Having "Me" Time

It’s almost the end of January, I have a zillion things to do yet right now all I am thinking about are socks. Yes, you read it right. Socks. Those soft cushy things you put on your feet to keep warm and wear with shoes. What? Are you serious? Yes, I am. I am very serious. I have to confess, I have actually been thinking about socks for a few days now so it’s about time I wrote about it. It all started when I resumed my running schedule after a few weeks of rest. Most days, running is a bore and I do it just so that I can eat and have that delicant piece of sinful chocolate that melts in your mouth. However, one day a week or so again, I ran and ran and for the first time in a long time, I felt that running was enjoyable. It was fun, relaxing and I enjoyed feeling my feet pacing up and down on the treadmill. I felt bouncy and my feet were happy. I could run more than I had for awhile. I wondered if it was runner’s high, but it wasn’t. I thought that maybe it was because I had...

Many people think health comes along when you have another "half" another "soul" to be by your side. Some say "love" will make you lose weight, be healthy.  There is some truth to it, but I think that is somewhat oversimplified.  You do not need to have "someone" to get healthy.  The only reason you should get healthy and lose weight is because you dearly want to yourself.  Because you love yourself and you think that you are worthy of the attention.  Once you have found that love for yourself, then love for another comes more easily. Health is a great cure for the soul. It rejunevates, energizes and gives you strength you previously didn't know you had.  You can somehow run those few kilometers and walk up flights of stairs without feeling tired. Walks that were once unappealing, now seem like a little walk in the garden.  The hot weather becomes less annoying, and the chair more comfortable. Yes, even just sitting on chairs becomes a...

I feel like I've somewhat passed a strenuous physical exam after recovering from a super strong strain of flu that had my brain dizzy, muscles sore and made me just collapse into a sleeping beauty every night.  My immune system is now super charged and ready to take on what come.  Now it's time to get ready for the Bangkok Marathon in November.  This week, I've started doing extra long runs at the gym. (Not really that long for a professional runner, but long for me) I usually run two sets of ten minutes in the mornings, but that is really not far at all.  It takes me only roughly a little over a kilometer.  To make 5km, I'm going to have to keep running and running and running. Running for around 40 minutes non-stop. To do that, this week I've been doing running stretches of 20 minutes.  Knowing that my brain would want to give up after ten minutes, I eased myself into running 20 minutes by lowering the speed slightly, but keeping ...

This morning while running, I thought about the upcoming Bangkok Marathon .  I have to get a little more serious in my running.  In 53 days, the Bangkok Marathon will be held as it has been for the past few years.  On November 20, 2011 tens of thousands of people will be out running in the wee mornings of the day.  I will be there.  Let's all be there.  Let's go out, have some exercise and enjoy the experience. For those of you who have never joined the marathon, let me tell you this.  Once you've experienced it, you will want to keep coming back.  It's fun, it's exciting and its open the everyone.  How often do you get to run on the street by the Grand Palace and watch the sunrise?  You don't have to run the entire 42km marathon.  They have the 10K as well as the 5K for you to choose from.  I will be doing the 5K.  I want to run it all and not run. The first time I joined the marathon was 4 years ago, I w...

This morning I went off to run before work as normal.  I push my lazy self off my comfy bed and whilst driving to the fitness, I wonder if there will ever come a day when the "lazy me" is gone and dead.  It's been almost two years since I've started running and every morning it's a battle to ward off the "lazy me."  Some days, it's quiet and weak and I can easily push it away, some days it has strength and wants to take over the "active me."  Nevertheless, as long as I keep my head, the "active me" remains in top place.  This battle, however, stops the minute I am in the car and once I start running it is as if I am transported into a different dimension. Another world. This morning's world was one of peace and tranquility.  I ran without my headphones. Usually I'd spend my runs catching up on the morning news, watching Haslinda Amin recap on Bloomberg or perhaps the BBC news, but today I wanted to try running without ...

My breakfast discussion this morning concerned attitudes and how most things in life depends on how you view and see things.  Definitely true.  While bicycling later on this past afternoon at the gym I read an article on how exercise is about setting goals and believing you can do it. Also very true.  I've experienced it myself and I know losing weight for me required first and foremost a change in attitudes and the way I perceived things.  You may think that achieving is mainly about reaching the goal, but in reality, how you get to the goal is really a process that involves a lot of changes in attitudes and how you think. As we all probably know,  if you want to accomplish something, you have to set a goal.  What is it you really want in the end?  What is the end result?  This is simple enough.  To achieve anything we need a good and clear goal that is, of course, measurable.  Take for example losing weight.  I wanted to lo...

Many of us can be a little lazy when it comes to exercising or maintaining our health.  Okay, not just "a little" we can be "very" lazy.  It's been over a year since I've lost the 15kgs worth of fat and so far I've been pretty good at maintaining it.  I have not gained more than 2 kgs and when it goes up a kg or so, I push it down.  I am, however, starting to feel the laziness creep up on me. Since the New Years,  moving house, unpacking, traffic, and whatever excuse I can think of, I've been waking up a little later each morning.  I rush out to run yet it is losing steam.  I sleep a little later each night which is terrible when I need to wake up early.  In addition, when I come home each day the table is set full of food.  Oh how tempting all this wonderful food is.   When I insist on having fruits, worried looks appear.  Perhaps I will be lacking some proteins or vitamins.  One must surely eat more...

This morning I went running and still even though its been over a year since I started running, I still can't quite get the breathing right.  I take short breaths in and long breaths out.  I gasp for air and my legs start to go all wobbly.  All I can think is when do I next get to stop.  Oxygen isn't getting to me fast enough.  I feel like I'm suffocating a little.  I can feel my lungs heave against my chest.  I reach the end of my minutes and I heave for air. This is not how my breathing should be and it makes me tire more easily than I should.  There has to be a better way to breathe.  I can't quite get over my neighbour who is running along as if he were out on the countryside smiling, looking left and right.  His breathing is calm and relaxed.  His running looks so easy.  His feet are quiet.  I take a peak at his speed and he's running at 10.5 km/hour!  Wow. That's ve...

If you are a member of my facebook page, you probably already saw some photos I've posted from this morning's Cancer Care Charity Fun Run.  This is my second time running the 5K and the first time I did it alone without Alex motivating me on.  I have to say it wasn't easy considering I was having stomach cramps, but then running is all a mind game.  Once you get in it, you just have to try and win over. The mind game for me started the minute I woke up.  I wasn't feeling very well and my lazy me kept telling me to just sleep in and forgo it.  So many reasons popped into my head in a matter of minutes.  Luckily, the past year and a half the lazy me's voice has been growing quieter and quieter as it had been losing its battles to the active me. "Active" me jumped into attack the "lazy" me and it told me to just get my lazy bum off my bed, get ready and get to the park.  It told me that when I was there, if I was still truly feeling ill, the...

Now the year has started and the holiday festivities are slowing losing momentum (at least until the Chinese New Year) let's all start the year out being fit and healthy!    A lot of people start the year with a resolution to lose some weight and be healthy.  It often works for a couple months and then somehow the goal gets lost amidst all the work and whatever life brings us and we end the year having gained weight rather than having lost weight. That was me for probably more than a decade or so. No more.  It still feels surreal having lost 15kg (32 lbs).  This time last year, I was still working on my last few kgs. Wow. This year, for the first time, my goal is to just maintain my weight and I tell you it feels WONDERFUL. It's amazingly less stress and I don't have to start the year with a guilty feeling knowing I didn't make it happen last year and so I have to do it again this year.  I can move on with my l...

With all the festivites going on, Christmas and New Years is undoubtedly one of my favorite time of the year.  I get to meet friends, catch up over lovely meals accompanied by weather that is nice and cool in winter. It doesn't snow in Thailand, but the temperature drops to the mid-twenties (celsius).  It's lovely and cool.  Perfect.  And as one of my friends put on her facebook status it is the "perfect weather to get fat."  I think this perfectly describes how we all feel. A lot of activities during Christmas and New Years undeniably revolve around eating.  We meet, we eat.  We celebrate, we eat.  We travel, we eat. Then we sleep in between those "meets" and "eats."  Oh how easy it is to pack on those pounds that won't just go away.  Nevertheless, do not fear them...there is a way to overcome them and one tip is to Plan Your Meals . I used to never plan my meals.  I'd just eat what I felt like eating each meal a...

When you go to the gym or fitness to workout there is a certain sense of  fashion at each one.  In some places in Bangkok, the norm is just an old t-shirt with a pair of shorts, anything goes.  In other gyms (which may cater to the more young and 'hip' professionals) the norm might include form fitting tops and matching bottoms especially designed for sports.  Those were the main differences I had observed in Bangkok.  In Singapore though, there is a much more colourful sense of style in fitness clothes. The mix of clients who come to the M-hotel in Singapore is diverse and multi-cultural.  Singapore is diverse and multi-cultural.  Everywhere I go I see a mix of expatriates from the western world, indians, chinese, and people from other countries.  However, I never expected that this cultural diversity would be apparent in the gym. I never knew before how muslim females dressed when they went to the gym to exercise.  T...

When packing for my two week trip to Singapore I am always at a dilemma as to what to bring. I want to travel light so that I'd have space to bring my shopping and gifts back yet there are also a few essentials I think I should bring.  The list gets longer the older I'm getting.  For the first time now, I am actually now including running shoes and running clothes into my "list."  They are needed because I know that for two weeks I'd be doing a lot of eating and sitting.  Trips like these are always a danger to the waistliine.  And so, this trip I brought along all my running gear.  On Tuesday, I woke up early and got myself down to the gym by 7am.  I have to say I expected it to be empty.  We're in a hotel I thought.  Who would work out so early? Most people would be gettting ready to eat breakfast or go out to their meetings.  This was still my still chubby inner me at work. To my surprise, the little hotel gym was packed....

It's a day after the run, and although I only did 5K somehow my legs are still sore.  It must have been the way I "tiptoe" run or perhaps I'm just not used to so much running.  Funny though, even with sore legs,  the exhiliration from the run still lingers on.  I'm still very much stress free and happy.   I ran not for someone else but rather for myself.  It's something one does to challenge oneself.  When I signed up for 5K, I knew it wasn't much at all if you talk to a "real" runner, but for me who a year ago was still 15kgs (32lbs) heavier it was quite something.  I had started running to lose weight.  Prior to that, the last time I remember running was during my childhood days.   I had forgotten how it was to run and be "active."  So used was I to sitting in my office chair for 10 hours on end staring at the computer screen.  I had derived comfort from sitting, eating, and websurfing....

An event I had been looking forward to with much anticipation finally arrived today: The Bangkok Marathon.  The last time I ran (well walked most of it) was two years ago when I was still very chubby and very unfit.  This year, I registered for the 5K and being fitter I wanted to see how I would do. I wanted to see how actually running most of the 5K would turn out to be like.  It was also a fun event that Alex and I could both do together. The day started out early.  The 5K runners or what they call "micro-marathon" were to start running at 6.20am and due to the massive amount of people, I wanted to get there early.  Roads had been blocked around the beautiful historic area of Bangkok since early morning when the marathoners started out on their 4 hour long run.  Maybe one day I'll be crazy enough to do it, but for now I am happy with 5K.  There is a certain feeling of anticipation and unexplicable fun that comes with participating in su...

Going out to run the other day, I tried something different with my laces.  Usually I just pull it at the ends and then tie the shoes without much thought to it.  I mean, I've been tieing my own shoe laces for almost three decades and at this age, who can't tie their shoe lace?  I never gave much thought to it until one day I realized my shoes weren't feeling as comfortable as they should have. Some days I felt like they were just an extension of my body and I could run easily.  Some days they felt big and bulky.  So in an attempt to discover what's making me feel so different, I slowed down my pace and carefully tied my shoes.  Instead of just pulling the ends, I went through the middle of the laces and pulled them tight with both my fists.  I pulled it up all the way to the end which made the shoe seem to fit a bit more and then I tried to make my bow looked good. Surprisingly, it made a huge difference to how my shoes felt on my feet a...

With all my rantngs on good eats around Bangkok and around Malaysia, I assure you I have not given up on running.  I still do go running at least twice a week even after I hurt my back and had to give myself a one week break.  It has been hard to regain the momentum I had when I was on my diet after a week off, and a lazy week after, but it is important not to give up and stop running if you want to maintain that health you worked so hard for. I am planning to run the 5K at the Bangkok Marathon which is held annually every year in November and its about time I started training seriously.  If you are reading this, I hope you will join me this year. It's on November 21st, 2010.  ( http://www.bkkmarathon.com/ ) The last time I did the 5K (which by-the-way is considered  Micro-marathon, Walk and Fun Run which means they don't even consider it a "real" run) was in 2007 when I was totally unfit and unprepared.  My good friend invited me to join and ...

The older one gets, the more prone to injury one becomes.   I never understood all this, until I've started to feel the effects of age.  I still consider myself young, yet sometimes my body tells me otherwise.  If I bend down and up too fast, I can pull a muscle and hurt myself.  It's painful.  Simple things that once before you did without a second thought to it, now require some thinking.  Things have to be done slightly slower and with more care to prevent any unwanted injuries.  Nevertheless, I'm not going to let it stop me from doing things I want to! As we know, running without the proper form can be dangerous to your knees.  However, something else that is equally important and a lot of people overlook is stretching your muscles before the run.   Before you hop on the treadmill, take a few minutes of your time and stretch the muscles.  It's important though that you don't stretch the muscles and hold them...

Believe it or not, I've been running regularly for over a year now.  Compared to my very inactive lifestyle before, it still astonishes me when I think about it.  Nevertheless, I am still not bored of running, and I don't think I will ever give up running.  There are always new challenges and something for me to focus on improving.  When I first started running, I had trouble breathing.   I found myself wondering if I should breathe through my nose or my mouth.   I gasped for air.   Now I am focusing on how to ensure that I run properly.  Just because I can run, doesn't mean I am running properly.  It is essential that I run properly to avoid unnecessarily injuring myself. I noticed that when I ran, I was always "louder" than all the other runners next to me.  I didn't think much about it.  I thought it was because I was "big" and so my weight on the treadmill was the reason for all that noise....

It's important to listen to our bodies and know when to take a break and when to ignore it and keep on exercising.  Although it's wonderful if you are managing to keep a fit schedule of exercise three times a week and an active lifestyle, don't over push yourself when you are ill.  If you come down with a flu or get ill, don't be so hard on yourself.  Give your body a break. Give it a break when it needs it.  Not when the "mind" needs it. I know myself that I get lazy and tend to want to stop running or going to the gym, so I make myself go by telling myself  "No excuses."   I make myself get up and go.   It works wonders.  I go to the gymn and I exercise.   I feel wonderful. Sometimes though, I tell myself  "No excuses" even when I need to stop and just let my body rest.   I catch myself not yet fully recovered yet I want to go so that I am still on schedule.  It becomes a little obsession...