Embarking on a new journey of “LETS GET IN SHAPE”
Have you ever bought anything as a result of an infomercial you saw on TV?
I’m usually not one to fall for subtle marketing tactics aimed at the subconscious level, but when I saw the infomercial for Core Rhythms, I was instantly hooked. Celebrity endorsements from the judges of my favorite dance shows? Check. Developed by two champion ballroom dancers? Check. Based on ballroom movements, designed to strengthen the core? Check. Never having to do a crunch on the floor again? GOOD LORD, SIGN ME UP!
Don’t get me wrong—running and dancing are excellent workouts. But because they target more of my leg, thigh, back and shoulders, I haven’t really gotten to the point where my core has been severely challenged on a regular basis; and unfortunately, it’s my stomach/abs that need the most work. For swimsuit season, obviously. Because, you know, I love the water SO MUCH.
Along with doing target exercises, I’m adding the following things to my daily routine:
- PRACTICING SELF DENIAL - No more eating fast until I’m way too full. No more tubs of Rolo ice cream while I watch Dancing with the Stars. No more eating things just because they’re there. No more putting things in my mouth because I’m “bored”. It’s crunch time. Literally.
- The XANGO WEIGHT LOSS COCKTAIL - Made up of 2 oz XanGo, 2 oz Kiefer, 1 tbsp Coconut oil and 1 tbsp Olive oil, this surprisingly good tasting cocktail is supposed to rev up the metabolism, aiding in weight loss. I was skeptical at first, but after hearing all sorts of success stories from people I actually know, I’ve decided to add it to my “LETS GET IN SHAPE” mission.
Because I’m all about results, I’ve decided to take before and after photos and measurements so I can effectively track my progress. I’m giving myself until the end of June—if see noticeable results, I will actually post these before and after photos and measurements as a real-life, no bullshit testimonial to eating right and doing exercises that target my “problem” areas.
How do you keep in shape? Do you watch what you eat, hit the gym, or do a combination of things? Are there any particular exercises you’ve done (Pilates, yoga, etc.) that have delivered results for you?
How not to be a workaholic
The answer is simple: Just make time for yourself.
If you’ve ever observed work-obsessed people, you will notice that one of the common factors among almost all of them is the fact that they rarely—if ever—make time for themselves. And the scariest part? They don’t even realize it.
I mean, it’s not as if they set out to make work their life. Sometimes they use it to fill a void, sometimes they just get too carried away with the illusive “future” and what they need to do today to be where they want to be tomorrow—but regardless of reason, if they just set aside time for themselves each week, many would be in far better shape (if only mentally) than they currently are. (And if you want to get technical, being in better shape mentally = more productivity, so really it’s a win/win!)
I visit both sides of the fence on a regular basis. Being a business owner, I know what it’s like to sacrifice, and I all-too-well understand the concept of delayed gratification—but the thing that most of these people somehow overlook is the fact that no matter what you do, there must always be balance. You can be successful without giving up everything, even when it doesn’t always look like it’s possible.
Like crack, only better
There are people who run, and people who don’t.
Many of the people who don’t run find it relatively difficult to understand why the people who run, run. For those who don’t run, the idea of willingly submitting one’s self to such perceived torture is unfathomable. Why do it? Why make the effort? Why running?
I remember a conversation I had with the leader of my running group about a year ago. We were talking about running, and the motivations we each had for it. As a seasoned walker just dipping my feet in the world of running, she said something that somehow surprised me a great deal: “I don’t like running, actually” she said, “but it’s the feeling you get from it that I’m addicted to.”
I didn’t understand what she meant at first. And maybe, as a person who doesn’t run, you don’t either. While I can’t explain the feeling, I can tell you one thing: There is simply nothing like the rush you get after a good run. It doesn’t matter if your dog just died, your boyfriend just broke up with you or if a car just sped by and sprayed dirty slush over every inch of your being—regardless of your circumstances, you will still feel ridiculously, unexplainably giddy after.
And for the days when it’s grey and stormy outside, and you can come up with a hundred and one reasons not to hit the pavement, you’ll think back to the moment when you first felt the rush; the feeling of pure, unadulterated happiness, and you’ll go outside. You’ll brave the wind, the snow, the rain, or the heat—you’ll brave it all—because when you’ve played on the beach, you don’t ever want to go back to the sandbox.
Why do I run?
Because it’s like crack, only better.
The Goal Wall
November is hard month to get by for a lot of people. If you live in Vancouver, November is often known as The Month of Rain. For students, the ‘new school year’ feel is wearing off and a sedated routine is likely to have set in. For everyone else, November is just ‘that month before Christmas’ - that month where you get bombarded with Christmas carols (’but Halloween just finished!’) and inevitably end up loosing your Christmas cheer before December even rolls around.
This month, I’ve decided to get the whole family involved in something that will make November a whole lot more exciting and a lot less blah. I’ve set up a goal wall.
What is a goal wall, you ask? Well, basically put, the goal wall is where we’ll put our goals for that month. For example, my brother wants to save $250 dollars this month. He’s put that goal up on the wall. I want to make promotion by next Saturday and loose five pounds by the end of the month. I’ve put those two goals up on the wall.
We’ll each write our goals down and put them on the wall where we’ll see them every day. No “out of sight, out of mind” business here! Nobody can skip out and the entire family has to work together to help strategize ways we can meet our goals. This way, we’re all moving forward as a connected unit.
Feeling the November blues? Want to participate in NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo but don’t have the time? Instead of joining a challenge you don’t think you can swallow upfront, consider setting up your own goal wall and sharing the challenge with a roommate, family member or friend. Your goals can be as small or as big as you want, but regardless of the size, you will see results if you’re committed to them. You’ve got nothing to loose!
My life: An update
Despite this being my website, using my name and serving as a shrine of narcissism a place where I can write and publish things related and of interest to me, I still find it fairly difficult to talk directly about my life. Sometimes It’s about my dog, or about my on-going fights with the mothfia, or sometimes even about the ridiculous things my mother says, but there are only three entries on record that directly talk about my life.
This entry makes four.
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who sent well-wishing emails or left comments in regards to my eye problem. I’m happy to inform y’all that it’s 100% better - no swelling, no chalazion, nothing. It healed just in time to allow my attendance at a cocktail party for a family friend’s sister’s gallery exhibition opening and a East Indian wedding reception over the weekend.
Secondly, you should probably notice that there is a new layout. (F5 for a hard refresh if you don’t see it!) I’m rather fond of the mod colors and style, but a little unsure about the header image. As always, comments and suggestions are welcomed. Also, you might notice a new page: The archives. (The page documenting this website, previously named “website”, has been renamed to “colophon” but the location remains the same.)
This week is going to be hectic, and it doesn’t even have to be Monday yet for me to be able to tell you that. I’m flying out first thing Wednesday morning to Salt Lake City, Utah for my company’s annual anniversary convention and before then I need to:
- Find a costume for the dance party. I’m not looking to snag any prizes, but I need to follow with this year’s theme: “futureland” - i.e., stuff from the future. This rules out being Minnie Mouse or a vampire, which have been my costumes of choice for the last several years. Any costume ideas? The only thing I can think of is cat woman.
- Take (and re-study for) two chapter tests.
- Submit my Bio, Chem, and Math assignments.
- Do some secretarial work with our team, which includes but is not limited to: emailing 150+ people, rewriting our introductory letter, send out account and login information to at least 100 people and send two other people the information the specifically requested.
- Do laundry and pack my suitcase.
In addition to all that, I also have the ever illusive midterm deadline coming up on the 29th. I fly home on the 28th, which leaves putting all the work off until last minute an absolute no-no. So between now and the 29th, I need to find the time to:
- Complete & submit four Planning assignments
- Complete & submit two Math assignments
- Complete & submit two Bio & Chem assignments
- Finish up any leftover English work, which includes poetry analyzation, something that is right up there on my “things I’d rather burp up slugs than do” list.
There you have it, folks! All the stuff you never needed to know. However, since some of you requested I follow up this entry about certain changes I was making in my life back then, I figure now is a good time as any to give a follow up report.
Lights out and sleeping by 11pm was a complete and utter failure. If anything, between now and then, my late nights have gotten later - 1, 2, and sometimes even 3 am. I still want to go to bed earlier and I’m still going to keep trying (just like I have for the last how many years of my life) but I don’t this will be happening anytime too soon.
The GI diet was a great success. I didn’t lose any significant weight (which I was hoping for, but not expecting - I didn’t slay all the desserts out of my diet) but it did change the way (and what) I eat. My dairy consumption has gone way, way down, almost to the point of being completely diary-free. I’ve been eating a lot of whole grains (less rice, more Quinoa and Bulgar wheat - I even made a dish and published the recipe on here) and low-GI vegetables and fruits. It also taught me a lot more about nutrition and how successful diets work.
Upping the water intake went very well, although in recent weeks it has been on the decline. I found taking eight glasses a day to be no problem at all - with the amount of activity and busyness in my life, my body really needed it (and craved it, even).
Exercise has been going well, and is on the increase - My dog is proving to be an excellent motivator by whining and nagging me into taking him out every day. With dance every week (and the newfound discovery of gel heel protectors, which means NO MORE OPEN WOUNDS!) and other general movements (walking here and there, running for the bus, running after people, running to the stores, walking up stairs etc.), I think I’m getting a fairly good amount of exercise in, but I’d still like to do a lot more. I’m also planning on running a lot more, and with more intensity. I’ve got to get back on my running plan!
Oh, and I’ve yet to try the hot yoga (no time!) but I’m still planning on doing that soon too.
So that’s the update. Apart from being leered at ALL NIGHT by some guy at least five years my senior at the wedding reception last night, nothing particularly interesting has been happening lately - and even then, that incident was more “I think I’m going to sick”, borderline “I want to punch him in the face”. I know the typical “I’m so busy, I even made a list!” blog entries are dreadfully boring, so consider this a filler entry until something heart-stopping and earth-shattering happens.
(Err, on second though, I take that back. Considering how I’m going to be flying soon, I really hope nothing heart-stopping and earth-shattering (or plane shattering) happens until I’m safely back on the ground at home.)
It’s that time of year again
The closing of summer is quite possibly my favorite to part of the year. It represents the wrapping up of another summer filled with life lessons and adventures, some learned and some not. It tells me that stability and normality—in the form of structured school obligations and extracurricular activities—is drawing near. It signifies another opportunity for a new start, the soon beginning of the academic year. It represents the end of carelessness and the start of the real world.
Quite frankly? The closer another academic year comes, the more excited I get.
I almost crave new workload and new scenery (hello rain!).. I like summer, but it leaves me feeling a bit lost. Summer in Vancouver is, to say the least, one of the most temporary things we experience. Temporary hardly satisfies me. Vacation travelling and summer plans are just so… fleeting. Here one day, finished the next. Great, but not lasting.
Maybe it’s my inner uptight workaholic making an appearance, but people who seem so carefree and stupid annoy me. At least during the academic year they’re bitching and moaning about school and/or work (my inner sadist chuckles over this), but during the summer they appear to have absolutely nothing better to do than to act like inconsiderate, immature assholes and do downright pointless stuff, then giggle and grin when recounting the tale(s) to me. Trust me: If there is one person on earth who seriously doesn’t care how fast and reckless you can drive and won’t be impressed when you tell when you tell me anyway, it’s me - so STFU.
Closely approaching September signifies a time of change for me. A time to change my room, my sleeping habits (along with the rest of my bad habits), my wardrobe, my attitude… and my diet.
To some extent, I believe that you are what you eat. I’ve experimented with different diets (not the weight loss kinds) within the vegetarian realm and you’d be surprised at how different I would feel with each one. Personally I always feel so much better on a mostly raw, vegan, mostly unprocessed, minimal wheat and sugar diet. Dairy (cheese especially) feels like a dead weight in me—it makes me feel sluggish and slow. Sugar is like a drug to me (and if it is was a drug, would make me a relapsing drug addict) - I love it, but I feel like shit after I have too much of it. It sort of follows a “get high, then crash and burn” pattern. I’ve never enjoyed caffeine.
So I’ve decided to change a couple things. For the next two weeks I’m trying a vegetarian low GI (glycemic index) diet. After reading a book on GI diets, I’ve come to realize that my current diet (80% bread, potato, rice, soy, and pasta, 10% fat, 5% sugar, 5% other) explains a lot about my weight gain (especially around the waist and arms), energy levels and appetite (always hungry within 1-2 hours of eating even the biggest meal). I’m hoping this new way of eating will regulate these factors.
Next, I’m upping my water intake. My goal is to drink 6-8 glasses a day and I’m keeping a 1/2 litre bottle of water (with a hint of lemon, of course) on my desk and by my side at all times to help this along. Water aids in the body’s natural detoxing process, as well as keeping you hydrated in the summer and a whole bunch of other good things that escape my mind at the moment.
I’m also getting to sleep earlier. No more 12, 1 or 2am nights mornings. I’m aiming for lights off by 11pm, but knowing me and my long struggling fight in the war against sleepy days and high energy evenings, this could be my hardest change. It’s also one of the changes that will have the biggest impact - when I don’t get enough sleep, I can’t do anything.
An increase in exercise is next on the menu. Because eating a low-GI diet calls of the use of a lot of foods I don’t normally stock, I will be walking to the grocery store each morning to buy my day’s supply of food, and only that day’s supply. Because my food market is two to four blocks away and i’ll only be shopping for that day, I can actually do this.
I also plan on doing hot yoga (bikram yoga) with Marissa sometime soon. Hot yoga involves doing crazy yoga positions in a room heated to about 105 Fahrenheit with about 40% humidity. I’m thinking this is like doing yoga in Florida on the beach at 3pm in middle of July. However insane it sounds, it’s suppose to be incredibly good for you. You sweat buckets and therefore get rid of toxins, increase in flexibility, relax, etc. There are far more benefits, and you read about those here.
I will also (probably) be running more, what with my dance schedule slowing down and all. Less dance = no huge blisters and open wounds around the back of my feet and heels, which invariably means I can wear something other than flip flops again!
Along with the change of diet, I also have a new haircut, a new planner (my old one, considered as important and vital to my wellbeing as my mind, expired), some new clothes and new shoes (I am bargain shopper extraordinare!) and some new academic year resolutions in the making. You could consider this my academic new year preparations.
It’s almost September and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
