Monday, March 14, 2011

Losing Weight.. Again!

I must.. I must.. 
I really must lose weight. And I decided that I really must do something about it after people started teasing me on facebook and right in front my face. I only happen to figure it out by myself (that I was getting thick) when I was trying on my favourite pair of jeans and I could no longer fit in them! 

Four years ago I have successfully lost weight because of vanity's sake. But now, I already have a real motivation to lose weight because it is affecting the quality of my life and happiness. I have gained around 12 lbs or 5 kilos in the course of just 2 years!

I am still not overweight but with some more pounds added I feel sluggish and less confident. This alarming realisation made me dissect on the kind of lifestyle that I have and found out I have become lazy as a cow and turned to food when I was lonely instead of being proactive.


Extreme measures leads to extreme consequences
    

In the past, I have tried a lot of diet tricks and tactics like exercising till I drop to the floor, drinking diet teas that painfully empties my stomach to surviving through a "no-white-stuff' or no-bad-carbs-diet. 

Unfortunately, I ended up feeling MORE miserable and starved. I felt that losing 6 lbs back then was not worth-it because I was not living the life that I wanted! Since my diet back then restricted me not to eat my favourite foods, like pasta and pastries, I became more cranky and moody. The carb restricted left me lifeless, and the only energy I had left is used for working out which leaves me lowbatt for more important things. 

A healthy diet must always include carbohydrates so you can have the energy to move around. Eradicating it totally will do more harm than good. Yes you may become thin quickly by not eating bread or rice but eventually you can become so fragile and weak- that with just a kick of a dog you can fall over easily. 

When I was into extreme dieting, I had my weak moments where I could not help but give in to the temptation of a chocolate cake or cookies & cream ice flavoured cream. And when I do so, I always feel guilty that I punish myself through a very vigorous workout- that I could no longer stand the next day!  I treated food as the enemy that I no longer enjoyed eating because at the back of my head all I hear is "stop it, you'll be fat!". 

But I realised that since food is primary need for survival, I should not deprive myself if I am hungry. If I love and respect myself I should take care of my body (a dwelling place of my soul) and give it what it needs and not what it always wants. Moderation is key and control must overcome cravings. 


The faster you lose weight, the faster it will come back


Who isn't a procrastinator?  If you are, then you might have tried crash dieting just because you have felt the pressure of getting in shape for an upcoming wedding in 2 weeks or for a summer vacation in the tropics. 

Quick fix solutions like getting into liquid diets will let you achieve short term goals, but sustaining that new weight becomes another problem because you know that you can't stay on a liquid diet forever. So when you decide to come back to your normal calorie intake, you will probably eat a lot more than normal because you were deprived for quite sometime and in effect you will gain back quickly what you have lost. Sometimes even a lot more.

Getting a lean and toned body is simply the result of hard work and commitment. Just the habit of learning to eat healthily and giving up an addiction to junk food takes a significant period of time to master. Taking things slow will make a better impact because once healthy eating and exercise becomes second nature to you, then you will be sexy without much effort. 

Aim for reaching an ideal weight- permanently! 

Of course we want the old Britney back but let's give her a break, realistically washboard abs may not ideal anymore since she already gave birth to two sons.  


Reaching an ideal weight is good but keeping it forever is the real challenge! Few years back my goal was to reach 100 pounds from 106 pounds. When I was able to finally reach it, I was so proud of myself because it came from hardcore discipline. But as years passed by and life got busy, I neglected taking care of my body. 


I ate whatever I wanted because I thought I can easily get rid of the fat I accumulated- if ever weight becomes a problem. I stopped exercising too, so all the muscles I built up a few years back went to waste.

Gaining 10-12 pounds really hit me hard! I figured out what was causing it and now all I want to do is get out of this vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting, which celebrities like Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Oprah are infamous for.

Oprah just like us she also struggles with maintaining her weight permanently. 

Mischa Barton, a serial yo-yo dieter in different sizes in 2006, 2008 and 2009. 

No one is ever going to convince me to eat moderately and exercise regularly but myself. If things got of control, I absolutely cannot afford a personal trainer to get me back into shape at the snap of my finger. So now, I must think of finding a permanent solution to yo-yo dieting. And that is to reset my goal into having a healthy and active lifestyle instead of just fitting into my jeans in the next month or so- which in fact is just one of the many good results of living a healthy lifestyle. 

Perhaps the first step I am planning to take is to integrate an exercise regimen  that I enjoy doing on any given day so it does not become a boring chore.  It may take a few weeks or months to get that rhythm but the important thing is this becomes part of my routine 365 days a year. Motivation wise, I truly am amped up for this.

I think that being fit and healthy says a lot about a person's character. Taking good care of your well-being is not just a personal victory- you can be a beam of light to others. If you are successful in any goal that you have, big or small, it means that you can achieve anything! 

The end result is not what's really vital, whether or not you reach 50% or 99.9% of your ideal weight, but having something to improve on continually adds another purpose to your life. Isn't that what makes us happy? - when we hope for something, go ahead to chase it and enjoy its fruition.  

2 comments:

  1. Girl, you can do it! I agree with you...when we reach our goals, it's totally worth all the work!

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  2. You made my day- thanks Jmay! I’m slowly getting there, the process may be hard but hearing at least one person cheer for you makes it so easier :)

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