Renewed: 24 Hour Fitness Membership

Two years ago, I signed up for a gym membership at 24 Hour Fitness. It was the first big investment I made as a young adult (significant amount of money, significant amount of committed time) and truly was a big gamble -- having consistent gym attendance for two years was either going to be a great deal or a big waste of cash.  Since joining, I've certainly had my ups and downs (more highs than lows, thankfully.) Having a gym just across the street from my office in El Segundo has definitely played a part in the plenty of times that I chose to go, which over the past two years has probably averaged 2 to 3 times a week. I had originally continued my membership at LMU's gym but decided to hop ship after looking at the flexibility of 24 Hour Fitness and its overall cost effectiveness. The decision to join was the correct one. 

I'm happy to report that I am in the best shape of my life, two years after investing in membership with 24! In the first year, I curbed my weight gain and in the year after that I shifted the tide. I am not going to sit here and lie about how I weigh a fabulous 50 pounds lighter, because that's simply not the case. But I will proudly say that the past two years have permanently set in stone what is now a life long commitment to healthy living. One habit that I am certainly going to keep. 

Last week, I happily renewed for another two years -- this time with even more ambitious goals than when I first joined. I hope to not only return once and for all to the Los Angeles marathon, but I now have plans to (dare must I say this) train for a sprint triathlon as early as this fall. Goals are the most important things when it comes to staying motivated, and even though they are not always reached, without them, I wouldn't reach at all. This month, I happily recommit to an even bigger dream of keeping an active lifestyle, encouraging those around me to join me and at some eventual point in my life, end my life long battle with obesity.  

I know a lot of people who have gym memberships, but don't really make the most out of them. Here's a few things that I've noticed help whenever you are stuck in a rut: 

• Join the classes - This is particularly meant for the days that you want to go but you are either lazy, unmotivated or undecided as to what you want to do while at the gym. When in doubt, just attend a class. The classes are meant for all skill levels and honestly, nobody gives a damn at 24 hour fitness. Whether it's yoga, body pump, cycling or...zumba - look to the classes to get it in on the days that you have no clue how you'll ever make it happen.
  
  
• Take it outside - Being a member of the gym does not always mean you have to get all of your exercise in it. In actuality, a gym is meant to empower you to get more active and do the things you want to do outside. For me, I chose to balance working out with the things I enjoyed to do like running and hiking and together that combo really played out well.
  
  
• Timing - When you make it to the gym matters a big deal, so take a good look at your lifestyle and figure out when a workout would best serve your needs. If you are sitting at desk all day, then perhaps a lunch time workout would be just what you need to break the 8 hour grind (or after work, too.) Or, if you are planning to go out with friends and you know you'll be eating and having drinks, getting a workout before meeting up with everybody will cover you for the night. Try getting ready to go out at the gym, you'll feel extra fly.
  
  
• Educate yourself - While Siri is around for iPhone users, weight machines and treadmills are still incapable of actually teaching us what the heck is happening with our bodies when we use them. Remember, a workout is only as effective as your form and method. But you'll only learn proper form and practice good methods if you set out on your own to learn. You can do this in a number of ways, either though the Internet, a personal trainer/friend or listening carefully to instructors during a class. Take responsibility of the science that goes behind working out - sweating it out is not enough.
  
  
• Eat enough, eat right - This one sounds like a no brainer, but you would not believe how many people let their workout go to waste. Not just in cases where people eat bad after working out, but also during times when people don't eat enough afterwards. This is a tie-in with the previous tip, but knowing what/how to eat is probably (I'd say) significantly more important than your time at the gym. What you eat sets the tone for how your body reacts to your exercise efforts. Seriously, sit down for a whole afternoon and study for yourself. Your body will thank you! 

These are all things that I had to learn over the past two years. These were the things that stuck out the most when it came to figuring out how to make the most out of my gym and getting in shape.  I am not a believer in no 10 week program or 90 day challenge, my vision is really a life long commitment. As long as I don't go back to how I used to live and eat, then I am on the right track. Earlier this month, I did write about how I wanted to make sure I turned 25 this year while being in the best shape of my life and though that sounds somewhat vague in terms of what that exactly means, I know it entails continuing on working out and setting high goals for myself and not ever letting go of what I have built upon thus far. 

Lastly, I want to say that in the past two years, the hardest part about working out was not the heavy weights or the faster mile times that I groaned and lost my breath over. The hardest part about working out was simply showing up. Once you get over that mental block of the millions of reasons you'd rather not put on your shoes and make your way over to the gym, the rest becomes cake. 

Photos from Mom's 5 year anniversary

My favorite part about visiting my mom yesterday was how it was no longer a rare sight to see so much of my family with me, regardless of the occasion. This meant wonders to me. To look around and know that everybody who was there were people that I can see as soon as next weekend (or even tonight if I wanted to) was the greatest comfort that time has granted me through these past five years. Believe it or not, this was not the case years ago.

Funerals and deaths often call for a family to come together to endure hard times. But the struggle of keeping up that unity months and years after a death in the family is quite often the hardest part. I am so blessed to be able to say that today, my cousins are some of the closest people in my life and this in itself is a true win.

Visiting mom at the cemetery is always very hard. Tears have always been a part of my visits to the high desert and this year I was expecting no difference. But oddly enough for the first time, joy had conquered on the day we remembered her passing. The spirit of my family was simply just too strong.

I rarely ever quote the Bible. Probably because I haven't read it enough to remember useful and relevant verses in my life to quickly point them out. But yesterday the perfect verse came to mind once I came home and started thinking about how the afternoon had gone. It is a widely shared verse and one that was shared with me many times during the passing of my mom. It hadn't made much sense in 2007, but it stands all too clear now. It reads:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. [...]
God has made everything beautiful in its time.
(Ecclesiastes 3)

In such a life shaker losing my mom turned out to be, I never thought there would ever be a time to laugh and dance again. Yet through it all, my cousins have given me all I've needed to understand both this verse and life's miracle of God's timing. And it really is beautiful.

via Francine

via Leezel

Love you, mom!

Calendar Alert: Live your life today (Recurring Event)

On the eve of my mother's 5 year anniversary of her passing, I once again sit down for an eventual reflection of what has happened and how life has played out since. What a journey this has been. The emotions that you go through. The people that you meet. The experiences you set out to conquer. It's all quite different when you're coming from an angle of losing a parent while you're still young. Of course, there are the highs and then there are the lows. Earlier this year, I found myself in New York City on an ice rink in Rockefeller Center skating for the first time. I used to watch figure skating competitions on TV with my mom when I was young, so to step onto a rink was something I knew she was cheering about up in the skies. Yes, that was a high. But Mother's Day was a definite low. It'll always be to an extent. Through it all life has had a way of balancing between roaring and humbling moments - both of which I've found necessary to live and grow through the valleys and plateaus in between.

In the past five years, I've simplified my view on what makes a quality life and what calls for levels of stress and worry. In 2007, I was a 20 year old that toggled between driving a Cadillac CTS and an Escalade. Deciding which of the two to drive to school was at times my hardest decision in life to make. I spent my spare time on eBay hunting down Jordan sneakers and Sean John jackets. Seriously. Go figure. These things used to make me happy and feel great. Now, luxury to me is just a distraction from the things that really matter. As a family, we are going through perhaps some of the toughest financial times my dad had ever imagined before immigrating to the United States. It's a mixture of what has happened after losing my mom as well as the overall take on the economy in the last decade. The stress from this has certainly peaked at times, but compared to the stress you deal with when you're losing somebody to cancer, these money problems have been cake.

In many ways, I've brought it (back) home. In the past two years, I've surrounded myself with family and cousins, mainly on my dad's side. During the first few years after my mom's death, I swam deep into my bubble in college to sustain a life of happiness. This helped to a degree, but three years of undergrad adventures can't compare to one night with the people who share your blood. Of course, I have found some life long friends in college - friends that I have grown closer to since graduating. But finally putting my family first, once and for all, has certainly been the crown. 

Living a simpler life, surrounded by family. So where do I go from here? In the past five years, I've managed to go on and finish college, start my career and find a loving and supporting partner. I've been truly blessed. From here, I'm focusing on my ability to contribute to the world through my vocation. I want to explore options on how to keep learning about the world and how it can be made better, particularly through business, for-profit ventures. Social enterprise. I want to live with full intention in my day to day, something that not many people my age can vouch that they do. My generation has found itself in an identity + purpose gap...for years now. Lots of people I know are stuck. Stuck at home. Stuck at their jobs. Stuck in bad relationships. To an extent, I sometimes feel like this too -- mid 20's entail that you've got your wheels all fired up, but nowhere to...go? This is my challenge moving forward. Surviving the storm, it's time to continue on building that foundation. 

My dad once wrote me in a letter for a spiritual retreat I attended last year: 

"What would your mom say to you right now? She would say "I'm so proud of what you have become today!" or "Don't get married yet, anak!" Haha..." 

Funny, and true.

I think if I had a chance to sit down with my mom today and tell her everything that's happened and everything that I want to do, she would simply remind me to pray about everything and strive to do my best. She would talk about how trying your best would keep you from worrying about any "what if's." She'd probably just tell me to simply...live my life today. She probably wouldn't totally understand my whole 'do-good-through-my-career' sabbatical, because doing good was already naturally part of her subconscious as a pediatrician; but she'd support it, whatever I choose to end up doing. We would probably talk about the whole debacle about USC and LMU - and by now, she would probably agree that LMU was the better choice. If not, I'd let her know how 8PM mass was probably one of my favorite things about college. And that alone would probably end that argument on the spot.

In the end, I'm pretty confident she'd be pretty happy how things have turned out, all in all.

I miss my mom terribly, but I know that her spirit has the chance of living through me. A spirit of family, simplicity and service to others. Hmm, looking at how my life has shaped up to be - that is no coincidence.

Me and mom, 1987

Next week, I'll be visiting my mom at the cemetery up in Palmdale with Leezel and some cousins. Yesterday, I bought some sky lanterns that I'm pretty excited to fire up and let go. Hopefully it's not too windy, as it usually is this time of year in Palmdale. If not, we'll have some kites to fly in the open field. That should be cool. Photos to come...

Seattle, what a pleasant surprise :)

For years, Seattle has been on my radar of cities that I've wanted to travel to. Whenever I would browse on Virgin America or Southwest during fare sales, I'd notice how inexpensive flying to Seattle from Los Angeles was. So in February, Leezel and I finally booked it. She had reasons to visit, one of them being a graduate program at Seattle University that she wanted to check out. I, of course, wanted to expand my list of cities that I've been to, so our trip to the pacific northwest ultimately made sense as our next adventure.

With each trip I take, I feel like I grow up a bit more. Since you tend to vividly remember the things you see and do while you venture off to new places, I never forget the new things that I get to experience each time. Quite often these are things that I experience because I feel like I'm ready to finally do it. Other times, it has to do with the reasons I find myself traveling. This time, my "new" experience was drinking on a plane, which would seem trivial or insignificant to many, but a moment that I savored to the very last drop. I've always gasped at the prices of drinks and cocktails while on board, but last Friday, all of the circumstances led me to happily do it. Leezel had a tough drive from San Diego, we barely made our flight. I was enjoying being able to watch the Laker game while we were flying (until they started losing.) We were scheduled to touch down in Seattle late, so we figured to make the most of the start of our vacation over wine, beer and a "protein plate." For $30, yes -- it was probably on the pricier side of things. But given how I was feeling, you tend to put your dollars where you get the most bang/memories out of vacation. After a stressful Friday, Leezel and I had a blast on our flight! Great way to start the weekend.

We got to Seattle at around 10PM and getting to downtown from the airport was extremely simple. We met up with Leezel's cousins at the hotel and called it a night. I realized over dinner that night and at breakfast the following morning that Seattle is a legit food destination. Everything I ate was super fresh. Noticeably more expensive, but after three super tasty meals, I stopped complaining. Even the street food was delicious. I have to say that I've eaten my best food while on vacation while in Seattle (tops Chicago, San Francisco, New York & Washington DC.) 

On Saturday, Leezel co-presented a workshop at the NWFASA conference (North Western Filipino American Student Alliance.) I'm always so proud of her when she goes out and does what she loves. It's always exciting to see her step out of the so-cal bubble and meet with people from all over the country/world. I was on my own Saturday morning, but made my way to the University of Washington where the conference was going on. I snapped this photo which became an instant classic. 

After the conference, Leezel and I met up with her co-presenter + friends for drinks. A lot of drinks. Seattle nightlife did not fail us in the Capitol Hill district. We met some cool people while we were out, mostly people who are connected in some way to the conference that was going on. It was a very fun night, indeed! 

With our tripmates Anna and Jomer at Havana

On Sunday, we did all of the touristy things you do in Seattle. Pike's Place Market, the Space Needle, the gum wall. I'm not as big on seeing all of the touristy things in a city as I used to be. Partly because planning to see everything is stressful and when you don't get to see everything, you turn out to be even more stressed. As I travel now, I'm so whatever about what I end up seeing and doing. As long as I am in great company and the food is delicious, I'll consider that to be a relaxing vacation. Here are some shots of things we did see though.

Hanging out on a beautiful day at
the Space Needle 

I offered Leezel twenty bucks to put her cheek
up on the wall and she did it! Just kidding.

My favorite part of the trip was meeting up with a good friend of mine from college. Dan and I were in the same service organization and though he is younger than me, he's always given so much inspiration. For the years we were at LMU, I enjoyed hearing Dan sing for the weekly 8PM mass. He also led our service org to develop a better spiritual component for its members. We happened to both be in Seattle on the same weekend (Dan attends a grad program in Independence) so we caught up over some mac and cheese at Beecher's Handmade Cheese and then coffee at the original starbucks. Dan and I never got to hang out in college though we were involved in many of the same things, I'm glad we made our debut this past weekend. :) 

Why so blurrry? =/ 

On Sunday, we made it to Seattle University for Leezel's campus tour. SU has such an LMU vibe to it, I felt like home. I felt kind of embarrassed that I only recently realized that it was a Jesuit school!  At that point, living in Seattle one day became an instant possibility -- especially with Leezel liking the program + campus. I never thought that I would say that Seattle would come out on top of New York, but after this past weekend...it did. I was kind of in shock as to how much we were liking the city. We walked from campus back to our hotel and enjoyed the amazing Sunday afternoon. It was at least 70 degrees without a cloud in the sky, their hottest day since September. I know, an anomaly in terms of Seattle weather, but since we were there we had to might as well enjoy it...over some ice cream.

Molly Moo's ice cream :D

Seattle was the most unexpected surprise. The sunny weather. The amazing food. The hip music along with the fantastic company. It was all enough to officially make this my favorite city that I have traveled to. Yes, it's true. I love Seattle. I'll be back plenty of more times. Maybe even live there. Yes, I just said that. I know, I can't believe it. Part of me wants to go back to experience a weekend of normal weather. But until then, and hopefully forever -- I'll remember Seattle to be as pleasant as it was when I first came to visit.

 

The Surge

I turn 25 this year. Quarter of a century. I've thought a lot about what I want to do for my birthday. Finally go skydiving. Maybe travel to New Orleans. At one point, I had a list of 25 for 25 - a rather audacious list of things to accomplish before October (ex: become fluent in Tagalog. O_o). I'm sure I'll do a number of things on that original list at some point, some of them maybe before my birthday. But recently, I've narrowed it down to what I want to do to top off twenty five years of youth.

For my 25th birthday, I want to live healthy. 

Yes, dare to say it. I have once again set the bar for another surge towards a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. I've heard many things about turning 25. Mostly about habits and lifestyles that become solidified around this time of your life. On one hand, I hear your tolerance of late nights and rowdy adventures begins to transition into classy and social encounters that happen only on occasion. I definitely noticed this on a family vacation with cousins earlier this year in Big Bear when the cabin that we all stayed at fell dead silent by midnight once people had had enough to drink and were ready for bed, yet the fridge and shelves of the cabin were still stocked with plenty of beer, wine and untouched hard alcohol. I was devastated! But enough said, this separate battle for longing youth is for another post.  It's the decisions about food, exercise and maintaining your health that I've heard becomes thickening like cement. It's like the tipping point of a decade of habit sets onto autopilot and become hard to change and mold later.  That sucks, so for this reason, I'm talking about my birthday as early as six months in advance.

Here's a look at where I'm at: I'm obese and have been fighting it for several years. In 2010, I was morbidly obese, which is a category of obesity that was created beyond the existing tiers of weight levels and implied that I was actively and surely contributing to a shorter life each and everyday I was weighing 200+ pounds. Years after I lost my mom to cancer, it hit me that obesity was a card that I dealt to myself with my own hands and went on to seriously change my life in I what I would write about as my War with Obesity. By the end of 2010, I was able to lose the morbidness out of my state of obesity. A year and a half has passed and I've maintained the same levels of weight. I've gained a few pounds here, while losing a few pounds there and as a result, I periodically slip back into and out of the most extreme form of being obese. I had realized that my lifestyle was lacking guidance and knowledge. I hadn't been challenging myself at the gym and things were becoming so utterly routine that my body was immune to any time that I was spending there. I had become complacent with my lifestyle that I had not only stopped watching what I was eating, but I also didn't know much about what I needed to be eating, either. So in January of this year, I teamed up with a great mentor of mine, Gary Dyogi who I meet with twice a week and discuss this now extended war on obesity. Gary trains me through efficient work outs as well as advises on my daily nutrition. Working with him has been super empowering. I feel more and more knowledgeable about the exercises that I do and what it takes to get better and live healthier. You see, getting healthy has never been an issue, yet sustaining good health has consistently been a personal challenge. It was a huge part of why I teamed up with Gary -- I wanted somebody to teach me the tools and information I needed to sustain a healthy life, not just accomplish one momentarily. 

The first month with Gary was slow and hard. I was getting schooled about exercise and nutrition. People think a personal trainer will solve all of your problems until you realize that you have to work just as hard. In fact, I didn't really feel that we were back in the fight until I took it upon myself to read up on everything Gary was telling me and plan out my own workouts and know exactly what I was eating. Slowly and surely, things came together. Last week, I ran my fastest ever 5K time, and the week before that I accomplished my infamous hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. What's even better is that my weight is no longer on a zigzag of gain-some-lose-some but instead on a steady downward trend and I am back to feeling healthier and healthier each passing week. 

My goal this year is for sustainability. In 2011, I got in shape through hard work, but lacked the knowledge needed to efficiently sustain my lifestyle. My eating habits did not adapt and my body was eager to grow back at each day I worked out less and less. There are differences in this new found surge: Knowledge, empowerment, motivation. I want to turn 25 with complete confidence that my habits of effortless weeks of inactivity and ignorant eating are forever shed. Thanks to a great coach/mentor, I should have what it takes.

I look forward to sharing my journey to blowing out the candles of a successful surge into the next quarter of my forever young life. :)