I did go to the gym yesterday right after work and did 530 calories on the treadmill.  I almost didn’t want to go because after all it IS a Friday.  But I’m glad I still stuck to it and went.  I was SO tired afterward I was about to fall asleep driving to Irvine Boy’s afterward.

For dinner yesterday we had Pho… so that was good.  By the end of the day I still had about 450 calories left in my 1800/day to consume.  So I was in a good place even if I ate the entire bowl of noodles.  But I ended up only eating all the noodles and not all the beef meat balls.  Then afterwards we came home and just watched a movie.

For today I’m going to start by going to the gym before I do anything else.  Irvine Boy has a community gym here so I think I’m must going to go there since I’m only doing either the treadmill or the elliptical.

Not sure what’s gonna happen for the rest of the day.  We might end up going to the mall or something.  I’m already starving right now.  So right when I get back in from my workout, I might just have my rosemary chicken and wild rice pilaf that I got front Trader Joe’s.  Half a serving of that is something like 310 calories and it’s SO good.  Served with maybe a dinner roll and a side tossed salad.  I’ve learned to try and serve salad with every meal and it’ll help fill my stomach more instead of wanting to overeat on carbs or other stuff.

Okay, gonna get ready to head out now…   Hope everyone has a good weekend.

So now it’s back to working out and watching what I’m eating again.  I have a new workout schedule which is going to the gym 6x a week minimum.  Well, I guess even if it IS maximum it’ll only be one more day like 7x.  But I highly doubt I’d hit the gym 7 days a week.  The one time I don’t go will probably be a day I was supposed to go but ended being too lazy…. So it’ll be like a freebie or something.

I got back in Monday and so far I’ve been at the gym Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  And I plan going Friday – Sunday as well.  I have a whole plan worked out… because what do they say about setting goals, writing them down, and refer to them often!  So.. let’s see, I’m 122 pounds now (still), at 27% body fat.  And People, even though someone LOOKS thin don’t mean that they don’t have body fat.  It really depends on your bone structure and how much lean body mass you have as well.  For someone who doesn’t have much lean muscle, you probably won’t look too bad if you have some fat on you.  But it’s always more desirable to look slender, but with ‘lean’ muscle than fat.  Back to what I was saying… 27% body fat, on the charts, that was listed as “Acceptable”.  Okay, American people have low standards as it is, so if the chart is telling me that I am acceptable, what does that REALLY tell me?  So I have a whole new plan for myself…      I’m going to try and lower my body fat to 18%, lose about 13 pounds of body fat, and gain 5 pounds of muscle. This will net me at about 110 pounds, but with a lot less fat and just more lean muscle.  And anyone who knows about becoming lean and ripped or whatever knows that it’s probably 90% what you eat, and the rest are staying consistent with working out.  Does it sound funny if I say I wanna be ripped?  For a girl of course… BUT I doubt I can look ripped.  It’s not that easy.  But I can probably gain quite a bit of definition if I put my mind to it.

As far as meal plans go, I’m trying to eat a good balance of good carbs and high protein, cutting the fat back, and eating a minimum of 1500 cals per day, but not exceeding 1800 cals.  I keep a log of everything I eat on www.sparkpeople.com .  Cause you’d be surprised sometimes at how much you are eating without being aware.  Or for me it’s more how I wasn’t anywhere near 1500 cals per day!  I was more around 1000 cals per day, which is NOT a good thing.  Since the body goes into starvation mode and will most likely store more then try to burn more.

For working out, 6x a week.  I’m doing a mix of cardio and weights.  I use my heart rate monitor which can measure my heart beat and calories burned depending on how hard I work out and the intensity.  So by the end of my workout, as long as I’ve reached 500 calories burned for the day, I’m happy.  Anything extra is just the cherry on top.  Since 3500 = 1 pound, I’m working out about 3000 cals per week, and also eating a little bit less that what my basal metabolic rate needs, so I should be losing about 1 pound to 1.5 pounds per week.

I’m going to start taking weekly measurements as well…  But since I’m not sure if I’m measuring in the right places or even if I’m measuring in the same place each time, this’ll just be a ball park:

Weight: 122 lbs.

Waist:  27.5”

Low waist:  35”  (that’s where the low rise jeans sit)

Hips:  37.5”

Thigh:  20.5”

Arm:  10”

Oh!  And I’m always on the lookout for new healthy foods to eat.  I recently found a few things at Trader Joe’s which is kinda fun.  They have this pizza that is a pretty good size that has mushroom, chicken, and artichoke and the whole pizza is 440 calories, which isn’t bad at all!  I had ½ a pizza yesterday and mixed together a salad with fat free balsamic vinaigrette added 6 croutons that netted 30 cals total, and just a dash of parmesan cheese.  The croutons and the parmesan cheese really turn a bland salad around.  So my total dinner came out to be something like 330 calories.  It was tasty yet healthy.  Can’t get any better than that!  So if I wanted to, tonight I could eat the other half of the pizza and also toss together some salad, .. we’ll see.

For breakfast today, I had a cup of coffee, with just cream, no sugar.  It took me a while to get used when I first stopped added sugar in my coffee.  But now I really do think it tastes better this way.  And without the sugar, I feel like it really brings out the flavor in the other stuff I eat.  I also had 2 eggos.  The BEST part was I used the new goodie I found at the market a couple of days ago… I didn’t even know they came out with this, but now they have a new I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter SPRAY.  And it makes everything tastes SO divine!  It says on there that there’s 0 calories for every five sprays.  But we all know it can’t be 0 cals.  But the FDA let’s manufacturers put 0 cals if the total cals are under 5 per serving.  But either way I’m really excited about this new find because I just LOVE the taste of butter.  I don’t normally keep butter around at home because I have no control around these things.  But when I’m at a restaurant, I can eat like 6 or 7 butter patties at once!

SO all in all .. I’m still on the lookout for new fun foods…   Hopefully Sunday I’ll have some time I’m going to hit the markets again and see what I can find.  Also do some grocery shopping and prepare my menu for the new week.

Whew!  This post is insanely long!  I probably lost most of the guys 1/3 of the way through.  Hahah…

I got back from Taiwan Monday evening and it’s right back to work.  I think I’m still a little jet lagged because everyday at around 10 p.m. I feel like I’m about to die!  I couldn’t keep my eyes open if my life depended on it.  But I think maybe after this weekend I think I’ll be much better after I catch up on some sleep.

I was really sad my last day there… I felt like I didn’t get enough time with my family even though 3 weeks is a long time to most people.  But nothing I can do.. Have to come back and catch up on work.  I guess I can always just schedule another trip to go back toward the end of the year.  My grandmother is 87 years old and I feel any time I can still have with her is very much cherished.  Every time when I’m leaving for the airport and I give my grandmother one last hug, I always feel like I see in her eyes that maybe this is the last time we’ll see each other.  And I’m always thinking to myself what ‘if’ this really is the last time I see her.  So any chance I get to go back and see her…and just spend time together…

A few pictures from my trip….

My first day arriving...  I thought to myself, I still have almost a whole month!  Little did I how fast time flies...

 My best friend in Taiwan...  I love her to death...

Best friend, Carol & ME 

 Me & Carol

So I finally came out and asked Irvine Boy how come I’ve been here for two weeks and he hasn’t asked for my number here.  I’ve been wondering for the past two weeks doesn’t he want a way to reach me in case he needs to reach me?  Anyway, so when I asked him, he told me it’s because he knows I’d call him.  I guess inside I just wanted him to ask things that to me mean he wants to know and cares….. like my contact info here for instance.  Or ask when I’m coming back to Cali before I even take off.                            Anyway, nothing much .. just some stuff I was thinking about for a bit.

So.. yesterday was another relaxing day.  Walked around SOGO for a while… ended up in McDonalds with Carol sharing a Fillet-O-Fish combo.  And they still always only give me 1 pack of ketchup.  And I still always ask for 7.  Taiwan people don’t eat ketchup like we do.  I love ketchup!  I’m a ketchup freak compared to everyone here.  It’s kind of interesting to see their facial expression every time I ask for more ketchup though.  I love doing it.

Okay, I’m going to finally get my lazy butt out of my PJs and go shower.  It’s 4 p.m. here and all I’ve done today is lay around.  I’m gonna go shower now, get dressed, and maybe head out to catch a movie.

It’s 11:50 a.m. over here.  It’s raining outside and can I say it is oh so nice?  Pitter patter pitter patter…       Carol just called to wake me up and meet her at Sogo so we can walk around for a bit, grab lunch, and maybe catch a movie later.  I was thinking of eating at the food court inside the shopping malls.  They have the best food courts here!

So I should get up and start getting ready.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!  Isn’t Monday a day off too?

So I’ve been back for 13 days now.  I can’t believe it’s half my vacation time already.  Haven’t done much except lounge around at home.  Everyday I just do nothing.  I wake up around 10 a.m., wash up, eat a little something….  Watch some tv, take nap, wake up and eat a little something again.  It’s nice doing nothing.  I’ve been so busy doing nothing I haven’t even taken any pictures yet.  Too lazy.

Chinese New Years has been fun.  All the food and the fireworks… it’s really exciting and SO much more fun than in the US.  People REALLY get into here.  Following New Year’s Eve, most of the people get a company paid holiday of about 9 days.  Lucky.

Alright that it; I’m taking off tomorrow!  I can’t wait!  But it’s driving me crazy.  I feel like I still have a million things I haven’t done.  Really.  I still have to do my 50 load laundry, get to the office in the morning to turn in last minute stuff, I wanted to stop by the mall because I need a pair of jeans, oh and I can’t forget I need to stop by the bank or else I won’t have money on me, plus I want to clean my entire apartment before I go, and I still need to get my haircut.  My flight leaves at 3 p.m., so I was thinking I should pull an all-nighter and just not sleep.  That way I can get more things done, and can sleep more soundly on the plane; which will make time go by faster so it feels like I’m just hopping on the plane and I’ve arrived.  Whew…  

So Irvine Boy and I celebrated an early Valentine’s day, kinda.  Well, he kind of surprised me with roses and insisted on taking me out to eat my favorite kind of food; Japanese!  It was so good.  I wonder why I don’t eat it more often.  It’s probably healthier too.  But back to the Valentine evening… the thought of him remembering and still wanting to give me flowers and take me out to dinner even though I was going to completely miss Valentines dinner here, it made my heart melt right back into that little puddle.  Moments like these mean a lot to me.

Now it’s back to the reality of rushing around and finishing last minute stuff.  I’ll be driving ALL over town today.  Irvine Boy has gone back down to Irvine because he had some business he needed to take care of with someone.  I probably won’t be seeing him till I get back now.  I know I’m going to start missing him by the time I’m checking in at the airport.

So ….. hope everyone is having a great weekend.  I’ll check back in when I can.

I’ve purchased my ticket, and I’m leaving for Taiwan on February 5^th.  I’m really excited because I haven’t been back since 2004.  But during this time before I leave is too crazy.  I have gifts to get for people back there.

I’m supposed to take flute lessons today but since I won’t have a chance to really practice any new stuff, I think I’m going to skip the lesson and maybe hit the mall or something.  I want to bring back some stuff for family and friends back there.

Looks like it’s going to rain today.  Okay, it started raining.  Love the rain…

   Coby Link.  By request, here is the tablet style dvd player I got from amazon.  I've been using it every time I get on the treadmill now and I'm running/jogging for a full hour now every time.  I've packed my bags with my Sex and the City dvds and I'm ready to go again tonight after my flute lesson.  Can't wait.  I look forward to jogging just because I get to watch movies and television series.  I normally don't even turn on the TV once during the week because I have no time.  And by the time I get home, it's time for bed.  So this is really working out.  I think everyone should have one!  Okay, or maybe just me... but who knows, maybe I'll start a trend in the gyms.

I made my self some of that yummy tuna salad last night.  This time I put 2 medium apples instead of one.  There's so much apple, the salad actually looks more like a 'apple' salad and the tuna is just added in there for taste.  So with the extra apple the salad yielded 5 cups.  Each serving is something like 150 calories.  I'm been mixing up my own greens (about 2 cups of leafy greens), with 25 cal balsamic vinegarette, 6 croutons (30 cals), and then adding 1 cup of my apple/tuna mix (150) on top of the greens.  SO yummy.  And healthy!  This definitely falls into the category of low fat, high protein meal.  The whole salad is about 200 calories and it makes you feel really full.  The tuna/apple mix would have been way lower in fat if I used 'light' mayo instead, which'll save me about 10 grams of fat for the whole thing.  And also I made a mistake and bought tuna in 'oil' instead of water.  So that's another 10 grams of fat....  Which means the calories are way higher due to the higher fat content.  Next time the mix should be about 125 cals per serving.

Debating on if I should make the 'lighter' version of crockpot chili with lean ground beef and ground turkey breast.  I learned that recipe from  website and it's delicious!  But with just me eating it I'll probably be having the same thing for a few days.  Haven't cooked in my crockpot for a while though and I definitely miss it.  I throw everything in there in the morning before I leave for work, and I come home to a wonderful smell and food that's ready to go on the table.  It's like magic.

Just in case anyone wants to try:

Here's the recipe for the CrockPot Chili. Rave reviews. It's got a ton of fiber and protein, low-fat due to the turkey breast and 8% fat beef and yet VERY flavorful. Top it with 2% shredded cheddar and low-fat Sour Cream. YUM.

CrockPot Chili
7 oz lean ground 8% fat beef
5 oz lean ground turkey breast
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (10.75 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes with green pepper and onions
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1/2 (15 ounce) can kidney beans with a tablespoon of liquid
1/2 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons ground chili seasonings (aka lowrys)

Serves...turned out to about 5 equal servings..

Total calories: ~1450 (so about 290 cals per serving for 5 servings)

DIRECTIONS
Saute onions and 1 clove garlic in a bit of EVOO. Place the turkey and beef in skillet over medium heat with onions and garlic, and cook until evenly brown and cooked mostly through. In the slow-cooker/crockpot, mix in celery, extra 1 clove garlic, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, kidney beans, cannelini beans, spices, and chili seasoning. Cover, and cook 6-8 hours on Low.

If you like things more spicy, add in some chili powder OR more chili seasoning OR get the 'hot' chili seasoning rather than 'original/regular'...I like things spicier so I just put some hot red pepper flakes on it to make it more jazzy.

Top it with 2% shredded cheddar (1/4c is 80 cals) and low-fat sour cream (1 tablespoon is something like 30 cals). If you want some additional carbs, serve it with cornbread or crusty sourdough. Or a salad for a more healthy alternative!

You can't get any healthier chili than this!  I LOVE chili.  Now I can eat it without feeling guilty.  Who wants to eat out when you can eat great food without all the weight gain!

Happy cooking!

This weekend felt like it went by kinda fast.  Once in a while I’ll feel like I’m not ready to start a new week yet, and this is one of them.  Maybe it’s also because I feel like I have SO much to do in the coming week that I feel like I’m not ready to face it all yet.

Tonight I went to one of my girlfriend’s wedding.  It was a traditional Chinese one.  Fun, traditional, lots of seafood.  Brought my mom with me as my ‘guest’.  She loves weddings and she loves going out with me, so I think she had a great time tonight.  Didn’t take lots of pictures but I did take a few.  Maybe I’ll post a few later.  Not sure yet… I’ll see.

Tomorrow I’ll have to really look into booking my flight to Taiwan.  I’ve been lagging because I keep putting off the fact that I’ll be spending $800 on airfare.  Bleh.  So, I think I’ll be leaving some time between the 1^st or 2^nd week of February.  Not exactly sure on a date yet.  I’ll probably be gone for about 15 days or so, give or take a few days.

Tomorrow’s a new week… hope everyone had a good weekend.