In the Life of DancerGal: Mind over Matter!

So I went back to Bootcamp on Monday. Yes. Finally.

To be honest, this was a true test of mind over matter for me. As some of you are aware, I haven't been back at Bootcamp for the past 2 months, and I actually was sorta on-off back in December. So I have sort of been procrastinating my return, time and time again. I kept saying I wanted to go back time and time again, up until yesterday that is!

At about 3pm plus, I SMS-ed SammoBammo to complain that there was raining and thunder. Prior to that, the whole day, I had nerves flying all over the place. I knew that my fitness level has dropped tremendously, cos not only have I not been working out, I also haven't been eating well. I mean, what with my birthday, CNY and all just one after another. I really haven't been controlling my diet and I honestly haven't been working out on my own as well. I knew I had also put on weight (which I'm honestly really upset about!!!).

Okay, back to the case and point (sorry, I got distracted!). At around 5.30pm, I started to get cold feet. I knew I wanted to go back to the whole "eating clean, training dirty" routine, despite my busy busy schedule, yet I was nervous and afraid about what I would think of myself, how I would fail, etc. Thinking back, this was really stupid! Obviously I wouldn't have performed as well. I haven't been back at Bootcamp for the longest time, and did I ever really expect to perform at my peak again? Without the consistency? Yeah right!

So, to cut a long story short, I eventually attended the session. Suffered the session as I was one of the "newbies" in the group. As expected, didn't do too well, but lasted the entire session. It was a great session, great cardio and great workout.

Today, I am suffering DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) but I am very proud of the pain. Why? Because at the end of it all, NO PAIN NO GAIN!

Moral of the story: Don't lose sight of your passion due to laziness. If you have set your mind to it, you can conquer any mountain. Even the one that makes you cry because your body is aching THAT badly. 

I will be going back to Bootcamp again today (in the event of no rain, thunder or lightning) and I hope to maintain the consistency! Looking forward to more sweat, grime, mud and tears!

EAT CLEAN, TRAIN DIRTY! 

Love always,
DancerGal Sheryl!

In the Life of DancerGal: Malaysia Social Media Week '13 WelcomeCocktail!

So yesterday evening, I attended the welcome cocktail for the Malaysia Social Media Week 2013. It was super fun and I had the pleasure of meeting quite a number of people whom I've gotten to know via Twitter but never really had the opportunity of meeting in person :)

The event was held at Berjaya Hotel, located next to Berjaya Times Square. My attire for the evening was relatively simple yet elegant. I wore a black dress from Kitschen (RM 59.90) paired with my beautiful Melissa Wings heels in nude (RM 475.00) and a black clutch from H&M (RM 99.90). I thought the ensemble would be under the category of smart casual. It was simple, easy, no fuss. Although note to self, I need to start looking into designing my own name cards and carry a smaller (and thinner) wallet with me for such occasions :)

I arrived insanely early, and so I decided that I would go for a quick cuppa at the Starbucks located in the mall itself. After the cuppa, it was still pretty early so I decided to be a nerd and look around RadioShack for some nerdy loves. Got myself a chic case for my phone by Uniq. The colors are so pretty (lilac and light pink!). Anyway, this cost me RM 99, but pretty worth it considering the fact I don't buy cases very often (or at least, I'd like to think so!) :P

After the shopping, I decided to take a break from all that shopping and hang out in the lobby at the hotel. I then got in touch with Aswin (tweet handle: @aswin_tweet), from My Events as well as Social Media Chambers. We finally met for the first time and I stole this shot off him while he was busy working :P

Then, I found out that Syafique was already on the 14th floor. Syafique, as most of you may know, is the founder of MotivationMY.com and is also the official online media partner for MSMW '13. I am so proud of how far MMY has come along and I'm honored to be one of those who have been there to watch it grow :)

Also met with Cherish, Syafique's colleague from Astro Awani. Have seen her on Instagram and Twitter, but haven't actually met her in person. So happy to have finally done that.

Also met with a couple others whose names are big in the industry like Christopher Tock of EYE Project and Social Grooves, Veron of Social Grooves, etc. It was pretty awesome :) I will let my photos speak for themselves from here on out :)

I must say that on the first night, I knew that the rest of the event was going to be awesome!!! <3 blog="" care="" experiences="" my="" nbsp="" on="" other="" p="" soon="" take="" will="">

Love always, 

DancerGal Sheryl! 

In the Life of DancerGal: 18th to 24th Feb! INSANITY!

WHOAAAA! Just realized that next week is gonna be packed to the BRIMMMM! INSANITY!

18th Feb, Monday: 

• Workday as usual 
• Spending the rest of the evening with the beloved cousins and friends :) Dinner!!! WHEEE! 

19th Feb, Tuesday: 

• Workday as usual
• Company CNY Dinner at Bukit Kiara! :) 

20th Feb, Wednesday: 

• Workday as usual
• Class on The Book of Kings with Rev Paul Barker till 10.30pm :) 

21st and 22nd Feb, Thursday - Friday: 

• Spending 2 days in Kuching for work and will be back on Friday evening

23rd Feb, Saturday: 

• Classes as usual from 8.30am to 1.30pm - gonna be EXHAUSTING! :( 
• Dinner at Aunty Pat's House! YAY! Get to dress up! :D 

24th Feb, Sunday: 

• Church in the morning! 
• Classes as usual from 12pm to 4pm - EXHAUSTING! :( 
• Dinner for Chap Goh Meh! :) 
• AngPow opening session! :D 

So that's how my next week looks like! Insanely packed, but gonna be so awesome! Gonna be crazy exhausted by the time I get back though! :( 

Stay positive in light of all that is happening and your life will be a brighter one :)

Love always,
DancerGal Sheryl!

In the Life of DancerGal: FIRST Award EVER!

Ok, fine. My title might be a teeny bit misleading :P

Anyway, here goes. I've received something called a "Versatile Blogger Award", awarded to me by the awesome Syafique Shuib, founder of the awesome motivationMY.com and a friend :)

*sheepish* I promised that I would blog once a month, but have yet to keep to my KPIs :P Will promise to come up with posts soon! *note to self: PUT INTO ACTION!!!!*

With this title, comes some responsibilities! Part of the rules as a recipient of this award, I have to post the award on my blog, share seven random things about me, and nominate seven people for the award. So, let's start with the 7 random things (or I'd like to coin them, weird about me!) :P 

1. I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE eSports fan. Note, I said fan and not player. Have stopped playing StarCraft 2 for quite a bit now, due to time and hardware constraints, but I am determined to get back into the game. For now, it's pure watching, and coming up with my own analysis about the games. (Please do not hesitate to add me on B.net if you have an account. My ID is DancerGal - will update you on my ID tag later!)
2.  I am a performance artist in my own right. I enjoy singing and (honestly!) think that I am quite vocally strong. I also am a dance instructor and I do ballet, tap and hip-hop. I have something coming up that's pretty interesting, but I can't disclose too much details yet. Will do it when all details are final :) 
3. I love to challenge my brain and feed it constantly! When I was in school, I honestly hated studying. Maybe now I'm sort of making up for the lack of studying as a child, but at this point in my life, I literally dislike brainless activities. To me, any activity that doesn't involve me hurting my brain a bit, doesn't really work for me! :P
4. I love to challenge myself physically as well! I am a insane person who goes for Bootcamp. Honestly, the experience isn't that bad, and I adore the idea that I lose insane amounts of weight once I start getting back to my eating right habits and drinking tons of water. :) If I don't calculate the months that I've been missing, I've been in Bootcamp for about 13 months now! #proud
5. I love to EAT! Hahaha! This is interesting! After my last one about losing weight, now I say I love to eat! LOL! Well, I honestly do. I indulge in my foods (not too much, of course!) and I do spend quite a large amount of $$ on my personal F&B each month. Not to mention, Alexis and Starbucks are kinda sorta my favourite F&B joints! :P But oh well! :)
6. I have very low tolerance for people who do NOT appreciate Friendship! I would be (as some people would call it, and so do I!) a very weird friend to have. As a friend, I would feel the need to tell you the truth no matter how bad it hurts. Sadly, not many people are able to accept that. Some even have taken the insane step to consciously avoiding me due to this "weirdness". Honestly, I don't think it's weird, as I want my friends to be the same with me, but I am glad that I have true friends who appreciate this side of me. Not many, but even one is enough :) 
7. I enjoy spending time with some of my cousins (*ahem* CHARMAINE HO!) and although we are family, I somehow feel that we are more like friends. Like we can hangout, especially our routine Karaoke sessions when she gets back from her studies ALL THE TIME, we can do some random stuff and we always enjoy ourselves :) Looking forward to more time spent with her soon! :) 

Okay! So that's seven random things about me, and now it's time for me to nominate seven other people to receive this award. However, please bear in mind that I do NOT follow many, so here goes nothing: 

1. Ceddy Lopez 
2. Debbie Elara or her handy craft blog @ http://www.crafty-heart.com/
3. Carmen Wong
4. Magdeline Wang
5. Jacqueline Teo
6. Dennis Lee
7. Last but not least.... whoever who runs this blog:You Know You're In Cempaka When... 

So I've done my nominations! Back to you guys! :) 

P/S: I know I've been a bit slow on my posts lately, but I'll be back soon. I promise okay? :) 

Love always, 

DancerGal Sheryl! 

Self-Reflection: #2013Resolutions

In my last post, I blogged about my personal #2012Reflections. Today, on the last day of 2012, I will be noting some of my #2013Resolutions.

Here's the thing about resolutions. To me, resolutions are not about setting insane goals that seem almost impossible to achieve, and then being demotivated or discouraged so much that you can't even be bothered to even work to achieve them. That was my mistake for the past 25 years. In 2011, I only set ONE resolution. Not only did I achieve that one goal, I also achieved goals I didn't even know I had. It took one simple step. To step out of my comfort zone.

For 2013, I'm going to put everything that I've learnt back in 2012 into practice as well as grow personally and professionally.

First of all, I'm going to work at maintaining my body, and *hopefully* lose a bit more. I had no idea that I was going to lose that much, nor do I have any intentions of looking anything like the girls in America's Next Top Model. I believe that part of my success was being realistic about my goals. So I signed up for OBC back in January, and once tomorrow comes, I will be going back to my 'reducing junkies' plan, and choosing the healthier stuff :)

Then, there's my personal KPIs for motivationMY.com and inspire.fm. I aspire to have approximately one post/interview within a span of 2 months. This means that I should be producing at least 6 interviews and 6 blog posts in the year of 2013. I don't think it's unachievable, nor do I think it's over-achieving. I think it's achievable and I'm nothing less than excited to make it happen :)

Well, for 2013, those would have to be my main goals. Everything that I achieve aside from these would be the icing on the cake.

I had a great 2012, and I look forward to an awesome 2013 :)

Love always,
DancerGal Sheryl!

Self-Reflection: #2012Reflections - Personal

MotivationMY.com founder, Syafique Shuib, has been posting on twitter with a hash tag #2012Reflections. Some of you may have seen it, some may not. Anyway, the goal of the tag is for us to figure out what are some of the biggest things we have accomplished or learned in 2012.

For me personally, 2012 was a big learning year for me. I learned a lot about myself. There were some struggles of course, but the best part about struggles is that you learn how badly you never want to go back :)

I accomplished a few big things in 2012. The biggest one being me losing 2 dress sizes. Yes, I used to wear an L, and now, I wear an S or M, depending on the cutting. :) I won't lie by saying that it was a piece of cake. I worked my ass off for it. Attending Bootcamp regularly for at least 8-9 months, committing myself to at least one run a month, watching what I eat, no junkies, drinking lots of water (which I used to hate!). It wasn't easy. But back in October, I wore a bikini to a beach in Penang. That had to be the highlight of my weight loss. While I have some work to do in terms of toning, I am very pleased that my discipline and determination got my body to this. I feel fitter, healthier and definitely more beautiful :)

Aside from the weight loss, I also discovered what really makes me tick. As many of you may know, I am a relatively huge nerd. I am totally into the game 'Star Craft 2: Wings of Liberty'. I have been playing the game myself for about 1.5 years now? I realized that my enjoyment into the game has gone beyond playing. I am able to appreciate the efforts that pro-gamers out into the game as well as personally make the effort to catch reruns of tournaments (as most of them happen while I'm either at work or teaching!) and personally analyze game plays. I, myself, have stopped playing for a while now, but I am still very much into reading news and learning more about the mechanics of the game. This really makes me get a sort of high that I can't feel with any other thing in my life. :)

Also, in 2012, I started being more involved in MotivationMY.com as well started hosting shows for Inspire.fm :) These are semi-career based stuff, but I realized that I should put this here as well, because I feel like this is my passion. Something, like SC2, gives me a high and a sense of joy that I cannot feel with any other thing that I do. The satisfaction that I get from reading a post that I wrote or listening to a podcast that I host, is just plain amazing!!! The joy of reading "by @sherylhosulynn" or "hosted by Sheryl" is plain high. Such joys are simple and plain and cannot be retrieved any other way. :)

I also learned in 2012 the type of person I consciously do not want to be. I don't want to be the typical air-head bimbo whereby I can't hold a conversation with. I wanna be able to speak of historical events, political, financial, social, etc. I want to be able to have healthy debates without holding grudges against the person who disagrees with me. I want to be able to form my own opinions by doing constant reading and constant research. I want to be more involved in the world and be more in tuned with myself. I am glad that I've found great people that I can talk to and have healthy debates with. I'm also learning a lot from the same bunch of people. You know who you are :) Thank you for being in my life :)

I had such a great 2012, but it became amazing with SammoBammo in the picture :) I believe that I've had some struggles in terms of my insecurities and I believe that I have grown in terms of the relationship and looking forward to 2013, I just want to enjoy the company and the life together. Thank you, SammoBammo, for a great 2012, and here's to an amazing 2013 ahead :)

Reflecting on 2012, I realized that I have learned so much and grown even more. Looking forward to 2013, I don't want to say that I should stop learning because I believe that the learning never stops. It doesn't stop and it doesn't end. But in 2013, it's about putting everything I've learned in 2012 to enhance my growth and to give back.

It's been a great year, but I am definitely looking forward to an amazing 2013 ahead :)

So what's your #2012Reflections?

Love always,
DancerGal Sheryl!

Self-Reflection: Passion vs Commitment!

Something drew my attention to this particular topic as of last night.

Passion vs Commitment. 

This can be used in reference to many things. Friendships, relationships, career paths, interests, and basically anything that involves YOU! 

According to Wikipedia, Passion (from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer) is a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. The term is also often applied to a lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity or love – to a feeling of unusual excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion, a positive affinity or love, towards a subject. It is particularly used in the context of romance or sexual desire though it generally implies a deeper or more encompassing emotion than that implied by the term lust.

According to the same source, Commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.. It is also known as a pledge or an undertaking. A commitment is never supposed to be broken, if it is broken; that means it was never a commitment rather was just a pretention and lying. Commitment may refer to:

• Promise, or personal commitment
• Contract, a legally binding exchange of promises
• Brand commitment
• Involuntary commitment, the use of legal means or forms to commit a person to a mental hospital, insane asylum or psychiatric ward

That being said, you can actually be committed to something without being passionate about it (cos seriously, who would be passionate in a mental hospital?), but my question to all is: 

Can you be passionate about something without being committed to it?

I ask this because it has come to my sickening attention recently, that I feel totally and completely passionate about blogging, social media, and other stuffs, but I honestly only have 24 hours in a day. There's only so much I can take. But because I am committed to something that I am not passionate about, I can't commit myself to something that I'm passionate about. It's ironic isn't it? 

And I realized, that this connects to relationships as well. I will not speak for myself, but I have come to realize that I have too many (and when I say too many, I actually mean "TOO MANY"!) acquaintances who tell me that they are staying in a relationship for the sake of staying in a relationship. That's being committed without passion. And to that, I say one thing... 

IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK! 

In general, anything, be it relationships, friendships, career paths, and whatever else, if you're not going to be passionate about it, it won't work out well. But then, how do you leave or ignore your "commitment" without looking like a total jerk? It's basically impossible. So what should or can you do? Pray that time passes fast so that you can just leave. 

What about those like me who are passionate about stuff, but can't afford to commit to it? :( 

I don't really know how, but at this moment, I know that I am passionate about many things which I cannot afford to commit my time too. So what am I doing about it? During this time, I continuously try to strive and learn more about the stuff that I am passionate about and hopefully one day, get to put all this to good use. I am honestly (well, in my personal opinion!) very positive about this because I can see my passion paying off someday. Till then, I will just have to wait it out. 

The most important thing to keep reminding yourself about is that nothing is impossible and that if you keep driving for your dreams, no matter how bad the circumstances may seem, one day, it will come true :) 

Keep striving with passion, and one day, your ideal of passion and commitment will come your way! 

Love always, 

DancerGal Sheryl!