Pose for the BODY~~~~

immediately after i posted my need for motivation to hit the gym, someone gave me a suggestion for motivation.

Find a picture of a star whose body you desire.

However, it's important to Make Sure that your body shape is suitable with the body shape of whoever's picture you wanted to use.

1. Stick it somewhere that you will be able to see the first thing in the morning. Nothing helps more than a fresh burst of motivation early in the morning.

2. Bring the picture with you to the gym and place it in front of the threadmill or whatever machine you are using

3. It's a motivation, for goodness sake. Still stay healthy while you are losing the pounds. Eat healthily, portionize and exercise. (ok ok..telling that to myself too)

Check out who i have as a motivation~~~~~~~~~

My new experiment!

'Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time."
Excerpt from the Alchemist




Just the other day, a very nice client turned friend, Steve, walked into my sales office and remarked that i lost weight. Then amidst the bantering, he started to share with me how he managed to lose 90 lbs in 2 years by changing his lifestyle.

SO wat was steve's trick?

Portions and 6 meals a day. His rationale was that regular eating will keep the body from going into starvation mode, and metabolism rate will maintain at a regular rate, rather than spiking up and down. He was happily eating all the time and losing weight. (don't forget abt the exercise part tho!) In fact, he got too thin one time that he had to make a conscious decision to eat more!

Awesome, you might think, but then, a nagging voice in the back of your head reminds u abt the seemingly irrelevant quote in the opening. So yeah, niki, what's the link?

Now, allow me to fill in the missing pieces.

Just yesterday, i met another guy in the building and i did a double take cos the man did lose some major weight. 28 lbs in 4 months to be exact. And being the nosy person i am, i had to ask him how he did it and he said the exact things that Steve said to me! Portions and 6 meals a day! He marvelled at the fact that he was eating more than he ever had but he was losing more weight than he ever did when he was only eating 1 big meal a day!

And the weirdest thing was, a couple of moments later, a lady came by and we started talking abt metabolism and she was saying the same thing abt eating regulary which helps to increase your metabolism and is a great way to lose weight effectively.

Talk abt coincidence!

So here you go,these trinity of coincidences led me to believe that i should embark on this new experiment. (alas! divine intervention and of course, i'd jump at any situation that allows me to eat more..haha..self confessed foodie)

the exercise regimes remain- an hr of walking daily

projected meals i shall have (ooh..so exciting!)

1. breakfast (btw 7-9)
2. brunch ( betw 10-11)
3. lunch (betw 12-2)
4. tea break~legacy of being from a country that was previously colonised by the UK (betw 3-5)
5. dinner (betw 6-8)
6. supper (betw 9-11)

There are 2 elements to this habit-

1. eating 6 times a day (woo hoo!)
2. portions!

This serves as an important note to myself that just because i can increase the number of meals i have, it doesn't automatically mean that i can increase my portions too. So, the caveat in this experiment, as i see it now, is that I shall endevour to keep to 1 portion per meal. Let's see how well this experiment will work. The previous one was ok, and i did lose weight, but the fact that i cheated a couple of times ( i.e, eat more meat than i should, and snack too much) simply proves that the experiment wasn't for me.

I do plan to eat salads for my supper, cos an awesome family i visited over the weekend shared with me how their grandpa (who is Italian) insisted on eating a bowl of salad everynight since young, and was a very very healthy and happy old man who lived to the ripe old age of 92. Heck, he started a new barber shop in his 80s and insisted on managing it himself. If that wasn't good proof of taking good care of your body for the first half of your life so it'll take good care of you for the rest of your life, i don't know what is.

As of right now, i intend to start with salads for breakfast and supper. A fruit like an orange or banana, or a handful of nuts, or maybe a nice pastry for brunch and tea break, lunch and dinner- pasta, rice, or whatever i can cook up. (yes yes,i'll look out for simple and fast recipes to post here, but! if you wan really yummy recipes for pastry, you should check out my friend's interesting blog, helps if you can read mandarin cos she has a lot of interesting insights written very well in mandarin)

Alrighty! The new experiment shall start officially on June 9 2006 and will last for 15 days (June 23). Ready, get set, GO!

Weight Loss - Day 12-19

Woo hoo! a week swept past, and a guilty sinful trip down to new york over the weekend for shish kebabs, custard cakes, huge portions of African grilled fish, broadway and orchestra! What a happening memorial weekend i had! (more on that later)

Today i had my weight in-

I've lost 2 kg, 0.5 inch off my waist, 1.5 inch off my butt, 1 inch off my thighs and i could fit in the pink beach shorts i could barely button up juz a month ago.. isn't that amazing? not to mention the fact that i have increase productivity!

Now, to tie this in with my happening memorial day weekend, which is, despite all the food i gobbled down, the weigh in i did this morning(with apprehension of course) showed no signs of my weekend decadence.

my purpose in saying this?

1. walk more (it's low impact and increases metabolism, not to mention leaner thighs)
2. eat less meat, or opt for fish instead ( maybe it's psychological, but i do feel lighter)

Take care of our bodies for the first part of our lives, and our bodies will take care of us for the rest of our lives.

that being said, i'm super tempted to change my routine a little bit.. more on that soon! Let me work out the details now and i'll share after day 30 of this expt.

Stay tuned!

Weight loss expt- Days 8-11

I've been observing myself for the past 4 days. What are my observations then?

Eating Habits

Budgeting a certain amout of money for food and grocery is essential. I found myself in a situation the past few days whereby i had more spare cash, i bought a lot more food, and kinda overindulged (even tho i bought more fruits, but i also bought more chocolates and chips).

i also realised i have a tendency to splurge on unhealthy food once every month (biological clock. ding ding ding!) especially on chocolates and all. Check the package for the nutritional value and gasp. For every mouthful of reeses i put into my mouth, i am effectively ingesting 100 cal or so. But even tho i know it, the desire refuse to comply with the rationale. So, how can you have your chocolate and still eat it?

The trick is, SHARE!

Buy chips and chocolates and sweets. Sure you can do it, just make sure you share it with your friends. That's what i did. I bought a choco bar today and 'forced' my colleague to share it with me. For the past few days, when i found myself craving for sweet stuff, i reached for oranges instead. (i had 3 at one go, so i'm wondering if i'm overdosing on vit c! fruits, esp sweet ones, can be high in calories too. But at least i'm getting my fiber!) This increase in discipline is really giving me a boost in my self esteem and reinforcing the idea that i can do anything if i put my mind to it. :)

Sleeping Habits

My inner body alarm has adjusted very well and i can now wake up at 6am without any help of the store bought alarm clock. I get knocked out at 11 ish. which means i get an average of about 6 to 7 hrs per night, and wake up feeling fully refreshed. Double plus point is that i get so much work done before i go work or sch, which is fabulous!

Exercising

I spend about 45 min in the gym daily.I'm getting a bit bored at my routine so i try to alternate by going to the huge park nearby my house. I cant wait for my condo pool to become available this summer! Swimming is one of the best full body workout one can ever get. It's low impact on joints and gives the body a good stretch. It's super for our spine and lengthens it cos of the movement. You might even find yourself getting taller!



So, i'm now looking at investing in good sunscreen and effective moisturizers. Will u do that too? Can't wait for May 31 to come^^

Log Book - Day 6-7 of weight loss expt!

Week numero un down for this simple experiment.

Day 6-7, I began to notice a difference in my sleeping patterns. Instead of me going through the whole day from 6am to 12 midnight without a wink,i find myself dozing off around 10 ish to 11 ish.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining. I think it's a great thing cos my body is getting used to the changes and is adjusting accordingly. I remember reading somewhere that the best optimal time to sleep is actually between 11pm-2am cos that's when the body is at its optimum recovery mode, repairing wat that was worn out over time.

I get an average of 6-7hrs of sleep daily, and feel so much more energetic then when i was clocking in 8-9 hrs. I wake up at 6am and by 830, i would have cooked my lunch, had my breakfast, exercised for 45 min and read a couple of mags. Not too bad for someone who used to rush to work upon waking up at 8 and had no time to do anything, including breakfast.

I feel myself getting stronger, more focused cos of the changes in my daily habits, not juz physically but also mentally. Throughout the experiment, i've constantly remembered to slow down and listen to my body. As a result, it's working better than it had ever before! ME LIKE!!

Are you still with me on my experiment? ^^

Log Book- Day 5 of Weight Loss expt

Day 5.

I find myself checking my reflection on the mirror beside me in the gym more often than ever when i fast walked on the treadmill this morning.

I begin to notice definitions on my legs that were never there before. My butt looked perkier(at least to me) and i like the way my hair was shining, as a result of the deep conditioning i did for my hair the night before.

I smiled at my reflection. I have been more productive than ever (look out for upcoming articles in the personal development category) and I feel healthier.

Just two subtle changes i made to my life.

Light exercise daily AND eating only one meat meal a day.

PUMPED UP!

Log Book-Day 4- Weight Loss Expt

Day 4 has ended and I'm beginning to see and feel a difference in the way i go about in my life.

The change in eating habits and increase in exercise have done wonders to my energy and productivity level.

Here are the list of changes:

1. My body automatically wakes up ard 6 AM daily, almost 1-2 hrs earlier than usual, feeling surprisingly refreshed! Giving me almost 1-2 hrs of head start to my day, increasing productivity- reading, exercising and cooking. My day typically ends ard 1130 -12 midnight and my energy level remains consistently high throughtout the day. I go to bed feeling i've fully expended my energy and happy.

2. I find myself calmer and have more clarity in my thought processes. Take for example, something happened to me the night before, and instead of getting angry (as anyone in the same position would have), I took another perspective on the situation and saw an immediate improvement in my mood and the situation(but i gotta admit i was quite sad initially).

3. Exercising daily makes me feel more alert and energetic too. I recently read an article from a fitness magazine that a new study done at the University of Florida suggested that regular light activity( eg a daily 30 min walk or a one mile run) may actually decrease celuular aging in the brain. What that means is that it can also reduce the likelihood in Alzheimers and Parkinson's disease( typically believed to be caused by oxidative damage to brain) Not bad eh?

I'm liking my experiment so far^^