BOB AND JILLIAN ARE BACK!

I just saw the ad on TV which confirmed my suspicions. YAYAYAYAYAY.

I do love Shannan and Michelle, they are great. But Bob and Jillian are the originals.

New Purchases

I haven't been shopping in ages! But today I made a few purchases that I am particularly excited about:

• My first pair of proper running leggings. I tested them out today too, because didn't want to wear them for the first time on race day next week. Went for a 12km run with Katie - you can read about it in TRAINING bLOG.

• Two books entitled "Exercise Analysis Made Simple" and "The Exercise Guide to Resistance Training". One of my tasks before this coming Friday is to learn all the names, actions, origins and insertions of the muscles in the human body. These two books will prove not only helpful in my study, but useful in future as I begin learning to write programs for people.

Now on my wish list: a pair of Skins (size: XS, style: 3/4 length leggings). Skins are a brand of compression garment. In laymen's terms... they are really tight! I tried a pair on today - they felt really good. You would have laughed to see me testing them out by jogging on the spot in the change room.

According to scientific research, one of the benefits of compression garments is that the support reduces the amount of muscle movement (or "wobble") which therefore reduces muscle damage due to prolonged exercise.

So, yes, I would LOVE to have a pair of Skins! But not right now I guess... they're $140 a pair! Too much of a chunk out of my purse for now.

Some Fi-Nominal Websites

If you want to see what I've been up to in my fitness course in the last week or so, check out getbodysmart.com. Choose "muscular system" and then any tutorial listed that tickles your fancy. That's what I have been memorising - every muscle's name, origin and insertion (i.e. where on the skeleton it joins to) and action. My next exam is two weeks from yesterday.

I haven't yet checked out the skeletal, physiology, circulatory or respiratory tutorials yet but this is also all a part of this module of my course... meaning I have to also know all that in two weeks' time. Thankfully I am already familiar with it from uni, I just have to re-learn the memory-related stuff.

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Hoctro's Place is an awesome blog I recently came across in my Google search for a unique Blogger template. I didn't end up finding one, however this awesome blog had tutorials which taught me to change The Snarchives into a 3-column layout, as well as put a photo collage banner across the top. Check out our spunky new layout if you haven't seen it already.

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You will think I am an absolute doofus for recommending this website - but I will anyway: The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology - in particular, the official Melbourne Weather Forecast. I hate that sometimes when I check the weather online that some forecasts can be off by several degrees (there's a big difference between 18 and 23!) or predict a fine, sunny day when it's really drizzly and overcast. The official site is way more reliable, for sure!

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One of these days James and I will finally get around to having our own website - at jamesandfi.com! For now, we simply own the domain license for the next 5 years, which my brother bought us for Christmas. What a clever gift!

For now... don't bother going there, you won't see anything of interest. In fact, right now i think it just redirects you to some sort of advertising site or credit card site or something that's not worth me looking into to find out what it is just so I can blog about what site it is.

Don't Dehydrate. Rehydrate!

Wonderful James came running with me yesterday. You can read about that run in my TRAINING bLOG if you're curious.

The day before yesterday I learnt about dehydration and heat stress. One of the things I learnt was that after exercise we should aim to replace our fluid loss through sweating by 150%.

Naturally, I was curious to see how much fluid James and I would sweat out during a 10km run. So we weighed ourselves before and after the run (note: 1L water weighs 1kg, hence weight loss is a good estimate of amount of fluid lost from the body during exercise).

I was so surprised to find out the results! I lost 0.9L of water, and James lost a whopping 1.2L. I was expecting much less - maybe, oh I don't know... 0.4L for me?

Therefore, to adequately rehydrate post-exercise, James and I needed to drink 1.8 and 1.4L of water respectively.

Now I know for a fact that I am a person who doesn't sweat very much - not only am I female, I also don't seem to work up much of a sweat, even compared to other females. So if not-very-sweaty me can sweat almost 1L of water during a 10km run in cool-to-warm conditions, you can see how easily many of us can become dehydrated due to prolonged exercise and not enough fluid intake during and after, especially in warmer conditions.

Dehydration is not good. You cannot train your body to tolerate dehydration better. With training, other aspects of your bodily functions will improve, e.g. your body might sweat less. But you will never tolerate dehydration better.

So be sure to adequately hydrate your body before, during and after exercise.

The Butcher, The Mousse and The Butterscotch Sauce

I love working at Meal Magic. I just love it. I have learnt so many new things about food in the short weeks I have worked there. Here are some of them...

New butchering knowledge:

• I now know how to take an entire beef rump (i.e. cow's bottom), cut off all the fat and sinew, and make it into steaks and/or diced bits. One month ago if you'd slapped a beef rump down on a kitchen bench in front of me, I would have had absolutely no idea where to begin, apart from pick up a knife and stare at the thing.
  
• On a chicken breast there is a bit that tears off quite easily known as a chicken tender. When I excitedly told James about this new piece of knowledge as soon as I got home, he informed me he already knew this. I was crushed.
• Cutting a hole in a chicken breast so it can be stuffed with filling... okay it's not a big deal to do this at all but I never would have known that if I hadn't tried doing it myself.
  
• Chicken thighs are definitely my least favourite cut of chicken to work with. Yes they are nice and tender in stir-fries but they are so annoying to try and cut the fat out off and there are just so many tendons everywhere. Give me chicken breasts or tenders any day.
• I can (sort of) tell the difference between lamb and beef mince. I can't do it with my eyes closed like Dan (j/k!) but if I stare at them long enough I think I can almost spot which one is redder (and therefore the lamb)
  

New dessert skills:

• In the last two or three weeks, I have made litres (and litres!) of chocolate mousse, raspberry mousse and tiramisu. I was up to my elbows in the stuff... literally! I know they probably cost hundreds or maybe even thousands of $$$ but I would love to have one of those giant mixers in my kitchen that can whip up 5L of cream in minutes! For now I will just settle for wishing for one of my own home-sized cake mixers one day.
  
• Butterscotch sauce! Yum, yum, yum!

Overall, I am way more confident in the kitchen. I used to think I didn't like cooking, but actually I tend to like things I think I'm good at or dislike things I think I'm not good at. And at this point in time, I think I could actually one day be good at cooking... all I need is practise and the opportunity to continue to pick Daniela's brain.

After all, I love eating... so why not learn to make all that yummy stuff too!

Precious, Precious Tickets

I guess I'm just trying to make up for not blogging so regularly as of late. I am excited to announce that today James and I purchased tickets to see Miss Saigon.

I AM SO EXCITED, I have wanted to see this musical since I was 16! I used to know most of the words to all the songs despite never having seen the stage production.

I just wanted to announce my excitement to the entire world. Two weeks from now I will be walking out of Her Majesty's Theatre, with a sigh in my heart and a smile on my face.

Training bLog!

I have started a new blog - my TRAINING bLOG. I don't really expect anyone to read it regularly because it's more for myself, but I just thought you might like to know.

The website is http://fitnessfi.blogspot.com.

The people I can think of who would want to read this blog are people who are curious about what I get up to on a daily or weekly basis, people who want to keep me accountable, or people who want to check out what I do and give me feedback.

Running to Race

I subscribe to and love reading Ultra-FIT magazine.

My friend Daniela introduced me to it - she cleverly did it only a few weeks before my birthday party last year, which I later discovered was so she could suss out whether or not to get me a subscription for my birthday. Isn't she a star?

Better yet, a part of my personal trainer course is a compulsory membership to FitNation which includes a year subscription to Ultra-FIT, so I am pretty much set until mid-2008! Woo hoo!

Being me, of course I couldn't help but notice that every issue has a "letters" section, and they award a heart rate monitor to the "star letter". Well I have been contemplating what to write for my "star letter" for the last few months, and finally wrote and emailed it off today.

If this doesn't win me the much-desired award, I don't know what will! Save for the fact that this letter is possibly several months too late because I've just been too busy to write it (we're on issue $102 now).

Oh well... if it doesn't, I will just continue to save up for one.

Before I show you the letter I wrote, I also just want to thank Daniela: without you I would never have had the opportunity to read the below-mentioned article. It was also you who encouraged me to act upon my inspiration after I told you about the article, and you who came and ran the race with me (and made me run for my life for the entire last km!). So thank you!

Dear Ultra-FIT,

I want to thank and commend the entire team for the awesome work you do each and every issue. I have been a subscriber and avid reader since August 2006. In particular I want to thank you for your feature article "Running to Race" (issue #99).

As a teenager, I was not very active. I had definitely never run before, couldn't run, and wouldn't ever dream of running. In mid-2005 I decided to give running on the treadmill a go, simply because I'd tried every other cardio machine in the gym except for that dreaded treadmill! One year later, I was regularly running 2-3 times a week. Up to that point I had never run more than about 5km.

Then Issue #99 was released. Your article inspired me to give racing a try. Before reading it, I thought racing was only for professional or amateur athletes, and definitely not for people like me!

I ran - and completed! - my first race in Nov 2006... 8km long! I had never, EVER run that far before! In the short months leading up to that race I ran distances well past 5km, because I had to prepare for an 8km distance!

Since then, it's been nothing but onwards and upwards for me. Next month (April), I will run my second race, a whopping 15.2km long. I am even considering a half marathon in May!

When I first started in 2005, running for more than 5 minutes was a huge challenge! If you had told me back then that I would be contemplating a half-marathon in 2007, there is no way I would have believed you.

Thank you, Ultra-FIT, for the inspiration you gave me through "Running to Race". In it, you wrote that "racing is one of the best ways to help improve your running". I am living proof that you were right!

Running to Race,
Fiona

Pinch and a Punch ... and a 15.2km run

Ah yes, the old "first day of the month" poem.

Well I can't write too much today. I am actually supposed to be finishing off my assignment for my first subject right now ~ Nutrition and Body Fat Management. Shh! Don't tell James ~ he's in the living room with me right now happily playing on his Nintendo Wii. We shall soon learn if he has been diligently reading my blog or not, depending on if he ever reads this. :)

I recently realized that I forgot to blog about something very important: in January I signed up for my second race. It is exactly a month away now ~ Run for the Kids on 1 April 2007. This one is a huge step up from my first ever 8km race. In fact, 8km seems like nothing compared to... wait for it... 15.2km! That's almost double!

Another cool thing about this race - I have at least 7 friends running it too. Half of us regularly train together once a week as a Running Group, and the others have all joined our Running Group at least once.

I am looking forward to this race with a little anticipation and a little more fear. It's kept me running regularly when probably nothing else could. However, I am probably not running enough, currently averaging approx. 3 times a week. The furthest I've run so far is about 9km, so I've got a little work to do to up my km in time for race day.

At least, thanks to what I have learnt on my course so far, I know what I'm supposed to be eating now! Speaking of which, I'd better get back to my assignment.

My FitNation Course... the saga begins!

Ah, yes, the anticipated post that is going to tell you all about how my FitNation course is going. Well, I've had two lectures now. The course consists of 5 modules, and every module comprises 1 to 6 lectures. To complete every module I need to submit assignments and also sit exams.

My first module is already 2/3 of the way through, i.e. I've attended 2 of the 3 lectures. My first assignment deadline and exam is a week from tomorrow... can you believe it?!

So this is shaping up to be a pretty fast-paced 14 weeks, with lots of information to learn and process in my brain within a relatively short period of time. I'm only into my first week and already I'm quite tired between balancing course attendance, study (which I've not had a chance to do much of) and also part-time work at Meal Magic.

Thankfully, this first module is relatively easy for me because of my science background. The module topic: Nutrition and Body Fat Management. Most of the nutrition stuff I've either already learnt in high school and university biology classes, and anything additional I've probably already read around the place because it's a topic of interest to me.

My next module however will not be so easy - Anatomy!

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Here's a story from my first night's attendance which I know you will enjoy:

One of our classroom activities was to pair up and interview our partners regarding what we'd consumed in the past 24 hours. I interviewed my partner first, and was astounded by the amount of food he consumed!

As for me... well, it is here that I have a confession to make: I lied... just a little! But a lie, no matter how small, is still a lie. *sigh*

Let me explain myself...

After interviewing my partner and learning how much he'd eaten, I began to feel insecure about what I'd eaten, and worried that he would think I ate too little. You see, our lectures start at 6pm on Mondays, so to get there on time I had to leave home by 5pm, which meant a really early dinner at 4:40pm! Lectures don't end until 10pm which would be too late to eat dinner.

So at lunchtime that day, I didn't really eat much, just a hot cross bun. I wasn't really hungry and I knew I'd be eating again in only a few hours. So what did I lie about? Well, when I was interviewed I added an extra sandwich for good measure - a salmon sandwich with cream cheese, to be exact. I just felt I had to... I mean, my partner ate 3 ham sandwiches with salad plus a muesli bar and an apple! What was I to do?

Yes, yes, I know. I'm a bad person. What can I say? But I have now appeased my conscience a little by confessing this lie in public. Actually, I appeased it as soon as I confessed my sin to James the next morning.

Go ahead, have a laugh. James certainly did.

The Countdown is Over!

It says zero! But there's still 6 1/2 hours to go before my course officially starts at 6pm. In the meantime I have a bunch of errands to run today so it should pass the time rather quickly.

ARGH!!! This is so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meal Magic

This week I started part-time work at Meal Magic. You may remember me blogging about it last October.

The main purposes of my getting a part-time job were:
a) generate a part-time income prior to attaining my fitness qualifications
b) prevent me from going crazy out of boredom and un-productivity during my non-study hours

What a bonus to get a job that isn't just for the sake of income and boredom-prevention, but allows me the privilege of working for and selling a product that I believe in ~ meals that are convenient and well-priced, yet healthy and delicious! It is important to me to believe in the product I sell, one of the many reasons why I want to join the fitness industry.

If you haven't visited Meal Magic yet, do stop by. I'm not just doing a sales job here... my October blog proves that I already loved what they do long before I became an employee there.

Meal Magic also has a strong emphasis on excellent customer service. As the daughter of a man who once worked as the Asian Director of Quality and Customer Service for Motorola, I grew up learning to notice all aspects of customer service at every restaurant and store in town, because on our visits Dad would provide a running commentary on what was excellent, what could be improved, and what was downright terrible.

So even if you stop by for a visit, and are not entirely sold on the concept (highly unlikely), you will definitely experience a pleasant visit. You will also be given the opportunity to try some of Daniela's delicious concoctions.

And if you want to see me in action, then Tuesdays and Saturdays are the days to come! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

James was so sweet. He gave me 3 single roses, each one to represent a Valentine's Day that we have celebrated together since being married, each one accompanied by a card.

I especially loved the final card, which read:

For my wife on Valentine's Day
Whether we're home or out on the town
Fussing, discussing, or clowning around
Whether we're loafing or have lots to do
There's no one I want beside ME besides YOU
Happy Valentine's Day

We had a lovely Valentine's lunch together at Miss Marples Tearoom in Sassafras (Mount Dandenong). I highly recommend a visit to them for lunch or afternoon tea.

If you like scones, theirs are absolutely heavenly! For the non-scone people, they also have some delicious-looking sundaes and other treats. We haven't tried them ourselves ~ we always opt for the scones when we visit ~ but they also look quite stunning and appear to be popular.

Just a Blog Post

I haven't blogged in almost two weeks. That's not like me. It's because I've been a little uninspired lately. Most of the time I have so many things swimming around in my head that I want to post about, and I have to focus myself and pick one topic at a time only.

But lately I've been uninspired because I've been... unemployed. I've been in between jobs (waiting for the right time to start a part-time job). And, more importantly, I've been waiting for my fitness course to start!

As of right now the countdown says 4 days, 2 hours, 11 minutes, 58 seconds. It's so far away! Ugh.

But it's getting nearer even as I type. Now it says 4 days, 2 hours, 8 minutes, 42 seconds.

Actually, the countdown is 18 hours fast, because it will hit zero as soon as the clock ticks past midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning.

The correct starting time is 6pm. Monday 19 February. I can't wait!

Running Group

We're now one month into it, and going strong! This week we had 3 new participants.

On Sunday we did Speed Work ~ instead of going on a longer, moderately-paced run, we did a series of short sprints, both on flat ground as well as up a hill. The purpose of Speed Work, according to Brett, is to increase the anaerobic capacity of your muscles. Click here for an explanation of anaerobic exercise.

This training session was difficult! Probably one of the more difficult running sessions I have done since I began running almost 2 years ago. But my sense of satisfaction after completing the speed work was immense. And my muscles boasted evidence of hard work on Monday morning ~ I had sore hamstrings... so did James!

After discussing with Brett, it looks like we may schedule speed work sessions for once a month. Whilst they will only get more and more difficult as each individual in the group seeks to push him/herself further with each session, I think the results will speak for themselves. Even on my run yesterday I felt an improvement since Sunday ~ I was able to push myself to run a bit faster than normal without my need of oxygen giving in on me as soon.

Here are some of photos of our training session from two weeks ago:

I really love this next photo:

This one's for Neli!

Neli, I am so proud of you! Friends and readers ~ this is why.

It is by no means an easy thing to make a lifestyle change. But then again, anything that is worthwhile is not easy. Neli, you've counted the cost, you're making your stand, and you are publicly declaring it to the world so that we can encourage you and keep you accountable.

YOU STRONG, NELI!

As someone who has experienced and learnt from the same journey you are embarking on, I am behind you all the way! There will be many things that you will learn, just as I did. Not only was I made aware of my own weaknesses ~ especially regarding the unnecessary desires of my stomach, LOL ~ I also learnt just how much I am capable of!

Neli, and everyone else out there, you are capable of so much! And for those of you who have the privilege of following after the God that I follow, even more so with His strength behind you!

Did Moses actually part the Red Sea?

I read in my Bible today and yesterday about Moses and the ten plagues God sent to Egypt because Pharaoh was too stubborn to let the Israelites go.

Even if you haven't read this story directly from the Bible, you will most likely be familiar with it, thanks to classic feature films such as The Ten Commandments starring Yule Brynner as Pharaoh and Charlton Heston as Moses, and The Prince of Egypt animated film.

Well, these last two days, I discovered something that I had never noticed before. I even pointed it out to my intelligent, Bible-scholar-type-and-also-a-history-buff husband James, and he, too, had not noticed it.

Funnily enough, these last two days he had also read the same Bible passages that I had, but somehow hadn't noticed what I did. LOL.

So, what is this interesting news? It is this: Moses was not the person who threw his staff down to the ground where it became a snake. Moses was also not the person who raised his staff and initiated the first three plagues (water turning to blood, frogs, lice).

It was Aaron, Moses' older brother!

Aaron was the one who threw his staff down (Ex 7:10b), who lifted up his rod and struck the waters of the Nile (Ex 7:19-20), who stretched out his staff over the waters of Egypt to cause frogs to come out of them (Ex 8:6), and who struck the dust of the land with his staff so that it turned into lice (Ex 8:17).

It was Aaron!

As for the remaining 7 plagues, the Bible does not specify who performed the initiating move to cause the plagues, only that Moses confronted Pharaoh and declared that if he didn't let the Israelites go, then ______ (fill in the blank) would happen.

I find it so interesting that I never noticed this before. I don't know if this was because I have been influenced by movies made about this very story, so that prior to this week, I hadn't read what actually happened, but instead read what I thought happened. It just goes to show that we all view our world, read books and hear what people say through our own individual set of filters.

Of course, James asked the clever question and we immediately looked it up: did Moses actually part the Red Sea?

Answer: Yes, he did (Ex 14:21). Well, at least we all got that part right!

Philosophical side note: yes, yes, you could be pedantic and say, no Moses didn't, God did, etc, etc, and I would agree with you on this point, but please remember the purpose of this post is to point out that Aaron was the one who followed God's instructions in order for God to do what God did. ;)

Wongs Have a Wright to Have Fun

Looking back over my collection of 2006 photos, I have come to the realisation that one thing my brother and I have in common is that we both have this love for taking silly photos of ourselves:

Jan/Feb 2006
Brian: in Kota Kinabalu ~ stuffing around with the straws from our drinks
Me: at a friend's wedding ~ I felt the need to make our photo more interesting

Dec 2006
Brian: fooling around at his birthday dinner
Me: after taking my hair out of a hairdo

I am proud to say that James has truly become a part of the Wong family.
He is not simply a recruit to this essential family practise, he is a willing participant!
The second of the following two photos is a particular favourite of mine - James' expression makes me laugh. He's so into it!

Edit: I found a couple more photos that I just had to share. These also include my sister Stephanie, proving that all three of us gladly participate in this essential Wong practise. I have a really old sticker photo somewhere too of my mum, me and Steph with matching silly faces... if I ever find it, I'll scan it and post it if you like!

Job Opportunities

Next week, I have an appointment to see the manager of the gym where I work out. We're going to talk about job opportunities.

I have no idea whether I can get a job at a gym before I have gained my qualifications or whether I need to wait til after my course ends (which is not until June). The fact that he's willing to meet with me next week, with my course still a few weeks away from commencing (see countdown above!), suggests that I may be able to get something before I'm qualified and thus work my way towards actually instructing and training after I've finished my course.

I hope so!

Going Bananas!

Bananas were priced at only $1.95 per kilo at Safeway today!! I was so excited that I bought four. Yay!!!