We officially finished our first week!! YAY!! One week into working out 6 days a week and macro counting. So far, I feel really good. Sore but good. I’m happy I was able to push myself during this past week and finished every single workout – 4 heavy lifting sessions, 2 plyos and 4 sessions of LISS on top – a really good start.

Inside the Forbidden City, Beijing, China – August 2016. Before I start to share my personal experience I would like to give you a couple of background information about the Forbidden City.

Historical information about the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is the best-preserved imperial palace in China dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is one of the largest ancient palatial structures in the world. Nowadays called the Palace Museum it was nominated in 1987 as World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. The Forbidden City has a rectangular structure with – the numbers run from 8,707 to 9,999 – rooms, covering 183 acres and is surrounded by a 20-ft deep moat and a 33-ft high wall with a gate on each side including four corner towers. All the major buildings are wooden structures roofed with bear yellow glazed tiles, red walls and surrounded by a white marble terraces. The Forbidden City is divided into two parts: the Outer Court (or Southern Section) where the Emperor held the office of his supreme power over the nation and the Inner Court (or Northern Section) where the Emperor lived together with his family, through 1924, 14 Ming and 10 Qing emperors had lived here.

Asia! Throwback to our biggest adventure so far – Asia, August 2016. Traveling in today’s super busy and fast moving world for a whole month sounds – to be honest – like a dream. Exploring different cultures and countries, getting a chance of tasting and smelling new scents and odors every day, being away for four weeks without any obligations sounds impossible. However, my husband and I were able to do exactly that. Traveling for a whole month! We came up with this idea a couple of months ago during our stay in Brazil. Hungry to explore more countries and filled with thousands of imagines in our heads we decided to spend this time in Asia. Well, I agree, Asia is a huge continent and a month is by far not enough to explore every single city or town. We needed a well-organized plan and we had to choose the cities we really wanted to visit. After endless hours of research and planning, we decided to start in China. Before you book your flights or hotels, be sure to have a valid VISA. You have to fill out a special application form and apply for it. This may take a while so plan in advance. After we had got our visas we started immediately with our detailed plan. Our very first stop of this incredible journey was Beijing.

Yesterday I officially started the Summer Challenge “SHREDDING” with a couple of other girls. Since I wasn’t able to train the way I used to earlier this year I gained a few pounds and also my body fat increased to a level I don’t feel very comfortable with. So time to take action! A lot of weight training combined with good nutrition will hopefully help me to reach my goal. Right now my goal isn’t a specific number but I aim for losing 8-10 pounds in 8 weeks.