Happiest way to end 2016 and start 2017

We are going to be parents!

I guess you can say we first suspected it when rie felt nauseous and vomited on the plane on our flight to BKK on 23rd December. Her period was not yet due then but conception typically occurs 1 week before next period (You can go read up more on all the timings related to conceiving a baby, i.e ovulation, implantation etc). We were not sure then as it was really still too early for detection but maybe you can say a mother's six sense is pretty accurate. Detection by pregnancy kit (detection of HCG) is most effective about 1 week after missing of period but some more sensitive ones can detect even a couple of days before missing of period.

So after this suspicion and us being anxious, we started to use the pregnancy strips after we got back from BKK. We started testing on 28th Dec, and as we bought a whole bunch of pregnancy strips online at very cheap prices, we used it every day, once in the morning and then once at night. HCG levels doubles around every 2 days, meaning 50% more every 12 hours. The double line indication was very very faint on the first try, but it seemed to get darker and darker each time, but still very faint and not counted as pregnant yet. We were not sure whether was it just us or if it meant something. I guess we were just too anxious. haha. On the 30th night, we got a double line which looked much more convincing and it felt like a positive to us.

Now that it is more convincing, though still not very very certain, we decided to do the test again the next day morning, 31st Dec morning, with a pregnancy kit we bought from Watsons to double check. I know by now we sound very kiasu and ganchiong spider; we could have waited for a week to get a better result if any. So we woke up on the 31st Dec morning and were again very anxious to take the urine test. The result was as shown in the picture below.

   

Watson Pregnancy Test Result 

It clearly showed 2 lines even though the 2nd was light, but clearly visible and according to the usage instructions it is a positive. Our joy was building after this result, but me being me, liked things to be absolute certain hence I was still trying to be reserved about it. We cannot forget this day, 31st Dec as it was the last day of the year 2016. The best thing to happen in 2016 had to wait till the last day; good things must wait. If confirmed, this would be the best thing to happen to us in 2016 and the most important thing we wished for in 2016 realized.

We welcomed year 2017 with joy and excitement. The first thing we did was to book an appointment with a gynae to confirm our joy. On the first working day of 2017, Tuesday 3rd Jan, I called up Edinburgh Clinic at Choa Chu Kang to schedule an appointment with Dr Chia Yee Tien. To our delight, we managed to book an appointment for that week Friday, 6th Jan in the evening 630pm. To put it simply, there are a few reasons we chose to schedule an appointment with Dr Chia; she consults at a clinic in Choa Chu Kang too which is near our house, she consults at night which means we do not have to take leave to go, She was a female (rie was not sure if she prefers a female or male gynae yet so we chose a female one first), and she had many positive reviews online.

The next few days we continued to test with pregnancy kit from different brands. Now all kits showed double lines and its getting darker by the day. We even "spent a bomb" (very expensive relative to the strips) and went to get a digital one from Clearblue, as we read that it is supposedly the best and most accurate pregnancy test on the market. Every test turned out positive and we can be 99% sure now, just need the visit to the gynae to 100% confirm with ultrasound.

   

Clearblue Digital Pregnancy Test Result

   

All the test kits we used

Friday came in a flash. For the few days waiting to visit the gynae, I experienced a feeling I never felt before, a mixture of joy, anticipation, anxiety, pressure and lots of different scenarios playing out in my mind. I guess one may only get to experience it when they become a father to be. During these days I also did a lot of read up on early pregnancy, about the dos and don’ts, like what food to eat or not, what things to do to not and too many information for me to sum it up here. As a first time father to be, the worry is damn real. Maybe it’s just me, different people will feel differently but this was how I felt.

The visit to Dr Chia Yee Tien was very pleasant. She was very patient when she spoke with us. After getting a few information from us, she started with the ultrasound and it was the first time we saw rieby, as we affectionately calls it. Rieby was still an embryo looking like just a tiny bean on the ultrasound screen. It was very small but definitely there and positioned properly in the womb. Rieby was dated to be 5 weeks old and did not show a heartbeat yet. We will have to wait for the next visit at week 7 to see the heartbeat. They counted the weeks starting from the 1st day of the last period hence 5 weeks; don’t ask me why but that’s just how they date. Now even though it is 100% confirmed, it does not end here, there will be so much more to come; the long 9 months journey had only just began. At least we can store away the pregnancy kits for some time now.

   

First look at Rieby 

So yeah! again. We are going to be parents!

Rieby!!!

We going to have a baby!

February Progress & the finale weigh in and result

9 months had passed since the day I made up my mind to get in shape and have a better body. 9 months was long, but yet short at the same time. Nonetheless it's been a really fulfilling journey, one where I get to know myself better, one where I test my determination once again at a ripe age of 32. I guess you can say I am relieved that this is over and yet at the same time looking forward to build on my success now. I still believed that there is more inside of me that I had not given yet. When I see through the pictures that I had took, a tear almost dropped from my eye. Alright I think I am really at a loss of words now and emotions running high now; let's just say no more and look at the pictures.

Finally! The final product of my 9 months of hardwork. Still lot's to be improved though.

All 10 photos put into a collage just like the way my idol did it.

My idol. Though I still do not know who he is, but his photos are truely my inspiration.

Our collages put together to compare. I think I did a great job imitating his poses right?

Our final poses side by side. Got the same "seh" right? lol. Hopefully my body can pass like his.

Alright, let's recap how the fatty me looked like 9 months ago (almost vomitted. haha)

Side by side look at myself before and after. I lost 17lbs.

Yup I guess this is it, the end of the story. Looking at this final before, after picture really brought tears to my eyes. I had never look so good since like 10 years ago. On a side note, I completely forgot to talk about my result for the final month. In the last month I actually managed to gain about 6 kg. A round of applause to myself. I set out to gain about 5 kg and I did it. Out of this 6 kg, about 4 kg are pure muscle mass as calculated by my weighing scale. 

Alright, this is actually not the end, but the start of a new journey for myself. Now is the time to build on it and achieve even better results. I will continue to post some of my pictures and stories here along the way. Do look out for them if you are interested. I love myself. Huat ah~!~! 

January Progress

January had passes and I now weigh 74.3kg. Yes it was only less than 1 kg of gain from last month. Probably I was so used to eating less that I do not have the appetite to eat more, but I shall not give up and continue to work hard. At the beginning of my weight loss phase was also slow. Gaining weight was indeed as hard as losing weight; you need the mental discipline to force yourself to eat over your daily caloric expenditure.

I started going to the gym again, at least once a week for now as this period I am super busy with NTU IHCC with Vikings. I am afraid that I will gain but too much fats once I start bulking hence I also continued to run a little. I started to eat more, but cleanly. For a chicken skin lover, having to remove the skin when I eat chicken chop was really painful. I ate alot of clean breast meat this whole month.

Don't really like this angle, but that's the angle my idol used so gotta follow

8 months done, let's go for the final month now.

Definitely a big difference coming such a long way

To help me achieve my goals of bulking up now, putting on more lean muscles, I did some research and read about how people gain weight. I searched on how to gain 10kg of muscles in 2 months, as I believed that if I can lose over 10 kg in 2 months, I for sure am able to gain more than 10 kg in 2 months too. The research I done recommended me to take in 500 calories more than my daily requirement in order to gain mass. Of course this has to come with hard gymming too.

As said earlier, I still run because I am afraid of gaining too much fats while bulking, but in the end I only gain less than 1 kg. Therefore for the next month, I am going to cut down on all cardio and just focus purely on strength training. I will also just eat whatever I want now (excuse for not removing my chicken skin). I guess eating too clean is really very hard to put in the sufficient calories into your body without feeling like exploding. I am now also starting to take protein shake and creatine to help boost my training and muscle recovery. Hopefully with all these, I will be able to gain at least 5 kg in the next month. I will also continue my regular sun tanning as it really helps with my skin tone.

December Progress

Each month I am seeing progress for my body. December is again a month of celebration, which makes it hard for me to maintain my diet plan, but I still managed to pull through. Currently I weigh 73.9kg, close to another kg lost since 1st December.

For December I basically stuck to the same routine of dieting, and increase my intensity of body weight workouts such as push ups and sit ups. More definition in my muscles can be seen compared to 1 month ago. I also did regular tanning every Sunday which helps improve on my looks.

Darker skin to compliment

7 months had passed since 1st June.

Felt really happy looking at my improvements over the months

For January, I will start off the New Year by going to the gym more, on a more consistent basis. Time to also start gaining some mass back. I will still need those mass, muscles and strength for stunting. Looking to increase a kg or 2 by February.

November Progress

It's been 6 months now. Last month I said I was in the best shape of my life, and this month again I improved on that. Let's hope I create new "best shape" every single month and keep improving on my body. I had my photo shoot last month and was very happy with the pictures I took. My first goal of looking slimmer for my photoshoot had been achieved.

My weight is now about 74kg plus, close to 75kg. I have to admit that in the month of November right after my photoshoot, I had been giving myself some slack. I was like a reward to myself for having achieved good results. Together with other celebrations such as my birthday, November became sort of like a "cheat month". Yes end of the day I still did managed to shave off 500g for my weigh in, but overall fitness goals were not met. I did not run 2.4 in 12 mins nor did I managed 26 pull ups. Yes I was dissapointed but I guess the break was required for me to recharge mentally.

6 pacs becoming more obvious

From the 1st month to now.

Time to build back those muscles.

Alright November was a "cheat month" hence I shall try to make up for it in December. I shall not set fitness goals such as 2.4 timing or number of pull ups first. I do not want to stress myself out. I will also reduce running so that I can focus on (clean) bulking up again. Let's hope I can make more improvements in December despite it being a festive month too. Jiayou.

Starry's 31st Birthday =)

Happy Birthday my dear Starry! Woohoohoo =)

31 lo! Getting fitter as you aged... Six pacs popping out lo... Jiayou! =)

Happy 31st Smarty Starry! =)

Bought a sunflower for Starry =)

Starry looking confident on elevator =)

Starry is so happy being a flyer =)

Starry's Mama Birthday Celebration 2013

We celebrated Starry's Mama birthday @ De'Beer Seafood Restaurant at D'Kranji Farm Resort at Neo Tiew Lane 2 as she loves the Lala Beehoon there. We ordered several other dishes other than Lala Beehoon. The Lala Beehoon was good as usual but not the crabby. The crabs were malnutrition and hence making the whole dining experience not as satisfying. To salvage the unpleasant dining experience, the manager gave us a discount on the crab. Well, it sort of make us feel a little better. 

Happy Birthday to Starry's Mama! =)

Starry looks so small in the photo =)

Bought a small truffle cake for Starry's Mama

Starry's Mama once told me that her greatest achievement in life is having Starry & Xinghui. A lovely present from her two sons! =)

Starry's Mama & her new ipad air =)

Chilling at the bar after dinner

Selfie after dinner =)

    

Starry's Mama Birthday Dinner

October Progress

5 months had passed and I am really grateful to be in the "best shape"(fitness can still be improved though) of my life since I was born. Even though I used to weigh in lighter and with less %fats in the past, but now I can see distinctly better muscles shape and definition. This should be the effect of bulking and building up muscles to weighing over 90kg and then now cutting. I am really glad to make it this far just in time for my wedding photo shoot in 5 days time.

Today I weigh in at just over 75kg, dropping about 2 more kg from 77kg last month. I can roughly begin to see my abs line forming. For the past month, I continued with running, except this time I started running shorter distances of 2.4km, hoping to build up fitness for running and also sprinting. I was told that sprinting does provide much more afterburn effect then just slow jogging. My current 2.4 timing is at about 13mins; 1 min off the target I set for myself at the beginning of the month. However I have to say that it is considered a good improvement from over 15mins to below 13 mins. I also started doing more pull ups this month after I bought myself a pull up bar. Some pictures below.

6 pacs starting to form

Comparing progress since day 1.

Can really begin to see the significant difference from day 1

Ok for the month of November, I will continue to work hard to up my fitness and get to run my 2.4 in below 12 mins. I will also aim to do 26 pull ups by the end of November. I think now I have officially end my weight loss phase and time to start on my lean muscle building phase; time to hit the gym more. On a side note, I still did not get a chance to play soccer =(

Happy 95!

Celebrated our 95th month anniversary @ Vivocity Soup Spoon.

We love soupy meal. Healthy and yummy! Yeah! =)

Had an awesome dinner with my Starry! Cheers!

Chilling out at our favourite hangout, Starbucks! =)

September Progress

4 whole months had passed now and I am starting to feel very good about this whole journey. No doubt I hoped my progress can be even faster, but I guess I should be content and grateful for what I had achieve so far. Many are already beginning to see the changes and congratulating me, however some are saying that I am doing it too abruptly and will be bad for my body. I chose to ignore the latter as they are the sour grapes, the ones without the will power to do what I did and will always say you should not as well. Listen to your whole body and voice, don't let anyone tell you that you cannot do it or should not do it.

My weigh in weight was 80kg last month, which was already a record low for me in recent years. So how did I continue to improve on that and how did I shock my body to lose more? Let's do a quick recap first-

First month, I only control my intake of food.

Second month, I continued to control intake of food plus I started to control the intake of sugar.

Third month, I continued with the diet of previous 2 months plus I started doing some exercises such as bicep curls, push ups and sit ups.

So what was the secret I did for my fourth month? haha. No big secret la actually, while continuing with the secret for the first 3 months, I also started to run. I started slow with about 2km, then 3km, then 4km and then 5km. As of last week, I was running an average of 2 or 3 times (of 5km) per week. I really enjoy to start running again now that I had lost some weight. When I used to run at 90kg it was a terrible feeling; every step felt like lead. Now running (with my headphones and music one), I use the time running to think, it is my alone time and I get to ponder about many things in my life. Oh ya, I also did swim once a week every Saturdays or Sundays, though not alot of laps, but I think it is still considered a good start. Now as usual, time for some photos of my progress.

I think can start to see a bit of shape coming out. =)

Last month and this month.

A bit harder to compare as the pose are different

Now from the beginning altogether.

When you put all the photos together, you really get to see the progress so far. 

Alright so for next month, the goal is the same, continue to lose fats and trim the unwanted "skin". I really hope someone can jio me to go play some soccer as soccer really does help burn alot of calories; it is high cardio and also high intensity if you play hard. Jio me if you reading this ok; I already got my boots and a ball. Well in case I do not get to play soccer as much, I will also aim to run, not just jogging at a relax pace, but more to push and run with a specific timing to achieve. I shall aim to run my 2.4km in under 12 mins. Let's see where all these will take us. Jiayou Xingwei.

Our Delightful Sunday Nightout

Starry brought me to Holland Village for dinner today.

We had our dinner at Yee Cheong Yuen Noodle Restaurant. However it was not as satisfying as it used to be. The noodle served was not warm enough. Even though I requested for it to be warmer, it was still not warm enough for my liking. We have decided not to patron the restaurant again.

After dinner, we chill out at our favorite hangout place, Starbucks. We had an awesome time reading our newly bought renovation magazine, discussing about renovating Starry's room and enjoying our favorite matcha frappuccino.   

Overall, we have an enjoyable time spent @ Holland Village today. 

I love chilling out with Starry! Yeah! =)