EMPIRE BOXING GOT ME STRONG, LEAN AND TONED!

I have never boxed in my entire life till I was dragged by my cousin Vincent last month to Empire Boxing... the newest and fast-rising boxing empire in the Philippines. He was to do a photo shoot for the gym and I was just supposed to watch or help him taking shots with my own camera but I ended up learning all about boxing. I was surprised to learn the joys and benefits of the sport  for myself and here is my story...

My younger years of playing tennis, running and swimming, blessed me to have an athletic built and a steady 115 lbs. body weight but with my career... my internet work requiring me to be stuck at the confines of my computers 24/7, I gained a lot of excess weight and had troubles getting them off lately especially that as we humans grow older, metabolisms slow down. I have a swimming pool and a gym for me to access at home whenever I had time but I don't get motivated to do so regularly and my cousin thought I needed to get myself in a new  social sport.

Boxing is very much of social sport... contrary to my initial thought of having to beat a punching bag all by myself. My first day at Empire Boxing came as a big surprise. Practically 16 people I see in the clubs and bars before were there including the owner. Yes, Rob Wax Del Rosario used to be a chubby one... er... plump...er... healthy one during my hay days of alcohol as he chugs down his beers, scotch and vodkas with his friends. I didn't recognize him... the lean and toned Rob till we were introduced. This lead me to think that all these times, I have come across and mingled with people in the past who can actually box! Amazing!

I'm reminding you to take a look at that huge tummy i want to get rid of at the time this photo was taken last month!

So anyways, Rob found the interest in personally training a former alcoholic... me! We started with a 10 minutes warm-up followed by a half an hour of learning how to box. I was taught how to punch properly, learning the 3 main moves... hooks (side punches), jabs (straight forward punches) and up-cuts (punches that goes upwards). 

Warming down came after but throughout my first initial training, I learned that this is seriously hard work. I felt myself doing high intensity, full body work out that keeps me move all the time... throwing a punch, ducking, weaving, squats making sure that I'm getting abdominal work all the time. This lead me to believe  that it is actually a cardio work-out for the whole body. Once I picked up the moves, I felt like Hillary Swank in her movie! Comparing it to swimming and running, boxing is easy for me. 

I lingered longer at the gym after my warm down... watching the men and women rigidly training with instructors at Empire Boxing. Coach Rob (that's what I started to call him after my first training) told me that boxing is all about technique, not strength. He also told me all about the benefits of boxing such as increased agility and coordination, muscle tone, weight loss, etc. 

Always the inquiring mind, I told him I am more concerned of weight loss... along with getting strong, lean and toned. Coach Rob told me that Empire Boxing offers various fitness programmes for men and women including strength and conditioning, weight loss consultations and work outs, and athletic enhancement by Coach Byron Jimenez during Mondays to Fridays 8am - 11am, 4 slots a day and Saturdays 11am - 5pm. Coach Rob said this program is good for toning bottom and quadricep muscles perfect for women like me who wants to lose weight around their bottom and thighs as part of an overall reduction programme and so I did. After doing 2 classes a week since June, I definitely noticed a dramatic difference in my weight and tone after following a healthy eating plan and including cardio classes in my schedule each week. Check this out...

Oi!  I got my strong, lean and toned body back in just a month! I got my groove back... Thanks to my Coach Rob Del Rosario of Empire Boxing!

Located at Unit 5K OPL Building, C. Palanca corner Dela Rosa Sts., Legaspi Village, below are some of what Empire Boxing offers:

But if it is rapid tone and weight loss you are after, no "B.S."... boxing is definitely something you should check out at Empire Boxing. If you got a personal fitness plan for yourself, Empire Boxing got game and they got great plans suited for what you need!  Go with friends and see what you think too! 

ON PSYCHOTIC WOMEN SURROUNDING MALE FRIENDS

Don't you just hate it when strangers especially women you just met put words with colorful fonts in your mouth?

Most psycho women do not appear to be psycho right away.  Often times, it takes many months before their true colors start to show.

November 5, 2011... I was in my happiest mood celebrating the one year that I got reunited with my childhood best friend after 30 years. We followed our other friends at a club in Makati and met a nice new woman who happened to be in our circle. The party went on and I felt the need to go to the restroom. She was there and I was grateful that she was there too because I needed a brush. We talked for a fleeting moment as I carried on with a few strokes on my hair but I was completely oblivious, I admit... of what we actually talked. My bad... I cant even remember what she said because I was just in a hurry to get back to my friends and watch over my childhood best friend who met new people for business. I thanked her though and told her I'll see her there at the table. 

The woman didn't interest me at all and so did all the other women. All I cared of that night was... I was having a good time with my male friends, I'm listening to music, dance and I was with my childhood best friend whom I'm watching like a hawk.

Two days later, one of my friends told me that the woman whom I later learned having a little sumthin' sumthin' with one of my guy friends who was also there last night said she overheard me say to someone (whoever that was) that "she's a hooker" which is the reason why she was giving my guy friend some hell that night and they left!

I was completely oblivious about everything that transpired that night! I was having a good time... I was in my best mood and I sure did not talk about hookers or whores to anyone that night! That bullshit created a rage I haven't experienced for over a decade... reminding me of my number one pet peeve... when people say I said or did things that I did not.

I checked this out with 2 friends and they confirmed I did not talk to them about hookers and/or whores at all. The rest of my friends... I did not even talk to them much too! The woman who did not even merit or gain my interest to get to know her that night finally got my attention and and so here I am still angry about the BS she created... wondering why she did that.

It brings me to one word... PSYCHO. Yeah... Psycho... that one word that says it all. It means completely she's completely nuts... doing actions with no thought about possible consequences and absolutely no rational thought. This type of women are often violent, they break things, they throw things, they scream and yell, they do outrageous things like vandalize your properties, embarrass you, harass you at work and they even threaten your new girlfriend and even a plain girl friend!

Does she hold your gun so good? According to studies, women who are psycho are often very good in bed. My lover should be happy with me! Thank God, I'm not that good in bed... just fair because I just love to cuddle more.

This type of women causes a little paranoia in me because these women are just plain crazy and there is nothing anyone can do to change them! They can do all sorts of things... they gather their female friends and gang up on clueless victims that they consider as threat to their lovers or boyfriends. I've seen it a lot of times and I feel bad for this woman (even if I hate that she used me for a dramatic plot).

I've been in deep thoughts and anger all day yesterday... she finally got my attention, got me paranoid to the point that I talked to my lawyer and considered putting a blotter on her and her "lover" to protect myself at all cost.

I protect myself, my family and my friends from any harm. I do not own a gun. I do not even know how to shoot. I only held these toy guns for a fun photography shoot but If my family, friends and my own life is threatened in anyway and in a situation that I need to save someone including myself... I just might not hesitate to get a gun, do my best aim and pull the trigger. 

My life has been so far great when it comes to relationships. I have never been a threat to anyone. I have never been with someone who happens to in a relationship with someone else. I take good care of my reputation and I keep my values intact for I have been brought up by really good parents. Although I am sometimes brutally honest with my opinions on people, I deal with it privately and never publicly. Well... to those who abused me and my friends though, I tend to make them famous online LOL... famous enough to realize they will one day need to hire and pay good  someone like me to remove all the publicity unleashed online!

To the friend who's with this psycho: Congratulations! You are, to me a punching bag for an emotionally unstable and weak-minded woman! I never said such about her! You stay away from me too! God knows what she will do to me when she sees me hanging out with you!

To the psycho who involved me:  I am no threat to you. You use me one more time for your acting capabilities, I will become a willing director... I will cast you and redirect your life in a film with plots you have never imagined! But I thank you... you taught me a valuable lesson in life.... that rumors are created and carried by psychotic haters, spread by fools and accepted by idiots.

I was and still am, admittedly an idiot because this psycho merited a blog from me. Nuff said!

THE SAD PLIGHT: MAID IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Filipina women are known to be one of the most caring and loving creatures in the world. I am for one, a proud Filipina and yes... we are a very caring kind but not to the extent of carrying cocaine and heroin either in their luggage or swallowed or encased please! 

For decades, Philippines' top export commodity is "Maid in the Philippines" with millions of women from my country hired abroad as domestic workers. Now, my heart bleeds as these Filipinas are now known as "Mules in the Philippines". It saddens me that with the global recession and opportunities failing to be materialized here at home, a lot of my kind have resorted to something far more dangerous than being domestic workers to smuggling drugs.


Over the years, Philippines witnessed a dramatic increase in the numbers of our men and women... especially our poor women being used as drug mules. According to top officials in the country, there appears to be a specific targeting of our Filipina women by international drug syndicates often taking advantage of those who are in desperate situations to go back home to their families. Poverty... the need to pay back their debts, to buy clothes, medicine, food, provide schooling for their children drives these women to deep danger. 

 
I believe that the only answer is awareness. If our women were informed and helped in the first place, if there was more equality then the problem would be much smaller. The Philippine Government should launch a massive awareness to fight this social illness that hounds our people and our country. With the help of our Philippines embassies offshore, the drug law enforcement agencies, the bloggers, the media and civil society groups, we can make this stop. Poor awareness pushes Filipinas to do these dangerous risks. 

Awareness is the only way I can think of. I can't imagine how we will be able to directly stop having our women used as drug mules because then, we need to stop the demand and supply of the drugs. This brings me to ask... would the Aquino government help? These international drug dealers are ruthless, fearless and very rich..they corrupt the governments, police and other law enforcement agencies. And so it is a sad plight for drug mules when caught. A drug mule is a drug mule...whichever gender for it results to same sentences for drug smuggling...  same offense... same punishment offshore.

 
Drug trafficking will always be there but if we help educate or making our women aware about taking these risks, it can be stopped. These Filipina women are respected and loved in our country... I cannot imagine how they and their families endure this sad and horrifying experience of languishing jail time and severe punishments like death in foreign prisons. I can't imagine how their own children feels about these...

I don't believe that these women, who are already being exploited, should be jailed or punished in any way but... there are laws. However, I feel we should treat these women with a lot more compassion. Let's help bring back our women to their own rightly pedestals... these care-giving queens are no drug mules... let's help bring them home to our land and to their children... safe and happy.

Photos by: Jonel M. Candelaria (Big thanks for providing them specifically for my blog!)

FAKING IT...

I had a really good conversation with a male best friend of mine most recently.... all about our past relationships, sexual experiences, the big O and faking it. It was a fun exchange of thoughts, to sum it all up. 

 
That conversation is pure honesty between best friends that I'm led to believe that both of us perceived sex as something to be enjoyed and faking it... breaks a trusting and loving relationship with a partner. After all, faking an orgasm is a form of deception.

I'm not gonna heat things up here unlike in my controversial blog, "The Helicopter Is The Best Choice For..." which you can read later. Right now, you will be reading about sex and orgasms but it won't bore you at all... it will be a little explosive, though... because its the truth. 

Wait... before I tackle any further, let me clarify with you that based on conversations with friends and readings, it is not just women who fake it... Men do too! While women openly talk about faking orgasms as we've read or heard, men have talked quietly about faking orgasms for many years.

  
Women have two common reasons for faking an orgasm... to make their male partners feel better and to end sex when they are tired. These reasons are brought about by the common perception of women that the male partners are not satisfied until they give their female partner an orgasm thus; sex will go on till the women achieves it or fakes it.
 
Men on the other hand, also have two reasons for faking an orgasm... to give the "to get it over with" excuse and to make their female partners believe they enjoyed it. Despite lies about sex or sex myths, men can't always have orgasms whenever they want it that sometimes, faking it is better than dealing with what's actually going on. 

 
Sad, right? Sex is the most enjoyable activity in the world... it is beautiful. I can't really understand why people think about faking orgasms when it is quite easy to be honest about it. Whether we like it or not, faking it is a form of lying to your partner. 

Funny... I've read about people claiming they know when their partners are faking it. Sexual responses like heart rate increase (duh! engaging in sexual activity is bound to pump up your heart), muscle tension (that too) and heavy breathing (who wouldn't be?) are not the basis for faking it because these are all normal responses in us humans and animals alike after every strenuous activity! Am I right?

So can we really tell? We can't just base it on what we see, too. Some people get to be quiet, others get loud and noisy, some moan, some don't, some groans, some don't, some moves a lot and there are some that they tend to be still. I believe... that the only way to know the truth about our partners faking it or not is... by asking with an open mind. If our intent is to catch them in a lie then I don't think we will be able to get some answers. But, if we make it clear that we are honestly and genuinely interested to know, I believe... it could be our best chance at the truth and improve sexual activities with our partners.

I'd like to say once more that sex is the most enjoyable activity in the world and it is... beautiful if you and your partner perceive the same. However, it can get ugly between two people if one or both are lying about achieving orgasms. 

I'm no sex guru nor an expert... I'm just an ordinary girl who speaks her mind. Personally, it is important for me that I really like the person before I get intimate with him. Why? Because at least I don't have to fake it! I'm comfortable with my partner if that's the case and I don't see the point of faking stuff... really! There are means and ways to tell a partner that you'd like to both achieve an orgasm... touching, kissing, licking, exploring, etc. can really push orgasm to the hilt and so does honesty! Speak up... say what's on your mind and say what you want with your partner. In return, he/she will be able to tell you what they want. Cause and effect, ladies and gentlemen... I say no more!

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I dedicate this blog to my best friend... you know who you are ;))

Also dedicate to my beautiful best friends (in the photos with me) that perfectly fits in this particular blog... you guys are the coolest and funniest girls in my life! I love you forever, Angge and Junak ;))


And to Vincent Garrucho... you're the coolest eye behind lenses! Thank you! I know you love it that I included Hans here ha ha ha!!! He fit perfectly!!! :D

On Women's Pain And Suffering From Sex Video Scandals

This was written by me on Monday, May 25, 2009 at 7:24am and released on Facebook. I wasn't blogging back then but I'm putting it here on my blog spot because it is worth posting.



I have never experienced the suffering women on sex video scandals undergo every day and every hour. I don't know that kind of inner violence that turns a woman's life into constant hell. This daily physical and mental torture of women who have been deprived of their basic human rights, needs of privacy and dignity... This is not part of my personal ordeal but i feel their pain.

I also feel I am a victim of violence against women every single time I learn of women suffering. In every single case that i learn of, my natural and civil rights as a woman have been violated and are violated because I have to fear the day my nieces, my future daughter (if i be blessed with one), would reach their 18th birthday and be taken away from their mothers and me to be the game tool of sick narcissists.

Living in the world I live in, in the country I live in, in the regime I live in, I don't dare to offer sex video women victims any ideas how to change their lives. I don't want them to change anything at all. I just want to ask them humbly to be my sisters, to express my admiration for their perseverance and for their courage to carry on... to have families and children eventually and to maintain a dignified family life in spite of the impossible conditions some people are putting them in. I want to tell them we are all bonded by the same pain...that we are all the victims of the same sort of violence even though they suffer so much more.

I cannot completely understand sex video women victims or their suffering. I don't know how I would have survived such humiliation... such disrespect from the whole world. All I know is that the voice of women has been sort of suffocated far too long in this world we live in. The cry of women is not heard because women are ridiculed, laughed at and humiliated. This I know and sadly, it is very little. However, it is enough for me to remember that these women are my sisters and that they deserve that I should cry for them, and fight for them in any way that I can.

Here's My Message to Men:
Please lend a hand in some way to help end the suffering of so many women all over the world. There are so many things men can do to stop the emotional pain and violence.

It could happen one day to your little girl, your sister, your niece, your aunt, your mother.We are no puppets. Please help make the world safer for the women you love. Act now. Thank you.


Author's note: The image is my personal property.