I have been getting up at 5 AM to eat my first breakfast (yes, I eat two breakfasts everyday) before my morning workout, and I have never felt so energetic at the crack of dawn my entire life. Here’s what I call “The Guinea Pig’s Hearty Blend”:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of old-fashion oats, cooked with fat-free milk
• 1 sliced banana
• 3 tablespoons of unsweetened apple sauce
• 3 tablespoons of low-fat or fat-free plain yogurt
• a small handful of sliced almonds
• 1 teaspoon of natural peanut butter

From the ingredients above, I get adequate amount of fiber-rich carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy fats to help me get through my triathlon training. “The Guinea Pig’s Hearty Blend” does not have a standard ingredients; I have actually used a variety of berries instead of the banana or changed the sliced almonds with chopped walnuts. So, use your imagination and come up with a hearty blend of your own. I promise your morning will be more pleasant and productive!

p.s.: If you are curious about what I eat for post-workout or second breakfast, please feel free to leave me a message and I shall get back to you.

With my triathlon two months away, I bought a new road bike last weekend to train riding on the road. Not only am I looking forward to my race in November, but I am also excited about riding my bike to wherever, such as work, grocery stores, outdoor restaurants, or Central Park, just to name a few. Although I had ridden bikes before, riding a road bike with more sophisticated gears has given me some troubles when going onto different terrains. While simply knowing to shift down when going uphill, vice versa, is not enough; I must shift the front- and back-gears altogether to prevent wearing out the cogs and chain. I forget the gears that I am riding on sometimes; therefore, I often interrupt my rides to adjust my gears to proper positions. Within the next two months, I hope to be able to shift the gears smoothly. Here’s a picture of me and my bike before I took it out for a spin in the Central Park.

Bike Model: Trek 1.2

I highly recommend you to buy a bicycle if you are still finding a way to stay active. After living in New York City for the past three months, I find driving or owning a car to be unnecessary and burdensome (350 bucks of parking tickets and towing fee within 3 weeks, speaking of bad luck). One of the advantages is that I can beat the rush hour by zig zagging through cars and buses. Although I was scared of the reckless city drivers in the beginning, I have gradually become accustomed to the crowded roads. If I can survive riding a bike in a busy city, you can definitely ride your way out too if you are determined. By the way, you don’t need a competition road bike like the one I have. A nice “lifestyle model” bike can be as inexpensive as costing only 200 bucks. So, wear the same pairs of jeans for couple more years and you will have the saving for a nice and smooth ride!

Because of all the hype on harmful effects from eating a pasta dish, carbohydrates turning into fats or creating high blood sugar level, just to name a few, some of us  wince  at the word  “pasta” whenever we look at a menu or recipe. I feared eating pasta and avoided the pasta aisle in the supermarket until I had trained myself to eat with moderation. Not only have I rediscovered different mouthwatering pasta dishes, but I have also learned to cook pasta with healthy ingredients, such as whole-wheat noodles, green vegetables, fresh tomatoes, low-fat or fat-free cheese,  etc.

Since I have been training harder recently for my triathlon race and spent a whole day helping my good friend moving into his new crib on Friday, I decided to look up a delicious pasta recipe from foodnetwork website and treat myself in this Labor Day evening.  I chose: Whole-Wheat Linguine with Vegetables and Ricotta

Here’s the list of my ingredients:

• 1 serving of linguine
• 1 handful of chopped tomatoes
• 1 handful of chopped green beans
• 1 handful of chopped broccoli
• 1  steamed artichoke
• 1/4 cups of chopped parsley
• 2  tablespoons of fat-free ricotta cheese

The process of making this pasta dish is simple. I basically sauteed boiled broccoli and green beans, a steamed artichoke, and tomatoes together for 10 minutes just to extract the tomato juice. Then I added cooked linguine and ricotta to finish the dish. I spent total 30 minutes preparing for the meal.

The key to stay healthy and fit while eating a pasta dish is to have a serving of any whole-wheat noodles cooked with healthy ingredients such as vegetables, herbs, low-fat (fat-free cheese), and lean meat if you choose to add some. Whole-wheat pasta contains a great amount of fibers, proteins, and vitamins. In addition, eat one serving prescribed from the pasta box and do not go overboard. Cook and eat smart, don’t miss out on one of the traditional favorites!

A warm and hearty plate of pasta dish ends my weekend on a high note. Now I am fueled with energy and ready for another week of grueling triathlon training.

Nothing beats having a gym to yourself. Recently, my friends and I decided to set up an office gym to keep ourselves active and refreshed at work. Our budget was a hundred bucks and they were more than enough to get ourselves some useful and simple equipments from Amazon. Here are the pictures of our new equipments along with some basic exercises that I have shown my friends:

Equipment: Chin-up Bar

Exercise: Pull-ups

Step 1: Get a firm grip on the bar and slowly pull yourself up. Stabilize your body while pulling up and going down. Good form is the key to this exercise in order to develop your upper body strength.

Step 2: Once you have pulled yourself all the way to the top, slowly lower yourself to the start position. Do not go down fast because you may strain your latissmus dorsi (back muscles).

Pull-ups are one of the best exercises that you can do on your own. Unless you are a bodybuilder who needs to maximize muscle size, it is unnecessary to beat yourself up in the gym with heavy weights. Anybody who is able to carry his or her own weight (from doing push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and etc) is considered strong and athletic.

Equipment: Stretch Core

Exercise: Flies

Step1: Engage your abdominal muscles to keep your upper body stabilized and bend your elbows at 90-degrees.

Step 2: Squeeze your chest slowly while bringing your hands together. Cross your hands until you feel a full contraction from your pectoralis (chest muscles).

Stretch core will give you back the same amount of the resistance that you exert on it; therefore, this equipment is very helpful in toning and strengthening your muscles.

Equipment: Body Ball and Medicine Ball

Exercise: Basic Crunches

Step 1: Engage your abdominal muscles, keep your hips pointing to the ceiling, and optional, you may hold a weight above your head. But make sure the weight is directly above your head so you can’t see it while lying on the stability ball.

Step 2: Keep a fist-distance between your chin and upper chest, then slowly crunch up by using your abdominal muscles solely. Keep your eyes on a fixed object to ensure a stabilized body position. Don’t forget to exhale on the way up and inhale on the way down. A perfect and effective crunch is done with a controlled body movement and breathing rhythm.

By doing basic crunches on a body ball (or call it a stability ball) will strengthen your core muscles faster and more effectively. You may experience an unbalanced and uncomfortable body position in the beginning, but I promise that your perseverance to gain stability on the ball will make you stronger.

As you can see, a set of basic exercise equipments does not cost a fortune, and it also gives you an easy access to a short and sweet workout session that you long for in your office or home. Staying fit requires consistency and with only couple clicks away on Amazon, you are one-third (another two-thirds requires you to set up and use the equipments on daily basis) of the way to stay active and healthy.

After couple years of learning to swim on my own, I can finally wiggle my way through the water without being breathless after every other lap. I have incorporated swimming into my cardiovascular training because I had developed knee pains from heavy squatting when I played sports competitively. Although I am still capable of jogging long distance and sprinting, I often need to take extra days off from doing weight-bearing exercises (e.g. jogging, playing basketball, soccer) after a long leg training session.

When I first started swimming, I was clumsy and ungraceful in the water; while the swimmers in other lanes were moving through the water effortlessly, I was struggling to catch my breath after a mere 25 meters (half a lap). Since then, I have been doing research on proper freestyle techniques and asking for advice. Still, nothing works better than jumping into the water and honing your strokes, kicks, and body coordination.

After nearly two years of struggle, I have improved my flexibility and coordination. But I have hit a plateau and can not swim any faster. Recently, I have made a valuable discovery about my incorrect head position and increased my speed and distance swum dramatically by lifting my head above the water surface by several more inches. Since my adjustment, I have been able to train for longer.

Here’s a list of techniques and tips that I have learned in the past two years:

1. rotate hips while moving forward in the water
2. rotate shoulders when going from one stroke to the next
3. keep the legs straight while kicking and generate power from lower abdominal muscles and hips
4. reach the arm out as far as possible when doing a stroke, like trying to reach for a piece of chocolate cake at the dinner table
5. push the chest downward in order to keep the body afloat
6. keep part of the head above the water surface that allows a clear front vision

With my triathlon coming up in less than three months, I hope to build on my improvements and reach my goal, finishing my race within 1 hour and 30 minutes.

My daily workout for today was swimming for 60 minutes and I logged in 70 laps (50 meters per lap) total.

If you happen to be a great swimmer, or know a bit about swimming, feel free to leave me some advice and tips. I’d greatly appreciate your help.

Many people, including me, are afraid of cheese because of its high-fat content. A serving of 1 oz. fresh mozzarella has 4 grams of saturated fats. However, cheese is one of my favorite foods. To resolve my craving for the soft and mild Italian cheese, I decided to make a fresh mozzarella salad with tomatoes and basil the other day. To stay within my strict diet plan, I followed the old wisdom - “everything in moderation”. Below is the recipe for my mozzarella salad:

• three 1/4-inch slices of fresh mozzarella cheese
• a handful of baby arugula
• a handful of freshly cubed tomatoes
• a handful of fresh basil leaves
• a handful of sliced seedless cucumber

Dressing: lime juice
Side dish: 3 slices of 1-inch thick whole wheat baguette

I can’t emphasize enough about the importance of eating in moderation. Although the size of the salad is tiny, you may add an apple or orange to the meal to further enhance the balance of your diet. Since I started eating everything in moderation, I have been able to savor my palate by adding cheese to my dish occasionally. Go ahead, add a serving of sharp cheddar to your healthy omelette (but I better not see any bacon or sausage in it), and you will still feel healthy.

Just like many of you, I work overtime sometimes. When I work overtime, the last thing I want to do is to spend extra dollars on unhealthy take-out or over-priced salad. I would rather prepare a fresh and simple meal the night before. Trust me, a trip to the grocery store is worth it considering the amount of food you can make for yourself. You can get more than one meal out of it and also enjoy the benefit of staying on a healthy diet.

I took my 20-minute trip to the supermarket yesterday after work. Since I love salad so much, I decided to make a simple Greek Chicken Salad to bring to work the next day. I picked out some traditional Greek Salad ingredients: red onion, olives, cherry tomatoes, chick peas, and feta cheese. I substituted Romaine lettuce with Baby spinach because I bought a huge bag of spinach from Costco the other day. Here’s the recipe for my Greek Chicken Salad.

• A handful of Baby spinach
• A quarter of sliced red onion
• A handful of Cherry tomatoes
• A handful of canned black olives
• 6 1-centimeter by 1-centimeter cubed feta cheese
• A handful of chick peas
• 3 oz. of grilled chicken breast

Dressing: I like my dressing simple and light. I squeezed half of a lemon and lime and added some freshly cracked pepper.

Total Prep Time: 10 minutes…fast and easy! And you’ll be ready for the extra hours in the office! By the way, don’t forget your carbohydrates (you heard me) - put two slices of whole wheat baguette or any whole wheat/grain bread on the side. I packed everything into a Tupperware container and brought it to the office.

* If you or someone you know has a membership to Costco, I highly recommend getting some vegetables there because they carry fresh produce and you get more than you pay for. Extra vegetables, wilted spinach, boiled broccoli or asparagus, will help you fight hunger later at night if you feel hungry.

Now…let’s move onto Circuit Training, another type of training that is designed for muscular endurance and constitutes low weight and high repetitions. Here’s my newly designed Circuit Training over the weekend:

• Bench Press: 115 lbs.
• Squat: 95 lbs.
• Should Press: 95 lbs.
• Lunges: 95 lbs.
• One-Arm Bend-over Row: 35 lbs. dumbbell
• Calf Raise: 130 lbs. on universal machine

I finished the above exercises in the given order. I did one exercise for one set then move onto the next one, from Bench Press down to Calf Raise. I keep the repetitions at 10 for each exercise and I repeat the same order three times, like in a circuit. At the end of the workout, I also did two sets of ten Pull-Ups and one set of twenty Front-Dips. The key to an efficient and effective Circuit Training is to shorten the breaks between exercises and train with elevated heart rate at 50 to 70 % of the maximum heart rate. (Max. Heart Rate: 220 - age)

Go ahead, give it a try!

I am a human being; I love pizza just as much as the person who sits next to me in the office…or a bar (still not touching alcoholic beverages until I finish my triathlon race). However, as some of us know, eating pizza can prevent us from losing the extra layer of fats that we have tried to get rid of since seeing Brad Pitt in “Fight Club” or Heidi Klum in Victoria’s Secret runway show. However, I went to Una Pizza Napoletana, known for its authentic Napoletana pizza, down in the East Village of New York City, and I have never felt so healthy eating a whole 12″ pizza.

First, I want to emphasize the authenticity of Napoletana pizza. After doing some research online on pizza’s history, I have learned that Naples, Italy, is the birth place of pizza. Napoletana pizza is created with pure flour, Sicilian sea salt, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella di bufala; these ingredients are the finest. The flour, neither enriched, bleached, nor bromated, is made from grounding wheat berries by stone and mixed with Sicilian sea salt. Mozzarella di bufala is made from real buffalo milk, which is imported from Italy by Una Pizza Napoletana. San Marzano tomatoes are rare and have sweet and tangy flavor that give the pizza a balanced flavor. San Marzano tomatoes are one of the finest because they are grown in rich volcanic soil that acts as a filter for impurities. Last, but not least, a Napoletana pizza is not complete without extra-virgin olive oil from southern Italy. I am not an expert on extra-virgin olive oil, but I sure could tell the great quality of the oil when I bit into the pizza and tasted the sweetness of the drippings.

What’s not to like about this pizza? The best kind of dough made from pure flour, which contains plenty of fiber, freshest mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and extra-virgin olive oil that fights bad cholesterol. Finally, after eating a whole 12″ pie by myself, I wasn’t feeling stuffed and left the place satisfied. I highly recommend a visit to Una Pizza Napoletana if you happen to be in New York City. But here’s the catch, the restaurant is only open from Thursday to Sunday, from 5 PM until the chef runs out of the dough. So, you may want to be creative about your dinner plan if you would like to dine in this fabulous pizza joint.

By the way, if you’d like to join me for a trip to Una Pizza, leave me a message, I will be glad to mark it down on my calender and get off work early for a pie of healthy and authentic pizza.

Since I received my heart rate monitor a couple weeks ago, I have been monitoring my heart rate obsessively. I find checking my heart rate every minute to be fun and challenging. Challenging…why? Because the fitter you are, the lower the resting heart rate you have. Therefore, I try to keep my heart rate low in the morning before I go to the gym by sitting still on the couch while watching ESPN news. I get the thrill of seeing my resting heart rate fluctuating between 54 to 56 beats per minute. Enough said…why did I get the heart rate monitor in the first place?

Heart rate monitor helps me target my exercise heart rate, 70 to 80% of my maximum heart rate, which is estimated by 220 - 22 (220 - your age, if you want to estimate your maximum heart rate). Knowing your exercise heart rate will help you perform your workout more efficiently and effectively. As I might have mentioned in one of the previous entries, average-fit person should exercise at about 70% (moderate intensity) of his or her maximum heart rate. By monitoring your heart rate, you ensure that you don’t over-exercise that can cause injuries or under-exercise, which would be wasting your energy and time.

I purchased the Polar RS100 model heart rate monitor from Amazon.com, which cost me about 110.00 dollars with super saver free shipping. My heart rate monitor also provides other functions such as setting my own caloric expenditure goal, warm-up heart rate zone, etc. ( I haven’t even figured out half of the functions given in this piece of technology.) However, spending 110.00 dollars on a heart rate monitor is unnecessary according to your exercise goals, you may look up cheaper Polar monitors that range from 60 to 70 dollars. Trust me, your own health and enjoyment from exercising are worthy of at least 60 dollars if you cut down the hot dogs and sodas that you buy at the ballparks or movies.