Gym 1.21 and a vivid nightmare

30th December 2011: Ben's aerobics class attended after AGES really! He stretched it for 1 hour 30 min and I was completely out of breath to say the least. A splendid work-out nevertheless...

After a longish time I had a vivid nightmare... which I am not sure was a nightmare at all or not. I have been reading a book about a city I am very fond of - Mumbai, India - which as everybody is pretty aware has a gangster problem - the 'underworld' and well, we - as normal everyday people don't get to know much about - except when there is a bomb blast or a high-profile murder etc. Here I was reading this awesome book named "Maximum city" on the same topic, just before sleeping (as I normally do) and my dreams were also a vivid gangster-ish type. .... Understandable... I do have a hyper active imagination.... 

Then somewhere in between sleep and a very awake consciousness (subconscious playing hoola-hoop perhaps) ... I heard a distinct very soft knock on our main-door. I remember it was clear and I KNOW I heard it. 7-8 soft rapid knocks.... I don't know whether I was partially asleep or what... Coz I sleep light and am generally very awake with hyper awakened senses. I know I know I know I heard it... and I remember telling myself 'Go to sleep, ignore what you heard'.... Then I also remember telling myself 'Check the house, whatever the problem - you will HAVE to face it'. So I walked out and checked the whole house from inside - remembering to walk quietly - and there was NOTHING. I peeped out the key-hole and NOTHING... eh.. BIG BIG sigh of relief.... But I feel stupid now. I heard I KNOW... eeesh! My heart-beat went off the roof and I couldn't sleep for the next 1/2 hour... post that I forced myself to sleep ( trying not to disturb the hubby much). weird weird weird. :/ ( though I also know the folks living upstairs tend to move stuff and make some noises quite late at night... its not bed-room sound :P... stupid nocturnal people).. Who know what I heard. Just a narrative here ...

Gym 1.20

28th Dec 2011:Ok... it seemed precariously like a day of missed training... But yours truly dragged the better(? :P) half to gym in the evening ... post his office and post my day schedule. That's an achievement really!

29th Dec 2011: Guilt sometimes is an awesome thing. I went and did workout for 1 1/2 proud hours :D... The usual - cardio; stepper, bike, rowing, tread-mill and cross-trainer.... then walked back home. It's not worth waiting till 2012 to extend training hours ... :) .... Halleluiah!

Gym 1.19 or lack thereof.... :/

22nd Dec 2011: Yoga at home

23rd Dec 2011: Yoga at home

24th Dec 2011:Walked around the complex

25th Dec 2011: Ooo no exercise

26th Dec 2011: Lazying no exercise

27th Dec 2011: Shame of all shames... zero exercise

I am becoming a classic case of "preachy person" without following what I am supposed to do myself/self... not others' but Meeeeeeeeeeeee :/.... I don't want my New Year resolution to again be 'Lose weight'... its been so in 2010, 2011 ... ewwww.....

Gym 1.18 and a health note.

20th Dec 2011, Tuesday: Walked 4 rounds around the complex. Didn't even attempt to jog... eh.

21st Dec 2011, Wednesday: Katabox at Virgin Active - Ben's class.... oooh yeah! :D... (even though i had to tag along a massive umbrella as well as rain shoes - just in case it rains on my head).

Health Note: Cancer is such a common disease - seems more so nowadays. This I do not know is due to more medical revelations than in earlier times or due to the fact that people really do seem to be getting affected by it more. Its such a sad thing really (I have relatives and friends getting affected more and more) - coz medicine does not seem to have found a complete and 100% cure to it. In such circumstances, even though everything is not avoidable - but some known precautions can be taken, aye?! Like smokers can stop themselves in time and rehabilitate themselves just so that they don't get lung or throat cancer.

In general, exercise as a habit (and not just to lose or gain weight) and drinking water and eating more healthy stuff. Is it really that difficult? I know, preaching is easy - but I am trying to push my folks into these simple things as well. Simple habits, simple living and simple thinking. I try to adhere to that.

Gym 1.17

18th Dec 2011, Sunday: :D Yes, I went .. and Yes even though it was a lazy Sunday we did stuff for 1:30 hours. (#Pats own back!)... So, started monkeying around on the tread-mill (a lady next to me asked me why the heck I wasn't running and only walking at a pathetic 5.5 kms/hr rate... I had to narrate my knee story and she was sweet enough to tell me a few stuff that would help and which I intend to try soon). Anywho... soon Ben came around and there was a longish weekend 90 min class of his (I think all those who attend it are extremely motivated and slightly mad, really ...) ... but on an impulse I went into the studio and did 1 hour of Katabox and Aerobics combo... post which I was panting like a mad drooly dog and had to come out in 60 min rather than 90 min (# no stamina :/ )... damn... Hubby did toning and kept a biggish distance from Ben's class - ended up promising me that he'd join in next Sunday @why-suffer-alone :D

19th Dec 2011, Monday: Talk about Monday bluezzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzz... didn't go to gym BUT jogged (?).. no walked around the complex - 3 big round and came back home to do yoga - breathing exercises (20 min) and sun-salutation (just 2 sets i.e. 4 times - poor score that).

Gym 1.16

16th Dec 2011- Friday: Missed Gym... It was a public holiday - "Reconciliation Day" or some such and I tried my best at dragging Murali off the bloody bed - but it seemed he was stuck to it with his claws in and refused to part from it and called me a "Nag" ( umm.. not really :P, he grunted in a manner that said so) - hence, I decided to fume at this perceived non-existent name calling - and looked out for a solo jog. Hmm.. too much sun-shine and multiplying weird concocted stuff in my head and I got too hungry to think of exercising. :/ Day wasted really @I-can-be-incredibly-stupid-sometimes.

17th Dec 2011- Saturday: Yeay.. went and did Cardio ( yea.. yea.. a lazy hubby in tow)... Stepper, bike, tread-mill and cross-trainer. Peeked into a class of Pilates going on in an adjacent room and made a mental note of joining in sometime later. :D

Zero plans for Christmas - nothing concrete apart from a guilty wish to bake a rum cake and later watch an ice-skate dance or something so that we don't end up sulking at home. 

Zero plans for New Years ... and weirdly I am not complaining. :D

Finally,...I start jogging....

No gym today coz of a technical glitch in the credit card attached to my gym membership... Gotta sort it before I resume... So, I finally do what I have been intending to ... Jogging and brisk-walking around my complex. 

Considering people mention its not safe for anybody apart from blacks or natives to walk on the streets here in SA (I find that very irritating really as I love to roam around roads and markets and walk on the roads freely) - but fear psychosis being contagious I know I might not be any time soon be walking around or jogging on main roads as I'd want to (there are numerous stories of mugging and attacks on non-natives). So I see the vast expanse of the complex we live in as a good substitute - its huge really... and I ran 4 biiiig rounds all around the fringe of the complex.

Amazing how in a complex of minimum 500 people - I do not see more than 4-5 people outside or hanging outside their houses/units on the paths around. Beautiful complex this, and such few people to enjoy! :)  - I do sound negative here, but that's just a fact and my observation.

Back to Gym :D

Ahh hail this day... It rained in the morning but I was determined to resume gym ASAP post returning from India trip - hence, fetched my umbrella and heave-ho made it to Ben's wednesday class of Katabox. 

14th Dec 2011: Ben's Katabox class. No yoga and not yet started jogging around the complex. Starting slow basically.

In this trip to India, I didn't fit into a lot of clothes I used to an year back - disgusting really. Donno what I am doing wrong - so visiting a nutritionist or dietician is on my list of 'things to do'.

Stooped in tradition - Chennai

Every trip to the south of India makes me wonder WHY most people are drowning in tradition to the point of being stifled by it. I don't agree and it makes me wonder more and more... I might be wrong, but I do not see too much reason in praying and praying and praying some more .... being scared and praying more n more. 

As always, most of my thoughts have a flip side. Forever on an analysis mode. I wonder if sticking to traditions like mad, keeps on an 'overall' the traditions of ancient India intact - like nowhere else in the world (like I know anything much about most parts of the world :P). Maybe older people in other countries go mad sticking to their roots and traditions as well. Who knows :)... I do know, that some of it is without much reason - even to the people following rituals and mindless routines- and I do have a problem with 'blindly following whatever is being asked by the community'.

South India also has a heavy chauvinistic tone to it. You would find it hard to miss the male bastion-ish undertone to almost everything. Woman put up with it - out of habit. I disagree to it too... quite much.