WOOPS! The festive season was a bit too hot to handle and I guess blogging took a back seat, but don’t think I didn’t fulfill my challenge – I never pu$$y out, not me!
Day #10 was a Tuesday and my brother had just flown in so it was a no-brainer to chill at Train YAS to offset all the binge eating and drinking. Train YAS is when the Yas Marina Circuit opens up to two wheelers, runners and walkers, made even more special when you’ve just seen F1 cars and their broken off bits flying across that very asphalt during the recent Abu Dhabi GP.
With loud music and stalls too, Train YAS offers such a sick atmosphere during the winter! Hoping to continue Tuesdays like this in 2015.
Terrible photos included.
And as for Days 11 & 12, surprisingly, I got tagged in a last minute running challenge called the Festive 50. It consisted of completing 50km in 8 days, just in time for New Years Eve! I got tagged on Christmas Eve and although I had already drank and stuffed myself silly by the tree, I found the energy close to midnight to squeeze in the first 5!
Oh…and I continued running each day after that – one 10K, a couple 8ks, some 5’s and 3’s….and got it done! Yay me!
This challenge was put together by my favourite Dubai fitness man, Coach Tom Woolf, and I’m expecting he’ll have more planned for 2015. Follow him on Facebook!
Today was intensely good…I confess I did no fitness on Day 8 – I was recovering from the most un-regretful hangover ever! I so needed that night out – so I had to make up for it today with some back-to-back madness. Well, the first part was a heavy gym circuit including a 45-minute run and some plate weight fun and plenty of abs and other bodyweight stuff, but then I headed home to slow things down with a bit of yoga play.
I included my stylish kor water bottle for that reason but also to say just how important it is to remember to hydrate. I’ve been really bad at that my whole life and I just had a bunch of medical tests and screenings done ahead of the new year, have been panicking about the results for weeks and went in to get them today and they all say I’m fine, just need to drink more water. I started laughing in the nurse’s face lol. Nah, but seriously though…
Don’t worry, I’m not slacking, just too tired to post each day. Took things to the water yesterday, at the oh so peaceful Khalidiya Palace Rayhaan by Rotana… and rightfully earned a place in the sun (and a massage) afterward.
Aww, sleepyhead (make time for recovery, guys!). Don’t remember the last time I’ve just taken time to lie on a beach, wow, was surreal. I took so many pics of nothing!
(nose ring, not boogers haha)
I’m drinking a nice energy boostinng detoxifyer with ginger and beetroot, and wearing Stella McCartney for Adidas!
Day #7
Back in the gym for badass body weight and stability ball work.
WOOOH! On a roll, shedding weight fast, seeing change, the only problem is a mild case of depression (I got dumped) has left me with little to no appetite, which is of course not healthy when training heavily; even when not training heavily. I’ll get it back though.
Today I previewed a new class in Abu Dhabi – metafit training! You know, short and snappy, brutal and beastly high intensity interval training. In and out…and in a lot of pain, real fast. Does anyone else like that next day burn? Love. Check it out here this weekend if you want…
Forgot to snap a photo so here’s some generic sexy fitspo…
Had a bit of a setback yesterday and was too blue to get posting but all I did was juice anyway, again courtesy raw.
DAY #4
Today I was back in the gym – wearing my (amazingly comfy) new Nike Zoom Fit Agility trainers, gifted by the awesome girls at Nike Middle East – for a sweet circuit with a bit of jogging, skipping and bike too.
A big component of my workouts is the music so I thought I’d share a bit more on what I’m listening to right now…
One thing that really ‘takes me there’ in my approach to exercise is bright, cool fitness gear and today I was really down in the dumps so the brighter, the better.
[Nike Flyknit Air Max trainers; Oysho leggings; adidas/Dubai Marathon t-shirt; Under Armour sports bra]
And man, I really killed it today…sprinting 12 flights of stairs down once and up once, in between flights doing elevated plank with knees into chest, and elevated push-ups. Then in the gym for some pesky plate weight work incorporating abs, legs and glutes, plus a ton of plank variations repeated in between bouts of jogging on the treadmill. That, and I learned a new skill as illustrated here by the lovely/hardcore Adriana Lima!
As soon as I saw it I knew I had to master it…and initially it was my December skill goal..until I nailed it straight off. It’s all about engaging the thighs and of course zoning in on core stability. Love it!
I’m owed a cheat meal from last week so tonight I am thoroughly enjoying Macaroni Grill – oh pasta, how I’ve missed you! That and red wine…
Tomorrow is a juicing day so the fridge is already stocked with bottles from my new favourite The Raw Place…which I posted about last. Bring on sexy!
A new short but sweet Christmas-ish-themed blog series, depicting my love for all things health and fitness. I love a good drink (oft times too many) but I feel I have a certain responsibility to myself and those around me, as a fitness journalist and a yoga teacher also, to emphasize a balanced way of living – if you play hard, work hard to earn it first.
I’m seeing great, fast results from a new fitness overhaul I began exactly a week ago today. Was starting to get a bit chubby and bubbly in all the wrong places so I cut that shit out – less drinking, no carbs, more juicing, with a goal of completing 20 hours of fitness by December 31.
So far in one week I’ve lost 0.9kg, which means I’m well on my way to getting the body I want in time for the new year and my 26th birthday (Jan 10).
I also want to inspire you and perhaps get you on board with my 12 Days of Fitness mission…which I just realised must start today in order to make it to Christmas.
DAY # 1
I am about to head off to a yoga class, a bit mild for my tastes but a necessary part of balancing out my fitness – I am doing about 5-6 days a week of a mixed bag of Circuit/HIIT training/CrossFit, Muay Thai/Kickboxing, Yoga and Barre/Pilates.
Yesterday was a pretty hardcore biking and circuit training/HIIT day in the gym upstairs, after which I felt so good and flushed with excitement that I went to the salon for a bit of a pamper and promptly spent Dh1000 on two items at BCBG Max Azria (woops!). I was wearing my FitBit when I noticed I had over-accomplished my daily goal and decided to also indulge in a bit of nutritional pampering at the newly opened The Raw Place at World Trade Center Mall’s Souk!
I LOVE THIS PLACE! So stoked to have them in my life. The money I make from my next few yoga sessions is definitely going towards one of their juice cleanse kits. The yummiest most filling pressed juices I have ever tried in the UAE! Get on it!
September is all about guts and glory here for me, and I’ve finally grown enough of a pair to start identifying myself as a certified yoga teacher, which I have been since April this year.
What’s more, money is tight at the moment so I might as well take advantage of my new skill, especially since it is such a fun skill, an addictive skill, a skill that can change peoples’ lives and has changed mine.
If you’re yet to experience the power of yoga, then stop procrastinating and make September the month you hit the mat and the refresh button! ESPECIALLY if you’re based in Abu Dhabi ;p
HAPPY SEPTEMBER! So stoked, it’s going to be a great month!
Sorry I’ve been so AWOL – I’ve been spending many a far-too-early morning queueing at the French visa application centre in Abu Dhabi ahead of a gay wedding I am headed to there in August. Very often the inhumane wait resulted in getting shot down alongside hundreds of others desperate to secure passage for the Eid holiday. There were even a few fights and midnight stakeouts involved. Needless to say, never again.
But I FINALLY got my application through on Wednesday (toasted to with a big bottle of cheap French red), and it’s under process with my passport due to return on Sunday or Monday, thank God. As I intend to first fly off to see my friends in London on Monday. The word is ‘phew’.
So now we can talk.
Considering the fact that I’ve been a fitness & health editor and writer for a couple years now, I don’t feel that I blog enough about the subject. But a few bad bitches have inspired me to get my ass in gear this week.
Let’s start with fuckin’ Kacy Catanzaro who became the first woman to dominate the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. With worrying ease, might I add.
Watch, and try to make a mental list of all the things she does in this video and compare it to how many you can do, and in how many reps, without wilting. In fact, go bring your man over to the monitor and ask him to do the activity too.
That bitch is anything but basic.
When I first saw this I didn’t know whether to get on the ground and do some sit-ups, then call my old boxing trainer up and get busy, or address my raging clit boner first (What? Not a lesbian but strong is the new skinny and the new sexy, right?). I especially like that she has all that brewing in her pint-sized self and isn’t the slightest bit bulky or over-the-top strapped. She looks awesome, perfectly normal, healthy, hot – that’s every woman’s ideal right? To find that perfect balance.
Speaking of baddest bitches, that same day I came across a refreshing, genius, bad-bitches-only belly workout, done by the MMA queen herself, and ESPY Awards 2014 ‘Best Female Athlete’ winner, Ronda Rousey.
If you don’t know her – and how dare you? – here she is shot for the 2012 edition of ESPN Magazine’s The Body Issue (you can check out the turnt up bodies in the latest issue here if you’re looking for more fitspiration, or just want to feel sorry for yourself for a bit…I get it)
THAT. Now you know everything there is to know about Ronda, I guess. A big thank you to Self Magazine for sharing what we are now calling: Alphabet Abs.
Here’s your Friday challenge, here’s how it’s done:
It takes a classic floor-based abdominal move and adds a spicy kick to it. Lie on your back with your hands tucked under your butt. With abs engaged, lift your head and tuck in your chin so you can see your toes, which should be hovering off the ground slightly. Point your toes and with them, spell out the alphabet in order, in all capital letters. Make each letter about 6 inches tall and 6 inches off the ground.
I’m trying it today, let’s do it, back to school bitches!
Going to try to post snippets from my weeks gone by for as long as I can remember/bother. I dunno, I’m bored. Here’s how some of June wrapped up… starting with my little sister’s arrival home from studying in LA and her gifting me the cutest piece of bling ever for the much ignored gaping hole in my septum. Thanks, doll [UPDATE: I HAD NO IDEA THAT JUNE 28TH WAS INTL BODY PIERCING DAY EITHER! HOW COOL!].
*I met a dear old friend at Belgium Beer Café at the InterContinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi to watch the Belgium game, and we sampled the strongest of the most obscurely named brews on menu.
*While snipping away at a new haircut, that can probably be described as a fringe-less Cleopatra meets Mowgli from Jungle Book look, I discovered the fierceness of the Rihanna-before-Rihanna that was Jodi Watley in a Black Hair magazine (man, I know so little, and boy do I wish I could pull that hairstyle off)
*My sister and I wore white and matching rings and gorged on the incredible food on offer in the cheaper-than-many McGettigan’s brunch, Eggs Benedict the first to blow our minds.
*I visited and trained with some badasses at the new FAST Sports Performance Studio open at Adhaaf Sports Club for an article in Sport360.
*I did some banking…
*And after a night of drinks with new friends and faces, was treated to breakfast for very late dinner at Zaatar W Zeit, who had the audacity to hand out Team Argentina place mats to everyone dining there that night. Umm, my teams for the win are Netherlands and Germany. Anyway, their sunny side up eggs with turkey, warm pita and quinoa tabbouleh certainly distracted me from the crime under plate.
Love yoga, love travel, so am all for wearing the Northern Lights while in Downward Dog, brought to our shores by The Hot Box Kit, who have just informed me via email that they are having a Pop Up Shop at Dubai Media City this June 13-14, 2-5pm.
I’m not a “jazzy” yogi but I do find sometimes that bright, funky fit gear can boost motivation and reinvigorate your fitness regime from time to time and I am due for some new tights. That said, THIS pair of drop-crotch madness, I would not recommend going anywhere near a yoga studio – no one would enjoy a mindful practice in the presence of that. Just a gentle FYI…
Ah, the return of the bathroom snap and my lazy attempts at outfit posts – this for an early morning Dubai drive and shooting a friend’s soccer tournament last Saturday (would you believe I am actually not bad with a camera?). Clearly fighting jetlag.
Safe to say I went on an American Apparel binge while in the US. I dub this Gingham Gangsta. The wool and suede cap – what I’m doing these days to hide hair with a sort of raggedy Fifth Element finish to it – is theirs too. I like that shade of green right now. Almost matches the smudged ink of my tattoo semi-fail from a trip to Manila (don’t get inked in malls/ten dirhams if you can read it).
Oh, and are you enjoying my sculpted limbs as much as I still am? Got to be grateful. Thank you, militant youth swimming camp.
“Happiness comes from within”, …just not when you’re in the gym. I’m obsessed with looking banging. Like, I demand a border crossing between Rihanna and Teyana Taylor by the end of this year obsessed…so it’s good to see some sort of ‘definition’ going on there somewhere (although from the side this picture would look very different!)
I mean, I’ve always had a couple abs but it’s the lower ones that tend to get lazy the more breaks you think you deserve from the gym for looking ‘generally well’ all these years.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m no longer the lanky competitive swimmer with the super fast metabolism and am now on my way to 30 harbouring a slight drinking problem and prone to stretches of days where I just. want. carbs. and. nothing. else. However, I will NEVER EVER entertain Spanx and this is bikini killing season crackdown time!
My training partners bailed on me this morning but I got it done. Abs and Arm Day done and dusted.
Okay, considering I was wildly hungover from a home gathering that became a night out drunk dancing on a runway at 1One on Yas Island – not to mention I had company over from that very night and well into Valentine’s Day – I think 35 minutes of a combination of using my circuit training fitness app ‘Sworkit Pro’, some Sun Salutations and a smidge of tough-love Personal Training administered by aforementioned visitor (all performed in my apartment foyer), is a commendable effort.
Do I have to mention it was a FRIDAY?! I earned that can of coke! (my hangover cure)
I am wearing these tights from Oysho, whose latest fitness collection you already know I lurve!
Second – Yes, there’s fried food in my Day 12 Fit Feb diary! You have to believe me, it’s my trainer’s fault!
I see my trainer four days a week – Sunday to Wednesday – so we tend to treat the final day as if it’s the weekend. It almost always ends with booze-fueled karaoke in a seedy bar (I’m actually going to get dressed shortly after posting this), and today I was craving something “ethnic” for lunch, something I had not had in a long while since my original source had closed down.
“Kushari” happens to be an Egyptian comfort food and it had only just hit me today that my trainer, Egyptian, must surely knew where the best was at in town. I just wasn’t expecting him to take us there straight from training. Apparently he hadn’t had it in ten years so he was over the moon at my mentioning it. And obviously in shock.
Anyway, so apparently THE place to go to satisfy your cravings is Al Andalib in Abu Dhabi’s Tourist Club Area. Not only do they have a cute obsession with Egyptian singer Abdul Halim Hafeez (see walls, not to mention his songs were on in the background), they serve LEGIT kushari 8am to 11pm. Get on it.
It’s noon and Arms and Abs day is already done and dusted. Best feeling, especially when you shower and come home to unexpected rainy weather and your emails suggest it’s okay to take a midday nap before buckling down to freelance errands and articles all evening (interspersed with major marathon Breaking Bad catch-ups and fits of Youtube yoga in between downloads – I multi-task like a mo’fucker)
Of course it’s my diet that is going to really make or break me when it boils down to regaining that killer flat stomach I had as a lanky swimmer kid. But it helps to see things slowly shifting around and I have noticed that since working with my trainer my bikini isn’t as “strained” in the love handle area, at least. He has also said, in his own unique broken English way, that I am less ‘Santa-esque’ now. Hey, I’ll take it!
I fucked up yesterday, did not do a thing but eat, drink, (nearly) smoke, argue with people I love, cry about it, and sleep all evening and night. But perhaps I could allow myself the occasional day off during this Fit Feb Challenge?
Or maybe nah, I’ve already unintentionally chose the shortest fucking month of the year to do this and I should stop pussying out and see it through, right?
Anyway, when you’re all hungover and feeling crappy and sorry for yourself, what I’ve found effective in tricking myself to get active is this thing I call “10 Songs” – you literally get out and run, jog, walk, whatever for ten songs on your iPod.
Luckily, the luxuriously sad songs I felt like listening to – from The National, Shipping News, Opeth etc.- were like 5 minutes or more in length so I was just out there for an hour! And my neighbourhood is kind of cute, I realised…
The day startad so well! Ashtanga Yoga at Abu Dhabi Country Club (I enjoy Pauline, she was actually taught by my favourite teacher, which makes so much sense!). Then my favourite Mexican Quinoa Salad from Soulfull. But now it’s 5am and I’m on the couch watching Modern Family face down in a glass of red wine. I’ll only say that there is a KFC chicken leg within the vicinity too (I never eat that stuff but I have (slightly unhealthy) company over, and with wine I was easily swayed).
But hey, what are weekends for but a little imbalance?
Today I went to a PT session as usual (the picture is boring so forget it) but I have also been doing Tara Stiles’ YouTube yoga videos over the last couple days in a bid to learn some new tricks and boost my practice a bit more ahead of yoga teacher school.
Because I work so closely with Reebok as a fitness and sport writer, I’ve had a little more access to celebrity-status Tara than most and we’ve chatted and I’ll hold her to her invitation to come “hang out” (do yoga) at Strala when next I visit NYC (that’ll be um, this month!) because she’s just so sound, so sweet and simple and yet slick.
Her voice agrees with my body (in a non-sexual way…) and I hope I can be as good a wise yet youthful yoga teacher as she is someday.
Anyway I mentioned Reebok because they collaborated with her not just for several ongoing yoga wear collections, some of which I actually wore today in training, and many of which I got to have and try for free during my own yoga practice, but they also got together to shoot some pretty nifty quick-fix DIY yoga sequences with themes like Yoga for Couch Potatoes and Yoga for Hangovers (great minds think alike)…
…Sequences based basically on stuff you would never ever associate with yoga in an attempt to get every sort of individual out there into the idea of yoga being accessible to all. And do-able by all. It’s honestly fucking genius and I am taking notes for when I start my classes.
Here is the sequence for one I felt most fit my Fit Feb Challenge, ‘New Year, New You’. Get down and try it out! It’ll take only 5 minutes and you’ll feel good about having maybe one extra cocktail tonight after you’ve done it! x
Instructions: Dancer- Stand with your feet hip width apart. Shift your weight into your right leg, pick up your left leg and point your left knee down toward the ground. Grab a hold of the inside of your left ankle with your left hand. Gently press your foot into your hand and extend your opposite arm upward. Hang here for 5 long, deep breaths. Try the other side.
Instructions: Plank – Come onto all fours. Spread your fingers like you are digging into wet sand. Step your feet back to a plank position. Hang here for 10 long, deep breaths.
Instructions: Side plank with leg extend – Lift your top leg up and grab a hold of your foot with your top hand. Extend your leg up. Hang here for 5 long, deep breaths. Make sure to do the other side.
Instructions: Bridge – Lie on your back. Place your feet on the ground next to your hips. Press your arms on the ground along side your body. Lift your hips and chest up. Try to avoid letting your legs open out to the sides. Hang here for 5 long, deep breaths.
Instructions: Wheel – Press your palms into the ground along side your ears. Press through your arms and lift your body up. Straighten your arms and as you do so keep lifting through your upper back. Press down evenly through both feet and imagine reaching through your knees. Hang here for 5 long, deep breaths and gently roll down. To come down gently tuck your chin into your chest, bend your elbows and lower down slowly. Hug your knees into your chest to relax your back.