It's Pay Back Time!

We arrived back in Perth on Tuesday night. I spent Wed morning for Konga at the gym, followed by stocking up the fridge, unpacking our luggage, portioning out the dogs' foods for freezing & watching Arrow on Netflix. Full on work on Thursday, didn't get home till 7.30 pm. Half day work on Friday, Body Combat in the evening.

It's such a small world. We have a new Combat instructor for Fridays now which I only found out when I attended it yesterday. Turned out that he's 1 of the youth leaders cum photographer for SGIA Perth. Being extremely bad with faces, I recognised him but couldn't figure out where I've seen him & I've been attending meetings for almost 3 years now. Major oops. Hubs was the 1 who made him out. With the lady instructor, we have time between tracks to get a drink of water. With him, he pushed on without breaks in between. I haven't been doing this for 2.5 weeks so I ached a bit after.

This morning, I pushed myself to do Body Combat followed by Body Pump. I've not done Pump before & the instructor advised me to use the lightest weights. My poor arms & quads... My legs quivered as I descended the stairs to exit the gym. Lifting my arms up requires much effort. My hair was totally drenched as if I had just came out from a shower. But, I've never felt better. Totally hooked.

I love my life here in Perth. I know hubs do too. He just finds it hard to let go. He said that he grew up in Sg. I told him that he's gonna grow old here now. Lol.

1st Day Back At Work

It was hard. Over 2 weeks, I've slept late, woke up late & napped plenty. I didn't sleep well as I felt really hot despite the temperature being in the 20s. I was awakened at 1 am by the hot mattress on my back. I couldn't get comfortable no matter how I flipped. Work wasn't too hard, a nice way to ease back into work. I did some cleaning, traced the lenses for all the way up to Wed & ordered the ones we didn't have. Job done.

There's a 5.15 pm Body Combat that I wanted to get to. I went to take a nap (oops) without setting an alarm, thinking that I would wake up way before 5 pm. Obviously I was wrong & I missed the class. I must say that Body Combat is really powerful. I went for the Tuesday evening class & I ached the worst I've ever been in my life the day. Probably didn't help that I attended Konga on Wed morning either. I literally ached from my shoulders all the way down to my lower back & my arms as well. I had difficulty putting on & taking clothes off. Walking & changing positions hurt. By Thursday it had subsided plenty & there's just a tinge left in between my shoulder blades today. I was looking forward to another session of torture but silly me missed it. Work will be full on next week. I better enjoy the weekend while I can.

Goals To Work Towards In 2017

I dreamt again. Zombie apocalypse. I know, I watched too many such shows on Netflix. Although I was trying to escape in my dream, I was helping others do the same, trying to keep them safe. It is a far cry compared to my dreams from when I was younger. I was always afraid, always running. While there's still the element of fear in my dreams now, I'm either fighting to protect others or trying the best of my ability to help others. I'll like to think that it signifies a shift in my subconsciousness or perhaps a strengthening of my character. The dream ended with me successfully helping the group escape to the aid of an army group deployed to kill the zombies.

Hubs went back to work today. I don't start work till Friday which hardly counts as work. We're just supposed to do some cleaning & for my part, check & order lenses for the cases on Monday. It'll probably take about half a day. Home alone, I attended the 9.15 am session of Body Balance at the gym. We have to sign in & collect a tag for the respective class. This lady was trying to see the class roster underneath the sign in clipboard & she said, "Sorry, dog." I could have taken it as an insult but it would speak more of me if I chose to take offense. We always talk about kosen rufu in our Buddhist studies. Kosen rufu means world peace. For world peace to prevail, it has to start from me. I brushed it off as her strong character which was later very evident in the class. I do the same with my manager as well. Besides, dogs are very endearing. :)

I thought Body Balance would be easy for me since I've been doing yoga for over a year. Granted, we did stop yoga session for over a month now which we will pick up again this weekend. But I didn't expect it to be so hard. I had to stop & rest several times during the class. I kept up better with Konga which was much more fast paced. It did bring up my weak spots, namely, balancing (all the 1 legged poses) & quads strength (all the warriors & holding of lunges). At the end of the class, I verbalised that to the instructor & she told me to keep at it & I'll get better at it. Through conversation with her, I also found out that she teaches Body Combat as well, which is what I'm planning to get to this evening. Sometimes gym work (jogging on the treadmill & weights) can get repetitive. Going to such classes mixes things up & work on different sets of muscles. I truly find them very enjoyable even if I can't keep up.

Rather than resolutions which I consider "must get there no matter what", I'll go with goals to work towards. It's a bit more lenient & allows a bit more leeway should I fall short.

Physical Health/Fitness

1. I shall aim not to give up going to the gym that easily. It's ok not to see results. Just focus on how good I feel after each session. 
2. I will like to master at least 1 inversion by the end of the year, starting with head stand.
3. I shall eat well & stop deprivation diet becoz it just doesn't work.
4. Instead of a weight goal, I shall aim to build more muscles & lose more fats. 

Mental Health

1. I shall sing more to my dogs. Singing is 1 of my favourite past times. I sing during the journey to work & back home everday. Hopefully they'll enjoy it.
2. Cut the self doubt. Whether I can or not, as long as I've tried my best.
3. Cut the self degrading talk. I'm as good as the next person. 

Spiritual Health

1. Human revolution is a life long work in progress. I shall continue to polish myself so that I will shine even brighter.
2. I shall contribute a little bit more to kosen rufu than I did last year even if it's something very small.
3. I shall aim to further apply the Buddhist principles I've learnt in my life. 
4. Finally, never stop doing the 3 pillars of faith, practice & study.

Back To Jogging

It's been 4 weeks since I've done any rowing or jogging. When the back injury 1st struck, I couldn't even bend over the slightest bit. The yoga moves that require bending over have to be modified so I squatted instead. Yesterday, while I was doing yoga, I found that I could bend over during sun salutation once again. Following that, I had a shower & I could put on my undies normally. I had been sitting at the edge of the bed, undies on the floor, putting both feet through the leg holes & using a stick to hook my undies up. It's a huge breakthrough coz I still couldn't bend over the weekend. My back still hurts but it's at least an 80% improvement.

Having stopped cardio for so long, I didn't have much drive to go to the gym. But I'm glad I did. I could row once again. Not wanting to push it too hard, I opted to jog 2 km instead of my usual 3 km. Since I've shortened the distance, I upped the speed. I started with 8 km/hr for the 1st km, followed by 8.5 km/hr for the 2nd km. I was expecting that I would find it very tedious. But surprisingly, it was alright. The exhilaration following the attainment of my 1st jogging goal in 4 weeks reminded me once again why I'm doing this. I wonder if my muscles will ache tomorrow.

The downside is that I've lost a lot of flexibility. I was able to bend over & put both palms flat on the floor. Now my hamstrings are so tight I couldn't even touch the tips of my fingers to the floor. I'll have to slowly stretch it out again. Most importantly, I must take good care of my back to prevent this from happening again.

Out Of The Obese Range

2 weeks break, back injury, eating as I wish saw me put on 1 kg post holiday period. I was actually surprised that I didn't put on more considering the amount I ate. What really surprised me more is that I've already lost the 1 kg I put on plus 1, at the end of the 1st week back to work. That puts my BMI at exactly 25.0. But as we all know, from an Asian descend, anything 23.0 & above is considered overweight. I need to lose another 5 kg before I hit a BMI of 22.9. But like I mentioned before, the weight is not as important to me as the body fat percentage.

I took both charts off the S Health app from my phone. I'm not sure if Asians have a different range. But I'm working towards fitness level in terms of fat percentage, which means between 21.0 to 24.9%. As of today, I finally dropped to 31.6% which means I'm out of the obese range. At my heaviest many years ago, I had a body fat percentage of 39.9%. It is shocking that almost 40% of my body is made up of fats. Now that I'm older, I must really begin to take care of my health. 

I've been to the gym twice this week. But I haven't been able to do much as I fear injuring my back further. Instead of jogging, I used the eliptical machine. My stamina definitely have gone down tremendously. So I got to work my way up again. My plan is to continue to work on my arms & put more time into yoga. Progress at 3 months, muscle gain of 2.4%, fat loss of 5.3% & weight loss of 6.9 kg.

Difference Between Weight Losses

I've lost 6 kg to date. Like I've mentioned, the entire loss came from fats alone. This is a vast difference from my multiple attempts at weight loss in the past. I used to achieve weight loss by dieting alone aka calories restriction. The weight loss that followed was a combination of fats & muscles loss. I didn't realise how much difference it made until Sharon pointed out that I looked like I lost a lot of weight. My response was, "It's only 6 kg." So I went & dug out this old photo of me from over 6 years ago. I can't remember how much I weigh then, probably about 59 kg. I know I dropped to 57 kg when I met hubs just few weeks later.

Left: 59 kg, 6 years ago.
Right: 61 kg now.

Goodness me! Putting the 2 pictures side by side, the differences are obvious. I definitely look slimmer now, especially on my face. I haven't worn that orange dress in 6 years. Seeing this photo prompted me to go try it out. I can wear it again! But best if I wait till I lose a bit more coz when I sit down, the gaps between the buttons are pretty pronounced. Other than weight loss, exercise also gave me lots of other benefits. This is definitely the way to go.

I haven't pushed to do a full 5 km jog on my Ironman training this week becoz I wanted to go home earlier. But I'll definitely give it a shot next week. During my routine training yesterday, I had completed my resistance training & had just started jogging when I felt, in Singlish terms, "How come like no kick?" The beauty of jogging on a treadmill is having an even gradient & constant speed. When I 1st started, I was jogging at a pace of 7 km/hr. At 4 weeks, I've increased that to 7.5 km/hr. So I thought, "Alright, I'll put it up to 8 km/hr to see how it'll go." I completed my usual 3 km at that pace. It's actually quite enjoyable. Doable yet enough "kick". 

I do feel lazy most days where I feel like just heading home to rest. But once I get started, I just want to keep going. Knowing that, I still go to the gym even when I don't feel like it. But once I hit my 3 times a week, I allow myself to rest the other 2 days coz I do have yoga on Sat to make up for it. But yeah, it's great. I hated exercising. Seriously. But if I can come to enjoy it, I think everyone can. Give it a try. 

Onward To The Next 5 Kg

As of this week, I've completed 8 weeks in the gym. I've always felt I'm terrible with exercise & that no matter how hard I try, it just doesn't work for me. It's amazing how a change in mindset can have such tremendous effects. I started wanting to lose weight without it being the sole focus. I told myself that fitness is what I should be aiming for & not to be disheartened if my weight remains the same. I've just lost my 1st 5 kg from gym-ing, with a 1.8% muscle gain & 3.9% fat loss. Based on the stats, I guess it's safe to say that the entire 5 kg loss came from fats alone. When I 1st started, jogging 2 km was a struggle. Now, 3 km is my norm & something I aim for every gym session.

Since this is a milestone for me, I decided to go celebrating by trying out for my 1st 5 km jog in 1.5 years. It was before I got my job. Right smack in winter, it was 8 am & 4°c outside. It was very hard & my muscles were already aching even before I completed the 5 km. Of course, that was also the 1 & only time I went jogging until the recent weeks. So all along, I knew I can do a 5 km jog becoz if I could do it back then without training, I can do it again now. I just didn't want to do it too soon but rather slowly learn to enjoy jogging. I made it in 40 mins, shaved 9 mins off from the timing 1.5 years ago. It wasn't super hard but it did require a fair bit of mental pap talk. I started counting down right from the beginning. One fifth down, four fifths to go (at 1 km mark), two fifths down (2 km mark), 50% there (2.5 km mark), you've just completed your usual distance (3 km mark), just 1 more km to go (4 km mark) & then it was counting down by the 100 meters. 我既然没有要死的感觉。So that's really good.

I don't know if I'm going to ache tomorrow since I've pushed myself beyond my routine. I did some resistance training for my arms before I left the gym. I wonder if I can do 5 km jog for my Ironman training next week. That will be awesome. That will also mean I'm left with additional 10 km of cycling to pick up. I'll see how I feel when I get there. My knee is still purple from the fall last Wed. It doesn't hurt as much anymore but I'm not too sure if I can get on my knees for yoga this Sat though. 

My manager shared with me her experiences with marathons. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when she told me she could finish a 42 km run in 4 hours. From FB, all my friends are clocking 3+ hours for the 21 km run which could only mean that my manager is really really fast. She also did ultra marathons where she had to run 56 km & she could do it in 5+ hours. She also took part in the 1000 km challenge which she had to complete within a year. During the year, she had to run 3 marathons a month so she could complete it. I had to pick my jaw from the ground. She told me that 5 mins per km is a good pace. But she wasn't fast compared to the others. The Africans (she came from South Africa) can do 3 mins per km. That's literally sprinting from start to end, isn't it? That's more than half of my 8 mins per km.

My motto these days is "Some day I'll get there". So yeah, some day I'll get there. Maybe not 42 km. That's way too far out. My aim is currently for 10 km. But 1st, let me get to the stage where 5 km is a comfortable distance. 

Thursday Night Home Alone

Not really home alone. Only that hubs will be home much later. He's gone to Crown for a buffet dinner sponsored by his company. In fact, he just called me, informing me that he could only eat 3 plates of food compared to his colleagues who were already on their 6th. He suggested going with me some day. Erm... better don't waste the money. It's $80 per pax & I'm absolutely positive I won't be able to eat much. His boss told him that the hotel is nice for a staycation & hubs wanted to do it with me some day. That, I'll be interested in. We used to do lots of staycation in Sg for anniversaries & birthdays. But WA is big & we're still in the early stages of discovering its beauty. His boss suggested walking around, exploring the hotel & casino after the dinner. So basically, he rang to tell me that he'll be home late. That's alright. It's nice to have a little me time.

Jazz went straight into the garage upon returning home with me on Sat & wasn't driven till Monday. We headed to the shelter on Sun but either the dog didn't like Ton or Ton didn't like the other dog. There was 1 dog I was really interested in. Using distant reiki, I "spoke" to him prior to the viewing. However, I got the message that he's happy where he is & isn't really interested in going home with me. On the day itself, the volunteer informed me that he was returned after being adopted, reason being that he reacted to other dogs in the park. I went to his kennel to see him but I couldn't get a response from him. He just wasn't interested. Another dog the volunteers were suggesting was in foster & wouldn't be back till Monday. So we left without having successfully adopted 1. It's alright. We need to make sure we get a perfect match. The right 1 will come.

Hubs drove Eba to work on Monday. It was also when I realised that I forgot to transfer my e-tag which will allow me into my workplace car park. I ended up getting a visitor's ticket to gain entry & swapping it for a staff ticket at the end of the day. The plan was for me to transfer it when hubs drove home with Eba. But he got home late as the mechanic had problems getting the distributor but finally got it fixed after 6 pm. He was told to drive his car home to "work the distributor" so that it doesn't die again. Eba was left at the warehouse overnight. Hubs then suggested that I follow him to work on Tuesday morning before driving Eba to work. So that was what transpired & Jazz sat in the garage for another day.

I get crazy ideas from TV shows all the time. When we were chasing Masterchef, I used their mystery box ingredients to create dishes of my own. Chasing TBL, I got the idea of doing a mini Ironman. The contestants ran 1 km, cycled 5 km, kayak unknown distance, then ran the final distance to the end point. I went online to find out more about Ironman races. Naturally, I won't be able to do a full Ironman which involves 4 km swim, 180 km cycle & 42 km run. But I can aim to do the sprint version of the Ironman which involves 750 m swim, 20 km cycle & 5 km run. I can swim but I'm not very good at it. If I have to swim in the open sea, I'll probably drown. So there's no way I can take part in the race. But I can certainly make use of the distances as a challenge to myself in the gym. Copying TBL, I swapped the swim for rowing.

So on Wed, I did a 1.5 km row (doubled it as rowing is easier than swimming), 10 km cycle & 2.5 km jog. 500 m into the cycling, my thighs were burning. But I just kept going, forcing myself to complete at least half of 20 km. I finally did after 25 mins which I later found out was terrible timing. A cyclist friend can cycle 18 km in 30 mins but of course, he's been doing it for a few years. It's definitely something to aim for. By the time I got to the treadmill, I was pretty worn. Even without the other exercises, I haven't jogged 5 km yet. I had just completed 2.5 km in 20 mins & promptly took a tumble on the treadmill. Yeah, I know, I'm so clumsy. I actually missed a step, had my right foot on the side unmoving panel & my left foot still on the moving treadmill. Yep, ended up with a big bruise on my right knee & shin but otherwise unharmed. I got back up & went to carry some weights before heading home. When I told hubs what had happened, he had the cheek to laugh at me some more. Bleah!

Here we are, Thursday night. I resumed my normal gym routine before heading home since hubs is having good food at Crown. I reckon I'll do the Ironman training once a week with remaining gym days doing my routine. Hopefully in a few month's time, I'll be able to report that I successfully completed my 1st Sprint Ironman in the gym.

Gym Work In Progress

My 1st set of measurements were dated 15th Oct. At the 1 month mark on 14th Nov, I've gained 1% muscles, lost 2.1% fats & a weight loss of 2.5 kg. Not too shabby. I don't see any physical changes probably becoz the weight loss is still very little. But I can definitely feel the difference. When I started, I could barely do 10 reps in each resistance exercise I was supposed to do. Now, I've hit 15 reps & had just started increasing the weights this week by 1 kg.

Perhaps the most definitive of increasing stamina & fitness is my pulse rate. I started with a resting pulse rate of 68 on the average. It has since gone down to 62. Mid way through my jog, I would always check my pulse. I started off at 182 bpm which is almost 100% of my maximum heart rate (188 bpm). I watched my pulse rate went down to mid 170s at the 2 week mark, to the current 168 bpm mid jog. Although I'm hoping to train for endurance rather than speed, I also found that I've gone from 18 mins for 2 km jog to 16 mins now. 

Some days, jogging 500 m seems like such a chore. Those are the days I will stick to the minimum of 2 km. But on days when I feel I can go further, I'll push to go 2.5 km or even 3 km. Hopefully, in the months to come, I'll gradually be able to stretch it even further. The only exercises that didn't seem to get any easier are the crunches & planks. 15 crunches are still hard. 30 seconds planks are still hard. That's alright. I'm still very happy with my progress.

This evening, I'll start my 1st ever yoga class. I'm so excited that I'm finally getting to do it after so many years. I've gotten a pair of tights (as requested by my instructor). As expected, I look terrible in them. Tights are meant for skinny people. On flabby people like me, every single bulge shows. Oh well, if I keep this up, the flab will eventually go.

I watch what I eat on a daily basis. But I still eat a decent meal once a week. By decent I mean bigger than usual. It's good. It keeps me on track. I also listen to my body. Some days I feel like having just that little bit more & I do.

I've also overcome the insomnia that came with exercising. I couldn't sleep coz I had so much energy at night. I still am energetic but now, I have no problems falling asleep. Even if I wake up in the middle of the night, I no longer toss & turn for another hour before I can go back to sleep. My body is obviously getting used to it. Yay!

Producing Hives

After my extra long gym session on Tuesday, I went back to the original routine on Wednesday. Nothing much different, except that I felt 2 km on the treadmill was tough. But that was to be expected. I usually fare a bit better if I had a rest day. It was the usual 1 hour drive home. When I got home, I took off my clothes & realised that I was red from the neck to naval, all over to the side of my body. My back was completely clear. I didn't think much of it. My face always got flushed after jogging so I thought that was the case for my body even though it had never happened before. I took my usual as-hot-as-I-can-tolerate shower. Immediately after, I started itching. It was when I finally started to develop red, raised welts on my arms (near my armpits), groin & upper thighs that I realised that these were hives, which meant the neck to navel patch was nothing but 1 gigantic welt.

In the event of an allergic reaction, antihistamine is your best friend. I did everything the same, wore the same clothes washed with the same detergent, ate the same thing everyday (it's easier when you're trying to lose weight), came in contact with the same things. I really couldn't figure out what I was reacting to. I went to bed & had another flare up between 12 mn to 1 am. I tried very hard to ignore the itching but I couldn't sleep. Sometime later, I don't know how long, I finally drifted off to sleep. Needless to say, I went to work sleep depraved & the histamine circulating in my body made me really drowsy. I already knew I was going to take a day's rest from gym so I went to work in my normal clothes.

When I got home from work, I had a cooler than usual shower so as to not aggravate the situation, had dinner & took another dose of antihistamine. Everything was fine so far, no new welts, no itching but I just wanted to take 1 more dose to be sure. Went to sleep & was woken up by incessant itching at almost 1 am. This time on my lower arms & wrists. It was crazy. I had antihistamine in my system & yet I got another flare up. I had a good look in the morning & found welts on my entire lower arms, wrists & back of my right hand. I also had new welts from the back of my thighs just under the butt all the way to the back of my knees. I was like, "What's going on man?" The last time I had hives was 17 years ago.

I had already skipped gym on Thursday so I refused to skip it on Friday too. I was asymptomatic other than feeling somewhat drowsy. By the time I got to work, the welts had flattened & the redness more subdued. Perhaps it was becoz of this attack, I felt I wasn't in tip top condition. 2 km, like on Wednesday, felt difficult. But I've told myself before that 2 km is my absolute minimum so I pushed on & completed it.

Coming back home, I was kinda apprehensive. Twice, I've flared up in the middle of the night at the same time no less. It's gone from my torso out to my limbs. I just had this feeling that whatever it was, it was leaving my body (becoz it was moving away from my core). Taking a risk, I didn't take antihistamine after dinner. Here I am, Saturday morning, no more flare ups at 1 am, no more new welts, all previous welts have faded away. I wonder if it was an allergic reaction to something external at all. For some reason, I have this feeling that my body released a load of toxins & it was that which I reacted to. There's no way to prove it since it's a psychic feeling & I don't think I'll ever have confirmation.

Up Up & Away, Stamina!

We only have a half day list today so I thought I'll spend a little bit more time in the gym. Even with the additional sets of exercises, I was done in 1 hr 20 mins. The exercises are starting to get a little bit easier. It makes me happy coz it means my stamina is improving. I guess I'll have to up my reps in the near future. To finish off, I jogged on the treadmill with an initial target of 2.5 km. As I approached the goal distance, I thought that I could probably do more. So I completed 3 km before coming to a stop.

I think there's been a shift of focus in my mind & heart. My 1st gym session was on the 21st Oct, after which, I fell sick & didn't resume until last week. Between then & now, I've only lost 1 kg. Watching the intake carefully & exercising for 2 weeks only produced a loss of 1 kg? If this were me in the past, I would have given up. I really don't know why but unlike in the past, I find these exercise sessions very enjoyable. Of course, I still want to lose the weight. But it's no longer exercising just for the sake of weight loss. Perhaps without unrealistic expectations & a shorter work week (I used to work between 55 to 65 hours a week in Sg) makes it possible for me to enjoy the process. Maybe 1 day I just may be able to attain my long time goal of doing a 10 km run event but I'm probably looking at months of work in progress.

1 step at a time. It's only just the beginning. Heh.

Gym Bunny

That's what my colleagues call me these days even though I've only been to the gym regularly for a week. Everyday after work, I'll head off to the gym. Although I've imposed upon myself a cut off time of 5.15 pm, there was a day I still went even though it was already 5.30 pm. The reason for the cut off time is becoz I don't want to get home too late. If I follow the trainer's exercise plan for me, it'll take me an hour to complete it. Add another hour for me to drive home equates 2 hours. I'll like to be home by 7 pm so my aim is to leave the gym by 6 pm. On days when I couldn't get to the gym before 5 pm, I've been dropping a couple of resistance exercises in favour of an intensive hit of jogging. Erm... well, intensive to me that is.

Over the weekend, I'm trying to jog at least 2 km, with a rowing warm up. I've got this cheapo rower which even on resistance level 1 requires quite a fair bit of effort to pull. Well, at least I've gone from being able to pull only 20 times to the current 50 times. Then, I'll follow the warm up with crunches, planking, more crunches, back raise & finish off with another set of crunches. The last is the jogging part. I've pushed myself a little bit more yesterday, jogging 2.5 km instead of the initial 2 km.

So I've been to the gym 4 times this week, plus 1 session at home. I've lost 1 kg and based on the built in body analyzer in the weighing machine (if it's accurate), the entire 1 kg came from fats. I even gained 2 grams of muscles. Lol. This is exciting news. When I used to severely restrict my calories without exercise, I would lose fats, sure. But I would lose muscles as well since they're the 1st to go as they require more energy to sustain & it's the body's way of self preservation.

I'm looking forward to going back to the gym this week. Although I've requested for a day off today, I didn't go jogging. It was too humid (93% rh) & for some reasons I was nursing a headache from the time I woke up. Somehow, it's also easier to get going straight after work. When I'm at home, I don't feel like heading out. Ok, back to the gym tomorrow.

有心无力

My plan was to successively follow Wed's workout with Thurs & Fri. Neither of which happened. I really wanted to go. I wore my workout attire to work. But on Thurs, I finished work at 6.30 pm & by the time I walked out of the building, it was already 6.45 pm. Plus 1 hour session, plus 1 hour drive home, I could have easily gotten home at 9 pm. I wouldn't have minded if it was a Friday. But it wasn't & I had to work the next day.

Thurs morning, 12 hours post workout: The muscle aches were starting to set in, just as I had expected. Only I thought it would be worse. On a scale of severity, this was probably about 3 to 4. But the pain grew progressively & by evening, it was probably about a 7. I also had some throat irritation in the morning which became a full blown sore throat by evening.

Fri morning, 36 hours post workout: Full blown sore throat still present, muscle pain is now 8. I didn't even have to go down the stairs to feel it. I had to hold the toilet seat & slowly ease myself down to sit on the toilet bowl. It was aching so much even when I was walking. Still, I went to work in my workout attire. I still wanted to go. But by lunch time, it was evident I wasn't going anywhere but straight home after work. My nose was starting to run. Body aches started to set in (the flu type of aches). I quickly took 2 neurofen from our stock. Believe it or not, I was actually sent home by my manager who asked me to go home & rest at 3 pm. (No such thing in Sg. We were actually told that we should take MC only when we're so sick that we can't get out of bed. Of course, nobody listened. If we waited till that stage, we probably would have gone into pneumonia & died.) I felt it would be counter productive if I still headed to the gym so I went straight home.

I badly craved hot chicken soup (I have no idea why) so hubs drove us to Coles to get the ingredients. Passing the supplements aisle, I saw that chewable Vitamin C was on 30% discount so I grabbed it. Immediately after paying for it, I popped 2 as directed on the bottle. As I was reading the information, I saw that it says Vitamin C is good for assisting athletes to recover from their training. All the more better. I also took a sachet of Lemsip left over from previous infection as the neurofen had long worn off.

Sat morning, which is now, muscle aches mostly gone. It's like 说来就来, 说走就走. Muscle ache is now down to 1 to 2. But on the URTI front, things had moved south. Literally. I can feel that the soreness in my throat had moved down & I'm very certain that very soon, cough will set in. My brain feels fuddled like it always do when I'm down with severe URTI. I must aim to recover by Monday. We only have 3 cases in the morning & nothing in the afternoon. I had planned to do an extra long session in the gym & I'm hoping I still can follow through with it. That's the way it is, isn't it? When I had the time, I didn't have the motivation. Now I'm raring to go, but conditions are not right. Oh well, I'll recover. Hopefully soon. 

Day 1: 1st Gym Session

It's 2 am. I can't sleep. I've been awake since 12.40 am after a trip to the toilet. I've started my gym training. My list finished at 4.30 pm. I changed into my workout attire & headed to the gym. There were about 10 others in the gym. I just followed the exercise plan my assessing trainer did for me. But I think from next session on, I'll add triceps work.

I started off with 15 mins of rowing as my cardio warm up. The trainer told me that the key to fitness is doing what you enjoy. So no treadmill for the time being since I hate jogging. But I know it's something I have to tackle at some point since I have this "dream" to complete a 10 km run event 1 day.

Next, I moved on to resistance training: squats with 4 kg dumbbell in each hand, chest fly with 2.5 kg dumbbell & lastly, lateral pull downs. I was supposed to do 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise. But I could only do 10 reps for 2 of them. It'll be a while before I can hit 15.

Then I moved to mattress work. 15 crunches, 30 sec plank, another 15 crunches, 30 sec of back raise. He asked me to do back raise to strengthen my lower back since I have intermittent low back pain from previous injury at work. The back raise was the hardest for me.

This was followed by 10 mins of cardio which I completed on the elliptical machine. My heart rate actually hit almost 100% of my maximum heart rate at 182 bpm (my MHR is 188). I was asked to target for 75% which is more like in the 140s zone. Very very unfit.

Last was cool down with stretching exercises. By the time I completed everything, an hour has passed. I drank like 1L coz I was just so dry. Then I drank another 500 ml on the drive home. Which explains my interrupted sleep. I think due to the amout of water I drank, I wasn't hungry & I wanted to consume more protein post workout so I chose to drink my meal replacement.

I'm still trying to improve on the process. I found that I had to juggle 2 sets of clothes & 2 pairs of shoes. So from now on, during workout days, I'll simply wear my workout clothes & track shoes to work. My work place is undergoing lift upgrading so I had to take the stairs. My goodness! My legs felt like jelly. It wasn't hard climbing up but when I was coming down, I felt like my legs were going to give way.

I actually felt good after the gym session. I feel excited about doing it again soon. So I guess not forcing myself to jog is really the way to go. If I'm going to do this 3 to 5 times a week, I'll need more workout wear. Shopping this Sat it is.

Gym Appraisal

I was early for my appraisal, as I am for pretty much everything in my life. The trainer was doing a circuit class with 1 guy when I got there. I sat outside the group fitness room & spent 20 mins passing time playing games on my phone. Promptly at 8 am, the trainer came to meet me. We spent some time doing measurements before I was given an orientation to the gym. I had to complete a series of tasks which is the main assessment of whether I'm fit enough to join the gym.

I had to cycle on the stationary bike between 85 to 95 rpm until I reached 75% of my maximum heart rate. Then, he taught me a few exercises with weights before going back to the assessment. I had to do crunches for 1 min & plank for 30 seconds. I thought it would be extremely strenuous but it wasn't so. When we got back to the group fitness room, he wrote an exercise plan for me which I will have to follow for 3 times a week. If I can make it to the gym more than that, I am to do cardio for the rest of the week.

Now I'm just waiting for my application to be processed & the gym pass to be given to me. Looks like I'll need to have a gym bag permanently in my locker at work. I can't wait to get started.