Making better choices

Crazy how much my lifestyle has changed for the better... eating healthy and consistent workouts has dramatically change the I look and feel. Still got a long ways to go to reach my goals but will keep working on it!

First topless picture!! Hahaha. :P

I love to sit back and think of how far I have gone. And sometimes when I look back at picture... im just amazed of how much progress ive gotten. It pushes me to work harder because 1 day... ill be looking at a picture of me then and a picture of me now... I know I will still see another dramatic change. Wats been working for me is setting up weekly short term goals. I still have a long term goal but I dont even think about it. I focus on the week at hand and work on the NOW results and its been working tremendously. Cant wait to see where we will all be 12 months from today. I cannot even imagine... :)

Surprised!

Ill admit, being on vacay in cali for a weekend and cheating on diet with banh mi from Lee's sandwiches and in and out doubke double with animal fries, I seriously I was putting the pounds back on... before I left for cali, I hit 250lbs, came home at 254 lbs... after 2 weeks of being back on my training routine. Ive dropped down to 240!! Im shocked and amazed how reachable my so called "ambitous" weekly goals are! I still have 2 more training days left this week and im prepared to WORK! And in case yall wondering. Im still eatibg about 1600-1800 calories per day. I just make them 1600-1800 very clean and lean... and that take alot of nuts (almonds)! Haha literally dues to lower calories from salads and turkey breasts. I try to reach a minimum and stay under a maximum with my nutrition while tracking my macros.

Progression

Progression

Dropping weight fast with my 1 week trial of super clean and lean diet with no grains.

Spinach, red bell pepper and chicken salad with fresh lime n lemon juice for lunch

Todays weigh 251.5!!

Motivation!!

This is what motivates me! After a week of low energy and unmotivated workout, I remotivated myself with some retail therapy (suit shopping for up coming weddings cus the ones I bought in september are now too big :)!! )  also when i see the results of all my hardwork, its motivates me because I know what i amdoing is working for me. It pushes me to reach for higher goals. As painful and difficult the road may be, the prize awaiting for me at the finish line is worth all of it!

Todays weigh in at under 255lbs!!

Anything is possible

Its been awhile

So its been a while since my last update. Ive still beeen hitting the gym regularly, mixing in lighter workouy days in since ive given up rest days for lent! But that doesnt mean ill go crazy at the gym all 40 days but ill spend my old rest days with light cardio day (30 mins biking/elliptical).

Weighed in and I finally gotten myself back into the 250s!

Progress picture day

Today vs 1/13 vs 12/12 vs 11/11 (100lbs difference)

100th pound

Great workout today!

Before my workout today. i felt pretty sluggish and worn (probably from all the cardio ive been doing this week). I really REALLY didnt want to do much cardio or lifting. So i did something i havent done in awhile.. go home and eat a preworkout with a little more carbs (half a PB&J sandwich and a little quinoa/kale/ and chicken bowl) than ive been taking in the past few weeks along with my preworkout drink (Full Blown XXX) ive been passing on for while cus i was just focus on leaning out naturally. Huge boost in energy today although i didnt run as long as i usually did but i increased my intensity by over 50% (running 7-8.5mph on the elliptical while topping at a top speed of 11mph for short periods). Followed up the cardio with some shoulders and core today.  Went on the heavier lifting today topping with 225lb shoulder presses x10 reps!. Overall great workout. Higher intensity cardio + heavier weight lifting = exhaustion!!

Superbowl side effects...

This weekend wasn't a very productive. I had a little too much fun this weekend and the Superbowl didn't help me very much with  reaching my goals... but HEY! its the SUPERBOWL! gotta live a little once in a while. I used that day to indulge all the cravings I had. I stuffed my face with chicken wings, ribs, mac n cheese, chocolate haupia pies, tater tots and much more.... i took advantage of my "cheat" day and loved it.. and oh.. i also had 3 shots of Jack Daniels to go along with all the food... gained a good 4-5lbs from the weekend putting myself back up to ~272lbs as of monday morning... :(. But i kicked it into high gear the past 2 days.

Ran 90 minutes on the elliptical and  did chest and tricep workouts for another 90 mins on monday. Followed that up with 100 minutes of elliptical today, 20 mins swimming, and 75 mins of back and bicep workouts. Thats some serious damage control..

post workout weigh in ~266lbs. Dropping all that water weight FAST!

Dinner today = Turkey Taco Soup

320 calories
0g fat

17g carbs

19g protein

Good morning!!

Kashi go lean high fiber and protein cereal with almond milk!

Morning weigh in: 268.7!!!

Dinner and workout

Workout today = shoulders/triceps/core/cardio + 20 mins of hot tub to destress.

Dinner
Ground turkey breast larb gai
290 calories
0.8g fat
5g carbs
65g protein

Also broke into the 260s! How exciting!
269.6lbs!! 4.6 lbs away from the century mark!

Bomb chicken lunch followed by some more hot yoga!

Planned on doing hot yoga tonight as I give my muscles a break by stretching and sweating it all out.

Since I was going to be in seattle for hot yoga, decided to go early and grab some lunch at "San Fernando's Roasted Chicken Peruvian Restaurant". Had the quarter chicken and replacrd the side of fries with extra salad...while avoiding that ranch dressing on top. The chicken was delicous!

Did a weigh in post yoga today.
Current weight 271.8lbs!
6.8 lbs away!!

Dinner

More turkey lettuce wraps tonight along with boiled kale in chicken broth topped with 5 spice ground turkey.

Also made some healthy non fat spinach and kale greek yogurt dip... yummo!

Cooking healthy can be fun and delicous!!

Today's gym workouts were back, biceps, and the daily cardio (45 mins today) but I also added 1/2 hour in between my cardio and weight lifting for relaxing and recover in the spa and sauna.

I was excited for today dinner because I love cooking new recipes. I decided to make five spice turkey lettuce wraps! Each wrap is topped with fresh basil, cilantro, shredded carrots, lil squeeze of lemon drop and a few drops of spicy nuoc mam to give it a lil kick! The turkey was made up with five spice powder, hoison sauce, ginger, red and green bellpeppers, and red onions with a lil heat from dried pepper flakes imported from VN!. It was delicous. I made enough tonlast for several meals!

Each wrap:
80 calories
1g fat
10g carbs (2g fiber)
9 g protein

(I ate 6 for a total of 480 calories, 6g fat, 60 g carbs, 54g protein)

Desert
1/2 cup of trader joe's plain organic nonfat greek yogurt with fresh blackberries and blueberries.
80 calories
0g fat
4.5g carbs
12g protein

23g protein

Mixing in something new: Hot Yoga!!

First hot yoga session = bucket of sweat!!

I went to "Breathe Hot Yoga" in South Lake Union today and i can honestly I've never sweated so much from any workout in my life! It was definately a different feeling from my normal routine workouts. The room was over 100° F and I was already sweating the second I walked in. The instructor was super friendly and encouraging. I didnt know my body could bend the way it did today! The 90 minutes session flew by quickly and had me leaving a little sore but my muscles felt relaxed! All that stretching was what my muscles needed after all the tough training I've been putting it through. Its something I would recommend anyone to try atleast once.

Belated saturday post.

Saturday was exhausting but fun!

Saturday morning was the grand opening of the new 24hour fitness in kirkland at totemlake mall so I decided to check it out. The gym it self isnt very big but the equipment there looks new and clean. While I was there, they were giving away free gym bags, towels, cantines, and lunch!! Theybhad panera bread cater so i had a sierra turkey sandwich. It was delicious!!  I only did a light arms workout and a breeze 5 minute run on the elliptical because I didnt wanna over work myself cus I was still playing football in the afternoon.

Football was amazing and an incredible workout. I always end the game feeling incredibly sore but I see it as a way to see howball the hardwork you put in the gym being applied in sports. Not to sound cocky or anything but I dominated the line with 7 sacks, a personal best! Ive noticed an improvement on my speed, power, and quickness. All that working out is definately paying off! Makes me so excited to see how far ive gone. Before this year, for me to get even 1 sack was a challenge cus I was too slow to chase anybody down and would be tired early cus of my conditioning was poor. So far this season going back to early december, in 5 games ive recorded 19 sacks! Yes, ive been keeping track :). This just makes me wanna work harder so I can be even STRONGER! FASTER! LOUDER!

After the game, I treated myself a bit and with a visit to mi hue ky gia (sp) and had theyre chicken wings and mi vit tiem. I take this as my 2nd cheat meal of the weekend and it was amazing! 

After all that, physical activity still wasnt over. My uncle had a birthday party later that night at See Sound Lounge and danced for another hour or 2, burning off even more calories! And I did pretty well limiting myself from drinking by onlybtaking 1/2 of a shot! Othrr than that, water all night.

No break today either. Im going to my first hot yoga session with my friend Michelle and im actually quite intimidated but excited too. Wish me luck!

Lunch and dinner

Noble court dimsum with the coworker. I called this my cheat meal of the weekend.
Ha gow, shu mai, chicken feet, and bean curd roll.

For dinner today, I made turkey taco pasta. Delicious and relatively healthy.

Ingredients:
Trader Joes taco seasoning
99% fat free ground turkey breast
Organic whoe grain pasta
Fage 0% total plain greek yogurt
Trader Joes lite mexican cheese blend
Onion
Red bell pepper
Organic canned diced tomatoes

303 calories
4g fat
29g carbs
29g protein

Desert
Fage 0% total plain greek yogurt with fresh blueberries.

Friday workout

I was really debating all day if I should use today as a recovery/rest day but in the end I decided to hit the gym anyways. Started out with 30 mins of sauna and spa to relax my muscles and continued on for a light 15 min on the bike. Today was shoulders day and for the first time, I started to incorporate assisted pullups into my workout. Its been the most intimidating workout for  because ive never been able to do them but it was time I got over it. A year ago, 1 single pull up, even assisted was an impossibility for me but I was able to do 4 sets of 10 reps assisted. It was definately a giant step for me today and now im closer to one of my goals of being able to do the first pull up in my entire life!! So excited. As for the rest of my shoulder day, I did military press, arnold press, dumbbell press, shrugs, lateral raises and machine shoulder press.

Morning weigh in

Morning weigh in= 274lbs!!

9 more pound to go til the century mark!

No pain, no gain!

Today was another 2 hr workout. Started off with 65 minutes of cardio on the elliptical again and wow.... I wanted to get off after the first 20 mins but motivation from being so close to my goal pushed me through it. I ended up running 6 miles while burning a whopping 1000 calories in 65 minutes! Feels great! I then followed with my 2nd chest day of the week with 4 sets of each workout : bench press, incline press x2 (free weights and machine), dumbbell press, pectoral flies, and cable crosssovers. I will check the scales tomorrow morning to see how much progress today was.

Dinner was boring tonight. I made a little bit of whole grain penne pasta with spaghetti sauce and chunks of grilled chicken. I could only stomach 1/2 of it cause it was not satisfying. So I quickly went to the fridge and got my greek yogurt and an apple to finish off my dinner.

540 calories
5g fat
11g fiber
34g protein

Lunch 1/24/2013

Grilled chicken with red bell pepper, onions, spinach, and avocado on organic 100% sprouted grain ezekiel bread.

404 calories
11g fat
16g fiber
35g protein

Another day of progress!

Another day closer to my fitness goals!

Today's Workout
Today was back and abs day along with my daily cardio. I must say its my least favorite only because im obsessed with shoulder, chest, and arm workouts cus theyre the glamourous muscles but I kno back and core are just as important. I spent an hour doing back and core today and finished with 25 mins of elliptical.  Fairly light day from my normal 2 1/2 hour days but I could give my body a break to recover a bit.

The Weigh In
As I usually do, I weighed myself after my workout and weighed in at 275.5lbs!! I haven't seen those kind of number on a scale in almost 14-15 years!!

Post workout dinner: 

Grilled chicken breast stuff with a little light greek yogurt spinach dip, fresh spinach and avocado.

Kale cooked in all natural chicken broth and chopped garlic tossed with some shredded chicken breast.

Chobani Non-Fat Peach Greek Yogurt.

~575 calories

~16 g fat (50% good fats from avocado)

~60 g protein

~9 g fiber

Rewarding morning

For the longest time. My monthly goal since October was to get past my 280lb barrier cause I had plateaued for quite sometime. Maybe it was my diet or my workout routine but I decided to change it up last Wednesday and wow! What a difference! The changes I've made were the types of food I ate, how often I ate, and portion size. Huge difference! Also on top of my new diet, I've also added a goal of 45mins-1hr of cardio on my workout day (M-F).

My starting weight from last Tuesday was about 290lbs (but my weight for past month had been fluctuating between 283-287, Seahawks playoffs was a setback to my diet but it was worth to see the hawks play well). Yesterday I hit 280, but this morning I finally hit one of my mini goals by weighing in at 277! I know there's some water weight fluctuations but its awesome to finally see those number on the scale.

So rewarding and makes me excited to go back to the gym tonight! 1 step at a time! My next goal weight is 265 which will be my century mark! My 100th pound!

Breakfast and lunch

Breakfast

Kashi Go Lean cereal with almond milk
160 calories
2.8g fat
11g fiber
14g protein

Lunch
Ezekiel organic sprouted wheat bread
Adam's All Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter
Kroger Concord Grape Jelly
305 calories
9g fat
13g fiber
15g protein

Snacks
2 apples (1 in between breakfast and lunch and 1 after work to keep metabolism going)
110 calories
4g fiber

Healthier lunch option

Ezekiel organic sprouted grain bread, grilled chicken breast, avocado, steamed spinach and mushroom with a touch of balsamic vinegar to add some extra flavor= 413 calories, 9g fat/40g protein, 19g dietary fiber.

"Good" fats from avocados, nuts, olive oil, and fish oil helps promote weight loss.

http://www.lookcut.com/articles/good-fats-for-weight-loss.html

My First Post = A little intro to what I've accomplished so far.

First Post

My Progression for past 14 months

Currently have 3 Gym memberships to 24 Hour Fitness, VisionQuest, and LA Fitness

Workout Schedule: M-F 2-3 hours per day

Ill start posting my meals on here along with my workouts of the day.

Today (1/22/13)
Weight Today= 280lbs
Starting Weight (11/11)= 365lbs
Net lost= 85lbs
Goal= 250lbs

left to right
(11/11)-(12/11)-(01/12)
(02/12)-(03/12)-(04/12)

Left to right
(04/12)-(05/12)-(06/12)
(10/12)-(11/12)-(12/12)

No progress pictures for July-September

Bench Max= 275lbs