:: Day 55- Summary ::

Reflections on SoCal gym culture:
It's hollywood here. It's glam here. The classes feel like ... partying? The moves all seem to look like something you would see in a club. I so did not fit in!! Maybe that's why I love kettlebells - its easy to look 'cool' in it when you dont really know how to shake that booty. That being said, every single one of them looked RIPPED man. I even got to meet beachbody.com's July 2008 success story winner who lost 85 lbs! I'm so proud of her!!! I'm glad we ended up at this gym though, it's so easy to stay fit and we worked it out hard at 3 classes this morning. Mikee loved the spinning class which I'm gonna try tmrw.

Fancies gym machines ever!!!


Activities: 1579 cal
8am: Turbo Kickboxing class at ClubSport, 52 mins, 531 cal, HRa 152 HRm 174
9am: R.I.P.P.E.D. class, 44 mins, 396 cal, HRa 140, HRm 165
945am: Abs Express, 15 mins, 100 cal
8pm: 4.0 mi treadmill run, 50 mins, 531 cal, HRa 153 HRm 163

12pm: Mother's Market Acai Energy smoothie!!!



2pm: Kale Lemon salad from Wholefoods


6pm: Main meal at Honda-Ya



10pm: Pinkberry!!! It was good, but kinda overpriced. Still prefer Frozo's for price/performance ratio.

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:: Day 54 - Summary ::

Activities:
6am: bootcamp, 500 calories
3pm: something in the gym...

8am: ABC Juice, for some reason, it was soooo smooth today! delicious!


2pm: Freshly squeezed Juice from Mother's Kitchen in Laguna Hills, expensive but worth it
50% carrot, apple, pear, celery, beet


Main meal: Jon & Sabrina's Wedding Dinner at the Ritz Carlton
In terms of food, this was probably _the_ best I've ever had. I cant even begin to describe it. The couple are also winelovers so they made sure they paired each entree with their favorite wines. Now, that's class. And yes, I had cake.


And dreamy location or what??

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:: it's a sign!!! ::

So... some exciting news. It's our 1-year anniversary coming up this weekend. :) Time really does fly and so much has changed in the past year! We'll be in LA attending a wedding so we thought we would make a vacation out of it as well. At the very last minute, we decided to let Priceline decide our fate in terms of accommodation. Of all the possible hotels we could've ended up with, we landed The Renaissance ClubSport Hotel!



Could this be more perfect? 90 cardiovascular machines, 60 fitness classes a week, aquatic facilities ... oh AND a smoothie bar for fresh juices? Perfect match with my lifestyle - and at bargain prices too! Thank God!! It's going to be a very romantic and sporty weekend!
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:: Day 53 - Summary ::

Reflections: With 11 days left in the competition and virtually no weight loss in the past 5 days I am totally bummed. Ilude is that it's been an "off" week. :( Maybe it's wat like Iris said, I'd wake up one day and just magically lose 3 lbs. The possibility of meeting my own personal goal on Aug 18th seems more and more far-fetched as well.

Activities:
6am: HOC (60 swings, 15 snatches(R/L), 15 squats (R/L), 10 burpees per cycle), 35 mins, 300 cal burnt

7am:
I returned from the HOC feeling extremely light-headed and nauseated. Not a good sign - the husband force-fed me some random food and I felt much better. Looks like I'm off the WD today.
1/4 bowl of oat meals, Toast with egg and turkey bacon


10am: ABC Juice with Aylin


xpm: Curry Yogurt Coleslaw


Main Meal @ SUSHI TOMI with Aylin

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:: Blood test results ::

Got a call from my doctor! Everything looks great and my cholesterol level has dropped from 198 to 138!! Woohoo!!! Ok, it's not that big of a surprise since the WD has me eating so cleanly. But still, good to know that it all checks out!
(LDL: 82, HDL: 48, Triglyceride 38)

*The only concern is the HDL level which is still a little low at 48 and she said, "a little bit more exercise would help". Er, if she only knew how much I currently exercise already!! Oh well, heading in the right direction!
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:: Day 52 - Summary ::

Activities: 887 cal burnt
6am 2.0 mile run, 23 mins, 281 cal burnt, HR 169 HRm 173
30 mins boocamp, 228 cal burnt. HRa 121 HRm 146
6pm: 1000 swings + TGUs, no rest, 40 mins, 378 cal burnt, HRa 145, HRm 160

7am: ABC Juice, share with Aylin
2 carrots, 1 celery stick, 1 apple, 3 strawberries, parsley, 1 beet


Snack: carrot sticks, cheese strings and bluberries

Main meal: @ home
Tracy Reifkind's Curry Yogurt Coleslaw, leftover chicken, Cooked Veges with garlic, Quinoa. All I can say is... what a feast!!!

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:: The Victory Jeans ::

Now that I've passed the victor dress milestone, I'm ready to move on to the victory Jeans. Dresses are definitely more forgiving especially in terms of the hip area, the victory jeans arent quite as forgiving so this allows me to now focus on the hip area. Some history... I bought this pair of "Sweet & Low" Lucky jeans during a massive online sale 2 years ago. I couldn't fit into then but I couldnt resist the $19.99 deal. It's the next wardrobe milestone for me. Looks like another 1-2" off the hips might just do the trick! ;)
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:: Day 51 - Summary ::

Reflections:
I havent lost any weight in the last 3 days, despite being good about diet and exercising twice a day. Argh. My theory is bust. It also proves the human body is _so_ much more complicated than i think. :p It's ok - Imma keep chugging along. Hopefully by aug 18th, the net is still negative.

Activities: 947 cal
7am: KB Max VO2 Snatch Protocol, 30 mins, 297 cal, HRa 146 HRm 164
5pm: Max-incline (15) treadmill training, 60 mins, 650 cal burnt, HRa 157, HRm 168

8am: ABC Juice


xpm: Organic raw vege soup made by Vita Mix
(1 carrot, 1/2 celery stick, 1 roma tomato, slice of onion, slice of red pepper, 1/2 garlic, 1 green onion, 1/2 cup cabbage, 1 slice of yellow squash)

Orange is in!

Main Meal: @ home
spring salad with radish, chicken NUGGETS, cooked veges, quinoa
I was craving chicken nuggets today... I was _this_ close to going to MacDonalds but mikee convinced me we could make our own. After researching some recipes, I found an interesting one by Jessica Seinfeld that incorporated vegetable purees! I was sold - and 2 hours later, I am SO GLAD i waited to make our own. Deceptively delicious!

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:: Day 50 - Summary ::

All systems go?
Today I'm visiting my doctor to get bloodwork done. Hopefully all the internal stats will look good, to complement the external stats :)

Activities: 926 cal burnt
6am bootcamp, interval weight training, 60 mins, 535 cal burnt, HRa 138 HRm 170
5pm Swing volume workout + TGU, 45 mins, 391 cal burnt, HRa 138 HRm 155 (felt very lazy doing this one...)

10am: ABC Juice (Have to fast until after the blood test)


12pm: Carrot sticks, 1 organic cheese string

3pm: raw vege soup


Main meal:
raw vege soup, cooked veges, mikee's chicken, quinoa

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:: at 5:42 am this morning... ::

...I realized that I could fit into the victory dress!! The reminder for a victory dress update came from susan yesterday - which was timely. I've stopped obsessing about it for awhile so it was such a relief when the zip went up this morning. The needle _does_ move! Also, happy to announce waistline is now at 34" :)

When I was at church yesterday, several people commented on how good I looked! And one of my friends who was standing right in front of me, looked right past me, because he didnt recognize the "new me". teeheehee... i know i'm gloating but i deserve to gloat!

WOohoo! One victory down, many more to come!
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:: Omron Body Composition Monitor HBF-500 ::

The Omron HBF-500 is currently on loan from my mum. I'm so impressed with Japanese technology. THis monitor measures: visceral fat, resting metabolism, skeletal muscle mass levels, body fat percentage and weight. It uses full body-sensing technology so that the numbers are more accurate since it reflects your body better. If anyone would like to get your measurements, please feel free to drop by and use it!
Oh and it's on sale and shipping free from Amazon. Get your Omron HBF-500 now!!!



As with full accountability, here are my numbers...
Weight: 179 lbs
Body-Fat %: 32.9
Muscle skeleton %: 26.9%
Bone density (out of 6): 3
BMR: 1613
BMI: 28.6
Visceral Fat: 8 (>9 is bad)
Physique age: 47 (47???? WHAT THE HECK!!! This number is going DOWN!)
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:: Day 49 - Summary ::

Calories burnt for Week 1 Sprint Program: 6,305 cal
Activities: 951 cal
11am: 50 min treadmill interval training, 559 cal burnt, HRa 154, HRm 167
5pm: 35 mins KB Max VO2, 16lb, 36/36, 15 cycles, 392 cal burnt, HRa 160, HRm 173
(Dang, the max vo2 snatch protocol really got my HR up, and kept it there. Tough workout)

8am:
ABC Juice


1pm:
Freshly squeeze apple juice from farmer's market
handful of nuts

3pm: argh i caved!
1 piece of green onion slab from acme bakery

Main meal: VITA-MIX Party with Dyl and Hazel!
ABC Juice, Raw Vege Soup, Lettuce wraps with chicken, salad, and random mixings, blueberry sorbet

Raw vege soup (carrot, onion, green onion, cabbage, garlic, tomatoes, squash, bell pepper, chicken broth, organic seasoning)


Dyl with his sorbet creation

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