Fitness & Blurred Lines

So I've been working out & like most people, I spend a lot of time on pinterest & instagram on the "fitspiration" pages getting inspired to be fit i.e. fitspiration. It's worked, I'm in "beast mode" and "giving 1 more push-up" and getting fit because "nothing tastes as good as being fit feels". In the midst of all the mantras and positive thinking and inspiration, is a very blurry line between fitspiration and plain porn.

What exactly is porn. Is it restricted to the actual act of coitus (Big Bang Theory anyone? :-)), or does it start at naked images of 2 or more people, or 1 person. Progress is amazing, but why do we have to turn something as great as fitness and health into sex. If you want to take a picture of your abs, take a picture of your abs, you don't have to do it in a thong and worse, pulling down the front part of your thong to give us more than enough details! Same goes for guys & undies selfies!

I hate the prevalence of the over-sexualization of everything. Take Beyonce's new album videos. I haven't listened to the album, because on Youtube, all the videos are marked "explicit", why? Hasn't Bey garnered enough success to not have to resort to showing her ass to the world? Or, Rihanna's song with Shakira, the lyrics of the song have nothing to do with gyrating in risque swimsuits.

Honest question, where does sexiness end and porn begin? This line is so blurry. I feel like an porn addict could watch a music video playing in his living room in the middle of the afternoon, not sneaking away or hiding anything & satisfy his craving. S

Anyway, on to happier things...

JillIan Michaels totally kicked my butt today. I only got to minute 21 before I quit. Then I thought to myself, "if I'm gonna live a life of no regrets, I better finish this workout". So I took a 5 minute break, turned on some Hillsong Young & Free and got back to it.

BOOM!

I wasn't perfect at it, and like I said, it murdered my arms, which is why this is my new go-to workout, talk about a burn!!! I'll probably do it again after church tonight. It's only 35 minutes so I don't think its too much for 1 day. I can't wait to feel sore tomorrow so I know which muscles I worked lol.

Happy Sunday folks!

Happy & Strong - Body, Soul & Mind

For the life of me, I can't remember what workout I did yesterday, my bad! Today though, I went HARD!!! I walked 4.2 miles, and...

I also did some weighted squats and tricep lifts. I was obviously not perfect at workout video #2, but I went for it & I'm so stinking proud of myself :-)

Foodwise, I had a carrot, spring mix, strawberry & plain yogurt, smoothie for breakfast. Lunch was my leftover chicken teriyaki noodles, then I made some flaxseed, wholewheat, chocolate brownies for dinner. Not a great dinner, but it'll have to do. I think I got plenty of my nutrition for the day.

So my body is covered. For my soul, I watched probably the best movie I have watched in a long time. It's a bollywood movie called Akaash Vani. It's a love story, SO GOOD! My soul is happy. I love the long stares, the gazing into each others eyes, the romantic poetry. Ahh!

For my mind, I'm reading God's Generals/doing homework. It's a biographical book detailing the lives, triumphs & tragedies of past revivalists. I like it because it shows us their strengths, their weaknesses, what they did wrong & what we can avoid. I can't wait to tell you guys all about what I'm learning!

x
Jo

St. Patrick's Day Ceili

My friend Karen from Ireland invited us to a ceili i.e. a big Irish/Scottish dance party at Church tonight. It was tons of fun and definitely enough of a work out for me! JP was playing drums, and if you know anything about Bethel Music, you know JP Gentile is probably hands down, on of THE best instrumentalists in the world ever! Honestly, is there nothing JP can't play?! I haven't met him yet, but I will...soon...lol

Anyway, the dance was so fun & having my Revival Group family there made it tons better! I had my green jeans on and I was ready to dosie doh like it was 2004!

Steph Soh Photography

Steph Soh Photography

 

 

So yeah, this was both my fun night out & my exercise for the day...because sometimes, if not all the time, the best workout is a night out with your friends!

x
Jo

Running Plan

I'm really trying to get back in the swing of things after taking a break these past 2 weeks and recuperating, I've really messed up my fitness plans but I'm totally getting back on the wagon from this minute! Anyway, going running today following this plan here below...click on it to get the link. After that, I'm going to go on like a 2K walk, first to the gym near my place to check it out cause I really want to add weight training for my arms and hopefully the place is good and well managed. After that I'm walking all the way down the road to the mall to buy some veggies. This is a pretty ridiculous plan, but wish me luck.

Source: womensrunninguk.co.uk via Joanne on Pinterest

xo Jo

Friday Meal Plan & Workout

There really wan't that much of a meal plan today, mom bought bhajia for dinner last night (yeah, precisel 2 days after I got on a diet) but hey, I made it work, I, with all the willpower in the world, split that packet into three...it was pretty easy actually since all day I was drinking my green smoothie (I made mine with kale, spinach and mangoes, threw them in the blender with a little water) Looked a lot like this minus the garnish.

Source: healingcuisinebyelise.com via Arzo on Pinterest

So today, for breakfast I ate a little bit more of those cold bhajias drenched in Peptang Ketchup, I would have made something more fancy like throw in some kale, onions and tomatoes and make an omelette or whatever, but 1. I ain't fancy 2. I didn't have time 3. I'm LAZY!

Source: google.com via Tina on Pinterest

So, I was out in town all day trying to get my school registration done and working here and there on writing stuff, so all I had all day was a Fanta, yes, fail! I got home and desperately craved chocolate so I caved in and bought Maryland Double Choc cookies, but to redeem myself I did have 2 more glasses of that yummy green smoothie.

So, to workout all that sugar and chocolate, I did 25 minutes of Kim Kardashian's Fit in Your Jeans by Friday DVD...which I think is good considering I'm really not in the mood to do anything, plus with my legs still killing me, I read that I should give the treadmill a break for 24-48 hours and let those muscles rest.

Source: fitinyourjeansbyfriday.com via Khurshida on Pinterest

Anyway, I realize today was just unhealthy and excuse filled, but thankfully tomorrow's the weekend and I'm planning on going HARD!

Source: blogilates.com via Katrina on Pinterest

xo
Jo

Thursday Workouts and Meal Plan

Today's menu is pretty simple; its recommended to eat every 2-3 hours, so,

1. for breakfast I had coffee and a PBJ,

2. Plain pbj mid-morning snack

3. Spinach, kale, mango smoothie and nuts (no time to make lunch)

4. Banana milkshake

5. Skinless steamed chicken, kale+spinach

6. TBD

I'm not that perfected at meal planning, especially planning SIX
meals, but I'm expecting to get better at it with time,

Exercise for today is a new video from Cassie and a couple of other
things from this month's workout calendar.

My legs are killing me from going running the past two days, so I'm
not going running today, or I might, we'll see how it goes.

Wish me luck!

xo
Jo