Exercise updates.

Did Shaun T's Insanity - Cardio Resistance today. & Some weight training with my newer 5 lbs weights. Its still a little tough on my muscles adjusting to my new weights, but I'm loving that my arms are looking a little tigher now. ;)

Have u been working out?

What to expect from this blog?

I've been reflecting on myself, since we came to the US, I've made alot of changes to myself, my lifestyle, my interests, my character.

What I never used to do, never used to take note of, never spared a thought on, has currently taken over me, and I've been working on all of them constantly.

I'm currently a housewife, moved to USA with my husband, and will be here for 2 more years. We have no kids yet, and with so much time currently in my hands, I was able to explore different interests and learn new stuff.

Currently I'm into:
-Trading -  Thanks to Dad.

I've been into it for sometime now.  Its the most challenging and difficult to learn, yet, its also the most rewarding. I own alot of books on trading, and as I read and improve on my own skills, I hope to be able to share them on this blog too.

-Cooking & Baking - Thanks to hubby.

As a housewife, having my hubby to be out working hard all day, in a place with 4 seasons. Seeing my husband going to work everyday and taking a beating from the weather, while freezing in winter, and sunburnt in summer, has made me want to reward him every single day that I'm able to. I guess food is the #1 way to reward a tired man. I wanted to be able to cook with love, and fill his stomach with food that we miss from back home. Of cuz, food is also the key to a man's heart. ;) As Asians living in the USA, we're not able to get Singapore food as easily as back home, and I have been studying recipes and trial-ing and erroring both our mummy's recipes, & if u're keen on learning how those hawker food were cooked, or if u're like me, living abroad, and want to learn how to please your tastebuds, the recipes with photos will be coming up soon!

-Traveling - Thanks to my parents & my husband

Since young, my parents always used my grades as a gauge to where I would go on my holiday. The more 'A's I got, the higher the budget for my holiday. It got me excited about scoring well, to get out to have fun. Traveling was always exciting, you get to see different culture, different living standards, you actually experience alot and grow from there. While hubs and me were dating, we travelled a little bit to nearby countries and each experience was different. We enjoyed exploring different places together, and till now, we're still doing that. Its evident in our road trips to our nearby states. And we've only been here for half a year. I can only imagine more travelling to come our way.

-Photography. This is really thanks to Glen.

I used to be crazy about photos and I always believed photos are the best memories of special moments in life. I've kept most of our dating photos since 8 years ago till now, and we're still adding on to our collection. Since young, I've always loved what Mother Nature has to offer us, and I love beautiful scenery and animals, and insects and all the living things in this world. I would take photos of them with my cheapo compact cameras and never thought of going for higher end cameras for fear of not having the knowledge to use them. Thanks to Glen, his passion, and him sharing his knowledge with me, pushed me to get myself a Lumix FZ-35, a super zoom, that hopefully will allow me to take great pics of landscape and nature, for me to share with u guys.

Fitness - Thanks to USA, for having such high elevations compared to Singapore, and causing my chest pains.

I first started exercising in winter, to keep myself warm, cuz I needed to sweat. 2ndly, when we first drove down to Utah. where the elevation was higher, and it was winter, I had trouble walking to our car in the car park. I had terrible chest pains and I was breathless from just walking. I had to hold on to hubs to stable myself. Since then, I've pushed myself, telling myself I don't want to go back there, and I want to enjoy this journey with hubs as far as we can.

-Marriage, Love, & relationships - Thanks to hubs and people around me.

You can still call me a newly-wed (at least that's how I feel!), even though I'm almost approaching my 1 year anniversary. I enjoy reading self improvement books, and I believe in making changes to improve oneself. Therefore, you can expect alot of self reflection, and alot of thoughts on life. Jotting out my thoughts and thinking through them allows me to reflect on myself, and thus, improve myself to become a better person to my hubby, my family, buddies, and the people around me.  You'll get tips on being a loving wife, housework short cuts, and much more!

I love sharing, and I love jotting the little bits of info every now and then, so that I can come back to them in the future and go thru them again.

Would you enjoy these topics? Or am I too boring for u? What would u like to see posted here?

3 weeks without alcohol...

We've been here for quite awhile now. 7 months passed, and I must say, this place is still as boring as it is, the only difference is, the company you have with you.

Its true that being in the USA, where alcohol is cheap and no "kopitiams" around, the tendency to end the day with a bottle in hand on the sofa is often very tempting.

By cheap alcohol, I'm talking about maybe 50 cents a can of beer here? Its about the same price with coca cola back home in SG. Here being mostly surrounded by hubby's friends, all beer loving guys, its inevitable that myself, would start frequently drinking too.

I started drinking alot when we just came back on our last trip from Vegas. I drank alot at Vegas, there was hardly a moment after 1pm I was sober. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. And since that trip, I was drinking and buying alcohol every few days. I would drink everyday, some light cocktails which I bought for $3 for 4 bottles. They tasted great, made me feel happy. I called them my happy juice.

The furthest I ever gone was 2 days without it, and I would make up those 2 days with drinking extra bottles of BJ. That's the brand of my favorite alcohol drink here. I sometimes would go up to 4 bottles a day. get quite high and happy, thinking that it was helping me to get to bed.

However, drinking that amount, also made me wake up in the middle of the night, needing to pee. While it never gave me hangovers, it made me wake up the next day with slight aches in the body. I know alcohol isn't good for me, but I thought that it was good to help me doze in bed faster, and it kept me feeling happy!

With my recent craze in health and exercise, I've been reading up alot, and trying to get active in my lifestyle. It started when 3 weeks ago, I started doing my exercises more frequently, about 4 days a week, and I read that drinking alcohol would hinder muscle development. That would make all my exercising put to waste. And if I drank, it would make the next day terrible for me to exercise, since I would be aching. So I put aside the drinks and tried to go as far as I could without it.

So here I am, at week 3 and I know I'll be breaking the rules shortly, like this weekend, where I will be on my road trip cum vacation, which I will not be exercising, and will be stuffing my face with delicious food. And will end up at Vegas on the last day of the trip, where the casinos serve Cosmo on the rocks for $1. Something I can't avoid.

I'm not a strict diet person, I'm thinking of going for more nutrition in my food choices and all, but I'm someone who enjoys her food and choclates, and I will never go on a diet to starve myself. I eat about 5 meals a day, get a bloated tummy, but i still love myself & my body.

Hopefully this vacation I will still manage to get some "active" in. I know i will be taking alot of great photos and those "lunges" and "squats" to get those great shots, should help my bum somehow. ;)

Update: Did not exercise since Sunday, which I've been feeling guilty about. But I will definately push myself to workout tomorrow to clock some for this week before I leave for the trip.

Exercise updates.

Sunday:

10 mins warm up on stationary bicycle.
20 mins on elliptical level 3 whole body workout
25 mins on treadmill. with 2 mins jogging interval (4.5 mph) and 1 minute walking(3.5 mph).

Felt great and wonderful. Finally managed to start jogging on the treadmill... Sweat buckets and felt amazing. Love the energizing feeling.

Exercise updates.

Thurs morning: Yoga Meltdown (30 mins)

Friday morning: Yoga Meltdown (30 mins)
Afternoon: No More Trouble Zones
Followed by: 11/24 rounds of Fat Ass Burn off Workout by Bodyrock.tv.

Evening: 20 mins stationary bike.
10 mins treadmill 4.5 difficulty.
20 mins total body on elliptical.

Sat:
Morning: Yoga Meltdown. (30 mins)

Not watching the scale...

So I've been saying, I've been exercising to keep my body fit and healthy. There's a tendency to keep weighing myself when I started exercising, to see if I've been dropping the pounds off. But then I came to realise, my body is a in a normal BMI, there's no need for me to drop off any pounds or such to reach an underweight level.

What I really want is to get fitter, healthier, to give myself the option to do  a wider variety of outdoor stuff. Well, for me to fit in with the "guys" stuff. A good reason to weigh yourself before and after a workout is to make sure you are drinking enough water to fuel your body back to where it started. Sometimes we tend to drink too little water, and end up being dehydrated. And, being in the USA now, dehydration is common, and scary. Weather here is really, really dry. And while you don't feel that hot, you're actually already sunburnt.

I intend to monitor my progress by feel. When you stick to your routine, and maintain a regular exercise program, you can feel changes in your body. You can challenge yourself to do things that you never could. I would never have managed to jog on the spot for more than a minute before, which is why I only stuck to walking workouts all the time, but recently I've managed to jog on the spot for 20 seconds with 10 seconds rest in between for 4 minutes in total. Without feeling breathless. I like that!

As usual, Monday, I was having my Monday blues, so I did not workout.

Tues, I did Shaun T's Insanity Cardio Recovery (50mins) + High Intensity Interval Training Cardio (20 secs work, 10 seconds rest, for total of 20 mins..

Wednesday, I did Shaun T's Insanity Max Interval Circuit (60 mins.)

Today, i will be expecting to go to the gym as its hubby's sports day every Thursday when he does the morning shift. We're keeping up the healthy lifestyle!

I started exercising early this year with 2 x 3lbs weights. I'm trying to progress to the 5 lbs weights that we bought on Monday. I'm experiencing aches  all over my back now, but no pain no gain right? I really do like how my arms are starting to tone up right now... After 5 months of training. A little stronger, but it feels great!

My camera's arriving today!! And i'm really excited to start the snapping this weekend. Lets see how it goes, and whether I can put up some photos soon!

Do check back!!

Take healthy up a notch!

I don't know how many times I've probably attempted to get fitter in my life. But all the time failing miserably. I'd say, the first 23 years of my life, i've probably never ever felt the need to exercise. I love myself, with or without flabs. I don't mind being a little chubby, since it has always been under wraps. I must say, i'm first to get the MC of every reason in primary to secondary school just so i can skip the PE lesson every week. I would pretend to have pain here or there, and every month a certain week i have to be excused from PE lessons due to the woman's monthlies. Great excuse. Yep.

Little did I know, years later, it would all befall back on me. I don't really have a healthy lifestyle. I have plenty of vices. All bad for me, I know. I was constantly being breathless, and my chest was in pain every time i did something slight strenuous. I knew my health is not good, being sick all the time, and calling in for MC at work. I wasn't like overweight or anything.. My weight range maintained around 45 to 53kg most of the time. Its a huge range though. but it would jump back and forth depended on my health. When I get sick, i hardly have appetite for anything, so my weight would drop drastically. When I'm healthy and happy, I would just want to go out for nice food, and my weight would keep jumping up.

Being in Singapore, probably one of the most "rushing" places in the world. By rushing, i mean it seems everyday, every moment, everyone seems to be rushing somewhere. Even work is being rushed by the boss, friends rush you to meet them. Everything always puts you in a hurry, and you seldom have time for yourself even.

I've been in USA for around 6 months now, with the hubby working here for the next 2 years more to come. When we first arrived here, I was at my heaviest, 55kg, and breathless all the time. Due to the atmostphere, the elevation. I had chest pains, nose bleeds, everything possible. I couldn't possibly do anything. It was winter, and everyone wanted to ski/ snowboard. However, everytime i put my feet on the ski, and tried to go down the hill, my muscles would cramp, or i would pull some hamstring or something, and would end up in some terrible pain. Its just all due to the very unfit lifestyle i've been having. And I seriously wanted to change that. I'm only 25 now, and i felt like I was 40 at that moment.

So in winter (February), I started doing exercise videos, to keep warm at home, and to improve my fitness. We travel alot here, and there's alot of mountains here too. I don't want to be breathless everytime we set off to hike a new mountain. And we weren't even hiking, just trying to get a good view, to take photos! I needed get fit to keep up with the boys. I didn't want my health to hinder with what I could travel and explore around the USA.

I've been doing exercise videos for like 5 months now, the longest I've ever done something, and stay determined to do so. I like how my health has been transformed slightly. I've managed to shave a couple of KGs off. I'm currently at 51kg. And i've managed to put on abit of muscle. I'm actually enjoying the sweat and am starting to do my dvds more and more often, and have been trying to get active in my life. I try to go out for long walks, even just to go get the groceries, it would be a 2 mile walk. I keep trying to find housework to do, to keep my body moving. I love seeing my body getting leaner, and my muscles getting more toned..

So i've been watching youtubes for some inspiration of newer routines or seeing other women's workouts. And i came across this woman.


Can I say what an inspiration she is? Her body is awesomely sexy. She's HOT. Sweaty. And she's uber fit. Look at those muscles! SEXY! After watching her push herself to her maximum every workout, I thought about stepping up my own exercise routines.

Right now, i'm just doing a 40 minute video 3 - 4 times a week. And occasional walks, and that's about it. I love my body how it is, but I wish to get fitter, for health reasons, with defining the body alittle more as a side benefit. (A sweet gift for my husband for being supportive of me starting my active lifestyle.)

So now, i'm going to start pushing myself a little more, at the same time, use this blog to log my thoughts and my exercises down, to see how far I can push myself. I'm not gonna be thinking about the shape of my body, or my weight. I'm just gonna push myself for health reasons, and I'm hoping to start seeing results in the next 2 months. So let's see about that!

BTW, will be getting a new PC this weekend, and a new camera, a Lumix FZ35, to kick start my photography during our road trips. I love the natural surroundings we have here, and wish to snap all these into beautiful memories. Expect more updates, and more beautiful photos, coming your way!

Why not join me and start getting active yourself? ;)