A mouse amongst elephants…
Greetings, folks! Before I proceed, let us all give a pat on each other’s backs ‘coz we SURVIVED Monday! ! We successfully beat the Monday morning blues, after a restful w’kend, and here we are, at the end of the dreadful Monday!
*breathes a sigh of relief*
Hopefully all of you had a great start to this week. My day went past quite quickly. This morning, it was my duty as doctor-in-charge at the staff clinic. Sometimes, whilst runnin’ around doin’ all that administrative & paper-work pertaining to medical research and training, I almost forget that I’m a clinical doctor! Hence, I look forward to these clinics and locum sessions in the evenings as I get a chance to practice my clinical skills! Had a line-up of staff who were feelin’ under the weather. Generously wrote ‘em all MC’s as they really were quite ill! Then, had to pick up two saree blouses which I had given for stiching at b’fields. Lately, I’ve developed a fascination for matching bangles. These bangles are quite reasonable and my favourite bangle haunt’s located at Bombay Point, B’fields. Those who know me well would already know that I usually speak very highly of the selection of bangles in Bombay Point! This time, I went lookin’ for green bangles. The saree’s a pale lemon green colour. Not a colour that I would’ve picked off the shelf but ‘coz it’s a gift, I’ve to wear it. Oh well, that’s when accessories come into the picture, to try and spice the pale colour up a li’l! Had a sumptious banana leaf meal and assured myself that I would burn all those calories later this evening at the gym. Over the last 2 1/2 months, I’ve become rather health and calorie-conscious! All thanks to Robz, who has already reached the level of diet & calorie-obsession. (Thank heavens Robz doesn’t read my blogs or he’d be fuming if he saw how ‘fondly’ I speak of him in e’re!) *chuckles
Once work was over, I excitedly drove to the gym. I’m going thru’ a patch right now. I’ve called it the “weaning myself off the dependence on my personal trainer” at the gym. See, over the last 7-8weeks , I’ve had the luxury of personal training, and by far, Ray , my personal trainer is the best thing that happened to me , from a fitness point of view! Ray’s very patient and taught me how to do a lot of workouts that were suitable and appropriate for my fitness level and stamina. Alas, the 12 sessions were over and I was on my own. On the last day, the 12th session, I remember feelin’ quite depressed ‘coz I knew that after that session, I’d be left all alone in the sea of super-fit men and women who worked out at the gym with utmost confidence! I’m quite happy doing my 20minutes of cycling, which I usually do quite religiously each time I go to the gym. Same goes for the super-easy abdominal crunches which I love doing. I’m a li’l obsessed with abdominal crunches and usually do ’bout 150-175 abdo crunches in the mornin’ before I have my shower *Grins* . It’s the weights section that I’ve always found rather daunting. At the gym I go to, the weights section is always filled with very virile, macho men who always seem to be panting and puffing away carrying 100kg weights! Even looking at them sends shudders of fear and anxiety down my spine! Since that last session with Ray, I’ve tried my best to muster as much courage to go up to that highly male-dominated section of the gym to attempt carryin’ weights. Yet, I always end up chickening out. Today, I told myself that I’d get over this fear of the WEIGHTS section, so off I went upstairs, bouncing happily with an air of superficial confidence, assuring myself that it would be a breeze doin’ those weight workouts, just as Ray had taught me. Coincidentally, Ray was with a client , training the dude up when I tried a machine just next to his client. Ray and I exchanged smiles and off I went onto that machine . It’s one of those fancy gadgets that helps with the lower limb weights. When I sat at the machine, I knew something wasn’t quite right. Yet, I tried to fidget with the weights. Ray gave me that , ” girl, you’re doin’ it wrong!” look and I knew I had messed up. Ray gave me 1/2 a minute before comin’ over, with a rather sympathetic look, and helped me. Oh well, apparently I had gotten the angle of the foot bit of the machine wrong. Once Ray adjusted the machine, I was fine. Did my usual sets. Then, I figured I’d try somethin’ for the upper limbs instead. As I walked across that highly-scary area, I’m not sure if I was just paranoid, or it felt like all the strong weight-lifting men from around Klang Valley had landed onto that weights-section. Felt like a mouse amongst the elephants in the wilderness. I reminded myself that everyone has to start somewhere and I’m sure all these very strong men were rather apprehensive, just as I was, when they first started lifting weights! My next feat was the upper limbs machine. I adjusted the weights according to my abilities to carry, and began carrying. PROBLEM. One arm would lift, but the other side just jammed up. It was so very embarrassing sitting there, gathering every ounce of energy left in my body to try and lift that dreadful Right arm portion up. Again, a rather sympathetic trainer walked over and tried to silence a giggle as he explained that I had completely forgotten to adjust the weights on my Right portion, and turns out I was tryin’ to carry a 60kg weight !!! How do people even carry 60kgs?!!?!? *sigh*. Oh heck, I offiically screwed up. Maybe I was too hard on myself. Maybe my expectations were rather high. Either way, I had decided that perhaps it would be wise to call it a day. Besides, I was already on the verge of collapsing from the rigorous cycling, abdominal crunches and weights. Before I left the gym, I bumped into Ray and told him how miserably awful it was , now that I had to do all these weights myself. Being the sweetie he is, he has promised to write it all down for me so that I’d have a guide or two the next time I try these exercises! Oh well, in retrospect, I’m proud of myself for having attempted the rather overwhelming and terrifying weights, in that horrifying weights-section, filled with those scary men! Perhaps when I return to the gym on Wednesday, I’d be a lot more confident, with the li’l notes Ray’s goin’ to write for me. I was reading thru’ an article on New Year Resolutions and ways to cut down on the spending. One of it rang loud bells for me. It went along the lines of, ” you don’t need a personal trainer standing right next to you as you workout in the gym. once you learn the regime, you can very well do it yourself, as oppoesd to relying on a personal trainer, which costs a bomb”. OUCH. So yeah, one of my New Year resolutions for this year , is to be consistent with workouts in the gym, and most importantly, to attempt these workouts by myself. Slowly but surely, eh? Tomorrow, it’s Poco-Poco dances after work. I’m sure I’ll have a new set of stories to share with you at the end of tomorrow.
Once again, as all of you are probably preparing to go to bed shortly, do have a goodnight’s rest and have a pleasant week ahead.
I shall sign off for now, ‘coz my body’s so very fatigued and I could do with a good couple of hours of rest.
zzzzzzzz…….
