Sick birthday girl

I celebrated my birthday with the beginnings of a cough. A week later and I'm still hacking. At least it has subsided and has become less embarrassing. I'm starting to sleep better too. Good thing I was able to rest over the long weekend. But now that I'm back at the office, my coughing fits have started again; I think it's the cold air that's aggravating it. I even stopped running in the mornings because my coughing has left me weak. I do hope I regain my health soon so I can use the new shoes I gifted myself for my birthday.

Heavy feet

After several years of not working out, I started exercising again last Monday. I decided that I would jog around our neighborhood for 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of crunches and dumbell exercises in the mornings. I began my warm-up by walking for 10 minutes. This was going to be easy, I thought to myself. Then I decided that I would alternate jogging and walking every minute for 10 minutes. This was when my torture began. As I started to jog, I felt my feet become heavy. Even though I knew I was jogging, I felt I was going so slow that I thought I moved faster when I was just walking. It didn't help that my shoes are kinda old so I started feeling pain in my right foot. Then my shins started hurting. I wanted to stop but I didn't. I waited for my one minute to be up then I slowed down to a walk. That eased the pain for a bit, but then I had to do it all over again, jogging and walking and cursing until my 10 minutes was up. Then I just walked all the way back to my home for my cooldown.

At home, I laid out my mat and did some crunches. Then did some leg lifts and dumbell squats. I felt good afterwards and I would have gladly gone back to bed; but I had to go to work so I just took a shower instead.

It really perplexed me why I had such a difficult time jogging. Have I become so heavy that I can't even carry my own weight? Probably. Should I have stretched after my warm-up? I don't know. I don't recall my shins hurting when I run on the treadmill. So was I running incorrectly? Or is it really more difficult to run on the road than on the treadmill? Don't know the answers to those questions either. But I definitely need to replace my old shoes, that's for sure.

I rested yesterday then I tortured myself again this morning. I plan to exercise M-W-F to allow my body to recuperate in between workout days. I feel I could keep this schedule better than trying to exercise everyday and failing. I just hope I could control my food intake so I can lose weight faster. I'll buy some groceries over the weekend so I can prepare my own food. Until then, I'll stick to sandwiches and salads for lunch.

On the road to fabulosity!

Since I am not getting any younger, I decided to start paying attention to and doing something about my looks. Just like what happened to my weight and metabolism, age has caught up with my skin. The sun's damaging rays and other external factors contributed as well. So, armed with a Slimmer's World gift certificate, I called their Trafalgar Plaza branch to have me scheduled for a free facial treatment. On the day of my appointment, I went and got my facial and felt wonderfully refreshed. I knew that this was not enough though so when the beauty consultant asked me if I would be willing to stay for a short while for a beauty discussion, I willingly obliged.

Ellen, my beauty consultant, walked me through the beauty package that would be most appropriate for me and would address my concerns. She prescribed 12 sessions of facial, 12 Diamond Ultrapeel, 12 Nutracell and 3 Glycolic Acid Peel, all spread throughout a period of one year (for more info, click here). This got me all excited until I heard the price. Good thing that they're having a buy one treatment, get one treatment promo so I can avail of the package with 50% discount. Still, I was not prepared to make the commitment because it would not fit my budget, even if I get it on 0% interest for 6 months on my credit card. I told Ellen that I will just have to wait for my salary increase this year before I can start on my face and skin program. However, I did sign-up for electrocautery to get rid of my warts so that's a start.

I had my first electrocautery session yesterday. Initially it was supposed to be the face and neck only but it turned out I also had a lot of skin tags in other areas so I upgraded my enrollment from face and skin only to full body. The first session covered the face, neck and chest so the assistant applied topical anesthesia only on those areas. After that, she put masking tape where the topical anesthesia was applied so that my skin could absorb it better. Then she left me for 30-45 minutes so that the anesthesia could take effect; I think I was able to sleep during that time. After that, the dermatologist removed the masking tapes on me and started cauterizing my warts. Thank God for the topical anesthesia, I wasn't able to feel any pain. There were maybe two or three times when I felt it (the assistant may have missed applying anesthesia on some warts); the pain was like being pinched, but with heat. I did smell the burnt skin and it wasn't pleasant. I must have more than a hundred cauterizations so the procedure took almost an hour. When it was all done, antibiotic cream was applied on the cauterized areas and I'm supposed to do this morning and evening for the next 7 to 10 days until the scabs vanish. I'll be returning to Slimmer's after two weeks for a followup session on the same areas then I'll start electrocautery sessions on the abdomen and back. Hopefully by that time I would have my merit increase already so I can sign up for other beauty treatments :-)

Start Spark

I joined SparkPeople last year but it's only now that I'm using it. I wasn't motivated to lose weight before but now I'm more decided than ever to be fit and healthy. I guess the biggest factor which contributed to my decision is my age. I've reached 30 yrs old and they say that once you reach this age, your body starts to decline. And boy, have I began to see the signs of aging! My joints are always aching, I easily get tired and I run out of breath whenever I take the stairs. I don't want want to feel like this anymore; I want to feel light and energetic. I want to be able to do the things I want to do, and look good doing them!

So far, I've set my fitness goals, tracked my calorie intake and joined a SparkTeam. I plan to follow the exercise videos as well and I'm going to do that tonight. Later on, I would like to learn to prepare nutritious meals with the help of their SparkRecipes. I've made a commitment to myself to stick to Spark at least until I've reached my goal weight. This is a big commitment for me because I really don't have the luxury of time, especially when there are project deadlines to meet. But for my sake, I am willing and determined to visit the site everyday and track my progress to a perfectly healthy and sexy me!

Click here to watch an inspirational news story about SparkPeople.

Health is truly wealth

There were 2 winners in last night's lotto draw so they will have to divide between them the jackpot prize of 347M, the highest pot amount reached ever since PCSO started the national lottery. I bought a ticket for that draw but I didn't win. Even so, I find myself feeling very grateful because my sister has undergone a successful cataract surgery. Just an update on my post last week, it was really fortunate that her thyroid tests did not reveal any problem so she was cleared for operation by her endocrinologist and was admitted last Thursday. She had her operation last Friday and she was discharged from the hospital last Saturday. Now she still has to wear goggles to protect her eyes from dirt and prevent her from rubbing her eyes, but she can already see clearly. She walks even faster now because she can already see where she's going and she doesn't have to worry about bumping into furniture and other things. I also noticed that her posture has improved, she walks more upright and now looks directly at the person talking to her. Another good news revealed by the ophthalmologist was that her retinas are still intact and does not seem to be affected yet by her diabetes. Tomorrow she will have a follow-up checkup and by next week she probably won't need her goggles anymore.

So even if I still have to look for money to pay for the debts we incurred for the operation, seeing the smile on my sister's face makes it all worth it. Of course, a little help from winning in the lottery wouldn't have hurt. ;-)

Good Tidings

Today I am going to count my blessings just because finally, I feel that my prayers are being heard. The first quarter of the year has passed by so quickly and as I reflect back, I realize that I have so much to be thankful for already in the past three months.

1. Career. Take a look at the update I've made at this post (striked through items 1 & 2) and you'll know what I'm thankful about with regards to my career. Yes, I've been promoted, and although I don't have my own parking space, it's as good as having one already coz I can now reimburse my parking fees. After 8 years in the IT industry, I am finally at the senior level. I could have reached this level sooner but by jumping companies almost every year for several years, I missed out on my promotions. Well no regrets; I have learned from all the companies I have been to and I'm happy where I am now. It's just too bad that my promotion didn't translate to a substantial increase (last year's merit increase was even higher in terms of percentage, compared to what I got now) because upper management changed (thus budget policies also changed). But I did get an additional benefit of insurance coverage so that's still something to be thankful about. Also, our bonuses will be given out next payday so that gives me peace of mind about my upcoming condo annual payment. It's still short of what I need but I'm sure I'll be able to find ways to procure the remaining amount.

Simplify your life

This is more of a reminder for myself, but if it benefits you as well then I'm happy to have helped. Actually, I just got this from one of my mailing lists so if anyone knows where this article came from, feel free to post a comment so I can acknowledge the author properly.

Stress is one of the deadliest curses of the modern age. The most dreaded diseases that afflict man like chronic nervous tension, heart trouble, and cancer have been found to be stress-related. Stress is caused by leading a fast, complicated, and nerve-wracking lifestyle. We constantly find that there is neither enough time nor resources to do the things we want or need to do, leaving us feeling agitated, harassed, frantic, and continually on edge. To be able to cope with the growing complexity and pressures of life that confront us daily, we need to de-stress by slowing down and voluntarily simplifying our lives. Voluntary life simplification is not about being miserable, poor or deprived. It is about knowing your true values, goals, and priorities so you can focus on them, and discard all the other matters that just add tension and confusion to your existence. Don't let stress wear you down. Discover through thoughtful analysis of your values, lifestyle, and goals what is "enough" or just "perfectly right" for you. With voluntary life simplification, you can save your health and sanity, and maximize your capacity to savor and enjoy life.

Ready, Get set, Go!

As part of my weight-loss effort, I plan to exercise more regularly. This is why I decided to have my broken treadmill repaired. I have been putting it off for a while because I was afraid of the repair costs. You see, it won't power up so thought some parts may need replacing. But since my clothes are already threatening to burst every time I wear them, I decided to call the Service Department of Toby's Sports House so a repair guy can come over to my house and fix my treadmill. It turned out that I didn't have to pay a cent because he fixed it free of charge. Maybe no parts were needed to be replaced and first-time repair services are waived. Had I known this sooner, I would have called them immediately after my treadmill broke down! Anyway, what's important is that it's fixed now and I can start running to my heart's content. Add to that some weight-lifting and portion-control and I'm on my way to a slimmer body. I hope!

Blog for a cause

Got a message yesterday in my BlogCatalog shoutbox about making blog history today. In this discussion, members were called to blog about organ donations and the issues surrounding it. I thought it's a great idea using the power of the many to encourage social awareness and change. And the cause hits close to home.