oongawa!!!

Man it's already thursday! How the week flies by. Yet at the same thing it's amazing how lazy i've been since i got back from LA as there are still some things i haven't unpacked yet! Mom got back from Mexico alright so that's good. Something i forgot to mention in the last few posts was how much fun i had last weekend. Phil, Sannie, Bams, and Dave came back to Vegas with me last Friday. We gambled a lot and we found this new game (well new to us) called X-Treme Hold'em. It's like Texas Hold'em but you play against the dealer rather than each other (so you can only lose your place bets). You get 4 cards (dealer does too) and then you either keep your two best cards or you can put another bet down and play 2 hands. The dealer keeps their 2 best cards and then flops out all 5 cards. If your hand is better than the dealers than you win. You can also put a side (in my opinion sucker) bet that if you get a straight or higher you can win more. But i think you'll lose more than you'll win in that. Sometimes a pair is enough to win it for you. I lost $30 on it but it's fun.

On saturday all of us took over a blackjack table at Sam's Town (where we had gone to eat at the Rachael Ray recommended Firelight Buffet for Brunch and it's good!) and we were able to last for over 1.5 hours and i still won money! But man we were all exhausted from the weekend. Luckily all i had to go do was go home, but the rest of them had to drive back to LA (and it took them 7 hours!)

Todays random exercise thought: Last night was goooooood! Did 45 minutes of stair climbing (really worked up a good sweat), 20 minutes of weights, and an hour of Piyo (combo Pilates and Yoga). The 45 minutes of cardio before the piyo helped since i was already kinda loose so i was able to do the stretches easier. I finished out the workout in the sauna again so i was pretty drenched in sweat when i left. Good workout. So i'm taking tonight off to relax everything (the weights were a short time but i worked them out with heavy weights to give the arms some work). The legs are a bit sore so one night off is good. I'm thinking of going to play more X-treme Hold'em tonight he he.
he he been too lazy to do push ups the last few days so i don't know if that tensing the abs thing helps yet. Maybe tomorrow.

b!

Thoughts for today

Well thankfully it's been uneventful so far today. I'll be going back to LA during my birthday though i'm not exactly sure what my cousin has planned. We were thinking of going to Catalina Island since i've never been there. The other day i got to talk to my buddy Sarah. It was nice to talk to her again since i haven't kept in touch with her too much since i moved from Dallas. Of course we talked about cars as she is more knowledgeable than i am on them since her brother does a lot of mod'ing and used to race them too. Thanks to her (and lack of a better color at the time) i picked silver as my Accord's color. Hopefully the baby will be working ok for the next 10 years or whatever. Had some problems with it on the way back to LA but luckily it was still under warranty (better be! it's not even a year old till next week!).

Todays random exercise thought: Oh yeah that lack of working out caught up with me. The lack of any cardio work became apparent when it felt like my right lung was about to burst when i was doing the ellipse machine. I was able to push myself pretty hard last night so i was happy with that. The calves are a bit sore from the exercise but otherwise i feel fine. Doh! i did gain 3 pounds in LA. I only worked out for about an hour and then hit the sauna room last night. Holy Hell it was full! The steam room is closed for maintenance so i guess everyone was in the sauna. there were like 10 people in there and it was almost 8 pm! Felt like a sardine (packed beside some "healthy" sardines). There are some people (like me) who really need to exercise more before showing a lot of skin in there. The gym was pretty packed last night. Ever notice how the gyms usually start some new promotion around March or so? They know by then people will be losing interest in working out so they make some new challenge or discount to make you keep going (but they don't really care since they'll get your money either way he he).

Well i did 250 squats last night but i was too lazy to do the rest hehe. The quads are a bit sore from that (and the other stuff i did last night) but it's minor and nothing compared to what i felt like a few weeks ago. I'm hoping to get up to full strength by this weekend.

b!

Back in Vegas baby!

Whew it's nice to be home! It's nice to be able to drive home from work in 10 minutes (even during rush hour) and be able to see all the bling of the Strip from the office :)

Man i'm scared to see the scale next time i go to the gym. i'm sure i packed on a few pounds even last weekend. No sleep, lots of bad snacks, and no exercise is not a good combo! I was even too lazy/tired to go to my monday night workout class :(

Todays random exercise thought: I'll put my "5 minute workout" to the test tonight. The pushups have been helping so we'll have to see if i can maintain strength tonight. but since i haven't been doing any cardio i'll probably be suffering there. One thing i've tried to do while doing the pushups is to tense up my abs (they're already kinda tensed up in pushup form) to see if that'll help out the abs or not.

last night i was too busy to do the "exercise while watching tv" routine (well busy and lazy he he). Tonight should be different. I've gotten all the laundry done and vacuumed up the house (that Dyson sucks! in a good way ha ha. i just vacuumed a few weeks ago, and remember i wasn't home for 2 weeks and it picked up a lot last night). So for tonight i think i'll try 500 squats (25 at a time), 200 push ups (25 at a time) and i'll try to be creative on what else to do. He he let's see if i can do it (this is gonna be after i go to the gym so i might have to cut back on the pushups). I'm gonna start drinking monster energy drink (obscene sized at 16 oz so i'll probably be shaking after i drink it) in the afternoon to give me a boost before working out. i'll have to see how that works out.

I'm like in LA

Man! it's been almost a week here. No working out, too much working and way too much driving (well riding in a car while my cousin drives he he).

Whew been getting fat since i've been here too! As of today i've net gained 3 pounds (i had been at 5 but levels dropping... urge to kill rising... dropping..... rising! (it's from the simpsons "The Shinning" epsiode and yes it's spelled Shinning). Man all this eating and no working out isn't good. I've been doing my 5 minute work out (and haven't been sore despite not having done any pushups lately and not working out in over a week now).

Just finished watching 24. Interesting stuff. but it'll be better to watch it all on the dvd later.

Mom is off to Mexico tomorrow. Man i hope she doesn't get kidnapped or something. The only time i've been to Mexico is by cruise boat (and i didn't spend more than 2 hours on land) .

Man LA just isn't the "promised land" that so many people see it as when you're working the whole time you're here. I haven't had time to see or talk to any of my friends so i guess i'll have a few people mad at me (he he sorry Jennie). But i guess any city is like that. It's one thing to visit and vacation in a city and quite another to be working in that city (especially the LA traffic uuuugh). If i flew into LAX at rush hour, it'd take longer for someone to pick me up even from Downtown (even if i was only flying in from Vegas). LAX= nightmare airport (do your friends a favor and fly into Burbank, Long Beach or John Wayne).

Todays random exercise thought: Well i'll do the 5 minute workout this week and see if i weight the same as when i got here by the end of the week (just in time to go home and eat more buffets ha ha). Man i saw the craziest thing in the lastest issue of Forbes yesterday. "The Homeless Maker" exercise machine. It's called the ROM machine. It's supposed to be able to do a full body workout in 4 minutes. i'm not skeptical but if i had that much money to blow, i'd pay off almost all of my car with the payment of this baby! If someone has one i'd be interested in trying it out.

I'll have to read up more on the ROM before i can make a good judgement but it would be foolish to be scared away on price alone (though that's a big factor!!)

Next week i'll have to start working out with a vengeance. I've been hungrier since i got here (must be because i'm moving more and doing more at the office here). I'll probably incorporate more running into my workout next week so i'll update on how well that'll work next week.

b!

I'm like going to LA

But i'm not going to the Province (better known as the Valley to the non Pinoys). I'm gonna be in the OC area. Tomorrow i'm Leaving Las Vegas (it's a song and an Oscar winning movie!) to help out in the LA office for a week or so. So bring on the smog, traffic and um more traffic. Ahh man that's one thing i don't miss about LA. Even bad traffic here doesn't compare to LA. It'll be a mini family reunion since mom will be in LA and Richo will be there till Tuesday night.

Man these allergies are sucking! i'm congested still and my eyes are still watery and puffy. Glad i have those Puff's Plus kleenex's (yes i know that's basically two brands listed) otherwise my nose would be raw. Even some Claretin i bought yesterday hasn't been super effective (it worked yesterday but hasn't been too good today). I felt fine till i walked out of the house this morning.

Todays random exercise thought: I'll be putting my 5 minute workout to the test this week and next week since time will be a lot more limited. But i won't mind taking it easy for a few days. Over the weekend i (both involuntarily and somewhat voluntarily) didn't eat a whole lot and was exercising like crazy! Man i was at the gym on saturday night at like 11 pm and there were still like 5 people in the sauna! what's up with that? i was doing a lot of cardio work on friday and saturday (the right knee was a bit sore while running so that kinda disappointed me so i had to lay off that). But did alot of elliptical work and some biking and stair climber. Sunday i was trying to do weights but almost killed myself at one point when i was picking up 130 lbs (two 65lb barbells) and almost dropped one on myself when my right arm ran out of strength (that lack of eating was catching up to me). Next weekend i'll be working Mark out some at the gym he he. We'll have to see if we can cram in a X-Press class at the gym or not.

So for this week i think i'll be concentrating on doing some of the abs exercises i've learned in my Piyo class, the squats, push ups, and the "wall chair" workout. That should keep me ok till the weekend.

b!

It's Friday!

Well it's finally friday. Been messed up this week due to the high amount of pollen in the air (really irritating my allergies). So that's been messing up my sleep patterns too. I didn't think there'd be so much pollen in the air in the desert. I've never seen so much in any of the other places i've lived in. The dust is so plentiful that i've actually had a film of it on my car every morning this week!

Dude that Star Wars trailer looks AWESOME! Can't wait to go watch that in only like 2 months! Then the circle will be complete and i will be the master ha ha.

Today's random exercise thought: Man i was sore till yesterday from doing all those freaking squats on monday! I only worked out 2 times this week. The Piyo class from Wednesday really helped to squeeze the lactic acids out but i was still sore yesterday. Felt like crap yesterday too due to the allgeries so i just stayed home :). Gonna work out tonight though! He he maybe i'll do the 250 squats again and then not work out for 4 days again. i think i'll mix it up with some weights and some cardio stuff. When i'm in LA it'll be tough to keep the workouts consistant since i won't know what time i'm getting home and i haven't been to the gyms there yet. I'll try to manage :)

Lot's of great exercises HERE
I'm gonna have to try some of these myself

oongawa!!!

Well not much to talk about today so i'll just jump straight to the exercise stuff

Today's random exercise thought: Ouuuuch! man i am sore! the SET class from yesterday was tiring (i don't care what lifting/aerobic workout you do for an hour, it'll tire you out especially if you don't take a break the whole time!). But actually the main reason why i'm hurting is the squats i mentioned yesterday. A variation i've started doing recently is to do some sort of exercise while watching tv. In this instance i'll do 25 squats every two minutes. I did 10 sets over roughly 20 minutes or so. Doesn't seem like much but when your body is kinda spent from the earlier workout it can tire you a bit (especially with my out of shape ass). But man this morning OUCH! My quads are sore and my hip flexors too. It's a good sore though. Not like that really sore when you go running after 2 months of not running. It's a "good hurt" as they say. he he.

Other "tv exercises" i do is to do push ups or sit ups during commercials. Good time management huh? One tough one is doing the "wall chair" exercise. Lean against the wall and bend your knees like you're sitting down. That's it! Now see how long you can hold it.

Hmmm there are still some New Years Resolution stragglers left at the gym (maybe because it was monday). A tell tale sign (life i said before) are people who are hanging onto the treadmill for dear life (even at low speeds) and a line at the A-Bench sit up machine. We'll see how it is tonight.

b!

oongawa!!!

Well back to work. Man that weekend went fast. But i went to Disneyland. Mental note to tell my aunt, start filing lawsuits against Disney! Man at night they don't turn on any lights in that freaking park! I'm surprised i didn't fall down or trip 5 or 6 times! My new pic (taken by Dada) was taken in front (of a surprisingly small looking) enchanted castle at Disneyland. We'll go to California Adventure next week!

Man i ate a lot this weekend. Ribs mmmmmmm. Go to Lucille's BBQ! You won't regret it (except for the freaking 1.5 hour wait to get in!) Thanks for introducing that place to us Bams! Best of all, i found out they opened a branch here in Vegas (well Henderson but close enough) so i might need to take a few trips to the Green Valley Resort soon! hehe.

So now it's back to the hard work outs again (though since i'll be in LA next week it'll be tough to keep up my workouts). So on to the recommendations

Today's random exercise thought: Well it's Monday so it's my SET class at 24 Hour fitness. It stands for Strength Endurance Training. Basically it's an hour of weights (working our almost all of the body) with no breaks in between (so that helps with the cardio). This is 24 Hour's description:

Take power sculpt to the next level! You will love this workout. Multiple strength & toning techniques using barbells, hand weights and jammin' music.

Since Monday Night Football ended the class is a bit more full.
For those of you with "no time" to work out, there is a fairly quick and effective workout you can do in about 5 minutes that will really work you out. The first is to do about 25-50 squats (no weights just squat down and go back up). Like this: http://www.chinastrategies.com/squats%20clr.jpg

Do 25-50 of those and you'll be feeling it. This exercise will really work your quads and lungs out (it's a good exercise i like to do when i get congested, it always clears my nose). Then do about 100 push ups (obviously you might not be able to do all 100 in a row, but the important thing is to never get out of the push up form even if you have to stop and rest). Usually Phil and i do 50, take a breather (but staying in push up form and not letting our knees touch the ground) and then do 5 sets of 10 and take a break between each set.

These 2 exercises will work a good portion of your body out (when you try it the second day you'll realize what it worked out when your body is sore he he) and is good to do when you're limited on time, especially the squats since they really help with lung endurance and quad strength (i could tell the difference when i running since my running uphill was easier).

b!

Thoughts for today

oongawa!

Today's random thoughts. I'm sleepy! And contrary to what Bambi put in her comments i'm supposed to be sleeping in that Friendster pic, not taking a dump! I guess i'll take a pic of me taking a dump next time ha ha.

If the weather cooperates this weekend i'll be doing what every Super Bowl MVP (except for this year) says. "I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!"

If it does rain, then i'm going to bed and sleeping all weekend! he he.

Today's random website: http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com
Is this dude right? Is he whacked? is he both? Well much like a Jerry Springer episode, who cares, it's entertaining.

Today's random exercise thought: It's March! All the damn New Years resolution people have stopped going so i finally get my gym back in peace now. You could always tell the types (i've gone to 4 different gyms over 10 years and see it every year). 2nd week of January TONS of people i've never seen at the gym before. Some are on the treadmill (clinging to that thing for dear life even though they're only going 3 or 4 mph) but most are on the elliptical machines (they look like this: http://gymratz.co.uk/discount-cardio-fitness-equipment/usrimage/ctg1.jpg if you haven't seen one). Translation: They want to try to get in shape but don't want to try too hard he he. But the elliptical machines are good (i use them since they are less stressful on the knees and if you go fast it'll work your cardio out). Anyways, by the end of January, the herd starts to thin a bit as it's too hard for people to work out. Usually by around Mid Feb, it's almost all the regulars only. But this year they stayed longer. Now that the parents are gone it's time to jump back into my 5 day a week routine (as soon as i get back from LA he he).

b!

oongawa!!!

That title from an old Far Side cartoon. Tarzan put that as his only entry in his diary everyday.

Well mom is on her way to KC now to probably freeze as it's cold there (for her).

Ahhhh man i finally get the house back to myself! It's been one big whirlwind since i got back from the Philippines 2 months ago. Now i can just around in my underwear and watch the Apprentice tonight.