J: Fitness month update + A very useful iPhone app as your fitness pal!

I’ve had a setback, and it’s not making me happy. But, it does not discourage me at all! Oh no! I am using this as a motivation. Everybody has to undergo a setback of some form, right? Well, I did and I am rising against it.

If you could recall in my previous post my starting weight was 109kgs and I wasn’t able to go to the gym for three days and was only able to do cardio at home for 15 minutes per day. That should be quite fine, right? But the problem was I ate too much junk foods and chocolate after it, eventhough I knew it wasn’t smart. Well, I weighed last night and saw that I gained 1kg. So I am really pumped up to go back to the gym now!

MY MINDSET

Here are some of the things I think about to motivate me to continue this journey no matter what heck of a setback I go through:

- I need to be the healthy one to be able to effectively take care of my parents.
- I need to do this for myself and my health.
- My mind is stronger than my body.
- What I think, I can be.
- I need this to live long enough to find the path God wants me to take in life.


MY WEEK IN THE GYM

Here’s how my last week unfold.

I went to the gym last Wednesday and I followed my updated workout plan:

7AM - wakeup, fix my bed, prepare for gym
8AM - hitch with my mom and let her drop me off the gym (on the way to her workplace)
8:30AM-Arrive at the gym
 - 1hour Cardio (Treadmill and Cross-Trainer)
 - 30mins. weights machine (20 counts, 3 reps with 30kgs. workload for leg press(inner and outer), 5kgs for shoulder press, arm extension, back press and 10kgs for abdominal crunches)
  * join group exercises, if available.
 -  5-10mins. Sauna Bath
10:20AM - Shower at the gym
11AM - Eat Breakfast!

 I felt good afterwards! It was really refreshing, some muscles ached but that’s just part of it. I ate consciously the whole day! In fact, I wasn’t able to finish my humongous tuna sandwich, because I felt full already. Here’s how my breakfast after workout looks like:

Green Tea w/ Mint and my humongous Chef's Tuna sandwich!

MY FITNESS PAL

I’ve also been using this iPhone app, My Fitness Pal, where I have been storing my food and exercise diary. It, then, calculates my calorie intake and stores how much calories I’ve burned during the workout. It also predicts how I would weight if what I ate for the day will be the same everyday for 5weeks. I set it on a 1300calorie/day goal. It’s a really helpful tool. And, here’s a glimpse of its interface, it’s totally free too!

THE TEMPORARY SETBACK

But then, the weekend came and I decided I’ll just start working out again on Sunday. Weekend here in Doha are Fridays and Saturdays, then Sundays will be the first day of work; meaning I can hitch with my mom again in the morning. During the weekend we went out and ate at this Italian resto called “Le Vesuvio”, I managed to control my eating there because their pesto was soooo good! Though I didn’t finish the whole thing because the serving was ginormous, but then we moved to this other funky place called “Chac’Late” for dessert. And, you know what that means, we; had a white chocolate fountain and skewers of mallows, fruits and waffles! It’s so delicious I forgot my health yet again. But I made up for it the next day by going on the cross trainer for 15mins :)

The Temptations! The cause of my setback! A very delish chocolate fountain!

GOING BACK TO THE GYM!

So with that said, I’ve set an every other day gym schedule (Sun, Tue, Thur) and that’s the schedule I will be following this week. The days in between I’ll spend 30mins per day on our cross-trainer here at home.

As of writing, it is still Sunday here and I just got back from the gym. I am still managing to follow my workout and meal plan J No setback for me today! I also managed to snuck in a little snapshot of how the gym I go to looks like :)

Finished my 45-min elevated sprint at the treadmill here

Just began my 15-minute jog at the cross trainer

1-hour cardio: Done!! Off to the ladies' free weights section :)

So, I guess the lesson I learned here is that it’s okay to indulge as long as I give my body a break sometimes to sweat out and maintain my health balance.  

Must continue to fight! Never give up! Never give in!

Motivate yourself and always spread the body and self lovin’! J

-J