Health & Fitness: Week 36, 2020

Week 36 runs from Monday 31st August — Sunday 6th 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

8/31 – Monday. Completed 11:21.
Videos completed: Natacha Oceane 10min Warm Up, Natacha Oceane 20min Full Body Workout, MadFit 15min Folklore Dance Workout, MadFit Ariana Grande 7 Rings Workout, MadFit 15min Stretch & Cooldown.

Today was really cool! I managed to get through the entire workout without taking breaks outside of the ones that were built in/letting the video play til completion. I have been recording myself to watch my form and um, looks like there’s a lot to be desired at times. But for many of the movements, my form was really not bad at all.

I realised that my pushup form is actually poor. Despite how much it hurts and kills to get back up, it turns out watching my form in the mirror was one thing, but actually recording it to see how it looks is an entirely different beast. I will probably have to reset my pushup count, sigh.

I do think I was able to do one arm-in, knee pushup with good form though. Natacha’s video has them built in, so I was able to watch back the footage and see how poorly I’d been doing.

I’m really glad I added in Natacha’s 10min warm up to this set because (aside from no longer being weak from PMS) it really helped to prepare my body for her actual workout. She said in the video that she used the first movement as a workout, but she is 10 different levels of athlete above me, so my poor body definitely needed a proper warm up.

Flora was amazed I was able to keep going (to be honest, I was too) because she was really struggling, and her fitness level is typically way above mine. I also struggled hard the first time for Natacha’s video because my body was just not used to moving that way (see last week Thursday).

But today, my body was more familiar with the movements so it was a matter of stamina. Flora wasn’t feeling her best anyway so that probably made it harder. I imagine next time she does the video it will be no problem for her!

I didn’t manage to sleep well last night unfortunately. Technically there were no sleep disruptions and I suppose the restful sleep figure is great, but I had vivid dreams that kept me from sleeping soundly. I was also in bed by 00:30 but I just could not sleep.

I kept trying to figure out what it could have been because I literally did not remember drinking any coffee in the afternoon, but then I realised it must have been the 2 diet cokes I had after our Costco run, one of which I had at like 9pm. Lesson learned.

Thus, I’m even more pleased that I managed to have a really good workout today! Yay for getting stronger. My average heart rate for Natacha’s video was 148bpm, and for the two MadFit videos it was 162bpm! SO pleased with that because I think it means I am now able to go harder by maintaining that higher heart rate for a longer period of time.

I took the photo above just now. If I look healthy, it’s because I really feel it too. Yay!

Sleep
Time		Wake
Time		Hrs
Slept		Restful
Sleep
Disruptions
Awoke Feeling
Weight
01:3009:157hr 45min4hr 20minNoneGroggy but decently rested122.8lbs
Read More

Health & Fitness: Week 35, 2020

Week 35 runs from Monday 24th August — Sunday 30th August, 2020.

Image credit: Pexels.com

I really liked the format last week so I’ll keep it for now! For more information on what, why and how I’m tracking everything, including my health & fitness goals, please click here.

The Week in Fitness & Food

8/24 – Monday. Completed 10:43.
Videos completed: MadFit 5min Warm Up, MadFit 30min Full Body Dancer Sculpt, MadFit 10min Beginner Lower Abs, MadFit 5min Cool Down

Today’s schedule was almost exactly the same as last Monday’s, except I swapped out the Cardio Abs video for the Beginner Lower Ab video I really liked last week.

Flora and I exercised together again, and I would have to say that I think today’s workout was average, but really not bad. I started off having had a very good night’s sleep, though my sleep tracker app says I woke up once during the night. I don’t recall that happening at all so I overwrote it.

To be fair, I could have gotten up much sooner but I kept on trying to put myself back to sleep after waking up at 8:25, failing, then deciding to just get up at 8:50. I don’t know if that meant I ‘overslept’ or what. I felt decently rested when I woke up at least.

The only thing I would change is that I was pretty hungry part-way through the workout. Flora really wanted to exercise early so I didn’t have time to eat beforehand, so it’s possible that I wasn’t able to exert myself as much as I could have had I eaten. However, I really went all-out for the 30min Dancer Sculpt video. I did not drop my arms during the arms part and ohmygosh it hurt like crazy. I had to pause the video to drink water and breathe for a few minutes after.

I couldn’t really do the bird-dog crunch move properly because my arms were still shaking because of that, though, and by the time the ab moves came along I was starting to get hungry. On the bright side, my arms had recovered decently by that point and my legs weren’t shaking nearly as much as they were last week.

I actually managed to do the entirety of that video and still have energy left despite being hungry (plus I managed to not drop my arms at all on the arms bit!!), so if that’s not a sign that my body is getting stronger, I don’t know what is. I’m very happy with that.

I wasn’t able to go all out for the Lower Abs video though. I did what I can, but I think I tired my body out from the intensity of the first video. That one felt like HIIT to me so it’s unsurprising that I didn’t have energy to do strength training afterwards. My bad, I should have started with the strength video (and now I understand why Chloe did that in her schedule for her Flat Belly challenge).

My weight has decreased again today, and I think it really has shown physically. Flora, Noah and I were chatting on video call last night and they joked that I only got my perfect body after my wedding, lol.

I can definitely see where they’re coming from – my physique has improved; I am slimmer. But right now, my ideal body is one that can do 10 real pushups, which I have not yet achieved. Once I’ve achieve that, I’ll decide what would constitute my perfect body next ;)

In terms of my body shape, I’m not gonna lie – I’m very happy with the changes I’m seeing. But more than that, I’m really happy with the energy that I feel from pushing my body to improve and fuelling it with yummy, healthy, satiating foods. Jacky also comments that I look so much healthier these days.

Sleep
Time		Wake
Time		Hrs
Slept		Restful
Sleep
Disruptions
Awoke Feeling
Weight
23:5508:508hr 55min5hr 50minNoneRested122.4lbs
Read More

Health & Fitness: Week 34, 2020

Week 34 runs from Monday 17th August — Sunday 23rd August, 2020.

Image credit: Pexels.com

Hello hello! Firstly, yes… that’s right, I’m very sorry I didn’t complete the Chloe Ting 2019 Flat Belly Challenge – but please do read the end of that post as I have a very good reason for it. It’ll also provide more insight as to how I want to be documenting my fitness journey moving forward, which is…

I’m trying out something new: weekly updates, which will include fitness in the week, sleep throughout the week, approx diet throughout the week, and a weight tracker. I’m not sure how well this format will work, so it’ll likely change as I refine it in future. But for now, tracking everything in one place should help me better understand my body and why it’s doing what it’s doing.

Obviously if there are weeks I haven’t exercised as much, then the post will be much shorter, so I may combine a couple of weeks into one heh heh heh…

So here’s how it’s going to work:
(I’ll only be explaining this one time so subsequent fitness posts will be much shorter, don’t worry. If you want to skip past the explanation and get straight to the tracking section click here. If you want to skip to the end of week summary click here.)

Read More

Fitness: Doing Chloe Ting’s Flat Belly Challenge

Image screenshot: Chloe Ting Flat Belly Challenge

Edit: Click here to read my first Chloe Ting challenge experience – 2 Week Shred
Click here to read my second Chloe Ting challenge experience – 2020 Summer Shred
Click here to read my fourth Chloe Ting challenge experience – Get Peachy

This post was last updated and completed on 8/16/2020.
Jump to starting numbers.
Jump to week one or end of week one update.
Jump to week two or end of week two update.
Jump to week three or end and final thoughts.

Gosh. I must subconsciously be doing a Try-All-Of-Chloe-Ting’s-Workout-Challenges challenge or something because this is my 3rd #chloetingchallenge in a row. I was considering changing to a different YouTuber’s workout program but none of the other ones I’ve found are fully free, and I don’t particularly feel like paying for them when we have Chloe.

Thank you, Chloe, for making all your workouts free!

The irony is that if other YouTubers all made their workouts free too, they’d probs be earning a lot more money via the ads and get a lot more subscribers too, but hey that’s just me speculating… *raises eyebrow,* *gives knowing look.*

After I completed Chloe’s 2020 Summer Shred Challenge on Monday I was only able to sit on my butt for a couple of days before I really wanted to exercise again, so on Thursday I tried a lower belly video (not bad, but her workout programs are locked behind a paywall), and on Friday I tried some yoga.

I thought about trying a yoga challenge for a month but it’s harder to do yoga with friends and if it’s just me by myself I’ll probably end up not working out after a week or so. Plus there aren’t any yoga channels that I like that offer free yoga workout programs in the way Chloe does, so back to Chloe it is!

I know she just released a new program that starts tomorrow but I’ve learned that it’s much better for me to look at all the videos in advance so I can determine if it’s something that is doable yet challenging for me. I don’t want to start and then either quit or end up short-changing myself by not trying my hardest because the difficulty level is too high.

Whilst trying to choose which new challenge to take on, I flip-flopped so many times between her 25 Day Hourglass Challenge and her 28 Day Flat Tummy Challenge because neither seemed ideal the way I felt her 2020 Summer Shred was going to be before I started that one. After much consideration, ultimately I decided on… her 2019, 30 Day Flat Belly Challenge! Lol.

Why?

Because it looks like the perfect mix of challenging yet not too insane. I love that even she was following the workout herself to get back in shape, and you can tell she worked herself hard because she’s sitting down taking deep breaths at the end of the videos haha. (Plus you get to see her SWEAT for once! Girl is not a robot and that makes me so happy mwahahahaha lolIamahorriblehumanbeing. But seriously it’s actually hilarious to hear the sarcasm in her own voiceovers like ‘ok we have this exercise next… greaaat.’ I feel vindicated and positively gleeful that Chloe feels our pain hahahaha. Somehow that makes me feel even more motivated.)

I like the music and that the song changes happen during the move transitions (both really important!) I like that most days it’s a 30-40min program because I exercise with a group of others; it’s just not worth getting on a group call to do a single video that only lasts 10min, which seems to be the schedule every other day for the 2020 Flat Tummy Challenge. I also love that her HIIT workouts include a warm up and cool down stretches in the actual video.

I may come to regret this later because some days the exercises are super long, but I feel much fitter after completing 2 of her challenges so I want to push a little harder. My only concern is that the entire challenge is comprised of 5 videos. There’s a chance I’ll get bored of repeating the same videos over and over but we’ll see how it goes.

I will be starting this challenge tomorrow but wanted to upload my ‘before’ shots ahead of time since I won’t have time to take photos tomorrow morning. So without further ado…

Read More

Fitness: Doing Chloe Ting’s 2020 Summer Shred Challenge

Image screenshot: Chloe Ting 2020 Summer Shred Challenge

Edit: Click here to read my first Chloe Ting challenge experience – 2 Week Shred
Click here to read my third Chloe Ting challenge experience – 2019 Flat Belly
Click here to read my fourth Chloe Ting challenge experience – Get Peachy

This post was completed on 7/21/2020.
Jump to starting numbers.
Jump to week one or end of week one update.
Jump to week two or end of week two update.
Jump to week three or end of week three update.
Jump to week four or results and final thoughts.

It’s that time again where Jacky and I take on another one of Chloe Ting’s workout challenges. Yes, last time I said that we would start the new workout on Wednesday and that did not happen. We were both very tired that week and then my period started and I ended up feeling way too tender.

I was still nursing a headache this morning but I finally decided enough was enough, I can’t keep excusing myself from exercise, and now I can finally fill in that ‘exercise’ column of my new bullet journal, lol.

I checked out a number of her programs and ultimately decided this one would work best. Jacky’s a trooper and is just happy to do any exercise with me so he let me choose. He’s the best <3

I’m glad this challenge has a lot more rest days. But of course, you can afford to take more rest days if it’s more of a long-haul program. I think after doing her 2 Week Shred Challenge I’m less intimidated by a slightly longer program, it’s only approx. 22-45min per day, and now that we have a bit more strength from completing the previous challenge I do feel it’s a lot more doable. Oh! And I actually like the music for this one haha, which I learned is more important to me than I thought it would be.

We had a noise complaint from our downstairs neighbour last time (with whom we’ve now made peace by the grace of God and some homemade banana bread hehe) so we’ve decided to replace her “Ep 1: 12min Full Body Workout” video with her “Ep 4: No Jumping HIIT” video. This should also be easier on our bodies while still giving us a great workout.

Unlike last time, I’m not going to post my weight, but I will still post my waist and hip measurements. This time, Jacky made sure to take photos of where on my body I measured my ‘before’ from so we can make sure the measurement results are accurate.

Last time I measured my hips at the smallest part, but this time I’ve taken the measurement from the largest part of my hips as you’re supposed to. In addition, I’ve made mini-videos of my progress pictures so we’ll be able to better perceive if there is a difference.

I took these photos just before we started exercising. I ate in the morning (albeit not a lot) and had an iced coffee in my system, but these are pretty close to what I’d look like in the morning anyway.

Without further ado…

Read More