Being a yogini

They say you always go back to what you really love. 

So here I am :P 

Ive spent the past months being really busy with work and working out of course. I did plyometrics as I've mentioned in my previous post. I still did zumba every so often although not as often as I did in the past. And of course there's yoga. 

But for the past month or so, I haven't been doing anything else but yoga. Chalk it up to immense work stress and a couple of personal problems. While exercising is a form of stress relief, I deemed it necessary to do more yoga than anything else.

And then I realized in the midst of it all -- I only practiced yoga, but I wasn't really a yogi at heart. I've developed my body and my skills in practice, but I haven't developed the entire eccense of yoga -- which is the union of the body and the soul.  I was calm on the mat, but outside of it I'm not. I was mostly angry and frustrated about so many things happening around me. 

So I did what any normal person would do when you want to develop something : you study, you practice. 

I read up more about yoga and its precepts . I practiced more. Hell I even listened to yoga songs more during the day because I realized it helped me calm down and feel less stressed throughout the day. 

And then something happened one night: I was standing in front of the elevator door of our yoga studio in the business district and on it I read this: 

" Lokha Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu

May all thing be happy and free and may my life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all beings" 

I immediately fell in love with it. And I remember it's sung in one of the songs used in our hot vinyasa class. I loved it so much I had memorized it automatically. 

I realized that's exactly what I want in my life and that's exactly what I want out of my life. I want happiness and freedom and I want to be a giver of such to other people, especially those I love.

That started everything for me. 

I practiced yoga more often, at least 4 times a week. I joined challenges on instagram that made me do at least one yoga pose every day . I felt like a sponge mustering everything I can learn from my practice and applying them in real life. 

I started appreciating myself more and more and I honestly saw a change in me. 

I found myself being less and less egoistic both in class and in the real world. Me. I can end up injured and bent all sorts of ways until I quit on trying a pose. Yeah, I'm still pretty much the same, but when I feel my body giving in already , or when I feel my wrist acting up , I stop. 

I also noticed that I was more forgiving of myself when I couldn't do poses I used to be able to do. In yoga practice that is a very common occurence: some days you can do the pose, some days you can't. And before I used to beat myself up for it. But lately I tend to hear myself say "Ok, maybe not today. I've tried enough." 

I learned the value of self acceptance and self respect more in the past few months. I have to be honest in saying these 2 concepts are so alien to me, I've only started learning about them slowly starting 2009. The idea of being gentle and kind towards oneself is very alien to me. I'm used to beating myself up a lot and abusing my body because I cannot accept its weaknesses. I especially could not accept my wrist injury -- which is why it's been here for 2 years. 

And while I have excellent therapists to teach me these concepts, I realized that the practice of yoga helped me execute what they have been teaching me all this time. Respect your body. Listen to it, it knows more than you do. Accept what you are and what your reality is for the moment. 

The same applies in real life. And I see myself applying these more and more especially at work. 

I found myself becoming calmer and more rational about things. Even at times when I find myself hurting about some things, I find myself just letting it be. As one of my yoga instructors would say " Savasanah... let it go" It was further explained by another yoga instructor of mine saying " Be still. Acknowledge the thoughts that are in your head, but don't hold on to it. Let it be and let it go." 

Golden words for me. Especially when I feel anger, frustration, pain. I focus my energies on being still, letting it be and letting it go. Doing my very best not to inflict more pain onto myself and inflicting unnecessary pain onto others. 

From my readings about yoga, all the more I understood what becoming a yogi really means. It doesn't make you less human. It doesn't make you a robot. When people see yogis the impression is usually this : "Damn they're like hippies who are perennially stoned without a care on the world" Wrong. I learned that yogis just know how to acknowledge, accept and let go. 

The more I practiced, the more I got to develop these attitudes, apart from developing my strength to do more poses of course. I will admit I'm good and I can do a lot of funky poses that most people can't do. But I also have a number of poses that I can't do, some of them I still can't nail after 4 years of practice. I know myself a lot better now. I know my body a lot better. I can finally stop at a basic pose knowing that getting deeper into it will just be futile because I'm not doing it right, henceforth not getting the benefits of the pose. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean I'm slacking off. Everything takes practice. You practice and when your body tells you its tired, you rest. There's always tomorrow. Or the next day. As long as you don't give  up, you will get there. Take for example what my instructor calls my "eternal struggle" -- pincha mayurasana -- I've been working on nailing that pose for almost a year. I can do all sorts of inversions but this I cannot nail. So after class I'd practice it. It doesn't matter to me anymore than some newbies can do it and I can't. I can't do it. I need to practice. I started disecting the elements of the pose: what am I doing wrong? Where's my gaze? And guess what I'm not getting right all this time? I wasn't doing udiyana bhanda (stomach lock) after all. So once I got that, I felt like starting all over again. So yeah, I still can't nail the pose completely now. But I can get into it smoother, I can hold it longer. Everytime I practice pincha I hear all the lectures of my instructors in my head and apply them one by one. I'm slowly but surely getting it. 

Somedays when I practice pincha I can barely get into it. Some days I get into it like a pro, stay for like 5 seconds and then roll over. Tonight, I was able to do pincha with ankle weights, and then did it without the weights and held the pose for 25 seconds. 

Everyday is really a different day. The cliche " Every day is a chance to be better" is true. And in accepting and respecting my body's limits it made it easier for me to let go and be gentle with myself. 

In real life, the same has been happening. 

I'm in a job I'm only learning through experience because I am not an engineer or an architect. I get scolded at by my father (my boss) , I have screw ups once in awhile with clients. And I used to be so hard on myself because I'm being trained to succeed my brilliant father. 

But lately I've become more receptive to what I learn on the job. I've become more receptive to what my dad teaches me, even if he doesn't necessarily express it in the most fatherly way. The operative word is "training" -- let me reiterate my line " I'm being trained to succeed my brilliant father." And the more I work, the more I learn. The more difficulties I face, the more I learn. The more challenges I find myself in, the more my skills as a project manager develop. I disect the elements of my job, the nature of our business and my skillset and try to develop it piece by piece until I get it. Ego outside of the door, as my yoga instructors would say.  And looking at myself now, I may not know everything I wish I already know, but I know more than I used to and apparently I know more than what most of our people know because I'm so exposed .  

In my personal life, the same is true. Everyday is also a learning process. But in my personal life, I hold on more to my favorite chant as I've stated above " Lokha samastah sukhino bhavantu." 

Everything I've learned on the yoga mat makes a lot more sense to me now. I cannot and I will not say I'm a full blown yogi already. But I'm gonna get there. I feel my practice is getting deeper and deeper and it's really affecting me as a person. I'm more at peace despite all the chaos that surrounds me. 

Indeed , you go back to what you really love. 

For me, it's yoga. I can stop doing all forms of exercises but I will never stop doing yoga. I love how it's transforming my life. Being a real yogi makes me like myself even more than I used to. I don't just like myself because I'm pretty or I'm smart or whatnot. It's what's inside me now that matters to me more than makes me love myself even more.  I like what I'm becoming :) 

Lokha Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. 

May all beings be happy and free and may my life be a giving to this happiness and freedom for all. :) 

 

 

Starting point

I deem this entry to be the best follow up to my previous entry.

To start something is always the hardest. There's a lot of exploration involved, a lot of anticipation, admittedly a lot of expenses as well. But just like anything, you need to start somewhere. Luckily for newbies you already have a great mass of materials to read about the particular fitness regimen that suits you the best. Of course, in a perfect world, hiring a dedicated trainer will suit all of your needs. But for us normal folks, there's always the internet. :P

So lets get started.

STEP 1: GOAL SETTING

A lot of people ask me : "Where do I start?"

I always throw this question back at them: " What do you want to achieve?"

I think in almost anything in life, goal setting is essential. It's basic.  You don't need a business degree to realize that.

Well we all know the answer of most people :

1. I want to get thinner
2. I want to be strong
3. I want to look hot / have abs/ have nicer arms / what have you
4. I want to be healthy

Any exercise or sport can give you all those. But it would really help if you know exactly what you want to achieve. To give you an example: I went into plyometrics for strength training. I was very specific.I want to be stronger especially in the upper body. I added in the abs and core training because plyo proved to be so effective for me in those areas. I wasn't so keen on the lower body strength training but I ended up doing some of it because unfortunately, I need it to work on my core. Why, you ask, did I want to be stronger? Because I recognize that in my yoga practice, I may be as flexible as noodle, but I wasn't strong enough to even carry my own weight. My core strength was not enough for poses that required a lot of bodily strength.

I DID get significantly stronger in less than 1 month. I was going to plyo 3x a week for 3-4 hours at a time. (Thats the normal time spent for plyo training by the way). I was supremely happy with it! Except for one set back: I became stiff. My flexibility was also significantly lessened because I was bulking up.

The very goal I wanted was achieved. But it came with a price. So after consulting my yoga instructors and my plyo coach, the resolution was simple: choose what is more important for you and put in more time into the activity that honest it. Plyometrics will not really make you flexible. Yoga makes you strong, yes, but not as fast as plyometrics. In the end, I chose to lessen my plyo training and do more yoga to regain my flexibility. If I continued with my strength training I will be defeating the very purpose I went there for. I needed to balance it off based on my goals and my priorities.

You want a more common example? Lets say tennis. Great cardio. Awesome for strength training. But you'll have to deal with your predominant arm being bigger than the other. Then you'll have to balance it off with say more bicep curls on the left arm . But if you don't care with the uneveness of your arms, then by all means, carry on :P

You get the deal. Know what you really want. Start with that basic requirement first. The rest will follow.

Be mindful that overtime, while you're going through your journey to fitness, your goals may shift or evolve and that's completely normal. Now you may just want to lose weight. In 6 months you may want to focus on strength training , or having cuts in very specific areas of your body. It's normal. It's a never ending process. :)

STEP 2: Choosing an exercise or diet regimen

Now a lot of people would resort to dieting, which is fine. I have nothing against diets, not anymore at least. If your goal is to get thinner, sure. By all means, resort to diets.

But I don't believe in diet alone, not especially if you want a toned body. Not especially if you want to be stronger. In the same manner , I don't believe in purely exercising alone. I will admit to being one of those people who worked out so I can eat whatever I want. If that's your agenda, then I'm telling you right now that you won't see significant results.

In terms of exercise, I found that the difficulty of a lot of people in starting is finding what form of exercise they should engage in. Let's be real : it's not cheap to exercise. Running, which is possibly the cheapest form of exercise, is not even cheap anymore if you want to do it right.

So most people would try something . You've gotta give it to them, at least they try. They try out zumba, they try out going to the gym, they try out pilates, or running. That's the best start for anything.

Heres my advise: Since you've got a goal in mind already, again, search the internet for the best exercises to achieve your goals. If you don't have fitness buddies to drag you to class or make you try stuff, the internet is your best friend.

I give that as an advise because information about the exercise you're about to embark on will help you  avoid unnecessary expenses, tells you what to expect and more importantly, tells you how to prepare for class.

Preparing for the particular exercise that sparks your interest is just as important as showing up and actually doing it. I will go to that later. But for this portion, my point is to research. For the very basic and vain reason of knowing what attire to wear to class at least, consider giving it some time to learn more about the exercise before you jump into it.

Another bit you need to be aware of are your health constraints before you embark on a new exercise. Do you have high blood pressure? Then it may not be advisable to take a heated yoga class. Do you have scoliosis ? Maybe it's not advisable for you to lift weights. Know these restrictions per kind of exercise so that you don't end up getting injured or wasting your time going to the gym only to find out you're not supposed to be doing such exercise for health reasons. Hey, we're in this to get better, not to get injuries.

Be smart about choosing the exercise you want.

One thing I learned from yoga which I believe applies to working out in general : EGO OUT OF THE ROOM. There's no room for your ego when you're working out. It's a work out, not a competition. If anything you're only competing with your past self BUT you need to respect your body.


STEP 3: COMMITMENT

This is the problem I see : people try an exercise once, twice, thrice even. And then they quit when they don't find it enjoyable anymore or when they're feeling so sore they can barely walk the next day.

You have to realize something: in any sport or any exercise, the first few days, nay, weeks even, will be hell. You'll get sore to the point of calling in sick the next day. You'll find it boring. You'll look for results right away. But to really assess any form of exercise, 3 tries is not enough. You won't see results after 3 sessions. You won't get used to it. You won't even understand it in 3 sessions. This is why prior research about the exercise is important. You'll know what to expect.

Be patient. I'd say give the particular exercise at least 2 weeks to assess if this is really something you'd want to invest in. Personally I give myself 1 month.


Let me give you an example.

When I tried out Plana Forma , I got bored. It's isometrics, minimal movements. It was boring as hell for me. But the beginners package was worth 2 classes so i might as well use it. I gave it a shot. I was still bored. Good thing they had what they called the 4x4 challenge: 4 classes a week for 4 consecutive weeks. If you finish the challenge you get 15% off your next enrollment.

So I did it. I enrolled for one month with the intention of finishing the challenge. It was the challenge that prompted me to keep going back until I found the exercise enjoyable. The classes were becoming challenging already especially since I became aware of things I cannot do. Like push ups. And push ups. And let's not forget, push ups. After that one month and I succeeded in finishing the challenge, I saw the results that Plana Forma promised. My body started getting toned, my thighs became stronger, and I found cuts where I didn't know cuts can exist (my thighs most especially). My favorite being my obliques showing up. Oh joy!

I got hooked from then on. For that entire year I think I finished 5 4x4 challenges. I saw the results of my hard work even more when I started wearing braces and I was incapable of eating . What results exactly? ABS. In a span of 1 week, I had cuts in my abs. My friends and my boyfriend called it "Rambo Abs" -- because it really did look like Rambo's abs. It was then that I realized that the joke "I have abs, it's just hidden under my fats" isn't a joke after all. At least not to people who work out regularly.

You see it's understandable that you'll feel frustrated or even lazy to keep exercising when you don't see results. But don't dismiss a particular form of exercise right away. Give it a chance and give yourself a reasonable amount of time to assess if it's really for you .
Now of course there are particular exercises that really don't appeal to you.

I'll give you another example: My bestfriend dragged me to circuit training for her birthday. And of course, I gladly obliged. I liked it, honestly. But I found their packages a bit expensive. During that time, I haven't tried plyometrics. I wanted to try that first before I decide which exercise to choose. I'm paying for yoga already, I cannot possibly pay for 2 more gyms.

Then I finally tried plyometrics and instantly loved it. So much so that I signed up for 12 sessions already and booked for my next appointment. It was love at first soreness. :p


STEP 4:  LEARN THE BASIC FORMS

Alas! You're finally standing on the mat/ ring/ octagon/ whatever, all suited up appropriately, hydrated and ready for battle!

I will remind you again: EGO OUT OF THE ROOM. You're a beginner. And as a beginner , the first thing you need to do on your first few classes is to learn the basic forms.

Laugh all you want but not everyone knows how to do basic forms that you'll only learn over time when you're used to working out already (or if you're not a dancer). Forms such as :

1. Flat back
2. Round back
3. Squat (yes squat, hell even I still get it wrong till now)
4. Tucking your tailbone in
5. Shoulder blades touching
6. Properly sucking your stomach in -- ribs in
7. Squaring your hips


Sounds like something you'll only do in dance? Wrong. Your exercise will be worthless and will just cause you injuries than gains if your form is not correct.

Take squats for example. If you don't know the right way of doing squats, you will end up injuring your lower back and your knees. And you will notice that that body parts that are targeted by squatting will not get sore (your glutes primarily). It means you're doing it wrong.

So get your basics right. You don't need to be Superman and be able to do pull ups, push ups or a hundred crunches right away. These will all be useless if you're doing it wrong. Be patient. The key is doing things right. Progress , not perfection.

 My personal barometer in determining if I'm doing things wrong? Soreness in the target area and if the posture seems too easy for me.

It would help if you can consult your instructor about the proper form, ask if you're doing it right. Or more imporantly, ask if you're using the right muscle group. That way you're really getting the most out of your work out. Nevermind if you're not kicking as high as the others, again, this is not a competition. This is your workout, your body.

You'll be surprised, a lot of people who have been practicing yoga or doing a particular exercise will later on find out they've been doing a particular posture or exercise wrong all this time. Sometimes they'll only find out when a new coach comes in or when a friendly fitness buff notices that their form is wrong. Don't be offended by it. I find that being corrected is such a kind gesture by fellow practitioners. In yoga, for instance, one of my most respected teachers told us in class that there are some poses in yoga that yes, she can do, but apparently, her form is not completely correct . She only found out when she attended teacher training, but not when she was merely practicing yoga with other teachers.

In anything, learning the basics is key. It's just like knowing the alphabet. You can cheat your way out of it, but you can only go so far with your progress. Know the basics by heart. Progress from there. It applies just as well in exercise.


STEP 5: HAVE FUN!!!

Guys, you're working out for yourself. It's your practice. Enjoy it! You're allowed to smile. Nevermind if some people in the gym find you weird. :P

One thing they tell us in Plana forma is this: You're working on your body, not the muscles on your faces. You don't want to end up with a line in the middle of your eyes right? YES, I know, it's hard, you can barely lift your weights, your muscles are burnt like smores , and you can feel that you'll need morphine the next day to address the soreness. It's ok to grunt and all, but as much as possible, avoid it. As one of my Forma instructors told me, if you don't want a particular muscle to get bigger, don't use it. Now unless you have the intention of having massive facial muscles, I suggest you ease up on the face crunch :P


Working out shouldn't feel like a chore for you. If thats how you feel then you're probably doing the wrong exercise or sport. If you find that you're engaged into something that you really can't find anything enjoyable about, please, find something else. You'll just waste your money and your time. Working out is addictive in itself but we all know it takes finding the right exercise for you to make you stay and keep doing it. A simple question to ask yourself: Would you wake up early on a Sunday just to work out?  Be honest with yourself. It's simple. You won't make time for something you don't enjoy. It's like paying to be miserable, which doesn't make any sense.

Have fun! You're doing something great for your body! And if you find that you're not having fun in what you're doing, don't despair. There are sooooo many exercises out there to fit your needs. You just have to give them a shot and a chance. :)

********


So there you have it! For the record, I know that these steps may look tedious. You may say "dude, that's too much work and I'm just looking to start exercising"

True. I'm not saying it's not a tedious process. It is. But I will reiterate: Be smart about this. Its not just your time and your money involved here. It's your body. The worst possible scenario is that you end up getting injured or triggering illnesses that you have because you don't know the effects of the work out you're doing. If you have health issues, consult your doctor first as to what kinds of exercises youre allowed to do.

Some of you may also say I'm just telling you things you already know. But believe me a lot of people don't do these things so they end up getting frustrated and turned off about working out.

At the end of the day, it's your willpower that will really get you through this. If you really want to be fit, you'll do what has to be done . All I'm saying is be smart about it. These are just tips from someone who went through stuff blindly. I was just really lucky that it worked out well for me.

But I find myself consulting the internet , if not my instructors, about fitness. I've been a work out junkie since 2009 and I cannot say I'm doing everything right or that I know everything. It's only recently that I've started being smart about these things, 1. because I've suffered through MANY injuries already and 2. my boyfriend is one hell of a fitness buff who will really reprimand you when you're doing things wrong.

All these that I've shared with you are the things I missed out and learned the hard way. If you know me personally, you won't be surprised, I'm really the kind of person who learns that way. But again, NOT when your body is involved. It's too much of a risk. A torn hamstring, an injured wrist, a dislocated tailbone are not fun to have and if I can help you guys avoid getting injured or sick from working out, then this blog post has done its job.

I'll be sharing more tips as I go along with this blog.

Now I've got your started... there's one last step you need to do after reading this blog and as cheesy as it sounds, to quote Nike...

JUST DO IT. :P

Everything has to start somewhere

Ah yes, I always have to give a historical count , don't I? Well, as a blogger I always deem it fit to give context. I'm sure any reader understands that. :)

My Past Life

Oh boy. Where do I even begin?

I'm currently 32 years old. I'm not the healthiest person in the world.

 For the benefit of young readers (translation: those in their 20's to date), during my 20's, exercise wasn't as mainstream as it is at present. The most exercise we did was jogging around parks. Men would play basketball for leisure. Women , at least most of us, jogged or occasionally swam. But fitness was not as heavily promoted then as has been for the past 2-3 years.

I lived my 20's life the way any person from my generation did : I drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, worked my ass off until ungodly hours and lived on coffee and cigarettes the entire day. That was my life for a good decade of my life. I attempted to jog and swim as regularly as I could but I always lost interest in it. My focus then was work, work , work. Stress was relieved by a lot of drinking and smoking. Work was so stressful that I didn't even feel hunger during the day. I ate whatever I wanted. I'm blessed with a naturally thin body , so much that I can eat a quarter pounder everyday and I didn't gain weight. In fact , I maintained my weight of 90 lbs for as long as I can remember. 

Suffice to say, that was a whole decade of my life living such an unhealthy lifestyle. I have to be honest: it was a liability for me that I was perennially thin even if I ate like a prisoner on death row. I didn't find the need to exercise. I was young, I can do whatever I want. Exercising was such a chore. And mind you, I hate going to gyms. I didn't believe in it. I didn't find anything about it that was enjoyable. It really did not help that I was thinner than everyone else who were busting their butts off with all those equipments and weights. The few times I actually jogged, I only did it because it was my alone time to think. That's just about it. Nothing about being fit. I believe it's what normal 20-something folks during my time felt. Unlike the people in their 20's nowadays, thanks to the incessant promotion of fitness, when I was their age, I thought nothing of fitness. I believed it was unnecessary for me because to me, exercising was only for one goal: getting thin and staying thin, which I already was. So my thinking then was "what's the point?" The Turning point 2008 happened and my life dipped tremendously -- I was 70 lbs, gaunt, and I started getting sick.  I failed my heart stress tests, I couldn't even stand running on treadmill for more than 3 minutes without turning pale. I was a regular in hospitals just to recover. All my recklessness took its toll, mentally, physically, even psychologically. I was always tired and depressed.

It didn't help that a lot of personal problems surfaced one after the other during that time. It was severely aggravated by my health. EVERYTHING I did in my 20's literally whiplashed and bogged me down.
I had not concern for my health until I had to. The stubborn, arrogant old me, I was forced to health. It wasn't by choice. My health was failing so fast and drastic measures were taken to address it. Bouncing back 

 It took almost a year to pick up the pieces again, start regaining my life back. I stopped relying on alcohol to relieve stress. I took time off to travel and travel endlessly. God bless my exile to America that from 80lbs in 2009, I gained a good 30 lbs and went back to Manila looking chubbier at 110 lbs. It was a pretty tough time, especially since you're rid of your comfort zone. But that time I knew I had to do something to repair the body that I've severely damaged. 

Part of my recovery was to do yoga meditation. And I thought to myself, I'll die of boredom in that. Luckily , my girlfriends literally dragged me to bikram yoga class. My doctor gave me the go signal to do bikram yoga over yoga meditation instead. 

And that jump started everything for me. My road to fitness started there. 

I went to bikram yoga class at least 4 times a week. It was hell for me the first few weeks. I'm very sensitive to heat. I literally get dizzy when you put me under the sun for more than 10 minutes. But bikram yoga became my training ground -- I wanted to get over that weakness of mine. True enough, after a month, I was craving for the hot room already. 

Yoga actually changed my life. It jumpstarted a lot of good things that I have in my life right now. Now I can go on and on talking about yoga, but I'll get to that in separate entries. But like I said in my previous post, I am primarily a yogini. I love it. You can tell me to stop doing any other exercise regimen but you can never tell me to stop practicing yoga. EVER. I love it too much. :) 

The 

My Present So there you go. That's where it all started for me. Right now, I'm still doing yoga , particularly bikram and vinyasa (both heated). I occasionally do jivamukti yoga that instantly became my favorite form of yoga practice. Now as I said, I'm not the healthiest person in the world. I'm not the strongest either. I'm flexible (thank you God) but as far as sheer muscle strength is concerned, I don't have much of it. My flexibility can only take me so far, but I've always felt frustrated that I couldn't do certain poses because my upper and lower body were so weak. Hence I started cross training. I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous that I cross train for yoga. People usually cross train for more obviously intense sports like basketball. But hey, I understand anyone who finds it ridiculous, yoga is just as intense if you do the poses correctly. In 2010 I started doing Plana Forma, which is essentially barre, made famous by New York based company Physique 57. I did this for 2 years and I was pleasantly happy with the results I got. In 2011, I started doing Zumba as well to put in cardio into my regimen. I've been so scared to do cardio work despite my love for dancing because I know how faulty my heart is. But again, it's a weakness I need to address. So I did it anyway. At present I compliment my yoga practice with my newest discovery: plyometric training. It's mostly popular among professional basketball players (well, go to my gym if you want to see the hot shots of the Philippine Basketball Association). I still do zumba as well. The most latest addition to my regimen being healthy eating. I'll get into the specifics of each and every exercise in later posts. Something to look forward to . Hey, that's why I'm blogging all these anyway. :) So there you have it. From a grim past life to where I am at present. It's been 4 years since I started all these and I've never been happier. There's absolutely no lie in all the things youve read about the benefits of exercising. They're all true. From the endorphin high that makes you happy to clear skin to strength, they're all true. So I'm telling you already, coming from a person who was once a complete opposite of who I am now, exercising and living a healthy lifestyle really makes a huge difference and it's for the best. The best part about it is it's never too late. One thing I learned from Bikram Yoga class: it's never too late to start. But you have to start somewhere. Be patient with yourself. Respect your body. And during class, give it your best shot. I can give you all the cliches in the world on fitness but only YOU can start things for yourself. I can blab and blab and attest to the benefits of healthy living but like a lot of things in life, you need to experience it for yourself. START somewhere. Everything has to start somewhere. :)

Thar she sweats! (and blogs about it!)

And I'm back to blogging!

I've been a regular blogger since 2004 and I blogged mostly about personal stuff until I life happened and I just stopped blogging completely. My life, dare I say, just became too exciting I had no time to blog anymore.

Little did I know that I'll be starting yet again. Nothing about personal stuff anymore, but about something that changed my life completely, and for the best : FITNESS.

How generic, isn't it? Since the tail end the last decade we've seen the growing interest of people in fitness. More and more frequented gyms, more and more fitness programs surfaced and more and more people started busting their asses to be fit. It's not rocket science, everyone witnessed this. From running to yoga to crossfit -- activities that were exclusive to athletes have trickled down to the common people . So rampant that you'll know there's a marathon the next day when you come home late night Fridays after your drinking spree and roads are starting to be blocked already.

Before I proceed to why I'm suddenly blogging about this, I need to make this clear: I am NOT a fitness instructor. I am not promoting a particular exercise technique. I'm an ordinary person. I am, primarily, a yogini (aka a girl who practices yoga). That's just it. I just love yoga so much that I'm probably the funniest cross trainer you'll ever meet: I cross train to get stronger for my yoga practice. :P

I decided to finally blog about my journey to fitness for the same reason other ordinary fitness buffs blog about their own regimens: to share how we got to where we are now as ordinary people who are living a healthier lifestyle. We're not in this for the fad, or the hopes of becoming a fitness personality. We have different motivations for choosing a healthier lifestyle. We have different interpretations, different manners of achieving our goals. I'm merely adding to the many blogs you'll find online about fitness.

This is my story . I hope readers can find some useful tips and information from this. If not, I hope you can find inspiration to live a healthier lifestyle.

Have fun reading !