{"id":1121,"date":"2013-01-04T01:45:04","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T17:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifebod.com\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2013-01-04T01:45:04","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T17:45:04","slug":"how-i-kicked-2012-in-the-butt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/2013\/01\/04\/how-i-kicked-2012-in-the-butt\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Year: How I Kicked 2012 In the Butt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>December was an intense month for me. I did however fit in walks and light jogging in the early mornings, and sometimes also some stray Crossfit sessions in the evenings.<br \/>\n[wide]<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1138\" alt=\"morningwalks\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifebod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/morningwalks.jpg\" \/>[\/wide]\nI experienced my first Crossfit-induced DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that took a week to go away, doing my brother&#8217;s workout below:-<\/p>\n<p><b>Warm-up: 10 inch worms, 10 arm rotations, 10 v tucks, 10 push ups, 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 x 2 leg swings, 10 jumping jacks. Workout: 30 secs of 3kg arm thruster squats x 2, 30 secs leg lifts, 30 secs planking, 30 secs sit ups &#8211; 5 glorious SETS.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It hurt so much it felt like I climbed Mt. Kinabalu!<\/p>\n<p>Did I lose any weight? Nope. Actually I gained some. But lost all of it back within a week after Christmas and am back on track.<\/p>\n<h3>Unexpected Scatological Experiences<\/h3>\n<p>I had a really weird week leading up to Christmas where I compulsively ate everything (even stuff I never touched when I was a ball), because I was lamenting about life&#8217;s shitty cards that could essentially steer my entire life in a new direction.<\/p>\n<p>Later a friend noted that it was &#8220;emotional eating.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What a scary experience that was. On the last Sunday leading to Christmas, I ate so much I couldn&#8217;t breathe I had to leave a children&#8217;s christmas party. It was so bad I couldn&#8217;t even prop my body straight and walked like I had osteoporosis.<\/p>\n<p>In short, I was stressed out and grieving about the changes I didn&#8217;t want happen in my life. But life is life, and change it always will.<\/p>\n<h3>How I Dealt With It<\/h3>\n<p>In an effort to avoid from drowning, I buried myself in Joel Osteen sermons, bought 15 books, borrowed 5 and read\/finished 10 of them. I read so much I began thinking maybe speed-reading was a talent I could develop with more research.<\/p>\n<p>December was about how I realized I was putting the oxygen mask on everybody I loved without first putting one on myself first. It was a battle cry to practice radical self-love amidst my desire to be a blessing to others.<\/p>\n<p>I was hanging on a thread, unsure about why giving had its limits. I felt emotionally exhausted. That one can give so much away that there&#8217;s nothing left for the self. I was burnt out from playing multiple roles to everybody I loved who had a lack of some sort; loneliness, aging, financial woes, depression, lack of love, and in the process, totally ignored my own needs.<\/p>\n<p>I thought I was strong enough to fill the void for other people and still help make the world a better place.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, I had two visitors and made a short trip to Sandakan for the first time since I was 12 years old. I also caught a cold in the process, and was wedged in an unpleasant drama involving people whose issues do not involve me &#8212; while I was sick, run down, and on vacation while I was sick.<\/p>\n<p>And to top it all off, I missed my flight and blew some more money trying to get home yesterday. But at this point, life&#8217;s ridiculous hammering had tipped me way over the frustration or anger line. It just became funny. Like dying in a pool of feces because I accidentally fell into a sewer, a l\u00e1 Mel Brooks style.<\/p>\n<p>The only thing that made sense was to laugh about it and trust that the reason for the interjecting string of bad luck (amidst some good) will later reveal itself.<\/p>\n<p>And that is the reason why you were made to wait to witness my next goal of wearing a bikini with abs that you can bounce coins off of. But through all of this, I managed to maintain my weight, plot my life wheel, and plan my new year to be an absolute blast, as long as God blesses those plans.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m optimistic about 2013, and though I have no idea how I am going to finance my dreams yet, I will go at it like a free-spirited, cheerful and valiant horse toward 2014.<\/p>\n<h3>Don&#8217;t wait for a miracle, be the miracle!<\/h3>\n<p>This year, I will be mindful to leave the past behind, and embrace every moment like the miracle it is.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1147\" alt=\"bethemiracle\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifebod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/bethemiracle.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><br \/>\nP\/S: Reading this now&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Little tiny miracles just like the one that happened yesterday evening. I tapped miss grumpy stewardess on her arm, and told her how nice her makeup was &#8212; even though my initial impulse was to dismiss her as miss biatchy. She looked relieved, thanked me several times with an uncontainable crack of a smile, and that probably changed her evening.<\/p>\n<p>So it has been revealed. That might have been why I needed to miss my first flight. One, to help miss grumpy feel better, and two, for me to practice making the world a better place. I did everybody behind my row a huge favor&#8230; they didn&#8217;t have to see someone pull a &#8220;life sucks&#8221; face. Plus I had 5 more hours bonding with a good friend, who is a blessing to me.<\/p>\n<p>I also conquered my previously-crippling fear of flying in a small plane, the ATR 72-500 (my first).<\/p>\n<h3>Fitting Into the Skinniest Dress I Own<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1150 alignleft\" style=\"margin: 10px;\" alt=\"jackie2012\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lifebod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/jackie2012.jpg\" width=\"232\" height=\"310\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On December 31st, 2012, I finally was able to comfortably wear the skinny designer dress I bought 2 years ago in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>This is my skinniest dress since 1996! I have nothing else that is tighter or smaller.<\/p>\n<p>I bought it because I loved it so much, it was still in season and on ridiculous sale, even though I couldn&#8217;t zip it up for 2 years. <\/p>\n<p>I told myself I&#8217;d lose weight to fit into it somehow, and that&#8217;s exactly what I did &#8212; lose 35 lbs to wear that dress.<\/p>\n<p>So even though I had curve balls thrown at me, I am REALLY happy about reaching this goal.<\/p>\n<p>My little tip to get your year started would be to always find the good in every stinking situation. It&#8217;s there. You just have to look for it. If it&#8217;s not there, you&#8217;re there &#8211; and you&#8217;re the good you&#8217;re looking for.<\/p>\n<p>I hope you will join me in my quest to practice radical self-care and to be a miracle whenever the right opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n<p>And don&#8217;t forget how lucky you are to have eyes to read this post, which incidentally are also the organs you use to look at breathtaking sunsets and smiling babies. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<h3>HAPPY NEW YEAR!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December was an intense month for me. I did however fit in walks and light jogging in the early mornings, and sometimes also some stray Crossfit sessions in the evenings. [wide][\/wide] I experienced my first Crossfit-induced DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that took a week to go away, doing my brother&#8217;s workout below:- Warm-up: 10 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-motivation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifebod.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}