Ever since I joined Original Bootcamp Malaysia, I’ve not been able to breathe in deeply without feeling it at my mid-riff section. I always tell people that the amount of weight/fat I have to lose is the thickness between where I touch my mid-riff and where the muscles actually hurt. I might not have conveyed this very well in words, but if I ever see you in real life and you really want to know, tell me and I’ll demonstrate.

That said, I could hardly believe that this morning was the 8th session for this month. Time flies, especially when it’s 3 times a week, no reprieve for holidays and festivities (unless you apply for leaves yourself lah). For unknown reasons, I find myself struggling in my 2nd month. I feel more tired and everything seems to be more difficult. I think my inherent lazy nature is setting in and it’s a mental battlefield to keep myself going.

So I was thinking to myself today, maybe I should not be so opposed to the idea of doing more. For example, we have 4 stations this morning — we do one exercise (3x for Rangers, 5x for Seals) then either do a bear/ back/ gorilla crawl to the next station where we have to do another exercise, then sprint (or try to run 😉 )to the next station, rinse and repeat. The exercises are a mix of military push-ups, shoulder push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lunges etc.

I hate running. I hate shoulder push-ups. I hate mountain climbers. I hate grunts. I hate thrusters. I ESPECIALLY HATE BEAR/ BACK CRAWLS! I can’t tell you how much I hate bear and back crawls but I’ll try. I hate them as much as I hate watered-down beer. I hate them as much as I hate Gmail fucking up. I hate them as much as I hate Twitter’s Fail Whale. I hate them as much as I hate that stupid Chinese shop who refused to give me extra chilli because I already asked for a lot. Hello, some people consume a lot of chilli okay! It’s my problem lah if I want to fuck up my internal organs from overdosing on chilli, just give me the damn chilli!

I also hate it when the instructors happen to see that I’m not giving my all then yell at me to stop procrastinating 😛

Actually it’s a frustrating process when you cannot do more. Sergeant Sim once said that it’s ALL mental, and I retorted that it’s not, it’s a lot of physical as well! But come to think of it, he was right. That last push to the final station, can I make an all-out run for it or do I wait around for the instructor to yell “STEADY!” for half a minute of water break? Kicking my legs, swooshing my thunder thighs in the air… fuwah damn pain okay! Hmmm how do I cheat, even so slightly? Heh.

So yes, it’s all in the mind and I suppose I’ll just have to suck it up. I guess it doesn’t hurt to chant to myself, “I love grunts, I love bear crawls, I love mountain climbers (but I don’t), I definitely love tyres!” Will see how that works out.

You may be wondering, if I’ve so much internal struggle within me about this bootcamp business, why the hell do I keep going? Almost everyone I’ve talked to about it commented that it’s paying good money for someone to torture you.

I’ll tell you why. It feels like shit during, but it feels great after. I love my PJ platoon. My fellow bootcampers have been so encouraging, the community is amazing. There’s nothing like a mamak outing after a gruelling session to bitch about the various exercises that we had to do that day, and it’s something only your fellow bootcampers can understand the whats, whys and hows you are feeling. The instructors have been brilliant (though strict) and my techniques have improved thanks to them (which makes a lot of the exercises slightly easier). I don’t look half-dead all the time, most people commented that I look more alive 😛

The best part is, I’ve went down one size! Heheheh… well I was doing some shopping yesterday and decided to try on a pair of jeans that is one size smaller than what I usually wear. It fits GREAT! I won’t tell you the size, let’s just say that it used to be super massive. Now it’s just massive 😉

Also a lot of people have invested in my bootcamp participation. My eldest sister paid for my 1st month of bootcamp as my birthday gift. My second sister sometimes help to wash my t-shirts and such, and filled out my water bottles so my lazy arse didn’t have to. She also bought me a pair of Nike Free 3.0 yesterday which costs quite a bit. It feels damn good on my feet and I a bit sayang to wear them to the field, so I guess I’ll wear them when I eventually exercise on my own outside of bootcamp.

Not to mention 2.5 months of bootcamp fees from these people…

Top L-R: Jaime, Oy Cheng, Joanne, Jessie, Mi Lin, Mark, Kevin, Derek, Carol, Horng, ShaolinTiger.
Bottom L-R: Wuan, Peter, Megaa, me, KY, Rachel, Kim

Jaime organised a surprise birthday party for me on Tuesday at WIP in Bangsar Shopping Centre. Apparently e-mails were flying around about a week before my birthday, I heard that there were some questions if I would be back from Ipoh/ Penang on time! There were also some fake tweets by Kerol, KY and ShaolinTiger to cover line. All very nicely done my friends 😉

Well it was a very lovely surprise and I was most happy to see my dearest and closest friends there. Apparently Jaime had told them that if they wanted to give me something but didn’t know what to get, they could contribute to a fund for my bootcamp sessions. So they did and it came in a water tumbler, stuffed with lots of money, a Starbucks voucher and a card. Like I said, it’s worth 2.5 months of bootcamp sessions, so I guess they really do want to see me there… heh.

I’m well touched. If I could cry, I would have 😛 Since I’m not the overly-emotional type THESE DAYS, I can only tell you lot that I appreciate it very much. It’s more than just the money, it’s the whole spirit behind it that is overwhelming. To my closest friends, you know how much I love you people. To my bootcamp buddies, you are the best platoon ever! Thanks for putting up with me 🙂

Also much thanks to everyone who sent me birthday text messages as well as well wishes on Facebook, Twitter and the like.

So, Bring A Friend for Original Bootcamp Malaysia is this Saturday, 26th September 2009. My session is from 7-8 a.m. Any takers? 😉