The construction

Happy new year! It's the start of 2018 but it doesn't mean everything has to reset. As for myself, I have become successful in following Keto diet (the food at least). As mentioned on my last entry, I have no restrictions as of yet what to eat when but I make sure that my sugar and carbs intake is very low to none. So what's new from my last entry? So far, my weight has been maintained to 67kg -this is the fact that I have been loading up myself with fats (literally). I still have yet thoroughly understood the science of Keto but upon reading several articles of Keto for beginners, I have learned that it isn't simply keeping yourself off carbohydrates and sugar. Why? Because I have been doing this for three weeks now and I do not feel yet that my body is effectively working in burning fats in my body. I would like to mention though that a very good friend of mine noticed that my body is starting to look "fit" again. Anyway, an ad, fit2fat2fit, keeps on popping from my facebook and email. It offers some kind of Keto diet plan which I am really curious of -maybe it is the diet plan that I am missing. I think, there's something I am missing even though I have been taking the keto diet seriously. I am on the lookout of the articles from the said website is posting and if I still could not find any useful information from the internet to follow a Keto diet plan, I will avail of their package, and then provide you guys an update. I have yet done cardio together with Keto so I am still going to try this first too. But again, if after a month after I started the Keto and no weight and aesthetic changes yet, I will try its 21day diet plan. For now, I will discuss to you below what I have been eating in the past three weeks.

Meat - from my previous post, there's no specifics about how the meat should be cooked. I eat siningang, adobo, pastel, etc but trying to avoid the "not-to-be eaten" foods from the list.

Vegetables - all sort except beans and potatoes and starchy ones.

Tea - I have been drinking mostly earl grey tea, but whenever available, I drink fruit tea, green, or lemon, too.

Coffee - I drink black coffee whenever I am resting from a series of workout from the gym.

Greek yogurt - Since I cannot take any form of sweets for desert, the only feasible desert I can eat is Greek yogurt. However, the kind of Greek yogurt I ate last week was from BLK 513. According to them, it is sugar free and is purely made from Greek yogurt. An alternative I am looking at now is from Pascual Lab's which hopefully is authentic.

Fruits - Limited to berry type of fruits.

I would like say that eating the above had effectively stopped me from eating rice and softdrinks which I think is good. I'll continue with this for now and add cardio training. Hope to reach my desired weight goal by February. I will make sure to update you!

The routine

It's been awhile. But since my last post, lots of things happened; just really busy x lazy to update lol. To cut the story short, I did several things to help me achieve my goal.

As mentioned from my previous post, I will be planning my workout routine and my diet. This partially happened. How? I have to enroll with Snap Fitness. This is a gym located to an institution I am currently having my coding bootcamp training. But why is it necessary to enroll? Because it sucks to have to limit my workout because the gym is closing by the time I arrive -thanks to the traffic during peak hours in the evening. Anyway, I paid for convenience. At least, I can do workout just five minutes after we are dismissed. Anyway, moving on to what my "aktibidades" were.

The routine I have is basically my usual gym activity -no targetted muscle, just making use of the gym equipments randomly (Mostly arms and chest). But hey, a workout is a work out and I am happy that I am quite in a good direction. Last week, I managed to workout for 5-days and eat a little bit less than I used to (My normal meal consists of three servings lol). I lost three kilos per my last check, down to 67kg from 70kg. But of course, that was an early morning check haha! I do believe though that some of the efforts I made had effected the weight loss. I will do a body diagnostics next week to see what my body is comprised of and have a better evaluation.

Keto diet food list

In terms of diet, I started doing Keto. Yes, yes, the diet that allows/requires you to eat fat. For better explanation, please see this link. I am not following any strict diet plans at the moment, but I limit my food intake to that of a Keto diet requirement. What I like about this diet is that I do not crave for sweets. Maybe because the food I eat now is not bland, unlike when I do salads and grilled chicken, etc. Before, drinking water only makes me feel sick. Now, I am surviving with just water. Before, I feel super deprived because I have to limit my food intake. I feel weak and tired because I did not eat what I feel like eating. End result, I don't do at least what I consider a good workout. Honestly, I am still not sure if this diet works, I am still trying to understand the diet itself, but so far I am loving it (Imagine beging able to eat balat ng manok). I will be updating in the next few weeks for the result but I am possitive that I am going to get what I want.

The supplement

Okay, so I think I'm slowly getting back into the grind. For two straight days, beginning Sunday, I had a good workout. Nope, no routine yet -just the usual; all upper body workouts. I honestly missed the feeling. So anyway, I did a good two-hour workout and my arms and chest are now sore, and it means I did well and something in my body is changing. Another challenge surfaced though.

My pre-workout drink

When you start to workout, you try to research about everything related to working out, and this includes supplements. Yes, I use supplements recommended by whoever, and it works. It actually works. Anyway, given my schedule for training (at Tuitt), my travel time and all, I managed to arrive at the gym around 7:45PM -by this time I had taken my pre-workout fruit punch already. So why use this? It gives me extra energy. I just feel like I have all the energy in the body that I need to release, and it is through workout. All throughout, I didn't ever feel tired. I feel like the hulk! I need to lift, and lift, and lift. Even when I ended my last workout, I still feel there's still so much energy in me. It really is an amazing pre-workout drink. So what's the problem? See effects of pre-workout energy drink here. Oh yes, one of the things I am experiencing now is insomnia. I CANNOT SLEEP! So there, I had the time to update this blog because of the pre-workout drink side-effect.

Supplements are not necessary, but it helps that's why it's called supplements. I would not really recommend any for you guys as it is my own decision use supplements, but in case you want to know, I am just using C4 for pre-workout, and Elite for post-workout. You can try these if you want, so far these two work miracles but do a little more research before doing so.

The outlet

Eight days have passed since I did my last workout. I was quite busy and my schedule was kinda hectic. After I decided to undergo development training, it has become more difficult for me to do workouts. Why? There are actually lots of factors, unlike when I was still working where my workplace is in the same building with my gym. During those times, I can workout before and after my shift, and I sometimes attend GX classes in between, during my lunch break. There are no hints of laziness when it comes to going to the gym. And it was fun.

Fitness First - RCBC Tower

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to visit my home gym. I used that time to do a quick workout. Yeah. Quick. I could not even consider it as a workout since I only did several machines and dumbels. But as they say, it is still better done none, right? Anyway, while resting after a set, I get to contemplate on how active I was before. I spend minimum of two hours in the morning, then two hours in the evening, five to six days a week. Now? I do once every what, eight to ten days? What happened? I tried to look back and the only reason I can find is, it's because of myself. I thought it would always be easy for me to get back into shape and now I am realizing I am wrong, and now it is becoming more and more difficult for me to get back until I fix myself. Until I'm done with my excuses. Until  I am really decided. But am I not? I think so. So beginning today, I am pushing myself more.

After contemplating

I know that right now no one can really help me except me. It's not like there are lots if things I need to improve on physically, but more importantly, the things that I need to improve on physiologically.

This is me after doing my quick workout. After this photo is a decision that there will no longer be quick workouts and I will be pouring on extra effort to go down to 165lbs and a better physique. Next post will be my workout plans, efforts, supplements, and then diet. This time, I will make sure that there will be a result out of the things I am putting extra effort into.

The challenge

Today, I officially started my balik alindog routine. The challenge? I am currently at my heaviest -a whopping 70.7 kg; that's additional 5.7kg from July, and for me, this is a big gain. To give you background of myself, I have always been weight conscious. I make sure that I weigh between 60kg to 65kg. So how the hell did I gain this much weight?

It all started on June 29, 2017 when I had a vehicular accident during our trip in Siargao (but really, this is just justification to my extreme laziness hoho). Anyway, I had to stop my usual workout and regular training thus added weight; the already not so fit then became fat and is now struggling to get back to my original shape haha. I am not just overweight but now obese level 1 based on my last physical examination result.

Going back, I am now more determined to not just get back to my original form but to look better than what I was. You may say because I have become insecure -maybe yes. I do not feel good about myself. I lost the confidence I had before -and I am going to get it back.

Twelve weeks, I say. This is my timeline. The challenge? The deadline and the result. I am listing down below the things I did today to kickstart my return to fitness journey.

• 8km treadmill run
• 150kcal elliptical
• Lat pulldown
• Benchpress
• Inclined press
• Machine chest press
• Bicep curls
• Dumbell press

Yes, the above is not really an organized workout. But again, it's just a way to kickstart my workout and to slightly get my physique familiar to body aches.

So, I ended my workout today and the best part? Food! I need food to fuel my energy depleted body (I was literally dying at the end of my routine). However, I haven't had the chance to prepare food for my workout so the healthiest I can get here ate Robinsons Metroeast -a subway salad.

Sliced chicken salad with honey mustard dressing

 To wrap up, I think I'm doing fine. Hopefully I get more motivated to continue. 

Back to square one

Hello. Just in case you don't know me yet, I am Emil -sports and fitness enthusiast. I used to. But just like other normal people, I didn't quite able to maintain it due to several reasons (I will not disclose). Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to document my fitness journey; my previous self and lifestyle, what I am now, and how to go back to what I used to be.

My active lifestyle

I am Emil -sports and fitness enthusiast. I used to. This time though, I have decided to go back to what I used to be. And while at it, hopefully I can help you guys out there become a better version of yourself.