Monday, 16 December 2013

Day 16 - Good Momentum

I started to suspect that the workouts seem easier these days because of the momentum. I'm on day 16 now. My muscles are trained to understand that they cannot stay in the relax mode all the time like what they did for the past few years. So one by one, they started to cooperate, and some of the workouts become easier and easier.

My "big aunty" is visiting. I skipped my normal stretching routine, did some simple warm up, then started Day 16, which designed as 50 donkey kicks and 50 curtesy lunges.

Donkey kicks are pretty easy for me. I have no problem completing 25 on each leg. After the 50 donkey kicks, I even added another 10 in each leg with dumbbells.

Curtesy lunges are fun. I prefer this than the normal lunges. The workout steps are smoother compare to the lunges that I always having problem to link each steps together. Again, I successfully completed the 50 without breaks in between :)


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Sunday, 15 December 2013

Day 15 - Proud of Myself

Day 15 consists of 4x 60s planks and 100 Russian twists. To my surprise, I made it!! I managed to complete the 4x 60s planks and 100 Russian twists as per the program designed. No unnecessary breaks in between. I'm so proud of myself :)
The plank is still as as hard as it normally is, but this round I have enough strength to hold myself for full 60s each time. Really can't hide my excitement :)


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Saturday, 14 December 2013

Day 14 - How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck

Day 14 = 50 Wood Chops + 50 Squat Jumps

I decided to start my day with squat jumps because today I have relatively shorter time for my workouts. So after my warm ups, I prefer to have something that can pump the heart then follow by something easier to cool down.

Squat jumps are high intensity workout. As always, I can't finished the said numbers in one go. I broke these 50 into 3 sets of 20-20-20. Still, my quad muscles sore! I doubted if I can still walk after the session but apparently it was not that bad after all.

Wood chops are easier than it seems on the video clip. I like the fact that I can feel my abdominal muscle and my arm muscle working hard while I myself not really suffering (rare case!) And this is also one of the few workouts that I can do the required number without break and rest.

The only problem (for me only la~) with this workout is the name - wood chops. I can't stop smiling when "chopping".

This work out reminded me of my crazy cousin, Mathew, who can't stop laughing when he watched the following video clip. I agree that this tongue twister is fun, but it's him that made everyone of us wanted to learn this tongue twister too. 

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.






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Friday, 13 December 2013

Day 13 - Fooled by Own Perception

I thought Day 13 should be easy. At least, from the videos, Day 13 seems easy.

Since I'm not working today, I allow myself to snooze the alarm for 2 times before I get up to my Hour of Power. "I can finish the 30 Day Beach Body Challenge in few minutes so I can steal a few minutes to sleep", that's my own excuse when I snoozed my alarm.

I started my 30 Day Beach Body Challenge with 50 forward lunges. I stopped at first 10 because I found this easy. I continued the another 40 with dumbbells.

Everything seems according to plan until I started the plank walks.....

When I first saw the name of the workout, I imagined it involving moving around while planking. But when i watched the video, it shows movements on that same spot, seems super easy. Besides, I have done many planks by now. "How hard can this be?" I asked myself.

Well, it is not something that I can handle. Instead of doing continuously 50 in a few minutes like I imagined, I have to take a break after every 10 plank walks and it took me almost 15 minutes to finally complete all 50!!

This is exactly why The Wise One told us to practice non-judgement. One can easily fooled by own perception. 



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Thursday, 12 December 2013

Day 12 - One of the Easiest

Day 12 = 200 punches + 200 butt kicks

I can't imagine how to do punches since the "30 Day Beach Body Workout" website doesn't provide any video or instruction on how to do this. So I went to Youtube and did a quick search. This is what I found, and this is REALLY easy, even for someone like me. I think I will add in some variation next time, maybe using dumbbells instead.

While I was punching to the air, I can't help but thinking of how old folks call Mahjong an exercise. Really, these 2 "exercises" have a lot in common. First of all, you don't move other parts of your body except your hands. Secondly, you do virtual exercise. While punches are basically punching air, Mahjong is a virtual swimming. So next time your parents or grandparents tell you they have to go exercise, don't laugh, they are telling the truth!

After the easy warmup, I started the 200 butt kicks. When I read the instruction of How to Do Butt Kickers Exercise link provided by the "30 Day Beach Body Workout", it mentions "butt kicks are effective warmup exercise". I imagined this as something easy. I was too lazy to read so I skipped the instruction and go straight to the video provided. To my surprise, the video instruction shows that butt kickers are not easy at all. The video is 10 full minutes. I decided I can come back to this when I have time in the future so I stop watching after 2 variations. I decided only stick to these two.
The first variation is quite hard. I have problem even for the balancing but I managed to do 50 kicks on each leg. After 100 kicks of this, I decided to move to the side-butt-kicks but then I decided that 10 kicks on each leg is good enough for today.

So what did I do after total 120 of butt kickers? I decided that I must find something easier to follow for today. So I search again and found this on YouTube, and I totally agree that THIS is an effective warmup exercise. Much easier, and the heart started to pump at higher rate in seconds. Love this! I think I'm going to keep this for my future routine too :)


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Day 11 - I'm So Weak!

I know I'm weak, but I don't know I'm THIS weak.

Day 11 consists of 25 push ups and 75 tricep dips. My arm can only support my weight for less than 5 push ups. To prevent myself from giving up, and also due to time constrain, I choose to convert the balance 20 into something easier: push ups from my knees.

However, the actual nightmare comes after the pushups. The tricep dips are much harder than I have imagined. My tricep just not strong enough to support my own weight for 75 times of full dips. I ended up splitting this into 15-10-10-10-10-20. Can you imagine? I almost cried when doing this. Can't believe I have let my body performance deviated until this level.

Must work harder!


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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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