Spring is here, and summer is approaching

Lets face it, summer is coming, fit or flabby. You have to get your quick 2 month work out in now or never. My Vegas trip is booked and I know i'm not bikini ready! I have been slacking with girl scout cookie season here and all. I have been making excuse after excuse, but now its time to get serious. I started working out again this monday. I actually had my boyfriends cousin sign up for the gym so she will be coming with us and she pushes me to go with her to the gym. I wasn't able to get to the gym yesterday and today due to work, but tomorrow I will be at the gym for 10 hours! Im going to do cardio tomorrow and going back to grilled chicken. It's hard being 21 and not being able to drink, but that is the worst thing to do when your on a diet. This weekend I chose to do other things so I stay clear of bars. I don't have alot of money saved up for Vegas, so that is also another reason to keep me from drinking those sugary pina colodas, ha. Anyway I need to focus on my goal weight, fifteen more pounds by may! I will let you know how tomorrows work out goes!

Food Shopping

My entire house is full of healthy eaters, which means whole wheat everything, fat free sugar free, low fat for every food. My mom sent me food shopping so I had to be careful with what I needed to buy. Walking up and down the isles you have to routes, the good tasting sugary and salty foods, or fruits, veggies and whole grain options. When you go food shopping it is important to replace your gushers for grapes, oreos for oranges, and chips for cantaloupe. You can still buy things you love but do it the right way. For example, when choosing milk, trade your whole milk for fat free or reduced fat milk. If you still want to incorporate pasta in your meals, get whole wheat pasta instead of normal pasta. If you need chips, they offer reduced fat. Also make sure to stop by the produce section and go nuts. Get every type of fruit or vegetable imagined, this way when you feel hungry grab an apple or substitute that side of french fries for broccoli and low-fat cheese. Even orange juice is high in sugar, but they do offer low sugar orange juice. Take some time when you shop to really look at your calories and sugar intake. It is crucial not to just throw whatever looks good in the shopping cart. Tonight for dinner I will be cooking grilled chicken with whole wheat pasta with a little tomato sauce. To drink I chose diet coke instead of regular coke. You can drink diet sodas but only drink alot of diet sodas because they will leave you feeling bloated and uncomfortable. Just remember when shopping, shop smart!

Motivation post

So I have lost all motivation. School, work, midterms. I can't seem to have any strength to get to the gym. I have 3 days left until spring break. This break will help me get more motivated because the stress level will be down. I haven't been eating right either. I feel once I get put into high levels of stress I tend to eat worse and not care. PF Chang did taste good on Monday though. Anyway so my boyfriend and I promised each other we would start up our diets today. So today, I NEED a large cup of coffee, and then will eat fruits in class, and then when I get home I will eat a healthy whole wheat wrap, and then chicken and salad for dinner. I am going to try to get my gym session in, and possibly a cardio class to get the ball rolling. I have a two week membership at LA Fitness where they offer a olympic size pool, a huge room for classes such as cardio kick boxing class, or spin class. I took a class last week and loved it. My muscles were killing me, but that is a sign that you are working your muscles hard. After my life starts to get a little situated I need to start focusing on going back to the gym. I switched up what gym I go to becasue I was getting a little burnt out of good Ol' Planet Fitness. Its a good gym but it just has your basic machine. Well I will let you know how today turns out and if I stick to my diet plans. Adios!

Work and eat right

I know, it is hard when you go to school full time and work full time to eat a healthy meal. Lately I have been focusing on what to eat outside of the house. As we all know Stockton isn't the healthiest place to eat, but have you ever left campus to check out what type of food is available. I left campus in-between my big breaks last semester and ventured to the mall not even five minutes away. They have a pretty decent salad joint in the food court. If you don't have time to go check out your surroundings in-between your classes than just make something and bring it from home. Make some chicken on the good old George Formann and toss it in a salad and bring some salad dressing, and voila! Your not only saving money, but your eating good too. I normally like to chop up some fruit and bring it to class because it can last a few hours. Now for those who work in the food and restaurant business, I know it's so hard to eat right. I always bring out food to customers, you know that juicy hamburger or that hot dripping cheese quesadilla, but I learned a small trick to help these cravings from attacking. One way my friends and I have learned to deal with this problem is too never let your self get to that point of starvation. Always fill up on healthy food, and drink lots of fluids so your full. Once your full you won't even want to think about food. I normally eat a hug salad before work or at work this way I won't want to eat the bad foods that I deliver to people. If you work in a place where you have to order your food, make sure to order something healthy from that pizza place next door. Hey, a chicken caesar salad isn't bad compared to 3 greasy slices of pizza. Either that, or make something and bring it to work, such as a whole wheat tuna sandwich. Don't make excuses, it IS possible to eat healthy during your hectic school/work week.

Change up your workouts

It is important to switch up your workouts. If you continue to do the same thing over and over again it gets repetitive and your body starts to get use to that specific workout. For instance I ran for two months straight every day at the same speed. I started to plateau with my workouts, therefore I switched to starting my workouts off with the elliptical and doing more time on the elliptical. I cut back on weights for a little so I can focus on fat burn. Yesterday at the gym I did 50 minutes between the elliptical and some other weird stepping machine, both low resistance machines.. good for fat burning and muscle growth. Lately I have been trying to incorporate healthy yet normal meals back into my diet. I feel that my leg muscles have been most improved, I feel they are stronger than they used to be. I wish I could spend more time at the gym but due to my schedule it is impossible. Tomorrow I will focus more on weights and strengthening machines. I have been stuck at my weight for two weeks now, which is why I needed to start using different machines. I need to focus on better foods now because everyday I have been slacking and cheating a little more and more. I still have my daily morning yogurt and fruit cup, and living off grilled chicken still, but I don't think a chicken burrito really counts as a diet meal, woops. Tomorrow will be a better day for my meal choices.

Chocolate overload

I figured since my diet and work out sessions were going very well, I figured a little chocolate couldn't hurt for good old Valentines Day. Well, I was clearly wrong. After a long day of non stop chocolate eating I'm paying the price for it this week. I haven't lost a pound, in fact I gained 3 even though I have been going to the gym. It just goes to show you that if you stuff your face one whole day of sugar and fat it could ruin your week. My plan is to continue to eat healthy and have a few good consecutive workouts and start back up on my diet plans. It's ok if you screw up a little for a holiday or something of that sort, just keep your eyes on the prize. My prize is feeling confident and showing off my bikini bod in Las Vegas when I go in June. 

So besides my chocolate binge on Sunday, this week has been nothing but the gym and healthy foods. I started to break away from cardio and keep my heart rate at the fat burn level. By doing this, I am working out longer and burning calories slowly, but also building muscle so my metabolism can speed up. After about 45 minutes to an hour of doing machines, I will move to weights. I want to tone my muscles and start slowly building muscle. I normally do everything in one day because i' doing light weight. I will start off with doing my biceps, and triceps, 3 sets of 15 reps. Than after arms, I do legs. I start off with thighs, quads, than calves. After that I move to the floor where I do abs. I lay down on my back, and someone will stand with my head in-between there feet. Keeping my feet together and legs straight, I lift them up. Than the person helping me, will push my feet back towards the ground. Without letting your feet hit the floor you use your abdominal muscle to control your legs. This leaves you nice and sore, but it targets the lower abs, right where all that chocolate is sitting.

Gym in a snowstorm

No school yesterday thank god, but I still made it to the gym. It wasn't that bad yesterday until around 4pm. I made it to the gym to get my hour and a half workout. I started off with a yogurt as usual and then head to the gym with the family. Working out is so much easier when you have a friend or family member go with you. In my case my boyfriend is on this healthy eating and work out diet with me. It motivates me alot more to continue to eat healthy and work out on a daily basis. It has been a month and a half since I've been on my diet and I have lost a total of 22 pounds, I even ate a bowl of ice cream last night. It's hard to not eat bad when your locked in your house all day forced to watch movies. For lunch I had a chicken salad sandwich, which wasn't too healthy but its protein so thats good. The night before I ate sushi and edamame which is a great vegetable and tastes good too. Today I had work. It only took my two hours to get to work, but I made it there alive. I drank the normal 10 cups of green iced tea (unsweetened) and had a tuna steak roll, which is grilled tuna steak (very healthy and a source of omega) and the roll which is clear rice paper worth 40 calories, and mixed greens. Tonight I will eat steak with mixed vegetables. I had a good work out yesterday and today at the gym. Yesterday I spent 40 minutes between the treadmill and the elliptical, than did weights and worked on my abs of steal. Today I strictly did cardio, which is good for your heart and lungs, while burning calories. Unfortunately tomorrow will be a day off from the gym because I have class then doctors appointment, than going bowling, which hey maybe that will burn some calories.