Workout Log Week #07

My Fridge

This is my fridge.... I try to eat low carb food, with high protein from lean chicken or salmon.

Boxing Headgear, Title Gel

I went to the OTM Pro Fight Shop in Corona to purchase a headgear.

OTM Pro Fight Shop

2410 Wardlow Road

Corona, CA 92880

They have quite a selection and cool guys to give advices. I tried a few of them and liked the TITLE GEL and the FAIRTEX. I finalized my choice on the TITLE GEL as it fitted my head better, although the FAIRTEX headgear was more fashionable.

Diet Recipe: French Chicken Salad ("salade au poulet")

In light of my low carb diet, I am eating salads for diner. This one is FABULOUS. That's a recipe I got from my stepfather Gerald who used to cook it anytime I visited him in his World Famous Gastronomy Region of Lyon, France. As a frenchman, he would pick the watercrest salad in his garden and add spicy leaves from Traxacum, which I replace with Arugula salad.

French Chicken Salad

Fresh baked chicken, no skin

Arugula Salad and/or Watercrest Salad

Avocado
Black olives (Greek Kalamata)
Sprout

Cherry Tomatoes
Chopped hard boiled egg.

1 clove of Garlic

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar
French Mustard (Grey Poupon or Maille)

Turmeric

Pepper

Salt

Why is this a good diet recipe?
Well, first it's delicious..... yum yum
Arugula and watercrest: Rich salad in nutrients we need to stay healthy
Avocado and Olive Oil: All the healthy fat you need in a low carb diet
Tomatoes: Antioxydant
Chicken: The Protein to grow your muscles
Turmeric: One of the most powerful antioxydant. It's a spice that does not alter the tast too much. It's not French as you may have guessed, but it's a smart healthy addition
Garlic: Prevents blood clots

Where I find the ingredients :
The majority of ingredients can be found in any supermarket.
Of course it's better if you buy them organic.
Watercrest: Trader Joe's
Arugula: I buy the "Baby Arugula" at Ralph's or Trader Joe's
Mustard: The Grey Poupon or Maille can be found at Ralph's and Albertson's
Turmeric: I'm sure it can be found at any Spice aisle at your grocery store. I got my organic Turmeric at Whole Foods.

Other French Chicken Recipes
http://www.marthastewart.com/315108/french-chicken-salad
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1939,153189-242192,00.html

First month: My monthly activity

My first month in the pursuit to reach a great body, this is my activity log.

I'm on top of Weight Lifting and Boxing. This is a lot of work and fun. However I realized that my running is low and that despite my low carbs eating, my weight has not decreased. I am going to increase my running because I know from experience that it drops my pounds.

Kudos to myself. I could make high intensity sports a part of my daily routine.

My Workout Log - Keeping track of the work at the gym

Keeping track of my program is something I try to focus especially. That's because the guys at the gym or bloggers claim it's a tangible way to see your progress

This article I found was useful:

http://www.articlesbase.com/mens-health-articles/how-to-stay-focused-and-motivated-in-the-gym-5086226.html

This one is for running but captures the same focus:

http://www.tips4running.com/Exercise-Journal.html

Review, the RunKeeper app on iPhone

While I'm trying to increase the running (despite all these internet chats where they say that you should not run+work out at the gym), I've been looking for an iPhone app to help me track my running.

I've been shopping around for a free app or low cost one, and I tried 2 or 3.
So far the RunKeeper (http://runkeeper.com/) app seems the best fit to me. I could customize it easily (no voice except at the end), and reports my run on a google map, that I can later access online. I disabled the sharing on Facebook, because honestly all my friends are bad ass runners and don't need to see my appaling running time, like this guy I know who just ran a 10K in 40 min, and I'm kinda behind those lucky-to-have-a-good-heart-and-pipes guys.

My only tip is to not start the runkeeper right off the bat once you're outside. This happens especially with low coverage areas like when I run in beautiful Marina Del Rey, close to the ocean.

In those rare cases, the GPS signal is poor and the app could not log my position, thus displaying goofy results that I had to delete. A oops moment from RunKeeper. But here's the solution :

The trick is to:

1- Wait a minute once you're outside

2- Launch Google maps which activates the GPS in the iPhone for a few seconds

3- After a few seconds, launch RunKeeper

I found out that this way, RunKeeper displays a good GPS signal and tracks efficiently my run.

Saturday workout and First Body Fat Assessment

I did a fat assessment at my gym today as it was free and I was curious to know how fat my lazy body was. The result is 16.7 % and that's something that I'm gonna be tracking every few months. I also heard that these machines are not super accurate.

it's been a good week overall. I could increase my weights

Pro Fight Shop, My Adidas Boxing Shoes

I searched for Boxing shoes for a little while. I went to the Adidas store on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica where they have all kind of Adidas equipment and to my own surprise they do not carry Boxing Shoes.

I went online to browse for reviews and found:

TITLE BOXING STORE

PRO FIGHT SHOP

I asked a few connoisseurs about brands and sizes etc... and they told me that having the boxing style shoes with the high supports is not helping to support ankles, more like a style thing. I was reluctant to buy online without trying them, so I went to the PRO FIGHT SHOP in Los Angeles to try them out:

PRO FIGHT SHOP 

1062 Vine Street

Hollywood, CA 90038

(323) 460-4600



Despite what some reviewers are claiming online, the Adidas boxing shoes are the same size as the regular street shoes, and I bought my size 9 boxing Adidas shoes, so do not pay attention to those claims, and try them out by yourself.

Overall the experience with the pro Fight Shop store was good, the guys were helpful and pretty responsive with my demands.