Stairs. Pwned me.

After endless chats and discussions with my bride to be friend, B, about how fat we look and that the wedding is only 3 months away, we decided its time for a change. So the most logical and fun thing I could think of to kick start this new healthy "us" was to wake up 7:30 in the morning on a Sunday, go down to the river valley and run on the stairs.

I felt like I was going to die.

First of all, I am not a morning person. Mistake #1. I didn't eat anything before venturing on my quest to lose weight. Mistake #2. And I underestimated how hard the stairs were. Mistake #3.

We arrived at river valley and the view was amazing. So of course we were pumped to have a productive workout. We started at the top, so we casually walked down the stairs. That was fine. After stretching, turned up our music, time to go up. We started to sprint up the stairs, feeling the burn, my legs were starting to feel heavy, short of breath, felt dizzy, and wanted to puke. And we were only 1/5 up the stairs. So sad. :( We didn't pace ourselves and felt like we ran a marathon but it was more like a pathetic baby marathon. The older gentlemen were lapping us. Aiyah.

We ended up Goin up and down twice, mutually agreed to walk a bit and call it a day. -sigh- running outside is not for me. I'd rather sweat it out in the gym. Ok, gym time will commence tomorrow. Must. Go. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Volleyball day 1 & 2

S approached me to participate on her Volleyball team. We usually go out drinking, eating, so volleyball was kind of a curve ball when she asked. I reluctantly said yes since the last time I played volleyball was 13 years ago in Junior High and it left me with an ongoing popped shoulder. Once in a while my should pops out of its socket for no reason and it's hurts like a mofo. A big ass mofo.
Our team consist of 3 girls and 3 guys and we play every Monday. Walked into the gym, there were only tall big white ppl. Our team, short Asian ppl. Oh my.
Due to prior commitments from others, we only had 5 players in day 1 and day 2, still managed to win 2-lose 2 which is not bad considering our disadvantage.
The next day after volleyball, felt fine, a little sore but no biggie. But the day after that, oh em gee. Hit me like a train. My legs ached, my back ached, my gluts ached! This must be a sign of old age. -sigh-
At least I didn't get a ball smacked in my face yet. But I did end up with some bruising on my Fore arm :(



We'll see what next Monday brings. -_-U
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Day 7, 8 & 9 of Yoga

I would call myself intermediate in this class. I'm doing pretty well although I still can't do chaturangas. It's still upper body strength that's holding me back. But I am improving. Namaste!

Hot Yoga - Day 1 & 2

Saturday's 10 a.m. class was nice. I felt more work being done in hot yoga than regular yoga, so I'm glad I got this unlimited month pass from Moksha.

Tuesday's 8:00 p.m. class was torture! I don't know why I wasn't able to focus or get all my poses in order. Coworker was impressive at her 52-years' age. Good for us!

Day 1 of Ultimate Frisbee

Whoa, I think I can call myself an athlete now. Guess who joined ultimate frisbee team at work? This chick right here!

Today I met Megan, (Nice) Peter, Kris, Lisa and Keri. I already knew Laurie (co-worker) and Travis (captain).

My expectations were low, and that was a huge mistake because I didn't bring a water bottle or towel. Note to self. Travis was kind enough to offer his jock strap and mouth guard. How sweet.

This is exactly the type of exercise I needed to add to my routine. Cardio! So much running. And I think I got into it a little much today. Diving and rolling around. I'm going to have bruised knees.

Another note to self: trim nails before each practice. My nails are hardly a millimeter long and they still chipped and broke.

Glad I joined. It's going to be a fun season!

Caption: me, all red, minutes after leaving the gym.

Day 5 and 6 of Yoga

Missed blogging about my yoga class a couple weeks ago. Yesterday's class was much needed. Pain is mostly in upper body today, but I can tell I am improving in each area. Successfully did half moon poses but need to remember to tighten the core in each pose. Great run, though. Until next week...!

Day 15 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 15
Workout: Get Lean - Wipeout
Equipment: Dumbbells, medicine ball
Time: 30 mins
Playlist: The Workout Mix 2011 (CD3)

Stamina is increasing. Yesterday's yoga class must have helped.

Lasted most sets with 5 seconds left in each.

Still experiencing a lack of upper body strength, especially with dips/straight legs. Pain, pain, pain!

Very happy with core and strength there. Watching my stomach flatten.
Slowly, but surely...!

Day 4 of Yoga

Didn't push as hard as I should have, although 24 hours later the pain is apparent, especially in my arms. Can't reach behind my back to scratch. Ouch.

Learned a new pose today called 'reverse half moon' pose. Not very successful, but I'll keep trying!

Best pose of the class was 'happy baby' pose! Lots of laughing...

Day 14 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 14
Workout: Get Focused - Leg Sculptor
Equipment: Dumbbells, medicine ball
Time: 15 mins
Playlist: The Workout Mix 2011 (Jai Ho!)

Feeling the burn! Today is the first day of Lent, so I'm going to stop eating out on weekdays (that will also save me some cash). I think I'll only drink water for the duration of Lent as well. Wish me luck; I still have no idea how our homeboy Jesus resisted temptation. You are the man, man!

And so I did a workout for my legs today. Everything waist-up is satisfactory (for now) until I get my pear-shaped self into a more evenly-shaped hour glass. I definitely need more cardio and need to remind myself to stand up more often instead of sitting in my chair at work all day. Love them lunges!

Day 13 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 13
Workout: Get Focused - Leaner Legs
Equipment: None
Time: 15 mins
Playlist: TV in the background

No hot yoga this weekend - schedules didn't work out since I'm visiting the hometown. So after doing some lunges around the house I decided to actually do a mini workout.

Thankfully there is a full length mirror here, so I could properly study my form. Legs were shaky and burning by the end - jello legs. Again, I must emphasize how great it was having a mirror. Didn't have to stop as often as I could visually see my progress rather than concentrate on what was hurting or feeling myself pant against the pain. So note to self: get a big mirror for home.

Day 12 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 12
Workout: Get Lean - Slim Effect
Equipment: Dumbbells, medicine ball
Time: 30 mins
Playlist: Workout Mix 2011

Still recovering from Day 11's butt workout, so the quads felt heavy.

Stamina is increasing in different types of sets. Core is getting stronger so planks and burpees aren't as torturous.

Bonus: looked at midsection in the mirror, sucked in a little and saw a faintness of abdomens!

Side note: finished workout at 9:26 p.m. Roommate saw me at 9:49 p.m. and said I was pretty red. Hope that's normal...

Back to the grind - day 1 (again)

Day : 1 (again)
Workout: went to the gym
Equipment: inclined elliptical, hip abductor weight machine, standing ab thing.
Time: 60 mins
Pump me up song: Oh Yea - GD & TOP. (kpop)

I've decided to steal Dani-wok's layout to blog. She's so more organized than I am.

Weddings and Vegas in 6 months. I need to get back to the gym and work on my fitness .. After a month of self indulgence, partying, and injury after one day of P90x (I really did feel like I was going to die.. As per dani-wok, it's normal! ) it was time to get back on being "in my prime all the time!"

Its been busy at work, and the only time I could attempt going to the gym was at around 1030pm tonight. I was thisclose to not going at all, but my sister started the "you-are-going-to-be-forever-alone-and-fat" speech that gave me a some motivation to go. Plus it was a day before valentines day. Since this year's vday was a write off, might as well prepare for next year. :)

There were only 6 ppl at the gym, so it was quiet plus, everyone is probably preparing for vday tmr with mushy cards and flowers and chocolate and stuffed animals and jewelry and romantic dinners and sexing and... Sigh. I hate valentines day. Easing back into working out, I went on the inclined elliptical. I felt like I was going to die 5 mins in. But then forced myself for another 30 mins. After I slid off the machine, did some hip abductor reps and standing crunches.

Not bad for the first day...


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Day 11 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 11
Workout: Get Focused - Better Butt
Equipment: Dumbbells
Time: 15 mins
Playlist: My heavy breathing

Back was really aching during this routine. Not sure if I should have strengthened my core prior to this or if my back is actually going to give out. Back is supposed to be straight in most of the sets. Maybe I should have tightened my abs more - again, part of the core. Just glad I got to sweat since I skipped yoga yesterday. Hope I see the results of this one since it's one of my 'biggest' "ass"ets.

Day 10 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 10
Workout: Get Lean - Wipeout
Equipment: Dumbbells, medicine ball
Time: 30 mins
Playlist: The Workout Mix 2011

Upper body strength is still weak, but improving. Modified push-ups were such a challenge where now they are one of the things I'll do if I want to randomly test my strength. Watching the latest episode of Glee and seeing one of the damn high schoolers doing regular push-ups really ticked me off. How dare she! I also saw an episode of Ellen Degeneres where she and the First Lady, Michelle Obama, are challenging each other to push-ups. I really admire anyone who can do these. Amazing. Watch out, Barack. Imma meet your First Lady and challenge her to one-arm push-ups one day. One day...!

Day 3 of Yoga

Our yoga teacher put out a groupon last week, so my co-worker (J) and I showed up 5 minutes before class to find 25-30 people bombarding the studio when normally 5-10 people show up.

When asked who was totally new to yoga, about 10 people raised their hands. J and I exchanged glances and so it began... Let me say, we were pretty advanced for being there our third day. Our poses/form were neater and better than (almost) everyone else's.

Toward the end of class, we did mini bridge poses. The yoga teacher said we would do a total of 3 and said that more advanced students could do the wheel poses if they wanted. Once the third mini bridge pose was in full effect, I said to myself "come on, you can do it!" and slowly moved from a mini bridge to a wheel pose. I think I was the only one doing this. In that moment, I was triumphant! [cue "Gonna Fly Now" Rocky song]

To my chagrin, driving home today was painful. I couldn't turn the steering wheel without wincing. Waaah!

Day 9 of Personal/At-Home Training (Nike)

Day: 9
Workout: Get Lean - Slim Effect
Equipment: Dumbbells, medicine ball
Time: 30 mins
Playlist: Sounds from outside the windows

I can tell something is happening because my legs are feeling heavier/tighter and my core is feeling stronger.

Today I couldn't challenge myself to do a full minute (or 2, when required) of any particular set. So when I started feeling discouraged and pausing the workout every few minutes to catch my breath, I slowed down my reps and concentrated on my form. This seemed to remind me that I'm not a pro yet, and I need to do a little more of something to properly do the workout as it was meant.

I'm afraid to admit that I might have to start really cutting down on certain foods and lowering my portions...(mama, noooo). I did learn how to make kale chips today, so that was cool. BUT (yes, there's always a "but)"...I'm going to a buffet after yoga tomorrow, so everything can just get thrown out the window!

First day of P90X

Oh em gee... My fitness level is the equivalent of a 2 year old. Barely able to do the ab ripper x. On to day 2... - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone