Taking on Tabata

So I have reached a half year anniversary of my weight loss journey and I actually have lost more weight than I originally planned for the whole year. One of the not so secret process I went through was intermittent fasting.

But losing 20++lbs in half a year only became a reality because I matched my eating habits with appropriate activities that helped burn all the fats that I accumulated for years. Feeling a lot heavy since I gave birth, I felt like exercising is a lot more taxing than it used to for me. So I had to take it slowly but surely to make sure that the lifestyle I wanted to create will be sustainable. I started with interval training. I get a mix of light exercises with cardio and some low intensity workout. Then, my weight loss trend suddenly reached a plateau. I do the low intensity workout on a daily basis with only Sundays as my rest day so it kinda felt like I stopped losing weight. For someone who have been frustrated with getting healthier, that's a bit discouraging.

Then one of my friends introduced me to HIIT. From what I understand with what he said, HIIT aims to increase your heart rate so your body could reach the maximum fat burning capability. I'm not sure if I got it right but I searched for HIIT workouts online and each one I find always literally takes my breath away when I'm done exercising. And it did the trick. I was finally able to overcome the weightloss plateau of my #healthier2019 journey. But then, I noticed again that the amount of time I lose weight and gain muscles is getting slower. I would want to have some abs by next year if that's not too much to ask. It's not like I'm not working for it, or something.

_{Photo obtained and edited through Canva}

Then, I found a video of 5 men with these amazing abs doing the TABATA workout. I got curious. From what I found here and here, it is a discovery of Dr. Izumi Tabata (hence the name) and the workout consists of 20 second workout, 10 second rest with 8 rounds of exercise. The first time I did the exercise on this video, I did have a lot of pain all over my body. _{(I actually cheated on the first day, I only did three rounds).} But just to be fair, I did give myself an extra round the following day and the day after that, I let my daughter ride on my back while I was doing the pushups, I let her ride my legs while I was doing the knee crunches and I lifted her during the squats. Redemption/punishment/additional playtime for the kiddo.

I'm looking for other Tabata workout routine. I noticed that I get bummed when I repeat a particular circuit for more than a week so I need to prepare 4 routines so I can do 1 different routine per week each month. Oh, and there's one thing I discovered from chatting with my fellow intermittent fasting friends who also workout their way to fitness. Working out during a fasted state helps the body burn those energy reservoir in our body. Meaning, the hungrier you are when you work out, the more your body is forced to use those energy stored as fats. Those fats will fuel your body thus, increasing the body's fat burning rate, thus helping you lose those love handles a lot easier.