New 30 Day Challenge: Bellydance for the Arms and Abs

I know, I know. It kind of sounds weird to say that I started bellydancing, especially when you imagine that general picture of bellydancing women showing their belly (whether they have flat tummies or not) with some gold ornaments dangling on the shawl or scarf (I don’t know what they’re called) wrapped around their hips while shaking them, so to clear it up, it’s not that weird! And according to the cover or description of the work out video, it’s a good work out for beginners.

I decided to do this because I failed at my first 30 Day Challenge and because I wanted to do something that would not only be challenging but would benefit me as well.

But why a workout? If you’ve known me for years, I’ve always been skinny especially when I started going to school as a child. The elders would always comment on my frame and ask if I even eat the right amount of food so I’d get a little bit thicker. It has always been like that for years and I thought I’d never get thicker than I usually am. But I was wrong, obviously.

I never thought I could actually gain a significant amount of weight. The only hope I thought I’d have was to wait until I get pregnant and give birth (because that was the case for my mom.) But during my last semester in college, I spent most days up until 1 – 5 in the morning because I was busy doing our Special Problem or other school work and sometimes I’d stay up late waiting for Chris to go online on Facebook (fangirl much?). More often than not, when my brain is busy working, my tummy goes a-grumblin’ so the main solution for that is to eat whatever food I have within my reach. Sometimes I eat crackers but when I don’t have crackers within my reach, I settle for the mini Cadbury strawberry yogurt bars from the fridge. I’ve been told that during the wee hours of the night, it’s not advisable to eat (especially if you don’t want to gain too much weight) since our metabolism slows down. But I needed to satisfy my cravings for me to be able to work probably. I couldn’t drink coffee because too caffeine makes me palpitate and so I ate to keep myself up. And now here I am.

At first, it was kind of flattering to hear from the elders that I’m not skinny anymore. I’ve grown tired of hearing the comment, “Bakit and payat payat mo? (Why are you so skinny?)“, constantly. But lately I’ve been noticing how some of my jeans feel much tighter around my bum and my thighs and some of my shirts’s sleeves feel tight around my arms. I also don’t feel wearing most of my casual clothes in public anymore because I’m conscious about noticing how my tummy bulges after meals or when I sit down. There are even times when I’m really full after eating that I’d look like I’m pregnant (not exaggerating here because even my dad noticed. lol).

I lacked physical activities over the past few months that I feel my body’s not functioning as well as it used to. Before, I could ride the bike around our street for 10 to 20 times before I’d feel breathless but now after I’ve done 5 rounds, I’d already feel tired. A doctor even told me that the possible reason for my feeling out of breath last year was because I lacked the proper exercise and I’ve been putting off actually doing physical activities so it’s just more than right for me to do this now and don’t laugh because I picked bellydancing as my workout program.

My mom has tried this program before and I in fact saw some improvement in her physique. I hope that after 30 days of faithfully doing this program, I would not have flabby arms, thighs, and tummy anymore and at the same time, my bodily functions and strength would improve.

I started the 30 day challenge today and it was terrible. During the first part of the work out, it was hard for me to keep my arms up. It was even harder to lift my upper body up during the floor exercises. Hopefully, when the 30th day comes, I can go through the routine perfectly without failing at any of the exercises. I’m actually quite excited about it! 😀

Here’s to fitness and health! 🙂

PS: I’d post a before and after photo on the 30th day of the challenge. Let’s see if the program worked out for me.