Sport!

Long, long, ago when me and Max were just lovers, we would sit down in one dark corner of a certain park in Singapore and fantasize about our life together in the future....

In our fantasy, sport fanatic daddy Max will take on the role of teaching our future children how to do boyish, sporty stuff like playing soccer, basketball, badminton and running while the arty farty creative mummy Angel would teach them stuff like how to enjoy a good book, a good movie, a good piece of literature and maybe, just maybe, how to dance:) Mummy Angel will never ever need to do any sports and will be contented just to lead a peaceful, quiet and sedentary life.

You see, we have our reasoning behind this particular arrangement. My hubby Max is a very sporty person and being so, he has always wanted to get a girlfriend and a wife who is sporty and shared his passion for sports like him. Somehow, by a twist of fate, he ended up marrying a wife who is labelled "the most unsporty person on the universe".

Actually, it ain't that I dislike sports. After all, when I was in primary school, I was a softball player. I represented my class in track and field and shot putt, I joined badminton competitions and I even have some medals to show for it. Secondary school saw me training with the school badminton team for a while and I even enjoyed an occasional run round the track during my weekly physical education lessons in JC and I do enjoy sweating it out.

But because I didn't really have any friends who were very much into sports and mainly because I had a negative belief that I had POOR APTITUDE in sports (no matter how hard I trained in my various sports attempts, I always ended up warming the bench even though I was the one who went to all the practices and other people only came when they felt like it), I just didn't really get into it.

And like a vicious cycle, the less sports I did, the more weight I put on.

But it finally got too much for me and I decided to lose some weight. I lost 15kg in 2 months and met the love of my life who turned out to be a sports fanatic.

That gave me some motivation to start doing sports again. One: to impress the very sporty boyfriend of mine.. and two: to keep myself in tip top shape...

We started to go running together, I would watch him play soccer, we went to learn how to dance hip hop together, we played badminton together, we would go hiking (there was once we walked all the way from Bedok Jetty all the way to Tanjung Rhu) and right before our wedding, we even went to the gym together!

Alas, those sporty moments were but short lived :)

Shortly after our wedding, I became pregnant. Sports then became but a distant memory for me. We acquired a car and I even lost the need to talk to and fro from bus stops and MRT stations.

Once Ace was born, I started to be a little bit more 'active'. Other than the daily "exercise regiment" of mopping the floor, washing the dishes and washing the clothes, the one that burnt the most amount of calories was probably just carrying the baby around!

When Ace grew older, we started to act out our fantasy and Max started teaching Ace how to play ball, play badminton and how to swim. My only involvement in these somewhat sporty arrangements was to carry my 120gm camera to take pics of them enjoying themselves.

The side effect of this though was that I found it difficult to shed off post baby fat. Despite using many different ways to diet, detox away my extra weight, I was just not eating little enough and exercising enough to maintain a trim, slim figure. I had no choice but to admit it was time to shape up and start doing something sporty.

I started thinking that maybe it was time to get out of my sedentary lifestyle and start a more active lifestyle.

I started thinking about planning to go for some dance classes like aerobics or hip hop. I started searching for gym kakis and a gym membership. I even did one or two trial classes for Bollywood dance and yoga and invested in an exercise machine.

Time flies though. Now that my son is 3.5 years old, the only part that seemed to get any exercise at all is my brain.. which just keeps thinking and (ONLY) thinking about when to start exercising:) My exercise machine just collects dust in one corner of the living room. The only person who tries to use it is my son.

Inspired by the Nuffnang project to write about an unforgettable sports experience with my family or friends (I want to win that Ipod Nano!), I looked through all my photos in the past 3.5 years and realized that in the past few years, the only sport our whole family ever did together was a hiking trip on the Southern Ridge Tree Top Walk.

My very sporty female friend, Mag, who is in her late forties got me and a whole bunch of us friends from the Lions Club to go on a trekking trip walking through the tree tops from Henderson all the way to the Hort Park and back.

When I realized how long the journey was, I really regretted agreeing to her invitation. Just 200 meters into the walk, I already felt like dying. I really cannot understand how she can actually do this three times a week.

However, as we trekked along while I shared an umbrella with my mum because it was drizzling, I started to enjoy the experience.

The cool breeze and the smell of fresh air was indeed a refreshing change. I cannot remember when was the last time our family did something so sporty together.

That was probably the first and ONLY time that whole whole family (including my son, hubby, sister, mother) attempted a sports activity together!

But boy was the trek a tough one for me. Being out of action for a few good years meant I had ZERO STAMINA. But it felt good to be able to get my adrenaline pumping and to get all sweaty. It even felt good to feel that familiar aching feeling on my calfs. The self delusional thought that my fats must be melting and disapatting somewhere into the thin air in this TOUGH exercise added much joy to the process as well.

When I finally completed the whole trek and ran past the finishing line hand in hand with my son, words really could not describe the immense amount of satisfaction that I had!

Inspired, I signed up with another group of friends for the Women's Day Out and did a one hour dance lesson and another one hour yoga lesson back to back. I sweared I lost 2kg just by sweating that day! Though tired, the feeling was very shiok:)

As per in my fantasy with Max, my son still goes to his Dad when he wants his badminton, soccer or swimming lesson and he comes to me when he is keen to look for company to do things like reading or singing and dancing. The only difference is that I try to lead a less sedentary lifestyle by adding some workouts and some sport in my life and the upside of this is that I seem to be able to hold my weight down much better:)

Now, I am going into the http://www.womenandsports.sg/ website to find some fun sports to get me started on some fit and fun activities. Looking at my old photos has also made me ambitious about wanting to go back to my size 8 figure.... Of course, I am secretly hoping that with my new found zeal for sports, I can inspire Ace to be sporty and active instead becoming to a computer or PSP addict in future.

Anyway, looking for sports kakis now.. I am keen to do some sport related to dancing or aerobics. Anyone keen to take up the offer?:)

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