Thursday started off with 3 hours of sleep and Roman's 10-minute Neural Wake Up-Call at 8:30am, which boosted my energy (temporarily). You guys should give it a try - if some of the exercises are too difficult or if you have not tried them before, substitute them with modified exercises.
I also followed suit with Lara's daily commitment (even while jet lagged) to Robin Sharma's "Holy Hour" where we devote 30 min to reading and 30 min to writing for self-development and self-mastery:
Great start to the day -
Solid book and freshly made veggie juice
Solid book and freshly made veggie juice
I started reading Danielle Laporte's The Fire Starter Sessions self-help book that is all about identifying your core desired feelings, empowerment, fiercely following your passions ,strengthening your strengths, forgoing things that don't excite you...to thrive and live your purpose.
Today I started Session 1: Declare Your Superpowers.
A few exerpts that resonated with me were:
"Being well-rounded is highly overrated. When you focus on building your natural strengths and doing what comes easiest to you, you gain a momentum in your life that feels efficient and exciting and hot."
"Our actions are driven by our desire...all that stuff that you may be good at but don't really love, you get to dump."
"Passion will always move you in the direction of your authentic self. It helps you know what to say yes or no to. No more faking that you love to cook so you'll look like a better parent or partner...Genuine curiosity and sincere interest are burning coals that can warm you for a good, long time. Your curiosity is your growth point. Always."
"Passion will always move you in the direction of your authentic self. It helps you know what to say yes or no to. No more faking that you love to cook so you'll look like a better parent or partner...Genuine curiosity and sincere interest are burning coals that can warm you for a good, long time. Your curiosity is your growth point. Always."
I highlighted; I took notes; I pondered; I answered some of the worksheet questions. I felt like I was in the freaking zone - this Holy Hour ritual is amazing; I am hooked (thanks Lara!!) and will continue this for the rest of the trip and when I get back to Toronto. We actually went over the hour because we were so entralled, got caught up in deep convos and declared that it was going to be a chill day.
We were pretty hungry by the time we decided to stop writing and reflecting. It was a good thing these yummy dishes were prepared for us:
After our meal, the sleep deprivation, neural wake-up call, awesome self-reflecting and brain power processing hit me once again; I told Lara I would go for a little nap (this was around 1:30pm).
The next thing I knew it was 6pm. Oy. I woke up groggy and unimpressed that I slept through the afternoon, but I needed it. A quick 20-minute bodyweight workout date with my iPod and a shower shook off the funk and we went out to dinner celebrate Katrina's birthday at Lorenzo's Way in the very fancy Greenbelt Mall.
Katrina, Lara and myself
Our table
My meal
My dessert - mangos in the Philippines taste 100x better and sweeter than in Canada
Taking a stroll post-dinner
We ended up going out for coffee and then Lara and I went for a 20-minute walk to end off the night. I then passed out in my bed hoping for a full night's rest...
~ Friday, February 1st ~
I woke up this morning just before 5am and could not go back to sleep. Story of my trip, haha. Eyes were tired, but brain wouldn't shut off - jet lag and excitement, most likely the culprits.
I stayed in bed until 6:30am and thought, To hell with it, come at me bro, let's do this:
- 10-minute neural wake-up call - which started off groggy, but felt amazing 2-minutes in. Wakey wakey!
- Holy Hour - Read more Fire Starter goodness and did some reflection for 60 min
- Had my green veggie juice
Holy heat! It was around 30 degrees Celcius today and the sun was beaming like no tomorrow. At 10:30am, our driver drove Lara, Tita Pilar, Uncle Del, Katrina and I to Katrina's office. We dropped Katrina off and then headed to Brasserie Ci Co, a French restaurant, to attend Tita Pilar's sorority reunion.
Brasserie Ci Co
Lara, Uncle Del and myself sat at the kids table of 3 :)
My meal: Paillard de Boeuf - substituted the homefries with salad
I was getting mad FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) looking at Lara's dish:
Braised lamb shank
Braised lamb shank
I'm thankful she likes to share :)
I also ordered Ratatouille; it was a good thing because
I was still hungry after my beef dish. Umm, why haven't I tried this before?
It was amazeballs.
It was amazeballs.
We then headed to Greenhills mall, and grabbed a much needed caffeine boost at Starbucks. 
Ohhhh hey there, Manila!
And then shopped. I snagged four cute shirts for only 500 pesos - no haggling required. (That's $12.50USD, yo!)
We then went to Katrina's office, got a tour of it, met some of her employees (including a fellow Canadian who lived in Toronto for 6 years, who moved to PI recently) and then headed back to her place. Lara and I were exhausted, but somehow mustered the energy to do yoga.
We practiced about 30 min worth of P90X Yoga X from memory and boy, we were working up a sweat; we were doing our vinyasas in the living room which was essentially meant hot yoga. It felt great. I definitely needed the stretch as we have not been walking a lot here; we're been driven everywhere. That and the long flights have made my legs tight.
Onto more exciting news: We're flying out to Boracay Island tomorrow at 6am (hello 4am wake up call...it's 3am as I type this, btw), to spend four days at the beach!
Boracay Island, PI
Out resort: Alta Vista De Boracay
Lara and my agenda is to do as follows:
- Get our sleeping schedules set straight - and get more than 4 hours of shut eye at a time;
- Follow the Holy Hour ritual
- Do workouts - which includes, but not limited to: bodyweight badassery, yoga on the beach, sprints in the sand; find thsi pull-up bar that is built into this tree
- Eat like Paleo queens (she's done whole30 on Sunday! I was done mine as of yesterday...but I'm still following the basic guidelines);
- Read & reflect on our goals and vision for 2013;
- Try new activities & meet some cool peeps!
- For me: Finish my CMA Practice Experience report (I'm almost done it. I completed most of it on my flight to Tokyo; nothing like being stuck up 30,000ft up in the air to get you focused.)
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