Day 5 - Great Accomplishments

Mini Challenge: Hold a Plank for 60 seconds! :D

I was feeling down today because I didn't do so well on my lab practical. I'm not entirely sure if the professor will curve everyone's grade because I'm sure everyone did pretty bad on that practical, but regardless, it got me into thinking what I really wanted to do in life. I started to question my goal of wanting to be an internal medicine physician. Was this something I really wanted to do for the rest of my life? The answer to that question, is yes. I want to be a physician for sure. I love biology, and my drive for wanting to help people has always been strong. Giving health advise to others who want to better their health has always been something I wanted to do. The only thing that keeps me from reaching out to my goal are grades, and much needed clinical experience. I'm not too terrible on my grades, one tiny bad grade has the potential to hurt my GPA significantly. I still have a final to take for that course, so we'll see how I do.

But today's post is not about how well I'm doing academically, but on a big accomplishment: I finally got my dad to workout with me. Today was really hard for me to get my dad to workout. He's been very down, and angry at his living situation right now, and asking him to workout was just out of the question. Whenever I asked, he'd always say, "I'm too tired right now. Don't even bother asking." Today, I decided to push his buttons a bit. I told him that him losing weight due to stress is not healthy, and that if he wants to be healthier, he needs to exercise. Weight is not an accurate measurement of how healthy you are. And I used the famous plea, "do it for me". I explained to him that I wanted him to be healthier, that I can't let myself get healthy all by myself while he's clearly getting worse. I love my dad dearly, and I just couldn't watch him get enveloped in his stress every single day. He's been on edge lately, and I really think exercise would help him to relieve some of that stress.

Workout -

Pilates Fix (It was all about that plank!)

Diet -

Breakfast: Chocolate shakeology with hemp milk and banana
Snack 1: Double chocolate chip Quest Bar
Lunch: Brown rice with chicken breast, bell peppers, and broccoli stir fry
Dinner: Same as lunch.
Snack 2: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest Bar.

How I felt -

Despite feeling a bit down after my lab practical and my dad stressing out, I felt really good after my workout. This is proof that working out relieves stress. Instead of relieving your stress on unhealthy eating habits, relieve your stress by exercising. It's proven to work! I can definitely feel myself getting stronger. I'm seeing improvements on my form, and I find myself holding poses longer. I'm not doing lower modifications as often, and I can actually get off my knees when doing planks now! My main problem with plank exercises was that my shoulders would start to hurt a lot after a while. I'm guessing my shoulders are getting stronger too because I don't feel that tired in my shoulders anymore. Now, if I can only hold a plank for a longer period of time, I'd be really happy. With today's nutrition, I'm a little worried that I had two Quest Bars. I haven't been drinking enough water lately due to being busy with studying, and not having time. I need to work on drinking lots of water, and making it a habit.

How was your workout today? Try inviting a friend to workout with you. If you have someone you really want to help get healthy, explain to them why it's so important for them to make exercise a habit. Working out with another person will help both you and your friend feel motivated to continue. Let's continue to stay healthy, and keep moving towards our goals. :)

Day 4 - Lonely Days

I made plans to stay up late last night and finish my neuroanatomy powerpoint projects. That didn't go as planned, so I ended up going to sleep and starting on that this morning. I gotta say that it's getting harder and harder to force myself to wake up early in the morning. Finals week is coming close, and I only have a few days to study intensely. It is a stressful process to constantly stay up, not get enough sleep, and continue to juggle between working out and studying. But if you think of your workout routine as something that is part of your daily life, it doesn't feel too bad. I've actually come to love working out everyday, and when I'm feeling tired, exercising helps me to focus better, keep me awake, and make me feel happier and less stressed. So it's actually a win-win situation. Maybe it'll help my studying time decrease because I could absorb more information faster than before.

So as the title says, today has been a lonely day for me. I woke up this morning with two things to do: pack some micro sinningia seeds and magic lipsticks that I sold on eBay to ship out, and start my lecture powerpoint project. My dad left to go drive for Uber because that's our only source of income right now. He left early in the morning, and I didn't get to see him until 9 PM. That made me realize how important it is to have someone physically next to you. And this is very true for staying committed to your workout routine as well. If you have someone working out with you everyday, you feel more motivated to do it. But if you have to workout all by yourself, your mind starts to tell you "hey, it's ok to slack off since nobody's watching, right?" I don't know about you, but whenever I workout with someone, I start to feel this competitive drive to do better. So the next time you go out to workout, invite a friend to workout with you! Try to compete and see who can workout better. If you're not as good as your friend, don't feel discouraged. It's all the more reason to get better and try to beat them on the next workout competition. ;) That being said, I think it would be an awesome idea to have a massive meet up where people around your area could gather to do the same workout video that you're doing. It would be such a fun event! I may try that one day.

Workout -

Lower Fix (legs were burning!)

Diet -

Breakfast: Yellow Peach
Snack 1: Brown rice with 4 strips of turkey bacon
Lunch: Chocolate shakeology with 8 oz of water and strawberries! (yes, no more bananas!)
Snack 2: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest Bar
Dinner: Brown rice with chicken breast, red bell peppers, and broccoli stir fry

How I felt -

Recap: Remember when I talked about how I was worried that eating a quest bar at 10 PM was going to make me gain weight yesterday? Well, this morning, I woke up to a pound lighter. Woohoo! I think as long as you workout after eating anything with carbs, you should be ok. Quest bars don't have a lot of carbs to begin with though. They have about 2-5 grams of net carbs depending on which flavor you get. Quest bars are my go-to snack. Whenever I feel a strong craving for anything sweet, I eat a quest bar. Fruits are probably a better alternative rather than a quest bar since they're more of a naturally occurring carbohydrate. But if you're craving something chocolatey, peanut buttery, or any dessert type of food, quest bars are ok to eat. They taste just like it. But I've heard some people don't like the texture of quest bars. I don't really feel the texture that they describe, so I don't have a problem with them. As far as my nutrition goes, I think I did pretty good today. I actually prepared my dinner last night. So I was well prepared for today. Peaches are slowly starting to soft and juicy this season. So if peaches are getting ripe in your area, get some peaches! I love them, and eating 1 large peach a day should be ok. So, what do you think about quest bars? Do you like them? If you do, what flavors are you favorites?

Stay strong, eat clean, add some resistance to your cardio workouts, and smile because you will see results. Believe in yourself! :)

Day 3 - Dealing with Stress

I woke up this morning feeling very happy, cheerful and positive about my day. I had to wake up at 6:30 AM to get ready for my neuroanatomy class, and although it was tough, I still felt pretty positive. My day was going great. I was finishing my powerpoint projects pretty fast, I had time to go to a Cancer Awareness Club meeting and listen to a very inspirational talk from cancer survivors. I had the opportunity to ask for volunteer positions in cancer research and clinical experience. I met up with fellow classmates to study for our neuroanatomy lab practical that's coming up this Thursday. I realized that I only packed lunch, so I go back home, cook something light to pack for dinner so I could study at the library.

For those of you who don't know, I don't have a car. I've been told that I should get a car for a very long time, but the financial burden of having to pay for insurance seems pretty big, and being a full-time student, I don't have the time to get a job. So my only source of transportation is through my dad. I have to ask him to give me rides, and there are days when he says yes, and there are days when he says no. He had to send some files to someone by a certain deadline, so he was spending time working on that when I had to go to school. I'm guessing the time pressure plus the fact that he knew I was waiting for him to finish got him a little antsy. I decided to try to help him out because something was wrong with his Open Office, and he just yelled at me to not touch anything. That one moment of yelling, just made my very happy day to a very stressful day. It's actually amazing if you think about it, how just one small, short incident can ruin your day in a split second. But it's up to you to determine if it'll affect you. Yes, I felt hurt and upset, but everybody makes mistakes. I'm sure he didn't mean to yell at me, it was just that he was so enveloped in his emotions that he couldn't help but do so. Everybody gets angry, and everybody makes mistakes on deciding what is the best option to relieve a situation. I just happened to make a mistake in trying to help him out when he didn't want it. My dad is a very loving person, but just like everyone else and myself, he makes mistakes.

Stress is a very big deal when you're working out. You never want to be in stress for a long period of time because stress increases your cortisol level, which is linked to your leptin levels that tell your body to store fat in your abdomen. So you don't want to ruin all your hard work by getting stressed over something that happened for a split second (not saying that whatever happened was unimportant). The good thing is that fat is stored in your abdomen to help you get more energy to run. So take advantage of that, and workout when you're feeling down, upset, angry, or just stressed in general. I always go through a psychological battle when I'm stressed. I constantly tell myself "maybe I should not workout today because I feel so upset", or "I don't even feel like moving because I'm so mad/sad". Learning to redirect your anger, frustration, depression into a fuel to exercise and move your body will benefit you more than you think. It's very difficult to change that mindset, but it's so worth it at the end. I can say for sure that when I workout, I am always more positive. I don't feel as mad about what happened before, and it gets easier to do things I'm supposed to do for the rest of the day.

Guess what today's workout was - Upper body workout!!

Workout - 

Upper Fix (managed to use my 5 lb weights throughout)

Diet - 

Breakfast: Chocolate shakeology with 8 oz water and banana. (I gotta switch things up)
Snack 1: Strawberries
Lunch: Brown rice with 4 strips of turkey bacon
Dinner: Brown rice with chicken breast, red bell peppers, and broccoli stir fry
Snack 2: Vanilla almond Quest Bar.

How I felt - 

I have a very weak upper body. The hardest workout for me is any type of arm workouts. For example, holding a plank is really hard right now (but I'm getting better at it), doing push-ups is hard, any tricep related workouts kill me, and staying on all fours for a long period of time burns my shoulder muscles. I've always wanted those toned muscular arms so that I could wear a tank top without feeling embarrassed. I'm really glad that I was able to consistently use my weights throughout the entire Upper Fix workout. I know I'm going to feel sore tomorrow, but that's totally ok because that's how you know you got a good workout. I feel like I've gotten a bit weaker than last time though. It might be because I didn't sleep enough. Sleep is another thing that you must have in order to recover from your workouts. Finals week is definitely making it hard to sleep enough, but I am trying to add some naps here and there.

For my meal plan for today, I feel a bit guilty because I had a quest bar at 10 PM. But then I worked out right after, so I don't know how much it affected by weight. Besides the late night Quest Bar snack, everything else was pretty good. I didn't feel any cravings, didn't get hungry in between, and drank lots of water to stay hydrated. Hydration is key, so make sure you're drinking a lot of water when you're working out. Drinking lots of water also helps improve your skin too. I feel like I look forward to eating my daily dose of fruits every single day. I love fruits, and they're such a great alternative than over processed sugary desserts out there. Strawberries seem to be in season right now, so take advantage of it. If you don't like strawberries, you can always replace them with other fruits like apples, bananas, kiwis, peaches (1 large peach a day), and many others. Fruits definitely help me to stay away from wanting to eat junk foods, and I think they're helping my skin too.

What is your favorite fruit, and what do you do to reduce your cravings? For all the other students out there, how do you deal with stress?

Day 2 - Studious Day

Today was supposed to be my extremely productive, studious day. Being a premed student and studying in a neuroanatomy class takes up so much of my time that finding time to workout is seriously difficult. There are days when I want to just quit everything, and go back to eating those delicious white cheddar Pirate's Booty cheese puffs. Those used to be my go-to snack for finals week. The major issues that students face is time management. At least for me, it's one of my most difficult tasks every single day. I plan to wake up at a certain time, and I end up waking an hour or two later. I plan to study 2 chapters a day of neuroanatomy, but finish 1 chapter on good days, and half of a chapter on bad days. I promise other neuroanatomy students that I would show up for study group sessions, but never make it because I woke up too late, and couldn't get there on time. It really made me realize that maybe I'm making unrealistic goals for myself. I can't be in two places at the same time. I either got to study at home without any study buddies, or invest in studying together with other study buddies. It's hard because there's always a part of me that wants to prove to others that I could do everything, and keep my word when I promise. But I learned it's good to make mistakes to learn from, and we're not perfect human beings. Everybody makes mistakes, and that's how we learn and grow from them. Life is all about trial and error in order to find what works best for our daily lives. That trial and error time just happens to be now for me.

I mentioned before that I was working out late at night, and not getting as much sleep as I wanted. I made it a goal to workout every morning by waking up earlier, until I realized daylight savings time hit. This is really embarrassing for me to share, but all of the clocks in my apartment didn't need any adjustment when daylight savings time hit because they've been untouched 6 months ago. Yes, my dad and I are that lazy. We never adjust our clocks because we know that it'll go back to that time eventually. Another thing we don't have are wall calendars. I really think that my resolution for this year should be to purchase an awesome wall calendar, and actually use it. Maybe then I will know how to manage my time better, or never forget appointments. My goal is definitely to be more organized this year.

As far as workouts go, I managed to do blogilates and my 21 day fix workout today! The only problem is I have 3 powerpoint projects to finish for neuroanatomy that I want to finish by today, or should I say by this morning. I didn't workout as late as I normally do, but I still don't have time for sleep. Sleep is very important, and I need to figure out a better schedule to get my sleep in. So here's my workout summary:

Workout -
30 min of Total Body Cardio
49 min of Blogilates (today was focused on the abs and thighs)

Diet -
Breakfast: Chocolate Shakeology with 8 oz of water and 1 banana
Snack 1: None
Lunch: Brown rice with turkey bacon & strawberries
Snack 2: 12 Almonds
Dinner: Brown rice with chicken breast with red bell peppers and broccoli stir fry

How I felt -
As you can see, I had a mess up with my diet today. I wanted to half a full on meal for breakfast, but when I opened my rice cooker, I had no rice.... I was starving, so I ended up just making myself my shakeology. My shakeology was originally supposed to be my snack, and the brown rice with turkey bacon and strawberries was supposed to be my breakfast. It takes my rice cooker very long to make brown rice. So I literally had to wash my uncooked brown rice, place it in the rice cooker, and allow it to cook. And while it was cooking, I had to go to a nearby restaurant that served brown rice and ask for curry chicken with brown rice, but keep the rice separate. I just wanted the brown rice, so I let my dad have the curry sauce and chicken. I finally have my brown rice, so I use that instead to eat with my turkey bacon. It was such a long day, and I'm just glad that I ended up eating healthy instead of opting for an unhealthy dish. As far as working out goes, it is very difficult to get myself to workout after I get back from school. I'm always tired from studying both physically and psychologically due to all the responsibilities I have in studying hard. I really think working out in the morning will give me that boost of energy to study harder. I don't think I'll be able to do that starting tomorrow due to my 8 AM neuroanatomy class, but maybe I'll try on Wednesday. I realized that when you workout after a long day, you're body just feels exhausted in general. It's harder to do the moves required. I'd expect it to be easier after a good sleep. We'll see how I do in the next couple of days.

I hope your day was better than mine, and for all the hard-working students out there, just know that slow improvements in your time management will benefit you so much. If I can study and also workout every single day, you can too! Preparing your healthy meals in advance is key, and it helps to go through the week without any struggles. This is something I need to work on. What are some of your reasons for not working out? I know for me, it's definitely time. But if we keep at it, I know we can stay strong and consistent. Let's rock this month! :)

Start of Something New - Day 1

I was browsing through some blogs from other fitness enthusiasts, and I came across a wonderful lady who blogged about her weight loss progress every single day on her blog. I got super inspired, so I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes for me. Hopefully I can take a few minutes from my day and try to write about how my exercise routine and diet went for that day. I wanted my blog to be diverse, but I think my journey logged on a daily basis can be beneficial regardless of how repetitive it may seem. So I hope this will inspire and help a lot of you move towards your goal.

Before I go into Day 1 (today), I want to talk about how my Day 0 (yesterday) went.
So yesterday, I just had no time to workout because Finals Week is coming up, and I wanted to get the most out of the day to study as much as possible. I didn't get that much done, but I still wanted to fit in my workout routine. It was midnight, and I still pulled myself to workout that day. I ended up doing Dirty 30 from 21 Day Fix, and the March calendar from Blogilates. I worked out until it was about 1:30 in the morning. I was really tired, but I'm so glad that I still took the time to work out because the next morning, I weighed myself and I was down to 135 from 138. Yes, I did gain weight from my previous Diet Bet challenge because I treated myself out to sushi. (recap: I went from 141.8 to 135.6 lb for my Blogilates Diet Bet challenge).

So imagine having to workout at such a late time, and trying to go to sleep right after. I just couldn't fall asleep with all the adrenaline running through my veins. I felt really restless, but before I knew it, I was already fast asleep. It was harder to wake up the next day though. Sleep is very important when you're eating healthy and working out consistently. Lack of sleep makes you stressed out, which counteracts your efforts. So, make sure you get enough sleep when you're on a high intensity workout and calorie restricted diet. You need your body to recover through all that strenuous exercise.

Day 1 (today) -

Exercise -
Yoga Fix from 21 Day Fix
Today's Blogilates March Calendar workouts

Diet -
Breakfast: Brown rice with turkey bacon
Snack 1: Strawberries
Lunch: Chocolate shakeology with 1 banana, 8 oz water, and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter (unsalted, unsweetened, natural)
Snack 2: half a yellow peach
Dinner: Brown rice with tofu story fry (recipes located in my previous post).

How I felt -
I definitely feel like I'm eating less and less everyday. I don't get that hungry that often anymore. It might be because of drinking shakeology everyday, but I definitely think it's because I'm getting used to the healthy, clean eating routine. With just one week of doing 21 Day Fix, I can definitely feel my abs getting tighter. My shirts feel less tight than before, and my pants are getting loose. I remember when I first bought my jeans from Cotton On, I got one with an elastic band instead of buttons because I didn't want to feel ashamed whenever I tried buttoning up my jeans. They use to be tight around my thighs and butt, but they're now getting too loose and I find myself pulling up my pants more often.

Eating healthy has made such a big difference in how I feel throughout the day. I feel so much more awake, aware of my surroundings, and just focused on whatever I do. I never space out, and start to drift off into my day dreams. I don't find myself craving for anything sweet or extremely fatty because I'm eating all the necessary nutrients for my body. During the days when I do feel slight cravings, I usually just eat a quest bar to relieve it. But fruits are just as good in relieving cravings.

Water is another importance in health. I definitely have to improve more on this because I know I'm not drinking enough water. My throat and the back of my sinus starts feeling dry when I don't drink enough water. I have a really bad habit of ignoring it, and not drinking water. Drinking lots of water really helps in cravings as well. When you feel hydrated, you tend to stay full, and don't get hungry as often. It's also very important to stay hydrated when you're doing lots of cardio and strenuous workouts. Our body is made of mostly water, and we have to remember to keep replenishing our fluids.

So I hope you enjoyed my first daily check-in, and I hope to continue to do so everyday. Stay strong, and let's make a difference this month! :)

New 21 Day Challenge & Healthy Recipe of the Day

Finals week is slowly creeping up, and studying has been my main concern everyday. The main issue that comes with examination season is forgetting to prepare your food in advance when undergoing a healthy, clean diet meal plan. If you remember from my previous blog posts, I did the 21 day challenge with success. I've lost about a total of 10 pounds with my 21 day challenge, and saw actual physical results. They weren't drastic results, but they were still small changes in my body towards a healthier and stronger me. No matter how slow the results are, if I'm seeing change, that's all that matters. I can say for sure that I am now a lot stronger than I was 21 days ago. That being said, I am a now a big fan of 21 day challenges. So I decided to join another one.

My new 21 day challenge started on March 2nd. I purchased the 21 day fix challenge pack, and I'm currently in Week 1 of my 21 Day Fix, meal plan and workout routine. Since I like challenging myself, I've added the Blogilates March calendar into my workout routine as well. At first, the meal plan that came with the 21 Day Fix package was confusing. I didn't know how to coordinate what I need to eat, and how much of the different color coded containers I had to use. But after trial and error for a few days, I finally got the gist of how to work with these containers. Here's a general breakdown of what color codes for what.

Green - Vegetables
Purple - Fruits
Red - Protein (your meats and meat alternatives)
Yellow - Grains, Rice, Bread
Blue - Nuts (your good fats)
Orange - Dressing or Oils

Based on your weight, there's a formula you could follow to calculate how many calories you need to eat to lose weight. But they emphasize that this is just a guideline, and if you're feeling too hungry, it's good to eat a little more than what they require on your meal plan. The key is to not get hungry. You don't want to get hungry and snack on something unhealthy. The 21 Day Fix package comes with a pamphlet that tells you what foods are allowed in each container. But generally, you can fit a lot more than you think. A lot of veggies go into that small green container than you'd expect. So I usually end up leaving leftovers for lunch because I get too full.

Here's a little recipe I made with the 21 Day Fix containers (Lunch):

Ingredients (1 serving):

1/2 block of extra firm tofu

1/3 of 1 large red bell pepper

1 small broccoli

1/2 cup - 1 cup of brown rice

few leaves of cilantro for garnish

1 Tbsp of coconut oil

Spices:

1 Tbsp of chili powder

2 tsp of ground cumin

1 tsp of coriander

1/2 tsp of onion powder

1/2 tsp of garlic powder

1/2 tsp of dried oregano

1/2 tsp of paprika

1 tsp of sea salt 

*the ratio for the spices, will give you more than you need for one serving

Directions:

Preparation:

1. Wash your brown rice, and cook in a rice cooker. (you can add more than 1/2 - 1 cup of brown rice to keep cooked rice at hand for your next meal throughout the day)

2. Get all your dry ingredients (for your spices), and mix all together in a small bowl.

2. Chop up your tofu, red bell pepper, and broccoli into small bite-size pieces.

Cooking:

3.  Spread your coconut oil on a frying pan, and turn stove to medium heat.

4. Place your tofu cube once your coconut oil is heated, and cook until golden brown on all sides.

5. Place your red bell peppers and broccoli into the frying pan with your tofu and cook together until the broccoli turns slightly translucent and the red bell pepper starts to turn limp.

6. Pour your spice mix all over your tofu stir fry. Mix it around to make sure it coats all veggies and tofu evenly for about a minute. 

7. Turn off heat, and transfer over to a clean plate. If it tastes too bland, add more of your spice mix.

8. Scoop about 1/2 cup or 1 cup of cooked brown rice and place next to your tofu stir fry.

9. Add a few leaves of cilantro on top of the brown rice as garnish. (you can skip this is you don't like cilantro)

10. Serve.

I had this tofu stir fry for lunch, and it was more than enough. I ended up leaving half of it for dinner. Do let me know how it tastes. Let me know if you tweaked the recipe a bit to make it taste better, and how you tweaked it to make it taste better. Let me know how it tasted for you, and feel free to comment on what else you'd like to see more of (i.e. recipes, my workout log, etc.). 

Remember, eat healthy to make a healthier lifestyle, not a skinnier you. You are eating for your health, not on how you look. Physical improvements are just bonuses to your healthier diet. ;) Stay healthy, and let's rock this month on our fit journey!