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Jogged and stretched on Tuesday 28 July 2009.

I am very pleased with myself.

I did what I planned … go jogging yesterday after work.

Now, parts of me ached but that’s alright. It means I worked hard.

As I cooled down yesterday, I reflected on my new-found enthusiasm to exercise.

I once complained to my sister that I find it a chore to exercise. I have to muster so much willpower just to get changed. Yet these recent weeks have seen a dramatic change. I didn’t have to fight myself and I look forward to it.

It is a sort of mental shift, a change in thinking. The mind is really a powerful thing.

I remembered my prayer to Abba God to show me what I need to change in order to live a more active lifestyle. He answered my prayer again.

A colleague started a regular table tennis session with some other colleagues and I started to join them recently.

My first table tennis session was very enjoyable. The last time I played table tennis was in secondary school and I was surprised that I could still manage a few rallies and not pick balls all the time.

Yesterday, we had a massive session of badminton and table tennis. Quite a few colleagues turned up to play. Compared to table tennis, I have more experience with badminton since I played with quite good players during my time at the police force. Many police officers are very good badminton players.

So, I found another enjoyable way to burn some calories although we went for quite a heavy dinner afterwards. The food was yummy and so…the inevitable over-eating occurs.

I shall go jogging today because I finally bought my favourite music CDs and have saved the songs into my mp3 player so that I can listen to them while I exercise.

Ha! twice in a row. I actually went jogging 2 days in a row. That’s really a first for me.

So I guess Elsie’s theory about the songs works.

I also incorporated some resistance stretching which feels really good.

In a previous post, I mentioned what my sister said about how some favorite quick songs can help enhance the jogging experience. I wanted to try her theory out.

I had my chance on Wednesday.

First, I compiled a couple of my favorite songs into a jogging playlist onto my mobile phone.

Second, I picked a place to jog in. There are many places to jog in NTU. I see a lot of avid joggers jogging along the road. But I didn’t really like running too close to the road with cars zipping past me. I decided on Yunnan Garden. It is a nice garden with lots of greenery and away from cars and car fumes.

I started with a slow song before moving on to a fast-tempo song. The quick tempo does make me run faster. I like the song so the time past fairly quickly. That’s good for me because I tend to count the time when I am exercising.

I also realized I can keep track of how long I have been exercising by the number of songs I have heard because I know how long each song is.

It is really quite a good and enjoyable way to exercise. I’m going to do this again on Thursday.

Elsie joined this meetup group online known as the Singapore Adventurous & Nature-Lovers and they organize outdoor activities like hiking, biking, camping etc. They organized this cycling for beginners session meeting at Changi Village on Sunday. The plan was to rent a bike and ride to East Coast Park and back. 20km in total.

Sounds doable. Elsie signed up for both of us.

We were a little late but we made it. Then, I had a little problem finding a bike small enough for me. I knew I needed a bike that I could sit and still stand properly, not on tip-toe.The bike shop owner was quite resourceful and managed to secure the bike for me. I’m usually not so insistent about things but on hindsight, it was wise. There were stretches that were quite tricky.

The start was slightly shaky for me. One of the guys called it problem with low speed balance. But by mid-way, I am enjoying myself. The scenery was good and I caught a few planes taking off and landing at the runway.

Changi beach was also quite nice. There are not many people and traffic there so the ride was more enjoyable. The East Coast stretch wasn’t so nice as there are many people, more bikers and more skaters.

We stopped at the hawker centre for some refreshments before heading back.

The return journey seems shorter. Jason said it is because I know where I am ending up. I ended being one of the last to come back. But that’s okay.

Oh and it was 34 km.

I played tennis with Elsie on Saturday. Before this, I had been telling her that I haven’t played for a long time and that I was never very good at it. And it is true. I didn’t want her to have high hopes that I’ll be able to rally with her.It worked and she was all ready to be my coach.

We had a good time. I didn’t played that badly and was even able to return some of her serves. It was great to play without pressure.

We played for about 30 minutes and I’m beat but it was apparent that Elsie didn’t had enough. We went off to the gym where she did the cross-trainer for another hour.

On the way there, we passed a guy who commented that we must had a good game. Both of us laughed and shook our heads. I wonder when he noticed us playing. Probably when we shouted loudly at wayward tennis balls. \(^0^)/

I am an average modern Singaporean when it comes to exercising. I lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle, preferring to stay at home and watch TV than step out of the house and work out a sweat.

I tell myself that I am better at mental exercises more than physical exercises. Great rationalizing.

I know I have been gaining weight slowly and I’m also concerned that I’m losing muscle mass and bone density if I continue my sedentary lifestyle. I would like to be a stronger woman physically. I tried to set up a routine to exercise but when the time draw near, I find things to do and excuses to get myself out of my exercise plan.

I prayed to Father God about this and asked Him to be my wisdom regarding this.

I think he had started to peel off my misconceptions about exercising even before I knew I needed it.

My sister has been trying to get me to exercise. She leads a more active lifestyle. She plays tennis at least once a week and goes to the gym nearly everyday if she could make it. She looks longingly at the evening sky specifically from around 6.00pm to 7.00pm. She said something about the window of time for outdoor running.

I never thought of that before. To me, no time is a good time to exercise. Yet when I stared at the evening sky with her, I knew she was right. It was the nicest time of the Singapore day and really the best time to work out outdoors.

She also told me how she likes to listen to her favorite songs when she runs, especially the fast ones.Yesterday, I went to the Yunnan Garden and tried jogging with a few of MY favorite songs, songs that makes me move and tap my feet.

It actually works. I enjoyed the fast song so much that I didn’t notice that I was picking up speed to match the song. I was panting like mad after that but it was a great feeling. It is not just the exercise but enjoying the song and being drawn into it.

It was de-stressing as well. I felt quite light and happy after that short run and it makes me want to do it again.

This weekend is also going to be an active one. Tennis on Saturday and biking on Sun.

Looking forward to a leaner, stronger me.