Wednesday, January 11, 2012

2012!

Ok, so I know everybody does resolutions for New Years and stuff like that. I've never done it before, so I decided it was time to set some goals and switch some things up. First of all, I got really motivated after seen my 2011 report:

Impressed... and proud! A year with its ups and downs, but I still can't help it but look back and feel like I did something good. Could've done better?! Definitely. But could've also done worse, so I just need to feel grateful and hope that this year is gonna be filled with even more accomplishments! :)


After seeing that, I felt like there was definitely room for improvement and the main thing I need to work on this year is consistency. I've lacked a whole lot of being consistent last year due to my addiction to procrastinate, which led me to either be doing one thing or another, but never a little bit of everything daily. So this year, I need to work on being able to fit everything into my routine without leaving stuff behind. That means buying a planner and writing stuff down daily.

So to jump start my year (a couple weeks late), I'm doing this challenge. I started yesterday and I'm gonna stick to it like gum in the hair. After this one is done, I'm gonna start a new one and so on. Those challenges are AMAZING. It keeps me focused, you can easily do at home (so no excuses) and they're hardcore. I mean, seriously. I want to track down my progress over the year and see how far I'm gonna go, which the blog is gonna be great for that. Once the word is out there, there's no turning back!


1) 30 Day Challenge
I started doing this 30 days challenge yesterday. It's from the BODYROCK website and it's awesome! So to keep you guys (and mostly me) updated:

DAY 1: FIT TEST




In the video, she's gonna explain all the exercises. Basically, you set up a timer 50/10 (50sec each exercises with 10sec of rest in between). Then you perform the following exercises and try to do the most as you can in those 50sec. Then you die. :D

*Squad Jumps: 25

* Push-ups (I did it girlie-style 'cause really which planet I've destroyed on my previous life?): 13

*Switch Lunges (with jump): 12

*Burpees: 13

*High Knees: 60

*Tuck Jumps: 13

*Straight Abs: 20

This stuff kicked my trash big time! After finishing I was sweating and breathing hard!

I literally, jumped outta bed and did the challenge, meaning I was still on my jammies d: 


DAY 2: GOOD FEELING WORKOUT


Ok so this one was just INSANE. I seriously thought at first I wasn't gonna be able to do it, so I had to study the moves (they're a little bit more complicated), write down a bunch of notes, practice them so I could get them done. Still, I forgot to do one of them and had to switch it to the end and I also messed up one. No biggie. Instead of writing down my score on the 10" rest, I put my itouch on the voice recorder and just shout out my score (life saver, I would never be able to remember the number of rounds I did and them write them all down in 10sec!).

ps. I don't have a sandbag, so I did the other versions. And I did push-ups girlie-style :D

[10 x High Knees & 10 x Mountain Climbers] *4 rounds + 5 Mountain Climbers

[2 x Squat Jumps & 2 x Push-ups & 1 x Tuck Jumps] *4 rounds + 2 Squat Jumps

[Centre to Elbow Jump (L&R) & 2 x leg jumps] *5 rounds

[Clean & Press & Squat & Press & Push Up] *8 rounds

[Tuck Jumps x 5 & ½ Burpee & squat hold x 5] *5 rounds - messed it up and thought it was 2 burpees instead of 5 :S

[Spider Knee Push up & Straight Leg Push Up (L&R)] *14 rounds - did it one knee down, one up and switching legs

[Switch Lunge & Press] *11 rounds

[Side Lunge x 2 & L & R Side Punch & 2 Tuck Jumps] *10 rounds

[10 x Squat & 10 x Squat Jumps] *2 rounds + 10 Squats

[Elbow to Knee jumps 10 x each side] *3 rounds

[Wide leg jumps & Push up] *20 reps - holding the plank and just doing leg jumps

[Speed run] *93 reps - each leg

Total: 12min. What it felt like: 12h. The result?

Seriously, you can not underestimate those exercises! 


2) Japanese classes

Last year, I decided to take a year off from my japanese classes. I wanted to dedicate my time exclusively to school, getting used to the system, the tests, the teachers and stuff like that. It took me a hell of a lot of time to adapt to all that, but now I feel more confident to get my classes back. One more reason to get a planner and stop procrastinating. 

I think I might have more goals, but all I can think of involves either being consistent with something or not procrastinate, which one is basically consequence of the other. 

I haven't been talking a lot about running 'cause I'm basically posting it all on my daily mile account. :) 

With this in mind and determination, I'm sure I can conquer this year and improve more and more :) Happy running, everyone! :D

Geek momento: the new chapter of Naruto's manga is out and I'm rushing this post 'cause I can't wait to read it, so sorry about the misspelled words :D  

Sunday, January 08, 2012

The cousins left and running with the sun rising.

I've never thought I'd miss my cousins so soo much :( They went back to Brazil today after spending 2 weeks here with me in Buenos Aires. The house is so empty and quiet, it's depressing. It was great having them around always wanting to do stuff, talking every night 'till 6, 7am, eating like crazy... family is family... right? I kind of had forgotten what that feeling was after not being home for so long.

My cousin Isaac and I a couple minutes before New Years! :) 


Frozen yogurt... seriously, this thing was so huge I couldn't finish it (now that's something you should take into consideration). 


Tales, the other cousin... touristing around Tigre, Buenos Aires. 


Moi :D


After waking up every day at 2pm, waking up early to get them to the airport was hard work. Since I was already up, I decided to go for a run after they took off. So worth it.

The airport is by the coast, which made my run a total blast :) 


And I got to see the sun rise for the first time in AGES!


After I got home, I thought I was gonna be boomed, but I was all high in endorphins, so I decided to enjoy the day and go to church. I was feeling a little sad and didn't want to stay alone at home like at all. I don't know what got to me, but the views today just kept getting prettier and prettier...

On my way to church :)

After sleeping all the way back and almost missing my bus stop, I made back home, ate a sushi my cousin forgot in the fridge and took a "nap" of almost 5h :D Now I'm battling if I should start another korean show or not. I've been dying to watch The Princess Man after reading the reviews about it... it won several awards in Korea as being the best korean drama of the year. I couldn't watch anything after finished City Hunter (which became my very favorite tv show of ALL TIME, either from the US or Korea or any other existent country for the matter - and it also just happens to have the hottest man alive as its protagonist (aka Lee Min Ho - or Lee Min HoT, if I may). 



Sorry for the random post. It's hard to have a blog which talks about nothing and, at the same time, has to cover my love for running, health eating, cult movies, indie music, japanese language, pop culture, philosophy, korean tv shows, asian bands, med school all at once. And since I can't decide which one I like best, all you have left if a lamesauce inconsistent blog which basically talks about everything but gets to nowhere.  There's just too much of myself inside of me.

This goes specially to moi, who takes even something like "my socks don't match" as an excuse to procrastinate. 

Saturday, January 07, 2012

Dear diary - part 1.

I've been missing a lot of this lately:



I was only 20 years old when I decided to leave everything behind and move to the US. Alone. I've never left Brazil before and didn't know a single word in english. Leaving was actually pretty easy. Getting paperwork done, buying stuff, goodbye parties. It's funny to think how innocent I was about the whole moving thing; which was actually a good thing after all. I had no worries. I just wanted to leave. 

The first time I felt the change was while I was walking up the stairs of the airplane. I looked left and I saw my family and friends up there inside the building, waving at me. The tears started coming down and didn't stop. I was alone. Like all alone. From now on, every single thing I had to do it was all up to me. I don't know the language. How am I gonna live? All the questions people usually think about before they decide to move just popped out in my head. 

For the first 6 months, I lived in Baltimore (I went with an exchanged program and was staying at an american's family house). They were nice... but weird. I didn't feel very comfortable there and all I could think of was NY. Nothing else. I needed to get there. Somehow, I've learned english pretty fast (although, as you can probably see, I'm forgetting it even faster). I made friends. Got a boyfriend. Broke up. Went to Cancun alone for 2 weeks. Made more friends. 2 days after I came back from Cancun I was in NY. All alone again. With all my life packed in 2 suitcases. 

For the next year and a half, it was all about NJ/NY, back and forth. Made more friends. More break ups. Parties. Jobs. Freedom. NY was everything I've expected it to be - and more. It felt like home for me, a feeling I've never had back in Brazil. That missing thing I had back then was gone. It could have been a happy ending if I haven't decided I wanted to go to med school. I had to weight everything I had in my hands back then. How much I really wanted to do that versus how badly I loved NY. I can always come back, I thought. But I knew, deep down, I'm not the kind of person to come back to the same place. I barely even go to Brazil. I look at the world, how much I'm missing, how many things I wanted to know, to visit, to learn. It feels like it's a waste of time to go back to the same places. 

To leave NY was much, much harder than to leave Brazil. I had to leave really important people to me. I was crying all the way to the airport. At the airport. On the plane. I started regretting my decision right away. When I arrived back in Brazil after 2 years, it was great to see everyone again. Family. Friends. What wasn't so great was how much I've changed. My feelings for everyone were the same, but still, something was off. While living in the US, I've crossed so many different people from everywhere. I've learned more than I could have in a lifetime. And, somehow, I couldn't be the same. And I felt like everyone was still the same. Which made me realize I could never again go back home for real. 

Only 2 months later, I was already in Buenos Aires. All alone. Zero knowledge of spanish. I had a month to get my shit together. It was a really weird year. I just had NY all over me and I felt like I was going backwards by coming down here. I started to resent everything around me. The weather. The food. The places. The language. I couldn't fit in. School was good and I did well, so I just sucked it all up and kept on going. I wasn't a runner back then, but I was teaching spinning and going to the gym. The second semester was bad. I had an almost anorexia and was totally overdoing it with my exercises. I was kind of alone and didn't make any effort to meet anyone. I had so many things to talk about, to share, to listen to, but I felt like I couldn't meet anyone with the same interests. I know I was being an arrogant bitch.

By the end of the year, I went back to Brazil and traveled a lot around the country. I barely met any of my friends, mostly because I wasn't really in a party mood. Vacations went like crazy fast and I was back in Buenos Aires. Which brings us back to 2011.

(to be continued...).

Spread it!