Health & Wellness – Page 16

Health & Fitness: Week 35, 2020

Bobbie August 24, 2020

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

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
23:55	08:50	8hr 55min	5hr 50min	None	Rested	122.4lbs

Health & Fitness: Week 34, 2020

Bobbie August 17, 2020

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

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.)

Bullet Journal: August Setup

Bobbie July 27, 2020

Goodness, where did July go? It feels like time is passing so quickly and yet slowly at the same time. So what happened in July with regards to my bullet journal? Well, it turns out I ended up using it much more than I had anticipated I would.

As I wrote in my July setup & August draft post, I really liked the rolling weekly tasks spread by Plant Based Bride and was doing that for my blog/YouTube notebook. However, that one wasn’t a dotted notebook so it was getting messy, so I decided to put all of that into my one bullet journal.

I also began to realise how important it was for me to have more space for my to-do’s and be able to assign the tasks to a particular week or day. As such, July ended up being an additional 6 pages to accommodate the weekly spreads.

I also wanted to give myself ample white space and I loved the extra breathing space the weeklies provided. So, without further ado, here’s my August setup:

Fitness: Doing Chloe Ting’s Flat Belly Challenge

Bobbie July 26, 2020

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…

Health: Intermittent Fasting for 9 Weeks Challenge

Bobbie July 5, 2020

This post was last updated and completed on 8/16/2020.

If you know me or read my blog at all, you probably know that Jacky and I love food. Not just a little, but really loooove food, so dieting was really never going to happen for us. However, we both independently heard about intermittent fasting (IF) and the health benefits it supposedly provides whilst not restricting one’s diet in any way whatsoever.

It only required us to eat all our meals and snacks mindfully between certain hours of the day, which actually sounded doable for us. Our physician friends have confirmed that it’s perfectly healthy and normal to do, so Jacky and I decided that we would start it together after July 4th, so here we are!

We’ve been guilty of getting hungry late at night and snacking on baked goods or instant noodles or even having a full-blown meal just before bed. Often times, one of us will get peckish and start eating and then the other will follow, even if we’d resolved to not eat any more that day. We know that’s not good for us, so now that we’re both in this together hopefully we’ll be able to overcome these bad habits.

I know we’re taking on a lot of challenges at the moment (sleeping/waking early, exercising and now this), but we consider them less to be short-term challenges and more lifestyle changes that should provide long-term health benefits.

Please note: we are only taking on this challenge as neither of us have ever experienced eating disorders or exhibited signs of an unhealthy relationship with food. If you have a history of disordered eating or are triggered by such topics, it may be wise for you to stop reading now.

I am also not using this post to recommend IF – every body is different and every person’s history with food is different, please be kind to yourself as you are already beautiful in your own right. Especially as we’re all stuck indoors these days, please take every opportunity to love yourself more.

I am, however, trying to document this journey on my blog to keep myself accountable since I tend to have problems with perseverance and tend to give up easily. If you are considering starting IF, I hope my experience can provide some interesting insights for you. If not, I hope you’ll find it somewhat entertaining haha.