Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fitness. Show all posts

29 Jun 2014

Let's make "like a girl" mean amazing things!

Long time, no see. I was very busy lately and I still am and won't be able to catch up with my blog. Many apologies, my dear readers. I just wanted to quickly pop in the advertisement video below. I want to share it with you because it moved me very much when I saw it the first time and it still does. This is a really empowering advertisement video of "Always". They nailed it and it is wonderful that the advertisement business that usually draws on a very negative image of womankind does something to build up the self esteem of girls & women. Well done, Always. I love that video. 


20 Aug 2012

Seize every advantage



I'm a bit obsessed with women's soccer at the moment - well, actually since last year when the women's soccer world championship took place in Germany. The games were shown on german TV like men's soccer usually does and the men I know that usually watch men's soccer watched them too. I got hooked as well and in the end I had to watch every game. I especially fell in love with the american team as the members of the american team performed much better and some also looked much better than the members of the german team. ;-) (Isn't Hope Solo a really good looking woman? See her e.g. here, here, here, here and here (there she is the third person from the left))

10 Aug 2012

July recap of fitness activities

Unfortunately, I have had an inflammation in the beginning of July and as it was pretty bad, I even needed to take Antibiotics. Hence, I wanted to support my body to heal and I have been very careful with sports. Even when the inflammation was gone, I tried to listen to my body and not to exaggerate with any kind of sports endeavour. This is why I have not done that much sports in July.

Another thing that changed in July is that my horseback riding course ended and at first I considered to start a new course but in the end I decided to rather try some Yoga. The horseback riding classes and the Yoga classes are at the same time and since horseback riding takes also much more time (at least 3 hours with driving to the riding stables, grooming the horse, cleaning hooves, and especially feeding, pampering, cuddling and spoiling the horse :-)), I decided heavy hearted to skip horseback riding this summer altogether. I'm a bit sad and already started to miss horses (I even have visited the horses at my former riding stable in the weekend to cuddle and spoil them without any conditions), but my thesis goes first and I also have to prioritize my spare time and my sports activities. As soon as I have more time, I'll do horseback riding again. For sure.

My aqua running course ended as well and in summer, no courses are offered. Hence, I started to try Pilates and am in love with my Pilates course. I am also in love my Pilates instructor who is incredibly fit and looks up to 20 years younger than he is - he is nearly 60 and looks like 40! - this is something I admire and I definitely think that it is because of him doing Pilates that often. My Pilates course indeed is very demanding and exhausting and I have sore muscles all the time but the results are really great.

The Yoga course is nice as well but I like the Pilates course much more. Below is my sports recap of July.

8 Jul 2012

June recap of fitness activities

A short recap of my sporting activities in June:

First June Week (06/04 - 06/10)
  1. Weight training: 1.5 hours
  2. Horseback Riding: 1 hour
  3. Biking:


Second June Week (06/11 - 06/17)
  1. Weight training: 1.5 hours
  2. Horseback Riding: 1 hour
  3. Biking:


Third June Week (06/18 - 06/24)
  1. Weight training: 1.5 hours 
  2. Mixed weight training (a bit of Blogilates (Calves/Thighs/Arms) + a couple of body weight exercises): 1 hour
  3. Horseback Riding: 1 hour
  4. Biking:


Fourth June Week (06/25 - 07/01)
  1. Weight Training: 1.5 hours
  2. Mixed weight training (a bit of Blogilates (Calves/Thighs/Arms) + a couple of body weight exercises): 1 hour 
  3. Horseback Riding: 1 hour
  4. Biking:



It is a pitty that I missed my aqua running course in June completely. I was very busy and just did not manage to go there. But I try to not miss the two last sessions of this course that will be held in July. Last week, I attended the session in the first week of July already and hope I can make it to the second one as well. Unfortunately, I have an inflammation at the moment and might not be able to attend the course next week. Wish me luck that it heals quickly! :-) It felt so great last week and I really love aqua running. Worst of all is that there might not be any aqua running courses anymore in the next semester at my University.

Altogether I am content with my sports activities in June. I was cycling for 5 hours each week and have also done some weight training (and mixed weight training occasionally enhanced with dumbbells) and this shows already. My body looks much better than before and most importantly, it also feels a million times better, healthier and stronger. But there is still a long way to go, I am still not there where I want to get concerning physical efficiency and vitality - and also my looks could still improve a bit. ;-)

7 Jul 2012

Towards a stronger, healthier and fitter me

You might have noticed the goal bar on the right column of my blog. This post shall provide an explanation. With this bar I track my weekly progress with biking and keep myself motivated. Each day I update the progress and seeing the progress motivates me to keep going. Knowing that you guys might check my progress every day as well, motivates me too. ;-)
A recent status of my biking progress bar on the right border of my blog

Currently, I am trying to do a lot of sports in order to become more healthy and fit. Of course it is a very nice side effect that the body becomes slimer and more defined as well. There's no doubt that I am enjoying the improvement of my body shape a lot. However, at the moment my focus lies on the health and fitness issue. I want to become stronger and healthier and improve my posture and physical capabilities in general. I have never been a sports enthusiast in my whole life and just focussing on getting a better body with sports has never been enough to keep me motivated on the long term. Maybe it was because my body has never been in a terrible shape anyway. My fitness, however, is in a terrible shape! And it has gotten worse and worse over the last years.

In the last years I have experimented with different kinds of sports: Yoga, weight training @the gym, weight training @home, cycling, running, horseback riding, rock climbing, swimming and aqua running. I have also experimented with different times for the workouts: I tried to do sports in the morning, sports during the lunch break, sport in the evening or somewhen during the day. But I have never been able to keep a regular exercise schedule for a long time. It was rather a discipline issue. I had and still have severe issues with work life balance. Resolving these issues is a challenge for me but I am aware of these issues and I am dealing with them and it gets better and better - very slowly however (like all changes that affect your whole life, i.e. you habits and your belief system). Recently, I have managed to find a way to integrate regular sporting activities into my life, however, and it's working well for a couple of months already. That's longer than ever before. Obviously, the only way to integrate sports into my life that works for me is doing sports on a daily basis. When it becomes an every day routine, it just works without a second thought and I start to really need it and still can focus my mind on other things (because the sports routine does not involve any thinking anymore). If I am not able to do my sport routine, my day just feels incomplete. Additionally, it is important for me to make the time - whatever happens, I have, have, have to do it, unless I am  suffering from a cold or an inflammation. There is no other excuse. There are no deadlines or obligations that are more important than my sports appointments!

For a couple of months now, I cycle on my bicycle ergometer in my bedroom almost every morning immediately after getting up. On average I cycle for about 40 minutes each morning, sometimes less and sometimes a little bit more (since I have my progress bar on my blog it's rather more then less ;-)). Additionally, I also do aqua running once a week for 1 hour - at least during the lecture period of my University since I am attending a course at University. So, in good weeks, my weekly cardio routine has a duration of around 6 hours. Furthermore, I do horseback riding once a week for 1 hour. I also do 1.5 hours of weight training a week but not that regularly, unfortunately. I'd like to do more weight training and some Pilates and Yoga on a regular basis as well and have to find some exercise routine and schedule that's appropriate for me.

In order to motivate myself to keep up with my sporting activities, I'll write a monthly recap post summarizing my sports efforts. Such a recap would also help me to review why my fitness and looks have improved or not improved (either is possible ;-)).

During the last weeks I have managed to loose a bit of weight and my body shape has started to improve a lot. Although I am focusing on health and fitness, the looks of course are not unimportant at all and do count as well. Hence, I really hope to be able to wear some short dresses soon, e.g. the ones shown below are really lovely:

picture & dress are both from COS
picture & dress are both from COS

7 Jun 2012

Dear hard work ... (fitness motivational Video)

I need motivation ... and the video below is really cool. :-) It doesn't only work for sports.



How do you like the video? Does it motivate you to do sports or anything else that has to be done? :-)

31 May 2012

Anatomy of a new Fitness Routine

As mentioned in the very first post, this blog will deal with different topics. I don't want it to be yet another beauty blog (although beauty of course is an important part of a woman's life ;-)). In the future, I also want to write about other things that are important to me. e.g. my sports routine and how I try to keep myself fit. So, to make a start with sports, have a look at the Anatomy of a new Fitness Routine (from Vibram FiveFingers):
The Anatomy of a Fitness Routine - Vibram Five Fingers