Tag Archives: fitness

Dear Diary

On which I welcome pain

I have  confession to make.

I haven’t been working out as much as I used to.

Eep!

I wished I looked as fit as this woman...but no.

I can’t remember when it started exactly, but I think it started after I got sick last July. I didn’t go to the gym much because I was battling with my lungs thanks to asthma. It was followed by a particularly good bout of fitness thanks to the Rexona Race, where my body fat % went down to 25%, the lowest it’s ever been in so far. Then I started feeling this weird pain on my ankle after I ran again on the treadmill after the race. So I took it easy for a while to make sure my ankle is okay (which reminds me, I still need to go and have them checked).

The problem with this is my schedule. I have no problems with my gym schedule for day shift because I take classes after work, and I get more work outs then. My newer mid shift schedule makes it a bit of a problem, because it’s late, and there are no classes past 1:00pm at the gym, so I end up running. And since I can’t really run because of my ankle pain…what else can I do?

I used to work out 4-5 times a week, but now I’m happy if I hit 3. Remember my laziness last Monday because it’s a holiday? Yeah, that kind of extended almost all week.

Ugh.

After binging on Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup ice cream last Sunday (OH MY LORD THE ICE CREAM GOODNESS!), I gave in to my conscience and hit the gym hard yesterday. It’s a good thing it’s a holiday in the US yesterday so I had an excuse to go to work early, so I managed to get a run and attend Body Jam in the afternoon, followed by six sets of ab workouts (yes, I’m crazy).

When I woke up this morning, I felt something I haven’t felt in the longest time: post-exercise pain.

Let me just say: oh how I missed thee!

It sounds crazy, I know, but it’s been a long while since I felt that. You the muscle pains you get after you work out, especially if you haven’t been doing so for a while? That kind of pain. That means my muscles are getting stronger, and after regularly exercising for the past few months, I rarely feel that now. Feeling that in my abs is a welcome thing, because I missed it, even if I can’t laugh so much because of it.

Earlier today, I was working out again and my abs screamed in agony as I was doing planks. Masochistic, I know, but after all the eating I’ve been doing for the past few weeks? Well, someone’s got to pay. I haven’t even done my whole program yet and everything is painful — what more if I did? Eep. Honestly, I would’ve done more if I had time today — if there were pull up bars there, I would’ve even attempted that. Or…okay fine, maybe not. :P Ah pain. You’re welcome, even if I complain about you.

I weighed myself earlier after two weeks or so of hiding from the scale. I’m glad to say that even if I did gain weight, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. I can still do this. A good 10k race should do the trick, and proper diet, of course.

But first, get my ankle checked.

Fitness isn’t an easy road, and frankly, I’m getting tired of being a gym rat, but I can’t back down now after all that I’ve lost. There is no way I am going back there. Nope, no way.

Of course, the presence of this isn’t helping:

Omnomnomnom Pastel! ♥ Thanks Anj! :)

Ah well. :)

Dear Diary, Yum Factor

I am on a diet

Ah, Goolai salad: you are one piece of veggie heaven in a plastic container. ♥ I just had a Goolai salad for dinner, and it was awesomely delicious. The creamy dressing is not really a good choice, but it was the only salad left there, so I couldn’t really pick anything else. I wish it was more accessible to me, though, but not always eating would stop me from getting sick of it too fast.

Don’t you like it when you know you ate healthy in one meal? :)

On another note, my mom started doing the General Motors diet starting Wednesday last week. General Motors diet, or the GM Diet, is this seven day diet where you eat specific types of food on each day:

Day One
All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon and a loupe. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing three lbs. on first day are very good.

Day Two
All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Day Three
A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

Day Four
Bananas and milk. Today you will eat as many as eight bananas and drink three glasses of milk. This will be combined with the special soup which may be eaten in limited quantities.

Day Five
Today is feast day. You will eat beef and tomatoes. Eat two 10 oz. portions of lean beef. Hamburger is OK. Combine this with six whole tomatoes. On day five you must increase your water intake by one quart. This is to cleanse your system of the uric acid you will be producing.

Day Six
Beef and vegetables. Today you may eat an unlimited amount of beef and vegetables. Eat to your hearts content.

Day Seven
Today your food intake will consist of brown rice, fruit juices and all the vegetables you care to consume.

There are other details in the diet, which you can read from this page, like the wonder soup, and something about alcohol and what it does to your body and such. It’s made to be some kind of cleansing diet, to help you eat right, and get this: it’s designed to make you lose 10-17lbs in a week.

Ten to seventeen pounds. In a week. That’s almost as much weight loss you’d get if you drink weight loss pills, based on this phosphacore review I read.

The biggest weight loss I’ve had in the past six months I’ve been in the gym was 3lbs in a week, and about 5lbs of body fat, and that’s after a whole lot of physical activity and careful diet. I can’t even dream of losing that much weight in a week.

So why not follow it, right? Well, call me a gym junkie and a purist, but I’d really rather stick to my own diet rather than do something like this. I thought of following this diet early 2009 after a friend told me about it, but I loved food too much to do something like this, and I really don’t believe any diet that tells you you could lose weight without exercise. Plus isn’t losing too much weight in a week dangerous or something? I hear the healthy goal is 2lbs a week, right?

So yeah, maybe I am a purist. The diet I follow right now is based on the servings that my nutritionist made for me when I started out at Fitness First, which consists of approximately:

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