I have subtly noticed....

Ever since I have lost weight and looking slimmer and healthier, I have noticed two things:

1. Many people have noticed my weight loss and are commenting on it when they see me, congratulating me and asking me how I did it. I will tell them how I did it and encourage, motivate and give them as much advice as possible, to the best of my knowledge.

2. Those friends who constantly talked about my weight, making sure the first question they ask me when I see them is "how is you exercise going?" and/or that I'm living on the unhealthy side to life, and that I should really do something about it. Now, they avoid the topic, they don't recognise my achievements but instead have pick another target to drill me on. A bit unhealthy to be around don't you think?

I have noticed a paradigm shift in my thoughts and perceptions of people. I had found previously, I was wanting the friendships and attention, not realising that a lot of these friendships were a bit toxic and negative. I hadn't noticed it as I always figured that they were trying to help me, giving me that 'tough love' friendship.

And those friendships that were positive and worthwhile, didn't really hang around me. I now see why. I have learnt that negativity can't survive around positivity, just as the dark can survive when there is light.

The lesson here is: keep an eye out for negativity in your life, what ever it may be. Eliminate it in the healthiest way that you know, either dropping it like its hot or calmly stepping away from it with a grin on your face, and the positive things in life will slowly open itself onto you.

Help others out, either friends or strangers, as you would want them to help you. Lets all work together as a team. Why? Because a team doesn't shun or knock down another team member to achieve a goal.

Motivation and refreshment

I have come to a realisation during my walk / jog today that I hope will motivate and help you on your journey to better health and fitness.

Lately I have been slowly introducing jogging to my personal exercise. It is important for you to know that I began my walk today with no intention of jogging at all in my travels. But as I was jogging, I suddenly realised what I was doing, I was JOGGING! I had not been a keep jogger since High School and never intended to be. I would always see other people jog or run while I went for my walks and think "pfffft, that'll never be me, I wouldn't ever get that fit to do that". But here I was, still jogging as that memory crossed my mind. I hadn't stopped. 

I'll continue jogging till the end of the street. 

Awesome, I did it, I'll continue to that tree up ahead.

Hmmm, still got a bit more in me, Lets get to that street sign and walk it out a bit.

As I got to that street sign, I looked at my fitbit and realised I had travel a kilometre or so faster than my usual time. It felt AWESOME! As I was walking, I was thinking back to a few years ago to when I wanted to get fit and I asked my friends to help me. They were eager to help, as they were well into their fitness programs and would exercise almost every day. And I was a newby, I wasn't used to exercising at all, I didn't know much about it. All I remember it to be was hard work and you would feel sore afterwards. 

Anyway, my friend met up with me and taught me a few boxing sparring techniques and drills. They were quite good. It was entertaining and fun while getting a good workout. Then he would tell me to run from one side of the building to another till he said stop. I found I was running for around 10 mins, but felt like a good 20. And finally he followed up with some upper body strength exercises. By the end of this I was completely exhausted. My body felt like jelly, my clothes were soaked in sweat and to top it off, on my way home, I had to stop on the side of the road to visit 'Mr. Chucky'.

Now, I know my friend had great intentions to help me get fit, but what that did was put fear in me to exercise. It made me think that I was not pushing myself hard enough during exercise usually and that this sore and stiff feeling I would get from exercise was normal. I now realise how wrong that was. My friend had told me that this was what he had to do during his training, which he did at martial arts class. Two things wrong there. 

1. He had been training longer than I had and push a beginner like myself at an elite level that he was currently at.

2. He was training in Martial Arts, all I wanted was to build up my fitness.

Back to reality. As I thought about this during my walk, I realised several things that are maybe beneficial for you or anyone starting to get into fitness. I remember seeing this quote and thought it was brilliant for motivating people who are willing to give fitness a go, "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." What this has said to me is, take your time! You can achieve greatness by just starting. Start small, start at a pace that YOU are comfortable with. Get the hang of it, find the fun in it, what ever it is. And if you feel confident in going that little bit extra, go for it. But make sure its a distance that YOU want to go, not anyone else. Start making it in fun, find motivating music, find a rhythm that you can comfortable go to. 

This can be applied not only to walking, jogging, running, or any type of cardio workout, this goes with strength workouts. Push ups for example, start of at a comfortable amount and then add one or two extra when you feel like you can. Next thing you know, you find yourself doing 20 push up with ease, or perhaps 30, or possibly 50!!!! Look at you go!

Just remember to go at your own pace, don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself, don't put a time limit on it, otherwise you will end of injuring yourself, getting sick or quickly lose that motivation to keep going. And surround yourself with positivity. Positive and encouraging friends, and motivating quotes and videos. Make it a fun and exciting journey, not a mundane, boring chore. Enjoy life!

Week 4 / Day 25

Week 4
Day 19 - day 25

I fogot to take pictures this week but my weight and measurements are:

1st January                                                   25th of January
Weight: 71.4kg                                             Weight: 69.5kg
Waist: 86cm                                                 Waist: 86cm
Hips: 83cm                                                   Hips: 85cm
Neck: 38cm                                                  Neck: 39cm

I beleive that I have gained weight and measurements have increased a little too but there is a lesson to be learnt. REST! I did not rest my body enough. I was so determined to loose as much weight and centimetres off my body that I pushed myself to walk, jog and do strength exercises 6 days this week. As well as working nearly everyday, I didn't give my body the appropriate rest it needed and deserved. Therefore, I believe I put un necessary stress on the body and it found it hard to loose the weight. So, going into the new week, I will do hard workouts but push myself to give myself the proper rest for my body.

To all those whose reading these blogs, I hope this is inspiring and motivating you to keep going and achieve good things, not only in exercise but in all you do. Take care of yourselves, lets go into week 5 in a positive mindset :)

Week 3 / day 18

Week 3 / Day 18
Sorry for the delayed post.
I have worked fairly hard this week with my exercise, walking at least 6 days of the 7 and doing a majority of the days completing my 7 minute workouts. I haven't quite jogged this week but I'm hoping next week I will pick this up again. I have gone over my calorie count for three days and will try and reduce this next week.

My results this week are:

Weight:

Waist: 85cm

Hips: 83cm

Neck: 38cm

BMI:

I'm feeling a bit average about this weight loss, I was hoping for more but this gives me motivations to be more concious about my food intake vs exercise.

 

Week 2 / Day 11

Week 2 - Day 5 to Day 11
This week I have picked up the pace with my cardio and strength exercises. I have been participating in Facebook event called the 100 km Summer Challenge. This involves me clocking in 100 km of cardio exercise, whether it would be walking, jogging, running, bike riding, using a treadmill or exercise bike. So far I have achieved a total of 38.1 km. I will admit I have not achieved as much as I had liked to but I have walked at between 1/2 and hour to a hour 15mins everyday.

I can happily say, I have found a comfortable stride in jogging and have begun jogging distances I haven't jogged since high school. This has helped me realise that I can achieve good things if I ignore the voices in my head saying I can't do it or that I will feel pain in the morning. I also learnt that stretching gets rid of morning soreness.

I have continued counting my calorie intake daily but I have been a bit bad and gone over my allowed calorie intake for the majority of the week. So lets hope next week will see more strength in mind.

Week 1

Starting weight:71.4kg

Starting waist: 86cm

Starting hips: 83cm

Starting neck: 38cm

Week 2

Current weight: 69.9

 Current Waist: 83cm

Current Hips: 83cm

Current Neck: 38cm

Week 1 / Day 4

So I plan to post a blog of my progress at least once a week, aiming to do it on Sunday night.

Ta da, here is my weekly post, although it is the start of the year and the last post was only 3 days ago, there hasn't been much change in, well, anything really.

Starting weight: 71.4
Starting waist: 86cm
Starting hips: 83cm
Starting neck: 38cm

Current weight:70.1
Current waist: 85cm
Current hips: 83cm
Current neck: 39cm
Current BMI: 23.15

More pics

 

after walking an hour and a half, just a bit sweaty

Day 1

Hi All,
This year I will be progressing towards a healthy and fit lifestyle. I'm glad to have achieved a satisfactory weight loss last year and I plan to lose a little bit more as well as tone up my body, explore how food effects my weight - how my body reacts to certain food or amounts of food, energy levels - if certain foods effect the way I exercise or go about my daily activities, and mental state - noticing my emotions or tolerance to situations after eating, and aspiring to achieve the most satisfying physique I can achieve.
I weighed, measured and took a couple of snap shots of myself a little while ago. I will have this as my starting weight and image throughout the year to see my progress. (bit nervous about doing this but here we go).

Weight: 71.4kg
waist - 86cm
Hips - 83cm
Neck - 38cm

I would like to tone up my arms and pecs, as well as losing the gut and get something that looks a little bit like a 6 packs hahaha.

Let the fun begin!