progress

hello there

thought i would give some updates about my fitness routines thus far. haha. to be honest, it hasnt been easy. but i am glad i have been able to keep up with the discipline of exercising. last week i decided to start on blogilates pop hiit (high intensive interval training) routines for a month. blogilates is a website/youtube that offers different workouts that are FUN, intensive and awesome. best of all, it is specifically for LADIES. the owner, Cassey is dedicated to making working out FUN for everyone. watch a couple of her videos and you would know what i am talking about. i found out about blogilates at the start of the year while i was still doing insanity and i integrated some of her workouts during my usual saturday exercises with the girls. we were feeling the BURN. we did a few of her inner thigh, legs and butt workouts. those were really good! 

so i stopped for awhile and then i checked out her pophiit workouts. there are 9 in total and they are all available in print out form. i picked 4 and made 4 copies of each. so that makes 16 workouts and i aim to finish them in a month. #noexcuses. actually i just wnna try it out and see how it goes (: im into my first week and i am starting to see some changes. i feel stronger in my arms and legs esp. with all the variations in squats and pushups/burpees, it really gets your heart rate up and u feel the BURN too. 

i just did this today. haha. the lunge pops and donkey push ups really killed me. she makes it look SO easy and graceful. but trust me, it feels like torture sometimes. haha. 

with exercise of course comes the diet part. hmm. i’ll be honest and say that i havent been eating the most clean. neither have i been eating super unhealthy.i just have problems making good food choices when i am super hungry and then the crazy food cravings set in. i know i have to take small meals so avoid eating too much in one seating. i will work on that for sure this week. and also, i need to take proper breakfast. haha. cant seem to wake up early much less make myself breakfast. i know eating well in the morning makes a lot of difference. i hope to incorporate my beloved oatmeal into my breakfast next week! 

gonna post some pictures to motivate me and YOU to eat healthier, be more active and strive to be better every single day! whee!

 

i think this was my first day of my month long blogilates challenge. fat legs. haha. sigh. dont worry! that is changing as we speak (:

this was TODAY after a week. got difference? hahaha. wish i cld do an abs progress as well. but i think i cant take that kinda pictures in the gym itself. haha. i’ll try to get around doing that as well. and work on my abs. 

my saturday workout buddy, candice, introduced her to the blogilates pophitt on saturday and we were aching the next day! looking forward to the next session!

erm, colour run about 1.5 months back. i think i look slimmer then. lol not sure what happened. i think i ate too much. HAHA. it’s ok. 

after the PINK section!

one of my healthy dessert. haha. the usual. berries, greek yogurt, mini banana (i dont like those), almonds and chia seeds. i like to place it in the freezer cos it tastes better cold.

green juice! i made a lot of green juice in the past 2 weeks. but my blender is really crappy. sometimes the fruit/veg comes out in chunks. hahaha. but i still drink it la. wishing to get back my bullet blender. my dad stole mine and brought it to work. boo.green juice makes me feel SUPER HEALTHY. and it fills me up too. gets in all the 2-3 servings of fruit and veggies per cup. 

looking relatively clean after the colour run. lol. 

mini bowl of dessert.

after a run. i rarely go for runs nowadays. cos it’s boring. lol. but i have been getting in my cardio through the CARDIO BLAST segments in my blogliates workouts. haha.

feel free to comment anything! i’ll work hard for the next 3 weeks and take more pictures to motivate myself! i can do this!

Mid semester

Hello.

Decided to post  a little update before I sleep. I am actually very tired but I would like to rant a little before I rest. HAHA. It’s my little public diary after all.
School has been pretty awesome. I am also shocked that I would say such a thing. But things are going good. I am lagging behind just a little bit for the past week due to tests and my birthday but I think I shld be able to catch up with them over the recess week (: for the first time I won’t have any tests after the recess week. Now THAT is awesome. Haha.  On top of that there is FYP which I have been working on for the past few weeks. I hope I can put in more effort to do more reading. But it is quite tedious to have to read very complicated journals and process the information. Haha. But I think the staff at the lab has been helpful thus far. An I am glad I pick my supervisor. Because be not only keeps me on my toes but also gives me leeway to learn. I’m so thankful for that (:

Apart from that, I guess God has just been very good to me. I have found a new perspective in life after attending YMLC and I am just thankful for many things in life and I am looking forward to what God has in store for me (: haha.
Also, I must thank God for a new chance in my relationship with aaron. It hasn’t been easy to start off again a couple of months back. But it has never felt better. I believe that if u TRULY surrender, God will bless your relationships. It’s no longer one between two people. But also with God. Many things in a relationship are not within our control. Our emotions, our circumstances, our words and actions affect the other party even in the slightest way. That why it is important to ask God to led u in the relationship. Only then will u begin to understand what love truly is. This is only the beginning of a long journey ahead. But I’m glad I have someone to walk through life with(:

In other news, I have started on blogilates pop hiit (high intensity interval training) schedule for the next month. I am into my first week already. And it’s pretty good. It’s refreshing to have a new workout to do and the variations in exercises are great. No more boring runs on the treadmill or around my house area. No thanks. My aim isn’t really to lose weight anymore. Because i know realistically, it is not sustainable in the long run. My goal right now is to increase my muscle mass and I guess inevitable my weight shld or would increase. I don’t mind that because I know I need to gain a whole lot more muscle. And I rather be seen as (bigger) strong girl. Than a skinny weak girl. Haha. That’s just me though. I still enjoy preparing healthy meals at home and also making smoothies. I wish I had my bullet blender back.. More on that next time.

Ok. Time to rest. Shoutout to my friends who read my blog (: hello!

Beautifully bouquet of flowers sitting at my table to brighten up my late nights

I really like this picture(:

Eyes always on the food and not on me. Sigh. Haha. Lol.

Bukhansan National Park (Seoul travels)

 

 

i thought i would get started with my travel posts to Korea. it’s been about 3 weeks since i have been back. and right now i am down with some kinda flu virus. im not feeling the best so hopefully reminiscing about my trip would make me feel a little better.

on one of the weekends, one of my friend suggested that we head to Bukhansan National Park to climb Bukhansan. i agreed because i also love nature apart form shopping. it was also going to be a good form of exercise. haha. however, it was a little different from our expectations. read on! (:

before we headed there, we met for a late breakfast and visited one of the palaces. that included a lot of walking under the hot sun. by the time it was mid-afternoon, i couldnt deny that i was already rather tired as i had slept pretty late the night before. but i couldnt give it up since it was already planned. so we headed there. the thing about Bukhansan is that it is very popular with the old folks. the few times i mentioned that i went to bukhansan to a few young koreans, they said that that place is boring. HAHA. But the older generations seem to love it. i think it’s because it’s a good activity to do in the summer time with friends. i guess this is also why the old people in korea are generally pretty healthy because they walk A LOT. when we were there, we barely saw any young people. it was mostly groups older than 40. some were MUCH older. and even looked old enough to be my grandfather. haha hats off to them. bukhansan is also HUGE to say the least. coming from a city like singapore, i hardly have a chance to see mountains so i am usually very amazed by the size of them. and it being so huge, there are many routes to go to the peak. after being a bit lost in translation with the locals, we made our way from the subway station (Gupabal) and took a bus to the foot of the mountain. there is an information desk that have staff who speak decent english to advise you on your route up. which we did. thankfully so because we are unfamiliar with the routes and difficulty levels so it’s a MUST to seek advice on how to go there. i dont think the information online is reliable as a we realized. so be prepared to go earlier if you want to make it to the top. on average it takes about 5 hours-8 hours to and fro. depending on your stamina and experience and of course your choice of route. you should also factor in breaks along the way.

one of our few stops earlier on our route. we picked a short route to a small peak that was about 1.6km from the base of the mountain since we didnt have much time and i didnt want to take the risk in case we got lost and the sun set 0.0 that would be horrible. so off we went. still smiling here. geared in our shorts and running shoes. no bagpack. on my guy friend had a small bagpack with him. he was wearing sneakers mind you. HAHA.

my friend joanna (: the steps are mostly cut in the mountain. some of them may be pretty high.

 

some selfies along the way. LOL.

likei mentioned earlier on, our route was supposed to be 1.6km long. it doesnt sound that far. neither did it to us. but we totally forgot that it was all on a steep incline. and i coudnt take it (weak!) haha. it was tough climbing those stairs with no added gear like hiking sticks. our progress was rather slow. the higher we went, the steeper it was. then the stairs disappeared and it became small slopes. sometimes we had to get on our knees to make it up safety. it was a little scary at times.ut was hard on our stamina (at least for me) and my legs were going a bit weak from all the climbing.

also, we walked past several locals who were kind enough to make conversation with us. some advised us to be careful as it was ‘very dangerous’ up top. so we told ourselves not to push too far and make our return trip when the time was up. (we gave ourselves a time limit to head back) i noticed that everyone was dressed in hiking gear! hiking boots, sticks, bagpack etc. they all looked so experience. all i had was a off shoulder bag-.-

and so we decided to stop at this landing. nevermind that we didnt make it 1.6km. i think we only made about 1km. haha. but the view was so beautiful. I can only imagine the view at the peak. we had a mini picnic and photoshoot there. HAHA. i was also half scared that we would fall off the cliff. lol. but to me, it was an accomplishment nonetheless. i wouldnt have wanted to trek on any further because as much as the ascend was tough, i knew the descend would be just a tough, if not tougher. i needed the strength in my legs me bring me down safetly, thankfully, my friends obliged as well. i think they were much better climbers than me. haha. so we made our way down. like i said, some of the steps were really high so u needed to go down the steps sideways incase u fell forward and on your face. zzz. that would be a pretty sight.

nearing the foot of the mountain. wow. i was also glad to be on sealevel. HAHA. we were pretty much knackered after the whole hike that took us about 2-3 hours. 

pretty stream at the foot of the mountain. some people were playing in the water. i believe it must be quite refreshing in the summertime. there was alot a waterfall at the entrance. but we didnt go past there when we were heading back.
in the evening.

overall, it was a great experience. not many of my other friends made the trip there. but i was so glad i did. of course i am so blessed to make it back safely because a slight loss of footing may have caused us a horrible injury. i am not an experienced climber and footing is very important along with adequate gear. so i am thankful to have had a rather pleasant experience. we were also blessed with good weather. if it rains, they dont not allow you to go up because it is too dangerous. so thank God indeed.

here are some things to bring/take note of if you plan to head to Bukhansan and if you are first timer like my friends and i

1. be mentally prepared and plan ahead. i had another bunch of friends who did not plan ahead and seek advice from the locals and attempted to go all the way up with no gear as well and my friend told me she cried twice while going up because it was just all ropes and if she had let go she would have fallen down the mountain. definitely not something you want to happen to you.
2. bring sufficient water and food. do not underestimate the importance of them. you WILL need them. bring more than enough depending on your route
3. gear up. enough said.
4. go in groups and do not leave your members behind
5. know how to speak a little korean and read basic korean. this is very helpful as the locals cant really speak english and the signages are in korean. because there are many different routes and turns, you may get lost and knowing to read the signs is important.
6. bring a camera
7. bring sunglasses, sunblock and a hat. because it’s going to be hot!
8. give yourself ample time to head back. incase of any emergencies or accidents, you would want to descend the mountain in the dark. tragic!
9. do not litter
10. enjoy scenery and nature!

that’s all for now. feel free to leave a comment and i’ll try to answer them (: