Burn Those Arms!

Today's post will be my first check-in ever!! As I mentioned in my previous posts, I have been working out for about a month now, but the actual decision to reveal what I do to lose weight and tone my muscles came later. The first few days of staying committed and continuing a consistent workout regime was very tiring. There were many times when I wanted to quit, and when my dad brought a huge double chocolate cake in front of my face on valentine's day, I had to fight my inner temptation with all my might. Valentine's day was on a Saturday, so I told my dad to share the cake with fellow church members on Sunday since I was not allowed to eat any of it. I still think about that cake, but I know that the temptations felt temporarily at that moment is not worth changing your entire future goals and dreams.

For my diet, I follow a clean and healthy diet consisting of 3 full meals with 2 snacks in between. The snacks are there to prevent hunger, but also to increase my metabolism. So that would be a total of 5 meals a day (Breakfast - Snack 1 - Lunch - Snack 2 - Dinner). You can also get rid of snacks, and just eat your 3 big meals in smaller portions to make 5 small meals a day.

What I ate today:

Breakfast: Greenberry Shakeology with 1 banana and 8 fl oz of hemp milk blended together.

Snack 1&2: 10 Unsalted Almonds. I'm in love with almonds. I never really liked almonds before, but after I started eating them as snacks, I'm really getting addicted to them. 

Lunch & Dinner: Brown rice with glutinous indian millet mix, and chicken breast with celery, onion, and Bragg's amino soy sauce to taste. The chicken breast side dish I made was amazing. It tasted just like chicken noodle soup except it didn't have the noodles!

My workout for today:

- 30 min of running on the treadmill nonstop

- 60 min of Blogilates from the Fabruary 2015 calendar!

My thoughts on today's workout and diet regime:

I was very happy with what I did today. Being able to run 30 minutes straight without stopping is actually a new record for me. I always stopped at 20 minutes or at most 25 minutes, but I was never able to get to 30. I know a lot of people don't agree with eating right before you work out because it gives you cramps, but when I ate my chicken breast side dish and ran on the treadmill, I didn't get any cramps at all. I actually had more energy, I was able to breathe more easily, and I actually felt like I could've lasted longer than 30 minutes. The only reason why I stopped at 30 minutes is because I felt like I should take things slow rather than try to improve quickly. I want to make sure that I stick with this workout regime, and a sudden increase in intensity can overwhelm me and make me stop working out completely. I'm also very glad that I pushed myself to increase the speed to 6 for the last 5 minutes of the 30 minute run. I have always ran at speed 5, and I'm hoping to increase my speed to 6 slowly. Just in case you don't know, make sure that you're breathing rhythmically as you run. I've found that breathing in twice and then breathing out twice keeps me from getting out of breath. At first I wasn't used to breathing in and out twice, but after several tries, I got used to it. And now I use it all the time! 

Today's Blogilates workout was intense! It was all focused on toning the arms. I know for sure that I have very weak arms. Whenever I do any type of arm workouts, I fail terribly. But this time around, I made sure to try my best. I still stopped once in a while during the workout video, but I'm sure I'm going to get better as I continue to try harder through the next upcoming videos. For those of you who don't know Blogilates, it's basically pilates with different types of workouts combined. For example, there's HIIT (high intensity interval training) and pilates, yoga and pilates, dance and pilates, and so much more. Definitely check them out. They may look easy, but once you try some of the moves, you'll realize how hard they actually are. At least for me it was. If you'd like more information about Blogilates, you can visit this website - http://www.blogilates.com. When you subscribe to this website, you'll get monthly emails from Cassey Ho (the founder of Blogilates) with the workout calendar for each month and a password to access it through her website. It's completely free, and she makes sure to have different workouts everyday. So you'll never do the same moves on a different day, which will prevent your body from plateauing. 

As for my meals today, I was actually very satisfied. The one thing that I'm not too sure about is using Bragg's amino soy sauce. I wonder if it might contain too much sodium. I did dilute the soy sauce with water to make it less salty, but I still wonder if it's ok. I normally try to opt for any of Bragg's products when I look for condiments. I am a big fan of their product line because they seem to make all of their products naturally. I always use their apple cider vinegar whenever I'm not feeling very healthy, and also when I'm craving sweets. Diluting 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in 1 glass of water, drinking it in between meals can help reduce cravings. If you have a sensitive stomach, you can dilute this mix even further. You must dilute vinegar at all times. If you don't, you will hurt your stomach. The Bragg's amino soy sauce supposedly contains the essential amino acids you need all in one bottle. So you're getting your amino acids in while eating delicious soy sauce seasoned food. It's supposedly healthier than regular soy sauce. 

So, that's all I have for today. I hope you liked my post, and feel free to follow my blog to get updated information whenever I post a new post. 

I also would like to ask what you thought about my diet plan, and my workout regime. Was there anything I could change (add or remove) from my diet? How is your working plan going? 

I hope this post was helpful to some, and let's stay strong and committed to make a change!