Willpower

It looks like I have neither the will nor the commitment to follow through on this blog.  I imagined myself keeping track of my progress daily, but with everything else that preoccupies me, it just doesn't look doable.

Anyway, I'm going to sign up for boxing.  I just need to buy some gloves and hand wraps.  Going to the gym is just completely boring.

Feb 13

1 mug coffee

1 bowl bagoong rice

1 diet coke

1 gonuts donuts donut

Feb 12

2 tall non fat starbucks cappuccinos

mixed servings of calamares, soft shell crab salad, fish and fries for lunch

2 pears

1 sandwich from starbucks for dinner

overall rating of 3

Feb 11

Did not go to the fucking gym… shit.

This gets a 2, since I didn't eat much.

Feb 10

cannot recall what i ate… hehe.. this gets a 2

Feb 9

1 bowl of arroz caldo for breakfast

mixed servings of corned beef sinigang, friend white cheese, crispy pate, etc for lunch

1 bowl of arroz caldo for dinner

3 cans san mig strong ice

1 big glass of weng weng

Overall rating: (1-5, 5 being the highest)

1.5

Feb 8

1 mug coffee

1 gass diet coke

1 large tea

1 breast chicken

1/2 burger

1 orange

10 grams choc

some other stuff that are sinful

2 hours badminton

Overall rating: (1-5, 5 being the highest)

3

The Master Plan

THE PLAN

The plan is simple.  Eat less, work more.

Yes, it's easier said than done.  I've been fairly religious with eating less since November 2006.  I've significantly cut down on my intake, escpecially on carbs.  Unfortunately, that was also the time when I had the least amount of activity due to a knee injury.  I couldn't play any sport or even go to the gym.  I started out again just a couple of weeks ago and it's been going good so far.

This was taken just recently at the Manila Polo Club

To monitor my daily activities, I will make a record of what food I've taken and in what amounts and post it here.  I'll also try, as much as possible, stick to my weekly activity schedule - which currently isn't really a lot.  I just made some new friends the other week, I'm hoping that our basketball Fridays will push through. 

I also need to have a little more motivation working out.  I only work out once a week, sometimes not at all.  It's really inconvenient going the gym, and I hate the crowd, that's why I prefer going on weekends especially Sundays when I can take my time doing whatever I want.  Working out alone also doesn't help with motivation as it gets boring really fast.

Track Ton’s Tummy - an intro and history

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 

Weight has never been an issue in my family.  Not that eating healthy and living an active life is natural in our family, I guess it's just a genetic predisposition.  Our eating habits haven't exactly been healthy at all.  Growing up, our meals consisted mainly of fried food such as fish and porkchops as well as canned and processed goods such as ham, vienna sausage, corned beef and sardines.  We've also always been avid fans of junk food, especially chocolates, and softdrinks.  We don't eat a lot which I guess could have worked in our favor to mitigate at least the weight gain, but our diet wasn't very kind on our cholesterol levels.  As far as I know, my father has high blood pressure, my brother had to start drinking medicine before he was thirty to reduce his cholesterol level and, just last year, my annual medical results came out with very alarming results.  I was even prescribed some medicine to help reduce my cholesterol. We're also quite lucky that neither heart disease nor cancer run in our families - either that or they just died really early for these diseases to develop.

In terms of physical activities, life at home is pretty lethargic.  I don't do chores but even if I did, I doubt it would make such a big impact.  From birth all the way up to mid-high school, I was rather chubby with some fluctuations.  As a kid in elementary, my main activity was sipa which I would play almost everyday for hours right after school.  I was a bit of a loner, which I still am, so I didn't really play a lot of social sports like basketball.  I also wasn't as good then as the other kids who had matured physically much earlier than I did.

I started out highschool as plump as I was in elemetary but had more opportunities for physical activities.  I was about 154 cm and probably about 56 kgs.  I grew to about 160 cm by the second year and had started playing and training competitively for Tae Kwon Do up to three times a week, at least two hours each session.  I started looking more and more lanky as I grew taller.  By senior year, I was already 169 cm but only weighed 65 kgs.  That was also the time I learned to love basketball, so much so that I literally played everyday right after class.  If time permitted, I would play during lunch and even recess.

I continued Tae Kwon Do through to college up to the second year.  By then, I had started playing basketball more often than Tae Kwon Do to the point that I would schedule my classes with as much free time for basketball as possible.  I also finally grew to my current height of 173 cm and weighed in at 70 kgs, which is still considerably light.

HIGHSCHOOL/COLLEGE PICTURES TO BE INSERTED HERE

Everything went downhill as soon as I started working.  It was slow at first since I was able to maintain some physical activity, and possibly because I commuted everyday.  I first worked as a management trainee for a large multinational shipping company where there was a lot of travel involved.  It was during one of my trips that I learned how to really drink.

At that point, I was still really really thin

The next series of pictures shows what I really did in those travels.

RECENT HISTORY 

I now weigh in at a whopping 80 kgs.  I've been going to the gym irregularly since graduation, so that might explain some of the poundage I gained but it's very clear, especially on my face, that I've gained weight significantly since. These are just some of the more recent pictures.

January 2007 at 82 kgs

December 2006 at 82 kgs

I gained the most weight in 2005 when I spent seven weeks in London with hardly any physical activity combined with lots of carbohydrates in the form of potatoes, weekends spent travelling and eating, weeknights drinking, etc., etc.  The following pictures document my first and last weeks.

This is me on my first day and first week in London, June 2005

This is me on my last week in London, July 2005.

See the difference?  For sake of comparison, the below pictures are able to show the very dramatic difference. 

November 2004, still fairly thin

December 2004

March 2005

March 2005.

This is right post-London, when I was at my heaviest.  Possibly around 84 kgs.

I immediately began playing sports again as soon as I returned to Manila.  I suspect having gained as much 6 kgs in just those 7 weeks.  I made some progress since then but it has fluctuated because of the irregularity of my physicaly activities.

Look at that tummy!

These are November 2005 in Kuala Lumpur.

This is December 2005

This is March 2006, in Hongkong

Nov/Dec 2006 at Piedra… a litte fat here too.

And, as they say, the rest is history.