Ye can have me booty but leave me CHEST alone!!!

Ahoy Matey!!!

Me workout today is all about the pirate's CHEST (and a little triceps/abs)!!!

ARRR-you ready for this ARRR-mazing  post!

Show a leg and lets begin.

Weights: incline bench chest fly/ flat bench chest fly (20 reps x 3 sets each); bosu pushups/rope pulldowns/ tricep dips on bench (20 reps x 3 sets); hanging leg lifts/abdominal cable crunches/ crunches on swiss ball (20 reps x 3 reps).

Cardio (Battle Rope):  THE TRIFECTA

1. 10 burpee pushups --> alt wave (1 min) --> 10 burpee pushups --> figure 8 (1 min) --> 10 burpee pushups --> side to side (1 min)

2. 10 burpee pushups --> slams (1 min) --> 10 burpee pushups --> Haymakers (1 min) --> 10 burpee pushups --> Circle out (1 min)

3. 10 burpee pushups --> Circle in (1 min) --> 10 burpee pushups --> Chop right (1 min) --> 10 burpee pushups --> Chop left (1 min)

While one person is doing battling rope the other person is on the stairclimber.

Total workout time approx 30 min.

Y'ell be keel hauled (a grissly death indeed), me thumper was gonna hop out me chest!

Shiver me timbers it was quite a wo-ARRR-kout. Me arms were burning, but it felt good.

Bottomline message: Just get yo BOOTY to the gym and put your 100% into it. Only a few hours before 2011 is over and let the NEW YEAR RESOLUTION begin, but this time make it a LIFE TIME RESOLUTION to be healthy and live happily.

Inspired by BB (a true pirate at heart!) and of course me workout partner SH for the motivation and phenomenal workout regimen.

Work your SHOULDERS like they are BOULDERS

You see MIS HOMBROS (my shoulders)

Another crazy workout tonight!

We worked out my favorite body part: SHOULDERS!

Weights (20 reps x 3 sets each): rear deltoid (dumbbell)/rear deltoid (cable)/lateral raises; front raise (bar bell)/shoulder press (dumbbell); upright rows/angels (dumbbell)

Cardio (ROPE EXERCISES): total time of 27 minutes (6 mins of rope and the rest was on the stairmill and however long it took us to do 10 burpee pushups!)

1. Stairmill --> 10 burpee pushups --> Alt Waves (1min)
2. Stairmill --> 10 burpee pushups --> Slams (1min)
3. Stairmill --> 10 burpee pushups --> Figure 8 (1min)
4. Stairmill --> 10 burpee pushups --> In circles (1min)
5. Stairmill --> 10 burpee pushups --> Out circles (1min)
6. Stairmill --> 10 burpee pushups --> Hay Makers (1min)

REMEMBER: HIIT it hard or just go home.

ANOTHER FANTASTIC WORKOUT created by my workout partner SH.

NO EXCUSES

Now that the holidays are officially over, NO EXCUSES! LETS SET SOME GOALS.

Usually people set goals such as "I want to lose 10 lbs in 2 months." They start dieting and going to the gym religiously for the first few weeks. Then they weigh themselves and realize "hey! something is not right. I have starved myself and worked out, yet I don't have results to show for.

DIET and INEFFICIENT workouts are your worst enemies!

Set goals...MEASURABLE GOALS and be REALISTIC.

Make yourself ACCOUNTABLE!

REMEMBER: looking and feeling good is a lifetime process not a
temporary two month fix.

FUNCTIONAL EATING: write everything you eat down in a journal. When I first started my lifestyle behavioral change, I realized I was eating close to 2000-3000 calories a day. I use to love AYCE (all you can eat) and indulge myself to at least 3 a week and take pride on eating the most out of all my friends. Now I  am very strategic/picky when it comes to making the right food choices at restaurants.

1. For a week, write what you are eating down in a journal.
2. On Sunday, go through your eating log and evaluate what you are eating and how you can cut unnecessary calories out or bad behavioral choices in food.
3. Start your FUNCTIONAL EATING. If you want to lose weight a good start would be 1400 calories. Split  up the calories to 300-400 calories for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the rest could be snacks in between.

Start reading labels!!! Calories calories calories, there's just no way around it! High fiber, protein, low fat. I find the best nature's candy is APPLE!!! I eat at least 3 to 4 a day to get my sweet kick and feel full.

What you put in your mouth is 80-90% of weight loss and exercise is Only 10-20%!

Exercise: HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and weight training.

TABATA IT! (20 sec HIIT and 10 sec rest, repeat for 20-30 min) Pick your favorite workout machine and just do it.

Weight Training: Split up your body parts.

Chest/triceps...legs...shoulders...back/biceps...then repeat! Recommend to do 20 reps and 3 sets each.

Or you can even TABATA your weight training. Lift for 20 secs and rest for 10 secs and continue for 3 sets.

Future blogs will have more details on weight training exercises for each body parts!

Acknowledgment: Thank you SH aka. Vit S for your brilliant exercises and as he would say "yo welcome!"

It's all about the LEGS

Workout like this crazy horse!

After a 13 hour work day and 3 days in a row, I still find the energy to hit the gym.

Today IS ALL LEGS (I've been told my legs are filled with testosterone, whatever that means I'm still trying to figure it out).

Working out the legs is SO important!!!

1. it's one of your largest muscles so if you tone and strengthen it, you will definitely burn more calories even at rest!

2. you stand on it and it supports all your weight...it is your Foundation (this is what I don't understand why guys only workout their upper body and have chicken legs. Without a strong foundation, you are not going to be STABLE)

3. The more you tone your legs, the less dimply it looks (I was once told my brother: your legs are just going to look cheesier as you age!!! or here's my all time favorite: it's not the jeans that make you look fat, it is the fat that makes you look fat! I just love my bro)

So here is my workout:

Weight training: sit down leg curls/lunges (20 reps x 3sets); hyperextention back with bench/romanian deadlifts (20 reps x 3sets); leg presses/calf raises (20 reps x 3 sets)

AND....Battling Rope:
1.Alternating squat waves (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
2. circles to the right  (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
3. circles to the left (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
4. Alternating shuffle waves (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
5.figure 8 (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
6. lateral squat waves (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
7.Forward/backward hop waves (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)
8.Jumping jack waves (45 secs) --> 15 high jumps (15 secs) --> rest (15 secs)

2 sets= total time of 18 mins (KICKED MY BUTT; definitely felt the shortness of breath and heart going to jump out of my throat kind of workout!)

Then 10 mins at level 12 aerobic option on the stairmaster to end my cardio workout.

The above battling rope exercise incorporates HIIT. You work your butt off and only allow very little time to  rest. Your heart rate remains high and you seriously burn more calories than constant speed workouts!

Here's something you can do to start: TABATA STYLE WORKOUTS!!!

Cardio workouts: 20 Seconds of high intensity and 10 seconds rest. Do it for 20 minutes! you will be sweating like crazy and see your fat melt off your body. Remember with any exercises consult your doctor (I'm just joking!).

Battling Rope Strikes Again

WOD: Chest/Triceps/Battling Rope

Add caption

Lets start with this conversation I had with my workout partner VIT S:

T: I need an extra day to do legs!

V: No you don't, it's what you put in your mouth that matters. It's not weights that give you definition, it's the food intake. 

There you go. The importance of "FUNCTIONAL EATING". 

You can lift weight all you want, but if it is hiding underneath the fat, you'll never see it. 

Anyways, today we did bench press/lateral press (switch off 20 reps x3), then bosu pushups/overhead tricep pulls, and tricep pulldowns (20 reps x3 each).

For women that's out there who are afraid to lift heavy, don't worry we don't have the testosterone like men, you will never get huge. Remember that your little munchkins or even your hand bags weigh more than 5lbs you are lifting at the gym (munchkin=15-30lbs, purse=5-10lbs), you can lift heavier than that with dumbbells!

Then proceeded in kick ass battling rope exercises:

1: Alt wave (1min) --> Figure 8 (1min) --> 20 burpee pushups -->1 min rest

2. Side to side (1min) --> in circles (1min) --> 20 burpee pushups --> 1min rest

3. Alt wave with side shuffle (1min) --> out circles (1min) --> 20 burpee pushups --> 1min rest

4. Alt wave while walking forward/backward (1min) --> Figure 8 walking forward/backward (1min) --> 20 burpee pushups --> 1min rest

5. Circle right (1min) -->circle left (1min) --> 20 burpee pushups --> 1min rest

Total time: 20 min (equals out of breath every set and heart rate up the roof)

Acknowledgement to my bomb diggity workout partner: SH aka. Vit S

Workout of the Day (WOD)

HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL WORKOUT (HIIT)!

Just do it. don't question it. JUST HIIT IT!

This is the key to burning tons of calories in a short amount of time.

Today I did 10 mins on the treadmill. you can program the interval to set it however you like. push interval 3 times and it should give you the option of self-programming. I did 2 min work(5.5-6mph) and 1 min rest (5.0mph). 1 mile total. 

Then I hopped on the stair climber. Same thing: intervals 2min (level 9-11) work 1 min (level 8) rest.  Ten mins. 

Versaclimber and Precor: also manual option 2 min (level 7-10) with jumps (as high in the air as possible) for 10-15-20-15-10. in between I do the 2 min versaclimber. I repeated the exercise with the precor. 

I would measure my heart rate and usually after my jumps it would be in the 170s and during my rest I'm always maintaining my HR in the 140s-160s. 

Start slow and you will build up the endurance. If two min is too much then do 1 min 30 second rest.

Always be the person at the gym that is working out the HARDEST. If you don't break out in a sweat, you AIN'T WORKING.

Next blog I will include weight training. YOU must weight train. Weight training is the most effective way of burning calories even when you are at rest all day long. That is ALL DAY LONG!!!!

how do you go from size 11 to 6 in 6 mos?

i want to establish credibility!!!

The crazy things that i do really works!

My friends all know how i struggle with my weight. 

Never seem to be an apparent issue because I CARRIED it well. I've always been confident regardless if I'm bigger or smaller. 

But the truth is when I was bigger, I used my ultra eccentric personality to hide the insecurity I carried with my weight. 

Since MAY 2011, I went from a size 11 to size 6. lost about 20lbs (it fluctuates bc I'm hoping it is either H2O or muscle). 

I don't remember even being this small as a kid, but this is the new me and it is definitely here to stay forever. 

So now you guys are probably wondering: how the heck did she do it??? 

Was it diet...exercise...combination of both? 

It's both...but most importantly it is a LIFESTYLE MODIFICATION! 

Remember you didn't wake up 10-20-30 lbs overweight. It happened over time!

Don't expect quick fixes...you will literally quickly gain it back! 

It takes motivation, the will to really want it, lots of EFFORT and work...it's definitely a daily commitment! 

future blogs will include some "functional eating" tips and exercises. Your life can change for the better too! 

Here's a fun pick up line I heard today: some guy approached me at the hospital and asked me do you work here (I was in my street clothes)? I said yes, can I help you? He replied stop joking around with me, you don't work here you are a MODEL.  muahahah

are you a personal trainer????

"I'm sexy and you know it! WORKOUT!"

In the beginning of the year, I was often approached by MEN asking me if I'm a personal trainer???

My reply: "do I look like a personal trainer?" proceeded on in sticking out my stomach and pointing to it. (while I'm thinking in my head..come up with a better pick up line than that douchebag)

Now if someone ask me...I kindly say NO and embrace the fact that I might just be doing something right for people to think that way.

So today, I was approached at the gym by this girl asking me "do you teach a class here?"

I answered "no I don't, I just workout here. are you looking to join a class?"

She replied " I just joined this gym and want to lose weight."

I asked "what's your goal?"

She said "I don't have one, but I guess I can lose 15lbs in the next three months."

Oh boy did she make the mistake of talking to me.

I asked her "what do you think you should be doing to lose 15lbs?"

She replied "diet and exercise???"

I asked her a question and she replied with a question which means #1 i'm not sure, #2 i haven't committed to it, #3 i hope that's the right answer.

This is what I told her: you can definitely lose 15lbs in three months and yes you are right that it will take exercise and changing the way you eat to achieve that.

#1 In the next three months, you cannot call it a diet. If you call it a diet, what you lose will only be a temporary fix and when you resort back to your old eating habit...guess what??? the weight comes back and you end up gaining more than you started off with.

Bottomline: it's a lifestyle modification, you have to think of it as "FUNCTIONAL EATING". make good choices in the food you eat: wheat bread instead of white, water instead of soda, skip the calorie packed starbucks coffee for one of their new skinnies, decrease your portion size, lots of vegetable, no fried food, chicken breast, etc.

People just don't gain weight overnight or in the short time you choose to be on a "diet". You gain it overtime so don't expect miracles to happen! It's going to take work and commitment!

#2 80-90% is FOOD, again watch what you put in your mouth! Small changes. People who love food are very similar to drug addict. You just can't do it cold turkey...you will fail!

#3 Exercise! Make it a habit to go to the gym! No matter what...just get your butt there.

High intensity interval workout, I swear by this!!!!

Keeping the same pace is just so boring! Go fast then slow then fast (repeat repeat repeat...lets keep the thump thump ticking!). Trust me, you will burn more calories in 15 mins than someone that's been on the machine for 30 mins at the same speed.

I ended the conversation with my cousin's favorite line: As Billy Banks would say "Turn it on girl, just turn it on!"

a taste of massive destruction

it is beyond insane the workout we (my workout partner VIT S and me) did today.

be amazed!!!!

we have our regular body part workout which consist of multiple shoulder weight lifting . 

then we proceeded on with our massive destruction battling rope workout:

1.alternate waves

2. wave chops (right)

3. wave chops (left)

4. lateral waves 

5. figure 8

6. side to side

7. ultimate warrior left

8. ultimate warrior right

9. inward waves

10. outward waves

1 min each with 10 secs rest then 10 burpee push ups in between each set. 

i counted while we were doing each of the exercise and it's approx 50-60 reps each and 100 burpee push ups total. 

and there's more...we did 5 mins bike and 5 mins stair climber.   

total cardio work: 31 mins.  

(Workout fairy: SH aka. Vit S. Thanks bud!)

Quinoa in action!

i'm all quinoa'd out today. feeling very ambitious and in a cooking/baking mood! i boiled some quinoa and the rest is history.

dinner: quinoa, spicy korean marinated chicken breast, and sauteed lettuce. i love buying romaine lettuce from costco with the intentions of making these wonderful salads, but usually i never get around to it. i realized that i don't really like salad, yet i have become pavlov's conditioned dog. costco = romaine lettuce. classical conditioning at its best. anyways, the lettuce is no longer fresh to be eaten in a salad, so i just sauteed it. a very crunchy yummy vegetable to eat!  i posted a picture of my dinner (really need to work on the presentation).

dessert: quinoa apple banana cinamon muffin!!! less than 100 calories and taste better than my oatmeal ones.

pretty much you can add quinoa or oatmeal to any recipe that calls for grains. also to make it even more healthy, anything that ask for vegetable oil or butter, you add apple sauce instead. substitute agava sweetner for sugar. booyakasha!!! there you go.

Let us all BREAK the FAST

good morning...or for some of you who loves my Spanish would prefer buenas dias! this is something to think about every day when you wake up. what should i eat for breakfast??? we always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. it's true. the name says it all. we have to break the fast. (my pharm prof swears by this. she is a nurse that became a doctor). remember the last post about starvation state...you don't want your body to start breaking down muscles for energy. eat something...anything and that would do the trick. preferrably something nutritious!

here is a quick breakfast that is less than 150 calories: FRENCH TOAST (yes! can you believe that!!!)
2 slices of orrowheat 100 calories thin bread
egg whites (it comes in a carton, i buy it from costco)
agave sweetner (ha...i put that sh*t on everything)
canola oil spray

how to cook: spray pan. put bread in the pan. dump the egg whites over the bread. turn the bread to soak both sides. wait until it is cooked nice and brown on both side.

to eat: pour agave sweetner over it. I like to dip bc you end up using less of the sweetner (you know what that means...less calories!)

recipe was complimentary from my friend SH. thanks bud.

being stable...can we say no to GLYCEMIC HIGH

it's only been an hour and i'm blogging again! ha. i've always been told to pace myself. do i ever listen, of course not. lately i have started this new motto: just do whatever makes you happy. this is a slight variation of my last motto: just do it. sometimes i just do it regardless how it makes me feel, now the new motto is a better version in which i only do things that make me feel good and about myself. anyways, off on a tangent. what i really wanted to blog about in this post is the importance of keeping a steady state of glycemic level. i'm a bit of a patho nerd so i'll be doing a lot connecting fitness, food, and fun times with the body! the answers to the mysterious WHYS???

Glycemic index is a measurement of how carbohydrates effect our blood sugar level. people think that only diabetics need to worry about controlling glycemic levels, but WE all need to worry about that! dun dun dun... our body is constantly trying to adjust what we put in our mouth, especially carbs! my friends all know that i'm a carb lover and often i like to commit CARBO-CIDE (love this saying from the movie BRUNO. booyahshaka respeck...wait that's ALI G). It wasn't until last Wednesday sitting in class when everything made sense. I'm taking a pharmacology class right now and the teacher is just phenomenal in making that light bulb switch to ON! so let me turn you on...

when we eat a carb loaded meal aka. pasta, cake, muffins, starbucks holiday lattes, buttered mash potatoes, tons of free bread that comes before your meal at a sit down restaurant ( i can go on forever bc these are the things i dream about...in fact i'm drooling right now), it goes into our stomach for digestion. Carbs are broken down and enters our blood stream. In a psychological stand point, our brain is telling us gosh that really hit the spot, but physiologically it is on freak out mode, calling out SOS MAYDAY MAYDAY. The brain activates the pancreas to produce insulin! Insulin is the only hormone that can bring the sugar in your blood stream into the adipose (fat) and muscle tissue to be used for energy.

so what's the big deal:
* it's great that we have our buddy insulin to help us get rid of this massive amount of sugar in the blood stream, but what this really means is that we are really in a state of GLYCEMIC HIGH. sounds like fun, but it sure isn't for your body. Take this for an example: have you ever gotten hungry one hour after eating something high carb (for me it is pho: my favorite vietnamese noodle soup, i get bloated too, but that's not the point)? This is caused by an overproduction of insulin. you end up going into a hypoglycemic state (hypo meaning low). you can actually have low blood sugar. Then you end up eating to compensate for that.
The take home message is that you don't want your body to overproduce insulin and have this high and low dipping of blood sugar level (UNSTABLE GLYCEMIC LEVEL). when you maintain a normal glycemic level, your body is happier. it will produce the right amount of insulin to get rid of the sugar and store it appropriately for energy production. the sugar you don't use ends up wherever fat loves to hang out.

*the above explanation goes for the same question people often wonder about: why do I wake up being super hungry after eating late at night. booyakasha...you got your answer!

*the other side of this is not eating any carbs. that brings me to fad diets: atkins, 600 calories HCG shots or droplets, paleo. C'mon guys people DIE(T) from diet. not exactly...but die from starvation. You need CARBS! That's how you get your energy.  this is what happens when your body goes into a starvation phase. your brain senses carb deprivation...MAYDAY MAYDAY we need energy! it starts the process of muscle and fat breakdown. To some people, the light bulb in their head is saying hey not bad, i'm breaking down my fat, but really you are wasting away and losing muscle. The scary thing is that you will be in a state of metabolic acidosis. Seriously, you don't want to go there and i'm sure you don't want me to go there with my patho freakiness. Fat and muscle breakdown causes your body to produce a lot of bad acid and this can really mess you up! trust me on that. Your body will end up storing more fat bc it doesn't know when the next time its going to get carb to make energy. Bottomline: when you are doing one of these low carb diets, you are really doing harm to your body. So what about this is appealing: storing more fat and looking pudgy, but the scale says i'm 10lbs lighter, being in an acidosis state where you can't think right, your tired all the time, and  possibly can cause damage to the body.

hmmmm....why don't we cut the word DIET out of our vocabulary completely. One of my favorite people in my life right now made a comment the other day: it's not a diet, it's called "FUNCTIONAL EATING!!!" so here's another letter F word you should store in your vocab bank: FUNCTIONAL! (thanks S.H!). Eat to maintain a stable glycemic level. some food i've been really into lately are QUINOA (say what??? KEEN-WA) and AGAVE NECTAR. Quinoa is a kind of grain that is high in fiber, good source of iron, and has all 8 essential amino acids. Agave nectar comes from the agave plant and is a natural sweetner. Guess what: these two products all claim to maintain a STEADY STABLE Glycemic state. there you go!

sorry for a long post! lots to say. just a teaser: i'm going to be blogging about my quinoa and agave adventures. Like Frank's hot sauce...i put that sh*t on (in) everything.  future blogs will include my exercises too. woo! i can't wait.

El Comienzo (The Beginning)!!!

I thought I would make it dramatic by starting my title with some spanish. for those of you who don't know me, I've been taking Spanish for a semester now. I've successfully butchered the language. Thank goodness for bing translator or else hw assignments would be seriously time consuming and dreadful. My Spanish skills are still very poor. You know it is bad when you speak to a Spanish speaking only person and he replies back in English. oh well, can't hate me bc I try. ha!

I have decided to start a blog to give my friends a choice if they want to read instead of hearing me babbling on and on  about my countless stories for my new found love of BAKING under one hundred calories...yup you heard me 100 calories or my runs and workouts. I was also convinced by my favorite cousin to start one to share my wealth of knowledge (how useful the information to you will go as far as how you want to digest it. )...muahaha! It's a joke between us since high school: she was the Brain and I was Pinky. Remember the two mice that tries to rule the world. Watch out. I'm about to give you my triple F dose of Tracy adventures.