GreySneakers Diaries

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...

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 foc...

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 thou...

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. 

Many friends asked what keeps me sticking to my gym routine and the fact that many of my friends have terminated their gym membership made some people wonder why I haven't give up yet. Although I slacked a few times and thinking about it I think I'd slack at least twice a year. Once during puasa/raya and then once again during year end period (Nov-Dec). It's a recognizable pattern now so hopefully next year I'll have a Plan to ensure I don't slack. I don't have many tips on motivating myself to work out. So, in this entry I'll share with you some of the things that really helped especially when I was down and lost interested to exercise. Good music I researched, borrowed, bought, copied songs that can be used for my cardio sessions. Now that I'm more into running, I Google suitable playlists. Sometimes, I go through the old CDs I keep in some forgotten boxes in the house. With iTunes Genius, now it's easier to group songs and create playlists. M...

Syawal is not completely over yet in this country but I've declared end of celebration (for me) after the 5th of Syawal. I still visit friends and relatives but I kept on reminding myself that festive mood has been turned off, just to discourage me from eating too much at those houses. 'Open house' is a term used widely in Malaysia for the usually small feast organized by families/corporate organization/school/departments/ministries so that their friends/relatives/work colleagues/customers/vendors would come and celebrate Syawal. Since eating is the favorite past time in this country, Open Houses are very popular and people will try their best to attend each invitation. This year I decided to only attend a few Open Houses: my mom's, my customers' and my vendors'. It's a tough thing to do as I had to apologize profusely to those who invited me. Well, that's one of the sacrifices I had to do to make sure I don't spoil my calorie intake plan. If I...

.. and I don't have the energy to work out at the gym during Ramadhan. Fasting in this hot weather is very challenging for me. Although working in a fully air conditioned office, once I hit the road to travel to/from work the sun really drained my energy. The children's and my lips cracked and bleed yesterday. On some days, Shawqi looked rather dehydrated but continued fasting. He broke his fast at 6pm last week because he couldn't stand it. I'm not going to force him to complete his fast if his body cannot take it. He's only 8. However, something is quite different this Ramadhan. I managed to control my hunger. At a certain hour of the day I could still feel the pang of hunger but it's manageable. Usually, my lips would turn really pale at 5pm and I'd start suffering from gastritis after the 4th day. I think I have to thank BLA for this improvement. I never practiced portion control or monitored calorie intake before. Now that I've learned the tricks,...