Any damage?

Today being another week, I stepped on the weighing scales after the morning routine, drinking some water and no breakfast yet to see if the weekend of food had done any damage to my weight loss.

Phew, though I hadnt lost anything since the last weigh-in, there is also no increase. Yay! So I have still gotten 2kg off. Now weighing in at 66.8kg. Still have quite a way to go to hit the target of 61-62kg which was my University weight.

2 weeks back, we did the weigh-in of students for their physical fittness. Then some female collegues were remarking how heavy they were. I told them my weight and though we are about the same height, they both still weigh lighter than me. They did say that I dont seem that heavy. Meaning that I weigh heavier than I look. I guess that's cos of my body frame. I can carry more weight without looking too fat BUT that's not an excuse NOT to try to lose those extra weight. I would tell them that the fats are at the stomach and butt and thigh areas. Those need working on.

So far gym routine I have stuck to. Except for that 3rd time, which is a struggle to find time in my schedule. I do hit minimum twice a week, about 1.5hrs each session, Cardio 25mins, Machines, Free Weights and Crunches+Stretches+CoolDown. I forgo the bringing of shower stuff because the gym is very near to home. I'll head home for dinner and shower after the work-out.

I am glad to say that my fittness level has increased tremendously. I feel as fit as I was after Graduation. Cos in university, didnt really go to gym much. Its more of after Graduation, before NIE that I exercised in the gym regularly. The only thing left is to work towards the weight-loss down. I did notice my pants getting more loose and stomach is a bit flatter. Nope its not completely flat... its just smaller than what it was. For my pants, I bought 1-2 sizes bigger cos of the weight gain. Now its getting looser a bit. Good for me. Hope to keep up the MOMENTUM and see it through this time.

I realized what made it more effective this time is the amount of Discipline I kept to. I did make a few life-style changes. The first and foremost is eating breakfast. Its not a heavy one, just a D-plus bread or at most 2 slices of bread with coffee. Then by lunch, I am still alright, but I made myself eat. Though my lunch hasnt been too healthy cos its hawker food, been eating stuff like mee goreng, herbal lamb soup, ikan bilis fried rice, pai gu wang rice and stuff. I find that by dinner, I am not really that hungry. If in the middle of meals, I got a bit of hunger pangs, I would eat a Musli bar (90calories) or a pack of plain crackers (80calorie) that can defer the hunger pangs esp on days that I have to go the gym. This is to prevent the body going into Starvation mode where they conserve calories and then you really feel like stuffing yourself.

Also being quite discpline and selective about things I put into my mouth. Desserts are a no-no for me as well as carbonated soft drinks. If I cannot resist, I would settle for the diet version. Trying to cut those out also. Been drinking mainly unsugared tea, water and a cup of coffee daily. Why this resistance against dessert?

Simple. Cos when I stepped on the stepper and did a 20min workout + 5min cooldown, the counter reads 215 calories burnt. Then if I eat say an entire slice of cheesecake, which is already more than 100g of servings anyway, it is definitely way way higher than the measley 215 calories that I spent 25mins trying to burn. Of course I burn more than that through the exercise done via machine, free weights and cruches. My point being, it took so much effort to burn through those calories, I dont want to put them back into my body so easily. If I wanna have dessert, the occasional ones are okay. For that I am lucky I dont have much of a sweet-tooth. Its more of the sweet drinks I must avoid. I am settling for plain water mostly too. Its not easy and its a lifestyle change. But I guess there's no other way about things sometimes.

Also I am going to persist this time. I am frankly quite sick of my weight yo-yo-ing up and down and still be at 68.8kg. Though I am glad that though I almost hit 70kg, I did manage to keep it down at 68.8kg. The irritating fact is that though I had been exercising rather frequently for this past 8 months (7mths of joblessness + 1mth of work) and also since Jan 2009 onwards, I hadnt make any significant and persistent weight loss. I would lose 2kg, then gain back, lose again, then gain back. Though I have kept to the 68.8kg area, its NOT good enough.

This time, Exercise coupled with Diet, I hope to make it count.