A Personal Trainer in the Making

I am so excited to say that I have signed up to a Personal Trainer & Fitness Instructor course. I'm starting in June and will be qualified in October.  I've enrolled with Premier Training International, one of the best organisations for fitness courses. I thought to myself "If I want to do it, I got to do it with the best organisation". 

I've enrolled to the part-time course otherwise I would have been qualified in 6 weeks which I think might be too intense and plus I work full-time so wouldn't fit my schedule anyway. 

I actually have been thinking about doing this since 2010 but I gave myself a lot of excuses, like "I don't have the money", " I don't have the time", "It's too expensive", "The course is too long", etc. Thinking back, I could have easily become a personal trainer if I didn't think too much about it. Anyways my attitude has now changed. I thought to myself "Rather than wishing I could be a personal trainer why not just become one? Screw it, just do it!" My drive is also stronger now due to my passion for fitness have grown so much. I absolutely love fitness and love training people. I love to help and encourage people to get into fitness and achieve their fitness goals. 

Am I thinking of doing this as a full-time career? As much as I love fitness, I wouldn't do this full time. I just want to do this part-time on the side. I don't want to work in a gym, I was thinking of doing private lessons in the park or people who goes to my gym. I haven't really figured it out yet but first I need to my qualification and then Premier will educate me about the career options. Although I don't want to work in a gym but I would love to open my own one! 

I cannot wait to start!! So if anyone would like to be my early-bird client, drop me message :D

{Recipe} First Breakfast in 2015- Oatmeal Crepes

Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a good New Years Eve. Mine was boring because I wasn't feeling well and so went to bed after watching the fireworks on TV. Anyways this morning felt like making some of my healthy pancakes since I haven't made some in a while.

As I was getting all the ingredients ready I realised I didn't have any baking powder so I decided to make crepes instead. I opened the fridge and there was no milk!! Since I was in the mood of making pancake/crepes, there was no way I was going to scrap the idea. I wanted pancakes! So then I decided to try making crepes with water. In fact it turned out really well.


Ingredients (all measurements are an estimate):
- 1/2 cup of rolled out oats
- 300 ml of water
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp of cinnamon powder (optional)

Method:

Put all ingredients into a blender. I was worried the water will make the batter too runny so I added chia seeds to make the batter a bit thicker.

Heat a non-stick pan with a bit oil. Pour a bit of mixture into the pan. Cook each side for about 1 minute. Enjoy flipping the crepes!

This recipe makes about 8 crepes. The crepes are bit brown because I added cinnamon powder to the batter. I love cinnamon!

I felt like having chocolate spread with banana so I melted some dark chocolate on a double boiler.

Voila! Healthy oatmeal crepes was my first breakfast of 2015. What was your first breakfast?

Lean Challenge Complete- The Result?

Hi guys, its the end of my Lean Challenge! I was meant to blog the results two days ago but didn't have the time. Just a recap, two weeks ago I put myself on a Lean Challenge and I wanted to see how much my body can change in that period with more intense workout and cleaner eating (cutting white carbs out). 

Below is a collage I made of my abs Picture on the left is Day 1, stomach is flat but not defined. Middle picture day 8,  the abs are showing a little and the last one was taken yesterday, day 14. Have I achieved my abs goal? Sort of, a little more fat could be lost on the sides. We girls are never satisfied lol. Yes, I like wearing yellow to workout lol.

Here's another collage of my arm. Picture on the left is Day 1 and the right picture is Day 14. Not much of a big difference but the deltoid (the shoulder muscle) is more defined.

Here's me flexing my arm lol. I got some muscles in my arms. Yay!

You know when you hear celebrities saying how they lost weight in as little as 2 weeks or 7 days it sounds almost impossible to shape up so quick. But after my challenge, I believe you can. I think I would have got even better results if I worked out every day and more cardio. It does take a lot of commitment.

What exactly did I do to get more lean?

• Warm lemon water every morning on empty stomach; Warm lemon water is known to help reduce belly fat and detox. After a couple of days drinking it, I felt cleaner and my skin got clearer too.

• Green smoothie every morning: Green smoothie is also good for cleansing your body and improve your digestive system. I used quite a lot of spinach and kale. One of my favourite green smoothie is:

- handful of spinach

- handful of kale

- 1 banana

- 1 cup of pineapple

- 1-2 tbp baobab powder

- 1 cup of milk (any type of milk) or water.

• NO white carbs: I replaced rice with quinoa, bulgar wheat and a mixture brown, wild and black rice, I had wholewheat pasta once but didn't like the texture. Quinoa and bulgar wheat are very good alternatives to rice and plus I've never really been a fan of rice.

• Increase protein intake: This does not mean have protein shake every day, you can if you want. I don't like all those artificial protein powder, I get natural ones like soya, hemp, pea protein powder. The ones the that only contain ingredients that you can pronounce and only has 1-3 ingredients. Other ways of increasing your protein intake are the food you eat. As mentioned I had quinoa and bulgar wheat more often, these are high in protein. I also had 2 eggs every other morning, that's pure protein. I added baobab powder to all my smoothies as they are a rich source of protein as well. Then there are also nuts, seeds, diary and tofu.

• Increase fiber intake: More green leaf vegetables. 

• Workout a least 5 times week- cardio PLUS weight training: I used to work out 3 times a week and only did 45 minutes of cardio once a week, the rest was just weight training. This time I went running in the park more often and I found that running on hard ground works your abs more than running on the treadmill. 

I definitely have lost some belly fat. A few weeks ago, when I sat down and sucked my stomach in I could feel the belly fold but now it doesn't fold. Lol.

Below is a selfie I took in Jane Norman. lol. I bought this dress as a birthday gift for myself. Ladies, don't be afraid of lifting weights. You won't bulk up, lifting weights actually help you burn fat. I mean, do I look bulky to you? I've been lifting weights for almost 2 years now.

It's the end of the challenge but doesn't mean I'm going to eat all white carbs again and work out less...because I still haven't achieved the body I want. I'm going to maintain this regime. I remember seeing this quote from the Facebook group called Fitness Divas, 'This is not a quick fix, it's a permanent change.' That's right!

Thanks for reading!

Have you ever put yourself on a similar challenge to mine? How was the result? 

Lean Challenge Day 8 & 9- progress

Hello my lovely readers! As promised, here is a photo of my abs after a week of clean eating and intense workout.  Left photo is day 1 of the challenge and the right photo is Day 8 (yesterday). The abs are definitely coming along, I didn't take a photo of my arms because I didn't think they changed much. Three more days till my birthday, lets see how much my body will change by then.

Left: Day 1 Right: Day 8

I took the photo after my workout which was my usual hardcore Monday workout; weight training and spinning. I changed it round this week, went spinning first then did 45 mins of weight training. The main reason was because I could't get out of bed. I went to bed late on Sunday as I was watching some Hong Kong drama, they can be quite addictive lol.

I think I've fallen in love with green smoothies now, I don't feel complete if I don't have it during the day. I had this before my workout; a handful of spinach, a cup of fresh pineapples, 1 banana, 1 tbp of baobab powder, 1 cup of oat milk, 1 tbsp of maca powder ( for extra energy boost).  I had the same one this morning, tasted so goooood!!

I cooked dinner for my family last night. My parents used to always complain how I don't cook Chinese but Western food only, i.e. pasta. I have now showed them that I have upgraded my cooking skills lol.
I made steamed salmon where I topped it with spring onions and drizzled with some cooked sunflower oil and soya sauce. The dish on the left is stir fried tofu with diced chicken, red pepper, black fungus and green beans. Again I added my favourite Shaoxing cooking wine to this. The last one is just some plain boiled green leaves. I'm not sure what they are called in English, kan choi? This is a typical Chinese meal where it will consist of steamed fish, boiled vegetables and a stir fried dish.

No this is not rice or brown rice, it's bulgar wheat. I had this instead of rice but I cooked my family a mixture of red, black, white and brown rice. My first time cooking and having bulgar wheay.  I think I cooked it with too much water because it turned out quite soggy. This was so filling and tastes better than quinoa.

Day 9 which is today, I didn't workout. But I will do another hardcore session tomorrow to make up for it. I might do some leg raises and 100 squats before bed tonight. :)

My lunch and dinner. Made a big pot of whole wheat pasta with calamari, prawns and mussels in tomato sauce.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Lean challenge Day 5, 6 and 7

Hi guys, this weekend has gone so fast. Hope you all had a good one and enjoyed the lovely weather.

Have I been slacking with my challenge? Not with food but yes with working out. Only a little bit though hehe. I didn't workout on Friday as I thought I need to let my body rest =). I went for a run in the hilly park on Saturday morning (running on an incline is good right? That's twice the workout. lol)  followed by 100 squats and today I did this little exercise that was suggested by Yogababe_life. This exercise looks simple but the burpees makes you sweat and those push ups are a killer if you have weak arms. 20 squats was too little for me so I did 40 instead.

I didn't get round to making a green smoothie on Friday. But Saturday I made a green shake.

The shake had:

- handful of spinach

- 1/2 a pineapple,

-1 cup of oat milk

- 1 tsp of baobab powder. 

Today I made the same thing with the other half of the pineapple but added a banana to it. It tasted even better! I even decorated it with some gojiberries, milled sesame seeds, raspberries and blueberries. Do you think it looks pretty? lol

I've been having a lot of tomatoes this weekend as my parents went to the market and bought a box of yellow cherry tomatoes for £1. Yes £1! They also got a bag of red peppers for £1 too.

With the cherry tomatoes my dad made a tomato stew topped with stir fried egg. This was lovely, the tomatoes were really sweet. 

My dad made tomato stew again on Saturday. Other dishes he made were (top right) pan fried salmon with red peppers, stir fried mixed vegetables in some salty beancurd sauce (not sure what it's called in English), and some chicken wings. I've never been a fan of chicken wings so I didn't have any and plus they are too fatty for my lean challenge. 

With the cherry tomatoes and red peppers I added them to my quinoa salad which also had grilled halloumi cheese, corn on cob (I scrapped it off the cob), edamame beans, sunflower seeds and almond nuts. This was lovely, no need for salad dressing as the corns were really sweet. 

Today, I made pasta (whole meal) with tomato and spinach sauce for lunch. Made the sauce with a bit of white wine; wine has become a favourite ingredient when it comes to cooking. For Chinese food, I love adding Shaoxing cooking wine (Taiwanese cooking wine) to my stir fried dishes, it adds amazing flavour and aroma to the food. 

I've been baking over the weekend. Saturday, I made cinnamon buns. I found a vegan recipe and 

no rising time is required. I made it half organic (half of the ingredients are organic lol) and used wholemeal flour instead of white.

The photo below is split into two. The top half is before baking, the bottom is after baking. Not sure what you think of the presentation but if you think it looks good, you've been deceived by the looks lol. They were rock hard. I think I must have over baked it. However, it tasted ok though. 

Sunday, I decided to make quiche. I found this crustless quiche recipe from Celery and Cupcakes. I found it a bit too eggy for me, my brother said it tasted like food on the aeroplane but my dad happened to like it. 

Tomorrow is Monday that means it's hardcore workout day- weight training and spinning-, it also means I will show you the progress of my abs and arms. Lol.

What you been up to during the weekend? Have you made cinnamon buns or/and quiche before? Can you share your recipe please? :) 

Lean Challenge Day 3

Hi guys, hope your week has been good so far, if not hakuna Matata lol. Anyways, I want to show you a little progress on my lean challenge today.

As usual I made myself a glass of warm lemon and water and a green smoothie before hitting the gym. Today's green smoothie was so yummy, made it with 1 banana, a handful of kale, 1/2 pomegranate, 1 pear, 1 tbsp of baobab powder, 1 tbsp of chia seeds and 1 cup of water. It was so creamy and sweet. If you're a beginner to green smoothie, add banana it will sweeten it up for you. 

Today's workout was great, not that it isn't usually. I started with 15 minutes warm up on the stair machine or whatever you call it. I love that machine. Then did a whole body workout lifting weights. I said that I'm doing a squat challenge by adding 20 reps everyday and so today I did 80.

It took me about 1 hr 10 mins. I wanted to go spinning after but had a meeting at 1pm so didn't have time.

Below is a little progress. The abs are coming! I may need to do more work on my waist though.

After gym, I made a protein shake with the last scoop of hemp protein powder, 250ml of unsweetened soya milk, a handful of almond nuts and 1 tbsp of baobab powder. For real food, I had bowl of natural plain yoghurt with gojiberries, sunflower seeds, 1/2 pomegranate, granola and honey. 

Didn't really have lunch since I had a meeting at 1pm and didn't finish until 2:30pm. I just had a 9 bar and some fruits when I got to my boyfriend's. When I took a photo of this, my boyfriend told me to stop taking photos of food. Lol 

I know I said I will have bulgar wheat instead of quinoa but decided to not to. For dinner I made quinoa and mixed it with some roast sweet potatoes and feta cheese. It was lovely!!!

My boyfriend is tempting me with some apple toffee crumble for dessert. It's only small though. Shall I or shall I not? 

Lean Challenge Day 2

Hi guys, it's day 2 of my lean challenge. I must say I had a good workout yesterday, I woke up with pains in my back muscles and upper abs and severe pains on my bum, back of my thighs and inner thighs. I almost gave myself an excuse to skip the workout today but I didn't. Instead I decided to do a lighter workout. See below. I know 2 laps is rubbish  but it's better than nothing lol. I wanted to fit in some squats but my bum and thigh muscles were hurting so much so I thought I'll let that booty rest.

I'm getting better with pull ups but I still need a BIT of assistant, just a bit =p. I hope I can do it all by myself after 2 weeks of training.

Last night dinner, I made sure it consisted of protein protein protein and green green green vegetables. I made stir fried turkey breast with aubergine and boiled some choi sum. My dad made some pan fried fish, I skipped that because he used a lot of oil to cook it. No I lied, I had a bite of it because the sauce he made with it looked really good. A bite won't hurt lol. As you may know, Chinese people have rice for dinner almost everyday but I had a bowl of quinoa. XD

Today's breakfast was pretty boring, it consisted of a green smoothie, warm lemon water and a wholemeal bap with 2 egg whites. 

 The green smoothie wasn't very tasty today, no berries to sweeten it up. A handful of kale, 1/4 of cucumber, 1 small green apple, 2 tbsp of aloe vera juice, 1 tbsp of baobab powder and 1/2 cup of water. This is my first time having kale.

For lunch I made a "superfood" salad; green leaves with edamane beans, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, quinoa, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese.

I forgot to take a photo of my dinner tonight. It consisted of quinoa a-gain (I think I'm going to dislike quinoa by the end of this week. In fact I will have bulgar wheat instead tomorrow lol). I made some beef and vegetables stew to go with it. 

Goals for tomorrow

I am planning to do:

- 80 Squats

- 60 leg press

- 30 bridges

- 60 lat pull downs

-20 pull ups

20 dips

- 60 leg raises

- 20 press ups. 

- Maybe 45 mins of spinning....

Do you think that's enough? Can you make some suggestions for me please? Have you got any good quinoa recipes?

Lean Challenge Day 1

Hi guys! My birthday is in 2 weeks time and I decided to put myself on a challenge (I call it the Lean Challenge) during this period. I want to see how much my body will change, how lean I can get with 2 weeks of clean eating and intense workout (cardio +  weight training).

I eat relatively healthy anyway so I'm not making any major changes to my diet but I do have quite a lot of white carbs. I want to cut out white carbs totally for 2 weeks and replace that with whole grain like quinoa, bulgar wheat, wild rice, etc.  Also, increase the amount of green vegetables to my meals. I think I will make a green smoothie everyday.

I usually workout about 3-4 times a week (spinning once a week and weight training twice a week), I want to increase that to at least 6 times a week. I'm going to do the squat challenge; add 20 reps each day. Basically my goal is to be proper lean; nice ripped abs, sculpt arms and legs, smaller waist and a perkier bum. I want to be like the lady in the picture below. I got that photo from a Facebook group called Fitness Divas, their pictures motivate me.

Lean Challenge Day 1- Monday

For breakfast I made a light breakfast but packed with energy. A glass of warm lemon water, pre-workout shake (1 banana, 1 tspn maca powder, 1 tspn baobab powder, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, 1 tbsp of peanut butter and 1 1/2 cup of soya milk), a fried egg with some grated cheese on top.

I have a flat stomach but no abs. I tell you when I have abs. In the morning when I haven't eaten anything. My arms are getting there but need to be more defined. Anyways this is day 1, lets see how much I will change after 2 weeks. 

Today's workout routine. Initially I wanted to do 60 rep of squats with the bar but when I got to 15 I was struggling. lol. I forgot to mention, I was holding a 3kg medicine ball while doing the walking lunges. Lat pull down I lifted 19kg.

Here's me after the intense workout. My abs were sweating, can you see the sweat marks on my top?

As I said earlier, I will have a green smoothie daily. So here it is; a handful spinach, 1 small green apple, 2 tbsp of aloe vera juice, 1 tsp of baobab powder, about  6 almond nuts, 1/4 of cucumber and 1/2 cup of water.

Here's my lunch/ post workout meal. Quinoa, 2 boiled egg, half pomegranate, lettuce, cherry tomatoes. I squeezed a bit of lemon juice and a tsp of cider vinegar for the dressing. 

I will let you know what I had for dinner tomorrow. :) Thanks for reading!!

What kind of challenge have you put yourself? What is your workout regime like?

Friday Home Workout and Pancakes

Happy Friday Lovelies! I've never really been excited about Fridays like everyone else because I don't work during the week but weekends instead. But I'm still a happy bunny whether its Friday or not. The UK weather seems to be better, more sunshine and a bit warmer. Feels more like autumn now.

Today, I didn't go gym in the morning but did a home workout instead. Since I don't have weights at home I tried to make my workout as hard as possible. I didn't eat, I just had a glass of warm lemon water prior the workout

Home workout

• 2 sets of 20 jumping jacks as a warm up. 
• 20 minutes of ab work out. 2 sets of 20 reps of each of the following exercise; sit ups, hip thrusts, pendulums, reverse crunches, full vertical crunches. (Oh sugar! I just remembered I forgot to do my favourite leg raises lol)
• Another 10 jumping jacks
• 10 burpees with push-ups
• 10 kneeling push-ups
• 10 jumping squats and 70 regular squats- all in one go.

After the workout I was starving so I made myself some protein pancakes! Yes, I love pancakes and I always experiment with different ingredients. So today I made "Silken Tofu and Banana Pancakes", it was so yummy!

What you need:

• 1 cup of silken tofu
• 1 cup of spelt four (or whatever flour you prefer)
• 1/2 cup of soya milk
• 1 banana
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 tsp of sugar or other types of sweetener (I didn't use any sweetener because the soya milk I used was sweetened already)
• 1 tbsp rolled out oat (optional)

Method:
Blend everything together apart from the oats, add them to the batter later; this will give the pancakes some texture. I also added sunflower seeds to mine for extra crunchiness, add them after when you've poured the batter into the pan.

Once the pancake starts to bubble, it means its ready to be flipped over. I'll say cook each side for about 2 minutes on low heat. The first pancake is always the ugly one.

Have you seen any of those vegetables? I found them in Morrisons, how cool are they? White aubergine, Sicilian aubergine and yellow courgettes. I didn't buy any of them, not sure why but I will next time. I'm curious about the taste. It seems like supermarkets are selling more exotic vegetables now to differentiate themselves.

Have you made pancakes with Tofu before? What exotic vegetables do you usually eat?

A Good Start to the Week

Hi hi my lovelies! I started this week with a hardcore morning workout. It always feels extra great to be sweating on a Monday morning, it feels like a fresh start as if you're sweating out all the bad stuff you had during week. Do you feel like that?

I did 1.15 hour of weight training concentrating on my core muscles and upper body and then 45 minutes of spinning straight after. To ensure I can last throughout the whole intense workout I made a super protein milkshake; silken tofu, soya milk, hemp protein powder (the green stuff), manuka honey and banana.

Weight Training:
Upper Body

• Started off with 50 reps of lat pull down- all in one go
• 2 sets of 30 power cleans
• 2 sets of 30 curls with dumbbells in each hand
• 2 sets of 30 shoulder exercise- I don't know what you call this, but you hold the bar with both hands in the middle and pull up to your chest. 
• 2 sets of 10 pull ups- weight assisted, still not able to lift my own body weight. Arghh!!

Core Muscles

• 50 reps of leg raises-all in one go (it felt good that I was working my lower abs. It's so hard for me to get my lower abs in shape)
• 50 reps of bicycle crunches
• 50 reps of Russian twists with 3kg medicine ball
• 2x 1 minute planks

Cardio- Spinning

I wanted to challenge myself by doing an intense cardio session straight after weight training. To save myself some energy for this I didn't do any leg workout prior to spinning as you've probably noticed.

I didn't think I could do it but I did. I managed to keep up with the resistance, the jumps and standing. However, I couldn't sprint like I normally do. In fact, half the class wasn't doing very well either today. I think its to do with the music, it does play a big role in workout like this. I just wasn't feeling the music today. To push all of us, the instructor had to get off her bike, stood in the middle and shouted at the top of her lungs saying, "COME ON!! FASTER FASTER. YOU CAN DO IT!!" That did work a bit.

After the workout, I was exhausted but felt good!

How did you start your week? Did you workout today? Any suggestions for other intense workout?