5 of most FAQ

1. What is your motivation for losing weight before?

I hate to accept defeat especially when I know that I can still do something about it. If I just keep going the way I did before then for sure I'm taking a cocktail of maintenance medications right now. My grandparent's didn't have any maintenance medications when they were young, so NO.

2. What is your motivation for working out?

I belong to the N.G.S.B. club. What's that you ask? It's a No Girlfriend Since Birth club. Girls always brush me off for being a nice guy. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about it. But my body is a different story, my body is my domain and I can do anything with it. Some people would choose to add piercings or even tattoos to look tough but me, I want it to become chiseled someday.

Seriously that's not a good reason to workout. It's the same with 'I want to look good naked.' Just workout because you want to be healthy. However, I believe that aesthetics is more than enough motivation to workout to majority and I'd be lying if I would say that it isn't in my motivations. :-)

3. What is your motivation for diet?

I personally believe that you are not supposed to be motivated to eat a certain type of diet. Like me before, I tried hard to stick with a vegetarian diet due to motivation. It didn't work out, I rebounded, hard!

So, what to do? Go and look for a diet that you are more comfortable eating in a regular basis. If you can't manage without one of the calorie sources (Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats) then that's okay, it's much more recommendable that way. All you need to do is just balance it and eat in portions. Just workout and keep your ass (your bum, not the animal if you own one) moving.

4. What's your motto?

This is one of the interesting questions that many people frequently asks me. And here are some the funny motto's I've managed to fabricate:

"If I die, I want people who look in my coffin to shook their heads and say 'What a waste!'."

"I don't want to be the first guy in my circle of friends to go 6 feet under."

"I've spent the past 30 years of my life looking ugly and not caring because I thought everything would end on December 21, 2012. It's about time to be the best me."

sometimes when a female asks me, "You wouldn't be even talking to me if we've met 5 years ago."

5. How do you manage to find time being a medical student and all?

To be honest, whenever I look at other people on youtube. I feel like I'm cheating myself. Because I do miss workouts. And some of those people in youtube have mouths to feed.

I actually have a lot of time before but unfortunately, the workouts wears you down when it's time to review so I skip. But this time around I'll have much more free time, thank God for that.

Disclaimer

Just in case that if you hadn't read the previous posts, yes, I am a 3rd year medical student. I've practically completed most of the 3rd year subjects except for Surgical Pathology, which I flunked. So what does this makes me, well, it still makes me a student.

With that being said, I would like to tell everyone that fad diets may work but you really need to consult a doctor first. Also, as with any exercise regimens, you should also seek consult first. Unless you are like me who constantly uses the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button on google.

For legal purposes also, any answers that I may post in response to questions are not considered as a medical consult. Remember, I'm a student, and this is not an office. And that is written even in our reference books for Legal Medicine.

- M. Laroya

History

2005

It sucks but I don't have any digital graduation photos. I do have some of the developed ones back at home provided by the on-site photographers though. Barely managed to smile here.

  Me back in 2005 (before graduation) after I cut my infamously long hair, 175 lbs

2006

I'm starting to grow big after a year since graduation. I'm still happy at this point. Notice the smile, it's a basic smile like saying 'cheese'. To be honest, my brother had to instruct me that to look good at the photo.

Me at 180 lbs

2007

Well let us begin in 2007. Why 2007 you ask? Because as much as I love cameras, I really hate being in front of the lens. I am the type of guy who would rather take the photo than have my photo taken. And there's a reason behind it too. No more teeth in that smile.

Yep that's me in 2007, 188 lbs

I hate being photographed because I know that I don't look any good. But in this year my attitude is more like "I don't care, as long as I'm happy" but to be honest, I'm not, I just fooled myself into thinking that I am happy as I devour colossal amount of foods.

2008

This is the year of realization. After attending a mini-reunion with some friends and hearing them say that I look like shit, I began dieting. I picked a healthy approach to diet, which is a low-fat diet. Basically, I am eating only carbs and I am not even counting calories back then. Mostly vegetables, rice, fruits, and some juices. My discipline still sucks.

192 lbs with that diet. Probably due to poor consistency on my part. The start of frown.

One thing you should know about me (if you already hadn't) is that I really love meat products. Fried, grilled, boiled, roasted, or whatever, I'll eat it. So the diet didn't work out.

2010

I jumped two years to this (I know). My weight hovered around 180-190 lbs during the years in between. But on March of 2010, I really hit the bottom. One morning I checked my weight and I'm up at 212 lbs. The naysayers won. I'm a big fan of "photo or it didn't happen" but I really don't have any picture of me at that weight because I can't even barely look myself at the mirror let alone take a photo.

Incidentally, this is also the year that I've had a medical screening and I've found out that I am hypertensive with a really bad lipid profile, like really really bad. I was advised to have maintenance medications for it but I didn't like the idea of it. I'm 26 and they are telling me to have maintenance medications already, so I didn't heed the advice. I can't even ask my parents to fund my medications for me.

By May of 2010, I managed to reduce my weight back to ~185 lbs.

This is also the year that I've decided to get my life back on track. I've asked my parents to let me pursue medicine. In order to show them that I can be dedicated, I did a crash diet and some workouts that I just knew in the back of my head.

Atkins. 20g carbs daily max. (budget mode)

I pushed hard and within one month, I've managed to bring my weight down to 160 lbs. I now found the one diet that I can adhere to strictly.

Me at 160 lbs. Just look at that smile, confidence renewed.

After 3 months (since I barely get out of the house), most people thought I got stricken with dengue. I practically didn't have any professional advice on this or even friends to talk to at this point (I've cut ties with them since 2007). So I can say I got here on my own but it was devastating. I can carry a 50 kg sack of rice before I lost weight but after 3 months, I'm having trouble lifting a 25 kg sack.

After showing dedication, my parents are convinced that I can survive med-school and gave me the green light.

Introduction

First and foremost, this blog will be all about fitness and my journey to get the body I've always wanted. In this blog, I will try to detail everything from what workouts I'll be doing, to the foods that I'll eating, equipments I'll be using, and even the supplements I'll taking.

So why 9 months journey, because that's the time I managed to free up after screwing up one subject on med-school and the academic year change that my school just implemented. Instead of going to clerkship right away after 3rd year, I will now have a one last long vacation from April 2014 to August 2014. I'll also have to retake that single subject one hour a day for 5 months.

As for the purpose of this blog, this shall serve as my log for progress and also as quick link that I can show to those people asking me about the things I do/did.