When I was 16, I joined Rosas ng Santa Rosa (Santa Rosa City, Laguna). Back then I considered my weight of either 110 lbs or 117 lbs and my waistline of 27 inches as "chubby", proportions-wise. Ah! Who was I kidding?! THAT was slim. THAT was just right. Compared to what happened, 10 years after.
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| I am 16 going on 17.. lalala |
Older? Check. Wiser? I'm now 26 (turning 27 next month!) and apparently, none the wiser when it comes to fitness ever since I started to pack on the LBs. Thankfully, I've proven that my brain cells are still working hard enough (in spite of all the fat.. ugh..) to push me to go to the gym and spend an hour on average there four to as much as seven times a week. The "wisdom comes with age" adage also applies to how I've started soliciting advice from health and fitness experts, virtual and human alike.
So allow me to come clean and browse through the details of my weight loss journey:
June 2001
The Rosas ng Santa Rosa winner declined from competing as Santa Rosa's representative to the 2001 Miss Laguna pageant. I was first runner-up so I was next in line. From 117 lbs, I "ballooned" to 121 lbs. The gay coordinator, with fierce determination in his eyes, spoke of how he'd make me lose weight. Nyarr... To make the long story short, I didn't compete. I had to make the most out of my freshman year in UP Diliman.
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| Creative shots for the UP Diliman College of Arts and Letters 2005 yearbook |
2004
From 135 lbs, I went back to 121 or 124 lbs. Then gained ALL the pounds back and more. I somehow managed to cut the "more" to clock in at 135 lbs in time for my graduation picture. The secret? NOT the Atkins Diet that everyone was raving about during that time. Mine's the Cabbage Soup Diet. lol.
2005-2006
Law School + Call Center Job + Santa Rosa to Diliman travel = P-O-U-N-D-S. I would wake up between 3-3:30 AM. Go to work at 4 AM. Clock in before 5 in Makati after travelling from Santa Rosa in Laguna. My job as a survey taker enabled me to take my food and my books at my workstation provided that the customer did not hear me munching or talking about Philippine legal terms. At 1 PM, work would have already ended and I would have already started drinking my first of four cups of free coffee at the office to study for my evening law classes. I badly needed to stay awake. At 4 PM, I'd already be on my way to the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Classes were from 6 PM-9 PM. I'd go home immediately after... well, most of the time. The "some of the time" involved dinner with law school classmates at notorious Diliman, Katipunan and Kalayaan Avenue resto must-gos. Usually back at home at 11:30 PM. I still would have to study. In order to stay awake, I would often turn to food.
Summer of 2007
I remember complaining to my PinoyExchange (PEx) friends about being 150 lbs.
3rd Quarter, 2007
Enrolled, for the second time, at Slimmer's World. I was heartbroken and I needed to feel good. I turned to shoe shopping, a fab haircut and intense workout sessions. While the first two served their purpose for a long time, the latter lasted four days (with huge gaps in between) until my month-long membership expired.
July 2008
I bought an elliptical machine after pressures from my dad that I should look good for Sergs. The "I-should-look-good-for-Sergs" part was more than enough to convince me that Sergs, my then-boyfriend-now-hubby, was-and-still-is on dad's good side. My PEx friend Andrea warned that I should not just let it gather dust.
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| At Walt Disney World in Florida in August 2008 |
August 2008
First "international" date in the US with my then-boyfriend-now-hubby, Sergs. There was a weighing scale in one of the public toilets in a mall in San Bruno in California. My weight registered as 159+ lbs.
January-March 2009
175 lbs. I blamed my 2-month Nicaragua business trip for my weight gain. I professed, adamantly, that even with my separation from my elliptical, I did try my very best to not let the fact that a driver took me to the office and back to the hotel everyday and that food there's delicious (rice with beans, their Gallopintos, plus pork and cheese) make me gain weight. I did half/semi-push ups on my hotel room's bathroom counter. I jogged (once) on one of Nicaragua's beaches. Yes. I did try. Really, I did.
May 2009
Signed up with a wedding gown designer. Begged that I be allowed a more than reasonable period to lose weight before my first fitting. I showed up on that day completely putting to waste the expensive corset I bought and was wearing just because I had a heavy dinner.
(The rest of) 2009
My "fitness" regimen included going to my graveyard shift at work without eating dinner. I'd buy Vitamin Water (the one that says "Reduce") and pair it with bola-bola siopao from 7-Eleven. I'd then spend the rest of my shift believing that since I was a language trainer who spent most of her time standing up, walking and hauling heavy training modules, I was actually "fit".
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| Wedding Day! |
January 2010
With my wedding a few weeks away, my fiance and I decided to spend or maximize what little time we have left to at least say goodbye to some holiday poundage. We went to the gym every other day and tried to outdo each other's cardio efforts and lo and behold! It worked! Two weeks before the wedding, when we published our pre-nup shoot pics on Facebook, our friends posted comments about my weight loss. I was still in denial but became a believer when, a week later, during my final fitting with my couturier, they had to adjust my gown as I lost an inch on my arms and two inches on my waist. From 175 lbs, I went down to 169 lbs.
February-August 2010
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| Sinful treat at Red Lobster in 2010 |
Big food servings (US size), no exercise (I had way too many excuses), cold weather (I was at the Bay Area!). It came as no surprise why I went from a promising 169 lbs to a scary 185 lbs. For the first time in my adult life, I had a weight-related health problem: GERD. Short for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease or acid reflux, taking Omeprazole capsules twice a day became part of my routine.
August-November 2010
I was back in Manila, waiting for the approval of my spouse petition and 185 lbs. I missed my husband and dealt with my dad's health issues (he was in and out of the hospital every month from August to November), thus resorting to emotional eating. I enrolled myself again at the gym just outside our condominium the moment I returned. But at the same time, I had pizza and all other types of junk food delivered and feasted on Pinoy food that I missed while in the US! I knew I was getting absolutely insufficient exercise - not a noteworthy improvement from my sedentary lifestyle while in South San Francisco.
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| My medical exam's not-so-secret weapons |
November 2010-present
When dad, thankfully (and finally!), stopped from having monthly hospitalizations, I resolved to do something about my weight. My husband arrived for a 10-day Christmas vacation and on the day he went back to the US, what I thought was a bun in my oven turned out to be no more than a hysterical pregnancy. It was the final nail to my coffin of weight-related denials and procrastination. I was tired of seeing pregnancy announcements of friends who got married after my January 2010 wedding. I was tired of the wisecracks about my weight. I wanted (and still want) to pass the medical exam for my immigrant visa application and return to the US in tip-top baby-making shape.
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| For the love of spice :) |
More than a week ago, I got the good news about the schedule of my immigrant visa interview at the US Embassy and the expected medical exam requirement. Luckily, Pearl, a friend who happens to be a registered nurse, shared tips on how I can prepare. Let me now share what I've been doing every single day:
Morning Routine/Breakfast:
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| Can lower one's blood pressure! |
- Before having breakfast, I do 10-20 squats :D
- 5 teaspoonfuls of Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal turned into my own version of Arroz Caldo (hot water, McCormick powdered ginger, McCormick granulated garlic, a dash of pepper and less than 1/8 teaspoon of iodized salt)
- 1 CDO California Chicken Hotdog with Cheese (microwaved, NOT fried)
- 1 boiled egg
- 1 apple
- 2-3 glasses of cold drinking water
- 1 Centrum vitamins
Lunchtime Routine/Meal:
- 1 cup rice
- Viand (fish, veggies, chicken.... NO pork...but sometimes I indulge on Siomai House's pork siomai :D)
- 2-3 glasses of cold drinking water
- 1 cup Fit 'N Right pineapple snack or 1 banana
- 10-20 more squats
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My choice of gym equipment...
Forgiving on the calves, knees and thighs.
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- 5 teaspoonfuls of Quaker Oats Instant Oatmeal turned into my own version of Arroz Caldo (hot water, McCormick powdered ginger, McCormick granulated garlic, a dash of pepper and less than 1/8 teaspoon of iodized salt) <---------- basically acting as my low-cal rice replacement
- Viand: a little bit of meat - fish (sardines or Tilapia)/chicken and/or veggies
- 2 glasses of cold drinking water
- Stretching
- 10 minutes of low intensity cardios for warm-up (either on the crossramp at level 10 for incline and 9 for resistance or on the treadmill with power walking at 3.8 miles/hour for the first nine minutes and 20 seconds, gradually going down to 3.6-3.4 miles/hour for the last few seconds)
- More water
- 20-30 minutes of weight training (60 squats with 3-lb dumbbells included)
- More water
- 15-30 minutes of high intensity cardios (usually on the crossramp at level 10 for incline and 9 for resistance or on the elliptical at 8 for resistance)
- More water
- 200 mL Bear Brand Sterilized Milk (to keep my acid reflux at bay and to help me sleep)
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| At 165 lbs, a few weeks ago. |
In the end, my decision to push myself to lose weight does not really rely heavily on what other people see and think. My husband makes me feel secure every step of the way. :) I want to live longer, simply put. And it's all about having a realistic goal and seeking for healthy ways to achieve it. It's all about healthy, tasty, nutritious food on smaller/fewer proportions and ways to burn it. You are what you eat and/or burn, as they say, and that is me wishing to not see 173 or 185 lbs on my frame anymore. I'd rather be a promising 158 lbs on her journey to becoming a fit 137 lbs.
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