Eat More, Weigh Less

This post is actually the second part of my blog with the inversed title "Eat Less, Weigh More".  Why a Part 2, you may ask. It's because I felt like I wasn't able to explain fully and clearly why I said eating less could mean a possible weight gain. Through a quick chat (more of a series of Instagram comments with @emmahmay (thanks, sweetie!), I, myself, found the right words.

It's all about your metabolism.

As what I had first quoted at the first part of this blog last month, About.com states that metabolism is the chemical process that establishes "the rate at which your body burns calories". Short of going into health gobbledygook, let's put things this way: You've probably already heard or googled health products or food (hello, cinnamon and cayenne pepper!) that boosts your metabolism. You have also probably been given dozens of tips regarding metabolism-boosting exercises and the when's and how's involved. The how's are mostly regarding getting your body to not move or exercise in the same manner over long periods of time; that we need to "shock" or "trick" it against getting used to a routine every now and then.

Guess what? It's the same with food, especially with how much you consume per day.

Many people find it easier to believe or fall into thinking that eating less alone is the key to weight loss. While it is true that cutting calories AND exercising more do lead to significant weight changes, it is highly important to establish when the cutting of calories should stop.

My personal minimum benchmark is 1,220 calories. At my age of 28, height of 5'2 1/2 and weight as of my last weigh-in yesterday of 129.8 lbs (Yey! Closer, make that "a lot closer", to my second goal weight of 125 lbs!), Livestrong MyPlate tells me that in order to continuously lose a pound more, I should only consume 1,159 calories. Please do note, however, that I set my activity level (another category fitness/calorie tracker apps like MyPlate and myfitnesspal use to determine calorie goal) to "sedentary" here if only to challenge myself to move more, even if I know I am no longer sedentary (I exercise five to six times a week and walk and stand for four hours straight on work days).

So how much have I been eating? Well, over the past two weeks, I have definitely been eating more than 1,220 calories! At one point, I think I reached 1,700 calories (This was the day I finally passed my behind-the-wheel driving exam at DMV after two tries! I had a Jollibee chickenjoy-spaghetti meal along with a banana langka pie!). But I am still losing. How? I drive my metabolism crazy, that's how!

On days that I am truly sedentary (Day off from work and from exercise... Yes! I have exercise "rest days" too in order to allow my body to recover!) or during detox days (hello, smoothie!), I do follow what my calorie tracker apps dictate. On weekly date nights and/or binge days, I allow myself to go over my set calorie goal, eat whatever would make health nuts' eyes roll, and go crazy at the gym, the "crazy" depending on how much I am over.

For instance, since I noticed I burn 10-17 calories per minute on the elliptical or while doing any kind of cardios, I extend my cardios for a minute more if I am over 10 calories. So if I'm over a 300 calories, you can bet your glutes off that I'll be at the gym for 30 minutes more.

But going back to food and metabolism, like exercise, when conditioned, the body needs to be challenged every now and then to test how well it has responded to your conditioning. If you keep on feeding it the same kind and same low amount of food everyday, for long periods of time, chances are, you'll no longer lose weight. The mental torture you've been subjecting yourself will eventually become nothing more than a routine for your body that has already gotten used to it.

So eat more. Take risks. Shock your body. Get your metabolism off the couch and get it working overtime each time you shock it! It doesn't hurt to have a bite of this and that. The key to fitness and weight loss is not eating less alone. It is moderation. Moderate, not low, amount of calories or portions. Moderate exercise. Moderate frequency in shocking meals and workouts.

Still not convinced? Follow me on Instagram @whenyouloseyouwin and see my exercises, my food and my progress!

First 2013 Progress Pictures

We're already almost halfway through the first quarter of 2013. Since it's my day off, let me indulge you with some progress pictures of mine that I sincerely and genuinely hope could inspire you to start working on creating progress comparison shots of your own.

A month back, I unintentionally wore the same long-sleeved shirt from Old Navy and jeans from DKNY that I wore in September and December of 2012. As such, I found it only apt to make a progress shot. This was originally posted in my Instagram account (@whenyouloseyouwin).

This next progress shot was posted just a couple of days back. Five months ago and 40+ lbs back, in August of 2012, when I was still taking those dreadful "day 1" photos of myself, I thought the picture to the left wasn't really bad. I had a toned booty and gym capris were enhancing my curves. Or so I thought. Peeling the short pants off revealed a not-so-sumptuous rear. It was flabby and big. Today, people think I may have lost my curves but what I lost are actually fat... in my thighs and calves! Fat in my thighs and calves, people! And since muscle is more dense than fat, my leg muscles are the ones that still give my butt shape. I know I still have to keep on working though on strengthening and toning those muscles. I don't want to lose my ass! :)

Eat Less, Weigh More

Yesterday, I saw the above picture in my Instagram post/news feed. I thought, "Finally! Someone gets it!"

The "it" is the world's biggest weight loss misconception: You have to eat less in order to weigh less.

The principle is actually not entirely wrong especially when you consciously make the decision to cut in half a daily consumption of 3,000 calories. What can make it misleading is the word "less".

To understand why "less" can be utterly misleading, you have to first know and accept that there are factors governing a successful weight loss. I'm not a weight loss expert but based on experience and from what I read, among the most important factors are height, weight, level of daily activity (sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, highly active), age, and weekly weight loss goal.

Before I proceed to discussing the factors mentioned, let me make this clear: If you are still not within a regular-normal weight range, the numbers, whether numbers on the scale or elsewhere, DO matter.

Going back to the factors mentioned above, a lot of people think there's a standard number of calories one must consume in order to achieve a huge weight loss, nevermind that this actual weight loss is achieved in such a short period of time that it is nothing short of drastic. I remember watching Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) when Kirstie Alley first appeared on it a few years back. She said part of the reason she joined it was to lose weight. And lose the weight she did. For a while, I thought, wow, she really was burning those pounds away through regular vigorous movements. And then, when I heard she was just consuming 1,200 calories a day, I just had to stop the wow's. Close to the 60s in age and spending hours in rehearsal, like what Instagrammer mandagetsfit said in the caption of her picture above, "she was practically running on an empty tank".

Then there's this person who I used to follow and used to follow me back on my fitness account on Instagram. We're of the same height (5'3) and while I started my weight loss journey at 180 lbs in August of 2012, she started hers months before at over 200+ lbs. In her profile, she indicated that she had already lost over 30 or 40 lbs. Like my wow's for Kirstie, however, those stopped coming out of my mouth when I saw she was consuming no more than 800 calories/day. I must be a decade or so older than her but only 800 calories a day for someone who's probably studying and working at the same time? Only 800 calories for someone like her who's heavier than me? That. Can't. Be. Right.

But I kept my mouth shut about her eating habits. One day she complained of being stuck in that dreaded weight loss plateau. Worse, after a few weeks, she gained weight. A lot of people, myself included, tried to tell her that it couldn't possibly just be muscle weight anymore; that she had to do more cardios than what she had been doing (she said she dislikes it). For the life of me, I still did not mention anything about her eating habits.

Needless to say, my comments to her post got deleted. Either it was an Instagram bug or it was on purpose. For whatever the reason, I also found out she "unfollowed" me. I "unfollowed her back".

Short of making this blog post about her, let me go back once again to what mandagetsfit said about metabolism: Do not inflict undue damage to your metabolism. About.com says metabolism is the chemical process that establishes "the rate at which your body burns calories". So it goes without saying that without the right amount of food to digest and to turn into energy, like a factory, the body shuts down to stock up on whatever amount of energy it still has in order to continue life. This process is what happens when our metabolism slows down, making us plateau or worse, gain weight.

So I urge all of you to know and stick to your true numbers. These are your yardstick to a successful and healthy weight loss. There are a number of smartphone apps and websites online like Livestrong.com, Livestrong My Plate and MyFitnessPal that help determine these numbers.  Use these to your advantage! They're within your fingertips and easily at your disposal.

What's more, do not shock your body. Take it one step at a time. Have you ever heard of the phrase "slowly but surely"? I'm sure you have so do things gradually. Condition your body to slowly cut down the calories. But don't be afraid to eat more! Honestly? I'll be more afraid if I start eating less. My personal threshold is 1,220 calories. At 137.4 lbs now, my calorie counter dictates that if I were sedentary, I should eat 1,199 calories in order to lose a pound a week. But I'm no longer sedentary. I've conditioned my body to move more in order to eat more.

At the end of the day, learn, as well, to listen to your body. Nourish it and let it rest when needed. If you only work around processes that are sustainable, before you know it, you're at your goal!

Why I Am On This Weight Loss Journey

It's my unofficial day off today or the extension of my official days off (called in sick due to a pulled lower back muscle... ouch!). During the latter, I had a couple of aunts and a couple of friends who expressed two very different opinions regarding my progress: one group said I could push further down to 120 lbs for my ideal weight (instead of my goal of 125 lbs) and one group said "tama na" (stop already).

Before I express my decision and thoughts about those, let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who weighed "just right" and had two overweight parents. She was told her mom gained weight due to pregnancy. Overtime, when her mom quit her job to become a full-time housewife and mother, she learned that it was because of the latter. And liters of Coke. As for her dad, she had learned to passively accept that people like him gain the weight with age. The passive acceptance, however, turned to fear, when she learned at 15 that her father was diagnosed with diabetes.

Both of these parents of hers used to be really slim. During her puberty years, her mom told her she passed on to her genes that produce more-than-the-average-size breasts. Those genes worked to her advantage when, upon graduating from high school, she got invited to represent her community in her city's local beauty pageant. She placed 2nd. Or 1st runner-up. She was almost 17, 5 foot 3 inches and 117 lbs. The year was 2001.

When she entered college months after the beauty pageant, she gained about 5-8 lbs. It was her first time to realize how much 5-8 lbs can change one's image to people. She thought she still looked fine and was still within the ideal weight range for her height and age and yet, to people, a 5-8 lb-weight gain is a disappointment. In June 2001, she was between 122-125 lbs.

Once she graduated from college in 2005, she entered the workforce as a part-time call center agent in the morning. In the afternoon, all the way to 9 pm, she's back in school, studying law as a post-graduate degree. She didn't really like coffee so much so for four years in the call center industry and just a year in law school, she sought refuge in food to keep her awake and energized. In 2007, she complained to her friends of being 150 lbs.

In 2008, almost two years after her mom died with diabetic coma (yes, diabetes) as the primary cause, her politically active news writer of a father was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure due to his 15-year-old diabetes.

It's also in the same year that she met her then future husband. He accepted her even if she admitted to him that she's overweight and was heavier than him. He didn't mind that he's taller and more active in the gym. In August of that year, he invited her to an "international romantic date" in Disneyworld. From there, they travelled to where he lives in California. At one of the mall bathroom weighing scales during one fine day in August of 2008, she found out she was 169 lbs.

2009 came and her weight reached 175 lbs. Her man proposed on Christmas Day in 2008 and she knew she needed to lose some LBs. It was a promise to her wedding couturier that brought a 6-lb weight loss on her wedding day. On January 24, 2010, she was 5'3, and a 169-lb bride.

When her 6-month stay in the US on a tourist visa came to an end, she brought back to her native country not only prayers for a speedy immigrant visa processing but 16 extra pounds of which, gave her acid reflux, and, according to her OB-GYN, prevented her from conceiving immediately. She was told not to worry so much; that if she and her husband had already been trying for a year and nothing happened, that's when she should start thinking of treatments.

Having nothing else to do during the year-long processing of her papers aside from taking care of her sick father, she thought of enrolling at a gym just 4 minutes away, on foot, from their house. She took baby steps, steps that progressed to leaps when her required medical exam for the visa came closer. She had heard of horror stories about people either getting the processing of their papers delayed or their applications denied due to various health conditions so she changed certain things where her diet and activity were concerned.

For her breakfast and dinner, instead of eating rice with viand, she replaced rice with oatmeal (oats cooked to the consistency/stickiness of rice). Her only meal with rice was during lunch. Thirty minutes after dinner, she would head down to the gym.

The lifestyle change paid off: She passed the medical exam. In July 2011, she went back to California at a lighter weight of 155 lbs.

A month passed and her hormones went awry. It was her first time to experience irregular menstrual cycles. She was told it's due to either the change in environment or her rapid weight loss. Or both.

When she was finally with a job, her weight shot up 10 lbs. Her state ID indicated that she was 165 lbs.

It was at 165 lbs in May of 2012 that she found she was 5 weeks pregnant. She immediately submitted a notice of resignation as the happiness of finally conceiving was more important to her and her husband. The happiness didn't last though as she eventually lost the pregnancy due to a missed miscarriage. She had a D&C on June 30 during which, her declared weight in the hospital form was 175 lbs.

In August, a month before renewing her gym membership, she was at 180 lbs. She prepped for her return to the gym by doing at least 60 spread-out body squats daily. She also stuck to having no more than 3 cups of rice per day and on some days, cut it to two cups due to her oatmeal arrozcaldo (see my oatmeal arrozcaldo blog entry*****) breakfast.

In September of 2012, she and her husband went to Las Vegas. Because she had already started calorie counting via Livestrong's MyPlate iPhone app, imagine being in the Sin City, gluttony and all, eating only in Panda Express due to their disclosed nutritional info and out of Cheesecake Factory's Skinnylicious Menu! By the end of that month, she was down to 177 lbs.

Months passed and another vacation opportunity arrived: They were headed to New York in the second week of December! She knew this would take her away from her calorie counting app so she worked extremely hard to get to a low weight, a weight that's low enough to accommodate reasonable holiday weight gain. A few hours before her flight on December 14, she was still huffing and puffing at the gym. She was 151 lbs.

The vacation was actually her husband's business trip so while he was at the office, she was at the hotel gym, trying to burn the calories that racked up during their dinner adventures in New York. By the end of the trip a day before Christmas of 2012, she was 153 lbs.

The first day of 2013 came and she's down to 150 lbs. 150 lbs! Her husband had never seen her that light, ever! It was supposedly a 3rd wedding anniversary to her husband: for him to see her that light! The "gift" came 23 days early!

On January 3, she started working for a new company. She had to tell the administrative officer if she could change her declared weight when she signed the contract in November (165 lbs). Her new weight on that day? 149 lbs.

It was also on January 3 that she tried on various pieces of uniform from the office stock room. She was given several pieces to wear while waiting for the arrival of her ordered uniform, if she ordered at all.

A week later, during her fingerprinting, at the security office she had to request another weight change. She explained to the officer that she had already lost 3 lbs ever since her start date. She was asked if it's because of stress on the job. She said that she's merely actively trying to lose weight and that walking more than 10,000 steps/day because of her new role contributed to it.

Another week passed and she received a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that her state ID had been cancelled. She knew and eventually confirmed that it was inadvertently/mistakenly cancelled due to a typographical error. Her trip to DMV was a stressful 2-hour weight that was only made okay by the fact that she was able to change her declared weight of 165 lbs on her old ID to 145 lbs.

It's now the end of January. She still has not ordered her uniform. She figures, she's only going to order once she's between 120-135 lbs. She can pay for alteration any time on her already loose temporary uniform. She called in sick due to a pulled lower back muscle (she blames the squats she did the other day). She's 138.4 lbs now. No longer either obese or overweight; finally in the regular weight range.

The end.......

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is nowhere to be seen yet. My stand on what should be my goal weight now that I'm 138.4 lbs? For starters, I'm 3.4 lbs away from my first goal weight of 135 lbs. Which makes me 13.4 lbs away from my current goal weight of 125 or 18.4 lbs away from my aunts' 120-lb campaign. Well, it actually all depends on whether or not I become pregnant. For each day that I learn I am not pregnant, I feel like I'm always in a marathon: I run faster, jump higher, squat lower, lift heavier in order to get to a low enough weight that's ideal for pregnancy and for my health.

So yes. I'm trying to lose weight to become pregnant again. I'm trying to lose weight to accommodate, just like last Christmas, a healthy or a reasonable enough weight gain once I successfully conceive again. More importantly, I'm trying to lose weight and have a sustainable and healthy lifestyle change for my own health  - a health that I consider as my most important tool in living longer for my loved ones who need me and who love me.

5 Rules to Easy 2-3 Lbs Off in a Month

Yep. You read it right. I bet you mostly caught the words "easy" and "month". Just a disclaimer though: If you still eat over 3,000 calories' worth of fatty, greasy food, this is definitely not for you. Though the word "easy" here can truly be misleading, I acknowledge that there is no sustainable shortcut to weight loss and fitness. This set of rules, however, is worth adding to your fitness and weight loss regimen. The relative ease of these rules separates the truly determined from the simply lazy.

Team Phantom

I know, depending on the perspective of The Phantom of the Opera (POTO) fans and critics, I am several years (movie), decades (the musical) or even a century (the book) too late but hey, I still think it is never too late to support the cause of the Opera Ghost :)

For as long as I can remember, I have been humming to the tune of POTO the musical's main theme song, "All I Ask of You". Way before I knew that it's Sarah Brightman who became the original Christine in the musical (or even the fact that she's POTO composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's ex-wife), I had always sung, albeit lyrically or musically incorrect, the famous love song. And now, thanks to my husband who took me out on a Broadway date one cold December afternoon in New York just a few weeks ago, I am able to present why I, after all these years of supporting the other male lead singing "All I Ask of You" with Christine, changed my mind.

In no particular order are my reasons:

1. Raoul, for all the royalty flowing in his veins as Viscount ("Vicomte", for you, French peeps) de Chagny, is unbelievable in his professed/declared love for childhood sweetheart, Christine Daae. I can cut him some slack by saying he eventually came to really love her years into the marriage but come on! Tell a girl you  have not seen for years that you love her and you want to marry her after only several weeks of seeing her again?

2. I fully know I will get murdered here by the members of Team Raoul but he is no prince charming or knight in shining armor. He is portrayed in the book, the musical and the movie as either lame or condescending (towards Christine). He is possibly dashing, but he is lame, nevertheless.

3. Reason #3 is further proven in one of the book sequels to POTO of which became the basis to Webber's "Love Never Dies" the musical. No one can ever fully convince me to give a break a man who succumbs to fits of jealousy, gambling and drinking just because he suspects his wife never really loves him. And then have your wife work again to pay for your gambling debts? Just turn away, man. Turn away. You could just let her go to avoid further damage to your feelings, to your ego and to everyone else's. Wait... Christine died at the very end of "Love Never Dies" after proclaiming her love for the Phantom (and that you were never really the father of her son)? Geez. I guess it's too late then.

4. Man, whoever thought of giving Raoul a really bad hairstyle in the 2004 movie with Emmy Rossum playing Christine, Patrick Wilson playing Raoul and Gerard Butler playing the Phantom/Erik, must be on Team Phantom. Gerard is hot in the movie. Patrick is, too, just in desperate need though of a haircut.

5. I can think of a thousand and one reasons why I'd stay away from Erik being the stalker/murderer with the "carcass of a face" but I can also think of a million and one reasons why I'd choose him over Raoul. Blame the members of Team Phantom through the years. They romanticized his entire demeanor, his underground lair, included, and even made him hot in Ramin Karimloo's Broadway/West End suit and extra hot in Mr. Butler's Hollywood shoes :)

6. Let me end this obsession with two of my most loved videos from what is obviously my favorite adaptation of POTO. Watch and see what I mean:

RECIPE: Oatmeal Arroz Caldo

OATMEAL ARROZ CALDO

I'm no health expert but when articles from all over and your own experience tell you that oats are good, then oats are, indeed, good.

Oats are the best thing that can ever happen to one's diet. According to Wikipedia, these contain more soluble fiber than any other grain. And what good does fiber do? It essentially makes us feel full thereby effectively curbing any more craving. What's more, certain studies have shown that it may actually help in lowering one's cholesterol. Between my hubby and I, I'm the oatmeal person. My husband's heart belongs to cereal (well, Quaker OATS cereal). He's taller and lighter than me (weight's regular) but it seems that my previously non-stop consumption of oatmeal a few months back has kicked his cholesterol level to the curb. Mine's at a regular level, his' is borderline high!

But okay, this blog post is not about our eating habits and our sad weight comparison. It is about that oatmeal dish that I still have every now and then for either breakfast or dinner.

OATMEAL ARROZ CALDO

"Arroz" means rice in Spanish, while "caldo" means broth. Basically, arroz caldo, a staple popular in former Spanish colony, the Philippines, is a rice broth or otherwise known as the Filipino-style congee.

The Philippines, being geographically close to China, has a lot of Chinese dishes in its cuisine and Arroz Caldo happens to be a Spanish-sounding "Filipinized" congee made of sticky rice, chicken broth, chicken, garlic, pepper and onion.

Now for someone like me who grew up to this but is on a quest to lose the LBs due to health concerns, rice can be a little tricky due to its calorie and sugar level. Thankfully, I discovered (and friends concur) that oatmeal can be of the same sticky consistency as rice as long as the oats are not swimming in water. And since I don't like the traditional breakfast oatmeal with the fruits, nuts, sugar and milk (I don't have a sweet tooth), I thought of making my own Oatmeal Arroz Caldo.

Here's the recipe of what I have been eating for the last two years:

1/2 cup dry of Quaker Oats Quick 1-Minute Oats  -  150 calories

1/2 boiled egg  -  39-40 calories

1/2 link microwaved chicken hamonado sausage (or the tastiest chicken sausage you can find in the deli/grocery)  -  115 calories (I buy Martin Purefoods' Chicken Hamonado Longanisa in the US)

1/2 tsp of powdered ginger (McCormick or any other brand)

generous sprinkles of dried minced onion and granulated garlic (McCormick or any other brand)

a dash of pepper to taste

chili powder (optional)

1. Pour hot water into a soup bowl, add the oats, ginger, onion and garlic

2. Add the sliced boiled egg and sliced chicken hamonado

**Makes 1 serving (304-305 calories/serving)

I know health nuts will surely chastise me for adding sausage in this dish (preservatives!) but hey! It's fast. filling, low in sugar and works for my palate. I am also not preventing anyone from going the extra mile by boiling their own chicken and adding it to this dish.