Running

Decided to make a quick update on where I am at right now. I can't believe that June is almost over already! A lot had happened in the past week, and all of it were hard things that I managed to turn around into some motivation my life (somehow). Give you an idea of what happened, I got a $1300 bill for my Emergency Room visit 3 month ago. And for the next three weeks, I'm going to be working to pay it off.

Anyways, a new hobby I've gotten into since the end of the 2012 Spring School Semester was running. During the spring, I started running to get things off of my mind because I kept thinking too much a problem I had. I got the idea from my friend who sprinted for an hour straight to get his mind off his ex. Unfortunately, sprinting for an hour straight everyday ended up giving him a stress fracture on his hip. So I decided if I wanted to do that I should start trying to jog for an hour before I go for an hour sprint... Good thing one of my other friends jogged 3 miles every morning! Kind of awesome that I naturally surround myself with people of similar interests without even trying! :)

The first attempt I almost made it to the end, but gave up probably at the 2.7 mile mark. The next week, I went out on my own to try again, and I managed to get the whole thing myself! Since then, I've been running at least 3 miles every week. And now me and my uncle are up to 5.5 miles! We just finished the run yesterday, and I'm going to try my regular 3.5 miles that I used to do. Well, that's all for my update for now. Oh, and I plan to do the Boston Marathon when Spring of 2014 comes around! :) So if your stressed: Go outside and get active! Try something new and maybe you'll like it! I'm definitely glad that I gave running a chance!

Protein 101

Today I’m going to finish up my post on the macronutrients by talking about protein. Protein is important regardless if you’re trying to lose weight, or trying to gain weight. Protein helps you recover from a workouts, give your body the proper materials to produce hormones and enzymes, and it even influences your metabolic rate.

High-Quality Proteins:

All protein is are long chains of amino acids. There are a total of 20 different amino acids and 8 of them are essential (meaning your body cannot produce it so you must consume it).

While there is no “bad protein” or “good protein,” you should aim to try get your protein from sources that gives you good nutrients. For example, instead of getting your protein from a hamburger, try to get your protein from fish to get the omega-3’s (not to mention you’ll be avoiding a lot of saturated fat).

Some good sources of protein comes from sources such as:

Skim milk	Eggs	Pork
Fish	Chicken	Legumes
Peanuts	Nuts	Seeds

Try to avoid getting protein from red meats and high fat dairy sources (such as whole milk).

Other Sources of Protein: 

It is recommended to eat 0.8-1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight depending upon how active you are. If you’re not as active, 0.8 grams per kg of bodyweight should be sufficient. It should be easy to eat enough proteins in your diet, but if you are still having trouble consuming enough protein, you should try adding it from food sources before resorting to protein shakes.

Getting your protein from dietary sources such as nuts, seeds, and fish also give you healthy fats as an extra bonus. If you’re running late and need some quick protein, just drink a cup of milk which has 7 grams of protein. Getting protein in your diet through food sources is also a good way to save money. If you just finished a weight lifting session, of course drinking a protein shake would be more convenient than stuffing down egg whites. I personally use protein shakes but only after a weight lifting session (and occasionally as meal replacements if I am going to miss a meal).

Fats 101

Back again today to talk about fats! Lets start. There are many kinds of fats but like carbohydrates, we split them into good fats and bad fats. Bad fats are the ones that increase your cholesterol and increases your risk of certain diseases. Good fats does the opposite, it protects the heart and support overall health. I will split up this blog post by explaining what good fats are and what bad fats are (and what they do):

Good Fats:

Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats because they help with heart health and help manage cholesterol and overall health. The best source of healthy fats are from omega-3’s from fatty fishes.

Good fats helps the body by lowering the total bad cholesterol (LDL) and increases good cholesterol (HDL). LDL is the cholesterol that is more associated with heart diseases and strokes. HDL is actually good for the body and help against diseases.

Some benefits of omega-3’s includes:

-       Reduce symptoms of depression

-       Protects against memory loss

-       Lowers the risk of heart diseases, stroke, and cancer

-       Help with arthritis, joint pain, and inflammatory skin conditions

Keep in mind that the human body cannot produce Omega 3’s so it is important for us to consume it. Lets look at some sources where we can get the following fats (check out website at the end of post to see source):

M0nounsaturated Fat	Polyunsaturated Fat
Olive Oil	Soybean oil
Canola Oil	Corn Oil
Sunflower oil	Safflower Oil
Peanut Oil	Walnuts
Sesame Oil	Sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin seeds flaxseeds
Avocados	Fatty fishes (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, trout, sardines)
Olives	Soymilk
Nuts (Almonds, peanuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, cashews)	Tofu
(Natural) Peanut butter

Bad Fats:

Bad fats are saturated and trans fats. The general guideline is to (obviously) eliminate bad fats from your diet, especially trans fats.

Both saturated fats and trans fats raises your blood cholesterol. But trans fats in particular are worse because they raise your bad cholesterol (LDL), but lowers the good cholesterol (HDL).

Make sure you start reading labels, and just because the box says there is no trans fat, make sure to read the ingredients. Anything under hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils are trans fats. Just because there are a small amount in the serving size (under 5 grams), they do not have to post it up in the nutrient label. This means that if there is 3 grams in each serving, if you eat 5 servings, you will have eaten 15 grams of trans fats!

Of course, we need to know where they are from to avoid them, lets look:

Saturated Fats	Trans Fats
High-fat cuts of meat (beef, lamb, pork)	Commercially-baked pastries, cookies, doughnuts, muffins, cakes, pizza dough
Chicken with the skin	Packaged snack foods (crackers, microwave popcorn, chips)
Whole-fat dairy products (milk and cream)	Stick margarine
Butter	Vegetable Shortenings
Cheese	Fried foods (french fries, fried chicken, chicken nuggets, breaded fish)
Ice Cream	Candy Bars
Palm and coconut oil
Lard

Changing Takes Time:

If your still having hard time eliminating bad fats from your diet, just try substituting bad fats with good fats. For example, start cooking with olive oil rather than butter. Try to consume more nuts as healthy snacks and mix in some olives. Switch from whole milk to 1% or skim milk. The list goes on for what you can do to lower your fat intake. There are many small changes you can make in your daily schedule that will ultimately help you with your dietary change.

Please check out this website for more information

Carbohydrates 101

Hello everyone! Today my post will focus primarily upon the macronutrients: Protein, Carbohydrates, and Fats. You learned from the last post that you should not avoid any one of these macronutrients in your diet (if you have not read it, please go check it out really quick now). But while you shouldn’t remove macronutrients completely from your diet, you should know that not all macronutrients are created equal.

Today I will talk about carbohydrates:

There are healthy carbohydrates (known as complex carbohydrates) which includes whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Healthy carbohydrates digests slow which will keep you full longer.  This is largely due to the fact that it keeps your blood sugar and insulin levels low (which is good when it comes to staying full). I would recommend you to consume whole wheat over white, brown rice over white rice, and choose millet, quinoa, and barley.

Unhealthy carbohydrates are the simple carbohydates which are refined sugars, white flour, and white rice. Simple sugars have most of its nutrient contents removed and the fiber content severely reduced (making it easier for the body to digest). Simple carbohydrates will digest quickly and cause spikes in blood sugar and energy levels. This means that simple carbohydrates will not keep you full as long and the fall in insulin levels in cause you to become faster.

If you are having trouble satisfying your sweet tooth and crave for simple sugars, try eating fruits such as grapes and mangos since they have some beneficial nutrients compared to simple sugars.

Good luck on your weight loss goals! Next post I will talk about healthy and non-healthy fats so make sure you look out for it.

Also, check out my LinkedIn page: here

Best weight loss tip: Controlling Portion Sizes

Been away for awhile, but summer just started so expect more consistent updates as well as progress pictures! :)


Also, I've been working on my blog at wordpress for my computer applications class and I'm going to start posting up things both on that site and here. So check it out! :)


Click here to view

What is the one thing that all diets have in common? Portion sizes. If you want to lose weight, you have to control how much and what you eat. Simple right? Not really.

Most people who tries to lose weight follow diets that goes to the extremes. "Cut all your carbohydrates." "Fats are bad and should be avoided." All sounds familiar? These diets are most likely to plateau and rebound to where you started (or maybe even more). I have tried these diets myself. Unfortunately, their impressive short term results were met by nasty weight gains faster than you have lost it.

To understand portion sizes, visit: This Website

A safe diet should have (by the end of the day):

45-65% of your calories from Carbohydrates

10-35% of your calories from Protein

20-35% of your calories from Fat

Spring Break & How I started

Hey again! :) It's spring break and I've been having the last few days for myself (finally). Unfortunately I haven't been doing anything that I planned and my break is pretty much half over. So while I'm here, I'm going to at least give you all an update on how I'm doing: which is awful... bodybuilding wise at least. Last week I started cutting and was doing a good job with my diet. Unfortunately, food at home is too hard to resist when compared to crap cafeteria food so I've been shoving food down every five minutes. I feel bloated and nasty.

Enough complaining, I've decided to make today's post about how I got started with bodybuilding. Last time I gave a general overview of why I started and what happened along the way, but I'll explain more about how it became my life. Before we start, here's a picture of scrawny me! :) 

Pho! <3

As I stated in my first post: I used to dance. I did things such as gymnastics, yoga, and jogging to help improve, but I never got any better. Everyone at my high school knew me as the "break dancer." And I wanted to get to the world competition level. There was one thing I felt was holding me back the whole time, my strength.

It wasn't until my Junior year in high school (2008) that I had a summer job that required me to do a lot of lifting. Lo and behold, MUSCLES! :) heheheheh. It actually came pretty natural to me, my boss and other employees all noticed that I was getting bigger within the three months that I worked there. Some costumers actually asked me what gym I go to and what I do.... I felt special~~ :3 Joking, but I kind of did. Quit that job, and it would be AT LEAST six months before I started lifting in the gym.

BUT, all that year, I did what any typical Asian would do. Throw rice bags onto his back and start doing push ups, squats, bicep curls, etc. No joke, I used a f*in rice bag when I started... no excuse! >:] The program I used all that year was from: 

http://iwantsixpackabs.com/

Check it out. Its mostly all resistance band and bodyweight stuff, but its a very good starting point for anyone trying to get into lifting.

Anyways, end of senior year was approaching and I didn't get into the college I wanted. I was leaving Boston and my crew (people I danced with), and I knew that I needed to make new friends at college since I would be living on campus. I signed up for a Physical Education class where all you do is lift. I had a teacher that would push me constantly, one day he told me that he had a lot of faith in me and that I should continue lifting. For me to hear that (especially during my identity crisis), steered me in the direction of a bodybuilder.

*Quick Jump (noticed that this is getting long)* Lifted all Freshman year and I kept getting comments such as "Jimmy, your getting big!" I was so happy to hear this. All my life I was trying to find something that I'm good at, and finally I might've found it. In all my ga-jillion hours of training for dancing, I never felt like I was getting better. But finally with this, I was able to improve beyond my own expectations.

Bodybuilding became more than just being that gym rat. I stopped going to parties, I stopped eating fast foods, I only spent money on supplements, I stopped playing video games, and I stopped watching television. It became a lifestyle, one that I enjoyed. All the efforts I placed into dance was now geared towards bodybuilding, only this time I felt like I can win! >:]

Well, that's pretty much all I have to say. Bodybuilding for life! :3 Oh I've added a few things to my post, a "Qoute of the Post (I've actually got these qoutes memories ;] )" and a Question for you. Yes, I want your story and if you actually relate to me :P

Qoute of the Post

I am the man responsible for who I am. When I look in the mirror each day, I stare my creator in the eyes. I and responsible for what I have and will become, I am accountable for what I will and will not accomplish. I believe in myself, I bow to no man and my only critic of any consequences have walked every mile of this journey in my size thirteen's (eleven for me :P)

Question of the Post


How did you get started and what keeps you motivated? o.O

Update : March 14th 2012

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Height: 5 ft 10 in

Weight: 210 lbs // 95.45
Bodyfat: ~20% 

Where I am now

Been busy the past three weeks and have not been able to go to the gym as often as I wanted. I was suppose to start my cutting regiment weeks ago but have been up late watching movies with friends (which of course leads to putting me behind in my studies and then snowballs from there). So since I'm resting between my studies, I decided to put up a quick update.

These photos are taken as of March 3rd, 2012. I'm going to start cutting down and hopefully you will see some progress within the next few weeks that I do so. I will also pick random days where I would share what I eat, what I did that day (cardio and weightlifting wise). Of course if I get busy again, I won't be able to do this as often.

Since I also have old pictures of me, I'm going to post those up later as well. They're not that old, but hopefully you will see where I came from and where I've gotten. Before I go back to what I was, just wanted to share really quick what I look like today :)

So subscribe and keep updated on my journey to getting bigger! That's all for now, I'll update more information about my goals and what I do later (just wanted to let you know I'm alive). Oh, I've also decided to end each blog with an update of where I am today (I will try to include measurements when possible), so here it is!:

Update : March 4th 2012

==========================

Height: 5 ft 10 in

Weight:  212 lbs // 96.36 kg

Body fat: ~20% ?