hear her RawrDianasaur

#sweatwithLA The night before, I estimated that commute would take 40-45 mins, locating parking and walking to the meetup would take 15 mins. What I didn't account for was me snoozing the alarm and oversleeping for almost an hour. Luckily my timeline previously was to be at Grand Park by 8am; the workouts would start promptly at 8:45 am. I pick up my friend, and of course it takes us more than 10 mins to actually find parking. Then we speed-walk to the original location of the meetup, but there's another event happening, so we speed-walk to another area of the park. We made it right when they were finishing up the yoga warmup. This was my first BBG meetup and also the first time doing the workouts in a group/workout buddy setting. Although my friend and I whined occasionally: "omgg my abs are on fire; wehh; what, still 2 more mins??" It was a great experience to see so many other girls working out and pushing themselves - that truly motivated me to work hard...

My blog took a summer break along with me... I miss the long summer days and being less busy though. I don't want my blog to disappear off to oblivion so I'm going to try putting content more often, (goal for now, once a week at least??) We'll see how it goes, I have to be better with time management, and also find a way to stay perky all day instead of just from 5am-1pm. But no worries! I've been eating healthy, drinking lots of water, trying to get in an appropriate amount of sleep each night, and also squeezing in my workouts. Thanks to this video, it has spurred me to come back to my blog and share it :D

On this day, I didn't feel like dressing up and just decided to stay casual. So I decided to make my gym apparel more exciting. I actually found this tribal print tank on sale at Pacsun , but it was a size too big. No big deal! Just wear a bandeau underneath, or in my case a sports bra, and knot it up on the side - make it knotty. heh heh I think this yoga pose is called the Toe Stand . Let me tell you, it was a bit of a challenge to keep my balance and does require concentration. But try it out, it's quite fun! ix. This pose kind of made me feel like a genie - "your wish is my command." ✨ A photo posted by DonutDiana (@rawrdianasaur) on Jun 11, 2015 at 4:19pm PDT

This week is definitely one of progress, or one that is more noticeable to me. It's very motivating! SO if you feel uninspired or sad that all your hard work isn't showing, just push through and continue on - working out consistently and being one step closer each time is better than quitting & regressing back to old habits. I truly think 3.5-4 weeks is the magic number . Tumblr agrees too (I used to think this was so cliche, but all cliches have a truth right) I actually didn't know about the 12 weeks part, but now that I think about, that's probably why Tony Horton's P90x is 90 days and Kayla Itsine's Bikini Body Guide is 12 weeks. It makes sense! Progress : Getting stronger by lifting is tying in extremely well with yoga practice! Forearm handstand and crow pose is coming through :) (Ludacris - Good Lovin) This is the first time I lifted my legs up against the wall. It has been one of my yoga insecurities and fear, but I was finally able to g...

I'm going to say... progress starts to show up around week 3-4 depending on extent of workouts and of course how you eat as well. But, consistency is definitely key. This is my abs pictures from the beginning of Week 4. ABS are peeking through! And I haven't been doing much ab work, although I have increased my cardio - been adding about 10 mins of cardio after lifting sessions & also sometimes doing quick cardio bursts in between sets. Furthermore, with lifting heavy and deadlifting, I'm made some back definition! heh was surprised when I was trying to tie up my hair and noticed my back. Awesome.

So yesterday (Sunday), I had a guiltless Carb day ! I made a sandwich, ate BBQ chips, chomped on Haagen Dazs, peeled at a sweet potato, gulped down sugary cereal with milk. The only thing I didn't get my grubby hands on was beer... :( Maybe I'll let myself have one this weekend. Though Sunday was guiltless and fun, I woke up today feeling a bit bloated. haah oh carbs, we had our fun, but now I am going to do KETO until V-day weekend. Wish me luck. It's only been one day and already a bit hard. But I realized today that chia seeds do indeed help curb hunger, especially since I've been a bit busy and didn't pack myself keto-friendly snacks. This morning I did Kayla Itsines Week 4 Monday Legs  workout, while fasted. Then afterwards I had a bit of fun practicing the forearm headstand. I'm apparently not too adventurous, nor reckless, cause I need the wall and also have the bed as a safeguard. HAHA, I'm so scared to bend over backwards and hurt myself. The...

I need to be more on point with my diet this week. The past weekend I had japchae, tortilla chips & spinach dips, ice cream, frosted mini wheats, and salt & vinegar chips; carbs were clearly my friend this weekend... I even took naps after snacking. HAHA leap one step forward, fall back two steps is the name of my progress  Monday did Fasted cardio: Week 2 Monday BBG. need more energy! Tuesday August vs Oct. hahah not much gains or losses. No time for fasted cardio but eventually ended up at LA fitness and got a 2 month pass. Not sure if I got an ok deal because my gut feeling for some reason is that I got hustled and rushed. -_- but oh well... I did really miss going to the gym tremendously and feel like I won't take the gym for granted. I think the winning factor for me personally was that I can actually jog/run/walk to this gym if I am so inclined to - Extra CARDIO :) I shall make this one of my month goals before it gets much too cold and/or rainy. Sinc...

Ok, So I've been a bit MIA this weekend because... * commence drumroll * I just had LASIK procedure done on Saturday morning! Oh man, I have to be honest, it was bit nerve-wrecking and scary but I swear practicing a bit of yoga meditation and calming breaths really helped. It was also great that my surgeon told me step-by-step what he was doing and what to expect while in a calming, encouraging manner. "It's going to go dark right about now" "Focus on the green flashing light" "You're doing great" "My assistant will be holding your hand at this next part" "That was the hardest part" (The part when you feel pressure and know they're cutting a flap on your cornea X.x Oh gawdddd) I pretty much slept all day and night of Saturday. It would've helped me tremendously if I saw the tylenol in the post-op kit... my eyes were stinging and they were tearing while I waited for the ambien to kick in. Yeupp. so...

Been watching  Chuck  and seeing the female protagonist, Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) do killer moves and kick ass with hand to hand combat. All of a sudden I want to learn martial arts and become a certified BADASS.   I think it would also be awesome to have the skill to use a stick, pole, katana, sword. >:) So, I am adding become a badass  into my goals. Pretty excited! Day 9 (Saturday) I woke up well-rested and decided I didn't want coffee! On days I feel a natural motivation I try to stray away from unnecessary caffeine. I heard caffeine addiction and withdrawals are not so cool. Anyways Saturday was supposed to be a SQUAT day but this day I realized it really means = do every other workout while waiting for the squat rack . I had a great workout sesh however: -wide grip lat pulldowns -close grip lat pulldowns -deadlifts -then finally some squats.  Unfortunally by the time I went to the squat rack I was a bit tired, understa...

I remember one of my professors told us that one summer she drank lemon water everyday, throughout the day. She lost about 10 lbs without trying (she’s already skinny too but active). She feared she had cancer or another disease, got checked out and found nothing abnormal. Her doctor and she concluded it was the lemon water that boosted her metabolism.  What’s funny was that the next day most of the girls in class had bottles of lemon water. I always forget about this, but I’m going to try to incorporate lemon water into my everyday lifestyle :). Try not to put added sugar or honey. Maybe if you don’t like the bitterness of just lemon water, you can squeeze lemon into green tea.  Oh ps: I saw this picture on yoga_girl's instagram and so I screenshot it to remind myself to drink lemon water. I would love love love to have her life. She is in love, optimistic, and shares her passion for life and yoga with everyone. I am not a yoga guru however... I am one of the most inflex...

As a kid I was always afraid of hurting myself or getting stuck in a position that I wouldn't be able to get out of (ie: putting leg behind head and not being able to return leg back to normal). I'd go on monkey bars and traverse across it, but I'd never go upside down on it. And at the pullup bars on the playground, I'd just hang on it and pretend to be a monkey, but I never attempted to do twirls on it.. haha I wonder why I had this fear, while I watched my childhood friends spin around? Ok anyways, I guess I gave that little intro to state that I have never conquered a handstand (unless you count handstands in a swimming pool.. but I think that's cheating). So I want to make handstands one of my goals this year. I have tried to be inverted and honestly, I think the head rush was just too intense and I had a headache for the longest time. I think I don't have the best circulation and maybe with gravity added to that, the oxygen and blood that could've ...

I think I have a pretty amazing data collection of food inspirations if I say so myself o:). OOh may I add a healthy  collection. One that I think could be so delicious, nutritious, appealing, and still not be calorically dense. However the con about that is that I forget what I have accumulated over time. I want to try to knock some off (at least one a week) my virtual to-do list. So I'm kind of having a sweet tooth yet I am too lazy to attempt the other ones that I have: I shall try to recreate a Raw banana split, so maybe watch out for that in a future post. I'm not sure the source of this picture but if it is yours and you'd like it removed please let me know. thank you. But here's how I might try to accomplish my version - soak chia seeds overnight in milk, cut a banana, and slice fruits, sprinkle granola & nuts, and if I had chocolate protein powder I'd mix that with milk or water and kind of use it like chocolate syrup. I also want to work on...

How inspirational is this?! Quick summary : Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran due to his paratrooping days in the Gulf War. For 14 years, he believed his doctors when they said he would never be able to walk unassisted. It seems like he wasn't really looking into losing weight but instead searched up yoga for pain-managing/easing. So at 47 years old weighing close to 300 pounds, Boorman discovered DDP yoga. And the yogi-founder is Diamond Dallas, a world champ wrestler who had turned to yoga when he hurt his spine which was supposed to end his career. all in all: Boorman lost 140 pounds in one year and was able to not only walk but run...... amazing! Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.” -Hippocrates, The Father of Medicin e 

Another benefit for exercising? Pain relief. Natural human pain relief. I'm quite fortunate in the fact that my monthly visits from the period doesn't usually bring about the unwanted pain and cramps. Actually the only discomfort I really get is more bloating and slight stomachaches that give me diarrhea (I think I would rather have that than constipation to be honest). I remember in middle school I used to have searing pain that would make me double up and just fall to the floor cringing. But that was luckily very rare for me, and I know some ladies have it pretty merciless. I guess I was pretty active in high school because of the stupid obligatory weekly mile runs in PE and also because I was on the swim team. So memories of cramps are very blurry. And college, walking around everywhere to get around made me mildly active.. :) However, I've had some obvious discomfort the past summer when I took a break from Insanity. I was shocked when I had cramps and I tried...