Final Thoughts

How much I’ve learned
I believed I learned a lot more than I thought I would. I initially thought I already knew most of what this course would offer, having been physically active these past few years. I learned more about how to improve my physical fitness and how to preserve it. I also learned about nutrition and taking care of my body through what I consume. This course also gave me time to reflect on my own life through the lessons on stress and lifestyles. My learning goals of learning more about how to master physical activity were achieved as I was able to use my knowledge from this course to develop my own fitness programs. I try to apply the knowledge I gained on nutrition and stress more each day, and I think this shows that I learned and achieved a lot from this course.

The most important lesson of this course to me
The most important lesson I learned from this course was the scientific side of physical activity. Many – me included – make the mistake of looking at exercise as a mere physical task. What I learned from this course about fitness components, fitness training, body types, and proper nutrition are lessons which will help me and which I will put to use for as long as I am physically active. While tackling each of these lessons, I started looking more at my body and trying to discover what I needed to do to improve. In my Wushu training, it is important to perfect form. I tried applying what I learned each module to help me improve my performance. I made my own program to develop leg power for jumps based on our module on creating a fitness program. On nutrition, I now make an effort to eat a full meal with the different food groups for greater nutrition on training days to give me extra energy. The lessons I learned on fitness helped me the most and are the ones I will continue to apply as often as I can after finishing this course.

My Physical Activity Attitude then and now
There’s hasn’t been that great a change in my Physical Activity Attitude Questionnaire results. I still have a balance of feelings rating of 7, and most of my scores on each attitude differed only marginally from my previous results. All of these differences indicated a decrease in my previous scores, however. My scores on Appearance, Relaxation, Challenge, and Competition were all lower than my first results. I attribute these differences to feelings of demotivation during training. The pressure to nail a perfect performance and my physical inadequacies may have discouraged me. The start of this course was the start of the year and I believe I had more motivation then. It does get very difficult and I am disappointed to see a decrease in my attitude score. I hope the increasing pressure does not discourage me fully because the fact that my scores did not change too much indicates that I still have a good attitude for physical activity.

Achieving my SMART goals
My two SMART goals were to get more clinical check-ups and to get more rest when sick. I have made some progress in achieving them, but not as substantial as was initially hoped. I have not been having regular check-ups, but recently I did have a check-up when I felt some problems with my throat. I have also allowed myself more rest days in between training to recover when I got sick, usually from cough. I did not have check-ups regularly because it would be too costly and I believed I was generally healthy these past few months. Despite this, I believe I have made progress on this goal based on my recent visit to the doctor. I think I have made a lot of progress on my second goal, as my current weekly schedule gives me enough time to train and enough rest periods to recover from sickness and muscle fatigue.

A fitness rating of 8/10
I rate myself an 8. I gave myself this rating because I do want to gain optimum wellness and fitness. I want to be physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy and I want to maintain this throughout my life. I have these goals in mind each day and try making a constant effort.
The rating is only at 8 because I often get too stressed or emotional about matters. This affects how I look at my goals and often makes me feel demotivated and discouraged. Stress in trying to improve myself during training and emotional stress with personal issues often gets me depressed and prevents me from trying to preserve my own wellness. In order to get a higher rating, I believe I should learn to take care of myself emotionally more and learn to handle stress better and adopt a more positive attitude.

This has been a hectic and challenging course. We had forums (with three threads each!), assignments, blog entries, and peer evaluation week after week. I had to monitor my food intake every day for nine weeks. I even had to do a video assignment for the first time. I can definitely say that this course met my expectations of challenging me. I’ve learned a lot and evaluated my current lifestyle so I can learn to live better. I intend to use the lessons I learned this term far into the future. I hope they carry me far and I hold on to the motivation to keep them.

Thank you for this past term, Ma’am Roja and classmates! 🙂

One Last Hurrah: On Nutrition, Stress, and Lifestyles

MODULE 7
Planning meals/Dieting: No, I do not plan my meals or diet. I have a very strong appetite and often indulge because I know my body needs the nutrition for my training. I do try to restrict and control what I eat when I feel that I’m eating too much or what I’m eating isn’t healthy enough. With what I’ve learned from this module, I’m trying to squeeze more portions from different food groups, especially more grains and fruits and vegetables.

Nutrient consumption: Based on my daily nutrition logs, I am getting enough nutrition. I get enough sugar, carbs, and often too much sodium. I do get my protein intake, but I noticed that it always seems to be the smallest portion compared to the other nutrients I consume. I also have a tendency to eat too much carbs, but recently I have kept it and my fat intake under control.

Unhealthy habits: I always end up skipping breakfast and eating too much for merienda or as a snack. I also end up eating a lot of snacks together with my main meal, which adds to my calorie intake even though the meal already had my required nutrient intake.

Resolutions: I hope to eat healthier by focusing on complete and whole meals instead of snacking. I also want to increase my protein intake by consuming healthier meats and vegetables. I want to eat healthier meals with a proper calorie intake that I will be able to expend as energy each day.

MODULE 8
Relaxation Exercises: After a week of doing the exercises, I can say they definitely were effective. I often like I had just woken up after a deep sleep. I felt less worried and stressed and my muscles felt very relaxed. It was very helpful doing the exercises before I slept, because I often found that I was able to sleep deeper and even felt better when I woke up the next day instead of feeling groggy and grumpy. Having said that, I wouldn’t recommend doing these exercises in the middle of the day or if you have something you need to do. When I tried it in the afternoon, I felt out of focus and lethargic. My body felt like resting but my mind knew I had things to do. I was definitely more relaxed after a week of doing the exercises, but I also often lacked the concentration and drive I needed to get through what I needed to do.

Stress: According to my results from the stress test, I am approaching the “danger zone” and have moments of great vulnerability to stress. Looking back at the past few weeks, this result isn’t very surprising. School, training, commuting, and family and relationship issues are some of the factors that get me very stressed out. I also put very big personal demands on myself, so even something as simple as doing an errand for my mom can turn into a stressful ordeal. I tend to overthink and together with the personal demands and expectations, I get myself emotionally stressed as well. Physical stress I can handle – just give me a nice nap and allow me to food binge and I’m good. It’s the emotional stress that I feel takes a toll on me. Training helps me deal with things as it gets my mind off of stressful matters. Doing chores or fixing things also helps me. These coping methods are temporary though as I get stressed again once I finish. I think the only I can surmount this is to start caring for myself more and thinking more about what makes me feel happier. I should also stop overthinking myself into situations; most of the time I know the stress comes from within me rather than from any external factors.

Time Management: Based on my current daily routine, commuting takes out a large amount of time from my day. Carpooling or finder easing and closer commuting routes will give me more time to focus on other responsibilities. I also spend the early half of the morning sleeping. Waking up earlier will give me more time to do schoolwork and any leisure activities before I need to leave the house for training. It will also finally get me to eat breakfast more and avoid skipping meals. I should devote more time to schoolwork and household chores, but I also need to allot more time for my body to rest, especially when I have training so I won’t be too physically tired.
As of now, I believe I do have my daily schedule under control. Shifting my time earlier however will definitely give me more to do and make my day more productive. Now, I do have enough time for my different priorities so I can allot the right amount of attention to each of them.

Coping Strategies: Common coping strategies I use are apologizing for and actively correcting problems, bottling my emotions, ignoring stressful situations, and doing relaxing activities to make me feel better. Most often I try to see what matters I can actually take to handle a stressful situation directly, and when there are none, I resort to withholding my emotions and trying to distract or ignore the stress. Trying to take progressive steps to solve a problem while being optimistic is a very effective strategy for me and helps me feel positive about other stressful situations. Keeping my feelings in is a strategy I use often but it usually is not very effective. As can be expected, such a strategy only allows me to cope temporarily but the stress always ends up bubbling up later on. It also often causes my emotions to pile up and I sometimes get depressed. Asking for advice for others or confiding in someone is a strategy I should consider using more often, as it will help ease my issues with my emotions and I will have help in tackling more of my problems actively.

MODULE 9
My lifestyle: Ever since I’ve adopted my sport, I can say that I have a much healthier lifestyle. I am in good physical condition and get enough activity each week. My body is strong and I believe that if I continue and balance my current lifestyle until old age, it will still be in good condition then. I do not have any destructive habits like overeating or smoking. I eat enough food to supply me with proper nutrition, however I tend to get careless with my intake. Sometimes I ignore the types of food I should be eating and should avoid. I skip breakfast and eat carelessly often. Another habit I have that is harmful to my lifestyle is how I deal with stress. I don’t manage stress well and it often gets me sick with cough and fever. The stress consumes me physically and emotionally. If I can adopt healthier eating habits and manage stress better, I will be leading a much healthier lifestyle.

My life resolution
My active and healthy life resolution will involve the following:

• eating three balanced meals a day (with snacks depending on the level of physical activity I get that day) that have balanced portions from each of the food groups of the food pyramid
• having at least a single portion of fruit and vegetables and grains each day
• reducing the amounts of soda, sugars, and carbs servings I take by at least a fourth of their current levels
• having at least 30 mins of jogging each week
• maintaining a minimum of six hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week
• making a more active effort to avoid sources of stress and relieving the current stress levels I have
• having at least a single medical check-up each month and having more check-ups when I’m sick or have injuries
• to maintain optimum physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health
• to surround myself in a healthier environment that promotes my own health and those of the people around me

I will monitor my behavior by keeping a monthly evaluation of my meals, nutritional intake, physical activity levels and overall health. This will allow me to keep track of my fitness levels and assess which areas need improvement and which are at optimum levels.
The biggest obstacle I could face for my resolution is the motivation for sticking to it. In overcoming this obstacle and preventing overall relapse for my entire resolution, I should constantly remind myself of my goals. Keeping an evaluation through my self-monitoring methods will help me keep focused and continue with my resolution. To constantly remind myself of my goals and my progress will prevent me from relapsing or leading a lifestyle less than the one I plan to lead.
Unforeseen health problems could be another obstacle to fulfilling my resolution. Such problems could affect my fitness and any nutritional plans I have. Constant medical check-ups will help me foresee and tackle any health issues before they get serious so that it does not greatly affect my plans. Another obstacle will be sticking to my food goals while being financially dependent. It’s hard when you don’t prepare your own meals or have the budget for your own. This means that this goal will be a long-term one. When I can pay for my own meals, I will have more say in what I eat and how I can take care of my body.

Reflections on the past few units
When it comes to fitness, I mostly focus on the physical aspect. It’s been interesting learning about the other factors of good health. I’m trying to apply what I learned on nutrition with what I eat so I can be more responsible with my body. Learning about stress and lifestyles has also made me think more about how I deal with the more emotional aspects of my life and how it affects me. I often shrug off stress but now I’ll try making more of a conscious effort to avoid it. I will do my best to keep my lifestyle goals in mind because I know that it will be very essential for me later on in my life.

Fitness & Nutrition Logs
It’s been difficult maintaining my goals for my nutrition these past few weeks. It’s costly to buy my own meals. I’m happy to see that I got my calorie intake down since my first unit log. I kept it within a range of 1200 calories, which helped me maintain a good weight for my training. I’m still not eating much breakfast because of my late daily schedule. It will be a difficult long-term goal, but I am willing and up to the challenge.
As for my fitness logs, I’ve been jogging more often and focusing on developing muscular power for jumps. I have good and balanced amounts of physical activity each week and I believe it’s keeping my body healthy.

Feb 22: For breakfast, I had a bottle of Cobra Energy Fit and 1 sandwich from Angel’s Hamburgers. For lunch I had roast pork with rice and succotash. I had a sisig meal for dinner. My intake was 32 g sugar, 1039 g sodium, 66 g protein, 17 g fat, 238 g carbs, and 1468 g calories.
My physical activity for the day included a morning jogging session by the Mall of Asia bayside, a few sets of sprints, and some light Wushu training. I also had some hurried briskwalking/running while commuting because I was running terribly late.

Feb 23: I ate a single fried egg for breakfast, fried chicken with rice and corn and carrots for lunch, pancit bam-i for merienda, and small portions of tanguige and chicken pastel for dinner. I consumed 10 g sugar, 2596 g sodium, 113 g protein, 50 g fat, 78 g carbs, and 1222 g calories.
I had 1 hour of Wushu training with a jumprope warm-up.

Feb 24: I had pancit canton for breakfast, adobo with kangkong and rice for lunch, and burger patties with mushrooms and rice with coke for dinner. My intake was 39 g, 1189 g sodium, 69 g protein, 49 g fat, 230 g carbs, and 1632 g calories.
I had a 10-minute 2 K jog, 15 minutes of stretching, and 1 and 1/2 hours of Wushu. I also had a weights-like workout lifting a full gallon of water a short distance and up five flights of stairs.

Feb 25: I had laswa soup with rice and breaded porkchop for lunch. For merienda, I had a ham and cheese wheat bread wrap and one pack of 6 pieces of ‘Lil Orbits donuts. I ate pork caldereta for dinner. My intake was 1 g sugar, 951 g sodium, 39 g protein, 10 g fat, 116 g carbs, and 1257 g calories.
My physical activity for this day consisted of fixing laundry and walking around a mall.

Feb 26: I had a bag of Texas Wild Hot chips for breakfast. I ate calamares, eggplant, and rice for lunch. I snacked on a peanut butter waffle sandwich and green apple iced tea. For dinner, I had indian mango. My intake was 3 g sugar, 644 g sodium, 15 g protein, 13 g fat, 164 g carbs, and 1408 g calories.
I did 15 minutes of walking, 10 minutes for a 2 K jog, 15 minutes of stretching, and 1 hour and 15 minutes of Wushu.

Feb 27:
I had Pizza Hut pan pizza for lunch and roast chicken with a glass of lemon soda for dinner. My intake was 15 g sugar, 2730 g sodium, 82 g protein, 68 g fat, 111 g carbs, and 1399 g calories.
I didn’t do any physical activity this day, as I stayed home to recover from cough.

Feb 28:
I had sloppy joe sandwiches for lunch and yang chow rice with Cobra Fit for dinner. I snacked on a Waffle Time hotdog for merienda. My intake was 28 g sugar, 272 g sodium, 7 g protein, 4 g fat, 45 g carbs, and 1180 g calories.
I did 10 minutes of walking, another 10 minutes for a 2K jog, 15 minutes of stretching, 1 and 1/2 hours of Wushu, and 10 minutes of resistance training with weights.

March 1:
I had another waffle time hotdog with coffee for breakfast. For lunch I had pork caldereta with Cobra Fit. For dinner I had tapsilog with fried tokwa and coke. I had a jelly popsicle and lemon lime Gatorade as snacks. My intake was 91 g sugar, 1000 g sodium, 42 g protein, 34 g fat, 154 g carbs, and 1208 g calories.
I did a morning jog by the MoA bayside followed by sprints and Wushu jumps training. My other activity involved walking during my commute.

March 2: I had sugbang baboy and ginataang sitaw at kalabasa with rice for lunch. I had pumpkin soup and breaded porkchop for dinner. For merienda, I ate chicken nuggets with a bottle of Cobra Fit. My intake was 29 g sugar, 1193 g sodium, 78 g protein, 57 g fat, 132 g carbs, and 1452 g calories.
I did around 5 minutes of walking, 2 straight minutes of jumprope, 1 hour of Wushu training, and 15 minutes of activity involving putting together and fixing our gym mats.

March 3:
I had paksiw na lechon with rice for lunch. For dinner I had mac n’cheese with chicken nuggets and coke for dinner. My intake was 45 g sugar, 1222 g sodium, 41 g protein, 40 g fat, 165 g carbs, and 1182 g calories.
I did a 3.2-kilometer jog with wrist weights on, 15 minutes of stretching, light-intensity resistance training, and 10 minutes of walking.

March 4:
I had a cheese frankfurter with rice for lunch. For dinner, I had fried chicken with cream cheese on toast and mushroom soup. For merienda, I had indian mango. My intake was 6 g sugar, 2199 g sodium, 40 g protein, 21 g fat, 194 g carbs, and 1309 g calories.
I had no physical activity on this day.

March 5:
For lunch I had corned beef and scrambled eggs with cream cheese on toast and a small portion of buttered rice. I had a jelly popsicle and a Cobra drink as snacks. For dinner I had chicken adobo and hard boiled egg. My intake was 48 g sugar, 1852 g sodium, 61 g protein, 37 g fat,156 g carbs, and 1078 g calories.
I did a 2-kilometer jog, 2 sets of 100-meter sprints, weights training, jumps exercises, and 20 minutes of stretching.

March 6:
For lunch I had Wendy’s Taco salad. For dinner I had a Japanese-style meal with tamago sushi, ebi tempura, beef teppanyaki with tofu, and fried rice. My intake was 15 g sugar, 2717 g sodium, 73 g protein, 85 g fat, 96 g carbs, and 1481 g calories.
My activity for the day involved walking during my commute and around a mall.

March 7:
I had chicken adobo with pinakbet and rice. For dinner I had adobo sandwich. I had a slice of blueberry cheesecake for a snack. My intake was 16 g sugar, 1378 g sodium, 91 g protein, 37 g fat, 135 g carbs, and 1336 g calories.
Once again, I did a 2-kilometer jog, 2 sets of 100-meter sprints, weights training, jumps exercises, and 20 minutes of stretching.

March 8:  For lunch, I had korean bulgogi beef and bean sprouts with coke. For dinner I ate at Starbucks, where I had an Esprit strawberry drink, 1 cup of perfect oatmeal with fruit toppings, and 1 chicken pesto sandwich. My intake was 78 g sugar, 3022 g sodium, 84 g protein, 37 g fat, 170 g carbs, and 1335 g calories.
My only physical activity for the day involved walking during my commute.

March 9: I had java rice and grilled porkchop for lunch. For dinner I had kung pao chicken and vegetable samosas. My intake for the day was 41 g sugar, 3028 g sodium, 75 g protein, 102 g fat, 152 g carbs, and 1758 g calories.
I did around 30 minutes of fixing our gym mats. This involved moving heavy mat pieces and cleaning them with a mop. I also had around an hour of Wushu training.

March 10:
I had a corndog and leftover samosas for lunch. For dinner I ate siomai and siopao and drank Dr. Pepper. I also drank wintermelon milk tea. My intake was 45 g sugar, 809 g sodium, 20 g protein, 39 g fat, 101 g carbs, and 1291 g calories.
I spent a lot of time walking from place to place during my commute, which totaled around an hour. I also had an hour and a half of Wushu training.

March 11:
I had fish and chips with rootbeer and mango fro-yo for lunch. For dinner I had squash soup and balut. My intake was 76 g sugar, 801 g sodium, 64 g protein, 55 g fat, 104 g carbs, and 1380 g calories.
I did another hour of walking during my commute.

March 12: I had two small pan de sal-sized hamburgers for lunch and pancit canton with a breaded porkchop and Cobra drink for dinner. My intake was 30 g sugar, 1221 g sodium, 86 g protein, 21 g fat, 71 g carbs, 1214 g calories.
I did a 2-kilometer jog followed by 15 minutes of stretching and 2 hours of Wushu training.

March 13:
I had a mozzarella beef burger with royal tru lemon for lunch. For dinner I had roast chicken and potato wedges. For merienda I had frozen yogurt with orange soda. My intake was 91 g sugar, 1145 g sodium, 75 g protein, 36 g fat, 155 g carbs, and 1268 g calories.
I had a morning jog by the MoA bayside followed by sprints and light Wushu training.

March 14:
For lunch I had spaghetti. For dinner I ate luncheon meat with rice. My intake was 1 g sugar, 101 g sodium, 45 g protein, 5 g fat, 231 g carbs, and 1183 g calories.
I had 2 and a half hours of Wushu today, including a 2-kilometer jog, and around 5 minutes of walking.

It’s been challenging, but very educational doing these unit blogs. It’s difficult seeing how our choices can affect our lifestyles, but I hope what I’ve learned helps keep me healthy well into the future.

Fitness Programs

Assignment 5 – exercise program

I based my exercise program both on the results of the previous two physical assessment assignments and what I perceived were my overall weaknesses in skill-related fitness. I focused on developing speed, power, and coordination. I also integrated this into my regular training regime for Wushu.

Previously, I’d focus on lengthening cardio to build my stamina. I’d jog for 10 rounds around a track-and-field-oval and include sprints. I noticed it wasn’t very effective when I’d end up feeling extra tired during training. I felt slow and heavy.

To build up speed, I focused on a cardio warm-up that depended on it. Instead of 10 rounds, I took it down to 5, but I put a time limit on myself – 10 minutes, with 2 for each round. I focused on making my steps bigger when I jog. This would help build my calf strength, which would help me in developing jumping power. It also boosted my stamina more effectively when it comes to maintaining high-energy states for longer. I can say that this part of my new training program has benefited me the most.

To build more muscular power, I targeted my Wushu training. The main part of training is when I have to perform Wushu forms or routines. At most, these are just a minute and a half, but Wushu routines are very high-intensity cardio workouts that target every factor of both skill-and-health related fitness. If you search up a modern  Wushu competition video, you’d see that the skill required for that minute and a half is very demanding.

I incorporated arm weights into these forms as a way to build power in my arms. The movements and the added weight would hopefully increase my power and speed.

All in all, I believe the program I started is effective. It certainly feels like it is. It seems repetitive, but my body also takes a while to adapt to and benefit from a program. I added morning jogging every two weeks because I also think it’s important to add at least some variation to your workout regimen.

 

Assignment 6 – revised exercise program

This one was a little more difficult because nobody commented on my previous program to give me suggestions for revisions. I had a 19/20 rating from a classmate, so I took it as a sign that my program was deemed effective. As for my personal reflections on my program, I do think that it is well-suited to me. I did not revise it as much. I added more resistance training with weights and calisthenics for the first two weeks, then decreased the sets for the last two weeks so that my muscles could adapt and build power and speed. I realized it was more important for me to lean toward resistance training to effectively build my muscles.

 

Personal reflections

There wasn’t as much activity involved with this unit. Most of it involved readings. It was very useful reading the technical side of what I do everyday. It can be easy to forget the science involved in training and just focused on the physical aspect. I was especially interested in learning the specifics of resistance and aerobic training as well as the requirements of a good fitness program. I find myself slowly integrating these principles into my training and the biggest benefit I’ve noticed is a big boost in my stamina. I hope I can continue to improve.

 

Fitness & Nutrition Logs

I was happy to see that I got my total calorie intake down per day. I also got my sugar intake down. I tried eating half the servings I usually do, and it seemed effective. I’m also eating less sweet stuff for merienda or snacks. I noticed that I still need to lower my sodium intake.

As for my fitness logs, I incorporated what I learned from our assignments. It was a lot more tiring this unit, but I noticed that I maintained my activity for longer. I focused a lot on developing leg power and added regular jogging. I do feel that it’s been effective. I was also careful to add at least two rest days per week.

Feb 8: For breakfast, I had 1 Mcdonald’s big breakfast w/ rice and 1 hash brown with iced tea. For lunch I had one plate of homemade pancit. For dinner I had a side serving of macaroni salad and a main meal of hungarian sausages. I snacked on buco salad ice cream. My nutritional intake for the day was 90 g sugar, 2326 g sodium, 73 g protein, 114 g fat, 253 g carbs, and 2264 g calories.

On this day I had around 20 minutes of a morning jog at the Mall of Asia bayside followed by sprints and a light Wushu session.

Feb 9: I had fish fillet cuts and potato wedges for lunch and Chicken Bon Chon wings, onion rings, and chapchae for dinner. I snacked on rocky road ice cream. My intake for the day was 0 g sugar, 1107 g sodium, 65 g protein, 79 g fat, 94 g carbs, and 1467 g calories.

I did 10 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of stretching, and around 1 hour of Wushu.

Feb 10: I had beefsteak with rice and corn and carrots for lunch. For dinner I had 2 breaded porkchops. I snacked on 2 bananas and a mint chocolate chip donut. My intake was 51 g sugar, 2413 g sodium, 93 g protein, 50 g fat, 203 g carbs, and 1669 g calories.

I did 10 minutes walking, 15 minutes stretching, a 10-minute 2 kilometer jog, and 1 and a half hours of Wushu.

Feb 11: I had squid rings with shrimp and mushroom risotto for lunch. For dinner I ate at Cyma’s and had roka salata salad, watercress pasta and pita bread with greek yogurt. As a snack I had strawberries and cream with chocolate syrup. My intake was 4 g sugar, 1337 g sodium, 47 g protein, 37 g fat, 139 g carbs, and 1759 g calories.

My only physical activities for the day were mall-walking and fixing laundry.

Feb 12: For breakfast I had leftover roka salata salad. For lunch I had leftover watercress pasta and bangus. For dinner I had a 711 tapsilog meal with 1 can of Mug rootbeer. My intake for the day was 47 g sugar, 169 g sodium, 33 g protein, 12 g fat, 131 g carbs, and 1086 g calories.

I did 10 minutes of jogging followed by 10 minutes of 100-meter sprints, 15 minutes stretching, 1 hour of Wushu involving jumps training, and 10 minutes of walking during my commute.

 Feb 13: For lunch I had a sizzling plate meal of beef tenderloin tips with java rice and mixed vegetables. For dinner I had pickled fish with rice and adobo. I snacked on Dairy Queen mud pie ice cream and a sugar cookie. My intake was 82 g sugar, 2245 g sodium, 70 g protein, 84 g fat, 246 g carbs, and 2041 g calories.

On this day, I did more walking around a mall.

 Feb 14: I ate sugbang baboy with ginataang sitaw at kalabasa and rice for lunch. For dinner I had a 711 lasagna weal with yakisoba spicy chicken noodles. My intake for the day was 17 g sugar, 2046 g sodium, 73 g protein, 54 g fat, 174 g carbs, and 1537 g calories.

I did 15 minutes of walking, 10 minutes for a 2 K jog, 15 minutes of stretching, 1 and a half hours of Wushu, and 15 minutes of weights resistance training to build power.

 Feb 15: For lunch I had rotisserie roasted chicken with rice and coke and for dinner I had beef and potato casserole. I snacked on Andes mint chocolate. My intake for the day was 45 g sugar, 1285 g sodium, 111 g protein, 24 g fat, 188 g carbs, and 1454 g calories.

My only physical activity this day was around 10 minutes of fixing laundry.

 Feb 16: I had homemade valenciana and barbecue for lunch. For dinner I ate valenciana and barbecue leftovers with 1 roast chicken leg, a bowl of cream of mushroom soup and 1 can of strawberry kiwi soda. My intake for the day was 10 g sugar, 5674 g sodium, 147 g protein, 92 g fat, 81 g carbs, and 1780 g calories.

I did 15 minutes of walking, 5 minutes straight of jumprope, 10 minutes of stretching, 40 minutes of Wushu, and 15 minutes of weights training to develop power for jumps.

 Feb 17: I had Korean bulgogi beef with bean sprouts and rice and lychee mogu mogu for lunch. For dinner I had pickled fish and two cheese pesto pan de al pieces with a bowl of potato soup and a fourth a bottle of soy milk. My intake for the day was 40 g sugar, 620 g sodium, 47 g protein, 27 g fat, 177 g carbs, 1766 g calories.

 I did another 10-min 2 K jog, 15 minutes of stretching, and 1 and a half hours of Wushu.

 Feb 18: For breakfast I had soy milk with a few chocolates. For lunch I had pickled fish from a jar, sugbang baboy, rice and a bottle of Cobra Fit energy drink. For merienda I had shibuya toast and a small bubblegum milk shake. For dinner I had corned beef with rice. My intake was 69 g sugar, 1326 g sodium, 65 g protein, 36 g fat, 240 g carbs, and 1639 g calories.

I had another jogging session by the Mall of Asia bayside in the morning, followed by around 5 minutes of sprinting, and 30 minutes of walking during my commute and around a mall.

 Feb 19: For breakfast, I had 1 cup of cheese-flavored corn. For lunch I ate a tapsilog meal with coke. For dinner, I had a KFC berry Krushers shake with 1 large order of chicken fun shots. My intake was 45 g sugar, 2092 g sodium, 79 g protein, 33 g fat, 133 g carbs, and 1301 g calories.

I did a short 5-minute Wushu presentation demo and assisted in teaching a 1hour Wushu class at Miriam College in the morning. In the afternoon I had my usual 2 K jog followed by 15 minutes stretching and 1 hour of Wushu training involving leg and wrist weights to develop power in kicks and arms and jumps training. The rest of my activity involved hurried walking during my commute.

 Feb 20: For lunch I had Mcdonald’s. I ate a quarter pounder with chicken nuggets and fries. For dinner I ate half a cheeseburger with homemade carbonara and nuggets. My intake was 13 g sugar, 2720 g sodium, 74 g protein, 91 g fat, 162 g carbs, and 1760 g calories.

I stayed home to rest and catch up on school work, so I didn’t have any physical activity on this day.

 Feb 21: For lunch I had homemade beef tacos. For dinner I ate jarred pickled fish and rice and drank melon soy milk. My intake was 9 g sugar, 1002 g sodium, 74 g protein, 58 g fat, 114 g carbs, and 1158 g calories.

I had 2 hours of Wushu training and 15 minutes of light resistance training.

Unit 2: Lights, Camera, Action!

Insights on the Unit

This was definitely an interesting and hectic unit, marking the start of our busy filming and exercise activities. While people would naturally assume that I’d excel, I still did fall short with several of the tests. It’s hard to find someone who’s generally fit in all fitness components. As we learned, people have different body types and different capabilities. Muscular and lean bodies may have difficulty with flexibility, while thin and agile bodies mostly have difficulty in building muscle mass. Judging by my results and observations during my training sessions, I excel with endurance and flexibility exercises but have poor muscle strength and speed-related capabilities. I’m often the little-engine-that-could during training, because while I don’t appear that strong, I’m still going toward the end of the class.
This unit has taught me the importance of monitoring in physical fitness training. It isn’t only an important part of development, it also draws our attention to areas which may cause health-related problems. As long as you assess your weaknesses, you have a chance to improve upon them.

Assignment 3

It was a unique challenge doing the exercises for this assignment. It was definitely my first time doing a video assignment, which made it tough to find the best area and way to film myself. Other than that, it was fun and I enjoyed testing myself to see just how developed my body and skills were.
I had no probably going through the warm-up, as I warm-up my body everyday before training for 30 minutes. I chose a two-minute jog to warm-up for the activities. I did three sets each for each of the stretching exercises. I had no problem with the hamstring stretch, hip and thigh stretch, and the leg hug, in fact I didn’t feel much of a stretch from each exercise. I felt more of a stretch with the backsaver toe touch and the calf stretch. I stretch my calves a lot because they get easily fatigued, especially when I do jumps training. The side stretches were a little more challenging than I thought. I kept on thinking about yoga and the challenge of maintaining a position that stretches the body. As I held each side stretch for 20 seconds, I felt my body tensing a little. Aside of this, I didn’t have much of a problem with flexibility. I’ve always enjoyed stretching and take to it easier than other exercises.
The muscular capacity exercises was what I was more used to. After getting the proper position of my legs for the muscular endurance exercises (because I kept on pointing my knee up to the ceiling), I did the exercises without much difficulty. I’m usually used to 20 repetitions for such kinds of exercises. With the strength exercises, I was able to do three push-ups, but not without difficulty. I noticed in my video how by butt kept on sticking out instead of my body being straight. I also had the most difficulty initially pushing my body up. I think the exercises show that I do have good muscular strength, but I do need to continue building to get the optimal level for sports.
With the jumping power exercise, I jumped over half of my body’s height. I have good muscular power, but again, I still need to build up. This is a major problem for me during my training because a lot of the time I have to do jumps. Another problem I have involves speed and coordination. With the heel-click exercise, I was only able to click them once. When I continued trying, I kicked my heel pretty hard and worried that I almost injured myself. My instinct with jumping is either to prepare for landing or keep my feet together to keep myself in the air longer. I was able to do the paper ball pickup in five seconds, but I don’t think it accurately showed my agility. I really do have poor speed-related skills. I fare better with the flexibility and strength exercises. I also had to do the paper drop several times before I finally got it. I think my poor reaction time shows how badly I’d do in contact sports. It took me several tries to get the paper ball catch exercise for coordination. I had to throw slowly and low each time just so I could catch it. This is definitely accurately shows my skills as my lack of coordination is one of the major things that impairs my physical performance. It’s also one of the major reasons for my physical awkwardness.
I was surprised that I was able to complete the balance exercise. I’m used to balancing while my foot is flat because I rely on my lower leg strength. I was also surprised that I passed the body composition test because judging by my current food logs, I haven’t been restricting my diet very well.
Judging by my results from the assignment, the skill-related factors I need to develop the most are speed, coordination, and reaction time. Despite this, I think that I am physically fit. I attribute this to my regular training and I hope that improving my skill-related fitness will improve how I perform in my sport.

Assignment 4

I found these exercises a little simpler to do. Less of these exercises involved speed, which was my main problem with last week’s assignment.
My results from the balance test were consistent with last week’s. I have good balance, but I could still stand to improve it. The standards for skill fitness are much higher than normal in sports. In the flexibility test, most of my results were also good. I didn’t feel extreme discomfort during the stretches. I’m also used to more intense stretches, so the exercises were easier for me to do. The most stretch I felt were in my calves and thighs, because my these areas often feel sore from training. I didn’t have any problems with the healthy back test, and the results showed that I have no major problems with my back. However in the back-to-wall exercise, the small of my back was larger than the hand that was placed there, indicating possible lordosis. Usually I also have lower back pains, but these aren’t usually severe and last for only a day.
In the muscular endurance test, I did feel tenseness in my muscles. While I was able to do 25 curl-ups, my muscles tensed quickly. I also had difficult with both the push-ups and the flexed arm support, indicating that I still need to build muscle. I have good muscular endurance, because I am able to maintain muscular activity for longer periods, but I still lack power and strength.
Lastly, in the cardiovascular fitness test, I chose to do the bike test, mostly because it was the most convenient because we have a stationary bike at our house, and it was the easiest to video. I had a heart rate of 135 bpm by the sixth minute and had worked up a good sweat. I think this shows good cardiovascular fitness, despite the low results I got based on the Assignment pdf guide. Cardio fitness is one of the areas I’ve improved in since I started training regularly.
All in all, the results are similar to last week’s. I have some areas I definitely need to improve in, but compared to conventional standards for performing physical activity, I am very fit.

On Body Composition

I’m normally insecure when it comes to my body. I’m more confident now than I used to be before I got into sports, though. My body composition results, specifically the waist-to-hip ratio, showed that I am at risk for obesity. This is shocking, but not surprising when I think about it. I eat a lot, and if it weren’t for Wushu, I’d have a largely sedentary lifestyle. It’s scary to think about and makes me all the more thankful that I am physically active. This is a wake-up call for me, because I won’t be active all my life and if I don’t make more of a conscious effort to monitor what I eat, I may very well pay for it with my health. A combination of healthy eating habits and an active lifestyle are the best way to improve your body composition as well as your outlook and perception of your own body.

 Fitness & Nutrition logs for Jan 25 – Feb 7
I noticed that my nutritional intake involved a lot of sodium and carbohydrates and minimal protein. I hope I can change that. I also hope that my daily training was able to offset what I ate. I was happy to see that I got my calorie intake down by the end of the unit. 🙂

Jan 25 – For lunch I had 1 regular serving of McDonald’s fries, 1 chicken McDo w/ rice, and 1 coke float. For dinner I had a quarter pounder with cheese and drank a bottle of Cobra Energy Fit drink. I snacked on bananas, a few oishi prawn crackers, homemade strawberries and cream with blueberries, and a bottle of apple Vitwater. My nutritional intake for the day was 95 g sugar, 3157 g sodium, 118 g protein, 89 g fat, 295 g carbs, and 2350 g calories.
My physical activity of the day comprised of 15 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of basketball, 10 minutes of stretching, and 1 hour of Wushu.

Jan 26 – For breakfast, I had a corned beef sandwich. For lunch I ate a small portion of caldereta and luncheon meat. For dinner, I shared a Chowking lauriat meal with friends. My intake for the day was 40 g sugar, 1343 g sodium, 74 g protein, 68 g fat, 172 g carbs, and 1731 g calories.
We had a Chinese New Year exhibition this day, so apart from the 10 minutes in my commute, I had a total of 40 minutes of Wushu warm-up drills and two 15-minute Wushu performances.

Jan 27 – I had a beef shawarma wrap for breakfast, roast chicken and mashed potatoes for lunch, and pizza hut pizza for dinner. My intake for the day was 15 g sugar, 2355 g sodium, 63 g protein, 51 g fat, 125 carbs, and 1266 g calories.
I did 45 minutes of continuous vigorous jogging for a distance of 4 kilometers, 15 minutes of stretching, 1 hour of Wushu, and a total of 20 minutes of walking.

Jan 28 – I had bopis and laing with rice for lunch and laing and porksteak with rice for dinner. I snacked on a mint chocolate chip ice cream bar and drank a Cobra Energy Fit drink. My intake was 44 g sugar, 435 g sodium, 53 g protein, 52 g fat, 222 g carbs, and 1568 g calories.
I did 30 minutes of stretching, which included stretching during training and while doing the Assignment 3 activities. I did 20 minutes of jogging and calisthenics warm-up and 1 hour of moderate to vigorous intensity Wushu.

Jan 29 – I ate pinakbet with rice for lunch and sisig with rice for dinner with a bottle of Cobra Energy Fit. I also ate a chocolate-covered ice cream bar. My intake was 46 g sugar, 1170 g sodium, 43 g protein, 20 g fat, 217 g carbs, 1292 g calories.
I did 20 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of stretching through the assignment exercises. During training I did an additional 15 minutes of stretching, 30 minutes for a 4 kilometer vigorous jog, and 1 hour of Wushu training.

Jan 30 – For lunch I ate breaded porkchop and ginisang sayote with rice. For dinner I had roast beef with homemade succotash. I also drank 1 glass of coffee shake. My intake was 0 g sugar, 623 g sodium, 43 g protein, 21 g fat, 131 g carbs, and 994 g calories.
I did 15 minutes of exercises for our assignment activities, 10 minutes of stretching, 1 hour of Wushu training, and 10 minutes of walking.

Jan 31 – For lunch I had sweet chili pork with rice. For dinner, I ate out with friends at Clawdaddy’s. I shared in a meal with shrimp, barbecued chicken, pork ribs, and paella fried rice. I snacked on lemon frozen yogurt and drank fresh mango juice. My intake was 50 g sugar, 1895 g sodium, 101 g protein, 50 g fat, 202 g carbs, and 1682 g calories.
Aside of the 10 minutes of light walking around, I had two 15-minute Wushu shows, each preceded by 10-minute warm-ups.

Feb 1 – I had two grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast, pinakbet for lunch, and beef stroganoff for dinner. My intake was 26 g sugar, 2095 sodium, 58 g protein, 37 g fat, 106 g carbs, and 1045 g calories.
This was the first day I was able to rest for the first week of January. The only activity I had was 1 and a half hours of laundry and ironing.

Feb 2 – I ate at Razon’s for lunch. I shared bangus, sisig, and dinuguan with rice. I had halo-halo for dessert. For dinner, I had tapa and scrambled eggs with rice and tomatoes and onions. I snacked on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for merienda. My intake was 7 g sugar, 1102 g sodium, 68 g protein, 26 g fat, 201 g carbs, and 1549 g calories.
I had no physical activity today.

Feb 3 – I had pork caldereta for lunch, rice and chicken nuggets with a small serving of carbonara with Mug root beer soda for dinner, and a bar of Lindt dark chocolate mint for a snack. My intake was 73 g sugar, 826 g sodium, 24 g protein, 37 g fat, 180 g carbs, and 1228 g calories.
I did 10 minutes of walking, 20 minutes of stretching, a 10 minute vigorous 2 kilometer jog, 1 hour of Wushu, and 15 minutes of weights training.

Feb 4 – I had corned beef hash and tocino with lime lemonade for lunch, carbonara and roast chicken for dinner, and a chocolate bar and strawberry banana ice cream for snacks. My intake was 218 g sugar, 1911 g sodium, 81 g protein, 84 g fat, 238 g carbs, and 1989 g calories.
My only physical activity for this day involved walking around a mall.

Feb 5 – For lunch I had a hotdog sandwich, ginataang vegetables and a small portion of sugbang baboy. For dinner, I had java rice and barbecue spare ribs. I also drank 1 cup of taro milk tea. My intake was 48 g sugar, 2003 g sodium, 48 g protein, 73 g fat, 166 g carbs, and 1589 g calories.
My physical activity involved 10 minutes of walking, 10 minutes for a vigorous 2 kilometer jog, 15 minutes of stretching, and 1 hour of Wushu training involving jumps and weights training.

Feb 6 – For lunch I had pancit canton and bagoong rice. I had caldereta with rice for dinner. I also had butterscotch for snacks.
My activity for the day involved 45 minutes of stretching and doing exercises for Assignment 4, including 6 minutes of using a bike.

Feb 7 – I had KFC hotshots and a kung pao chicken meal for lunch, a side order of macaroni salad for dinner, and 1 order of strawberry milk tea as a snack. My intake was 18 g sugar, 1872 g sodium, 26 g protein, 34 g fat, 88 g carbs, and 810 g calories.
I did 5 minutes of walking, 10 minutes for a 2 kilometer jog, 15 minutes of stretching, and 1 and a half hours of Wushu training.

Unit #1: On Calories, Physical Activity, Heart rates, and Health

This has been a very busy and tiring unit, but it brought with it a flood of useful information for me. I like to think that I know about physical activity as an athlete. Despite this, learning about the science of PE was still a new experience for me. I didn’t even know how much calories I had been consuming each day, neither did I know about target heart rates and what an important indicator it is of my health. I’m currently trying to balance my diet more, which is still proving difficult considering my daily training schedule. I admit to feeling a lot more conscious about what I eat and actions that could affect my health now, but I do know I have nothing to worry about. I’m young, active, and healthy, as most of the questionnaires stated.

Has fitness and healthy lifestyle always been a serious concern for you? Why or why not? Please cite instances that will support your claims.
Fitness has not always been a serious concern for me. In my earlier adolescence, I was less than fit and would often feel insecure about it because in my eyes my sisters had better bodies than I did. Despite this I was too shy to try exercise and didn’t take it seriously enough to actually get into it. It was after my mother encouraged me to take Wushu that I started to take fitness more seriously. Now my fitness is a serious concern for me because I have to keep in good shape for training and especially for competitions. I need to balance my diet so I get enough food for energy while maintaining a reasonable weight range. It’s also important for me not to lack sleep or train while previously tired, especially if I have a competition.
A healthy lifestyle was also not always a concern for me because previously I didn’t know what it meant to have one. As far as I was concerned, if I was not sick and felt happy, I was fine. Now that I know more about healthy lifestyles, it has become more of a priority for me. I make more of an effort to keep myself physically healthy. I also engage in more activities, mostly involving my Wushu training to keep me socially and emotionally happy by being around friends. Aside of school I try reading as often  as I can to keep myself mentally healthy. I also put more precedence in how I am healthy in these different dimensions which helps keep me spiritually healthy. I enjoy being healthy in these different aspects and take care to maintain these states.

Do you think you physically fit and healthy? Why/why not? If not, what are you going to do about this?
I do think I am physically fit and healthy. I get daily physical exercise that keeps my body in good condition. This gives me quite an appetite, so I get copious amounts of nutrition. The exercise has also helped my previous asthma by strengthening my lungs against cough. It also helps my body cope better for when I get sick. Sports has also allowed me to adopt a more positive mindset and enriched my social and environmental health by helping me get out of the house and interact with others more. Moreover I understand more about what it takes to become healthy and what is at risk if you are not. I know why and how I should be able to maintain my health and physical fitness in the future. More importantly, I also feel fit and healthy.

What have you discovered about yourself after taking the questionnaires in your assignment? What could have been the contributory factors that result to the outcome of your tests?
One of the test results I was surprised with came from the Physical Adherence Questionnaire. It stated that adherence to physical activity was only likely for me. I think this is a result of not paying attention to the technicalities of physical activity. I don’t pay much attention to what I eat and my nutrition intake, nor do I have regular medical check-ups. I think that the reason why I’m active now is that I’m young and involved in sports. The way I interpret the results though is that when I get older and do sports less, I may have more difficulty staying active.
In the Wellness test, I only had marginal social and intellectual wellness. This may be due to how I keep a socially-limited environment and seldom converse and share my opinions with other.
My physical activity attitude shows that I have fair enjoyment and outdoor results. This is most likely because I mostly practice indoors and seldom engage in nature-related activity. The enjoyment factor may be due to the competitive aspect of Wushu. It can get very stressful and the physical and emotional demands the sport has can sap some of the enjoyment out of it.
The rest of the results were mostly good. It showed that I am in good physical and emotional health, lead a healthy lifestyle, am at low-risk for heart disease or injury-related symptoms, and that I overall have good wellness. I do attribute this to sports and getting active, because it has helped me be more focused in the other aspects of life while keeping healthy. It also improved my emotional and mental well-being, as well as my self-perception.

What fitness fallacy or myth did you once have and has now been corrected?  Has this misconception affected your wellness? How?
A fitness fallacy I once thought was true was that the burning sensation of exercise isn’t necessary for a better workout and is merely an effect of lactic acid in the muscles. The burn certainly feels good during a workout and feels like an indicator that you have put your best in. The burn fallacy hasn’t really affected me in any way, however. I still try exercising until I feel the burn and still enjoy how it feels as there really are no harmful effects from it.

How different will your target heart rate be ten (10) years from now?  What could be the factors that will affect this change?
Ten years from now, when I’m fresh into my thirties, my heart rate will most likely go down by around 10 beats per minute. My body will be physically affected by aging, and I don’t expect that by then I’d be as active in sports as I am now. I may get a more sedentary lifestyle due to factors such as work and possibly earning a Master’s degree (hopefully 😀 ). I will make a mental note to myself to still maintain an active lifestyle in order to ensure that I stay within the healthy target heart rate zone.

Physical Activity & Nutrition Logs:

It was a pretty daunting task listing all the food I had to eat while keeping track of how long I stay physically active in a day. Most of the time it was a little shocking, especially finding out the nutrition content I take in.
Another thing about these logs is that I hardly eat breakfast. I normally wake up at around 10am and go straight to schoolwork. I eat breakfast either if I have to wake up extra early or have a long day ahead. I know it’s a bad habit, and I hope to try and change it soon.
Here are my logs for the duration of Unit 1: Jan 11 – 24

January 11: This was my sister’s birthday, so I ended up eating a lot. I had lumpia, roast beef, potato wedges, and fruit salad for both lunch and dinner. I consumed 105 grams of sugar, 3220 grams of sodium, 85 grams of protein, 73 grams of fat, 211 grams of carbs, and a total calorie count of 1783 grams.
I had no training this day and did not leave the house. The most activity I had was light walking in between studying.

January 12: On this day I had roast pork, buttered vegetables, tapa, scrambled eggs, fruit salad, ube cake, and a pinipig ice cream bar. My total nutrition intake was 56 g sugar, 244 g sodium, 64 g protein, 44 g fat, 80 g carbs, and a total of 1041 g of calories.
I had Wushu training this day. I did 15 minutes of stretching and 1 hour of Wushu. In addition I did a full hour of moderate-intensity chores involving mopping and lifting.

January 13: I ate tapa, ginisang sayote, pork caldereta, fresh papaya, freshly-squeezed dalandan juice, and a strawberry jam donut. I consumed 38 g sugar, 25 g sodium, 12 g protein, 7 g fat, 39 g carbs, and 893 g calories.
I did 15 minutes of stretching, 40 minutes of vigorous jogging, 15 minutes of moderate Wushu activity followed by 15 minute of intense Wushu, and a total of 15 minutes of walking involved during my daily commute.

January 14: I didn’t have training on this day, so I decided to eat to enjoy my rest day. I ate 1 tapsilog meal with green mango salad, 1 grilled ham and cheese sandwich with half a side of fries, baked macaroni and cheese, breaded fish fillet, and a chocolate marble waffle. I consumed 22 g sugar, 3216 g sodium, 97 g protein, 106 g fat, 212 g carbs, and 2189 g calories.
The most physical activity I had this day was walking around the house.

January 15: I ate grilled bangus, pork steak, 1 bowl of ginataang sitaw and kalabasa, a roast chicken breast, and 1 cup of strawberry banana and orange juice. My intake was 3 g sugar, 282 g sodium, 30 g protein, 18 g fat, 10 g carbs, and 340 g calories.
My commute involved 15 minutes of walking and my training involved 15 minutes of stretching 40 minutes of vigorous jogging, and 10 minutes of light-intensity Wushu.

January 16: We had takeout from Shakey’s Pizza for lunch. I had cheese pizza and cheese and beef pizza with coke. For dinner I had Vigan longganisa, spanish style scrambled eggs, and garlic rice. My intake was 49 g sugar, 2007 g sodium, 62 g protein, 71 g fat, 154 g carbs, and 2209 g calories.
My training involved 10 minutes of jogging, 10 minutes of stretching, 1 hour of moderate Wushu followed by 30 minutes of vigorous training. In addition, I had 30 minutes of moderate-intensity chore-work and 10 minutes of walking outdoors.

January 17: This day was pretty shameful. I’m almost hesitant to put in my food log for this day. My mom brought takeout for lunch and me and my siblings enjoyed wolfing the food down. In the spirit of schoolwork, here goes!
We had takeout from the restaurant Racks. For the entire day I ate around 1/4 a rack of ribs, 1 serving of fries, 1 serving of broccoli in cheese sauce, 2 slices of cornbread, 1 serving of macaroni and cheese, a jamaican beef patty, and mountain dew. My entire intake was 202 g sugar, 11849 g sodium, 304 g protein, 416 g fat, 684 g carbs, and 7079 g calories.
My commute consisted of 10 minutes of walking, while my training involved 15 minutes of jogging, 20 minutes of stretching, 15 minutes of 100-meter vigorous sprints, 10 minutes of moderate-intensity weight training, and 1 hour of Wushu. I dearly hope all this was enough to burn all the food I ate!

January 18: I ate half of a jamaican patty, a cup of home-cooked chopsuey, stir fried bean sprouts, beef bulgogi, a bar of fun size butterginger, a cup of strawberries with whipped cream, 1 bottle of Cobra Fit energy drink, 1 can of Mountain Dew, and a fourth fo a can of Coke. My intake was 119 g sugar, 2480 g sodium, 48 g protein, 34 g fat, 156 g carbs, 1195 g calories.
My physical activities for the day included 15 minutes of chores that involved adjusting the matts in our Wushu gym, 2 hours of Wushu which consisted mostly of cardiovascular and endurance-related activities, and 15 minutes of cycling on an exercise bike.

January 19: I ate half a cup of rice, bulgogi beef, roast chicken, 1 bowl of Chinese egg drop soup, around 6 balls of Lindt dark chocolate, 1 cup of strawberries with whipped cream, and 1 and 1/2 servings of french fries. My intake was 67 g sugar, 2696 g sodium, 99 g protein, 111 g fat, 270 g carbs, and 2437 g calories.
With Chinese New Year so near, training involved 10 minutes of running games for warm up, an extra 5 minutes of calisthenics exercises, 10 minutes of stretching, and 2 hours of Wushu rehearsals for our performances.

January 20: I ate pan de sal with australian whipped cream cheese, lumpia, fish fillet, and quinoa cooked with vegetables. My nutrition intake consisted of 13 g sugar, 1487 g sodium, 51 g protein, 57 g fat, 227 g carbs, and 1628 g calories. I had 40 minutes of Wushu training involving jumps, 15 minutes of jogging and 15 minutes of vigorous 100-meter sprints, 15 minutes of stretching, and 10 minutes of walking.

Jan 21: On this day I ate two homemade Dak ham sandiwches with sandwich spread, homemade chicken nuggets, Australian whipped cream cheese sandwiches on wheat bread, and homemade fusilli pasta with bolognaise sauce. I also drank 1 pack of Big 250 apple juice. My intake this day was 43 g sugar, 1245 g sodium, 44 g protein, 38 g fat, 157 g carbs, and 1590 g calories.
I had 1 hour and 30 minutes of Wushu training, 10 minutes of stretching, and 15 minutes of cycling on an exercise bike.

January 22: I ate sugbang baboy, 1 serving of yakisoba spicy chicken noodles, 2 roast chicken legs, and two slices of wheat bread with cream cheese. I also drank half a liter of Sunkist orange juice, 1 pack of trolli gummi worms, and munched on Lay’s Barbecue Potato chips. My intake for the day was 40 g sugar, 1655 g sodium, 111 g protein, 84 g fat, 209 g carbs, and 1945 g calories.
I did 40 minutes of Wushu training, 15 minutes of vigorous jogging, 10 minutes of stretching, and 10 minutes of walking.

Jan 23: I ate a lot again today. We had take-out from Wendy’s because our training schedule started a little early. I ate 1 bacon mushroom melt burger, 1 medium-sized serving of french fries, 1 bacon and cheese baked potato, drank half a large serving of coke. For dinner, I had half a Wendy’s shrimp burger and small sized burger patties with mushrooms and onions. For snacks I drank half a liter of orange juice, ate two packs of chocolate tiger biscuits, and 1 bowl of vanilla ice cream. My intake today is a large 114 g sugar, 3477 g sodium, 155 g protein, 169 g fat, 343 g carbs, and 3526 calories.
I had around 10 minutes of jogging, 10 minutes of stretching, 1 hour of Wushu training, 5-10 minutes of vigorous weight training, and around 5-10 minutes of walking. I would have squeezed in some cycling if I had known how much I consumed, but my body was aching badly after not having a rest from training for more than a week and doing weights again.

Jan 24: I decided to end this unit’s food blog by having breakfast. I hope to fix this habit of mine so that I stop eating too many high calorie meals throughout the day. Today I ate 1 banana, 1/4 pack of Oishi Hot & Spicy crackers, bangus with rice, pork roast, 1/2 sandwich of cream cheese with wheat bread, 1 bowl of pancit molo soup, 1 bowl of vanilla ice cream, 3 pieces of ube silvanas, and drank 500 ml of low-carb lemon lime Gatorade. Despite this, I still had a pretty high calorie count. My intake was 140 g sugar, 2646 sodium, 92 g protein, 113 g fat, 292 carbs, and 2513 g calories.
I didn’t have as much physical activity this day as I normally do. I had 15 minutes of walking, 30 minutes of Wushu, 15 minutes of vigorous weight training, and 10 minutes of cycling.

Doing physical activity regularly really gets my appetite going. With Chinese New Year approaching, I had daily training sessions with no break. I enjoy eating a lot. Training gets very stressful and I eat so I can replenish my body’s reserves. I also eat a lot as a way of showing appreciation to the cook in our house or to my mother if she buys us food. I’m only human! I give into cravings! I like snacking! 😀

I still hope to become more disciplined with my calorie intake and continue to balance it with training. 🙂

Week #1: Time for some Physical Education!

And so my wordpress comes alive! 😀

The first week of PE1 was more hectic than I thought it would be, having to navigate a course site full of readings and links and figuring out what our first assignment was. I hope it will get easier as the weeks go on… but I doubt that very much. 😉

Know Thyself

I usually don’t like taking self-evaluation quizzes, especially when it comes to things such as how I study. Since I spent several years self-studying, I developed an unconventional style of learning. I don’t adhere strictly to schedules, nor do I set a specified number of hours for myself while studying. This made it a little difficult for me to answer a few of the questions, such as the ones involving lectures and class hours, since I had to imagine what I’d do in the situation. Given that, it was still an interesting experience taking the tests and realizing the different patterns and tendencies I tend to have as a student.

Time Management – I am a poor time manager and need to learn how to manage my time better if I want to avoid cramming and stress. No surprise there. No matter how many times I tell myself I will not cram, I always end up doing so. I end up losing sleep and feeling tired as well as irritable the whole day. My stress levels also go through the roof. I think the main reasons why I cram are my tendencies to underestimate the time it takes me to finish an assignment and procrastination.

Self-Regulation Questionnaire – I have intermediate self-regulation capacity. Again, no surprise there. I already knew how poorly I manage my time. I also suffer from the dreaded “I’ll do it later…” syndrome. To balance that out, however, I do have periods of increased productivity where I get a lot of work done.

Study Skills Inventory – I need to change my textbook-reading skills. This was a little tricky considering most of my textbooks are online and I choose these over the printed ones to save on money. I do print out documents for exams, and they are very helpful. I’m also a poor note-taker. I don’t often take notes until I have readings I need to study for an exam. It gets time-consuming, especially if I have more than one subject to study for. I have good memory skills. I spend most of my time reading, even my leisure hours, so my brain gets used to storing information. While studying for exams I also memorize specific terms and formulas. I take pride in my memorization skills because I put in a lot of effort to memorize every detail. I have good test preparation. This follows from the memorization and the note-taking before the test. I also take care to bring my books and notebooks for some last-minute studying. By a single point on the test I fell into the poor concentration category. I have a very active imagination and my mind always wanders while studying. This is why I push myself to continue working when I have my bouts of productivity – so that I can maximize my productive output while my mind is on the right track. Lastly, I have poor time management. Well I already knew that. 🙂

Learning Style Survey – I’m a visual learner. I process what I can see much faster than with my other senses. I’m also more focused while reading or studying images. I’m an introvert. This was the most obvious result to me. I stay at home when I can and I’m often by myself when I go out. I study on my own and often keep to myself because I can get anxious or nervous around people I don’t know. I do make an effort to be social when the occasion calls for it; I just prefer to be by myself or among smaller and my closest groups. I am equally random-intuitive and concrete sequential. I used to only prepare for the immediate future, but as I got older I noticed the need to think farther. I don’t adhere to any strict method of preparation, so I’ve learned to become more flexible in how I tackle tasks. I’m closure-oriented when it comes to deadlines. I’m very careful when it comes to deadlines and don’t take too many risks. When I’m not sure of a deadline I take the safer route and finish an assignment as soon as I can. I’m a particular learner. I want to try to get every detail because I get nervous that I may miss something. I do this especially when I try to memorize notes. When I think that some readings will not be included in an exam or are just supplementary, I often just focus on main ideas. I synthesize information. I think I developed this from all the books I’ve read. It’s helped me process and digest information better. When it comes to memory, I’m a sharpener. Again, this was not surprise considering how strictly I want to pay attention to detail. I’m deductive with language rules. I like to make sure I get the main idea before I exercise my knowledge of it with examples. I’m field-independent with inputs of information. I take different sources of information separately in order to understand each source better. However, I don’t work well with distractions. I’m reflective with response time. I always try to think things through first and often regret it when I act impulsively. I even make a mental pro and con list and try rationalizing my actions. Finally, I’m a literal learner. I think it’s best to understand literal ideas first. Metaphors come later.

Plagiarism

It was quite overwhelming reading all the materials on plagiarism. I already knew about the consequences of plagiarism after taking Hum 2. I learned about it further in Comm 2 and just how tricky it is to avoid plagiarism, even when it isn’t your intention to plagiarize. It can get tiresome reading all the warnings on plagiarism, knowing that I would never try claiming someone else’s work as my own, but I was surprised when I realized I technically had plagiarized before through patchwriting. After Comm 2, I understood the difference between patchwriting and paraphrasing. My study of paraphrasing has improved my writing and is helping me voice my opinion better.

It’s not surprising to read about the strict anti-plagiarism measures that different institutions adopt. I get offended at the thought of someone graduating by profiting off of another’s hard work. Plagiarism is theft and cheating. Just because no one may get physically hurt or what was copied off of you is still in your possession, it does not lessen the consequences of the crime. This may further encourage plagiarists to believe that they can get away with it or their crime is not that serious.

A Pledge

I promise to be a responsible student for both this course and of UPOU. I will commit myself to the studying and I will submit my assignments on time, as well as aim for the highest quality of output I can give. I will do my best to meet the challenges of this course and immerse myself in whatever it has to offer. I also swear that I will abide by the laws of academic integrity and honesty in my works.

Motivations and Expectations

My main motivation behind taking this course was my future in UPOU. Simply put, I need to take this course if I want to complete my units and graduate. Beside this main reason I was also interested in what a general Physical Education course could offer. My previous PE courses were Walking for Fitness and Chess. I took it because I wanted to learn more about physical education itself. As an athlete I understand how important it is to be knowledgeable about your body, health, and the mechanics of the sport you practice. My main expectation from this course is for me to gain more knowledge about how to live a healthier lifestyle and how to maximize my physical capabilities in my sport and in everyday activities. I hope to get to know my classmates better and am looking forward to reading their blogs and engaging in discussions with them. For Teacher Rivera, I hope she will be a responsible FIC and properly facilitate our learning, answer our queries promptly, and release our grades for our assignments on time. For myself, I expect to be challenged by the multitude of assignments and activities this course has to offer, and eventually to overcome them. 😀