Bullshit

I have a feeling that I will be taking biology over next semester. I can't seem to jump on to the train of learning how this teacher teaches his crap. 

Just A Sunday Update

Well we are reaching the half way point of the semester. It seems to be going ok, besides biology because well.... my teacher still sucks. He is getting observed this week. Thank god because someone needs to see how shitty of a teacher he is. English is going good though. I really enjoy this teacher and if I have to take an English at UC Merced I will be searching for his class. He makes it fun which helps out a lot considering its a 930AM class.

I have been posting about my gym excursions for the last 3 weeks so I don't really need to touch on that subject. I am determined to keep up with it. Have been doing it for almost a month. I am actually starting to see results which makes me happy and makes me even more motivated. I don't want to weigh 100 lbs. like someone I know but I would like to get myself toned and fit. I'm guessing about 140 lbs. or so. We will see.

I am getting a tattoo next Sunday by my really good friend Mike. I am super excited. Only a few people know what I am going to get so I am going to keep it that way until I get it. I know it will turn out good because Mike doesn't do anything less than perfect work.

Week 3

This week was a rough one. I had a bunch of school work to do and a paper to write but I still managed to get to the gym 3 times. I proud of myself for pushing myself to keep going. Not much to report other than I started doing abs everyday and alternating legs and arms. I also did one day of yoga. I am hoping to up this to a couple of days a week in the future. It really seems to help.

Only did a little bit of cardio today but it was also a heavy leg and abs day

Cardio, Arms and Abs

Didn't go as heavy on legs as I wanted too but I still did legs and abs

Waist: 40in (lost an a inch and a half)

Thigh: 25in (I seem to lose a lot in the thigh area fast)

Bust: 38in (now that I learned how to accurately take a bust measurement, it now matches my bra size) 

Next week is the first weigh in I think. Pounds lost aren't that big of a deal to me but it would be nice just to see if I have lost anything and I think doing it on a monthly basis is the best way to go. Then I don't begin to live on the scale.

Week 2

This week I pushed myself a little further. I don't think I have ever been to the gym 4 days in a week. I was proud of myself. I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone and tried a bunch of new machines. My stats for the week fluctuated a little bit, some good some bad.

Waist: 41.5in
Thigh: 22in
Bust: 37in

All Arms Day

First time I worked on Abs in a long time

Worked on legs today

Today was the hardest workout I've ever done. Abs and arms and a whole lot of it!

This week I also got back into doing some yoga. It was a stress relief session and it was just what I needed. With what is going on lately it was the best thing for me. 

Week 1

Well I have been back at the gym for over a week now and I figured what better way to keep track of my progress than to do a weekly update. I won't be giving weight updates because I refuse to step on a scale. It always seems to make me feel bad when I haven't noticed any weight loss or even to the extreme of gaining more weight (muscles weighs more than fat) So I figured I would post about the workouts I've done and my measurements. Those are the only things that matter. My weeks will go Sunday through Saturday. So here goes the first post.

Lots of Leg Workouts Today

Just Cardio. Did Too Much The Day Before 

Just Cardio Today. Happy Valentine's Day

Even though I only worked out 3 days last week it was better than not going at all. My measurements are: 

Waist: 40in.

Bust: 38in.

Thigh: 24in.

I am not proud of those numbers because it really proves to me that I let me self go too much and it's going to take lots of hard work to get back where I want to be but I am determined now more than ever. See you in week 2. 

Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Chimichurri Sauce & Parmesan Roasted Red Potatoes

Tonight's dinner was a little ambitious. Especially since someone decided to go grocery shopping at 7:00pm instead of earlier in the day. I was so not on my game tonight. But it was either eat healthy or eat fast food and I will be damned if I was going to resort to fast food. So I have seen so many recipes on Food Network about Chimichurri sauce and I told myself one day I would make it. So today was the day. Everyone wanted something other than chicken so steak it was. I found the steak recipe at Kalyn's Kitchen and it seemed pretty simple. We didn't have Montreal steak seasoning, but it did say you could use whatever you had. I also did substitute the Aleppo Flakes for cayenne pepper. I don't know if that changed the flavor or not as I have never tried Chimichurri before. Potatoes seemed like the logical thing to cook with steak. I found the recipe on Pinterest like always which led me to Spice Gals and let me just say that cooking them for 15 minutes was not enough. We cooked like like 25 minutes but we also had more than the recipe called for. The one thing I didn't like about this recipe was that I had to cook them before I baked them. But other than that they were really really good. Could of used more seasoning though. The recipes are as followed....

Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Ingredients:
1 piece Flat Iron Steak, 1 1/2 - 2 pounds
1 T Steak Rub (I used my homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning, but you can use any brand or skip if you prefer)

Chimichurri Sauce Ingredients:
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves (about 1 cup before chopping)
1/2 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley leaves (about 1 cup before chopping)
2 T minced garlic 
3 T fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. Aleppo pepper flakes (or use a smaller amount of cayenne pepper if you can't find Aleppo pepper)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 cup olive oil

Instructions:

Take the steak out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before cooking, rub with steak rub, and let it come to room temperature.

Wash cilantro leaves and parsley leaves and dry with paper towel or spin dry in salad spinner. Finely chop the cilantro, parsley, and garlic, either by hand or in a food processor with steel blade.  Put ingredients into a bowl and add lemon juice, red wine vinegar, Aleppo pepper and cumin and stir to combine.  Then stir in olive oil until mixture is well blended, and let sit at room temperature at least 15 minutes before serving.

To cook steak, preheat gas or charcoal grill to medium-high heat. (You can only hold your hand there for 2-3 seconds at that temperature.) Put steak on grill at an angle. After about 3-4 minutes, or when you see nice grill marks starting, rotate 45 degrees and cook 3-4 minutes more on first side.

Turn steak over and cook on the second side until the meat is done to your liking. (I cooked my steak just under 12 minutes total for medium rare, but cooking time will depend on the heat of your grill, the temperature of the meat, and even the weather. I recommend using an instant-read meat thermometerfor best results on beef. They're widely available or you can follow that link to see an assortment at Amazon.com if you can't find one where you live.)

When meat is done to your liking, remove from grill and let rest for 5 minutes, then cut into thin slices across the grain. Serve hot, with Chimichurri sauce spooned over or on the side.

Parmesan Roasted Red Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 pounds medium red potatoes

4 Tbsp. olive oil

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 tsp. dried parsley flakes

1 tsp. Lawry's Season Salt

1/2 tsp. onion salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a large cookie sheet with aluminum foil and grease with vegetable spray.

Clean potatoes and cook in the microwave till potatoes are just tender when pierced with a fork.

Don't over cook them! (Make sure to poke a couple of holes in the potatoes before cooking them.  I have a potato setting on my microwave which makes it easy to cook)

After the potatoes have been microwaved, cut them in half lengthwise, then cut again.

Put the oil, parmesan cheese and seasonings into a large ziploc bag, and add the potatoes.

Shake the bag until the potatoes are comletely covered and the ingredients are all mixed well.

Pour out onto the prepared cookie sheet and cook for 15-20 minutes.

My Tips: I have realized that I am not a Chimichurri fan so I probably won't be making it again. The steak turned out good, but I think if you are going to make this, use flank steak and not flat iron. The flat iron came in pre-cut sections and I believe they wanted you to use a whole piece of meat. Maybe it was just our grocery store that didn't carry them that way Who knows with good ole' Ceres, California. The potatoes were the BOMB! Will be making them again but will use probably twice the ingredients because I like my potatoes to have flavor to them not just a coating. Will probably make this again but not with the Chimichurri sauce (I feel a bit redundant with this chimichurri sauce bit). 

Back To The Gym

Got back into the gym this week. Monday I went really strong. Probably more than I should of, but I had the energy so I used it. I think I might track my progress, or attempt too. Here goes nothing... 

Monday: 

35 minutes warm up. Treadmill. 186 calories burned.

30 minutes on the treadmill/elliptical. 301 calories burned.

100 hip adductions. 50 @ 110lbs and 50 @ 120lbs. 

25 leg presses. 110 lbs. (my foot cramped or I would of done more. 

18 minute cool down. Treadmill. 106 calories burned. 

Tuesday: (Just cardio)

18 minutes warm up. Treadmill. 106 calories burned. 

15 minutes. Treadmill/elliptical. 159 calories burned.