I The last weekend was a triple bonanza of sorts. Why is this so? It was the first time that I taught Pound Rockout for three days in a row. For Friday, I decided to swop the Cards Against Inertia for Pound instead, as I thought it would make more sense to do Cards on a fortnightly basis - since it was a rather competitive and exhausting one-hour fitness group exercise. 

Due to my hectic schedule, juggling so many things, I did not have ample time to learn more than two tracks, hence on Thursday, after a long day, I made it a point to run through Here Comes the Hotstepper, a Level 1 Set track. Fortunately, on Friday, I was able to leave work earlier, and rushed to Penhas to rehearse the track. 

It is certainly not easy to master the movements yet learn how to give the instructions ahead of the upcoming movements. Hats off to all fitness instructors! I would also like to take this opportunity to thank both Alastaire and Samuel for being part of Team WASP, and to help spread the Pound cheer to the community! 

​Team WASP (Willie, Alastaire and Samuel Pound Pros) conducted our joint Pound session over the weekend. Due to my really busy schedule (of juggling so many different activities, and also the managing of Wellaholic, I had to find time in the wee hours of the night to practice and rehearse for the song/track, which was My Songs Knew What You Did In The Dark by Fall Out Boy. 

All in all, it was a great outing by Team WASP, and I have to thank both Samuel and Alastaire for the great partnership, as well as the participants for joining us. We are planning more sessions for the weekends, as well as inserting one session on this Friday evening to see the response. Do join us if you are free! 

Last evening, I had my first attempt NirvanaFitness®, which was conducted by Course Instructor Berry. 

In short, NirvanaFitness® is a unique blend of uplifting music, simple-to-follow combination of Pilates and Yoga exercises, coupled with rhythmic breathing. This aims to help detoxify the body and experience the Nirvana mind. Technically, NirvanaFitness® progressively lowers the participant's breathing rhythm from start to finish from 12 breaths/minute to a mere 4 breaths/minute in the last section of the Nirvana workout. This increasingly employs the "relax centres" of the body's nervous system and efficiently slows and calms all body systems, thereby creating potential for regeneration through decreasing metabolic rates at all levels. 

Apparently, the breathing techniques used in this group exercise are used and recommended by doctors and the effects are well-documented within science. This is premised on the fact that over 80% of the people are breathing wrongly! This is one of the leading causes for many modern health problems, especially when sufficient oxygenation is vital for survival. 

For my personal experience with NirvanaFitness, it felt like the usual Yoga session that I occasionally attend, albeit without the Sun Salutation (!) In particular, I enjoyed the breathing sessions and moving through the prescribed movements based on inhalation and exhalation. The hour passed by quickly, and ended with the Nirvana Theta Wave technology & Binaural beats. It seems that NirvanaFitness® has developed a unique sound technology with the help of sound researchers & engineers that uses Theta waves to induce deep & effective relaxation state through direct influence on listener’s brainwaves. Brainwaves are electrical activity patterns caused by the neurons of the brain communicating with each other. Brainwaves can be detected using sensitive medical equipment such as an EEG. They provide an indication of the mental state of an individual. 

Nirvana ThetaWave sound technology aims to cause brainwave frequencies to fall into step with a periodic stimulus having a frequency corresponding to the intended brain-state. This can be used, for example, to induce sleep. 

Theta waves (at around 4 to 7 Hz) are the sweet spot for many brain functions. There, we often experience extreme relaxation, creativity, as well as vibrant mental imagery. For the past forty years or so scientists have experimented with different audio techniques to induce Theta waves. Technique is to play a specific audio rhythm to replicate the 4 to 8 Hz frequency of the Theta brainwaves. 

Sounds new age? Maybe it is! The next NirvanaFitness® class would be held next Tuesday on 28 Feb at 715pm at Wellaholic. Do come join us and make a booking at http://bit.ly/w_fit if you are free! 

Deenise’s post made me feel that it is about time for me to share a bit more about Wellaholic™.
It is never easy to start something unique and differentiated. It begets curious stares and understandable reactions like:
 
- is it a hobby?
- is it a MLM?
- is it a social gathering?
 
Let me clear the air. 

​Wellaholic™ was started, or rather soft-launched in October together with a bunch of like-minded individuals. Wellaholic™ was founded on a H-A-B-I-T mindset.
 
H stands for Have Your Supplements. This is premised on the fact that supplements can help us with our nutrition gaps, and at Wellaholic™, we manufacture our own brand of supplements in a FDA-certified facility in USA and ship it to Singapore. The supplements range from multi-vitamins and probiotics to joint care, and was designed together with my in-house pharmacist and doctor team. We wanted good quality supplements with a good history of value, as opposed to pseudo-supplements with dubious claims. ​

​A stands for Activities. We believe that good health must be augmented by good fitness, and an active lifestyle is essential. Hence, at Wellaholic™, we created a platform, which we call the Wellness Marketplace, where we work with passionate fitness proprietors to offer low-cost classes for our customers and everyone else. So far, we have worked with Wildfire Expeditions for Yoga, Ed Chow and Meygan Cheng for KpopX Fitness, Hardpress for Massage, amongst others. We have conducted HIIT, Tabata, Meditation classes, and they are sometimes free, sometimes only $10 for customers and $15 for the public. The idea is simple: purchase a product from Wellaholic™ and enjoy a good discount off the classes. This allows us to combine both H and A of HABIT. We are now working with Benny Lam, a National Discus Thrower to offer Core Training session starting this Sunday, and we will continue to include and work with the community to offer more classes.
 
B stands for Boost. Boost here is associated with skincare and skin treatments. Good health and fitness would be further enhanced with good skin care for greater confidence, and here comes the complexity. We wanted Wellaholic™ to also offer skin care and skin treatments. We then formulated a skin care range with our OEM based on a retinol-based range (which received very good reviews from dermatologists) and registered it with HSA. For skin treatments, we hired our own aesthetic specialists to offer both IPL (for hair removal) as well as Elight (a IPL and Radio Frequency combo).
 
This lies the complexity of Wellaholic™’s business model of bringing together Supplements, Skin Care, Skin Treatments and Fitness Classes. For every product purchase, the customers receive 10 complimentary Elight facial shots (which at market rate would have cost $30), as well as discounted wellness activities. For a $59 purchase, you get $30 worth of treatments back, $5 or more off from classes. In addition to that, you also have access to our in-house pharmacist, doctor and dietician who is always on standby to answer to your supplementation questions (and yes we have received queries on product usages, drug interactions etc.). This forms the I which stands for Interact with Experts. 

​But the most important part of HABIT is really the T, which stands for Thrive with Community. Because health or fitness goals are more reachable when you DO IT WITH A TEAM. And this is the reason to why Deenise’s post made me realise that she has succinctly put across what Wellaholic™ is trying to do – to form a community where we can thrive together, pursuing our health, fitness and beauty goals, to make the change, and then live the change.
 
As we group together as Wellaholics – whether you are a customer, a fitness enthusiast or even an instructor or a facilitator, we can then through the power of network and social media help to spread positive change. It is not a hobby, nor MLM, nor a social gathering – it is about connecting individuals and to realise the power of network to offer value to the community. If we can bring about goodness and positive change, let’s do it, and I urge you to do the same too.

Insights, everyone has them. but not everyone shares them. With every insight is an intention; an intention to be better, for that is the essence in the action. we hope that you can share with us your insights, for what is knowledge and what good is it if you do not pass it on? 

What a way to end Sunday by doing what everyone is doing... the mannequin challenge!
It was meant to be a dry run for an actual shoot next week, with a bigger Wellaholic team, but with the love and support of today's team as well as the participants of Body Beat, we got this video shot within... like 15 minutes and in just ONE SINGLE TAKE!
All in all, we had great fun, and that's synonymous with Wellaholic. Live the Change!
Youtube at https://youtu.be/3cQFr6Nvrps
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Music by Approaching Nirvana
http://youtube.com/user/approachingnirvana
Song: Constellation
Buy the song on iTunes: http://apple.co/1JXFGVd

​Wellness Marketplace on this Sunday presented Body Beats #2, where we revised last week's fast-paced routine and then learned a new routine, to the popular beats of The Chainsmoker's Closer. The session took slightly longer than the allocated hour and literally made most of us breathless! 

Personally, I liked last week's track for its beats and movement, but I like the street-dance elements for this week's track. It was great that the instructors worked hard to get a new track and sequence ready for today's session and everyone had a great time! 

Dance like there's no tomorrow. 

Actually, it's more like dance like trying to remember the steps. Elin Aik, our instructor for the day, started us with some simple warm ups, and then it was a step-by-step memorization of the dance steps; how to move and what to do.

I wouldn't deem it easy at all. All of us were trying to remember the steps, and more often than not, we were aping the moves of Elin. However, while he was graceful and fluid, we were awkward and jerky, and even robotic. That did not stop me, as I tried to pair the moves with the music. 

The 90 minutes ended very quickly, and I am certain that all of us are already looking forward to the next session! 

To find out more about Wellaholic, please go to www.wellaholic.com
To find out more about the list of wellness marketplace events, visit http://www.facebook.com/teamwellaholic/events/

#livethechange! 
​

I ran and ran. 

It has been a while since I ran so much. 

To be honest, I didn't run much. It was just an interval training; a high-intensity sort of an interval training, but the stationary exercises, such as the push ups and jumping jacks, were really okay. 

But the running wasn't. 

It really wasn't a difficult run -- just that the competitive nature of us made us go the distance, literally. What we had to do for this HIIT Training, conducted patiently by the legendary Ming "Hunk", was five sets of exercises, followed by a sprint over a distance. While everyone could do the sets at their own pace, the faster individuals, who completed the set earlier, had to plank or do a standing stance while waiting for the rest to get back. 

Doesn't this sound a lot like Habitica? 

Because of the fact that the earlier ones would have to "suffer" while waiting for the slower ones to return, it spurred everyone to give their best. I was particularly impressed with Joyce, who took the trouble to attend the session but also to give her best. And even with Hobbes, who was in discomfort but made it down to the session as well. We were also particularly happy to have Brenda join us, thanks to Louis. 

And while it has only been a month or so hanging together, slowly but surely, the frequent activities are bonding the team closely together. A strange and surreal team that we have here - it's like there is an invisible bond that connected each person, and like dots with a numbers, we are like part of a join-the-dots diagram, slowly forming the total picture, but also patiently waiting for the hidden people or dots-with-a-number, to join us, so that we can eventually form the complete picture. In the spirit of Wellaholic, I certainly hope that more people would come to realise the Wellaholic vision, and then come join us for all the fun activities that we have made effort to create. 

​So what about the run? My competitive nature made me want to do the best that I can, and that meant giving my best shot. #livethechange! 

PS: So what's the picture that would be formed? I wouldn't know, but time will tell. 

​To find out more about Wellaholic, please go to www.wellaholic.com
To find out more about the list of wellness marketplace events, visit http://www.facebook.com/teamwellaholic/events/
​