[942] Weight Loss

A few months ago I was back to around 89 to 90kg. I knew that that weight wasn't that acceptable to me, so I decided to try to do something about it.

I'm now back to 85 to 87kg. I did this mostly by being disciplined enough to do portion control and improving the quality of my daily exercises.

Instead of aiming for 1 hr and 30 min a week of walking and 20 km a week of cycling, I decided to simplify my goal to 20 km a week of activity. Then I focused on walking because of the brake issue on my bike. I also wanted to keep my pace at around 10 minutes per kilometer.

These things helped but the biggest thing that helped me was the portion control. It is very challenging because I love to eat, but I needed to "check myself before I wreck myself." Yes, I did just quote Ice Cube.

I do set cheat days for me, where I'll eat more than what I usually do. And I do sometimes do it more than once a week, because I'm human and there are times that I do want to eat to cope. I just have to remember that the discipline days should be more often than the cheat days.

Out.

[830] Intermittent Fasting Update

I started intermittent fasting during the last days of June 2019. The reason I gave it a shot was because my weight had slowly risen to 99kg. To give a bit of context, before 2017 I was averaging maybe around 105kg. After some life-altering events in 2017 I started walking and got my weight down to maybe 97kg in 2018. I promised to keep myself below 100kg and hopefully even reach 90kg.

That never happened. I disliked dieting and during the "winter" months was too lazy to regularly go walking. Plus my eating was still relatively out of control. I love to eat, and I've posted about it so many times.

Until that fateful day in 2019 when I saw I was borderline 100kg. I decided enough was enough and impulsively chose to do intermittent fasting. None of the gradual, start at 14 hours and ease my way up fastings. I did 16 hour fasts every other day. I noticed I did lose weight and that was great.

Pretty soon I went below 95kg. I think that was around September or so. By that time I had gotten used to IF that I was doing it almost everyday. I had gotten an app for my phone to help track my fasts. And I was doing portion control for my rice more religiously.

2020 has started and I am proud to say I am hovering between 90kg and 91kg. This is even after the holidays when I did eat a lot more than I'm used to. I'm happy to say I was able to maintain my weight.

I never really had a serious goal for my IF. I just wanted to change my lifestyle and see where that would take me, and it has taken me to this. I'm also partially motivated to start losing more, but as usual I will not be setting a target weight. I'll just keep trying to improve my lifestyle and hopefully the results will arrive. If it doesn't, no worries.

I just don't want to go over 93kg anymore. That's my cap for myself. Maybe I can lower the cap if I lose more weight, but I will not pressure myself.

Out.

[823] New Shoes!!!

Last November 2, 2019 I bought a pair of New Balance Fresh Foam Vero Racer Running Shoes in a black and gold colorway. Today I took a brisk, recorded morning walk and did my usual pace of around 10 minutes per kilometer. I last did my brisk morning walk around August so the pace is still there. And surprisingly, so is my stamina.

I've been in the market for a new pair of walking shoes since my old Pumas are very worn down and have holes near where my pinky toes are. They lasted two good years. I was planning on checking out the local Payless in Power Plant Mall since they sell those relatively cheap Champion sneakers that were one of my very first pairs of walking shoes. Sure they didn't have advanced sneaker technology but they were light, had great grip, and served the purpose as a walking shoe.

My family and I decided to go window shopping and we ended up in Planet Sports where I decided to look at the shoes New Balance had to offer. The pair I bought were actually the very first pair of sneakers I got drawn to not only because of the colorway but also because it looks good if I wear it as a casual sneaker.

Anyway we find out that if I use a certain bank's credit card the products in the store are discounted, with New Balance giving 20% discount. Luckily for me I also have that credit card. So we decided to look around first and have lunch before going back to buy the shoes.

We also got Martina a new pair of sneakers for her PE in school. The brand we got for her gave 25% discount when using the credit card. So basically I went over budget for a shoe with better features. I hope this pair will last me for at least two years.

Out.

[822] Health

I'm still recovering from a bug. Not sure if it was the flu or not, or if I actually managed to beat the bug before it got worse, but yeah. I'm still recovering. Yesterday was the worst. I wasn't able to sleep well. My back hurt, my joints were sore.

Now I'm feeling a lot better because I managed to rest and take some over-the-counter medicine yesterday. Unfortunately, it's my wife's turn. She was feeling unwell when she got home from work yesterday and it unfortunately got worse earlier this morning.

I guess it started last week when our daughter was sick. Must be a bug going around. Anyway it's always a good idea to take care of yourself because getting sick sucks.

Out.

[819] 95 kilograms

I'm finally confident enough to claim that my weight is now hovering in the 94 kg to 96 kg range. While it may not be as fast as other people who do intermittent fasting, I am happy with the results because I managed to control my weight.

Last Friday I decided to ramp it up a bit more by downloading the Zero Fasting Tracker app. What it basically does is it helps me keep track of my fasts. Unfortunately I downloaded it just as we were going to Lucena for the Niyogyugan Festival 2019. This basically meant I wasn't hitting my 16:8 fasting.

It wasn't that bad since I was still getting used to constantly updating the app. Now that I'm back in Metro Manila I've gone back to my 16:8 fasts. So far I've been going over the usual 16 hours, usually by 30 minutes or so.

It is actually normal since I usually eat between 11am to 7pm. And we're usually done eating around 6:30pm.

I've also bought some yellow sweet potatoes I was supposed to only eat at dinner. However my mom has been cooking good food lately so the best I can do is just eat little portions of her food.

Hopefully developing a habit of updating the app will help me focus more on my intermittent fasting and help me get my weight to hover in the 92 kg - 95 kg range. We shall see.

I still have no firm goals with this and am just going with the flow.

Out.

[818] Ramping Up

I've decided to do my best to intermittent fast everyday. Past few weeks I was successfully doing my 16:8 IF weekdays with Saturdays and Sundays being my "cheat days." There was something I noticed.

Around Friday I would be at around 95kg. After the weekend I would be around 97kg. That meant whenever I ate breakfast (plus eating out and enjoying it) I would gain what weight I lost.

This weekend I'm trying to maintain my IF even during the weekends. More importantly I'm trying my best to stick to my portion control. I'd rather gain one kilogram of weight and lose two a week rather than just moving back and forth. Two steps forward one step back is acceptable, though I would rather just keep moving forward. So we'll see.

It took me quite a while to make IF a habit, and hopefully I can keep it up and make the weekends part of my IF and portion control habit. I don't expect to be able to do this immediately but hopefully in a week or so I'll be able to maintain my weight and finally normalize at a weight well below 95kg.

Out.

[752] Health Update

Been a while since I posted. Not really in the mood to post anything also, so I'll just give a quick update on my health.

I'm hovering between 98 - 99 kilograms. I've gotten bored of walking and most of my walks now are really forced. I've decided to ditch the timer and interval jogging to change my workout.

Now I'm going to try to do one whole lap of walking, then jog the next lap until I can, then walk until I finish the lap. Then jog again at the start of the third lap.

I tried this method out once, where I jogged the start of the second lap. I stopped a little midway and started walking. Then when I got to the "uphill" portion I started jogging again until I finished the lap.

Next walk I will try the earlier method I had planned. Sadly it won't be anytime this week as I have other, more important duties that take precedence over my exercise. Also, the weather has been bad.

Good thing I've been able to curb my eating. I'm actually surprised I'm still below 100 kg despite the fact I've been eating a bit uncontrollably lately.

I'll be going back to oatmeal dinners again now that we've stocked up on some whole rolled oats.

Out.

Biking

I actually rode a bike for the first time in a long time last August 23, 2014 at Panglao Island in Bohol. We were staying at Amorita Resort and they had four mountain bikes you could borrow (for free) and take out to the island for bike rides.

I convinced myself to go with my dad, and off we went. It was very tiring, for me at least, because the last time I went on a bike was in high school, around 1994. I specifically remember because I had a bad wipe out during a bike ride and after that I only rode one more time.

How bad was the wipe out? A friend cut me off and his rear tire hit my front tire, locking it at a 90° angle and sending me flying off my bike. Not knowing how to fall properly, I land on the right side of my face. Fortunately the accident happened just one house away from where I lived. Unfortunately after that I became afraid of biking.

Fast forward to this year. Maica's been asking me to go biking with her once in a while, and a few weeks ago I gave in. I couldn't last too long, my knees got sore and I was severely winded.

Now that it's the Holy Week holidays, Maica and I went biking yesterday in the village. I managed to bike longer because I wasn't forcing myself to go 15kph. This morning I again went for a quick bike ride. I'm not going past 2 - 3km for now, since I want to get my legs and stamina up first.

My legs are killing me. The good thing is I'm not as winded as when I went biking with Maica a few weeks ago. Moderation is probably the key thing, since I now don't try to push fast speeds. I'm perfectly happy going 9 - 12kph depending on road conditions.

I need to learn to balance better since I can't bike straight. Practice will handle that. I also want to be able to bike with no hands, something I used to do a lot when I was younger.

Who would have thought I'd be going biking again? I certainly didn't, but the itch is back. I want to get myself a proper helmet, since I now know how important safety is. I also want to get some glow in the dark stickers for my bike rims, so I can still do a quick circuit when I get home from work.

To be honest, I just hope I can maintain biking long enough to make this a healthy habit. My current short term goal is to keep biking. My mid term goal is to be able to go maybe 5 or 6 kilometers per circuit. And my long term goal is to be able to join my former officemates from Anino Games, who have their small bike group where they go biking to different places.

One step at a time.

Out.