Kimbo’s First Week: Time to Pay Up!

Not gonna lie – this week was pretty hard to meet my fitness goals due to a little something called…

Tết.

Tết is the annual celebration to welcome the new year in Vietnam. Many people know this as “Lunar New Year” or “Chinese New Year”, but Vietnamese people call it “Tết”.

During this time of the year, you attend a lot of family reunions and eat a LOT of food. There are lots of special dishes prepared just for the New Year, so not eating them would be rude to the chef! I’m currently typing this blog on a full stomach at my grandma’s house. We just finished a huge dinner that included braised pork belly, boiled eggs, and fried rice (oh my!). Maybe I have to learn how to say no… or maybe I just have to wait ‘til Tết is over.

Yeaaaaaah, I need a little more self-control.

On top of eating New Year’s food, I ate out a lot as well. I spent money on fried chicken, bubble tea, iced Chai tea lattes, frozen yogurt, soups, and other quick take-out meals. Ouch. Yes, this is confession time. I must tell you what I ate this week or else I would be living a lie! Most of these items were bought while I was hanging out with friends, so I think I may have to reduce the number of times I go out for dinners.

My not-so-healthy food choices for the week!

Although I met my goal of “exercising at least 3 times per week”, I totally ignored the other half of my goal which was to eat healthy 90% of the time. Therefore, I am going to be the first person to hand in $5 into the pot!

The Key is Prevention

To prevent myself from buying food from the food court or at restaurants, I am going to start buying my own groceries and cooking my own meals. I did that last year and saw a significant improvement in my health as well as my expenses. Tomorrow I will make a trip to the grocery store and stock up on some necessities like oats, spinach, eggs, tuna, lentils, and more!

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This Week’s Exercises

Monday, January 27: Gym
Treadmill (warm up) – 10 min
Squats – 45lbs 8×3
Stiff-legged deadlifts – 45lbs 8×3
Lunges – 35 lbs 8×3 (each leg)
Russian twists (w/ medicine ball) – 1 min x 3
Crunches – 10×3
Elliptical (cool down) – 5 min

Wednesday, January 29: Home
Push-ups 8×3
Tricep dips 10×3
Squats 10×3
Lunges 16×3
Crunches 12×3
Standing Leg Lifts 8×3

Thursday, January 30: Gym
Squats 45 lbs 8×4
Bench presses 35 lbs 8×2.5 (struggled to lift this)
Bent-over rows 35lbs 8×4
Overhead barbell presses 35lbs 8×4
Stiff-legged deadlifts 35lbs 8×4
Barbell curls 35lbs 8×4
Calf raises 8×4

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Conclusion & Take-aways

• Allocating set work out times > Spontaneously visiting the gym
• Sticking to a work out routine is better than doing whatever I “feel like doing” so I will be following a beginner’s work out plan suggested by KS via Bodybuilding.com
• Preparing and packing meals will help you save money and decrease your chances of eating unhealthy meals
• The gym is the place where I swear the most – sorry to anyone who has to work out near me.
• I really like doing squats and deadlifts, but I absolutely despise bench presses. Let’s hope I overcome that!