Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Sustain

I thought my regime was working and that my exercise and diet plan was going to work but before I knew it I had to go Perth. Actually, it wasnt very consistent to begin with. I was missing workout even before I went to Perth. I wasn't eating consciously for lack of a better term. In fact I can remember I did my chest and legs workout the Wednesday before I left and that was it for my Gym sessions that week. I think I ran the 5.96 once and I went swimming once. Other than that, I didnt do much. SO the whole week in Perth, I only did static once but that was pretty light static. But over there I ate everything. I was always hungry. And the food was always oily. ANd I always finished my colleagues food because they couldnt finish. So I felt really disgusted when I came back.

Its been a week since I came back. In fact 10 days. The diet has not been consistent as usual but the workout has been much better. On Saturday, when I came back, I played one half for MOE and I was panting heavily halfway through that half. On Sunday, the game with FORZA was cancelled so I ran the 5.96. On Monday, I cant remeber what I did so I suppose I did nothing. On Tuesday, it was Ana's birthday so I did nothing as well. On Wednesday, we were supposed to play frisbee but we didnt cos of the weather and I cant remember if I subsitutted it with anything. Most of the time, it was just the Wii kind of workout which I hardly label as workouts. On Thursday, we walked for 4 to 5 hours along the new Southern Ridges. On Friday, I did the chest and legs workout again with Ana and was supposed to run but couldnt fit it into the schedule that we had planned for her off day. On Saturday, I played a whole game for MOE. Was supposed to swim in the morning but again I didnt. Luckily I played the whole game. On Sunday, I was supposed to swim again but I didnt again. But I played the whole game against FORZA. On Monday I went to the Gym and did the Back and Legs workout. No cardio. Yesterday, was supposed to swim but I decided to do sprints instead. 10 x 100, 3 shuttle runs and 1 circuit. I ended with a short 2klil run. Today I aim to do the shoulder and legs and swim. Lets see how that worksout.

I really hope I can sustain this enthusiasm. Actually its better because I dont have much work to do. And I am a little worried that I dont have much to do other than prepare myself for next year. So here I am in school doing everything slowly to get me through the day, and wait for my next workout. Watching heroes and other seasons is also another past time.

On one hand I am bored. On the other, I am embracing this peiod of nothingness.

I must sustain this. I dont seem to love myself anymore

Out

Monday, October 13, 2008

I can't remember

I really cannot remember why I didn't do any workout on Friday. I remembered from my previous post that i did a gym routine on Thursday before Dillah came over but I was sure that it was Thursday. But i really cannot remember why I didnt do anything on Friday. I dont think there was Frisbee that day, because the last time we played was last Tuesday. This is the reason why I need to be more conscientious in updating my posts.

So that was Friday. Saturday was also spent doing everything else but working out. I woke up early in the morning to go teach the last of my tuition kids till 11 before I met TF and her to go to Lifesaver's place. I must say that I am envious. Beautiful place and beautifully designed. A bit small but beautiful. I am more envious of his lifestyle. As TF would have said it, this must be a point in his life when he is most contented. The man is married to the love of his life, has a beautiful place, is doing his favourite things and gone for the most awesome and well documented honeymoon and is soon starting his job that handles what is touted to be the most exciting sporting event ever to happen to Singapore, the YOG 2010. So yes, I am envious. But not in the malicious kind. Its more of the I-am-happy-for-members kind that just pushes me to do better. Oh man, how far have I digressed. We spent quite a long time there, chatting about the education industry that i forgot all about us having to visit her aunt's place. So we headed off to Bedok where she spoke to her Aunt and I just sat there wondering how 11 people could fit in that 3 room flat for an entire hour. Oh not forgetting, stuffing myself in all the cookies, even though I had just eaten a pig-full at lifesaver's. At 6, we rushed off to Tampines Mall to watch Eagle Eye. I am not going to review the movie cos nobody is going to be that interested anyway. But it feels too I-Robotish. I just enjoyed Shia Leboef's ability to make funny remarks amidst a damn serious plot. we ended the day with dinner at Simpang. Don't ask. There was no where else to go.

Yesterday, it was Jalan Raya with the usual suspects. I woke up early to send my sister and squeeze in a 26 lap swim. It was supposed to be 30, but I was afraid i was going to be late so I cut it short. I didn't drive cos I was lazy and I thought if she had it, she could join us much earlier after she closes shop. So I sat in all my other friend's cars, which was certainly refreshing. I remembered just two to three years ago, how we struggled to plan transportation arrangments because there too few cars in the group. Now, I could even afford to leave it with Ana. How times have changed. Anyway, it was enjoyable but certainly tiring. the drawback was that it was yet another binge fest. I didnt stop eating because every house we went to served food. Sigh.

So I think I am back to square one. My colleague, asked me today if I had gained weight. I nonchalantly said yes. But for my colleague who sees me everyday to see a significant difference, it must be really bad. We had frisbee today and at about 530, I did the usual routine but I increased the weights. There is a lot of legs in my routine. Now I wonder if I am paying enough attention to my upper body. But I had a lot of trouble with the lunges. It was difficult to maintain balance and push myself back up to starting position. At the second set, I used a lighter weight. Overall gym was really hard today. I am still sweating from it. And its been more than two hours.

I wanted to end off with a 5 klik run when I reached home, but I figured that I would be overtraining, since we had frisbee earlier. The thing is I wonder if its enough. I wasn't feeling tired at all. Was it because I am not working hard enough during the game? There were countless of discs I could have tapped away and got too first, but it seems but I am just slow these days. But I really didn't feel tired, and I am always the one who wants to keep on playing. I wasn't throwing well or receiving well either today. My discs dont float long enough or straight enough for my team mates to catch it in time. I am also narrow minded when I have the disc. I always fail to look at the nearer option and keep thinking of a long and through throw. I need to bear this in mind tomorrow. And I must definitely run a lot more tomorrow. I must get faster.

Tomorrow will be endurance. I hope to run to Safra, swim 1.5 and run back to school. Hopefully I have the time or I am not swayed by my friends into doing anything else.

Out

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Exam Jitters

Actually, its more the lack of it. I remembered back in the day when I was still in school, how nervous I would be as the start of any exam paper drew nearer. I would be frantically trying to cramp everything I had in my hands into my head in that short span of time. I would literally isolate myself so that I would not get distracted by everyone else. This usually happens because I was very ill prepared for that paper, and as always I expected myself to do very well with little effort.

But my students experience no such jitters. From my perspective, they looked like as though they had no exams that day and it was just any other day in school. They would be laughing and playing, or talking about everything else other than the formulae they have to memorize or the who-did-what-when questions I would have asked my friends before the paper.

Is it well preparedness or just simply bo chap. What;s worse is when they start to sleep 15 minutes into the paper. Maybe they are just too brilliant. They don't seem to take anything seriously, not even exams. I worry about what would happen when they face such situations in the future. Is this the kind of attitude that they would take on? I certainly hope not.

The last time I blogged was probably last Friday. Fortunately, I did do what I said I would do. I did my gym routine and went home to run the 6 kilometre route. But that was the end of my exercise last week. Saturday was spent with Ana and her sisters at their relatives place. Sunday, I had my open house. So I really didnt have time to exercise. I had time to mark though, which was good.

On Monday, the ESSS dragon hearters played Ultimate and after that I did my gym routine in double quick time because it was my dad's birthday and we were going sewnsens. Tuesday, we played Frisbee again but that was it. I aimed to do my gym routine on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, but yesterday, I fell ill. I had this terrible running nose and I could not stop sneezing, so after school all I wanted to do was to eat my chlorophendremine and sleep. By the time I woke up it was too late. This sucks but I hope to gym later today and run off all the bad stuff I ate for 5 days.

I am currently waiting for some Graduation Day rehearsal which I have to emcee. Hopefully that doesnt take long so that I can have an early gym session. Ill then try to slot in a run before Dillah and wife comes around 7ish.

Lets hope this works out.

Out

Friday, October 03, 2008

Post Hari Raya

Was pretty busy during the Hari Raya period. Actually am still in the Hari Raya period, but I am now just too sleepy in the office and there one to entertain me, simply because there is NO ONE left here. Everyone left when I came back from prayers. I could go home to but I no I am not going to get any work done at home. So here I am. I was marking incessantly when I started dozing off, so I decided, lets do something else. SO here I am.

Anyway, it was difficult to a strict diet regime these few days. On the first day of Raya, every where I went was just lontong, rendang, and ketupat. So that was that, but I was glad I didnt binge like I always do on the first day of Raya every other year. But I managed to get a few static sets done in the morning.

It was something like

1. 3 set x 20 push ups
2. 3 sets x 20 crunches
3. 3 sets x chin ups
4. 3 sets x 20 counts of 8 Jumping Jacks.

So i thought, chest abs and back done with a little but of cardio.

Yesterday, it was back to school, and bacl to eating in the day. But the canteen was closed and every Muslim shop found within the vicinity of my school, was closed, so I had to resort to BBq meltz meal at KFC. For dinner, it was back to rendang and ayam masak merah with rice, because my mother didnt want to waste the leftovers. But yesterday I had an Ultimate Frisbee training session with my colleagues for an hour and I did 8 x 100m sprints before finishing off with 3 sets of 15 leg raises.

I thought the canteen would be open today or the other shops would want to resume business, but I was painfully wronged and it was a 2 pc chicken meal for me at KFC again. I havent done any workouts today so in order to make myself better, will be going back to Monday's gym routine and finish off with a 5 kilk run.

Oh yes, running to school hasn't started. I think its not going to start anytime soon because I have to lug my bag to and from school because I have exam papers with me.

It should be abloe to kick off after the papers have been distributed on the 15th October.

Ill start my gym routine at 4 and then go home to run immediately

Out

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Bazaar Food

As usual, things going to go as planned yesterday, on the first day I decided to get myself out of this rut. My colleagues decided to cancel the trip because there were some family emergencies. So I stayed back in school to mark till 6 before I did my workout in the gym. Since at 6 I only had an hour before I broke fast, I decided to go with low weights, high reps and low rest time. Basically something that was quasi high-intensity.

1. 3 sets x 150 Bench Press (12reps) in between
3 sets x 30kg x Half Squats (12 reps)
2. 3 sets x 120 lats pull down (12 reps) in between
3 sets x 60 hamstring curl (12 reps)
3. 3 sets x Shoulder Press (12 reps) in between
3 sets x 110 Quadricep Extension (12 reps)
4. 3 sets x 120 Tricep Pull Down (12 reps) in between
3 sets x 20kg bicep curl (12 reps)
5. 3 sets x Leg raises (15 reps) in between
3 sets x Lower Back raise (15 reps)

20 counts of 8 of Jumping Jacks

Surprisingly I finished my weight routine at 630 and it was quick. This was done as a super set where there was no rest time during each grouping. The rest time was only meant for changeover from group to group. Meaning, after ech set of tricep curls, I immediately went on to bicep curls and vice versa without resting. After ll three sets were done, I rested for 1 minutes to get ready to start the same routine on the leg raise and back raise routine.

This way I more or less encompassed every single major body part, I was targetting. The Chest, Upper back, Lower Back, Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, Quadriceps, Hamstring and the Abdominals. Oh no I missed the gsstronemius( i think thats how its spelt, bsically the calves). So this routine has to be improved upon. My trapezius and the forearm has been sorely negelcted. Same goes for the gluts, and both my leg abductors and adductors. I might need to include these in somehow, but I am not sure if the gym have the right equipment to support it. Ill just improvise.

T problem yesterday was my food consumption. I was fasting so for the entire day I did not have anything, until 7 when my mum prepared quite a few things. And because I was so hungry from the fast and the workout, I could not resist eating whatever that was on the table.

1. Two Mr Bean buns, 1 chocolate and 1 redbean( this was a mistake, too high in simple sugar intake)
2. Fried Udon Mee ( this was the main dish, there is no way to avoid this, because she took great pains prepring this and its irresistable, think seafood cryfish pasta, but a lot spicier)
3. Tea.

Initially I thought it wasnt that bad and was pretty proud of myself until my friends and I decided to visit the bazaar last night. Right at the beginning, I was really disciplined, buying mineral water and not tempted to buy the variety of scrumptious sinful delicacies being sold everywhere you turn. However by midnight, I was hungry again. Cptain Z and the missus wanted to get deng dengs( halal bak wah) and ramly burgers but the queue was very long. So we had to stand there waiting for them to prepare these dishes. Every second was torcherous because the aroma was literally seeping through the pores of my skin. Then, my other friend, Mr S caved in and bought fishball soaked in sambal with a cup of ice cold bandung. I decided that if it would not do me any good to stay there any longer so I decided to walk around while they waited for their food. That didnt help because I ended up being caught in the section of the Geylang bazaar that was dedicated to the sale of FOOD! So I took it as a sign to just hunt for the healthiest thing there and ended up paying 5 dollars on chicken kebab.

Hopefully with the end of Ramadhan, I wouldnt crve for food that much and my eating would be more structured and disciplined.

Its close to 6, and my entire body is sore because of yesterdays workout, but I intend to change up and do sprints under the block.

I need to do this. TF and FD was looking at photos of ACES Day last year, and they exclaimed at how slim I looked then. I took another look at the picture, and concurred. This was exactly one year ago. How did I put on so much weight in one year?

Never mind. Whats done cannot be undone.Time to move on and do the sprints.

Oh yes, TF has discovered that I am starting to blog again, and decided to tell everyone. And I thought I was going to be discreet about it.

Out

Sunday, September 28, 2008

RUT!

I haven't done this in a really long time. I was actually surprised that I could even log bcck in into into dashboard since my account had been inactive for so long.

I hope that with the long absence, people would have stopped visiting this page, especially my impressionable and understandably curious students. Is there a way to change my address, anyone?

Anyway, its been way too long and once again I have managed to lead my life to disarray which explains why I have decided to blog again. After reading all my previous posts, The Peak seems to be my solution and my wake-up-call to change the way I am doing things.

Rut. If there was one word to describe how bad everything is, "Rut" would be it.

Unfortunately my ego and my vanity is the main cause of this. Eversince I started teaching full time, I have not been living healthily at all, and that has, as you would have guessed resulted in the disgust I feel everytime I look into the mirror. I dont run as often or as long. I dont play as mny games. The last time I went to the gym was probably three months ago and there really is no excuse because the school gym is less than metres from where I sit. The equipment is not fantastic but there is enough for me to get workout going. I just cant find the time to do any of these exercises. Yes, I must admit that work takes up most of my time but its extremely structured ie 7am to 7pm so I definitely can work around it to fit in a daily workout. When I was in NUS or in NIE, I was juggling school, Nu Quest, tuition, acting and CCA but I always managed to squeeze in a run, swim or gym routine.

I have to stop at 6 everyday and make sure I get a workout going. It has to take priority over everything else, including work. By since I hve dedicated 12 hours to school. Half of my day. I think my health deserves some attention daily. I pant whenever I go up staircases. I couldn't last an entire game when I was playing leftback the other day. When I was fitter, even though I was slow off the blocks, I was performing at maximum capacity throughout the entire game. Now, I ask to be replaced because I couldnt take it any more. What is worse, my legs feel like they have taken a beating after every game.

I am also a lot grumpier and unhappy with myself. I am really afraid of taking photos these days when I own my first digital camera. Imagine the suffering I endure. I look at old photos and compare with recent photos and I get depressed. Everyone who has not met me for long opens the conversation with something thats related to my adipose tissue atrophy.

I cannot believe I let myself come to this state. I forget that my job requires me to set an example and look the part, especially being the overall I/C of H nd F and having to preach something I have not be following to my students. Ana looks like a stick when we walk together, and if I dont do anything bout it soon, we will be one of those couples that I always look at and wonder, "Wow, the guy must really have a great personality or other great 'assets'".

Once Hari raya comes and I don't have to fast anymore, this is my workout plan.

1. Every morning, I will run to school and as such, I would be forced to run back.
2. At 6pm sharp, I will stop everything and do either these three things. Gym workout, 30 lap swim, or sprints(soccer training activities)
3. Every week I must slot in an endurance run, starting with a 5 klik this week.
4. During gym workouts, every body part must be given attention. Chest, back, legs and gluts and arms.
5. I must do abdominals everyday because it is my weakest area.
6. I must stretch at the end of each workout to improve flexiility
7. And I promise to blog about everything that had been done in the day, so I will be constantly reminded of this.

I also failed to mention that I have been very ill disciplined when it comes to food these days. I am conscious about what goes in but never about the kind of food that goes in. For the first time in all my years of fasting, I have not shedded a kilo this fasting month. I gorge at breakfast and sahur because I say I deserve it for working so hard in the day and that I need the energy to last the day respectively. This is also not forgetting the chicken wing set I eat at Simpang or finishing everything Ana doesnt finish. I even have stopped controlling my fluids. I drink sweetened drinks all the time without a blink of an eye. Someone offers me a cake, ice cream, chocolates, brownies and I accept with open arms.

This has to stop.

1. I have to cut back on my servings of carbohydrtes. As common as it might sound, it has worked in the past, it has to work again.
2. I will not eat anything 2 hours after my last workout. So no more late night chicken wing sets. Even if Nainee cannot finish hers.
3. If I eat with Ana, I will not order a main course. Regardless of how hungry I feel.
4. Special treats are restricted to monthly affairs. Every other time, say No thanks.
5. Unless, I have just ran 10km, plain water is my only source of fluid. Lots of it of course. Soya bean drinks has to be low sugar and consumed after three gym workouts.
6. Three meals for now and we see how everything goes before moving on to 6 small meals.
7. Again I will blog everything I ate that day to count my daily input and output.

I intend to start tomorrow, but ill still be fasting and the teachers are planning to go to the flyer tomorrow. So I will gym tomorrow at around 4. My diet depends on where they intend to eat. Ill update tomorrow.

I hope this works. It has to.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Beast

That was what we all knew him as. Not in a derogatory sense but because he was ripped and smart like the character in X-Men comics. He was a great classmate and friend to us all. An exceptional teacher and someone who epitomizes the term physical educator to the very last letter. He was fitter than all of us and was great at all sports, basketball and soccer alike. I dont think anyone else had more physical educator qualities than he did. And he was smart. Masters student and all. Was always above everyone else in all the chiim modules we pe teachers had to take.

And no he was no social retard. There were hardly any outings which stephen was neevr a part of. And he was humble so generally he was well liked by everyone. He was eloquent and witty and understood a lot of my jokes and rantings.(Something we both had in common, something many of my classmates couldnt get...)

The thing i dont get is how is it, that out of all 22 people this had to happen to him. Ok I know, its the way things are, fate and everything else but its just really depressing. The same case for Zam, out of all the other student teachers there it had to happen to my bro... This is truly a depressing year.

I have found the love of my life, but I lost two brothers. I hope this is the end of it.