Gettin' Ripped with Jari Love

Rant of the day: Not sure what kind of message God is trying to send to me, but tell him to please stop the stupid Match.com email solicitations! :P I didn't even subscribe to this crap. No, I don't want to hook up with any pervy online guys who just want to get into my pants for free., sheesh!!! Yes, I'm single, but no thanks. If Mr. Right comes along, then that's great. Otherwise, noooo to match.com!

Okay, back to business! When I went to Ross to buy the aloha dress on Saturday, I saw that they had a 2-pack of Jari Love's strength training series, Get Ripped and Get Ripped to the Core for only $5.99. I already have Get Ripped (grrr I paid $20 for it too), but I was curious about the Core DVD so I went ahead and picked it up (if anybody wants to buy my extra GR DVD, lemme know! Hehehe special sale!).

Though her name sounds somewhat like that of a porn star (ummm, not that I know anything about THAT subject, hahaha...hmmmm), Jari Love is actually a very popular fitness expert, particularly knowledgable in the arena of compound training (working out more than one body part in a set). Not only is she a trainer, but she is also a mother of two, proving that yes, you can have babies and still get a ripped body if you work at it. :)

I didn't have enough time this morning to do the entire DVD, so I decided to do 1/2 hour when I woke up and then finish the rest when I came home this evening. I can't remember what I did this morning, but I believe it involved side squat/lunges, bent over rows and bicep curls, and other combos that just made me cry and sweat! The nice thing about this series is that there are about 3 other people in the video following along with Jari, each showing different intensities of the exercise. Of course, for the most part I follow the lady doing the lowest intensity (mainly because I only have 5 lb. weights, WHICH even those weights pretty much kicked my @$$. OWW! I bet I'm going to feel this tomorrow, for sure.

Could only walk from Chinatown to work this morning because of the stupid traffic. I did pick up a bunch of Choy Sum (grr which I forgot at work) and 2 dragonfruits, which were the cheapest I've seen it at only $3.25/lb. Too bad they were the white kind, I didn't know this until I opened it for a snack. Still yummy though not as sweet as the red or pink variety.

Did the usual walk around the office and then into town to get home. The bus stopped at the bottom of the hill, but I didn't walk it because I wanted to save my energy to finish the rest of the Ripped DVD. AAAAAAH I was sweating just standing there. More squats. Lateral raises. Rows. Abs! I actually did Abs. I was afraid they would lock up but they didn't; however I must be doing something wrong because I find that my neck gets strained doing abs. Or maybe it's getting strained trying to watch the DVD while doing the exercise? :s In any case I survived!

I hope to do this DVD three times a week in order to get my strength training in!

Tomorrow is EA Active day!

Breakfast: cereal, soymilk, banana

Snack: 14 almonds, 1/2 dragonfruit

Lunch: shredded rum turkey, flatout grain wrap, romaine lettuce, laughing cow cheese

Snack: edamame (soybeans)

Dinner: turkey long rice (yes, we have a lot of turkey leftover from my bro's friend), broccoli and cauliflower.

I'm a Godmother! (No, not the fairy kind :)

St. Andrew's Cathedral & Fountain, next to St. Paul's Church

I'm a Godmother (again :) today! My friend asked me to be one of the sponsors (or as they say it in Filipino, a "Ninang" or "Ninong" if you're a male) to her newborn son. It was held at St. Paul's church, which is a Philippine Independent (Episcopal) church. I should bring my Mom here, maybe actually hearing the word of the Lord in Ilocano (instead of English) might be more touching or something. Hehehehe!

I got lost (luckily I got there an hour early), so I parked next to St. Andrew's church (a prominent Catholic church in Honolulu) and walked around until I finally figured out where I was. :) In the middle of getting lost, I passed by a woman wearing all red and a golden cape, who I thought was part of the church ceremony but turns out she was just wearing the costume just because. :o

Inside of St. Paul's

I've been to several churches within the past year or so, and it seems like each church has it's own way of conducting service, yet the message is still the same throughout. The baptismal was held near the middle of the mass, and they brought baby to the rear of the church where there is a marble bowl on a pedestal and they conduct the rites of baptism. The sponsors also gather around to read responses from a prayer book to say that they welcome the baby to the world of the Lord and will do anything to help and protect the child. He's a real cutie, he's about a month or so old, and didn't even cry when they poured the water on his head. :) I didn't get to take pics of it because I was part of the ceremony, but it was a very lovely service.

Proud parents, grandma and priests

Awww he's a cutie!

Baby, mommy, and 2 of his ninangs!

Of course, what do most people do in Hawaii after a baptismal service? They have a big party and EAT, of course! This family always has LOTS of food; so I decided to have a little bit of certain things but enough to enjoy myself of course. They had a huge roasted pig of course (I admit that it troubles me to eat something whose face or eyes I've seen...LOL), noodles, meats and other Filipino fare, including desserts!

Porky gets skinned!

I settled on having a little bit of this and that: rice, beef broccoli, 2 banana lumpias (yeah it's fried, but 2 lumpias = 1 banana so technically that's a serving of fruit. Mwahahaha! I actually burnt the roof of my tongue because the lumpias were so fresh and hot!), a small bit of the roast pork (even aiece of the crunchy skin), a little bit of this coconut dessert and a small square of bibingka (sweet rice cake):

It's getting easier now to choose wisely when dining out, watch my portions, eat what I want to eat (within reason, of course) but still enjoy the meal. :)

For $5.00, You Can Buy a Footlong...or better yet, a BIKE!

Ah, another Saturday! We got a late start because I was still busy trying to unlock that darn iPhone 3G (finally did it after nearly 9 hours of trial and error hacking). At the first garage sale, we bought some plastic containers (I needed something to put all these Wii games in) and saw a bike leaning against a table. Mom forced me to ask the seller how much it was, so I hesitated (oh no, another bike she's going to send to the Philippines) until I took a closer look and saw how nice the bike actually was (not quite sure of the brand, but it says Shimano on it somewhere).

"Aaaah....Five bucks."

"Errr...how much?"

"$5.00, just wanna get rid of it. Moving away!"

Mom told me to pay the lady immediately. Hahaha! Maybe I'll keep it if we don't send it to the PI:

A nice shiny $5.00 bike!

Other than that, not too much to buy today, though I did buy a brand new Lakers Kobe Bryant jersey for my brother (can't believe it actually fits), and a Wii game for $5 (need to buy a zapper gun though).

Went to dialysis as usual, walked around the mall and needed to buy an Aloha print dress for the baptismal tomorrow. Luckily I found one at Ross. hehehe! Didn't get to do any Wii workout because the fam was hogging the TV as usual. :P

Ate pretty light today; peach for breakfast, made turkey pizza and broccoli for lunch (my bro tried some and said it was pretty good), PowerBar for snack at dialysis, 1/2 chicken salad sandwich, and a salmon wrap. :9

iPhone Unlocking Also Makes You Sweat

I dunno why, but for some reason everytime I unlock another iPhone I get nervous. I think of the dozens of times I've done unlocking, only ONCE has it actually gone smoothly. Tonight is particularly nerve wracking because it is a iPhone 3G, which I've never tried to unlock before. Still trying to figure this one out (I think it's jailbroken, but not unlocked)...

But anyway, I woke up @$$ up at 5 a.m. for another session with my EA Trainer. Kinda sucks that the trainer looks somewhat like President Obama, but ah well, no choice. :P Today was mostly an upper body combo workout consisting of curls with shoulder press, rows with tricep kickbacks, side to side jumps, and our favorite side lunges. ARRRGH! 60 of them to be exact! The workout lasted about 35 minutes, long enough to damn near kill me and break a sweat! My gripe again with the stupid controllers not registering my bicep curls so I either have to repeat the curl or just skip the exercise and go onto the next one 'cause I don't know what the hell Trainer NObama wants me to do! Grrrrr!

Didn't get to walk from town to work; it was getting late because of the stupid back to school traffic. I definitely need to hop on the earlier bus, which means I need to get up at 4:30 ish to workout now! :P There goes my beauty sleep!

Better head off to bed now so I can get up early to workout...no wait I still need to unlock this iPhone...SIGH!!!!

Not So Crunchless Abs and 10 Minute Torture...I mean, Trainer!

I hate ab work. I just can't do ab work. Either my neck starts hurting, my back starts hurting, or my damn ab "muscles" (ha!) start locking up, like a charley horse. So in my quest for abs (or something close to it), I picked up a DVD at Book Off called "Crunchless Abs". It was used, but at $7 (price of a plate lunch), I figure that's a small price to pay for the possibility of nice abs.

So I got up this morning to do Workout #1 of the DVD of supposedly crunchless abs. Twice during the workout you did something like a crunch...not so crunchless after all! I was sweating like crazy, but probably because it was hot. Then I realized that it was almost 6 a.m., so I had to hurry with the crunchless abs. I'm curious about Workout #2, which I see in the picture on the back of the box that they are on the floor with a towel...and it looks like they are doing something...ummm....crunchy!! :P

Ahhhh...the abs of my friend from grade school:

Dunno if I could date someone whose abs are nicer than mine...LOL!

Other than that today was a blah day at work. I didn't even walk around the office at lunch, nor did I walk into town to catch the bus to dialysis. Someone brought some chocolate and peanut butter mochi from Maui, I heard someone go, "MMM this is good!" So I got up to go look at it. There were 2 left; each the diameter of a Stridex face pad (i.e, huge!). I've never seen mochi that huge in awhile. Then I looked up the average caloric value of a piece of mochi and I said to myself, "Mmmm...interesting." and I walked back to my desk to do more maps. Hahahaha! Yeah I know, too crazy with the calorie counting but you're kind of forced to do it w/ the Bodybugg entries. As they say, calories in, calories out.

I did go to Costco to buy more Kashi Honey Sunshine Cereal, more chicken salad, and House, M.D. Season 5. Yeah, I know, I don't need to be spending money, but I'm almost done watching The Sopranos set that my bro bought me for my bday, so I'll need something new to keep me occupied when that's done. (Hey, didn't you just buy Lost Season 4 at that Garage Sale last week? Yeah, yeah I know!).

Decided to finally try out the Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer DVD that I got at that community center swap meet a few weeks back (Hey GJsmommy, you should see AMR now, it's so nice w/ the new homes). Only $10 complete (I don't think she even watched it because the bands are still unopened and everything still sealed, still in the Beachbody shipping box), a steal considering the informercial price is over $80 plus shipping.

Horton is the same guy who does the P90x commercials. I decided to just do 10 minutes of the Lower Body workout. I did a lot of squats, lunges and even this one where you swing on leg like a pendulum while balancing on the other leg (supposed to work your core). Boy was it torture! I was sweating like crazy...and it was only 10 minutes! I'll get up to do this again tomorrow, for sure!

Afterwards I was so energized that I played some Wii Sports Resort. The enemies are getting a lot tougher now in Swordplay, and I got my @$$ whupped in Table Tennis (a.k.a. ping pong). I find myself cursing a lot when I play this particular disc...a lot of "Damn you, just knock off the platform damn you!", "OOOOH in your face, bitch!" and "Beat...you...DOWWWWN!!" I know, I gotta stop cursing so damn much. Then again, it is Wii "Sports". :) Hehehe!

Breakfast: oatmeal, blueberries (like 6), banana

Lunch: broccoli, quinoa, tofu

Snack: hummus, crackers, soybeans

Dinner: soymilk, cereal

Snack: fortune cookie

Steps: 9490 (not good)
Calories Consumed: 1323
Calories Burnt: 2465
Activity: 1 Hr, 7 mins.

Buffet Dining Strategy: Eat Dessert First...and Last!

Starting off with more songs for your music player!

Eye of the Tiger - Survivor (not sure if I already listed this one, but I listen to this song every morning; sounds nuts but its a motivator! It's also one of the songs on Gold's Gym Cardio Boxing for the Wii)

Return of the Tiger - Drunken Tiger (get the original Korean version of this rap because the English version might offend you with Korean dudes rapping and saying the "N" word...hmmm!)

Circus - Britney Spears (yes, I listen to SOME Britney Spears!)

Die Another Day - Madonna (yes, Madonna too! Actually I find myself putting this song on when I get off the bus a mile away from work. I'm usually taking a nap on the bus, so I'm a little groggy and need to wake the hell up if I'm going to walk a mile to work.

Desert Rose - Sting (helps me tune everyone out and concentrate on exercise)

Today we had a "Staying Motivated: Trials and Triggers" workshop to help everyone get tips on how to stay motivated and break through plateaus on wellness/weight loss. She handed out this form we filled out at the beginning of the challenge, where we stated what our goal was for the challenge (mine was to lose 10 lbs. by increasing activity and watching portions) and the steps we would take to do it (mine: 1. increase veggie intake, decrease white rice 2. increase activity 3. write down everything i eat). I've already passed my goal and am still practicing the methods, if anything I've increased them now that I can move around more (and faster) than I could 16 lbs. ago. At the end of the session, there was time for folks to share what has worked for them, and my big butt was sitting up front and she was looking at me so I decided to share and started bawling. I dunno, I get emotional when I think back just 6 weeks ago where I couldn't fit shit with clothes and struggled to walk from my damn desk to eat lunch in the lunchroom (sometimes I'd get lazy and would skip lunch and just work through the lunch hour). I know I haven't lost much compared to my competitors (damn, one of our guys has lost 25 lbs. and 27% body fat!), but to me it's good to not have that weight on me (hopefully for good!).
I actually had my bro take some pics of me when the challenge started; I'll take pics again at the end for comparison.

Today is my Dad's 59th Birthday, which means EAT FREE AT PAGODA RESTAURANT day! Hahahaha! We almost always come here on birthdays, especially if it is not on a dialysis night. Where else can you get buffet with prime rib, fresh snow crab (I think it's snow, I don't know I'm not a big fan of crab unless it is paired with the word "cakes" :), and more and best yet, ALL YOU CAN EAT for FREE???

I was thinking all day about what I would eat for dinner. The last time I ate here was for my birthday, about a week or so before the challenge started. I would pass up the salad bar (maybe have somen noodle salad cup), eat a little bit of each meat dish, go back for seconds on the stuff that was good, at least 5 shrimp tempura, a slice of prime rib, glasses of fruit punch, and of course, a little bit...no wait, A LOT of dessert! And then some! After dinner was over, I'd feel so full and sick to my stomach...but at least I enjoyed my meal.

I have to help Mom get her food because she can't see too well anymore (diabetic retinopathy - yet another reason YOU should get healthy to prevent stuff like this from happening to YOU), so that gave me the chance to scan what I wanted to eat beforehand. Luckily there wasn't any miso butterfish today (my favorite; and it's VERY pricey elsewhere) or else I would've definitely gone waaay overboard with my meal today.

After I helped her pick out what she wanted, I sat for a bit and thought and thought...I was going to have DESSERT first! I figure it this way, if you have dessert first, then you'll be happy because you can't say, "I was too stuffed and didn't get to eat dessert." Mwahahahaha! So I had a cup of chocolate pudding and whipped cream. I tell you, that was the most delicious cup of pudding I've had in my life. Probably because I've pretty much shunned sweets during the challenge ('cept for yesterday, where yes, I had a little bit of key lime pie and weenie piece of cake my co-workers made only because I knew I was going to workout later):

My family thought I was nuts to eat dessert first. I think my brother thinks I'm just in one of my stupid yo-yo diet phases again, he goes, "You're going overboard. It will only be time until you're eating Cheetos and spinach dip again." That kind of pisses me off, especially since it's so easy for him to lose weight while eating crap (he ate Hooters wings and still lost 10 lbs. in 2 days). I really don't want to go back to where I was before, it's not fun. That motivates me more, to prove him wrong!

I started off my actual meal with a spinach salad w/ mushrooms, 3 croutons (supposed to be 4 but one fell off my plate), house dressing (I hate salads, so if I'm going to eat one, I'm going to use GOOD dressing, but just dip my fork in it instead of pouring it all over), and a somen noodle salad (noodles are good luck on birthdays, supposedly) instead of the fried noodles:

I used to think to myself, why would you waste money eating salad @ a buffet? LOL

Giant salad for starters!

I waited a bit after I ate my salad before deciding on what to eat for my main meal. I ended up deciding on a zucchini/bean mix, ONE shrimp tempura, one pork rib, 2 pcs. kalbi (one of which I had to push aside because it was all fat!) and about 3 oz. of steamed opakapaka:

MMM...kalbi!

Steamed Opakapaka and Pork ribs! The opakapaka was pretty good!

zucchini, opakapaka, rib, kalbi, and shrimp tempura

I'm telling you, that was the most DEEEEELICIOUS bbq rib, kalbi and shrimp tempura EVERRR. And I've been to Pagoda dozens of times. For some reason tonight, those precious pieces of dinner just hit the spot. I REALLY wanted more shrimp tempura and ribs, but I just couldn't. My bro was like, WTF, just go eat some since you're paying for it anyway, you're too much! But I decided against it, opting instead to end my meal with dessert again, less than 1/2 cup of low-fat (might be non-fat, i'm not sure. it's a lot lighter than the soft serve at McDonalds) vanilla soft serve with 1.5"x1.5" square of apple crumble at the bottom. I also added a few sprinkles just for the hell of it:

Life is better with sprinkles.

Me and Mom

Mom and the Birthday Boy

Dad and Crab Cracker

I was going to do some Wii before bed, but I think I better just get some rest and get up early again for another brutal EA Active workout with my virtual trainer. My legs and shoulders are still sore from Monday! :)

Lose Weight and Get in Shape...Playing Video Games?

My co-worker and fellow challenge team member wondered why I haven't posted in awhile. I was surprised and replied I didn't think anyone was reading (I think I was more surprised that he's a male, and is actually reading my daily rants about fitness). Truth be told, I haven't posted in a few days because I'm just too worn out from doing combos of walking, Nintendo Wii fitness games, and more walking! :s By the time I'm done with my workout, I just wanna sleep! In fact, sometimes I can't even eat dinner because I'm too tired!

My latest purchase was the EA Active kit. It comes with a leg strap (that holds the Nunchuk), a resistance band (which is a flimsy piece of junk, I use my own from yoga class from long ago) and of course the "game". Which, to me, isn't really a game at all, because what kind of damn game makes you do over 40 lunges in 1/2 hour?!?!?! Damn! Hehehe!

I started the 30-day EA Active Challenge on Saturday. Everyday (well in my case, every other day) you go through a series of various exercises, including lunges, bicep curls, squats, tricep kickbacks and more. My only gripe is that the equipment is so sensitive that if you don't hold the rep long enough or if you hold the Wiimote incorrectly, the trainer gets pissed off at you and you're forced to do it again. Sometimes I don't know what the hell he wants, and I end up doing more squats and curls and lunges until it "registers". ARRRGH. Virtual trainers are just as brutal as actual human ones.

After that got some exercise walking around in the sun (and lugging all of Mom's shopping) at this "Super Garage Sale" at Richardson Field near Aloha Stadium. Bought a brand new Dooney and Bourke bag ($187.00 tags and all) for only $30, some DVDs to re-sell and finally bought a brand new $20 salad spinner for a buck. LOL! It was soooo hot though. I really need to remember my sunscreen when I go out.

Sunday I could not get out of bed. My ass hurt, my thighs hurt, EVERYTHING hurt. From "playing" the damn EA Active on Saturday! Diet has gone okay, though on Sunday I finally got up out of bed at around 3:30 and had a strange fit of eating 6 cups of air popped popcorn and nothing else until dinner. :s

Monday I went to the gym after work, but I stayed for maybe 10 mins cause all the damn equipment and machines were all full, and I hate treadmills/ellipticals now (so boring) so I decided to go home and do more EA Active. OMG day 2 was even WORSE! I'm pretty sure we did 4 sets of 20 reps of lunges. I swear I swear I swear. The Tennis portion of the "game" was now unlocked, and the trainer made me practice backhands, forehands and whatever hands they have in tennis. At about 32:00 of the program, I started feeling faint. I was sweating and panting like crazy, I just stood there blank while the trainer gently reminded me that I wasn't running fast enough. I yelled back at him, Shut the hell up, I'm DYING already!!! The note at the top of the screen kept blinking "1 Exercise Left". So I ran in circles (you can just run in place) until I hit the finish line. If I get some results out of this, I'm quitting the gym for sure.

Today I was dead tired again. And sore as hell! Managed to make my usual morning work walk, but had Toastmasters so couldn't walk at lunch. I definitely need to get my 3 miles and exercise in tomorrow because we have to go out to dinner at Pagoda (buffet! Grrrrreat.) for my Dad's birthday. Buffet style dining...grrrreat. I'm hoping they have butterfish! Mmmm!

All in all, I'm happy because I'm losing weight every week (knock on wood don't jinx myself). I need to remind myself that slower weight loss in longer lasting, but man for this contest I dunno. I'm beginning to wonder how much more I can take in order to drop the weight quicker. I dunno...I just don't know. :s

Just cooked dinner...tofu with Korean bulgogi sauce! Tastes pretty good! :9

Spicy Ahi and...Honey Toast Friday!

I haven't seen my friend Kimo in nearly a year and I wanted to buy his iPhone for my Dad, so we met for dinner at Shokudo, a Japanese restaurant next to Ala Moana. He looked great; he lost nearly 40 lbs. since we last met...definitely a lot slimmer than before! He mostly did hiking, swimming and running/walking. He only joined a gym last week so he could do more weight training. If he could drop 40 lbs. w/o being a gym rat, than I can do it too! hehehe!

I checked out their menu online beforehand, that way I could make a choice and just stick to it. I originally was going to get spinach salad, share spicy ahi sushi and have their house specialty dessert, Honey Toast! I changed my mind slightly when we got there though (i thought the 2 boiled eggs and bacon on the salad was a little overkill), but I did stick to my guns and ordered a salad (tossed w/ a vinagrette, but topped w/ calamari LOL) which we shared! He ordered a tempura bento box, which looked yummy but would've been a waste for me to order since I probably wouldn't eat the rice.

salad w/ calamari

Red Eye! (spicy tuna roll w/ salmon). I only had 3 pcs. It was small, not that great. :p

Since I've never gone to Shokudo before, everyone was telling me about their Honey Toast. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT they said. I was a little worried about having sweet toasted Japanese bread drizzled with honey and topped with vanilla ice cream (we had ours with caramel as well). I'm not particularly a fan of caramel, but OMG this dessert was soooooo yummy and "light", not heavy at all.

MMMM it's sooo good!

Wooooooooo! I waited all week for this! Caramel Honey Toast!

Honey Toast Aftermath!

It was a nice dinner and we had a lot of fun catching up on our lives! He's very encouraging and funny too. He sold me his iPhone (which I need to unlock tonight for T-Mobile) and even made me a bag of Oatmeal Cookies, WHICH I just came home from shopping and ARRRRGH my brother ATE THEM ALL. I'm a little upset, but the cookies are sooo good (he's a baker) that maybe if bro didn't eat them, then I might have gone overboard and ate them ALL!

We're such sexy bitches.

Cardio Boxing!

A must have song for your music player: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor! Hahahahah!!! Yeeeeeah!!!!

This morning I got my booty up waaaaaay early to do Gold's Gym Cardio Boxing on the Wii! Boy did I workup a sweat! Jab! Cross! Upper Cut! Hook!

I managed to do 20 mins of that, but I had to shower then get ready to go to work. LOL!

Had to go to a meeting with my boss; didn't know they were providing boxed lunches. They really smelled and looked good; and I guess were pretty healthy (except maybe for the cheese) since it was a 6" baguette sandwich and salad with a vinagrette dressing. But...I couldn't believe it...I refused it. I knew that I had prepared my own lunch back at the office. I need to stick to eating only what I or Mom make for the rest of the challenge. I am going to dinner tomorrow nite (going to stick to my guns with a salad, a few pcs sushi and graze at my friend's caramel honey toast dessert).

I bought another fitness game which I'll review tomorrow! :) Felt kinda sick after eating the chicken salad 1/2 sandwich Mom gave me. I was hungry though (I ate a few soybean pods before I left the office), so no choice but to eat something.

Usual a.m./p.m. walk too! No lunch walk, since I was at that meeting. I cut lunch short when I came back to finish some work too.

Breakfast:
banana
soymilk
natural banana nut cheerios

Snack:
peach
breath mint

Lunch:
Flatout Grain Wrap (1/2)
egg substitute, scrambled
1 c. choy sum
mint

Snack:
1/4 c soybeans
1 slice white bread
1 tsp chicken salad
3 jerky nuggets

Dinner:
1 c. steamed veggies
4 oz tofu

Steps: 12,510
Calories Consumed: 1144
Calories Burnt: 2781
Activity: 1 Hr, 36 mins.

16 Lbs. Down, Many More to Go...the Battle Begins

Today was midpoint measurement day! 6 weeks since the start of the challenge! It's official, I have lost 11 lbs. since our first challenge weigh-in for a total 16 lbs. since I started eating clean and being more active. I have NEVER lost this much weight this quickly and WITHOUT going to the gym for hours and hours, doing high-impact exercises and lifting weights every day like I once did.

We also did a Quick Fit extra credit, where we had to do push-ups, stand on one leg (test balance) and do a flexibility test (see how far you can reach past your toes. My back is still a little sore and I kept cracking up when doing the balance test because you have to close your eyes when you do it, so I failed those. But I did do 20 push ups, which I am particularly proud of because usually I struggle to do 3!

I am very happy BUT now the battle begins. Men lose weight a lot faster and more easily than women. Women carry more fat than men, after all, we were made to bear and nourish children. Men were made to be hunter/gatherers, thus, have more muscle mass. I found out that some of the men in the challenge have dropped a significant amount of weight! Yey to them but BOOO because I REALLY have to work that much HARDER to try to win! My brother lost 5 lbs. in 2 days and the damn guy is eating Hooters wings! WTF!

My plan is to step up my weight training to every other day, and to burn at least 2500 calories every day. Also verrry carefully measure and log everything I eat, down to the damn sugarfree mints! More water, more water, more water!

I needed to buy another Wii Remote for the Gold's Gym Cardio Boxing game I bought and this machine was outside:

LOL I don't know why, but my mouth watered just looking at it! Hahahaha! Fuggedabout it!

Steps: 14,365
Calories Burnt: 2951
Activity: 1 Hr, 51 mins.

Boring Day Today!

Boring Day today! Tomorrow is midpoint weigh-in! Walked and did cardio boxing on the Wii!

Ate well! Even had soybeans and made a chicken pizza!

Steps: 14,202
Calories Consumed: under 2000, for sure
Calories Burnt: 2755
Activity: 1 Hr, 42 mins.

When Water Isn't Really Water

Ah, Monday! Week 6 of the wellness challenge! Our official midpoint weigh-in is this Wednesday.
Hope the numbers come out okay!

What a delight, one of our college engineering interns came back from France and remembered to bring me back something French!:
OMG Nutella in a jar! I love this stuff! But i can't eat it yet. Trying to figure out a good recipe to use it in (usually I'd just slather it over a bagel or toast and call it a day)...a cake or muffins maybe? For now, I decided to decorate it with some "GEICO" like eyes (I hate that commercial...it spooks me out) and a mouth. It's watching me...it wants me to EEEEEEAT it!

Other than that it was an okay day, but for some reason around 11:00 my tummy hurt really bad. Musta been all the crap I ate yesterday! :o I didn't want to walk around the office because it hurt so bad, but I did it anyway. Didn't want to eat lunch either but knew I had better eat something since my tummy was all "cleaned out" from hurting! :p

Did the usual walk to/from town/work, around the office (1 mile only) and walked around Costco with Mom. Needed to use up those Costco coupons...bought a lot of stuff I won't eat anymore (Rice Krispies treats, veggie potato chips) and stuff that I will eat (turkey breast, grain wraps).

Then...I got really thirsty. I had $2 to my name, and really wanted a berry smoothie but knew I'd be cooking dinner soon so I decided on water (of course). Propel Water. I couldn't see the ingredient list, but saw that it was only 20 calories for the entire bottle, so I bought it. Score, the machine gave me more change back so it was almost free. Not score! I drank it, THEN read the ingredient list...the next ingredient after H20 was HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Son of a B! What kind of water is this? Sugar water. Oh wait..."vitamin enhanced" sugared liquid. I swear I feel funny drinking this stuff. Like I could bounce off the walls, and it doesn't have any caffeine in it It does have 25% of the RDI for Vitamin B6 though, everything else is negligible. Note to self: always keep hydrated and just stick with plain ol' water.

Came home and cooked some chicken burritos! I wonder if there is a healthier alternative to the packaged taco seasonings. I picked up an Old El Paso one that was lower sodium, but it still had MSG in it. A big no-no when eating clean. :( I'm kinda sad that nobody wants to eat any chicken burritos 'cause they are still eating leftovers from yesterday. I'll have a burrito for lunch tomorrow.

Hmmm...I think I drank too much water today...I'm full and I haven't even eaten 1/2 of the burrito yet! I believe I've had at least 7 bottles (16.9 oz. each) worth of water today.

Breakfast:
1/2 banana
soymilk
kashi honey sunshine cereal

snack:
nectarine
one serving almonds (28)

lunch:
miso salmon (4 oz)
romaine lettuce
flatout grain wrap
laughing cow light wedge
broccoli salad

snack:
crackers
mango balls (3)
teriyaki jerky

dinner:

chicken tenderloin w/ taco seasoning
romaine lettuce
sour cream
mozzarella cheese
grain wrap
sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, olives tossed with bow tie pasta (1/2 c., leftovers from the party)

Steps: 12,952
Calories Consumed: not sure how to measure the pasta, hopefully under 2000
Calories Burnt: 2831
Activity: 1 Hr, 36 mins.

UPDATE! Sunday Afternoon Lunch and Birthday Jello

UPDATE: I finally kicked my bro off of the TV (actually, he kicked himself off after Tiger Woods lost the 2009 PGA playoff) and got on the Wii Fit for 1/2 an hour. I unlocked more games, including one where you feed penguins fish and box! I haven't played the boxing one yet because by the time I unlocked that one, I was tired!

813 steps in 10 mins.!

Set small goals - lose 2 lbs. in 2 weeks

Yey! I lost 2.9 lbs. (supposedly) since I started playing Wii Fit!

Me, as a penguin!

Good thing I got some exercise because I ended up going to my friend's daughter's birthday party. And...I ate...waaaaay too much! I guess this was a "cheat" day! OMG!!!:

artichoke pasta salad, tossed salad, salmon, bbq skewers, chow funn
more jello, choco dipped pineapple, strawberry, banana, marshmallow, angel food cake
Birthday girl enjoys her cake!

....while I enjoy a conservatively dipped Nutter Butter (my first cookie in AGES!)...

...and some guava birthday cake!
After lunch pond "fishing" for prizes with the birthday girl!

Brought home some food for the family; enough to make a steak wrap for dinner w/ a side of pasta salad! I guess I'll cook chicken burritos tomorrow! :) I AM STUFFED!!!

Sunday Breakfast...out!

Today my bro treated us to Sunday breakfast at Kapiolani Coffee Shop. This was my first time dining out since the sushi a few weeks ago, and first time eating out for breakfastI realize now that in Hawaii it is very difficult to make healthier choices at certain places, especially for breakfast. Most people in Hawaii think of breakfast as rice, eggs, and Spam! The ONLY healthy choice on the menu was a papaya. I HATE papayas.

My bro had fried rice, eggs, corned beef hash and 4 mini banana pancakes. Mom had Oxtail soup (their specialty) and rice. So I decided on 2 slices of wheat toast, 2 scrambled eggs, portuguese sausage (ate 2 pcs.) and 3 mini-banana pancakes.Had I known the toast would be pre-buttered, I would have told them hold the butter. But ah well. It was a yummy breakfast!

My bro tried to trick me into eating another pancake! He said take your half of the pancakes (there were 8), "You need more carbs." So I took it off his plate and he goes, "Hahaha that was a test, you should've said no!" So I tried to return it to the main pancake plate and he kept fighting me with his fork to keep the pancake on my plate. :P I ended up not eating it and Mom took it home for Maui to eat.

I want to play the Wii but my bro is camped out in front of the big screen watching Tiger Woods golf. :P I'm supposed to go to a friend's daughter's birthday party but not sure if my bro will let us borrow the car 'cause Mom pissed him off about the old lady he's dating (she's 44, he's 27). LOL!!!

Tonight I plan to try to cook chicken burritos (chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, cilantro, sour cream)! :) Hope it turns out okay!

Popcorn and Alien Invasions

I've been taking it easy with the exercise these past few days to hopefully let my back heal. So far so good. I have come to the conclusion that the damn Hula Hoop game on the Wii was what threw my back out. As I was trying to demonstrate to someone what games were on Wii Fit, I screamed OW!! So yep, all that hip twisting is what did me in. I've been okay with my diet as well, though last nite I ate way too much air popped popcorn (with non-fat butter sprinkles) with dinner, and tonight at the movies, I had no-butter popcorn (it was salted though, I wish they wouldn't automatically add salt), water, and this whey protein-based white cheddar sprinkles they sold at the movie theatre. Yum!!! The popcorn was fresh, BUT I almost started choking on the hull (?) of the kernels, so I stopped eating them. :( Now I think I might have a fear of popcorn!

We watched District 9, a movie about aliens becoming "stuck" on earth, and the scientist who tries to help them...but gets stuck himself. I won't give away synopsis of the movie, but Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) has certainly done it again with this hit!

Making shake and bake chicken (boneless/skinless), I'll make a wrap out of it with lettuce, sour cream or an avocado. :)

I really want a cookie. But I can't. Cause we have none. Hahahahaha!

***update: 10:13 p.m., nah I don't want a cookie anymore. I just whupped @$$ playing Wii Sports Resort! I only tried Sword Fighting (suuuuuper fun), Table Tennis, and Frisbee Dog before I got kicked off the big screen TV so the folks can watch the 10:00 news. :P