Tag Archives: working out

058

Hey guys. Anyone watched and enjoyed the Super Bowl? I enjoyed the game and surprisingly enjoyed the halftime show (that’s is normally really weird, and Coldplay didn’t even have to play Yellow to please me). Oddly I do like Coldplay’s new single Adventure of a Lifetime but the video guys, I just can’t. Is it just me, but is Coldplay SOO positive and upbeat that it makes you go crazy? I personally like my music to be angsty and full of deep political messages… okay not all my music. I mean I do love me some Stupid Hoe. But I guess I am getting off topic.

So much has happened this week and I kind-of fell behind on various posts that I wanted to put up this week. Oh well. But I do have a few links to share this week. I hope everyone enjoys it.

judge-john-hodgman-square-mustache_154

Judge John Hodgman Episode 245: Live at SF Sketchfest 2016

This is one of the funniest episodes of Judge John Jodgeman I’ve heard. It starts with a big bang with a case of a wife asking her husband to get his water collection methods under control. It is full of kombucha and fart jokes. What is there not to love?

image

Why Women In China Are Obsessed With This Workout Trend

This is kind-of just a fluff piece, but it is nice to see changing attitudes in fitness in Asia. I love Asian culture and you might notice most women are stick thin compared to some of the Western female counterparts. Getting shape in some Asian countries involve pretty much starving yourself. Nope, not sugar coating it either. So hearing that some women are opting to go to the gym and focus on strength is probably a good thing, even if most of these ladies are trying to loose weight in the end.

ariell-johnson-portrait

How This Black Woman Made Room for Herself in The World of Comics

I’ve heard some things about this coffee shop in other news articles, but I find this really cool. There are so many things I am digging about this location, the diversity, females, and this cool new movement in Philadelphia of pairing a coffee shop with another store idea. There is this location and cinemug, that is a video rental and coffee shop. Maybe Alexa and I will stop here tomorrow?

Dinner-tray-from-above-1024x768

The End of the Calorie

I’ve listened to GastroPod before, and they provide awesome podcasts about science and food. This one tackles the topic of calories. It is fun to hear about what they are, and the pitfalls of calorie counting. Some information I knew about in the past, but others were fairly new to me. It is great listen for anyone who has struggled with dieting, or want some more scientific backup about why counting calories is a load of shit.

gallery-1432853117-pre-breakfast

My LA Food Diary

My sister emailed me this wonderful article about daily meal plan of the owner of Moon Juice. Oh boy was that article a load of shit. You know, the kind of crap that makes you remember why people don’t want to try my maca milkshake. The whole article is pretty much a promo for overpriced sprouted rice protein powder from the company, so there’s been a lot of articles bashing it. This one is clearly the best one.


 001

Sorry guys that I have been a little absent lately. These past two weeks haven’t been fun. My fridge died, which resulted in porting my freezer contents over to my sister’s house, borrowing a mini-fridge and salvaging my food. I don’t think all of the food survived, so I got some food poisoning. Ugg… In short my digestion tract is shot, and food is pretty much on the bottom of list of things I want to talk about.

I am not a huge fan of weekly posts like “Friday Favorites” or the like, but I am really getting into the idea of Weekend posts that feature articles. I am finding that Weekend Reading is my favorite thing to read over on Choosing Raw. So I figure I would give it a try.

So every Sunday, I will post whatever I find really interesting that week. It might be a new article, a recipe, video clip, or blog post. And since I’ve been so sick, my first post features nothing about food. Good right?

Continue reading


werkitcat

One thing I hear often from people when I mention exercise is that they aren’t the “work out” type. But let me say that I don’t think anyone is really the “work out” type.

I certainly wasn’t. My husband was shocked when I told him that I was the laziest person in my house growing up. My sisters were on different athletic teams, and pretty passionate about it. They might not have been the best at their respective sports, but they poured a lot of time and energy into it. I, on the other hand, was a big bum. Most of my hobbies involved sitting: sewing, embroidery, web design, jpop, movies, etc. I did one year of swim team, because my Mom expressed concern for my health. However, I quit soon after, and the next closest thing I got to exercise was marching band. Otherwise I lived a sedentary lifestyle. I was quite a pudgy girl who would eat a whole box of macaroni and cheese for lunch.

That said, I was good at walking. I went to college in Philadelphia and walked everywhere. I had the reversal freshmen fifteen, losing 15 to 20 pounds. I walked up several flights of stairs everyday (How many people actually walk up 15 flights of stairs to go to class on time?) I wasn’t necessarily trying to better my body, just doing what I felt had to be done. There were several elevators, but only 2 of them worked. If there was a line out the door for the elevator, I had to use the stairs (my classes were usually on the top floors). If I wanted to see a movie sometimes that just meant walking 2 miles to the closest theater (because taxis are dangerous* and expensive).

I didn’t start “working out” until I graduated and went back to the suburban world. I noticed I was gaining weight and felt restless. I figured it was probably because I stopped walking everywhere. Instead of walking 15 minute to a grocery store and carrying all of my groceries by hand on the way back, I hopped in my car and drove 15 minutes to the grocery store. To counter this, I started using Wii Active. This was the first time I made the conscious decision actively to work up a sweat for the sake of health.

I didn’t necessarily enjoy it.

Nope, I don’t think I really start to love the sweat until two years ago. I forced myself to workout and slowly started to see benefits. I found that I had more energy, could breathe easier, and had a toned body. The more I kept going, the more I noticed things I liked. It was a great way to relieve stress, which was a life saver for my wedding. The better I felt after working out, the more I ramped up the workouts.

If I had told myself 8 years earlier that I would be training to run a half marathon I would laugh. I would simply think my body wasn’t cut out for it. I would have just assumed that people are split into 2 types: those who are naturally athletic and those who are not. I was made for crafts, cooking, and reading, not running.

Not to say that people are lazy, but starting is the hardest part.  Just think of Newton’s laws of motion. An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an external force. By nature our bodies want to rest and conserve energy. But your mind can be that external force. Give yourself that kinetic push. We’re all capable of it. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes. In the end, you’ll thank yourself.

* Note taxis are mostly dangerous because of, you know, hitting people. Heck, I’ve been hit by a taxi. And by hit I mean lightly tapped. I don’t want to be in a taxi when it hits someone else.