It's Not A New Year's Resolution, It's A Lifestyle Resolution

  

  

Hi, I’m Kathleen Chiang and this is my log for January - March 2014.

What’s my story?

Let me start with December 2013. It was Christmas time- of course, that was the excuse I had to myself so I could eat 24/7- anything, everything. From 125lbs during November 2013, I went up to 131lbs by the end of December. Pure fat, no muscle gains. I ate all kinds of food and had no exercise. I didn’t care about my body at all.

"So what did you get for Christmas?"

"I got fat."

I was at my highest during December. (All evidence is seen by looking at the shape of my face.)

But what knocked me into my senses?

The Food Diary project I had for PE during Christmas break did. We were given a piece of paper with boxes to write on for each day and we had to submit it when school starts again. It pretty much looked something like this:

It's funny cause I think that normally, students don't take these things seriously and just do it for the grade. I didn't take it seriously until that very last day of logging. I didn’t really care about what food I was logging into the sheet or how much I’m eating throughout the day, as long as I'm logging it- yes, for the grade.  December 31 was the last day to log. It was also the first time I really read through my food diary and it dawned on me- I was having a harder time to smile because my cheeks were too filled- there was more pressure so I could feel it. I also noticed that I was expanding (widely) in pictures and it wasn't even funny. And to my horror, I realized that I was turning into Santa Claus himself with my belly getting rounder and rounder every time I looked in the mirror.

Like most people during the start of the year, I had my list for my new year's resolutions ready. Top of the list? Get my dream body.

98% of the people who have fitness as part of their new year's resolutions fail and give up. I plan to be part of that 2%.

For our January-March PE project, we had a Fitness Log Diary which kickstarted my year. I started my “road to fitness” on January 1, 2014 by working out with some exercise videos my sister shared with me. I found my personal hell in working out. I was so slow and I couldn't keep up with the video. Heck, I always run out of breath in a matter of a few seconds of exercise, and drink so much water to cope up with my panting. (30 minutes of exercise = 2-3L of water. I think that was a bad thing) I dreaded putting on my shoes every single time for the first few weeks. Nevertheless, I still gave it my all.

Some days when I don’t feel like working out, I try to motivate myself by surfing Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest for girls who workout and look good or for inspiring quotes and all those. It’s laughable but it worked every single time. I also tried to move as much as possible. Rest days were active resting periods (Stretching, yoga, ditching the grocery cart and getting a basket instead, stuff like that)- no sitting around doing nothing. (I didn’t want to see an empty day in the sheet so I always had to do something.)

2 weeks after, I started to see minimal results, and you know, what they say is true- once you see results, it becomes an addiction. The longer I do my workouts, the more I crave to exercise. Though only during late February that I knew about clean eating (more like accepted the thought of clean eating! Thank you to my sister!) and how it affects the body (and the results). I started to slash off sugar and all those bad preservatives and tried to eat clean (Paleo, or the caveman lifestyle, as much as possible which was a bit easy cause my sister arranges our meal plans each week) and it gave me even better results.

Yes, I did have a few setbacks- like skipping a day of working out which eventually made me skip two or three more and it became a skip week.. Or two... And it was soooo hard to get back up and start again. So never skip a day, most especially a Monday!! 

I sort of stopped eating strict Paleo during that skip (2) week(s). I fell back. It was my Valentine -&-birthday week... and I was given so much macarons- I still couldn't say no. Damn it for my control.

My sister surprised me with a box of homemade macarons which she made behind my back for Valentines day. It was her first try, yet it was sooo good (And so much better than my 1st2nd3rd10th15th100th time in making macarons!) Couldn't stop chomping on each one that by the end of the night, the box was already halfway empty.

For my birthday, my sister surprised me and brought home a teacher. For baking macarons. From Singapore. With Love. It was the best macarons I've ever made!!!!

My bestfriend, Hill, gave me two boxes of macarons- TWG and Wicked when 12mn struck

My cousin, Achi Frances, gave me a big box of Alchemy macarons later that night

My mom had a cute cake made for me, "Anatomy of macarons" with me as a nurse/doctor! She even got my UST uniform made exactly the way it looked like in real life! (By the way I'm only 19! Well, 20 in Chinese heheh)

My sister made a pretty colorful macaron cake for me for my birthday too! (With matching macaron giveaways!!!!)

What do you think did I do.... Yup I ate them. I didn't share much of the macarons (which I should've..) and it made me put on quite a couple of pounds.

I started to get back to exercising and eating clean (not Paleo though) two days after my birthday (Thank God). It was February 22, the day of the 7107 Music Festival in Pampanga so I was in Fontana with my friends.

 I also brought my own packed healthy meals and a kilo of yogurt which I shared with the villa! Good thing I had my workout buddy (Jem) with me for that trip. We did a little circuit in the morning and it felt really really good. We even became a tourist spot for our friends. (They laughed at us for working out) Since then, I haven't stopped pushing myself to workout every day (light workouts were fine)

I’m really happy with the results I’m getting with working out & eating clean because it was all worth it (and it still is), and I wouldn’t want to stop anytime soon. Yes, sometimes I have my cheat meals here and there, but I do my best to fit it within my macro range. I'm far from my goal body, but I know I'm getting there, one step at a time.


I do like forcing people to go and work out with me. Yes, sort of forcing. I learned that some need that extra push and they will eventually learn to start being active on their own and feel the high of exercising.

because I know I did.