I Gave Myself Permission To Have A Break

My Month Of Rest

This was supposed to be my month of rest.  Apart from experiencing a meltdown moment over a Christmas tree last week, practicing a few elbow moves while doing Christmas shopping at the mall, and annoying my creative agency by playing creative director again over a very small project,  I actually had a wee bit of rest.

I gave myself a break from writing MMA-related or Tarot related articles.  When I felt compelled to write, I chose to write softer articles that could inspire my readers to make the right health and fitness choices.    

I was also selective about accepting Tarot reading engagements at corporate events. Last year, I was inundated with so many events and teaching workshops  in December that I hardly spent time with the family on weekends.  This year,  I took on less events and was thankful I did, especially when we had a couple of weddings in the family, my granny’s birthday, and a number of Christmas party invitations.  I would not have had the ability to juggle too many commitments.  Even when it came to my boxing training at the gym, I was thankful for a wee bit of rest when my boxing coach spent a couple of weeks traveling and was called up for reservist training.  I had not stop going to the gym, and instead, focused on strength and conditioning which I badly needed.

Bracing For A Busy 2015 

I believed that this period of rest was needed to get me ready for an extremely busy first quarter of 2015.  Apart from all the projects that I had to focus on at work early next year,  we also had several writing and photography assignments lined up which will see us traveling to Bangkok and Jakarta, and I have got plans for doing a week of intensive Muay Thai training in Phuket thereafter.  Moreover, I am planning some exciting lineup of Numerology workshops in partnership with a few creative souls and am quite excited about it.  Just the thought of meandering through these projects coming up in the first quarter of 2015, was enough to overwhelm me but I will cross the bridge when I come to it.

So what did I do during my break?

Focusing On The Family And Me

• I took Mom shopping.  We indulged in a spot of Christmas shopping and an extravagant lunch.  It gave us the opportunity to have a mother-daughter chat about everything under the sun, we took countless nauseating selfies and had a bit of a laugh about everything.   I wanted to be able to spend an entire day with Mom without burying my face in my blackberry to respond to the never-ending flood of emails.

• I participated at a festive pop-up market, the Goddess Marketplace, where I spent the day doing Tarot and Numerology readings for the New Year.  The readings were a hit and  my greatest gratification was the fact that I made new friends in the process.  I wanted to do readings in an environment of like-minded, creative and talented souls who were there to make new friends too, as they created awareness for their craft, and not be pressured by the constraints of time which was often a limitation for me as I rushed from back to back private client readings in person to  skype readings at home on a nightly basis.

• I had not stop writing. Instead, I wrote only what I wanted to write.  I worked on articles that I felt would inspire and add value to others.  So I wrote articles that focused on the fitness and nutritional regimen of people who were professional athletes as well as recreational fitness enthusiasts.  I wanted to write in a way where I would not be pressured by demands and deadlines of  events and egos of people I had to interview for content.

• I went out with a few of my colleagues for a nice afternoon away from the office, just enjoying a cup of tea and a girlie conversation.  Instead of arguing with or moaning to these colleagues about the obstacles we were facing in some of our projects, we decided to just enjoy the moment, take it slow, and make our time with each other count towards building a better collegiate environment when we got back to the office after.

• I attended my cousins’ weddings.  Two of my cousins had decided to get married a few weeks apart from each other.  It gave the family a reason to come together to celebrate these nuptials.  We spent so little time throughout the year catching up with each other because of our busy schedules, yet within a few weeks, we seemed to be seeing more of each other and enjoying conversations with each other as if we had not been apart at all throughout the year.  In fact, we will be seeing each other again soon as Mum will be hosting her pre-Christmas family lunch this Sunday, and I will be hosting the ubiquitous Ash Family Christmas Eve dinner.  

• I focused on myself for once.  Instead of attending every event that I was invited to, or participating in every activity that I was previously lined up for, I picked and chose the ones I wanted to be at.  Some of my Saturday afternoons were spent  just enjoying a long nap.  I guess it was a way my body and mind was hollering for me to give it a rest.  So I did.

I Gave Myself Permission To Have A Break 

I woke up to something during this break.  Often, my friends and family would ask how I could juggle my time between a full time career as a marketing and PR professional, my intuitive consultancy business, my freelance writing assignments, my travels and my kickboxing training. 

Honestly, how busy I wanted to be is all within my control.  I could choose to slow down on my activities if I wanted to.  If I chose to be extremely  busy multi-tasking on so  many projects, that would be because I enjoyed them tremendously.  And at times like these, I would listen to my mind and body to step back and give myself permission to have a break.

I am enjoying my break till the year end, and I am enjoying it tremendously because I do deserve it.

About The Writer

The writer of this blog post is a Marketing and PR professional for over 20 years.  Due to her love for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), she is also a freelance sports writer on the side, contributing MMA-related articles to several sports media.  She works in partnership with her husband, David Ash, who is an avid sports photographer from www.singaporemaven.com.  She is passionate about Muay Thai and nurtures a dream to fight competitively one day when her coach stops making fun of her.  She is also a psychic intuitive by birth and runs a consultancy that does tarot and numerology readings under her brand, Sun Goddess Tarot.  This blog is affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" as she is married to one, although she has not yet explained to THE Ang Mo that when translated, he has been labeled  “the bloke with ginger hair”.  

Clowning about with the hubby at my cousin's wedding

Clowning about with Mum while out doing Christmas shopping

Clowning about with granny on her birthday

Clowning about with Team Ash at yet another cousin's wedding

Er....Just Clowns....

Fighting Fit - My Personal Fitness Journey

This blog post is a reproduction of an article I had written jointly with Aaron  Rolley from IFC | PT and published in Asia Sports Network.  The reason I am reproducing this article here is that many have asked how I reconcile my life as a corporate careerist whilst involved in a sport that seemed "violent".  Firstly, I need to  debunk the misconception that boxing as a sport is violent.  There are rules involved and thankfully, a referee that enforces these rules in the ring.  Moreover, a good coach coupled with dedicated training ensures that we perform in a ring within accepted rules of engagement and in the spirit of sportsmanship.  Secondly, my foray into the sport was the start of an amazing journey that got me towards better health and fitness.

Here is my story, told through my strength and conditioning trainer Aaron and myself.

Achieving My Fitness Goals With Specialized Trainers

For years, I have always been active  in sports as I loved the outdoors.   I spent a few years playing rugby for a women’s full contact 7-aside team.  I enjoyed the training sessions that kept me fit and game-ready and I enjoyed the camaraderie amongst my team mates most.  At that time, I was religiously going for my twice-a-week personal training sessions at IFC PT where the trainers had designed a program to condition me for my rugby games.   I also supplemented my fitness regime by training for a few run events subsequently but as time went by, these activities took a toll on my knee, and drove me right into the surgery room of the hospital where I had to have a Tibial Tubular Elevation surgery just 2 years ago.  I woke up with 2 screws ann a part prosthetic knee cap, and the prospect of not being able to do any contact sports or participate in any run events again.

 The aftermath of the surgery saw  a very slow and painful recovery which threw me into depression, particularly when I saw myself losing muscle over-time and putting on an incredible amount of weight throughout the next few months that followed.  I ditched my rehabilitation program at the hospital just one week into the program because I felt that they were not effective enough. 

 Grappling with a sense of worthlessness, my impatience at the slow recovery,   and the post-surgery pain, which also resulted in extreme pain in my left glute and back, I then returned to the gym about 3 weeks after the surgery in spite of the surgeon’s protest that it was too soon, and started training at IFC | PT with a walking aid.  At that time, my weight was already at its peak of 93kg.  I was dangerously overweight, and was hit with high blood pressure as well.  I was terribly unfit and worse, extremely unhappy.

 The surgeon and the physiotherapist at the hospital instructed me to use the crutches for 6 months.  However, I threw them out in 2 weeks and decided to depend on just a cane.  I was determined to do without the cane in 3 months or less and expressed that to my personal trainers at IFC | PT.  We also sat down to evaluate my fitness goals, which I laid out quite clearly to them.  First and foremost, I needed to recover, and I needed to recover faster than usual as I wanted to be able to run again.  Secondly, I wanted to shed at least 20kg of weight to get myself to an optimal level of fitness and health.  The weight-loss goal was in fact, a goal set by my cardiologist who said that my weight gain has put my health in danger, particularly when my high blood pressure was in fact, caused by a congenital heart defect.  Health-wise, I was a walking time-bomb.  Thirdly, I wanted to get back to doing contact sports.  If I could, I would like to be able to play rugby again perhaps.   If I am not properly recovered, I would be a liability to my rugby team mates.

 So Aaron Rolley, who helmed IFC PT, got his team of specialized trainers together to design a fitness and nutritional program that was catered specifically to my needs and my goals.  In doing so, he introduced me to a new sport which quickly became my passion for which I have been working the rest of my life around. 

To do justice to the efforts of the team at IFC PT, I would like to introduce its head trainer, Aaron Rolley who had kindly detailed the steps he took to getting me back on the straight and narrow with regard to my health and fitness.  Over to you, Aaron:

 

Getting Jo Back On The Straight And Narrow

"Before letting Joanna get back into training, we first consulted her post-op physiotherapist who gave us a break down on training guidelines, Jo followed those rules for about 3 seconds before declaring them boring and demanding that we stopped training her "like a pussy".

 Jo’s training kicked off with a lot of single leg limited ROM movements to get her leg strength up and to keep her knee stable, progressing over time to back squats, lunges, and full dead lifts, coupled with upper body exercises. At this point we were still trying to get Jo’s weight down so she was doing a lot of circuit style training.

I starting advising Jo on what to eat for weight loss in 2005, lots of vegetables, fruit, and lean animal protein, minimise alcohol, and drink lots of water, she started paying attention in 2014, did I mention that she’s stubborn?

Before Jo was introduced to boxing she had always trained hard.  Sure she would complain a lot and dictated what exercises she wanted in a workout, but always gave it everything. Unfortunately we never achieved the desired weight loss.  She thought eating healthy was boring and considered a glass of wine a serving of fruit.

A New Passion

Then we introduced Jo to Dave Macanlalay, a certified kettlebell specialist and a martial arts coach.   Dave got Jo hooked on boxing by the way he broke down the techniques. He  had a traditional approach to martial arts, which, beyond the drills, technique, strength and conditioning work, he had also taught discipline and respect.

Jo was finally ready to fuel her body properly and combined with her ramped up training schedule,  her body began to transform  before our eyes. Inspired, she approached us with a goal to take boxing to a competitive level and she was determined to do it within a year and a half. 

On her own accord, she searched and found a fight academy that could take her boxing to a new level, Juggernaut Fight Club.  Arvind Lalwani, the head coach of Juggernaut Fight Club also assessed Jo's current fitness level as well as her goals before taking her on board.   In Jo's words, " I chose to be trained by Arvind because he is one of the coaches for the national boxing team, and he has been developing champions in the sport."  That's how serious she was about boxing.  As Arvind  worked on building her skills, techniques, form, strength and speed, my team and I at IFC | PT shifted the game-plan by redesigning a regime for Jo that is tailored to her goal to be a fighter.   Jo was so fired up by her new passion that she was not willing to take a break even on weekends. So, she now runs every Saturday morning, to a neighborhood gym, The Right Fit, about 3km away to do some pad work and boxing drills with the trainers there.

Jo's New Fitness Direction

Jo’s training and nutritional requirements have now changed. She now has specialized coaches from IFC | PT,  Juggernaut Fight Club and The Right Fit who work with her on different aspects of her fitness,  At IFC | PT,  Jo works on strength and conditioning, for example hang cleans and push presses, with a specialized weight-training coach, Gregory Pink to develop explosive power. and a movement specialist.  Our movement and corrective exercise specialist, Mark Stentaford,   designed a program to help her with agility and flexibility, and also uses his skills to make sure Jo’s body can handle the rigours of her training schedule.  At Juggernaut Fight Club, Arvind continues  to hone her fighting skills and technique.

Jo now trains 6 days a week religiously and sticks to a very healthy and balanced diet.  I have personally seen Jo getting stronger and fitter.  Since post surgery till today, she has lost a total of 17kg through sheer hard work and commitment to her health.  Jo's perspective on health and fitness has changed.  In the past, she trained hard with that one thought to look good. Today, she trains hard just to get stronger, fitter and faster.  The  entire team of trainers watching her grow in her fitness journey, cannot be more proud of her.  

Her fitness journey is proof that multiple trainers from across different specialized gyms can work together to help a client to attain her fitness goals."

 

No Egos, No Barriers, No Limits

 

I have learnt throughout this journey to better health and fitness that when there is no ego, there would not be barriers. When there are no barriers, then there are no limits. My fitness journey is on-going. If anything, the best thing I got behind a healthier and fitter me, is my renewed passion for life which has enabled me to balance the demands of a career as a marketing and public relations professional, a hobby as a freelance sportswriter and my training schedule.

 

For more information about the trainers responsible for getting me back on track towards better health and fitness, do visit:

 

IFC | PT - www.ifcpt.com

Juggernaut Fight Club – www.juggernautfightclub.com

The Right Fit – https://facebook.com/therightfitsg

This post was written jointly by Aaron Rolley from IFC | PT and myself, and was recently published in Asia Sports Network at http://asiasportsnetwork.net/my-journey-towards-being-fighting-fit

About The Writer

The writer of this blog post is a Marketing and PR professional for over 20 years.  Due to her love for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), she is also a freelance sports writer on the side, contributing MMA-related articles to several sports media.  She works in partnership with her husband, David Ash, who is an avid sports photographer from www.singaporemaven.com.  She is passionate about Muay Thai and nurtures a dream to fight competitively one day when her coach stops making fun of her.  She is also a psychic intuitive by birth and runs a consultancy that does tarot and numerology readings under her brand, Sun Goddess Tarot.  This blog is affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" as she is married to one, although she has not yet explained to THE Ang Mo that when translated, he has been labeled  “the bloke with ginger hair”.  

Our Perfect Christmas Tree

The Year-End Break

I had been on a writing break and was planning to be so till the New Year.  However, I was compelled to write this post after a stressful weekend of Christmas tree-hunting had led to my reassessment of why I took a break to focus on the family and plan for the  year-end festivities.  

Bah Humbug 

The impending year-end merry-making draws a myriad of reaction from my friends.  Most tell me that the year-end festivities would usually bring home the importance of family and the special memories they shared with loved ones during the ubiquitious Christmas dinner.  Some friends would tell me how disillusioned they were about the air of commercialism wafting through the malls at Christmas, with harried parents thronging Toys R’ Us in the hope of buying the latest Lego sets or yet another Princess Elsa doll.  I even have friends who would buy the first flight out of Singapore, just to avoid the rainy season and the annoying throngs of shoppers crowding the malls and jamming the train lines. 


My Magical Christmas Last Year

For me, the year-end festive season is always a celebration of family.  Last year, as Dad was hit with a devastating Stroke  just a week before Christmas, I learnt that the true magic of Christmas for me then was the power of prayers and the heartwarming love and support that surrounded my family and I at that very painful time.  It was magic indeed because in spite of the Doctor’s earlier suggestion that Dad might be spending 2 weeks at the hospital, he actually managed to recover in time to be discharged on Christmas eve.  I had the best Christmas Eve dinner then with Dad and the rest of the family surrounding him.  Amazingly, he even managed a glass of merlot, held in his very frail hand, which he had used to wash his pills down with. 

Reunion At Christmas Eve

This year,  I had been planning a big Christmas Eve dinner for the family.  My annual Christmas Eve dinner was always a gathering of  family members who would come together to enjoy the yuletide feast.  This year, it would be a reunion of sorts because my Aunt and Uncles who had been living overseas, in the US, Canada and Australia, are now back in Singapore to spend Christmas together as a family.  This was a big deal for us.  Moreover, this Christmas would mark one year of slow but steady recovery of my Dad from his Stroke.  He may still be frail but he is mentally still quite alert and looks like he would be enjoying yet another glass or two of merlot at my Christmas Eve dinner.  

A Perfect Christmas

I undertook to personally plan every detail of my Christmas Eve dinner.  Everything had to be perfect including the food, the home, the decoration, and the tree.  That became a problem.  The perfectionist in me was turning this Christmas Eve dinner into a major headache for David and Joel.  David wanted to roast the turkey and cook most of the dinner.  I did not allow this because David’s culinary skills, beyond baking bread and making tea, was not that reliable.  Joel volunteered to gather the Christmas playlist, but I refused to risk suicide attempts at our dinner party with Michael Buble crooning over the speakers.  

Then came the Christmas tree.  A beautiful noble fir was supposed to be the piece-de-resistance of my Christmas party.

The family spent the weekend criss-crossing the island just to look for a noble fir but the trees were sold out at every garden centre.  Not even a pine needle could be found throughout the island.  I went into near “melt-down” at the garden centre, revivable only with a cake and coffee over which David had a chat with me about my need to get a grip on my perfectionist mindset. He was right. Our Christmas Eve dinner need not be perfect. It was going to be wonderfully quirky, much like the Ash family. 


First and foremost, it was a dinner party that celebrated life and resilience. We had imperfect moments when Dad's health caused us immense worry or when Granny could not remember what she ate an hour ago.  However, Dad and Granny, in spite of their frailty, would not let recovery from stroke, or a touch of dementia stop them from celebrating family. They will be there to enjoy dinner with us and possibly more wine than they should. They might frown at  my roast turkey, parsnips, brussel sprouts and potatoes and would possibly prefer  a Chicken curry and stir fried noodles but I know they would be feeling so blessed just to be there, surrounded with family.  I know Dad and Granny would feel even more blessed because it would be their cheat day, like it would be for me, and we are all going to have cake!

Secondly, it was a dinner that celebrated a united nations of cultures and races amongst  family members who come from different countries like Scotland, America and China.  It is not a perfect family. However, this  eclectic mix of cultures and races, in our Singaporean home made for much livelier conversations.

Thirdly, it was a dinner party that celebrated new entrants into the family.  2 of my cousins got married recently so I have gained 2 rather handsome cousins-in-law.  Ok, they are still wet behind the ears and have not been inducted into the family rules that the Eldest cousin is the "quasi-matriarch-empress-dowager" of the family and needs to be placated regularly with cake. They will learn.

Finally, our tree is not perfect.  However, it really is a reflection of us – a quirky family, not too large, but not too small, weird in all sense of the word, but fun, easy-going and welcoming.  

So this is my tree, the Ash family's Christmas tree for 2014.  It is definitely us isn't it?

About The Writer

The writer of this blog post is a Marketing and PR professional for over 20 years.  Due to her love for Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), she is also a freelance sports writer on the side, contributing MMA-related articles to several sports media.  She works in partnership with her husband, David Ash, who is an avid sports photographer from www.singaporemaven.com.  She is passionate about Muay Thai and nurtures a dream to fight competitively one day when her coach stops making fun of her.  She is also a psychic intuitive by birth and runs a consultancy that does tarot and numerology readings under her brand, Sun Goddess Tarot.  This blog is affectionately called "The Crazy AngMo" as she is married to one, although she has not yet explained to THE Ang Mo that when translated, he has been labeled  “the bloke with ginger hair”.