healthier living

... or at least what I think I've been up to recently. 

trying out the elliptical trainer at Bun's school gym two weeks ago.

Have been furiously excluding carbs (e.g. rice, pastas and white bread) from daily meals and replacing them with more meats, nuts, soy products (I need proteins!) and fruits and vegetables (need to pang sai still). It's not exactly tough for me to follow those eating 'rules' that I've set for myself, because I really enjoy eating them anyway. 

But once in a while, I get mild cravings for carbs and I allow myself to indulge a little; just felt like I had to eat a bagel while out with Bun one afternoon last week, with a cream cheese spread no less. Have been cutting down on desserts of late too, though I hold this obviously flawed mentality that it's okay (or not that bad) if I'm sharing. Blah.

I must confess that I'm not exactly following any real diet plan that's been well-proven or tested.

So I try to make it up by exercising. In addition to windsurfing during weekends, I've taken to jogging at least 2 times a week, clocking an average of about 5 klicks each time. I started off by jogging laps in the riverside park connector just below my place, but realized my preference for non-repetitive routes in no time; and so, I started jogging to places like Macpherson, Potong Pasir, Lavender (Loysel's Toy!), Geylang and Boon Keng etc. Just two nights ago, I did Potong Pasir - Joo Seng - Sennett Estate with YF and it felt truly great to jog past my primary school again; was reminded of all the fun and silly times we had back then and was somewhat pleasantly amused by the whimsical and nature-inspired road names in that area (Willow Avenue, Butterfly Avenue, Mulberry Avenue etc).

If you'd seen me running my 2.4 during secondary school times (or even poly days), it's probably a little hard for you to believe I'm speaking about the pleasures that stem from jogging right now. But I guess that's just human, we always enjoy doing things more when it's a choice and not a chore; I choose to jog now because I want to and not because I am required to.

sweaty but happy.

In addition to the light jogs, I also got started on Jillian Michaels' (all thanks to Jenny! :D) 30-day Shred Workout on Youtube. It's a combination of cardio, strength and abs drills and the buckets of sweat that would flow out from my pores at the end (actually, it starts midway) of each session is unbelievable. Unbelievably gross if you were to see me then hoho. It's divided into three levels (with increasing difficulty) and one will need to complete 10 days of workout for each level before proceeding to the next. I haven't been very strict with myself (i.e. inconsistent) but I've finally allowed myself to move beyond level one! Got started on level two yesterday and today, I'm feeling soreness in parts of my body that were unfamiliar to even myself before they started aching.

I've come to conclude that working out (eating healthy too!) keeps me relatively happy, even though I'm usually cursing while at it, and I really want to keep up at it even after work begins unofficially next week. 

(I've lost 2 kilos btw, and YF just commented my muscles feel harder when I flexed my arms for him to get a feel of it!)