Wow wow. Non-trip related post!

The truth is there are other things going on in my life (even at work), just that I haven’t exactly found time to write about it, not sure why.

So coming back from that Melbourne trip where I turned 30 - resolved to be a better version of myself. Nothing from that trip that particularly inspired me to do so, just the fact that I have turned 30 and I take it as a good time to start fixing body before it gets too late.

So I restarted an exercise regime for the n-th time and amped up my skincare routine. Duly head to the gym everyday including weekdays and had to drag myself there on more than a couple of occasions because inertia is so great. There’s not many equipment in my gym and I haven’t learnt enough about weights so I just parked myself on the treadmill, and complemented with a routine which supposedly worked wonders - the one punch man workout which included 10km run, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups and 100 squats every single day. This is the so-called Level 10 which I am no where near capable of achieving at the beginning so I kinda started with a Level 2 lol and tried to level up bit by bit. Some time after my proficiency at the other three workouts overtook the running part so I just leveled up the rest at a faster pace. And some time in July I added a random 30 day flat belly workout I found online too for good measure.

Then 2 weeks in my knees gave way =.= still kind of obese at this point so I suppose my knees can’t cope with the level of exercise even if it’s “just” 2-3km daily. Felt pain similar to that after my SCSM run last year (it took me like 2 weeks before I could even walk properly). This time round it took me about 10 days, after which as a precautionary measure I included a mandatory rest day in between run days + knee guard when running. That did the trick or maybe it’s just coz I got lighter so the impact on my knees is lesser, because I never had problems with the knees again.

Skincare routine, meanwhile, just meant going through the moisturizer + cream regime everyday. The prescribed dosage was supposed to be twice a day, just that ever since the initial phase back in 2014 when I got better I have been doing less and less, maybe about twice a week oops. So there are quite a few stubborn patches particularly on my legs which refused to go away and seem to grow in size over time.

I have less expectations on this (or rather I didn’t know what to expect) but I was pleasantly surprised to see dramatic improvements about two weeks in. Improvements in a sense that the patches smoothen out even though the discoloration is still there, those didn’t quite go away even for the patches that were under control for a few years already except those at my back. My nurses were a bit surprised too as I report for my weekly phototherapy sessions and by September when I went for my half-yearly check up, doc was able to further cut down my oral pills dosage and phototherapy frequency woohoo.

So right now, it’s just about maintenance. The recently smoothened patches didn’t flare up when I experimented with a week without cream/moisturizer during the week I went back home in August, so that’s a good thing coz it is under control now. When I sweep at home there’s noticeably a lot less or minimal skin peelings, same as when I changed bedsheets. Also noticed how my hairdressers stopped talking about me needing scalp treatment for a few months now, not sure if it’s because it’s doing fine but I ran out of coal tar shampoo for about a month (forgot to restock and pharmacist was always closed by the time I am there) and it flared up noticeably. Never mind we learn as we go.

But it’s an amazing feeling. Spirits are very much lifted, thankfully because I will probably have a breakdown at some point with RAG stressing me out in the second half of the year if this didn’t help to counterbalance it. And confidence to take off my shirt in front of people who know me - it was one of the things I feared for many years because I didn’t want people who know me to remember me that way, no matter how close we may be (in fact the closer the worse - I remembered not wanting my parents to ever know what I went through earlier when my skin was at its worst).

Contributing to the lifting of spirits is the exercise regime which bore results. About 8kg lost two months in, by the time I went home in August. That was kind of a checkpoint of sorts and I kind of wanted to go “tada!” to my close ones but too bad nobody noticed lolol. Or KH and Stel did at least because I guess they are generally more sensitive to that heh. My sister did kind of mentioned doubtfully in passing, my mum didn’t notice a single thing but that’s probably coz she had cataracts maybe? (she had since underwent surgery thank you for asking)

Weight loss kind of slowed down after coming back from home and fluctuated for a bit, to a point that I wondered if it’s time to add change of diet to my regime but I resisted it for now. I have been eating less, tried to avoid carbs and lessen sugars/fried when I can (which is not difficult if you had seen the kind of amounts I have been consuming in the past), but have been unwilling to go for a complete revamp of diet because I will likely lose all pleasure in life as a result of that. I thought it didn’t have to be that extreme honestly. So persisted with my exercise regime with the faith that it will start showing results again.

While weight loss was the primary goal for the exercise routine but building up stamina for this year’s SCSM was part of it so I finally hit the milestone two days ago. 10km run without stopping to rest though it was on a treadmill la, and fueled by a healthy dose of anger built up that day at work lol. Haven’t tested it out on roads yet which is less forgiving, and with less than a month to go. 

Meanwhile abandoned the flat belly workout and the one punch man routine because they stopped helping (much) and switched to the fat burning mode of the cycling thingy in gym because I was hoping that it will help to slim down legs (legs are still fatty while at least I lost quite a bit of belly by this time). That kinda worked because weight started going down again. Extremely satisfied to be able to fit into some of the clothes that didn't fit when I put on weight, and having to buckle up tightly for almost all shorts/pants/jeans I possess coz they are now kinda loose oh yeah.

So the next checkpoint is SCSM. Then CNY/San’s wedding! Oh yea the checkpoint before SCSM was actually San’s ROM and I liked how I look at that. So yep. The goal was to lose 14kg by San’s wedding when I started this so I am inching towards there, hoping to achieve a bit of bonus by the time February rolls around. Then from that point onwards we can maybe talk about shaping the body hahaha lofty goals. It’s really a lot easier to be motivated to carry on when I see results, not kidding because I really can’t imagine being able to run an hour straight without stopping just a few months ago.


To a better version of myself indeed.

Labels: skin, updates