Way of Gray My New Way of Life

If you have read my previous post, I talked about how I have completed Insanity. The day right after my last workout (which was yesterday) I wanted to take a rest day. During my rest day I was still contemplating on what workout program I should do next. I was in between Cha Lean Extreme, or Blogilates, or Way of Gray. Again from my previous post I mentioned how I have already done Blogilates which has given me great results! But I wanted to try something new and different. Since the home workout programs from Beach Body didn’t give me the best results that I would have like, I decided to go with the Way of Gray. HOWEVER, I wasn’t entirely sure how her workout program was set up. You don’t buy a CD and pop it in a DVD player, you purchase an E-Book and download a PDF file. But I thought to myself, okay, well, what if you don’t know how to do the moves correctly? Thankfully, Sophie, the owner of Way of Gray, lets you download a free e-book to test out the workouts to see if you would like it or not. And in the PDF file there is a link you can click on under the moves where it’ll direct you to her youtube video demonstrating the workout moves. Now I usually like to take a peek of the workouts before I do them so I can get an idea of how it works or what to expect. So last night after I downloaded the free Way of Gray ebook on her website http://www.wayofgray.com, I was just looking over the first workout and would try to do them to see if I find them doable. In my head I know I can do these 3 workouts for the Warm Up however when I was actually trying to do them, PHEW! Action really speaks louder than words. After trying to do just one round, I was tired! So I took a break and decided to open/unwrap my makeup that I have bought from South Korea 3 months ago (I’ll write a post about that later) and test them out. Then I kept thinking about the workout and just had an urge to give it another try. But what really happen was I actually did the whole workout haha. First I was telling myself to just do the warm up, then afterwards I decided to test out the workout but I didn’t plan to complete the whole thing, I guess plans never fall through because when I was half way done I said to myself “Just continue and see how much you can get done.” Then when I was 3/4 done I said “Might as well complete it since you’re near the finish line.” Next thing I know I was dripping sweat and doing the cool down. It felt sooo good to have done the workout and I couldn’t believe how fast it was. So much for taking a rest day. The workout I did was just a one week sample. I am planning to finish it this week.

After I complete the one week workout I’ll definitely blog it on my next post. So far, I would highly recommend everyone who is looking for a quick workout to download the free e-book. If you like Tabata workout or HIIT or less than 30 minute workout then Way of Gray is a must try. Like every work out, there’s a warm up, workout, and cool down. Doing the workouts almost reminded me of Insanity however it was just shorter and more repetitive. Only thing that was difficult is keeping track of time, you’ll need a stop watch or something cause she would tell you to do a move for this amount of time then do the next one.

Anyways. I weighed myself in this morning and unfortunately I’m back to square one. I’m up at 133lbs, this was my weight during my senior year in college. I didn’t get the chance to look at the water weight and muscle mass etc cause it was just too early and I had to quickly get ready for work. But yesterday I do remember my muscle mass was at 39.7%. Anyone know if that’s a good thing? And just to throw it out there, I’m 24 and supposedly 5’3″ (I say supposedly because I haven’t been to the doctors in a while and everyone says I look taller than 5’3″). If anyone has some good tips and advice for weightloss or being fit and healthy let me know. Always open to new ideas and gestures to these kind of things ^_^

Insanity. Check!

I, Jen Phan, have officially completed Insanity! Although, I was two and a half weeks behind hehe, but whatever! I completed the calendar and did all of the workouts. Honestly, when I did the last Fit Test, I felt soooo good! And I was even doing Core Cardio and Balance 10 minutes before it too! But to just think, “Okay, this is my LAST workout of Insanity, I’mma give it my all.” And so I did. I have definitely felt stronger than my first Fit Test.

My experience with Insanity… Man out of all the home workout programs I’ve done from Beach Body, Insanity probably gave me the best results. But out of all the home workout programs I’ve done from Beach Body, Insanity is probably my least favorite. No, not even part of my favorites, I just hated it. Haha, I’ve never felt so dreadful to workout in my life. Which is weird and funny cause now that I’m done with Insanity, I feel so motivated to workout. I can’t wait to get home from work and put on my workout gear and do some jumping jacks or lift weights and pushups. Is that weird? Well anyways, back to my experience with Insanity. The first month I was doing really well, I still dread to do the workouts because I was so used to my 25-30 minute workouts with T25 and P90x3. But I still did all the workouts and didn’t miss a singe day, I was following the schedule on point. Then… When I got to the second month. First of all, I was NOT aware that the workouts were going to be longer, not 10 minutes longer but they were 57 -59 minutes long! Literally, after Max Recovery, I just had to take a break. Second month was TOUGH, I mean like I said, I fell behind 2 and a half weeks. And unfortunately, I didn’t follow the meal plan. I should have, but I just wasn’t motivated to go grocery shopping and prep the meals. Usually what motivates me to workout is to peek at the workout list. When I read the list of what the workout contains, I know that I am capable of doing them and in my head I just think “Oh, I can do that, and I can do that, alright, I think I got this! Lets do it!”

Overall, even though Insanity gave me semi good results, I would never do it again. I rather do a workout where I feel so motivated and actually enjoy doing. The best workout I’ve ever experience and literally gave me amazing results, would be Blogilates. Maybe I’ll talk about my experience with Blogilates in another post. But long story short, I followed Cassey Ho’s meal plan and did her workout, I lost 4-5 lbs in a week! SHE helped me get close to my weight goal, I was able to get down between 116-117lbs because of her. You guys are probably thinking, “if you got such great results from her why not do her workouts again?” Well, first, I wanted to see what my other options are and try a little bit of everything. I hear so many good reviews on so many different workout programs and I just wanted to give it a try and I’m an sucker when I see the workouts on infomercials. And second, I was just annoyed of going through youtube video to another to do the workouts in one day. You’ll never know when you lose internet connection or if the loading takes too long. I rather just have the videos all together in one and do the workouts. Alright, this post is supposed to be about Insanity so I’ll just stop here.

If anyone else would like to share their experience or thoughts of Insanity, drop me a comment 🙂

Lemonade Cleanse

So almost a year ago I gained a few pounds. Last summer I was about 117lbs. Then few months later I gained about 5lbs. Then I gained another 5lbs, total of 10lbs. Big difference for my body. And of course, Thanksgiving was around the corner, and I definitely wanted to splurge a little and didn’t want to not eat some certain foods cause that’ll just upset my family. When I’m eating with my family and having a family dinner, I want to enjoy my meal and not complain or say “Oh I can’t eat that cause I’m trying to eat clean.” I mean, I’m sure there are food that I could eat clean or can make it more healthy, however my family aren’t into that. When they eat, they want to eat good with the fatty stuff. So I thought maybe I’ll lose some weight and just gain it back for Thanksgiving, make it even. But I wanted to lose weight QUICK. Only method I could think of to lose weight ASAP, is the Lemonade Cleanse. The Lemonade Cleanse is a cleanse where you don’t eat any solid food and only consume this drink containing lemon, cayenne pepper, grade b maple syrup, and water. In the morning right after you wake up and at night right before you head to bed you drink laxative tea. The taste wasn’t actually that bad, to me it was pretty tasty. The sweetness from the maple syrup and citrus from the lemon then the kick from the cayenne pepper really gave me energy. Taking a sip of it you first taste the sweet tart flavor then bam! The cayenne pepper sneaks you up behind the throat and you feel the burn. Now did I lose weight from this cleanse? Of course I did! I was pretty much starving myself for 7 WHOLE DAYS!!! I lose a total of 13.4 lbs in ONE WEEK. Now, before you guys start thinking of going to the super market to buy bags of lemon, cayenne pepper, and think of where to get specifically grade B maple syrup, I warn you this is a very dangerous cleanse. I would only suggest people this cleanse if they need to lose weight for a photoshoot or if you just want to lose weight for an even but don’t mind or expect to gain weight back, because that was what happened to me. The Lemonade Cleanse was a cleanse that I sort of regret doing. I say sort of because now I feel like I learned my lesson. Yes before I used to be “oh lose weight the healthy way, eat clean and workout.” But because of the weight gain I was just desperate and crazy, yes crazy, to lose weight ASAP.

Here is what you need. To make one serving:
-1/10tsp of Cayenne Pepper ( I didn’t have a 1/10 tsp so I just put less in 1/18 tsp)
-2 TBS of Grade B Maple Syrup
-2 TBS of fresh lemon juice
-10 oz of water

First, let me tell you my experience with the cleanse. People say that the first three days are hard, but for me, every day was hard. Right after work I would go straight to my bedroom and lock myself in there so I can avoid food and the smell of it. During my lunch break at work, luckily there’s a quiet room where I would just hide and drink my lemonade and take a nap til my 30 minutes were up. And because I was drinking the laxative tea twice a day, whatever came in just went right out (duh it’s a cleanse, it’s cleansing my body). Every day I was losing weight and because of the weightloss, I got wicked excited and it just motivated me to continue the cleanse. It felt so good to have clothes feel a bit lose on me and to just wake up with a flat belly. I was contemplating in doing the cleanse for an extra 3 days because supposedly it’s supposed to be a 10 day cleanse but I just couldn’t, I love food and I was content on where I was at after the 7th day. So after the cleanse you’re supposed to consume only liquid for the next 2 days, either 100% orange juice or 100% grapefruit juice, as in freshly squeezed juice! Not that Sunny D crap. On my second day after the cleanse I actually snuck in a grapefruit, but I don’t think it made much of a difference. Now the aftermath of the cleanse… They say you either gain more than the weight that you lost or you’re able to just gain a couple of pounds back but still less than what you lost. Unfortunately for me, I gained more than what I lost. I gained almost 20lbs! Yea, so much for telling people “Oh I’ve lost 60lbs”, I had to say “Oh I lost 60lbs but gained 20lbs so in total I lost 40lbs”. I guess to some people losing over 30lbs is good enough but I had a goal and my goal was to be 115lbs (I’m 5’3″ for those who are wondering). After the cleanse, when I was welcoming the food back into my body I thought to myself, “Oh, I’m just eating this and that, I’ll probably just gain 2lbs so I’m still good.” But no, I gained 10x as much as I thought I would.

My review and results from the Lemonade Cleanse
BTW I snapped a picture of myself right after I woke up and weighed myself.
So please don’t mind my messy look.

In my opinion, I think the Lemonade Cleanse just messed up my whole body and maybe confused it. Cause after the weight gain, I tried to lose weight the semi right way. I was working out to T25 in the morning before I had to go into work and was eating about 1000-1200 calories a day then I worked out to P90x3 after work with my brother and I was still no where near the weight I wanted to get back to (117lbs). But then I heard and see that I put my body in starvation mode? Maybe that’s why I wasn’t getting back to my weight? I don’t know, I’m not a nutritionist or a personal trainer so all this weight loss and trying to be healthy and fit was something I learned on my own. I had no personal trainer to help me and I did not sign up for those weight loss system like weight watchers or Jenny Craig.

So there you have it guys, my personal experience with the Lemonade Cleanse. Like I said, I highly suggest people to NOT do it unless they need to lose ASAP for an event and are okay with gaining the weight back, unless you have self control. If there are any questions or anything please leave a comment.

BTW the Lemonade Cleanse was not part of my weightloss from my previous post of “Ask My How I lost Over 50lbs”. I did the Lemonade Cleanse AFTER the 50lb weightloss.

And the photoshoots I did after my weightloss.