FAQ: Beginner Fitness & Weight Loss
Did more activity affect your period?/Does your period interfere with your progress?
Throughout my life I have always had chronic amenorrhea. However, I found that once I began to lose weight, my period actually began to come back and regulate itself (I assume this is because my hormone levels were now starting to balance themselves).
It does suck but the few days before I can expect my period to come, I will increase the intensity of my workouts so that my shark week can consist of 3-7 days of active recovery. Low intensity cardio, upper body and core workouts will be some of my staples during this time.
As of right now, my period isn’t a huge blocker with my progress since I don’t experience one very often but I still occasionally experience pms. What I find that soothes aches and cramps is putting on a Salonpas or Icy Hot patch over areas of fatigue.
How do I stay motivated? /How do you make sure you stay consistent? /What holds you accountable?
Motivation
When I was 13, I was solely motivated by the idea that once I achieve a goal weight, I’ll be happy: I’ll find the love of my life, I’ll get into my dream school, get my dream job, etc. As I get older, I find that motivation evolves and changes constantly. At one point I was motivated by the fact that if I looked like a Victoria’s Secret model, I could win back my ex-boyfriend only to turn him down. At another point I was motivated by the fact that I wanted to be the most attractive girl my future husband has ever seen (rolling my eyes as I write this but it’s true). Now I find motivation in the fact that I want the craziest sleeper build imaginable, because at 25 nothing is cooler than being able to get up off an office chair without popping your back.
Consistency
Starting out, I had no final destination in mind. I knew I wanted to lose weight and I knew that then and there, I was physically and emotionally uncomfortable. I set a small goal of losing 10 pounds and when I achieved that, I pushed it to another 5 pounds and then another 5 — I slowly gave myself the confidence in knowing that what I was doing was:
Giving me the results I wanted,
Taking care of myself while doing it,
and that it was sustainable.
I cannot emphasize number 3 enough; creating a habit that is sustainable is what makes change so easy to achieve. Consistency and sustainability drive change. It’s easier to do one problem on your homework assignment a day rather than the whole worksheet on the night before it’s due :)
Accountability
Something that really holds me accountable was knowing and remembering the physical discomfort I felt: oily skin, tightness in my chest and the limited mobility — I felt like I wasn’t living my life to it’s fullest. There are places I want to travel to that may require physical strength and agility. There are unexpected events I may be invited to that I want to feel and look my best for. Your body is your greatest vessel and it carries you throughout everything in your lifetime: your first sports game, your first heart break, your first apartment, your first child. Since you only have one body, it’s in your best interest to care for it as best as you can.
You’ll never be able to be as young as you are right now but if you eat well and exercise, maybe you can enjoy life in your body for a little bit longer.
Where should I look to find healthy food?
While looking for places to eat out, my husband and I focus on trying to find places/food options that fit within our macronutrient goals: Approximately 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat. Ideally, we would like to find places that are either lighter or offer more protein options. Some places we tend to gravitate to are:
Smoothie shops
Wing places
Steak houses
Sandwich/Wrap places
It’s important to note that even when going to a place that has larger serving sizes (like a steak house), my husband and I will typically order an appetizer and an entree to split. We find that one entree served at a restaurant is usually sufficient enough to feed two people. We’re saving our wallets and the buttons on our jeans ;)
Do you work out with a fake ring?
Yes! I wear a plain black silicone band from Thorum. Each Thorum ring also comes with a free medical-grade silicone band and I find that even with heavy lifting/activity, the band has not torn, ripped or scuffed in any way. We absolutely love the quality and affordability. #notsponsored but I wish I was.
How do I come to terms that happiness is not correlated to just the results?
For so long I was fixated on meeting the impossible East Asian beauty standards, thinking that once I made it I would be perfect.
Something that clicked differently this time around when I embarked on my weight loss journey was finding out that my health meant more to me than just fitting into size 8 jeans. It meant that my period would come back, meaning I was healthy enough to have children. It meant finding peace on Friday nights because I can enjoy the meal in front of me and not obsessively count calories.
Finding my peace during the course of the journey really helped me enjoy the process and the results came right after. This journey was centered around improving my health and quality of life but in the process I found a way to reconnect with myself and put some ugly parts of myself to rest.
Actual serious question: How do I lose fat if I’m lazy?
Without exercise
Managing your diet is definitely going to be what helps you lose excess weight. Weight loss is generally 80% diet and 20% exercise — it’s entirely possible to lose weight without exercise! The general formula for losing weight is burning more calories than you consume. This means that as long as you eat at a responsible caloric deficit (and do not have any underlying health conditions) you can expect a healthy weight loss of around 1-2 pounds a week.
With exercise
Exercise doesn’t have to mean running to your local gym and joining the sausage fest. It can be something as simple as taking a walk around the neighborhood after work or meeting up with a friend to do some urban exploration. Even if exercise isn’t your thing, as humans, it’s in our nature to expend some energy doing something physical. I would strongly encourage anyone to do something physical for 30-60 minutes a day. Unfortunately human bodies work on a use it or lose it principle. Whatever muscles we don’t use, we lose strength in — and when we lose muscle, we reduce our metabolic rate which also means it becomes harder to eat at a deficit.
With that being said: I would heavily advise against eating at a severe deficit because this can damage your metabolism, hindering you from consistently losing weight. Severe caloric deficits can result in a yo-yo dieting effect. Please take it from me that while it is tempting to see your results sooner, you will regret the long term consequences.
What is your routine and how did you get into working out?
I work out everyday after work! Heading straight to the gym after I get out of work prevents me from feeling too lazy to go to the gym. If you are just recently beginning training, I would recommend looking at training programs by Stephanie Buttermore or Jeff Nippard. I cannot emphasize enough how high quality their training materials are: they include videos over how to do each exercise, an excel sheet to calculate the amount of weight you should be training with, a weekly workout tracker and scientific literature over what muscles their workouts target as well as troubleshooting guide and frequently asked questions.
My routine will usually look like:
Head straight to the gym after work
Stretch the muscle groups I intend on working on for the day and do some light warm ups
Follow a program/self-modified program - I’m currently training legs 4x a week and upper body/core 2x a week with Stephanie Buttermore’s Women’s Program!
End with a 1-2 mile walk with my dogs
I got into working out after years of unhealthy fad dieting and my obsession of fitting into Asian beauty standards. After damaging my metabolism and gaining over 50 pounds in college, I decided I needed to make lasting sustainable change to be able to live my life to it’s fullest! You can read more about the background of my journey here (my before and after photos are here!) and details over my experience and general advice in losing the weight here.
How do you not feel uncomfortable being at the gym when you first begin working out?
I won’t lie, when I first started working out I was incredibly uncomfortable. There were so many times where I was more worried about how I looked working out rather than the workout itself. I kept pushing through it and when I found that I started seeing results, my attention completely shifted: What can I do next to get strength in my hamstrings? How can I build a stronger core? How am I going to plump up the dump truck??
I started finding solace in even working out alone. I can put on a playlist or a podcast and focus on my program for the day and suddenly the gym doesn’t feel scary anymore, it feels more like visiting the library and sitting down to read a book.
And to be honest, I never thought it would happen but eventually I started making gym friends that became real friends — now that’s some real adulting stuff right there.
Should you wear workout clothes or regular comfortable clothes?
I started off wearing a plain T-Shirt and shorts: I didn’t have any workout clothes nor did I even feel confident enough to wear them on day 1. I just wanted to cover up parts of my body I was embarrassed of. BUT I would say that when I was working out in my baggy t-shirt and shorts, nothing felt more discouraging than putting in 110% effort into a workout and looking up into the mirror and not seeing myself wearing clothes that actually did not flatter me at all.
If I could go back, I would encourage myself to wear more fitted workout clothes that I felt cute in! My body dysmorphia has deep roots to my insecurities in adolescence and I wish that I bit the bullet and began the process of being comfortable to see my body in it’s entirety. Once I’ve learned to accept that this is what my body looks like, I can look at my body as if I was looking at a friend’s (and I mean this in the most non-creepy way possible). You would never look at a friend’s body and say, “their stomach is so flabby” or “their thighs are so thick” — we know this is hurtful. So why say/think that about yourself?
