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
Read More

Recipe: Greek Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki

In a previous post you may have seen me mention us having this for dinner:

Well, today, we did it again:

Except this time I tweaked a few additional things with the recipe that made it more suited to our taste. It was so good. There was less acidity overall so you could really taste the spices in the chicken, and the tzatziki was creamier, crunchier and more garlicky, which I absolutely loved.

We were so eager to dig in that we didn’t even bother taking proper photos this time haha. Jacky and I both liked it better than the first time I made it, so to ensure I remember what I actually did, I’m writing this down.

This recipe is a mix between this one by Cooking Classy and this one by Modern Honey with my own changes based on what we had in the fridge. 100% would recommend and plan to make it again regularly.

This recipe makes about 4-5 gyros. For the greek yoghurt, I tried a 0% fat one the first time and a Fage 2% fat lactose free one the second time. I much, much prefer the consistency and richer flavour of the Fage 2% fat greek yoghurt for this dish.

Read More

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
Read More

Health: Tracking My Weight Loss

(These are the most recent photos I have of my physique, taken on 9th Sept – I was trying on some newly purchased yoga pants so it wasn’t intended as a physique update. The fuzzy photos and orange hue are due to darkened skies from nearby fires.)

Hellooo thanks for joining me on this journey! :) About 3-4 weeks ago I started to take weight loss more seriously after I learned about the “right” way to do it thanks to finding Natacha Océane and Greg Doucette’s YouTube channels.

They’ve helped dispel a lot of myths and misinformation about fitness, diet and weight loss that I previously believed in, which had always caused me to give up on losing weight after only trying very half-heartedly in the past. (I’d diet for a few days then decide I loved food too much).

I’ve been on a more serious weight-loss journey recently, and I think it’s perhaps now worth tracking in a separate post to get a more holistic view of how I’m doing. I will still be tracking my diet and weight in my weekly fitness posts but this is for me to get a better idea of where I’m at weight-wise overall.

It’s also interesting to see how my weight fluctuates on a daily basis, and getting to know these fluctuations help me to be unsurprised when my weight increases after a day of ‘healthy’ eating, and similarly unaffected when it decreases after I’ve eaten a bunch of junk food the night before. There doesn’t seem to be causation between the two because it’s whether or not I’ve eaten an overall caloric deficit that will enable me to lose weight.

My goal is to lose ~0.5lbs/week and it looks like so far I’m perfectly on target. Thus, seeing those fluctuations don’t alarm me into changing or doing anything drastic to my diet to ‘make up’ for weight loss; I’m able to just keep my diet as is since it’s currently working just fine. If/when at some point this changes, I’ll adjust as appropriate.

In this post, I’ll be taking the median weight for the entire week (rather than just Tues – Sat). It’ll just be a table, and further details can be found in my weekly posts. Here it is:

Read More

Diet: What I Eat In A Day To Lose Weight

Hello! I figured I could try to do one of these posts so, if you’re interested, you can see what my diet looks like these days. I do seem to be consistently losing a little weight every week right now while eating these foods — that was the goal, after all — and what I’m eating is definitely a little different from what I was eating before. I am really not used to doing these so I kinda forgot to take photos half the time (gah!) but at least I can write down what I ate.

I try to switch up my meals daily but keep them healthy and balanced as best as I can. I also like to have at least one of Coach Greg’s recipes every day. What I eat really varies a lot, but here’s a snapshot of one day!

Date: 8th September 2020

Meal 1: greek yoghurt, figs, berries, oat milk latte.

I did not add honey to my bowl because the figs were sweet enough for me. The latte in the tall glass was for Jacky. I am lactose intolerant but it seems that no-fat milk is actually acceptable for my stomach.

I don’t love the taste of greek yoghurt though, and my yoghurt-to-fruit ratio was a bit high for my liking, so I actually gave some of my spoonful to Jacky because I felt like it was too much for me. I definitely enjoyed it. I loved the fruit, and I’m glad I ate the greek yoghurt for the health benefits.

Read More