5 Easy Steps to Getting Fit

For the longest time in the past decade I put off exercising on a regular basis because I was constantly travelling and with so much walking in my trips and picky eating there were hardly any need to work out whenever I'm back home.

The trend with my body weight increased and decreased according to how often I travel. On days or even weeks that I was back home, I became comfortable and my weight digits soared.


Chubby like a hammie. Meet Godiva. My insufferably cute and utterly spoiled hamster.

But the recent few years, with diminishing trips and more settled lifestyle, it was hard to ignore the need to bulk up my stamina. I was finding it difficult to climb a flight of stairs when I used to be able to hike the Great Wall of China.

My recent trip to Japan has shown me just how unfit I was in the first few days when my legs couldn't handle as much walking as I had anticipated. Though after pushing through the first few daily 20k steps, my body was adjusting beautifully. It was upon my return that I decided to keep up this form of stamina.



On top of that, I don't want to lose weight and get fit only when I travel, I want to stay fit all the time.

There was a two month-stint of daily gym earlier this year when I recovered from my foot injury that lasted for three months. Though it has proven futile as I was consuming more than I was burning with the many invites of wholesome dinners and gourmet food.




My new found indulgence. The Gelatomio on the Rock served in Pavilion's Gelatomio's Lounge.

So a little short of two months ago, I pledged to start living a healthier lifestyle. All part of embracing mid-adulthood.
My initiatives of getting fit went through a few phases:

1. Eating clean(er)
I started adopting this habit much sooner. It was a mini blender I got initially and then I started getting more creative and incorporating more fruits and vegs into my meals.


I varied my diet with varied seasonal fruits, imported or local, to keep me interested in this clean eating trend.




For a long period of time I wake up every morning blending my own fruit smoothie that consisted of berries, bananas, collagen powder and some L-carnitine to get me going for the morning.

There was more freshly made ingredients in my diet. And I replaced milk to skim milk and regular mayonnaise with free fat light mayo that has 10 cal per tablespoon instead of the usual 90 cal per tbsp.



Adopting a healthier eating habit didn't immediately change my life completely, I was still eating out and survived on mamak and hawker food ocassionally. But as I slowly incorporated these habit into my life, whenever I feel that I need to keep it lean for a few days and stay clean, it wasn't a major step for me.

It was an easy switch for me.

2. Up your Beauty Routine
Staying vain has a few advantages. One major advantage is you become more aware of your outlooks and will work harder in keeping it that way. Eating clean and regular work-out with do wonders to your skin, add in constant moisturising and massaging and you will be rewarded handsomely, thus keeping you motivated.



You can always set a few mini goals like losing a pound, eating clean for 3 straight days or achieve 10,000 steps a day; then reward yourself with a spa, or massage, or a mini spree to a new piece of outfit at the mall once you've achieve this mini goal. The result is a gradual boost in your confidence over time.



3. 30-day Squat Challenge
I started this thing called the 30-day squat challenge about a month and half ago after seeing a girlfriend of mine doing 200 squats every day and posting about her progress on snapchat. It got me going and the first day after I did my 50 squats, I wasn't able to walk for two days!

But after recovering, I was able to do squats without feeling sore the day after until a month later.
Two days after picking up my squat challenge, I also started the Crunch Challenge; much similar to the Squat Challenge. The best part, you don't even need a gym for this; heck you don't even need to be dressed.


Today I can do 250 squats and 250 crunches everyday, in a set of 20 alternatively.
(My current aim is to do this without more than 30 seconds rest in between)

4. Pick Up A Challenging and Fun Hobby
This was more a motivation than anything else. Living in a tropical country, I always love the idea of snowboarding through powdery snow in a winter country. I started this sport a few years ago but until today, it's nothing more than a sport I  do whenever the opportunity arises.

This is a sport that requires lots of stamina, skill and core strength. None of which I have. And skill can't be trained without the stamina to go with; it's such a waste that every time I visit a ski resort I could all but managed one or two days of fun on the slope before giving in to exhaustion and soreness.



Hence I decided this year I'd make a change. I bought myself a set of snowboard equipment, and started doing squats and crunches to strengthen my core and increase my endurance and made plan with a gf to travel to Hokkaido in December for a ski trip. Nothing but 5 full days of snow bliss. And I intend to do this yearly, if not more often.

5. Stop Being Lazy
I'm a pretty lazy person myself. Among my friends, I'm perhaps the laziest around. If I wasn't lazy, I wouldn't keep off working out in the first place.Ha. But I do force myself to do things to get me out of my comfort lazy zone.

Laziness is a habit. It's all about will power to break one and I'm not one with a strong will. So every so often I'd like to break this habit and do things utterly insane, like waking up 5:30am to go for a morning walk with my morning jog friends. They jog, I walk.



There are many beautiful parks in KL as I have surprisingly discovered. With my Dr. Beats and some good music, it's easy to get lost with nature in a quiet morning. No one to watch as I dance around the park in my own solitude.

It's a triple win. You have to sleep early, you get to wake up early, and you get to clock your daily 10,000 steps.

For now, it's a little less than a month to my snow trip, I'm going to switch my clean eating into full gear.