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Penang, we did it again !

I just came back from KL this morning 2am. We were invited to perform in KL 's 4th hafla [belly dance party] last Saturday. It is another great experience to us after our performance in Singapore.

But this is a very tiring trip to us. We took bus to KL from Friday 2:30pm, supposed to reach there at 7pm, but it was in bad traffic when we arrived in KL town, so when we managed to check in to the hotel, it was nearly 9pm !

And the hotel is terrible. Due to the peak season [ school holiday ], all hotels' room have been fully booked. We were late for the check in so we have to stay in the only available room which located next to a pub and opposite an Arabian restaurant. Besides the room is dirty, we could not sleep for whole night as the pub is noisy and the restaurant were full of tourist, singing and dancing till 4am.   

After doing rehearsal on Saturday morning, we took the whole afternoon time to look for return bus tickets on Sunday as we must come back for work and classes on Monday. unfortunately, all tickets were sold out ! After trying at some places, we were very very tired and frustrated as KL was packed with people and cars in that weekend, and we did not sleep well for whole night.

Finally, Shee Loo 's friend helped us to buy Nice bus tickets, but the only available time was 9pm on Sunday, that is why we arrived in Penang this morning 2am.

Then we rushed to the hafla.

At that time, we were not only tired, but exhausted ! I felt hungry so took a a bowl of soup with a small bun before my performance, l thought l have about an hour time to digest, so should be alright. Mana tau, they started the performance earlier, so l have to perform with soup and bun in my stomach ha ha ! Ya this is a good experience to me, next time l would rather tolerate to hunger than to eat, l feel bad to perform with food in stomach. I did my drum solo ' One Night in Shanghai ' first,  which l have to do a lot of belly undulation and vibration, so l did not show the best l can this time. But l heard a lot of cheers from audience, from beginning of my dance. I can see the expression from audience this time as the hall was quite bright, their face told me that l am really good ! I heard applaud many times from them, l was so excited until  forgot  the food, l think l picked up my effort after their second applaud.

After the first perfromance, l rushed again to change for second dance-- the Tibetan Tribal with Mee Mee and Shee Loo. Well, we did not have enough warm up this time compare to Singapore's performance. So, three of us have same feeling that our performance this time is not as good as Singapore one.

But still, many people came to congratulate us and told us they really like it !

Many ladies came to shake hand with me and told me : Conny, l have to tell you that you are really good, you are a great performer ! Some even ask how can they learn from me. Aiya, l am not in KL la, so can't help on that. But l was really touched with all these compliments, l can really feel their sincere when they told me all these ! Thanks ladies, l will never forget what you girls have told me!

I have to thank specially to Sherlyn , Paola and Antonella, these three great belly dancers. Sherlyn gave me a big hug after my first performance, she told me it was really good. Paola gave me such a big encouragement as she came to me and told me firmly that : Conny, you are so great and creative, keep it up ! You are my favourite tonight ! Oh thanks Paola, l was so excited to hear this. And Antonella from Argentina, she and her mom both told us they really like our performance, it was really excellent !

Oh ladies, thanks thanks thanks! Thank you for enjoying and appreciate our dance, even we did not sleep for whole night, even we cancelled class and all the way down to KL for the performance, even it was tiring , it is---WORTH IT !

In fact if compare with Singapore's performance, we found that we were not good enough this time, we were too rush on that day. Ok....we take experience this time,  will try to avoid from the same mistake in the future.

But l think Singaporean like our Tibetan Tribal more, KL  people like my ' One night in Shanghai' more, hmmm.......different place, different favourite!

I told Mee Mee and Shee Loo, we will perform this Tibetan Tribal many many times still in the future, may be one day, we will perform in Egypt ! This is all Belly dancers ' dream, we will work hard to make it happen !

Our next performance is on 2nd November in Sp, for Praise dance studio's hafla under Susan, anybody from Sp interested to attend the hafla please let me know. I have to apologize to my students in Penang  that you girls can only watch this perfromance in our studio's 3rd hafla in January next year, please get ready your sexy costume and shimmies, it will be a great hafla again this time, l promise !

Ok l received some comments from workout students regarding the fans, l think majority want to leave the fans on, l will try to do something on that, please be patient ya.

I mentioned in one of my blogs, some people thought fitness is to exercise a lot. Well,  not exactly. Actually if you just want to maintain your health and fitness, exercise three times a week with at least one hour each time is just nice. But of course this is not enough for those who want to lose weight shortly. In fact the effect of exercise like  better blood circulation, efficient metabolism and more tone up on muscles, will stay in your body for only two days, if you want to remain the result, you have to workout again on the 3rd day. That is why, exercise three times a week is ideally, but only in alternate days, do not exercise for three days continuously and leave another four days off, you will not get good result. Some people only exercise once a week, but doing may be three or four hours workout in one day, this is very bad example, immagine if you take one week's medicine in one time ,will you recover faster ? Not possible right?

Also, if you exercise everyday, but only 'show show'  movements and never work hard on it, you will not get result too even though you have the quantity. Also, if you exercise seriously everyday but, also eating seriously everyday, you might not have the result too !

So, now you have the picture ?

Fitness, is not only doing workout, instead, it is an attitude of exercise. If you understand it's rules and willing to cultivate exercise as your daily routine, you are in fitness. If you just follow trend to fitness centre , register there everyday but spend only 10 minutes in workout then drink coffee and chat for 3 hours, sorry la, you are not fit !

I received some comments from students, really touched........you know, all these while l just work work work, l am not very sure what l have been doing is correct or not, and whether people agree with what l have done or not. Well. some people did tell me they like Zero, but some people gave us trouble also. Until l started this blog, yet l know ---l am on my way, people see and people know, I AM SO HAPPY, SO TOUCHED, and wanna cry liao..........

Thank you to all my lovely students that giving me full supports. l want to say, l....l....l love you all ! Thank you! [ ha ha like giving speech in award ceremony ] 

In belly dance intermediate class just now, Elaine asked why l cancel some classes in September, where am l going again ？Then she said hey must inform where you go one, or all your students will lose direction ! Aiyo that serious ah ? Ha ha l know she is just kidding la. But l have to aoplogize for cancelling many classes recently due to the trips, luckily my trips are all short short one, the longest trip in this year will be the Turkey 's belly dance tour in December. I will share all my trips here one day. By the way, this weekend l have to cancel my dance class again as will go KL for a belly dance performance. I will go with Mee Mee and Shee Loo again for our Tibetan Tribal, and l will do my 'one night in Shanghai' as well, hope to bring good news back like Singapore one again this time. Shee Loo has just sprained her back last Saturday, so she is a bit worrry now, but l am not worry of her as l know she is a professional dancer. Hope she will recover soon .

One of our workout students Rachel asked me a good question here: How to put on weight? Ha ha isn't this a great question ? We always share of losing weight but nobody concern of those who need to put on weight hoh? Because people thought to put on weight is so easy la, but to lose weight is as difficult as to win a lottery leh.

Actually this is not true, for those who borned with very fast metabolic's rate, to put on weight is very very difficult, l am sure you have this types of friends, they make people jealous only hoh!

Ok, l always tell students 'not to eat' immediately after exercise, because, your blood circulation and metabolism is faster than normal after exercise, you are more excited. If you eat at this moment, you will intend to eat more as your food is digested fast. Somemore you have just finished exercise, you will tell yourself  you 'burn' already and have to 'supply' now,means you have to eat more, correct or not ? So for those who want to lose weight, please drink more water after class but not eating yet, you should wait for one hour.

In another words, if you want to put on weight, please eat immediately after exercise,  your body will absorb better at this time. But hoh, some people just can't gain weight even they eat a lot after exercise, this is really hard to explain. Another method is, please take more protein. Protein will help to burn the extra fat when you are doing exercise, if you do not have extra fat, then protein will help to build your muscle, so you will look more fit and a bit bigger. Also you should do more tae bo and aerotone  than other workouts.

I hope Rachel try this and share with us the result later. At the same time, l will try to search for other solutions. By the way, no matter you are under weight or over weight, please love and appreciate your body, it is your body, it is only for you, don't lose confidence due to the size of our body ok?

As l mentioned in last few blogs, we have 6 different types of workout classes, if you are beginners, you are recommended to do yogarobics and shaperobics first. But for those who are really keen to lose weight in short time, aerobics, aerotone and tae bo are the ideal workouts for you.

Why? Because these workouts help to burn fat more efficient . It is actually very easy to judge, if your heart beat is faster and you feel more tiring, then your fat will be burned more. It is very easy to check the ideal heart rate, take 220 to minus your age, that is the maximum heart rate of yours. if your heart rate is not much different than normal, it shows that your body is not working good in cardio. If it is towards your maximum heart rate, you did it !

This calculation is for healthy people, if you have problem in heart , please seek advices from your doctor.

Tae bo means taekwondo boxing, some people pronouce 'teh bo' which is not correct. Tae bo, is a kick boxing in aerobics style, you don't need sand bag, what you have to do is to box the air with your most powerful fists, and to kick the air with your most powerful legs, you have to show your effort. Many ladies do not put impact on their movements, they just 'pose', this is strongly not recommened ! Please show your power, it is tiring but fun, and you gain satisfaction when you manage to follow the whole class, challenge yourself in the class like challenge your job, your examination and your life, you can do it !

Besides burn fat, tae bo is also good for tone up waist and tummy. But if you addict to tae bo or the similar workouts [like body combat and kick boxing] and work too much on it, you may build a bulky upper body after sometimes. What you should do is to get a 'balance' workout. I think for ladies, tae bo twice a week is just nice [or one is  enough if you also do aerobics or gym], if you are working more than 4 times a week for this workout, you have to balance up your body with same duration of stretching, or your body will grow like a man in the future. Well, l noticed that some ladies like it , if you do so, then go ahead. It is your body, you have the choice to decide your body's shape.

In another words,  if you are fat and flabby, tae do is good to burn your fat and tone you up. If you are fat and solid, and do not want to look like a man, l think you better do more on aerobics, shaperobics and yogarobics. If you are thin ,no matter flabby or solid, you are ok for tae bo.

Zeroers means members of Zero, easy to call la.

Ya, please do not switch off the fans when the class is on, we need ventilation for workout. I know , l know you all want to sweat more, so we purposely adjust the fans to face up to ceiling, but still, some Zeroers said cannot sweat as long as the fan is on.......

I think if you can't sweat, what you have to do is to work harder on your body, if you work with effort, you will sweat even in aircon room, but l don't like aircon while doing workout, as the sweat will be evaporated soon and body is cold, some people get flu when exercise in an aircon room.

In those countries with four seasons, they definately need aircon in workout studio, as their summer is too hot [ up to 40 degreees sometimes, and it is very dry], and the winter is too cold so they have to close all the windows [some countries have typhoon, they must close windows too], there is no ventilation if they do not on the aircon and they also need the aircon [warm temperature] to warm their body .

I experienced this in some countries before.

Well, we are in Malaysia, we don't have winter and our summer is not like their summer, our weather is not that dry,we don't need aircon when doing workout, but we need good ventilation . I know, the ventilation in Zero's workout studio is not very good yet, but believe me, l have done the best l can, l am not the contractor of this building, there are many things beyond my control.

If one day, l am able to build my own building for Zero, l promise l will build a good workout studio with very good ventilation, ha ha , this is a dream la, very very difficult one............

So Zeroers, for the time beeing ,l need your help NOT to switch off our fans as there are still other Zeroers need better ventilation, including our instructors. Instructors need more oxygen to breath, to shout and to think of better steps, please pamper us a bit la, tolong..............

But we need aircon in the dance studio, because, students need to pay attention on the instruction and to memories steps, if it is too hot, our brain will not function good and this will affect our performance. For those in workout class, what they have to do is just to follow the instructors and to sweat. Dance students are not here to sweat, they are here to learn, cooling will be better than hot.

Nobody reply me on the topic of 'kang kang', guess nobody is kang kang lo.

我很爱。每出远门，我的袋袋里一定有三样东西-饼干，水和书，其中书还是最重要的，饼干与水到处都买得到，一本爱看的书可不容易找到。

今晚去了大众书局的书展，难得一见的人潮，让人对马来西亚的读书风气有了一丝丝的希望。我每次到中国去必逛书局，每次都好羡慕他们拥有那么大的书店，及琳琅满目的书，在书店里总是让我忘了时间的流逝。记得有一次我买了三十多本书回来，一个人，扛得手都断了，但是那兴奋啊，像中了彩票似的。中国的书便宜又丰富，若单单为了买书而去中国，对我来说仍是值得的，只是经济与时间上都是不允许的啊！

今晚只买了三本刘墉的书，刘墉的书是值得一看的，我爱他的浅白与自然，感人的道理都在日常生活中，那么真实，随时都用得着似的。也买了一张‘天后传奇’的CD，旧曲，王菲的天空和林忆莲的至少还有你等，都是我爱的歌手及歌曲。还买了伤城的DVD，这部戏因为梁朝伟的演技而‘活’了起来，算是港台近来难得一见的好电影。

书展的人多，可是看书的人也多吗？我爱看书，可也不常常看书，往往一天的工作下来已是深夜，再把书打开来就不用睡了。所以家里的书很多，却也很多是还没看完的，我总告诉自己那一天舞不动了，我就拼命看书去，现在先‘ 储书’ 而不是读书哈哈。

买书我会坚持买正版的，人家把自己宝贵的经验一字一字地写出来，是多么不容易的事啊，而我们只要读了人家的经验，就少走了好多冤枉路，太值得了吧，当然要支持正版。

It was about 8 years ago, that time l was quite 'addicted' to gym, l like to workout on my waist with using a bar, for side stretching and twist [sometimes with weight sometimes no], and l managed to shape up my waist with this workout.

After sometimes, l started to think how to share this with my students, it is quite troublesome if l ask students to bring a bar to aerobics class, this is also not a good idea if we have big group in a class, they might crash to each other. So, l tried to think of other props and finally l found this---towel.

From that moment l practised the workout with towel on my own , l made research on towel and choreographed many sets of different routines for different parts of our body. I found that it is really effective in shaping up our body, and the result in helping to get rid of the hidden fat is fantastic. So l tried to think of all those exercises that dealing with hidden fat, and later l found another prop---chair.

When the exercise was formed, l started to think of a good name for it. A friend of mine[ we call her BG] who is English educated gave me idea of the name, she said since this is good to shape up our body, why not you combine the word shape and aerobics together?

So, ' SHAPEROBICS  ' is borned !

I gave a free trial to my students for shaperobics 's first lesson, the class was full that day. After the class, almost all students that attended the trial told me that they like it, they can really feel that it is working on their hidden fat, they wanted me to start this workout class officially.

That is how l started shaperobics. But at first, we did not do cardio in the class, l emphasised on shape up only, we even bare footed in the class. Then later students started to comments on to add some' walking' and 'stepping' in the routine, l remember the person that keen to this comment  is Dr Chan. So l put on my sport shoes and started to do a cardio shape, and l found that it is even more effective. So this is the feature of our shaperobics today.

Shaperobics is good to beginners and those who don't like tough exercise. It is simple and fun , with the help of the towel, the students will have a better posture and more impact on the exercise, that's why it is effective. But some students do not know how to 'make friend' with their towel, they don't hold their towel properly, instead they 'build a bridge' for the towel [ the towel drop at centre like a bridge because it is not hold properly with impact]. You are not going to enjoy the result with a 'bridge' towel. Actually it is very easy to control the towel, you just have to hold it to the width slightly wider than your shoulders and make sure the towel is straight, easy right? But if you simply sway your body for the workout, you will not enjoy the result too, IMPACT ! IMPACT ! When to stretch means really stretching, when to push means push, when to pump means pump, you are not in a model's training class, don't just pose softly there my dear, you are doing exercise ok !

I know l know it is tiring but trust me , you can train up your stamina, or you will permanently with only' poses' , in another word, permanently with your hidden fat la!

NO PAIN NO GAIN.............

I did not write blog for few days as Mee Mee was doing migration at the server. Mee Mee and her husband are the persons who designed this website, they are very professional, l am very lucky as they really put a lot of effort on it [everybody can see that right?], ARIGATO.......

Anybody looking for a good website designer? Contact Mee Mee please, they will not let you down l believe. They are going to set up their own IT company in Penang,l know they can make it as they are very responsible.

Mee Mee asked whether we will walk 'kang kang' [like a crab] after doing workout? As some of her friends believe that !

hahahahaha.......

I have been teaching in this line for 15 years,if this is true, l cannot immangine how 'kang kang' l am today ! Oh my God ! Am l 'kang kang' ah?

So everytime after class you will see all 'kang kang' girls come out from the studio lo?

Nonsense Nonsense Nonsense la!

By the way, if you are doing workout and happened that you read this blog, please response on this to me, l am interested to know how many of you have been 'kang kang' and why, so that l know how to help you if you are 'kang kang' !

哈哈想了都好笑，这样没根据都行？

But this really happened to some ballet students, as they have to stand at their position strictly  [a little bit 'kang kang' one] most of the time, if they practise ballet from young, they will walk 'kang kang' unconsciously. But l can see the improvement nowadays as many ballet teachers have realized this and they will remind their students.

Continue from my last two blogs about firness, l mentioned of Zero 's six different types of workouts. Normally we will recommend yogarobics and shaperobics to beginners as these two workouts are not very tough but effective. l created these two workouts about 8 years ago. That time l practised in yoga and found that it is really good to train up our body's flexibility,l enjoy yoga of it's relaxation and stretching, so l tried to put some simple yoga poses in my aerobics class. That time yoga is not popular yet, everybody was doing aerobics only especially high impact one. I believe l am the first one who combined yoga and aerobics together in Malaysia.

And my students love it, they asked for more yoga later, so l started to separate yoga 's stretching from high impact aerobics and gave it an easy name to remember---YOGAROBICS.

Many people thought yoga will help to burn fat, this is wrong ! Yoga is not a cardio, it is not something with' beat' and need frequent breathing process [yoga needs deep breath]. Yoga is very good for health, blood circulation, release tension and peace of mind but  IT DOES NOT HELP IN LOSE WEIGHT, that's why you can still see many yoga teachers in big size. Well, yoga will help to tone your muscle as most of the poses need impact from muscles to hold, you are more tone after some yoga practices but still in the same size, your size will be reduced only with burning the fat, in another words, only with cardio exercise.

But why many advertisements saying that yoga is a good exercise for burn fat ? I think this is a strategy, once it is related with 'burn fat' ,it can sell better. But nowadays many yoga is no more only yoga, many yoga teachers combined yoga with other exercise like what l did for my yogarobics, if it is with cardio like what we do, then of course it will help in burn fat. But for our yogarobics, we try not to do high impact in this workout as our body might not be able to convert from stretching to tough cardio in short time, also we are not doing difficult yoga as this is not a proper traditional yoga class, in fact what we do is more on stretching. But l know sometimes my instructors are too excited to share, ha ha sometimes it is a little bit out of control. If you are not comfortable on that, please tell the instructors , Zero' s instructors are mostly welcome for comments, l am sure they will not angry instead they will appreciate your sharing,trust me !

Hence, in Zero, yogarobics is just nice for a beginner to make a first step in workout, it is slow , easier, mild but can still help in burn fat and tone up. But of course if you are over weight and very keen to lose weight now, yogarobics is not enough for you, you should go more on aerobics, aerotone and tae bo, or spend more time on treadmill and bicycle.

Please give me time to share more on other workouts and fitness knowledge one by one, l need time, it is 1am now, l need to do some reading and try to sleep before 2am, l have many classes tomorrow from 2pm to 7pm,non-stop.

I appreciate if you are spending your time with my blog, and hope my experience in this line will provide some 'keys' to you, please feel free to ask any questions here as l know l am busy in studio most of the time,may be l am not able to answer you in studio. So this place is our chat room, if you are reading the blog but your friends has not read it yet, please help to spread it out, no matter your friends are Zero's members or not, sharing is just sharing, it is beneficial to all readers and l know l will improve from this as well. Also please correct me if l have given wrong information, l am still learning too.

Ok la have to go.............

We all know we need exercise, but what exercise shall we do? How many times a week ? How to do a proper workout?

As doing exercise is for life long, you need to find something you really like, there are so many different types of exercise for you. For men, l think most of men like something heavy, so they can challenge themselves. For example soccer, tennis, swimming and of course--gym. It is also depending on what kind of result you are looking for. If you just want to burn fat, then you can go for any cardio exercise. But if you are looking for nice muscle's cutting, then it is a must for you to carry weight. Men like weight exercise but they do not like to stretch. This will make your muscle look bulky and in big piece. Stretching helps muscle to release tension and also helps to sculpture nice cutting. Guys, stretch a bit la, so you will look better !

For ladies, l think aerobics and dancing are the best. Well, we can go hiking, play badminton, swimming and jogging too, but all these will not help in shaping up your body. You will be slimmer but no shape,or, in funny shape. For example, if you swim too much, you have beautiful legs of course, but you also have bulky shoulders like men. If you do hiking a lot, you will have knee pain, big legs and your arms and tummy will be still that big! If you play badminton a lot, you will have imbalance size of your both arms and legs.

Ladies are not looking for slimming only, but a nice body shape. Because of this, aerobics is so important to ladies. In fact, the word aerobics meaning an exercise which the body uses oxygen to produce the energy needed for the activity. In another word, if you are not breathing frequently, you are not doing aerobics. Many ladies scared of doing aerobics because they thought aerobics must be something with high impact and tough, ladies, no no no! Of course it is a must for us to do cardio in every aerobics class [ to help burning], but it is not neccessary to be high impact all the time, it can be low impact, it can be high and lo, it can be simply pumping or dancing.

Nowadays, aerobics are in many different features. For example, Zero named aerobics 'functional workout', besides traditional aerobics, we have also yogarobics, shaperobics,cardio dance, aerotone and  tae bo, all these workouts are designed to help ladies in shaping up their body.

Aiya l am busy again, to be continiue again...........

Ha ha Mee Mee said l am a bad girl, expected la........

I think l will write in both English and Mandarin alternate days.

Today l want to share a little bit of fitness. What is fitness ? I think many people have wrong concept on this, they thought to sweat is fitness, to exersice a lot is fitness, to show muscle is fitness.

NO NO NO !

In fact your body will work on burning fat for energy, if you do cardio for at least 20 minutes---no matter you sweat or not. Some people can hardly sweat due to genetic, but they can still feel the heart beat increasing when doing cardio, means it is working. But , of course, if you simply move your body without any impact, you will not sweat, and your fat is not burned as you do not need extra energy . I always tell my members : do you think sweating under sun will help you losing weight ? So people will lose weight without moving in summer lo ? No, what you lose is just water, you are still that fat , and dehydrated ! So don't ever thought stay one hour in sauna will make your fat disappear, that is not making sense !

But, we need to sweat, it is a wondeful feeling. After sweating, you feel like' let go ', 'release'. I enjoy the feeling of sweating but l know it is not related with 'burn fat'. If you are that kind of people who can hardly sweat, train it ! Yes you can train your body for that. After doing more exercises, you will start enjoy sweating like falling into a pond. but you need to be patient, don't simply give up after a few lessons, then you will  not sweat for whole life!

Have to go class now, to be continue ya........