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.

Campus food

Since January I have been trying my best to eat healthy food and stay away from fatty foods. Well, I have come to realize Stockton College has the worst food available. Honestly, my community college had better food than Stockton. It is pretty sad that students are forced to eat this junk especially the students who live on campus. I go to school Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I am a commuter student thank god, there for I am able to eat food other than the nasty food Stockton has to offer. My day will start off with a healthy breakfast such as low fat yogurt, fruit or low calorie cereal. My day starts at 9:55 am, and I go to class straight through until 3:25. Therefore, I can barely eat a normal meal for 5 and a half hours. I normally bring a fiber bar to eat in class. Sometimes I stop to get a fruit cup to eat the 10 minutes in between my classes, only located in B wing, and sometimes they don't always have them. The problem is, when a teacher lets us out early or a class is canceled I will spend my time visiting the cafeteria. Normally I will walk in, browse around and then leave, because the food they offer is disgusting. From greasy fried foods, to sodium filled chinese food. There happens to be a salad bar that I tried the other day and I spend 8 dollars on a little salad which I was furious about because it was the most disgusting salad I ate in my life. They don't have fresh vegetables, they kind of look brown and dyed out. The salad dressings are extremely fattening, and only offer one low fat dressing, the chopped chicken is so nasty and fatty and not taken care of. Everything is sloppy and always dirty looking. So the next time I went to the cafeteria, I went to the sub shop hoping to have some better luck, well I found out they don't offer whole wheat. Of course not, why would they want to serve healthy food at a college where everyone is known to gain the freshman 15, 20 or even 30 pounds. I am completely grossed out by this campus food. 

Little bit of effort goes a long way

So as you read in my last blog, there are certain ways to burn fat in work outs. I do not read off the internet on ways to burn fat, or use diet pills to burn fat. I simply use personal experience and a little training help from employees at my gym. I work out everyday, normally 6 to 7 days a week. I used to run, run, and run, but I realized i've hit my peak of loosing weight so I had to switch it up a little. While I was running a trainer came up to me and asked why I was running so fast, and I replied because I want to burn calories and loose weight. Then he let me in on a little secret, if I was at a brisk pace I will burn the same amount of calories and my heart rate needs to slow down. There machines can tell you your heart rate, and you should keep your heart rate in a fat burn level, not cardio. Cardio is good if your trying to improve your lungs and heart, fat burn is for building muscle and loosing weight. The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism becomes. Running will make you loose the muscle and then you will find yourself "hitting your peak." So your daily work out could be a brisk walk at a low impact. Keep your heart rate between a 120 and 140. The longer you keep your heart rate at that level you will burn more fat and loose more calories. Other low impact machines you can do is the Elliptical. I normally switch it up, a quick 10 minute run to get my heart rate up and do a little bit of cardio, take it down to a walk for 20 minutes, and then possibly a 15 minute run on the elliptical. Green tea will speed up your metabolism also, so I like to have a few cups of green iced tea before I work out. Working out in the morning is best for you because you will burn calories for the rest of the day, but if you cant get to the gym in the morning, it is ok just get there for a quick walk, or when the weather gets nice, take the dogs for a walk around the block. Get that heart rate up and start burning those calories.

how to eat healthy out of the house

Well my diet has been going well. My cravings haven't taken over my mind just yet. As you have read in my other blogs my daily routine is kind of boring.. yogurt, fruit, school, salad, gym, grilled chicken. Since the weekend it now approaching us it is difficult to stay home and cook every day, therefore you go to eat out with your friends, family, significant other. It is alot easier to eat out and eat healthy than you think. The hardest part is telling your self not to order those greasy french fries or that fried fattening chicken dinner. It is all about self control. When Im out and I want to eat bad, i think of my vacation to Las Vegas in June, and my goal of getting off those holiday pounds. First step is mind over matter. Second step to remember is do not starve yourself, A. you will gain more weight that way, and B. you will break down and eat everything and anything around you when you get to that point of starving. It is important to eat alot of little things through out your whole day. Train your stomach to not over eat, it's all about portions. Take Applebees for example, that place is crawling with trans fat and calories up the Wa-zoo! Check out the weight watchers menu they offer or the new under 500 calorie meals. They are actually satisfying enough and will fill you. The days I don't go to school (tuesdays and thursdays) I work at a Cafe. This Cafe happens to be a health food restaurant. While I am at work I normally eat summer rolls, they have rice paper, mixed greens, and option of grilled chicken, shrimp, tuna, or eggplant. They are filling and tasty. There is healthy food on every menu, you just have to be a pain in the butt customer and ask for meal alterations. Another example, I went out to a nice italian restaurant with my friends last weekend. I ordered grilled salmon, no sauce (the sauce is where all the calories are at.. BEWARE!) and steamed veggies, with water and lemon. That may sound boring but salmon is full of good carbs and omega. It is important to get some fish incorporated into your diet such as grilled tuna or salmon. If you don't like fish health food stores have omega vitamins. I continue to replace my normal diet soda with water or natural green tea. Any soda will leave you feeling bloated and uncomfortable. Increase green tea consumption for it helps with digestion, your metabolism and has a little caffeine to replace coffee. Continue to work out when you can, it makes you feel better about your self and you will actually feel improvement. Next blog I will talk about how to work out properly to burn fat and tone. I am currently down 4 pounds since I started my blog!

Beginning of week plan

Starting from this blog on, I will be posting to inform people who either want to loose wight, eat right, or just live a healthy life style. Since this weekend was my first "cheat" on my diet plan, Monday was the beginning of a new weight loss plan. Monday I had class so therefore eating right became a little bit difficult. To me, loosing weight is 70% eating right and 30% working out so it is always important to read labels. I discovered Stockton has absolutely no appetizing healthy food! Before getting to class I woke up in the morning and ate a low-cal yogurt mixed with flax seed. Flax seed is good for your digestive system, hair, skin and all around good health. After my first class I ate a fruit cup and a hot green tea from Stockton. In between my last two classes I brought a fiber bar to eat, because it is very important to eat a little every two hours so your metabolism speeds up. When I got home, I ate a late lunch which was a whole wheat wrap with lettuce, grilled chicken, and avocado. Then worked out at the gym for 60 minutes, which consisted walking and running on the treadmill and followed by light weights for toning. For dinner more grilled chicken, brown rice, and steamed vegetables. I continued this on tuesday and today. This may sound like a boring day but it is my life monday through friday. It is really worth it in the end because results will come over time and you will feel so rewarded about your self. Like I said in my last blog, my goal is to loose 15 to 20 pounds, according to my average BMI (body mass index). My next blog I will give more the secrets of dining out and eating healthy.