My roller coaster ride with weight loss

Blame it on genes, on foods, on lifestyle.  For quite a number of years, I have been a victim of this mania until I woke up one morning detesting what I saw in the mirror.

Me at 150+++ lbs in April 2007

 

 

Let me briefly share with you some significant details on my yoyo weight for the last 10 years from 140lbs (as I already forgot how I lost my post pregnancy weight of 10 lbs)

Year 1999

Tried the famous Xenical for about a month but stopped taking it due to discomfort every time I take this. Pounds lost: 5 .Weight when i stopped 135

Year 2000

Was lured by Bangkok pills. I was ecstatic when my appetite was suppressed by  2 or 3 pills I took before each meal, disregarding the dryness in my mouth and frequent peeing.  This was followed by a very quick effect on my weight loss  and in a span of 2 months, I  lost  25 lbs. However, on the 3rd month, noticed that the pills no longer had an effect on my body. In short, got immune with it so decided to stop taking Bangkok pills.  Pounds lost – 25. Weight when I stopped : 110

Year 2001-2004

These were the years where I was totally baffled on what to do with my weight. Worst, I regained the 25 lbs lost from Bangkok pills. Tried all kinds of fad diets from hearsay, tv advs, magazines.  Several diet pills like Xenadrine, Hydroxycut, Lesofat and the last was  a color orange box with a ballet dancer on the cover  ( hay couldn’t  really recall the name !!) entered my body .   Diet shakes didn’t escape my eyes too. While on and off with diet pills and shakes, I enrolled in Slimmers world for 1 year as advised by a former officemate. Summarizing my weight gain and loss (or otherwise) :  

                  2001-2003            gain  25lbs     –  ended with    135 lbs 

                  2003                      lost    9 lbs       –  ended with  126 lbs

                                                gain   5 lbs         – ended   132  lbs 

                   2004                  0                            -   132

June 2005-May 2007

Jonas surprised me when he enrolled me in Fitness First Fort.  The first group exercise that caught my attention was the spinning class which since then have  become my  favorite. Once in a while I would inject diet pills and other fad diets into my system, not to mention my  erroneous eating habit like preferring  deep fry bread (2 tuna cariman for lunch ,super yummy!!)  and iced mocha over real meal.   My  addiction to all kinds of chips and cornik was then unstoppable. I was enjoying my 1 hour spinning class of 5 to 6 times a week plus other group exercises such as body pump, body combat and body balance , for almost 2 years when I was struck by deep depression as my weight reached a whooping 155lbs. Panicking. I visited Marie France and after few minutes of  listening to their sales pitch, I immediately enrolled in their FMS  (Fat Mobilization System), it was then followed by Physique Inch Loss where I lost 5  pounds  in 3 months. Here is the summary of my yoyo weight:

                     Sept 2006                gain  23 lbs   –      155

                     Oct-Dec 2006        lost  5 lbs       –      150            Marie France

                     Jan-May 2007      lost    3 lbs      -       147 lbs    Consistent work out 

June 2007-  July 2008

Intrigued by the poster that I saw in Fitness First about weight management , I immediately contacted one of their consultants Arvin Carina who is also a licensed physical therapist.  After telling Arvin my history on weight struggle, he required   me to religiously adhere to the weight management bible of  naturally losing weight, meaning though that I would have to throw my fad diets practices.  Few of the many things that I have learned from weight management :

1) Daily adherence to  5+2+2+2+2  (minimum servings of 5 carbs, 2 protein, 2 veggies, 2 fruits, 2 milk).  Of course, this practice was personalized based on my lifestyle and  daily activity as suggested  by  Arvin.   For starters, keeping a journal of your food intake is suggested.  

2) 3 hours interval on food intake. This way you wouldn’t starve yourself and avoid the tendency of overeating

3)  Trying outdoor sports like badminton and  running

4) Eating my fave foods, like  donut, cakes, pizza, chocolates and chips, in moderation

5) Eating rice and burger is not fattening. Eating lots of rice and burger is fattening. In short, eating more than  what your body needs is really fattening.  

6) Taking a day or two of rest from working out.  

7) Regularly (preferably weekly) weighing yourself to know your improvement.

8) Don’t panic if you gain 2 lbs in a week (once in a while) as it can be blamed on your body system. 

9) If you feel that you are no longer losing weight with your  current exercise (program),  try to stop doing the same thing for          about a week and resume  the following week.  Its like  rebooting your system.

 

November 2008 at 130lbs after losing 17 lbs from strict weight management

August 2008 todate

In August 2008, our gym buddy Joey and Rhoze  Lim invited us to participate in Mens Health marathon  relay of 10km in The Fort as its  proceeds would  go to charity. We happily joined the said race and even wanted more. Before joining succeeding races, we first convinced  some of our gym friends to run with us as Jonas and me believed that marathon  would truly be enjoyable if you do it with friends. From then on, our group has become a part of the weekly races from  Bahaginan, to Adidas,  New Balance, Botak, UP Ictus, Condura and many more. In addition to my regular gym work out,  running outdoor and indoor is now  part of my activity . I don’t run fast, I just enjoy every stride I make, every panorama I see and every  movement of my whole body.  My  addiction to running now pave the way to losing 18 more pounds.  Todate, I have already lost 43 pounds.

Thanks to Fitness First weight management coach Arvin Carina  for guiding me to a healthy lifestyle, to Joey and Rhoze Lim who opened my eyes to  marathon and my running friends  who have been  making every marathon exciting and truly worth looking forward too. 

What triggered my quest to healthy living

1. When  I kept on buying size Large and Extra Large clothes
2. When I  could no longer fit in my   size 28 pants and my size small and medium blouse/tshirts
3. When I  was forced to wear Jonas’ size 32-34 maong and Tshirts
4. When my former boss asked me if I was pregnant (arggghh)
5. When I was too scared to step on the weighing scale

These 5 items were now part of my past as I am now enjoying this body:

and this:

me following weight management bible with regular gym work out and my new love: running