My Training and Nutrition Journey

When I turned 29 in March 2019, I sat down on the couch and had one of those deep thought moments about life. Then I came to terms with myself one of my goals was to be “as fit as possible” when I turned 30. With the job I had at the time, I was traveling all over the country year round to work live sporting events for FOX Sports. I would have an “off-season” from traveling for about 3 months, but would be getting ready for the next 9 months of traveling.

April 2019

Few months after I turned 29, I started my work travel to help broadcast USGA Golf events, where I would be gone for a week at a time, maybe more. During my second trip of the year in Charleston, South Carolina, one of my co-workers was on his own journey of weight loss to get ready for his wedding. Whenever I saw him at the office, he would be eating his salad and tell me about how he’s been working out since he knew I trained from time to time. So while Charleston, he told me one day, 

“Why don’t you come work out with me in the morning?”

“What time?”

“I’ll be there at 5 (am).”

“That’s early man.”

“I guess you don’t want it that bad.”

I didn’t show up that first morning he asked and when I saw him at the TV Compound later in the morning, where the trucks would be lined with trailers to broadcast the sporting event, he said, “Man, I’m disappointed in you.”

Not that I felt bad at the time, but I also didn’t want to hear it from him again. So guess what, I showed up at 5am every morning for the next 4 days.

That was the only trip we worked out together/ we did work together the following week at Pebble Beach, CA but we were at different hotels but we kept each other accountable if we worked out or not.

August 2019

When I didn’t have any one else to workout with, I would still kept going to the hotel gyms even if they had little-to-none equipment whether if it was in somewhere along South Bend, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; Stevens Point, Wisconsin or in Starkville, Mississippi.

After the USGA Season was over, I went right into football season. 

During football season, I would only travel for 3 days so I did my best to carve some time out of the day to go workout at the gym I had at the condo I was living at at the time.

For the football season, I worked with a director, who is one of the nicest and also best dressed person in the sports TV industry for 3-4 years where his eating habits was very particular when we went to a work dinner (Asparagus cooked in no butter, no oil is what keeps replaying in my head). He would also make a Whole Foods run before getting to the stadium to bring his own food since the catering wasn’t always the greatest. 

When we would get fly into a city, where we had a game, he would find an OrangeTheory and would religiously go to class, even if he was traveling for work. He made sure he made time for that.

This director, a Texas native, told me in a past life, he would eat whatever was around when he was traveling, but after years of doing the job, his body didn’t feel great. So he decided make a change. 

After I talked to him about his lifestyle and habits, I decided to change my nutrition. I didn’t go too extreme in 2019 but was really mindful of what I was going to order and also how much alcohol I was going to be consuming. I allowed myself one glass of wine per week at a work dinner. 

What also intrigued me was I came across an article on NBA start Dwight Howard on how he changed his diet from eating 24 candy bars a day to taking in very little sugar. He went on a strict diet.

Of course, Dwight Howard is a multi-million dollar athlete and probably has all the resources in the world, but after reading the article, that really made me start my journey of nutrition.

I knew it was going to be a long journey of weight loss at first and had to be mentally tough that it’s marathon, not a sprint.

In November 2019, what I decided to do to start my own journey was to do intermittent fasting, one of the things that was mentioned in the article that Dwight Howard went through. I started with the 16/8 rule, then eventually got to about the 20/4 rule (Ok, so maybe it got extreme). Then, I chose a protein I was going to religiously eat for every meal: Ground Turkey. Lastly, pick a vegetable to put with my ground turkey: Green Beans. My one meal would be right after I worked out. I didnt measure, scale or track anything at the time but ate only until I was content. And if I was still hungry, I would drink a shit ton of water throughout the day.

Mid-January 2020

Of course, when I traveled for work when I started my journey, I may have broke the 16/8 rule, but I was very mindful of what I was ordering and limiting myself to one glass of wine.

Once the football season ended around February 2020, I lost about 20 pounds. I remember going to workout with Kyle Henmi early in the morning one day, he looked at me and said, “You look sick.” I went from about a chub-185 to a leaner 165 pounds, and I still felt good and strong. 

Then COVID-19 hit in March 2020. It was a very unfortunate situation across the world, but as weird as it sounds, it changed me for the good. Being stuck at home and doing the workouts DEUCE Gym programmed relentlessly every single day, along with doing two-a-days with their Delta Bravo dumbbell program, my goal was to keep going with my training any way I could. It also helped my roommate at the time was also in on working out with me. There was a point I worked out for 100 straight days since the start of COVID.

As far as meals, I was still intermittent fasting and limited myself to one meal a day, but a protein shake after my first workout, if I doing two-a-days.

February 2023

What improved most was the amount of sleep I was getting. I would religiously sleep around 10pm and wake up at 6:30am every morning to start my day. Why 6:30am? Just incase work started back up and I wanted to be on a regimented schedule and not try to adjust when it was time to clock-in again.

Fast forward about almost 4 years later, I still follow a similar regiment of eating habits, though I do eating recklessly and might go over in my macros at times (no ones perfect here). Training has been different now that I am training for a competition and moved from bodyweight and just dumbbell workouts to working out (and now working) at a gym. I track my macros and aware of how much I am calories and macros I’m consuming.

Looking back to the start of my journey, I’m glad I relentlessly stuck with my training and nutrition to get to where I am 


today. But the journey doesn’t stop here, I can always be and get better.

I get asked from time to time, “How do I get to where you are?”

My answer: Be committed. Be consistent. Be relentless. And do it for a long time.

Keep going.

Jun

Dumplings

Recently, I was told by a few friends to watch "The Bear", a TV Series about a young chef from the fine dining world that comes back home from Chicago to run his family sandwich shop.

Me, being behind on TV Shows to watch, just finished episode 5 of the inaugural season this morning. I mention this because there is a particular scene where a new dish is being made at the sandwich shop and the head chef makes one of the staff members taste it and the reaction on her face said it all; joy and happiness.

----

I remember my mom sitting at the dining room table, in her orange apron with a cartoon monkey sewed on it, hours before dinner when I was about 7 or 8 years old, wrapping the seasoned ground pork in dumplings wrapper to prepare for supper. There was a time where I sat in the seat right in front of her and watched every move carefully. 

Grab the wrapper.

Put the meat on the wrapper.

Dap water around the wrapper.

Fold the wrapper in half.

Fold the outside of the wrapper.

Repeat.

I would get so hyped up for time to pass by so we can all sit at the table to eat the dumpling. Once it was time for dinner, my mom would get the portable hot plate and would put the dumplings on there once the surface was hot and ready. The dumpling, sizzling each time she placed it, I would patiently stare and wait for the food cook.

Once my mom said the food is ready to eat, I remember grabbing the first piece off the hot plate, dipping it into a sauce mixed with soy sauce, chili oil and rice vinegar, then biting into it.

Every bite brought me joy and happiness.

----

Certain foods, like dumplings for an example, brings nostalgic memories for me. That moment and that time, there was nothing to worry about except to enjoy the food. Though my mom was exhausted are prepping and cooking the food, she was probably happy to see the smiles on our face when we ate her food.

I've made and cooked my own dumplings in the past but never really shared it with a lot of people. So the other week, on a NFL Sunday, I decided to bring over a few dumplings over to a friend's house where she was having people over to watch the games.

As I was prepping the few dumplings the night before (about 100 pieces), I kept on having that nostalgic memories of my mom at the dining room table prepping food for our family and hoping I can deliver on the taste and quality of the food.

As Sunday came along and as I was cooking the dumplings at my friends house, not on a hot plate, but on a frying pan on a stove, I was nervous how the dumplings would turn out, maybe because my friend Emily was watching my every move of cooking it the entire time.

As I finished cooking one plate of dumplings, Emily and I went for a taste test. I took the first bite and was happy with it. Emily went second and the reaction she gave was exactly what I was hoping for.

Joy and happiness.

As others came over to watch the game, I finished cooking up the 2nd batch of dumplings and served it on the picnic table where a spread of food was out. When every one took a bite of the dumplings, the reaction was the same.

Joy and happiness.

----

My mom always took pride in the food she made (like every mom in the world) and I always looked up to her (and still do) when it comes to cooking. Hell, I called and asked her for a curry recipe once before and wrote it down on an index card back in 2016. I still have the same index card until this day. 

Even with the recipes my mom gives me, it seems like a never ending journey of perfecting a meal like mom does. But as long as it's really damn close and could bring people joy and happiness, I'm alright with that.

Jun

Do You Believe In Love?

A few weeks ago, I pulled up into the parking lot to a friend’s office to drop off some belongings after being a part of a photoshoot

As I got out of the car, a random man, with his dog started yelling at me from stairwell about 50 yards out. 

“Can you read the sign?”

“What sign?” I asked. I thought I was getting in trouble because I just had parked in the reserved spot.

“This. Right below me.”

It read LIFE IS NOW.

It was one of the murals that my friend had in front of his office.

This man with the dog, introduced himself to me and asked me if I believe in it, pointing at the “O” in NOW, which read "LOVE"

“That sign?”

“Yeah man,” the man still pointing at the mural. “Do you believe in love?”

---

Love is hard, isn’t it? Well, at least for me it is.

Growing up in a Japanese household, we didn’t really show any affection, like giving hugs when we haven’t seen each other. Also my parent’s didn’t meet eye to eye, got a divorce when I was in high school. And now, they don’t talk to each other at all.

When my parents first separated, I was in middle school. I had just come back from a baseball tournament in Hawai’i. Talk about being on Cloud 9 to being kicked to the ground. I asked my mom, “Where’s dad?” Then in disappointment, she told me that he had left her.

Couple months later, and now looking back, I think my parents agreed to live together again for the sake of my sisters and I. Then one morning before school, I heard my mom begging in tears to my dad not to leave as he was walking out the door to leave my mom for the last time. 

I rushed to the front door and I said, “Dad?”

He paused for about 3 seconds at the steps of the door, and proceeded to walk to his car and drive off out of the driveway and rarely saw him after that.

I still remember every second of that moment until this day. 

That moment you can say scarred me and I never wanted to be in the situation that my mom or dad was in.

---

Fast forward to today, the journey still continues to share life long moments with. Sure, I went on a few dates, some that I dove in harder that others and got heart broken. 

But I sit here in the woods of Yosemite, where I was going to take a trip by myself to reset, but then ended up going with a friend, and his girlfriend, and thankfully they came since it gave me a sense of hope. Hope that there is something special between two people, whether if that special connection takes a while to build or even if it’s long distance. 

So love hard whenever you can. And when times get tough, love harder. Never give up. It’ll be impossible for someone to forget that.

---

So, as the man with the dog points to sign and asks me, "Do you believe in love?"

100%

Jun

Sip of Experiences

Recently, I told my friend I needed a new book to read. He opened his backpack and handed me a book he had on him. “Setting The Table” by Danny Meyer. I’m only through the 3rd chapter, but a section of the book resonated with me, as I drink a cup of coffee…

About 6 months back, I moved into an apartment in Venice, CA where I started to befriend the folks at the local coffee shop next door to me, Little Lunch Coffee + Snacks. I told the owner, Chris, I’ve always been fascinated by the technique of latte art and wanted to learn how to do it one day.

One morning, I went into the Little Lunch and Chris and his business partner, Jordan, who knew about my interest in doing latte art, told me to come in a little later in the day and they would help me out.

So later that day during my lunch break from work, I went back to Little Lunch, where Chris first showed me his charts and diagrams of how to make the perfect espresso for the latte. It measured everything to the dose, gram and seconds to extract it depending on how old the roast is. It’s truly an art form.

Then, Chris proceeded onto explain how to steam the milk. He said not all milks are the same and you never want the milk to bubble too much (That, I still have yet to get even close).

As Chris steamed the milk because I couldn’t get close for the milk not to bubble, he made me his puppet trying to mimic the technique of how to pour the milk into the espresso. As we finished the pour, Jordan said, “Nothing like a good penis latte art.”

I’m grateful for the opportunity Chris and Jordan gave me. Learning from experts that took time to master their craft was unbelievable. 

But there was something else that stuck with me more than the tutorial of the latte art.

After extracting the roast for the espresso, Chris told me to take a sip of the coffee, which he made very potent and bitter, but the aroma was at its strongest.

“Can you tell what the taste the hint of the roast?”

“Mmmm. Not really”

Chris then proceeded to name off the flavors in the coffee and nailed every single one of them. He then picked up the bag of the roast and said, “Yup, I was right.” Maybe he already knew what it was, but then why would be look at the bag if he knew?

I asked him how did he know the flavors.

One, he said from years of being a barista. 

Sure.

Two, he said from past experiences. He says whenever he drinks new coffee, he tries remind himself of something, whether if its a favorite memory, grandma’s homemade cookies, the strawberry fields, or home

As a coffee drinker for a while now in my short life, and been drinking my coffee black since 2010 (Thanks Logan and Danny), I never really thought anything of it expect to wake me up in the morning.

Looking back, drinking Folgers dark roast hotel room coffee that tasted like motor oil will remind me of when I would stay up late night for work and texting my friend that was in another city as we were starting our journey as a Broadcast Associate at Fox. 

Kirkland’s Keurig Breakfast Blend watered down coffee will remind me of drinking coffee with my former colleague at 3 pm on a Saturday during 10-12 hour day in the TV production truck trying to get through the work day.

And currently, as I sip a filtered coffee on a rainy Monday morning at local coffee shop in Santa Monica, CA, this flavor at this coffee shop will remind me of a time I asked someone we should meet up for coffee, at a place I've never been before (rolled the dice on this one).

Making coffee drinking an experience has completely has been a game changer since I stepped foot into Little Lunch that day. I realized that there’s an infinite amount of things to experience out there still.

So when you try out a new coffee or go to a new coffee shop, let every sip of coffee bring you new experiences.

Jun

COVID-19 Quarantine: Day 51 - 5/6/2020

Day 51...

It's been a while. 36 days while.

Nothing's really changed.

I still wake up at 6 am PT every week day.

I still workout every day. Twice a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

I did get a new roommate, Trevor, so I have to think of a new name for the place.


But something that's really changed, I feel, is my inner peace.

I was watching a TV show one day and by the end of it, I was sitting on my bed, staring at the wall, drinking the 15 Year Glenlivet I just have bought earlier in the day, thinking about a recent hardship I went through. I thought I finally was getting towards the end of the pain until I got reminded of it again. It put me in a different state of mind and I had to find a way to cope with it.

A week later, I still think about it, but I feel, more so, in peace.



Jun

COVID-19 Quarantine: Day 15 - 3/30/2020

Day 15...

I am going to go a different direction today with the blog. I've been getting asked about my diet and workout routine over the past few months so I'll write about that instead.

But I will start off by saying Day 15 started off with going to the kitchen first thing in the morning, set up my Cosori and Chemex to make coffee out of Caveman Coffee grinds, working out later in the day, then ending the day watching "Dolimite Is My Name" for a Movie Monday homework my DEUCE Gym group was assigned to.

The Workout Of the Day was...

Progressive Volume Work:

Complete 6 rounds for quality:

12 Hollow Rocks

15 Push Ups

20 Squats

Progressive Tempo Run

Run 12 Minutes Out

Return with a Negative Split (<12 Minutes)

Moving onto with part 1 of 2 of the different direction blog that is going to be about my diet and nutrition.

Let's take it back to when I was in high school.

During my high school days, I weight about 160 pounds, soaked and wet, at the end on my senior year. After band or drumline rehearsal (yes, I was in the marching band, drumline and orchestra), baseball practice and/or games, I would go to the McDonald's next to my high school on my drive back to my house. I would usually just get something from the Dollar Menu, either a McChicken or a McDouble, maybe both if I was really hungry. Then when I got home, I would eat the dinner my mom had made before she left for work. I would eat whatever and whenever I wanted up until high school and I wouldn't gain much weight. Granted, I was always active with playing sports,  riding my bike or skateboard (do kids even do that nowadays?) or making up activities with my friends.

After graduating high school, I would still eat whatever I wanted and not gain a pound, still fluctuating from 160 to 165 pounds. But this would be a turning point in my life.

I tried out for the local Community College baseball team, El Camino College, during the fall of 2008. I made it all the way until the last cuts, and the coach said I wouldn't be on the team for the season. However, his coach from his playing days at BYU was coaching in Barstow Community College in Barstow, California and was looking for players. Of course, I said yes, still then trying to chase what was once a dream.

Before I moved out to Barstow in the winter, I would hang out with a bunch of friends at one of their houses. Still I would eat anything I wanted and not gain weight. Around this time, I started to go to the gym religiously, where I got a membership at the local 24 Hour Fitness during my senior year of high school.

I started carefully started to watch what I ate being influenced by my friend, Lance, who tried out at El Camino College with me, and he was short, maybe about 5'9" or 5'10", but he was body was built like a bodybuilder. I went over to his house a couple of times and he was eating a lot of protein from what I remember. I thought man, I need to step it up a little.

While hanging out at my friends house before moving to Barstow, I was talking to one of the dads and told him I wasn't going to go to McDonald's with the others because I was watching what I was eating. I remember this conversation clearly because he told me, "Eat whatever you want. You're an active and growing kid. Go get a Big Mac. You'll be fine."

I didn't follow what he said that night but it made me think, and as days went by and instead of making food when I was hungry at home, I would go out and buy fast food.

When I moved out to Barstow in the January of 2009, I was doing great with my nutrition. This is the first time living out on my own and started to cook meals regularly for myself. Of course, during the baseball season, we would stop by some fast food places like Taco Bell and grab dinner from there from our road trip back from games. Some days, I would pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner.

If I remember the timeline correctly, the last game I started my freshmen season of college in 2009 was March 5th at Pasadena Community College. The starting job I worked so hard for was lost due to a nagging shoulder injury I was dealing with that started in the month of February and it got worse as the season went on (I had also rolled my ankle the first week of practice stepping in a hole on the baseball field round first base that sidelined me for two weeks). I had to give the bad news to my coach because it got to a point where I couldn't lift my right arm to throw a baseball. The last game I played more than one inning (again, if I remembered my timeline correctly), was March 14th. I was catching bullpens because we didnt have a true back up catcher, and our started catcher had injured himself so my coach called me in. I didn't feel my right arm after that game.

I didn't play the 2nd half of the season and I was pretty depressed having moved 2 hours away from home in a town that is known for building the first ever Del Taco, which I would have as a meal 3 or 4 days out of the week, along with the Five Dollar Pizza from Little Caesars as my to go meals.

About 7 minutes from my apartment I was living in on Yucca Avenue, right behind the Del Taco, there is the Barstow Outlets, where there is every fast food store you can think of. In-N-Out, Tommy's Burger, Carl's Jr., Chipotle. You name it. I would make my way and order food there if I wasn't feeling Del Taco or Little Caesar.

After the season came to an end, I made a decision to not come back to Barstow for my sophomore year and to try out again at El Camino College. The only physical activity I have been doing was physical therapy at the college before moving out. One day, I weight myself because I felt sluggish than before. I had gained 20 pounds in about 4 months.

I started to workout by doing crunches for the last two weeks thinking it would be the fast result to losing weight. Then reality hit as I was 180 pounds when I came back home to Torrance, California.

Fast forward to 2011, I met Logan Gelbrich (as I mentioned din my other blogs), the older brother of my best friend, Taylor, and I started to take a fitness class that he called Functional Fitness On The Bluff, which was based off CrossFit workouts. Logan was someone I could relate to because he had a background in baseball as he was a former college baseball athlete at the University of San Diego and former MLB Draft Pick by the San Diego Padres (if you see him in person, one of kindest human beings but a specimen when it comes to training). This would be a 2nd turning point in my life.

Logan was training at CrossFit Los Angeles at the time and was competing in the CrossFit Games with the CFLA Team. He would talk to me about training and nutrition how they balance each other out, that you have to eat the right foods in order to be in the best shape as possible, which I started to slowly do with the financial situation I was in as a college student. One constant that stuck with me ever since I started attending class at FFOTB was drinking my coffee black, which Logan said he did. I think he told me, "The weak drink coffee with cream and sugar. Winner's drink their coffee black."

During my high school and college years, I worked at Curry House in Gardena, California, a Japanese curry and spaghetti restaurant. I would get a meal for as cheap as $1 per shift, which helped me save a lot of money on food and making meals on my own then. Like 99.9% of restaurants, Curry House had a soda machine. I would drink Coke or Sprite often for the 6 years I worked there from September 2005 to August 2011. However, for a period of a year at some point, I did stop drinking soda and saw a change in my body from not intaking all the sugar and didn't feel sluggish throughout the day.

In 2013, during my senior season at Mount Mercy University where I received an athletic scholarship to play baseball after making the El Camino College team on my second go-around (with one redshirt season) and had transferred to the school in Iowa in 2011. I was introduced to the Whole Life Challenge, a then 8-week challenge to help improve your health, happiness and overall connectedness but now a 6-week challenge today.

I signed up for the Whole Life Challenge in the spring of 2013, which was during the middle of my baseball season. The Whole Life Challenge provides tiers to the nutrition portion of the challenge, but  in short, if you want to participate in the highest level of the challenge, you basically consume what hunter and gathers used to eat. I did the challenge for about 4 to 5 weeks and I was going strong. I must have lost about 15 pounds and felt my body transforming. 

Then one weekend, during a road trip back from a doubleheader we played, as most collegiate baseball team with low budget does, stopped by Taco Bell for dinner. I was good about packing up snacks and food for road trips during this challenge, but I had forgotten to pack one this time around. After a game, I wasn't not going to eat since I just put my body to work for about 6 to 7 hours on the baseball field. So I caved in and had Taco Bell that day and stopped doing my Whole Life Challenge. I did however, sporadically throughout the years, based my nutrition off the Performance Food List they provided if I really want to get dialed in with my nutrition.

After graduating from Mount Mercy University, my nutrition came in waves. There would be a period where I would eat nothing but what we call in society "healthy" foods, but also there would be a period where I ate a lot of fast food and instant foods.

In 2015, while I had a membership to DEUCE Gym, I also had a gym membership at Hardbody Fitness in Gardena where I paid $100 dollars for a year. It was a boxing gym but had every equipment you could think of for lifting weights and had an underground feel to it, which I was a big fan of. One of my childhood friends, Brian, signed up for the gym around the time I did. He wanted to get in better shape so he asked if he could workout with me. I usually hate working out with someone else, because you get distracted in a conversation most times and you don't maximize the workout like you want to. But Brian has been my friend since we played Little League together and I wanted to help him out, though I am not in any shape or form of a nutrition or fitness coach.

I asked about what his goal was and programmed a workout that somewhat catered to him. But I also asked him about his nutrition. During this time for about a year, I decided to not include rice, bread or beans in my diet and growing up in an Asian household, telling my mom that I wasn't going to eat rice seemed like an insult. Nonetheless, I lost about 10-12 pounds and felt great.

Brian also bought in to not eating rice, bread and beans and lost about 15 pounds, which he was really proud of. And also, we were training for 5 months to get ready for the DEUCE Memorial Day workout, Murph. 

Now fast forward to July 2016, I had gotten a new position at Fox Sports as a remote broadcast associate where I would be traveling for work to work live events and still have the same job until this day. 3rd turning point in my life. During my first assignment as a remote broadcast associate, I worked on a college football crew that consist of Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Jenny Taft as our announcers. On most weekends, we would go to a steakhouse or Italian restaurant. 15 weeks later of working 7 days a week and not working out, I gained 15 pounds. I remember like it was yesterday, where after the season I was at my mom's house, getting ready to go into the pool. As I was about to walk out the door, she commented, "Jun, you gained weight, didn't you? I can't really see your neck."

During November of 2019, I decided to take my nutrition a little more serious. In 2017, I was asked to work on a NFL Crew and the Golf Crew still as a remote broadcast associate which, involved a lot more traveling. I needed to make a lifestyle change, and especially after my mom's comments.

I was looking at ways to take it to the next level. During this time, the NBA season was going on and I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and came across a picture of Dwight Howard, once known in the NBA world as "Superman". I was fascinated by his transformation of his body.

Howard, a specimen of a human being, was consuming two dozen chocolate bar's worth of sugar, per day! For about a decade! Of course, his profession is playing basketball at the highest level so could burn everything off during his training and during games.

But before this upcoming 2019-20 season, he changed his habits of eating and did a 30-day fast, eating one meal a day while following a strict running program.

In an article from Men's Health Magazine, he said, "It was really good, it was something that really tested my mind and body...Fasting is not east and when you only have one meal a day - especially how I was training - it's like 'Man, what am I doing?.. But it really helped me get over a lot of mental barriers that were in the way of me getting to where I need to get to as a person."

When I read the article, I, myself, was going through a rough patch in life and with working non-stop 7 days straight for 17 weeks, I needed something to keep my mind off of those things. So I decided to do the 30-day fast as best as I can and also committed working out everyday on Monday through Thursdays when I was at home in Los Angeles (I would be traveling and working in another city on Friday through Sunday).

• For my one meal on Monday through Thursdays would be either a mixture of ground turkey or chicken and broccoli florets or green beans after I worked out. I didn't count calories or macro nutrients for those meals. I just put an amount in a bowl of how much I think my body needed. For the rest of the day, I would drink coffee and water. 
• On Fridays, I wouldn't eat until dinner as I would be on a plane traveling all day. Most of the time, I would eat at a restaurant with my co-workers and I would try order some sort of protein entree and a plate of vegetables. 
• Saturday was a tricky day as one of my co-workers loves all sort of food as I do and we would get something usually quick for lunch. I would also eat dinner on this day as we had a meeting every Saturday night. I would order a soup and/or salad, depending on how I felt. I treated this day as somewhat of a "cheat day"
• Sunday is NFL game day. I would wake up around 6:00 am, depending on what city I was in, and wouldn't eat until I got back home to Los Angeles. All I would have is couple of cups of coffee and a lot of water, if I remember to drink it. So for an NFL game on the east coast, I would wake up at 7:00 am ET for a 1:00 pm game. The game would end around 4:30 pm, go straight to the airport and land in Los Angeles around midnight, which would be 3:00 am in the east coast. So if you think about it, I didn't consume food for 21 hours. That's how my Sundays usually went even before I did the fast.

After the 30-day fast, I stuck with the plan on most days and ate one meal a day. By the beginning of February I had lost about 15 pounds, from 184 lbs to 169 lbs. 

One of my friends, a coach at one of the DEUCE Gym locations, told me I look skinny and sick. I did lose mass on my body but this is the best, not just physically but mentally as well, I ever felt in my life. I didn't know if this 30-day fast was going to work for me, but it did. When people asked me how I got so lean, I tell them about the fast I did. But I always tell them, "It's whatever works for you." Everyone's body is different.

What I learned over the years is how the food you eat affects not just your body, but your mind as well. When you eat more natural foods or food YOU cook, I feel you become mentally stronger versus ordering from (fast food) restaurants. 

Yes, it's hard to get and stay committed to a strict nutrition plan. If you really want it, you'll sacrifice some things to make it happen, just like you would in a relationship.

I hope I didn't bore anyone, or for the maybe 2 or 3 people that have been reading my quarantine blogging. I see 9 views total so far so thanks for tuning in!

Jun

COVID-19 Quarantine: Day 14 - 3/29/2020

Day 14...


I must have fallen asleep around midnight. I didn't set an alarm hoping I would wake up later in the morning. Instead, I woke up at 5:15 am PT. I tried going back to sleep but I couldn't so I physically out of bed around 5:40 am.

That's how year 30 started for me.

And of course, year 30 also started off with going to the kitchen first thing in the morning, set up my Cosori and Chemex to make coffee out of Caveman Coffee grinds.

I started to write my blog for Day 13 as I drank my coffee. For my blog, I usually keep tabs on my phone of what I do so I don't forget what I did throughout the day, but lately I've been slacking off on the task. However, I do in fact take random photos throughout the day and videos of the workout so I'm able to go back to those and check the timestamp of what I did during that time.

I decided to go on a run around 7:30 am after I finished the blog for Day 13. I honestly didn't know what to throughout the day before I had to leave for my mom and sister's house at 11:40 am. As I was running, the first person to wish me a happy birthday was Rafael. He FaceTimed probably a mile into my run and sang me happy birthday. I didn't stop running to talk to him, but I think he understood. Plus, we were going to talk to each other later in the day anyways.

I appreciate phone calls and texts more than a post saying "happy birthday" on social media. My take on that is phones calls or texts seems a little more personable and means a little more than joining the norm of a thread. Although that might just be me (rant over).

After I got back from the run, I was bored the death, still trying to figure out what I should do to kill time until I had to leave. I showered, cleaned my room, posted a picture on Instagram. I was running of things to do during this time.

Finally, about 3 hours later, I started to pack my car to leave for my mom and sister's house. As I was making my way back and forth from my car. I checked my mail to find my power and electricity bills to be sitting there. I opened it and was shocked how much it was. David and I moved into the condo we live in now about a year ago, and the power and electricity bill went up $100 since then. I don't believe it we changed much of our routine since then. Nonetheless, I was furious.

I went over to my mom and sister's house and got there around noon. I went over to their place so early is because Rafael wanted to workout via Instagram live again, and the workout involved jump roping, which I could have made it work in the tiny patio I have, but there is a huge space in the backyard of my mom and sister's place and I was heading there for dinner anyways.

At 1:03 pm, Rafael and I started the workout. The Workout Of The Day was...

"Annie"
50-40-30-20-10 Reps For Time
Double Unders
Sit-Ups

My Time: 8:16
Rafael's Time: 8:26 (If I remember correctly)

After the workout, Rafael made me do 30 push ups for my 30th birthday. That was a nice birthday gift from him (sarcastic).

I laid down in the back yard for about 20 minutes after we got done working out. It felt really nice to be outside and have the sun glare on your and let the breeze go by. It reminded me of going to the beach, especially on Sunday's during the summer, where I would meet up with a group of friends down in Playa Del Rey to play beach volley. I hope this pandemic comes to an end soon.

I decided to go to Target to pick up something as one of my sisters needed to go grab some things there too. Before we went into Target, my youngest sister, Azusa, and I were talking about working out and the topic of squatting. When we got out of the car, she was trying to show me how she was told to squat in the parking garage. There was a person in a car next to were I parked and the first place we went to was the food section. Surprisingly, there was quite a few beef products, but no sight of chicken. Eggs were on the shelf and plenty of wine in the spirits section.

We left the store and decided call in our dinner order for my birthday which was 5 pizza's from South End in Venice Beach and 4 different pastas from Eatlalian in Gardena. Almost for the last couple of years, I've had Italian for dinner on my birthday. I thought of keeping it going. Plus, South End was closing their doors after Day 14 and I wanted to support the restaurant.

Support local and/or small business if you can.

We nearly finished everything we bought for dinner but had a total of 2 pizza pies left over at the end.

Before I left back to Casa Del Dova-Endo, Azusa asked me if I've ever done the Footshake Dance. I've seem people do TikTok videos of the Footshake Dance but I have never attempted it before. I'm really don't follow trends like that. But Azusa really wanted to me do it with her so I agreed to it. 3 tries later, we nailed the routine, where my other sister, Haruka, took about 20-30 minutes the day before to get the routine down.

Day 14 ended with bring back home leftover pizza and an eel bowl my mom made for dinner as well. I laid in bed and thought how thankful I was for everything I have, especially during this pandemic.

Don't take things for granted.


Thank you to everyone that reached out to me to wish me a happy birthday. I appreciate each and every one of you and are all too kind for doing that during these tough times.


Let's see what Day 15 brings.


Jun