Self Care

I'll be honest in saying that I haven't been very focused on my self-care for the past few years.

But this year, I kind of went 0 to 100 with my more Type A personality tendencies...

I've been working on many factors of my health to be a better version of myself everyday (with the goal of being in my peak condition when I turn 30 in July 2026).

30-year-old Christine will be proud but she'll also forget the progress and journey. So I'm sticking a pin today to write about my current progress.

Here's some professionals and areas that I've been focusing on:

Registered Massage Therapist + Acupuncture

I've been seeing my friend, Eryn for monthly massages and acupuncture.

For massage we've been working all sorts of muscles and broken areas of my body including SI joint, shoulder impingement, and tight hamstrings.

Every day, I try to do my 10 minute rehab program atleast 1-2x/day (usually 1-2 hours before bed) and we're noticing great progress. Probably the most consistent I've been on my physical rehab program in years...

I'm also seeing Eryn to help me with my super red and dry cheeks on my face. We're making some huge progress where they look less red and try. Plus, we're keeping the skincare products minimal.

Registed Dietician

Since February 2025, I've been working closely with a RD on how to improve my overall health and also lose weight via nutrition and lifestyle.

Everything was going great for the first 12 weeks and then things kind went back to before while I was traveling...

But after week 28 (this week), things are back on track and I'm proud of my progress.

We don't do any calorie tracking. We only focus on these 5 key daily habits:

1. 3 balanced meals
   1. Each meal must contain:
      1. 5 grams of fibre
      2. 25g of protein
      3. 3 colors
      4. 1 plant
      5. balance of macros (fats, carbs, and protein)
2. 2 autopilot meals
   1. Essentially approved balanced meals from my RD
3. Atleast 7 hours of sleep
4. Movement goal achieved
   1. Mine are 10k steps/day and completing my cardio or strength training session for the day
5. 1 recharge hour
   1. One hour of "ME" time to help destress. I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was too simple to help me destress. Basically, the 1 hour is mean to be 1 hour not spend on the computer/technology. You can walk, read, build lego, or anything else you want.
   2. After several weeks, I notice how important "ME" time really is. If I don't allow myself a recharge in a week, I notice burn out will start to creep up.

If you'd like to grab your hands on the exact fat loss playbook that I'm using with my RD, here's the free fat loss playbook guide.

While sticking to the habits above, I've lost 8lbs in the past 12 weeks, which is pretty great for my size.

Strength training & Cardio

In addition to the above about movement goal, here's the plan that I made for myself while going on this fat loss journey.

3x25 minute strength training workouts (Mon/Wed/Friday)

My strength training program is quite minimal (by design) and mean to help me maintain muscle but increase strength. From my powerlifting days, I'm content with the amount of muscle that I developed so hypertrophy isn't a goal anymore.

So we focus mainly on 2 compound movements as a pair set for 1-2 working sets (building up to a top set) then superset 2 accessories (e.g. injury prevention or lagging muscle group).

For compound movements, we focus on the 6 fundamentals:

• Vertical Pull (e.g. chin ups)
• Horizontal Pull (e.g. ring rows)
• Vertical Push (e.g. landmine press)
• Horizontal Push (e.g. incline DB press)
• Knee-dominant (e.g. split squats)
• Hinge (e.g. landmine single leg deadlift)

Typically, I focused mainly in the 5-8 rep range and sometimes 3 for movements like weighted chin ups. I usually do 1-2 working sets where I build to a top set at RIR 1. I usually do them in a pair set where I allow myself 30 to 60 seconds before moving on to the next exercise.

For accessories, here's some areas that I focused on:

Upper: Rear delts, medial delts, rotator cuff, lower traps, serratus anterior

Lower: Knee flexion, glue medius/maximus, adductors

I usually have a varied rep range of 8-15 reps for these movement. I usually do 2 straight sets (and superset the accessory movements) but may also do rest-pause method for movements like face pulls and lateral raises.

When you put it all together, here's what one day looks like:

5 minute mobility + stability (including core) warm up

A1: Half kneeling one arm dumbbell shoulder press: 2x8+ with 30 seconds rest between arms. 60 seconds rest before proceeding to A2.

A2: Landmine Single leg Romanian deadlift: 2x8+ with 30 seconds rest between legs

B1: Dumbbell Offset Lunge: 2x6 with 30 seconds rest between legs then straight to B2.

B2: Cable Face Pulls: Rest-pause - 1x15 then rest 20 seconds then 3x5 and rest 20 seconds in between then rest 30 seconds and back to B1

It's extremely minimal but from what studies are saying so far, 4 fractional sets per a muscle group is all you need for minimum effective dose for hypertrophy training. For strength, you only need 1 hard set.

Check out Dr.Pak for more information on minimum effective dose resistance training.

The inspiration for this program design was a combination of the following:

• Ben Bruno's programs
  • I really enjoy how Ben keeps it simple with training methods (e.g. building up to a top set) and exercise selection (e.g. mainly landmine, free weights, and bodyweight)
• Strength and Conditioning Coaching, Winning Methods, Programs, and Facilities book by Mike Boyle
  • I've read the first version atleast 5x and has inspired me to keep it simple with sets, reps, training methods, and also exercise progression. He simplifies the noise and complexity of program design.
• Lean Gain's Programs (example here and here)
  • Although Martin focuses on barbell movements, I've taken the structure of his templates and used more joint friendly movements from Ben and Mike. My body isn't as resilient to barbell movement like when I was a powerlifter.
• Jason Brown's Functional Conjugate Coach Certification
  • I just finished the certification to learn more about the nitty gritty of the way that Jason programs and especially conjugate style. What I really enjoyed was how reassuring his programming was to what I was doing and also implementing his long term strategies and microcycle.

I haven't really seen anyone combine these 4 legends together (well Mike mentored Ben) but this is my twist on what would happen if they combined.

In terms of training methods, I like to poke fun at how people overcomplicate them by creating my own training method called A.R.T.S, which stands for Auto-regulating Reverse Pyramid Training, Top Sets, and Straight Sets.

Wasn't that a mouthful?

It's actually simpler than it sounds...

Basically, you want your first working set to be at RPE 8 (i.e auto-regulating based how you feel that day).

If the weight felt like RPE 10 then drop the weight (i.e. Reverse Pyramid Training).

If the weight felt like RPE 9 then consider doing the same weight (i.e. Straight Set).

If the weight felt like RPE 8 then consider increasing the weight (i.e. building up to a top set)

You can do this for the exercise and intensity will vary based on the day and your physiological responses (e.g. if you're super stressed from work).

It's always funny how people overcomplicate training methods and making them super complicated in periodization. Honestly, that was me... I tried to periodize training methods (and I still do) but for me, A.R.T.S method works perfectly for me.

And this isn't anything new... I just named it something flashy... Mike Boyle talks about how he does something similar in his book.

Later this year, I'm planning on rereading OPEX fitness, Dave Otley's Landmine book, Female Visual Impact by Rusty Moore and also dive into Mike Mentzer's 2 books as well. I'll report back on how this impacts my training down the road.

3x30 minute Zone 2 cardio workouts (Tues/Thursday/Saturday)

As part of working with my RD, we've been adding in Zone 2 cardio for both fat loss and improving my cardiovascular fitness.

I'm pretty proud to have progressed from 3 incline with 3 speed to 5 incline and 3 speed. It may not seem much but I would progress from 4 speed before increasing incline and it used to be the intensity for my 4 minute intervals that I can now do for 30 minutes!

I don't have as much to say about cardio than strength but I do plan on diving deeper into implementing Opex's Maximum Aerobic Power progression from Map 10 to 1. I'm still trying to grasp the MAP table but I do plan on adding in MAP once I'm done with working with my RD.

Dentist

I haven't been to the dentist since 2021/2022... I know... that's really bad...

And it wasn't a great cleaning session on Wednesday for my gums (I'm so sorry to my dental hygienist for having to clean up years of bad gums).

But I'm glad I did.

I found out that I can still reverse my gingivitis and there's no bone loss in my teeth yet... and the grey stuff on my teeth can be cleaned off... Phew!

But I also chatted with my dentist about doing another round of Invisalign. My old retainers have been worn in quite a bit and I didn't know that I was suppose to rotate them. So when I tried to use my new retainers, they don't quite fit...

So my dentist suggested that I could do Invisalign again and it would likely only take 1-3 months top, which is great! I thought it was going to take 6 months. Funny enough, I asked my old dentist for my Invisalign photos and turns out, I actually only needed Invisalign for 8 months back in 2014. I was shocked because I thought it lasted 12-14 months!

Since the cleaning on Wednesday, I've been putting more effort into my oral health including flossing 1x/day, deliberate brushing my teeth 2x/day (instead of being on my phone), and using my new Waterpik 1x/day. Right now, I'm flossing and water piking 2x/day but just for 2 weeks before I get cleaning done for my upper teeth. Just trying to improve my gums a little bit so my dental hygienist doesn't have a hard time. 😅

But I guess my Type A personality tendencies are kicking in cause I went from 0 to 100 with wanting to improve my oral health. It's been fun though!

Self Care Summary

With improvements in many areas of my health, I'm noticing some type of lift and improvement in my overall life. I'm happier, have more energy, and feel more confident.

I'm not trying to impress anyone but myself. I know that next year when I turn 30, I'm gonna be in the best shape of my life.

I'm excited to look back at this blog and reflect on the progress. We're just getting started and I can't even imagine the progress in a year from now.

You don't need to go balls to the walls like me...

But even finding something that takes 5 minutes can boost your health like flossing, walking, or even reading.

Have a chicken nugget and stay flippin jolly,

Christine