Saturday 7 December 2013

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

柳暗花明又一村

昨天我因有要事在身得到Burma Road走一趟，却因为找不到泊车位而阴差阳错地来到Lengkok Burma。

有别于Burma Road的繁忙喧哗，这里朴素幽静。我喜欢这个环境，也不介意得走得比较远，就在这儿泊车。

在我的泊车位不远处、在一片绿荫当中，有个小小的小贩中心。我来得迟，大多数都已经收档了。（安娣说过了三点就没有办公族来吃饭，所以大家都在三点左右就收档）

我们点了一碗面线羹和一碟Roti Babi。

在树荫下、沙地上，摆着一张张高低不平的桌子，我们就坐在那儿闲聊，看安娣从容不迫地为我们准备食物。

小贩中心周围全是“走地鸡”，鸡啼声此起彼落，啼着啼着就把童年回忆给提住来了。鸽子们也来凑热闹，咕咕声为幽静的环境添上浓浓乡趣。

与我同行的小妹妹毕竟年纪小，面线羹和Roti Babi都不是这个年代普及的食物，对她而言倒是新奇。而我，虽然这称不上槟城数一数二的美味，但我爱煞在繁华都市当中难得的原始绿肺，所以我也很享受这简单的美味。

由于我们的时间有点儿紧迫，倒没有作太长的逗留。匆匆离去时还在马路边看见母鸡生蛋，我的车子旁还有一颗仍然热乎乎的鸡蛋躺在那儿呢！

下次吧，下次我带上相机再到这儿探索探索。




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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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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 :)
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