"You seem so disciplined and we admire your self-control but I must admit we feel so ashamed whenever we fail during our weightloss journey... Will we even have a chance to make it like you?" - A Fellow Blogger


It is because of this message that I'm making this post because I want to clear things out regarding the journey I went through to lose weight. I'm happy that I've been motivating a lot of you but some of my followers told me that they tend to feel bad whenever they fail because they believe that I never failed during the whole process. Well, this post's for you guys. This is to prove that I have failed many times but I still made it because I learned new things. I hope this one will motivate you more. :)

 I am proud to admit that I also fall down and give in to food temptations since a lot  of you think I'm too strict when it comes to food intake, making me look like a kill-joy FOODBUSTER (*starts singing* "When the sweets are there, and you're being tempted... Who ya gonna call? FOODBUSTER!). Guys, trust me, I still eat everything. I don't treat foods as if they're evil--only the yucky ones haha! However, I am ashamed to admit what I've been doing lately to compensate and remove all the guilt feelings I experience after eating more than my daily calorie intake goal-- I workout 4x the usual which is obviously too much (and yes my dear friends, I am aware of this problem). I'm not a perfect person and please don't even try to follow the things I do to cope up with my "fall downs".

 The last time I ate Keeblers Oatmeal Cookies was 3 years ago and my mom has some of these cookies left (since she bought this for our trip last May but she forgot to bring it haha!). Before I even started typing this, I ate one cookie and mom tried to stop me because she knows what I'm gonna do after eating a lot of those cookies. Yes, I'm gonna workout 2-3x just to burn them. I am aware that this isn't proper (and it's too much!!!) because I'm just torturing my body.We all know that our body needs rest (usually in-between workout days). This whole week, I've been eating  3-6 cookies  per day (making me have an additional 1,000 calories to my usual 1,200-calorie daily intake so I've been having 2,200 calories per day!) and the whole time, I've been working out as well. I've never done this back then, just now, and I'm telling you this not to make you guys follow my example but for you to learn something.

1. It's not evil to give in to food cravings. Nobody's perfect and sometimes you do have to give in (a small serving is enough to finish those cravings so you still get satisfied both in your weightloss journey and your cravings problem) because you're gonna crave more and once those suppressed cravings get the best of you, you tend to eat more and this will not make you feel good at all. You might even give up the whole weightloss process thing.

2. So you ate a lot, are you going to give up now? Don't. You  can still go on and eat normally after a "fall down" day. Don't eat less than 1,000 calories because that will just make your metabolism slower. Stay within your normal daily calorie intake goal and gradually compensate through your workouts but...

3. Never exhaust yourself by working out over your limits! Working out too much was my mistake because it was my way of removing the guilt feelings. I learned my lesson and I'm back on track by controlling myself again. We all know that working out is really healthy for you but if you do too much, you're just putting injuries to your body. You overwork your heart and muscles and nothing beneficial shall be gained--only pain, exhaustion, and possible injuries. We really need rest.

 So you see, I also fall down. I give in to cravings and eat over my daily calorie intake goal. I even had another fall down which was working out too much. That's totally unhealthy. The best thing is do the usual: eat within the daily calorie intake goal and workout between 30-60 minutes or if you want more, put rests in-between. It may take time because instead of burning the past calories, you're gradually burning those new unwanted calories and you might even get tempted to give up --but please DON'T. All of us fail but we learn and we have each other for support. My self-control became stronger because of the things that have happened and everything even became better. Never give up. You may have gone out of the track but you'll realize upon getting back that you're on a better road!  =) 

0 fiber!? LOL. The comment is so right. "Fiber is cereal's one true virtue." Whatever happened to cereal being oh-so-healthy?














Another cereal that made me laugh once again was this one:
Check out the fiber and the sugars values. WOW. Dessert, anyone? Sugar rush time!

So basically, all I'm saying is that not every food that has been claimed to be healthy is really what it seems to be. Take oatmeal for example. Oatmeals are considered healthy IF they are not loaded with all those flavorings. I used to only check THE CALORIE COUNT of the foods I eat but after studying Nutrition as part of my course, I learned to read everything because even though some are low in calories or low in fat, if you check the other components, there is a complete imbalance among them. If they lower the fat, the carbohydrates value becomes higher to compensate for the flavor lost. If it's low in calories, check the ingredients and you might just see some unknown and unnatural stuff enlisted. So you really have to watch out for those. Yes, a lot of foods right now are targeting the health conscious ones but are they really healthy at all? Sometimes, it's much better to eat the usual and normal food (I'm saying that it's sometimes because other low fat/low calories/low low low stuff do have benefits) because altering the components can be very unhealthy. I know that checking the nutritional values can be so "erky" but it really is good to at least be aware of what you're eating. I'm always guarding myself from new products that are targeting the health conscious people. Salad meals are popular nowadays. Salads are healthy if only you are to remove the mayo-based dressing and all those cheese, overloading meat, croutons, etc. So I really am alert when products claim they're 99% fat-free or whatsoever. I know that people may say "Just enjoy your food! Stop being too conscious". True enough (trust me, I still eat normally but with the right portions... I still eat litson and pastries so don't think I'm a super killjoy health freak) but when you enjoy yourself too much, you overlook the fact that you're already overeating and the effects this can give. I'm not only talking about being weight conscious--I'm talking about the overall health. Whenever I deal with patients and I get their history, there's this constant reminder for me to start being conscious with my lifestyle because I might just regret it in the end. I must admit that a lot of my patients had lived the lifestyle I used to live before turning into a more health conscious individual and seeing where their lifestyle brought them motivated me more to really change my ways. I don't like the idea of a person enjoying everything right now then she/he becomes bedridden or terminally ill at the age of 40 or younger than that.

You can enjoy (whether it's eating, drinking, smoking, or whatsoever) but everything has limitations... We need balance (everything has balance, right? ) and we have to start balancing ourselves now. Remember, if we enjoy too much of everything in just a short period of time, we're shortening the time of taking the chances of what could've been more to us. So take time and stay balanced. Proper distribution. LET'S DISTRIBUTE THAT LIFESTYLE THROUGHOUT OUR LIVING YEARS! No "isang bagsakan" allowed. LOL. WOOOT! hahaha! :) I know you all know everything I said here--just reminding because I care. ;) (Lol... pa-cute.)

 I'm sure that some of you already know this but for the sake of those who DO KNOW but need an explanation, here it goes. Iced water does not make you fat. A lot of people (not just elders--in fact, most of them are of my age) tell me not to drink cold stuff because I'll just gain weight. The truth is, it does THE OPPOSITE. Iced water is much better because your body will try to burn some calories to heat this water until it reaches your core temperature. I've read about this a lot of times and I've always wanted to blog about this but I thought that this was already known by a lot of people. Apparently, I've been told recently to forget about the iced water because I'll just gain weight. Thus, this blog entry was created to at least help those who believe in the famous myth. This iced-water-will-make-you-fat myth should be banished and so I decided to put this here as part of my weightloss entries. Anyway, I'm not saying you should go get a lot of frozen treats to burn more calories (lol). We all know what will happen after that. To at least get your metabolism high, go for an iced water instead of the plain refrigerated water. By the way, according to Women's Health, to increase the effectivity of this iced water fact, drink this after you wake up to jump-start your day's metabolism. Woohoo for iced water! 

Now let's free the iced water from being guilty for its charge of making people gain weight!

  

"I'm tired of the cycle of gaining all those compliments then losing them after gaining back some weight then gaining compliments again after losing weight then losing them after gaining weight--AGAIN."

Yes, I know that I am a nurse and before becoming one, a nursing student must be able to master the normal body processes and how different diseases can alter these everyday events that are going on inside us (aka PATHOPHYSIOLOGY) to be able to choose the correct nursing interventions when dealing with patients of certain diseases. Honestly, knowing all these things helped me with regards to planning and carrying out my patient care but little did I even apply the knowledge that I have acquired from my course to myself. Aside from these things, NUTRITION was part of our curriculum (during 2nd year) and I enjoyed it actually but I was only able to apply it to my patients--forgetting myself again. I think that you can only recognize your own body's needs when something undesirable really happens to it. In my case, it's the weight.

When I was a child, I've always been thin. I even got thinner when I was diagnosed with pneumonia (and how lovely is this disease that when I became a student nurse, all of my patients have this disease and for my Oral Revalida, this was the case that I defended) when I was 6 years old (and I got confined where? at my former college's own hospital where I spent my duty days as a student nurse!). My parents were worried by my state that they did everything for me to gain the ideal weight for my age. Too bad... I started enjoying the act of eating that when I reached the 4th grade, I was, well, swelling up. It didn't stop there. As a preteen, you just can't get THAT conscious yet so it was nothing for me. The weight went on and on and the problem only hit me when I finally reached highschool and a teacher was choosing some big girls for something. I was picked and I was like--what? I wasn't expecting that or maybe I overlooked my weight too much that I just needed a wake up call from the outside. Ever since that incident, I would dance for 2 hours at home to shed off weight. It did help but my weight was very unstable. It went up and down a lot of times during the 4 years spent in highschool. When I finally went to college, I was SUPER DUPER conscious already. I mean, come on, after 11 years of staying at an exclusive girls school? Boys are around now and you know boys love to tease girls who have some extra pounds! Girls don't do that to each other (only in rare occasions when playful) because we are very sensitive when weight is the topic. But boys--majority of the boys have this thing for teasing girls who are chubby. Though I know that most of them don't really mean it and have no intention in making a girl depressed, some girls do have this super sensitive attitude when weight is being made fun of. What guys don't understand is when you make fun of girls with their weight, some may just breakdown because of getting teased a lot especially with weight. The sad thing is I can see girls who are thinner than me but still get teased for having extra inches of fat (like probably only 2 inches of fat?). I do get teased by my guy friends but it is rare like probably once every 2 months (haha) for having some extra weight. During my 4 years in college, a lot would see me lose weight then gain it back again then lose it again. So I get compliments then the teasing (of my favorite guy friends ever... hahaha you know who you are! :P ) comes back again then the compliments then--okay we get it. The ups and downs of my weight during my college life had been really tiring. I'm tired of gaining all those compliments then losing them again after gaining back some weight. It all comes down to the WRONG BELIEFS I HAD WITH REGARDS TO WEIGHTLOSS.

My unstable weight is basically due to my wrong choices of methods in losing weight. I hated exercise and was inconsistent with it. I would exercise for 2 hours during schoolbreak so basically, everyone would always notice the weightloss BUT only during the first few months of school. By the time mid-schoolyear comes, I would've already gained back the weight I've lost plus some extra pounds added to my original weight. I've tried a lot of those short-term weightloss methods (I know they are bad but because they were quick, I was up for them) and my reward was a short-term experience of confidence. I've tried the South Beach diet, diet (liar) pills, metabolism boosters, food replacements, starvation, super crash diets, and the depression diet for not even having the weight I want. After the board exams review, I was surprised that I finally reached the weight that I've never ever reached before. I was overweight by 20lbs.!!! I've had enough of those past failed weightloss experiences using all those new weightloss methods. I finally decided to lose weight using a classic method (aka THE SLOWLY BUT SURELY method) and something that I know would be healthier. I decided to hit the gym and eat right. I also started reading the book that was given to me as a gift by my dad. He has always been concerned about my health. Well people might probably say "Duh, because he is a doctor." but I would just reply "Duh, probably because I am his daughter." The book is about having a healthy heart. I loved the book and it made me more motivated while I was at the gym. Before opening that book, all I can think of was "I must lose weight to gain my confidence back." but after reading that book, all I can think of was "I must lose weight to have a healthier body." The book had a section for weightloss and although I already know how it goes, it was only that time that I was finally able to think of myself as a patient, badly needing some help for a healthier life. I was only starting my weightloss journey when I read that book and as I went on with my mission of losing some weight, I decided to study books with regards to FITNESS AND NUTRITION. I learned a lot and I'm more motivated compared before. Why did I hate dieting before? I did not get satisfied--at all! I can't eat what everyone else was eating. Now, I learned how to alter the quantity and quality of the foods I am eating. I can make better choices. I can eat whatever I want with control. I even learned how to cook and bake because I really want to eat low-calorie versions of my favorite foods.

My weightloss journey had been a really meaningful one. I do wanna thank my failures because it is due to them that I have changed my outlook on weight. By seeing how these failures turned to disasters, I finally realized that the healthier way of losing weight is still the best one because there is an assurance of a healthier body with no risks involved (duh? I know right? hehe). Our body is to be taken care of and by introducing sudden weightloss ways to it, it just suffers more because the body needs gradual adjustments for it to work properly. Just think of a child you're teaching to talk. You can't just teach him/her advanced words right away. A child needs to get used to small words first before he/she can start learning bigger words. Like a child, a body needs some training as well. For it to have a successful weightloss, you need to give small changes to it first. Giving big changes right away to the body will just break it down. The normal processes in the body get altered and you become less healthy. That is why if you're planning to lose weight by decreasing your calorie intake, don't just starve right away. Decrease it slowly. Plus, like a learning talking child, there are limitations. A child can only take a certain number of words at a time. If you go beyond the child's limitation, it is totally pointless. In the example given awhile ago regarding decreasing the calorie intake, there is a limitation. You can't decrease it beyond the minimum amount of calorie intake or else the body will be in trouble. That is why all those short-term weightloss methods fail! You lose weight fast but you gain it faster afterwards. The body is not used to the sudden weightloss and it will only compensate after you're done with the short-term method. Unlike when you're gradually losing weight, you're giving time for your body to adjust and when it gets adjusted, it will not gain back the weight you're trying to lose because the body thinks that what's going on is normal. Our body is very defensive. ;) When it knows it is being attacked by all those bad methods, it attacks back by compensating. Take starvation for example. When the body is not getting enough calories, it thinks you're starving therefore storing fat more. Clever body, huh?

Weightloss totally helped me go WITH MY BODY and not AGAINST MY BODY. If you do just that, you'll be healthier. This is what I basically learned from my weightloss journey... It definitely changed my outlook on weight as something that is to be taken care of for the sake of health (and not merely just for physical appearance) and one can do that just by being a friend to one's own body. :)