maanantai 9. kesäkuuta 2014

Instagram + food = obsession

Has anyone else had to deal with this? I joined instagram about a year ago and I didn't really use it for a while. And then, all of a sudden, it happened: I started taking pictures of my food and I started following people who took pictures of their food and now I am addicted to instagram. I myself am posting about one food post per day (!!!) and I like 4-6 food posts of others per day.
On the plus side: I have been getting so much inspiration food-wise, it got me to try out stuff, I would have never tried out without instagram and somehow it feels good when about ten people like your breakfast :D

But now seriously; it probably is really annoying for people who are not interested in food or healthy living, etc., but I believe there are some positive sides to instagramming food:
1. you get inspired to use new food or to use food you have at home in new ways
2. it looks delicious
3. you can get a lot of information about other people's way of life and eating. I am following several people who are following a mostly or completely vegan diet and I got interested in it as well and this spring and summer has been seeing me dabbling with a vegan way of life. I could not go completely vegan, but more about that in another post.
4. if you are posting your own food, you become more conscious of what you're actually eating. Not just what kind of food you are eating, but I'm talking living-in-the-moment-wise: You prepare your food, you take a pretty picture of it instead of just stuffing your face as fast as you can, you see the picture, you say sth about it, you post your picture and by then, you really realised what delicacy you are about to eat and you savour it a little more. And afterwards you can look at it and know: wow, that was really good. It makes you more aware of the process of preparing and eating food. Which is - nowadays - something that can get lost during the hurry of everyday life. Enjoy your food! :)



This is the kind of stuff that goes onto my insta these days. @viviane786

torstai 5. kesäkuuta 2014

What's Love Got to Do With It - Body Combat 60

Well, just about everything, if you ask me. I don't think I'd be able to drag myself to the gym or to MMA training if I did not love the feeling. And I'm not only talking about the feeling afterwards, but I'm also talking about the feeling you have while working out. The burning in your quads when you're doing the last reps of a squat track, the burning in your lungs when you're going as fast or hard as you can, or the moment you realise that you are able to do something better now than a few weeks ago. There's just so many things in sports and fitness that make it fun and enjoyable that I seriously cannot understand how there are people who don't like it or even worse have never even tried it.

But back to why I wanted to write in the first place: Yesterday I managed to try out the new Body Combat 60, and well, I did not love it right away like the last release. Sometimes the tracks just felt, I don't know, too short. Just when you get the hang of it and really want to go at it, the track is already over. But this is something that will probably get better as soon as I don't have to think about the choreo anymore. The music was okay. And that was another factor why I did not feel as blown away as I felt during earlier releases. Hit Me With Your Best Shot was kind of cool and took it away from the start, but... I never really liked Roar and it did not help that it has been overused in other group fitness classes, so that was a downer. The combat and power tracks were pretty basic, no big surprises there, but track number 6 was fun. A little karate in track 6 again and back kicks. I kind of miss the old back kick heavy sixes. Still, up until then, I wasn't really exhausted (maybe because of the aforementioned problem), BUT: I loved, loved, loved the Muay Thai track. Which has not always been a given during the last two years, but this releases number 7 is great, exhausting and really takes you to the edge. Oh, and your abs are going to thank you, too. Especially during the toning track :D Yesterday I actually achieved muscle failure during the last few reps of toning. Nothing that happens everyday.
So, Body Combat 60 is a solid, pretty basic release using mostly basic moves (except for the stance switch, even though this, too has been seen in earlier releases, and the superman punch) and probably pretty good for newbies as you can hone your upper cut technique and perfect your hooks. A long set of roundhouse kicks in the warm up lets you work on this technique, too. If you have been waiting for a good release to start your Body Combat career with, take the chance and stay with the fight, it's only getting better from here :)