Running for your life!

I started running when I was 23 and at 35, I'm still running. Not quite sure how and why i started.
I've always been an active student in school taking up several games at any one time. From badminton, volleyball (the coach was cute), table tennis(yes, table tennis..hard to imagine, right??!),softball which wasn't that soft really, and few track and field events. The last time i remembered running was way back in primary school, darjah enam, 4x400m. I had a good team so we won quite a bit. In secondary school, for badminton and volleyball, we had to run around few courts, few rounds as part of the training. And after almost half dead, we then asked to run around the court chasing shuttlecock/ball. It was fun because after that we would go for 'ais kacang' a.k.a abc (in kl) and of course, checking out boys from other schools. You see, we were in Convent schools, both primary and secondary, so being able to feast our eyes is a definite privillege! So, back to running. Then came uni where I was still playing badminton (my first love) and volleyball at first. I progressed to squasy in a short time and was even approached by the squasy captain to represent uni. i honestly believe it was because i had strong serve, technics wise, well, there was plenty of room for improvement. Then, somehow, I met someone who runs marathon and i was inspired. yeah...that was how it all started. and i've been running since...
and now, my laid-back sister has successfully became a 'running freak' and registered both of us for almost, i say almost, every run in kl and selangor and not to mention the annual 'penang bridge run'. to make things worst, she is, at the moment, as fast as i am and will not stop reminding the fact that she finished 1second behind me during our last run, 'Adidas King of the road'. After the run, I felt nothing like king or even a queen as i fell ill for 3 days right after. Moral of the story, running is good as long as you don't have a highly competitive sister tailing behind you. Gone are the days when running used to be all about fun and excitement!

p/s: the photo was taken during the last 'penang bridge run' on 24 june. sis was 4mins behind me and she wasn't at all impressed.

Tired of the Yogi thing

Over lunch today Min and I decided that the yogini tag ties this blog too closely with just yoga, we meant this to be a blog for friends to get together and share,vent, preen and rant.

I just googled warrior goddesses and came up with Athena, Ancient Greek warrior goddess , any other suggestions for name changes are welcome.

So now please feel free to talk about all issues related to women- food, love, fashion. sex, Jude Law,books, movies, pole dancing, cupcakes whatever.

Oh yeah you can talk about yoga too.

And then I went and googled Mistress Athena and ... ah well, so the name is probably temporary...

Picture does speak a thousand words...

This is one the bridges that provides the link between Rishikesh which is divided by beautiful Ganges River. Here, there ashrams everywhere even the one that 'The beatles' went to though I wasn't quite sure where it was.
What I wanted to say is, I like the facts we are using more pictues for our blogspot. I would encourage everyone to do so. i love pictures and would love to see more of it especially those pictures that relates to the subject matter. After7 once asked if it's ok to write something which is not related to yoga. The main reason why verity and I wanted to start the blogspot so that we can write about yoga and how it affects us and other around us. And that would mean our friends who may not think about yoga as much as we do. So the answer is 'yes, please do'. As what I wrote earlier, yoga is very social. I've taken yoga as part of my life, as a practice, a discipline. Other than that, I'm still me.

Droolicious

Hello you naughty girls. If you wanna check out a really incredible cupcake blog get onto cupcakeblog.com. Man it's pretty amazing with lotsa details of how to make and interesting recipes. I'm going to alert our Chef in Residence on this- yes we have a title for her. Any ideas on a Food and Cooking Blog?

Sorry totally irrelevant but this blog is so good. Perhaps we can think of ways to make our yoga blog this good. That picture up there is for a Lemony Ice Cream Cone Cupcake with Lavender and Rose Frosting.

I Wanna Wanna Model in a Furry Bikini

Now when I first started yoga and was actually going to classes regularly, I did feel that I was getting more toned. Sadly recently with getting busy bee with work and travelling all those dreams of going for a week in deep India and being a yogi is probably going to be relegated to next year. Seriously, last thing I need is to be in a class full of yogis standing on their heads while I can't even put my legs in the air without two men and a dwarf assisting me. And that is a whole different story altogether.

Anyway finally met up with an old buddy of mine for lunch yesterday and was astounded to see how fit she looked. Now girls I know most of us would give out the 'I want to get fitter' mantra but seriously who doesn't want to loose a few love handles and fit in your college jeans? Hence I was intrigued. Amazingly this friend of mine who is a cynic and a foodie to boot is spouting fitness babble. In the words of Chicken Little, the sky is falling.

Yes... we have a casualty. She actually tried a two week Nazi plan (what other diet plans are there?) and lost over 5 kilos- more importantly she lost inches and I mean INCHES. The culprit of this said convert is Mr. David Kirsch- the man behind Victoria Secret models able to strut down the smallest runway in the world wearing the world's smallest knickers. Now here's how it goes for two weeks:
- Obviously no carbs, no fruits (huh?) because of the sugar content and no carrots (apparently the most fattening vegetable there is- who the heck comes up with this?)
- Pretty much protein and a side of vegetables (nothing really new there)
- No alchohol, no yolk and no coffee (yup I lost you there didn't I?)

Exercise
- 45 minutes of cardio for six days
- cardio toning exercise every other day
- alternate with upper and lower body exercise

Now before you go off and eat a doughnut from sheer exhaustion, here's the fascinating part. It's not boring and you don't get cranky, you have tons of energy and it works! You also get fabbo side effects like thighs you can bounce fifty cents on, more upper body strengh (always good for Yogis) and healthy nails. I was stunned... and this friend of mind is not one to embellish.

Morbidly fascinated and a bit of a masochist for punishing gym sessions, I followed her today to the gym. Anything to get me exercising now is my fitness plan (even a potentially Nazi gym buddy, {I wish I can say it's the cute guy with killer buns doing squats at 10.34am every morning but gym goers nowadays are a sorry lot}). And thus we did 45 minutes of jumps, light weights, medicine ball, fitness ball and strange, butt out duck walks. We were very popular at the gym for comic relief I must say- glad to put a smile on sweaty people's faces. And here's the verdict:

- the cardio toning though not easy was actually great, wasn't boring at all, varied so you don't have to repeat too many reps and kinda fun. I was however sweating like a pig at the end and felt a little faint at one point (but on occasion very fast sun salutations in the morning after a night of drinking can have a same effect)
- thought I was going to keel over afterwards but bizarrely I was rather perky for my meeting later. I did not feel like taking a nap in the afternoon that always follows after a tough workout. The energy stays with you for long after

Who would have thunk? I am making plans to gym with my convert buddy once a week. However on the diet thing- puh-lease life is just too short. And despite waxing lyrical about David Kirsch with a lot of cult woohoo after reading my friend's blog, it was obviously not all sunshine and crunches either. You can check her story and progress at www.cyberdurian.blogspot.com

But if you can't be arsed, just run marathons like Minah, gets you outdoors and you'll definitely loose weight.

After7 out and feeling the burn

MMMMMarmalade

My new fave place Marmalade

Minah and I met for lunch at Marmalade yesterday, my first time, seen it often enough just never looked tempting enough for me to go in. I have to say I was impressed, finally we have a restaurant that caters to the health nuts of the world where the food doesn't taste like a cross between cardboard and sawdust. Had a great salad, fresh fruit juice with a lousy name, and of course the desert du jour -cupcakes (shared). Felt so virtuous the whole rest of the day. Thanks Minah

Good style, good stuffs

Good style as well as good clothing is essential for everyone and start by getting a good material, if you are into tailoring your own clothes or perhaps for the upcoming festive seasons. Jetsetqueen, i agree on holding a tea party or better still cupcakes and get our own martha stewart a.k.a Kak Tet to prepare her own delicious cupcakes and other stuffs that she's brilliant at. Yummy.... Sorry. Back to my main topic, the materials, well, would be great to see the photos of the materials for a start...See, yoga is very social. Yogis are not freak that only meditate under big trees or some mountains somewhere. The modern yogis love cakes (that would be me),love coffee (me,too), love to eat (me,again) and other things that people do. I was tempted to do use the word 'normal' but who wants to be normal anyway. Since I was small, I told myself that I wouldn't want to be normal. Everybody want to be normal so forget normal. Let's be different. For a start, I don't look like an average Malay so why bother trying.
So, yogis, let us be true to our practice and still have a life! A great one I may add.

Kain Kain

I know this is irrelevant to yoga post but after we sweat so much and somehow have the curves....let's flaunt our curves by wearing new clothes.....jetsetqueen is selling kain kain for raya or any special occassions ;) I will upload the piccies once I have the stock! Range from RM80 - RM120 from Korea....silky and matte type of cloth...easy to wash :)


Oooh...I must say that out door yoga is simply great! Must try once a week with minah yoga....just ignore the onlookers....let's wow them and get them to jump on to the bandwagon :)


Anyhoooo....I am happy with the new yoga home....i used to do hip hop there...errr...i am the oldie amongst the teeny boppers as young as 7 years old :)