Filthy Fifty
For time:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 16kg
50 walking lunges
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 2×12kg
50 Sumo Deadlift, 24kg
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders
Results: 32:44 (1/2 reps, 12 inch box, tuck jumps)

Having done Filthy Fifty before on Dec 1 2008 (time of 48:50), I knew it was gonna take me aaaaaages to complete it. Being the pussy that I am, I did half reps instead of full :p Even then, it took me longer than expected. Felt like fainting during the wall balls, after every 5 reps I just had to take a break as my legs started to feel like jello. Come burpees I was swearing like a bitch and the workout was wrapped with my most favourite (NOTTT!) workout of all - tuck jumps. You just gotta love them.

Here I am ‘enjoying’ the wall ball with my stupid fringe sticking up from all the excitement.
Here I am thinking to myself “KNNCCB&#@MCH*$^!!!”

100 sit ups for time
Result: 4:06
Used dumbells to anchor my legs for the workout. After 40th rep, my upper thighs cramped up for awhile o.0 Must’ve been thanks to the bloody Filthy Fifty -__-”

Photos courtesy of www.pushmore.com.my

Not exactly a fitness post but it’ll affect my overall workout performance.

Sleeping pattern getting from erratic to absurd ever since I got back to KL. First couple of days was like before, sleeping for 3 - 5 hours each day.

But the past two days have been crazy as I’ve only slept 2 hours in the past 24 hours. Approximately 3 cups of coffeee - with the final one having 3 espresso shots and lasting me from yesterday’s lunchtime to today (current time 2:30am). Phwoar! Value for money eh? ;p

Didn’t workout today as I was rushing a batch of pics for my client. My wrists now feels a bit funny, I hope I don’t get CTS from all this editing work 0.o

Target to have normal sleeping hours by mid February.

Over and out.

Yay! Managed to squeeze in some workout time despite the busy photo editing schedule *skips with joy*

Pictures and workout from www.pushmore.blogspot.com

WOD 012809
“Fight Gone Bad” - PushMore Style

Three rounds of:
Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps) - 10 pound
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 32kg (Reps) - 16kg
Box Jump, 24″ box (Reps) - 12″
Double KB Push-press, 16kg (Reps) - 12kg
Burpees (Reps)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of “rotate”, the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep.
Results: 165 reps

Dreaded wall balls! For a look at how it’s meant to be done, checkout this video from Crossfit.

My legs ‘died-ed’ thanks to wallball. Yes, from the start I was already swearing like a bitch about how torturous the workout was. By the second round, you could tell I was totally pooped out as I had stopped swearing altogether -_________-” They should’ve called it ‘CNY Gone Bad’ instead. Who in their right mind would workout during the holiday season yo?? Nice arr, nice arr, nice arrr?? ;p

Post-workout situation. I’m not trying to scare people but this is what happens when you push yourself to the limit with a f@#*$% workout like ‘Fight Gone Bad’ :p L - R: Jon Wong, Ben Yue and Ping recuperating.

Snow angels? At Pushmore, we have sweat angels! Jinn showing off his pile of sweat.

100 Sit Ups for Time

Results: First round of 100 2:50 and 5 minutes later second round 3:20
Before CNY, I could see 4 pecs. After being away from KL for 6 days and eating like there was no tomorrow, there’s only 1 pec left :p I weighed myself at the gym and was initally pleasantly surprised to see that I had gained 1.5 kg within that short period of time. Then I realised it was fats instead of muscles. Fuuuuudge -________-”

Post workout, trying to remind myself why I put myself through this shit. Because its FUN! :D :D

Thanks to a referral from Chak, Caroline contacted me a couple of months ago for a family portrait session. Due to unforeseen circumstances (the weather lohhhh), we had to postpone our session indefinitely. That is, till Boxing Day when her sister was back in town and everyone else had some free time.

On that sunny day, I scooted over to her family home and upon arriving there, a chick greeted me at the door. Thinking that she looks familiar, I introduced myself to her bewildered expression. It was after a few seconds that I then realised it was actually Caroline, whom I had met a couple of times prior to that :p Shy wei. Sorry sorry, didn’t recognise you for awhile there. Hehe…

We started off the shoot with a couple of relaxed shots inside the house before moving on to the beautiful garden where portraits were taken with the two family dogs as well. I had fun shooting the Keong’s as they were all so accommodating and open to my suggestions :) I think if I asked everyone to put on a stupid face they would’ve accommodated me too. But of course I didn’t laa.

Caroline, thanks for the lovely cuppa coffee! Wah, damn layan wei! And Mrs Keong, thanks for the banana cake that you packed for me too :D I must confess, though I already had a few slices at your house, I finished off the whole cake when I got home thereafter. It was yummy!

I enjoyed the session a lot (and not just cos of the coffee and cake!), thanks again for inviting me to your home and spending the couple of hours with you all :) Here are some of my favourite shots from the session.

…NOT.

I truly understand why gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. I committed gluttony throughout CNY.

Damn. I started even BEFORE the holiday season. Scary thing is, I’ve been perpetually full for the past four days, I kid you not.

It’s all been about food, food, food, some ang pows in between and more food. I didn’t even gamble! Well, not yet :p But it has been awesome as I can’t remember the last time I went back to KK for CNY, so catching up with the family during the festive season was really nice :)

And no, I haven’t been working out at all since my last work out as listed below. But today is the start of it all again - the start of working AND working out with a vengeance.

Urmmm. Before I note down what workout I did, I need to list down what I ate today as well cause I think it hugely affected my so-called-performance.

7.45am - Large bowl of ‘ngau chap’ noodles at the Foh Sang shop before my flight
11.00am - Sucky nasi lemak on board Air “Now Everyone Can Fly!” Asia
2.30pm - Large cuppa ice coffee and “yee mee”
3.30pm - Slice of Alexis’ tiramisu (I couldn’t help myself, it was calling my name)

Headed to the TTDI park at 5pm to workout with fellow Pushmormons :p and while everyone else did the full version of Angie, I did half. I call it the “Post-Tiramisu Angie”, the workout for when your food’s not digested yet.

For time of:
50 Pull Ups
50 Push Ups
50 Sit Ups
50 Squats
Result: 15:38

Jogged approximately 3km after that and it took me 21 minutes -____-.

Fail fail fail!

Just a quick note to wish everyone “Happy Chinese New Year”! Yes, even those who are not celebrating cause you’ll be enjoying the long weekend ahead ;) Woot!

I just wrapped up my final wedding shoot for the lunar year last night here in good ol’ Kota Kinabalu. Can’t wait to blog about how fun it was! Will get back to regular blogging once I head back to KL by middle of next week, so get ready for an onslaught of blogposts from me then :D

For now, I’m gonna (try to) take a day or two off editing and spend some quality time with the family (and myself!) pigging out on scrumptious CNY feasts!

Have a good one ahead. XOXO

Remember my ‘tak nak’ campaign? I started NOT smoking on January 2, a day after coming back from Krabi and so far, it has been quite good. Except for the initial week where all I thought about was smoking, the following weeks have been bearable as the lack of nicotine has been replaced by food (which is another blog post for another day :p). 

Except for last night.

I don’t know why but it was just one of those moments where I felt like I needed a cigarette.

I had just finished a looooong day of shooting, I could feel my backpain coming back and my arms were absolutely sore from lugging my heavy gear, I was downloading my pictures and I was craving for a snack. And this was where I first started smoking 13 years back. I guess it was a combination of all that and the fact that my sister was having a smoke which made me go, “Hey can I bum one off ya?”.

She gave me this WTF look before passing me the box. And yes, I took one out and lit it. Funnily enough, I didn’t feel like finishing it after taking a few puffs.

There you go, a confession of sorts.

I met Andros and Diana when I shot Nate and Terri’s wedding middle of last year. If I’m not mistaken, it was actually Diana who found me through flickr and recommended me to Terri :)

Then during Pat and Ea Wei’s wedding in October last year, I met them again and this time round, Andros mentioned discreetly that he might want to arrange a photo session for when he pops the question to Diana. Of course, this was brought up when she wasn’t around la.

Three months passed with no news and just a couple of days before Christmas, I received a call from Andros.

“I got the ring”, he said. My response? “Wahliao eh, damn long right you?” :p

Andros and I schemed on ways to get Diana to come out for a photo shoot without getting her suspicious. Since we both are hopeless liars (failllll!!), it took a while for us to agree on something convincing. I basically called up Diana 3 (or was it 4?) days before Christmas and said I needed a huuuuuuuge favor whereby I had to submit pictures of a couple who have known each other since school times (which they have) to a friend’s new webmagazine and could she and Andros please be kind enough to pose for me?

On Christmas Day, we started off the shoot at the shop area near Diana’s house. They both said they were not used to being in front of the camera and needed directions, so I just gave some tips which turned out to be unnecessary as they were absolutely natural in front of the camera :)

We then headed over to Tmn Sea Secondary School, which was the place where they first met yeaaaars ago. We took some casual portraits around the area and then I asked them to pose at the school field.

When I asked Andros to kneel down and asked Diana to stand in front of him with one hand on his shoulder and the other hand holding his hand, I thought to myself “For sure she suspect something liao. So obvious!”

But nooooo. She just laughed and said “Eh woman. I feel like I’m knighting him la”.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Instead of proposing straightaway, Andros continued pretending, “Knee pain la”. He fidgeted around and shifted his knees.

I continued shooting.

As I was standing quite a distance away, I couldn’t hear what was being said, but after nearly a full minute of Andros talking and Diana listening intently, suddenly Diana was smiling and I heard her say, “You’re bluffing!”.

Andros said no and pulled out the ring from his pocket :)

She was really surprised as she wasn’t expecting it at all and they were both grinning ear to ear :D After much laughter, Andros said “You haven’t said yes”. Diana laughed “Yes!” and the ring was put on.

The whole time Diana laughing and saying “You lied to me!”. She then realised there were a lot of small signs leading up to the proposal, but these were signs that she said she ignored or didn’t think much about cause she didn’t expect it at all :D

It’s the first proposal I’ve ever had the chance to shoot and you know what, I feel absolutely honoured and touched to have been part of such a personal event :) Thank you

Eh why point at meeee? I didn’t wanna lie, it was Andros *points at Andros* ;p

You two have fun with the preparations for the big day and I’ll see you both soon! :D Hugs

I met Kat a couple of months ago when I was down in Singapore for a short roadtrip. Over a drink, we talked about wedding photography and she told me what her plans were for her wedding day and a bit about how she and Sern met.

I remember Kat also told me about how they weren’t exactly childhood sweethearts but their love bloomed through friendship since highschool whereby they had joked they would marry each other by 30 if there was no one else around ;)

Given a choice, I reckon Sern and Kat would’ve just eschewed all the customary’s and gone ahead with just a simple ceremony as long as they were married to each other. But customs being customs and since you’re only married once in a lifetime, Sern and Kat had a traditional tea ceremony and dinner reception held to celebrate their union together with family and close friends.

Sern and Kat, thank you again for having me be part of your wedding day celebrations. Kat, you looked absolutely radiant on that day and no, not like a martian at all! And Sern, having seen the pictures that you shot during your travels, I am in awe of how you see things and it has been a priviledge (not to mention a bit of pressure there to perform better :p) for me to shoot your wedding. Much thanks to your family members too for their hospitality.

Here are some of my favourite shots from the day.

5 Rounds for Maximum Reps:

*Use the heaviest KB you can press for this WOD. KB cannot be placed on the ground until both exercises are completed.
Results: Press R4 L4 | R4 L4 | R3 L3 | R3 L2 | R2 L2
Push Press R5 L5 | R5 L5 | R8 L6 | R8 L3 | R6 L6
My form was a tad bit off. Towards the end of each set, I would start turning my upper body to the side just to force the KB up. Felt the pressure on my back due to this ‘contortionist’ move. Will shift down to lighter weight next time to maintain better form

WOD 122208
Run 800M, Squat 150, Run 800M
Result: 13:15
I managed to the 2 loops around the block without stopping! Yes, it may be nothing to the regulars but for me its biiiiigggg! This means my stamina’s getting better. Or perhaps it was the sugar high from the tiramisu I had before working out. Woot!

Harold & Kumar
Result: 17:35
Urgh! My time for H&K still sucks. Could be because I was quite pooped after doing the first two workouts. Perhaps the tiramisu effect wore off :p Anyway, while doing the ring rows, towards the 8 - 10th rep I would feel the sharp pain on my left shoulder blade where the old climbing injury is. Funny how sometimes its there, sometimes its not.