Today is Tuesday.

Full working day. NOT half, that's for tomorrow...


Got too excited. DOH!

Long Weekend Coming Up....

which means I can run run run!! Ok, that's exaggerating. Just to give an update, I still can't run a decent distance without having to stop and catch my breath. The farthest I can do is 300 meters. Three. Meters. FRAK!!

Homer, I feel ya!

It's going to be half working day today. I can finish my errands in the afternoon. Do some planks. Maybe cross some movies out from my movie list. Or do planks while watching.

Tomorrow, I'll "jalk". I need to increase my endurance level. Any suggestions??

Just the way you Plank

How Long Can You Plank?

asked Ben Davis of Ben Does Life. He made it to 86 seconds.  That's 1 minute, 43 26 seconds. Almost 2 minutes!!

Ben, planking it

What is a Plank?

The plank is a great exercise to retrain your ab muscles to work more efficiently. It is an isometric exercise for the stomach. "Iso" means "same", and "metric" means "length". Isometric literally means same length, or isometric simply means that you hold one position without moving.

You'd think that doing a plank is easy. Let me tell you, it's not easy! No kidding. Well, it wasn't easy for me, at least. I tried the plank last night and guess how long I was able to hold the position.

...

....

16 seconds. SIXTEEN! Yes, sixteen pitiful seconds. I'm such a loser, gaaah!

Anyway, I consulted Mr. Google about planking and I found a cool website called Plank Challenge. The goal is to plank everyday for 7 weeks (November 1 - December 19). Set a goal (for how long you will hold the plank pose) and you should be able to do it by December 19.

Hmmm, should I join?!

#30 Make our Family Tree

Don't you ever wonder who your ancestors were? Who were your parents grand parents and what they were like?

photo: mommylife.net

Last week I decided to add one more thing to my list. Make our Family Tree. It's fun because you get to know stuff about your relatives and actually know HOW you are related. For example, Gracey and I are related. We tell people we are cousins...but actually, Gracey is my dad's cousin only she's much closer to "my generation".

We have one more "cousin" who's still floating about our family tree. We are related but we can't find the connection, yet. This is so exciting!!

Right now, we are using www.geni.com. You add your details and you can invite your family, extended family, other relatives and even in laws! Once they join, they can update their own profiles, add their own "branches" and so on. You can also have a nice print out of your family tree (with a fee, of course)

I got this idea from watching Who Do You Think You Are?. This is extreme...going back in time and all. I'll settle for what I can dig up.

As of this posting, I have the names of my paternal great grandparents. I'll have to get more info on them.

Anlene - Walk for Bones

Anlene - Walk for Bones Event

This event is to help raise awareness of osteoporosis. Apparently, one in three women in the Middle East suffering from this disease.

1 KM Walk - Route

It's not much but I'm sure it would be fun. I get to exercise, get free check up and loads of goodies! (who wouldn't want goodies, right?!)

More info on Anlene Walk for Bones 2010.

Holiday - 5 days work free

In celebration of Eid, we had a 5 holiday. The first three days were fine. Went for a "jalk" [jog-walk combo] for two days straight. Timed my 100 meter and 200 meter sprints.

I can't say I'm happy with the results but I'm not complaining. The fact that I was able to run is good enough.

while waiting for Gracey...

What's also good about having a national holiday, I get to have more running buddies. Gracey is my cousin ... sort of. [I won't bore you with our genealogy]

Gracey...ready to run

Aside from the running track, the park also has warm up/exercise facilities which we used ... (for a while). I managed to do 5 push ups and 10 sit ups. Not much but I'm still going to put it out here so I can compare after a few months.

I decided to rest on Wednesday. My body started complaining.

On Thursday, I had to accompany Gracey to the hospital. We stayed there till Friday morning. When we got home, I finished the house chores and got everything ready for the work week. Today, Saturday, is the first day of work. I haven't run for four days now. I should really get my groove back. Hopefully tomorrow.

Tired

photo credit: mytreadmilltrainer.com

 
My body complained today. I was so tired and aching all over that I decided to just stay home and rest. For the first time since last week, I had eight hours of sleep. Then I had breakfast. Watched Dying Young. Had nice hot "goto and tokwa". It's a good day today.

Tomorrow I'll accompany my cousin to the hospital so I probably won't be able to run in the morning. I'll try to do it at night. I'll also post some photos and stats next. But today... today is a good day.

List within a List

Watch Ten Best Movies Ever

I had a hard time finishing this "mini" list because the ranking for the best 10 movies would change every year ... more or less. So I decided that I'll just pick the ten that I haven't really watched yet.

Here goes:

1. Casablanca  (1942) - consistently ranks near the top of the list of greatest films of all time.

 2. Gone with the Wind (1939) - another one of the greatest and most popular movies of all time. (why have I not watched this before? .. I really don't know)

3. Citizen Kane (1941) - often considered THE greatest movie of all time.

4. Schindler's List (1993) - ranked # 8 in the 2007 list of best American movies of all time. Now this one, I've seen before but I was not really paying attention to what I was watching. *laughs*

5. The Graduate (1967) - ranked 7th in AFI's 100 years ... 100 movies.

Continued here

*photos and info gathered from wikipedia.org*

Sprint - Walk Weekend

This is where I go for my weekend "jalk" ...  cross between a jog and a walk. (HAHA!!)
We started late today so we were not able to do our usual 5 laps. BUT, today we actually started sprinting.  Spring Sprint 100 meters then walk 100 meters, repeat and rinse.

I timed my 100 meter run at 28.1 secs.

Slow, I know. I was able to do 12 seconds 20 years ago. =)

I'll be documenting my "stats" now so I'll know my progress. Hopefully I'll improve.

Personal Finance Blogs

As I've mentioned in my previous post, I'll post the links of my favorite personal finance blogs here. Check it out:

List of Personal Finance Blogs 

• Blogging Away Debt - a personal finance blog. This was created by Tricia who was able to pay off her debt in 2009. This blog is now managed by Beks. Check out her progress!
• Our Debt Blog - a blog about the struggles of having self control and managing credit cards. Nice read!
• The Frugal Dad - you can get a lot of tips from this blog!
• Savvy Saver - personal finance blog dedicated to making smart money decisions, living below your means, and increasing net worth.
• The Budgeting Babe - journey from over-spender to power saver
• Make Love Not Debt - a couples blog. This is a must read for couples out there!

These are just some of the blogs that I read. There are lots out there. You can also check out blog rolls of the finance blogs mentioned above. I'll add more later.

Finance Tools I Use:

These are just some of the personal finance tools I use (...I'm going to be brutally honest here, I use them for a while then forget about it. LOL!)

• Quicken  2010
• Spending Plan / Monthly Budget Plan (excel) - from It's Your Money. Simple budget plan, really cool!
• Pen and Paper - yep! these are tools. You have to list everything down.

As part of my 35 Thing Project - #10 Have an emergency fund, I'll update my progress here so I can be accountable for my success (or failure... x_x). 

Let's do it!!

#10 - Have an emergency fund

personal finance

Not so long ago, I had a personal finance blog. I researched everything about saving, having an emergency fund, getting out of debt....everything.

I knew what to do. But I lacked the discipline. So sadly, I'm still where I am 3 years ago.

The first thing to do is create a budget plan. Or spending plan. Whatever you want to call it...just have a plan! How do we do that? Well, list everything.

Carry a small notebook and a pen every time and list down everything you buy. Even the last coin you have to pay for parking ticket or to buy a soda. The purpose of this is to know where your money goes and how much of your salary goes to ... let's say food. or entertainment. or unnecessary things.

This is where I failed. I was too lazy to write things down. Every month end, I'd just round off the figures and basically guess what went where. Obviously, it doesn't work that way. This time, I'm making a list. I'm going to stick to it. And I'm gonna check it TWICE!

money bag

There are lot's of personal finance blogs out there that's loaded of information and motivation. Personal stories of people who actually got out of debt. It's so inspiring.

I'll just have a look around and I'll post the links my favorite personal finance blogs. Any add in links where you can download pretty cool excel sheets and apps you can use too!

Till next post!

Journey To Weight Loss

Today I learned about Fitday.com.

I was bloghopping and found Jan's 30 before 30 blog. She tracks her weight loss via fitday.com. Of course I signed up the next minute. I filled in the info needed (current weight, weight loss goal, food intake...etc).

Happy to report that I ate much less than what I burned today. I'll probably post a screen cap of my progress again after 4 weeks. There's no point in bragging when it's just one day data. I really enjoyed playing with the site, adjusting my goals, tweaking my activities and adding my food intake. It's just so much fun! I feel that I'm finally doing something. Something right this time.

I gave myself 6 months to achieve my ideal weight. *crossing fingers*

Inspiration: Jed Davis

Do Life!