Wellness Wednesdays: Counting Calories

My cardiologist told me after heart surgery that it was certain I would start gaining weight. He told me that my heart wasn't going to compensate anymore since my valve was repaired. True enough I started gaining weight. I was able to keep a good weight until I had pulmonary embolism. The medication kept me bloated and breathing issues limited movement. 

My cardiologist advised me before to count the calories I eat. This was before I had a PE. I tried it again a few years ago and it did not work. I continued to gain weight, the lockdowns did not help because my stamina further deteriorated.

Since I still haven't lost weight, I thought I'd try again. I started counting calories on November 3. With that I avoided eating meat. Back pain reduced and I felt lighter. I also water the plants by hand everyday and I do some stretching two hours before bed. I try to move around the house as much as I could. Much as I want to spend more time outdoors, the air quality has been very bad. 

The good news is I finally lost some weight. I weighed 10 days after I started counting calories again. I lost 4 kilograms. I didn't expect it since I haven't really increased activity and I've been having asthma attacks. It is encouraging and I will continue counting calories. Who knows, maybe my stamina can increase. :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Finally Losing Weight!

I have been struggling with my weight for a few years now. I started to gain a lot of weight when my asthma medication was changed. It got worse when I started taking blood thinners. I tried so many ways, but nothing worked. I was so bloated and my doctors were concerned it was straining my heart. 

Here's how I finally started to lose weight:

1. Doubled my water intake from 2 liters to 3 liters a day. 

2. Counting calories and eating more chicken than pork. I don't eat beef often. I'm also trying to eat more fiber rich food (honestly lagging in this department). I basically halved my food intake and reduced my sugar intake. 

3. My doctor increased my probiotics dosage. 

4. Unintended intermittent fasting. I have had to sleep longer to increase my deep sleep, this has resulted in unintended 16-hour fast. 

5. Eating oatmeal for breakfast 6 times a week. My cardiologist ordered me to do this. Good thing I love oatmeal! I cheat once a week with something heavy like pancakes. 

6. More exercise. I've been ramping up on exercise. My stats though are laughable, but I try to do what I can. At least now I can use the exercise bike for 12-minutes non-stop. Walking is still limited, but I hope this would improve with time. 

7. I sleep at least 8-hours a day. 

I was so overjoyed when I started to see my weight going down. I hope I'd get to a decent more appropriate weight in good time. 

Day 3 Gratitude Challenge, A Song You Love. One of the songs I love is "It's Gonna Be Okay" by the Piano Guys. I first heard this song during their concert here in Singapore. It was the day my first PE was discovered and I was feeling so down. Music heals and this song struck a chord in me that helped me go through the ordeal. 

CB///*Yr2/89 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/116 #NewG357 #Home131 #StayHome #BeKind 

Counting Calories

*I'm writing this post while watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" just for fun.

Ze Muay Thai pose and when I was at my regular weight. 

There has been only one occasion in my entire life that I had to lose weight. It was for my friend's wedding where I was a secondary sponsor and I got my gown 2 weeks before the wedding and it wouldn't fit! I took up badminton during that time so I could shed off a few pounds. I didn't have a hard time losing weight during that time since my metabolism was really fast.

It's an entirely different matter now. It seems that with 100% blood flow my metabolism has slowed down. I'm now *bleep* past my target weight and my doctor told me that I should go down to my recommended weight so I don't burden my heart too much. I tried to lose weight the same way I used to - eating less for a day or two - but it hasn't worked. I have never been to the gym and I don't really have a sport (except malling which my cardio misheard as bowling haha).

Much as I'd like to run and enroll in a gym my body isn't really ready for that now so I just essentially watch what I eat and make sure I walk at least 3,000 steps per day. I downloaded the app My Fitness Pal to track my calorie intake (I limit myself to about 1,400 calories per day). At first I searched for calorie equivalents of the food I ate and then soon realized that the app had crowdsourced calorie info of food so I just use the app to search for food.

What I discovered useful as well was the calories burned from doing housechores which I think is a more productive way of exercising. When Sweetie and I need to burn excess calories at night we walk around the compound (that's what we call cram-time!).

Good luck to everyone trying to lose weight like me! 

Thunder Thighs, How I'm Trying to Loose the Excess Fat

No, I'm not going to post any photo of my thunder thighs. I have unfortunately gained so much weight because of my trips (Zamboanga + Iloilo + Cebu + GenSan), plus Christmas food and too much milk tea and Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Frap! All the excess food have deposited themselves in my thighs.

The same happened to me a few years ago and my thunder thighs only went back to normal when I had pneumonia. I'm trying to loose some weight before it's too late again. I'm not allowed to do any strenuous exercise so this is my action plan:

1. Walk. When I'm just home I just end up in front of the computer most of the day. I visit my parents everyday in the afternoon so that's about half a kilometer a day. When I'm out for meetings I try to walk from Greenbelt to EDSA and according to Jay that's about 1.5 to 2 kilometers and sometimes I walk from Ayala. Not bad.

2. Less Milk Tea. Drew and I are addicted to milk tea and I absolutely love adding condensed milk whenever I make a glass. I did this everyday last December and the milk definitely contributed a few pounds.

3. No More Peppermint Mocha Frap! Thank God Christmas is over and it's going to be 11 months before Starbucks offers it again.

4. More Veggies, Less Meat. Argh, this is the hardest thing to do. I also started a small vegetable garden so I could harvest fresh, organic veggies everyday. My mustasa is almost ready for harvesting later this month! Yumyum!

5. Lots of Water to flush out the toxins and sleep early as much as I could.

I hope my trip next week wouldn't add to my weight again! Good luck to me and all my friends who are trying to loose weight.

Oh and to keep track I have re-positioned our weighing scale at the kitchen doorway hehehe.