CAVALIA & Food & New workout review!

Hi Fluffies, 

First things first, new workout review!

Cardio Butt Buster - Fat blasting cardio workout to lose belly fat by Fitness Blender:

I wanted to do something new today so I decided on something that would relate to my legs and butt.. Because BOOTY that's whyyy. This workout is not very hard to do. For me, Fitness blender's workouts have always been quite manageable.. I don't really feel like I am dying and severely out of breath after finishing their workouts. This was no exception, BUT their workouts are definitely effective. Add this to your workout for a little extra bit of cardio and butt work :)

Thanks to my boyfriend, we got to watch Cavalia at MBS today! The show was a great display of the horses and strangely casual and comical in a way. Both my boyfriend and I agreed that we would love to take the derp-iest horse home. I think we could feel the natural obedience from ethical domestication of the horses that we left the show feeling happy. 

My very awkward pose with the tickets because I'm really bad at posing.

Shopping arena selling plush toys horsies for crazy prices. 

Boyfriend posing with the awesome popcorn which we finished before the first quarter of the show haha (no he didn't gain weight, its just camera angle) 

Magical settings galore..

Yesterday, we tried Merely's ice cream for the first time. We ordered a scoop of pandan gula melaka and a scoop of chocolate stout. Ice cream wise, Merely's 1, Creamier 0. Waffle wise, Creamier wins handsdown. 

I really wanted to bake so did some experiments in the kitchen and made some gluten/grain free cupcakes! Since embarking on this journey to better health and weight management, I've realised that cutting out refined carbs and processed foods from daily diet is definitely the way to go. Very often I get asked 'What do you eat then?'. I do eat refined carbs and processed foods nearly everyday. But these constitute approximately 20% to 30% of my daily intake. Sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less. It's definitely hard for me to cut out carbs and sweets because I LOVE DESSERTS. So I try my best to healthify whatever I can while not compromising on getting my 'desserts'

Brownie cupcake and Vanilla cupcake with Strawberry cheese cream 

 These are gluten/grain free, high protein, zero added fat, and TASTY :P But I'm still working on making the vanilla cupcake less moist as it is a little too fudgy to feel like a regular cupcake. Hopefully I will figure out the best healthified cupcake :)

Saturday Cardio & toning and Sunday GYM DAY WITH BOYFRIEND FOR THE FIRST TIME

Hello Fluffies,

Its a week of getting used to new things. For instance, the gym that I've been going to is going to close down soon. I'm gonna start my part time job next weekend which means :( no more gymming on sundays :( no more ice cream sundays :( 

Definitely a lot of planning and scheduling to be done. Oh and my first assignment is due Sept 12th. I think I'm gonna struggle with the 3000 word essay. 

Anyways, I hit the gym with my boyfriend for the first time today! It's leg day for the both of us and we did a few exercises. Not as much as usual but I was sweating ALOT more than usual.. which is quite disgusting coz a bead of my sweat actually dripped onto my boyfriend's lap >.<

What I did:
1. Running with 4 incline:
    1.2km
2. Squats with 15kg weights each side:
    3 sets of 10 reps 
3. Squats with 15kg weights each side with 20kg Barbell:
    3 sets of 8 reps 
4. Hamstring curls with 4kg weight:
    3 sets of 8 reps 
5. Standing kickbacks with 6kg weight:
    3 sets of 10 reps each leg 
6. Standing side swing with 5kg weight:
    2 sets of 10 reps each leg
7. Random punches:
    A few times
8. AB rollers:
    2 failed attempts

That was it for the day. Not alot of work done considering I would usually do dead lifts, walking lunges and quad extensions. But I felt more tired than usual :/

Last night, I went to Crystal jade at Holland Village for the XLB buffet with my friends. It was a buffet, I definitely had to 'prep' and workout before I head out to sin big time. So here's the workout for Saturday's Piggin' Out:

Fitness Blender's 1000 Calorie workout (I DID ONLY DID HIIT PORTION.)

8 minute abs

5 best muffintop melting moves:

Spring fling 1: Toning Workout

Playa Del Plank

Now for the fun bit, here's the food that we had yesterday: 

Gula Melaka Soft serve on Waffles from Sunday Folks

Here's us after Sunday folks because soft serve ain't got nothing on real scooped ice cream

Us at 10pm, feasting our lives away on XLBs...

 

Stacks of XLBs

This was supposed to be dessert after drinks at Wala but everyone was too stuffed so each of us took one home. These cupcakes from Plain Vanilla are awesome. I haven't had a good cupcake in a while!

I had the chocolate banana cupcake and it was dope :>

Handsome boiboiz90

I had the best pocky of my entire life yesterday, courtesy of my boyfriend. If you ever come across Matcha Chocolate pocky please do not let it slip away. Please BUY IT. It's worth the calories honey.

Sunday Gymless butt day & Monday Core day

Hi Fluffies,

On Sunday's I'm supposed to gym to build my butt. The sore throat and flu just wouldn't go away >.< 

However, I did some low impact butt workouts. Here's what I did:

1. Victoria's secret Angel booty:

2. Tracey mallet firm butt workout:

3. 5 Best Butt exercises to lift that booty: 

4. Thigh Trimmer & Butt Lifter:

You might have noticed that I've been trying to incorporate this video into my workouts. I have to say this is probably one of my top favourite videos from blogilates :)

Come monday, Still not that much better. But I did a set of core workouts which aren't too strenuous.. For me at least lol.

1. POP Pilates Body Slimming workout

2. WHOA WHOA!! Whole body Workout:

3. Beautiful Body Pilates workout:

4. The Ultimate Hot body workout:

5. Lean Body sculpt video, exclusive to the blogilates app. It was basically 4 main workout moves, targetting the triceps, glutes, a little bit of thighs and obliques. 

Sunday Gym and Soy Protein

Hey fluffies,

Today's workout wasn't much :/

No cardio today because I felt quite full from breakfast. :/ 

1. Shoulder and arm raises with resistance tubes:

• 3 sets of 15 reps

2. Squats with 10kg weights each side with 10kg barbell:

• 4 sets of 12 reps

A lot less than what I would usually do. This is because today, I chose to concentrate on having a proper form. With the help of a friend at the gym, I managed to achieve a proper neutral form for squatting and to also squat lower. It felt a lot harder than usual.

3. Stiff leg deadlift with 10kg weights each side with 10kg barbell:

• 4 sets of 12 reps

4. Walking lunges with 2.5kg weights each side with 10kg barbell:

• 4 sets of 12 steps

5. Hamstring extensions with 3kg weights each side with 10kg barbell:

• 4 sets of 12 steps

That was it! But I did break out a sweat and am feeling really tired right now. 

During my gym session, I was listening in on my friends' conversation. 2 of them are currently taking classes to train to be fitness instructors while one of them is a certified fitness instructor. The 2 of them were talking about protein powders, especially Casein. However it didn't sound like they really knew what were the stuffs doing for their bodies. I have personally never drank a full serving of protein shake before. The most I had was sip of chocolate whey protein shake from my friend's cup. I wasn't a fan of it and have always been quite a staunch believer in natural whole foods. 

Which brings to mind what Cassey Ho posted recently about protein:

It's still not going to make me take protein powder because I just prefer to chow down on my proteins like eggs, meat, or maybe protein bars? Which I only take once in a blue moon. 

My friend told me that he's been taking Soy protein for over a year now. It got me thinking because I've been trying to cut down on obvious soy products such as soy milk, tofu, etc as much as possible after reading about how soy beans are genetically modified crops with not much advantages to sing about. 

Soy beans are so widely used around the world as it is the key ingredient in much of the processed foods available. In order to ensure a consistant supply of the crop, the beans are genetically modified and laden with chemicals to ensure 'healthy' crop growth. Soy is also one of the riches sources phytoestrogen, a plant based compound similar to estrogen.

Regarding estrogen,
'The estrogenic hormones are uniquely responsible for the growth and development of female sexual characteristics and reproduction in both humans and animals.'

I wouldn't say that this chart's indication of body fat percentage is accurate but it's a good general depiction of the human bodies at different stages of fat accumulation.

Because of this hormone, women carry more fat deposits in their bodies (which is also why women have curves) 
The reason for this difference is that women at some point in their lives may nourish a fetus and then a baby from their own reserves, so women have to stock energy in the form of fat in anticipation of future pregnancies (and must stock even more energy during the last two trimesters of pregnancy).
So logically speaking, consuming too much soy based products would inhibit fat loss because this hormone would bind onto our fats.

When you consume products like unfermented or non-organic soy base products on a regular basis, you are more than likely consuming toxic estrogen in excess. 

In men and premenopausal women, too much estrogen — a condition called estrogen dominance — causes toxic fat gain, water retention, bloating, and a host of other health and wellness issues.

You must be thinking, its hard to avoid it when you are vegan or simply just love tofu and soy milk.

Good news for vegans who aren't so picky, you get to choose from other legumes such as green beans, lentils, etc. If you have to have milk with your cereal, there's almond milk. Trust me, it is a better pairing for cereals.

For the ones who simply love the taste of soy beans, make sure you go for organic soy beans. Nowadays, organic foods are in abundance so it is really not that hard to find. In fact, I get my organic seeds and beans from my neighbourhood supermarket (NTUC Fairprice).

It is really important to know what you eat, what it does to your body and where it comes from. We worry about diseases and sicknesses and how to fix them after getting diagnosed. But if we could just take a step back and look at the causes of our modern day illnesses, we would realise that most of the problems could have been prevented. 

Sundays are BUTT days!

Hi Fluffies!

Today is a Sunday and my Sundays are usually kicked off with a legs and butts session at the gym.

Here's what I did for my gym session today:

1. Squats with 20kg weights each side with 10kg barbell:

• 3 sets of 12 reps

2. Seated squats with 10kg weights each side with 10kg barbell:

• 3 sets of 12 reps

3. Walking Lunges:

• 4 sets of approximately 12 steps

4. Hamstring resistance band workout (unfortunately I am not very sure what is the level of intensity of the resistance band, but we did increase the resistance by coiling it a few times):

• 3 sets of 15reps each side.

5. Leg extensions with 4kg:

• 3 sets of 12 reps

6. Hamstring extensions with 4kg:

• 3 sets of 12 reps

7. Deadlifts with progressive kettlebell weights. 12kg, 16kg, 20kg and 20kg:

• 4 sets of 12 reps

8. Hyperextensions:

• 4 sets of 12 reps

After which, it was picnic time at botanic gardens for the evening with Joyce!

Photo taken by Joyce, very pretty isnt it!

 We were here at the symphony lake for a mini chopin piano concert. Thank god it stopped raining in the noon and the weather wasn't too hot.

I made gluten-free okonomiyaki for the picnic and brought along some lychees and an apple which i ended up bringing home because we couldn't finish our food. Joyce's spinach and cheese sandwiches were really good and I loved her honeyed walnuts and raisins dessert <3

Yum Tums :)

And cute toddlers!

It was a really good catch up and lazing session with my babe haha :)