CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY

In the spirit of Christmas, I am hosting my first giveaway, which is Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life. This is an amazing book, full of positive affirmation activities. It helped me to get through some really tough times in life, and I can't think of anything better than to have it help someone else in their hour of need.

For reviews and testimonials about this amazing book, have a look at the Amazon site. This giveaway is currently only open to Australian residents, and closes 7 December. A winner will be drawn, and the winner will have 48 hours to contact me, after which a new winner will be drawn. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Yoga Journal 21-Day Fitness Challenge completed

I finally finished the 21-Day Challenge. Not in 21 days though, my excuse is that I was mixing it up with other kinds of fitness activity.

I didn't end up making all the recipes... I live alone, and meal-planning is hard work. Whatever I make for lunch I generally have to bring to work for dinner (and then have it for lunch and dinner the next day), and I usually have no access to a fridge, and we have no microwave. So, everything has to fit into a little thermos food jar. But, I did attempt some, most were edible, some were extremely delicious, and some were... of interesting flavour...

Read through my account and sign up for the challenge! For a free yoga resource, it's pretty great.

Body Fat vs BMI

I only just discovered this thing called a Body Fat Calculator.

I'm not really quite sure how it works, but I measured myself and did the calculation, (you can click on images for a bigger, clearer image)

Screen grab from http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/metric-body-fat-calculator.php

and it says I have 24.94% body fat, which just gets me into the fit category.

Screen grab from http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/body-fat-chart.php

Only just. Apparently, the body fat calculator works on some formula used by the US Navy. I've always just been using the BMI calculator, and have always been within the normal BMI zone. Using the above stats, plus my height of 160cm, my BMI is 19.9. The healthy zone is 18.5-24.9 using the regular BMI stats, and and 18.5-23.9 for Asians.

In both BMI calculations, my weight falls into the healthy category, but I am carrying more body fat than what I originally thought. I'm sure it is possible for some people to be in a normal BMI range, and yet be obese in the body fat calculator, or just in the essential fat zone.

My current goal is to keep it within the 21-24%, perhaps... I'm barely scraping the margins of that category. I've never been too hung up on weight before, because I've always been fairly light but body fat... now that's another issue! Ultimately though, my belief is that no matter what your body percentage or your weight is, as long as you are fit, and you are exercising regularly, numbers don't matter in the end.

If you do work out your body fat, do share your reactions to your result. Was it what you expected?

What moves you?

I love listening to music as I do my cardio (not so much for yoga, I prefer peace and tranquillity and focussing on my breath). Music provides a great distraction, keeps me going right through my goal time, and can help me keep my energy levels up.

Just wanted to share my current Top 10 tracks for the gym. And no, there's no Oppa Gangnam Style :P

#10. David Guetta ft Akon - Sexy b!tc# 

#9. Pendulum - Mutiny 

#8 Foster the People - Color on the Wall (Don't Stop)

#7 Architecture in Helsinki - That Beep

#6 AWOLNATION - Sail 

#5 Battles - Atlas

#4 Jim Jones Revue - Rock and Roll Psychosis

#3 Hadouken! - Get Smashed, Gate Crash 

#2 Karnivool - Set Fire to the Hive 

#1 Matt and Kim - Daylight

It was hard trying to decide who would get to #1 once I got to my Top 5. Hope you enjoyed my top 10, and hopefully some of the songs will make it onto your playlist too.

What do you enjoy moving to?