Tag Archives: exercise

Six Months and Eleven Kilograms Later

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In July 2022, I finally decided to join a gym and hire a personal trainer and a nutrition coach. While I had used my prison-quality condo gym regularly for many years, and had held gym memberships while living in the US, I had never hired a personal trainer nor had I ever used a nutrition coach. I figured it was time to get serious and get in better shape.

The results? Six months along, I have dropped from about 105 kg (230 lbs) to 94 kg (207 lbs) and all indications are that my weight is continuing to drop. Likewise, my body fat percentage has dropped from 27% to just below 20%. I would argue that these measurements aren’t the most important results, though. Most important are three significant changes:

I’ve shifted my mindset. I’ve come to see that exercise is for building strength and diet is what affects weight. Both are necessary for good health. For the longest time, I tried to exercise myself to lower weight and every time the weight would come back once my exercise routine relaxed. At one point, I was running 5 km a day, five days a week. That isn’t sustainable on my knees! I’ve also revisited my relationship with food, which I would see as a reward or as a “cheat meal” that I would later feel guilty about. I now look at food as fuel. If I decide I want to have hamburger, pizza, or ice cream, I do so like a responsible adult rather than as a ravenous teenager. And while I still enjoy fine dining, I’ve stopped looking at food – especially prodigious quantities of it – as entertainment.

I’ve built new habits. I came to realize that I need to focus on building habits instead of worrying only about the number on the scale. Three days a week, I meet my trainer at 6:00 am. Every day, I walk at least 5,000 steps and achieve a weekly average of at least 8,000. And every meal, I work to create a balanced plate that is substantially lean proteins, lots of veggies, moderate starches, and minimal fats.

When I travel or have social events, I plan in advance and create a strategy to stay as close to my habits as I can. I use substitute workout activities if I cannot go to the gym. I load up on lean protein at breakfast if my source of lunch or dinner will be out of my control. And when going to a restaurant or social event, I approach the menu looking for appropriate fuel rather than using it to fulfill other needs.

I’ve taken a sustainable approach. I realize that I have a choice about my health and fitness; it isn’t an inevitable consequence of aging but rather something over which I have a lot of influence. As such, I am making choices with a long-term view: yes, two scoops of ice cream with all the toppings would taste good now but one small scoop will taste pretty much the same and eating less of it increases the odds I will be around and healthy enough to eat ice cream 50 years from now. Also, no fad diets or over-the-top exercise routines. My approach has to be something I will want to do consistently, year after year.

Why did I change? The biggest impetus for my change was my grandfather turning 102 this year. He still lives at home and while he is generally in good shape, I can see many ways where having a bit more strength, a bit less weight, and a bit better balance would increase his chances of remaining independent. Considering many aspects of my genetics – especially body shape and size – seem to trace back to him (my recently-departed grandmother, owing to her macular degeneration, regularly confused my grandfather and me if she viewed us from halfway across the room), putting myself on a healthier path now should increase my odds of living an active and independent life for many decades to come.

What am I doing? As mentioned, I have hired a trainer and I meet her at the gym three times a week. This has helped me in three ways: first, it creates tremendous accountability. In the past when I went to the gym by myself, I wasn’t pushing myself to my limits. Having someone else to show up for, ensures I show up. Having someone who sets expectations around repetitions and weight, ensures I reach those levels of performance. Second, having a trainer improves my form. I always had the sense that I didn’t really know what I was doing with most exercises and would often be sore or even injured afterwards. My trainer has really helped me understand how to exercise in a way that has the most benefit and minimizes the risk of injury. Finally, having a trainer keeps me from being bored. She mixes up the exercises and the areas of focus and keeps my workouts interesting.

Additionally, I hired a nutrition coach (Darren Liu of Breakthrough Body Blueprint) to help me with my approach to diet. He and his team were helpful in challenging the way I think about food. They had me start tracking my meals (MyFitnessPal is a great, easy-to-use app) which was a pain in the ass for the first two week and then easy. Most importantly, it was eye-opening. You really don’t understand the impact of what you are eating until you take the time to track it.

Darren and team set me up with calorie and macronutrient targets, significantly increasing the amount of protein that I consume. What I discovered is that protein helps me stay full longer, reducing the urge to snack. I also discovered that I can feel completely satisfied even as I only consume about 2,100 calories a day – my current target to ensure a slow but consistent loss of weight, about two kilograms a month.

I also started tracking my steps using my phone. There’s a lot of buzz about 10,000 steps a day – that felt a bit much as an average. But I have found that moving a minimum of 5,000 steps a day is very doable, with longer walks on days I don’t go to the gym or on the weekends. Last July, I averaged about 6,600 steps a day. By December, that was over 10,000 steps. Instead of riding the motorcycle from the station to my condo, I walk. I walk to the gym in the mornings, about ten minutes each way. I walk to a restaurant for lunch instead of ordering in. I stopped working from home and started going back to the office, since it automatically requires more walking from me. And the more I walk, the more I find walking doesn’t seem to be such a hassle.

What is the plan from here? So far, so good. But can I keep the weight off? Most people who lose significant weight tend to gain it back. And I shouldn’t stop here. While BMI isn’t the most nuanced measure, I’m still in the “overweight” category. The plan is to continue my habits around exercise and diet, to make them a consistent part of my life. Consistent habits should result in better overall health, better energy, better sleep, and a better sense of self. My target for 2023 is to reduce my body fat to 17% and my weight to under 90 kgs. But the numbers aren’t the real goal. It’s sustaining the mindset and the habits that lead to a long and healthy life.

A Hazy Shade of Winter in Bangkok

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The past few weeks have been pleasantly (relatively) cool here in Bangkok. The occasional dawn temperature of about 18c although highs have still be in the low 30s.

There was a cold front pushing down from China, strong winds that kept the skies crystal clear, so clear you could even see a few stars at night – a rarity in light-saturated Bangkok.

Then the winds stopped and an inversion layer set in, trapping the pollution and suspending it in the humid tropical air. This morning, I drove in the dark to Rama IX Park and the view the whole way reminded me of driving in the fog of my native San Francisco.

By the time I arrived at the park, I was wondering whether it was a good idea to run. Stretching out and warming up, I captured the above image. All the lights had been turned off already except for one bright flood light in a parking lot across the park.

The light beams cut through the filter of the pollution, streaming between branches and backlighting runners who looked like zombies moving in the misty distance.

The temperature was pleasant and I decided to run. It was my fastest run in nearly a year, 5 km in 35 minutes. Not a record setting pace but good for me. By the end, though, I could feel the irritation in my lungs, the soreness in my throat, and the burning in my sinuses. No doubt, the air was not fit for strenuous exercise.

Hopefully, in a few days the inversion layer will break and the air quality will improve. Until then, indoor exercise only.

Pool Party

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As part of my efforts the past year to improve my overall fitness, I have taken to running and swimming on alternate days. Our condo has a nice pool, although at 15 meters, it is a little shorter than ideal. Morning swims are best for me as they get the exercise out of the way and the water is generally cooler. The problem is, there is a crowded, informal “schedule” of who uses the pool, when. If I am not downstairs on time, I miss my opportunity!

About 6:30 on weekday mornings the middle-aged, silver hair British gentleman takes the plunge. He is friendly and our paths cross in the fitness center, but since he and I both use kickboards to augment our swimming, I would feel a little self-conscious if I was in the pool at the same time. It would feel like swimming class.

After he has finished, a Danish (I think they are Danes) retiree couple arrive around 8:00. Though they appear stern, they are friendly enough. The wife floats around while her husband’s swimming style involves a lot of splashing. Not enough room for me to share the pool without the sense of intruding upon their morning ritual.

By 9:00, the quiet, Japanese-looking (I think) Thai man who lives on the first floor with his male roommate comes out to swim. We were in the pool together at the same time a few weeks ago and his head-always-out-of-the-water combination doggy paddle and breast stroke is so slow that his body is almost vertical. As we swam, I was hyper-conscious that any wake I made would slosh him.

The sun hits the pool by mid-morning and I generally don’t like to swim in the full sun. In the afternoon, a Japanese retiree who lives on our floor removes his toupee and heads to the pool for his daily regimen of sunbathing. He alternates between lying on the lounge chair and lying in the pool resting his head on the deck. As he turns an ever darker shade of brown, the water around him is so still that I can’t bring myself to interrupt his sense of serenity by swimming laps.

By late afternoon, the children arrive at the pool. I love children but trying to swim laps while children are playing in the pool is futile. You become a target as they swim across the pool, seeing just how close they can come to colliding with the farang. Great fun for them. Less fun for me.

So that leaves me with my 7:15 am slot, right after the British gentleman and before the Danish couple. Use it or lose it, as they say. Of course, I am speaking a bit tongue-in-cheek. There is enough room that three people could swim laps without running into each other. But you know how it is, different people have different swimming styles and sometimes you don’t want to share a smallish pool with them. 

Have a good weekend!

 

How Well Do You Know This Region?

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There are plenty of stories written in the American media about how little Americans know about the world and how few can identify various countries on a world map.  Certainly such knowledge is important to have and as of late, quite a bit has been going on in the North Africa – Middle East – Central Asia area.  So it was with interest that I received an email forwarded by my father that linked to a map quiz from the RethinkingSchools.org website.  The results were interesting.

Muslim World 1

First off, the quiz (which is located here) is an easy drag-and-drop style quiz where you simply drag the name of the country to the corresponding space on the map.  If you are correct, the name sticks and the country color fills in.  If you are incorrect, a red “X” appears.  There is no timer and no score is given so there is no external pressure.

“Interesting,” I thought, resolving to try the quiz.  I consider myself a bit more knowledgable about the world than the average American, although the primary arc of the Muslim world is not the corner of the globe with which I am most familiar. 

I started dragging names to places, beginning with the ones with which I was most familiar and then filling in around them based on the spacial relationships I know exist.  Of the 35 countries I was able to fill in 24 before I began to second guess myself.

I’ll add a few blank lines and you can scroll down if you want to see which ones I knew.  Warning: If you plan on taking the test yourself, you should do so before you scroll down.  No cheating!

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Muslim World 2

This was how far I made it.  The next two countries I guessed – Chad and Niger – I got correct.  But after that it was a bit of hunting and pecking.

Muslim World 3

The complete results are here.  A good exercise to reinforce that we rarely know as much about the world as we think we do and can always benefit from some more learning.