Inspiration & Motivation: Something GREAT is brewing..

Very recently, I met up with Jasmine (@jasminedanker if you are not following her on IG yet), it came across to me like a calling when I had to download kik messenger just for her to retrieve my contact details. In the very same week (last week), I met her for the first time. She shared her dreams and passion with me, she told me what she had been wanting to do and could not find the right person to do with, so she decided to contact me.

We met up as soon as we could last week and had a great workout together (though she's much stronger and fitter than I am), we share a lot of similarities. We have the exact same weight, height, BFP, played netball when we were younger, both Roman Catholics, both mixed blood. Well, the major difference is that she studied sports science and had been in the fitness industry for 5 years, coaching, studying and training (and besides the fact that I'm married she's not yet). We clicked right away and started planning our execution plan.

We have great plans and I believe God brought us together for a reason; a mission to help people who needs help, who needs an extra motivation to stay healthy and fit. Our ideas are all over the place now but we will be revealing very soon, once we get everything organized and ready to go public!

Here are some sneaks! Our logo: Why Hapa fitness (@Hapa_fitness)? Stay tuned! :)

Some of the happenings over last week, celebrated Nic's birthday in advance last Friday too! Great Karaoke with the gang, they sing so well! Been awhile since we had such epic sessions, oh yes and that cake at 11.30pm ZOMG.

Happy Birthday Nic!

Some of my meals.

Met Jasmine to gym on Saturday at Gymm Boxx, really helps when there is somebody to spot, correct my form and constantly goes "RELAX YOUR NECK LIMARAN!" (LOL, reason why I have stiff neck ALL the time). We wore pink to train that day, so we remembered to take photos and hashtag #operationpink to do our part for Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation!

Jasmine paid a boy for this photo HAHA

Cooked when we got home and spent a quiet Saturday with baby. Here's our very own chili beef with tortilla chips! YUMMMMSS!

I will be eating all I want (okay not exactly ALL I WANT BUT..) for 4 days (since yesterday) and starting a new diet (which I'll be sharing soon) on November 1st, together with Jasmine. BECAUSE I have completed 10 weeks (11 to be exact, not counting week 0) of Intermittent fasting! Halfway through the diet I thought this didn't suit me, but I wanted to hang in there and complete the 10 weeks so here is the final look (LOL pls don't judge me!).

I started with this OKAY?! HAHA.

Have a great week ahead everyone! Remember to catch us (Jasmine and I) live with regular updates on our IG (@limaranagustina and @jasminedanker) and our new IG account for Hapa Fitness @hapa_fitness! Till the next!

Health & Fitness - Arms Training

I usually do not train my arms on its own, I couple my arms training with deadlifts and sometimes I skip doing arms and ended up doing abs, or I'd go very easy on the arms training. Truth is, you are actually working on your arms during other body part trainings, particularly your biceps as they are needed in most workouts. Having said that, I know many ladies out there are very concerned about getting rid of their "bye-bye" arms and had requests to advise on the arms training that we do so here goes, some of the arms workouts that we do.

We need to work on both biceps and triceps so there will be no imbalance of strength on either muscle group. It doesn't really matter which you start with, as long you try your best to cover both muscles during your arms training, it should suffice.

I will usually start with triceps as my triceps are weaker. What Jason is doing in the video: Triceps rope pushdown.

Dumbbell overhead Triceps extensions (P.S: Apologies, I do not have a video or photo of us doing the other triceps workouts).

You can also try dips as well as bench dips.

Dips

Bench dips

Next to biceps, bicep curls and hammer curls, that simple!

Dumbbell bicep curls

Dumbbell Hammer curls

Hammer curls using Tricep bar/Hammer curl bar

Take your pick, and enjoy the videos! So sorry but I could not upsize the videos. We had the honour to attend Julien Fournie for Love, Bonito show last Saturday at FIDE Fashion Week. Thank you so much Love, Bonito for the invitation! It was such an amazing experience as we had never attended any fashion event, let alone fashion show. The Julien Fournie for Love, Bonito show marks the end of FIDE Fashion Week and was a perfect finale!

My outfit for the night

Have a great week ahead everyone!!

Health & Fitness - My progress so far

It's been a long journey from week 0 since I started IF (Intermittent Fasting). Here's a quick recap, basically IF (also commonly known as Intermittent feeding) is a pattern of eating that alternates fasting and non-fasting. So basically, you eat for 6-8 hours (8-9 hours in my case), and then you fast for the remaining 15-16 hours, which includes sleeping time. Some of the IF practitioners will do a complete fasting, drinking just water; some just water, black coffee and black tea. As for me, I take in anything liquid; in other words, I fast from solid foods during my fasting hours, simply because I want to avoid putting my body into catabolic state (muscle breakdown state) and I HATE the feeling of starvation. I will tremble and feel faint when starvation kicks in, which is so frustrating and unhealthy.

During the first few weeks, I made my body go through stricter fasting. By the 8th hour sharply, I stopped all solid food. I only drink juices and water, avoided coffee and tea. Honestly, by about 9pm every night I would start to tremble and feel faint. I endured for about 5-6 weeks, I worked out harder, increased my training frequency and rested very little as I was training 7 days a week, some days twice a day. I was literally pushing my body to its limits. VERY BAD!

On week 6, I finally took a day off from training and on one particular day, I took an 11 hours sleep which made me feel so good after. I see gains in my trainings during that week and I never felt so refreshed since I started IF. Unfortunately, ever sine week 6, because I was more lenient with myself, I went a little overboard and let myself have more than what I should.

Enough talking (writing), I'll let the photos prove whether I made any progress.

Week 0

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5 

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Unfortunately, I did not see much progress (LOL)! But you cannot just judge from my abs right? Generally I feel younger (my ability to resist and handle stress improves), I snack less and I feel stronger during training (managed a few new PRs during this 9 weeks). I have evidence to show that I not only feel younger but am really younger now (my body age I meant), and I've gotten people who meet me for the first time saying I look like a 21-22 years old (HURHUR). The most exaggerated comment was from this lady in SK gym, who asked if I'm a JC kid (Jason said it should feel more like an insult. HAHA). I took my body analysis from a scale that Nic bought and my body age is actually 20! WOOOOTS I get to celebrate SWEET 21 again next year!!

Okay, so I have 1.5 weeks more to go on IF and then I'll be practicing IF on alternate days and maybe try some other forms of diet (fret not, I'll definitely share!)

Here's what I've been up to:

We have been gym-hopping the past few weeks! 

Gymm Boxx XL with the Js

Edric is back! Stronger than ever!

Us at The Gym Nation!

OOTD with love bonito's Atherley top and a casual maxi skirt from allyfashion, with my long-forgotten toms!

Another old top from love bonito, really love the back!

I have been preparing for something exciting this weekend so stay tuned and follow me on Instagram, @limaranagustina if you haven't, because I will be updating real-time! Thank you for the support everybody and have a great Thursday ahead! :)

Health & Nutrition - Supplements

I did not start taking supplements the same time as I started working out and used to dread taking many pills and disliked the nagging Jason did when he told me I should start taking supplements few years ago. It was only in end 2011 that I started taking supplements, after a bout of fungal infections. The first supplement I took was of course protein shakes, and the first supplement tablets I started taking was probiotics. So today, I'll be going into details of what each supplement is essential for. It'll be a long post so hang in there! :)

As you can see, I have bought most of my supplements from vitacost.com (explains some of the house brands that I have), will be trying iherb.com for my next order! Please note that I'll be touching on the brief benefits of each supplement (why I chose to take them) as it'll have to go on in pages if I were to explain everything. Go on and google more about them if you are interested to get any of the supplements that I'm taking. 

1. Folic acid - As some of you may know, folic acid is taken before and during pregnancy for women to prevent birth defects on the baby, so, yea that was the main reason why I started taking  them. HUR. However, it also keeps our hearts healthy and brains young!
2. Probiotics - These are also known as 'good bacteria' that can be found in yogurt and this is the only supplement I cannot live without. It helps improve your immune system and brain function, helps lower cholesterol levels and improve stomach health, and it treats allergies.
3. CoQ-10 - Improves heart health and acts as an anti-oxidant for your body.
4. Milk Thistle - Helps protect my liver from liver diseases
5. BCAA - Short for Branched Chain Amino Acids, to prevent muscle catabolism (muscle breakdown) especially important during my current Intermittent Fasting stint.
6. Multi-vitamins - To get a little more vitamins, minerals and nutrients than what I get from my daily food intake.
7. Calcium - Okay, the main reason why I'm forcing myself to eat these 3 calcium pills everyday is the fear of teeth and hair falling during and after pregnancy, since I don't drink milk everyday. On top of that, calcium better improves the absorbency of the other supplements that I take daily.
8. Fish oil - Very important staple if you are working out and bodybuilding. Fish oil reduces signs of aging, improves fat-burning and MOST IMPORTANTLY, preserves lean muscles and improve bone health.

Now that you know what I'm taking, I guess you should also know what I'm lacking. HAHA. Feel free to comment, email me if you think I'm lacking anything, or am taking too much of something? I'm very open to suggestions as well! I hope this post helps in clarifying some of your doubts and questions on what kind of supplements you decide to take.

Some updates from last week and yesterday..

Sunday OOTD before mass

My current back with WIIINGS!

May 2013 V.S Week 7 of IF

Team Axis was at Elias Park Primary yesterday and today, for the HPB program me "Be Smart, Don't Start"!

We homecooked last night, was craving salmon!

Yellow and green peppers with white fish!

That's all for today and have a fantastic week ahead everyone! Till thennnn!

Health & Fitness: Legs workouts

Sorry for the hiatus everyone! I'm back with a quick introduction to some of my favorite legs workouts. I love legs day I can just do legs all day everyday (I kid, again)! But nevertheless, I like to work on my legs because I feel a lot more pump when I work them legs as compared to the other parts of my body, probably because I started working solely on my legs when I kickstarted my fitness journey. My goal then, was to down my usual bottom size of a small uk 10 to a regular or small uk 8. AND I did it, I can even fit into some uk 6 now (Okay for bottoms with bigger cutting). I did this within (if I'm not wrong, 4-6 months). I whacked my legs hard with my mediocre knowledge of weights training. I could go to the gym every just doing legs but I loved it, that's why I have weak and puny upper body.

Those who know me well enough, I dislike my heavy bottom and curves and really envy those who have a more masculine, mesomorph physique to start working out with. I tried very hard to try to straighten the curves that I have, and I'm still trying. So, how did I manage to downsize my huge bum and hips? I did a particular workout over and over again, everyday to downsize to a uk 8!

The winner is... LUNGES!!! When I had the chance to gym, I'd do lunges, over anything else and it worked! Lunges is a good training for your stabilising muscles too! Start doing lunges if you haven't!

The fundamentals of my legs training always starts with a strength-based back squats or front squats. The back squat targets your entire legs; quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. 

Whereas the front squat targets your quadriceps and requires a lot more core control

Of course, when you are more advanced, adventurous and into cross fit, you can attempt the overhead squats. Overhead squat, similar to front squat, targets your quadriceps and core but with good stabilising muscles and strong triceps, shoulders and back. So basically, entire body. That's the reason why I'm only doing an empty bar. HURHUR.

Then, there is wide-stanced squats, which target your adductor muscles (inner thighs) and glutes. You want a tighter 'upper' butt, this is one good workout you can do to tighten the 'upper' butt. Always remember to keep your knees out though. Also beware, the after-feeling of doing wide-stances squats can be rather uncomfortable. HEH.

The calf raise, is very often neglected and forgotten but ladies especially, should do to strengthen the calf muscles so it prevents injuries wearing heels! 

Lastly, I usually do wallballs after I finish what I planned to do, and add wallballs into a circuit or met con. It requires deltoids (shoulders) and legs, simpler version of a thruster to me, what with the similar hip thrusts and straightening of arms for the deltoids. You can do this for fun and increase the weight of your medicine ball for more challenge.

So, I have shared my secrets with you guys! Now go ahead and make it work! You wanna get perky butt and toned legs, you have to work hard on them legs. Moreover, our legs are the biggest muscle group in our body so by training legs and back (another large muscle group), you are releasing growth hormones and testosterone more than the other body parts, thus burning more fats!

Have fun with your legs training and happy midweek everyone! (=