Category: workout

The Struggles are Real: Weight loss

This week I have decided to once again share my weight loss story and the obstacles that I’ve had to overcome. Just as a reminder to myself of why I started in the first place because there are days that I cannot summon the motivation to get out and get to the gym.

There are so many social media pages where people share their weight loss stories, myself being included. The content of these pages are only before and after pictures and recipes used or workouts they do to continue their fitness story. The type of content that seems to be missing is the kind that talks about or depicts all of the struggles that comes with the journey. Whether it is with self, family and friends and in your professional life as well. I mean with all of the offers of doing good at work in exchange for a pizza party (like what are we, five?) ha ha, just kidding. Let us begin with the obstacles that we put on ourselves, for example, my biggest reason to not put in hard work was the excuses of being too “busy” or too “tired.” Once I came to the realization that these ideas were just excuses to justify the unhealthy lifestyle I was living, it became easier to start pushing myself to get moving and eating healthy. These are reasons that I see the most with people in my life, with my parents, siblings, in-laws and some co-workers. What people do not realize, and is something I learned along the way, is that working out and eating healthier makes us feel more energized and increases our desire to be more productive. Another type of mindset that holds us back is the idea that the working out can become repetitive or even monotonous. I have found that if a workout has become boring it just means that the intensity needs to be increased, in other words, it is a sign that we need to push ourselves harder. The beauty of working on our fitness is that it should be a never ending journey of growth and learning, this advice also applies to life. I am not saying that I know everything about fitness and living healthy, I mean come on there are days that when I am researching new meal prep recipes or creating a new workout plan as I am enjoying the fluffy carbs and sugars that come in the form of a donut or two. I just do not let those type of days hold me back I just keep pushing forward learning, working, planing and bettering myself.

Another obstacle that I have to overcome has been my family and friends. Now this one is a tough one because it is disrespectful to turn down food that is offered, especially in my culture. (I am Hispanic by the way) At first I felt horrible because at my in-laws’ my mother in-law would a cook an amazingly delicious meal. You know, the beans, rice, and either beef or chicken with sauce that was made from scratch, sometimes she would even have home made flour tortillas and OH BOY! Was that hard to resist. Then there was my mother’s house she would make some delicious stew with beans, bacon and strips of beef, of course everything is fried before it comes together in a warm stew, that I am pretty sure can only be taught to make by angels, ok I might be exaggerating a bit but still it is amazing. As everyone feasted on what can only be described as Hispanic cuisine glory, I would have to stick to my healthy meals that were made of veggies and low sodium chicken. When I say low sodium I mean pretty much tasteless, of course now I have grown to like my meals with no sugar, sodium, oils or pretty much anything that made food delicious but also unhealthy. Both my mother and mother in-law thought I was sick all of the time because I had stopped eating everything that they knew I liked. To this day they still wonder if I am able to eat what they made which of course the answer is duh! They still always ask because they don’t know if I am on what seems to them a “crazy” diet. One thing that I find funny is that when my family comes to visit they first tell each other that they should get something good to eat because at my place there is only healthy food that they don’t like. The best way to handle your family is by informing them that you want to live healthier and hopefully they understand. In my case they didn’t, so I just had to keep pushing myself hoping for the best, hopefully I have inspired at least one of them to make healthier decisions and to be more active.

Finally work the aspect of my life with the least importance and the easiest obstacles to overcome, well at least for me. The reason this was the easiest is because if they have food at work I make sure to moderate myself or I just politely say no thank you and go to where my five senses are not being drawn to the food. Working on your fitness and having a social life can be possible everything just needs to be with moderation. Currently I am down 120lbs from 350lbs to 230lbs and still working on my fitness. I know that this is a lifestyle and it makes me feel good in all aspects of life so I will continue to work on myself.

If you take anything from this today I hope it is this; the first step to bettering yourself starts with you! Get out of your head and get to working on yourself. I promise you will feel amazing and of course you do not have to start of working out and dieting like professional athletes. Just get moving, figure out what your body can do, find YOUR limits and push them it will improve not only your health but every aspect of your life.

Get up and get moving checklist:

1. Get out of your head just get moving

2. Ignore what others have to say about you even if it comes from your family and friends.

3. Have fun, find things you enjoy doing. (for example I found Jiu-jitsu but that is a topic for another day.)

4. If you go to the gym remember everyone is wondering if what they are doing is right! And DO NOT compare your progress to the progress of others.

And make sure to look me up on instagram and follow so that you may join me in my journey. @alejandro.gets.fit

Fit, In The Garage

As I mentioned in my last post, my wife and I just bought our first house and we had always talked about what we would do to it in order to promote our physical emotional, creative and mental wellness. We decided that we would designate rooms to help us improve on ourselves, we came up with design ideas for a space in the garage of our new home that will help us keep on track with our physical activity. Of course we do not want to go crazy and spend a bunch of money on exercise equipment besides that is why, we have a gym membership for, so we made up a list of what would be considered minimal essentials which are;

1. Mats for the floor- I don’t know about you but I do not want any equipment to destroy the concrete floor so We want to protect it also to have a clean space or stretching workouts done on the floor(eg..pushups, sit-ups, crunches, planks) 99.00 for 96 sq feet on Amazon

2. Jump rope/speed rope- I personally love jump rope it is easy to use and great time saver jump rope helps you get a good workout in a short amount of time. Since it’s so small it can literally be stored anywhere (great space saver) done correctly and at a steady pace it can burn more calories than running it also helps with the improvement of your running, promotes balance and coordination 7.00-20.00 online

3. TRX (total body resistance exercise)- This is great because it help you workout many different muscle groups core, arms and back I like using it for core workouts and it’s awesome for that. (I am a bit hesitant about getting this because it does have to go mounted on the wall or to the ceiling unless you pay extra for the bars it goes attached to but mounted correctly it can be a great tool) Depending in which one you get the price can vary between $15.00-200.00 online

4. Yoga ball- I don’t really use yoga balls but I do know it is a great substitute for the TRX when it comes to suspension based workouts it helps with balance as well. 8.00 on the Walmart website

5. Punching bag/heavy bags- I like punching bags they are great for cardio exercise but for me they also are also great for practicing some jiujitsu movements. It this helps with agility balance and coordination. 60.00 without stand and 109.00 with stand on the Walmart website

6. Battle ropes- this is the king of upper body cardio workouts well at least in my opinion, because there are so many different exercise variations with this type of equipment and they are all great for weight loss and improving on other cardio workouts. 37.99 on the Walmart website.

7. Kettle bells- once again there are numerous exercise variations with this equipment and the majority are full body workouts which are great this (probably would be the most expensive depending on where you get them my favorite are from onnit they are cool) price ranges based on brand and weight anywhere between 14.00 -200.00 online (onnit is more pricey but that is because they have awesome Marvel, Star Wars and primal kettlebells)

We want to make a small gym in our house for those days when we really don’t feel like driving to the our gym I mean Of course like I said we are keeping our membership for our regular heavy lifting sessions and other equipment we like using but it would be great to be able to just stay home and still workout.

Paleo Approved

I’m going to start off with an update on how I am doing with the paleo diet and well I’m going to be honest it did not go well. I stuck with the diet for the first week of the month and even though it was a short run I must admit that I felt an increase in energy. But just because I did not stick to it for march it doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on it. The great thing of self improvement, is a lot like using the jump rope if you hit you foot and it stops just start up again until you find your rhythm. Due to my work schedule I have not had the time to sit and do my research to better understand what the paleo diet consists of but now that it is going back to normal I can get back at it

I have found a more comprehensive list of what foods are allowed with the paleo diet and I have found that the list is actually not as short as I thought it would be. There are the basic meats vegetables and fats.

But what types of food are all in these categories? This is a common question that has both a simple answer as well as a difficult one because there is a huge variety of foods and all we have to do is weed out the types that are accepted.

Here is a short list of approved foods:

Meats: try to make sure they are lean instead of fatty

My go to’s are beef, turkey and chicken

Other options are: rabbit, organ meats like liver, elk, deer, venison, quail, pheasant

Fish:

Wild salmon, mackerel, tuna, bass, tilapia, halibut, cod

Shellfish:

Oysters, crab, crayfish, lobster, prawns, mussels, scallops

Vegetables:

Artichokes, zucchini, squash, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, kale, celery, onion, pumpkin,

Broccoli, tomato, eggplants, cauliflower, radish, carrots, cabbage

Fats:

Fruits:

Apples , Passion fruits, lemon, blackberries, strawberries, papaya, pears, pineapple, kiwi, apricot, banana, grapes, plums, watermelon, melon, mango, guava

Nuts and seeds:

Almonds, macadamia nuts, pecans cashews, walnuts, pumpkin seeds

Sweeteners:

Raw Honey, palm sugar, Agave syrup

Now a short list of non-approved foods:

Starchy vegetables:

white potatoes, tapioca yams

Cereal Grains:

Barley, rice corn, wheat, wild rice buckwheat and any processed foods made with cereal grains.

Legumes:

Beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, snow peas,

Fats:

all seed oils trans fats bad saturated fats

Dairy:

no dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, ice cream

And absolutely no processed foods such as candy or anything containing too much sodium such as hotdogs, salami or deli meats

Working out With Fresh Tattoos

This week I have been able to have a bit more time to work on posting so here is this week’s first of two posts (yay double the content!!)

Last week I went to get a tattoo and I thought it would be great if I posted some tips on going to the gym with a fresh tattoo. This was not my first tattoo I was have a few and the only one that I had a different experience was with the first one but that was because of cultural reasons and I was new to the whole being tattooed thing. To start off, I grew up in a house hold that was very religious and highly against tattooing or piercings, naturally I tried to hide it which was not the best of ideas because it did not help the healing process and it took longer to heal.

That was a mistake I was not willing to do any of the rest of my tattoos otherwise if I were to get any, and I did. The way that I schedule my workouts around the healing of my tattoos is by not working out for the first full day to make sure that the healing process starts properly. I also make sure that my workouts do not involve any thing that pushes pulls or rubs on it so any having abdominal workouts are not an option at least for the first week. As for jiu-jitsu, I take a whole week to a week and a half break that way the chances of getting infections are reduced skipping the week also reduces the risks of tearing it (yes I said tearing) because the skin is still tender during the healing process. For the week that I am healing I wear sleeveless shirts at first and long sleeves up until it is fully healed well depending on the placing of the tattoo mine starts on my shoulder and goes down half way down my bicep but also wraps around to my triceps.

Tips for working out after a tattoo:

1. Don’t workout for 24hr (take a rest day)

2. Don’t let anything rub on it and so make sure to choose your workouts accordingly

3. Do not let it get dry I use Aquaphor or Vaseline

4. If you do jiu-jitsu or any full contact type of activity wait at least a week before going back.

5. Wear loose clothes fitting clothing to avoid unnecessary rubbing on the tattoo.

Back At It

For this post I am going to talk about getting back into your groove after a few days of being lazy and lacking motivation to do anything let alone get to the gym. Lately I have been feeling blah, without motivation to get to the gym for a lift session or a run let’s call it blah week and I feel like to me it is normal because my funk usually lasts about two or three days. I used to think that I was losing my motivation and that I was going to let myself gain all of the weight That I worked so hard to lose. but this past week I felt excited at the fact that I wanted to stay home and rest instead of go to the gym. Now don’t get me wrong I love working out but when I get the blah spells usually come back hard with more motivation than before. Not only do I go hard at working out but I also get back into researching and trying to find more recipes and exercises. I must admit that there was a time when The blah days would turn into weeks or months but I have learned that this week is my body telling me to slow down and that it needs a break and if I listen then it will be very beneficial because I am able to go back to working hard. You might be wondering if it’s hard to get back to working hard and the answer is yes for the first day I have to force myself to get back into it but once I start picking up speed I am very productive. The important thing for me is that I get back on track with my current workout or a new one.

Tips to get back on track:

1. Start back up simple.

2. Just get to the gym.

3. Just because you take a break it doesn’t mean you have to give up.

4. Exercise is part of a lifestyle.

Ready, set GOals!!

Hello!! hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas

It’s that time of the year again the new year new me time where we all make resolutions to become better people. We all make lists of how to better ourselves whether it is being healthier or working out more or being nicer to people, only to abandon the list by February. I know I used to be guilty of this, every year I would make the same resolutions and abandon them by the end of January. And when the next new year came around I would feel like had not accomplished anything but yet again I would do it all over again. For years this was a cycle of setting goals and abandoning them and I was really wanting to get something accomplished but I would never seemed to be able to cross any of my goals off. So I sat down to do some research on ideas for goals and I came across some very good information. The idea was that I should make goals that were specific and achievable. For example:

If your goal is to be healthier

• Maybe set goals like

• Go to the gym 3x a week

• Eat one healthy meal per day

• Lose 5-10lbs by February or March

Or if your goal is to be nicer try

• Give someone a compliment everyday

• smile more

• Hold the door open for someone

And another thing, just because your list says something at the beginning of the year doesn’t mean that you can’t change or modify it throughout the year. The resolution list should be a guide to see where you start and end your year, hopefully you are able to reach your goals and you are able to change them to something bigger and better.

Here is an example of my resolution list that I made at the end of 2017 for 2018

• Lose 15 lbs

• Get a stripe promotion (in jiu-jitsu)

• Complete 2 5k races

• Complete an obstacle course race

• Pay debt off

• Buy new car

• Travel to the coast

• Learn

As I am making my new list for 2019 look back at how much I have accomplished and I truly feel a sense of pride in everything I was able to cross off

To run the risk of sounding cliche 2019 will be my year as it should be for everyone I mean don’t get me wrong 2018 has been an amazing year and I am just excited to see what 2019 has in store for my wife and I.

So to recap

1. Write down your goals

2. Make monthly goals that way you feel like you’re making progress

3. Cross them off as you go

4. Take pictures when you accomplish one in order to track progress

5. Have fun it’s your own list and only base it off of what you want to do not what you think others expect of you.

Let’s make 2019 ours and start off with positivity.

Work it out

Trying to keep eating healthy and exercising during the holidays may be difficult, because it feels like everyone is having parties and making special dishes. What is difficult is getting back to a healthy mindset, I feel like we have one bad meal and we think we cannot start our diet or fitness routine until the beginning of the year. Just because you ate a bit too much for thanksgiving doesn’t mean that it is impossible to get back on track or even start living healthier. If you are asking how this is possible, well, there are 33 days between thanksgiving and Christmas which is plenty of time to get used to a routine or get back on track towards meeting your goals.

Here are some workout ideas that can help give you a great start to getting back on track:

1. Box jumps: 10-15 minutes at your own pace it does not have to be super intense but just challenging

enough for you to sweat.

2. Hiit cycling: start off with 2 minutes of a comfortable pace not too hard that way you do not wear yourself out then start gradually increasing the intensity every 10 seconds do this for 30 seconds and then reduce the intensity to a comfortable pace and keep it for another 2 minutes in order get back to a regular breathing pattern then repeat for a total of 8 times totaling out in a 20 minute workout hopefully you are drenched in sweat and you feel amazing.

3. Run/walk for 20-30 minutes

4. Jump rope for 15 minutes at your own pace if you mess up it doesn’t matter just keep going.

Remember to not let your ego get the best of you every workout needs to be at your own pace.

5k On Turkey day No way!

Thanksgiving day, a day when we eat until we can’t move and then we eat some more, it is also a day when we give thanks for everything good that has come to us and for what is yet to come, a day when everyone gets up and eagerly awaits for the time to dig into their glorious turkey feast. Just like everyone that is how my day used to go but this thanksgiving day my wife and I decided that we would do something different and well if you read the title and guessed that we ran a 5k, you guessed right. Yes we signed up for a 5k why? You may ask, well, we wanted to start a new yearly tradition and we enjoy participating in these types of events. This was a different experience because we have only participated in these during the summer, the weather was way colder and our old people joints were not having it. Even with all of our joints crackling and popping like fireworks during the Fourth of July, we put on our warmest exercising clothes and on our way we went. On the way there we saw that the temperature was in the high thirties with an even colder wind chill.

“why the hell did we sign up for this?”

I turned and asked my wife and continued to complain about how cold it was, she vaguely agreed and assured me that we will have fun. Still I was not convinced, To me it seemed like the temperature was a big reason for people to not participate, so I felt like the turnout was not going to be very good. To my surprise there were a ton of people, the turnout immediately changed my mind I went from let’s go home to let’s go do this. The start of the race was a bit slow but once the crowd started to spread out it became easier to run I turned to my wife and told her to let me know when she wanted to slow down and “shockingly” she didn’t, as I felt myself getting into the zone I realized that I could no longer see my wife out of the corner of my eye so I stopped and tried to find her. After a minute had passed I decided that I was going to keep going plus I figured that she didn’t want to really keep up with me because we always end up arguing at these types of events because I want her to keep running and she wants to do it at her own pace. Towards the end I waited for her until she could catch up and we ran the last quarter of a mile together and no more complaints about the cold weather. At the end of the race they had cookies, donuts and coffee, I must admit I did have fun and we managed to cut our finish time by four minutes, I feel like this new tradition is something that I will be looking forward to every year.

Cravings suck (they don’t have to)

Do you ever get a sudden craving for something sweet? I know I do, this always happens to me when I am dieting and trying to drop weight. (Talk about in convenient timing haha) At first I would either get busy and distract my mind or give into my cravings which did not help me at all because not only did I not have the will strong enough to resist my favorite candy or chips or cookies or all of them but I also ate quite a bit of them. I was like the Tasmanian devil from the Looney toons running around devouring every piece of sweets and junk food I could find, I mean it was bad. After all of the dust had settled and I was done scavenging I would sit there and regret everything I just had eaten not only because I felt bad about breaking my diet but because I usually ate so much it would result in a stomach ache. I know what you’re thinking, what are you a child that cannot control yourself around sweets? And yes I am when it comes to sweets I seem to forget all of the time and hard work I have put into losing weight and getting to the fitness level I am at today and I eat. After the twentieth or thirtieth time of doing this, yes it took me a while to get this under control, I realized that there are healthy alternatives to candy and junk food. I sat down and did some research and found a few recipes that might help me with my sweet tooth they were all so simple and they did help.

Here is one of my favorite recipes that I found in my research.

Banana peanut butter wrap

• ½ banana

• 2tbsp peanut butter

• 1 Pita bread, flax oat bran and whole wheat (I look for pita bread that is low in calories)

1. Spread the peanut butter on the pita bread

2. Add the Sliced banana

3. Roll up and enjoy

(For you can also add strawberries or any other type of berries or honey if you do then calories may vary)

Calories 191 per wrap

The Struggles are Real: Night Shift

Having a nine to five job and trying to stay healthy can be difficult trust me I say this based on my past experience. When I was between the ages of 20-22 I had an office job and yes I do understand that it can be draining because even though you are not very physically active, stress and a busy day schedule can lead to making not very good food choices. I do understand that at the end of the day all you want to do is go home relax and forget about work for a few hours before you have to get up and it all over again the next day. I look back to those days when I weighed 350lbs and to be honest I am embarrassed at the fact that I had all of this free time before and after work and I still refused to make any healthy choices. I would wake up at 7 in the morning and get ready for work without eating breakfast at home but I wouldn’t completely skip breakfast because on the way to the office I would stop and get myself a monster with a muffin every morning. If I would’ve made a better healthier breakfast at home I would not have gained so much weight and my other meal choices were not any healthier. I realize now that if I would have actually sat down and made a schedule for myself that included healthier food choices and waking up earlier to get at least 30 minutes of working out, my life would have been better. The crazy thing was that the time that I decided to make these changes in my life was when I started a different job where I had less free time in my day. I realized that the only way that I was going to start feeling better about myself was by making a lifestyle and yes it was hard at first because I was not very educated in this health and fitness world but all it took was doing some research to get started. Today I still am learning everyday obviously it is not the same as when I started because my endurance, strength and most importantly my goals have changed, now I feel like my situation is what most people would call odd because I work 12 hour night shifts and well the way I see it my day is backwards and it is does take a bit of work to get it right but it is possible to reach your fitness goals and still hold a job Night or Day.

Here are some tips that I use on how to make it so that you don’t overeat while working night shift or any shift:

1. Make sure your first meal is at a scheduled time for example on my days of work I eat my first meal 5:30pm make sure that is is filling and healthy

2. Make sure you carry a snack with you or make sure it is easily accessible during your shift for whenever you start feeling a bit of hunger. I like carrying around a granola bar from hidden valley it is 180 calories per pack I love them.

3. Make sure that you eat your second meal at the same time everyday or at least within the hour (I like my lunch between 1:30 am and 2:30 am) that way you get your body used to the idea that there will be food coming at a specific time and trust me it is easier to control hunger once you get in a routine.

4. If you are still hungry and don’t go over your calories you can have a snack 11/2 to 2 hours before you shift ends and not right before you go to bed let it settle a bit. I have got to the point to where I just consume the majority of my calories with my meals so they are pretty big but they are healthy choices.

I get seven hours of sleep everyday and I am able to make it to the gym for one hour

• Wake up 3pm

• Brush teeth and do my morning stuff 3-3:30pm

• Meditate and take pre-workout 3:30pm-3:45pm

• Gym 3:45pm-5pm

• Eat 5:30pm

• Get ready and leave for work 6pm

So all it takes is some scheduling and you too are able to achieve your health goals.

At first it seemed like a burden but once I got used to it this became something I did without putting too much thought into it.

Vegetarian Options for my meal prep

The recipes that I included in my last post were my favorite because it met my needs and it was simple to make but I also figured that there are some days that I prefer a Vegetarian option too so when I was trying our diets I came across some recipes that I really enjoyed and are as easy as the ones in my last post.

Here is one very easy option for the anyone trying to start a vegetarian option the trick here is you do need to eat quite a bit more in order to meet your calories. At first i was not eating enough because it seemed like too much food was on my plate and I felt like I was overeating. But I wasn’t and it only looked like too much food because I had a food tracking mindset instead of a calorie tracking mindset once in realized that I needed to track my calories it was so much easier to have vegetarian dishes

I use the Lose It! App to track my calories it is the best weight loss tool I have used. (Just click on the words Lose it! And it will take you to the website i highly recommend it)

The plan for your day is still the same as the one on my last post:

Breakfast

I like some oatmeal for breakfast so I have two packs of the 100 cal of the better oats brand and a banana. Calories: about 310

Snack:

for vegetarian options I like the nature valley granola bars. calories: 190 per pack

Lunch:

The dish includes boiled pinto beans and zucchini

Boiled pinto beans 1 cup lightly salted with pink Himalayan salt Calories: about 324

Zucchini

  • 4lbs of Zucchini
  • 1/2 a cube of Knorr bouillon
  • 1 Roma tomato
  • 1/2 red bell pepper
  • 1/2 orange bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup of cilantro (my favorite herb ever)
  • 1 tbsp of olive oil

1. Chop up the vegetables to the desired size make sure the zucchini is not too small

2. Sauté all of the veggies together until the are all soft and delicious looking lol

3. Enjoy

This should make about 3 servings. Calories: 164 per serving

Dinner:

I like my oatmeal so I only have one pack of the 100 cal oatmeal with either a banana or 1 cup of almond milk.

calories: with banana about 215

Calories: with almond milk 160

Total day calories: between 1148-1203

Depending on what you decide for dinner, and checkout the app it is so easy to use.

My Personal Workout plan

For this post I have decided to post my workout schedule for anyone that would like to try it. This plan has taken me time to put together I came up with it based on everything that I have learned through out my fitness journey. This does not include my Jiu-jitsu classes

It is ok to start light do not try to go heavy this needs to challenge you do not let your ego get the best of you.

The way I do it is that I chose 4-6 workouts from the lists below based on the day

I do 4 sets here is an example of how I model it:

Sets 1-3 reps of 8-10 at a challenging weight but do not max out

The 4th set I max out on weight and only do 1-3 reps

Here are a few examples of workouts that I like.

Push exercises:

  • Bench press
  • Overhead press
  • Dips
  • Pushups
  • Incline Dumbbell press

Pull exercises:

  • Barbell curls
  • Dumbbell curls
  • Long pull
  • Dumbbell Bent over rows
  • Pulldown

Leg exercises:

  • Squats
  • Leg extensions
  • Leg curls
  • Dead lifts
  • Leg press
  • Calf extensions

H.I.I.T exercises:

  • Sprints
    • 1.5min run+1min sprint+1.5min run+1min sprint+1.5min run+1min sprint+1.5 run+1min run total of 10 min
  • Box jumps
  • Jump rope

ENJOY!!!