Before and After

I created this blog for several reasons:

1) To serve as a fitness journal for myself.
2) To let my friends and family know what I have been up to.
3) To prove that I can participate in such activities. (In case I grow obese one day) =)
4) For the enjoyment of everyone who is interested.

So let us begin with how I once use to be a fat young boy who loved food and could always eat non-stop. As a young lad I would barely ever touch sweets, chocolates, confectioneries, ice-creams, pastries, cheese, most junk foods. Yet amongst my three siblings and myself I was the chubbiest bubba around. This was because of a terrible habit of making sure that I had and probably still have. I had the tendency to consume everything and anything on my plate whether it was tasty or not. At my peak I was 97kg at the age of 15 to 16 years old.

I remember in the good ol' days when I would go to Penang with my family and visit my cousins. Seeing as my uncle is the GM of a resort there, they lived in the hotel itself. Hence majority of the nights we would it at the club house which was usually buffet. When I was 14 or 15, I remember my cousins challenging me to see how much I could eat. The end results, 2 plates of apps, 7 (SEVEN) main course [very full and piled plate], 2 rounds of deserts and 6 scoops of ice-cream. I would never forget that night because I had eaten so much that I felt like puking and I couldn't sleep due to indigestion. To think back to that night, I still can't believe that I was once that chubby kid.

Now I weigh at a fluctuating 83kg, definitely a huge difference. I started to lose weight as I grew up but I never did much sports. My main sport in high school was basketball and I played for both the under 15 and under 18 team. That was the only exercise I ever got each week.

When I started college, I met a group of friends which I knew from that moment on that they were going to be my friends for life. The guys within this group of friends were well fit and all of them had abs and played at least three different sports regularly and they hit the gym. Amongst them was a distant cousin of mine whose chest was so buff that I keep thinking he was a brick wall. It was with this group of friends whom had convinced me to join a gym. My first gym I joined was Fitness First next to HELP university college. I would hit them gym about 3 times a week but with no results in the end. Then I begin to get demoralised and slowly and surely I begin to detest hitting the gym.

at the age of 18

Despite the lack of gymming, I started to appreciate and enjoy the many sports that they played and I begin to loved playing every kind of sport out there whether I was good at it or not. This led me to choose to study in Loughborough University, UK. Loughborough uni is a sports uni hence it is like a second home to me. I would be playing sports at the least 5 days a week and I would hit the gym at least twice a week. After spending a year there very minute results showed for all my effort.

The first summer I returned from UK I met up with a beloved brother of mine known as QN King. It was he who first introduce me to crossfitting. I remember the very first day I attended Pushmore. King came to pick me up from my house and he was telling me how different this gym was and it will not be like anything I have seen or tried before. I remember when I was sitting in his car I said:

Me : "What kind of workouts do you do there?"

King : "Just the other day we were doing a workout where we work in a team of 3 people and we lift my kelissa."

Me : "OH! (in utter shock), sounds interesting."

King : "We flip a big ass tyre around and we use kettlebells."

Me : "what are kettlebells?"

King : "Big ass balls!"

Me : "*silence* (I killed the conversation)"

When we reached pushmore and I walked in, the first thing I saw was people sweating their asses off as though they were gonna pass out. I filled in the 'new comers' form and went in and sat at the table looking totally lost. JW (Trainer adn CEO of Pushmore) thought me how to get through the warmup which was something along the lines of

10 shuttle runs (i.e. run 400m)
pushups
pullups
situps?...

I remember after completing the warm up I was thinking, how can anyone do workouts after this? I was absolutely shattered and along comes JW asking :

JW : "ready to start the workout?"

Me : "you got to be kdding! but ok"

*enters King and his big mouth*

King : "All new comers have to do Cindy first before doing anything else."

Me : "Who is Cindy?"

Hence My first workout ever in Pushmore was "Cindy".

20 mins AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

My result : 8rounds + ....

I was pretty proud of myself seeing as I managed to do pullups with a green + blue band and pushups with no assistance.

I thought "Okay i'm now absolutely knackered and there is no way I can move off this chair now". Along comes my brotheren King saying "Are you ready for today's workout?"

Sitting there I was thinking "You must be totally out of your mind to think I can even move." But being the naive lil' kid I said "OKAY!"

Hence this led to my first ever WOD in Pushmore: 5 rounds of max reps strict presses.

After such an eventful evening I didn't return to Pushmore for a week or two. A year later after inconsistant training, I return back to Pushmore this was what I looked two and a half months ago >

2 and a half months ago

can see the tummy? I'm sucking in.

This has what Pushmore and crossfit training has done to me >

Not too bad right?

Basically this post was for the benefit of those who wanted to see before and after shots of me. I have some good fat photos somewhere in UK but I can only do that when I get back so some time this coming week ok?

I wanted to end this post with thanks to some very special people.

My parents, who have always supported me no matter what.

King, who introduced me to Pushmore which has changed my life.

Pushmore and all its staff, who have guided me and given me knowledge about technique and rest.

The pushmore family, friends and strangers who supported me through all my workouts even though I was dying half way. Till this day I can say I have no known records of DNF! Let's keep it that way.

Jonathan Wong, for introducing me to very exciting and insane workouts.

The Oei brothers who I look to for inspiration and nutty workouts which I can't refuse.

Edmund Tan, the robot of Pushmore that everyone aims for.

Ow Hsien Loong, who cursed me about a year or two years ago to be forever fat. That has stuck in my head and has pushed me beyond my limits.

Everyone else who has made my summer the best summer I had.

I love you all soooo dearly and will miss the workouts, the nom noms, the drinkings and most importantly... the laughter we shared =)