An Experience: Jason Mraz & Raining Jane in Manila

My excitement from Jason’s concert here in Manila has yet to diminish and I’ll always remember it as the highlight of this year. As I’ve said countless times, I swore that his concert would be my first. I swore true.

From the time I bought those tickets until the moment I saw him walk up to that microphone on stage, I was holding my breath.

Read more about my experience of Jason Mraz’s concert in Manila.

Hi! I apologize if you can't see the whole post here but I've recently transferred to a new site and in order to avoid multiple sites with the same content, my posts here will be truncated. You can visit my new site at https://hellokt.co or go to the specific article in the link above. Thank you so much for visiting! =)

Get in Shape: How to Stay Motivated (Part 2)

If you think exercising is hard, try maintaining an exercise routine! The first 2 weeks can go by very smoothly. You’re high with endorphin and feel that no one can stand in your way to a sexy body. Then come the 3rd and 4th week, you find yourself losing interest and getting bored with your routine. How do you stay motivated?

This is part 2 of Shape’s 10 Tricks to Stay Motivated to Hit the Gym. As mentioned in part 1, I’m adding my take on to the tricks in Shape’s article. I found them applicable beyond just “hitting the gym” and so I’d like to share my opinion and personal experience on the subject. Here’s the 2nd half:

6. Get a Little Competitive

True, competition can drive you into completing an extra set or rep. Seeing the person beside you bust her booty during a Zumba routine can also hype you into giving your all. But if you’re not a gym goer, have no workout buddy, or mostly just workout alone, then here’s my tip for you to get competitive without being with your competition. Find an office mate who’s also hoping to lose weight and challenge her. Dare her and say that you’ll be able to lose XX weight before she can. You can even have a bet to up the stakes. Bonus points if you can challenge your frienemy [friend+enemy]. Anything to awaken your competitive spirit.

7. Get Help from a Pro

If you don’t have the money and don’t want to invest (like me), make sure you spend time learning and mastering the form of every exercise you’re planning to do before actually doing them. This is so you can prevent any injuries from happening and be able to maximize the full potential of a particular exercise.

BONUS TIP: 

For the gym, it might be safer to use machines instead of free weights as the former guides and controls your form.

For those who go to classes, you’re already paying for the classes. You don’t need to have one-on-one sessions with the yogi, Zumba instructor, or dance teacher. If they don’t correct your posture during the session, you can always politely ask them after the session if how you’re doing it was correct. Mind the points they give you and remember the feeling of the correct posture so the next time you encounter the same routine, you will know.

Plus, and this happened to me, asking the teacher tells them you’re paying attention and willing to learn. They will remember you next time you attend their class and will pay more attention to you and your form. That beat’s an expensive one-on-one session!

8. Read Fitness Magazines

I have lots! But remember, understand the articles. These are meant to educate and are not only for leisurely reading. If it helps, place markers on the routines you like and incorporate some of it into your daily routine to spice things up.

For myself, I look for additional stretches for my cool down routine as I find the ones I’d currently following a bit lacking. Sometimes, I incorporate those I learned from practicing yoga. Knowing different versions of the pose or exercise gives you variation and allows you to know which ones you are more comfortable doing.

Before, when I was still going to the gym, I bought a strength training book (it’s the purple one in the picture above) and focused on the ones with machine guides. Reading up on the book really helped because by the time I got to the gym, I was more confident in using the machines. By then, I also knew what to ask the trainers there. This saves you and the trainers a lot of time trying to understand each other.

9. Follow your Routine

This is related to Trick No. 3, keeping it real. If you followed that trick (more like “tip”), chances are, you’ll be able to follow your routine. No questions asked, no complaints, no excuses.

Like the article said, “small, achievable, and realistic goals”. This time, for your routine, keep it simple. There’s no need to have a long routine. 20- to 30- minute routines are feasible (warm-ups and cool downs not included).

Start with basic and easy to remember routines (you can customize your exercises) and work your way up from there. I’m already in my 2nd week of my 30 by 30 Challenge and I’ve changed one exercise since the 1st week and replaced it with 3 exercises. The 3 exercises were mostly for warm-up and cool down and focused on the legs. I found that I needed stretches more to avoid my muscles cramping up.

10. Remember this

Essentially, what I think this last trick means is for you to stay quiet about it. Let your own physical transformation speak for you (so to speak).

Stop talking, start doing.”

With my personality, I’d always want to share want I’m doing with everybody else. It’s an experience worth sharing and a knowledge worth spreading. Plus, announcing it gives me added push and deters me from going back on my word, albeit one-sided.

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Do you have your own tips or tricks to live by? Let me know what you think!

Get in Shape: How to Stay Motivated (Part 1)

So you decided to get in shape. Your mind goes wild with planning your workout schedule, picking out your routines, choosing what type of workout you want, be it aerobic fitness or strength training, etc. You made your choices and implemented your plan. For 2 weeks you were able to commit to your schedule but come the 3rd and 4th week, you started missing your classes, skipped a few repetitions, and found yourself losing interest. How do you stay motivated?

I’ll be grabbing something from Shape as my basis: 10 Tricks to Get Motivated to Hit the Gym. I’m a Shape subscriber and so I usually receive articles from them and this article got me reading. Though going to the gym may be its purpose, I believe it can be applied generally in order to motivate yourself to workout or at least propel yourself off the couch.

Here’s my take on the tricks and how I see myself applying it:

1. Bring a Buddy

This trick is not exclusive to gym goers. If you’re like me who attends yoga, Zumba, and dance classes, this advice also works. Of course, choosing a buddy should be carefully considered. You’d want an “enabler” rather than a buddy who discourages you from exercising.

If all your friends are couch potatoes (most of mine are), try chatting up the people who’re already in the classes you go to. The regular goers are your best bet because they will most likely encourage you to return and attend regularly. Plus, you see for yourself how regularly working out positively affects their aura, so to speak. Just don’t do this after, not during, yoga classes though, especially during headstands.

BONUS TIP: Try bidding your new found buddy a “see you tomorrow” at the end of every session instead of just a good bye. This will compel you to make good with this indirect promise and you are also encouraging the other to stay motivated.

2. Consider the Aftermath

Need I say more? Not only will you be a happier person, exercise prevents you from murdering people! Plus, you just need to picture yourself several sizes smaller and finally fitting in to your skinny jeans, and that’s all it takes to propel yourself off the couch.

If this doesn’t work, scare yourself into thinking that if you don’t get up to subtract the pounds, soon you’ll be as big as the world is round… or something to that effect. Please excuse my attempt to make the statement rhyme.

3. Keep it Real

True. I have tried setting up many goals but sadly, it didn’t work. The few that worked though, did not last.

I add “concrete” to “small, achievable, and realistic goals” as stated by Shape. Setting up abstract or broad goals such as “I will lose 30 pounds by the time a reach 30”. Like debating points of an idea, this statement is just a major point that requires supporting statements. Statements such as “I will exercise at least 3o minutes every day”, “I will lessen my carb intake by eating a half cup of brown rice instead one 1 cup”, “I will not eat after 8pm”, “I will eat small meals every 4 hours”, etc. are needed to make your major goal concrete.

BONUS TIP: List down possible support statements to your major goal and mark the ones most doable for you. You only need to meet three of these to be on your way to changing your lifestyle. My lifestyle hasn’t changed yet. I’m only a few weeks past my “Day 1” but I haven’t missed a single concrete goal, yet.

4. Find a Reason

My best friend’s wedding (classic movie!) is this coming June. She’s fit but doesn’t regularly workout. However, since she got engaged, she did nothing but jog/run everyday to fit in to that wedding dress. You’d think she had her wedding dress made 5 sizes smaller, hence her crazy determination, but that’s beside the point. My point is, that’s one reason to get motivated. It’s no wonder this is the example Shape gave in the article.

As for me, my reason is this blog. In my category page you will find that this blog was originally intended to be named “30 by 30”, the contents of which would be to journal the things I do to reach that goal. Though the name didn’t push though, the challenge is still there. It’s a 2-way thing for me. One the one hand, publicizing my promise to be fit motivates, if not compels, me to workout. On the other, the things I do in order to keep that promise provide me with content for my blog. Selfish? I call it killing two birds with one stone!

5. Create a Killer Playlist

Not only does music pump you up, it sets your rhythm. If you’re a runner, jogger, or walker (like me), you can create a playlist to control speed or steps-per-minute. You can begin and end your playlist with a slow beat for your warm-up and cool down, then place several fast beat song in between for your actual workout. Imagine, for a 30 minute run, you only need 6-8 songs!

BONUS TIP: To amp up your jog/run/walk, you can combine songs with varying beats per minute for that HIIT effect. If you can splice music together, you can have a more personalized workout mix! I suggest creating at least 3 playlists to keep your workouts fresh.

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Watch out for Part 2 next week!