February 2015 Challenge: The Conclusion

"You have to participate in the process..."

Earlier this month, I wrote a blog on doing a nutrition and fitness challenge for 28 days. 

In my previous blog for the start of the February Challenge, I mentioned that I was going to keep a log of what I ate and the work out I did, but during the challenge, I got a new phone and switched services and my notes got deleted from my previous phone.

Anyways...

I wanted my nutrition to be something close to what the Whole Life Challenge offered, which was no carbohydrates, no soy, no beans, no starch, no corn, no dairy of any kind, no sugar what-so-ever, no processed or artificial food and no soda, alcohol or juice.

Before: February 1st at 182 pounds.

But I didn't want it to be that strict so I added carbohydrates, dairy and sugar to my diet but only took a small portion throughout the month. 

During the month of February, my meals included eggs, bacon and/or breakfast sausages for breakfast, a bunch of protein such as steak and chicken with a side portion of rice and/or vegetables for lunch and whatever my mom made for dinner. I also drank coffee and fish oil everyday. And water, lots of water.

I also bought into protein shakes for meal replacements so I can save a little bit of money and food for the month.



For my workouts, I planned to work out 5 days out of the week. I went to Deuce Gym twice a week and also to a global gym twice a week as well. The other remaining day, I wanted to get in a cardio day, but that only happened less than a handful of times.

My workouts consisted of a lot of lower body movements because I was skeptical of injuring my right arm again because it wasn't 100 percent healed. But towards the end of the month, a lot of upper body movements were involved in my workout and the pain came back again. None the less, I kept going.

In the 28 days or so days during my workout, I met a personal record of 400 pounds on my deadlift. The last time I did a heavy rep of a deadlift was in December 2014, which was at 375 pounds. I also PR'd on a 5 rep deadlift at 345 pounds. Needless to say, I felt like I was getting stronger throughout the month. 

The biggest thing for me during the challenge was eating right food. 

Prior to the challenge, I would "try" to eat "healthy," but didn't really take it seriously. I would go buy a burger from time to time, eat pizza that my job provided once a week. You know what I'm talking about here.

After: February 28th at 175.5 pounds.

But during the challenge, I was a little more strict on myself with what I want I was going to eat. But there were a couple of time that I "cheated" on my nutrition plan. When my cousins was visiting the States for the first time, my family and I tried to take her to some "American" food places so I ate some burgers and greased up food in the 3 days I hung out with her and her husband. Another time, I went to go get a gourmet burger and a beer with a co-worker after a long day of work. Lastly, after another long day at work, I went to go grab a few drink with some other co-workers. In the total of 28 days, I had 3 beers during the challenge. I didn't want to intake any alcohol during it but not even drinking a handful of an alcoholic beverage had a big part in my diet.

Im not really a big weigh guy ever since my coach at Deuce, Logan, told me something along the words of being functional fit and being able to do everyday stuff through those movements, I'll be fine. But the little part of me still wants to know how much I weigh and get results from working out.

So on the last day of February, I weighed myself in the morning at 175.5 pounds, where on the 1st day I weighed about 182 pounds. Not that much of a difference in weigh but I feel as if the fat in start of the challenge turned into some muscle in the end.

At the end of challenge, I felt better and healthier about myself. I knew that I had to put in the hard work, time and effort to make the changes. I was going to end the challenge at the end of this month but I'm going to try to continue this for the whole year.

Put the time and effort in if you want to see changes, not just in seeing result with your body, but also in life. 

Nothing comes easy.

Jun

Being a Role Model Part 2

Someone is always watching...


Before I moved back to California from Iowa, I played in a semi- professional baseball league in Dubuque County.

At one of the games at Dyersville, one of my teammate's wife came up to me and said, "Our son thinks you're so cool, especially with the hair you have. He said he wants to grow it just like yours." I never had someone come up to me to say anything close to that (See http://keepinthatswag.blogspot.com/2013/08/being-role-model.html).

In the past two weeks, I got to visit Deuce Athletics, the sister gym of Deuce Gym, located just in my backyard of Torrance, California.

The classes I attended were with young middle school that are pursing to play high school baseball, and then move onto the highest level they can afterwards.

On the second week I attended a class, the first half an hour involved a strength portion and then the rest was the Workout Of the Day.

Deuce Athletics athletes, Sebastian and Justin.

For the strength portion, we were doing 5 reps of heavy deadlifts.

As I got to my max weight for the deadlift, I remember when I was going through my pre-preperation to stay focused before the lift, the other five young athletes stopped what they were doing and watched me pull up a 345 pound bar 5 times.

One kid asked me, "Is that even heavy for you?

Hell yeah it was.

I talked to the two coaches the run the gym after the workout and one of them said, "It's good that you came to class. All the kids here looked at you today and probably thought to themselves, 'I need to get to that point someday.'"

It's a very humbling experience to hear someone say that he or she wants to be like you or looks up to you from doing what you like, whether if it's playing baseball, lifting weights or just going about your business.

A saying from one of my high school coaches stuck with me, which was, "Always run a hard 90 out of the box because you never know who's watching you."

I take pride in hard work that I put in at the gym, at work, on the field, in everything I do and I think it all started from that saying from my coach.

I hope, in the years to come, I can become a better person to be a role model and set an example to more people.


Jun

The Shooting Star

Whenever I listen to country songs, it always gets me thinking about life for some reason.

The other day after work, I drove down to Santa Monica around midnight. I didn't have quite the smooth day at the job. I needed a breather before I headed home.

I sat on a bench looking over the beach on Ocean Avenue. Of course, I couldn't see anything but stars in the sky and the Pier that was lit up like a Christmas tree.

I sat there for a good 45 minutes just thinking about the past year and a half, which is from the time I graduated until now. I got hired at a great place, got to travel to places I wanted to go so far, almost got picked up by a team in Europe, just to name a few.

One thought that came to mind the summer of 2013 when I was driving back to California from Iowa. I think I was driving through the last stretch of Utah at night, and I looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star.

Before I move on, during the winter before I attended Barstow Community College, I lived with a teammate-to-be in Silver Lake, California. Nice little community but in the middle of no where. I remember one night, though I forgot where we were driving home from, my buddy Griff saw a shooting star as we were talking about something in the car. He immediately stopped talking and stared into the distance. I thought he got possessed by the "Hill Have Eyes." 

After 15 of 20 seconds of silence, he told me he saw a shooting star so he had to stop what he was doing and make a wish. I thought he was weird for believing in that then.

So going back to the summer of 2013 in August, I saw that shooting star and immediately thought of what Griff did. 

I stared off into the distance and wished to either get picked up by a team from an independent league or get a full-time job.

Then 8 months later, I got hired full-time at Fox Sports.

But as of late, I've haven't been satisfied with where I'm at overall and I'm ready to make some moves.

As much as I love the city of Torrance, maybe I need to move out of here, or California in general, or even move out of the country. 

The thing I fear is starting over from step one again when I put countless amounts of work at one place already. But what's life without some risk.

We'll see what happens soon. Who knows, maybe I'll see another shooting star soon.

Jun

“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.”

My first blog in Japanese

So I decided to do something different with this one.

My cousin took her first trip to America this past weekend with her husband.

I thought since her husband has a Facebook and likes my blogs at time, I thought I write this one in Japanese so he can read it.

Im sorry for the lack of the sentence structures for those of you who can read Japanese.

...

この三日間、僕の従姉が日本からアメリカに初めて遊びに来ました。その三日間の間に色々とロサンゼルスの周りを行きました。

一日目はメリニアムビルトモアのホテルに迎えにいってすぐデズニランドに行きました。それが、デイズニーランドに着くまで、一時間ほどかかってフリーエーでトラフィックの中運転しました。

やっとデイズニーランドに着いて、最初に行ったとこはデイズニーランドのカリフォルニアアドベンチャーに行きました。始めに、カリフォルニアスクリームの乗り物のファストパスを手に入れて、一番最初に乗った乗り物はトイストーリーのミッドウェイマニアに乗りました。もちろん僕が得点王でした（＾＿＾）

そのあとカリフォルニアスクリームのジェットコースターにのって、カリフォルニアアドベンチャーちょこちょこと歩いてデイズニーランドのほうに迎いました。

デイズニーランドに行ってメインストリートを歩いてたときにデイズニーランドのメインな城が再建してたんでちょっとがっかりしました。

デイズニーランドのあとアメリカ西側の人気なIn-N-Outに行って美里ねーちゃんと大樹さんをハンバーガーを食べに連れて行きました。

二日目はハリウッドに最初行きました。一時間ぐらいハリウッドブルバードをちょこちょこ歩いてそのあとメルローズの道あたりにあるお店にいくつもりでしたが、その町にある高校でフリーマーケットを遣ってて、楽しそうだったので、二時間もフリーマーケットで買い物をしました。

フリーマーケットで買い物したあと、ビバリーヒルズに行ってスプリンクルズのカップケーキ屋にアイスクリームを食べにいきました。

僕は大樹さんにカリフォルニアに来てから何が一番したいのって聞いたら、”ハリウッドのサインが見たいな〜”っと答えました。

スプリンクルズでアイスクリーム買った直ぐあとにハリウッドのサインの方に迎いました。役三十分ぐらいかかってやっとハリウッドのサインに到着しました！美里ねーちゃんと大樹さんがすごい嬉しそうにしていました！！

ハリウッドのサインの前で写真を取ったあと、サンタモニカのサードプロミナードに買い物しに行きました。買い物のとちゅ、ちょーど夕焼けだったから断崖のとこで見ました。

その後、サンタモニカのサードプロミナードをもーちょっと歩いて、その後、晩ご飯をボイリングクラブに食べに行くつもりでしたが、ニー三時間待ちだったのでレドンドビーチにあるそっくりなレストランに行って食べました。美郷ねーちゃんと大樹さんがそーゆ食べ物が食べたことがないって言ったからうれしっかた！！


三日目はロスにあるシテダルアウトレットに行って、もっと買い物をしました。買い物を三時間ぐらいしたあと、僕の住んでるトーランスの方に向かって人気なオーガニックスーパーマーケットに二件見に行きました。

最後の食事のためにブラジルのバーベキューレストランに連れて行ったげたかったけど、

二カ所知ってるとこがどっちも閉まってて困りました。だけどもYELPのおかげで助かりました！直ぐ近くにあるサンフランシスカンのステーキレストランにたべにいって、ステーキがちょーさいこうでした！

晩ご飯食べ終わったあと、美里ねーちゃんと大樹さんが止まってるホテルに連れて行きました。やっぱ、お別れの時は悲しーね。


美里ねーちゃんと大樹さん、アメリカを楽しんで本当に嬉しかったです！いつでもでも遊びにきてください！


潤


And here's the brief version in English (since google translate doesn't do a very good job at translating)

...

So as I mention at the top of the blog, my oldest cousins and her husband came from Japan to America for the first time. And let me tell you, I'm always the one being driven around when I visit friends so I felt what it was like to drive people around.

My sisters, my and I tried to cram everything we can during those 3 days to show them all of LA.


On the first day, we took them to Disneyland right after we picked them up from their hotel in the late afternoon. Then for dinner, went to In-N-Out for my cousins first experience of greatness.

On the second day, we gave them the tour of Los Angeles. We went to the see the Chinese Theater and walked down Hollywood Boulevard. Then, we stopped by a flea market where we spent way too much time there. After, we took a quick pit stop in Beverly Hills to get ice cream at Sprinkles Cupcake. Little after that, we headed towards the Hollywood sign and took a million pictures in front of it. In the late afternoon, we went down to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica as my cousin and her husband caught their 1st glimpse of their California sunset. For dinner, we went to the Boiling Crab but since the wait was about two to two and a half hours, we decided go to a place similar in Redondo Beach instead called the Shrimp Lovers.

On the third day, we took them to the Citadel Outlets in the City of Commerce so they could do more shopping and let me tell you, my cousin almost bought everything she saw in her sight. Then we went to Grimaldi in Manhattan Beach to grab some pizza. After went to Whole Foods to check out an organic grocery store that my cousin wanted to see. Then on our way to dinner, they caught another glimpse of a sunset. For dinner, my cousin and her husband wanted to eat an "American" steak so we took them to The San Franciscan, where the steak is hands down the best I've eaten anywhere. After dinner, we finally dropped them off at their Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles and parted ways.

I thought my sisters, my mom and I did a decent job of trying to show as much of the Los Angeles to them with the short amount of time we had. It was a process of figuring out where to go first at what time because LA traffic is a hit or a miss day-to-day. There were times I felt bad because we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I wish we could have showed her and her husband around more but there's not enough time in a day to do every single thing when you're on vacation.

With my cousin and her husband visiting from Japan, I realize that hanging out and sticking around with family gets more important as we grow up, even if they live 6000 miles away. It's the unconditional love they bring to you during your ups and during your downs.

Because at the end of the day, that's who matters most.


Jun

My Apology Letter To All My Friends

"All these touch screens is making us...lose touch."

Just yesterday, I clicked on a link on Facebook that someone shared.

The title read " If This Video Doesn't Convince You To Put Down Your Phone, Nothing Probably Will." 

So I said, "All right. Let give this a shot."

First I thought it was going to be a funny video of a person lecturing another person people post on YouTube just to get viewers.

But I was totally wrong...

After watching this video, I sat on my couch for a good 10 minutes, and watched the video again.

I thought about all those times I was hanging out with friends, out to dinner, at an event, on a date, at work, a party and I was on the looking the the screen on my phone looking at some social media the recent being when I went to visit Iowa for a week.

Looking back at all those times I was on my phone during those moments, I wish I could take it back.

I guess in this day and age of technology and using as it communication now, there are certain exceptions. For instance, I have friends in Iowa that I could make a phone call to, but texting is little more convenient since the time difference is by 2 hours from there to Los Angeles.

One friend texted me right after he saw this video and told me "Yeah man, it's crazy how it just consumes us when we should be in the moment."

I going to do my best to not be on my phone when I am out and about. I realize that it takes everything away from being "in the moment" if you're looking at your phone all day.

Long story short, I wanted to apologize to all my friends for being on my phone during those times.

I hope you accept my apology.

Jun

World Cancer Day

Sometimes, life treats us unfair...


Today, as people know, is World Cancer Day.

When I think about cancer, theres two particular people who come into my mind. My Aunt Yuriko and my childhood friend's mother, Fukue.

March 2014 in Saga, Japan

I found out my aunt, who lived in Japan, had cancer back in mid-2013. She was going through chemotherapy, which meant her time was coming up soon.  When my family and I heard that, we decided to take a trip to Japan to visit my relatives, especially my aunt and my grandmother. After making the trip and spending time with my relatives for a week in the end of March 2014, on April 16th 2014, my aunt passed away.

I remember clearly the last thing she told me before I left my Uncles house during the trip was "Make sure you take care of your mother." I couldn't help it and shed tears as she laid in her bed and was getting ready for bed.


Fukue was like another mother to me growing up. My childhood friend, Brian, were on the same little league team in middle school and from then, grew up playing on the same team until the end of high school. Throughout those years, I would always go to their house and always cause trouble in and out of the house with Brian.

Looking back, I didn't know how she dealt with not just me but all our other friends that always came in and out of the house all these years.

In college, every time I visited Brian's family, Fukue would always ask me how everything is and praise me to other people in the Buddhist community that she was in.

But the one thing I'll remember is how she always had a smile on her face until the end.

I can't thank her for everything she has done for my family and I.

When I wake up every morning, I think about Fukue and my aunt Yuriko and that gives me the drive to go do the best at everything I do in life, because life is too short to just sit around and wait for things to happen.


Jun



Rest in Paradise Aunt Yuriko Kitamura and Fukue Kohrogi.

February 2015 Challenge

Side Profile 1/31/15

Front Picture 1/31/15 (after I had two
 double-doubles and fries from In-N-Out
after my trip back from Iowa)

Time to stick with a challenge...


After injuring myself on December 16th, the past 47 days has been really rough on me.

My lifestyle went from working out 5 days a week, splitting time between Deuce Gym in Venice, CA or at Hardbody Fitness Gym, a global gym in Gardena, CA to sitting around, going out and eating everything in my way.

I went to go see a chiropractor, a sports medicine doctor and a sports massage therapists to see what was wrong with my injured right arm. I just couldn't sit around doing nothing anymore.

After being diagnosed with a strained bicep/tricep where I couldn't extend my arm all the way out, going to go get a sports massage once a week for 3 weeks, my arm got finally better so I started to go back to Hardbody again but strictly working out my lower body.

Now, my right arm isn't 100 percent recovered yet, but it's to the point where I feel minimal pain and I feel as if I could slowly start getting into the swing of things.

I write this blog as I am on the plane back to Los Angeles from the greater state of Iowa where I took a trip back to visit friends and teammates I haven't seen in a while. And during this trip, let's just say I relived college and my body feels like a train ran over me.

Then I realized when I arrive back to LA, the month of February starts. I thought to myself that I should do a month challenge of going on strict and working out on a daily bases again.

It'll be something similar to the Whole Life Challenge which I did in the Spring of 2013 and never finished because I was in baseball season at the time.

People would probably ask me why are you going to do this? No reason in particular but for a better, longer health in the future.

I'll posted a blog in a month with the nutrition and workouts I did during February.


Jun