Runs, TIU, & things...

#runforboston

I haven't post in a while. Well with all the stuff last week I happen to come upon people dedicating their runs to Boston. A lot of people was doing it on 4/17, which happened to be the day I was going to the gym. So I decided I would do that too. See as I haven't been having great runs even on the treadmill I decided that my goal would be 2.25 miles. I'm not sure what happened, but I actually did 3.42 miles. I was really surprised and I think I got a slight runner's high. Saturday my brother was home for the weekend so he decided to take me on this run he does when he's home. Again I thought I couldn't do it, but actually surprised myself. The uphill portion of my brother's run was a bit challenging. One part my brother was signaling me to stop which I thought maybe because he wanted to ask if I needed a break, but actually his knee was bothering him. I'm glad I have a fit fam. So far I'm 10.1 of 26.2 miles for Boston. Now I'm thinking one day I could try a 10k. Maybe next year.

TIU Bikini Challenge 2013

Here I go again. Got an email about the Tone It Up Bikini Challenge 2013, but wasn't sure if I wanted to do it because lately I've been signing up for things and never completing it, like BBB. Then I starting browsing around Twitter/Instagram and found out that there's a lot of support out there. There tons of TIU members/participants. Great thing about it is its free. So far I've done the Bikini Strap Workout that was called for on Thursday. So here I go again, hopefully I see this through. Lately I've been finding Instagram to be a big help to keep on the healthy track. Seeing people's photos of healthy food or anything health/fitness related has really been a big help. It also make me want to post my healthy eats. Except for when your brother comes home for the weekend and suggests eating Alberto's. Good food, but I gained a food baby out of it. Next time I'm opting for a lone burrito instead of a burrito plate.

I went in to Smart & Final the other day for bananas, but came out with this. It happened to be on sale, so I was like why not give it a try. Another way to feed my Greek yogurt addiction. Very delicious and you can't even tell its Greek yogurt. It taste even better than when I mix a ranch packet with low fat sour cream. Now I'm thinking I could make my own with a ranch packet and some Chobani. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the big Greek yogurt companies start coming out with dips.

Why does the Japanese market have to be so temping. Oh I wished I could have got something, but I had to tell myself "look, but don't touch". Hahaha. The pocky was on sale too.



YouTuber Sighting at the Gym

I love that I go to a chain gym. It has its downsides, but there's also the positives. Well one many thing is that I can go anywhere. I usually choose where I want to go depending on where I'm coming from or what errands I need to run after. Well today since I needed to go to Trader Joe's I decided to go to gym that would swing me by Trader Joes on my way home. Ok to keep long story short I saw my favorite YouTube singer Jason Chen at gym. I've seen him couple of times before when I go to this particular gym, but its always been random when seeing him. I was trying to run a 5K on the treadmill, but that ended up being a 75% run 35% walk. I haven't run for a few weeks so I should have known it wasn't going to be a good workout. I'm about to leave when I turn my head and see Jason Chen on an elliptical. Basically I hop on another machine to ponder how I was going to ask for a photo. In the end I didn't ask for a photo. I got another workout though. Always good to burn more calories. I saw him leaving, but I was like ehhh never mind. It would have been a hot mess of a photo anyways. All sweaty and stanky. No. lol.

Below is his recent cover of P!nks "Just Give Me A Reason". Everyone should subscribe. He makes covers of popular music and he has great original music.

 

Crazy Week

This week has been really crazy. Since I had to work all weekend I wasn't able to get any of my workouts in. I'm so behind in Best Body Boot Camp. I think I'll just have to forget week 3/4 and continue on with week 5. I'm really lost. I was glad to go back to barre Wednesday. Oh boy was it killer. The Wednesday teacher isn't who I'd considered "hard", but I guess cos I haven't gone for a few days I was struggling. I also manged to get in one of the runs that's part of my workout schedule. The morning of the run for some reason I woke up 2-3 times thinking it was time to get up. First I woke up around 3:30 AM just to check to time to find out it was not time yet. Then sometime around 4 I woke up again. I guess the night before I was like I have to get up tomorrow morning and told that to myself over and over again, so I wouldn't snooze and go back to sleep. When the alarm rang I did get up. Though I have yet to perfect getting out the door in a timely fashion so I'm at the gym with enough time to workout. I don't know how people get out the door in 10-15 minutes after waking up to go the gym. I mean on a good day maybe I'll get out under 45 minutes. Gotta keep trying though, but so hard when its cold. I either have to get up even earlier or just go to the gym in my PJs. Haha

BBBC Week 3

Yesterday I finished workout A. I'm just loving how I'm doing moves I've never done before. I think I should have started on Sunday. Now I'm behind and I feel all over the place. I having a hard time balancing barre class, bbbc, & getting my runs in before the Coaster Run 5K I'm doing in March. At the same time I'm trying not to stress out too much about it since my face has decided to act like a 13 year old and breakout. My main focus for Best Body Boot Camp is to learn new exercises that I will incorporate into my future workouts. I used to hear my brother and all these different strength moves he was doing at the gym. Now I can say I do some moves too. BBBC gave me the push I need to start strength training. I think if it wasn't for BBBC I'd still be just be a cardio queen.

BBBC Week 1

I completed week 1 of Best Body Boot Camp. I've always read it about it on people's blogs, but so glad I joined. Doing the first week of BBBC made me realize that I need to get out of my comfort zone and try different things when it comes to fitness. I feel that all these years I've been just a gym rat. I just feel like I've just become one of those people dragging themselves to the gym and going through the motions. Not that I don't push myself at the gym, but after doing BBBC it kind of opened my eyes to other forms of exercise. I still love the gym, but I think its great to incorporate the different kinds of exercises that I'm learning in BBBC in my workouts. I used to be a cardio junkie. I knew I needed to incorporate weight training to see better results, but I would just try weights a few times and give up so easily. I've already seen great results since joining barre and have done exercises that I've never thought I could do. Now with BBBC I hope to see even more results and learn more exercises that can expand my mental fitness library. Even when BBBC is over I can't wait to incorporate weight exercises and the different toning exercises on a regular basis. I think the hard part was my goal of trying to sleep before 11. I think I should have made that midnight. I don't want to give up on that goal though. Even though many a time I'm up past midnight I think I can try to get to bed before 11. Well I failed today, but tomorrow is another day. In the words of Casey Jr. "I think I can". Haha.

On another note I also joined another DietBet by SarahFit. Third time should be a charm. I was close with the other two DietBets by SarahFit. This time hopefully I don't go losing my bet.

BBBC Day 3

Oh boy Best Body Boot Camp day 3 is trying to test my balance . I started off a bit of a mess again because a had to re-watch a few of the videos during the workout. I got the hang of it by the start of the 3rd set. I should work on my balance more. It wasn't bad, but definitely shaky. I thought I would feel sore till tomorrow morning, but I'm staring to feel it now.
This morning I had an egg scramble with spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, and sausages. I love scrambling my eggs. It's faster and easier to cook than an omelette.
Is it me or does overnight oats make a great dinner. I guess overnight oats is great anytime.

Missing Barre

Ekk it's been four days since I've gone to barre class. With the holidays and different schedules I haven't been able to go. On a good week I can hit barre up to 6 days. Though I don't think I'd just stop going all of a sudden since love barre so much, but it reminds me how easy it is to get lazy. Not going to barre for a while is reminding me of my old on and off relationship with the gym. I can see how four days off can easily turn into 2 weeks or months of not working out. At the same time it's also a reminder to stay on track so I don't fall back into the vicious cycle of working out for a period of time and then taking a big break.

Best Body Bootcamp

I'm so excited to join Tina Reale's Best Body Boot Camp round 4. I've read about it on many HLB, but was always when others was participating. Finally found out that registration was starting for round 4 so I decided to join. Best body boot camp is a 8 week fitness plan for only $25. The great thing is that you get to work at your own pace. I guess you become your own drill sergeant. Even though its an online based program it gets rave reviews. My goals for this is to tone up and hopefully see more changes with my body. Since starting taking barre classes I have seen big changes with my body & fitness in general. I've never regularly worked out with weights before even though I knew it was essential part of any fitness plan. After joining barre and seeing actual changes my overall fitness has improved. I'm sticking with my goals I set and always looking for ways where I can improve. Well paying the hefty monthly fee for barre also makes sure that I go as much as I can. What I noticed is that anything I join where I have to fork over my money as a bet or to join I stick with it better. With SarahFit's diet bet I felt that I put 100% into even though I didn't meet my goals.  Where as some of the Challenge Loops I joined so far has been a fail. I think I just need to focus on 1 activity at a time instead of trying to join so many things. I can't wait for BBBC to start.

My Barre Addiction

One of the Barre DVDs I have.

Hi, I'm Evelyn and I'm a barre-aholic. Haha I'm not sure if that would qualify as an real addiction. After the Pasadena marathon I saw online about how this new barre studio was opening near me. One of my friend has taken barre class few years ago, but I didn't think much of it. I thought that it was just another one of those new fitness craze. For the first week all their classes was free since it was their grand opening, so I was like why not try something new plus its free. Who would have known I'd be hooked. Barre classes typically incorporate the use of a barre, ballet moments, & some kind of prop. There are so many different variations out there. From one that are more cardio based to ones that incorporate yoga/pilates. Overall all barre classes goals are to tone and be long/lean. Of the 10+ years I've been a gym member I have never seen best results/changes since taking barre. Bye bye muffin top. 

I used to have a on and off relationship with the gym, but since seeing results from the barre I've actually been more focused my other workouts. In barre your always pushing yourself and strengthening the core. With other workouts I feel that its easy to improve since you first start or it gets easier as you do more. On the other with barre your 50th class can feel like your just taking class for the first time. Only barre can make 2lb weights feel like you have 100lbs in your hands. I love barre so much that I bought 2 DVDs so I had the option of exercising at home and comparing the different types of barre. Compared to a traditional gym Barre can be pricey, but I think its worth it. I would recommend anyone thinking about trying it just to try it a few times before committing. 

Gotta Run

For the past few months on trying to get in some morning weekday workouts specifically going to the gym or running outside. My problem was that I could never wake up in time. Well not getting to bed at a proper time doesn't really help (note to self). I do have to admit when the bed is warm and comfy its really hard to get out of it. Finally this week I managed to get the 2 morning workouts I scheduled. My main goal is to start running outside again to prepare for couple of 5Ks I'm doing next year. Not that I can't run a 5K now, but I just don't want to be struggling to run the 5K or getting passed by the little kiddos I see running the races. After the doing my first 5K in the Pasadena Marathon, I didn't really keep up with the running. The summer weather and new found love for barre had to do with my lack of running consistently. Now with the cooler weather there is no excuse not to run.