A gymbunny, I will be

Since starting my weight loss journey in March 2009, I have lost 14-16kg (without/with carb water retention). Working out with EJ brought me great success, E was genuinely concerned with my meal plan and weight loss progress, it felt real, his motivation each time a kg was lost kept me going. The programme was fun, the people (K, A, the two Js, the three Cs) all kept me motivated and raring to go. There was an anticipation each time I went for to the gym, people gave a damn. Somewhere along the way, I lost my footing and was sidelined by bad eating habits, not enough consistence with my workout routine which well, became routine. E left and was replaced by C and to be honest, it just is not the same. The sense of camaraderie is lost by no fault of C and coupled by my general boredom with the programme, things have not changed. No one is interested anymore with what or how I do which loses an accountability and mostly, I no longer am motivated by my work out routine. Also, I am more interested in things that I could not do before – hiking, climbing, cycling, running etc. Yes, all steady state cardio which conflicts what I do in my regular workout but, serves as a good distraction.

Made a difficult call to E to ask him for his valued opinion because I fear leaving a routine that has brought me so much success. I related my concerns to him because I truly care what he feels and feels as he was instrumental in my weight loss. Even now, he was so helpful and addressed the concerns that I had. Now, I will look to sit or attend another session at the potential new place and make my choice before the month is out.

Image courtesy of Google Images and remains right of image owner.

I FINISHED ! ! !

Not my bike but, two neighbours down. Made my morning WAY better.

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Well hello. The deal is sealed. For real. Once you pick up your race pack, you are competing. OSIM 2010 is a fine tuned machine, lots of years of experience, everything down to a T.

Step 1: You sign up, pay and receive an email confirmation as well as notice information on when to expect to pick up your race pack

Step 2: You receive an email which gives you two days from 11am till 9pm to pick up your race pack

Step 3: You arrive, you are immediately greeted at the door and directed to the right queue.

Step 4: You collect your race pack, everything packed neatly and you can change the size of the dri-fit even.

A lot of volunteers to pick up on so much as a doubtful glance. Very encouraging to not feel lost. I'll review the race and post-race after this weekend.

Oh. The purpose of this post:

My take on it is this. Imagine running at 9.30 in the blooming morning, insanely hungry and you run behind this girl with "cupcake" as her tag. You would totally be lusting after a cupcake, get distracted and perhaps even DNF (did not finish) just so you can satisfy that craving. Don't underestimate the power of suggestion. That, and I really love cupcakes and didn't have the chutzpah to put down "gymbunny"

I am part of the statistics. At 2.20pm this afternoon, a leg of roasted chicken was my downfall. Sitting down in a balmy food centre, I felt a twinge of guilt for all of a second and it was followed by balance in the world. In defence of the diet, I failed because, I had a nagging headache which did not go away inspite of medicating twice a day. Coupled with an pre-existing condition, I didn't want to risk downing painkillers and have bad gastric reflux issues. Day 3, I was ready to throw in the towel. I can feel lyposis happening because, I'm going through water bottles like a marathon runner and my tummy feels considerably flatter.

With the end of this short attempt, I am grateful because, I am now back on track for my old diet – high protein, x 5 meals, no sugared drinks at all (black coffee/green tea), at least 2litres of water and more attention to how much I am sleeping.

Resolutely sick with my plateau which is a result of not working out at full intensity and not being 100%. Deeper down, it is a loss of focus. E was such a great trainer in that he knew exactly how to motivate. We started bets, he checked on me regularly, he gave me reasons to be better, to want more.

Unfortunately, his departure coincides with a failure in getting back to my workout routine. In this bid for fitness, I have earned the desire to learn new things – I started a running programme, signed up for a 5K, a mini triathlon, went climbing and completed it!, woken up more mornings in 2009 than I have ever had all my life, I work out without fail at least x 1 a week (not sufficient for weight loss/fitness) which is not what I can say about most people.

MB started a biggest loser-esque bet with me and right now, he is at -7kg and I'm at -2kg (even this is doubtful because, I've started eating carbs so  my water weight retention averages 2-3kg). Aside the need to win this, I also have to break out of this and here comes in the crazy part. After hearing it from K, I've done some research and decided to give this a whirl. 28 days and my commitment. The hardest part of this, should be in the social aspect of this. I have 1 healthy meal a week to eat. 

What is it?

The Velocity Diet is for all intents and purposes, a liquid diet based on supplements to provide the nutrients that the body needs. The diet is four weeks of protein shakes x 5 times a day with one healthy solid meal (HSM) a week. Uh huh, not a day. A week. The purpose of this diet is to lose as much fat as possible without losing muscle. (more…)

That is what I shall be come April. Picked up a Trek Vapor WSD helmet in pink/white. Dante is a delicious shade of noir. Told Ms K that I should use my neon green Nike sports bra and other assorted BRIGHT colours for race day. At least I'll stand out.

Well hello there. Meet Dante. Aptly named after popular poet – Dante Alighieri who penned Dante's Inferno, part of the epic poem "Divine Comedy" We all know what kind of crotch action I will have after riding Dante.

She's meant for a non shorty but, alas I have laid eyes on her so she'll have to endure my tip toes until April. Fixed the front wheel in a jiffy after dismantling her for the ride home, and took her for the maiden ride around the 'hood. Spotted Annabelle's eyes glazed over in envy as I rode by her gate. Little annabelle is my 6 year old neighbour,  how green is my valley!

Cost wise, I had to make a choice. Fork out $10 for rental per hour, twice a week at ECP, fork out another $60 on race day, deal with the dramatics of having to collecting and returning the bike on race day. For $300, on a popular cycling forum, she was mine. Now I need to pick up a cyclometer to track distance, and a helmet to make sure my pretty little blonde head stays pretty.

Did a quick check on googlemaps, the distance from my place to Changi Village apparently is a convenient 4.6KM (don't stalk me now!) which means, to and from would make the approximate distance I need for my race. Should I attempt that tomorrow?

Choices, choices, choices.

The spam that has to be deleted every week is insane. I HAD to install captcha to make sure that the spammers have a harder time. I hope it works. What the hell. No one loves spam, unless it's pan fried to the crisp, paired with toast and drizzled with a generous serving of mayonaise.

Three years ago when I was at my wits end, I had signed up for a shiny new gym membership at popular downtown gym. As part of the rehauling package, I purchased the Nike+ as inspiration to begin running. Almost two years later, I have run less than five measly times before boredom took rein. The downtown gym membership is now used for its showering facilities and has about 5 out of the original 36 months left. I must say, it’s a pretty expensive shower option. (more…)

Tis the season, or that time of the month rather. Actually, it is the time before the time of the month. Still with me, here? Well, in months past I have not noticed a weight gain during the monthly woes, more often than not they registered as a non loss as opposed to a weight gain because, I was actively working out. A couple days ago, I realised that my tummy was sticking out further than I care for, and truthfully I wondered if I had started to re-gain the weight back.

NOT ACCEPTABLE!

After weighing myself today, I realised that I have put on 2.5kg. I had carbs over the weekend so a bulk of it has to be a carb weight gain and at the same time, it is almost time so, it registered as a bigger "gain" than usual. My heart broke into little pieces, literally. I cannot imagine gaining weight, I HAVE to find a way to cut the BS and just do it. I worked out on Monday last week and I forgot to stretch which TOTALLY messed with my recovery. My calves are still hurtin’ Imagine that. How do you spell "WUSS"?

Excuse me while I cry in the corner.