ZAJA Natural Blog

Back from the family event in Texas. Can’t say I had the greatest time, but I was happy to see my family members from all over the world.  The heat in Houston is so different from the heat here in Miami, almost intolerable.  Unfortunately I do not have any photos.  I got lazy and left my bulky camera at home. I really must get a pocket sized camera for trips.  I am sure my sisters have plenty of pictures though so when I get somet from them I will post them up.

Gotta run, lots of projects to complete so I will update with some new item once I get them ready. Ciao for now!

Remember last October when my cousin died in the tragic car accident? Yesterday her mother died.  She was in Dublin about 2 weeks ago and had a massive heart attack at the airport. She has been on life support ever since, in a coma.  Yesterday she passed.   It is so sad, it would have been 9 months since her daughter died on the 12th of this month.  I think she died of a broken heart.  That was her baby, her only girl. She is survived by her husband, 3 boys and a grandchild (and another one of the way.)

R.I.P Alajah Balogun

Lord our God, You are always faithful and quick to show mercy. Aunty was suddenly taken from us. Come swiftly to her aid, have mercy on her, and comfort her family and friends with your power. I find comfort and solace in knowing that she is with her daughter again and that both of them are happy and together eternally.  Amen.

Insanity Fit Test Day 1/ 15 / 30 / 45 / 60:
Switch Kicks –             89 / 88
Power Jacks -             28 / 35
Power Knees -            93 / 86
Power Jumps -           24 / 30
Globe Jumps -              6 / 8
Suicide Jumps -          5 / 8
Push-Up Jacks -         5 / 18
Low Plank Obliques – 24 / 34

I improved a lot in the two weeks that I have been doing Insanity.  Looking forward to the numbers in 15 more days!

Just finished Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs! Seriously rolling in a puddle of sweat!

We took a few days off from Insanity just because life just go super busy and by the time we got around to even thinking about a workout, we were exhausted.  Started right back at in from week two with Cardio Power and Resistance.  Then we did Pure Cardio yesterday. I am pleased to say that even after just 2 weeks of seriously working out, I have lost 5+ pounds and I am definitely seeing some shrinkage in my waistline and more definition in my triceps.  I am really excited.   Insanity works!   I am looking forward to seeing what this body looks like in another 45 days!

Went to an event at the Catalina Hotel in South Beach and met Evelyn Lozada, Ace Hood, Al Reynolds (Star Jones’s ex husband) and Black Dada. They were all pretty nice people, got a kick out of our beer soaps!  I love South Beach, its so busy and there is always something to do. But wow, I could never live there.  Its like living in Times Square.  I do plan on opening a store there within a year though, that is a prime retail location!

I have some pics I will add this this post later. Ciao for now!

*Please subscribe to my Etsy RSS feed:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/aromaticbodyoils/rss

Here is an update on my progress.  I have stuck with working out and being on a balanced meal plan for the past 5 days.  I feel tender in some places but all in all, I feel great.  I have completed the following workouts from the Insanity program:

Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Cardio Power & Resistance

Cardio Recovery

Today is Pure Cardio day.  Let me tell you, these workouts are serious.  They are very intimidating. We press pause quite often, because we are out of breath, and because we want to keep good form.  One thing I learned after the second workout is that its not about speed. or trying to keep up with the others in the video. Its about keeping good form and doing as many reps as you can properly.

If you are like me, you can’t do a proper push up to save your life.  Which is why we bough the Perfect Push Up. I saw it on TV once and never really paid any attention to it.  I though it was one of those fads. But I was able to find it on Amazon and it had a lot of great reviews.  Let me tell you, its a wrist saver! I can now do push ups without feeling like my wrist is going to swell up later.  It helps you rotate your wrist in the natural manner that your wrists want to rotate while you are pushing up.  I pop them out anytime there is a floor exercise that calls for push ups. And in Insanity, there are many push up exercises.

If this program does not get me in shape in 60 days, I really don’t know what will. Its amazing.  I plan on pressing play everyday (except Sunday.)

As a little booster for the workouts and to help push more weight off of my body, I have been doing level 1 of Jillian Michaels’s 30 Day Shred. Its a 20 minute program that claims to help people to lose at least 20 lbs in 30 days. I would be happy with just 5 in 30 days, but if I lose more, BONUS! The DVD has 3 different levels so once you feel like you have mastered one level, you just move on to the next one.  I know I will be on level 1 for at least a good 3 weeks.

I have also been walking for 1 hour (3 miles) every evening. Bought some Shape Ups and I really like them. Feeling muscles in my legs engage while walking that I did not feel with my regular shoes.  Plus it feels great to be outside.   I have lost a pound since I started so I am pretty happy.  I just have to keep moving forward.

My workout log if you are interested:

Jamin and I started the Insanity Program today. Originally started last week but then I became sick so we had to stop. Started over and  I had much better numbers.  I will be posting updates daily as I go, along with pictures tracking my progress and weight loss.

Here are my fit test results for day 1:

Insanity Fit Test Day 1:
Switch Kicks – 89
Power Jacks – 28
Power Knees – 93
Power Jumps – 24
Globe Jumps – 6
Suicide Jumps – 5
Push-Up Jacks – 5
Low Plank Obliques – 24

The last pic is a drink called Myoplex Lite in Chocolate. Not only is is delicious, it is a great recovery drink for after a workout. It has:

Calories – 170
Protein – 20g
Carbs – 20g
Fat – 2g

The goal is to eat at least 2000 calories a day,and burn at least 500 calories working out.  The Insanity workouts estimate that you can burn up to 1000 calories per workout, depending on how hard you push yourself.  Buying a heart rate monitor so that I can keep track of those calories and adjust my caloric intake if need be.

My goal physically is to drop 25 pounds to start, and then gradually drop the weight in 10 lbs increments until I am down to my optimum weight. I also need to tone up everywhere.I painted over my face, I was not very photogenic this morning, lol.

You just can’t see how much weight you have gained/lost without pictures.  This tells me that I have a lot of work to do.  But I am ready!

Today’s food intake:

Morning smoothie meal 1:

Calories / Protein / Carbs / Fat

Silk Vanilla Soy Milk – 100 / 6g / 11g / 3.5 g

Dannon Low Fat Vanilla Yogurt – 200 / 12g / 34g / 3g

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey protein – 120 / 24g / 30g / 1g

Costco Frozen Fruit 8 oz – 80 calories

Total for morning smoothie – 480 calories / 42 g / 65 g / 7.5 g

After workout meal 2:

Myoplex Lite Drink – 170 / 20g / 20g / 2g

Turkey Hot Dog with Potato Bread Bun – 220 / 12g / 28g / 8.5g

Total for meal 2 – 390 / 32g/ 48g / 10.5g

Oatmeal meal 3:

Half cut (dry) oats – 150 / 5g/ 27g / 3g

1 cup fat free milk – 90 / 9g / 13g/ 0g

1/2 teaspooon turbinado sugar to taste – 15 / 0g /4g / og

Total for meal 3:  255 / 14g / 17g / 3g

Its been an eventful weekend.  First on Friday my son had his VPK graduation ceremony.  The Saturday we went to the VPK beach party. From there we had to go to North Lauderdale (1.5 hours away) for our friend Brian’s son’s 1st birthday party.  Then it was off to downtown Fort Lauderdale for my uncle-in-law’s 59th birthday party.  Right around 10 pm, Jamin realized that he left his phone over at Brian’s place. So at 11:30 we set out back to Brian’s to pick up the phone.  We did not get home till 1 am, and I am exhausted.

I planned on taking it easy today, but there is always so much to do. So I will chat with you later! Enjoy your Sunday.

For those of you who have not added me as a friend on Facebook, please do so today if you have the time. I posted a lot of pictures today there.

Zaidat Bombata

Create Your Badge

My main PC has been acting up a lot lately.  We purchased an Iomega external hard drive during Christmas time and its just been sitting here collecting dust. After such a hard time with the computer yesterday, and waking up from a nightmare where I lost all of my data, I am now backing up everything.  Yes, I tend to dream about whatever is bothering me. Or I will dream about whatever I was doing that day.  Like if I made soap all day, I will continue to make batch after batch in my dream.  Sometimes I wake up more tired than I was before I fell asleep, lol!

Anyway,  I will be making a backup of the backup. You can never trust external hard drives not to crash on you.

I have a theory that electronic manufacturers build their products to last only as long as about a week after your warranty expires.  I kid you not, I have had 3 computers crash on me (and one of my friends’ laptop die) a few days after their warranty expired.   If my prediction is correct, I will be needing a new home PC right around January 20th of 2011.