YogaLicious

I started my first..no I mean second yoga session today. I needed to add in something else with my new routine. I am learning that yoga is great for firming up. I bought the Jillian Michael's yoga meltdown dvd to see how it goes. I am a virgin when it comes to yoga lol. I always had this idea that in order to get fit you had to work out insanely and for long periods of time to accomplish anything. Well..........that idea is not working for me now. So with my hubby's suggestion and adding in a couple days of yoga I am praying for success.

I haven't posted my current measurement's because, well it is that time of month again and we all know the scale is gonna go up. So I shun away from the scale during this time of the month. I almost want to skip my workouts and instead curl up in bed with a bowl of ice cream covered in hot fudge watching my favorite anime after I downed a bottled a Tylenol. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not me I work out and deal with the misery of cramps and no chocolate. I have been secretly plotting my cheat day because this Saturday is my birthday and I am gonna splurge on something absolutely sinful, whatever that may be.

So when the ragging, chocolate obsessed Mrs. Hyde decides to recede back into her cave for the next few weeks I will post my current stats for you all to see. Does anyone have a secret on how they deal with this time of the month without disrupting there diets or exercise?

The First Day

Today is the first day of my new training regimen. I didn't do my measurements because I had some running to do after work and when I got home I went straight for the workout and it is getting late. So I will post my beginning stats tomorrow. I really need to sit down and write up a workout plan for this because all in all this is total body and the sets I did in all only gave me about 8 minutes of a workout. So I added in some more strength moves to up it to at least 20 minutes. While I was working out I was thinking of splitting it up on set days for each body part and maybe adding in some yoga 2xs out of the week to give my muscles a little bit of a break. I will post my complete compilation of moves when I get it down on paper.

I will say this, it is scary to completely change a routine but I think my husband may be right on this. Grrrrrrrr... I kinda hate the mere thought of that because I really, REALLY REALLYYYY wanted to get him on something but then at the same time I JUST WANT THIS SILLY FLAPPY FLABBY FAT OFF OF ME DANG IT. I only have about 10 lbs to lose why does it have to be so dag gone hard. It is like walking through the pits of hell with no exit door. Will this nightmare ever end and turn into a paradise of reality?

I was also reading some interesting tid bits on eating more because if you eat less and workout more it will not do any good because your body will go in starvation mode. Guess what? Come on I bet you can guess........That's exactly what I was doing because I READ it somewhere. I guess I still have a lot to learn along this winding path of food, workout like a crazy lady, food, etc.....So I am going to change up my diet a bit and EAT MORE......

 

 You all may think I am crazy...well maybe just a bit....but I am up for anything to break out of this plateau. So now I am totally doing a overhaul on diet and exercise. I pray to the weight God's that this will work. 

On a more lighter and pleasing side I made my lime drink after my workout with a nice salad topped with tuna and "Oh Yeah" that was refreshing since it is a stinking hot day today. I happen to be sipping on it as we speak and I am even looking forward to having one again after my workout tomorrow. I might add it was a nice complement to my salad.    

Image is from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0CObhLr_YNRVDKETtzsYfX4OODgeYxV3AXWHzFoEKTWbpgNtK8QCLSYtlW0HH5Kz17Lwccbzpx7v8CzswRgqXd6Bn6RqO__n2WBM-uNCTMUej7Mdr1Oi7VNi82jOVHSO1cLkaF3vcE7s3/s320/OMG-Meme-by-Chad-Syphrett.png  

Chanh Mu Recipe

 Image from Nam Son restaurant 

http://namsonrestaurant.com/menu-card/

This is the recipe for the Vietnamese lime drink I was talking about from my previous post. It is actually called Chanh Mu (pickled lime). Originally this is made with pickled lime or lemon that sits in salt water for a few days until pickled but he uses fresh squeezed lime with this.

1 or 2 limes or lemons (if you prefer)

Salt and sugar to taste

Water

Ice

Cut the lime in wedges and squeeze as all the juice from lime into a tall glass. Add a bit of water, a dash of salt and a spoonful of sugar and stir. Add more sugar and salt to your liking, not to much but make sure the flavors are balanced with the lime. Then add ice and more water and stir again. That is all there is to it.

I also might try this with some fresh mint as I read somewhere that some add mint leaves to this and that right there sounded very invited to the taste buds as does the photo above have a sprig of mint for garnish.

Enjoy!

My New 10 week challenge

Ok so now I have a new challenge and this one is proposed by my husband Tan. After watching me relentlessly search the internet for weight lose tips and hearing my whines and complaints about not getting anywhere with my efforts to drop the last 10 lbs he says this to me,

"Baby just do sit ups, squats and push ups and stop doing all that cardio. Cardio aint doing crap for you. Just build your muscle to firm up and the fat will burn off."

My response "But baby I need to do cardio to burn off the fat."

He gives me that look of despair and says "I told you to do that a long time ago but you don't listen."

So I say ok! I am going to take him up on that and do a 10 week challenge. He set out a regimen of 3 sets of 10 for each move and I added in a couple of fav's and my workout is going to be 1/2 hour long each day and as I get used to that I will add more reps and increase as I go. So I am giving up all the DVD workouts and kicking the cardio to the curb...for the time being!

It will look something like this:

• 10 reps and 3 sets of each; squats, sit ups, dead lifts, push ups, lunges, and I may throw something else in like sumo squats, donkey kicks or what ever else tickles my fancy. I am just going to workout in the moment and see where it leads.

This just may be an attempt to finally prove him wrong on something because he is seriously a "Smart Ass" and what I mean by that is he is smart as sh*t and a ass to boot. Not one of those ass's that most men are but a wittingly funny smart ass. He makes me laugh on a daily basis but at the same time piss me off because I can't never seem to get him back on anything.

So if this fails then I can laugh at him and say "I told you so"....but then if it works I will praise him to the heaven's with an "AMEN". he also told me to stop drinking the whey protein after my workouts and drink the Vietnamese lime drink he makes which is oh so yummy and refreshing. I will post the recipe for this. On the plus side I know lime is considered good for fat burning.

So wish me luck and starting tomorrow I will re post my current stats and let the count down begin...

Supplements!!!

I am curious as to see what others think about supplements. I am not talking about the miracle diet pills out there that don't work I am talking about all natural supplements. I have started taking a regimen of supplements I have researched online and so far they seem ok but the fat is not coming off my body as fast as I would like. I will give you a run down of what I take.

• L-Carnatine 500mg 6xs a day
• L-Glutamin 500mg 6xs a day
• A Omega 3 complex with Omega 6 and 9, 2 pills a day
• CoQ10 concentrate pharmaceutical grade 1 pill a day
• Multivitamin 1 pill a day
• CLA 2,000mg 3xs a day

I just started on the CLA not that long ago when someone from GNC told me that when this is coupled with L-Carnatine that it helps to break the fat down faster and also it is suppose to help with belly fat. So we will see what the results are when this bottle is gone. I have read some mixed reviews on CLA so I am not sure if I want to continue with it if I don't see any results.

I know it takes time for these supplements to start working but I have been on everything accept the CLA for about 4 months. I will give this regimen until the end of the year before I decide to discontinue there use. I would love to see what anyone else is taking and what kind of results you are having. I am also working on adding a page for supplements and some links to supplement guides.

Setting New Goals

I have decided to set some new goals for myself for the rest of the year. My old goal was to lose 6 lbs in 4 months, even though I worked out hard and ate sensibly the scale has not moved accept up 1 lb. I have noticed some visible results but i am wondering why my left side of my body is getting smaller and firmer but my left side is not. I work them out equally so why is one side getting results but not he other? It goes from my left arm, waist to my leg all those parts are visible firmer then the right.

Very frustrating if you ask me. Does this go into the category of "You don't choose where your body burns fat?" kind of thing or am I doing something wrong? I really wish I had some help on this but I don't have the money to hire a personal trainer or anyone else for that matter to help me with this. So my new goal is this for the rest of the year.

Don't worry about the scale just to keep doing what I am doing and be patient enough until the flabby fat is all gone no matter how long it will take. My reason for this thinking is this...I have set goals to lose and x amount of lbs or firm up the flabby fat but none of my goals have been met yet to my standards. So I am going to stop stressing over it and just keep working hard and see where my body decides to take the fat of first then hopefully move to the other side.

My work out regimen consists of this:

• Work out 5 to 6 days of the week, depending on my schedule or mood I may get 6 days in but most likely only 5
• I work out anywhere from 20 minutes to hour again depending on my schedule
• I mix my workouts up but always get 3 days of strength and 3 days of cardio in, something like this but not always
• Monday: Jacki Warner's power pyramid for lower body 20 minutes
• Tuesday: Jillian Michale's 30 day shred about 20-30 minutes
• Wednesday: Crunch total re-sculpt 40 minutes maybe only 1 of the 20 minute workouts
• Thursday: Run in place for 45 - 60 minutes
• Friday: Jillian Michale's killer buns and thighs 30 minutes.
• On some of the strength days where I work out for only 20 minutes or so I sometimes add in a 30 minute running in place right after.

So my question is am I on the right track and just keep pushing or do I need to change something up or is it better to just stick to one or two workouts for a certain period of time before changing again? Anyone who has any helpful suggestions I would love some feedback. Also I don't have money for a gym membership or the room for equipment. just a mat and hand-weights is what I have.

Progression!!!!

Trying to burn pure body fat is by far the most hardest and frustrating part of this journey. Now it feels like losing the first  100lbs was the easy part. Now trying to drop the last 10 lbs, firming/toning, and working on firming the skin has been a nightmare thus far.

Last year I slacked off after 1 1/2 intense years of cleaning up my diet and exercising. I started back to my work our routine in January and have been pushing myself for the last 6 months. My progression this far has been minimal but I am still trudging on. I told myself no matter what that I will not quite until I reach my goals.

You really need that mind set and determination when you get down to the last few pounds. Those are the hardest to lose. I have done my homework and spent hours searching and reading on diet and exercise to find out what I am doing wrong. My diet (I don't like to use the word but for this purpose I will) is fine. I eat mainly a Vietnamese diet because my wonderful husband is Viet and I have to admit I love the food. Vietnamese food is very healthy for you aside from the rice. I do however watch my rice portions. Although I eat well and have my one cheat day out of the week the fat is just not burning off fast enough.

I figured I would have 10 lbs off by at least 3-4 months tops. I work out 5-6 days out of the week focusing mainly on strength and a couple days of cardio. I made the big mistake of cardio blasting myself to skinny fat syndrome. Now I'm paying for it because I did not have the arsenal of knowledge as I do now. So I just jumped into it and barely ate and did cardio for about 2 hours a day with some strength training in between. So as of now my stats for this month are:

• Weight in still 136 (scale has not moved in 6 months)

• Lost 1/4 inch of my thighs and waist

I will post this once a month because I only weight and measure once a month. That is enough to at least keep me from getting unmotivated due to the slow progression I am encountering. One thing I will say that NO MATTER WHAT do not give up on yourself if you have a slow peak like I have. Any lose whether it be 1/4 inch or 1 pound is still BETTER THEN NOTHING! 

If anyone has any advice for me as far as working out/ supplements or any helpful advice is welcome and greatly appreciated.