A gymbunny, I will be

Trying something new this week. Going to try and have weekly goals to achieve. A single step in the right direction is all I need. A lot of small steps for the journey that I want to look back on in pride.

1. Sign up for new gym

Officially have left and I need to sign up with the new place I want to train with. Exciteddddd!

2. Continue with W3 of C25K

I am certainly taking longer than 9 weeks to do this! Acks!

3. Be sober for one month

With my illness, it is tough to drink and deal with the repercussions the next day. That and it impends my weight loss. Those glasses of alcohol are chock filled with empty calories and studies have shown that there's a halt to weight loss up to 3 days after drinking alcohol.

I FINISHED ! ! !

Not my bike but, two neighbours down. Made my morning WAY better.

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Well hello. The deal is sealed. For real. Once you pick up your race pack, you are competing. OSIM 2010 is a fine tuned machine, lots of years of experience, everything down to a T.

Step 1: You sign up, pay and receive an email confirmation as well as notice information on when to expect to pick up your race pack

Step 2: You receive an email which gives you two days from 11am till 9pm to pick up your race pack

Step 3: You arrive, you are immediately greeted at the door and directed to the right queue.

Step 4: You collect your race pack, everything packed neatly and you can change the size of the dri-fit even.

A lot of volunteers to pick up on so much as a doubtful glance. Very encouraging to not feel lost. I'll review the race and post-race after this weekend.

Oh. The purpose of this post:

My take on it is this. Imagine running at 9.30 in the blooming morning, insanely hungry and you run behind this girl with "cupcake" as her tag. You would totally be lusting after a cupcake, get distracted and perhaps even DNF (did not finish) just so you can satisfy that craving. Don't underestimate the power of suggestion. That, and I really love cupcakes and didn't have the chutzpah to put down "gymbunny"

Drafted out my training schedule over the weekend and it looks pretty brutal. It involves me working out x6 days a week, that's a new level of commitment. Especially for me. I cannot afford to work out every day after work, I own a very needy dog named Chutney who whinges to the high heavens if he hasn't seen me enough. Which brings me to working out before work. So out goes sleeping after 10.30pm.

Wasn't familiar with the running routes within my estate so I drove the car out to Bedok Reservoir which has a running route of 4.5KM which is just 0.5KM of my running plan. I have known for awhile that running on a threadmill and running on pavement brings out relatively different results with the latter being that much more difficult.

Set my iPhone on the C25K app and off I went. For once, my blasted Nike+ decided to work and, it tracked my distance and speed. With running, alot of it is a mental game, it is pushing yourself when you want to stop or slow down. I recall being able to run 5KM effortlessly at some point of my life, and I had nary a gadget. I determined how hard I worked out on how wet my t-shirt was and, stopped only when I had a stitch. That was caveman goal setting 101, make a goal based on lamp posts. Now, I listen to some stranger telling me how well I'm doing and I'm somewhat on the fence as to if it is indeed better.

CP made a comment about not having music while I run which apart from security reasons, had practical and psychological reasons too. I did not have to lug equipment along, I could just run and, running lets you clear your mind. The last 1.5K was done without music and it was tougher not to have something to pound the gravel to, but I see his point. It does let you unclutter your mind which is key if you've had a glimpse in mine.

Suppose it is a matter of getting used to. 1 down, 5 to go! :) Have a productive Monday!

Setting a goal gives me tremendous focus. This is what I have to do, and I will work my hamster butt off to make sure that I reach goal. Or at least try extremely hard and fail a couple times. When I first started doing thrusters, I did an average of 50 thrusters with a 5kg x 2 DB. A couple months later, I progressed to an average in the 60s region. Last weekend, I had a chance to glance at my Goals & Rewards and I realised that I’ve yet to achieve my thrusters and burpees goal.

Today, I went into gym with four hours of sleep in me. Not a great executive decision by a stretch but, got to be consistent right? Inspite of that, I kick butt in my goal busting.

I did 108 thrusters in 5mins!!!

*breaks into happy dance*

For those in the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, weight loss, a better body, do you ever virtualise what you want to do when you reach your goal? I do, constantly and it keeps me motivated.

My list not in order of merit nor preference

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I constantly think about my rewards when I am at goal. One of the many "quirky" rewards I joke about is heading to my old (well, technically I am still a member) gym – California Fitness during PEAK hour, straight to the meathead section, load up the bar with weight after weight and proceed bench/squat/ deadlift some ridunklous weight!! My friend, M is in it too because, she’ll need to loan me her buff hubs who will spot me so I don’t smash my head/face in.

It is so funny, I definitely am looking forward to it. Silly what motivates us, isn’t it? While shopping with the girls the other day, I chanced upon a skirt I’d love to use when I’m a skinny fit minny. Hopefully with legs that appear like they can squat double my body weight (since I’m day dreaming visualising)

WIthout a puppy paunch, please?

When I started working out with EJ, I was completely horrible with my modified push ups (knees on the floor). Hated it with gusto after years of Body Pump and would almost never do the push up set. With encouragement (and a couple of friendly nudges), my push ups are not too bad right now. Certainly better than before. Last week, E asked us to try out boy push ups (toes on the floor) and to my surprise, I mustered up the muscle to do three push ups without flailing around in complete failure.

While I’m holding out on busting out the bubbly, it is really a testiment to the improvement in my fitness. My goal for boy push ups: 10 push ups by end June. Proper. boy. push ups.

not me. yet

Last Sunday, I celebrated the big 30! Quite honestly, a birthday that I have been dreading for all eternity. It signifies the end of my wild youth. No longer can I use age as a pre-cursory for detailing all my mistakes and all things incredibly daft.

In the same light, it was that dread that pushed me to do something about my weight. My goal was to drop 2 dress sizes by my birthday.  Being completely ill during my vacation eliminated the ability for me to work out while not eating clean. Surprisingly, I still lost weight though it might have well been muscle mass.

That said, I have fallen short of my goal. Accomplishing 1.5 sizes only thus far.

12 weeks is a decent time to access weight loss so, this week I am giving it my absolute all because, I have to make up for the last 10 days of illness and it’ll be a great indicator and motivator.

Wish me luck!

My goal reward if once I reach my goal, will be a TREK hybrid bicycle for pottering about.

One of the first goals I wanted to reach fitness wise was to do the much famed 11km hike in MacRitchie Reservoir.

We started off later than expected. The first 4km started out strong, I did not miss a beat. Continually climbing up the inclines. At 5km mark, I think my energy waned considerably. The brutal workout on Saturday left my calves sore and my muscles tight. My feet decided to join with the fun and rebel on me to form monster blisters.

Eventually, we I bailed out at 8km (or perhaps more even) along the top of Rifle Range Road towards Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

I wish I had completed it though and I’m certain without my blooming blisters I would have completed it. That said, 8km is an AWESOME achievement and something that I can set as a bar to accomplish for the future.

oh and by the way, I walked into a tree