Asylum Day 5 - Rest!

So today Shaun T has given me a break from his grueling Asylum program! however, because I do sit down all day, I still want to get in some physical activity, so in a little bit I will be getting on my treadmill! Tomorrow Shaun T has Speed and Agility waiting for me, so today I make sure I ate right, and hydrated! I want to be able to totally bring it tomorrow morning!

Here are the 10 tips that Shaun T recommends while doing an demanding workout program like Asylum!

1. Eat Frequently - the eating plan is to eat 5 meals a day. And the recipes are awesome!

2. Go light at night - To have a competitive advantage Shaun recommends that you start your largest meal in the morning, after that you get progressively smaller portion. The last meal should be the lightest and smallest ;)

3. Limit your portions - Shaun T doesn't believe in limiting calories, but he does recommend you watch your portion. Eating small frequent small meals revs your metabolism, but when you do eat that often its important to keep track of the portion size.

4. Eat Lean - Eat Clean to get lean! Lean protein, fruits, veggies, and healthy fats.

5. Carbs are cool - Because of the nature of Asylum you do need carbs! without them you won't be able to get through this program. The only suggestion Shaun does is to get your carbs and starches earlier in the day rather than in the last 2 meals, and of course choose whole grains ;)

6. Avoid Dairy - Shaun think that you should try to eliminate dairy for 14 days, just give it a whirl! (Hard for me to do! I love my yogurt :)

7. Hydrate - Shoot for drinking 64oz of water per day - no juices or sodas are allowed on the Asylum plan! (Coffee and tea are okay)

8. Limit Alcohol - enjoy a red wine of glass, but during Asylum try to avoid it :)

9. Don't Fear Fat! - There are lots of foods that are rick in fat that are good for you such as avocados, and nuts! And in case you didn't know avocados are tasty, satisfying and tummy flattening :)

10. Supplements - Recovery Formula is a must (which reminds me I need to order, I am not going to go through this without feeding my body properly! :) Be sure to drink immediately after your workout. You can never forget Shakeology! Awesome supplement, couldn't do what I do without it!

You can order both the Asylum program and the supplements from me!  I am here to help

Day 4 Asylum - Vertical Plyo

All I can say about this DVD on the Asylum program is WOW.   I really should have a pen and pad while I am doing these workouts to write down all that is done! but Shaun T really gives you no breaks...well maybe some water breaks, but they are sooo short!  My conversations with myself are "core tight, good form, keep going" I just repeat myself over and over again!

Day 3 Asylum - Core and Back

Well this morning I did Core and Back from Asylum...and as you can tell, I am taking days in between each Asylum workout! I really don't want to do that, so I schedule all of my workouts so that I finish this week following the Asylum calendar everysingle day, that is my committment starting today!

 As usual, Shaun T starts his warm ups pretty intensly with different varieties of jumping jacks, I did have to stop when breathing was just not helping me push trough I would stop, shake it off and then jump back righ.  I LOVED the monkey squat stretch, they really felt good on my hamstrings. 

After the warm up you get to work on your back! You work on your shoulder blades, traps, lower back...and you get to use this little green band, that looks insignificant (which I actually use when I do Bum Bum ;) but I didnt think that they would be so versatile and Effective! you will feel it, and you will sweat! which was surprising, because after the warm up you are not really jumping around anymore.  Its about the control, has isometric holds.  One of them you are on a lunge position then rotate from your wais, hands straight, you want to be able to see your fingers, and at the same time squeezing in your shoulder blades, very nice! and let me tell you, you will feel the burn!

So, Core and Back...in terms of Asylum standards it was actually not...I don't want to say easy, because it is not, but after Speeed and Agility and Strenght, you feel somewhat rundown, and this workout, believe it or not energizes you!  you work your back without any dumbbells, because of the control you must have you feel it on your core.  Overall this was a great workout.  Hard to decide which is the one I love the best...I still have 3 more tackle!  however I am extremely curious about the Game Day workout, which is still 7 days away!

Day 2 Asylum - Strength

Okay, so today I really really wanted to skip this one, however, I had already skipped yesterday, so I couldn't baby myself again :) So after spending the day with the kids with our local easter egg hunt in Kennedy park, parade and bonnet contest, then driving to UC Berkeley to spend the day at the Eggster learning Festival, I really didn't feel like coming home and working out.

However, while in Berkeley one of Angel's favorite thing to do is stop at the Pasta Shop and buy some cheese.  He bought 4 types of cheese, a french baguette and some wine.  Then we stopped at Costco to get the kids some rotisserie chicken, while we were there there was some sampling of some chocolate cake, it had some chocolate mousse in it...so I caved in and bought a cake. So I WAY over indulged.  I had cheese, I had french bread, I had wine, I had chicken w/ spring mix salad and balsamic vinaigrette and to top it off I had a slice of cake.  I wasn't thinking, we were just around the table, having a good time, sampling the cheeses.  William was giving me his opinion, Omar was saying that the only type of cheese he will eat is the Gouda (which we did have) and even Ximena was digging in, surprisingly she was totally into the goat cheese and blue cheese.   So by the time we finished, I was like "Darn!" I didn't feel like moving and I was seriously reprimanding myself, especially if I knew I had a tough workout coming up.

So, I got up, did the dishes, did a quick sweep under our table, then I locked myself in the garage and got on the treadmill to 1st walk off the extra sluggishness that I was feeling.  I took my laptop, placed on the little dashboard, and just watched a lot of training montages on youtube :)  I started off with Rocky's, then Karate Kids, and then Dirty Dancing...I know dirty dancing isn't really a "tough" training thing, but I love to see Baby trying to master the lifts and then watching the final dance scene when she finally does it! The next thing I  knew I was on the treadmill for an hour and I had walked 3.2 miles, and I wasn't feeling all that sluggish anymore.  After that I went for Asylum!

So now we get to the heart of the matter..I put on the DVD and I see that Shaun T already has dumbbells and is working out, and I was like...whoa where is the warm up?  after several minutes, Shaun T says, this is the warm up, I am not going to baby you, and I just started laughing because I was really working in this so called warm up.   So I think there was like 3- 4 circuits, and you repeat each one 3 times, and as you go each time he makes it progressively harder.   What I like about it, is that you weren't just focusing in one area.  One of the moves was curl, squat, up, curl down, go down, jump back, push up, jump back up, curl, squat....you get the gist :) I was more focus on my form than the number of reps so I wasn't keeping up with the number of reps.  I did the whole workout (including the warm up) with 12lbs weights.  Tomorrow is day 3, and according to the calendar I have Back to Core.  My goal is to get up early tomorrow and get it out of the way.  Good Night!

Day 1 - Asylum Speed and Agility

Yesterday morning, was my very first Asylum workout called Speed and Agility.  It was about 45min long.  I will try to remember exactly what we did, but let me tell you that I was more focus on pushing myself and keeping my core tight than remembering the name of the moves. I couldn't seem to concentrate on many things other than just getting through the workout.

The warm up is jumping rope, first just regular jumping rope.  Easy.  But then I got tired and we were still jumping LOL, then you had squat while still jumping rope, and criss crossing the legs.  I did step on my rope several time, but I just kept going.   After this so called warm up we started stretching before diving into the workout.

Like I said, it was tough so all the moves are kinda jumbled up in my head.   We did ab progressions which  you start in plank position at the end of the ladder, and then you jump your feet into the 1st square.  That was relatively easy for me, as I've become good with burpees.  However, I could not jump my feet into the 2nd square, so I had to just tap (my own modification, nobody was doing that on the DVD) unto the 2nd square...and I just couldn't do it when it came to jumping into the 3rd square.  

Another move, was progression pushups which required to do a pushup (hands are on two squares) then jump into those 2 squares your hand was just in, then jump back out, then move to the next squares and repeat.  I was only able to do 2 full rotations.

There were also bear crawls, which became kinda icky because my hands were all sweaty and I had to crawl up and down...icky but actually fun.  It was a tough workout, it was a super challenge, something that I felt like I needed (cardiovascular wise) a challenge.  

The next time I do Speed and Agility I will try my best to remember exactly what we did so I can do a proper review, all I can say is I survived!

Asylum! The Fit Test

Who would think I would be doing the Asylum Fit Test, without even being an Insanity graduate (yet)! well I won my copy of the Insanity: The Asylum, and when I got home last night, it was waiting for me! I excitedly opened it! Back in March I did a "highlight" blog about Asylum, check it out here so I wont repeat myself!

Anyway "THE PLAN" as I refer to it, was to start Insanity this upcoming Monday! YAY, do a full round Insanity, then jump right into Asylum.  However, now I am not so sure! LOL Asylum is just 30 days so I m thinking why not? LOL so I am still thinking about it, the last thing I want is to get injured.  However I am giving this due consideration, I am awesome during Turbo Fire, and I've tackled (not mastered yet, but I will!) P90X! so I am sure I can do this, I may not be able to keep up but I am know I will challenge myself! So...even as write this I am already talking myself into completing a full round of Asylum! LOL but really its only 30 days, in no way will I master it, however it will challenge me!

Since I haven't done Insanity yet, I was very surprise by Shaun T during the Fitness Test! very serious, it was all about focus, talked about proper form a lot.  Previously I've only worked out to Shaun T with Hip Hop Abs and there he was very fun, its dancing! so to see Shaun T being serious and treating me like an athlete, and challenging me to do more, it was a side that I haven't seen before, and I LOVED IT!  Earlier in the week I was talking to my friend Rafael about how much I loved ALL the Rocky movies (no exception :) I like to have fun with Hip Hop Abs and Turbo Fire however  I also like to get down to business, and do old school kind of workouts and imagine myself in a training montague!

So my Fit Test Results, and they really are bad compared to the people on the DVD, but hey the idea is to improve on my own numbers, The Competition is with myself!

Fit Test 4/20/11
Agility Heisman - 5 reps
In & Out AB Progression - I couldn't jump all the way to the 2nd box of the ladder, only to the 1st box, and of those I did 15 reps
Push ups - 17
Mountain Climber Switch Kicks - 42
Agility Shoulder Taps - 4
X Jumps - 21
Moving Pushups - 3
Agility Lateral Shuffle - 17 1/2
Agility Bear Crawl - 3

So tomorrow I have Speed and Agility! 1st workout of Asylum I will video myself...I don't want, but I think its a must, I have to check that I am doing proper form ;)

Women and Health

Today I did a radio blog show with Dr. Carmen Ortiz who heads the Sabia Partners and I shared who I am as well as sharing teambeachbody and how Beachbody is helping me and my family getting both physically fit as well financial.  The main topic was Women and Fitness, and how to take control of your own wellness.  My personally sponsor coach Coni Constantine was there with me and actively participated in the interview, and that support is so important.  My voice was shaky....but I found that listening my own voice reiterate my passion and conviction, its empowering.

If you want to learn more about teambeachbody, the fitness, the business side or both send me an e-mail carmen@carmenfitness.net Si Se Puede!

Listen to internet radio with Sabia Talk on Blog Talk Radio

Time to Change

Today I decided to buy a new vanity url!  I am tossing the "shy_girl" that has been me for so long.  I've had my lashy_girl e-mail address since my Senior year in high school, right when the Internet was just starting! man thats a few years ago ;) I've been known as "lashy_girl" but its not really me.  I am a quite person, but not necessarily shy.  I've come to realize that.  I am willing to share about myself and whats going on in my life, I am willing to share whats working with me, I am willing to share the most awesome supplement, shakeolgy, that I have every tried!  I am sharing about the fitness programs that I do...and I realized I am not shy, so I am putting lashy_girl to rest...have to change many login information, but thats no big deal.  I am ready to start this new facet about myself! my vanity url is carmenfitness.net seems fitting!

Sometimes one evolves without even realizing it :)