When I first embarked on my portion control diet, I was vigilant about my weekly weigh ins. Every week on the same day, I would get on the digital scale at the gym before eating or drinking anything at the start of the day.

digital bathroom scale

I lost about 9kg over the vigilant weeks.

Then I took it easy. Stopped the weigh ins and was more liberal with my diet, thinking the added exercise from dance classes and runs will make up for it.

Boy was I wrong.

After about a month or two, I got on the scale. To my horror, I had gained 3kg of the hard lost weight.

By not weighing myself weekly, I failed to notice the weight creeping back. Got complacent. Undid the good from the disciplined weeks.

I should have gotten a bathroom scale and weighed myself weekly, to keep track of my weight all the time, so I wouldn’t have ended up gaining so much.

Wish me luck :p

I am on a hill top having a picnic breakfast with my family.

Hill climbing popular family activity. The winding path from the base of the hill is wide and paved. Parents bring preschool kids up the path for some exercise.

The walk up the hill early in the morning was lovely. The sun’s rays filtered through the trees, bouncing off the fine mist in a spray of golden droplets.

The first time we climbed the hill, it was challenging. The summit was perpetually out of reach. My sons keep going.. Are we there yet?

It gets easier with practice. We sweat buckets climbing up, burn calories and tone our legs.

Getting to the summit gives us a sense of satisfaction. We made it !

The air at the top of the hill is cool and fresh. Gentle breeze. Beautiful scenery. Being close to nature.

Bliss.

Had my first bollywood dance class and learnt how to really shake my booty.

bollywood dancing

It was fun actually. The large part of the session was in learning the hand, shoulder and arm movements,which were confusing at first but fun and elegant once we caught on.

This is also where we learn to really shake our booties, jutting out our hips to the max.

Bollywood dancing is like Hollywood golden age musicals where every now and then, the cast break into dance and song. Except in our class it us just the dance, kicks, booty shaking and arm acrobatics to catchy music.

We had lots of laughs along the way.

Good work out for toning the arms, belly and legs without being too strenuous. Worked out a light sweat.

A great form of low impact toning exercise.

For girls and guys too.

This one’s hilarious!

Here’s a bollywood dance work out you shake your stuff too. Have fun!

Want to get started on belly dancing? Check out these Belly dancing techniques

Seriously need to sweat it out. To go for the burn.

Dance is a fun way to do it.

My Bellydance friends recommend zumba to shed those kilos. I did sign up for classes but because of my crazy work schedule, I only made it to 2 classes in the entire course.

It was fun! One can get a high from the catchy music. The moves aren’t too hard to catch and the instructor really made us sweat it out and laugh a lot.

Dance in any form is still dance. Belly dance in comparison focus more on the core muscles. A choreographed dance doesn’t burn anywhere near a Zumba session but focusing on the techniques, the shimmies and the more advanced hip movements really target muscles you may not even know exist. 5 minutes practicing techniques can leave you dripping with sweat.

It is a very sensual dance though and excellent for loosening stiff joints.

Here’s bellydancer Sadie in action.

Enjoy!

Want to lose weight the fun way?

Belly dance!

Just look at the amazing shape Shakira is in. Belly dancing enhances a woman’s curves.

My belly dancing instructor lost 8 kg in 8 months when she learnt belly dancing.

Some of the moves really shape the waist.

Some girls noticed their waists curving in more as they practiced certain hip movements.

• Lift the right hip
• thrust outwards to the right
• lower the hip
• bring it back in to standing position
• Lift the left hip
• Thrust outwards to the left
• lower the hip
• bring back to standing position.

Here’s another video of Shakira belly dancing.

Here are the basic belly dance techniques

I had a minor operation, day surgery actually, on 16 March. It has been 2 weeks already. The post surgery letter of advice says no vigorous exercise for 3 months. My surgeon said once I feel well enough and when the wound is healed, I can run again, but he advised I start by walking.

Well I’ve been walking to and from work, walking around the office and at home and everywhere, so I figure it’s time to start running. That’s the only thing that helped me shed more than 10kg before so I know that works for me. Running and eating sensibly, that is.

I’ve been running 3 days in a row. 20 min on Tuesday, 30 min on Wednesday – after which I felt some pain where I had my op, so I ran 20 min on Thursday. At bedtime, I felt the pain again, which though mild was disturbing.

Ok, besides changing my shoes.. the cushioning could have been worn out within the shoe.. Time to get new ones.

I intend to exercise everyday. Perhaps, instead of running, I’ll dance — belly dancing.

My dance teacher lost 10kg in 8 months belly dancing. It might work for me too.

Hill climbing is a favourite family activity – for my folks at least. Normally, we use the road – the gravel paved slope – all the way to the summit.

Today, my kids ran up the stairs. They wanted something new. More adventurous.

The steps are of varying steepness. Most about knee high. The kids scaled the steps much more easily than I’d expected. We got to the summit faster than usual.

Had our picnic, relaxing on the grass as usual. Shook a huge black ant off my shoe. Watch out for those ants.

I walked down the slope hand in hand with my man, when our kids were busy yakking and playing along the way.. until they got bored and charged between us.

That’s a fun calorie-burning way to spend an evening.

Once upon a time, most Singaporeans lived in kampongs. Kids were rarely fat as play was synonymous with physical activity.

Soccer, playing catch and running around the kampong visiting friends in the area was the norm.

Everyone knew everyone else in the kampong. Neighbours were neighbourly.

Now, most Singaporeans live in HDB flats. Doors are closed most of the time and lifts that bring you right to your floor reduces the need for exercise.

Kids spend most of their time sitting in front of the computer – their main source of entertainment.

This sedentary lifestyle leads to an increase in obesity.

That need not be the norm. You can treat the building as a vertical kampong. Instead or running to and fro between houses, use the stairs.

On rainy days or when I wake up too late to run, I climb up and down the stairs continually for an hour.

I bring my kids with me at times, admiring how our neighbours above and below us decorate their homes with plants. We treat our climbs as tours around the neighbourhood, the greenery being potted plants of all sorts.

Some grow ferns, others orchids, some even grow vegetables ourside their flats which they then harvest for their meals.

With a little imagination, stair climbing can be fun.

Working out alone can get boring. Why not rope in your family. All can get in shape together.

Where I live, there aren’t any mountains to climb. Our tallest hill, Bukit Timah hill is the highest peak available to scale.

It’s more a tourist attraction with a gravelled road that spirals up the hill, the top of which has a wooden shelter and a nice plain of grass where families have their picnics, or gatherings.

A place where one can commune with nature.

There are many ways to burn those calories. Hiking up a hill is one of them. Stopping to watch the squirrels, laughing at the antics of the monkeys, observing majestic trees, shy butterflies and interesting flowers makes the journey fun. Before you know it, you’ve reached the top. How many calories did you burn without realizing it?

More fun than the treadmill IMHO.

The path isn’t lighted up so do your hiking up and down the hill during the day. It is, after all, a tropical rainforest, with all its wildlife. Not somewhere you’d want to spend the night. Bring along a bottle of water and some light snacks and a mat and you can enjoy a picnic when you reach the peak.

Then make your way down the path.

You could go through the sandy trails and climb the steeper paths if you are more adventurous. As I always go with my kids we take the familiar paved route.

The way I eat, if I don’t run, I’d be morbidly obese.

Luckily the gym is just 1 floor below where I sit so I lugged my gym gear to work, knocking down a few people, squashing a few others in the mad squeeze in the mrt, getting to work with my gear intact and all ready to hit the gym.

Some snacks and cookies and chocolates later, I was all ready for my lunch time work out.

ooops. this is. diet and fitness blog right? umm… anyway..

The gym was almost empty, as usual. I got my favourite treadmill… the one that doesn’t shut down after 30 minutes, and ran.

Oh yeah. supposed to warm up before a run. will do that one day. when I figure out how to warm up, that is…

Set the incline at 2.0 speed 8.3 and tried to cover as much distance as possible within 50 minutes.

Barely made 7km but hey, that’s the most I’ve managed to squeeze in during lunch.

All stinky and sweaty I headed for the shower. Then I realized I had forgotten my towel again. So I stole lots of toilet paper from the ladies. Those were outside the cubi. meant for drying hands in place of regular paper towels.

Had my shower. Grabbed a sandwich and 2 packets of chocolate and 20 bucks worth of fruit 3 packs of deep fried snacks and had my lunch at my cubi.

Gorged myself and wondered why in spite of my runs I can’t lose much weight.

ok, i know. doc said i needed surgery in order to lose weight. he offered to stitch my mouth shut. Should I?

Nah. I love food too much.