Endomondo's Earn Your Armour 4 Malaysia challenge

Basically, I am a slob...

The only time I have ever competed with other people was in secondary school.
I was in the athletics team and was never considered as a front-runner.
On the field, I sat mostly on the bench.
That said, I never took things seriously.
My achievement as a teenager was holding the 4x400 meters relay record for the under-13 category.
As the third-runner, I ran like a hell out of bat and passed the baton to Lazak Othman, the anchor runner who took us into the book of history. That was my claim to fame.
Most of my adult life, I was on the sideline, letting people pass so that they could win.

Me, on the far left, in my late teens

I don't see the need to compete because I was never driven by ego or the urge to succeed.
So, to sum it up, I led a sedentary lifestyle for more than 30 years.

In comes the challenge....

After 30 days, the results of the Under Armour Challenge was announced...

I used the Endomondo sports tracking app on my Xiaomi Mi4i smartphone to track my walks.
On the average, I walk about 10km a day.
To motivate myself, I participate in walking challenges. And at the end of 30 days, I managed to earn a decent ranking. 
Endomondo also notifies it's users on challenges with prizes and the fourth installment of the "Earn Your Armour" challenge has some really cool prizes. Under Armour vouchers, a goodie bag and a Jabra Sports Coach wireless headset was the ultimate prize.

Clocking-in the workout 

The person with the longest time in their daily workout wins.
All you need to do is to turn on the Endomondo app, track your workout and time.
I walked at least two hours a day and when I accepted the challenge, I was right on top of the list.
Initially, there were less than 300 people taking part. Nearly two-thirds were dormant participants.
My closest competitor was a 56-year-old dude by the name of Mr Yean.
The guy walks about 10km a day and when the competition entered it's 15th day, another guy overtook him.

Desperate people...

In the sporting world, people cheat.
They claim the prize and bask in the glory while the cheating lasts and live to regret it someday.
I find it funny that some meathead who came out of nowhere had overtaken the middle-aged dude and some guy with a funny Japanese name to chalk up the rank. 
He came in at number 2.
In my case, I walked regardless of the haze. For 29 days, I stayed on top. 

The last day

Mr meathead was determined to clinch the Jabra headset and Under Armour vouchers.
That didn't matter to me.
What's important was I didn't cheat. I clocked-in an honest day's work.
The rules clearly state that only GPS-tracked workouts are accepted.
The meathead entered "pilates", "yoga", "weight training" in his workouts to chalk in the extra hours.
I walked my last 5km to finish the challenge on the last day. In the last 30 days, I had fun and who would have thought a slob could beat 604 other people by merely walking?
When the results were out, I came in second. I lost to the "better" man by 20-minutes.

And finally, the truth prevails...

I accepted the results and concede to defeat.
For 30 days, I worked out and lost even more weight.
Then, an email arrived, and on the message, I was announced as the winner of the "Earn Your Armour 4" challenge.
I wasn't surprised at all. 
Mr meathead was forfeited for logging in fake workouts.
A couple of weeks later, I claimed my prize and shared it with my wife.

Hanging out at the Under Armour boutique in Mid Valley Megamall

The UA vouchers

With my loot

The challenge experience was very interesting.
Some people did the right thing by being honest.
The cheats, well, they will try again by any other means.
I was told by an Under Armour representative that most of the past winners were cyclists.
"You are the only person who clocked in so many hours just by walking," she said.
I guess she was also pretty surprised to see an average guy winning the challenge instead of the usual hulking meathead...

A clean bill of health...

The moment of truth...

Three months has passed since I embarked on a fitness program.

My aim was weight loss and getting lean. 

I walked 10km a day, sometimes clocking up to 20km to burn calories.

My daily calorie burn is roughly about 930 calories.

To get into shape, I split my workouts into two sets. One in the morning and the other late in the evening or at night.

Despite the shitty weather, I pushed on. There's no stopping.

So, having given my blood sample before heading off to Bangkok for my multimedia workshop, my chances to get off medication was good.

I have restricted my diet to greens and lean meat. Rice is only for lunch in a manageable portion.

At night, I eat light.

My hbA1c test - non-diabetic

 So, with all that done, my body began to heal. 

No more junk food, carbonated drinks. I had beers occasionally, but that was it.

I met Dr. Selva, the man who diagnosed me. 

He showed my test results and revealed to me on what to expect.

"Good. I have never seen a patient so determined. 

"You had one something right. 

"Now, I am taking you off your medication and will decrease the dosage for your hypertension meds. Keep it up, what you are doing..."

Hearing that was like striking a lottery.

I am cleared of diabetes and high cholesterol.

But I am not out of the woods as yet. There's much to do.

Too extreme?

I asked Dr. Selva if my program was too drastic.

He said I was "in-between"

"There are three types of weight loss.

"First, the extreme. You lose 10kg a week. That is not good.

"Next, there's the drastic weight loss, you lose weight rapidly, but in a month or so.

"Lastly, gradual weight loss. Noticeable in three months.

"What you are experiencing, is right in the middle of it."

My goal is to reach 78kg. That is my ideal weight and the Body Mass Index indicates that such is "ideal".

Walking outdoors despite the haze...

My current weight

The distance I've logged on walking

Getting lean...

Every day I workout at the office gym.

There's no excuse and I can't be lazy. I plan this during lunch time and spend an average of one hour doing body weight exercise and lifting weights.

I started with a warm-up session on the bike, clocking in 15-minutes in two sets.

From there, it's the body weight workout.

• Leg lifts - 10 reps 1 set x 2
• Stomach crunch - 10 reps 1 set x 2
• Push-ups - 10 reps 1 set x 2

After the body weight exercise, it's time to curl the dumbbells. 

I do two sets with 30 minutes switching from cardio to weight training.

The results are slowly showing. I am not aiming to be a meat head, but rather lean and fit.

Now that I am progressively stronger, I need to add more resistance and maintain my daily routine both walking and at the gym.

Hopefully, in the next 90 days, I will be able to shed half the weight and progress to achieve my goals by the second quarter of next year. 

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.

Getting back in shape..

Long nights, beers and a poor diet...

I must admit that the past two months,  I haven't been cycling.
This has taken a toll on my level of fitness.
Now that there are less work commitment, its time to get back to the routine of cycling medium-distance to slowly rebuilt my strength and stamina..

Getting back on track

There's a lot to do as I've got a couple of long distance rides planned.
First thing in order is the hill in Putra Heights where I will be slowly training to gain back my strength.

The regiment

I guess its all up to the will power to take over and seeing as it is, I will be doing rides covering 20km distance and slowly multiply it.

May 23 Broga clean-up

Last weekend's trip to Broga was an eye opener.It dawned on me that I was totally unfit for straight hauls especially on the new hill route
created by hikers and members of the OUTBAC camp led by Dr Yap Heng Kai.He invited me to cover the Broga Hill clean-up on Sunday May 23. When we got there, the event was already over.Michelle and I made our way up the hill with our kidsThe boy can certainly pull, but at the mid-point, he was clearly tired and exhausted.I was literally fighting to gain control of my legs which was hurting due to the hard and
uneven soil.While the body was not, the mind was willing to push all the way.On certain point of the hike, I rested to gain composure and pushed on until we hit the
peak of the hill - which is roughly about 45-minutes hike from the trail head.Since the sun was scorching the soil, we decided not to stay on and ascended down the
hill with the kids.That said, there's much to be done on building my stamina. Now, my priority is to control
my weight.