Fitness: Bridal Work-out

Wearing that perfect Dress.

                                       (An article about weight loss and doing it for less cost too!)

                                                (Fitness Magazine's Drop 10 challenge)

Here is my weight chart since 2010. And I'm almost back. But 107 will do just fine which was my weight
in 2011.

I have PCOS (Poly-cystic Ovarian Syndrome) Yes, its a syndrome indicating no cure.
What it does basically is it gives women acne, stores fat and hinders fertility. (But hey, I will NOT let that
happen) so to combat PCOS I needed to loose weight. PCOS is manageable. I declare victory over it!

I stopped Ballet in 2009. And after four years of being a couch potato I need to wake up and burn those fats!

And It worked. So here are the things that worked for me. :)

Before we go to my simple steps, let me first tell you some things about me.

• I'm demi-vegetarian (No red meat diet for a looooong time)
• I don't smoke, drink nor stay up late.
• Current weight was 125 (January after Holidays then 120 in February) Target: 107 (December) And I have a Medium-petite frame. 
• I'm NO EXPERT. But I'd like to share what has worked for me to inspire people.
• Again, I have PCOS. which hinders weight loss but is nothing compared to my motivation.

               

January I started with 3 x week cardio through the DVD. 30 minutes per workout.                      Nothing hard. Just something fun. I love dancing so it was an easy thing to do. And it was enough to prep myself to go back to exercise regimens. What happens when you give yourself so much when you start? You get burned out! Then you end up eating much more because you deprived yourself or you were so tired that you started hating exercise. Then you quit and the next thing you know your back in the problematic cycle.  *I dropped 2 lbs and was eating in moderation. I said goodbye to Frappes btw. *I kep eating healthy too. (What if you are not a healthy eater, don't rush it. Take time, little by little. This is more effective than eating all salad straight in 2 months then after that you crave pizza or ice cream or something then boom you over eat. Don't deprive. Take it easy)

February I started running on weekends! (plus the DVD workouts) = 4 x workout in a week 30 minutes workout.        I started running in Makati Triangle. It was free. Being healthy doesn't need to be expensive. If you are having a hard time running you can walk your dog on weekends. :) Find a nice park. But if you feel like going to the gym go ahead. There are a lot of affordable offers out there. You just need to find the right one for you. If you are not a runner or someone who hates walking in the sun. Maybe you can do indoor sports. Badminton, Tennis, whatever. Or if you don't mind the sun how about some soccer? Football perhaps? The thing is this worked for me because I loved it. Just do anything you enjoy. *I dropped 3 lbs and was still eating in moderation. If you're loosing the motivation. Make a tumblr account or read blogs on fitness. For tumblr, posts are short and there's a lot of pictures. So if you read everyday surely you'll be motivated. Here are my fave sites. Here are some of my fave sites: http://fitspoforever.tumblr.com/ http://fitnessgyro.tumblr.com/ top fave: http://wakeuphealthy.tumblr.com/ my tumblr though is for wedding: http://balletbride.tumblr.com/ and has very little fitness posts.

March (Pumped up month!) Swimming. I love swimming! This time I was on a roll! I wanted to do exercise. I love sweating! And I love my exercise outfits. :)  So,I continued running, plus yoga at home 3x in a weekday, Saturday are for running and Sundays are Nestle Aerobics which was free and then swimming on Sundays.And even though I was doing a lot, it felt good. And I think its because I did not pressure myself nor was hard on myself. I went on my own pace. You may have a different pace from mine, just go with it. Do what makes you happy to be fit. Note: This are all in 30-1hour per work out only.  Maybe if I did more I might have lost more. But then again my goal is to maintain this active lifestyle for long term. So that is enough for me. I dropped  another 2 lbs and was eating in moderation.

April I started getting bored with the DVDs so I subscribed with http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/ They will send you emails to keep you motivated. And they have online videos of workouts made by experts. FOR FREE. So I usually watched a few vids and try it at home. I was doing 15 minutes exercise.  Sometimes I swim sometimes I ran. But I was doing no less than 4 workouts in a week. I maintained my weight but saw a huge difference on my abs. :) Which was fine with me.

May I started calorie counting! Its important to get your Daily Caloric Need. Then base your food on that. Download an app on your smart phone to see how much you are eating. This is late for me to do, but I plan to continue doing this. Its simple, if you need 2,000 calories a day and you eat 2,500 calories the excess of that is stored in your body. Unless you burn them.                I jointed http://fatsecret.com/ I kept track of my BMI. And my Daily Caloric Need which was 1,800 calories a day. I also need to increase my protein intake because I eat a lot of vege.     *eg: For  a 115 lb girl who spends 8 hours on a desk job, no exercise                        it is 1,500 calories. This isn't very healthy but this is what I took                        for a certain day.                a sample meal for the day would be (source: http://fatsecret.com/)       Breakfast 25.16 49.96 10.40 441     1 cup cooked Chocolate Flavored Wheat Cereal 1.16 26.96 4.40 121     1 serving Goldilocks Sylvanna 24.00 23.00 6.00 320 Add Item Lunch 3.49 34.37 3.76 181     1/2 cup cooked White Rice 0.22 22.04 2.10 102     1 cup Cooked Green Peppers and Onions (Fat Added in Cooking) 3.27 12.33 1.66 79 Add Item Dinner 17.44 46.08 20.20 424     1 serving Season Brand Brisling Sardines in Tomato Sauce (No Salt Added) 17.00 2.00 16.00 220     1 cup cooked White Rice 0.44 44.08 4.20 204 Add Item Snacks / Other 21.50 46.52 17.62 440      1.3 servings Market Pantry Lightly Salted Dry Roasted Peanuts 18.20 6.50 10.40 221      1 cup cooked Noodles 3.30 40.02 7.22 219 I did not scale but I can feel the difference. And people started to notice.

June My work schedule is now 3pm-midnight. I wake up late the next day and it feels bad to run because of the pollution in the city, I stopped running for the month. What I did was just 30minutes of stretching (yoga Poses), cardio, self-weights or dancing. And taaadaaa! I'm now 115 lbs.  only a few to go. ^ ^. Wish me luck. Hope you got inspired.

July I can't believe another month passed by. Right now I am 113 lbs. Dropping another 2 lbs. I missed running so despite the late schedule at work, I push myself to wake up early Saturdays for a run. I also changed my weekday exercises to Jump Ropes. I do it 30 minutes total in the morning. This is not the entire 30 minutes. When I get tired, I do other exercises just to keep myself moving. then I'm back on the rope till I reach 30 minutes. So what do you think? Any suggestions?