My First Week

After having some personal introduction and goal set, I have entering the first chapter of the whole program. The program has been set by my personal trainer (Farid). He divided it into six months period (or I prefer to say it as six chapters) and each month has four weekly program.

 

The first week of exercise program was about to increase my muscular strength (general meaning is the ability of a muscle to exert force. Strength is a health-related fitness component that is assessed by the maximal amount of resistance or force that can be sustained in a single effort, ref. www.plu.edu). The program can be seen in below list.

 

Monday – Tuesday (during my business trip) Focused on cardio 45 minutes cardio – on treadmill, or cycling with interval speed

WednesdayCircuit TrainingExercise for the overall musclesWarming up on treadmill for 15 minutesCircuit training : Lat pull down                      4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 30kg (total) Shoulder Press                    4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 6 kg (each hand) Dumbbells Rowing            4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 8 kg (each hand) Dumbbells Bench Press   4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 12 kg (each hand) Squat                                    4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 30 kg (total) Biceps Curl                          4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 4 kg (each hand) Triceps Kickback                4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 4 kg (each hand) Continued with 3 rounds of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training): Flutter Kick with Squat      24 reps Mountain Climber              32 Reps Burpees with Push up        12 Reps Jumping Jack                      32 Reps Finished it up with cardio on treadmill for 30 minutes

Friday Circuit TrainingExercise for the overall musclesWarming up on treadmill for 15 minutesCircuit training : Lat pull down                     4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 30kg (total) Shoulder Press                   4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 6 kg (each hand) Dumbbells Rowing           4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 8 kg (each hand) Dumbbells Bench Press   4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 12 kg (each hand) Squat                                    4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 30 kg (total) Biceps Curl                          4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 4 kg (each hand) Triceps Kickback               4 sets , 15 – 20 reps , 4 kg (each hand) Finished it up with cardio on treadmill for 45 minutes

SaturdayCardio and AbsNo Cardio3 rounds of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training): Flutter Kick with Squat      24 reps Mountain Climber               32 Reps Burpees with Push up         12 Reps Jumping Jack                       32 Reps Abs Exercise Lying leg up                     4 sets , 16 reps Cross up                           4 sets , 16 reps

My achievement with program set above was:

• Doing cardio during my business trip
• After business trip, I managed to do 12 reps pull up (6 reps with Farid’s help, and 6 reps which I’ve done by myself) and 3 rounds of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) twice in a week (pretty good for a start up). HIIT is still a challenge for my muscular endurance, and finger crossed, I can do it easily after completing this program.

Being healthy is not a matter of getting exercise or more exercises but maintaining the diet is also an important aspect to consider. Farid has shared some tips for a success in my diet program and that is:

Decrease carbs intake in afternoon and no carbs at night No non-healthy fat such as fried food, butter, coconut milk gravy but replace them with good fat from fish, nuts and avocado Restrain from consuming sugar and salt Increase vegetables intake Increase protein intake from white egg, skinless chicken breast, fish, tofu, tempeh, low fat beef and whey protein

I think the most challenging time in achieving my goal is when I am on business trips because I have many meetings to attend, entertaining clients or being entertained. Entertaining or being entertained is all about good and delicious foods but most of times it’s unhealthy. To avoid any unhealthy foods, I share my personal goal to my clients or vendors so they can understand my situation. It usually works because being healthy and happy is everybody’s dream.

Last week I consistently ate the brown rice (substitute for white rice) but still struggling to skip some fried food, especially on my business trip to Penang. My weakness is fried rice noodles (kwetiau) and to have a small bite of fried kwetiau, it felt like I was going to do the biggest sin in my life. OMG…… it felt awful. I can even hear some whisper in my ears (between good and evil one) to take or not to take a bite of delicious and tempting fried kwetiau. Almost lost but thank God, my husband warned me about my program. Thank you my dear husband to be in the same team with me J.

This week challenge is about burning calories and cardio exercise because I’m travelling the whole week. Farid reminds me again that my program is only six months so I should have proper diet. Without the proper diet, my workout progress will be slower. I need to ‘inject’ these ideas into my brain and practice it (without any hesitation).

I am committed to reduce oily food to none, salt and sugar intake. I am not going into extreme path but just one step in a time and also consistently so it can adjust well to my body.

Enough talking about my program, I am so happy for my children because they have passed their exams and going to the next level. I am so proud especially not being around them all the times but they can manage to get good grades. My small reward is taking them with me in this week’s business trip so we can have our moment together. Every minute counts…..