In fitness and in health till…

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fitness firstButch signed up at Fitness First today. One disdavantage of having a lifetime membership is one gets complacent and postpones visiting the gym. That’s what happened to my husband’s lifetime membership at Slimmer’s World. He’s been a member since the early 1990’s and barely uses it. I’ve been a member of Fitness First since May 2005 and I visit the center everyday. It’s like I have to take advantage of the services and facilities because I pay 2,300 pesos ($45) every month .

After we kissed and made up after our spat, he thought of transforming his negative energies into physical workout. I think he got envious of my transformation and happier disposition. He also noticed that my arms are stronger now. Hehe, I wonder how he noticed. Was it because I carried more grocery bags?

fitness first
After our workout, I feel refreshed and bubbly. He seems to be eager to go out of the gym because of his hunger pangs. I never get hungry after a workout.

hubbyHe grins at me because he has a craving for “Gonuts Donuts“. His silvery hair glistened as I took this photo. Hubby has premature gray hairs inspite of the fact that he is two years younger than me. I barely have any white hair. He reminds me of American Idol contestant , Taylor Hicks. Unlike Taylor Hicks, hubby only got his premature gray hairs in his mid -thirties.

butch
Anyway, “Gonuts Donuts” have a lite version which contains 1 gram of sugar and lesser fat. Hubby orders 3 lite donuts for me. How sweet. My sweet tooth is always wrecking havoc on my weight loss management. I still think they contain evil carbos which stimulate my fats to become even more resistant to weight loss. How can I resist?

Swirling my way to Belly Dancing

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TurqSpin.gifI’ve been dying to join a [tag]belly dancing[/tag] class ever since my daughter first introduced the idea to me four years ago. Finally after signing a petition, Fitness First The Fort launched “Belly Dancing” wednesday classes. I was late for the 10:00 AM class and ended up watching the women move their bodies to Egyptian music. How exotic.

I caught up with the teacher at the locker area and she said that I can still catch up. She’ll bring colorful hip belts next week for only 700 pesos ($14.00). It costs 750 pesos in Market! Market!

I was brimming with excitement and teased my husband.

“And once I learn the rudiments, I can practice belly dance in front of you.

My second daughter overheard me and shrieked, “I didn’t hear that! How disgusting!”

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Laughter is the best medicine

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Even just the expectation of a mirthful laughter involved in watching your favorite funny movie has some very surprising and significant neuroendocrine/hormone effects. That’s what this paper “”Beta-Endorphin and HGH increase are associated with both the anticipation and experience of mirthful laughter,” stated. Earlier experiments showed that viewing a favorite funny video can offset symptoms of chronic stress, which can suppress various components of the immune responses, particularly those related to anti-viral and anti-tumor defenses.

No wonder my body seeks comedy shows. My hubby knows me better now that whenever the American Idol season starts, I watch it with the anticipation of great entertainment. Naturally, laughter ensues when singer-wannabes become delusionary. Hehehe.

He enjoys hearing the sound of my shrill laughter. Every night, my family and myself watch the “Jacks” Comedy channel and the late night talk shows of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” .

What I miss the most are the original jokes of my brothers, Oscar and Ruben (bless their souls!). My family of origin loves to laugh and I thought it was normal to have loud laughter and noise during dinner. Yes, I grew up in a noisy family where song and dance followed after dinner. Good thing our house was located in a huge lot and neighbors were far apart. It came as a culture shock to me when I married a husband whose family was let’s say…quiet. Not much humor. So when my second daughter took after my family’s genes , my hubby often warned her to lower her voice in front of his mother. Oh boy! That used to cause marital conflict. But that soon came to pass after I set my foot down . There is nothing wrong with laughter during appropriate times.

“Why do you think Reader’s Digest has claimed that ‘Laughter is the Best Medicine’ for so many years?”

Hubby has now learned to laugh along with us. There’s nothing like a family who laughs together.

Losing weight after 40

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According to this article, on Childhood obesity problem:

“Global fattening” poses an equal threat to global warming, according to obesity specialists.

Overeating has resulted in 20,000 children suffering from so called “adult onset” or type-2 [tag]diabetes, not previously seen in children, while more than 400,000 have impaired glucose tolerance, a pre-diabetic stage which puts them at sharply increased risk of the condition.

A year ago, I was borderline obese at 163 pounds. Today, I’m 129 pounds. I lost 34 pounds in seven months. Aside from health reasons, I decided to lose weight because I love my girls. I don’t want to set myself as a role model of a mom who turns obese in their forties. Most of all, I don’t want them to acquire diabetes.

I sound like some advertisement of a weight reducing salon or [tag]diet pill[/tag]. Hehe.

So at 163 pounds , I looked like this :
(don’t you just love before and after pics)

I’m not too proud of the fact that I became borderline obese but if you’re struggling with overweight problems at past 40 years old, there is hope. I’m just showing these pics so that you won’t give up.

At 163 pounds, May 5, 2005 at our wedding anniversary
may5.jpg
If I don’t look too fat there, here are more fat pics of me


At 129 pounds November 2005
wedding1.jpg

What did I do?

1. Enrolled at Fitness First. I go to the gym almost everyday.

  • 30 minutes of treadmill or cardio activity
  • 30 minutes weights

2. Southbeach diet with a twist. I ate whatever was served on the table.

  • High protein diet for 2 weeks
  • Ate only fruits and natural carbohydrates after 2 week period
  • Avoided breads, cookies, cakes and desserts

3. Since I am diabetic, I take snacks in between meals. Snacks are usually high glycemic foods such as nuts.

Let me tell you how frustrating it was to lose weight during the first few weeks. Inspite of the strict diet and exercise, I lost only a measly 3 pounds for the first two weeks. The fat cells just refused to burn. The forties are indeed the troubled years because for some reason my body doesn’t want to obey me anymore. After the birth of my two girls, and in my early 30’s , I lost the pregnancy weight gain in a few weeks.

But I thought eventually these fat cells would start burning. My concentration was focused on having a healthy body. I also decided not to weigh myself until someone would say:

oy, you lost weight.

And that didn’t happen until 3 months later. I was excited. I squealed with delight. Finally someone outside the family (your family won’t notice because they see you everyday) noticed. When I weighed myself, I saw that I had lost 20 pounds. Finally…

Now there is a twist to my weight loss story. I fractured my leg on July 2, 2005. But I’ll talk about that in another entry.

My endocrinologist wants me to lose 10 more pounds. Ahh! That is my next project because losing the next 10 pounds is even more difficult without getting hypoglycemic.

And I’m not exactly in my early 40’s.

Exercise and Aging

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fitness firstI enjoyed my daily workout this afternoon. Since my daughter was with me, I just stayed for an hour and a half. I like to take my time in the gym if I am on my own. (methinks I have too much time on my hands. ) Later at home, hubby showed me the February 20 Newsweek edition on, “Exercise and Aging- How to Stay Fit Longer” . After reading the article , it truly affirmed the Fitness First expenses and the stationary bicycle recently purchased last month.

“A century ago the world’s major scourges were infectious and childhood diseases. Today it’s coronary-artery illness, diabetes and cancer. These are lifestyle disorders that have everything to do with poor diets and sedentarism,” says Holden MacRae, a sports medicine professor at California’s Pepperdine University. “With our cars, computers, electronic games and cell phones, we’ve engineered movement out of our lives.”

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On having an eye angiogram

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It’s about time we take your Eye Angiogram to determine if there are any bleeding of the blood vessels, my opthalmologist told me.

That had me worried at first. I usually know when I have elevated blood sugar whenever my eyes feel heavy. When this happens, I exercise at my stationary bicycle to burn off some excess sugar in my system.

It pays to be careful because diabetes can cause blindness.

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Co-dependents Anonymous in the Philippines

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One of my coping mechanisms after the death of my son was to focus on others in order to forget my pain . Years later when I visited a counsellor in a “well-known center” somewhere in Quezon City (which I don’t advise you go to, please), I was told that I was a co-dependent. I had no idea what that meant but according to the definition of co-dependency,

“Co-dependency can be defined as the tendency to put others needs before your own. You accommodate to others to such a degree that you tend to discount or ignore your own feelings, desires and basic needs. Your self-esteem depends largely on how well you please, take care of and/or solve problems for someone else (or many others).”

Okay so I put other’s needs before mine. But I thought that was a noble characteristic of mothers, don’t you think? or was I smothering? From the book, Codependent No More, I discovered I was too controlling over my children and husband. Perhaps because my life was out of control? Although I disagree with some co-dependent theories, the one I value most is Taking care of yourself.

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virgin coconut oil and falling hair

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virgin coconut oilI just came from the gym with my second daughter. It’s been part of my routine to include a 15 minute sauna after my workout. In the sauna, I rub my scalp with virgin coconut oil. That’s hot oil treatment for free. You know how expensive these fitness gyms can be so why not take advantage of the heat. See, my hair is thinning out and maybe the coconut oil can stimulate my scalp to grow thicker hair. Blame it on old age.

The one I use is that brand on the photo. I bought this at Mercury drugstore because I noticed that this particular coconut oil used cold press method. When I bought it, the liquid inside was milky white so I was a bit suspicious. I totally forgot that coconut oil gets affected with the room temperature.

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