Man on a mission Part II

This year, I made up my mind to do something about it. I want to reclaim my (fitter) body back (at least not being 25kg overweight). I need a target. To achieve that target, I need a plan. A good plan.

First the TARGET.

Let just say that I'm currently 'overweight'. My BMI are, 27.8. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight, which puts me in the 'overweight' category. A healthy BMI is between 19-24.9. That means I need to weight in at no more than 81.5kg. From my current weight, I will need to lose another 9.5kg. It is going to be easier said than done, though.

Then, the PLAN.

Five years ago when I was in the best shape of my life (my then girlfriend would disagree though, as she find me too thin) losing weight was quite easy. I trained hard, say 6-7 hours a day, keep an eye on my eating and be well rested. Now, it would take a bit of a juggling. Work will take a sizable number of hours, other commitments too. So its less straightforward.

The faster and easier (healthier) way would be to exercise more and reduce calories. So my plan is to work out regularly and reduce calorific intake. I eat more frequently (with smaller portion) to ensure no insulin spike, and put in some exercise. The exercise of choice, what else, an indoor rower. After all, its one of the sports that uses whole body movement.

For motivation, I have challenge myself to row a total of 1,000,000 meters by the end of the 2007. Yup, I wanted to be a 1 Million Meters Club member :) Also, the workout will prepare me for the Malaysian Indoor Rowing Championship. I will take this year's competition as an opportunity to 'test the water' so to speak, as I have been away so long from competitive rowing. Next year, my target would be different, with competition in mind.

In middle of next month, will start my weight training as hopefully it will accelerate my weight loss, due to longer elevated metabolic rate after such workout. Haven't finalized the workout, but most probably high reps, low weight with cables and machines. Less on free weights. I am much more interested in toning, rather than hypertrophy. Back to what I'm doing 5 years back.

So much for my mission, the target and the plan. I'll update all of you progress next month.

One down, one more to go...

A few years back my mom planted a 'durian' tree within the compound of our house, if I was not mistaken its in 2002. Fast forward to last year, the tree unfortunately has grown too big for the compound. So my mum was contemplating to cut it down, but one of my aunt says that it wont be long before it bore fruit. Hmm, thats a thought, our own 'durian' tree...

Anyway, there's a few problem. Apparently the tree has branched into two main branch. So, to ensure the survival of the fittest, one branch has to go. Other than that, it has grown taller than the house and it'll be hard to maintain and trim (not to mention the possibility of lawsuit should a 'durian' falls on someone's head). So, who else to do all those things? Me, of course.

Promise to her late to do both things, err... since late last year, when I'm taking my long leave at the end of the year, remember? But, somehow it's not done. Its either, raining (really), or the saw is not sharp (or big) enough, no ladder.. the list go on and on. So, to make it short, nothing doing.

Last weekend, I took the opportunity to go back to my hometown and hehehe, the 'durian' tree is still there, mocking me. Well, not for long..

Late Sunday afternoon, took a machete, and climb up the tree and cut off the offending branch.
Whats left, is to cut the branches high at the top, and trim it down a bit to make it more manageable. It wont be long, 'durian' tree, it wont be THAT long...

Salvage Operation Part 2

Well, today is Monday. And during the weekend, another salvage operation was in place. After the basketball game on Thursday, opted to take the day off to enable my 'sore' knees get some rest. Moreover, was looking forward to doing lots of aerobic work (read: cycling) during the weekend, with long ride planned on Saturday and Sunday...

Remember, I was losing my mind? It slips my mind (again) that my parents will be coming on Friday, and we'll be picking my aunt up in the airport later Friday night. And my mum told me that, her flight is delayed to arrive at about 2am. Ha? Damage control mode activated. Sleep early, and hope the damage will be minimised.

No such luck, we ended up coming back from the airport at 430am. So what happen to my early morning ride? I woke up at 615am, check the time, and continue sleeping. Woke up around 830, mum cooks some scrumptious breakfast and... well, how can I say 'No' to mum's cooking? Hehehe... I'm weak.

No workout in the morning would mean basketball then. Ended up with a really sore knees, but we win some games. This extra weight is really killing me (my knees exactly). Iced my knees and had a good meal, with some protein and little carbs. Had a good nite sleep and hope for an early start tomorrow...

My parents are going back today, so just checking with them what time they are leaving. Ride out at 730 and promise them I'll meet them around 8am. Take a familiar route out to MINT and back, and met a group of riders getting ready for a ride to BLalang at UNIKEB. I'd need to clock more miles before I could even think of joining them. At least a solo 120km non stop ride. That would be a target for me.

Manage to squeeze in a 40 mins ride, meet my parents, sort out a few important things to be done in the next few weeks and they are off. What else to do? I have another appointment with a friend in Pjaya in 45mins time, so what else a man on a salvage mission need (can) do? Should I sent my bike upstairs (my apartment is at the 5th floor) or chuck the bike in the car and drove there or what? What else? Ride my old, trusty bike there of course. Hehehe..

The problem is I do not have any water bottle left as I lost it last week. Make the decision to ride to Pjaya and raid a convenience store there. Knees starting to act up again, but its all in the mind. Its all in the mind. Slowly but surely, hahaha... it took me almost 45mins to reach there, just in time to meet my friend at the Club. Not before raiding the 7-11.

Teach my friend to row (I took the time to rest and became the slave driver) and we finished around 11am. Have to turn down free breakfast (I'd never say 'No' before), as I still have the journey back home. Luckily the weather is not that hot (nevertheless, I'm burnt) and reached home before noon. Stretching, cool down and proceed to cook lunch. A simple one with rice, meat and fish. Decided on active rest, went to the office and drop by at the courts later in the afternoon for a shoot around. Good rest but slept late a bit... attending a call from someone dear

So what happen today? Nothing. Really. Didn't I tell you that every Monday is my OFF day?

Salvage Operation Pt.1

My thinking earlier in the week, it will be a disaster. But then again, life has its own way of giving you a lifeline. Remember my week was almost in tatters due to 'our favorite past time' (which is makan)? As it unravels, due to insufficient quorum on Wednesday, the 'makan' do was postponed to the next day...

Great! Manage to squeeze in one lunch hour workout. Felt heavy, maybe some rustiness in the joints, but that what you get with an extra weight all over. Not contented with that, drive back early and played basketball. Hehehe, felt tired but at 1 day is in the pocket.

The next day, a very important visitor (the highest of all) paid a visit and as a consequence, all of us needs to vacate the office by 4.45pm. As no lunch hour workout today (big 'makan' do at the grilled fish place, remember?), what else to do if you're driven off from office early... I dropped by at the basketball courts, and played a few games. Knee starts acting up again, but its bearable. I hope so.

Two days out of three working out, not too bad... not bad at all.

Favorite pasttime...

This week has not started well enough. The previous week, I some workout in (at least 5 in total) but as of today I have not been able to get my fat arse to the gym, either on the erg or the stationary bike or weight bench, even to the courts (basketball, not the judiciary manage to put inones).

Hmm, so what happen yesterday? Let see, started my work with two meetings back to back, 830am to 1030, and then 1130am til 1pm. No trip to the gym during lunch hour, as I take yesterday as a rest day as Sunday had been a two workout session day. Felt good (with the rest and all) and had home made sandwich for lunch and dinner...

Today, looking forward to work out in the gym during lunch hour but forgot that I'm supposed to be somewhere else by lunch hour for a discussion and programming workshop and needs to leave the office by noon. Oops, how could I forget about that? And just as I was leaving, one of my colleague is having a pizza party... Alamak! Food and eating... the Malaysian favorite past time :(I manage to limit myself to just one slice of pizza and rushed off for my workshop. Good workshop and discussion and it renewed my interest in programming. Back in the office by 430pm and my colleagues had actually set aside a few slices of pizza for me. I LOVE them (my colleagues, not necessarily the pizza..). Hmm, finish my work and thought about basketball but...

In the end today, I stayed back in the office, did some more research AND not going to the basketball courts. Two days in a row of not working out. Maybe tomorrow then. NO! Definitely tomorrow... must work out! Must! MUST!

Lunch hour tomorrow, Nick is giving all of us a treat. At the 'grilled fish' place. Grilled fish place behind the palace. Another lunch hour workout is going down the drain... again.

p/s Btw, the pizza my colleagues left aside for me, is going
to be my breakfast tomorrow. Am not eating them today. At all.

Think Tank...

Lex II: Mutationem motus proportionalem esse vi motrici impressae, et fieri secundum lineam rectam qua vis illa imprimitur.

In the line of our work (for me and my colleagues), it is expected of us to do research to understand the inner workings of the human body, to enable them to achieve citius, altius and fortius...

One of my friends asked me, what do I do actually. I told her that...
"My work? I'm just some low level worker. Its not that complicated just a matter of applying the concept of physics (F=ma etc) in relation to the human movement, to enhance performance using superior technique or tactic intervention.

So, we need to know our physics, human anatomy and physiology at a good level and some mathematics. Some biomedical, engineering and mechatronics knowledge would help. Thats why I'm currently learning some programming language to enable us to customize our solutions with our equipments, as most of it are custom built to our requirement...

Most of the time we will be doing analysis of the human movement, using either videos, infra red cameras, accelerometer and even aerodynamics and drag testing, force platforms, electromyography, GPS, load cells, lots of mathematical calculation eg inverse dynamics etc, and constantly looking into ways to improve an athlete's performance. We also do material testing eg fabrics, shoe-surface traction etc. We are also interested in reducing the probability of injury with our clinical section..."

Hahaha, to think that I actually slept through Physics classes in school (poor Mr Aw), and now I'm using the concept of Physics for my work, doing calculation with mathematics...

Who'd think that I'd be doing this for life... and loving it.

The Latin words at the top of the post refers to Newton's 2nd law, law of acceleration...

Losing my mind...

Yesterday was littered with incidents of sorts that makes me wonder, "Am I losing my mind?". Not of the psychiatric kind but it seems to me that I had became more and more forgetful of late. This might have something to do with mid-life crises, I guess, hehehe...

Yesterday morning, I was supposed to go kayaking with a friend. As we are to meet up at around 8am, I thought of putting in an hour of so of cycling beforehand. So, there I was, preparing my bike and equipment for the ride. Woke up early enough, grab a light breakfast, put my bike, helmet etc in the car and out of the house by 7am. 15 minutes later, reached the meeting point and proceeded to set up my bike. D#@N! Of all things, I forgot my bike shoes! How am I going to cycle as my bike has clipless pedals on them. For those who are uninitiated...

Clipless pedals (also clip-in or step-in) require a special cycling shoe with a cleat fitted to the sole, which interfaces with a locking mechanism on the pedal. The pedals on your bike really serve only one purpose- as a means to transfer power from you to your bicycle, and be efficient at transferring power from you to your bicycle without pain & fatigue. This is my clipless pedal :)

So, it seems like I HAVE to cycle with my running shoes. Not the most efficient way to do it but it beats running or jogging for 60 minutes. Less impact on my knees is better. My knees has been acting up since I put on the extra kilos. Affected my basketball game as I have been losing my vertical jump, cant rebound anymore. Verdict: Need to lose those kilos... fast!

Back to my morning, luckily for me, my friend send me a text message telling that they'll be a bit late and it gives me another 20 minutes extra of cycling. Not complaining at all. Kayaking session went well, had late breakfast and went back to rest. Did some grocery shopping during lunch time, then some household chores at home and get some rest.

In the afternoon, went for basketball. Had a long warm-up and shoot around. Knees seems to hold up quite well except for some instances during the game which felt like giving way due to sudden changes in direction. Win a few games, lost a few. Finished at around 710pm, took off my Polar transmitter and spend a few minutes talking to my friends. Drive home around 730, dropped by at a convenience store to buy some bread, then I realised... I cant remember where I'd put the HR transmitter.

D#@N! Not again! Do not tell me I left it at the courts? Rushed back there, and searched all over the place. Its already dark, and I used my car headlight to illuminate the courts area. Look for it in the car, in the boot. Look in the car and in the boot, AGAIN. The HR transmitter remains elusive, not seen anywhere. Aargh! This will cost me serious money. Then, resigned to the fact that its nowhere to be found, with a heavy heart I went back home...

Then, as I was preparing to bathe, I finally realised that my HR transmitter had been dislodged from my chest and its actually resting at the waistband of my shorts. No wonder I could not find it anywhere else... because its on me all this while. Silly me...

2006 in retrospect...

When I was listening to the radio this morning, the topic on radio was, "Whats the most memorable thing that had happen to you in 2006?". Hmm... it got me thinking, what was the MOST memorable things that had happen to me last year then?

Travel wise, 2006 has gotten me places. Been to a few nice cities in Europe, China, Australia and nearer to home, Singapore and Indonesia. My work also means I got to travel to Langkawi and all over Malaysia on official capacity and squeeze in an extra day or two of holidays afterwards. Being in those places, abroad especially, has reminded me that there's no place like home...

Money wise, you win some and you lose some. Still need to be more careful with my money and keep a check on my spending. Credit cards are both a boon and a bane, need to be more disciplined. The car, just another year to go. Manage to save a bit of money, but the occasional splurge do hurt at times. At least I'm not living over my means. Hopefully.

Work wise, the year has started me on a familiar place but ended up in an unfamiliar place. Some office politics aside, I has been given a higher responsibility. Thrown into the deep end of it, I'm lucky to have understanding colleagues (all of you) who supported me and helped me into my new position. A bit more work, slightly more responsibility, different kind of headache AND the pay stays the same, unfortunately, but I guess the learning process is invaluable.

Health wise, I have been sending myself deeper and deeper into the abyss of 'fatness'. No use denying it, I'm fat. Last I check, in these past 5 years, I have steadily increased my weight on average of 5kg per year. My weight now is 95kg, up 25kg from 2001 when I weight in at 70kg. I would like to blame it to all the buffet spread at the hotels I went to be it for conferences, work travel, breaking fast or just to hang out with friends. My 2007? To be at least 10kg lighter by August. Why August? Hehehe...

Relationship wise, where to start? Let us start with friends. Someone said, 'Keep your enemy closest'. We cant do much about other people liking us, but we can learn to like and love people. Generally 2006 was a good year, just having problems keeping tab and in touch with old friends as we move on from Uni, workplace, school and explored other parts of our life, getting a job, married etc. One sad incident though happen at the end of the year, someone very dear to me decided to sever all ties due to some incident which I deem unworthy of the consequences. Sigh. I thought "To err is human, to forgive is divine...". Was I wrong.

Love life? Hehehe... no comment.

Man on a mission Part 1

As human, we grow. Initially at a phenomenal rate, then (the rate) slows down and stabilises. A (growth) spurts here or there is not uncommon, but thats how it is. Still remember being a short, round, chubby teen when I was 15, but shot up almost 15cm in a space of a few months after SRP (yes, it was that long ago)...

Over the years, fitness has been a priority of mine. In school, I do not have the silky skills of Maradona, so I opted for basketball, volleyball and tennis instead (actually, I'm a 'kaki bangku'). After school, played six sports in varsity (adding rugby, softball and handball added to the list). When I started working in the banking sector, I worked out most days in a gym and actually ran the sprints in national competition (100, 200 and 4x100m) while continuing to play volleyball and basketball.

When I got the chance to further my study in another varsity (when I was in my late 20s), I was introduced to another sport, quite foreign to the country. Rowing. It was by chance actually, as I was discovered by a national coach at the varsity. With my height and build, I was drafted into the varsity team and upon winning the national title in 1999, was included in the national team in 2000. Lead out to a major regional game in 2001, I was at my leanest (71kg, 6.9% body fat, a VO2Max in excess of 65ml/kg/min)

After that, concentrated on the remainder of my studies and upon graduation, started working. Apparently, lots of hotel functions, local and overseas travel and most importantly, NOT maintaining a healthy lifestyle will take its toll on your body. Over the last 5 years, I have gained almost 25kg. Unfortunately for me, my tall frame hides those extra kilos quite well. At the end of 2006, I weight in at 95kg.

Something needs to be done...

Time flies....

Ugh! Time flies...

Which is which? Time flies when you're having fun OR is it time flies when you haven't got anything done? Hahaha... Started work today, with intentions of doing at least some of the 'important' things today (please refer earlier posting), but in the end got sidetracked and ended up having more things to do than yesterday...

Looks like I would need to come in to the office tomorrow then... Little wonder my girlfriend thinks there are some beautiful girl hiding under my desk, which would explain (to her, at least) my constant attachment to the office. Hmm, if only it was true :)

Til tomorrow then...

2007

Another year has passed... sigh!

It has been a long time since I was updated this blog. Heck, I kinda stumbled into the site while playing around with the password. It seems the password was workable after all... hehehe

What had happen in the past year? Many things apparently (as I dont really live under a big rock or whatever). Let see, may we have a recap of sorts, shall we? In January, normal stuff. Work and have a bit of fun here and there. February? More normal stuff... hmm, seems like its repeating itself :(

Got promoted (but its not as promising as it seems, no increase in perks or salary whatever, just more work) in the first half of the year, got fatter along the way, steadily gaining kilos over the months and the bike has been collecting dust at home. What have the world coming to?

In the meantime, got to deal with my brother's old flame oh-I-cant-believe-he-left-me problem, and some other tricky relationship matters. Luckily all is plain sailing at work (most of it anyway, cept for some purchasing matters) and I have few good men and women to support me along the way.

Some of my earlier plans need to be reworked (apparently God has other ideas) and as a consequence, datelines have to be met earlier than expected, but its all in a days work... So need to plan better and stick to it a bit more steadfastly.

Need to work on these things pronto... in no order of importance (all are IMPORTANT!)

1. Last year's Finance thingy... some 'pelarasan' needed to be made for cash advances, purchasing
   
2. Some Admin planning work for 2007, especially the evaluation system, SKT and staffing
   
3. Restore some kind of order to my filing system, especially after the 'banjir' a couple of weeks ago...
4. On a personal note, more financial management (save more, spend less)
5. Another (very important) personal note, to lose 9.5 kilos by August 2007. No compromise!
   

Hmm.. hope can get all those done by next week especially #1,2 and 3...