Of Another Fitness Journey and Healthier Lifestyle

It has been a real long way embarking on this fitness journey ever since. I remembered the very last time I was sooooo keen on losing weight and living a healthier lifestyle was back in 2016; that very year when I was waiting for my official interview and first official posting in the teaching profession, as you all might or might not know, I studied TESL for primary school at one of the renowned Institute of Teachers Training in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (well I intentionally trying to make you people guess which campus would that be, lol).

Now back to the story, it all started because I realised being most of the time staying at home, I began to gain weight again, after so long. An impact of being less-active, perhaps? This is definitely not a good thing for me since physically I am not tall, only five-feet-two-inches. If my BMI is more that what it should be then I'm sooo going to be doomed! Even my official teaching career has yet to begin. Thus I decided to start eating a bit healthier and sign up for gym at least three times a week. It was reaaaaaally difficult at first especially when it comes to controlling the food intake and the portion and the types of food to be eaten tooo, and one more thing, I am not a sportsperson ever since I was a kid up till my college days. Never really joined any sports to represent my college or school or whatnot. And, uhm I swear, I'm a real big fan of fast food, chicken, chocolates and all the sweet sweet things. It was a tough one at first. Even so, I always love eating fruits and veges too. Just - not consistent enough.

Long story short and fast-forward to 2018, it was my second year in-service as a primary school teacher in Kuala Lumpur. One day it hit me once again, where I've been feeling bad about myself in terms of what a bad lifestyle I've been living in, with lack of exercise and very awful food intake. Everyday is just about wake up-eat-work-sleep-repeat. I felt myself heavier and easily lethargic at work. I truly felt sorry for myself at that time.

Thus, end of September the same year is another game changer. I restart the clean and healthy eating once again and I was really disciplined this time around. I jog at the park sometimes just to keep it balanced. I cut down the carbs but still eat accordingly three main meals a day and alternately I had healthy snacks in between, no junk food or fast food at all for the three months till December and definitely I noticed the changes! So damn proud of myself on how committed I was! I did measure the inches that I lost as compared to my body in September and I weighed myself, couldn't tell how proud I was that I actually lost five kilos without starving myself! I even could fit in this one blouse I bought in 2014 hm hmm how cool was that, wasn't it?

One thing I've always realised about myself is that, my appetite for food is always there on daily basis. I really need to learn to control my appetite. Like seriouslyyy. It was late November that I discovered about Intermittent Fasting and I challenged myself to give it a try and since then I was constantly doing the 16-hour fasting (of course after doing lots of reading and trial and error adjusting it according to my body's compatibility).

Things began to change AGAIN after the Ramadhan fasting month in June 2019 where I noticed that I re-gained weight! Gone were all the effort made in the previous year in just a blink! Sobs. There's definitely no one but myself to blame for that to happen. After the Hari Raya celebration, I hesitated myself to go back on track with the IF thingy. Just, still in raya mode and wanted to enjoy all the good food - said myself. Thus, serves me right, look at me - am slowly regaining weight. Honestly I was a bit stressed out about that.

Early August 2019 is the time when I made up my mind, I began signing up for a group training session, which mainly focus on strengthening the core. It was sooo tough at first, I swear! I never really got any proper training when it comes to doing exercises before. Muscles sore here and there for daysss I tell ya. The decision to join this programme with my fellow colleague, D was a very exciting one. I did not put high expectation this time, rather, my goal is more to become stronger, more active and healthier (instead of only focusing on weight loss) as it was quite hard for me to give up sugary food or fast food at all. I mean, I can do clean eating once in a while but it's impossible to avoid at all cause from eating those yummy Malaysian food too, aiteeee? I learn to have them in control, not too often in a month. And I want this training to be long-term.

Small progress is still a progress isn't it? I am proud of myself as of today because I felt stronger, healthier and better now that it has been two months I've been training for once a week. I hope for nothing but the ability to sustain the progress and to become stronger day by day. When asked, am I on diet? Am I on the verge of losing weight? Nah, NEITHER BOTH. I am on a constant state of being my true self, a better one, enjoying every progress I make in my daily life. After all, I just wanna live happier, that's it!

Thanks for reading, y'alls! Xx