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Health & Fitness: Week 38, 2020

Bobbie September 14, 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
01:45	09:30	7hr 40min	4hrs	1x	Somewhat rested but tired	120.8lbs

Health: Tracking My Weight Loss

Bobbie September 13, 2020

(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:

Diet: What I Eat In A Day To Lose Weight

Bobbie September 9, 2020

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.

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.