Back in action

OOOOOhhh.. Chloe has arisen from the dead!!!

Man, going clubbing in LA really does wonders for my self-esteem. There are WAY too many skinny girls in LA.

I always found it a little amusing that although Insanity is way harder than P90X (not to say that P90X is in any way easy), I was able to get 99% of the way through Insanity (damn you, last session of Plyometrics!!). I finally figured out why. It's because Tony Horton is freaking annoying. He talks way too damn much. And his sexual innuendos make him come off so pervy. Also, Insanity is more exciting than P90X. Although I wonder if I did the two in reverse order would I have finished P90X and not finished Insanity? I like the work outs in P90X (except legs... that sucks) though.

Two days ago I did arms & back without the dvd. This morning I did Cardio Abs from Insanity. I think I'll merge the two. HOLY hell am I in horrible shape!!! When I was doing arms & back, I used the same spreadsheet as I did before with the designated weights, and one of the first ones I wrote, "7.5 lbs <~ too light." I could barely do the exercise all 15 reps without collapsing using the 7.5 lb dumbbells! I lost so much muscle mass. Cardio Abs this morning was no walk in the park. There is too much jiggly going on over there. Yuck!!

I don't know why I keep doing this. Work out like crazy for a couple of months, stop for a few, start up again. Maybe I need to tone it down and go easier. But I feel like it shouldn't be this hard to keep up a work out regimen 4-6 days a week. I'm just lazy.

Food-wise, I'm okay. I have started to eat for my skin now and less for the shape of my body, but I guess they can coincide. But honestly if I had clear skin I would be way more lenient on my dietary standards. Also, that is a huge reason I put such a large emphasis on working out... if I don't have clear skin, at least I can have a nice body. So in addition to shying away from animals and cutting down tremendously from anything that came directly from animals, I've also cut down on many refined carbohydrates. This is mainly because most refined carbs in Western worlds come from wheat, and I don't think my face likes wheat. No oats or granola, including any bars. Obviously no bread or pasta. Rice seems to be okay. Peanuts / peanut butter also make me break out. This makes me scared because I don't know if it's all nuts or just tree nuts or just peanuts. I'm aiming towards a gluten-free vegan diet. Unfortunately all this eating means that if I slip up, I get bloated for a couple of days. Last night I ordered a gluten-free vegan pizza. It was the most expensive pizza ever, but it was good! Gluten-free, can't really tell the difference. It's just flour that's why. Been eating lots of mochi too (real mochi, not mochi ice cream) and I haven't broken out. I went to Costco and bought around $35 worth of veggies to juice and that is helping a LOT. I SWEAR by vegetable juice. 25oz a day will help your acne if you have it. It will also help a ton of other things.

Speaking of veggie juice I should get going to make that and head to work. Hope you hear from me soon...

P90X, Days 38 and 39: Lots of things.

Oy.. *shameful* I feel like I owe you guys an explanation. I know I've been MIA for the past three weeks. Unfortunately, waking up at 5AM and the horrible commute + other stuff ripped out my innards and left me begging for mercy. Okay, that *may* have been some sort of hyperbole, but I think the point got across.

The past couple of weeks have consisted of good/bad eating and 2 days of exercise. Looks like I've lost so much of my motivation. I've moved, so I'm a bit closer to work! My commute is around 0:45 - 0:50 each way so it didn't cut down as much as I wanted, but it's still a great improvement. Truth is I have time to work out now; I just don't. Also discouraging is the fact that I left my workout papers at home! I'll pick them up tomorrow.

Food-wise I'm doing.. okay. I have gotten accustomed to not eating too much wheat but I've been slipping lately with animal products. I had like 3 quesadillas this week! In good news, my skin is the best it's been since 2008. so FUCK YEAH! Peanut butter was indeed the last culprit so I won't be eating much / any pb in the future.

I want to say I'll pick up working out again after tomorrow. But I'm not sure if I will. I want to want to. I love the look of my muscles and I know I lost a ton in the past couple of weeks I haven't been working out. However... and I know I am going to get hate for this.. but it is hard to have motivation to work out when you are already satisfied with the way you look! In Feb I was unsatisfied. I worked out, ate right, lost some fat, gained some muscle, got to where I was a month - month.5 ago and while that wasn't my ideal body it was the best I've had in my whole life. I was in the grocery store the other day, caught a glimpse of my reflection in the frozen food section and said damn! I'm skinny! So, lack of motivation is there when I'm already skinny. But I know I won't stay this way if I don't work out because if I don't work out, I also don't eat right. All or nothing. I need to get my mindset to where it was a month ago: I looked good but I could always improve. And I also need to remember I need to continue to work out so I can stave off osteoporosis when I'm older + keep my heart healthy. I live on the 2nd floor so I can't do plyometrics (boo hoo). I don't know if I want to continue P90X exactly the way it's laid out. I already skip many things: many of the push ups, yoga, plyo, some of the other exercises. I also think I don't get enough cardio but my knee started hurting today which I felt when I was driving during the times I was releasing the clutch.

We shall see. I know I was a source of motivation for some of you out there... looks like someone needs a favor returned!!! :D

P90X, Days 33-37: Lots of things.

33 = Friday, rest
34 = Saturday, Kenpo
35 = Sunday, Legs & Back, ARX
36 = Monday, Shoulders, Chest, & Triceps, ARX
37 = Tuesday, rest

Wow, I have not had much time to blog on here. It is awful. I feel pretty bad. My core sleeping time is 11-7 and when I deviate from that and sleep from 10-5, things go south. I cannot work out at night because I won't be able to sleep after, not to mention my motivation to work out is way higher in the morning when I actually do get up. The result is me feeling tired all the time and slacking off in working out. I am seriously thinking about replacing Yoga with a rest day and work out 5 days a week instead of 6 so I can sleep in 2x during the week so I would work out Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I am bummed I didn't do Plyo this morning but I got to sleep in an hour and a half. Oh, also bummy is that I only did 1/2 of the Legs & Back and I totally neglected the ARX on Sunday. I just was not feeling it and I was miserable. I hate doing leg exercises. Lots of pull ups too. That was disappointing. Yesterday's work out was tough: so many push ups, but I really enjoy the arm work outs because I want to get strong. I don't care if my legs are strong to be honest. I feel like the plyometrics (which I totally didn't do this morning, oh, right...) should be enough work out. This feeling is weird because I want my thighs to be smaller but I hate doing leg exercises... so, lots of work, long hours at work on many days, lack of sleep means loss of motivation.

I haven't been eating incredibly great, either. I've had tofu pad thai twice in the past week; so many carbs. and a couple of granola bars. Also on the menu for the past few days was salads, fruit, protein smoothies, nuts, all that jazz. Today I had 34g protein smoothie, banana, apple, lunch was a salad, 2 more bananas w/ pb, 2 pcs chocolate, 2 pcs mung bean cake. I think I need to diversify... and drink lots more water.

This always happens. Any time I see a little bit of progress -- in this case, SOME ab formation in a certain light -- I start to lose motivation. I am already skinny. But I don't have the body I want and in times like these I wish I were more of a perfectionist and less of a... "this will suffice"ionist.

P90X, Day 31-32: Rest, Back & Biceps + ARX

Yesterday morning I woke up and decided sleep was better than working out. I've been exhausted lately, and the fucking rain makes my commute an hour and a half in the morning. I've started to become really tired since mid-week last week, and last week was the first week where I've started to wake up at 5 due to my new schedule. The last time I had this schedule I remember being worn out too. I admit I didn't expect to be worn out.. or at least not this fast. I need better discipline to get to bed at 9; currently I'm doing 9:30-10, and by the end of the week I've racked up 5-6 hours of sleep debt, and I never make that up because I can't sleep past 7. Even when I "slept in" yesterday, I woke up naturally at 6:30 and couldn't sleep for the half hour that was left before I had to wake up. Things were feeling a particularly horrible for the past two days, mentally and emotionally, but this morning I made it to work in under an hour, so it's not so bad anymore.

Also, the day before yesterday I was super duper tired and at 2:00 had a $6.75 cup of soy chai tea (WITHOUT SUGAR!! This is why I love smaller coffeeshops -- they actually make the teas without added stuff and add the other stuff later. Other bigger coffeshops like Coffeebucks or Starbean make the chai teas with powdered mixes... so even if you get a soy chai, you're still getting powdered nonfat milk because it's in the mix and you can't get it sans sugar. Only thing is the smaller ones are super expensive!). It super surprisingly woke me up for the rest of the day! Coffee and tea (and caffeine in general) have unpredictable results on me. It can make me sleepy, do nothing, or keep me up until 3AM. Thank goodness it didn't keep me up too much and my melatonin kicked in only slightly later than it normally would have. I don't think I have ever had that kind of reaction ever from tea (or any caffeine source for that matter). I would either get super sleepy or nothing would happen. Guess the $6.75 was worth it? Well, I didn't pay for it, so it was...

Anyway, back to the exercises. This morning I did Back & Biceps + ARX. Many types of curls + pull ups. The video moves really fast. I had to rewind at almost every new exercise. That is one drawback of having adjustable dumbells: can't just put one set down and pick another up. Gotta put them down in the grooves and move the tab thing to adjust the weight! Plus the whole thing about how it was the first time I did this and I don't know what weight I should lift yet. It was difficult at some points because we would do 2-3 types of curls in a row and I was pooped from the last one. I started to slack off during ARX, but I caught myself and pushed harder.

Food: yesterday I ate an apple, 42g protein, asian pear, lunch was stuffed tomatoes again, dipped veggies in hummus, had a ton of sweet potato chips. It is AMAZING how fast my skin reacts to bad food. Last week my skin was on the verge of being awesome again. This week, not so much. I hope it is not the sweet potato chips. I think it started with the sourdough bread I ate on Sunday. Then, sad to say, it might have been the mung bean cakes. I would eat like 3 in a row. The second ingredient is in those is sugar. When I mess up once, it is hard to get back on track perfectly. My skin is bad. Ugh. Two weeks ago I was super excited to get clear skin and lose this layer of fat.. this week I am tired of being hungry and tired of restricting myself. Today I ate a ton of refined carbs already. It is crazy how I can basically flip a switch and get acne. The switch flip the other way is harder. I need more discipline. I wonder if I could eat super duper well to clear up my skin before mid-Summer.

I read an article from Yahoo! Shine that linked an NBC article that said babies delivered via c-section are more likely to be obese. Are you freaking kidding me? I actually read the article and it stated that out of some study 15% of obese ppl were delivered through c-section compared to 10% who were delivered through natural birth. Theories abound suggest that c-section babies miss important bacteria in the vaginal canal that affect their metabolism. The BIGGEST thing they did not account for was how heavy their moms were. Obese pregnant patients are less likely to have natural births. Hey, you know what causes obesity? It's not the fact that you were born via c-section. *gasp*, I know. IT'S BECAUSE YOU EAT TOO DAMN MUCH. Are we at the point where we are so fat and so out of control and so out of touch that we need to blame the way we were born for the current composition of our bodies!? Puh-lease. You're fat because you don't pay attention to what you eat. End of story. And for those of you crying about your thyroid problem, that less than 1% of you, this doesn't address you. But for everyone else, all the excuses -- you're fat because you're genetically predisposed to be that way, you're fat because you don't have time to eat right, you're fat because you don't want to spend more money on healthy food, you're fat because you were delivered via c-section -- cry me a river. Then swim in it. You'll burn off a few calories.

P90X, Day 30: Plyometrics

Nothing new really. I was really tired this morning, but I tried to push really hard. The thing about P90X's Plyo is that things get progressively harder. I toughed it out, though, and am really glad I finished!

Food: apple, 42g protein smoothie, lunch was tomatoes stuffed with tofu, jicama, and some other veggies, a banana, 3pcs mung bean cake, nuts, got home and ate swt potato fries + garlic hummus, veggie juice.

P90X, Day 28-29: Rest Day; Shoulders, Chest, Triceps + Ab Ripper X

My rest day yesterday consisted of me going pretty far off my norm:

1.  Apple
2. Banana
3. 2 pcs mung bean cake
4. Egg white veggie omelet with 3 1/2 slices of sourdough bread and some pieces of potatoes
5. Yogurtland
6. Vegetarian chili w/ veggie sausage
7. Sweet potato chips

Okay, maybe it was just #3 that was the farthest from my norm. It felt good to finally eat normally! But I woke up this morning with some new pimples... I don't know if it's the #3 for sure but once I finish off this bag of #6 (the ingredients of which are just sweet potatoes, oil, and salt) I'll be back to normal boring plain ol' fruits, veggies, and tofu.

Today I ate a banana, protein smoothie, apple, part of a nasty asian pear, some nuts, mung bean cake, salad, veggie chili w/ sausage, banana w/ pb, swt potato chips. I ate a lot today!

This morning I did my first day of Month 2. Started with Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps (and the normal Ab Ripper X). The push ups were TOUGH. There were 3 exercises that I didn't even do: the first was the tricep side raise and the other two were push-up variations. Every move was different, as opposed to Month 1's chest/arm/back work outs where you do 3-4 moves and you repeat. No pull-up bar today either. I chose weights that were too heavy usually, oops -- getting overachievy here! I feel shitty that I can't do push ups. They just discourage me from the very beginning. And OMG, the clap / plyo / airborne push ups? (And I totally saw the Asian guy laugh when Tony said "the clap.") Tony does a push up, then pushes all of his limbs off the floor and does a clap while his body is airborne. I can't even clap at the top of my push up!!!! And the push ups on my knees are hard because of the weight it puts on my accident knee. I guess that's the reason I'm doing this, though... so I can at some point be able to clap at the top of my push up.

My mom pointed me to an article in the LA Times' Health section today about the resting metabolic rate (RMR) and exactly what the difference is with the addition of more muscle vs. fat. I found it really interesting because the popular notion is that one pound of muscle burns a butt-ton of more calories than a pound of fat; this article says that while one pound of muscle burns more calories than the same amount of fat does, it's not nearly as much as we've been told.

An excerpt from the article quotes Claude Bouchard of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., who has authored several books and hundreds of scientific papers on the subject of obesity and metabolism:

"Brain function makes up close to 20% of RMR," he said. "Next is the heart, which is beating all the time and accounts for another 15-20%. The liver, which also functions at rest, contributes another 15-20%. Then you have the kidneys and lungs and other tissues, so what remains is muscle, contributing only 20-25% of total resting metabolism."

 This explains why you're exhausted after a test! :) Now, for the actual hard numbers:

So, if you slave at weightlifting and increase your muscle mass by an ambitious 20%, this translates into only a 4% to 5% increase in RMR. Since a 200-pound man has an RMR of roughly 2,000 calories, a 20% increase in muscle mass equals only an 80- to 100-calorie increase.

For fun, let's run the numbers in even more detail, adding the role played by body fat. Bouchard sent me a follow-up email explaining that — based on the biochemical and metabolic literature — a pound of muscle burns six calories a day at rest and a pound of fat burns about two calories a day, contrary to what the myth states. So, muscle is three times more metabolically active at rest than fat, not 50 times.

Then the author of the article quotes a few studies that show that more muscle doesn't translate to higher RMR. The end of the article had an extremely important point that I wish was brought up closer to the beginning: DIET plays the most important role in weight loss. I always thought that, based on my personal experience, that eating less is 75-80% of the formula for weight loss. The obesity researcher estimates that diet plays a whopping 90% emphasis on weight loss.

Speaking of being overweight, I just skimmed through a story about ob-gyns in South Florida turning away women who are obese (I got the link while I was on the above story's page: http://www.latimes.com/health/fl-hk-no-obesity-doc-20110516,0,7972289.story). The article quotes a number of reasons, but the main reason was that these medical offices are afraid of getting sued and being responsible for an obese woman's health (and her baby's health if she is preggers). Apparently it's harder to read an ultrasound as clearly in obese women and.. harder to deliver a baby? And the risk of complication is apparently higher? Oigh.. I think it sucks, but if it makes their job harder and a higher risk of getting sued, then I don't know if I can blame them. That is, if the reasons the article cited are true.

P90X, Day 27: Yoga X

Last night:
56.5% tbw
18.1% bf

WOW, I made it through  45 min without stopping!! I actually made it through all the billion warrior poses. The vinyasas are freakin hard and I get sloppy towards the end. I stopped after the poses where you stand on one leg and do different things w/ your hands.

I was badly yesterday: I ate an Odwalla bar. They are vegan, but the first ingredient in this one was brown rice syrup and the second was organic rolled oats. Tons of carbs. I ate it slowly, but I was starving, and I figured it was better than nothing. I left for work at 8:10am and I got home at 9pm; I had 1 banana, an asian pear, 42g protein smoothie, an apple, nuts, lunch was a salad of spinach, veggies, tofu, and fruit, and that Odwalla bar later that afternoon. When I was going home I was really hungry but I was so tired and for me, tired usually wins. Now this pisses me off: during the week I become so tired I can't wait for the weekend, but when Friday night rolls around I'm in bed by 9:30 and I can't sleep until 11. I woke up this morning at 7:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. That was way not enough to make up for the 6-7 hours of sleep a night I've been getting this week. So annoyed. I really really need to work on getting to bed on time next week.