Day 5 - Finding the Right Workout

Ok, I'll admit it. I did NOT do the entire workout my sister designed for me. It was a little intense and I felt a little discombobulated. I started it and completed one full round but decided to switch to the P90X AbRipper 300 DVD. 15 minutes of intense abs.  I ended my session with 3 lb weights doing some toning on the triceps, biceps, shoulders and deltoids.  To be honest, the AbRipper 300 is hard, but I think I get more sore from the Ab Ripper 200. The only move I really like from the 300 is when you have ur feet together but knees fall to the side. You lift your legs so that your feet are pointing up and then you lift your seat.  Other than that, the 300 is just hard to do and so I think because I can't do all the moves efficiently, I'm not getting the best work out. 

Sidebar:  Asia's teacher told us that the way kids find the "just right" book for them is to find a book that is not too easy or not too hard. That you can read a chunk of a page and use a 5 finger rule to count how many words you don't know or don't know the meaning of. If you don't know 1 or 2 words it might be too easy. If you don't know 5 or more words the book  is prob too hard. if you don't know about 2-3 words then it's probably difficult enough to challenge you while still giving you the chance to see your improvements and progress.

I figure that can be applied to working out. If I'm doing something that is difficult and my form is wrong. I'm probably not going to get effective results. One of my Bar Method trainers told me that I can do alot of weight training without weights sometimes. Because of the key things to targeting a muscle is being able to control your moves. If you can't control your movement then you're not really going to be focusing on that specific muscle/area.    Anyway, sorry to digress.... but that is why I like the Ab Ripper 200 more than the 300. The 300 is really hard and i find myself struggling to get the right move going. And so I'm not that sore the next day.

Today is my 5th day.... I'm still sore from the squats on Monday... but I want to get back to that work out. I am going to go for a 1 mile brisk walk and then work on some legs.  I'll probably do a variety of squats and improvised @$$ workouts... Remember... jeans have to fit like a glove!  If I feel inclined to do a pushup or crunch I'll just let the moment take me....  hahahah!!!

My meals today have been really good:

Breakfast:  carrots and activia yogurt

snack: lite eng muffin, laughing cow light, tomatoes

Lunch: 2 oz chix thigh, brocolli

snack: Fiber one granola

Dinner: wait for it.... wait for it.... company dinner at Bucca di Beppo in Palo Alto. WTF am I going to do?

The good thing is there are atleast 4 other women at my company who are conscious about their eating, so hopefully we will be able to get some salads, grilled foods and veggies. I know there'll be some pasta dish calling my name. And I'll take a bite or two, but I will not get a full serving.

Oh and you think there'lll be wine there??? you think so? hahaha.....  I'm not going to lie... i will have a glass of wine... i ate very well today. i've worked out 4 days in a row. I plan to workout later tonight. I DESERVE A GLASS!!!!!

There I said it!
Don't judge me.

Day 4: That "good" sore feeling...

Do you feel it? I do.... that "good" sore feeling... I can't say I remember the last time I worked out 3 days in a row...  But it feels good.

Tomorrow's Day 4. My sissy, Jeanne Floresca (http://www.happybodystudio.com/HappyBodyStudio.aspx) put this workout together for me. Check out her website for other helpful guides to a healther and happier you.

10 jumping jacks
10 diagonal toe touches (stretch right hand to left foot- switch)
10 burpees with pushup (you can walk back)
10 side to side lunge with diagonal single arm row (use weights) (side lunge to right, left arm goes diagonal toward rt knee or foot and rows back to center, switch)
10 balance on single right single leg and lateral bicep curls (both arms at the same time)
10 balance on left leg and do bilateral shoulder presses
10 side to side push-ups on knees
10 forward lunges with single arm bicep curl (right leg lunge, right arm curl)
10 dead lifts (feet together, knees slightly bent, take weights to the floor, then squeeze buttox to lift back upright)
10 bridge and chest fly (on your back, lift you butt at the same time you chet fly or a hug a tree)
10 tricep pull down with double leg extension (do skull crusher move, or tricep extension to ceiling while you kick your legs out 45degrees)
10 plank hip dips (facing the floow in elbow plank, dip your hips right to left)
10 single leg squat and single row and shoulder press (stand on right leg, weight in left hand, as you bend your rt knee to sit, take left hand acoss your right knee, then as you stand straight, take left hand and press the weight up to the ceiling) switch
10 bicycle
REPEAT until 30mins pass

I don't know when I'll do this tomorrow... I actually think I have to do some research on the moves before I tackle it. If I find some ways to help describe some of the moves, I'll update my blog tomorrow. So that means it'll prob be another 9pm workout when all the dishes are done and I've digested my dinner!

Meal plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast: boring but I love it! Egg whites with laughing cow lite wedge in a lite eng muffin. I'll add sliced tomatoes and maybe some spinach.

Lunch: I have a sushi meeting... I have to try not to be greedy and just stick with one roll order and nothing fried. The naru roll please!!!

Dinner: didn't make tacos tonight so tacos it is tomorrow. (Tonight i had a 2oz piece of grilled chix from the other night and steamed brocolli and some baby carrots).

My treat tomorrow is a nonfat frozen yogurt unless those people at the job ate them all! My favorite combo is non fat peanut butter froyo with oreo crumbles!

Night Night... Day 4 is tomorrow and I'm still motivated!  Shout out to Eva who's starting Day 1 tomorrow!!! WOOHOO!!! October babies ROCK!!!!

Day 3: Get Energy from the Sun!!! It's a beautiful day!!!

I'm a little sore today... those squats and butt squeezes better work!!!!
It's a beautiful day in Cali... I'm stuck at work and I get to sneak a peak outside through the window in the office across from me... while I sit in my windowless cell.  Oh well... I'm happy to have a J O B w/air conditioning!!!

Today's plan...  I can't let a beautiful day go without enjoying it. So afterwork (because only crazy people run outside when it's 90 degrees), I'll wait til about 8pm to go outside and run for 30 minutes.  That should be about 3 miles. If Asia has finished his homework he'll probably come with me on his scooter or bike.  This is one of the times we just get to chat without the TV or interruption. And for Asia, he'd rather do anything else besides his homework! I don't have a Garmind or pedometer or mileage tracker so the way I've figured out distances around my neighborhood is literally getting in my car, setting the Trip thing to ZERO and driving. Gauging where 1 mile is and how to plan out different courses for when I want to do a few miles or get some distance. Unfortunately there are no hills in my neighborhood so it's alot of flat running. When I train for SF runs you HAVE TO TRAIN WITH HILLS! #NUFFSAID!!!  So for that, the Stanford Dish is a great place to train. But for tonight, esp since it might be dark, I'll do 6 laps in my neighborhood. 2 laps = 1 mile. If it takes me longer than 30 minutes, that's ok. 30 minutes is the minimum time I'm trying to keep. Shoot I might even do some situps when I get home... but we won't get ahead of ourselves right now.

My meal plan for today:

Breakfast - I had a Tomas' English Muffin Better Start Lite Muffin w/1/2 cup egg whites; 1 laughing cow lite wedge and 3 slices of tomato. I made it into a sandwich and ate it while driving in... Don't worry, I kept one hand on the steering wheel!
Snack - I bought the fiber one yogurts, but they're not that great. however I have to finish them so I'll eat it for a snack. But I don't necessarily recommend them. They taste like.... FIBER!!!! The Activia Light Yogurt is way better!
Lunch - I have a lunch meeting at the Rosewood today and I've never been. I'm assuming I'll be able to order  a salad with dressing on the side or salmon and veggies.  If I can't find that I'll just stick to lean protein and veggies. WATER!!!
My afternoon Snack... probably a piece of fruit and maybe a chocolate/pretzel snack
Dinner - Asia wants to help make dinner tonight and between burgers and tacos he picked tacos. So we'll brown some ground lean turkey with garlic and seasonings. Cut up tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, avocado, and shredded cheese (I prob won't have any cheese). Then for tortillas Davy and Asia like their flour tortillas FRIED so that they're a little crispy. I will be having a whole wheat tortilla that I sit on an open flame to toast a little. Add salsa and voila! If after one taco i'm still hungry, i'll just make a bed of lettuce and add 2 oz of turkey with tomato and salsa for a small taco salad to avoid the additional carbs from the tortilla and getting more veggies.

Looking forward to tomorrow's 30 minutes of movement. My sister Jeanne designed a Cabo Ready workout which I'll post tomorrow. And I'll wish all of us good luck with it because I read it yesterday and it looks hard!!! We'll see how we may have to modify some of the workouts until I can get a better handle on it!

Have a great day...  If  you're doing this with me, let me know how you're doing and if you're still focused on Day 3!

(I want to say congrats to Tricia, GREAT JOB!!!!!!!)

Day 2 - Don't make one bad day turn into one bad week!

I'm on Day 2, reflecting on Day1... I'm glad I did the 5K... and it was a great way to start out my day. But I'll be honest, the rest of the day wasn't filled with too many great choices. For lunch I had a grilled fish taco with a few bites of the rice and beans from La Pinata in San Leandro. I think that was a great meal choice... BUTTTTT that half pitcher of Margaritas might not have been! Then for dinner, my brother in law and nephew came over and we ordered chinese food. I did well on my first plate. small portions of everything so I didn't feel like I was missing out. Which to me, is a key thing in not resenting whatever diet you're on. Then I felt the urge to get 2nd's... bad idea. Even after i added a few more of my favorites on my plate I realized I was probably satisfied and full. I let my plate sit untouched for about 10 minutes, before i started picking at it. Before you know it, it was empty! And i was STUFFED! I hate feeling stuffed... oh well... today is Day 2... and my motivation to myself comes from weight watchers.... If you have a bad day, don't let it become a bad week. Get back on the wagon immediately the next day and it won't be too hard to come back from those bad decisions. It's all water under the bridge and don't bring up old sh*t... hahahah


okay, enough of my rambling. Today's plan:

Breafast: Activia Light Yogurt, 8 baby carrots.

Mid-morning snack: bagel thin, laughing cow light wedge, 1/2 tomato (cut in slices). You can eat this as a sandwich or an open face sandwich.

Lunch: TBD my work thankfully caters lunch every Monday and usually has some healthy selections. So when you're at a buffet or catered event... just think about more protein, veggies and some fruit. Stay away from the salads with too much dressing, especially the creamy stuff. We'll see what I end up with.

In the afternoon I'll usually have a 90 calorie Fiber One bar.

For dinner, I will grill some boneless chix thighs and make a salad. I went shopping yesterday so I can actually plan some of my dinners this week which is also a key thing to do when you know you need to make good choices at home. Living with 2 boys with fast metabolisms makes it hard, but for them I'll probably make some rice to add to their dinner so they get more substance that will stick to their bones... (I need things that slip off my bones!!! hahah)

My 30 minutes of movement tonight will be:
At home:
2 minute warm up: jog in place
2 min warm up: as many jumping jacks as i can
1 min stretch: touch floor, waist, reach for sky, then alternate reaching over your head and bend to the left and right, repeat.
Do a floor plank for 20 seconds (elbows on the ground, palms down, arms in 90 degree, stretch out and do a plank on your toes (almost looks like a push up but ur on ur elbows). hold in your core and keep your neck and back straight. keep your back at neutral position. hold for 20 seconds.
3 sets of 10 pushups. first set normal arms, either girl pushups or guy pushups
2nd set uneven hands. one hand will be in a normal location, the other will be slightly higher. then the 3rd set with the other hand in normal position and the other one raised higher.
Do another 20 second plank.
Depending on your speed this should've taken about 2 minutes.
Squats:
do 4 sets of 25 squats in these variations:
set 1 - normal, feet hip distance apart toes facing forward. squat with your back straight looking straight until your thighs are parallel to the floor. when u come up, squeeze your butt.
set 2 - feet distance slightly wider than hips, toes facing 45 degree angle. Squat with your back straight looking straight until your thighs are parallel to the floor. when u come up, squeeze your butt
set 3 - feet together, step to the right (hip distance), then squat. come up squeeze butt, bring feet together. step to the left, squat, squeeze butt up, bring feet together. step to the right... etc..
set 4 - feet hip distance apart, come down to a squat w/back straight and thighs parallel to the floor. Squat one inch lower. Hold for 10 seconds, now pulsate just one inch for 25 reps.
This squat exercise should've taken about 2-3 minutes.
Repeat the 20 min plank exercise; repeat the 30 pushups; and then the plank again.
Repeat the 4 set of 25 squat exercise

Then I'll do this 10 min video focusing on abs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjrVUOD4SfI

At this point you may or may not have a few minutes left. during this time, do more stretching. Do the cobra or do a wall stretch: go to the wall arms length away. place palms flat on wall at chest height, then bend over and stretch. this should stretch your shoulders. Go in a door way and put your forearms pointing up so that your elbows are almost chest height. Lean in door way and stretch your chest. Do whatever other stretches you like.
Drink water!

Tomorrow is Day 3! woo hoo! I'm almost 10% finished! hahaha...

OBJECTIVE

CABO READY in 30 Days!

30 minutes EVERYDAY for 30 days to give your body a greak kick-start towards your event, whether it's a vacation, birthday, little black dress event, ANYTHING!

I'm going to Cabo, Mexico on Oct 28th, for one of my dearest friend's wedding: Karina Contreras (soon to be Charkow). I've been working out and eating right, following WeightWatchers and doing moderate exercises for the last nine months or so and total I've lost about 11 lbs. Over the last 3 years of starting/stopping/starting diets and workout regiments, I've lost a total of 19lbs. Thank you Carol Nakamura for introducing WW to the GG's!!! I feel good, I believe I know how to make good Eating choices, but I'd like to really focus on my exercise. So I've created a challenge for myself and have invited others to join. My plan is to do 30 minutes of SOMETHING, EVERYDAY, for 30 days. It can be 30 minutes of running, jogging, walking, aerobics, dancing, toning, boxing, swimming, etc... I know that some people have time to work out a few days a week, possibly 1 hour at a time. I personally no longer have that luxury. So I think 30 minutes EVERYDAY is more reasonable because worst case scenario is I do some sort of movement in the bedroom for 30 minutes.. HHAHAHHHA I guess that can't be the WORST CASE SCENARIO! (And for all you nasty minds... How do you know I didn't mean P90X Ab Ripper via DVD in the bedroom)???

I want to make sure everyone understands that this isn't 30lbs in 30 days... This is not meant for you to do with the delusion of dropping an unrealistic amount of weight in 30 days. If you lose 5 lbs during these next 30 days, that is a GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT!!! But not the goal. My goal is to be leaner and muscle weighs more than fat... but I know when my jeans fit like a glove... I'm happy!

I will be updating my BLOG every day planning the next days' events. I may have some additional updates throughout the day. You never know how the weather or my schedule will impact my plans for the day. I've also asked my sister, Jeanne Floresca http://www.happybodystudio.com/ , to help me by creating several different 30 minute workouts that you can alternate during these next 30 days.

One of my bestie's Van Nguyen suggested I incorporate food as well. I'll try my best. Just remember this... for the next 30 days, MAKE GOOD DECISIONS!!! Avoid deep fried foods, too many sweets and un-natural sugars, eat smaller portions but often throughout the day (6-7 small meals), avoid carbs after 6pm or eating anything after 7/8pm. Depending on when you go to sleep you should avoid eating 2 hours before bedtime. MOVE DAILY and BE ACTIVE!!!

This is all for now, but stay tuned for an update this evening for tomorrow's plan.

DAY 1
30 Minutes of Moving: Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure 5K

Good Luck and feel free to share any of your tips/tricks to a fitter YOU!!!!

I want to shout out to everyone who is interested in the challenge! I hope you guys stay with me during the next 30 days... I'll need the support!

Tricia Pacleb Reyes, Marnie Carter, Jennifer Joy Punla, Sarah Eisler, Kathy Villanueva, Tiffany Hoang, Maricela Adkins, Jamie Newby, Gloria Alonzo Stinson, Nicole Wakefield, Michelle Calabio, Letty Veliz (woot woot Cabo here we come), Tammy Nguyen, Kate Williams, Shell Kumar, Dorsey Eric Ford, Jeanne Floresca