Negative Four

One confession to make: I weigh myself every morning as soon as I get up. I know people suggest not to do this, but I like doing it because it allows me to be in control somehow. If it shows weight gain, it will motivate me to move more and/or eat less, if it shows weight loss... well, that will boost the morale. :)

This morning when I stepped on the scale it says 210. Whoa, really? Just two days ago it says 216. I don't know if the scale is truly pulling an April Fools prank, but when I weighed myself tonight right after eating dinner (as in right after dinner when the tummy is still full), it says 212, so I guess that meant I lost a clear 4lbs., let's see if the scale will still say 210 tomorrow. For sure it's water weight - me shedding lotsa sweat working out. Of course I am thankful.


Today, I went a little soft on the exercises, just to allow my body to heal, so I chose to do the two LesMills dance workout, both DVDs I got for free when I purchased a box of Nestle Fitnesse low fat whole wheat cereals. I did Body Jam "House" in the morning, and Body Jam "Latin" in the afternoon. Both DVDs are 20 minutes long, and features three songs. I love them both as the steps were easy and fun to do, although I felt a little sadness and frustration while doing the workouts. 

When I was younger, I know I can dance. I even took four dance classes for PE in college (one per semester - Aerobics Dance, Social Dance, Jazz, and Folk Dance) and I did well. However, after finishing those four semesters, dance wasn't something I do anymore, and doing the LesMills workouts reminded me that I now have two left feet. Watching how the instructors move, steps were clearly easy, but I just can't get the hang of it.

Needless to say, I suck at both workouts, but I did try my hardest and I shed more sweat doing this than with Hip Hop Abs - Cardio (maybe because my body is already quite used to the Hip Hop Abs). This Saturday, I will get all the steps right.


Oh... look who just intruded my workout. Him again! :)  I nearly stepped on him, I nearly tripped... but we're both fine. I carried him and placed him in the couch, but he would always get back. Ugh. :) He is just adorable.

...although I had to rewind the DVD.


Food... sister took home some Pancit Palabok and I had 1/4 cup of it for breakfast, and I had an early lunch at 10am. I initially took two small cuts of fish (sarciado) and it weighed 80grams... but because the fried rice with luncheon meat was a little loose, it didn't look that much. In the end, I only got to eat one of the slices. Moe-Moe Furballs (the cat) ate the other slice.

I ate a PB&J (the Orange Marmalade by the Good Shepherd Convent in Baguio taste sooo good) sandwich at 3:30pm because I truly felt hungry, and for dinner brother cooked fish and squid curry. It was delicious, but a little salty. Those two small slices of carrots were the only vegetable I had today, I will go out and shop for veggies tomorrow. Water intake is 17... +1 before I go to bed. As usual, I had a cup of coffee and a bottle of Yakult.

Tomorrow, I am back to the dumbbells.

Negative Four.
I hope I can lose more...
...if not, I hope I can maintain.

February 2013 Weigh-In

I seriously don't know if my body opposes the idea of getting back into shape, because this morning, I woke up with a headache. This headache actually ate most my day, to the point that I took a nap late in the afternoon because I felt I will pass up anytime. Mornings are cold, yet noon time was way too hot and sunny. I am not sure if I will be having a flu anytime soon (I hope not), because aside from the headache, I started feeling my mouth warm up and that the foods I ate were quite bitter.


First day of the month...time to weigh in. Scale said 214lbs, which meant I gained weight again from the last time I shared my weight, but I am actually happy about that; I mean, just a few days ago I told that my weight shot up to 218 and that prior to this post I shared that my weight is between 215 and 216. I guess the fish and vegetable diet and lessening the intake of rice helped, all I gotta do is help my body adjust.

Exercise...

I wasn't able to go to Colinas Verdes today and I couldn't find my Hip Hop Abs DVD (arrrgh, I need to buy a new one). I was able to do the other legs exercises, and I was happy to find this on YouTube:


It's approximately 10 minutes long, and I love it! Well, that tip toe thing made my legs jiggle (it was a bit of a torture, haha) and that I am not as flexible as Cassey, but I loved the poses she shared. Right now, there's a tension on my upper legs which makes sitting down a little difficult, but like I said, I loved it. Her blog, Blogilates is so awesome, too, and just now I received the February Calendar on my inbox, but I think I will do this next month, I will go stick with my own program for this month and switch it up next month to shake things up a bit.

As for my food intake, I had a full breakfast - 1/2 cup of fried rice with Fish Sarciado, for lunch I had grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of milk tea, and for dinner I had rice, fried fish and two tablespoons of chicken flakes adobo. I allowed myself to eat chicken now, but just a little... I didn't want to trouble the tummy again. I wasn't able to tally the water intake, but aside from water and the milk tea, I also had a cup of coffee.

Tomorrow's Saturday... my sister and I plan to go to Divisoria and other shopping places to look for rattan utensils holder as well as shop for red lacy curtains for Valentine's Day. It will be an all day thing, so I am not sure if I can exercise, but I guess I have to wake up early to make some time for it - will do the Les Mills DVD (the free ones from Fitnesse cereals) before we leave. Sister's shift at work ends at 11pm this week and it's already 1am when she gets home, so for sure she will get up late tomorrow morning, allowing me to exercise a bit. Well, all the plans of shopping will make me walk and walk, so I guess the day will not be wasted at all.

April Weigh In

I weighed myself at the start of the month, but like I said on my previous posts, I usually gain weight whenever I travel, so I told myself I'd waive April off and start anew come May.

When we got home from Ilocos last Monday, I started feeling bad. I thought it was just because I ate too much during travel and I wasn't able to flush it off my system as my body would tend to feel shy to use the toilet, so getting home was my way of finally taking the time to get rid of the toxins. Sadly, my bowels became softer and softer. I didn't fully mind it as I am always like this, but the other day, it became a lot worse to the point that I was fearing it might be amoebiasis. Checking online for the symptoms, diarrhea was the only thing I have, so I dismissed it. I can't eat and drink okay because my body would flush it out right after putting it in, so my weight became unstable within the week.

I got a little better yesterday and I was able to eat good. I tried to eat more than I should, just to replenish myself with the nutrients. My bowels are still very soft today, but I am glad I don't visit the toilet as frequent as I did the other day.

This morning, I weighed myself and I am back to my weight at the start of the month, so I figured I'd go ahead and share my current weight:


196.

I lost a pound from the previous month... something I am not so proud of (because I still haven't totally got back on track), but something that made me happy because despite the food trips, the laziness and the bumming around, I lost a pound.

Tomorrow, I will travel to La Union and will stay there 'til Wednesday. I don't have much plans to go around as I still am not feeling 100% okay, but I will try to give this vacation a good shot. I admit since I got home I lost interest in many things, but I hope I will be very okay.

The next half of the month, I will try to get back to doing my morning walk and jog, and go back to doing Hip Hop Abs. I noticed that even if I lost weight, my tummy's getting bigger and I am not liking it.

March Weigh-In

These were pictures taken 01 January 2009. Our family usually do a photoshoot every Christmas and New Year's Day, and this was the first and the only time I got to wear the green top because I looked big in it. I don't know how much I weighed that time, but yes, I wasn't so big as I was the start of my journey, but even then, I couldn't cross my legs without leaning to one side. Har har har!

Anyway, after this celebration, I gave the blouse to my sister. She has used it over the years, and every time she wears it, I would always tease her - asking her to return the blouse because it's mine.




This is me March 2012. I decided to take the blouse out of sister's closet and wear it - just so to check the changes. I admit I still am fat... but what I am happy about is that I can now wear the blouse as a short dress, without having to feel conscious about my big arms and legs. Well, my arms and legs are still big - they are still my main concern, but I am glad they aren't as big as before, and I can close my legs, finally. Didn't get what I said? Check the "Changes in Pictures" tab... you'll see that my lower legs can't be closed because my upper legs were too big.

With that... my current weight:


Hmmm... quite a familiar sight? Yes. I still am at 197lbs. It sure felt sad that I sort of "wasted" 29 precious days, but one big thing I am thankful about: I didn't gain weight. I guess the small efforts I gave in walking and exercising were able to balance the amount of food I ate this month.

Last December, I was afraid the Christmas season might cause me to eat more. I didn't realize it would be Valentine's season that would cause me to a lot of sweets. Of course, I don't blame it on VDay as I did eat more than I should the entire month. I haven't used my food scale for most days last February, and I neglect using my measuring cups.

I am dusting myself off and pick up the pieces. This month, I have the same main goals as the ones I had last February, but instead of losing 5lbs., I am pushing myself to lose at least 7lbs. I will remind myself of the reasons why I am traveling this road over and over and I will motivate myself everyday. A friend once told me, "Take care of yourself. If you don't, no one else will." I agree to this 100%. Even if I am traveling this road alone physically, I will remind myself that my ever dearest Mr. Pipoy is with me every step of the way. We may be having our own battles to fight, but we sure are together with this.

My biggest challenge / motivation is still the one Mr. Pipoy gave me: hit my target weight by his birthday. I may or may not hit this... but I will give it my best shot, really.

February Weigh-In

Early December 2010, I was able to see a stall at Sidcor Weekend Market selling dresses at low prices. The store owner told me they sew the dresses themselves, but each dresses only come with two sizes - the smaller and the bigger one. My first visit, I bought one for my sister, and the next visit to the market, I went with my mom and bought a dress for herself at the same store. The dresses they wore on Christmas Day that year (picture above), while I have to buy a different dress at a different store, because I surely couldn't fit into the same looking dresses as my favorite girls wore.

Fast forward to February 2012.


The same dress my mom wore for Christmas 2010 - the I one I couldn't fit into - is something I can most certainly wear now. This wasn't my plan of outfit to wear for this month's selfie shoot, but while checking mom and sister's closet for an outfit I could borrow, I saw mom's dress and just tried it on. I wasn't able to see my sister's dress, but when I see it, I'd try it on and share to you the image. :)

From last month's weight of 202lbs., my new weight is now:


It's quite difficult to use this kind of weighing scale because one can't read the result accurately, but if you look closely, there's this tiny black part on the right side of the red marker (198 mark). I asked Mr. Pipoy how to read this and he just told me to read it as 197 lbs. Reading the KG mark, it reads 89.5 kg, and converting it to lbs the result will be 197.31lbs. Rounding it off, I guess it will be fair to read it as 197lbs.

A loss of 5lbs. this month. Holy gracious, that is amazing!

I was lazy this month, but I think I never really neglected my responsibilities. I wasn't able to follow all my fitness schedules, but I still moved around. While on a trip to Pangasinan, I tried to walk around, climb islands... and on most days, I walked 30 minutes at least going to the market and back home. If I am at the mall, not only did I walk back and forth, I also didn't let the escalator carry me - I'd still climb the escalator up and down, just so I could move.

Diet had a little gray sky when I faced a problem with purging after eating dinner three days during the first week of the month, but I was quickly able to cure and recover from it. I sure went to a lot of food trips this month, but I tried my best to eat as little as I could. Still no softdrinks for me - but I had a few glasses of juice within the month (possibly 3 or 4 glasses).

Overall, things were rocky, but somehow I still managed to recover from my mistakes. The last week of January was a strong week, and I am most happy to still be walking this road.


Another selfie picture for this month's weigh in - I don't look good, but I am proud of the clothes I was wearing - the pair of shorts were my mom's, the top is my sister's. The denim shorts were size 14... mom gave it to me last weekend thinking I could fit in it. It fits just perfectly - it wasn't loose, but not tight either, though because my tummy is big, closing the button would push my tummy area. The top is size large. Like the shorts, it wasn't too loose and not tight, but because this is one of my sister's new tops, I still can't really borrow it (actually, she still hasn't worn this). Hehehe.

In the four months of my journey I have lost 29lbs. It was amazing to lose such amount of weight just being at home, but I surely need to address something - loose skin. My arms, tummy, and legs just look quite awful now, and I think I need to check a gym for machines I can use to address this issue. Other goals I have this month:

• Find a gym. I don't care anymore if the one closest to our place is attended by mostly men... if their fee fits my budget, I'd enroll myself and will just ask them when the gym is usually empty, so I won't have to deal with too much testosterone in the gym. Also, if I find a lady gym member, I might just be buddies with her so we can do the workouts together.
• Modify the schedule. I will start doing the Jillian Michaels' "30 Day Shred" workout this month - not everyday, though, as I still want to continue with Hip Hop Abs. Will just modify the workout schedule to fit both of these workouts.
• Go for 3lbs. Dumbbells, that is. I think I now need to put aside my 2lb dumbbells and go for something heavier.
  
• Aim for 5lbs. Any weight loss for the month is something I will accept whole heartedly, but I sure hope I lose another 5lbs or hopefully bigger by the start of March.
• Give myself a big weekly challenge. This week it's "No Sweets" week... next week I might give myself an exercise challenge. If you have a challenge in mind, please don't hesitate to tell me.
  

I am so ready to welcome the new month! Bring on the challenges... I will do my very best to overcome all.

I just said goodbye to 200 zone. I got a new address...
Onederland!