Raine and I were off to the gym first thing. Us slackers haven’t been anywhere near that gym for a whole week now, citing various excuses not to get up early after our mostly late, late nights.

On the way home, Raine and I were complaining about how hungry we were. So as soon as I got home, I went straight into the kitchen and started cooking this.

This, my infamous salmon and shrimp linguine which will pile back 2000 calories over the 500 we just lost at the gym.

Just as we were finishing up ‘lunch’, I happened to glance up at the clock and noticed that the time was 10:30am. Without a second thought, I told Steev to change the batteries on the clock later.

But it is 10:30, Mom!

… and we’ve just finished lunch?!! Merry Christmas!

See what a blur mommy I am! What a laugh. On that note, I was presented with this very flattering Smile Award by Lisa of Mommying on the Fly. Thanks, Lisa, I know I’m late as usual .

The qualifications are:

1. Display a cheerful attitude.
2. Love one another.
3. Make mistakes.
4. Learn from others.
5. Be a positive contributor to the blog world.
6. Love life.
7. Love kids.

I’m supposed to pass this award to 5 other bloggers but there are just so many blogs that I love reading that I’ll crack my head if I had to pick just five. So instead, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Prosperous and Happy New Year and Happy Holidays from my family to yours! Have fun. Eat, drink and don’t think. That diet can wait .

If you liked this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed for more hip parenting posts. Oh and do leave me a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

When my friend invited me to join her yoga class, I instantly agreed without a second thought. How was I to know it was not a real class, that it was a practice session organized by one of the ladies for her group of friends?

The moment the ladies started strolling in with their own personal yoga mats was the moment I realized I was the only noob in the room! Haiz! Good thing I don’t blush easily or I’d have turned into a tomato and rolled out of the room right that minute!

Okay, so I fell behind, wa-ay behind! and by that I mean I couldn’t get my limbs to bend over backwards for me, no matter how hard I tried. I would’ve thought since I’m such a gym freak that I would have no problem with the moves ! Uh-huh, yoga and gym are two different animals. There was just no way I could get my limbs or my butt to go anywhere !

I’ve since dropped out of the class. Didn’t want to make a fool of myself any more in front of that roomful of yoga guru types whose bodies are like rubber bands. That said, I definitely plan on taking it up again. I find the torturous routines very challenging and the after-effect makes me feel really great.

Next class I join, it’ll be the noob beginner’s class where they teach your limbs to obey and do as you say. Next class I join, I’m going to bring one of these, my own personal yoga mat so I won’t look like such a complete idiot .

Come to think of it, this would make a great gift for someone like me. Such nice colors and they’re non-slip too so I won’t go sailng across the room when I try to bend and flip over backwards. Duh!

If you have a yoga enthusiast on your gift list, you’ve found the perfect gift. YogaAccessories.com has a really good selection of high quality yoga accessories at unbeatable prices. You can save 10% off any order above $75 by using the Black Friday coupon code - SAVEAS10 - between November 26 thru 30, 2008.

I read on CNN yesterday about how kids as young as 6 years of age are being made to walk on their hands in China, all as part of their early training for future Olympics.

Watching the video of that poor little girl crying as she was put through rigorous, almost abusive acrobatic routines turned my heart to stone. The tears streaming from her eyes made me cry inside.

Her father says she doesn’t like the training (are you kiddin’ me?) but that they’re putting her through the grueling routines in the hopes she will be good enough to be in the Olympics, so she’ll have a brighter future? Gah! Yeah but at what cost to her mentally and physically?

I don’t care how much fame, fortune or glory they hope to get out if pushing their little girl that hard, but what they’re doing is inhumane.

Two of my gym buddies have started working out under a personal trainer. Wow, I thought personal trainers were only for celebs . But it’s pretty neat that they can afford one.

It seems he drives them pretty hard too. I guess he has to if he wants visible results quick. I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

The trainer has asked if I’m interested in training under him. Nah, I told him, I’m not sure a structured approach will work well for me at all.

I’m happy to plog along at my own pace and I pretty much know what I’m doing. I’m not saying I know everything but enough to see that my workouts have been effective.

Most importantly, I’m very pleased with the shape I’m in. At this point, I don’t need someone to crack the whip on me and turn me into a reed. But if I go to any more of those wedding dinners, I just might .

We’ve been invited to a wedding at the end of this year. The daughter of DH’s cousin will be getting married and we’ve been told six months ahead so we can keep the date free. See how important we are .

Well, I’m just happy this gives me time to swing my gym workouts into high gear. Quite frankly, I’m pretty happy with the shape I’m in right now. But knowing about the wedding this early means I have no excuses not to work those abs to perfection.

I spoke with the gym trainer the other day and asked if he had super-effective, super-quick abs workouts for me. Maybe there’s a secret formula I don’t know about.

He offered to be my personal trainer. He says every celeb has one to push them to body beautiful. Wow! Okay, okay, just gimme a minute to come down from Cloud Nine.

Um, on second thought, I’m no celeb. I can sing all of the Backstreet Boys songs in the bathroom. Wait a minute. That’s it! I look like a celeb but didn’t know it? Nah, surely he’s got me confused with JLo or Beyonce or someone with a famous butt, muacks *rolling on the floor laughing*.

I was passing by a signboard for Tumbletots the other day and it immediately brought to mind the funny experience we had signing Steev up for it. Our friends signed up their daughter, also aged around 18 months at the time.

Of course, at the time, being first-time parents, we were excited about the prospect of introducing our kids to a new set of motor skills, shared play and social skills. Each week, we looked forward to bringing our kids there.

Within a month, it became quite clear that while our friend’s daughter was enjoying herself and having a ball with the singing, dancing and climbing activities, Steev wasn’t the least bit interested. In fact, I ended up doing all the activities while Steev sat there and amused himself with watching us make fools of ourselves!

Okay, so that’s it! We decided to call it quits and left our friends and their daughter to enjoy themselves. Clearly not all programs are suited to all kids and it’s hard to tell unless you try it out.

Our friend’s daughter enjoyed it tremendously and they couldn’t understand why Steev wasn’t interested at all. Each child is different and even at a very young age, many already exhibit their preferences.

Practically everyone I talk to these days is on a diet. The thing though is that dieting alone isn’t enough as I always try to tell people. If you want to lose weight quickly and permanently, you need to take a multi-pronged approach.

In fact, before you even begin to get carried away with so-called quick weight loss methods (which may or may not work), it’s best to arm yourself with information on how you should go about it correctly.

A good place to start would be the Planet Fat Loss site which has a wealth of information about everything that has to do with weight loss including fitness, diet and nutrition, and even product reviews to help you decide on what’s most likely to work for you.

Skye went for a cross-country run organized by the school last Friday. A fine day it was for cross-country. It was probably the hottest day in the year and frankly, if I’d had my say, kids shouldn’t be out there running in the sun.

But well, the show must go on, like they say. The kids had been gearing up for it for weeks. So off they went, caps, sunblock and bottles of water. They were back at school by midday, flushed, exhausted but happy.

By sundown that day, Skye was running a temperature. Yep, that was the start of our hot, feverish weekend.

Don’t you just hate it when you’ve been working out regularly but not seeing any significant improvements at all the wrong parts of your body? That’s what’s happening with me over the past few months.

I’m at my ideal weight and it’s been stable like forever so that’s good. So I’m not trying to lose weight.

It’s just that I feel like I’m in a workout rut. I want to start seeing results again especially to the areas where I hope no one will notice .

I’ve stopped my line dancing class for now and I’m doing the salsa at home. I’ve never been good with this willpower thingey so I do have to live with the guilt of not doing it as regularly as I should.

But I’m not going to beat myself up over it. I’m happy I’m ramping up my workouts, trying new routines and working longer hours at the gym.

I’m also eating a lot more meals and guzzling more liquids. Because of my workouts, I’m feeling hungry more often so I’m doing like 5 meals a day. I don’t control my diet and I eat what I want, no worries.

I go to bed reasonably tired and looking forward to the next day’s workout. So I guess I’m on the right track and I’m sticking with it. How about you?

With Skye, my youngest, turning twelve this year, I guess that makes 3 sets of raging hormones in this household !

It’s hard to believe my babies are all teens now. A mighty proud mama here!

I’m going to need lots of stamina to keep up, keep going and stay one step ahead. Yikes. Think I should add a couple more hours to my weekly workouts?

I’m thinking salsa and I’ve already started with a half-hour of shaking to salsa music today. It’s really fun and if I last out the week and succeed in making a routine of it, I might sign up for a class, you reckon :wink: ?