I was never the skinny or thin girl at school. I inherited my dad's big frame. At my heaviest, I weighed close to 70kg. Gasps right? I know. #whatpubertydidtome. I started ballooning in Primary 4 when I grew chubbier and by Primary 5 and 6, I was overweight and asked to join the turf club (some call it trim and fit, TAF or fitness club). I was in the TAF club all the way until Secondary 2. I remember we were made to go to school earlier, before the flag raising ceremony every morning to jog walk to lose weight. I can't even walk fast without panting then, not to mention jog because each step requires a lot of effort. I didn't fancy exercising then because I perspire a lot and that meant that I will smell bad in class.

I often had to put up with the teasing from my classmates especially the guys whom will call me nasty names like, "Pig, Zhu Ba Jie, Fatty". It was under my turf club teacher, Mr Tan's constant encouragement as well as the boys' taunting that I set my heart on losing weight. First, I cut down on the amount of fast food that I consume and slowly to not consuming fast food at all. Slowly but gradually, I lost about 12 kg over a year and I 'graduated' from the TAF club. I started exercising more frequently and I could run as my body wasn't that heavy anymore. I remember weighing the lightest at 55kg during my Prom Night after O levels in Secondary 4.

For vanity's sake, I won't deny that I did take some 'shortcuts', meaning I took slimming pills from Brand X endorsed by a local celebrity for a period of 2 weeks. I lost 3kg from eating the pills alone but I gained 6kg when I stopped. Plus, the side effects from it include heart palpitations and sleep disorder due to the caffeine content. Thank God I was only on it for a short period of time if not, I think I might have damaged my liver.

Since then, I have incorporated various form of exercise in my life. When I was in Poly, I would play squash once a twice, swim once a week and jog once a week. You know girls being girls, sometimes we get lazy and we stop exercising altogether and then suddenly either you feel motivated or perhaps you feel ‘too fat’ then you start the whole exercising regimen again.In Uni, I would try to go jogging every once a week. After I started working, I seldom exercise. I only go jogging occasionally when I feel too stressed. I only started jogging on a regular basis when one of my colleague asked me to join her and her friends for weekly jogging sessions. I ran with the guys and trust me, it was very hard to keep pace with them initially. I think I can only keep pace with them for the first km and that’s about it. Slowly but gradually, I managed to keep pace with them for longer distance.

More recently, I have been hanging out a lot at the gym, about 2-3 times per week. I will do a session of yoga, a session of cardio (either kickboxing, zumba, or pilates) and jog 5km.

It takes a lot of discipline to exercise on your own, you know how sometimes we feel lazy to get to the gym or even cheat during workouts. When Phillip Wain extended a personal training session to me, I took it up gamely. Having not done personal training before, my impression of personal training was weights.. weights and weights. But it turned out that I was wrong. Personal training ain't just about weights.

Maryann was my personal trainer for the day. After taking my height and weight, I was told to cycle on this bike to check my heart rate.

I think I cycled on it for about 15 minutes. Maryann was telling me that by mid-way, most people heart rate will shoot up but mine didn't and it meant that my heart is strong. I always thought that my heart was weak though. Hence, I was quite happy to know that my heart is considered strong.

After that, we did interval training - switching from crunches, squats and push-ups. These may look easy but it certainly make me break out in perspiration.

For crunches, Maryann said that it is very important to look up at the ceiling instead of looking forward when doing crunches to avoid injury.

I know how we ladies shudder at the very thought of doing squats. Somehow, it just bring back memories from our PE lessons, no?

1) Squat down until your upper thighs are parallel to the floor

2) Make sure your knees don't extend beyond your toes

In school, I dreaded push-ups the most. Maryann taught me an easier way of doing push-ups which is to cross my right leg over my left leg before going down and never to lock my elbows.

After the personal training session, I had a quick shower and grabbed lunch before popping back to Phillip Wain for my facial.


The facial that I went for is Nano Hydrating Facial that is for sensitive skin.

About Phillip Wain Nano Hydrating Facial A brilliant facial using the wonders of Grape Seed Extract for greater hydration and suppleness. Grape seed extract is a natural plant constituent (bioflavonoid) that strengthens and protects cell membranes from oxidative damage caused by free radicals and help reduce allergic responses. Grape seed extract is 50 x stronger than vitamin E and 20 x stronger than vitamin C. Grape Seed Extract is anti-allegeric, anti-histame, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. It strengthens blood vessels, improves complexion and aids in circulation to prevent and treat common problems including cardiovascular disease, varicose veins, water retention, collagen damage and arthritis. Enhanced with a patented dual technology, Nano-mist and LED (Light Emitting Diodes) blue light therapy that breaks down larger water molecules for better absorption into your skin. You get greater hydration and skin renewal! LED blue light is very much beneficial to calm and sooth stressed and fatigue skin. It is recommended to treat acne and sensitive skin condition. Benefits: 1) Anti- Aging 2) Deep Hydration 3) Firming and Anti-Wrinkle 4) Healing, ideal as post treatment for IPL, skin rejuvenation and chemical peel etc

Here's how I look after the facial. I would have expected the redness to be more visible after extraction but it was rather subtle, not those that screams for attention or tell people upfront that hey-i-just-came-out-from-a-facial kind.



After Nano Hydrating Facial



Henna stickers with rhinestones - work in progress




Henna stickers



SweetestSins Readers Special Promotion: $168 for 1 month fitness membership + 1 Personal training session Get a free body composition analysis Call Phillip Wain at 6250 0100 to redeem the promotion Giveaway on Phillip Wain Facebook Page: Win 1 week fitness pass to Phillip Wain simply by liking and commenting on Phillip Wain Facebook page, “I wanna be fit!”.  3 passes to be given away.

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