Ugly Truths of Weight Loss

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daily grind, Eating Well, fab, fit, happiness, health, inspiration, life, weight loss, women

There are many ugly truths or side effects that very few people talk about. I mean you are getting healthy and fitter so why rain on your parade especially with things  that are not so great. Well, mainly because they do impact your life and they make the process harder. It is also possible to reduce their effect.

Few of those things are excess skin, stretch marks and skin discolouration (the last one is huge if you are insulin resistant like me). 

These are the things that I have a found that go a long way in reducing the damage. Some of them are intuitive and others not so much, so here goes:

Not too much, too fast

It is important to remember that the weight one is trying to lose has accumulated over time. It is important to lose it slowly and steadily. It is probably hardest thing to focus on because you want it all to come off, and come off quickly. But, skin needs time to adapt, to do its thing and shrink. It needs to make the adjustment. It cannot make the adjustment fast enough and will get it wrong if it is doing too much.  It needs to catch-up with your over enthusiastic self.

Hydrate

Give it water. Everyone says drink water. Do. It helps the skin to do its thing. Also, additional water will increase the amount of exercise you get. All the extra trips to bathroom 🙂 

Scrub

It gets the dead skin cells of your body. It makes the blood vessels in the skin pump more blood and gives it opportunity to build new cells.

Moisturise

And I mean moisturise. Do it two times a day at least. Cover yourself in cream or body butter (better choice) or oil (best choice). I use anything that I can get hand of – drugstore moisturising cream to shea butter to coconut oil. I like coconut oil as it also helps with discoloration of the skin. Put excessive amounts of moisturiser of your choice where the skin has been stressed the most – where is has supported your weight the most, in the creases, around the joints, etc.

Massage

If you can, get a massage. A lymphatic massage is awesome because it also helps with drainage of excess fluid but get whatever you can. It helps muscles relax (great for the poor overworked muscles) and it helps the skin. If you cannot go to the spa, do it yourself. It may not be as great or as relaxing as a massage from masseuse but it is better than nothing.

Papaya Skin

Eat the Papaya (great for digestive system) and rub the inside of the skin on your body. Yes, it is sticky and feels a bit ekeey (sp?) but it is great for the skin. It is especially good for the discoloured areas of your skin. It helps to make it better.

Yogurt and Honey Rub

At least once a week I use yogurt and honey rub to wash my body. I don’t know what it does but it definitely makes my skin feel great.

It helps to do these things as one is going through the weight loss process. It is one more thing to do during the weight loss but for me it as important as building muscle and getting rid of fat.

I may not be able to reverse all the damage but as long as I can reduce the damage, I am good. The remaining damage, I will wear with pride as scars of battles fought and won.

UPDATE – 13 DAYS

Tags

daily grind, exercise, fit, fitbit, fitness, life, middle-east, Saudi Arabia, training, travel, weight loss, work, workout

30 Nov – Long walk – done

1 Dec – walk – done

2 Dec – arm exercises instead of leg work out

3 Dec – crashed after travel and didn’t do anything

4 Dec – missed personal training

5 Dec – didn’t make it to the gym

6 Dec – personal training today

Pole Dancing Arm Challenge – Synopsis

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exercise, fit, fitness, health, life, training, workout

I felt 30 day arm challenge was the most effective of the three challenges that I did. I definitely felt the difference in my arms especially my triceps. I am thinking of doing this challenge again after Christmas and New Year.

I added lateral raises, front raises, narrow shoulder press and swimmers to the arm challenge (I know they are all shoulder exercises) but I did them with 2 lb weight and not 8 lb I was using for my arm exercises.

I also did the exercises in reps and as part of circuit without stopping. I would recommend this challenge to others.

Next 13 Days

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exercise, fit, health, middle-east, nutrition, Saudi Arabia, travel, work

Next 13 days are going to be crazy with work and then I go home… so here is what it is looking like…

1 Dec to 3 Dec – Work Travel 
4-5 Two Crazy work
6-7 weekend/get shopping done – fit in work 
8-11 work travel
12 Dec – Back to work 
13 Dec – On the plane home

I have written exhaustively about gym situation in KSA and the anxiety it brings BUT, I have found a hotel which has a storage closet with a treadmill that females can use and I am going to stay at the hotel. 

Now, this is my plan for work out 

30 Nov – Long walk
1 Dec – 20 mins walks in the morning – I can’t make it to the gym
2 Dec – treadmill/leg workout
3 Dec treadmill/leg work out
4 Dec – personal  training – arms
5 Dec – elliptical 
6 Dec – elliptical 
7 Dec – long walk
8/9/10/11 treadmill – I am also going to take my JM 30 day Shed and see what I can do 
12 Dec – elliptical 
13 Dec – personal training – whole body and flight in the evening 

I know it is going to be difficult to fit in all the exercise because of travelling but I will have to do as much as I can 

Squat Challenge

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exercise, fit, fitness, squat challenge, squats

The Squat Challenge is done. 

The interesting thing about the squat challenge was that the toughest part for me was the middle the reps between 150 to 220. Those days really killed me. However, in the last 3 days, my knees would hurt after I was done. I did focus on posture and it is important to make sure you do. As the risk of injury with such high reps is greater. 

I lost additional inch around my hips and thighs so that is progress. I think I would do it again but once I have shed a lot more fat to get more definition. Now, here is what go me through it:

• I did it barefoot – I am not sure what difference it made but it helped me focus on posture better; 
• I did at at night and not as part of my morning workout. It made it easier to do it as my legs would have recovered somewhat and I could go to sleep shortly thereafter; 
• when doing squats if you pretend that you were lowering yourself to sit in the chair  it helps keep the posture (yes, I know that is a strange way of sitting in the chair) 

Cardio Challenge and Travelling Salesman

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cardio, cardio challenge, exercise, fit, fitness, travel, weight loss

So, the Cardio Challenge is all done. This was probably the hardest challenge for me to complete. In many ways, it was a challenge I did not really fully complete because on so many days I was travelling so I did 5,000 steps and on others I was on a plane for the entire day and didn’t even do 2,000 steps.

However, each day that I was not hindered by circumstances beyond my control I stuck to the challenge and completed the required steps except for the days when I knew that if I did steps I would completely mess up my exercise routine.

The thing I wanted to achieve with this challenge was for my body to get use to walking at least 12,000 steps a day. I started with 10,000 steps and I have built up to 12,000 steps. This is the goal I had set out to do. I want to get to the point now that on my cardio days I do 12,000 steps. This is my cardio goal for the next few months until I do another step challenge.

My life feels like that of a travelling salesman. I am always flying or travelling. I have previously written on numerous occasions about how difficult it is to remain healthy or work out on this trip. My mission over the next few months is to capture the challenge of my travelling salesman lifestyle and not let it destroy everything I achieve during the days I am not travelling. If I can overcome this challenge, I think I will be a happy person.

Challenges: Sense Over Target

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cardio, daily grind, exercise, fab, fit, fitbit, fitness, gadget, health, inspiration, life, squat challenge, training, weight loss

Wednesday was a long and hard day for me at work. I came home around 11:30 pm, and I was short on my step challenge by a lot. Yikes!

In the morning I had done a strenuous one hour arm’s workout. I also managed to finish my squat challenge (which was 160 squats for the day) and arm’s challenge (which was at some obnoxious level). At night, my fitbit step count for the day was around 8000 steps. My target for this week is 11,750 fitbit steps.

I knew that if I was to make that step count, I would need to go for a walk for at least 45-60 mins. If I ate, walked, showered and then went to bed then I wouldn’t be in bed until 1:00 am. In which case, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men wouldn’t be able to get me out of bed at 5:00 am and I will mis gym.

I decided, target or no-target, I am going to bed. It was probably the most sensible decision I made. I woke up rested, went to the gym. I did cardio for one hour (yesterday was rest day for both squat and arm challenges). I got stuck really late at work (came home at 11:00 am). But, I only had 1200 steps left because I had done cardio in the morning. I walked around my living room, met the step challenge for the day and bam, it was all done. One night sleep saved the next day for exercise.

I know, I have said it before but listen to your body. Look at long terms goals (as in ability to exercise the next day) and adapt as you go along. It is important to remember that this is not about one day or five days. It is about life time.

Challenges Get Hard with Time

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cardio, cardio challenge, Eating Well, exercise, fit, fitbit, fitness, health, squat challenge, training, weight loss

The last two days of doing gym and the challenges means that each muscle in my body is aching. It has been difficult to go back to full time gym and increasing intensity of each challenge.

Yesterday morning I kept hitting snooze button for 45 minutes until I finally dragged myself to the gym. I did cardio 25 minutes of treadmill and 20 minutes of elliptical. It has been ages (or a week) since I have done that much cardio and boy did it hurt. I mean what the hell happened to muscle memory? Also, the step count went up this week to 11,500 so suddenly from 5000 (which is what my target was when I was travelling) now I had to do 11,500 steps. I did 30 minutes of walk in the evening hoping that will make the step count. However, it didn’t. I had to rounds in my living room to make the step count. The only saving grace for yesterday was that it was rest day for squat and arm challenge so I had time to recover.

I am actually proud of myself for making it through today. I did 5 minutes of elliptical. 60 minutes of leg strength training. 15 mins of abdominal workout. 1 hour of walk. 11,520 fitbit steps (and counting). squat challenge (250 squats), arm challenge (28 push ups, 75 bicep curls, 50 dips, 1 min punches, 32 lateral flies, 32 front flies, 32 swimmers, 32 straight flies).

I am exhausted. I am going to have dinner in 10 minutes and then go to sleep.

We start tomorrow, again.

Day 9/7/3: Somedays are better when they are over

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cardio, cardio challenge, chocolates, daily grind, Eating Well, exercise, fit, fitbit, fitness, food, food plan, gadget, health, nutrition, squat challenge, training, travel, weekend, weight loss

It has been a long week with late nights at work, somewhat erratic eating and hit and miss exercise schedule. I am happy to see the end of this week and today as it is the weekend, and now I can finally relax (before I get back on the roll coaster on Saturday evening). I am travelling to S.E.Asia this Saturday, which means my sleeping pattern, eating and exercise will be completely shot. However, I am not going to worry about that at this stage. Right now, I am going to celebrate end of this week and day.

All things considered, today was an ok day. I am not sure why I am eating so much chocolate these days. It is somewhat stress and more importantly, I think, it is the lack of water. I usually drink about 10-15 glasses of water but these I am only consuming 5/6 glasses of water and that is also at the end of the day when I completely parched. I have to up water intake before I get on the plane, otherwise, it would a mini disaster.

So, today’s challenges are all done.

Fitbit Steps: 11,196 (yay!), cardio: 56 mins (divided between morning and evening).
Squats: 85
Pushups: 15, Dips: 15, Biceps curls: 20, Punches: 20 secs (and a bit more).

Challenges – Day 8/6/2

Tags

cardio, cardio challenge, chocolates, daily grind, Eating Well, exercise, fit, fitbit, fitness, food, health, squat challenge, weight loss

I did not do the post last night because all I could think of was bed.

I have had some seriously crazy last few days and it has been impossible to do any real exercise. I have kept up with the squat and arm challenge and met the cardio target threshold, but have not done my regular exercise regiment. I have actually no idea how I managed to do anything yesterday as I was exhausted, but I did ok on all three challenges.

I did mess up eating as I ate an overload of chocolate. I have been very good with my chocolate consumption but yesterday afternoon, I went a bit crazy and had loads of chocolate. It was mainly because I did not want the snacks I had packed and I was starving. This is why you should always have healthy/alternate snacks available.

So, here is the update on the challenge:

CARDIO CHALLENGE

Fitbit Steps: 5078
Cardio: During the Day

SQUAT CHALLENGE

Squats: 70 (ouch)

POLE DANCING ARM CHALLENGE

Pushups: 8
Dips: 8
Bicep Curls:15
Punches:15 secs