Rabbit Year Healthy Food & Lifestyle Project: Month 1

One month ago, I decided to take some SERIOUS actions about my health, namely changing my food habits (more familiarly known as "dieting") together with committing to regular exercise.

Why?

It is quite normal for people to go on a diet for the sole purpose of losing weight, but my priority was actually to improve my health. Towards the end of my otherwise perfect holiday in Europe during January 2011, I was hospitalized for a kidney infection - which I believe was worsened due to a weakened immune system caused by lack of proper nutrients, bad eating habits (wavering between not eating at all vs. binging crazily on whatever I fancied), dehydration, work overload, lack of sleep and too much stress during the 4th quarter of 2011. I started my holiday feeling weak, exhausted, bloated. I finished my holiday feeling weak, exhausted, bloated (and worse off because I had to say goodbye to The Consultant, instead of being able to look forward to seeing him).

The second thing which kickstarted my derriere into motion - which will sound petty and silly, but it is completely true - is a health checkup that I had at my company on 23 January 2011. It wasn't a proper checkup in the sense that they did blood tests or anything. What happened was I had to stand on a machine, grab two handles and stand still for 2 minutes while the machine determined the inner workings of the temple known as my body, and subsequently prints out a sheet stating your fat content, blood sugar, weight and other such details:

The official FatAss Report, issued October 2010.

This was not a new experience. I had previously done this back in October. The nurse interpreted my results and informed me that I was slightly overweight and more importantly, the ratio of fat to muscle was alarmingly disproportionate. Despite my marathon training, I apparently had too little muscle for my body.

Back in October, I listened but I didn't make any changes to my life. Instead, my grip on life habits spiralled out of control with the chaos that consists of End-Of-Year-Assault (end of financial year for the company, busiest time of the year workwise, endless Christmas parties). Naturally, I was merely surprised that my general health had not worsened when the results came out exactly the same in January.

The difference between the October and the January checkup is that in January, the company decided to turn it into a competition. Each person's results were then tallied according to their supposedly expected weight, height, fat vs. muscle composition ... and I not only lost to everyone else (within legal), I was tied for losing spot with the official office Chubby Chick. She was delighted. I was HORRIFIED.

The two losers of the health checkup competition showing why they lost.

Instead of crying, I immediately decided to bombshell my life, health and body into gear by (i) changing my eating habits, and (ii) committing to regular exercise, including increasing the strength of whatever little muscle I actually had in my body.

How?

1. I started a food diary. I figured this would help me to keep track of what I was eating (duh) and also make me more self-conscious about my food choices, thus leading to better eating habits. In my table, I also included columns for daily cigarette and alcohol intake, as well as exercise.
2. I devised a meal plan for myself, based on the "rainbow principle" and "low-GI diet" (low glycaemic index). The rainbow principle is simply this: eat as much variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy in appropriate portions to attain a rainbow; and the low GI diet consists of trying to focus on foods which have a low glycaemic index. The theory is that low glycaemic foods take longer for the body to break down, which reduces cravings for snacking (presumably, on crap that the body doesn't need). As for why I chose this method, I simply used what knowledge I had accumulated over the years (starting with biology class in high school, a favourite subject) to determine which foods I should eat to have a balanced diet. The meal plan was also based on key factors on food selection such as (i) items which I would have enjoyed normally, even if I hadn't decided to go on a diet; (ii) items which are actually available in Thailand; and (iii) items which required little preparation other than chopping, because my kitchen only has a microwave and fridge/freezer. I also allowed myself to have the weekends as "days off" from the meal plan, whereby I could eat whatever I wanted. After all, I'm still working on discovering all of Tatler's listed "best restaurants" of Bangkok together with exploring the zillions of new hip joints that seemingly pop up on a weekly basis!
3. Stemming from item (2), it was clear that I had to start purchasing groceries and preparing my own lunch for weekdays. At my office - in the middle of practically nowhere - the meals available consist of Thai food and fast foods at Tesco Lotus. Thai food, while delicious, often consists of stirfry, white rice or rice noodles, curries and deep fried goodies, all easily leading to increased fat content in the body if one is not careful. It's amazing how many skinny Thai people I know who have cholesterol levels hitting the roof. Fast foods don't even deserve a detailed explanation of their health disadvantages.
4. I promised to regularly exercise for at least half an hour, 3 times a week, NO EXCUSES. Part of this promise to myself included being able to do a set of real push-ups (i.e. not on my knees) and pull-ups!

So this is my summary, one month later ....

• Changes to my body: I stuck to the meal plan, exercised 3 times per week AND I lost 3 kilos. The first 2 kilos were surprisingly lost during the first week! I felt less bloated generally and my usually extremely-unbearable premenstrual cramps seemed to be barely noticeable when they occurred during Week 3.

At the beginning of Week 2. Encouragement!

•  Changes to my bank account: On average, I spent about 2,000THB per week at Tops Supermarket in order to prepare my healthy meals. It sounds extravagant when you consider that lunch at my office canteen generally does not exceed 50THB. You do the maths. However, I also learned that forcing myself to buy groceries per week meant I actually felt mildly guilty when I would meet friends for dinner during weeknights, and tended to eat less (thus reducing my bill).

One month of groceries made both my body weight and cash on hand decrease.

• Changes to my eating habits: I ate A LOT of salads, in different varieties. After the first week, I was starting to feel a bit worried that I would be unable to keep going with the meal plan because my palate was feeling uninxpired. Luckily my high school BFF Nicola (formerly an extremely fussy meat-obsessed eater who converted to be a strict pescatarian a few years ago) intervened with some salad tips to make salads a bit more exciting. Her key tip was to chop everything (including lettuce) into 1cm cubes or smaller, and aim to have at least 5 different flavours and textures in each time. Salads definitely became tastier and less boring!

Salad: Coucous, Pumpkin Seeds, Fresh Cherry Tomatoes, Rocket, Corn & Tuna. Dessert: Fresh Pineapple, Fresh Blueberries & Dried Apricots.

I stopped having cravings for snacks very quickly. I attribute this to the fact that I kept strictly to the routine of breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. This sounds so obvious that I feel quite silly for not trying this before.

Pre-emptively curbing any cravings in the office with a Granny Smith apple.

• Changes to my strength: Still working on that one! To be updated accordingly. I very quickly learned at BodyPump class during Week 3 that I have pretty much no upper body strength and could barely even do one push-up on my knees! How embarrassing ... especially when the 50-year old granny beside me was having no problems doing real push-ups. I've now managed to do 3 reps of 10 knee push-ups so hopefully this will keep improving.

That's all for now. I want to keep going with this and see how the results of my next checkup (sometime in April) will be. The first week was tough but I am totally into the routine now, so let's see how long I can keep this up for! ENCOURAGEMENT!