Bouncing back!

Yeah, I'm bouncing back to the gym. After more than 2 months of not exercising (yeah, not even brisk walking), I think I've gained enough fat so it's about time to re-start gymming. I was not motivated to exercise at all after fasting month and Syawal. Although I didn't attend many open houses, the pounds were piling like nobody's business.
My work schedule was also quite tight, so we ate out a lot for the past 2 and a half months. The worst thing about eating out is that I feel obliged to finish everything on the plate. Just imagine, the normal nasi beriyani serving at the mamak can come close to 1000 kCal (for those who are counting). So, nasi beriyani plus bandung soda plus papadom can simply total up to 1400 kCal!!
Ok, that's scary when we know how low our metabolic rate is. I should be taking about 1700 kCal perday and my body (with this age) burns about 2000 kCal (if I don't exercise).
If one meal is close to 1400 kCal, 3 meals must have been about 2500 kCal if not more. With that extra 500 kCal, it's not a surprise I gained a few kg within a few months' time.
That's seriously unhealthy.
So, starting from Wednesday, 12th Oct 2011, I started working out again. It was not easy as I had to start slow. I couldn't run as I used to a few months ago. My knees were getting weaker and I was out of breath after cycling for 5 minutes. That's how unfit I was.
Just imagine, 2.5 months of not exercising can do that to my fitness level. What if I stop working out for years? What would happen to my body?
I might get a Personal Trainer this time just so that I'm more motivated and consistent. 

No update means not many activities

Ok, I last updated in March 2011. Since then I've only been to the gym once a week. That's how not frequent and not consistent I was. March, April and May have been really hectic. I have three concurrent projects whereby I'm actively involved in the deployments. Having a Team Leader title is not an excuse to be a generalist. There are still a lot of technical stuffs that I have to have hands on skills. Otherwise, technical certifications won't be put in my appraisal plan, right?
In April, I discovered that my BP was slightly high. Well, let's just say that it was high that the Doctor looked worried after taking the third reading that week. I was actually really frustrated. Having lived a rather healthy life for the past 3 years and cooked at home more frequent than ever and yet the BP still shot up. Even my bad cholesterol level has gone down significantly.
So, I have been on medication since April. The meds made me feel like floating and I couldn't really focus on my work. I stopped taking them for almost a week. After that, I continued with the meds and it was better, no more floating. Because of that, I'd rather go home straight from work and took a short nap before Maghrib. I told myself that I needed extra rest and sleep. I've been neglecting those two for several months.
Early last week, I went for a follow up session with the doctor. My BP has gone down to almost normal level (normal for a 37 year old woman). Although my BP was better during my pregnancy, but the reading now is considered okay and not worrying.
I guess I will start running actively next week (procrastinate.... and procrastinate some more... hehehe)

Trying Outdoor

I've been doing my little runs since June 2010. So far, I've done one outdoor brisk walking session last year and yesterday I decided to run along the roads near my house.

I brisk walked for about 200 meters before started running. Firstly, it was a totally different experience than running on the treadmill in a comfortable, air conditioned gym with encouraging music and TV screens showing ASTRO programmes. I noticed that there was more stress on both of my knees, perhaps whenever I run on the treadmill it helped to lower the impact. Running against the wind was also another challenge. Usually it was not too windy in my area but yesterday, when I ran I could feel that extra effort was needed to bring my body forward. Having these extra kg on my body was another big factor. Big body, bigger friction against the wind? Haha.

I also had to be extra careful on the grassy areas as I could see piles of dog poo left there by the dog owners. Too bad our Majlis Perbandaran never thought about enforcing these people to pick whatever gold their dogs produce. I'm not racist, but somehow this made me feel that the Muslim and Malay sensitivity is being ignored by some quarters.

My runs Sep 2010 - Feb 2011: Not as frequent as I wanted

Besides that, I also realized that there were way too many cars in the neighbourhood. There were also Mat Rempits and children riding bicycles to the nearest playground. These two categories of riders were quite dangerous as they treated the road like their own. They're young, immature (and stupid), yes I knew that. But why can't their parents spend some time educating them on road safety? They're even hazardous to some people who were trying to jog in this area (like me!).

So, it was not a really pleasant experience running in my neighbourhood. I decided to go back to the treadmills at the gym where there's no Mat Rempit and dog poo. 

My 2010 runs

How did I fare in my running in 2010? Well, here's some statistics. Since I only started running in the middle of 2010, so these data were for 6 months period. 

I was so proud to see this. I haven't ran this far since I left school. Although I need to run more frequent than just once a week, I have to be happy to stick to brisk walking on weekends. Slotting in running sessions in my currently extra busy schedule is a real challenge now. A few adjustments need to be done this year if I were to improve on my running. 

My best month was July and I think I know why. We went to the UK in June so being there alone was inspiring enough to start running more seriously. I saw so many people ran in the UK during summer. In fact there were people running as late as 10pm. In my housing area in Puchong many neighbors have started running in the morning and weekends too.  So this year I hope I'll be continuously motivated to run.