Monday, April 6, 2009

Weight Watch

I've been struggling with my weight for the last...hmmm, let me see now - I'm 33 this year, so it would be 13 years...yeps, been having weight issues for the past 13 years. Actually it's not my weight I'm worried about, it's just the flabs all over my body that's a wee bit disturbing to me. I just feel uncomfortable with the "spare tire" I'm carrying around my waist. Heh.

I've been generally a wee bit on the skinny side throughout my childhood, putting on a little bit of weight when I finished school but eventually losing it when I entered college. I'm skinny with not much muscle definition though, so people usually consider me a lightweight. When I went to UK for studies, the 1st year there I lost even more weight which alarmed my mother when she saw me during a visit. It's nothing serious, I just don't know how to cook actually. Heh. A diet of instant noodles would do that for you. Hah!

In the 2nd year, after some collection of recipes from my mum and a crash course in basic cooking from my brother, I managed to honed my cooking skills. Which basically involves throwing everything into the pan and fry it to perfection! Hehe. If I have people over, I would either cook spaghetti or roasted chicken (or chicken bake as my soon to be wife would call it). And as you guessed it, there's a lot of cheese involved in those spaghetti meals and a lot of meaty portions in them chicken bake. I ballooned to double my size in year 1, that when I landed back in Malaysia, my mum couldn't recognize me! Hehe.

Over the years, I've tried to lose weight, made a lot of resolutions; tried a lot of methods: jogging, lifting weights, kickboxing. My weight would yo-yo between these periods, sometimes I would lose weight only to put it on a few months later. I did however, manage to lose enough weight so that I could look good during my wedding. :-) Marriage has been blessed in a sense that my meals are taken care of by my wife (thanx ayang!) and for me, everything she cooked is delicious! So my weight again ballooned up to uncontrollable proportions. Shirts and pants kept on being too small for me, so I kept on buying bigger clothes. The last straw was the fact that I tore my favorite jeans because it couldn't handle my size and the punishment I meted out to the fabric.

I'm lucky in a sense that a gym was opened at the workplace by this time, and hence started my journey to lose weight and basically try to maintain a healthy looking body. It was a tough challenge. The most successful period so far was between August 2007 to March 2008. In March 2007, I weighed my heaviest (officially), which is 98kg (216pounds). I do believe that I've weighed significantly more than this, but this is the official weight recorded by the gym trainer. Throughout the time, I made a pact with myself that I would try to maintain my attendance to the gym, control what I eat and basically just live a healthy lifestyle. It wasn't easy though, nothing happened for the first few months. So, the trainer suggested lowering my rice intake, to lower my carbs intake. Within 2 months of doing that, while maintaining my gym attendance, I managed to lose 20kg (44pounds). My lowest recorded weight so far is 78kg (171pounds), which is still a few steps away from my ideal weight.

But I lost the rhythm, I'm not so sure why, but my schedule just went haywire mid 2008. What was supposed to be the next step to build a better body, became a "war" to just keep myself motivated to come to the gym. I've put on weight, lose it again, and put it back on throughout this time, up until now. I now weighed 85kg (187pounds) and have been maintaining that for the last few months. I must have hit a plateau, as the trainer predicted, and I have to find a way to keep myself motivated to come to the gym. I don't think my greatest challenge is coming to the gym, since it's located at my workplace and since I spent most of the time here, I'm sure I can drop by the gym anytime during weekdays. The greatest challenge so far has been to keep eating healthy food! And it's so hard to find those here (yeah, yeah...excuses, excuses) but I'm determined to find a way to eat healthy!

People wonder why I go to the gym regularly...it's not because I want to become a body builder, I just want a healthier lean body. And to feel comfortable with it, and not to be out of breath when climbing up the stairs (!). I feel uncomfortable with the flabbiness, and I need to burn it off. My target is not for everyone; as long as you feel comfortable with your body, there's nothing other people can say otherwise. I don't feel comfortable with my body, so I need to do something about it.

Let's hope for the best, and keep your fingers crossed!

1 comment:

Anna said...

we both will watch our weights yea.. although I dah lama x g gym.. tak renew pun lagik membership..hehe... but will try to cook healthy and diet-balanced food for you..