Last week of school

Um is anyone else in as much shock/disbelief as I am that it's the last week of classes?! And I know the next month is going to fly by since it's already jam-packed with finals, graduation and fun end of the year activities...Fortunately, I've been able to stay on track these past couple of weeks, in spite of the chaos (for the most part anyway).  I feel really good about my workouts, though a little lower back pain came back.  I'm not sure if that's from working out or from running around and dancing all over SF in heels and then sleeping with 3 ppl in a bed...

Does anyone like almond milk? I (re)discovered it this week. Delicious. Good dairy alternative, I  think. Anyway I'm going to miss reading everyone's blogs...even if I didn't comment I enjoyed them all. <3

So hopefully I got rid of whatever cold I was getting...still have a little cough or something but overall feeling much better. I got in a couple good workouts and then after a weekend at the beach I have new motivation for more intense workouts haha. The heat is exhausting but the good thing is I've been drinking tons of water.  Also, Keisha and I were finishing up our presentation this week and all that talk about Mississippi food (which you'll hear about tomorrow) kind of makes me never want to eat again...or maybe that's from the heat too...

Oh, I didn't have time to make one for you guys but I found a couple recipes for a healthier, or at least, less-bad version of peach cobbler that you might like. These are a couple hundred calories per serving compared to a regular version that was over 500...:

http://www.everydayhealth.com/publicsite/recipes/viewrecipe.aspx?recipeid=1883

http://100lbs.typepad.com/the_next_hundred_pounds/2008/08/recipe-of-the-w.html

Hmmm

Interesting the Sukhvir wrote about sleep this week because I was also going to mention the bit of insomnia i've been experiencing recently...I've been making an effort to get to sleep earlier plus i've been super tired some days after leaving the office around 9pm...and then i just can't sleep.  i toss and turn, my bed is super comfy and nothing.  What's better is that now i think i'm fighting off a cold, not cool. i'm not even stressed (which is usually when i get sick) so i don't know where this came from. i've been hitting the gym pretty hard thinking i could 'sweat it out' but that doesn't seem to be working so i think today i'll rest. Grrr.

Eating has been good, i've been having veggies with every dinner and i try to have some as a snack or earlier in the day w/lunch too.  Maybe still not 5 servings but better than none. :) 

Is it really April already?

Well I feel like I'm getting back on track...I made most of my meals the last week instead of going out like when I had visitors here.  I'm still not at 100% to run/elliptical/etc b/c I still get sharp pains from my previous injury if I run for too long...

After my post last week, I was wondering about how many calories are burned during dancing, standing in lines for Disneyland, etc so I found this calories burned estimator: 

http://www.healthstatus.com/calculate/cbc

Also, I know Erika posted this link earlier in the semester but I thought I'd put it out there again.  It's been my motivation not to eat too much since looking at some of these pictures induce a rather strong gag reflex that kills just about any craving.  :)

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Hosting Visitors

I love hosting out-of-town visitors, especially non-Cali ppl. I love planning activities and dinners and all the fun things ppl expect when they come to LA (and when hanging out w/me haha).  But I've realized that while it's hard to stick to routines and squeeze in workouts while traveling, it's almost more difficult when having visitors.  I know they realize I have things to do but I'd feel bad leaving them for alone to hit the gym, plus I generally want to maximize time w/them.  One of my oldest friends who now lives in Colorado was in town last week so there was lots of food, lots of alcohol and lots of fun...bad news in terms of my fitness/diet goals.  I did manage to get lots of dancing time in though (Thur, Fri, AND Sun)...that counts as activity right? And Sat I used my 'free' ticket to California Adventures requiring lots of walking. Sucks that you can't hit up both parks on 1 day w/o paying extra for the 'park-hopper' ticket b/c there aren't too many rides but they are pretty sweet. Anyway, hopefully this week will be healthier!

Update

Well I originally didn't think that Spring Break would be very productive in terms of...well anything and in most ways it wasn't. :) But I did have a lot of time to bum around so I spent quite a bit of it stretching in front of the tv. Eating was pretty good considering all the ice cream and pastries my sisters keep in the house.  Been drinking more water, eating more veggies, the hardest thing is to decrease the sugar.  And I did have some extra treats last weekend because I was in Disneyland! Churros and chocolate-covered frozen bananas don't taste like that anywhere else.

p.s. The Nemo submarine ride is sweeeeeet!! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...

Update

I've found the most difficult thing for me right now is getting over this injury because I'm not a very patient person...getting cardio in has been a little difficult because i usually run or jump on the elliptical or something at the gym but that leads to sharp shooting pains lately so i've been kinda avoiding that.  Instead i've been doing light weights w/lots of reps, yoga and stretching while i read or watch shows online.  

The other thing i've realized is that going on trips/going out w/friends makes it hard to worry about what i'm eating.  I have made a change in my morning routine, however, by getting a vanilla tea latte w/no sugar added powder (instead of regular) and soy milk which has 10g of sugar instead of 43g...there's a slight difference in taste, but still delish. Yay CoffeeBean!

Good luck studying everyone!

Benefits

Here are some articles concerning the benefits of my goals...

"Improving flexibility is simple yet advantageous for everyone"

http://fitness.suite101.com/article.cfm/benefits_of_stretching

Some benefits and important things to consider while stretching.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stretching/HQ01447

Here's an article where a dynamic stretching routine intervention over 4 weeks showed longer-term performance benefits:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18545176

Info from the CDC about fruits and veggies:

http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/benefits/index.html

Dietary fiber benefits:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fiber/NU00033

An interesting article on the lack of evidence for the benefits of drinking 8 glasses of water a day:

http://www.webmd.com/news/20080402/health-benefits-of-water-oversold?page=3

Progress report:

Still injured...I think I'm getting better.  I'm trying to ease back in to my used-to-be normal workout routine.  Dietary goals: yay for salad bars where i can pick all the veggies i like, fiber one frosted mini wheats, kashi cereals, and brita filters. This weekend wasn't so good, however, since it involved a wedding and therefore wedding cake and lots of alcohol for the single-ladies table in the corner. :D

Useful sites

First of all, I knew they made "stunt straps":

You can also see a video here:

http://www.yipesonline.com/page.php/products/Products.html?no=8705

These are basically just yoga straps (see below) with a loop so they can mark it up a couple 

dollars and sell it specifically to cheerleaders (~$10)...

Yoga straps (~$6-8) are helpful for some poses where your hands are supposed 

to meet but can't, or you can't grab your foot or the ground, etc...

BUT I didn't realize there were so many other types of stretching equipment available.  For instance, who wants to pay $17 for this contraption?

Or better yet, $280--no, i didn't forget a decimal--for this found at karatedepot.com?

Instead, I think I'll use some other techniques that don't involve me losing money.  One of these ways is yoga.

http://www.yogajournal.com/

I like this site b/c it has a lot of information on different types of yoga, a bunch of poses, recipes, spirituality, etc.

This site has some tips on increasing flexibility and also a 'cheer workout' alternating for 5 days between strengthening/power and endurance/aerobics.  I like finding new workout routines because it gives me a set plan and keeps me from getting bored.

http://www.lawrencepopwarner.com/fitness__flexibility.htm

This one has good info on different types of stretching like dynamic training that is suggested to improve flexibility and also discusses benefits of flexibility and factors that can limit it (room temperature).

http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_3.html

Barriers to change

So I think by now we've all realized that change is tough.  The most frustrating barriers are those that you do not have much control over.  My number 1 barrier right now is an injured tailbone.  It's just a bruised bone...I think.  As far as I know, I injured it over winter break (snowboarding) and I guess it never completely healed because it started flaring up again the last week or so.  I can still workout, I just have to be careful not to overdo it and hopefully I won't fall/re-injure myself before then.  Grrrr. 

This brings me to my next barrier: PATIENCE.  I've never been a really patient person so it's really hard to restrain myself and make sure I get better.  It's also really difficult to take my time stretching because I want to see results now! I've definitely pulled muscles in the past by pushing myself too far so I have to constantly remind myself that I'll see results over time.  **progress report: The splits are getting better, just not as easy as they were before.  I can do a scorpion on the left leg, but not comfortably yet and the right leg scorpion still needs some more work.**

The third barrier I discovered this weekend and relates to my new nutrition goal.  Traveling or even just not eating at home makes it much more difficult to stay "on track" when all kinds of other bad-for-you goodies are looking you in the face.  I bring this up because I went to see my family in Fresno and found it much harder to continue good eating habits since, obviously, I don't have any control over what they keep in the house.  It's not like I'm going to go spend money on my own food when I can eat their food for free right?  Dinners were good and it was definitely nice to have Daddy grill some steaks and veggies.  The hard part, though, was avoiding all the snack foods! My sister has a crazy sweet tooth so there were all kinds of treats. 

Back in my apartment, however, I have replaced flour tortillas with whole wheat, whole wheat bread with double fiber whole wheat bread, and bought an assortment of veggies for the week. :)

Support

I haven't really discussed my goal/plan with people outside of class much but I feel I am very supported by my classmates.  I don't think I even have had very many conversations about this, other than the class discussions, but just knowing we are all working toward a goal is support enough.  

That being said, I have also been inspired to add another component to my goal.  While I have been fairly successful in getting at least 3 days of workouts/stretching so far, I think my eating habits could definitely improve.  If I can feel pretty good after working out, why shouldn't I work towards feeling really good by working out AND eating healthier.  It's not that I eat horribly...I could just eat better.  By better, I would like to decrease the amount of sugar and increase the amount of vegetables and fiber and most importantly, water I consume.  I'm going to keep track for the next couple days how much of each I am eating now, so I can measure changes...and decide by how much I want to change.  Thanks guys!

Inspiration

I'm not sure that I have any one source of inspiration for this goal though I did mention my siblings last week as being a factor in all of this.  But another huge inspiration comes from one of my best friends from home (Fresno, if you're wondering).  He has been really dedicated to his gym-going schedule, especially in the past couple of months.  Even when he's tired after a long day of work he'll make sure he goes; even when he doesn't have much time he'll try to get in a few reps or a short run; if he knows he'll be busy after work he'll get up early and go before work; sometimes he goes twice just b/c he feels like it or has extra energy/time.  I think I should/could be more like that and stop thinking of these exercises as an option or additional thing to do "if I have time" and start having the mindset that this is a responsibility to myself.  Thanks M.A.D.! :)

Motivation to change

Well, I sort of mentioned in my last post that I used to dance, cheer, yoga and things that incorporate stretching into exercise so I never had to really make a conscious effort to stretch. Even when I wasn't dancing as much, I was cheering and had to be flexible and in shape or I wouldn't get to fly. During this time, I also started yoga-ing (b/c that's a word and all...) so when I stopped cheering I was really in to that. After college, however, I moved back home to Fresno and didn't really like the instructors I took classes from so I stopped. I would still work out but without much stretching. I've realized that flexibility really contributes to how I feel physically and lately, without it, I've been feeling much more restricted, older, and out of shape.

Another source of motivation comes from having 3 younger siblings.  We're all pretty competitive with each other and as the oldest I'm used to picking things up quickly, being stronger and more athletic than the others...well more than my 2 sisters anyway.  So over winter break when we all tried snowboarding for the 1st time I noticed I had more trouble than I expected and felt like I wasn't really keeping up.  Gotta step up the workouts and stretching so I can keep my balance better and not get tired so quickly!

Good.

Bad.

Goal and Plan

I know I said in class that my goal would be to make it to the gym for at least an hour, at least 3 times a week...but I would like to refocus this a bit.  I definitely would like to get back in to a regular workout schedule (at least 3 times a week) but my new goal will be to improve my flexibility.  I used to be active in dance/cheer/yoga but over the past couple years have become more of a traditional gym-goer (treadmill, weights, etc.), exercising without stretching well.  So recently I was doing yoga on Wii Fit *really fun, by the way* and found my flexibility has significantly decreased which has made me feel both old and out of shape.  Specifically, I would like to comfortably sit in the splits (right leg, left leg, and center) as well as exceed my old limits by being able to do a heel stretch, scale and scorpion (see pictures below).  Though there may not be any real benefits to being able to do the splits or any of the other things I listed, I have read that flexibility can aid in daily performance, balance, circulation, posture, and relieving stress.  

My plan of action will be to stretch for at least 10 minutes three times a week, after each work out for the first 4 weeks.  I will stretch for each of the goal positions and especially the muscles I worked out that day in the gym.  After 4 weeks I will add another day, stretching at least 15 minutes (after a workout).  After 8 weeks I will try to add another day so that I am stretching/working out at least 5 days a week.  At the end of 16 weeks I hope to be in great shape and more flexible than ever. :)