Day 2 of Personalized Fitness Training and Eating

IIFYM! IIFYM! IIFYM! Hehe, I had fun working out and eating today because it IIFYM (if it fits your macros)! I managed to go have dim sum with my family (where many dishes are often prepared with oil and fattening sauces), have some mojo fries with my subway dinner post-workout and still be on track :)

One thing I do need to work on is my protein intake! Today I am only at about half of my protein intake, which makes me reflect on whether I should start drinking protein shakes or not.

Pros

• I will have a good source of protein that is moderately low in calories and close to zero carbs 
• Putting fruit (banana) and milk into my shakes will be a good meal/snack replacement, hopefully preventing binge eating 

Cons 

• The necessity of buying protein powder and figuring out which flavour I like 
• The inconvenience of having to come HOME to make the shakes - I'd like to start off with milkshake like shakes before just going to straight water and protein powder - YUCK! 
• The extra $$$ on my grocery bills 

This will be something I'll have to discuss with my personal trainer and my boyfriend - who both take protein shake as supplements. In the meantime, take a look at my bullet sweating workout recap from tonight! 

I knew it would be a bad idea to go to the gym at 6-8 in the night time, but I was busy running errands starting early in the morning, so I needed to fit an afternoon nap in my schedule. 

Today was cardio/conditioning day, and Stan had me training on the stationary bike. I've never been a big fan of the bike tbh; they make my thighs rub against each other and it makes my thigh ache within minutes. But, I guess that's the exact reason Stan is making me do biking :P My goal is to tone my leg muscles and lose the jiggle around the thighs. 

I did HIIT intervals of medium intensity pedalling, followed by a blast of super intense pedalling for 20 seconds at an increased resistance and repeat. Wheu! 

To back that up, I also threw in some voluntary bent over rows and lat pull downs. I really want to get those back muscles popping! 

Technically tomorrow should be a rest day, but I took a "rest day" on my birthday :P 

Since I work tomorrow, I'm gonna try and do some mini workouts at home before/after work and make that count :) 

Here is Friday's workout. I'm SO PUMPED!!! 

Another crazy "weekend"!

I'm starting to notice the pattern that my weekends are usually at the beginning of the week! This is probably because I work most of the weekend so I don't get to relax until the weekday comes along.

So my birthday is tomorrow, wooh! I had a wonderful time with my friends tonight at dinner at a pretty fancy restaurant. The food was good, and we had fun. Sadly, I left my purse in the taxi :( This may result in me getting a bunch of stuff re-done such as cancelling credit cards and asking for copies of my SIN and health care card :'( Worst of all I might have to do bus to get my purse back if they recover it! And here I thought I was just going to workout on my birthday and then enjoy a nice big hot pot dinner with my twin :(

In regards to my fitness and health plan, I am officially starting my personalized fitness plan with my personal trainer Stan! This is being done long distant since Stan is in Boston, but his workouts seem to be solid! I have planned out my macros (fingers crossed for IIFYM), and I am going to try hard to stick as close to them as I can. Following my macros have been one of my biggest issues, and if I can get a control over it, along with Stan's amazing help in personalized workouts, I am hoping to get those great results prior to leaving for my trip!

Here is a sneak peak at today's personalized workout by @strongbystan :

After What Feels Like a Weekend...

I know it's only Thursday, but with all the summer fun and festival activities in town right now, the past few days has honestly felt like the weekend. Besides the mysterious rashes on my arm, everything else has been great! I spent time with my beloved friends and boyfriend at the carnivals playing games, having fun, and of course, indulging in food that I know I shouldn't have :P 

We had deep fried oreos, twinkies, and mars bars, corn dogs, smoothies, poutines, and soo much more! (Check out my previous posts for food we had at the Taste of Edmonton Event)  Needless to say, my body isn't feeling at it's finest after the third day of late night fun and crazy guiltless eating. On top of that, it's my third day away from the gym today. 

I'm just going to take it easy for today (besides work in the evening), have multiple litres of my lemon and cucumber detox water, have a litttttle bit of chocolate, do some blogging, watch some dramas, and call it a day. Can't wait to hit the gym hard again soon! 

Cheers 

xoxo

My Fitness Inspirations

When I started this blog, I had an idea of what I wanted to do with it and what I would blog about. But I find it that I've been so busy with my life lately, that I've been posting to keep the blog running, but not necessarily sitting down in my thinking chair and typing all my thoughts out. 

I started this blog due to many inspirations and different kinds of motivations. Firstly, it was a good way to keep track and share with my friends and families what I was going through in my life. It would be able to detail the changes that I was making in my life, and how well/poorly I was progressing. 

Secondly, on top of my life and progress I wanted to share with people the things I learn every day. Wether that's from something about cooking, working out, or something that I never knew about the human body, I want to share all of that with you guys. 

So without further ado, here is a list of the many inspirations in my life/fitness life (in no specific order): 

My friends: 

My friends aren't the type of people that would point out that I've visibly gained weight, but I knew for a fact that I had gained weight since I started University, and even more after I got into a relationship. When I started my fitness journey, a bunch of my friends viewed my progress through instagram and this blog (you know who you lovely people are ;) ). They would send me messages, comment on my pictures and tell me how shocked, impressed, and proud of my progress and the things I am doing. And thank you guys for sharing your thoughts with me. It creates more motivation for me to become better.    

My boyfriend: 

Time flies when you're in love <3 Especially with someone who: tries to make you feel better whenever you're down, pushes you to do more and be better, and constantly encouraging you and reminding you how far you've come and how great your results are. That's my boyfriend. Not only does he encourage me with his words, but things have been easier in this "fitness/lifestyle change" challenge with him by my side. 

We started this journey together, and we are still in this together. Of course, we both had our different goals, but that didn't mean we couldn't help push each other to be better. I would more so help him by offering health advices, doing grocery shopping together, and he would always push me to go to the gym, do that extra rep in my bench presses, and so much more. He would never let me forget how far I've come and that I can't give up now. It was always a temporary slump that I went through, and he plays a role in the reason why I get up every time I fall. 

My mom:

Although at first my mom didn't like the fact that I was getting more muscular, she finally realized my reasoning behind it. She is very proud that I have already lost 10 pounds from my calorie deficit eating and extended cardio training from prior to my weight lifting training. Even now, when she sees me after I come home from the gym all exhausted and sweaty, she's happy because I'm happy :) And I'd like to thank her for letting me take over more than half the refrigerator with all my food xD 

My instagram friends: 

When I first started instagram (roughly 12 months ago), I remember it as a period of time where I was attempting to eat better and run more. Now, instagram is my main dose of inspiration and portal of knowledge. I have met a wide network of people that I call my "fitfam". These people are inspirational posters that put up inspiration posts, advices, tips, and their journey to a healthy life. Through them, I learn about many many things from the benefits of different kinds of foods, proper techniques for different exercises, workouts and circuit trainings, and so much more. Without them, some days I may have stayed at home instead of going to the gym, had a pizza instead of a homemade chicken sandwich, and who knows what. 

What I really enjoy the most is sharing our progress and tips, and constantly encouraging each other. There are a few individuals that I commute with regularly, and I would consider these people my motivators. 

A couple people I'd like to specifically mention are: IG fitness guru Lauren Gleisberg (@laurengleisberg) and my soon to be personal trainer Stan (@strongbystan) . 

Lauren plays a big part when it comes to my inspiration for fitness, health, and girls with muscles - even though she doesn't know it :) I found her IG a few months ago, and it made me realize that if I wanted to change, I can actually become skinnier, looking toned with lean muscle, and still look girly and be happy :) Her blog is beyond inspirational, with daily workouts, tips of the days, daily dose of inspiration, and beyond. 2 months ago, I started following her "4 Weeks to Tank Top Arms and Bikini Booty" workout. Although I have my sidetracked by work and other life issues, I am 3 weeks into the workout and I am already seeing great results. 

I started following Stan on IG only recently, but his personality and lifestyle had amazed me from the very beginning. He not only has a great physqiue, loves what he does, but he also finds the key balance in between things and helps others enjoys it. On the side note, he is also a student himself so he can relate to some of the reasons behind why I was struggling before. I reached out to him for advice a week ago for advice, and he gave me more than I was bargining for. He is now my (soon to be) personal fitness coach, making me personalized meal plans and workout programs. Needless to say, I am BEYOND stoked to get started. Both he and I know it! With my half lousy diet and occasional slips of going to the gym, and I am already seeing THESE results, I can't imagine what I can accomplish in there mere 4 weeks left before my vacation with Stan's help :D 

If you have read or skimmed all of that, I'd like to really thank you. You must be one of the many inspiration people in my lives. If not, I still thank you for having to read all about the important people in my life :) 

Cheers xoxo 

How My Life Has Been Lately

The past few months I have learned many new things and have met a lot of fun, supportive, inspirational people physically around me and on the virtual world. What I have come to realize is that sometimes I am actually really unhappy and unsatisfied with my life. 

It all comes down to this  

I believe in this quotation, 110%. People in your life are supposed to make you happy, be better, and feel good about yourself. What is the point in having these negative people who only bring you down? There is no point. What I am struggling with the most is the fact that these people in my life, the ones that bring my down, are surprisingly the ones that are expected to help lift me up. I'm talking about my family. I won't go into details about it, but in the end, it's true that a lot of my family members are the people that are contributing to the negative things in my life. I end up coming home frustrated, mad, and fed up with dealing with their negativity and how it's affecting the quality of my life. 

Fitness Update - Anticipate Change

Just wanted to jot down some notes about my fitness progress:

• Trying to be consistent with my gym/lifting days
• Trying to incorporate intense (but short) cardio into my workouts 
• First ever protein shake! 
• Try new fitness plans and meal plans out 

I've never had a protein shake before - reason is, I've had a bad experience being around it in general. I used to wash an ex's shake bottle and it smelled like ASS. And I've smelled some other shakes themselves and didn't smell that great either. But since I did more than usual weight lifting and pushed myself harder, I asked my boyfriend to give me some of whatever he was making. 

Banana with french vanilla whey isolate and chocolate milk 

Delicious! 

I recently reached out to someone who has gone through the similar path I'm on for advice, and I am very happy and looking forward to his personalized fitness coaching for me. I am hoping to get the most out of this new change. I would like to be pushed to do more of some things, and new things that I haven't done before. This would be a big challenge for myself, since I have been struggling quite a bit with lifting consistently and keeping my diet clean. I am hoping to change those things and maximize my results at the gym :) 

There are 30 more days before I leave for my summer vacation, and I am REALLY hoping and going to push myself to train insane and be the best shape I've ever been in on this trip, which also allows me to indulge and enjoy my vacation looking great and without feeling guilty. This girl has got to really relax before the summer is over!! 

xoxo 

Crazy Fun Weekend Update

It's been a fun and crazy weekend so far! On Friday night, I went to our annual "Taste of Edmonton" festival and indulged in a LOT of yummy (but not so healthy) foods. But that's okay because the reason I went there was to indulge and enjoy myself. We had a great variety of food, from deep fried mars bars to candied bacon, bacon mac and cheese, bulgogi meatballs on rice, bison capriccio, and so much more! We were too food crazy to take pictures, but we did snap one of this :) 

After letting our stomachs settle for a few hours, we headed off to the annual fairgrounds carnival "K-Days". Things only got better from there! For the first time I tried deep fried oreos - OH my god. They were sooo good. I'm already an addict when it comes to oreos in general, but to have DEEP fried oreos!? Mmm mmm. 

On top of that I was really looking forward to something called the "Works on Cubes Fries". It was essentially the works on a decent block size of curly fries. But when I was about to order it, it didnt seem as appetizing and looked messy, so I got really works, and they were also delicious :D 

Knowing that I really let myself go yesterday, I still went out for lunch with my friends today. We went to a diner called "DaDeo's", which I have never been to before. The boyfriend said the place is "known for deep fried and comfort food, but was really good." And I guess he was right! I had the crab cake po boy with a side of potato hash, and also some "Cajun cigars" (seafood spring rolls). 

Needless to say I didn't feel so good afterwards, so I did a good long and hard workout afterwards in the evening (after napping for hours and lettin my stomach recover). I'll admit that I let myself go a little too far, but I'm not going to dwell over it too much. Tomorrow's a new day, so I'm gonna try to get back on track :) 

 

Feeling stronger every day! 

Hello fellow bloggers/readers! 

I apologize for the minimal updates lately - things haven't been great and it's been tough getting things back on track! Without trying to vent too much, here is a quick update on things I've been trying to sort out. 

1. Money/Work 

Work has been kind of slow lately, so income is evidently lower. This makes it harder for me when I have to think about where to go for the cheaper but still good quality groceries, utility bills, and what now. Good thing is, my mom doesn't really put a lot of pressure on me when it comes to paying the bills. 

2. Diet 

I'd say overall, my diet has been fairly poor lately. With so many days spent working, I barely had any time to do meal prep. And when I was able to find time to cook, I would only have the chance to cook for that day's lunch/ dinner and that was it. This resulted in a lot of my fruits, salads, and yogurt going bad. I've got a few more days off this week, so I'm going to try to get my meal planning back on track. I've also put up two sheets for my "meal planning" on the fridge as well. It shows what portion sizes of which food group I should have at each meal. I play around with the numbers a bit to ensure I get everything I need. 

3. Fitness level/goals 

I've been coming up with more excuses than reasons to go to the gym. That is just very unfortunate. I have yet to find that key thing that keeps me motivated consistently. What I mean by that is, when I hit a slump for not going to the gym a few days, if I don't go back asap, I find it hard to find this motivation to go back. 

I went back today to do legs day, and it feels good to be back there :) I would like to use this entry to remind myself of a few things: 

• I have come really far from the girl I was 3 months ago in terms of my fitness level
• Incorporate generous amounts of intense cardio activity to help me shed the last few pounds to my goal 
• The number on the scale is not the biggest issue - people don't see the number, only you do. People see how you look. As long as you feel good and look good, you will be happy. 
• Remember when I found it hard to lift 5lb dumbbells, and look at me now. Using 7.5, 10, and even 12.5 lb dumbbells during my workouts. 
• SLOW PROGRESS IS STILL PROGRESS - you've come too far to give up now :) 

So I did end up buying the Polar FT4 watch, and at first I was a little disappointed that I HAVE to wear the heart monitor band in order for it to work, but that's no one's fault but mine for not doing all the research before buying it. Regardless, it still works like a charm! The band doesn't seem to show much when I hide it just underneath the strap of by sports bra :) 

Progress Picture Time! 

I've been pushing off the progress pics for a long long time now, because of so many reasons. Lack of working out, been having multiple slack days with my diet, forget to bring bathing suit to boyfriends house, and so many more. I've been doing mini workouts at home the past couple days, so I thought today would be the day to finally snap a few pics. 

From the front and side, I feel confident to say that with the minimal amount of ab workouts I do, I am seeing my belly to flatten a litttttle bit. Now I'm telling myself, imagine what you WOULD look like if you DID do the ab workouts! :D 

My back is the area that I'd like to work on more for the next little while. I personally feel that my back muscles have strengthened, but it doesn't really show in the pics. Then again, that could also be due to the fact that I am not flexing, nor do I know how to really flex my back muscles xP 

My arm muscles are by far the most progress I have seen since I started doing my workouts. Because of the angle and the lighting in the pictures, it's harder to see the difference in the definition. My little "mouse" at the top has gotten bigger, and I feel like there's a tad less fat hanging off the bottom of my arm too. 

The overall selfie --- terrible, terrible quality! I don't know what happened! I swear I had the same lights on. Fingers crossed it isn't the lighting, but my love handles look like they've slimmed down :) 

Update Of The Week

Woohoo! I finally have my day off! It's only one day, and I'm sure it will go by really fast. It's also time for grocery shopping! Here's a sneak peak at my grocery list

Sometimes I hesitate if there are some things I should and shouldn't buy, all because often times a lot of my food goes bad before I can eat them. On the contrary, I feel like if I cut back a lot of things on my list, I won't have enough food to last me however long before I go grocery shopping again. And with so much work going on with my schedule, it'll be hard to predict when I'll get groceries next. Because of that, I just might cross off a few things on the list before I actually head out to the store. 

Some other new things in my life is the excitement of buying new attire/ equipment for my workouts! I have been seeing a lot of pictures of this Polar FT4 watch on instagram, and it honestly looks so cool. I mostly see the calorie counting functions, but that's good enough for me! A watch that can monitor my heart rate and accurately count how many calories I'm burning during my workout? Amazing!! And I just might throw in one of these cool protein shaker water bottles in too (even though I don't drink protein shakes! :P ) 

Lastly, I have recently discovered this new workout app through instagram called "The PumpUp App". What this app does is it asks you for your basic info, and then you can select what you want your workout to do (maintain, lose fat, build muscle), where you are working out, as well as what equipment you have access to. Based on those factors, it will customize a workout for you (you can alter the length of the workout)! It also counts calories as well, but I am not sure how accurate it is. None the less, it's great to fit in a couple quick workouts that target different things when I don't have enough to go to the gym! I really do miss lifting the heavy weights though :( 

Challenges of the Week 

To not eat red meat for the week - I feel like because I've been working so much and haven't had time to meal prep, I tend to eat a lot more of whatever I want. This has also led to my increased consumption of red meat (pork and steak). Just trying to cut back a little and eat more of my chicken :) 

Fit in a 20-25 PumpUpApp Workout every day before work - working 5 to 6 days again this week, so I am starting to really doubt that I will go back to the gym to hit the heavy weights. But I don't want to give up what I've got so far, so I'm going to try and get up a little bit earlier during the day to fit in a quick but effective workout :) 

Update

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone! Life has been soo crazy lately! 

I've been trying my best to go to the gym daily and workout, but for some psychological reason it's been hard. I've also been working full time now, so that just makes it even harder to fit in gym time. 

It's not the excuse that I don't want to go to the gym, because the problem is more so the fact that I am too exhausted to go to the gym (I'm a server, so I walk around or stand for majority of the day). 

Work has also made it impossible to food prep as well :\ I worked last friday, saturday, and sunday, and then I went fishing on monday. Right after that, I am back to work every day :( 

Hopefully things will settle down within the next few days and I will be able to go back to the better, healthier lifestyle for a better me! This stress doesn't make me happy at ALL!