Meal Prep + Getting Ready For The Week ! (09/29)

Aloha readers! 

The past week has been insane with the amount of school work I had! 

I'm a bit upset that I didn't make time for the gym, but it's time to put that behind and 

get my butt back into gym gear! 

Today I want to share with you a bit of my meal prep experience and some mind-health tips with you! 

Even though I stopped mid way through the 21 day fix program, I am still putting the resources to good use! These containers not only help me portion out some of my snack foods, they make me look super cool (maybe a bit crazy) when I pull out all 5 of them on my table in lecture xD 

(The yellow container is empty because I fill it up with frozen berries in the morning) 

I still had a lot of vegetables left over from this past week, and I know they are going to go bad if I don't use it up soon. So after dinner tonight, I made a huge veggie bake dish! 

I find this a great and non-wasteful way of using up all your leftover veggies :) I seasoned it with a dash of salt, few sprinkles of pepper, and a generous amount of both Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning and Original seasoning. 

Another good thing about veggie bakes as part of my meal prep; it allows me to do things while it's in the oven! I cooked this batch for about 25 minutes, and while that was being cooked I was able to: print my notes for class this week, clean the cat littler box, and write this blog entry! 

Multi-tasking at it's best (for me) ! 

Looking at things from a more 

As a college student, I undergo tremendous amounts of stress. Whether that be with school work alone, my personal life, sometimes financial and relationship related, stress clouds are always hovering around me! Many of the things on the left side of the picture does/has happened to me! 

I'm always trying to work on my organization (school, clothing, schedule) to maximize my time. 

One thing I've learned the past few months is prioritizing tasks! The disconnecting part is more difficult for me as I'm almost always using my computer for school work and business work, and I use my phone to communicate with friends, classmates, and clients. I have been trying to set it to airplane mode when I'm at the gym so I have a distraction-less workout! :) 

If you're feeling overwhelmed, take 5 minutes of your time, have a seat and take a deep breath. 

Use a pen and a piece of paper and write down why you are feeling overwhelmed (ie. tasks that need to be done), and jot down steps that need to be done in order to get those tasks done. By the end, you should have a more step-by-step plan of how to get your tasks complete! 

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Back to studying-a-go I go now! 

Cheers! 

xoxo

Day 11 (Pilates Fix) - 21 Day Fix

Aloha readers! 

I did what I promised I'd do! Woke up this morning (a little bit later than planned), and went to attack my Pilates Fix workout. It's still really challenging, especially when we get to the leg series, but the familiarity of the routine makes it easier to go through :D

What the leg series included: 10x each of forward-fled-backward-pointed toes, forward bicycles, reverse bicycles, stir-the-pot mini circles, reverse mini circles, and front and back double-toe-taps. Wheu! Now take all that and times two for the other leg! My legs and glutes are feeling like jello by the very end of that.

Here's a little video from the plank series of the pilates workout.

My friend/coach Rhonda commented on my little Facebook blurb this morning about how honest I was being - and that honesty brings change in habit and routine. I was very happy to hear the motivational words she had for me, and it definitely made me want to keep going even further, even harder. Thank you Rhonda!

It definitely brings a good feeling when I'm crossing off things my to do list! 

And how cute is my kitty. She kept walking around me today purring and meowing as I was doing my workout! Then she decided to take a seat while I was on my 30 second break xD 

Tomorrow will be Day 12, and I have work at 11. So that means I'll have to go to bed a little early tonight, and wake up an hour earlier than usual to get my cardio fix workout in and get ready for work ;)

Cheers!

xoxo

21 Day Fix - Progress Photos

Aloha readers! 

So I slept in this morning, and woke up knowing that I had a couple errands to do and that a steamy hot latte was in need :P 

I got to the Starbucks here and there wasn't even a single seat open :'( So now I'm stuck tapping away on my tiny iPhone screen instead of my giant iPad keyboard. 

Anywho, this post is for the progess photos of my 21 Day Fix. These were taken on Day 1 and Day 7. 

So these 7 days were more like 10 days, because I had some "off" / rest days. And my eating was by no means on track for hald of those 10 days :( That is the reason why there are only very small changes in these photos 

Hands on the side 

In this photo, my stomach appears to be a bit smaller - you see a little more definition in the upper part of my stomach 

With my arms up above my head 

Stomach looks a little less round, noticeably closer to the top 

Side view, hands above my head 

Upper portion of stomach looks slimmer, lower portion of stomach not much change, thighs and glutes look more toned

Side view of lower body, hands above my head 

This angle makes my lower stomach look more round that before. The glutes and thighs appear to be more toned though. 

It's taken a lot of time for me to come up with the courage to post revealing, progress photos like these. So if you don't have anything nice to say, please keep it to yourself. 

I'm using different tatics when it comes to eating and meal planning this week, so hopefully this will help with me staying on track, and I'll continue to work hard on my workouts! 

I'll be sure to post some more progress photos in the upcoming weeks. 

Cheers! 

xoxo

Day 10 (Total Body Cardio Fix) - 21 Day Fix

Aloha readers!

Firstly, I apologize if my "days" for 21 day fix are all over the place... I have a hard time debating whether I include the days I missed or not...

Anyways, today is Monday! It's a new week! We all get a fresh start! So get yourself ready to kick some butt this week ;)

On this week's agenda:  last stretch of studying for my ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer Exam, meal prepping, 21 day fix workouts, prepare progress photos, meeting up with some friends for an afternoon picnic, hopefully only a couple days of work (gross!), and getting my stuff ready for back-to-school !

I woke up on time as I had planned to get my 21 Day Fix workout in! 

Boy, every time I do one of these cardio or leg workouts I'm sweating BULLETS. 

The workout is only 30 minutes long, but I do a bit of extra stretching at the end because I know my body needs it. Number wise, that's a decent number of calories burned in 30 minutes of non-stop work. 

Post workout / breakfast today was 2 hard boiled eggs with some sweet chilli sauce, and a strawberry, blueberry, vanilla rice milk smoothie 

My usual breakfast consists of toast, scrambled eggs with sausage, and some fruit (whole or smoothie), so it's hard for me to take my sweet time to make that after an exhausting workout like that. Which is why I had these eggs boiling during my workout, then whipped this smoothie up once I caught my breathe and gobbled them up! 

Saturday afternoon was grocery shopping with Mom time :) 

I took this opportunity to stock up on what I would need for these next 2 weeks before school starts again! 

Pictured here, I've got about a dozen bananas, few pints of blueberries (which aren't super sweet, sadly), and some fresh, ripe strawberries. I'm not the biggest fan for raspberries because of the seeds, but I know it's good for me - so I snack on them at times or throw them into my smoothies. 

As for veggies, I've got a huge bag of carrots and cucumbers to get through, some lemons for my lemon waters in the morning, and some greek yogurt for my proteinnn! I still have some veggies left from small grocery trips before, so the carrots will be incorporated into those stir-frys. 

On top of this, I also got a HUGE pack of chicken boobies - enough to last me more than 2 weeks! Seriously, I bought about 7 pounds worth! 

Stay tuned for my 21 Day Fix (not-so-much) progress photos this week! 

Cheers! 

xoxo

Day 7 (Cardio Fix) - 21 Day Fix ... So Close I Can Taste It!

Aloha readers! 

Today is Friday, and the week is coming to an end! 

It has been a great week thus far, but today has been a little off today.

I got woken up at 6:30 AM from a weird phone call from a stranger, and it threw my sleep off a bit. I woke up with some tight hip flexors, so I decided to push my workout for later on today so I can work on stretching it out and let it rest a bit before pushing it full gear again :) 

It's almost 3:30 PM and I still haven't gotten my workout yet in. However, I've been spending the morning working on my certified personal trainer studies. I am getting so close I can taste it! 

It looks like I will be fully certified sometime next week after the exam! 

Once that has happened, I will be looking for 5 individuals who are interested in improving their health and fitness level and eating habits with my help. When I've completed my studies, I will put time into creating the graphics and give you a full list of details on what you will expect, what you will get, how to keep track of your progress, and more.  For these 5 individuals, I will prepare for them customized nutrition meal plans, as well as a fitness exercise routine to follow based on their goals and current fitness and activity level! 

In the mean time, I'm going to study a bit more, do that cardio fix workout, and post some progress photos hopefully! :) 

Cheers! 

xoxo

Day 6 (Pilates Fix) - 21 Day Fix

Aloha!

Today is Day 6 of the 21 Day Fix. 

Something I've been trying to work on is waking up early to start my day off right with the workout. This is about how my alarm looks like.

Despite this, I still couslnt wake up until 10:30 today, hehe. But I still got changed, went downstairs, and attempted to kill my Pilates workout. But instead, it killed me! 

I never knew Pilates was so hard! The amount of strength required to do all those bodyweight exercises is shocking. I could barely make it through the full 60 seconds for some exercises!! 

That's another thing I'd like to keep in mind for working on: aiming to push with these Pilate workouts to strengthen my core! Or as Ryan would say: 

I'm determined to do better with my eating plan / color codes container system, so after my workout I portioned out my food. 

I also had a hard boiled egg on the side for the extra protein to fuel my muscles.

This consisted of: some pineapple friend rice, green curry chicken with vegetables, half a container of green beans, and half a large apple. 

After this lunch, I'll be getting back to my PT studying and then haircut appointment and home-cooked dinner with my boyfriend. 

I'm starting to brainstorm some ideas for the upcoming weeks, and as soon as things are sorted out, I'll be sharing it with all of you! Can't explain how excited I am :) 

Cheers! 

xoxo 

Day 5 (Lower Body Fix) - 21 Day Fix

Aloha! 

Another day has gone by in the 21 day fix. 

If you're a new reader of my blog - welcome to my fitness journey! If you're a regular, thank you for continuing to support me and reading my blog <3 

My plans were to wake up and do the workout, and then go through my list of things to do for the day. Instead, I went for an eggs benedict breakfast with my beloved boyfriend, shopped around for a car, had dinner, and then came home to do the workout. 

I'm not gonna lie, I was afraid that I would start saying "I'm too tired to workout", or "I need to spend my time studying" by the time I got home. But I told myself I couldn't use those excuses. If my diet hasn't been on par to give me the best results already, cheating my way out of the workout isn't going to bring me any closer either. 

The minute I got in the door, I mixed together some pre-workout, put on my workout clothes, and made it downstairs for the workout! BOY, it doesn't get any easier, even after doing this workout once already! Note: I will definitely be incorporating some of these moves into my future client's workouts! They gon hate me but love the booty they gonna build! 

Sweaty, but all smiles :) 

Quick look at the calories burned - always greater when doing lower body workouts vs. upper body workouts 

Tomorrow is Pilate Fix Thursday, and I'm super excited! I've never done pilates before, so this will be an interesting change for me! I hear it's great for improving flexibility, which I clearly lack quite a bit of :) 

Until tomorrow! 

Cheers! 

xoxo

Day 4 (Upper Fix) - 21 Day Fix

Aloha!

So today is "Day 4", when in reality today should be Day 7 xD

What happened was that I got a bit lazy :( and crazy sore. After work on sunday, there was a patio staff party afterwards, so I was dead tired by the time I got home.

I needed Monday as my rest day because I was too sore to even move. Thank goodness I had the company of my friends that night :)

So today is Tuesday, and it's a new day! I've finished and kicked my workout's ass, and I'm ready to move on with the rest of the day. I even have my to-do list done!

The Upper Body Fix was definitely different from the other workouts so far. The exercises are so simple, yet different. And you almost think that it's going to be an easy workout - but then when you only get 15 second breaks, you feel like you're dying and that you've thought wrong.

Something that I'm really liking about these workout challenges is that they push you hard for 60 seconds, and only give you about 15-20 second tops for recovery. When I workout by myself at the gym, I often go for rep counts instead of time duration. So I'm glad that this is different and that I'm being challenged to push my body to do more work!

Since I've been slacking a bit, I won't be able to complete this challenge before school resumes. However, I am still going to push and try to stick with it every day. This way, I'll have a better eating habit built when school starts, and I can continue on with lifting weights at the gym! :)

As always, I will keep my readers posted on the journey :)

Cheers! 

xoxo

Day 3 (Dirty 30) - 21 Day Fix

Wooh! 

I got home from work a couple hours early tonight, which was great cause I has plenty of energy to do my workout.

Today's workout was the Dirty 30. It included things like sumo squats, shoulder raises, side lunges, Tricep kickbacks, and more! 

Definitely got me sweating buckets! That's something I love about these workouts! 

Following the meal plan hasn't been the easiest, but I'm trying my best! 

My weakest link is my carb intake - I love my carbs! 

My stronger link is I am getting adequate protein intake according to the meal plan :) 

Thanks for reading and following my journey! 

Cheers! 

xoxo

Life is About Welcoming New Challenges - The 21 Day Fix

Aloha readers!

Sorry for being MIA the past week.

I do have some very happy news to share with you guys.

For the first time in a long time, I worked out again today (you have no idea how happy I felt by the end of it). This is a big deal for me because it's me picking up where I left off. I only want to be better tomorrow than I am today.

I met a good friend on instagram a while back, her name is Rhonda. I can't quite remember what it was that got us started talking, but we've been pretty good at keeping in touch via email. Rhonda has been aware of my struggles, and she always tries to offer sound advice and encourages me to join her support group via a beachbody workout program. Of course, I had been trying to work on my own programs, so I wasn't able to do so. Until now.

Rhonda enlightened me about the 21 Day Fix, which is a program that "fixes" your eating; mainly teaching you things about portion control, food selection, at home workouts, and so on. The idea was really appealing, since it is my eating habits that I have the most difficulty with. I knew this would be a good opportunity for me to get my eating habits sorted out and solidified.

The challenging parts I see in this workout: following closely as possible to my recommended eating guide (I'm still getting the hang of it), and doing one of the 30 minute workouts every day. I'm not used to working out every day, and the workouts are quite different (more full body work, rather than lifting weights and solely resistance training)

Today I did one of the workouts (Wednesdays calls for Lower Fix), and I have never sweat so much in a long, long time. I can't even remember if I've ever sweated that much! I wiped my sweat off my forehead and my hands were WET. I had sweat dripping off the ends of my hair too. Crazy! This definitely made me really pumped for continuing on with the programs workouts :)

I will try my best to post frequently, maybe once every day or two, to keep you updated on my 21 Day Fix progress! Until then! 

Cheers! 

xoxo