Laziness is an Addiction

Hello world, it has been QUITE a while since my last update. I’ve been struggling with injuries! A lot has happened and a lot has changed! To be completely honest, it was going so well until it wasn’t.

First off, INJURIES (YAY). I’ve definitely changed up my workout plan. I was doing weekly situps and pushups when I realized that my back was always sore and situps became really uncomfortable.  Having previous back injuries, I talked to some people and decided to stop doing them to prevent new injuries. For pushups, I have decided to do them less frequently then before as I pulled some weird muscle in my arm and couldn’t do them properly.  I have now resorted to doing more jogging/walking in my workouts.

My biggest injury happened at in Week 3. I went snowboarding and took 2 nasty falls. This resulted in me spending an entire week learning how to properly walk again. To give you an idea of what happened, here is a picture of my helmet.

(Notice the large crack). I injured my neck, hip, knee, back and ribs. The following weeks I did a lot of speed walking and jogging.

After the injury I was definitely still going strong and really motivated… until I wasn’t…The past 2 weeks have definitely been a huge challenge. I am openly admitting I let myself down. A combination of exams, papers, startup weekend and laziness contributed.  It also doesn’t help that I had a huge surge of interviews (1-2 a day for almost 2 weeks). The instant removal of exercise really completely changed my habits and I went back to my old lifestyle of being a total couch potato! I now see laziness as an addiction. It’s so hard to quit!

The mid-point takeaway is that once you begin a daily/weekly routine, the removal of it suddenly created a huge change.  Here’s to hoping I continue on the quest of daily fitness!

Total Tally: $15 in the pot. Yikes

A Healthy Weekend – Hike to Petgill Lake and Beyond

At the top of Petgill Lake trail near Squamish

This past Saturday, I joined a few friends and older cousins on a day hike up to Petgill Lake. This trail is up near Squamish, just before the Chief. The hike is about five hours long and quite intense, but it was definitely worth it. The exercise was great, and so was the view at the top! The trail starts out quite steep along a rock wall before entering the main trail leading into the forest. From there, it’s about 2 hours or so to get to Petgill Lake. By the way, this lake was quite disappointing – it was really small, frozen over, and covered in snow! So we kept going and went uphill, all the way to the top (another hour). That’s where the picture above was taken. 

We were getting quite tired along the way, so every time we came across a small frozen over pond, we would joke that we are at Petgill Lake (because that meant it was lunch time). We also carried snowshoes with us because we didn’t know what to expect, but didn’t end up needing them as there was very little snow. We also came across an elaborate logging operation. One of the loggers told us that while the thicker trees could be driven out of the forest via truck, the thinner ones (which were worth over three times more) had to be air-lifted one-by-one via helicopter. You definitely learn something new every day! 🙂 

Hiking is a great full body workout and also good for burning fat. And what better place to go on hikes than right here in Vancouver. There are so many trails, though some are only open in the spring and summer time. Check out a list of trails here. Though hiking is a great workout, it has other benefits too. For me, it was a chance to socialize and catch up with friends and cousins who I don’t get to see much since we’re all very busy with our lives. It was also great to get some fresh air rather than work out in the gym, although it was very cold! 

The Weaklings are hopefully planning a hike on Sat, Feb. 16th. Let us know if you are interested in joining us! 

Running & Avocados – Kalz’s Week 1 Update

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s been almost a week since I started the journey!  It’s been pretty interesting seeing the stats on this thing. I’m new to blogging so it’s pretty cool when we were able to see our blog hit 900 views in like 4 days.

For those of you following the 6 (Manaynay joined! So we are up to 6 now) of us started a group chat and it kind of got out of hand. Lynnja made a rule, no whatsapping after midnight….

Progress update:
I can see why people love running so much. There’s a weird sense of happiness when you are right in the middle of the run (around 15 minutes in).  I definitely look forward to running more than push-up/sit-up days. Lets be honest, I’m only doing push-ups and sit-ups for the vanity portion (so I don’t look like a twig).  Surprisingly I’m not as sore as I thought I would be. I have however, developed a deep hatred of push-ups and sit-ups even though it’s the first week. I also found out that the push-up/sit-up app is for 2 days per week, not the original 3 days like I thought. Fail on my part. I guess for the 6^th day of my workout I will just repeat a previous day of push-up/sit-ups.

Apparently GPS Tracking doesn’t like me.

I tried vlogging. I tried. I get distracted looking at my mouth move that I forget what to say. Anyways, In the spirit of healthy eating, here’s a picture of guacamole that we made today at a friends house!

We cut the ingredients too fine so it was too mushy, would’ve liked it chunkier!

Guacamole Recipe:

3 Avocados (Chopped)
1 Tomato (Chopped)
1 Lemon (Squeeze out the juice)
1 Jalapeño pepper (minced)
Salt
Optional: Garlic + Onions for extra flavour!

Then I got bored and decided to try to grow the avocados! I’ve tried it before but the seed died. Let’s see the results this time.  Apparently it takes 6 weeks to grow roots so I guess I’ll have to be patient. I got the instructions HERE.

Here’s all the really boring stuff no one reads:

Day 1: Sunday Jan 26 – Push-up Day 1, Sit-up Day 1
Day 2: Monday Jan 27– Couch to 5K Day 1
Day 3: Tuesday Jan 28 – Push-up Day 2, Sit-up Day 2
Day 4: Wednesday Jan 29– Couch to 5K Day 2
Day 5: Thursday Jan 30– Rest Day
Day 6: Friday Jan 31– – Couch to 5K Day 3

Planned
Day 7: Saturday Feb 1st: Push-up/Sit-up

Talk to you all next time!

Meet Kalz

HELLO! It’s Kelvin aka KALZ checking in!                                

I thought this project would be an amazing way to get fit and end off my last semester of university! In the past have definitely struggled with keeping a certain level of fitness and I feel like it’s time to make a change. Thanks Lynn for setting this blog up!

A little about my fitness background:

I used to be really healthy and bike/walk for 1-2 hour a day (to and from school) up until the end of high school. After entering university, schoolwork and jobs and extracurricular activities just took over. I tried to keep up by swimming and going to the gym (occasionally), yoga etc. But I can proudly (or sadly?) say that in the last year, I have become a full-blown couch potato. I’m also kind of obsessed with snowboarding.

My Goal: 

My main goal is to work on more cardio and pushing myself to follow a fitness schedule. Hopefully that translates into some muscle mass as well, but that’s not my main goal.

I’m going to take an interesting approach on tracking my progress. I have decided to use the Coach to 5K App to build on my cardio. I have used this app in the past but never finished, I like the interface and I find it pretty easy to use. Hopefully through this I won’t die on the Sun Run like I did last year. The other half of my routine, which I will use, is the 100 push-ups and 200 sit-ups app. The app promises 6 weeks but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be longer. I will alternate between running and doing the push-up/sit-ups because I want to build a regular workout routine. Also the couch to 5k app is only around 30 minutes a day on alternating days. This way I can get more into my workout without killing myself. Hopefully 6 days of fitness a week will kick my butt into shape! (I get 1 cheat day per week)

Anyways, that’s all for now! Hopefully I can get fit and inspire some of you couch potatoes to get off your butts!

Tl;dr: I’m a couch potato that’s going to get fit 

Meet Kimbo!

Hi guys! The name’s Kim.

I decided to join this strange (yet awesome) competition as an incentive to GET FIT.

A couple of years ago, I was pretty overweight and became a victim to “Freshman 15”. The allnighters, midnight snacks, and no-time-to-exercise-because-I-have-to-study-study-study-mindset overtook my life and made me gain unwanted weight!

Around third year, I decided that I didn’t want to live the life of an oompa loompa, so I began running (a lot!). I invested in a pair of comfortable pink Asics and nicely fitting gym strip and began my journey to be healthy. Since then, I lost 20 lbs (130 lbs to 110 lbs) and have taught myself the ins and outs of healthy eating and exercise (still learning!).

My exercise regime went downhill after I left for my exchange to Melbourne (July 2013 ‘til now), so I want to get back into the habit of being healthy again. Something that I have always wanted to do is to confidently wear a bright, pink sports bra at the gym. It’s an odd goal, but I swear it’s every girl’s dream.

The majestic pink bra…

By the end of this competition, I hope to be confident in my own skin and be proud of my body. I am not aiming to get abs of steel (though that would be kind of cool), but I hope to look decent enough to not scare people away when I stroll around the beach in my bikini.

My weekly goal is to get active three times a week (running outside, doing weights at the gym, or dancing in the rain – I’ll update you) and eat freakin’ healthy for 90% of the time. I want to lose my gut, tone my stomach, and be able to squat more than 50 lbs. Oh, and of course rock a pink sports bra!

Feel free to follow me on the road to getting fit. I will need the support!