The One Year Review

It is now a little over a year since I “lost weight” for my Spartan Journey and I thought it would be a good time to review my progress. Change is not change unless it can be maintained for a significant period of time so this is where I stand a year later.

Before and After

Let’s start with the before and after picture: left – taken recently in Ipoh; right – taken last year at the Spartan Sprint in Semenyih. No significant changes since the goal has been maintenance rather than further weight loss.

Workouts and Physical Activity

My current workouts include a combination of the following, five times a week. I’ve mostly dropped the back-to-back classes now because it’s been extremely hard on the body and I feel the fatigue impacting my overall performance.

• Flycycle aka spinning class
• Tribe Boxing
• Cirque Fit – circuit training
• Pilates Reformer at Zenith
• Flyclimb
• 2 on 1 Personal Training sessions with Fitness Achievers (I’ll write more about this soon)
• Running – in the gym or outdoors (not so frequently of late, though)
• Hiking/Walking
• Indoor rowing

Diet and Food Consumption

I still eat recklessly, although I try to keep my indulging days to the ones where I actually workout. On the days I don’t workout, I try to be better behaved. I frequently enjoy my chocolates, ice cream, cakes, and, well, dessert in general (I eat one or more of these on a daily basis). The food fest during our recent trip to Gua Tempurung/Ipoh was a tad excessive but nothing I haven’t done on the occasional basis.

Body Stats

My weight hovers around 59kg – plus or minus. It has not changed since last April, which is good since the goal has been maintenance and I have been successful for a year now. Unfortunately, I still unable to claim a six pack and my bat wings have not gone. I suspect that if I could be more disciplined with my eating habits, I might actually have some abs to show off. But…

A long time ago, I listened to an interview with Supermodels Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista. When asked if they ever cheated with their diets, Claudia replied that she would allow herself a piece of chocolate once a week and Linda said she might have a chip. I don’t really care for chips, but you can slit my wrists before I’ll ever agree to one piece of chocolate a week.

So, yeah, I’m not very hopeful about those abs. I’m still waiting for someone to devise an “eat all you want six-pack” program. Until then, I’ll settle for a little more upper body strength so I can finally nail one upper body Spartan obstacle.

Since training with Fitness Achievers, I have more detailed body stats now. It’s a pity I don’t have anything from one year ago to see how far I’ve come in a year, but I do have some stats from over the last four months.

The interesting point to note was that while my weight has gone up, the fats have gone down and the muscles have increased. So there you go, it is true when they say that muscle weighs more than fat. We ought to focus more on the physical changes in our bodies rather than the number on the weighing scale.

Okay, so the changes are not particularly significant, but the numbers are moving in the right direction. When you consider the fact that I’ve enjoyed more than my fair share of junk food along the way, I’d say that this is a huge win. If I can continue to see this trend and keep eating the way I do, I shall be very happy.