It's been a year since my last post, and I weigh 7 or so more pounds since then. However, I'm absolutely happy about this! I think my body looks better than ever, and I'm looking around for a relatively skimpy bikini for the summer.

Since last year, I've taken up yoga and started running a few times a week. Maybe some of the weight gain has been from gaining muscle. Some of it has just been the natural redistribution of weight that comes with age. (As I grow older, the weight tends to move down to my butt and thighs, and away from my waist! As someone who always complained about a flat butt, I'm really happy about this.)

But I think that the main reason that I look thinner, even though I'm really not is my posture. Doing yoga has strengthened core muscles and has me standing up straighter, with shoulders back and stomach in. It's such a huge difference! Being a relatively tall girl most of my life, and being pretty conscious of my chest size and belly, I developed a habit of slouching to de-emphasize these things. But now that my posture is a lot better, people have been complimenting me on my weight loss, even though in reality, I weigh 7lbs more.

So stand up straight, walk tall and proud, and I promise you'll look 10lbs thinner and at least 10x better!

Just over 7 months ago, I was stressed from working and planning a wedding at the same time. Like many employees, my job doesn't require any physical activity. I'd take a taxi home at night, exhausted, then sleep late surfing the internet. My weight, which is always stable, was about 138-140 lbs, normal, but I didn't look as good as I would have liked, with little fat pouches building up in my belly and arms.

My husband (then-fiance) and I had just won free accommodations in Boracay and we decided that there would be no better time to take this trip. When we arrived, the resort was beautiful, but the catch was that it was about 300m from the shore, and over 2km from the best part of Boracay's white beach. So we walked. We walked 2km to have lunch, then walked back to rest. We walked all over the beach with plastic ziplock bags to keep our stuff and then walked back to our hotel to take a shower and change. Then we walked to dinner, at least 500m each way. We did this for the three days that we stayed in Boracay, and you know what? I realized that walking over 6km a day was not as tiring as I would have thought. The beach and the sand and the company helped, and the whole walking experience was really pleasant. We slept well, and I did yoga on the balcony. And I felt really good, better than I had in a long time.

When we got back to Manila, I decided to continue the walking. My apartment at the time was just over 2km from my office. And when it was not raining or scorching hot, I walked. I did this almost every day. My weight remained the same, but when I had a wedding dress fitting a few months later, the waist had to be taken in about 2 inches. I had noticeably less belly fat and I generally had more energy and felt fitter and stronger. Plus I saved a lot of cab money! i used it to buy more cute and comfortabke flats I could walk to the office in.

Later on, I lost weight from doing things like painting our new apartment, and staying up til 3am making missalettes and flower arrangements. But I kept walking, and managed to not gain any of that weight back, even now, over 4 months later.

Ok, I admit it. I hate gyms. Hate, hate hate them. Treadmills bore me to death, aerobics classes are just. too. full. of people. Smug trainers call me fat when, hello, I have a BMI of 20.5 or so. I do enjoy Yoga and Pilates, but the class schedules never quite match up with my working hours. Though I do walk to and from work every day, living in the city means that it's not so easy to fnd a safe, not too polluted place to run or bike in. So what's a city girl to do?

Enter WiiFit. This device connects wirelessly to your Nintendo Wii console. It's basically a balance board that can detect changes in your weight and center of balance. The software that it comes with has pre-programmed exercises in it that have you doing Yoga, Strength training, Aerobics and Balance games. An animated onscreen WiiFit board acts as your fitness coach, telling you what to do, making little wisecracks about your balance (or lack thereof), and demanding to know why you gained 2 pounds over the weekend.

The program encourages you to weigh yourself and to take a couple of random balance tests every day, like standng on one leg for 30 seconds, or tring to keep as still as possible while the image on the TV screen moves around to confuse you. It gives you a result, which includes a "Wii Fit age" calculated from your age, weight, BMI and balance test results for the day. The first time I tried it, my result was 34, about 7 years "older" than my actual age. Now I sometimes go as low as 20 - 7 years younger than my actual age.

After the test, you can do some of the "training" exercises. Some of my favorites are the yoga section, a step exercise, and a cute little hula hoop game, which has you twirling your hips for an invisible hula hoop for up to 10 minutes. And, cute as they all are, they are a much harder workout than they look. I do about 30 minutes worth a day (well, most days), and often find my thigh and hip muscles a bit sore in the morning. This surprises me because it really doesn't feel like exercise, and I find myself evaluating what I did the day before to make my thighs hurt, because I don't remember doing anything really strenuous. Then I remember doing the Yoga Chair Pose on the WiiFit. Ah.

Besides the more traditional exercise, there are cute little balance games, that have might have you squatting to do a ski jump, crossing a tightrope, or propelling a little bubble down a river by leaning your body in the direction you want it to go. Again, cute, fun little games, that don't look or feel like exercise until your butt hurts the next day. This makes it perfect for people like me, who hate the gym, but love computer games.

I can't say that I've really lost weight because of it, but I do notice myself becoming more conscious of my posture, and its very accurate weight graphs (up to .1 lb.) mean that I can easily monitor even the tiniest weight gain. While this might not be substitute for more serious exercise, I think it's a great starting point for people who might be intimidated by a gym (believe me, I know the feeling). And for people like me who cannot incorporate a regular exercise routine into their schedule, it's a little more physical activity than I would normally get. And for someone who'd rather be sitting on the couch playing video games, that's a big deal.
 

My name is Ducky and I'm not trying to lose weight. Yup, I never diet, and I'm happy with my body and my metabolism, which is very stable, and makes it easy for me to maintain my weight. I'm not about to screw it up with fad diets and such. 

I'm here because I would like to be a little healthier. A place where people encourage each other to eat healthy and exercise more might do me good. I'd like to see more healthy food that happens to taste good. In return I'll promote loving yourself and your body, no matter what your weight (and if treating your body well results in looking hotter too, then all the better!).