People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy

 The past 8 months of my life has been amazing. I can't begin to tell you how much has changed and what has happened. I never thought that 8 months ago, I would be inspiring a lot of people. Life is amazing and I'm thankful everyday for this gift. I was given a second chance to change my life. The story of how I got to such a bad situation is as important as how I got to where I am today. 


It is a story that deals with depression, faith, overcoming, confidence, fear, hope, challenges, motivation and friendship.


Key bad habits I dropped? EVERYTHING I USED TO EAT!


I went from my high weight of 248 pounds down to my lowest at 187 pounds in less than 7 months.


The first 10 pounds were from healthy diet and jogging alone. Then I hit a plateau and that's when I started exercising really hard, both weight training and cardio, and lost the next 40 pounds.


I went from not exercising at all, to working out like a freaking mad man, pretty much 6-7 days a week. Varying muscle sets.


I'd really like to say the old cliche, "If I could do it, anyone can do it,"

To be totally honest, I'm not so sure if this is true. You see, I have this little thing which is typically looked as a psychological issue, or problem, called obsessive / compulsiveness. 


So many years ago, when I decided I was going to do build and modify computers, I just put a stupid amount of my time and energy into doing just that. And so I succeeded. Never mind that I blew off having a real career, or possible retirement someday. 


So anyway, I'm not sure if this is what you wanted to hear. I mean, how can you teach somebody to just throw out 90% of every important thing that normally runs through their minds, and replace it all with health and fitness?


Would you even want them to do that? One thing's for sure, if they did this, they would almost certainly end up reaching 99% of their genetic potential or more. 


Anyway, I guess there are a lot of worse things for a person to go off the deep end with, other than health and fitness. 

Stay tuned, I'm just getting started. If I could make this kind of change in 18 months, I can't wait to see where I'm at by my 28th birthday that is about 4 months from now as of this writing. 

I can only speak from my experience

I can only speak from my experience, I was an obese person, but for how long? I used to hate pictures of myself, I was really mad when i looked myself in the mirror.


I have been alone for years, no girlfriend and not going out because i was ashamed of myself. If you identify with these things, well, you need to change. 


The best feeling in the world is when people see you on the street and make this big amazing surprised face because you are looking younger, great and healthier. Another great feeling is to fit in normal size modern clothes.


Are you demotivated? Find the reason! Take a picture of yourself every month so you will see the changes and be motivated every time. Know that you are eating to keep your body healthy and fine. Just think in long term, your body will thank you for that.


When you reach your goal, you will feel powerful, invincible, that you can achieve whatever you want in life. Let me tell you that this feeling leaves you speechless and so happy every second of your life. It will worth the fight and the sacrifices, just keep doing it and results will come.

Some weight loss pointers

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO START


No matter how much you are currently overweight, obese or out of shape you are, you can always start making changes and imporove your life. 


Forget about yesterday and focus all your energy into making smart choices for you
to live a healthier life. 




FOOD IS A VERY POWERFUL DRUG


You can use it to make yourself very sick or you can decide to use it to effectively fuel and energize your body. Try to research different foods and learn about the multitude of ways nutritious foods would impact your body in a positive way. Learning how and what you are eating is important




BE VERY CONSCIOUS


When you sit down to eat a meal, try to ask yourself if this food is helping you reach your goals or is it setting you back. A lot of people I know simply eat without thinking about what they are putting into their bodies. It's like shoveling the food into their faces. They consume foods unconsciously. Try to relax and truly enjoy every bite of the food you have prepared for yourself.




PRE-PLAN YOUR MEALS


This is very crucial. If you don't have a plan, it will be very difficult to choose the right foods to attain your ideal physique. Keep nutritious foods at your home and especially at work. Maybe have a bag of nuts at your desk so that you will have access to these quality foods when you are hungry. 

How long did it take me to start seeing the results?

Within about about 1 month of going to the gym, I started feeling very active and my srength levels go way up. My energy level was really high and I couldn't wait to get back in the gym to train. When I added cardio workouts and a clean diet to my overall fitness plan, the changes were incredible.


To this day, I am still halfway through my weight loss progress, I can still see changes in my physique over the course of at least a week or two when my nutritional plan is on. 

When I tighten up my diet and really focusing on the the foods I eat, the changes start showing up in a matter of days. Unfortunately, this can go the other way also. 


If I take a few days or weeks off and when I consume more calories, the mirror doesn't lie. I have always found it fascinating that with small changes on what I eat and my training at the gym, one can make noticeable changes in their physique. 

As of this writing, I am currently on my 7th month of strict training and diet to reach my ideal weight of 73 kilos. Currently my walking weight is between 87-90 kg. I lost already around 20 kg since I started going to the gym last March 13, 2011.

The most important changes I made and the most challenging about losing weight

From the three elements (clean food, weight training and cardio), my diet was probably the most important aspect which helped changed my physique. When I decided to be very disciplined with the foods I consume, the changes were incredible.

I have always been a person who loves to eat and with a huge appetite. During those days I was still working in a call center, I would indulge in everything from greasy fast food to very sweet desserts. I don't have control over what I am eating. 


The most challenging thing for me was adhering to a strict nutritional plan and cutting out most of my favorite foods. I then learned early on that these so called favorite foods were triggers and these would instantly affect my appetite. 


Let's say if I had a small piece of dessert or some fast food, it would trigger my hunger and it was almost impossible to back down from eating more. I focused on more nutritious foods to fuel my body.


Within about 3 to 4 weeks, my craving went down and my tastes started changing. My usual habits and routines started to change. I was focused to prepare healthy and nutrient dense foods all the time. 


Of course, I still get craving once in a while but I decided to choose healthier foods to eat. Choosing the healthier alternatives have cut down on my overall calories and still leave me feeling satisfied.

What made me decide to lose weight

I worked in a call center as an overweight adult. I was always tired and had very little energy to do anything. Four years of working in a call center on a night shift, I got older, sluggish and suffering lower back pains. I knew I had to make some changes

At the end of my call center career in the Philippines, I was weighing in at about 245 pounds. I was really big and was carrying around a significant amount of fat. I wanted to burn off excess pounds and focus on more of a lean athletic physique.

I decided to really focus on my diet. I went on a very strict nutritional regimen. I cut out all empty calories from my diet like fast food, sweets and soda. I really focused on only eating clean nutrient dense foods. 

From the first week that I started going to the gym at True Fitness, I focused primarily on my cardio workouts. I gradually increased the time from 30 to 45 minutes to 1 hour on my cardio workouts everyday to burn off excess fat. 

I also started weight training but with machines only during the first month. 



It really came down from all angles. Clean food to fuel my body, weight training to build muscle and cardio to burn fat.  

My first time to enter True Fitness VivoCity

outside view of True Fitness VivoCity @ 3rd Flr Sentosa Boardwalk

It was March 10, 2011, in the middle of strolling around IT Show at Suntec Convention Center Singapore my cellphone rang. I received a call from a person named Sheila saying that my friend referred me to get a complimentary two week VIP pass at the club.

I was thinking that this is going to be another sales talk as they are trying to meet the monthly quota of membership sign ups. Well, I have been jogging for the past month already except when the weather is bad. I'm also contemplating of going to the gym to see what would be the benefits aside from my usual routine of jogging. 

So I decided just to come to the club even though I know it will just be another sales talk and closing their sales for the membership. I promised to myself that I will not sign up since I have not yet received my first full month salary. I am on a tight budget until the end of March so there is no way I'm going to sign up. I had the appointment set with Sheila on a Sunday afternoon, March 13, 2011.

At around 5:30 PM on March 13, I went to True Fitness VivoCity to meet Sheila. She was also a Filipino working as a Fitness Consultant. So we did a little bit of chat about the Filipino culture and from what part of the Philippines we live in. 

I tried asking Sheila who referred me to this club but she would not disclose any information. But I'm sure one of my friends who got my number referred me to this club. 

She started by touring me inside the fitness center showing me all the equipments, the rooms for fitness classes and the locker / shower room. After showing me around she started doing some sales talk which of course is very common starting at 500 dollars membership fee and 180 dollars monthly fee. Well, of course I declined the offer saying that I don't have enough money to pay for that expensive membership fee. I am expecting a rebuttal from her which is not to include the membership fee but just to pay the first month. I still declined for a reason that I still don't have any money to pay for the first month and I would just like to try the 2 weeks VIP access. After a very long sales talk which lasted for thirty minutes, Sheila finally gave in and understood that I cannot pay for now so she gave me the 2 weeks free VIP access. 

And so after a long discussion with Sheila, I was then handed over to one of the personal trainers who took my weight, height, BMI (Body Mass Index) and BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). I will just create a separate blog about BMI and BMR next time so that you will understand what I am talking about. 

The first thing that the personal trainer did was to get my height (176 cm) and weight (108.65 kg) then calculated my BMI (34.6) and BMR (2200 calories) and explained to me all those figures. To make the story short, my ideal weight would be at 73 kilos and it would take me 11 - 15 months to shed off my excess weight assuming that I will loose 0.5 to 1 kilo per week. The personal trainer also made some sales talk for personal training which would cost me 125 dollars per 1 hour session. That was way too expensive for me so I declined no matter how many times they offered a lower price. After all those sales talk from fitness consultant to personal trainer, I started my first gym session at True Fitness VivoCity last March 13, 2011.