说这儿的奶油果(avocado)非常香甜,一路上总是很认真地找着,最后找着了,一斤才五元,Penny姐却说还未熟透叫我们别买,我们按捺不住好奇心,只好以三盒五元的价钱买了切便的来尝尝,真的很好吃哦!据说奶油果汁更是一等一的上品,可惜我们就是没喝着。下次吧!

到了Mari Mari Cultural Village,时间还早,我们就在“村”里到处走走逛逛拍照。这“文化村”比我想象中大,沙巴五大族都在这儿,而且到每一族的“屋子”都有许多互动,比任何一个我所曾去过的文化村都好玩。(下次再仔细报告)。整个行程从傍晚六点开始,节目结束后还有自助晚餐,我们离开时已经近九点了。

我们预定Mari Mari Cultural Village时,还可以预定不含来回亚庇交通的门票,每人RM80。(我们一行十六人还获得折扣,十五人送一人的门票。)可是在写部落格时我再查看价钱表,他们已经统一票价,含交通马来西亚公民每人百四哦!



Marina Vacation Condos的老板见我们久久不出现,还打了电话来关心一下。我们到达时还有员工在apartment楼下迎接我们,把我们带到我们租下的单位,服务真的挺不错的。


(Marina Vacation Condos六房penthouse 每夜RM850;Round Inn午餐套餐一人RM18(不过我们十六人仅点了十人份);Poring入门票一人RM3;Poring Canopy Walk另收费一人RM3、相机每架RM5;莱佛士花一人RM20; Mari Mari Cultural Village RM1,200)

请你也读:
在KK山水之间:四天三夜(二)
在KK山水之间:四天三夜(三)