Salmon Dinner

Easy 30 minute meal; Salmon (peppercorn, garlic mix, and unagi sauce), Some sort of vegetable, and a must have - Brown Rice as carbs. 

Dinner for 3

Arugala Salad with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette
Pan seared Steak
Whole wheat paninis with mozzarella, basil, and proscuitto

Was a great dinner.

lunches

Hey guys, just wanted to show you some of the meals I pack and how I eat when I am not home.

I commute to college and for the majority of the week I am in school for about 6 to 8 hours a day. Now, thats a long time so I always pack enough food with me and stick to my diet. 

In college there are so many things that can throw you off track with your diet such as the price of food (which is always expensive) or the quality of the food.

Some of my friends ask me how I have the time to make my meals and I just tell them to cook ahead of time and prepare for the coming week. 

Don't give yourself excuses to go off track your diet! 

Andy

Andy doing some work at the gym.
Killing the Bicep routine, busting out an easy 15 reps!
Keep it up dude!

SOMEONE CALL THE VET ... BECAUSE THOSE PUPPIES ARE SICKK!

School lunch

Finally got back to school after a long summer. It's hard to eat healthy in college because fast food is easily accessible. I try my best to eat healthy meals like what I ate for lunch: salmon, some brown rice, and corn/peas. Fill a quarter of the plate with carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, etc), another quarter with vegetables and the remaining space with couple pieces of meat. Eat lean protein and whole-grain carbohydrates like brown rice and potatoes. Saves your cholesterol level and sharp increases in blood sugar.

Lunch Time

Lunch:
2 Burger patties w/ tomato, mustard and ketchup on sourdough bread
Handful of Sun chips
~8 ounces of orange juice + seltzer
and..... Ben and Jerry's new Greek Yogurt ice cream. Flavor: Peanut butter Banana

Yeah that's right. Ice Cream

Carbing up and a little bit of cheating.. yummmm

before bed

Got back from a late night Grocery run. Ran out of cottage cheese, but now I've got more than enough for the rest of the week. Woo Hoo!

.... and this is what I eat before bed every night:
1 cup of cottage cheese with handful of walnuts and a spoonful of honey. I eyeball the amount of honey and walnuts.
Some days I want a nuttier and sweeter cottage cheese, other days its the opposite.
* I also use mixed nuts... walnuts are too pricy so they're like a delicacy.

Losing Weight

Obesity is a real problem that is often hard to resolve for many people. I was personally dealt with obesity through much of my childhood. My parents always nagged me about my weight and my eating habits because they were really concerned. I was always carefree and ate whatever I wanted, however much I wanted. When my parents confronted me about it I was always carefree and threw the occasional fits to show my annoyance. Finally by High School, all the junk accumulated into my 253 pound frame and that’s when I decided to do something about it. Through trial and error and encouragement of my friends, I’ve since lost 90 pounds and put on some muscle.

There are many commercials that claim they can help you lose weight fast but I’ve found that the best way to lose weight is to do it gradually because it requires lifestyle changes. When I first started I did not go to the gym everyday nor did I eat all the right things. Instead I started jogging 2-3 times a week and just ate less of the same food. In retrospect, I believe I would have given up somewhere down the line had I try to make a huge change in my diet and exercise immediately.

For those who are looking to lose weight, I suggest the following:

-Aerobic exercises scheduled few times a week, at least 30 minutes each session. Find something fun you like to do. Personally, I absolutely hated jogging but I enjoyed swimming and biking. Maybe twice or three times a week, find a couple buddies and drag them along, it’s a lot more fun with friends. FOLLOW your schedule once you made it.

-You don’t have to start following crazy strict diet where each meal looks like prison food. Start by eating less. Think about how much you usually eat in a day and cut that amount by 1/3. Be conscious of how much you are eating every day.

- Now that you know how much you should be eating a day, try to limit the time between meals. Instead of eating 3 big meals, split the food into 5 to 6 meals eaten every 3 hours or so. You shouldn’t stuff yourself every meal until you’re full. Just eat enough that you are no longer hungry.

-Eat fruits and drink lots and lots of water. Now that you are eating less you may feel hungry every once a while. Drink lots of water throughout the day and eat some fruits. Water will help curb hunger plus it is a vital substance to every process in the body.

                                                        High school: I am to the right

                                                                 Couple months ago

Leg day 8/22

It's really difficult to go up and down stairs.

Squat 15, 12, 10, 8, 6
Leg press 5x12
Leg curl 4x15
Leg extension 4x15
Calf raiser 4x15
And 20 minutes of Biking
My legs feel like jell-o, BUT there is no better feeling than the soreness after a heavy Leg Day

chest and bi

Finished the morning Chest and Bicep work out . 
Feeling good.
Great workout with David and Andy

Went back at night for some quick cardio. 

Photo credit to Andy.. Its a bit blurry, our arms were still quivering after the workout

whats up with that chunky face?!? ugh

Protein for this week

Hey guys! Just finished cooking some of my proteins for the week. 5 whole chickens (yeah I eat chicken thigh) and 3lbs of turkey. This should last for a few days.

I know the turkey looks kinda gross, but it tastes good. ha.

I need to buy some other meats! Chickens getting boring but beef is pricy =(

What are you guys eating?

Fitness; Heart Rates

Chances are you’ve come across this blog through a link and you’ve stayed to see if you can really get something out of this blog. Well, whether you are a bodybuilder or endurance trainer or even someone about to endeavor in their first time at the gym tomorrow, this post pertains to you. Its intentions are to help you understand your body more by understanding some of the biological aspects of it; it will give you insight into how to maximize improvements and achieve goals faster.

First of all, what is physical fitness? People probably have their own version of it; but I’m going to refer the NAVY SEAL’s definition, because, hey, what percentage of the general public knows more about optimal fitness and health wellness than the SEALs?

Physical Fitness: set of skills acquired through different physical activities. The complete skill set includes agility, balance, coordination, speed, power, and reaction time. Of course, there are health aspects too which includes cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, body composition, and flexibility.

Let’s get into heart rates in lieu of cardio-respiratory endurance. Your theoretical maximum heart rate (MHR) is equal to this:

                220 – (your age in years) = MHR

Note: this equation is a generalization. The exact MHR is different for everyone depending on our bodies.

Example: if you’re 22 years old, your maximum heart rate is 198 bpm (beats per minute).

TIP: an easy way to measure your heart rate if you don’t have any heart rate monitors is to gently use your fingers to feel either your radial artery at your wrist or your carotid artery on the side of your neck and count your pulse for a minute. If you are short on time, count for a fraction of a minute and then correct your BPM to the minute.

A good high intensity training heart rate value is anywhere from 70% – 90% of your maximum heart rate (between AEROBIC BASE and OPTIMAL CONDITIONING in the figure below). Referring back to our 22 year example, he or she will have to train at 139 – 178 bpm. As you can see, these values slowly decline with age, indicating higher performance potential for the youth.

WELCOME TO THE ORIGINALS FITNESS !

Thank you guys for visiting, and on behalf of the founders of The Originals Fitness, welcome to our blog! All of us have been close friends for some time and we wanted to share with everyone about the progress and experiences that regular people have made during our fitness journey. After brainstorming, we decided to allow any online user to do the same by sharing their stories with us. This combination led to the formation of The Originals Fitness!

You can read our mission statement, learn a little more about us, and check out some of our routines.We have a FAQ as well as a contact page, where you can personally reach us if you have anything you’d like to ask or share. We are all here to help and motivate one another and who knows, we might even feature you in our blog!

More importantly,our Daily page is the source for all our current updates. Throughout the week, various members of The Originals will be writing posts; here you will find out more about our progression and daily routines. On top of that we will also share some interesting news, recipes, and more!

As the objective said, “Originals Fitness is highly motivated and completely positive; a negativity and judgment free zone… We are here not only to join you in your fitness journey, but also to bring out the best in everyone through a friendly environment.” In order to achieve this, it is crucial for you guys to keep visit our blog each day and get involved so you don’t miss out on anything!

Be sure to subscribe through email and/or LIKE us on our Facebook page, We look forward to helping and learning more about one another and ultimately, establish a fitness community!

We hope to hear from all of you guys!