Update 07

Finally, it comes to an end. At least, an end of writing this blog for assignment purpose.

To conclude the past few weeks, I have succeed in maintaining my weight and increasing the amount of exercise per week. The goal of sleeping early has failed!!!

I think that having self efficacy is very important to attain the goal. I believe I have control over my weight and I can have more exercise. I do not believe that I can change my sleeping pattern hence causing the failure.

There are other ways to increase the change of success in changing behaviour such as breaking the goal into simpler task, apply the operant conditioning theory, and having social support.

This is the final post for assignment purpose. Hopefully I will continue to write this blog with maybe different goals and in a much informal ways.

(Out of the topic)
So, last week, I did go to donate blood. I can finally crossed it out from my bucket list! I thought it will be very painful but it isn't. I will definitely go for more blood donations. I recommend you all to give it a try as well if you fulfilled the criteria.

My BLOOD!!!

Me with the book of blood donation

Update 06

Hello!
Yesterday, I went to gym after class. A bad idea because there were a lot of people in there during that hour. The exercise equipments that I frequently used were unavailable. Moreover, out of four exercise bikes only one is usable! There is only one bike left so me and my friend used it alternatively. I was on the bike for 15 minutes only as I felt extremely uncomfortable for leaving my friend to use the spoiled exercise bike (We don't want to waste time and do nothing).

While waiting for the cross trainer and treadmill, we went to try weight lifting equipments. It has been something I have always wanted to try but I have no gut to do it. However, my friend pushed me to try it and so I did. A new experience for me and I would like to try it again!

In the end, my friend managed to get on the cross trainer and I changed my target from treadmill to stair climber machine.
I did another round of exercise for 15 minutes.

By the way, tomorrow I will go for blood donation event held in my university. This is also one of the things on my bucket list.

This are the check-list to determine whether you are eligible as blood donor or not:

From MalaysiaBloodDonor.com (2010),

1. Age between 18-60
2. 45 KG and above 45 KG
3. Minimum 12.5 gm% of haemoglobin
4. Last blood donation is at least 90 days earlier
5. Have had adequate sleep and eat before the donation
6. NOT under medication
7. NOT pregnant
8. NOT during menstrual period

For more information, please click here.

I have fulfilled most of the criteria above, but I can't be sure about the 5th criterion. In order to cross out BLOOD DONATION from my bucket list, I will try my best to sleep earlier tonight! I pray hard that everything will go well!

Want to know why I want to donate blood? Ask me personally. =)

Update 05

Another week has passed and the habit of 'sleep early' has been loyal to me. Basically, I am on the edge of giving up to change this habit.

However, I still keep up with the other two goals.

Last week Tuesday, we have went for badminton session. This time, it is not as tiring as last two week. The amount of muscle pain I experienced is lesser as well. I have no idea whether it is due to the increase of the fitness level or the not-so-intense workout.

On last Friday, me and another two friends went to gym. I have achieved a few goals. I don't have any specific plan before I go but I tell myself to push harder for each workout. Hence, I went on to try the cross trainer. Last time I used the cross trainer, I couldn't control my own pace, so I quit it after 15 minutes and never try it again. I wanted to challenge myself so I went on to the equipment. I managed to reach 2.95 KM within 33 minutes. My heart beat was once rise until 166 but I am able to slow it down when I run on my own pace.

After the cross trainer, I continue my exercise with treadmill. I run at 1.0% gradient, 7.3 km/h in speed for 30 minutes. The total distance was 3.35 KM and the number of calories burn was 222 kcal. I used to run at 0% gradient, 6.5 km/h. Most of the time I can only do fast walk and run continuously for one or two minutes in intervals. This time around, I managed to run continuously for six minutes and seven minutes before I decrease the speed for fast walk.

By the way, I have done some research on the cross trainer(because I don't know the name of the equipment).It is showed that cross trainer work effectively on both upper and lower body (Masterson, 2010). Click here to view it.

Here is another link to show you the benefits of using cross trainer.

Reference

Masterson, K. (2010). Cross trainer benefits: Recent study reveals new benefits. Retrieved from http://www.weightloss.com.au/articles/exercise/top-ten-reasons-cross-trainers.html

Update 04

Once again, I failed the plan to sleep early. This time, still the same reason that stole my quality sleep time. Was it because of stress? My period was late for two weeks, my forehead is full of acnes, I have constipation, then the thought about the unfinished assignments keep wandering on my mind before I went to sleep. I am so deprived of sleep that I yawn a lot in school. Luckily I still managed to concentrate in class.

Enough of complaint, now move on to something happy! Me and my friend, Xiao Hou went to play badminton twice for the week. On Tuesday, we play continuously for 30 minutes before we take a rest. This is an improvement as we have played a little longer time and less rest. I felt extremely satisfied when the face cloth was all wet because of the sweats =).

On Thursday, there is another achievement because we actually played for about one hour and thirty minutes before we rest. One thing different is that this time we played with another two person. This is the first time I play mixed doubles for badminton and also the first time play with rules! A very tiring experience yet a great one as well.

I have gained weight!! I have not eaten much but I gained weight!! How can it be?! Alright, maybe I shouldn't weight myself after a big meal!(Shut up,this is not me trying to rationalize the reason I gained weight!)

reddish faces after the games

Great games!

Update 03

Let's start this post with a good news!!

My weight drop to 46.2KG. I have been consciously decrease the amount of rice for every meal at home. I balanced it with CONSCIOUSLY eating more vegetables and less meat. This is tough for me somehow, because if you know me, you would know that I love to eat meat otherwise known as carnivore. Other than that, I have also made myself drink more water per day.

Once again, I failed to sleep early. For the last two days, I slept at 6 A.M. and 4 A.M. respectively. I have a not-so-good reason for this failure which is the busy school life. Assignment due date is coming, so I tried to finish my part as quickly as possible so that other group members can proceed with their work. Hereby, I pray hard that I can resume and stick to the goal of sleeping early by the end of this week.

The past whole week has been a hectic one, I failed to go play badminton but managed to go to the gym. I want to say thank you to my friend that went to gym with me. This is because I might have just go home if we didn't promise to go gym together on that date. I went there with one specific goal which is to reach 5 km within one hour on exercise bike. I ended up spent only 41 minutes in the gym because A) I reach my target goal B) I have run out of energy. One thing I noticed is that I feel tired more easily on that day by comparing to my past experience in gym. It might be because I have only ate one bread the whole time before I went to gym.
Next time, I will try to have a proper meal at least two hours before.

I think this is my first time reaching 200 kcal before one hour

Update 02

Another week has passed, I'm still not 100% recover from flu. As explained by Beaton (2003) in his research that stress can impair the functioning of immune system. Maybe this is the reason I take such a long time to fully recover.

As I wrote in the previous post, I did went to exercise on last Thursday (9th February 2012). A few friends and I have a two-hour badminton session on that day. We laugh a lot during the session and it is actually a great way to escape from all the academic stress. I have a quiz on the next day but because of the exercise and the fun time spent with my fellow friends, I am not that tensed up about an exam as I used to be. I love exercise! I love my friends! =)

Too bad that I reached one goal and failed another goal. I failed to sleep before 12 A.M.!!! No no no, it's not my fault. I have to burn midnight oil to work on assignments, you know! (Teehee, I know this is a bad excuse, but it is the truth though.) Alright alright, I will try my best to improve my time management skills.

On the other hand, I managed to maintain my weight! A round of applause for myself. =)

Now it's time for some pictures from the badminton session...

Having fun :]

I love my friend

I love my friends

Show you some of my moves =)

Cough cough cough...

Group picture

Reference

Beaton, D. B. (2003). Effects of stress and psychological disorders on the immune system. Retrieved from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/beaton.html

Update 01

In previous post, I wrote that I want to sleep earlier, exercise more, and maintain my weight in between 46KG to 47 KG.

Over the past few months, I did try to change my sleeping pattern, but I failed. However, this time, I managed to change it. All thanks to the flu. I do not have enough stamina to stay awake until 4 in the morning so I usually went to sleep at 12 A.M..

Last night, my second brother was challenging me to weight myself. He always say that I must be over 50 KG. I was a bit irritated so I went on the weighing machine. The machine showed 46.5 KG. It has increased in one week. I am concerned about this but I also proved to my brother that I am below 50KG!! I will need to control the amount of food I consume though. If not, it will exceed 47 KG easily.

I have been slowly recover from the flu. So hopefully, I will be able to start exercise by next week. =)