Exercise Lite - Day 4

A.M.

20 crunches
still no substitute...ok ok, I will do the standing wall push-ups

P.M.

25 jumping jacks
10 minutes on the elliptical -- did better today, was able to sustain the moderate pace for the most time. did only about 1.5 minutes of full tilt.

Anyway, here's the portable pedals I used yesterday. Just plunk it down in front of your chair and pedal away...

It's not very cardio-intensive since you really can't go all out with it, but at least it keeps you moving while you're seated.

Thank you!

Thank you for helping me get over you.

You're still a jerk.

Exercise Lite - Day 3

A.M.

20 crunches

I'm still thinking of what to do instead of push-ups. Nuninu.

P.M.

So I forgot about my t.v. watching schedule for the coming months plus all the reading I want to do plus gardening in Gardens of Time. So, for today, instead of my jumping jacks and elliptical routine, I borrowed my mom's pedal thing (ok, I'll take a photo and upload tomorrow), and pedaled for an hour while watching American Idol.

Exercise Lite - Day 2 P.M.

25 jumping jacks
10 minutes on elliptical

but i couldn't do the 2 minutes full tilt pace, I did 1 minute and about 20 seconds again before I had to stop. After stopping for a minute, I continued at a slightly moderate pace to complete the 10 minutes. Because you know, quitters never lose that extra kilo.

I've decided that if I'm going to do this, then I should at least know what my goals are. So I made two:

1. Lose 2 or 3 inches around my tummy.
2. Lose 2.5 kilos -- but this is really just my estimate about the tummy fat. Because when you look at me, I have the fat tummy and thighs but thin arms. That would make me a pear right?

Exercise Lite - Day 2 A.M.

20 crunches
3 pushups - what a joke

I know I said I was thinking about adding jumping jacks to my morning routine, but I realized this morning that it would take too much effort to put on a sports bra for a few jumping jacks. So, scrap that idea.

And I'd better do something about these push-ups, I don't think I can deal with this kind of frustration in the morning.

Grocery line girl - no this is not funny

Overheard at the grocery line:

"Sabi nya sa kin, baka hindi na maganda mag-nursing dahil andami ng nurse. Mag-accounting na lang daw ako. Eh bakit ako makikinig sa kanya eh wala nga syang kotse."
(He told me it may not be a good idea to take up nursing since there are already a lot of nurses. He said I should take up accounting. Why would I listen to him when he doesn't even have a car?)

This was said by a girl to a couple of her friends. I find a lot of things wrong with this statement I don't know where to start. I will muddle on though:

• I pity that poor guy who doesn't have a car. I wonder if he knows that this girl he was kind enough to give advice to (I don't know if this was solicited or not, but still, right?) has made a value judgment (what does this mean?) based on the fact that he does not have a car.
• Isn't it a tragedy that good advice is taken based on whether a person has a car? Okay maybe I'm jumping to a poor generalization based on the few statements (and tone) of grocery line girl, but let's face it, in today's world, worth (in the abstract sense) does seem to be measured in terms of visible wealth.
• For that matter, is owning a car a good measure of whether advice is sound or not?
• Is owning a car a measure of a person's success? I mean, sure, owning a car is a quantifiable and tangible evidence of economic success but it certainly isn't THE measure of success. Or am I missing something again?
• I mean I consider myself successful -- I have a career I enjoy. I earn. I have free time. I have spending money. Granted I don't have a car of my own (when I do drive, I drive my parents' car okay), I don't have a house. But I feel pretty successful. Unfortunately, by grocery line girl's standard, I'm probably not someone you should take advice from.
• Consider this, a guy who drives a car bought by his parents, barely graduated from college, if at all and has no job -- what would he be? Good enough for advice, grocery line girl?

Maybe, I'm taking this out of context but it's kinda hard.

Anyway, I've always wanted to use this line though I've forgotten where I got it from:

"It's a tragic commentary on our times."

Grocery line girl, I wish you the best of luck.

Exercise Lite - Day 1 P.M.

As far as first days of a new project goes, this Day 1 was pretty good.

Unfortunately, short as the plan was, I was out of breath by the time I was on the elliptical. It was good I did my jumping jacks first. Actually, I like the jumping jacks and I'm thinking of adding 25 to my morning routine. Specially since my push-ups are a joke. (I'm working on it alright.)

Anyway, back to the elliptical, once I got to the 3 minute mark, I was already panting and I could feel the pain in my thighs and calves. And this was only on the moderate pace. This just shows how out of shape I really am. I couldn't last through the entire 10 minutes. I only did about 1 minute and 20 seconds of the full-tilt pace and I really had to stop. My body was unused to the lactic acid buildup (Right. Like I know what I'm talking about) and I was in pain.

Also, I was thinking I couldn't keep adding up to my repetitions, so I thought I'd cap it at 300 crunches? Once, I settle down to this new routine, I'd cut back to maybe daily entries instead of doing this twice a day log.

Exercise Lite - Day 1 A.M.

Great! I did the 20 crunches no problem. The 10 push-ups, erm, well, lots of problems. One, I started from the raised positions and unfortunately, I found out that I can only bring my body down a third of the way. And I only did 7 repetitions.

Maybe I should follow my brother's suggestion and do the standing push-ups first and gradually work my way down.

Road to Hotness (RTH)

After the 5-day holiday, I gained 3 pounds. Well, only 3 pounds registered, who knows if I'm still processing unburned calories into fat. eeeh.

Or, I could hope that all the cleaning increased my muscle tone equivalent to 3 pounds of weight. Meh. I seriously doubt it.

I would like to go back to dancing but I can't fit into my dance clothes and I'm on a frugality plan too so I can travel. Hahaha.

So, I'm thinking I should get back on the elliptical. And do additional crunches too. Since I'm not really that much of an exercise junkie, I've devised this exercise plan, which I should (SHOULD!) do everyday.

Doodie's Exercise Lite

Morning - Wake up 15 minutes earlier than usual time.

Stretch
20 crunches
10 push-ups (I hate push-ups but I need to tone my arms and shoulders and the what-else muscles)

After a week, make it 25 crunches and 15 push ups, and so on.

You're probably asking why I'd need 15 minutes if I'm only going to do those, well, I need to psych myself first. Otherwise, I'd never get out of bed.

Evening

Stretch
25 jumping jacks (after a week, increase to 35 and so on)
10 minutes on the elliptical (2 minutes warm-up pace, 2 minutes moderate, 2 minutes full tilt, 4 minutes cool down)

Good luck to me! L, I, R, better late than never right?

Hotness here I come.

Sydney's St. Mary's Cathedral and Archibald Fountain

During our vacation, E, M and I decided to hear Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. It was a rainy day so I wasn't able to get a lot of pictures of Hyde Park and the surrounding area. I did ditch my umbrella a couple of times to take some pictures of the Cathedral and the Archibald Fountain.

Mass was really different from the one we hold in the Philippines. For one thing, dress code was non-existent. It was really solemn with I think it was a bishop presiding. Or maybe because it just so happened that the Mass we attended also had the ceremony for ordaining new priests. *shrug*

There was also none of the joyous singing so common to Philippine mass. I think that was what I missed the most. Though, there "peace be with you" involved handshakes even among strangers -- certainly not something we do here in the Philippines.

We got off at the St. James Station, so we approached from the Archibald Fountain.

Archibald Fountain

Archibald Fountain

Then, from the path, this bursts upon your eyes:

St. Mary's Cathedral and grounds

The tree-lined avenues were actually really gorgeous, but I didn't think to take pictures of it.

Anyway, put the Cathedral and the Fountain together and what do you get? Bippity-boppity-boo!

St. Mary's Cathedral with Archibald Fountain

 We walked around to the the front(?) for this picture:

St. Mary's Cathedral

A couple of shots I got inside the cathedral before I was informed that no picture-taking allowed inside:

Happy Easter Monday! and commemorate Araw ng Kagitingan.

What does it mean when you dream about someone?

It's weird because I've dreamt about B5 for the past three nights. Not just once in a night, sometimes 3 or 4 different dream "settings". Some of them are reminiscent of real places we've been too. But mostly it's just the the two of us and I feel effing happy!

This could just be my subconscious regurgitating my memories to make room for more? Hey, maybe I'm completely and totally over him? Or, God forbid, this isn't a sign that  we'll get back together, is it? Because that would be a mess.

Admittedly, it's taken me a couple of years to actually get a semblance of balance back in my life after him. It didn't help that it wasn't a clean break. Our social lives and common friends didn't allow it.

Come to think of it, I don't even remember what we broke up for...I think it was because I thought it was what he wanted...

Maybe it also didn't help that I never found someone after him. And he continued to be single too.

Anyway, so I've been dreaming about him and I have better things I should be doing but instead I'm doing this. There are lots of sites on the internet about dream interpretation, I'm just gonna take my pick of what this one means. Nyahahaha!

Flash Mob

Something new in my To-Do List:

Participate in a flash mob. 

Somewhere within Manila, QC, Makati.