112 lbs

That would be my magic number.

That's the weight I am willing to maintain.

And that would be by the middle of August 2011, countdown to 112 lbs starts tomorrow, June 13, 2011.

And so I need to continue my low carb, more protein diet. No cheating.

Less 1 lb a week, maximum of 2 lbs if I want to make it faster to my goal.

I've the ideal weight now but my new goal is to look more lean and more toned - arms are on the way and so are the thighs, my midsection needs maintenance.

Focus, visualize, work on it, be disciplined, achieve it.

Basic Abdominal Crunch

I weighed in a week or so ago and I was really happy about the results. I have maintained my statistics in the healthy range for my body type and weight but I have my personal goal that I want to maintain and sustain.

It was great to know I'm holding ground - body fat at 24%, body mass index at 22.4. This is great news for me. :) The more I am motivated to work out regularly and properly in spite of the busy work load - both at the office and at home.

The past weeks I have been browsing again on toning muscles and keeping belly fat off. I've watched a YouTube video showing basic abdominal crunches which really prove effective. I see a lot of men at the gym do this but I was thinking it might not be as effective as the reverse crunch I have been doing time and again.

But I did try the basic abdominal crunch. Weird, huh. I've been going to the gym and doing exercises for nearly three years now but I have not really tried nor paid attention to crunches. What I can tell you now is that I love it! My abdominals feel so tight and strong after every session of mat exercises especially after about 40 repetitions in 3 sets of abdominal crunches. My mid-section feels sore actually after.

I will do variations of crunches in the coming days. Now I'm doing it with feet flat on the floor, legs bent. I will try doing legs up, about 45 degree angle and about 5 to six inches from the floor.

Here's to more productive workouts!

*Picture from Getty Images.

I Have Maintained the Ideal Weight for My Body Type But...

...I don't think I have been eating properly the past days. It's actually a roller coaster ride, my diet. One day I eat everything healthy, the next I eat a lot of junk.

Why is my weight steady at 117 lbs? It's because I burn what I eat. I do weights, cardio and mat exercises. I still manage to go to the gym regularly, thanks to the flexible working hours I have now at the office. But it's not all about keeping myself trim and slim. I also want to stay fit and healthy.

So tonight I resolve to eat more healthy foods. NO CHIPS AT ALL. CAKE WILL ONLY BE A SLICE A MONTH. I can't do away with cakes. MORE PROTEIN AGAIN, FRUITS, VEGETABLES. I will stick to whole wheat no matter what.

My goal now is to eat healthy foods and look ripped. Not the ripped-competition-look but just the right amount of muscles at the right places. I am happy to note that my arms has no flabs anymore. :) I have been receiving commendations about how firm my arms look. I actually want them to have more muscles, more toned in other words. I am working on it. I just love that look. My husband doesn't but I do.

I have a 62-year-old client in one of my projects at the office and she is just so fabulously fit. She goes to her health club six times a week and is very disciplined with what she eats. Half a cup of brown rice, lean meat, fish, vegetables and fruits. That's what she always eat. At 62, she's got a perfect body, she's so young looking, she's so active and that is because she conscientiously takes care of her body.

I like that. Make that, I LOVE THAT!

So tomorrow, healthier foods will take over my diet like how it was when I started getting fit. And so it will be also with my family. It started tonight actually for them. My daughter finally had her brown rice without mixing it with white rice. :) And she ate oatmeal cookies...with chocolate fudge but that's a good start. :)

Morning Gym Session

My dilemma again is whether to work out in the morning before I proceed to work or in the evening after office.

At times I find it hard to wake up at 5AM just so I can leave the house at 5:45 AM and be at the gym at a little past 6 AM. I want to work out for 2 hours actually but if I get to the gym at 7 AM, I just have an hour and a half because I need to be at the office at least by 9:30 AM. I don't want to hurry myself in doing my exercises.

The upside also of going to the gym early in the morning is that it's practically deserted. :)

Now if I don't get to work out in the morning, I have no choice but to go to the evening session. But this has more downside. After a day's work, I want to go home already and be with my daughter. The gym is so full! But it's also a great way to sort of end the day after a stressful day at work. I mean while at work I look forward to de-stress at the gym.

But then, the morning work out at the gym won again. It's great to start the day all pumped up and end the day going home to my family. :)

Weight Training

There's an article featured in Yahoo's front page about working out backwards. I always read interesting write-ups about exercises as I want to be updated about the latest news or research on better way of doing exercises. But this surprised me a bit.

It says an athlete all this time thought it should be cardio first as a warm-up and then weights. Read Warm Up with Cardio, Then Go to Weights, Right? Wrong.

The trainer I had when I was starting my gym exercises have always instructed me to do cooling down with cardiovascular exercises. This is also what I have observed most people in the gym do. And this is also what I have been mostly reading.

There are also articles I have read that it does not matter what one does first or last and mostly, this is up to one's goals. "Should I Do Cardio Before Weight Lifting - Does Exercise Order Matter?", it says here if the goal is increasing muscle size and strength, lifting weights should be first.

Lately I have limited time in the gym because of my work load. I used to be spending like two hours and a half (including stretching and freshening up) in the gym. But now I can do maximum of an hour and a half.

How do I manage now? I choose to do weights if there is a need to cut down on exercise time. And reading the article I noted here, "Warm Up with Cardio...", if there is an issue on time constraint, choose weights...

And if you only have 30 minutes total, go for weights instead of cardio. That sounds counterintuitive, since we feel sweating is "proof" we're losing fat. But you will lose a lot more fat by pushing and pulling weights and then going on a brisk walk in your neighborhood (or even at the mall). The guy or gal who is dripping buckets on the Stairmaster is getting a good workout, but you're likely getting a better one by getting sore and not getting soaked.

This is true for me. Yes, I noticed muscles developed faster in my upper limbs when I started focusing on weight training - both free weights and weights using machines. I looked leaner and muscles are showing on my triceps. I intend to look ripped and lean. I know there should be a special diet for this but I intend to achieve this look. See I said it twice.

I have been challenging myself to increase weight load every three weeks and do different weight training exercises. And now is the time to start on a diet that will help me look lean and ripped. There, I said it for the third time.

I Am Not On A Diet Anymore

Almost always when I join friends and family for an eat-out they tell me to skip my diet and eat to my heart's content. This was the same thing I heard when I was with my clan during our most recent get-together.

I realized "hey I am not anymore on a diet'.

Truth is I cannot consume a cup of rice in one sitting anymore. I cannot eat more than two slices of bread, even if it's wheat. My stomach, and my mind, have adjusted to my regulated food intake which I started last year.

This is already my lifestyle.

Sure I still have cravings. As a matter of fact I let myself eat chips and cakes the past months. The more I deprive myself, the stronger my craving. So I started taking small dips of chips and cake until the cravings naturally faded away. I don't think of chips anymore. Cakes, not as much.

We need additional 3,500 calories to add a pound so I am safe even if I often consumed a lot of cakes the past weeks. But for health reasons, aside from keeping fit, I am into fruits again. I burn what I eat.

What is the lifestyle I am talking about now when it comes to food? Let me share what I eat 90% of the week - vegetables, fruits, oats, baked cookies, wheat bread, pasta (wheat noodles except when it's eat out), egg, and the like.

Self-portrait

This week's photohunt is all about self-portrait. Thinking about my entry, I am tempted to change the theme to Please Indulge Me for a Moment.

As this blog chronicles my weight and fitness program for myself, I am unabashedly posting my pictures when I was still size 16-18 and now that I am size 6. As recorded in this blog, I started going to the gym on 2008 but it was only at the start of 2010 that I seriously took steps in managing my weight. I did it naturally - through regular exercise and a very disciplined diet.

As I have related in my Fitness Story, I have been slim all my life until the late 90s when motherhood and work took over my whole being. I did not think of anything else for more than a decade but work and family. But I was really motivated to live a healthier lifestyle. I want to see results with the time and money I spend on my gym sessions. There is no point in enrolling in a gym if there will be no significant change in me physically as well as emotionally, psychologically, whatever -ally.

All the people who know me from work, from our neighborhood, from church and from everywhere else are surprised with my transformation that they always ask why I decided to lose weight and how did I do it.

I managed my weight for health reasons as I am not getting any younger. I want to take care of myself. I want to be a good example to my family in healthy living. And yes, vanity. I will not apologize for that as I have mentioned several posts back. I want to look good. I want to wear the clothes I want to wear. I take pride with how I was able to discipline myself for 10 months, from January 2010 to September-October 2010, from 165 to 115-117 pounds.

Now the challenge really is maintaining what I have already achieved. I still continue with my regular exercise. I have leveled up to the weights and number of reps I do. I also read about exercises I can apply the latest of which I posted a few days back, No Pain, No Gain.

Do I still want to be a size 5 or 4? Yes, but that will be a bonus. I am also realistic that at my age and of course, genetics, I am not sure if I can still be at size 4. Size 5 maybe. What I am working on now is to look really lean and ripped.

I am enjoying the results of my weight management for almost a year. This is already a lifestyle for me. I am happy that I have discovered the joys of exercises and eating the right kind of food in moderation.

Please indulge me for a moment.