Excuses! Excuses! Excuses!

No weight loss to report this week but a weight gain! Now the weight is 147 pounds. Seems like 145 is illusive for now.

What is the excuse? Its school holidays and with the kids home, every time I make tea for them, I eat it too. Teas include piping hot pancakes with cold ice-cream to tease the palate. Help!

I even went and bought more salads to stock up the fridge but those teas! And to be honest, I ate normal meals too for some lunches and dinners. I've become lazy and lost some willpower.

I shall not be derailed from my goal! Chant 3 times and let's get back to it! Pin It

Exercise Apps For My Weight Loss Journey

Time for my weekly update. Happy to report that the weight is still going down at 147 pounds. Not going to talk about me today but going to talk about the exercise or fitness apps I have on my phone.

There are many exercise apps available but currently I have 3 on my phone. They are Sworkit Pro, Tabata and Beach Body. Oh well, one can dream.

I'm not going to talk about them in detail (because I don't use it that much. Ahem! I know I really should because dieting alone won't speed up my weight loss. It has to be coupled with exercising.)

3 Fitness/Exercise Apps On My Phone

1. Sworkit Pro. I have the Pro version for free on one of those free days. Many apps give discounts or free promotions on certain days. I have an app that shows me the free daily apps so I got these for free when it was on promo. You can choose between stretching, yoga, cardio or strength training and set the timing for each session from 5 to 30 minutes. Its very flexible and you can have a full body workout. Just follow the trainer on the screen who will do the countdown and show you how its done.




2. Tabata is a high intensity 4 minute workout discovered by Japanese scientist Dr. Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. You can try out the Tabata Lite app which is free to decide if this workout is for you. Tabata is great for time strapped people because its just 4 minutes of workout.



3. Beach Body - There are many Beach Body apps available, the one I have is the 4 Minute Beach Body app or Women's Tabata Workout. I don't use it much because the exercises seem hard with a lot of planking required. Oh well, if you want to have a beach perfect body, you gotta work for it! I should be deleting this one. Its too tough for me.




Want more workouts? Just go to google and search for fitness or exercise and fine tune your searching by going to "more" and "apps". There are just so many apps available these days, you can find an app for working any part of your body! Pin It

It's Easy To Lose Weight But So Hard To Lose It

As at 12 pm yesterday, I checked the health app on my phone, the one with a little red heart on it and found that I had walked 11,399 steps for the day or equivalent to 7.46 km. This was from our 5 km jungle track (pictured above) with the kids and grocery shopping after that. Wow! Mall walking takes up 2.5 km. I think I should go shopping more often. On Saturdays, I walk about 90% for the rest of my week where I remain pretty sedentary. Boo!

Today's weight is 149. Yay! I managed to say bye bye to the 150s..... It fluctuated between 149 point something to 148 point something. So losing say 1 pound is nothing because it could merely be the weight fluctuations throughout the day. For example, the scales read 149.6 after dinner last night and 148.6 before breakfast. I also found out that my jeans weigh 1 pound and a so too does the towel I use to wrap around my wet hair because of the weight difference with or without them. Ok. I admit. I'm currently obsessed with my weight, so I check it pretty often.

When I say 149. I mean 149 pounds. I prefer to watch pounds than kilograms because it is more satisfying to say, I have lost 6 pounds since I started compared to I have lost 2.72 kg since I started. I like 6 better. Makes me think my effort is paying off much better compared to 2.72.

Having lost 6 pounds since I started does not feel any different at all. I still have difficulty fitting into my clothes. Take a pair of old trousers for example. At 155 I couldn't even get into them. Now, I can get back into them but I can only zip it up in prone lying down position. Arrgh! I cannot weight (I mean wait. See? I'm weight obsessed) for them to fit better. I shall have a gala time taking out every dress in the closet to try them to see which one fits again. At the moment, my wardrobe has been strictly limited to wearing just a handful while the rest hangs on racks in the cupboard untouched and unwearable.

Fortunately I started on the diet. Enough is enough! The slide down to weightiness is an easy one but difficult to climb back out from. It's easy to lose weight but so hard to lose it.

My next target is 145 in a 2-3 weeks hopefully. Even then, 145 used to be my peak weight and which I had great difficulty losing to 135. My gosh! It will be like starting over again once I reach 145. I remembered telling myself the second time I reached the peak of 145 that I was going to lose it but then instead I ballooned to 155. I blamed it on menopause but then really, besides menopause, there was Christmas and holiday bingeing followed by the Chinese New Year, then one birthday celebration in the house after another and you just gotta have cake for celebrations don't you? Oh, and I started trying my hand at baking. I baked buns and breads and cakes and..... Anything freshly baked smells so heavenly. I ended up finishing them most of the time!

The hardest part I find about being a mum and dieting is the food preparation part. Preparing yummy foods and not eating them is real hard. When the kids commented on that, I told them "Now, that's what you call will power." When  you want something, you have to work really hard to make it happen. I will work really hard to make this happen.

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Weight Loss Journal Blog Update

I was hopeful to go below 150 pounds this week but alas .....

I started at 152 pounds from last week and did everything the same as I did in terms of food reduction. No more teas or snacks, no rice, and salads instead of full blown meals for meal replacements. I did not overdo it. Meal replacement would be only once a day, either lunch or dinner.

The lowest I went for the week was 150.2 pounds but all it took was my a birthday in the house and a slice of cake and eating out to slow me down. I skipped the rice too when eating out and exercised lots of self control too. Hmmm....

In terms of extra activities, I was very busy this week. I managed to go for my once a week 5km walk but other than that it was no go and I spent hours sitting instead of moving around. I downloaded an exercise app which I shall share next time as I only used it once this time round.

I've lost 3-4 pounds since I started 2 weeks ago but there's no sign of it yet. All the clothing are still tight and am still unable to get into many at this time. Double Boo Hoo.

That's all for this week. Not an encouraging week despite feeling hungry most of the week but I shall PERSEVERE. I can do it! AND I shall do it the natural way, without supplements or starving myself too much, slow and easy. Pin It

Flu Season?

It used to be the flu season all year round for us but this is the first time this year that we're all sick. Hopefully, all that juicing and supplementing and trying to get more exercise and eat more fruits and vegetables is starting to work its magic.

Whatever it is, we will keep this up for now.

• At the moment, we are all taking a multivitamin each a day accept weekends.
• We take fresh vegetable juices on Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. That is 4 times a week. We try to take it on an empty stomach, half an hour before food.
• We don't get enough exercise but we try to take the kids to the park at least once a week. Hubby plays badminton once a week and works out at the gym during lunch once or twice a week. I do my home workouts 2-3 times a week. 

Hopefully, this keeps us healthy. It is end of April now. I think this is the first time we have not fallen sick for close to 4 months. That is certainly a record when you have a home with young kids. Young kids always fall sick from germs in daycare and school and pass that along to parents and this happens rather frequently.

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Relaxing Music is Good For You

After aerobics exercise, I love to listen to relaxing music. My favorite is this one - First Love On Piano (by Utada Hikaru). I love it. Somehow it's very moving.

I enjoy the piano version but if you prefer to listen to some vocals, here is Utada Hikaru with Japanese Vocals. It's just as beautiful.

Music is really good for you. When you feel angry, try listening to some relaxing music. When you are down, try listening to some upbeat music to lift your mood.

Or, right after exercise, try listening to some relaxing music. Listening to relaxing music is good for you. Listening to relaxing music after exercise is the best form of cooling down after a rigorous work out. Try it. 

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I don't have time to exercise

I don't have time to exercise is an excuse for those of us who lack motivation and who has not made exercise a habit or daily routine in our lives. When you truly want something you will make time for it.

You will make time to do the things you love so why not make time to exercise. Ok. The truth is, I am writing this post because I am trying to motivate and inspire myself to exercise. I have been doing well so far, daily since Monday. I will have a break during the weekends. Thats what I used to do, then the kids fell sick and I had a host of things to do. All excuses not to exercise.

After exercising everyday, instead of feeling more tired, I feel more energized with each session. I try to exercise at the start of the day so that I feel refreshed and energized but you can make time at any time of the day. My spouse goes to the gym during lunch. He walks to the gym too.

My brother who is a very busy man and always travelling makes time to exercise at all the hotel gyms. When he is home, he will either jog or cycle early in the morning or in the evenings.

You have to change your mindset from "I don't  have time to exercise" to "I will make time for exercise" then it will happen. It is as simple as that. You can walk, do housework, dance, run, swim, play games, jump on a trampoline. They're all exercises too.

Fitness can be fun too. On my current wish list now is a Wii Fit Plus. Pin It

Exercise

I have been slacking in my exercise routine. I have been busy. The kids have been sick. These are all excuses not to exercise. As I begin to exercise daily again, I remind myself that ...

To be physically fit enough to exercise is a blessing

Quite often people say that we should exercise to keep fit but have you thought about the fact that to be physically fit enough to exercise is a blessing. I try to remind myself of this now. I don't want to reach a point in my life when I am unable to exercise and I regret not exercising to improve my health when I am able to.

Some people only exercise to lose weight and once they reach their target weight, they stop exercising. I think that should not be the goal of exercising. We should exercise for health's sake and if we lose weight as a result, then it is a bonus. Pin It

Taking Good Health For Granted

I’m having a flu today and I keep on thinking about how I’ve been taking good health for granted.

When I am in good health, I don’t stop to think about what a blessing that is. Instead, I complain about being lazy to exercise. I don’t exercise on those days when I am feeling fit.

Now, that I can’t stop sneezing and I’ve lost my voice, and my lips feel hot and burning because my body is slightly feverish, I wish I could do those exercises that I had been neglecting.

I was this way for about 9 months last year. Each day, I would wake up with a bad sore throat and each evening I would cough uncontrollably. I took all sorts of natural cough remedies, consulted specialists, did chest X-Rays but nothing helped and then over one week, the cough just went away by itself gradually.

How awful it is not to feel whole. To feel sick most of the time. Now, I’m sick but only for a while. When I recover, I must remind myself not to take good health for granted.

I must eat  well, get enough rest and sleep and exercise. If I don’t take care of my own body, who will? Pin It