Well, as the picture above shows, this is actually my monthly progress blog post. I have also uploaded 3 pics into my Facebook account and I am grateful for the rather flattering comments. Other people I know are not that kind. There has also been an interest as to how I actually go about my workout routine so I guess might as well make it as the topic for today. I will not highlight my current regime though because it is not so practical for beginners. One of the most important factors for my success would be my own determination I guess. You can go gym training and still end up flabby if you do not have the willpower. I am sick of being fat, of being looked down upon, of always being envious of the guy that looks so good. I want to impress people and I want to be worthy of the girl I love. Oh yeah, my workout plan is for endurance type fitness simply because I have no access to gym. If you want to be slim and buff, Korean-style, then read on because that is my aim too.
I don't think I should condense my journey of 1 year into 1 post because it is a step by step process. In the beginning, I only started to build my stamina by jogging and doing some push ups and sit ups. There was no dieting. In fact at that time I tried to increase my size by eating more but that was a big mistake. I will highlight diet choices later. For starters, try to walk if you cannot jog. Walking for 30 minutes and then 10 sit ups + push ups is good enough. You do not want to overstrain yourself and hurt your joints. The reason why people claim that running will destroy your knee is because your body is not properly trained to support your bodyweight at that point in time. Make sure your sit ups and push ups are done correctly. If you are wondering, check Youtube. You should be breathing in everytime you sit up instead of holding your breath. Never hold your breath in any exercise if possible because that is simply using your whole body to support your action instead of exercising that group of muscles.
And never assume that you can do spot reduction of fat. Doing 100 sit ups a day will not make your stomach flat. You will have some muscle but it will still be hidden behind a layer of fat. It is always important to keep in mind that we are aiming for overall fitness. Once you are comfortable with the exercise, try increasing the difficulty. Try jogging a longer distance. If you are short on time, try jogging faster for a shorter distance. Increase the amount of times you do sit up or push up. This should take around 2 months before you see some improvements in your figure. However, I dare guarantee you will feel healthier only after a month. Do try to exercise at least 3 times a week. On weekends maybe you can do some simple stretching or just push ups. Search Youtube for the 'plank' exercise. It takes less than 5 minutes and you will realize just how weak you are. At first I can't even do 30 seconds properly.
The reason why I chose this path instead of going full force from the beginning is to prepare your body. Changing abruptly is bad in my opinion. And what you are building are endurance skeletal muscles, that concentrate towards movement instead of bursts of strength. That way you can engage them even if you walk, swing your hands or simply stand around. Furthermore the more muscles you have, the more you burn. Kind of like a small car engine versus a sports car engine. Without a doubt, the sports engine will eat much more fuel for the same distance compared with the small car. So if you can increase the energy expenditure of all your movements, it will accumulate easily. Try to sneak in whatever exercise you can do whenever you are free. But it is hard to maintain that mentality. Sometimes I lift my legs while sitting in front of my computer 10 times or I simply lie down and do a sit up each time I want to look at my laptop on my bed or chair. With the engine concept, all this will add up.
Now I will explain about dieting and calories. First of all, 3500 calories equals to 1 pound of weight. So if you manage to cut 500 calories a day, you will lose 1 pound per week and then 1 kg every 2 weeks because 1kg is 2.2 pounds. It is definitely not easy and I will actually advise you against dieting once you start exercising. Your body will require a lot of nutrients to repair itself because there are so much new movement. You will feel muscle ache frequently. What you can do is choose what you eat. Skip soft drinks, skip supper and skip fried food if possible. Make a lifestyle change. All 3 items I mentioned are harmful to your health as well. To those party people, try to reduce the amount of beer intake. No point using your hard earned money just to poison your body right? Oh yeah, if possible try to change your snack choices. Instead of chips, maybe some fibre crackers? Or a simple tuna bun? The best of course are fruits like a green apple. I am not kidding you, I ate fibre crackers for at least 3 months.
Lastly, this is a shout-out to females, do not worry about being muscular or large. I assure you, muscles are hard to gain especially when females have less testosterone and you do not provide ample protein. What will your body build muscles with? If you do not want to have muscles, keep protein at a minimum, but enough to repair yourself to avoid injury. Just eat like normal. Guys, check your meat type. Bah kut teh pork is going to kill your diet efforts. Try to invest some time getting some calorie information about the food you eat. The typical male needs 2500 per day so if you can cut at 2200 with a daily walk it will work. Those that are trying to gain weight, increase your protein instead. Especially after exercise. Our bodies cannot store protein and we can only digest 30g of protein at any one time which is like one Big Mac's worth of meat. So if you exercised yesterday, maybe you can have a tuna or egg sandwich for high tea today? I think this post is plenty long already. Do post questions if you have it in my FB or comment here. I will post again in a few days. Take care and I hope this information is useful.
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