Being dedicated to my fitness journey does not only require enrolling in a gym and moving all the time. It also has a lot to do with what I am eating. As a working mom, I literally have little to no time preparing a grand meal for my family (plus the fact that I think cooking is not my forte) but I make sure my family eats on time and they eat healthy homemade meals.

So, enough of the drama. Here are some recipes I came upon researching for some quick, easy and healthy meals on the web, that I've prepared during the Holy Week. Hope you'll enjoy them as well!

Spinach and Tomatoes Omelette

3 Eggs
1 Tomato (cut into small pieces)
Spinach


Scramble the eggs and then mix in the spinach and tomatoes. A pinch of salt and pepper. Fry and that's it!

Finish! dyaraaan!!!

Spinach and Tomatoes Omelette

Tip: You can replace the tomatoes with mushrooms.



Potato Salad

A pack of baby potatoes
A pack of grapes
Cheese
Honey Mustard Dressing
Boiled Egg


Boil the baby potatoes then fry a little. Put in plate, top with grapes and boiled egg, mustard, cheese, salt and pepper. You can squeeze in some lemon juice if you want.

This is what I used for the dressing.

Sorry for the not-so-enticing finish product. I am not really into anything artsy. But this one tastes really good!

Potato Salad with a twist.

Tip again: Instead of boiled eggs, put in bacon! Yum!


Goodluck to all those who will give these recipes a try. I hope you will like it! Lets move forward to our journey of fitness through exercise and proper diet!

Stay positive and pass it on!

Last week, after Palm Sunday's mass, I have decided to go the gym and do some boxing work out as Holy Week approches. For me, Holy Week is my time for self-reflection and I just had to halt whatever I am doing and give time to God. Yes, that includes my work out (or am I just making excuses? haha!). As I hop onto the jeep going to the gym, I was feeling a bit down on the dumps and was thinking maybe I should just go back home. But then again, I need to stick to my plan in order to accomplish my goal. Besides, I'll have the next 6 days without workout so I told myself lets just get this day done.

Looking at myself in the mirror today, I feel a little bit frustrated. Why? Because its been more than a month since I started my fitness journey and I don't think a lot has changed. I am more than afraid of stepping in a weighing scale now because I might just get even more sad. I know one month is too short to be able to see changes in my body. Its just that there are times when I feel like I am waiting for nothing. There was even a time I talked to my husband and uttered, "Daddy, pwede mo ba kong bigyan ng pera pampa-Belo na lang?!" (Daddy, can you just give me some money I can spend for Belo? -- Belo is a cosmetic surgeon, btw). We both just laughed it off at the end.


And so I am posting this fitness quote I got from the Internet:

pic from eboost.com

So whether this quote is a fact or just a plain observation from someone, I thank him for sharing this to the world. Because this just saved me from getting sidetracked again (yeah, for the nth time!) and stopped me from indulging in a tub of ice cream that has long been sitting in my fridge.


The weight of waiting to finally reach a goal is such a burden to take. Your patience will determine if you can make it or break it. And while waiting we just have to keep going. Small steps make a lot of difference. Today, I may not see a thing changed from my body but I can definitely feel a change. I feel more determined and disciplined. I feel stronger after every workout. And most of all, I feel like my body is seeking for physical activities everyday. I feel like I am missing the soreness of my muscles, the body aches I get after every training. I feel like I am taking a step back to being unhealthy and unfit again everytime a day ends without an exercise. And for that, I sense a progress in what I am doing.


I know that my waiting game is still far from the ending, but one thing is for sure: I am never giving up this time! I will gladly carry the weight of this waiting game however long it takes. Because the goal I want to achieve is as equally important as the value I can learn while waiting to reach that goal.

And for that let's end this post with a reminder of my number one goal this year: Be Disciplined.

Let's keep the positivity going around while we are waiting and pursuing our goal. Smile! If you did something to reach your goal today, even the smallest deed to reach that goal... Give yourself a pat in the back, because you are definitely doing a great job! Be positive and pass it on!

Last year, I was not able to reach my goal of reading at least 20 books for the year and I hate myself for that. I am not much of a bookworm but I love reading. And not just books, I read blogs(of course!), newspapers (love the knowing about the current events), magazines (fashion, housekeeping, travel, parenthood), and everything else interesting for me. So to start the year right, I chose one book that really interests me. And that is:




Let me get the description from the site regarding what the book is all about:



I love this book! Why? Because although its mostly one-paragraph stories, all of it are true, genuine and the author a wonderful way of getting across the message each of the Humans of New York want to communicate to whoever would read their stories. You would never get bored because each page tells a new story, some of it, you surely could relate. The only thing I would like to add to this book is to please be fast in releasing the next series. I am also looking forward to a book tackling the immigrants from Syria, wherethere is currently an outbreak of war. Some of these stories are already told in HONY's Facebook page.

Some more feedback for the book would be about the clarity of the photos and the emotions where caught candidly. Brandon Stuart really knows how to capture human portraits in a way that their picture transcends the emotions of a person. And that's what real talent in photography is.


By the way, I always prefer the physical book than the e-book. I just love the smell of paper of a new book!

Humans of New York: Stories by Brandon Stanton
Price at Full Booked: P 1,470.00

For my first post for 2016, I dedicate this for my number 1 goal this year and that is: be healthy! Of course I also want to shed off my excess lbs! But I think if I set my goal to being healthy, reaching my target weight would also follow. And because its a goal, it means I need to do something to be able to reach it. So here it is:

My Pink Gloves!

Yup! This time I am trying boxing. And I'm really getting serious about this because of my uncontrolled sugar. Ugh! Signs of Aging hahahah!

The very first time I went to Elorde Fight Camp-Bulacan, I wasn't really expecting anything. I thought I'll just do some light exercises and get myself ready for boxing for the first three sessions. But I was wrong. Being a couch potato that I am (IT people can relate), the first session was really a challenge. My trainer made me do stretching at first and some strength exercise. After that, he made me hit the speed bag. And I swear, it was really frustrating because I can not hit the bag! Seeing boxers do it, I thought it was just easy, you just have to punch the bag anyway. But it wasn't just like that. Hitting the bag requires you've got to have rhythm. And so I needed some help from YouTube and found this video:




I really hope this could help me next time. By the way, as of this current writing, I just had my third boxing session and still haven't gotten the hang of it. Damn speed bag! But I think I'm progressing because I got to hit the bag 7 times continuously. It made me smile after that hahaha! I'm gonna use this guy's technique next time.

Next, he challenged me for punch mitts. Like whuutt! I never boxed my whole life and here you go, a challenge on mitts the very first day of my boxing session workout. Good thing, my trainer taught me first the correct way of punching, boxing, standing. The footwork comes next too. I was delighted to get to know new terms and of course the basics of boxing. I am beginning to love boxing. Except that I almost fainted after the sparring part hahahah! And I am not exaggerating... I really got dizzy so I asked my coach if I could take a little break first and drink some water. Coach let me rest for 5 minutes the most.

After that, I tried on the punching bag. As expected, punching bags are very heavy and it almost didn't move at all when I hit it. The challenge next time is to hit it harder so it would literally move even a little.

Next would be another mitts session with the coach. For the one and a half hour of boxing workout, I had three sparring moments. Lastly, my coach gave me a soft massage at the back (which is the best part for me hahaha!).

All in all, I gave Elorde a two thumbs up for my boxing experience. I am really beginning to love this sport. Plus the fact that Manny Pacquiao is my idol. Now I can really say that Manny's discipline put him where he is right now and he deserved every inch of it because boxing is not an easy-breezy sport. It requires great strength, a whole lot of stamina and of course, the most important, discipline. Because if you don't have it, nothing will ever be achieved.

And so I conclude this first post for 2016 is dedicated to my new number one goal this year, BE DISCIPLINED. Not just on being healthy but in everything we ever want to achieve.

By the way, here are some pics I grabbed from Elorde Fight Camp Bulacan's FB page:





And here's my encouraging words if you want to try boxing -- my after workout feelings:

grabbed from Popsugar.com

Just kidding! Give me that power punch! Stay positive and pass it on!!!

For Elorde Boxing Gym Rates and Membership, you may ask your preferred branch because I think they have different rates especially in Manila area.