Weightloss Journey: 808 Happy and Healthy

I do not always update my blog, but I did make a fan page about my weight loss journey and tips on being happy and healthy. 

http://808happyandhealthy.blogspot.com

https://www.facebook.com/808happyandhealthy

http://www.instagram.com/808happyandhealthy

Great Aloha Run 2014

This is my 2nd time doing the Great Aloha Run (GAR).  First time was 2013 (read more here).  I tried to do a running schedule to run at least 3x a week, but being a new mom, working night shif is tough. At least I tried!!!

How does a mommy balance it all?

How do you balance taking care of a baby, cleaning, cooking, working and above all save money?  I work part-time so I work 3-4 days which mean I get 3-4 days off.  My days off goes by so fast.  I need to figure out how you mommies do it.

Looking back at my grandma and mommy, it is definitely hard to balance it all.  My mom worked 3 jobs one point of her life to put my sister and I in preschool.  My mom would work full time her day job, part time evening shift and on the weekend.  My mom or dad would drop us off to school.  After school we went to after school program then my mom would pick us up and drop us off at my grandparent's house so she could go to her evening job.  I spent a lot of time at my grandparent's house with my cousins.  I was lucky to have a great grandma who cooked a home cook Filipino meal every night.  My dad would then pick us up from our grandparent's house to go home.  On the weekend when my mom was not working her full time job she spent it doing laundry, cleaning.  If she cook it was a big pot that could last a couple days.  As children, my sister and I had to help do chores around the house since our parents were so busy.  We were good kids...

Me and my sister were talking about how this and I am trying to figure out solutions to making life easier.

1.  Cleaning schedule.  On my days off instead of spending all day cleaning I will break up tasks during the week so that I am still able to go out and hang out.

Everyday:

Clean Bottle and dishes

Wipe down kitchen and table surfaces

Sweep kitchen and carpet

Days off

Day 1: Laundry and bathroom 

Day 2: vacuum, mop, dust, doors and light switch

*Once a month 

Clean out fridge

Sanitize Trash can

Organize mail and receipts 

Ac and dryer vents 

*Once a year clean

January: Organize personal files

organize cabinets, drawers, closets

Fans 

Blinds and Curtains 

Light fixtures 

Stains off Carpet 

hard to reach 

Appliances

Windows and outdoor

Garage 

Toss expired medicine and foods

December: Donate clothes 

2. Budgeting.  The hardest thing to do, but since I got a new car and after my tax return is done I can pay off some bills and figure out how to free up some unnecessary spending.

3.  Meal planning, freezer and slow cooker meals.

4.  Continue to work out... haha hope I can.

Lets do it again, the GAR

So I signed up for the Great Aloha Run.  I'm a little nervous since I'm a new mom and wondering how I will schedule runs/exercise, chores, breastfeeding, pumping and now work.  It has been a challenge trying to juggle the new life changes.

My goals for this GAR
1. run in the morning before my BF goes to work and while my sister is here babysitting baby
2. walk daily with dogs and baby or with my sister and the babies
3. when not walking try to do exercise video, Jillian Micheal's 30 day shed

Before I gave birth, I weight about 185 pounds.  I am now 166-169 pounds.  I need a little push, so hopefully I can get down to my pre-pregnancy weight of 159-164.

Completed my first Great Aloha Run

I'm so proud of myself for doing the Great Aloha Run (GAR). It was always a dream of mines to do this, but I never came around to sign up. I thought I would never be able to run it, but I did. I'm so happy I pushed myself to do this!!! It was great exercise and it supports charity. I decided to do this for my cancer patients and my cousin Lisa so I wore my F💀ck Cancer shirt proudly.

I pick up running since July, but actively trained for the GAR in January. I use to hate running, but it helped jump start my weight loss. I was 169 lbs during the holidays and I was able to lose the holiday weight. I am now 162 lbs.

This run was 8 miles. At first I can run about 4 miles pretty good, but more than 5 I seem to lose power and energy and just walk. I had to go longer distances for the run so In the last 2 weeks before the run I tried to pick up my distance. I feel very. accomplish that I was able to at least walk run 8 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes. I figure if I did the GAR in 2 hours 30 minutes I would be happy.

During the run I pushed myself and was able to jog up to 6 miles. I slowed down to tie my shoe laces. I slow jog and speed walk up to 7 miles mark and jogged in till the finish. I felt like I had to pee so I held back on drinking water. I was shock when my official race score said I completed the run in 2 hours 9 minutes. I wondered if I did not stop and just jogged would I be faster?

My 14 mile hike I did in July was definitely inspiring and pushed me to do this race, train for it and finish it. Come on if i hiked over the Koolau I can do anything ;). I'm definitely happy I did this and look forward to do more races and the GAR again!!!

I'm sexy and I know it

Starting operation sexy with my sister and friend Cherish.

$100 in the pot.

Winner will get the pot if they lose 5% or more of their weight and measurements and maintain it into the holidays.

Monthly checkin on the 1st.

Challenge ends on 01/01/2014

Starting stats:
Weight is 166 lb
Arms 13in
Chest 37in
Waist 33in
Hips 37in
Leg 21in

Goals:
Lose 5% or more weight loss
8.3 lbs so 157.7 or more
Fit into size 9 or less
Tone arms

Great Aloha Run

So last year I started to pick up running. I used RunKeeper app on my iPhone to log some of my walks, runs, hikes. I was running and doing the Julian Micheal's workout pretty consistently until I moved into my townhouse. The running and working out pretty much stop.

I spent most of my days fixing up my house. I also went back to school for my master which took up a lot of my time. I thought I was going to do bad, but I did good. I got an A for my first class. School and work took a lot out of me. I dropped my hours at work finally. My boss finally allowed it thanks to my coworkers all dropping and we were able to get my other coworker a permanent job. Anyways for myself it's different not to have the extra $800 but it teaches me to save money and be more resourceful. With school, even though I did good, I decided to take a break. The timing of school was not right especially since I have a mortgage to take care of.

So with life happening exercise became not a priority. For the past 4 months of living in my townhouse adjusting to my new life it was a challenge. I have been trying to cook, eat healthy and just maintain a household on my own. My boyfriend lives with me and helps me out, but I can't always depend on him because of his job situation...

Couple weeks ago I decided to get back into running again. Running help jumps start my weight loss better than me going to the gym. To keep me motivated I signed up for a charity run called Great Aloha Run. I always wanted to do it but never had a chance to do it. Trust me I was nervous to sign up and thought of backing out of it because it is a 8 miles run from Aloha Tower to Aloha Stadium. I suck it up and signed up and started running again. I'm happy I signed up.

I have 4 more weeks till my run. I know I can do it. Before I stopped running I was able to run 4 miles but it was more of a walk jog and run for a short time. Just the past 2 week I have been able to jog straight 1-3 miles without stopping. The last 2 runs I was able to run for 5 miles . I am really proud of myself. I know it 4 weeks I will be able to run 8 miles!!!

Treadmill vs Running Outdoors

Here is my fitness observations that I have notice since I started to take up running and more hiking.  I made a fitness goal on May 28 to be able to run for 30 minutes non-stop by my 27th Birthday, July 17.  As of today I can honestly say I havent met this goal quite so.  I can walk/jog/run for approximately 45 minutes for about approximately 2 miles.  I am able to figure this out thanks to my Run Keeper app =)  I wish I downloaded this app before...

anyways when I went back to the gym, it has not been the same.  I cant lift weights like before.  I wanted to lose weight fast so I thought running might help.  I tried to do running on the treadmill.  It was hard for me at first.  I am not a runner.  But slowly I was getting use it.  I started to change the incline and the speed as I got more comfortable with it.  I liked it, strange enough to say.

After my stalker experience.  I decided to try working out at home.  So since late June, started to do the Jillian Micheal's 30 day shred.  I guess this was my sister's video.  She has never done it.  I figure lets just try.  I also started to get into the hiking more as a way to get my BF exercising.  I usually do easy hikes like 3-4 miles.  But then I did a 14 mile hike that lasted 12 hours.  This hike inspired me so much.  It taught me that my body is capable to handle exercise!!!  My body is able to go for longs periods of time, long lengths of time, able to go uphill, handle the cold, wind, mud and survive!!!  This hike taught me that my body can handle anything, as long as my mind is able to handle ;)  I can do anything!!!

After this hike, I wanted to hike more and run outdoors when I can't hike.  I wanted to estimate the miles I run/walk and time so I started to use the Run Keeper app.  I can honestly say I love it so far.  I dont know if the calorie counter works, but as long as I have an idea of the distance and time I have done I am fine.  I have come to enjoy being outdoors and prefer running/hiking as my primary mode of excercise.  One thing I dont like is the SUN!!!  I am getting dark =( 

I am going to continue to my fitness goal to try to run for 30 minutes straight non-stop.  It does take time,  So hopefully by December 1 I am able to accomplish this goal.

Old Pali Road and Likelike Falls

Pali Lookout is a classic tourist spot on a cliff on the Koolau Mountain Range overlooked Kaneohe Bay, Chinaman's Hat, and Hawaii Pacific's Windward Campus.  This cliff has a gruesome and scary superstitious history.  The story is in 1795 Hawaiian King Kamehameha and his warriors defeated the O'ahu armies by sending them over these steep, forested cliffs and claiming his victory and uniting the Hawaiian Islands.  They say the area especially along Old Pali Road is haunted by taunting ghosts and Hawaiian Gods.  With the beautiful views, windy, and scary history we decided to hike the near by Old Pali Road and find the Likelike Falls.

I have done this hike before with a friend/date but we got lost.  I started at the top of the lookout and reached the bottom of the highway, went under the highway overpass and then down to an access road off the Kooalau Golf Course. At that time I honestly did not know where I was going.  Just knew most hikes on Oahu connect to each other, but how and where?  When we felt like we were finally defeated, we went back to the lookout.

So we tried again with my BF, Laura, Aaron and Erica.  They have never done the hike before so I thought it would be fun.  Hopefully we can find Likelike Falls and go to a birthday dinner afterwards.  This is considered an easy trail about 2 miles long.  We started at the lookout.  It follows along Old Pali Road so most of the hike is pave however the road has been take over by wild plants, trees.  When we reach the Pali Highway overpass, we had to crawl underneath to get to the rest of the trail.  By the time we pass the overpass, we were pretty much following the access road.  We met up with random hikers who were also heading to Likelike Falls.  So we decided to hike close to them.  We ran into some Hawaii Electric guys at the bottom of the paved road.  The guy told us the trail head was to the left of the road.  It looked like the trail was going to be uphill and mostly dirt now.  Yay for markers.  We caught up with the guys again.  He told us that he did the trail 11x and got lost trying to find Likelike Falls.  Now he knows how to get there.  Ok hopefully we don't get lost.  We get to the top of the hill with not much effort until I felt like we were lost again.  The guy said to the left and right is the ridge trail which is really hard.  He said if you go down then your heading to the Likelike Falls.  So down we went, trusting a guy we dont know just for the sake of adventure and hopefully finding Likelike Falls.  Maybe in about 30-45 minutes we reached the falls.  It is really small but pretty to see.  We decided to turn back since we had to get going for dinner.  As we return to Pali Lookout we ran into the Hawaii Electric guys taking off with their helicopter.  It was like a show watching guys dangle to fix power lines.  Then we got close to the lookout and we could finally see the small Pali falls along the side of the Old Pali Road.  In total this hike was 3 hours long.  Total possible calories burn: 1600.

Aaron and everyone else with the winds

Hello Old Pali Road

Not bad its paved

Pali Highway

Pali Lookout

Crawling under the highway

Hawaii Electric at work.  Likelike Falls trailhead to the left

Likelike Falls

Pali Falls

Maunawili Falls

So I have this thing for waterfalls.  I think waterfalls are so pretty.  Watching the water fall from a mountainside side/cliff into a pool.  The sound of the water against the rocks.  I am not fond of how cold it is or the possibility of leptospirosis infection.  I just love to watching how beautiful it is.  Seeing natures wonder.  Relaxed by their soothing sounds.  For the obvious reasons, I love waterfalls.  I remember my sister telling me how went to Maunawili Falls and it had a nice waterfall and pool.  I always wanted to check it out, but for some odd reason we just never had a chance to go.

So my BF and sisters Nancy and Anny, their friend Ruby and Laura decided to come hiking with us to Maunawili Falls.   FINALLY!!!  This trail is approximately 3 mile long out and back hike.  Its considered easy-moderate about 4 hours long. From Honolulu to Pali Highway to Maunawili Valley (third traffic light after tunnels), turn right on Auloa Road, left fork onto Maunawili Road. Go approx 2 miles to end of public road, park on Kelewina Street. Walk on Maunawili Road (private section) approx 1/2 city block to trail head sign on right.

This is a fun muddy trail and well maintain.  We walked uphill along the stream, then finally crossed it, hiked up the mountain, then came down, crossed the stream again and walked up towards the waterfall.  When we got to the falls, it was overly crowded and the falls was a lot smaller than I expected despite the rains.  I think we enjoyed going off the trail to look for bamboo, fruits and plants more than the waterfall!!!  Total possible calories burn: 1600.

Getting back to hiking: Aiea Loop Trail

My bf did not wanna go gym with me. I was sad. Kinda lost motivation to go. I wanted us to get healthy together. Then comes the weird stalker and some random guy asking for my number at the gym. Kind of freak me out that someone is stalking me or preving out on me... Eww. Anywhoo I kept talking to my BF about how I wanna go hiking again. Last hike I did was Lanikai Pillbox with my sister in 2011. She was like my hiking buddy. When she got pregnant the hiking had to stop and I haven't had a chance to go with my hectic crazy night shift schedule.

So I really wanted to go hiking again, but with who? My BF has friends Laura, her brother Aaron and her friend Erica came to hike with us.  Laura nd Erica like to hike so it was nice to know people who would like to join us.  So we decided to do Aiea Loop Trail. I have done this trail many times before with my sister and friend Val.

This trail is approximately 4 mile long loop hike.  Its considered easy about 4 hours long (so think about 1 mile = 1 hour).  To get there you need to go up Aiea Heights Drive until you get to Keaiwa Heiau State Park.  The one thing I love about this hike is the smells at the beginning.  It is like a pine or eucalyptus smell and its very soothing and relaxing.  You pass some power lines and then you will see some great views of the  H3 Freeway and tunnel, Halawa Valley.  As your hiking you can hear the sounds of car along the H3.  Its like your walking along the mountain.  Then you will decent down to Aiea Stream and then come back.  When you see the Power Lines in front of you again  you will see a glimpse of MCBH Camp Smith on the top of the mountain across and Pearl Harbor Naval and Arizona Memorial.  Then you will come full circle in a loop and you completed the trail.  There is a waterfall along this trail.  Its unmark called Kalauao Falls.  I eventually wanna do it.  I just need to figure out where it is along this trail.

Here some pics of our adventure:

Ok I wish I took more pics.  Maybe next time.  Hard to hike and hold a camera.  Possible calories burn: 1600.  WOW!!!  BTW here some info about Hawaii and Hikes I have done here.

challenge myself: run run run!!!

Ok so my damn back and arm injury is always going to haunt me and act up.  I may be cleared by the doctor and PT cleared me but it will never go away.  My BF and coworkers told me this and I was so erk.  I did not want to believe it, but it is true and its so sad.  I will have to live with it.

For the past 5 months, I have not really gone back to working out.  After working so hard to lose 20 lbs, I was determined to continue to keep it off.  Thank god I havent gained the weight back, but I know diet alone isnt enough and I will need to get back to working out again.  2 weeks ago I called 24 Hour Fitness to resume my membership.  I started going to the gym again and I felt good about myself.  Felt good to get back into fitness and health.

Then I start lifting my heavy 400+ pounds patients at work and I feel like I hurt myself again.  Back and arm started to hurt again.  OH NO!!!  I have already been cleared from the doctor and PT.  I dont want to go back and tell them I am hurt.  How the hell am I going to get fit again with this damn injury?

Baby steps... yea yea I heard it all before.  Just like getting back to fitness.  Recovering from an injury is going to take time.  So I decided I am going to do the 30 day run challenge.  It is going to be a challenge to start running again.  Why did I choose running?  To be honest.  I hate jogging/running.  It wasn't my thing.  But when I went running with my dogs in the park yesterday it felt good to be one with nature and of course moving.  I use to jog around my neighborhood before so maybe I can get back into it again.

So my fitness goal is to to be able to run for 30 minutes non-stop by my 27th Birthday, July 17.  I have a little over a month to work on this goal, but I figure if I cant get back to lifting weights right away to prevent reinjury and wanna keep weight off and lose some more running may be the best way to goal.  I plan to run 3-4x a week after work.  I am use to working out after work so I want to keep this habit.  I am going to do a combination of running on the treadmil and in the park/beach.  Hopefully I can get my dog and BF involve ;)

My running guides are:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
http://running.about.com/od/getstartedwithrunning/a/beginnersguide.htm
http://running.about.com/od/trainingschedules/a/3weeksto30minuterunninghabit.htm

Im trying to be more healthy and lose weight.  I work full time nights 8 hour shifts 4-5 days a week.  I sleep during the day and wake up by 5pm.  I make sure to eat my breakfast which is dinner with family about 7pm.

I pack my own healthy snacks and I take a daily multivitamin, calcium with vitamin D and fish oil.  When I'm sick I take extra vitamin c and zinc.  I take whey when I work out or don't eat enough during the night shift.  I avoid munching on unhealthy snacks.  

I work at 11pm.  I have 5-6 patients so im always running around hardly sitting down some days.  I drink one cup coffee no sugar non fat flavor cream.  I try to drink green tea and i always drink lots of water.

When im done with work I work out cardio/weight train 3-4x a week.   If i feel unmotivated i take Jac3d.  I feel like my work outs are efficient I don't waste time.  I usually feel accomplish.  After working out i take whey protein.

I usually go to bed by 1pm.  I avoid eating meals before beds.  That has helped a lot with my weight loss so far.  I lost 10 lbs in 6 months.  I was plateauing for 3 months so avoiding big meals before dinner has helped me.  

I have lost weight but I feel like im stuck again.  I admit on my days off i take a break from exercise and cheat.  I do love food.  Im always on Yelp trying new places.  Ive come a long way as to portion control and eating smaller meals.  I know in the food department i need to bucket down if i wanna lose weight.  I hate that word... Diet.  But I do believe in being healthy so gotta do what I gotta do right to be healthy.

I enlist the help of the iPhone app Lose It.  I never calorie count and meal plan all I did in the past was just eat healthy and work out.  In the 3 days of food journaling so far i never realized how much calories of food i take in.  Now I'm trying to be more thoughtful of the foods I'm taking  in to nourish my body.

So this will be interesting.  Hope I can loose a little more.

Was 186 lb in April 2010

Now 164 lb as of April 2011

Goal weight 150 lbs by December 2011

Reassessing the need for a gym = continue to be healthy

Been having a dilemma on continuing my gym membership.  I paid $600 for a limited\one year membership at a super sport, 24 Hour Fitness. 

I struggle with working out since I never really been a physical
person.  I signed up for a gym during my divorce as a way to destress.  I
go in do my thing but never really had direction.  I enlisted the help
of a trainer and then started to do my thing on my own.  I got out of my
4 month plateau which was awesome.  I keep doing my thing.  Trying to
work out 3-4x a week.  I do interval-training cardio, classes like
Zumba, Will Power and Grace and Yoga and weight train 2-3 days moderately about 15-30lb weights.  I take in whey protein, multivitamins, fish oil, calcium.  I eat healthy, trying to cut back on the fatty foods and eating out.  It is definitely a lifestyle change!!!

As I come close to my membership ending, I comtemplated if it was worth it to renew.  I kept trying to find a better deal else where, threatning to cancel my membership. 

I lost track of my goals... ultimately in the end I forgot the whole reason why I decided to pay for a membership.  It was so I can start getting serious about my health, work out, do more cardio, eat healthy and be healthy!!! 

I figure if I try to cut of my membership now, I may be losing sight what is important.  Health and fitness is ME!!!  If I care about my health, then it doesn't matter how much I spend to be healthy right.  If it means spending $50, I better be using the services or it wont be worth it right...

Original from http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/mzjennx/

status update! I am still alive ;)

Ok trying to sync my iPhone to Blogger.
Hello all!!!
BTW most recent pics
I lose weight: 164, wahoo!!!

Why now?

..working out.  So this is a work in process for me.  I am not trying to be a model or a body builder.  I am being me.  So this means I want to be healthy and happy.

I am a nurse. I want to be healthy, a good example for my patients. I want to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle so I can prevent heart disease and diabetes.

I was not consistent with my workouts.  I was working out here and there and whenever I had time.  As for my eating habits.  I love food.  I just ate whatever I wanted.  I felt I ate healthy enough...

My highest weight ever was about 188 lbs.  I wanted to do something about this. So I started to go hiking and explore nature.  I wanted to make an effort to do all the hikes in Hawaii before I moved.

Then my divorce happened.  I was a wreak.  I seriously needed a way to de-stress.  I joined 24 hour fitness and started to work out before and after work.  It was a great stress reliever.  But fell out of it during the holidays.  Yea there was more good food and I was having more stress due to work.

Enough excuses.  It is 2011 and decided to change my habits.  I signed up for a trainer.  He showed me a lot.  He kind of put into prespective about how to work out, interval training and weight train.  He was really great at what he did, but he was getting too expensive.  He did refer me to this site.  And since then I kept coming here to read how to work out and eat healthy.  So I decided ok lets just sign up for the site and see where it will take me.





So here are my new health goals.  These are my health goals for life

I am going to be more healthier by
 - cardio for 30-45 minutes 4-5x a week
 - weight-train 2-3x a day
 - hike more
 - do charity run/walk
 - eat more healthy/organic/natural meals 6x a day
 - avoid fast food
 - cut back on eat out to once a week



So far so good.  I am down to 166 lbs this am.  So I guess im doing something right.  I want to keep at it.  Not going to give up now

Original from http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/mzjennx/