Transformation... Saturday?

Yeap! This is what you've been waiting for, my courage to show you my before and progressing pictures. 

Warning: Some photos in this blog are not meant for the eyes of sensitive natured citizens and are only meant to be viewed by those who will not be subjectively offended by seeing my belly fat. I do not in anyway intend for these photos to be thought of as "provocative" photos of me but simply to possibly inspire, motivate and help you and me stay fit, healthy and strong. 

Now, if you agree to not get offended meaning you are willingly allowing your own self to read this blog and view these photos... Carry on..... 

Like I've said in my previous post, I've never been that skinny girl without any fat so to start off this very exciting post, I want to get a little personal. And that is to exploit the slow progress that's been coming along in the past 11 weeks (Yes it's been 11 weeks!). And why it is that I'm wearing the same sports bra on the last two pictures... I have no idea really. I swear I have more than 2 sports bras! 

Yes, I know... You never thought I had belly fat but now you can tell me to workout harder when I complain to you that I have belly fat. So I'm warning you! Don't you dare tell me, "No Jeanny, You're Helllaaa skinny. You don't even need to workout!" Cause I need encouragement too! 

Well now, let's take a closer look. Notice the little change that's gone from week 5 to week 11. I honestly blame myself for weeks 4-9 because I didn't rotate cardio routine to something very different and I think that's what slowed by progress down. So take this hint: CHANGE YOUR ROUTINE EVERY 3 WEEKS! I had to learn it the hard way :<

But I must say, girls: Do your push-ups, bench presses, and flies (dumbells)!

It really does benefit your breast and gives a more natural lift. Compare my pictures if you must, but I know there has definitely been a change since I've started working out. 

Want some numbers? 

                       Last post:                         Today: 

Weight:            114 lbs                           113 lbs 

Waist:                29 in                             28.5 in

Pull-up               0                                       4

Bench max:     80 lbs                             90 lbs 

I know I haven't lost weight, but I'm over that "losing weight" crap. Body building means gaining muscle. And I love knowing that I'm slowly losing fat as well as gaining muscle and strength. 

Today, Mike and I worked on shoulders! :) Just wanted to take a picture so that I can have something to post on my blog.

That's all for today! :)

STAY FIT! 

<3 Jeanny 

7 weeks

Wow! I haven't blogged for such a long (ever since I made it out of Europe all in one piece). I can't believe that just last year I was in Europe and now I'm back in Utah, and finally taking classes for my major. But I'll have to admit that's not really my focus for this year or purpose of this blog entry. This year, my focus is my physical self image. That's right, I'm talking about body fat (not weight, I repeat "BODY FAT"). If you must know, I currently weigh about 114 lbs, 28.5 in. waist, 33 in. hip, and 34.5 in. bust. I know, it's kind of selfish to have a goal for myself but I don't have kids yet and I want to say I was in pretty good shape at least once! 

At the end of my Europe trip I had weighed 123 lbs. Mostly because I put on so much weight having a staple diet of bread for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (I was a really poor college student, note to readers and future study abroad students: If you're planning to go to Europe and want to  make the most of it make sure you're rich.) To my surprise, a few weeks of being back home and eating rice and loading with proteins and vegetables, I lost about 5 lbs, weighing about 117ish for a good summer. But it's NEVER been that easy to lose the extra flab I have on my body. 

The most frustrating part is No one believes me when I say I have flab :I 
They just think I'm another skinny girl. Sheesh, I wish I was just another skinny girl with a great metabolism! 

Well, I won't scare you all away by posting any "fat" pictures of myself... Yet. But I think eventually, when I have enough courage and less insecurity, I will. 

I've been working out!
That's right working out (other wise I wouldn't be blogging)! Last semester I took a weight training class, only working out 2 days week. However, since this school semester has started I decided I would implement at least an hour of workout to my schedule every weekday. Some weeks are rough, especially when there are midterms, but I started out with 3 weeks of HIIT. I'll be honest I barely made it through 30 minutes of HIIT training during those 3 weeks and I didn't see very much progress but ever since week 4 I've been implementing elliptical cardio circuits into my workouts, and I'm sure those 3 weeks of HIIT prepared me really well for fat loss. 

[7 weeks] of hard work.
They say it takes 21 days to make something a habit and I'm glad to say I'm going for my 8th week. For the first time in my lifeeeeeee I'm confident enough wear a strapless dress without bra support, not that I'll be wearing anything so naked around this town. (All ya'll who don't know, it ain't that easy to wear a strapless dress, shirt, bikini or anything with D cups.)

20 years of age and I find myself in a lot of places but I still haven't found my physical self yet. 

I look at myself in the mirror and I still don't feel completely satisfied with how I look, so I tell myself, "That's not you Jeanny! That's just a mask on top of you, preventing you from being at your full potential." Although I feel like I'm not losing much fat, I know I'm slowly making healthy progress and I have a feeling I might just get what I want this year. 

Please comment if you have any tips :) 
Let's get fit together.


Love; Jeanny

PS, Dieting will have to be on another blog. 

Carrot and Italian food.

This is not an ordinary carrot. 

So, I'm sure that this doesn't happen to everyone who goes to Italy. After going into the Duomo I decided that I didn't want to climb the bell tower and so I decided to wait around the plaza area where there are lots of tourists, street vendors, and street artists. I sat down in a chair in front of the long line of street artists. Suddenly, this street artist walks over to me, half of a carrot already stuffed in his mouth, he handed me a carrot,

"Here, Carrot!"

Me: "Oh no, it's okay!"

"Carrot! It's very natural! Sweet, it's sweet."

Me: "Uh... uhh... agghh. Okay! Thanks!" 

Lol, yes I took a carrot from a stranger. But it was actually pretty sweet. I didn't die, so it was safe... Thank goodness. I sat there and finished my carrot awkwardly...

Italian story of my life...

Had some Gnocchi. 

I'm never going to eat Gnocchi alone ever again. :/ I got so tired of it because it just tasted so dang cheesy. Sucky thing about Italian restaurants is that most of have a cover/service charge, like €2 per person. And they charge for water, a limited amount of water. So I didnt get any water. And I was gunna die from thirst and boredom of the cheesy Gnocchi taste.

  

I found Hmong sausages! 

;D I wanted to try them, but I wouldn't have had anything to cook it in :(

  

Best Calzone's ever. And only €2.50 each!

   

My thoughts on Italian pasta.

It's a lot oilier than artificial American Italian pasta. But it's delicious! And theres actually a lot of meat. I'm thinking that the meat is more fatty. There seemed to be more meat than sauce which was delicious! I was sooo hungry, I regret gobbling and not savoring every bit of Italian pasta that was in my dish. 

Confessions

Finally, I'm out of Italy! But I must confess . . . I've had at least 2 scoops of gelato for everyday that I was in Italy. These are few of the pictures that I took with my gelatos. teehee x)

 

The best Gelato in Milan. First they coat the inside of the cone with melted drizzling milk, white or dark chocolate, I chose white. And then they nicely top off scoops onto the cone. But its not just the look that is appealing. The flavors are delicious! Whenever I get gelato I always want something that is chocolaty sweet or sugar creamy, in other words: Not fruity. This time I actually got strawberry and it was delicious!! :)

  

In Europe, Alcohol is so casual. They want it everywhere, any time of the day, even in Gelato...

  

But of course, I didn't get the alcoholic icy desert.

  

We went back to Milan and this was the last legit Italian gelato I will ever have for a very long time. :( Funny cause I got it from this Asian restaurant x) But it was deeeelicious, you can see the delicious creamy goodness is about to drip.
 

The Road to Milan

As we headed to Milan, we made a stop at Padua, Italy. And as we left I forgot my favorite brown leather jacket on the train :(((( On the bright side, time to get a new jacket for next winter? ;D

On the other hand, Padua was surely a nice little town! :) There were several inexpensive clothing shops. I was tempted to buy some shoes, shades and maybe a new jacket? ;D but I'm a poor college kid... I don't need those materialistic things! Or so I think.

Well, of course we wouldn't have just stopped at Padua to just walk around. Our main purpose was to tour the Scrovegni Chapel, full of Giotto's Early Renaissance paintings. Around the chapel there was a BEAUTIFUL park! I've been in the city for too long.

The cherry blossoms were falling off of the tree! It reminded me of Naruto lol. 


This not a Cherry Blossom. But it's still beautiful. <3
 

When in Venice...

Less than a month left on my European program! And finally, we are on our 2 week excursions starting with Italy!

The city built on top of water. The European ocean air reminded me of the fresh ocean breezes in San Francisco pier and beaches. I miss Cali! But Venice is interesting city. I didn't realize till I had left that there was pretty much no cars at all. The streets are packed with tourists and some locals. And most of these "streets" are just little allies and for this reason there are no cars. Public transportation consisted of boats running from one side of the city to the other. Riding on the public boats all day got me sooo dizzy... I had to keep my balance even on my bed.

A most pleasant view to enter a city with. :) 

 

Venice from this one bell tower. It sure is a red city.  

This is in front of San. Mark's square. In the light blue/pinkish colored square building is Doge's palace  and that one clock tower who's name I can't recall. Didn't have to the chance to go into the palace but I will this Saturday! This place is packed with tourists and street vendors!

You don't find many of these cute houses in a city like this.

Most of the residents in this town live in flats. Its hard to actually find houses because there isn't actually "land" to build houses on. I decided I probably wouldn't like to live in Venice. But its a nice city! It's just super crowded and there isn't much space to do recreational stuff. Even though you're right on top of water I don't think you can actually go fishing or swimming in the dirty greenish blue water.  And there isn't much grass to do recreational stuff on.

 

  

The view from the public boats :) 

Yeah we like them public boats. Except that it takes a life time to get from one place to another. 

We found "Pretty Patties" --Spongebob

Decided it wasn't worth getting one of these babies for 1.30€ so I just got a jelly stuffed croissant instead.

This is part of the main river that runs through the middle of the city.

The Afterglow in Venice.
This is from an Island off the coast of the main Island. Nice place without too many tourists.

Just had to catch that crescent moon. 

 

That was the first day of Venice and then we had to leave for Milan... To be continued... (in Venice this Saturday)

The Tower

We decided to climbed more than 600 steps to get to the second floor (the limit) instead of taking the elevators, which was one of the best yet most painstaking choices. By the time we were down from the tower my legs were shaking nonstop. But it was worth it!

So we decide to go back during the night time and get some midnight in Paris shots. We stayed out pretty late, some local told us the metro runs 24/7, but it turns out it only runs till about 1:15 am, and we missed the last metro back so we had to take a taxi -____-" But, here are a few nice shots I got: