Wawasan 2020

Salam all!
Yikes! Wawasan 2020 doesn't become a reality. We're still braving early morning traffic to work and even worse traffic on Friday afternoons. No flying cars whatsoever - sorry.
However, I am starting a few new workouts this year. It's 2020! Let's do something we've been so afraid of trying all this while.
So, I'm following the following classes this year:
Les Mills Barre
Les Mills Tone
Les Mills CXWORX

Besides those, I'm still joining all my favorite Les Mills dance classes. I still teach Zumba, by the way. So, I'm getting more than enough cardio throughout the week.
The new workouts I'm starting this year are mainly for strength, working the small muscles and core stability. I wanted to do free weights but I'm going to need a personal trainer for that.
So far, group classes are my best choice because I really love everyone's energy. If I were to work out alone, I'll give up after 5 minutes of doing squats and planks.
Well, all the best to me this year. Hope it's going to be a successful and enjoyable fitness journey! Happy new year, all! Mmmmuah!

Most memorable Zumba in 2019 - with friends I've known since we were 18!

Last dinner event in 2019 

Hello sunshine!

It's been almost 3 years since I last updated.
It is now Ramadhan and in about a week, we'll be celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri. I usually lose between 2-3 kg during fasting month but the weight doesn't stay long. After the first week of hari raya, I would gain 1 or 2kg. *sigh* That's the problem if you stay in Malaysia. There are so many delicious food and very difficult to resist them.
What I've been doing for the past 3 years, I made sure I don't go to so many open houses during raya month. Usually, I went to only 2 open houses during the weekends. My cardio classes were about 5 times a week and I would add more weight sessions. Currently I love doing X-blast classes at Fitness First. It's just a 30 minutes class but it'll work so many muscle groups that at the end of the day, my whole body would ache.

Some update on my progress:
1. I am only 3kg lighter than I was in 2014. However, I've gained more muscle and lost 3% more of my body fat.
2. My upper body is now stronger since I started doing body weight workouts and joining Body Pump classes.
3. My right knee is still not that good. I had to forget about outdoor running for a while because of my knee injury in November 2017.

My dance progress:
1. I got my Zumba Fitness license in Nov 2014. Been teaching Zumba (mostly female only classes) but I only do replacement classes as my current schedule (plus the kids' school and tuition schedule) are very tight. Planning to commit to a few permanent classes next year (2019).
2. I attended Les Mills Sh'bam training in 2015 but decided not to pursue as my knees are not good enough for all those jumps, hops and leaps.
3. I attended Les Mills Body Jam training in 2016 but there are too many good instructors (and I'm not really 'there' yet)
in Malaysia and very few clubs are offering this program. So, yeah... have to put this on hold for some time.

Here's some pictures to go with the story:

One of the most memorable Deepavali Zumba with the late Zin Ardy

Christmas Zumba with Zin Linda and Zin CK

Chilling with KL Body Jammers after Zaza's class

Mother's Day 2017 with my boys

Sh'bam Theme Class with Ernie

Mother's Day 2018 with my boys

All in all, Alhamdulillah, I have a good life. 

Dropped 11kg and 2 dress size, darlings!!

Yeay! I should reward myself with something really expensive this week! Too bad I don't have that much money for lavish things now.
Anyway, I weighed myself this morning and yippie I have lost a total of 11kg since February 2014. *Lompat Bintang*

Wore this old kebaya for Zumba Raya themed class at The Curve

It has been a tough journey. This year I took another approach to weight loss. I started attending dance classes seriously since Chinese New Year. I started with 3 Zumba classes each week - on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. After getting some results, I joined Sh'bam class once a week on Tuesday mornings.
After a few months, when I thought that my knees were a lot stronger, I started doing Body Jam classes once a week on Saturday mornings.
So, the three types of dance classes have helped me a lot in this journey. I decided not to pursue running since my knees were not in good condition. Zumba helped to strengthen my core and legs, but I had to be really patient to see the results.
The most effective one had to be Body Jam classes. I used to be a Body Jammer way back in 2005, 2006. Most of the instructors I followed back then are no longer teaching the class. Although the choreography now is a lot different than 9 years ago, the classes are getting a lot better. The music used are remixes but familiar to my ears.
Sh'bam and Zumba are quite new to me. Sh'bam uses popular music, all radio friendly and some remixes. It's like going clubbing early in the morning. It's a 45 minute class but I guarantee you'll be sweating like mad even after the 4th song. A lot of hopping, jumping and 'flying' involved in this class. It took me some time to learn the jumping part. I haven't done any jumping, not even jumping jack for a long, long time.
Zumba is basically latin inspired dance. My stiff body took about three months to get used to the moves. Salsa, mambo, samba, cumbia, cha cha - they're using all the basic steps but not easy for me. I can master Body Combat moves in an hour, but latin dance steps are a huge challenge to me.

Body Jammers group photo June 2014

Sh'bammers group photo June 2014

Zumba classmates August 2014

Zumba World Cup theme June 2014

Zumba class in progress - warm up track - June 2014

Finally.... an update!

I haven't posted anything here since October 2011! That's almost 2 years of laziness, I know!
So, where should I start? What should I update first?
Perhaps I should start the entry with my current weight. Well, after almost a year of neglect, well not really neglecting my health, I had a bad fall in December 2011 and another fall in December 2012, I look like someone who has been on a yoyo diet. Life has been funny. I was not able to run for quite some time. My gym sessions had been reduced to once or twice a month between March 2012 - October 2012.
My right knee and back were affected after the fall I had in December 2012. It took a few months to recover. I only started exercising again some time in late February 2013.
Between January - November 2012 my weight skyrocketed to a new height. I was almost as heavy as my 9 months pregnant self. It really scared me when I was getting heart palpitations in October 2012. So, I went to see a cardiologist and she did all the necessary tests. Thank god everything was OK.
I quit my job in November 2012 and stayed at home since. Of course, my children were happy to have their mom at home everyday. Early in the morning (or the night before) they would tell me what they'd like to have for lunch. So, I have been sharpening my cooking skills ever since.
The good thing about eating home cooked food, I managed to control my portion and ensure only healthy dishes are served on the table. The results are slow but I'm not complaining - lost 6 kg in 6 months. Not that bad, eh?
So, now after Ramadhan and Eid celebration, I'm hitting the gym on a more regular basis. Although my knees can't handle BodyCombat classes anymore, I'm happy with Zumba and (sometimes) BodyJam. As long as the instructor plays my favorite tracks, that will keep me returning to the classes.

Bouncing back!

Yeah, I'm bouncing back to the gym. After more than 2 months of not exercising (yeah, not even brisk walking), I think I've gained enough fat so it's about time to re-start gymming. I was not motivated to exercise at all after fasting month and Syawal. Although I didn't attend many open houses, the pounds were piling like nobody's business.
My work schedule was also quite tight, so we ate out a lot for the past 2 and a half months. The worst thing about eating out is that I feel obliged to finish everything on the plate. Just imagine, the normal nasi beriyani serving at the mamak can come close to 1000 kCal (for those who are counting). So, nasi beriyani plus bandung soda plus papadom can simply total up to 1400 kCal!!
Ok, that's scary when we know how low our metabolic rate is. I should be taking about 1700 kCal perday and my body (with this age) burns about 2000 kCal (if I don't exercise).
If one meal is close to 1400 kCal, 3 meals must have been about 2500 kCal if not more. With that extra 500 kCal, it's not a surprise I gained a few kg within a few months' time.
That's seriously unhealthy.
So, starting from Wednesday, 12th Oct 2011, I started working out again. It was not easy as I had to start slow. I couldn't run as I used to a few months ago. My knees were getting weaker and I was out of breath after cycling for 5 minutes. That's how unfit I was.
Just imagine, 2.5 months of not exercising can do that to my fitness level. What if I stop working out for years? What would happen to my body?
I might get a Personal Trainer this time just so that I'm more motivated and consistent. 

No update means not many activities

Ok, I last updated in March 2011. Since then I've only been to the gym once a week. That's how not frequent and not consistent I was. March, April and May have been really hectic. I have three concurrent projects whereby I'm actively involved in the deployments. Having a Team Leader title is not an excuse to be a generalist. There are still a lot of technical stuffs that I have to have hands on skills. Otherwise, technical certifications won't be put in my appraisal plan, right?
In April, I discovered that my BP was slightly high. Well, let's just say that it was high that the Doctor looked worried after taking the third reading that week. I was actually really frustrated. Having lived a rather healthy life for the past 3 years and cooked at home more frequent than ever and yet the BP still shot up. Even my bad cholesterol level has gone down significantly.
So, I have been on medication since April. The meds made me feel like floating and I couldn't really focus on my work. I stopped taking them for almost a week. After that, I continued with the meds and it was better, no more floating. Because of that, I'd rather go home straight from work and took a short nap before Maghrib. I told myself that I needed extra rest and sleep. I've been neglecting those two for several months.
Early last week, I went for a follow up session with the doctor. My BP has gone down to almost normal level (normal for a 37 year old woman). Although my BP was better during my pregnancy, but the reading now is considered okay and not worrying.
I guess I will start running actively next week (procrastinate.... and procrastinate some more... hehehe)

Trying Outdoor

I've been doing my little runs since June 2010. So far, I've done one outdoor brisk walking session last year and yesterday I decided to run along the roads near my house.

I brisk walked for about 200 meters before started running. Firstly, it was a totally different experience than running on the treadmill in a comfortable, air conditioned gym with encouraging music and TV screens showing ASTRO programmes. I noticed that there was more stress on both of my knees, perhaps whenever I run on the treadmill it helped to lower the impact. Running against the wind was also another challenge. Usually it was not too windy in my area but yesterday, when I ran I could feel that extra effort was needed to bring my body forward. Having these extra kg on my body was another big factor. Big body, bigger friction against the wind? Haha.

I also had to be extra careful on the grassy areas as I could see piles of dog poo left there by the dog owners. Too bad our Majlis Perbandaran never thought about enforcing these people to pick whatever gold their dogs produce. I'm not racist, but somehow this made me feel that the Muslim and Malay sensitivity is being ignored by some quarters.

My runs Sep 2010 - Feb 2011: Not as frequent as I wanted

Besides that, I also realized that there were way too many cars in the neighbourhood. There were also Mat Rempits and children riding bicycles to the nearest playground. These two categories of riders were quite dangerous as they treated the road like their own. They're young, immature (and stupid), yes I knew that. But why can't their parents spend some time educating them on road safety? They're even hazardous to some people who were trying to jog in this area (like me!).

So, it was not a really pleasant experience running in my neighbourhood. I decided to go back to the treadmills at the gym where there's no Mat Rempit and dog poo.