The Barre 3 instructors always emphasize this in every class I attend, and dieters and those exercising should always heed this advice: listen to your body.

I've been making my own diet (not exactly following a particular program to a tee). I've been at it since mid-May 2011, roughly three months ago. I still eat a lot but limit my carbohydrate intake (not totally take it out, just minimize it). I make sure that I fuel my body just enough and increase my physical activity to tap into the fat reserves I've stored. ( Burn, baby, burn! ) So why am I writing this? Well, its because, though I am proud of what I've been accomplishing these last three months, I also am here to tell of the dark side of dieting: going too far. Just yesterday, I had my very first hypoglycemic episode in this entire endeavor to get healthy and fit. Why? Four words: I - went - too- far.

I ate quite a bit on Saturday and tried to compensate the next day by limiting my portions, not only of carbs, but even protein, fat and fiber. Big no-no unless you're following a specific program. What I did yesterday, Sunday, was tantamount to crash dieting. To give you a better picture here's what happened on Saturday and what I ate:

• Morning: Quick breafast at 8am (1/3 bowl of oat bran sprinkled with cinnamon powder, about 3 tbsp when uncooked) followed by Barre 3 class at 9am. Felt peckish when I got home at 11am and ate 1/2 a bowl of high fiber cereal with skim milk and 2 slices low sodium spam... this ruined my apetite for lunch.
• Afternoon: Had just 1/2 a bowl of Nilaga (1 small piece of beef, 3 bagio beans, and 1 leaf cabbage; when I met my boyfriend at 2pm, I was again feeling hungry and I joined him for lunch at McD's (Filet-o-fish with 2/3 of the small french fries and 1/3 of my small Coke Zero), But by 4pm, we passed by a lady cooking awesome smelling barbecue on the side of the road near the entrance of their gated community, so I ate 3 sticks of barbecue!!! binge eating much?
• Evening: I had a nice time just hanging out with my boy but we had late dinner because I ate so much, and I ate Ten Zaru Soba (Ten Zaru Soba is cold soba noodles with tempura on the side) and 3 huuuuuge pieces of California Maki.

So there, by Sunday morning, I felt the full weight of what I had eaten on my belly. So I resolved to eat less, not because I was punishing myself for my binge eating the day before, but because I had resolved to jump back to the healthy lifestyle. I woke late and was told that our family was spending the day in the mall.

• Morning: I ate breakfast in the car (munched on a bowl of high fiber cereal).
• Afternoon: ate a spicy tuna shake shake salad at Pepper lunch, and I didn't even finish the noodles in it, then at 2pm, I had a small green apple ice drink from Quickly

You can imagine how little food that is, right? By 4pm, I was feeling lightheadedly dizzy. My fine motor skills (which I was using at the time because i was typing away) were a wreck because my fingers were fealing weak and trembly. My knees were also feeling awkward, despite the fact that I was seated. I was having trouble focusing on the computer screen as well. And there was this urge to grab whatever food was on the dining table and munch away... I knew what these symptoms were. They were signals of hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia is the state wherein blood sugar is low. As I said in my previous blog entries, the primary source of fuel for the body is sugars, specifically glucose. The brain is one of only a few organs in the body who almost exclusively relies on glucose as its source of energy. The symptoms are the body's signals that you need an immediate source of glucose... STAT! The brain senses the drop in your blood sugar and starts a cascade of events in the body which leads you to feel the symptoms such as dizziness or lightheadedness, hunger pangs, nervousness and inability to concentrate, trembling and weakness, palpitations. In severe hypoglycemia, you faint and if the hypoglycemia is not addressed, this can lead to ketosis and coma.

In my case yesterday, I knew what the signals meant and I ate an emergency dose of noodles and a glass of sweet orange juice and stopped what I was doing, lay in bed for about 15 minutes after my meal. I had dinner with my family and lay back down in bed (propped up on pillows to avoid heartburn) and didn't move until I knew my body had absorbed enough sugar to get going again.

So, fellow belles, in our weight loss quest, please remember this: listen to your body. Please, please, please don't crash diet. Don't be desperate to lose weight quickly. Instead be in it for the long haul, live a healthy lifestyle.

As for me? Lesson leared: everything in moderation... even dieting.

I've been meaning to write this one for aaaages... but whenever I try, I can't seem to give the exercise that changed my life justice... Until I tried wearing a pair of jeans I hadn't worn in a little over a month and nearly screamed, "HOLY COW! Barre 3 did this?!"

If you've read victoriacastillo's blog, you'd know that she's the one who dragged me with her one Saturday to take a free trial Barre 3 class. I hated exercise. I despised exercise... probably because the only two concepts of exercise I was familiar with came with sweat and catching your breath (cardio) or was too refined for me to keep up with on a regular basis (tai-chi and yoga). Between cardio and Tai-Chi, I'd go with the latter. Less panting, see? Too bad I couldn't find time in my schedule since a few years back for the usual morning Tai Chi sessions in our gated community. And so, it was a little reluctantly that I went to the Barre 3 Alabang Studio with Victoria one lovely Saturday morning.

Barre 3 combines the grace of the Ballet Barre, the wisdom of yoga and the strength of pilates. I had about 3 years of kid's ballet classes in my youth so I was familiar with the Barre and the mirrors. And I had a Wii Fit at home so I knew very rudimentary yoga. Pilates was new to my vocabulary. The only thing I knew about Pilates was that it was very difficult.. which scared me a lot. However, Victoria's invitation came a the perfect time. I was at my heighest weight ever (ht 5ft 3/4inches, weight 128 lbs, high normal BMI of 24), I had just paid reservations for our late June beach trip, and a fashion designer friend had just promised me a pair of super wonderful bikinis... talk about motivation! Thus started my Barre 3 addiction.

I won't kid you. It's very difficult--not to mention painful!-- at the beginning. I had to get used to the idea of trying to balance myself either with my entire foot on the floor, on just my toes and on balls of my feet, or with my toes lifted from the floor, or on one bent leg... I kept trying to "cheat" by locking my knees instead of softening them, which later made the exercise more difficult... so I gave up that "cheat". Besides, with the wrong posture, you're targeting the wrong set of muscles. I also kept hiking my shoulders up toward my ears whenever we were either doing diagonal push-ups on the barre or using weights... again, this made the exercise more painful and I stopped doing this cheat too. Barre 3 also makes use of your own weight as resistance, so I could already feel how pudgy I was at the start of my first ever lesson. It also uses other props, aside from the ballet barre: the fit ball, the strap, weights and a yoga mat, so you won't get bored at any time. Plus, although each instructor has his or her own favorite exercises, they all seem to vary the reps, change the sequence of poses. You also get options for each exercise so that you can personalize your own work out to suit you. You can take it easy or challenge yourself with more difficult options if you feel strong and stable that day.

I went to either their ATC studio or the one at The Fort at BGC religiously twice a week for their 60-minute full-body workouts with emphasis on the core muscles. I've had 22 lessons so far and as I go on, they become somewhat easier, though still challenging. It's no longer the bi-weekly torture I thought it would be, but I now look forward to it so much that I keep checking and re-checking the schedule of classes so I can plan my day around it! My core muscles were never strong, but with Barre 3, they improved. The classes, together with increasing my physical activity at home and my diet, made me lose nearly 10 lbs, lost a serious two inches off my waist and hips. I had to write my pants a goodbye letter because... I lost TWO INCHES off my waistline! HOLY COW! Barre 3 did this?! (I included two photos here with my friends with me wearing the same pants before barre 3, and one photo of me in the exact same pants today...)

I also noticed that my posture, stamina and flexibility are a lot better, I can keep my temper in check well and that I sleep better at night after a nice hour-long Barre 3 class. But these results aren't the only things that keep me coming back to the Barre 3 studios. It's actually the invigorating mix of good music and great people in a wonderfully designed studio that kept me at it. I don't even have to know anyone in class to find someone to talk to. Everyone is up for small talk before and after the classes and very everyone's helpful and encouraging, too! I don't hesitate to strike up a conversation with the people who take the classes or any of the instructors, because you actually learn something new from them every time! And since the Barre 3 studios are all connected with a branch of The Spa, all my posessions that I bring along end up smelling of that wonderful spicy scent they use for aroma therapy. Mmmmmm! Gotta love that!

My father always said that word of mouth is still the best way of either promoting or ruining a product or service (and I believe him... he was in sales). It beats celebrity endorsements even. I'm nowhere close to being a celebrity, but as my father's daughter, I praise establishments that are worthy of it, and spread ill-news about places that suck big time. And therefore, regarding Sadie Licoln's wonderful work out called Barre 3, it's what I tell everyone who asks me how I lost weight that did the trick... that and the Belletoday community. Whenever someone at work asks me what I do to lose weight, I write the belletoday and barre3.com.ph websites on a slip of paper and tell them to check it out.

Thanks to the Barre 3 instructors I've encountered so far: Zinnia, Viel, Mel, Lalah, Dess, Marie, Isla, Faye, and especially Joie! Keep doing what you're doing! You've helped change my life, boost my confidence, and made me need new belts to keep my pants up! LOL! Thank you, too, Victoria for dragging me along that one fateful Saturday.

Thanks too, to the wonderful Belletoday Team (Gisa, Laarni, Charmaine and of course you, Victoria)! It was so lovely to meet all of you at the get-together last weekend! Wish I could meet Trina, too.

Yo, April Salonga aka chocoadik! Tara na! Work out na tayo together!

Dear pants,

We've been through a lot. I rarely go out in skirts and dresses, and we therefore shared a lot of good times together.

When we first travelled abroad, I began to enjoy the comfort your denim designs gave on long road trips. When I started dating, I had great flares to keep me company. When I was in medical school, I had a white pair of you made for my psychiatry rotation sleep time, and we had some nice and quiet nights napping in the psychiatry office. But after that, our relationship became marred with mixed signals.

Muffin top got in the way of our friendship, and I had to let go of some of you that were suffocating me. My love for you dwindled, especially during the time I had iced tea and soda addiction. Though I tried rehabilitating myself of that problem last year (with some measure of success because I lost weight that time), you kept suffocating me (particularly around the thighs) and our love never did quite recover. It felt like you didn't support my efforts in this endeavor. It seemed like I could not count on you any longer to motivate me to lose weight, despite me hanging my favorite of all of you in the bathroom where I could see you daily as a reminder. I then relapsed into my poor eating habits, and we drifted even further apart.

I bought new pairs of you--slacks and black denims--to ease my guilt of regaining the weight... They were accommodating to my needs at the time, making room for my unsightly bulges, though slacks was quite clingy around the thighs.

I'm succeeding now, though, with this new endeavor to lose weight, because I also set a new goal: I must also tone up. And now most of you are loosening up to me... no longer clingy, no longer suffocating. Except now, those of you I used as a rebound (my dear slacks and black denims) have changed around me, to the point we no longer suit each other.

Please don't think of my giving some of you up, replacing you or altering the rest as a sign that I forgot our good times with each other. Instead, think of it as our success together. I still wore you throughout the challenge I went through, except the challenge changed me for the better... and you helped out with that more than you can imagine. You all were the ones subtly reminding me of my unhealthy lifestyle. I realize now that your clinging to me and your suffocating me were good things, that they were little pushes on me toward the right direction. For that, I thank you, dear pants. Your no longer tight waistbands are even more of a reward to me than the figure I see on the scales when I weigh in weekly.

Sincerely, ilegna_csm

Ever watch one of Jamie Oliver's shows on TLC, the one where he cooks at his home kitchen using food harvested from his own garden? Yeah, I'm talking about "Jamie at Home". Actually, I brought it up because I love his opening theme... It goes something like this: Take tme to make yourself feel good, and do whatever you want, 'coz you can now in my world...

Now those are words to live by! Take time for yourself.

Ever since I've started this current weight loss attempt, I've been taking more time at everything. I've been eating more slowly, I've been taking more time in the kitchen cooking my own meals, I've been taking my time grocery shopping, I've been exercising more, and getting more sleep.

These steps helped out a lot.

It takes a while for your brain, liver, pancreas and stomach and intestines to register that you're in a middle of a meal. So take time to chew your food. This comes with the added bonus of making you rrrrrelishhh your  meal. Mmmmm!

Taking time to cook your own food teaches you not just kitchen skills, but also the value of hard work... and you can watch what you put into your food, like how much salt or sugar in each meal.

I've also been buying smarter lately, looking at the calories in each serving of the food more closely than I used to.

Oh, and barre 3.... that was a great step I took for my own health and fitness. I think Sadie Licoln is a genius for creating the work out!

Yes, I've been in a monogamous relationship with my awesome boyfriend for 7 years and 8 months now, but that's not the commitment I'm talking about.

One of the most important principles in life I abide by is that when you decide on doing something, you'd better stick with it and its consequences to the end. It was your decision, so it's up to you to make it into a burden or a blessing. In my third year of highschool, I made an oath to my sisters that I would take up medicine like they did (right hand raised with my parents as witnesses and all...) and I did. When I decided to start driving again years after my traumatic accident involving the family car's bumper and the gate of our house (the traumatic part was my dad screaming at me after, not the crash itself), I practiced with the car's now very sticky gearshift and heavy clutch pedal until I got used to it. When I decided that I like liked my friend and how he's my boyfriend of 7 years... I think you get the picture...

When I decided to lose weight so I wouldn't look unsightly in a bikini at the beach, I started eating healthy and exercising again... so now that it's July and it's been two weeks since our beach trip, why am I still at it? Because I also told myself, "This is for the long haul. I'm not just going to do this for that bikini body, but also to add years to my life. And that takes commitment."

There are many reasons why people fall off the weightloss and fitness bandwagon. But the root of all those reasons is still lack of motivation. There are many quick fixes as well (like motivating yourself by buying expensive work out equipment, accessories and attire), but that long-lasting fix is still commitment. It's what, most Filipino's lack in a general sense... that's why we even have a term for it: ningas kugon. On a similar but unrelated topic, I think its why our politics is headed down the drain and into the mucky sewers: because our politicians are just politicians, not statesmen (there's a difference, folks).

If you've been watching the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, then you know that he cracks jokes about how fat Americans are getting nearly every night. Unfortunately, our modern Pinoy diet is a mix of carb-laden Pinoy and asian cuisine (rice with the entree, then rice cakes for dessert! ay sus!) and fatty Western food (*cough* frappucino! *cough*). I am therefore waiting for Lourd to start cracking jokes about how malnourished the people of our country is becoming! People here are either too fat or too thin... Maybe we should rename our country "Binary Islands" (if you put the people in one straight line, you get 10001010101011100001, hahah!)

I work at a private hospital in the south of Metro Manila and there are doctors specializing in nutrition and weight wellness there. Surgeons also perform several bariatric procedures such as gastric bypass... and the number of patients who need it are on the rise. The youngest patient who underwent weight loss surgery I've encountered was a 16 year-old girl and the heaviest was a 400++ lb gentleman. Patients undergo a battery of tests and psychological evaluations and psychiatric clearance prior to their procedure. To be a candidate for bariatric surgery, this must have been their last resort, meaning they must have suffered through several years worth of unsuccessful diet/exercise regimens for weight loss prior to their considering the surgery. But the surgery isn't a quick-fix, it requires commitment as well. Weight loss after the surgery is rapid, but if you don't stick to a healthy lifestyle afterward and regain the weight, you may get serious complications. Patients must commit to the new lifestyle modifications for the surgery to be successful.

So whether I intend to get healthy by diet and exercise or quick fixes like weight loss pills or (though i don't need it) surgery, it still takes commitment. And this is one commitment I don't have an issue with.

And before I end the blog, I would just like to say: GO AZKALS! Awesome game vs Sri Lanka!