It’s week 1. I did a few things differently this time around because I needed to start slow due to my knee injury and I wanted to try new things.
GEAR
- New iron. Actually it is not new. There is one of those solid iron dumbbells in the house weighing about 15kg. Since I am switching my aerobics HIITs to strength training one, my neoprene 3lbs dumbbells are not adequate for the job. I adjusted the weight to 5kg, it is a bit of a struggle but doable.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
- Look Good Naked Cleanse. I tried a 2-Day Cleanse as shared in the Women’s Health Mag website here. I failed to follow it to the T, but the good thing is I discovered how I like my protein shake made. Adding peanut butter cancels out the chocolate taste and berries provide some crunch. The shake is much thicker than how I used to make it but a lot more pleasant to drink. I haven’t tried it with other fruits but berries seem to work very well. The recipe:
- 1 cup milk (low-fat is good, non-fat even better)
- 1 cup berries
- 1 spoonful whey protein
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 small ice cube
- The other good thing about the cleanse is I am eating a lot of greens, meeting the 5-a-day requirement easily. Don’t know if I can keep it up, but I will try.
- Water Water. I have been slacking on water ever since I switched water bottles a few weeks ago because I didn’t realize that the new bottle’s measure is 1L and not 2L. So today I am back on the old 2L bottle. I usually drink up to 1L by lunch hour, and polish the rest around dinner time. I don’t count other beverages or liquids (like soup, protein shakes, coffee etc) as part of my water intake; I consider those as bonus. As much as possible, I try to get in 2L of plain water into my system daily.
- Shake Shake. I am adding protein shakes into my daily diet. I take one for breakfast and another one about 45mins before I exercise. On my rest days I only take the breakfast one. One of my biggest diet issues is that I rarely take breakfast. The protein shake is fast and easy and all I do is put it in a tumbler and carry it around so I am finally on the 3-square-meals-a-day track. I still need to work on controlling my snacking urges, but like I said before, the best way to curb snacking is to not have any snacks at all in the pantry.
EXERCISE
- Walk walk. I only managed to walk for 2 consecutive days – the first one only for about 30mins because my knee was still hurting. The second time I walked for an hour. Both walks were not very satisfying because I wasn’t sweating as much as I’d like to but I know that walking a little is better than no walk at all.
- Strength Training HIITs. I tried to do some HIITs the rest of the week. This was the routine:
- Warm up 5mins:
- 30 jumping jacks
- 30 ski jumps
- 30 high knees
- 30 jump rope
- 30 jumping side-to-side
- HIIT (60 secs non-stop for each routine, repeated 2 times).
- Dumbbell squat, lunge, curl
- Dumbbell sumo squats
- Dumbbell bent-knee deadlifts
- Triceps extensions
- Rest 1 min
- Forward lunge
- Squat Jumps
- Wall push-ups
- Burpees
- Rest 1 min
- I end it with some curls to tone the arms and my usual post-workout yoga. It took about 45mins to complete everything.
- Warm up 5mins:
I’d be lying if I say that I am not worried about my weight. I need to lose weight. Photos from the Maskara Makwe-Makwe proved that I have put on a lot of weight in the last 12 months. But I also don’t want my habit of starting-stopping my exercise routine derails me from exercising regularly so I am constantly telling myself that the number on the scale doesn’t matter. I know if I eat right and exercise right I can maintain my weight and fitness at an acceptable level.
For now, I am happy with being able to exercise 3x a week. Running will have to wait til my knee is fully healed.
