A new passion

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I actually started working and it just hasn't left me a lot of time to do things lately.

On the days my husband and I do have off, if it's nice outside, we tend to spend it mostly in the water/at the beach. I LOVE the water (except when it's freezing :P) ANYWAY my husband LOVES to snorkel. I never have been a huge fan of it because I honestly had not been farther out than my waist in the ocean. I was always to scared of what I couldn't see.  Well, now it's one of my favorite things to do out here in Hawaii. Normally if we have 2-3 days off in a row we will take off to the Kauila-Kona side of the island (west side). It has the better beaches, not that the beaches here arn't bad..just snorkeling is more ideal on that side of the island.

We also made a very cheap purchase at Goodwill and invested in a cheap boogy board. Kau beach is north of Kona and has an AMAZING "fun play" (not so great snorkeling) area. The swimming is awesome, once you get all the way into the water on a warm day the temp is perfect. The waves are pretty big. If you're not paying attention you get a pretty big surprise, even in the area where you can stand. If you wait for the perfect wave you can ride it in all the way to the sand.

So, I guess it's fitting that I am an Aquarius, I'm addicted to water.    I love what you can find it in and I love how you feel so connected to the ocean when you're in it.

Subway Avacado = 2 thumbs down!

On my lunch break from work I had planned on going to Subway to try their NEW Avocado sandwich. I really like Subway and have always had a good experience there. Let me preface this with saying, this could have been just this store...so..Not sure exactly if it's chain wide, lets hope not.

I arrived so excited, i LOVE avocado. It's SO hard to find it as an option out here (almost everything here is smothered in Gravy, white rice, or mayo) SO.. As they were making my sandwich I asked if they could substitute TURKEY Bacon instead of regular bacon..they were like..Yes, turkey, bacon, and avocado..I was like YES but do you have TURKEY bacon..and then like..you want just turkey and bacon? A lady in line was like NO..she wants to know if you have a different TYPE of bacon..instead of the regular.. sadly they did not and I opted out of the bacon.(I'm a little shocked, as much as they promote healthy sandwiches, ...regular bacon is SO bad for you) ANYWAY they made my sandwich.  I sat down and started biting into it. ...it was...not very good. It tasted like the avocado was tainted..possibly even expired. I don't know..All I do know is that I was so excited to try this new sandwich and had my taste buds ready to expect something wonderful and I got awful. I finally just took my turkey and veggies and ate out of the bread.

It made me So sad...ALSO! They had an advertisement for Garden salsa sun chips. I looked around and they didn't even have what they were advertising. Turns out they don't even carry it. It's funny, it's like those clothing stores that have pictures of girls displaying clothes but they don't even sell those clothes in the store, THEN WHY ADVERTISE IT?! LOL

ANYWAY, My oatmeal raisin cookie (that chocolate chip cookie was staring me down but i said NO!)  and my fountain water were delicious. LOLSo, feel free to try it. Like I said I'm not sure if it was our branch..or something was wrong with the Avocado..but don't say I didn't warn you. I guess I'm just spoiled by the Veggie Grill On Sunset Blvd..lol I guess you can say I'm a Avocado snob now..HAHA!

Anyway, Thanks for reading!
Stay Posted, STAY HEALTHY!

P90X- Day 7 Chest/Back + Ab Ripper X + NEW HEALTHY PRODUCT!

SO! Finally, I got back on the band wagon and started up again (read previous post) This one is ranked right up there with Plyometrics. It's a killer! I've always been so bad with pushups and 7 out of the 12 exercises (14 actually because you do them twice) are pushups. My elbows were a lot better this time ( usually they pop) even though I slacked off for 3-4 days I actually kept up/passed my previous week's goals on certain exercises. The second time through some of the exercises I tried to do 2-5 on my toes and the rest on my knees. The decline push up is the worst. For this exercise you put both feet up in a chair and you do a regular push up...KILLS ME. Also with the pull ups, again, I do not have a pull up bar, nor a door frame to put it up in SO.. I rely on my bands. I really tried this time to slow my reps and focus more on Scapular flexion (making my shoulder blades go in towards each other), the same with the back flys.

This is my paper, from P90X where I keep up with what I did and how i'm doing. For this video he does the circuit twice, so Top is 1st time, 2nd ...you get the drift. For my push ups, I really focused on how close I could get my  nose to the ground, while I was on my knees. Hopefully next week I can start on my toes, my reps will be lower but I want to stop doing girly push ups. ALSO with the lawn mowers (you stand with your left foot on the band, sideways, put your left arm on your knee, and pull like you're starting an old school lawn mower with your right hand. ) I used a shorter band, making the resistance stronger..

My Calendar called for Ab Ripper as well. I kept on telling myself.. do it tomorrow..do it tomorrow.. but.. I knew If i put it off I wouldn't do it at all. SO..what's 15 more minutes? The pics above are my calendar as well as my Ab ripper excel sheet I made. If you do every rep it's a total of 335 reps in a total of about 12 minutes with no breaks. I did better than last time, even though it had been 2-3 days since I've done it. I was happy...It's always great to notice a stronger difference.

So anyway, I finished it! I always feel such a sense of purpose lol when I can complete these things. When I see "COOL DOWN" on the dvd I always say YAY..lol

I don't really have a tip of the day. HOWEVER I did find a GREAT new product. It's called Fiber 1 80 Calories Cereal. It was on sale at our grocery and so i grabbed it. I've tried eating eggs for breakfast because its been said to rev up your metabolism when you eat lots of protein in the morning. But, I just can't get away from cereal. I love it, as well as pancakes. LOVE Pancakes, toast, or cereal for breakfast (not all at the same time lol) ANYWAY This cereal ONLY has 120 calories with 1/2 cup skim milk. Which is where most cereals start before the milk. It has 1 gram of total fat (0 sat or trans) 25 grams of Carbs which is a healthy serving. Only 140 mg of sodium (some frozen dinners have 400+mg eek!) and (the best part) 10 grams of FIBER! Fiber is So essential PLUS it helps keep you fuller longer. PLUS, remember waffle crips?! it tastes just like it!!! Some negative things about it : it can be pricey when it's not on sale (3.99 is a good price for cereal here :P :P :P)  and the first ingredient on the list is " Whole Grain Corn. Yes Whole Grain IS good ..but.. SO MUCH of our diet is already including corn as an ingredient. Just something I try not to overload on. ANYWAY it's one of MY favorite cereals and I hope you can try some out soon!

As Always, Stay Posted, STAY HEALTHY!
I'm thinking about having some type of giveaway to a reader next week. (I"m thinking maybe a magazine...or a small package of macadamia nuts from here in Hilo) Feel free to post a comment below on what you think sounds good!

Motivation

So.. If you've been keeping up with my blog, you can tell I haven't posted in a while. Well This week was the first week I started my job. I'm on my feet all but my lunch break. When I came home I was NOT motivated to do my P90X well that day turned into 2-3-..now i've lost count and I'm right back where I was when I started P90X, slightly pudgy around the stomach...no muscle and no energy..SIGH

My husband is really wanting to run this 1/2 Marathon but honestly again I have NO motivation. My brain wants to..but my body keeps saying "Today I'm not doing anything...*insert whistle* *.. lol  So..HOPEFULLY as soon as I get off this blog, I WILL change into some workout clothes and do Chest/Arms again...repeating the calendar cycle.. .UGH I'm just so frustrated I got off track. I know I'm not perfect but, what kind of example am I setting as a personal trainer when I can't even motivate myself?! I've eaten poorly and when I'm not at work (and josh is at work) I'm just sitting on the couch, on the computer, reading a book at the pool, or playing around on the uke...Sad...WELL Hopefully since I've blogged about it, I can now have motivation again. It's just hard when you're working out by yourself and no one is holding you accountable.

OK so..here we go...I shall return with a new post....

P90X- Day 6 Kenpo X

Kenpo X is a lot like karate. LOL I couldn't but help smile during some of the sections thinking "wax on...wax off.." oh Mr. Miagie..:)


Kenpo is not one of the hardest work outs..but..it has made me sweat the most so far..I'm pretty nasty right now..lol. I'm sure you wanted to know that.

With the arm movements you are working on strengthening your muscles as well as your glutes and legs with the kicks..but I would more so chalk this workout to more of a cardio workout. It's good! It's one of my favorites. The real butt kicker is during every break you do about 15 jumping jacks and 10 V jumps.. Legs and arms jump/up at the same time instead of double bouncing. Just trying to breath and then go right into that.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrows workout STRETCH!!! Something my body needs very badly.

Sorry for the short post but not really much to say, other than fun but sweaty workout!

TOTD-hmmm.... I did recently read a post, thanks to Yahoo random headline post. It was a research on what is really causing Obesity in America. Basically the researchers in that article chalked it up to the more availability we have to food. How many commercials have food? What's the last thing you ALWAYS see before you check out at most stores? Candy, food, chips, soft drinks, and fast food. Not the best. Also, the amount of time each generation spends in front of the tv vs playing outside increases every year.   I mean even my generation (I think we're called the Y generation) compared to my parents (i think they're they are the baby boomers) They didn't have game consoles to play on..I don't even know if they had more than 1 tv (if even 1 growing up) Now how many of us have at LEAST 1 electronic device at our home...MANY.. So..just..common sense.Tip tho? Really pay attention how much time you spend in front of the screen.

So, thanks for reading
Stay posted Stay healthy!

P90X-Day 5 Legs and Back + Ab Ripper X. TOTD= BMI

The legs and back portion contained a variety of lunges/squats. My knees did ok actually, I was pretty happy. It is a hour long but isn't extremely hard. It's a great strengthening video. It also focus's on your balance, as well as your arms. 
 
The portion I found the hardest was the calve raises. Tony works them in 3 parts (1. Feet in 1st position, 2. Feet in parallel, and 3. Feet turned in) each time you do 15 slow raises then 10 double time. By the double time my calves were already cramping up...but, I love feeling the burn. It makes me feel like I'm doing something  rather than sitting and watching tv.

This video also involves a lot of pull ups. Now, We don't have a pull up bar, nor a doorway to put it up in SO.. I invested in some cheap resistance bands. I wrap them around our recliner and sit on the floor. It's probably more of a bicep workout...but I focus on my form and make sure I'm contracting and retracting my scapular muscles (shoulder blades) as well as keeping my back in a straight line to flex my lats.

I feel as if I did a really good job on keeping up with Tony and his fellow demonstrators.Of course though, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Next week I'm really going to focus on getting lower in my squats/lunges, as well as increasing the reps on my "pull ups". The last rep of the switch grip pull ups, I really pushed it in 30 second time frame and did 54 reps (with the bands)...maybe I can do 64 next time? ;)


As soon as I finished this video I popped in the 15 minute Ab ripper x workout. This workout is programed every other day in the classic calendar worksheet that I'm following. Even though it's been 2-3 days since I've done the video, I've noticed some improvements. :) Last time I did it alone as opposed to adding it with a workout. I got a little queezy this time during some of the reps and took a break for 1-2 reps. Still, I'm proud that I did it...

SO Hooray, Another day down :) If you're thinking about doing P90X you should talk to me or check out their website! It looks REALLY intimidating, but, Honestly...it's not going to kill you. It will give you SO much strength...honestly, if I can do it, anyone can do it :).. I honestly HATE working out.(unless it involves dancing HAHAHA)  I really have to push myself. I look at the little timer (on the side of the video it always tells you how much time you have left) at the end of almost every workout...But I keep on thinking..ok YOU CAN do 30 more seconds..(almost every workout he does is 30 seconds to a minute long) . I do pause my videos for 5-10 seconds sometimes to get a quick drink. I just make sure I listen to my body BUT If I feel that I can push a little harder (no think, my brain will ALWAYS tell me to stop) I do push. If I just go through the motions..yeah I would be wasting an hour every night when I could be doing something better. If you are going to put a lot of time and effort into something, you might as well as do it right? ...right ?! :)

. BTW I'm really excited! I went to the library and checked out a few nutrition books as well as some women's health books, and a metabolism book. Ok.. so go ahead and say it.. "wow what a nerd"..but REALLY, when you think about it your body is SO amazing!! It's so unreal that this is OUR body, yet we ourselves barely understand it!! Think about it, how many times a day..or even a week do you ask yourself "why am I SO TIRED, why CAN'T I get full?! " wait..aren't  we in charge of our bodies yet we don't know the answer to why we are feeling (insert adjective)?? lol. SO, I'm not in the best of shape,nor do I eat the best BUT I want to learn all I can about how to be healthy and how to help others be healthy. I ..kinda know my body...but in order to grow I need to understand more and it is when I DO understand I can create and become better. It's like a plant. A plant grows, Yes, BUT unless there are intervening instances it will sit there and eventually die. The next step would be to have proper sunlight and water. Yes you can have the two but still, will it fully flourish? How about good soil, FULL with nutrients, and proper care for it's surroundings. With this extended care the plant will flourish in all it's glory; Just like our bodies. ...and I've gotten carried away..again :)

SO TOTD: How long has it been since you've checked your BMI? Your BMI is Your Body Mass Index. It's a really great way to measure yourself according to your weight, hight, and age. A lot of sites are really user friendly, all you have to do is plug in the information. Some websites even follow up on how to maintain/lower your BMI with nutritional and fitness information. The AARP has a really nice site

AARP BMI Calculator

Compared to just looking at your weight on a scale, this is a much better way to see your body and how you're maintaining it according to your height and age group. Even though there are standards there are still a few exceptions. Those that are the same height may have bigger/ smaller frames plus it can give you more information other than numbers on a scale. Remember muscle weighs more than fat. Numbers on a scale, are just numbers. I'd rather judge my fitness by how my clothes fit and my body fat % any day over using a scale.  Anyway, be sure to check in every now and then with your BMI to make sure you're making the right choices to keep your body happy and healthy!

Thanks for reading!
As Always, Stay Posted, STAY HEALTHY!