Fitness: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 1

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Epic Heat Day 1

Long intro because I haven’t posted in a while! To skip directly to my thoughts on the challenge, please click here.

Wooo! It’s been a while since I uploaded a post and I have to admit, I’ve had one stuck in my drafts that I’ve simply never completed. I have had trouble concentrating and get distracted way too easily, and – ehhem – I don’t typically prioritise writing blog posts. Much has happened lately but I haven’t really written about it.

Looks like this blog is really mostly a faith, food and fitness blog haha. Food has been business as usual lately (we go through phases of eating healthy then eating junk. Gotta keep it balanced, but I have a few restaurant review posts I want to get up) though faith may need an update!

This post is going to be a fitness one though.

Fitness posts tend to be the ones I’m most consistent with, but since finishing Chloe’s last challenge, I haven’t really started a new one, so haven’t really posted anything. I have, however, started attending wushu classes! I’ve only just started and I’m pretty weaksauce, so there isn’t really much to blog about in that regard.

It feels like ages ago since I finished Chloe’s challenge but it was only 6/13, a couple of weeks ago. I feel like I’ve rested way too much and have become lazy, but in reality I tried out a wushu class on 6/16, only a few days after completing Chloe’s challenge, then wanted to try a different place on 6/18 but ended up not being able to make it.

Last week I went to wushu class on Tuesday and Thursday and did a Caroline Girvan workout on Wednesday as well as some wushu practice. I wanted to go on Saturday as well but ended up not being able to make it either. So, actually, I still worked out 2-3x/week over the past couple of weeks!

Not as much as I’d like, but perhaps I’m being a little too hard on myself for feeling lazy. There were days when I felt like I wanted to do some wushu practice, but I just struggled to find the mental energy to start, and then I just gave up and didn’t bother. I haven’t really been out for walks either (mostly because it’s been sweltering these days. Highs of 35-37°C all last week, ugh.)

I am, however, thoroughly pleased to announce that I was able to do 5 proper pushups a couple of days ago.

I watched a video about the power of the mind and how most of the time our minds give up before our bodies do, so I figured why not just try. Try actual push ups. So I did. And I did one. Then two… then three… four… five. Then I stopped. I probably could have done a couple more. But I was already thrilled.

This is the first time I’ve been able to do proper pushups. I’m actually amazed. Two years ago I set my goal as being able to do 10 proper form pushups. I’m finally getting there. I mean, let’s be honest, my form wasn’t like amazing. I could have bent my elbows a lot deeper. But I also wasn’t on my knees, and that’s a huge win for me.

Yesterday I went to wushu class again and I plan to go again tomorrow. Today? I tried out day 1 of Caroline’s Epic Heat. I don’t think wushu 2x/week is enough exercise for me (I know, I don’t even recognise myself sometimes!) so I’d like to supplement my week with other workouts in between, where I can do a quick workout and also get in some wushu practice.

The hardest thing for me is starting my workout, but I’ve realised that if I’m doing something more structured (like a CT/CG Challenge), then my body just naturally prepares for warming up and working out. Good to know I’ve actually developed some degree of discipline with all the workout challenges I’ve been doing!

I realised I struggle to start wushu practice on my own because it’s just mentally taxing to try to remember what I’ve learned and then also have to practice it without someone guiding me. I’m such a beginner, and I don’t have the mental capacity to “teach” myself and push myself at the same time. It’s daunting, so my brain just gives up before starting.

I don’t want to warm up and get it done, especially since I don’t know how long I’d actually exercise for and I hate getting sweaty for only a 10min workout. But if I’m already sweating and warmed up from a workout, then I’ve already conquered the first hurdle. It’s far easier to tack on 5-10mins of wushu practice to the end of a workout when I’m already in the zone.

So that’s where Caroline comes in! Chloe’s new challenge doesn’t launch until 11th July, and I’m not sure what it is yet, plus I’ll need something I can take at my own pace between wushu classes starting now, so Caroline it is.

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Fitness: 2022 Summer Shred Challenge Week 3

Image screenshot: Chloe Ting 2022 Summer Shred Challenge

Again this post comes super late, not that I haven’t finished the challenge already, but I just haven’t found the time/energy to write this post. Not to say I just haven’t had time at all, I must admit I haven’t been prioritising a lot of the things I’ve wanted to do as I’ve either felt a little paralysed by my never-ending to-do list, or I have too many things that I want to do so I’ve been doing bits of all of them lol. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s my current state of mind.

Fitness-wise, I think I have improved significantly and it shows on my body. I added a couple of progress photos at the bottom of previous post and it hasn’t changed much since then, but compared to a couple of years ago? Oh yeah, the change is pretty dramatic.

I mean, just looking back on my wedding photos you can already clearly see such a big difference, and I wasn’t even at my heaviest at that time.

Anyways, now that I am this far in my fitness journey, I have started to make these workouts more of my own. I still follow Chloe’s movements for the most part, but I will also change it up wherever I see fit to target the areas I feel like I need to work on (my left side, ehhem).

This Summer Shred Challenge was only 3 weeks long so this is the final 2022 Summer Shred post! Goodness, it absolutely flew by. As with my last post, I wasn’t up for writing a daily update so I just noted the workouts I did and put my concluding thoughts at the end.

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Fitness: 2022 Summer Shred Challenge Week 2

Image screenshot: Chloe Ting 2022 Summer Shred Challenge

This entry comes late but it also comes with a couple of updated “after” photos. Not gonna lie, I was kinda shocked at how much my body has changed lately, and I felt so proud of my progress I’m finally posting them here.

As with my previous post, I only made a few notes throughout the week and then wrote my closing thoughts once the week of workouts was over. In this case, I didn’t have time to write on Sunday/Monday as I was down in LA, but now that I’m back home I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and finish up this entry.

The Journals feature was recently released on the Chloe Ting website but I personally still prefer to track my own workouts and progress on my blog, though I’m finding I have less time these days to dedicate to it. I have a bunch of posts that I’ve been meaning to write up but haven’t had the time.

I do want to find time to blog a little more these days though. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in seeing what 2 years of Chloe Ting workouts can do, read on…

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Fitness: 2022 Summer Shred Challenge Week 1

Image screenshot: Chloe Ting 2022 Summer Shred Challenge

This post is a little different from the ones I usually do, not least because this post is going up on Day 8 of the challenge rather than going live Day 1 and being updated throughout the week. I’m trying something new, I guess? But also the past week has been… exhausting. I am exhausted lol. I exercised a lot over the last week, and I wonder if I maybe overdid it. I felt very inspired to exercise but now my body is just screaming for rest.

Work has been super busy, I also haven’t fully caught up on sleep, I’ve also been distracted and perhaps a little too invested in the Depp v Heard trial, and any free time I’ve had has been spent either exercising or practising piano, which I am very glad to be getting back into these days.

Don’t worry, I don’t think I’ve developed an exercise addiction – I just mean I’ve been walking more. Walking is such good cardio and very underrated, in my opinion. It gives me time to think or clear my head and it’s just nice to be outside in general. So over the past week I’ve been going for about an hour’s walk (almost) every day aside from my Chloe Ting Challenge.

But since I haven’t been updating my progress daily, I’ll just be listing all the workout videos I completed along with any additional exercise I did, and writing a summary at the very end. This one will be shorter! I don’t have the time or mental capacity to write more than that really.

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Fitness: Caroline Girvan IRON Series Week 4

Image credit: Caroline Girvan Facebook

Alrighty! So slight update of my schedule: I’m actually not going to start Chloe’s next challenge until 23rd May because my schedule will be busy for the first half of next week, one of my teammates will be busy for the second half of next week, and our final teammate’s current challenge ends on 21st May. So starting the week after works out perfectly for all of us.

That does mean that I have two weeks left before I start something else… I have already committed to doing week 4 of this IRON series so I’m going to continue, but we’ll see what happens next week. I might take a week off so my body can rest, but I’m also loving working out so much these days that I don’t want to take a week off.

I definitely won’t have time to exercise on 16/17th May, but we’ll see what happens after. I might finish off next week with her Beginner EPIC again, or just pick and choose which 3 IRON week 5 videos that I want to do. Regardless, this week, my schedule will look like this:

MONTUEWEDTHUFRISATSUN
Day 15Day 23Day 17Day 18RestDay 19Rest

Since I’ve already done day 16 during a prior week, I’m going to replace it with next week’s hamstring/glute workout so I can still get my hamstring workout in. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

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