Made in Macao | Post-holiday fitness regime

Jenny Lao-Phillips

While the new year is generally the time we make, or try to make, life-changing resolutions, the celebration of Chinese New Year usually results in weight-loss resolutions.

After a long relaxing break, especially one with lots of sweet and carbohydrate-filled festive foods like the Chinese New Year, it is normal to put on some holiday weight. However, it is not merely what we eat during the Chinese New Year celebration that results in the need for a post-holiday workout. Many a time, it is the reality check we are brought face-to-face with when gathering amongst relatives and acquaintances with whom we meet once a year, or every other year, that pushes us down that road (of fitness).

Whenever we meet with people we have not seen for some time, they tend to notice changes in us that we do not pay attention to or do not want to face. Then we hear comments like “you seem to have put on some weight,” or “your face looks a bit rounder,” which, in most cases, may be a compliment. Especially common are comments from relatives of the older generation who still believe that “fat is good, thin is bad”, not knowing how severely these comments could have hurt our feelings, putting us into a crazy spree of sit-ups and rope-jumping – well, perhaps for that day.

Even if we are meeting with considerate acquaintances who have the courtesy not to comment on other people’s size, we cannot escape seeing someone who is our age, or even older, and is in exceptional shape. There are always those who seem to get slimmer and younger every year, and yet still maintain a successful career, putting us face-to-face with our sloppiness in our fitness regime. Just like rumor has it that our lives flash past our eyes the moment before death, the many moments we made excuses of being too busy to work out, or that we couldn’t go for that morning run because we’d be having a long work day, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, flash past our minds the moment we see our well-shaped and successful acquaintances. Right there and then, we resolve to work out and eat less – well, after the CNY holidays.

Now that the 15th day of the first month has passed, and the CNY celebration is officially over, we are faced with putting our post-holiday fitness regime into action. But how do we start?

Living in Macau, we are actually quite lucky. If we are serious about keeping fit, there are many small things in our daily lives we can adopt without having to sign up for that marathon race or pay a huge amount of money for gym membership. The first thing we can do is walk. Given the size of the city, most of us live around a 30 to 45-minute walk from work. So, instead of driving, we can walk to and from work, which will give us over an hour of exercise a day already. Moreover, this can reduce both our body fat and our carbon footprint.

For those who live too far from work, or too close, so that walking to and from work is not an option or is not a significant contribution, we can start by eating low-calorie meals. One suggestion is having wonton or fish ball noodles for lunch and dinner, or better yet, veggie noodles. These savory bowls count less than 500 calories per meal,  and are fulfilling, tasty and low in fat. So, it is not too hard to start a new post-holiday fitness regime with a bit more walking and tasty noodles. It is not like we need to sign up for CrossFit right away.