Pumped!

Run, Don't Stop

2011-08-30T14:46:10Z

Today is the first day I ran my 2 1/2 block route without stopping to walk! Progress! Next up: Running a 4 block route no stopping.

Mini-Goal ACHIEVED: Pull-up

2011-07-28T08:19:58Z

I can do a pull up!

In Brief

2011-07-13T04:23:54Z

Tired and out of breath. (huff) Gonna keep this short and sweet:

- Received my pullup bar and weight set (and considering getting more weights)
- I've been keeping up the exercising 3 times a week for about a month now! (thanks to encouragement/threats from the roommate)
- Still eating healthy!

Also, I just tried Nicki's cardio suggestion for the first time. My legs feel like jelly and I am sweating buckets.. which means it's working! Thanks, Nicki!! :D

MINI-GOAL: do a hanging pull up by the end of the month.

New Place, Renewed Plan!

2011-06-07T06:53:26Z

Oh hi, guys.

I've moved into my new place in North Hollywood and things are going pretty swell. I've been continuing (somewhat involuntarily) to eat vegan/vegetarian during the weekdays thanks to work, which I'd like to think offsets me being pretty sedentary lately (wake up, drive to work, sit in front of computer, drive home, sit in front of computer, sleep).

Still, I've been noticing myself becoming more and more out of shape due to lack of doing .. well.. anything physical. It was particularly apparent when I helped Val move into our place a couple days ago... Things I knew I could carry with no problem before were giving me a hard time. It was pathetic! The fact my new place doesn't have a gym doesn't help much either! Grr!

So! I ordered myself a cheap weight set and a pull-up bar on Amazon to get myself back on track. They should arrive sometime on Thursday.

I've been researching and it seems like that should be enough to get me a well-rounded workout at least in the beginning. I just need to figure out a form of cardio to do. I kinda don't want to run outside (I'm not in safe, sheltered Irvine anymore) and stomping around my apartment doing jumping jacks or playing DDR or something might annoy my downstairs neighbors... I'll be looking into it, but I'm definitely open to suggestions from you guys! (assuming people still realize this exists :x )

Work out at the Zoo

2011-03-07T07:02:41Z

I couldn't gym again this weekend because I was out with friends exploring San Diego... However! I'm sure all of them will attest to the fact that walking around San Diego Zoo (particularly the part when we hiked uphill to see the polar bears.. even though they ended up being fast asleep when we got there) counts as my work out.

I know the past two "workout sessions" (emphasis on the quotes) have been pretty subpar. I shall try my best to fix that, promise!!

First Evening Workout of 2011

2011-03-03T05:15:47Z

Welp, it's March. And it's Wednesday, which means it's workout day.

After a couple weeks away from the gym it was definitely hard to bring myself to going.. so I didn't go to the gym--I KNOW LET ME FINISH--ahem...so I didn't go to the gym. Instead I worked out at home. Baby steps.

I'm still here

2011-02-26T07:10:12Z

So Nicki has successfully guilt-tripped me into making an entry for this side of my resolution site, and rightly so; it's been weeks since my last update. Yes, admittedly, getting fit has been on the back burner this month. The past weekend was particularly bad. Why?

Val and Nicki came to SoCal to visit.

Them coming wasn't bad. (It was quite the oposite, in fact!) But within the span of three or four days, I'm pretty sure I made up for not eating junk food the last month and a half. :x Since then I've been back to eating healthy, but I haven't been going to the gym. My work/internship has started getting a little more hectic as of late, and I've been coming home exhausted. Couple that with the hour and a half long commutes? Sleep > Gym always.

What it is is a test of my will power and how effectively I can convince myself to go to the gym in spite of my body telling me to just crawl into bed after work. I think what I'll need to do is build my way up to doing the gym as often as I should instead of jumping head-first into it and then getting overwhelmed by it all and ultimately slacking because of it. So, it's mini goal-setting time.

STARTING MARCH:
Gym twice a week: once on weds, once on the weekend.

STARTING APRIL:
Gym 3 times a week: mon, weds, weekend.

STARTING JUNE:
Gym weekdays after work + weekend. (Not weights every day, of course.)

Can I do it? Is this too intense? I'm most definitely open to suggestions. I'm looking at it now and it seems reasonable enough (I may just be a bit delirious from lack of sleep, but that's beside the point).

Not all has been lost, though. I've been pretty good (barring this past weekend) on the nutrition/eating front of this resolution. Of course there's always room for improvement. Thanks to Val and Nicki visiting, I've been reminded of my tendency to eat extremely fast. I've been working on it since and have consequently been eating less and getting hungrier more. THANKS, YOU TWO. I guess because of that, it would probably be good for me to adopt the whole "5 small meals per day" shtick. I might as well, right? The trouble would be figuring out how to coordinate those meal times... I think I'll tackle that on a later date (ok, wrapping this up soon; my eyes are starting to close on their own). Oh, and Poon suggests I post more food-related posts and I agree. Maybe you guys will see more of that in the future.

Anyway, I think that's that. I'll keep you guys posted! (HAPPY, NICKI??)

zzz..

Being Sick

2011-02-12T21:11:32Z

"I've been sick these past couple days, so I haven't been able to hit the gym as hard as I could have."

That'd be a perfectly valid excuse since I have been sick and I haven't been exercising like I should; but to be entirely truthful, it isn't so much that I'm sick as it is I've just been slacking in terms of sticking to my resolution. It's been almost a week since my last real workout session and if it wasn't for Jacqui dragging me out to the gym today, I probably wouldn't have been active this whole weekend.

Chest Fly: 50lbs - 3× 15 reps (-20lbs)
Chest Press: 60lbs - 3× 15 reps (-20lbs)
Ab Machine: 110lbs - 3× 15 reps
Lat Rows: 80lbs - 3× 15 reps
Lat Pull-downs: 80lbs - 1× 15 reps (struggled)
Bicep Curls: 70lbs - 3× 15 reps
Shoulder Press: 40lbs - 3× 15 reps (+10lbs)
Cardio: none (was congested and couldn't breathe, so running probably wouldn't be the best thing to do.)

Yeah, while I've backtracked a bit, going to the gym today felt really, really good. I think slacking may have been the reason why I got sick in the first place; I feel a lot better than I did this morning. Not having internship work to do this coming week will give me a chance to bring myself back up to where I ought to be and hopefully give me the momentum to keep going. Wish me luck!

January Progress Report

2011-02-06T08:30:42Z

A little over a month has passed since I started taking on the challenge of getting fit. It hasn't been the easiest thing to do, especially with life getting in the way, this past week I didn't exercise as much as I should have because of work and things but yesterday I managed to have a really good (frustration-busting) workout, so today I'm very sore and feeling lots better now.

I figure now's a good time to tally up my progress for the month. I think I'll be doing these recaps on a monthly basis to see how far (or little) I've come from the previous month. Here goes:

Chest Fly - 40lbs => 70lbs
Chest Press - 50lbs => 80lbs
Lat Rows - 50lbs => 80lbs
Lat Pull-Downs - 60lbs => 80lbs
Bicep Curls - 35lbs => 70lbs
Ab Machine - 75lbs => 110lbs
Shoulder Press - 35lbs => 40lbs

Not bad, I suppose.

If there's an area that I've been neglecting, it's definitely the lower half of my body. Legs, I figure, would get worked out via my cardio routine (and they do), but I definitely should pay more attention to it. Also, I think I should eventually start breaking up my workouts to target specific body parts per session as opposed to whole-body workouts. For now though, it feels like my body can repair itself in time for the next gym session, but once I can't, it'll be time for me to switch over. (As you can see, I've been doing my homework on this stuff. Pretty good, right? :p)

Weigh-In

2011-01-28T22:56:27Z

And the weight keeps coming off. Very, very slowly.

I couldn't exercise on Weds since I had to be in LA for my internship and yesterday I was busy with work... Made up for it with a good workout today. Arm strength is getting better, thank goodness. I also worked out on Monday, but I didn't get around to posting (oops). I'll just list out today's reps since I actually didn't add any weight Monday.

Chest Press: 60lbs - 3x 15 reps
Chest Fly: 50lbs - 3x 15 reps
Ab Machine: 100lbs - 3x 15 reps (+10lbs!)
Lat Rows: 60lbs - 3x 145 reps
Lat Pull-downs: 80lbs 3x 15 reps (+10lbs!)
Bicep Curls: 60lbs - 3x 15 reps (+20lbs!!)
Shoulder Press: 35 lbs 3x 15 reps
Cardio: 20 minutes (elliptical)

Recap of Yesterday's workout

2011-01-22T08:13:10Z

I had a full day yesterday, I almost forgot that I worked out in the morning! Here is a recap:

Chest Press: 60lbs - 3x 15 reps (back on track!)
Chest Fly: 50lbs - 3x 15 reps (+10lbs!)
Ab Machine: 90lbs - 1x 15 reps, 100lbx - 3x 15 reps (back on track!)
Lat Rows: 60lbs - 3x 15 reps (+10lbs!)
Lat Pull-downs: 80lbs - 1x 15 reps, 70lbs - 2x 15 reps
Bicep Curls: 40lbs - 3x 15 reps, 50lbs - 1x 15 reps
Tricep Dips: 3x 15 reps
Shoulder Press: 35 lbs - 3x 15 reps
Cardio: 20 minutes (elliptical)

Running to my Car

2011-01-21T04:41:53Z

I tried running today. I parked somewhat farther away, mostly because I couldn't find parking but also because it'd be a good way for me to get cardio in. I ran to the opposite end of my housing complex, jogged back, and then ran another 10 minutes to my car.

I've come to these conclusions: I can't run very far and I need new running shoes.

Weighed in via Wii Fit and apparently lost nearly 2lbs? Not sure if that's a good thing or not... Haha.

Sore from Venting

2011-01-20T00:10:28Z

Looks like I'm still trying to recuperate from Tuesday's venting workout, because today I was still sore and couldn't do as much at the gym.

Chest Press: 60lbs - 3x 10 reps (-5 reps)
Chest Fly: 40lbs - 3x 10 reps (-5 reps)
Ab Machine: 90lbs - 3x 15 reps (-10lbs)
Lat Rows: 50lbs - 3x 15 reps
Lat Pull-Downs: 80lbs - 1x 15 reps, 70lbs - 2x 15 reps (-10lbs)
Bicep Curls: 40lbs 3x 15 reps, 50lbs 1x 10 reps (pushed!)
Cardio: 10 minutes (brisk walk) (-10 minutes)

No one said I wouldn't have my off days.

Letting Out Frustration

2011-01-18T07:48:32Z

Today ended on a bad note. Instead of letting it eat me up inside, I did exercises in my room:

Push-ups: ~90-100ish (+50!!)
Crunches: 100+ (+40!!)
Leg lifts: ~40 or 50 (+40!!)
This Insane Exercise (thanks, Allex): 5 reps (!!)

...And then I promptly collapsed onto the floor and stayed there for a good ten minutes.

Now I'm super tired (and will surely be sore come morning), but I'm not seething anymore, which I suppose is a win-win.

Workout Recap

2011-01-14T20:41:04Z

Felt horrible waking up today. That's what I get for eating junk... Punished myself for it by gym-ing it up:

Ab Machine - 100lbs - 3x 15 reps (+25lbs!)
Chest Press - 60lbs - 3x 15 reps
Lat Rows - 50lbs - 2x 15 reps + 60lbs - 1x 18 reps (pushed!)
Lat Pull-downs - 70lbs - 2x 15 reps + 80lbs - 1x 15.5 reps (+10lbs and pushed!)
Bicep Curls - 40lbs - 3x 15 reps
Shoulder Press - 35lbs - 2x 10 reps
Triceps Dips - 3x 10 reps
Cardio - 20 minutes (elliptical)