Hi there! Hope you are having a great and fit weekend! I sure am! Hehehe! On my last post, I started a food journal on my 6-day trip to Kenya. Sorry, I couldn’t post everyday; I was very ill half of the time, and also very busy with work. But I did document what I ate, and took lots of pictures, making it fun! Guys, what do you do when you are at one of the great Natural park resorts in East Africa, with such great scenery, real wildlife and so much food? Even the best of us, succumb! Lol! I ate a lot, by my standard of the past five months. But compared to what I would have done last year, I think I ate in moderation. Serious moderation. Unfortunately, though, I had planned to work out daily, it was nearly impossible for the most part. One, I got to Kenya with a flu from home, and it knocked me out for three days. On Day 2, I actually went to the gym with some colleagues, tried to run for 5 mins, did some stepping (A routine that was meant to be crossfit, but was just us stepping up and down a slab for 30 mins), used the stationary bike machine for 4 mins and stretched. That was it! The next exercise did not happen until day 5. I just could not wake up in the mornings to work out, and when I woke up, I had a lot of body pain and a mild fever, so I decided to just chill. Secondly, the resort was quite cold. The temperature was usually between 12 and 19 degrees Celsius, so it was more convenient for sleeping, drinking coffee and tea, and chilling.

I really tried to maintain a lean diet, but it was pretty hard, I must confess. When I wrote the last post, I ended it by saying I had no plans for food that night (Day 1). Na lie! I ate :), but not much. I just had 2 pieces of fish in batter, chocolate brownies, fruit smoothie and H2O with lemon slices.  Not bad, right? There was so much food though, and to be honest, I had breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday except on Day 4 when I passed on breakfast. I woke up with constipation and just feeling bloated from two days of non-stop eating. By lunch time on Day 4, I was hungry, and as usual, I kept the portion small. Although I ate three square meals most of the time as I said earlier, I stuck to some key principles:

1. Avoided any type of bread, cakes, croissants, pancakes e.t.c for breakfast
2. Loaded more on chicken, turkey, beef steak, goat meat, lamb, fish for lunch and dinner. Basically, most of my food was meat (protein-based)
3. Avoided heavy carbs as much as possible; potatoes and rice. Had one spoon of rice only twice throughout. Opted for baked beans and some eggs during breakfast
4. Always had some vegetables in the mix. Stuffed up on salads with no cream dressing; a lot of steamed spinach and sauteed carrots too
5. Had fresh fruits with most meals – sometimes I had the kitchen blend the fruits into a nice smoothie mix
6. Avoided juices throughout and drank only water with as many slices of lemon when possible (which was almost all the time)
7. Had three glasses of red wine only once; could have done wine everyday at my own expense if I wanted

Eventually, by Day 4, I was hale and hearty, and energetic again! So I resumed my work outs. Started with 25 push ups in the morning, 40 sit-ups and 30 squats. We had a party at night, so I danced, and danced a lot! The dancing was a lot of fun, and I made it alcohol-free because I wanted it to be an opportunity to work out. it turned out to be a very good work out. Danced for 2 hours, raked up approximately 7K steps while at it, and woke up on Day 5 with some muscle ache, so I knew that the mission was accomplished. Yay!

Lesson learned – Dancing with friends to great music and in good company, without alcohol, actually makes a great workout!

Day 5 was the best though. I woke up very happy (probably from the endorphins released from all the dancing of the night before) and strong. So I did push ups again, some planking, sit ups and squats before heading out. Had a lovely breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs with ham and cheese only, berry yoghurt, and coffee. For lunch, I decided to eat some pasta. It was the first pasta meal I was having in 2016! Just about a serving spoonful  of pasta in tomato sauce, and it was awesome. Pasta, with roasted turkey, grilled red snapper, and Beef Oyster. Finished work a little early, so got to finally dive into the lovely pool at the resort in the evening.  I thought I was fit and assumed I would do a couple of laps and stretch myself out a bit. Geez! I struggled! The swimming was not as sweet as the pool looked. I managed to complete 12 laps along the length of the pool in 30 mins, with a lot of rest time in between laps. It was between 20 and 25 metres long, so I definitely swam at least 240 metres – just doing the breast stroke, which as you know (if you swim) is one of the more intense swimming styles. Glad I swam. Swimming is also a very good way to work all the muscles in the body and can be a great workout routine for getting a lean frame, similar effect to long-distance running. The problem I have had with swimming back home is that there are few places with very good swimming pools, which aren’t crowded, and which are actually big enough for you to substantially work your muscles. The National Stadium would have been perfect because there is an Olympic-sized pool there, but if you try it! The kind of superbug that will attack one’s skin ehn; only an undiscovered antibiotic or anti-fungal will be able to deal with it! One of the paradoxes of our beautiful country. Story for another day. Just know that for now, the pool at the stadium is a no go area! Anyway, itfelt really good to swim and I enjoyed every minute in the pool. By the time I woke up on day 6, I knew that the swim was indeed a workout. My inner thighs hurt a bit. Must be the adductor muscles, on both thighs. I was happy with this development of course as it means that I worked on a new set of muscles in my thighs – I don’t remember ever feeling any DOMS in the inner thigh since I started on this weight loss journey.

A great way to end my trip, Day 6. Had mild breakfast as usual, grilled chicken ceasar salad for lunch, and went for a proper work out at the gym. I’m at a new hotel by the way, and the gym is great! I ran again. I ran for 30 mins, 3.8km, and walked for 10 mins, 0.7km. Haven’t actually really run in almost 2 weeks, so it was encouraging to be able to run almost 4km non-stop. Remember, I have set a target to run 8km at a stretch before the end of June. After running, I decided to take advantage of all the gym equipment, since they were  free, and I won’t be using them again anytime soon as I will resume my Natural workout ways with Nature and maximizing what the Nigerian government has provided for free. I used the cross trainer for 10 mins. That machine is evil, but the trainer said it’s good for the quads, so I did it. I’m actually considering investing in one for personal use at home after runs. It was hard, and painful, but great feeling afterwards. I also did some mean exercises for the core muscles, led by this hotel gym trainer – Brian. Why are fitness trainers generally mean? The guy would ask me to do a minimum of 20 reps of each type of exercise, and even if I stopped, he would remind me of the number remaining before we can move to the next routine. I tire! You would think the hotel trainer would be nicer to you as a guest na, abi? Anyway, I completed all the abs exercises he gave me and decided to try some other equipment. I don’t know their names, but they worked the arms and involved pulling weights down, doing chest presses, and pulling weights to the side. Overall, it is a fantastic way to end my trip. The sweating, the thought that I could still run after being out of my zone for a while, and the fun of trying new gym equipment just gave me a new high and have revitalized my desire to get this whole weight and fitness thing going.

To cap it all up, I decided to take a risk and weigh myself before leaving the gym considering all the food I had eaten all week. Guess what? I didn’t do badly at all! Weighed 79.1 kgs! That was exactly the same thing  I weighed the last time I checked on the 16th of May, so after all said and done, I think I can give myself a pass mark on this trip. When I return to Nigeria, I will weigh myself again on Monday and then we continue with the journey. There is still the nagging 4kg that has refused to fall off, so we need to take drastic measures to shed the 4kg. Aluta continua, no stopping now! Ciao, till the next time.