Break and Treat

This is a picture of a fat me! It is to remind myself of the time, not too long ago (6 months to be precise) where I looked, well, frankly, fat! Or to be more accurate, fatter than I was, and feeling lousy too.

Coming out from a weekend of gym and a long cool run on Tuesday, last night (Wed) was a day-off from the running.

Having breaks in-between is vital for 2 reasons. Physically, it allows the body and muscles to rest, recover from the strenuous activities and also build up muscles to help the body cope with the next round of activity. Mentally, it relieves the body of the 'boredom', we all are fully aware that we are creatures of variety and repeating everything for everyday is a sure-fire recipe for boredom and lack of motivation.

Hence giving myself a treat is a little incentive to keep motivated and on the virtuous path I have been striding so far. My treat for myself was ice-cream, which I shared with my significant other since we met up for lunch. It was yummy.

At the same time however, the consistency theme is ever-present. The 10 minute stretching exercises in the mornings is still present, now supplemented by evening sessions after I am home but before shower. Now, the upper chest muscles are sore, even the abdominals and butt muscles- partly because of the consistency and also I introduced variations into the routine.

This last point is crucial as our muscles becomes efficient at doing something repeatedly due to its evolutionary predilection to save energy. Remember that humans are extremely efficient at storing and minimizing caloric expenditure from our hunter-gatherer days.

So another day of work beckons (groan) while I allow the my consistent morning (and now evenings) exercises to recuperate from their new routine.

Feeling Great!

Wow, today is a good day! Cos I get be a gym rat! Spent over an hour in the gym first thing in the morning at 9am. What was even better was being able to run 5km on the treadmill. Feeling great! Gym was quiet at this time, so managed to grab a run before the hordes came in.

Haha, but honestly, need to have greater frequency if I am to shed some kilos. Cannot believe that I am now at 93kg. I really have to address the other side of the equation- the eating side. So, from this week on, I am consciously going to be very careful of what I put into my mouth! Fingers crossed.

Just glad I pump in a 5km circuit and started slowly at 7.4km/h before gradually pumping it up to about 8.3. So overall, I was on the treadmill for over 40mins!. Which frankly, at this point in my state of conditioning, I surprise myself! Managed also to get in some weights. Spent at least 60% of that time in the athletic zone, at over 160 bps! If the Polar heart-rate monitor can be believed, this bumped up the caloric count to over a thousand! Regardless of the figures, it sure feels good to be able to do just that.

As a result of the great workout this am, could eat lunch without any guilt. Went to a German restaurant selling weiners and stuff and had a pork weiner with pork chop combo, with a side of potatoes and a stewed vegetable that tasted just like 'mui choy'.


The rest of the day was a bore, especially with heading over the in-laws and trying to find something meaningful to do, but of course couldn't. Harmony, just keep that in mind! Should have brought the Mac to blog, and not have to do this only now, in-between all the household chores and trying to stay positive in spite of the few hours left of this weekend! Haizz...

Think for the rest of the night will lie low as well. The significant other is spoiling for a fight, no prizes for guessing what time of the month this is! Sometimes, I try to be accommodating, try to go whatever I can- but to no avail. If someone is spoiling for a fight, no compromises can work.

In a paradoxical way, I am hoping the day will end, but at the same time, hoping for this would mean the onset of another work-week. AND that is something I am not looking forward to!

The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak

Was supposed to go running this morning. Set the alarm, put it beside my bed. Went to bed, thinking that when that alarm rings at 6.20am, I am going to go running...

Well... guess what... it did not happen! Sigh...

And to make matters worse, had a big fried seafood dinner with my family last night. One of those fast-food type of preparation. Fried sotong (calamari for all you who don't know what a sotong is!) fried prawns (tasted like tatters!), fried breaded fish.

It is not rocket-science to say that we humans love fried food! Why? Simple! Because frying has the highest caloric content of all the different types of food preparation. And we humans are calorie-storing machines! You see, we cannot deny our ancestry, human beings have developed some pretty seriously efficient way of storing energy for that 'proverbial rainy day'. Those days when food was not easy to hunt/ track/ gather, when our meat came on four feet, our fish from us jumping into the water and our grains from gathering it from fields.

So, in order to overcome the instability of food supply, our evolution has seen fit to bestow us with taste buds that crave high caloric food... fried foods, sweets, sugars- all which fit into that category. So you see, our destinies are written in the stars! (Hahaha).

Anyway back to my run- or lack of will to do so. Will have to find ways of coming around to pumping up the exercise now. Clothes are getting tighter, especially that pair of jeans bought last year! And people are now beginning to call me FAT again!

Really gotta go do something about it!