Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

10 things you might not know about me..

1. For generation Lady Gaga, I still if not only listen to mellow rock music from 1996 to 2002. Lotsa Radiohead pre-Kid A, Silverchair, Alanis, Bush, Third Eye Blind, Travis, Lifehouse..
2. For fun, I actually play a lot of a little bit of guitar.
3. For a new-age housewife, I actually cook EVERY lunch and dinner for my husband on weekdays. How else can I make sure the food that is going to be our flesh and blood is prepared using organic if not the freshest of ingredients, made with love and cruelty-free?
4. For English as my second language, I kickass at Scrabble. Okkk, I actually memorize all two-letter words and errr, most pages of Official Scrabble Dictionary.
5. For a small girl, I drive a pretty mean machine.
6. For an Asian, I don’t condone whitening anything. My sporty tan is a hit in North America!
7. For a Malay, I don’t eat any type of meat / poultry. For that matter, I have also long stopped wearing leather handbags / footwear.
8. For the betterment of my integrity and yoga practice, I don’t endorse and wear three-stripes anymore.
9. For a tiny person, I am stronger than you can ever imagine. (Although) for a yoga teacher, I am not as flexible as you think I am and I’d like to be.. But I take strength and balance over flexibility any day!
10. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe in (going to the) doctors. Our body is built to heal ourselves when we reflect, acknowledge and meditate. Everytime. Everyday.

Now, tell me what should I know about you

Somehow I always bump into my ex-boyfriends with their new girlfriends when I wear this t-shirt..

Sorry girls ..

I figured it is not a secret that I am no longer a big part of BE Yoga since April 2010 and I guess, most of you have known by now that I have to put on hold my plan to

• either leave all my material possesions and emotional baggage behind to live in Shanghai for a year
• OR, live my ultimate dream of working for my idol, my teacher and my mentor – Rainbeau Mars in LA

to fulfil an unfinished family duty I should have gotten my hands on a long time ago.

.   .   .   .   .   .

With all that I am allowed want to share,

I now

• have a 9 to 5 job as well
• am madly in love

AND just surprised that with the expected routine (and town driving!) I am starting to enjoy, I now have more time for my personal Ashtanga practice every evening and to pick up old hobbies i.e painting and playing guitar (promise you wouldn’t boo if I uploaded my video?) and to try my hands on new hobbies such as tennis and cooking.

With my head clear and the free time I have at night and on weekends (who would have thought, eh?), I plan to take up

• martial arts
• ballroom dancing (if Petrovsky succumbs)
• and Mandarin lessons – anyway!

and at least have mastered the basics before 2010 ends.

Oh – and maybe make a cute Eurasian baby i-n-b-e-t-w-e-e-n should the world decide to end in two years , I’d have fulfilled what I am brought in this life for.

I don’t even know where and how to begin sharing what happened to me for the past seven days.

‘Go down to go up, in to go out, back to go forward’

To another seven days of delicious surprises.

- or, that’s what I try to keep telling myself everyday

As much as I feel good about my body and loving (almost) everything I see in the mirror – I have insecurities about my body too, trust me!

While I think I look better without clothes (who else will say that about my body, right ?), I can’t help but to feel like giving up TOO whenever I come across this beautiful set of low-key studio photos of LA yoga teacher / arm balancing rockstar  Kathryn Budig by photographer Jasper Johal for Toesox.

Heck I’d pose with nothing but engineered socks too if I looked like THAT!

And so to regain my confidence (you know how it feels like when people say you look so fit but you feel sooooo fat), I checked back my Asana studio photoshoots done with a couple of photographers some time ago posing almost unintendedly similar poses!

1st & 2nd photo by Napie Moksin, top & pants by adidas for Stella McCartney;
3rd photo by Joe Low, top by adiShe & pants by adidas Techfit Powerweb

Ok ok, I take that back.

I forgot that I love my body and what I can do with it but I (like, really) hate my STRETCHMARKS!