New Year & My Decision

Happy Upcoming New Year Everyone! <3

Ok... well we used to have a lot of fireworks on New Years back in Ukraine...

Source: http://dianegottsman.com/2012/07/fourth-of-july-fireworks-etiquette/

The New Year is kind of like Christmas for Russians/ Ukrainians  That's the day when Santa Claus comes to visit us and when we have big family dinners. I finished of 2012 by going ice skating with my friends and then spending 3 hours at Second Cup reminiscing the year.

Running Strength Drills

Cheers Everyone!

Remember the post I wrote regarding the Form Drills I did for Barefoot Running? Well this is the second part with all of the Strength Drills that I do.

Source: http://www.ransacker.co.uk/running-shoes/goings-on/barefoot-running-what-is-the-truth/

These will be challenging at first so I suggest not doing more then 2 sets to start with and doing it every other day. After about a month, increase it to 3 sets.

Beauty of Riviera Maya

To finish off my tales in the world of Maya, I wanted to spread their message. We are destroying the rainforest and it needs to be protected! The message was made perfectly clear with every dance or ceremony that I've watched. So I just wanted to share this song performed by the ultra gorgeous Simone Simons from my fav band Epica.

Now the Mayans! I have watched so many of their tribal dances and they're breathtaking. The costumes, energy, and connection with nature is amazing. A must watch if you ever visit the XCaret park.

Barefoot Running Update

Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays everyone! <3

Hope all of you enjoyed the time with your family and your loved ones, along with food :P Here're some of the things I've eaten on Christmas- Eggplants Korean style, typical Russian Olivier Salad, zucchini with cheese, roti rolls with eggs, mayo, cheese, and parsley.  

The picture itself is the left overs I had for breakfast. Note the green smoothie hiding in the top right corner :P

Also, I've changed the design of the blog. The main reason for that is because the old one had some glitches that I couldn't figure out how to fix. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about the current design so any comments will be appreciated. 

Now back to fitness. I've actually been doing a good job keeping up with my barefoot running transition exercises. The program is 8 weeks along and involves alternating days of form drills + running and strength drills.

In this post I discuss the form drills. Even if you're not interested in barefoot running, these drills can be of benefit. In most sports there is a lot of emphasis on doing drills. Shouldn't it be the same with running?

Mexican Food

First off Congratz on surviving December 21, 2012! YaY! I like my life so I'm happy to still be here!

Now Mexican Food!

To be honest, I've had limited experience with Mexican Food prior to actually going to Mexico. Sure I've had nachos and a burrito once but that doesn't really count :P 

Well there's a lot of beans, pork, corn, avocado, tomatoes, mushrooms, seafood, and exotic fruits! Most of all there's a lot of spice. I'm talking hot pepper that burns your mouth yet is incredibly delicious. Be careful with that stuff though because my mom tried a Habareno Chili Pepper and somehow got it on her skin. Well... she ended up with small blisters :S

Liebster Award & Nominations

Cheers everyone :)

A couple of days back I've been nominated for the Liebster Award by Jenica from The Scientist and the Health Nut. YaY!

What this entails is having to:

• Write 11 random facts about yourself
• Answer 11 questions given by the person who nominated you
• Make up 11 new questions
• Nominate 11 bloggers for the award

Who said the world will end? The Mayan people didn't...

Ola everyone!

Guess who's back from exams and MEXICO! I visited a resort around the Cancun area which is on the Carribean Sea side of Mexico. Ooh it was beautiful! While on the plane all you could see was the tropical rainforest going for miles and miles. Such a gorgeous sight of nature that we are unfortunately destroying :( My resort was great with tonnes of places to swim, see, free alcohol (I did have a margarita for you Laura ^^ ), and a lot of food. There're plenty of things to do at the resort because they have various activities and entertainment shows. However, I spent quite a bit of time swimming and ventured outside of the resort. I visited the Mayan pyramids (Chitchen Itza), went to a really cool cultural park (XCaret) and a nearby city called Playa del Carmen.

While I'm still unpacking and loading pictures I wanted to address an approaching issue. The END of the World! Well... you guys know that the Mayan's are still alive and there're about 3 million of them who have not mixed with Spanish blood. It's the civilization itself that disappeared not the people. Also, did you know that Mayan don't believe in an "END" or a death? Their view is that everything is a circle and that December 21, 2012 will simply be the beginning of a new era. I'm not 100% sure what will this new era be like but I guess it's up to us to decide our fate.

Breathing through exams

Don't worry I'm still alive! Just had to take a couple days off from the blogosphere and it's been taking me good two days to catch up with all the blog readings  (well I'm almost done). Man, there're a lot of posts out there :D

Anyway, 2 presentations and an exam done. One exam left on Tuesday and I'm off to Mexico on Wednesday. I just love being an upper year, doing a massive lab thesis project and having so few exams to write. Life doesn't get better then that.

So what have I been up to other than studying? Keeping up with barefoot running exercises... Also, ummm re-watching all three of the Lord of the Rings movies. To be honest I used to love LOTR when I was tween. I was that girl who didn't give a **** about make-up and was a total tomboy. Now with the Hobbit coming out in a week, I thought it'd be a good time to rewatch all three movies. It took me about a week as study breaks of course! I really do miss that sense of adventure, courage, friendship, and the idea that we're all part of this world and need to work together to get through the tough times. It felt like the whole Middle Earth has joined forces in the movie to defeat the evil Sauron. The whole Legolas- Gimli relationship is also a perfect example. Sure there's been quarrels between elves and dwarves for centuries but they really did become good friends after they put aside their prejudices. Ok I'm getting carried away with this!

Foodie related stuff... there were a lot of green smoothies at breakfast time :P I also tried some raw sprouted kamut porridge and I'm not sure if my tummy appreciated eating raw hard grains.

Can't believe it's December!

First off, thank you for such kind comments! I almost teared up when I read them <3 I've started this blog almost a year ago and it's been a remarkable experience. I've met some inspirational people and I feel like I've grown a lot as a person. Couldn't have done it without you guys :D

On the other note, I can't believe it's DECEMBER! That magical month of giving, spending time with family and friends, and of course exams!


Well... for one of my tutorials, my group ended up making a gingerbread house instead of actually doing work. Yay for that! Not a big fan of gingerbread but I did help myself to some chocolate decorations ^^

I might not be posting much for the next week as I have a presentation on Monday, another on Tuesday, stem cells exam Saturday, and pharmacology exam on Tuesday. It's not a tough exam semester for me but I'm not awfully excited about the next 10 days.