Five Great Reasons For Weight Loss

Before reading, I want to express the reason why I wrote this blog, which is pretty simple. This is to encourage everyone to maintain their health. I have no intention to intimidate anyone. I simply want to encourage you all to maintain your healthy habits.

Secondly, I do not rank the reasons. To me, those reasons are equally important for me and I just want to share with you all. Since I made it, I know you all can make it.

What motivates me to share the reason is when the hot summer finally hit southern California on 14th of July, I didn't feel too hot or break a sweat. And then, people said it's so hot. It got me puzzled and I checked my iPhone for the temperature. That's when my eyes popped wide open because it was 93 degrees.

In the past, I sweated easily if it's 85 degrees or warmer. But, on that day, I did not sweat and I thought it was 82 degrees! That made me realize how great I feel after a year of working out. Therefore, it inspires me to share with you all.

1) Coping with hot weather easily! With weight loss, you will be able to deal with hot weather a lot better. Don't forget that it will save you a lot of money from electricity bill or gas from using AC in your car during hot weather.

2) Better mental alert! With workout as part of your routines, you will be able to notice that your mind works much better.

3) More energy boost! Oh man, I remembered those days I played with my nephews and I got so tired easily until I made a strong commitment to weight loss. That's when I realized that I lasted much longer and made it at the end of the day without a nap!

4) Save a lot of money! How can losing weight save me money? The answer is simple - less food to spend, less medicines to pay, and save your trips to see a doctor. That's true. I have been noticing myself that I don't need any more medicines comparing to last year. In addition, my friend finally joined the gym by my persuasion and she came to me one day saying that she noticed that she did not need to take Advil, which she normally do daily.

5) Better self-image! It's not about showing off yourself to people, but it's about looking in the mirror and feel proud of your achievement! Being in a good shape will show everyone how much you really take care of yourself. It will make yourself looking healthy and strong,

As you see, I can't really think of good reasons why to gain weight. I posted a picture above showing myself BEFORE and AFTER. It's clear that I looked older and unhealthy in BEFORE, comparing to AFTER.

By the way, to share my short story how I began losing my weight, it was that day I visited to see my doctor. My doctor wrote a simple note, "You are a little bit overweight. You need to watch your weight." That message really struck me and I did not really like what my doctor said, but at the same time, I realized I denied for a long time about my weight. Immediately, I set my goal on first day by researching about methods to lose my weight.

Truth be told, it's really hard at first because many friends of mine said, "Ohhh, good luck!" The others said, "Well, try your best." It's not that I blamed them. It's because it's rare to see people keeping their words nowadays. The point is that when my doctor said about my weight - it hit me that I did not really take care of my body. I did some research on Google about overweight and I was stunned to see that being overweight will cause issues on heart, liver, blood pressure, and you name it. If it doesn't affect in age of 20-40, it will be a big consequence in age of 50 or more. It will lead to taking more and more medicines.

Because of that, I became so determined to change my eating habit and my workout habit. It took me 10 months to achieve. Lately, many friends of mine were stunned to see the big transformation I succeed.

In the next blog, I will share with you all how I did with my eating habit and my workout. But, the purpose of this blog is to encourage you all to reconsider about your health, self-image, and true happiness. It's about investing your health in your future.

What I am trying to say is that each one of you out there is beautiful as long as you are taking care of yourself. There are a lot of benefits in maintaining your health daily, including happiness and better lifestyle.

Remember those movies or TV shows that show a person winning at the finish line with a joy on his/her face? That's how I felt when I reached the finish line and I am still maintaining my health daily.

Stay healthy and keep warm! :-)

Love Yourself

Once again, please keep in your mind that this blog is not short. Therefore, read it when you have a time with a coffee or tea in your hands.

Why did I come up with this title while this title itself is repeated everywhere? I am sure that you heard this quote in many forms so many times that its meaning may be invalid or meaningless. However, I see differently. This quote still inspires me.

Before I move on, please read my blog “To Judge or Not To Judge” because it concerns the attitude of passing judgment on the others.

What I am trying to say is that if you find yourself judging the others, then you really do not love yourself. Before I move deeper into the discussion, I want to share a story that is based on King David’s action that reflected his poor judgment as a king. You may read the passage (2 Samuel 11-12).

King David had been quite a successful king and won over many battles, leading his armies successfully. One day, he decided to stay home while his armies go on the war. One night, he saw the naked woman, Bathsheba, bathing. First of all, he was the king and he was supposed to establish an example as a man with moral values. Nevertheless, he summoned her to his bedroom and had a fun night.

Moreover, the woman King David chose to have an affair happened to be married to a man who is faithful soldier of King David. And to make things worse, Bathsheba got pregnant. Instead of telling the truth, King David summoned Bathsheba’s husband and got him drunk and to sleep with his wife to cover up.

But, the soldier was too loyal and he refused to sleep with his wife while he was currently on his duty as a soldier. (Poor soldier for being so loyal blindly to King David…) Anyway, King David got an idea by writing a letter. After sealing it, he told his loyal soldier to deliver it to the enemy at the front line.

The loyal soldier obeyed without asking a single question. At the front line, he delivered the sealed letter to the commander. Inside the sealed letter, it told the enemy commander to have someone to kill the soldier. Unfortunately, the faithful and loyal soldier was killed. That way, King David can marry Bathsheba after a month of mourning and everything was good.

What he had done is lie, steal, kill, and adultery while he was supposed to be an example of a man with moral values. So, one day, the man named Nathan who is known as a prophet of God came to him. Once King David saw Nathan, he gave the prophet a big welcome and said, “What is it I can do for you?”

Nathan sighed, “Well, I want to share something that bothers me.”

David inquired, “What is it? Is there something I can do?”

Nathan nodded, “Okay, you see… there was a large farm owned by a rich man. He has so many sheep and plenty of harvest that he has many tenants living around to do all the work. You see, one of those tenants is a poor family that owns only an innocent lamb. They are very poor that they feed the lamb from their own table.

“Unfortunately, once the rich man realized that his guest is coming, he wanted to prepare a finest meal, but he did not want to use one of his sheep. Therefore, he decided to have one of his servants to snatch that innocent lamb from the poor family, breaking their hearts.” Nathan shook his head, “It’s so sad to see the children crying as they watched their lamb being taken away. The lamb was killed mercilessly by the servant and was prepared for a dinner meal for the rich man and the guest. Of course, the rich man and the guest ate without expressing their gratitude. So, what do you think we should do with this rich man?”

King David was so furious and said, “Surely, that rich man deserves to die! And he should pay back four times for what he stole!”

Nathan turned toward King David and said, “Indeed?”

King David shouted, “Yes!”

Nathan pointed toward King David and shouted, “You are that same man!”

It caught King David completely off the guard. Nathan continued, “You are the king and you have several wives, but you chose to have an affair with this woman and to end her husband’s life!”

King David suddenly confessed his mistakes and asked for forgiveness.

I can continue, but I am focusing on the topic, “Love Yourself.” Why did I share this story? You see, King David was angry with the person for his mistake, but it was himself that he was angry and loathing at!

If I look at someone and felt negative against someone, then it’s ME that I am having problems with. It’s in my personal experience that I judged the others because I don’t really love myself.

After facing my worst time of my life in the past, I realized that my life got so much better just because I learned to love one other as I love myself. Loving myself is not easy because I did hate myself for many reasons. Hence, it was the reason why I judged the others harshly.

So, my question: Do you really love yourself regardless to the flaws you have? If not, please do. Life itself is quite beautiful once you learn how to love yourself and to forgive yourself for your mistakes in your past. From the point, I believe the journey to true happiness will begin.