Unlike my first pregnancy, I gotta admit that after I gave birth to my 2nd baby, I found it harder to bounce back to my pre-pregnancy weight. As a matter of fact, i thought it was impossible. The combination between workout hard and the right meal plan really plays the role of successful diet. I ain't get no help so at the moment I had to juggle between running errands, school, extra classes, household issues (thank God I didn't have to do chores), maintain my social life, my love life, in short ... my life. WHILE I want to lose weight. I can't go to the gym easily, have so many to do list that I have to tick every single day. Besides, I never like gym anyway...
I remember I have an old email buried somewhere in my inbox, an e-book from Kayla Itsines. She is a personal trainer from Australia. I think she was among the first who introduce HIIT exercise. Her kind of training convince me that it's really possible to do the workout at home, even with minimal equipment. . So basically we got to do 28 minutes exercise each session (thrice a week)... which is break down in 8 high intensity workout with several repetitions. It's intense, albeit the short time and i can see the result immediately. I started to do the BBG from earlier this year, sadly I don't have the "before" picture. But I have several pictures of my progress.
Was it hard? Very much! Because you would have a ton of excuses when you workout at home. It all depends on you and your will to move on with the exercises. Nobody tell you what to do, just try to keep up with the programs. It cost you nothing when compare to gym membership, so at some point you would say, it's free anyway and you would easily pause or even stop your program. lol. Back to my story, I committed to finish BBG 1 in 3 months and quite happy with the result.
After finished BBG 1 I continued to do BBG 2 which is a tad "harder" than the last. It tend to use heavier dumbbell etc, but since I don't want my body become too bulky, so I just stick with 2 kgs dumbbell. That's why on this BBG 2 journey, I didn't see a much different result. It is more like maintaining my result from BBG1 even though there were times when I didn't exercise for a week or two due to health issue or when I was traveling, and my muscles started to loosen up again. I also switch between BBG and Freeletics because tbqh, I begin to feel bored after finish 2 cycles of BBGs. A friend said to try Freeletics so I gave it a try.
I do think the most important thing that we have to do when we want to lose weight is watch what we eat everyday. Because abs are built in the kitchen. No matter how hard you work out if you don't eat properly you wouldn't see any result. It's so effin hard to avoid the temptation of delicious yet sinful food. In the end I'm still eating what I want, but ONLY in moderation. I'm not being too strict to myself. Well I used to be strict, but it cost me no good. Here are a few things of my daily meal...
Breakfast: smoothies
Snack #1: wholewheat bread with almond butter
Lunch: chicken/meat with lots of veggies
Snack #2: fruits/nuts
Dinner: whatever my husband wants to eat :) this is usually where I eat rice/ fried food.
BUT I'm still eating out with my friends every once in a while, I limit my coffee intake to once a week and boba/sugary drink once a month. I even still eat a cake that I bake, even only for a slice. It's suffice to say, my diet is very comfortable.
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| my typical dinner |
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| quinoa bowl |
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| smoothies |
Anyhow... Here are few points that I find work for me...
- maintain a balance diet (more proteins & veggies, less carbs & sugar)
- exercise regularly (find an exercise that you can enjoy to do for a long period of time)
- keep being active (use stairs instead of elevator, walk more)
- do not, i repeat DO NOT rely on scales. many people tend to be stress out when they don't lose weight, but keep in mind it's not the first priority
- set your main goal to be healthy, lose weight is a bonus
- some recommended apps: Sweat by Kayla Itsines, Freeletics, and once you have the idea of how to do it all, make your own exercise regimen that suits for you
I'm still learning now and still a work in progress. That's all I know right now :)
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