7 Years After

Its a new year and as always, overthinking again. I wanted to write my entry to this season's essay writing contest but ended up not writing until now. The long break made me think how I've been getting along with improving my fitness. I had a wake up call around September last year when I was having terrible headaches that paracetamol can't fix. Then remembered I had been a terrible patient of hypertension. Took my wrist BP monitor and got a 160/100. I may have been missing drinking my meds. >.<

Anyway, while this is a horrible case of bad patient not drinking meds - I wanted to make it better with sleep, diet and exercise. Set my alarm to sleep and wake up. Ordered monthly subscription from Diet-in-a-Box (which by the way tastes like resto food, so you will not feel you are in a diet at all). Now playing badminton every Sunday too for at least 4 hours, then 3x in the gym every week. To no surprise, holidays is to pig out and so I did! Before all the gluttony I was already 160 lbs, but when I weighed myself today, I gained 10 lbs that fast in 2 weeks. 

And so all the guilt sank in and this picture at the bottom is me after 1 hour running on the threadmill and doing all the machines in the gym aimlessly in light weight compared to what I can now lift. I just wanted to burn a lot. When I got home, I weight myself and lost 2 lbs. But I guess it was because I was starving myself the whole day - which is a very bad idea.

Can't explain my hunger then. Next thing I know, I finished a tub of spaghetti from a workmate. Even if I sleep better, eat healthier and exercise more - I really need to work on my self-control. Whenever I see food on the table and it's just me, everything is going down.

I’m running now

I was hypertensive again. This is one of the most frustrating facts about my self, that I thought was out of my system already. I think I eat healthy, and I think I’m active enough – I go to the gym, I do badminton, what more? And yes, being the “kuripot” that I am, I refuse to take meds. Anyways, this is what I learned from my mom -- She was hypertensive before, but she fought it with a change in lifestyle – she became active in badminton. I just thought, maybe I’m not putting enough effort. And so, I started running seriously. It seems like badminton is not good cardio training, but running is. Guess what, my BP is back to normal.

Just last Sunday, I finished my first 10k! I thought I was not going to finish it, but hell, I finished it at 1:12:28. I found it hard to breathe, even if my legs keep going. I walked at some point but seeing the girls (Rancy & Ash) I’m with pushed me to go further. And there, eventually I saw the water pouring out the fire truck, the LED timers and the RFID reader. Yeah! I made it. Got a medal for it! Run Rizal cleared.

Next stop. K! Run in UPD this Sunday. My target, finish it at a faster pace. >.<

Burning Fat Doesn't Need To Be Expensive

in the shower room

Corporate life is indeed the ultimate catalyst to a very unhealthy lifestyle. You sit down on your desk ALL DAY. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I feel like eating every now and then. The harder part is when you have workmates who invite you to eat out. It’s not all about the delicious food turning into belly, its killing my budget! I’ve been feeling very heavy and it does call for a work-out done religiously. I’m already into badminton, but it does seem like it’s not enough. I need more fat burning.

Then came this blast about a corporate account offered at Slimmer’s World Pasay Road. It did seem inviting so I hopped right in, with a gym buddy, Rap. Discount is just irresistible. For six months, we just needed to pay 4,590 pesos. And there, we started our routine to the gym. We go three times a week and tomorrow is our 12th day.

The place is very accessible. It’s near Ayala MRT Station and it actually is just at the back of Dusit Hotel. The trainers there are very helpful, and it won’t be a problem if it turns out to be your first visit to a gym. The best part of a gym day? The hot shower! After sweating it all out, it is just exactly what you need to feel good and comfy. Interested much? Try to shoot Janet Dugos a message. Her mobile is 0916-640-1814. I was able to snap some photos on our first few visits, check them out below.

I Wanna Play! | Tips on Buying a Badminton Racket

Work is in the way of making my belly go away. Can't run anymore, nor play badminton. It's just hard to compromise work right now, the slope of my learning curve is rising very steeply. Well, I'm in it to be good at it, so I have to sacrifice a bit. It just is frustrating because instead of losing, I'm feeling my gut grow thicker by the day - eat a lot and burn nothing. What do I expect? Hahaha!

UST Global goes for a Badminton Tournament in line to its 11th Foundation Day

I have here a photo of my workmates while we were on a tournament at The Zone, Makati, last September 19. Well, besides the delightful meal after the heart-pounding matches, this is a very memorable day for me because I screwed up my two rackets - yes! in one day. My Prince OS Sky broke, right on the frame, after hitting my partner at the back. Good thing, no physical injury was incurred. Actually, it seemed like Ken didn't feel it. I was like "Oh! Shit", then he remained slouched forward in front. I didn't notice it either that time, I hit the ball one more time for a clear shot. But it didn't go to the back of the opponents, instead, it went like a drop shot even though I put some strength in it, right across the net - i think by a feet or two. And there, I lost one racket.

I was okay with that casualty because I've had that racket for more than a year now, but what frustrating is that my spare/back-up racket went dead on me too. The string was cut in the middle of the set of the next game. I had to borrow http://pinakamaganda.net/ 's racket for the rest of the day.

Well, I can't live with just one racket, so I slashed my savings to buy another one. This time, I went for an RSL, I forget the model, but the sales lady talked me out of it. I was just getting my back-up racket re-stringed at Toby's MoA, but ended up buying a new one. She said, she have this racket that is really durable, I can string it up to 32 lbs or even more! Put blue Black Knight string on it, and a generic over grip. There, I have another racket to break! Wahahaha! Its performing really neatly, I've already used it a couple times. It seems like its gonna stay for long - I chose a racket that's not so heavy and not so light. I'm afraid of light rackets now, they tend to die on my easily, hahha! I had the new one on 85 grams. I strung it to 26. A compromise between strength and control. (a bit of FYI - the lower the tension, the less power you need to push the shuttle cock, meaning, you'll have a harder time controlling its direction) Pro's usually do higher tensions because they hit harder already, so they can compromise the higher strength for greater control. By pushing the ball a bit above the net, you can get a neat drop shot, instead of a slide to the middle of the court. You'll notice that players with higher tension can manipulate the ball to drop anywhere, right across the net, or even the two boxes in the back corners of the court. But a caution, if you don't hit too hard, don't get a high tension, your balls will end it up smashed on your face, better learn to hit harder first.

People, please don't be afraid to team up with me, I'm extra cautious now, I promise, I won't hit you anywhere, hahahah! Please, play with me, I wanna play so bad! I'm good from morning till before lunch, or after 9PM, wahahha! I'm kind of desperate here, fwahahah!

Broken Strings

First and foremost, at last, we have power back up! It seems like my house was the last one to get it back up, damn that storm Basyang. There. 0000-RANT-EXIT. EXIT (Full-Stop).

Last Saturday, my string just gave up. Hahaha! Its been more than three months now since I replaced the string of my badminton racket. Maybe I'm not playing that hard, but I'm working on it, and people said I'm really getting better (what a diversion for crying out loud, enough said). This one is RSL and does prove to be as durable as Yonex - or almost as durable. Used to be buying Yonex's which is around 400 bucks, this RSL is just around a hundred bucks. I think I'll be going for another RSL later. One more thing that I like about RSL strings is that they have a variety of colors. That small thing is a big deal to artsy partsy people like me, hahaha!

By the way, badminton racket right here is Prince's Oversize Sky. That's 85 grams +/- 2 with max tension of 28. Its head heavy, so smashers should be loving this. Talking bout price, I got it at Php 3,200 - not bad for an intermediate player's racket and I actually got this one year ago. So this should be a lot cheaper right now. Soon, if I go pro, I'll buy one of those expensive ones, hahaha! Soon... just see! Hahah!

Some photo stuff again! Took this photo right after my last hit using my first RSL string. Light is on the right, from the courts. Did some perspective thingy here to emphasize the subject and give it a big part of the frame. On post processing, I did my usual - level tweak. And here, I put a vignette (darker sides), still in photoshop. It does give the drama that I want in this photo, and also some lomo effect. And there we have it! :D

P.S. Title courtesy of my fave artist, haha! James Morrison, haha!