The Eve of New Year's Eve!

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Treadmill	11 mins	1	Covered 2.4km
Shoulder raised		4 (Weight used: 6)	15
Side Dumbbell Shoulder raised		4 (Weight used: 6Kg)	12
Front Dumbbell Shoulder raised		4 (Weight used: 6kg)	12
Triceps Pull down		4 (Weight used: 5)	15
Crunches and leg raise		3	70, 60, 60

Workout Date: 30th Dec'08

Workout Time: 1300hrs - 1400hrs

Venue: Gym

Went to the gym during lunch with Chan again. Well, he didn't want to go today and planned to workout tomorrow after work, as we would be knocking off at 1230hrs for it is New Year's eve. Anyway, I managed to persuade him to do it today and rest tomorrow.

Marley and Me

If the script of this movie follows exactly the story line of the same titled novel, then the ending is really very sad... I've read the novel last year, and at the last few chapters, when Marley's condition began to worsen, it made me felt very sad. Don't think anybody who read it can hold back their tears, especially towards the last chapter when Marley had to be put to sleep... I am definitely going for this movie!

Pu Er Tea

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Treadmill	25:20mins	1	Covered 5km
Bench press		4 (Weight used: 8)	15
Lat pull		4 (Weight used: 8)	15
Dumbbell flye		4 (Weight used: 8kg)	12
Biceps curl		4 (Weight used: 10kg)	10

Workout Date: 29th Dec'08

Workout Time: 1300hrs - 1400hrs

Venue: Gym

I was at Yue Hwa yesterday, together with Elaine, and I bought a can of Pu Er tea leaves for myself. It is said that drinking Pu Er tea has lots of benefits. And so I did some surfing on the net today and true enough, there are many sites that promote this tea and the list of its health benefits can be easliy found too. Some of the benefits are: Lowering of cholestrol, prevent heart diseases, slimming and etc. Anyway, I think I have drank about 5 cups today while at my office:)

Went to the gym during lunch with Chan. Not sure whether to workout tomorrow...

Sad News

Daniel told me, while we were doing our cooling down exercises, that his god-brother's youngest son, Chris, is suspected to be suffering from autism. Chris is only one year old. He will be seeing a doctor tomorrow for a check up. Really hope that it's nothing serious...

Tried new exercise

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Skipping		1	1500
Push-up		3	25
Shoulder raise		3	18
Crunches		3	60
Pull-up		3	8
Biceps pull		3	25
Tripceps dip		3	20
Pull-up (legs up)		2	6, 5

Workout Date: 28th Dec'08

Workout Time: 0800hrs - 0920hrs

Venue: Fitness Corner

I have been sleeping a lot since the day I returned from the China trip (in the name of recuperation). And while I was napping yesterday afternoon, Daniel messaged me and asked me to join him for workout the next morning. And so I agreed.

I began to skipped at 0800hrs and decided that I would just do 1500 of jumps instead of skipping for 20mins, which I normally does. Well, did a few "failed" handstands after the 1500, and followed by the workout activities.

I am quite delighted when Daniel said that my workout program seems to be quite effective as he could see that my body sculpture has toned up quite a little. And so I explained to him that whatever I have always been doing at the fitness corner covers a few different muscles. I further elaborated that the push up is for the chest muscle, pull up for the back, should raise for the shoulder, crunches for the abs, triceps and biceps, well for the triceps and biceps. I don't gain mass by doing these, but I do strengthen the muscles.

Tried something new today. Using the horizontal ladder, I did a leg-raise in a scoping motion, and when my legs reached the top, I pulled my body upwards. I find this a good exercise for the abs, and also for the back.

Back to Exercise

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Jogging	30 mins	1
Push-up		4	25
Shoulder raise		4	15
Crunches		4	30
Pull-up		4	8

Workout Date: 27th Dec'08

Workout Time: 0730hrs - 0830hrs

Venue: Park Connector/ Fitness Corner

Take a Break

Tour to Beijing: 21st Dec to 25th Dec'08
(Will be updating this later)

Judo

This was one of my favourite youtube clips on Judo. I had practised Judo for 2yrs but have stopped for a year already. Practicing Judo is fun and it really helps in building up strength and stamina. But it is very injury prone. Though I practised for 2yrs, I am still very lousy at it:p

Late night Training

I had planned to go to the gym at 2030hrs and do my workout there till it's time to pick Elaine up. However, Elaine messaged me and said that she wants to go to the gym too. Hence, I waited for her.

We reached the gym at 2130hrs, and she started her running on the treadmill machine almost immediately after I have switched on the lights. And as for me, I went to the climbing machine again and workout for 10mins on it. I took my HR reading at 2nd minute and it was 128. Took again at the 6th minute and it was 147. The reading at the last minute was 154.

My thighs immediately felt very sore when I stepped down from the machine hence I did some stretching and the soreness eased off a little.

Done the following too:
Bench Press: 4 sets/ 15 reps (Weight used: 8)
Lad pull to the back: 4 sets/ 15 reps (Weight used: 8)
Dumbbell fly: 4 sets/ 15 reps (Weight used: 8, 10, 10, 10kg)
Biceps curl: 4 sets/ 15 reps (Weight used: 8, 8, 10, 10kg)

I know I should be doing more than these, but I was really not in the mood. I had gave the crunches a miss today, but instead I did practices on handstand. Sigh... no progress in handstand. Still can't hold it there for more than 2 seconds:(

Back to Old Gym

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Climbing maching	20mins	1
Crunches		2	70
Dumbbell Side raise		3 (Weight used: 8kg)	12
Dumbbell Front raise		3 (Weight used: 8kg)	10

Workout Date: 16th Dec'08

Workout Time: 1200hrs- 1300hrs

Venue: Old Gym

Went to the old gym during lunch, and have planned do anything but running. Anyway, none of the treadmill machines were in working order. Did the climbing machine workout again. There is no heart rate detecting device in this machine, thus I can't know what my heart rate was during the 20 mins workout on it. Few mins after stepping on it, I found that the resistance level was too low, and I adjusted it from level 1 to level 4. I maintained on that level till the last min, and had it changed to level 10. Ok, level 10 was really something...

Still can feel some slight pain at my shin...:(

Office Workout

Didn't feel like going to the gym today, so I just did the following exercises in my office during lunch break, when everyone else has left for their lunch:)

Push up - 8 Sets/ 25 Reps
Squats - 4 Sets/ 25 Reps
Crunches - 4 Sets/ 25 Reps
Triceps Dip - 4 Sets/ 25 Reps

My left shin felt slightly better... The ice really worked!

Table Tennis

Woke up at about 0915hrs today. Rainy day:( Elaine has got a meeting at 1000hrs and I sent her to her meeting place. Deric followed along.

After dropping Elaine, Deric and I went to the Beach Road market to have our breakfast. I had Lor Mee and Deric had Mee Kia. Well nothing special about these two bowls of mee, infact the Mee Kia tasted horrible (according to Deric). But the dessert that comes after that was delicious! I ordered 2 bowls of Tang Yuan (peanuts fillings). $1.50 per bowl:)

By the time we finished our breakfast, it was already about 1100hrs. As we had planned to play table tennis today, we left the market for Bra Basah to buy the Table Tennis bats. Managed to get 2 bats for $5.90 each, and 3 ping pong balls for $2. And we head back to the sports facilities near my house and started playing for about an hour till Elaine called.

Climbing machine

My left shin still hurts, and I had been frequently massaging it with ice, hoping that the pain will go away soon...

Together with Elaine and Deric, we went to the gym. Elaine ran on the treadmill for 35mins and covered a distance of 4km, and I was using the Climbing machine beside her treadmill, feeling sad that I am not on the treadmill doing my running:(

This climbing machine has got a heart rate monitoring device and my heart rate reached 65% after about 5mins of my 16mins Climbing and the rate maintained till the last min, which increased to 85%. The distance I covered was 2.4km. Don't like doing workout on this machine, but that is the closest to running without aggravating the injury in my shin...

I moved on to train my back after the climbing workout, and again did hand stand and forward rolling with Deric.

Pacer for 2.4km

Derek, Alphian and Chan took their IPPT this morning and I was there too as Alphian had asked that I become his pacer for his 2.4km. He wanted to complete the course within 9:59mins, in order to get a gold award. Anyway, he only needed me to come in at his 3rd round because he wanted to clear each of the remaining rounds in 1:30mins.

I ran with Alphian as he had requested till he completed his 6th round, and I continued as K.L came along and asked that I run his last round with him. And so I went. When K.L had reached his finishing line, I felt that since I have already got myself warmed up, I might as well run a few more rounds, and so I went for one more run until I caught up with Derek and Chan. It was their 4th round (altogether there were 2 batches for this 2.4 run and the both the batches started at a different time. Derek and Chan were in the 2nd batch.) I followed them till they finished their 6th round.

My shin hurts after the run. Suspect it's shin splint, but I had recently read from the Runners magazine on an article about shin splint and it said that the pain is at the outer part, and mine is in the inner part of the shin. Feeling very rotten about this injury now.

At 1715hrs, after I had knocked off from work, I picked up Deric and we headed straight to the gym. I was so tempted to step on the treadmill but then I remember the cautionary sentence: "Listen to your body!" And so I didn't do any workouts that directly involved the legs.

Deric and I trained out Chest muscle and biceps with the free weights and some of the weight machines in the gym. And though we were there from 1800hrs to 2000hrs, the last 40 to 50 mins, we spent doing hand stand and forward rolling.

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Bench press		4 (Weight used: 8)	15
Bench Dumbbell press		4 (Weight used: 10kg)	15
Dumbbell Flye		4 (Weight used: 8kg)	12
Bench Dumbbell press (Inclined)		4 (Weight used: 8kg)	15
Dumbbell Flye		4 (Weight used: 8kg)	10
Wide Grip pull down		4 (Weight used: 8)	15
Exercise ball Crunches		3	20
Biceps curl		4 (Weight used: 8kg)	20, 15, 15, 10

Workout Date: 12th Dec'08

Workout Time: 1800hrs- 2000hrs

Venue: Gym

Cut down today

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Running (Treadmill)	24:49 mins	1	5km
Crunches and Leg-raise		2	70
Biceps Curl		2 (Weight used: 8kg)

Workout Date: 10th Dec'08

Workout Time: 1300hrs - 1340hrs

Venue: Gym

Left for the gym with Chan during our lunch time and as I was rather afraid that the stitches in my mouth would just burst open because of my workout, I decided to cut down a little activities today.

First my eyes, and now my teeth... This, I supposed, would be the most unforgettable week in my life.

After the workout session, I checked the stitches; phew... they are still intact:)

Extracted Wisdom Teeth!

Had the last 2 of my wisdom teeth removed at last today at about 2000hrs! It was done at the Luminous Dental Clinic at Chai Chee. It costed me $700, but luckily can use medisave:) Those teeth had been giving pain in my gum for a long period of time, but because the pain often didn't last more then a few hours, I didn't want to do anything about it. And what made me made up my mind was that the top left tooth was badly decayed already, which I was afraid that if I were to delay any further, I would face more problem in the future.

The bottom left tooth was pulled out the normal extraction way, but the top one required a surgery. Altogether, 4 jabs were given to me in my mouth. As the doctor kept reassuring me that it was a straight forward procedure and that is nothing to be worried about, the whole thing was done even before I realised it. How can I not be worried and afraid when a surgery is being done on me? Anyway, halfway through the surgery I started to chant Amitoufo and Om Mani Padme Hum, and that really calmed me down a lot!

Have to go back to the clinic again on the 16/12/08 at 1830hrs to removed the stitches.

HK marathon

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Running (Treadmill)	27 mins	1	5km
Deltoid Side raise		3 (Weight used: 10kg)	10
Deltoid Front raise		3 (Weight used: 10kg)	10
Lad pull (Front)		2 (Weight used: 8)	15
Crunches and leg raised		3	50
Triceps Reverse Curl		3 (Weight used: 6kg)	15
Pull Up		3	8

Workout Date: 9th Dec'08

Workout Time: 1300hrs- 1400hrs

Venue: Gym

I know I should be resting but I just can't resist exercising! So I went to the gym with Chan during lunch time and I decided to take a 5km run on the treadmill. With a towel on my right hand, I wiped the sweat away from my forehead every 1 to 2 mins. Couldn't really concentrate in the run because I kept my focus on preventing the sweat from getting into my eyes. But I still managed to complete the 5km - with my forehead feeling very sore from the constant wiping.

Earlier in the morning, I met Daniel at the conference room block (by the way, we had sent an email to the organiser of HK Standard Chartered marathon and made some enquiries), and at that time Ivy was with us too. We started talking about the Lasik surgery and the wonderful feeling of having perfect eyesight. Can tell that Ivy was very tempted to go for it too. After that, Daniel checked his email and we were happy that the marathon organiser has replied us saying that application for foreign participants are guaranteed.

We have decided to book our air tickets on the day we go for our next appointment with the Lasik Surgery Clinic, which is 18/12/08.

Light Exercise!

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Skipping		3	300, 200, 200
Bench press		4 (Weight used: 8)	15
Dumbbell fly		4 (Weight used: 8kg)	15
Lad pull		4 (Weight used: 8)	15
Crunches and leg raised		3	50
Dumbbell curl		6 (Weight used: 8kg for 1st 4 sets and 10 kg for 5th, 12kg for the last.	20 (first 4 sets, 15 for 5th, and 6 for the last set)
Pull Up		3	6

Workout Date: 7th Dec'08

Workout Time: 0940hrs- 1048hrs

Venue: Gym

Went to the gym with Elaine today. She ran on the treadmill and covered a distance of 3.6km and followed by some skipping.

I was very careful during my workout today. Making sure that I do not sweat to profusingly, and I wipe my forehead in between all the sets, to prevent my sweat from going into my eyes.

Review Day

Woke up at 1000hrs today. I had took 2 sleeping pills prescribed by the doctor yesterday before I slept. Didn't take 2 at one shot. I took the first one at 1900hrs after my dinner and I woke up at 0451hrs and found that I couldn't sleep anymore, so I took the second pill.

The discomfort has gone off already. Met up with Daniel and we decided to get ourselves a pair of sunglasses. We each bought one at $200. I got a "Police" sunglasses and Daniel got a "Rayband".

Our appointment was at 1345hrs and we reached the clinic at 1355hrs. Waited for an hour before we got to see the doctor. By the way, the doctor's name is Marc Tay. Nice fellow:)

We left the clinic after seeing the doctor for little India for a celebration feast (like a prisoner gaining his freedom back; we gained ours. Freeing ourselves from myopia!) Never before I have thought that I would be able to live without glasses, and now this really happened! It's so unbelievable.

Daniel (left) and Myself at Banana Leaf - Little India

We ordered curry fish head, mutton, cheese nan rice with veggie and pumpkins, and beer:) So delicious!

Surgery Day

Today has finally come. The day which I will set myself free from wearing glasses! I have paid $2,389 for the surgery and today, I have to pay another $203 for 20 boxes of eye drops. Very heartache when I think of the amount of money spent, but I knew it's going to be worth spending.

Together with Daniel, we reached the clinic at 1520hrs, and after having waited for about 1.5hrs, I was being called into the operating theater. Very scary. Anyway, the whole surgery only took about 10mins (both eyes). It was my right eye which was being operated on first, and immediately after my left eye was done, I could already see things clearly without my glasses! But with a lot of discomfort, and tears kept rolling down my eyes.

When I stepped out of the operating theater, I saw Daniel walking towards me. It was his turn and I shook hand with him, wishing him luck (jokingly of course, as we all knew that our surgery would definitely be successful). Anyway, I did sense his nervousness when we shook hand.

The first thing I wanted to do when I was back at the resting area was to call Elaine. To tell her that the surgery was completed and I am no longer a partial-blind man (as this was what I always thought myself to be when I wasn't with my glasses), and to share my joy. Sigh, but I couldn't get to my phone because it was being kept in the locker before I went in for the surgery and the nurse has somehow lost the key.

After about 10 to 15 mins later, Daniel came into the resting area, with tears in his eyes too. We talked a little about the surgery with our eyes closed and were silent till the nurse came back with my bag and my phone apologetically. I was in too much discomfort to voice my unhappiness and I just told her that it's alright. Right away, I took out my phone and made the call to Elaine. Hearing her voice just made me felt so much better (and the best part was that she was going to buy dinner for me. heee....)

We were led to the taxi stand by a nurse after having rested a while. Suprisingly the nurse didn't just left us alone at the taxi stand. She waited till we boarded the taxi before she returned to her clinic. Very good service! Infact, I give 5 stars out of 5 for the service rendered to me by all the staffs and the doctor in this clinic!

(This page was updated on the fourth day after the surgery. Didn't want to strain my eyes by looking at the monitor to early.)

Myself (left) and Daniel at the resting area!

Included kicks, punches and throws today

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Running (Treadmill)	25 mins		5km
Crunches		2	40
Pull-up		3	6
Push-up		2	30
Hanging Leg-raise		3	6
Lad-pull		2	10

Workout Date: 3rd Dec'08

Workout Time: 1300hrs - 1400hrs

Venue: Gym

Went to the Gym for lunch time workout together with Chan. Knowing that after my Lasik surgery tomorrow, I would have to stop exercising for weeks made me felt very depressed... Anyway, I went for a 5km run on the treadmill and did streching immediately after that. I have included doing some TKD kicks and Boxing punches, also practiced some Judo kata.

Workout at the Gym

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Running (Treadmill)	3 mins	1	Warm up
Running (Treadmill)	10:40 mins	1	2.4km
Pull-up		1	9
Push-up		2	30
Crunches		2	30
Leg-raise		3	12

Workout Date: 2nd Dec'08

Workout Time: 1300hrs - 1400hrs

Venue: Gym

Together with Alphian and Chan, we decided to make use of our lunch time and do some workout at the gym. I was wearing the new shoes I bought few days ago and I think I have not got use to it yet. My feet felt a little weird while running on the treadmill, as the rear part of the shoes kept rubbing against the tread of the treadmill and creating the friction sound.

After running 2.4km, I decided to do some resistance training but I was very disorganised (did a little of this, then moved on to do a little of that). Apart from doing those exercises I mentioned in the table above, I have also done exercises like bench press, free weight and lap pull. Didn't write them in the table as I didn't take note of the weight I used.

Alphian taught me to do some abs exercises using the ball, and I would definitely add them into my workout program again whenever I visit the gym.

Listened to 五月天

Exercises	Duration	Sets	Reps
Skipping	20 mins	1
Push-up		3	30
Pull-up		3	6, 9, 6
Hanging Leg-raise		3	5
Crunches		3	30
Leg-raise		3	12
Shoulder-raise		3	20
Triceps Dip		1	30

Workout Date: 1st Dec'08

Workout Time: 2030hrs - 2120hrs

Venue: Fitness Corner

My Japanese lesson ended at 2000hrs and I reached home at 2025hrs. Left home immediately for the fitness corner after having changed into my sports attire. Wanted to do something different today, and so I brought along my headphone and plugged it into my handphone while I skipped （I listened to 五月天 - 侯青春期的诗）. Thinking that a little music would add some spice to my workout. Well, it didn't work for me, though I like those songs very much. I felt distracted and kept missing my steps when I skipped, and my speed was slowed down too. I took it off while I started doing my resistance exercises.