The 10-km challenge..

There is no "secret", only hard work...

I was filling up my water bottle at the pantry in the office and a co-worker walked past.
She paused and said: "I noticed you have lost a lot of weight. What is your secret?"
I told her that it's pure exercise and eating right.
When I last weighed-in on June 16, I was at 101.0kgs.
I never enjoyed stepping on weighing scale. 
My regular physician had advised me to lose weight or risk having a bypass.
He also referred me to a local hospital to get a stress-test.

And so, the journey begins..

I started walking around my neighbourhood. 
On the average, a loop is roughly around 1.17km.
During the initial days, I took small loops. Nothing more than 2.5km. As I progressed to be much fitter, the routine was increased to 5km and eventually, 10km.
To optimize the simple program, I split the workouts into two sessions.
Early in the morning, I will do a 5km loop with my dogs and continue with another later at night.
I used my Xiaomi Mi Band to track my steps and the Endomondo Sports App for Android to record my progress.
Based on statistics, I walk about 120km in July and 308km in August. These are recorded distances based on GPS-tracking.
Apart from that, I also entered a walking challenge on Endomondo and was ranked 54th out of 3,400 people who took part.

My progress on Endomondo

The ranking from the walking challenge

After 40 days of walking on my 10km/day program, I gradually lost weight.
From 101kgs, I weighed in at 95kgs and started to go down to 90kgs.
I can wear my old shirts that were tight.
Even my pants became loose.
Eventually, I broke the sub-90 barrier by weighing-in at 89kgs. 
From "Obese", my Body Mass Index (BMI) rating went down to "overweight".

Motivation..

I have to energetic working dogs. They need exercise. Having been a slob for years, I hardly walk them. I felt I have robbed them of their basic needs and embarked on a walking program with them.
My dogs motivate me and at 10 and 9 years of age, they are very fit.
At the very least, my sugar-levels are stable. My goal is to be free of medication.
I am setting my target at 78kg to reach "normal" BMI status.

Eating right...

Since June, I have limited my intake of rice.
That was the first step.
I only eat a small portion of white rice during lunch. I skipped tea if it's possible. 
As for the beers, I don't drink in excess as I used to.
My body is healing from within and I also included vegetables in my food intake.
Now that I am on a lean diet, I hardly patronize stalls for hawker food.

A lean and filling dinner

Samo's eating plan...

Breakfast - sandwich & black coffee.

Lunch - 1/4 portion rice with vegetables, meat such as chicken is taken alternately.

Dinner - grilled lean pork or chicken breast or fish. Salads and sandwich on rotation.

Toning the body..

I had signed-up with the company's gym and at RM20 a month, it's a damn good deal. 
There are trainers there and I told the guy what I want to do.
The workouts are alternated between days.
I would go after lunch and do reps of cardio exercise on the stationary bicycle trainer. 
The coach taught me some bicep curling exercises with dumb bells. 
I started with lighter weights and more repetitions.
The trainer also showed me how to tone the leg muscles.
I hope to get my belly toned after trimming another 10kgs of fat.

Feeling good..

With the extra flabs burned from walking and a good eating habit, I felt very fresh in the morning and happy to continue with my routine. 
I hope to keep this up until my weight is manageable.

The 10-km challenge

No pain, no gain..

Studies show that the recommended time for weight-loss exercise is half and hour of brisk walking.
If you do this every day, you will shed off some fat from your waist.
On the average, 30-minutes of walking is roughly about 2.7km.
With this, you burn about 382 calories. In one hour, that's about 5.10km and two hours of exercise yields about 10km.
Walking is a low-impact form of exercise and if you decide to change your lifestyle, you can schedule it into your daily life.
I started by walking 5km a day which is split into two sessions: morning and late at night.
Why? Mornings around my neighbourhood can be quiet and since I live in a gated and guarded community, safety is never an issue.
A loop around the neighbourhood is roughly around 1.7km. This is sustainable on a long-term basis.
I begin my walk at 7.30am and to complete 5km, it takes around one hour.

Endomondo is a free-app for fitness

Details of the workout

Google Fit utilizes the smartphone's G-sensors for step-count

My average steps

Total distance clocked

Technology helps..

To keep track of progress, I use Endomondo fitness tracker. This is complement with my Mi Fit app and Mi Band (which has been bricked).
The Endomondo app has a voice-enabled notification. Once you have activated the app, the first thing it does, is to acquire satellites for a fix on your position.
When you hit the "start" button, the apps begins to record progress. At the end of 1km, it gives your pace and distance.
My average pace per 1 km is between 10 - 12 minutes.
In addition to Endomondo, I had Google Fit installed on my Xiaomi Redmi 2 smartphone. This becomes a back-up solution for the Mi Band and records steps and calories.

Sir Naughty, my 10-year-old Siberian Husky is part of my exercise routine

The face of contentment after a good workout

Atomic Huskies

My highly-energetic pooch provides company during my routine 10km/day walk. I decided to bring them along as they are very active dogs. They need the exercise to expand their energy and walking them in two sessions to clock-in 10km in a day helps.
But, before I took them for the long walk, I got them conditioned for a 2.7km walk and increased the distance to 5.11km and eventually, 10km.
They are comfortable with the distance and also kept me company during the workout.

Pan-fried chicken breast with tomatoes and onions

Eating well

Managing weight-loss is a routine that comes in pairs.
First, you will have to eat right.
Since July 16, I have been going easy on my carbohydrates.
I began by reducing my rice intake.
For breakfast, it's a wholemeal sandwich followed by rice for lunch.
I've began to wean off rice by eating only meat and vegetables for dinner.
It took some getting used to, but I am slowly conditioning my body to accept this.

So far, so good

I weighed-in at 101.0kg in mid-June. I have been walking for a month and clocked-in more than 280km in total distance. My present weight is 92.7km with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28.6 (anything above 28 is considered as "obese"). My target weight loss is at 85kgs and I will begin weight training to firm up my body.
So, is 10km difficult? Not so if you love to walk and split your workout into two sessions in a day. 
Commitment is very important in this case and there's really no excuse to be lazy.