Jay Sindu has been avid fitness enthusiast for a while and she always post workout video sessions on her facebook and Instagram. Even though she is mother of 3 beautiful kids and with a tight schedule running home errands plus helping her husband’s business, she still makes it a point to do a her workout regularly under the supervision of her personal trainer.
Fitstylz.com recently sat down with her and ask her few questions on how she got herself motivated and to find time to workout with a busy schedule
What was your light bulb moment that pushed you to decide to lose weight/Get fit? A year after having my 2nd child, I still couldn’t fit into any of my pre-pregnancy clothings. That rang the bell for me and I knew I couldn’t just go on like that.
What were your target and goals? When I first visited the gym, my goal was purely to loose weight. Guess anyone in my shoes would have done the same. But as I started exercising and learning the correct ways of workout, I came to realize that loosing weight is just secondary. I started learning the importance of being fit inside out. I then started focusing on realistic targets and goals. Example; June TARGET is to do 8 squats with perfect posture. When this is achieved, I’ll increase it to 12 squats the following month. My GOAL is to strengthen my quads to enable me to do leg press of 120kg in total. Every time I achieve them, I aim for challenging ones, step by step. By doing this, I started to gain strength, flexibility & endurance.
Did you have a plan for your food and workout? Just by exercising one cannot loose weight. In order for me to shed off the post pregnancy fats, I had to restrict my food intake with minimum carbohydrates. I hardly ate any fried dishes. But I loaded my stomach with loads and loads of vegetables and protein in form of fish. I just ate anything and everything when it came to vegetables, even if it’s stir fried. I didn’t mind the oil in there since I avoided other form of carbohydrates. You have to have balanced meals and frequent exercise to ensure your body adopt to the changes gradually and it will in return show good results. Never expect to see changes in a blink of en eye! It takes time depending on how discipline you are to control your food intake and to exercise. And yeah… NO JUNK FOOD & sweetened drinks too! I drank plain water almost all the time. Being a person who doesn’t touch alcohol made it way lot easier to loose weight. Both food control & exercise comes as a package. No two way about it .
What kept you motivated when you were down? Frankly speaking, I just don’t seem to remember the times I felt down. Maybe I never looked at situation in that perspective even when I felt that way. But, I have to say and admit that my husband has been my motivator from the very beginning. If it wasn’t because of him, I would have been just like others moms out there, giving excuses and not taking care of myself! Everyone is given 24 hours a days and how well we make use of it maters the most! When ever my husband ask me to join him at the gym or to even simple jogging over the weekends, I always give the same old excuses of not having time… busy with kids… lots of work to be done at home… I need to sleep because I am having insufficient rest… bla bla bla… and the list goes on and on. My husband had the same 24 hours as I did too. Despite being super busy with his work and returning late at night, he never fails to wake up early around 5:30am to do his cardio exercises and to workout. He will be at the gym by 7am. If he can have that DISCIPLINE, why couldn’t I? So I took the leap with him. He has always been honest to me saying that he doesn’t want me to be leading an unhealthy lifestyle and to be like any other mothers out there. He never failed to remind me how he want us both to be role models to our kids. Our children must also know the importance of living healthy and the choice is in our hands.
What is the biggest struggle: food, exercise, temptation? Initially, my biggest struggle was SELF DISCIPLINE! I had to push and remind myself way too much, so much so it just built the habit of exercising! Once I had the discipline, my next obstacle was food temptation! It took so much courage to start saying NO to all those junk which I have loved munching on. So I stopped stocking up on all the junk including my favourite dark chocolates. When I had those in my kitchen, I automatically became a rat at night. When this happened, I saw the fat percentage increasing the following week. And then, to loose that 1% of fat was like hell for me. I had to work out so much more and go the extra mile just because of my bad eating habits. I decided to put a stop to it and till date, I do munch on junk but it’s way way lesser these days. I label my junk containers as FATTENING FOOD… I’m not lying! This made me feel guilty when ever I munch them and keep reminding myself how much more I have to exercise just too loose the fats caused by this junk. A little at a time made a while big difference! So there you go… it boiled down to food control. Just a little junk on a weekly basis which made my tummy happy and my body didn’t feel the pinch too.
How has your weight loss effected your relationships? It has lead to a healthier relationship with my husband of course! Because by exercising, I too own a happy body line. Which spouse will not want a fit, slender and healthier partner? Besides that, I’m also happy and proud that I’m inspiring many moms out there to also lead a healthier lifestyle. I do take videos of my gym workouts and upload them on my IG to keep others motivated. I didn’t know I was inspiring others till there was a time when I didn’t upload my videos and many sent me messages asking me to continue sharing the videos because they too have started working out using my videos. It made me feel amazing and to continue motivating others out there…
What’s your favorite type of workout? Boxing & body weight workouts.
