What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and probably lighter.

Jennika and I have been trying to keep fit in Korea. It isn't always an easy task. After what seems like the longest days of work, we are often left wanting the comforts of a couch, some junk food, and a mindless tv show to decompress before bed. For the past month, we have been going to Hulk's Boxing (I admit sparsely) and Jennika has been organizing pickup ultimate on the weekends.

Hulk Boxing is run by Jennika's friend, Amy, who is a kick-ass boxer from Canada. She has been keeping the ladies of Cheonan fit with her Boxercise class, an aerobics type class based on boxing. Recently, her and her husband opened their own boxing club that offers various workout options, boxercise included. Personally I found boxercise to be fun. It has a good mix of aerobics and martial arts. But, I tend to stick to the crossfit circuits.

My last time at crossfit things went awry. We had just eaten a nice salad for supper and biked to the club. During the first half of the workout I started to sweat profusely. Like gushing out of my pores. I new something was wrong because, to be frank, I never work that hard. I told the trainer I needed to take a break. I sat down with a queazy feeling and then it came to me. My supper wanted to escape and I had no say in the matter. I went and hugged that porcelain princess and tried to replenish my liquids. I haven't been back to the club since. Not sure if I'm scared to go back.

Jackie Spinning Festival

Today Jean-Marc and I tried out something new .. something Christine has been pushing me to try since I arrived in Korea. We went to the Jackie Spinning Festival in Bucheon!

Jackie Spinning is a Korean twist on the traditional spinning class. Rather than just biking to the music, JS combines dance moves and upper body exercises while on the bike, sort of like cycle gymnastics. The experts actually compete in cycle gynmastics competitions and do some crazy moves on a bike. Like this:

And this:

We, of course, did not do anything like that, but rather struggled to keep up with the basic moves of the instructor who was on stage. Korea has some quirky features, and this sport is definitely one of them! You can even see a video of the festival (including cameos of us) HERE.

Great workout for sure!

(All photo credits go to Jackie Spinning)

Stretching before working out

All the bikes were outdoors - and it was a beautiful day!

Looking confused, trying to figure out what the instructor is doing

Getting the hang of things - having fun!

Waygooks!

All the festival participants

Pound for Pound Challenge: Progress Week 1

Well folks, so far I'm winning. he he. After 1 week, I lost 1.7kg or 3.74 lbs (everything here is done in metric) and a couple centimeters, which totalled to 1.5% body fat reduction. My goal is to get into the Average/Healthy body fat range, so I have another 20 some odd pounds to go.

JM, on the other hand, hasn't even done his starting weigh in. As I'm typing this he got a little repudiative and suddenly picked up the skipping rope I bought earlier. haha! He can't stand that it's true. We did just take our measurements today though and will be tracking our physical progress.

We will also try and post more pictures of our dinners. Sadly, we are usually so hungry that by the time we remember, not much food is left on the plate (tee hee).

Cheers to you all back home,

Jennika

Let's go pound for pound

Moving to Korea is a life change. New country, new jobs, new friends - new lifestyle! Coming here I had it in mind that the entire lifestyle change would include a fitness change.

When Jean-Marc and I met last summer, we were both in much different shape. I was training for my first 10km race, so I was running 2-3 times a week and playing ultimate frisbee 3 nights a week .. plus the occasional softball game. I was feeling fit. Jean-Marc had spent a good deal of time playing tennis that summer and was also fit. When winter hit, we weren't working out as much and, well, I wrote a thesis. That comes with a lot of stress, emotional eating, boredom eating, top that with heavy Christmas food, and voila!  A recipe for disaster. With JM's slim body type, he lost weight because he wasn't working out (frig) and I packed on the pounds.

So last week we decided to shake things up a bit. We made a bet: pound for pound, whoever loses/gains the most by Christmas Day 2012 wins, and the other person has to pay for their Christmas vacation.

This weekend I joined a fitness group to start winning this bet. Flipside Fitness is an all girls group run by a fabulous lady from Ontario (I know - what are the chances?!) who puts her heart and soul into getting us in shape. She runs boxercise classes (read: intense butt kicking workouts) on the weekend and organizes events centered around health and being active throughout the month. I've only been a member a few days and already I feel empowered to take control of my life. Amy posts motivational quotes and information about eating well, as well as weekly fitness challenges and even a newsletter. It is a very active Facebook group.

I went to my first boxercise class on Saturday and what an intense workout it was. I don't think I've ever sweat that much in my life. Combining boxing with circuit training (yes, I put on a pair of boxing gloves for the first time in my life!), and you get a full body workout. It felt so great to exercise again.

Watch out ... we are pretty tough!

So there you have it. The bet is officially posted online. We'll keep you updated as to who is winning and what we are up to to achieve our goals. For now I'm going to go back to researching 5-star resorts in Tahiti for Christmas vacation. he he.

Looks good right?