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 no longer teach at BE Yoga since June 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!

This morning I woke up

..outside of a coffee shop,

.. and everything around me screams orange,

With tulips and..

funny-looking chocolate everywhere,

and asked myself, how in the world did I end up in..

Amsterdam today!

When the first season of Project Alpha was in the making, I came to know about it from reading the featured bloggers’ blogs and I said to myself  “Heh, I am sooooo not one of Malaysia’s top bloggers anymore.”

My infamous blog before this, The Yoga Instructor Diaries gained quite a number of daily visitors back then especially during the yoga fatwa fiasco and I cashed in lotsa money from high traffic & advertorials from Nuffnang.

Not this much money though.

So when Nuffnang’s David Wong broke the news “Ninie, how would you like to be one of the bloggers for Project Alpha Season 2?”, I went, “Eh, do I even have anyone reading my new blog at all?”

Sweet David replied, “Of course, we shortlist only our highest rated bloggers for Project Alpha, you know!”

ME? In the same league with Kenny Sia and Cheesie? And Shaolin Tiger? And KY Speaks? And Red Mummy? And XIAXUE?

Yoga-ta be kidding me!

.   .   .   .   .   .

So if you asked me last year, does Ninie Ahmad prefer to be known as The Blogger Who Teaches Yoga or The Yoga Instructor That Blogs,

I am positive I would have answered the latter (with a smirk).

“I’m still, I’m still Ninie from the blog.. Used to have a little now I have a lot (visitors, thank you ALL OF YOU!)”

But if you ask me again now – after the whole Project Alpha experience, I have to say I really don’t mind am honoured being known as a (known?) blogger.

I might be teaching yoga to 3 or 30 students in one yoga class, but I am pleased to know that – I might be teaching yoga to 300 if not 3000 (on really good days ) through this cyberspace.

My endless gratitude to sponsors of Project Alpha

Main Sponsor : Adidas Action 3
Official Broadband Sponsor : P1
Official Flight Sponsor : Malaysia Airlines
Official Cosmetics Sponsor : Rimmel
Official Hair & Make Up Sponsor : A Cut Above
Official Media Partner : Hitz FM & Era FM
Official Social Networking Site : Ruumz
Hotel Sponsors : 360Kuching & Millennium Hotel Group
Online News Portal : The Daily Chilli

for the experience of a lifetime and to Nuffnang especially for seeing it in me.

.   .   .   .   .   .

Stay tuned for my episodes of Project Alpha (which might have Henry Golding in them!) in my next entries.

Hot Yoga is a yoga class inspired by Bikram Yoga incorporating a series of postures and 2 breathing exercises, and is ideally practiced in a room heated to 115°F (46.1°C) with a humidity of 40%.

Watch me (and my new hair colour ) representing adidas Action-3 pretzeling Akademi Fantasia 8 kids in a Hot class in Diari AF, 7.30 – 8pm tonight (Friday, 26 March). Reruns at 11.30pm – 12am and 6am – 6.30am tomorrow.

Love and excitement.

OUR VALLEY HAS POTHOLES OF GOODIES AND NINIE AHMAD TELLS US WHERE SHE DIGS.

TEXT LEE YANG CHING PHOTO SHERMEN MOKHTAR

Ninie Ahmad, yoga instructor and founder of BE Yoga at Metropolitan Square, has a larger-than-life personality.

NAME THE FIVE THINGS YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT KL.

I am annoyingly optimistic, and see the positive side of everything which most people hate! The unpredictable weather humbles me, the unpredictable traffic trains me to be patient, the unreliable Internet connection allows me to read book when Twitter is not loading, the unpredictable Muftis that let CNN air ‘Malaysia bans exercise for Muslims’ on its primetime news in late 2008!

HOW DO YOU START YOUR MORNINGS AND HOW DO YOU END YOUR DAY?

I wake up every morning about 5am to practice 90 minutes of Ashtanga yoga Primary & Second Series if I have to teach seven in the morning. On days I don’t have to teach (yoga) that early, I wake up at 7am to my Ashtanga routine before I start my day. Before I sleep, I put myself into the ‘Corpse Pose’ which is aimed at clearing my mind of everything.

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF HAPPINESS?

When I no longer have to judge how I look in the mirror and what others wear. When I can still smile and be grateful for the sun and rain, while everyone around me blames the weather for ruining their day.

WHAT GOT YOU INTO YOGA?

The curiosity of how most yoga masters in their 90s look like my father when he was 45 and still stand on their heads. I hope when I turn 50, I will stay looking 25 and still be able to stand on my hands!

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PRIZED POSSESSIONS?

My wisdom of knowing that I don’t have to kill another living being as food for my survival (I have been a vegetarian for four years for health & ethical reasons) and knowing yoga will make me live longer, looking good, if not look good longer.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF.

I describe myself in www.ninieahmad.com as ‘The small girl with a little yoga centre and a big dream to share her gift & love of yoga to more Malaysians and mankind online’ but I know many describe me as ‘The small yoga instructor with a big car and bigger pair of jugs’. Ha haa!

WHAT ABOUT KL INSPIRES YOU?

Having been sent to Asia-Pacific countries for the past couple of years as Official Yoga Ambassador for adidas Malaysia, I know KL is the city I want to grow old and die in – despite the traffic, public transport and parking problems – its people, food and buildings have the most soul, heart and kindness.

IF YOU COULD TELL PEOPLE ONE THING ABOUT YOGA, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Yoga is the only workout that heals illnesses and prevents injuries, the only game we don’t have to compete with someone else,  the only physical activity that lets us be our own judge and cheerleader at the same time – and the only sports that lets us break our own record everytime we try!

WHERE ARE YOU ORIGINALLY FROM?

I was born in Johor and I spent five years of my teens in a boarding school in JB but my family have been residing in Bangsar for the past 20 years. You don’t get more Bangsar when your parents’ house is exactly in front of Bangsar Village entrance!

DO YOU THINK MALAYSIANS EXERCISE ENOUGH?

Based on most Malaysians (if not Malaysian Muftis) judgment that yoga HAS to be banned as it involves chanting & meditation all the time, of course they don’t exercise, read and have common sense – enough!

Visit her site at www.ninieahmad.com to be inspired by all things Yoga!

For full interview, get your copy of KLue March 2010 out in newsstands today.

(continued from I tell people I do yoga to be.. and I maintain my health in this body as it is THE vehicle that contains my spirit, soul and wisdom to experience the wonderful short journey in this lifetime, on this earth – before I meet my Maker)

..while I DO YOGA everyday (among other activities) as it is the only sports / workout that:

• works every muscle in my body
• makes me discover new sensations, feelings and awareness
• heals my existing illness / prevents new injury
• does not make me compete with others
• lets me break my record everytime I stretch / stand on my head or hands
• lets me be my own judge & cheerleader at the same time
• I don’t need any other gear ( racket / shoes / machine / gloves / Olympic size swimming pool / precision timer / etc) but my breath and willpower
• makes me more energized after I finish (practicing / teaching)
• I know I can still do when I turn 50, 70 or even 90 years old

If you have been to a (good) yoga class, you would know that you are in a cult – to look, to live and to know better.

Some day you will die.

Lying on your sick bed

about to breathe your last,

you will be assailed by every kind of pain.

Your mind will be filled with fears and anxieties

and you will not know what to do or where to go.

Only then you realise you have NOT practised well.

The skhandas / aggreagates (matters, sensations, conceptions, impulses and conciousness)

and the four elements in you will quickly disintegrate,

your conciousness will be pulled wheever your ancient,

twisted karma leads it.

Impermanence – does not hesitate.

Death – does not wait.

You will not be able to extend your life by even a second.

How many thousand more times

will you have to pass through

the gates of birth and death.

If these words are challenging,

even insulting,

let them be an encouragement for you to change.

Practice heroically.

Do not accumulate unnecessary possesions.

Don’t give up.

Still your mind,

end wrong perceptions,

concentrate and

- do not run after the object of your senses.

Practice diligently.

Be determined not to let your days and months pass by wastefully.

~ Zen Master GUISHAN

Love, encouragement and enlightenment.