Health & Fitness: Week 41, 2020

Week 41 runs from Monday 5th October — Sunday 11th October, 2020.

For more information on what, why and how I’m tracking everything, including my health & fitness goals, please click here. To skip to the end of week summary, please click here.

The Week in Fitness & Food

10/5 – Monday. Cleaned apt.

I’m not sure what is up with my sleep app but it’s still acting up. I managed to get some of the data from my Watch app before my phone app, once again, wiped all the data clean. I slept decently last night and awoke feeling decently rested too.

Today I had plans to clean the entire apt, which is something we’d been putting off for a while, so I did just that. Cleaned, vacuumed, tidied, did a load of laundry and the dishes too. Not quite a workout, but still moderate ‘cardio’ to a degree. I worked up a sweat anyway.

I had a greek yoghurt bowl for breakfast, a bowl of jajangmyeon from the Korean place we went to on Saturday for lunch, a scallion and egg pancake as an afternoon snack, then for dinner we ordered a feast from our favourite local Burmese restaurant. I plan to blog about that! But needless to say, I ate quite a lot today lol.

I feel a bit thrown off my diet this week, I think it’s because we’ve sort of run out of wrap ingredients and I haven’t really been craving wraps the past few days. I hope my weight will be around the same tomorrow, but I am expecting it to increase a little.

I’m really pleased I went back down to 120.4lbs today though :) I hope and expect to drop below 120lbs this week!

Sleep
Time
Wake
Time
Hrs
Slept
Restful
Sleep

Disruptions

Awoke Feeling

Weight
00:4008:357hr 55min5hr 25minNoneDecently rested120.4lbs
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Health & Fitness: Week 40, 2020

Week 40 runs from Monday 28th September — Sunday 4th October, 2020.

For more information on what, why and how I’m tracking everything, including my health & fitness goals, please click here. To skip to the end of week summary, please click here.

The Week in Fitness & Food

9/28 – Monday. Rest.

I had the best of intentions to exercise this morning, really, I did. I woke up decently early. I woke up somewhat rested, I guess? But I ended up being very productive in different ways instead: I did 3 loads of laundry, 3 sets of washing up / putting away dry dishes, cooked, cleaned the kitchen and Swiffered half of the apartment.

My knee still hurts and I realised that I may have put too much stress on it when I jogged a little on Saturday, then I put extra strain on it during my workout yesterday. As such, resting today whilst doing light exercise in the form of household chores was the right way to go.

I’m back on track with my usual healthy foods diet and I’m loving it. I loved eating a bunch of mixed greens and vegetables in my wrap and having protein in every meal. I think my weight should remain stable tomorrow.

Sleep-wise, I wonder if my poorer sleep in the past week could have also been attributed to poorer diet. I have been eating a lot of junk lately that my body is probably not used to anymore. I’ll see if my sleep is better tonight.

My sleep app is still not tracking properly, but I’ve noticed many recent reviews for sleep tracker apps saying there have been problems since the recent iOS update.

Sleep
Time
Wake
Time
Hrs
Slept
Restful
Sleep

Disruptions

Awoke Feeling

Weight
23:5008:458hr 55min????Somewhat rested122.4lbs
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Health & Fitness: Week 39, 2020

Week 39 runs from Monday 21st September — Sunday 27th September, 2020.

For more information on what, why and how I’m tracking everything, including my health & fitness goals, please click here. To skip to the end of week summary, please click here.

The Week in Fitness & Food

9/21 – Monday. Completed 16:44.
Video completed: Trifecta Pilates Full Length Pilates Class.

Today I woke up with a mild headache again, which was probably caused by me falling asleep with my hair wet… again. I usually shower at the end of the day even if I work out earlier because it’s so hot that I end up sweating in the afternoon again anyway, but I’m so sick of the constant headaches (pun intended). I showered at 8pm today and blow dried my hair so we’ll see tomorrow if that helped.

Anyways, coupled with some mild soreness from yesterday and general fatigue from PMS, I decided to take it easy and try out some lighter pilates so I can still exercise without going too crazy. I also hoped the slow and controlled motions within pilates would be able to help my form.

I found a bunch of pilates channels but ended up trying out this one because the instructor is licensed. I feel like the instructor was clear in her instructions and helpful with explaining where you should be positioning your body etc. Thanks to that, I realised my form did improve for certain ab exercises. I liked that there was plenty of stretching throughout the workout so I didn’t need to do a separate warm up or cool down. As intended, it didn’t push me very hard but I still got a decent workout from it and felt energised after.

Unfortunately, I also found it a little long and boring. I stopped the video half way through because I got bored, so I decided to do my weekly pushup count to give myself a change of exercise and pace before finishing it. I wouldn’t do this video again, but I will try pilates again because their movements are excellent for core training, which I still need. The instructor has other, shorter workouts too, so I may try one of those next time.

For my weight, well… it kinda doesn’t surprise me either haha. We ate a lot last night. Jacky’s increased even more than mine did. I ate my normal diet again today (oatmeal, wrap, protein bar, leftover Thai food) so I think my weight should be the same tomorrow, and start dropping back down again later this week.

Sleep
Time
Wake
Time
Hrs
Slept
Restful
Sleep

Disruptions

Awoke Feeling

Weight
00:1008:308hr 20min5hrsNoneSomewhat rested122.4lbs
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Health & Fitness: Week 38, 2020

Week 38 runs from Monday 14th September — Sunday 20th September, 2020.

For more information on what, why and how I’m tracking everything, including my health & fitness goals, please click here. To skip to the end of week summary, please click here.

The Week in Fitness & Food

9/14 – Monday. Completed 16:53.
Videos completed: MadFit 5min Warm Up, MadFit 15min Love Handle & Muffin Top Abs, MadFit 30min Low Impact HIIT, MadFit 5min Cool Down.

Today’s set was hard. Well, the abs workout was really challenging for me. I definitely felt the burn, but I also felt myself taking shortcuts and losing form because it was so difficult. There are no breaks. I think this video is probably too advanced for my fitness level right now, but I would like to keep at it to see how much I can get through next time.

The low impact HIIT wasn’t too bad, but I could still see that my form wasn’t great. It could be because I was already tired from the previous set, and before that I also did my weekly pushup test for my end of previous week pushup update, so that wore me out even more. Or, it could be because Jacky joined me today and so we were limited on space and trying not to bump into one another.

That’s right! Jacky joined me haha. He did well! It really is surprising to see just how much my endurance has improved in the month that I’ve continued exercising where he’d stopped. He struggled hard, but I’m super proud of us!

I must have been really tired in general though because within 30min of completing the workout I walked myself over to the daybed and fell asleep for 1.5hrs.

Last night I, again, slept late and also woke up once to use the bathroom. Having sleep disruptions really messes with my energy levels. I promised myself I’d sleep earlier so I can be well rested! Come on, Crystina. Sort yourself out.

On another note, I took some proper physique update photos at last, yey! I think the difference is really noticeable, even with the bad lighting. It is really cool to see these changes in my body and see my muscle definition become more pronounced as my body fat decreases. Please ignore the circle shaped bruise on my left leg; I’m ridiculously clumsy so I ran into furniture… again.

Weight-wise, I dropped down to the 120’s again, which is very cool. I’m aiming to have my median weight be around 120.8-121lbs this week – that’s the pattern I’m seeing at present and it’s something I’m very happy with :)

Sleep
Time
Wake
Time
Hrs
Slept
Restful
Sleep

Disruptions

Awoke Feeling

Weight
01:4509:307hr 40min4hrs1xSomewhat rested but tired120.8lbs
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Health & Fitness: Week 37, 2020

Week 37 runs from Monday 7th September — Sunday 13th September, 2020.

For more information on what, why and how I’m tracking everything, including my health & fitness goals, please click here. To skip to the end of week summary, please click here.

The Week in Fitness & Food

9/7 – Monday. Rest (ish).

Today was Labour Day in the US so Jacky had the day off. Because he had the day off we just lazed around and had a leisurely breakfast this morning instead of exercising. I was also feeling a little tired and sluggish, probably because it’s been so hot lately, but also because I slept late last night.

In the afternoon we decided to go to a nearby mall to walk around, be outside but not actually outside, and — more importantly — get me Cinnabon. Haha. There were loads of sales going on but I was just interested in the Cinnabon buy-one-plus-a-drink-and-get-one deal. I ate half of one and am saving the rest for another day.

I didn’t exercise today, so I took a random photo just now. The top I’m wearing looks a little large for me and the bat wings under my arms look to have shrunk significantly, both of which are perfectly fine by me haha.

To be honest, I’m very not used to not exercising two days in a row anymore, especially if one of those days is on Monday. Or maybe it’s just I’m really not used to not exercising on a Monday (I did walk a lot more than usual but it was only 6,000 steps). I feel a bit bleurgh and want to work out. It’s too late now because it’s bedtime, but I cannot wait to get back to challenging my body again tomorrow.

I’m taking that as a good sign because I’ve learned that exercise is a reward and it is a joy and pleasure to take care of my body by pushing it to grow stronger. I love working out now; I love working hard during a workout, I love the feeling of accomplishment when I’m able to do one more rep than last time, I love the challenge of keeping good form, I love how energised I feel afterwards.

I did do my weekly pushup test today though!! I did 10 elbows-out knee pushups with actual good form (Jacky was very impressed) plus 3 more where my form was getting increasingly poorer. I then did 1 elbows-in knee pushup with good form (I think?) before I collapsed. I rested for a few minutes and was able to do 5 more elbows-out knee pushups. Result!

There was no change in my weight, but that’ll probably go up tomorrow given my Cinnabon and lack of exercise heh heh.

Sleep
Time
Wake
Time
Hrs
Slept
Restful
Sleep

Disruptions

Awoke Feeling

Weight
01:2509:258hrs4hr 45minNoneSomewhat rested122.4lbs
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