Day 33 - How to Deal with Haters

I've been doing pretty good on my workouts. Things have been very consistent and I always add a challenge here and there to prevent my weight from plateau-ing. I've slowly been incorporating cardio workouts as well. My day has been going great with Cassey's new book in my hands, and the free "Train like a beast, look like a beauty" tote bag. But regardless of how great your day is going, there's always going to be one of those days where your day started out great, but ended terribly. It's up to our minds to fix the bad experience to a good one. I've posted in previous blogs about how we have to learn to change negativity into positivity by looking at things in a different light. But there are those times when it just doesn't seem to be that easy to do. Today was one of those days, and I have got to say that it has been tough to ignore the haters I faced. I guess it's because this is the first time I've ever faced one. Maybe after a few more hate comments, I'll get used to it and learn to ignore them.

So here's what happened with my encounter with haters. I posted on a fitness forum about how I eat, workout, and go about my day to stay fit. I wasn't saying that my method was perfect and flawless, nor was I saying that I was skinny in any way. I just shared my knowledge and routine so that others can look at how motivated I am, and to get motivated as well. Well, right after I posted, somebody commented below saying, "So you're fat" and "Go lose some weight". I don't know what kind of person would post such rude comments to anybody trying to lose weight, but it really hurt my feelings. I know I shouldn't have taken it personally because there will always be someone out there that will criticize your methods, or just leave random hate comments. Who knows why they felt compelled to leave rude comments. It could have been because they're jealous of your motivation, or that they really think you're fat. But what's important is that, you don't get as affected with these comments as I did. I literally spent the rest of my day questioning whether I was fat, or whether my methods were just not good enough. But at the end of the day, you know your body best. Don't let others tell you what your body should be and shouldn't be. If you are working towards losing weight, then those comments aren't worth reading. You're working hard, and that's all that matters. You should set your own goals and standard of how your body should look. If you love the way your body looks right now, that's great. If you'd like to improve to lose a little bit more, then good job on staying consistent! There will always be people out there to ruin your day, and it's up to you to ignore them, and stay motivated. I just had to get this off my chest. I would never want anybody else to experience the things I felt, and so I thought I'd share my little story.

Workout:

50 min of Body Sculpt (at my school gym)
20 min of Blogilates

Diet:

Breakfast - Healthy fried rice
Lunch - Hummus quinoa bowl (from a health cafe nearby)
Dinner - Ezekiel bread with avocado hummus
Snack - Strawberries

How I felt:

I felt really tired today! That body sculpt class was intense! I felt sore for the rest of the day because my muscles were tired. Today's blogilates workout was all about stretching, so I'm glad I added that in to get that good stretch after an intense workout. Make sure you're stretching before and after your workouts! Stretching is important, and prevents injury and helps you to not be sore the next day. My diet could have been better if I had strawberries in between lunch and dinner rather than after dinner at such a late time. I also need to make sure to drink more water.

Question: So have you ever encountered rude comments about your body? What did you do to deal with it? Do you think it affects your motivation?

Day 32 - Cardio vs Weight Lifting

I had such a busy day today. Usually, I get out from lab at around 5:00 even though the lab officially ends at 6:50 PM. Today, we had to use the entire lab to finish one long experiment, and it was very tedious and strenuous. But I'm glad that it's over, and a stressful day means there will be a good workout to relieve all that negative energy. I've been doing a lot of strength training workouts lately, and I noticed that I wasn't really losing any fat. I didn't really see any difference, although I may have been expecting too fast of a result. But regardless, I don't really feel like I'm losing that much weight or fat as much as I did before. The blogilates calendar has Thursdays as a cardio day, which I feel like I need to incorporate more into my workout routine. Pilates has a lot of strength training where you use your body as weights, making it very convenient to do at home, at work, or wherever you are. The only downside is that it doesn't have too much cardio. Strength training is good in itself in that it helps your body burn calories consistently as it tries to repair tear in your muscles. Don't worry, the tear in your muscles aren't dangerous, they're an everyday process that occurs when you work your muscles a little more than usual. However, strength training is not something that will help you lose fat on its own. Cardio workouts are major fat burners, and you must do aerobic exercises in order to burn fat. Cardio works your fat, and weight lifting works your muscles. You can do a ton of weight lifting, and have beautiful sculpted muscles, but if you have a layer of fat covering them, you won't see them. So, I've made a dedication to at least run 30 minutes a day in the mornings to get my blood pumping throughout the day, and to have that extra fat burning workout. I have this really stubborn little pooch at my lower abs that I need to get rid of.

I also have another awesome news to tell you. Cassey's new book called "Hot Body Year Round" has been officially released at your local bookstores! So please get them while they last! I pre-ordered mine, and will be going to Cassey's meet and greet even this coming Monday! I'm super excited to go, and I hope she'll instruct a class so I can join her pilates class personally! :) If you couldn't tell already, I'm a pretty big fan of blogilates because it definitely is the best weight lifting workout for me. It burns my muscles, pushes me to challenge myself even further, and shows the results I need.

Workout:

41 min of Blogilates (100 burpees burnout was today.. I died)
25 min of T25 with dad

Diet:

Breakfast - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Lunch - Ezekiel bread with fig jam
Dinner - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Snack - Strawberries and half a navel orange

How I felt:

I actually felt pretty good despite eating less than 1200 calories for the day. I downloaded myfitness pal on my phone, and started to calculate my calories. I know it might backfire on me if I keep obsessing over the amount of calories I eat in a day. But calorie counting is pretty essential to whether you will see results or not. If you burn more than you eat, then you'll see results. I also downloaded myfitness pal because I also downloaded an app called Pact where you make a pact that you will eat certain amount of fruits and veggies by the end of the day, workout certain amount of times per week, and log your calories and food in your myfitness pal. If you succeed, you earn money. It's not a significant amount of money that you earn, but I feel like it's a good motivator to get you going. I hope to post recipes every Friday if I can think of something new to introduce every week.

Question of the day: Do you like burpees? Are you more of a cardio person, or a strength training person?

Day 31 - Finally Getting Back on Track & Epigenetics!

I am finally starting to get into the flow of managing my time with schoolwork and my social media life. I love posting blogs, and this is my way of staying accountable. Knowing that all of you are reading my posts help me to stay motivated. I don't think I would've continued to workout if I didn't start a blog on my progress. But here's the bare truth about what's going on with me right now. I'm not losing any pounds. I do think I reached a plateau. I know it's because I haven't been very good with my nutrition, and the timing of my meals is what's crucial to weight loss. You definitely shouldn't be eating anything too late if you're goal is to lose weight. I'm not really looking to lose weight, but it would be a plus alongside with losing a few inches off my waistline. It's really embarrassing to admit so publicly about my progress, but I feel like my mistakes can help others see what their mistakes are on their fitness journey. Remember though that mistakes are not the end of the world. It's never too late to start a new goal and new journey. If you failed once, it's never too late to get back on track and continue to move towards your ideal goal.

Now, here's something interesting I learned today. While reading articles I had to read for my stem cell biology class, I learned something that may be relevant to fitness. I've heard so many people saying that obesity is genetic, and that if you were born from parents who were obese, you are most likely to be obese and exercise can't help you. Well, science has proved to us that it may not be the case! Although there are genetic diseases and mutations that may have symptoms similar to obesity, if it's not a genetic disease, then you have hope! Epigenetics is a study about genetic markers located above specific genes that turn them on or off. There are a ton of epigenetic markers for each gene, and there still needs to be more research done on this field. However, scientists studied that environmental factors can actually affect individuals on the genetic level, which can get passed on to your children and future generations. For example, individuals who smoke are more likely to have altered epigenetic markers, which will get passed on to your children. This has been known to cause increased body mass index and early average mortality age in the first generation. It doesn't have to be bad health habits during reproductive age. Even before pregnancy, and even before meeting your potential soul mate, your choices in how you take care of your body affects your future generations. These aren't permanent alterations in your genes, but rather temporary and fade away with time. But you don't know how long it'll take for bad effects to fade. This means that your body is not just your body, but the body of your future generations. Please take good care of your body for your future children! I don't know about you, but reading this article made it even more motivational to keep working out. I don't want my bad choices to affect my future children even though they've never made bad choices. This is all the more reason to workout, eat healthy, and stay fit. I hope this extra scientific post helped you to rethink your bad habits, and get you motivated to workout extra hard! :)

Workout:

45 min of Blogilates

Diet:

Breakfast - Chocolate shakeology with banana and water
Lunch - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Dinner - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Snack - dark chocolate coated frozen banana (oops!)

How I felt:

I shouldn't have had that dark chocolate coated frozen bananas! It's not THAT bad, but I know it's still bad. At least they weren't milk chocolate coated frozen bananas. I've really been craving something ice-creamy. The closest I could get to a healthy ice-cream was the frozen bananas. I heard you could freeze bananas, cut them into little pieces, blend them in a blender, and they'll turn into ice-cream. I think I'll try that next time. Definitely better to have that than a frozen banana with chocolate all over it. I felt really tired, and didn't have that much energy to workout after eating sweets. I'm really excited to make some healthy fried rice tomorrow. I'm planning to make that for lunch and dinner, so let's see if I actually follow through my plan this time. Tomorrow's Blogilates workout has 100 burpees... one of my most hated workout video ever. But I don't think there's anything else out there that gets the job done better than burpees. If you can finish this 100 burpees challenge, comment below, and let me know you finished it! :)

Day 30 - Behind on Your Workouts? Catch Up!

As you all know, I've been behind on my blogilates calendar. I've made a very sincere promise that I would finish this blogilates calendar once and for all till the end. So, what do you do if you missed one day? Catch up! It's ok if you're slow on catching up, spread out the missed workouts throughout the next couple of days, and before you know it, you'll already be caught up after a few days. If you're crazy like me, you can try squishing all the workouts together into one massive long workout. But I wouldn't recommend this since it may be more damaging if Cassey's workouts are already tough to begin with. It's better to do her workout videos in good form rather than to finish all of them with a bad posture. I'm just a little OCD on finishing my tasks. So when I see those unchecked boxes on the calendar, it drives me a little crazy. If those unchecked boxes are stressing you out too, spread out the workouts throughout your day. They'll be so much easier to do with breaks in between. That being said, I'm proud to say that I'm all caught up now! :)

I'm going to keep this post a little short because I need to catch up on finishing today's (Wednesday) post.

Workout:

57 min of Blogilates

Diet:

Breakfast - brown rice with turkey bacon
Lunch - Chocolate shakeology with banana, peanut butter, and water
Dinner - Strawberries and chocolate brownie quest bar

How I felt:

I know I could've done better, and I'm a little bit bummed that my dad didn't workout with me today. But then again, I was pretty preoccupied with trying to finish my blogilates workouts, and he was too tired from work. Diet-wise, I could've done better as well. Having strawberries and a quest bar for dinner is not a meal. I should've had something more substantial rather than a quick fix. Truth to be told, school has been taking a huge toll on me, and I had more assignments than I could handle this week. But regardless, I still need to improve. I did buy some frozen shrimp, pasta sauce (no sodium), and strawberries though. I am planning to make a new recipe. So stay tuned for another recipe! :D

Day 29 - Grab a Buddy to Workout With You!

I know, I know. I've been slacking off on writing posts once again. This is actually a post for Monday. The Day 28 post was supposed to be for a Sunday, and so on. My mind is a bit foggy on how my day went on Monday, but I'll try my best to recover what happened for that day. I remember talking about how I had a problem with my projector, which prevented me from working out on Sunday. I spent the entire day fixing that projector, and finally got it to work. On Monday, I was able to utilize my newly fixed and upgraded projector. The new bulb made everything look so much more clear and colorful, which made it all the more motivating to try out a new workout video.

The Blogilates calendar usually has about 5-7 workout videos per day. Since I wasn't able to do any on Sunday, I had to catch up on Sunday's workout videos plus Monday's workout videos in one day. I realized it would be way too strenuous for me to suddenly do more Blogilates than I normally do in one day, so I did about 1.5 days worth of workout videos. I'm really proud of myself for fitting in more workout videos when I could've stopped at just Sunday's workout. But what's more exciting is that I got my dad to workout with me today.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I really want to get my dad to have a consistent workout routine because he's at that age when his body gets weaker, it's harder to keep his blood glucose levels and cholesterol levels in check, and working out seems to be something he needs to do more than I do. So when I turned on a T25 workout video from Beachbody On Demand, and my dad willingly followed along with me, I was extremely happy! He's always been stubborn about working out, and when he says he wants to workout, you know it's a big accomplishment. Not only is it good for him, but it's also good for me. When I workout with a buddy, it motivates me to keep going. It helps me to stay strong and push through my workouts. There's that small competitive drive that pushes you to workout harder than you did before. So the next time you decide to workout, bring a friend! You'll have more fun, and the workout will end before you even know it!

Workout:

59 min of Blogilates
25 min of T25

Diet:

Breakfast - brown rice with turkey bacon
Lunch - Chocolate shakeology with water and banana
Dinner - Salmon donburi (gah!)

How I felt:

So, before I discuss about how my body felt after my diet. I want to explain why that salmon donburi is even there. I got a discount pass that gives you 50% off of certain restaurants within the LA area for certain dishes. I got a pass for me and my dad, so I ended up going to one of the restaurants to try my pass out. Sadly, I didn't bring my ID, so I ended up just choosing a non-discounted dish, but my dad still got the discount for his. I guess this would consider as my cheat meat of the week. They had white sushi rice, so I know that was one of the reasons why I felt so tired afterwards. So moral of the story: you are what you eat. Don't eat something unhealthy, because it'll show. You'll feel tired, unhealthy, sluggish, and just not as awake and energetic as you'd like to be. Healthy foods make you show the best sides of yourself. :)

Day 28 - Am I a Mechanic?

I had everything planned out today. I was so ready to workout at 8 PM, finish before 10 PM, and sleep a long and deep sleep without worrying about what time I had to get up. Well, it didn't work out exactly as I planned. I don't know if I explained in the previous posts, but my projector bulb exploded while I was doing my Cardio Fix yesterday. I was very close to being done, but my projector overheated and the bulb exploded. After that sudden experience, I decided to fix my projector thinking that it'll only take 5 minutes to replace the bulb. I sat down, unplugged everything, and replaced the old bulb with a new bulb. I turned on the projector, and I smell this burnt plastic smell. I place my hand in front of the vent where hot air is supposed to expel, and I don't feel the fan working! I then realized that it's not the bulb that was the problem. It was the cooling fan. So I look online on how to disassemble the projector, but realize how much work it'll be and end up blowing dust away from the fan, and reassembling the pieces together. Thankfully, everything was put back the way it was, I was able to hear the fan working, and my projector was fixed! I don't know why, but I think I'm actually really good at disassembling and reassembling things, along with assembling those disassembled furnitures you get at Ikea. I still smell burnt plastic, but I think it's because I added in the new bulb. It could be one of those new product smells you smell at the beginning of installing.

Well, despite all that hard work of fixing my projector, I had no time to workout. By the time I fixed everything, it was already midnight. I guess it was good in a way that I ended up having no time because my body was actually really sore from yesterday's workout. Rest days are there to help your body recover from all that intense workout you did the day before. So make sure you're sleeping early and having at least 8 hours of sleep everyday. I'll have to start catching up on my blogilates workout starting tomorrow. It's 2 approximately 1 hour workouts of blogilates, but I'm sure I can manage it if I split the two workouts to one in the morning, and one at dinner time. I heard that it's good to space our your workouts throughout the day rather than working out everything in the morning, and then relaxing throughout the entire day. Movement is crucial to our health, and it's something that many people don't do in today's society.

Workout:

None for today

Diet:

Breakfast - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Lunch - Ezekiel bread with tofu, salsa, and guacamole
Snack - Chocolate chip cookie Quest Bar
Dinner - 2 Oranges

How I felt:

You're actually not supposed to eat fruit after 2 PM. I heard that it's just not good to have sugar in your system late at night. I just love fruit, and I think it's harder to resist fruit than chocolate for me. I found these new brand of oranges at my local Sprouts, and they've never failed to taste amazing. They're 6 oranges for $3, which is a bit on the pricey side, but I still think the taste outcompetes the price. I had time to make myself one of my new Ezekiel bread toast recipes. This time around, I used tofu with guacamole and salsa. I gotta say, it tastes amazing. I was hesitant to try adding tofu to my Ezekiel bread because it's two really dry ingredients in one meal. But the guacamole and salsa really make up for it. The tofu was cooked on a frying pan with some liquid amino and coconut oil until brown. The salsa was also sautéed for a little bit on the frying pan to make it less spicy, and more sweet. Definitely give it a try, and let me know! These ezekiel bread recipes are really helping me to stay active throughout the day. I don't feel as tired and sluggish than when I eat junk foods. Quest bars save me from binge eating, and satisfy that sweet tooth.

What are some of your favorite healthy snacks? What are some of the foods that you find really hard to resist?

Day 27 - Birthdays & Those Arms

Today was my brother's birthday. I didn't want to be mean and let it slip by without doing anything. So I bought two cake slices, ate one, gave the other to my dad, and took a picture and sent it to my brother saying happy birthday. My brother's currently in Germany serving in the Air Force, and it's hard to get a hold of him since he's always on duty at work. Birthdays are always that time of the year when you just can't refuse that piece of cake. I feel like it's just something fitness people have to go through: accept that it's ok to binge on that day, and continue with their exercise routine right after. That birthday cake is for sure unhealthy, but being overly obsessed with your diet is also unhealthy. As long as you make sure to eat healthy in general, it's ok to cheat once in a while. If you're desperately in need to losing weight, that might be a different story. Medical reasons should outweigh special occasions. Also, when you do decide to eat your cheat meal, just make sure you're not eating in excess amounts. You're allowed cheat meals, but it depends on how often you're eating them and how much you're eating in one sitting. You don't want your hard work to go to waste in one day.

There were an exceptionally large amount of arm workouts today. I definitely got a good dose of cardio and arm exercises. I don't know if I mentioned this in my earlier posts, but my arm is the most self-conscious part of my body for me. I know a lot of people say that their most self-conscious part of their body are their abs, legs, and thighs, but I don't really hear a lot of people saying that they're self-conscious about their arms. I have a little background story about why I'm so self-conscious about my arms. When I was in 7th grade, I was at that awkward stage where I started getting chubby and excessively tan, but didn't really take notice because body fat and weight wasn't really a concern for me back then. I remember my uncle visiting our family, and my grandma told me to come downstairs to eat breakfast. So I went downstairs to eat breakfast, and my uncle was sitting on the same dining table, conversing with my grandma about his life. Then all of a sudden, he looks at my arms, gasps, and starts making fun of how thick my arms are. He started making a big deal about how a girl my age could have thicker arms than his. That's when I started to take notice of my arms, that the thickness of my arms matters to some people, and that my body can be a subject of judgment. Ever since then, my arms looked like elephant trunks all my life. They're still chubbier than I want them to be, but I feel like that past childhood memory of being humiliated made me look at my arms bigger than they originally are. That being said, arm exercises are the hardest for me. I always dread working my arms because they're not as strong as my legs and abs. I can do ab workouts and leg workouts fine, but when I have to do arm workouts, I just can't bear the feeling of my arm muscles burning. However, to my surprise, I was able to do a lot of arm exercises today even though they were burning pretty bad. I just had this strong drive to push myself today. We'll see how my arms look tomorrow morning.

Workout:

30 min of Cardio Fix
40 min of Blogilates (arm insanity)

Diet:

Breakfast - Ezekiel bread with egg whites, water cress, salsa, and avocados. (YUM!)
Lunch - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Snack - peanut butter and chocolate Quest Bar
Dinner - kiwi and chocolate cake slice (should've eaten this earlier in the day)

How I felt:

Despite all the unhealthy foods I ate today, I actually felt really good. It's probably because I worked out right after eating that chocolate cake. One good way to keep in shape is to make sure that you're exercising after eating carbs. That turkey bacon really needs to go, and this is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've been saying this. But it's probably the easiest to prepare. You literally have to just microwave it. With chicken breast, you have to cook it in a frying pan, chop all your veggies, and that takes time and effort. I do know that chicken breast and tofu are a lot healthier than turkey bacon though. I like the texture of tofu better than chicken breast, so maybe I'll get some tomorrow. At least I got creative for breakfast. :)

Day 26 - Memory Lane & Bonus Recipe

I'm posting a little bit late than planned, but I did get home late yesterday. My dad drives for Uber, and I barely get any time to spend with him because he's always out giving people rides. But yesterday, he seemed like he really wanted to rest for a day and we had important family matters as well. We drove to Escondido, CA where I spent 2nd through 4th grade at. We had personal reasons to go there, but we did have some time to stop by the places where we used to live, and the mall that I used to always go to when I was little. I can never forget that mall because that's the mall where I got my first pet: Hopper, a brown spotted mini rex rabbit. I also remember they used to sell puppies there as well. I stopped by that mall this time around, and to my disappointment, the pet store is no longer there, and the cafe at the first floor didn't seem to be doing very good. But there were improvements with new clothing stores, and Escondido just seemed to be getting more and more advanced than when I saw it in the year 2000. I still can't believe it's been 15 years since then. I used to stop by Escondido once in a while to visit where I used to live, the school that I used to go to, and the places I frequently visited. Every time I visited that mall, the puppy store was always there, and was the highlight of my visit. But sadly, they seemed to have run out of business. It always feels weird to go back to places I used to live. It never really hits me that it's been a while until I go back home, and I always feel a little regretful that I didn't make the best out of my time there. Does this happen to you too?

Today, I was able to eat a different kind of breakfast! I took the time to make some Ezekiel bread toast with guacamole and fresh salsa. I made a promise to add a new recipe whenever I had a new meal, so here it goes!

Guacamole & Salsa Toast

Ingredients:

1 slice of Ezekiel Bread (the original one)

1 spoonful of fresh salsa (packaged salsa, make sure it's fresh)*

1 ripe avocado

1 tsp of sea salt

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of onion powder

1.5 tsp of olive oil

Directions:

1. Cut your avocado in half, remove the seed, and scoop out the flesh.

2. Mash the avocado in a small bowl with a fork.

3. Add your sea salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and olive oil. Mix.

4. Spread your guacamole mix on your slice of Ezekiel bread.

5. Add some salsa on top.*

6. Enjoy!

* = if you can't stand the onion smell from the fresh salsa, you can cook the salsa slightly on a frying pan with a little bit of coconut oil.

Workout:

16 min of Blogilates (today was relax & stretch day)

30 min of Pilates Fix

Diet:

Breakfast - Guacamole & salsa toast 

Snack - Banana with unsweetened iced green tea

Lunch - Brown rice with turkey bacon

Snack - Dried mango slices

Dinner - Chocolate shakeology with water and banana

Snack - Oatmeal cookie with morrocan mint tea (shouldn't have eaten this)

How I felt:

Eating that oatmeal cookie at the end of the day made it hard to wake up in the morning. Next time, when I'm in the situation where I am in plain sight of a cookie, I'm going to make sure to carry a quest bar to eat instead. Quest bars have much less net carbs, and they're good to eat as a snack when you're craving sweets. I've been craving some curry, so I want to get some curry hummus that everyone else seems to be eating. Some tofu would also be amazing as well. Turkey bacon is a good way to eat healthy bacon, but there are healthier alternatives. My sleeping schedule has been all over the place. I slept at 3:00 AM last night, and I know I could've slept earlier. Sleep is very important, so make sure that you're getting enough sleep everyday. I'm going to have all day tomorrow to myself, so I'm sure I can spend some time preparing meals. 

New!

On Monday April 6th, I am going to be starting a 21 day challenge! For 21 days, I'm not supposed to eat unhealthy foods, I check in everyday with a group of coaches on Facebook, and I make sure to workout at least 5-6 times a week. I'm thinking of leveling up to 21 day fix extreme for my 21 day challenge along with some Blogilates. I've done a 21 day challenge about a month ago, and was able to lose more than 10 pounds and a few inches off my waist. Checking in really helped me to stay committed because I couldn't lie about my habits, and wanted to prove to everyone that I could do it. If you think you'd be interested in joining, please comment below!

What are some of your methods to stay committed? :)

Day 25 - Push to Your Limits

Remember when I explained how I was going to wake up early, plan ahead, prepare my meals ahead of time, and all that talk about time management. Well, I guess I still wasn't ready enough. First week of school is always the toughest because you need to spend time adjusting to your new schedule, and you're always running here and there on campus talking to financial advisors, academic advisors, and all sorts of advisors. I just had no self control today, and I know I could've done better. I had some thai food after class, and there was this last day dress sale at our university quad that I couldn't miss. Mistakes are how we learn, and I learned that there are just those days when you really can't get a hold of your indulges. Despite my lack of self control, I still did my workouts, and started earlier than yesterday. I also feel proud of myself for opting for that brown rice rather than white rice that goes with the panang curry. I also opted for tofu instead of any other meat. Chicken is ok, but I'm never sure whether they use the thigh or the breast. For the shopping splurge, I can say that it'll help me stay motivated to work harder. I purposefully purchased a size small rather than a size medium, so I could motivate myself to stay consistent on my workout regimen. My workout routine for today was very tough, but I'm glad I pushed through and finished everything.

Today's post is mostly on pushing to your limits. I finished my Lower Fix, and started my Blogilates workout calendar for April. As usual, I went on youtube, searched Cassey's workout videos one by one as I went through the checklist. I reached her "Whoa Whoa Workout" video, and the first exercise move was really tough. I don't know if I was able to do them before my flu, but I do know that I can't do them very well right now. I went through about 3 reps, and just had to pause because my wrists were hurting, my arms were shaking, and my butt muscles were dying. I paused for a few seconds, got back up, started again, paused again, and kept repeating this. Towards the end of that first move, I had a breakdown moment where I just curled up into a ball and wanted to cry because I felt so embarrassed about how I couldn't do a simple move. All these negative thoughts were going through my head, and I started self-criticizing, and that's when I caught myself. Negative thoughts aren't going to get me anywhere. I can be the best judge for myself, but if I'm too criticizing, whether it be to myself or to anybody else, there will never be improvement. Encouragement is the only way you can succeed. So I changed my mindset and changed my "why can't you do this?" to "you can do this".   It's ok to feel discouraged here and there, but don't make it consume you. Make that discouragement into a motivational drive that will help you to move forward. Don't let it bring you down.

Workout:

30 min of Lower Fix
46 min of Blogilates (lots of cardio today!)

Diet:

Breakfast - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Lunch - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Dinner - Panang Curry with tofu and brown rice
Snack - Dried mangos and 1 orange

How I felt:

To be 100% truthful, that panang curry made me extremely tired. I went straight to sleep right after I got home. This is a really good indicator of whether the food you ate was good for you or not. If you're feeling sluggish and tired, check your diet and see if it really was healthy or not. Curry in itself is ok, but restaurants tend to put in lots of fatty condensed coconut milk, which is high in sugar and fat. When making your own curry, add in that low fat coconut milk instead. It's so much healthier, and you won't feel as sluggish. That being said, I REALLY need to change my meal plan. Turkey bacon is starting to look gross, and I don't think the kind I'm eating is necessarily that healthy. It states on the package that they're using turkey thigh rather than breast meat. So I might opt for something I know is healthy for sure. For my workout, I realized that late night exercise is not good. I'm already tired from the exercise, but to add on top of that, it's also very late. I'm going to make it my goal to become a morning person. Finishing everything in the morning, and resting at night is probably psychologically healthier, and physically healthier.

When do you workout? Are you a night person, or a day person?
And what do you think about thai food? Is it a yay or a nay for you? :)

Day 24 - New Month, New Challenge & Korean Dramas

I'm finally slowly starting to get back on track, and a new and last quarter in Cal Poly Pomona started. I'm currently taking four classes: virology, marine biology, stem cell biology, and biochemistry. I still haven't met my professor for virology, so I'm actually pretty excited to see what virology is all about tomorrow. But besides my education, I've definitely noticed that my body got weaker with my cold. I don't know if it's because I still have a cough that makes it so hard to exercise, or if one week of no movement caused my muscles to get weaker. Regardless, it's a new month, which calls for a new challenge. My new goal for this month is to break that 130 pound mark, and to finally get into the 120's. Can you believe that I'm getting close to 130 already? I remember when I was almost 150, and I felt devastated with how I looked physically, and how I felt emotionally and physiologically. There are still some improvements I need to make: time management. I am extremely terrible at time management. Originally, I was planning to workout at around 8:00 PM and finish everything before 10:00 PM. I started working out at 11:30 PM and finished everything by 1:15 AM, which is why I am writing this blog at such a late time than originally planned. Time management is definitely something that I need to set my mind on. Time management is just like setting my goal on losing weight. You make a goal, and you have to push yourself to take action. It's that taking action part that's the hardest for me. I will constantly tell myself to go do something that I need to do, but it takes an extra effort to get up and do the things that I have to do. This is the same with working out. A majority of the time, people are sitting down on their computers or smart phones. They don't spend that much time on outdoor activities, sports, hiking, or any physically demanding activity. Everything is moving towards the digital era, and it's getting harder to take some time away from our technologies. Everything needs to be done in moderation. Too much of anything whether it be good or bad, is never good. When we have a certain hobby, getting too obsessed in that hobby is never good. For example, I like to grow plants. But once I buy too many of them and become too obsessed in them, it becomes a chore rather than a hobby. It goes the same with food. Food should be something that gives us nutrition, and helps us to benefit our health. Once we become too obsessed with eating delicious foods, we gain weight, our health deteriorates, and it becomes a bad thing. This topic leads me to my current obsession: korean dramas and korean reality shows. Once I start watching them, it becomes extremely hard to stop. I spent too much time watching this one korean reality show, that my workout schedule got delayed. I can definitely improve on learning to stop when I need to.

Workout:

35 min of Blogilates from the April calendar
30 min of Upper Fix

Diet:

Breakfast - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Lunch - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Dinner - Chocolate shakeology with 8 oz water and 1 banana

How I felt:

I actually felt so much better drinking my shakeology at the end of the day. I didn't feel that way before, but I think I'll try this method for a few weeks. I haven't had any time to prepare for my meals, which was why I had only one type of food for my two main meals. I'm planning to wake up tomorrow morning and make a nice breakfast and lunch with some Ezekiel bread and some sweet potatoes. We'll see how it goes. I really need to eat snacks in between to keep myself from craving, but again, I need to work on preparation and time management. The good thing was that I didn't crave anything, and I didn't feel as hungry as I thought I would've without eating snacks. Today's workout was very difficult because I've been following the 21 day fix workout schedule only with no blogilates for the past few days. But now that I'm determined to add blogilates, things will get a bit more challenging. Today's blogilates workout was emphasized on the butt, and there's a 30 day sleek arms challenge along with the calendar. So I hope I can finish through the entire calendar, and get nice toned arms! For those of you who are interested in joining me on the 30 day sleek arms challenge, I'll post the calendar below so we can both follow along. First few days should be easy, but they do get progressively harder. Let's work hard for those nice, sleek arms! ;)

Day 6-23 - The Flu & Struggles with Healthy Habits

I just want to start off by saying how sorry I am for not posting even though I've made a commitment to post every single day regardless of how busy I am. But I do want to point out that we all make mistakes, and it's totally ok to get off track once in a while. Life throws curveballs at us, and you can't help but steer away from your goals and paths. But what's most important is that you find your way back. One major road block I encountered during the past two weeks was that I got very sick with the flu. I heard that the flu affecting many individuals this season is the kind where your cough can last for 2 months. I had to go to Urgent Care two times because I was worried that my cough wasn't going to get better. For those of you who have a very strict workout regimen, this is very bad news. Almost all workouts require you to have rhythmic breathing. You breathe in and out according to different postures and routines based on how you flex or relax your muscles. For cardio workouts, you need to have good lungs in order to get an effective workout, and sufficient oxygen to all your vital organs and muscles. When you're coughing, that rhythmic breathing gets broken up. I hope that this blog helps others who are also sick to feel encouraged to stay motivated, and to notice that it's ok to rest when your body asks for it.

Here's the gist of what happened: the last time I remember posting, I was talking about my neuroanatomy final. I stayed up very late studying because I was just didn't feel ready to take the final. I slept at 3:00 A.M., and woke up at 5:00 AM to get ready to take my final. During the time I was studying, I ate lots of saltwater taffies to keep my sugar levels high in order to stay awake. You can already pinpoint my mistakes:

1. I didn't get enough sleep.

• Sleep is EXTREMELY important when you're working out and trying to stay healthy.
• Your body needs that sleeping time to recover from your strenuous workouts, and to help you flush out toxins in the morning.

2. I ate saltwater taffies instead of healthy snacks.

• It's bad in itself that I was eating late at night, but eating sweets on top of that is never good.
• Candy may taste delicious and may seem like they give fast energy, but you end up feeling extra tired afterwards because they burn out too fast.
• It's always better to eat fiber-containing or protein-containing snacks because these will digest and keep you energized for longer periods of time
• Energy drinks are also very bad

3. Preparation is key

• The only reason why a lot of individuals face failures on their commitment to a healthy lifestyle is that they didn't prepare ahead of time.
• Whether it's food or deciding when to workout, preparation is key. You must prepare ahead of time when you want to squeeze in that 30 minute workout, or cook your meals a day in advance when you know you won't have time to cook.
• For me, it was studying. Studying and finishing your work ahead of time will give you extra free time to fit in your workouts. Never procrastinate because you will end up feeling more stressed than normal trying to finish your chores or tasks, and you won't have time to fit in that important workout you were planning to do.

These 3 mistakes is what caused me to get sick. Stress, lack of sleep, and an unhealthy diet are the major ingredients to a poor immune system, which in turn will cause you to get sick. 

After getting the flu and finishing my finals, I went on a one week long road trip to San Jose. Despite being sick, I made sure I did my daily workouts at the inn that I was staying at. I hung out with childhood friends, ate healthy foods once in a while, but noticed how hard it was to eat healthy when hanging out with friends. It was really hard to find restaurants that had healthy foods you knew would be ok to eat. Also, just the fact that you're sick makes you start to think that it's ok to indulge a little. My flu wasn't that bad while I was at San Jose. I had the typical runny nose with a slight fever, but it wasn't that hard to workout with a runny nose. It wasn't until I started coughing that I had difficulty exercising. 

I got back home after my one week road trip, and that's when everything collapsed. I started coughing, bronchospasms were making me cough incessantly, and my throat and lungs were sore from coughing. I went to the Urgent Care and had to get an inhaler, cough suppressant, and antibiotics to prevent any further infections, and to keep my coughs minimal. Even with these medications, my coughs weren't ceasing. I visited the Urgent Care one more time, and the doctor explained that it's just something I have to go through. So I ended up purchasing a humidifier to keep my lungs moist while I sleep. For one full week, I wasn't able to workout at all. With no workout, I started feeling sluggish and lazy. Laziness led me to late night korean dramas and craving junk foods the actresses and actors were eating in there. It was only until I realized that walking around was starting to get tired all over again. A slight sensation of panic ran through me, and I realized that I was going back to square one. 

I'm currently still sick, and I still have to turn on the humidifier when I sleep to keep my coughs minimal the following day. I'm not taking any medication, but I do think the humidifier is helping me a lot more than I expected it to. I did start working out yesterday, and now that my coughs aren't as strong and painful, I think I'm ready to start a fresh commitment to a healthy diet and a daily exercise routine. 

Moral of the story: If you are able to stay strong and stay motivated even while you're sick, that's absolutely inspirational, and keep doing what you're doing. But if you struggle and find yourself eating more cheat meals than necessary, and you haven't been working out, that's totally fine. When you're sick, your body needs more rest than normal. So if you think you'd do better with some rest, don't feel too guilty about it and get some rest. Just make sure that you get back on track whenever you feel ready. Also, make sure you don't get too stressed out. If working out feels like it's hurting you more than helping you, that means you need that rest. If resting is making you feel antsy, do a light workout while you're sick so you don't start feeling too guilty and stressed about not working out. 

So what do you do when you're sick? 

Do you rest, or do you continue with your healthy habits? 

Comment below, and let me know. :)