Beast Mode - Day 7

Breakfast: Banana; small coffee = 90; 110
Lunch: Grilled Chicken wrap; small salad; tall iced skinny vanilla latte = 150; 315; 60
Snack: Half a bowl of rice w/tomato and pork soup & tons of Chinese broccolli = 250 (eta)
Dinner: Full bowl of rice w/tomato and pork soup & even more Chinese broccolli = 500 (eta)
Calorie intake = 1475

Exercise = half hour of kettlebell exercises
Calories burned = 500 (est)

Sleep = 7 hours

Today's calorie intake and burn doesn't quite qualify for calculation but I did it anyway. It's really hard to judge the amount of calories I actually ate today because, well it's home food. Can't really judge there... especially when food is prepared by my dad and not me. I can only control the amount I intake. Nonetheless, home food is wayyy better than restaurant food when it comes to calories so I got a bonus there! LOL
Same goes with the kettlebell exercises I did. Even though it was only half an hour, doing cardio along with weight training (kettlebell exercises) burn a lot more calories than doing cardio and weight training seperately (according to my 3rd degree black belt boyfriend. Yes, he was used to be jacked! and health conscious! LOL)
Yesterday (Day 7), I was planning on signing up officially for the martial arts gym then going to two classes: a half an hour of kettlebell class & and hour of muay thai fitness class. I only got to do one. I was sooo exhausted after that class that I decided to run for the door and not even consider the 2nd class. Yes, yesterday I was a wimp. Although I was exhausted, after 10 mins of driving home, I had so much energy that I could've taken that class!
If you don't know what kettlebell exercises consists of, think of heavy weight lifting in combination of low impact cardio. This burns calories like no tommorrow! I would recommend going to this if you're planning to lose weight. It sounds hardcore... but after a few classes, you'll find yourself stronger and with lean muscle!
Basically, you have this heavy ball of weight that has a handle on it (they call it the bull ring?) and you do exercises with that. I find that some exercises uses the momentum of the ball to reinforce the weight and your ability to move around it. Some exercises simply use the ball as dead weight to tone.
Some examples we did were:

Swings:
First, we used both arms then used 1 arm each.

1. Hold the kettle ball in between your legs. Your legs should be bent and your back flat (like a squat position)
2. Swing the ball backwards then quickly and forcefully swing upwards up to chest height. Your arms should straight and your squat position should be jerked up while swinging.

Cleans:
We did this for each arm, not both arms.

1. Keep torso straight but bent forward at hips slightly.
2. Quickly raise the kettlebell by extending hips, legs and ankles (almost like jumping straight up)
3. While "jumping" and using the momentum of the bell, immediately raise the bells up to shoulder height and quickly twisting wrists so the bell falls to the back of your shoulder. Your arms should be as close to your body as possible.
   

Jerks:

We actually did this in combination with the cleans

1. Lift up. lol

We also did some other exercises but the site I got these cute animations from don't have them. After doing about 20-30 of these, we then did a circuit for 15 mins. The circuit consists of doing each of these sets for 30 seconds (as much as we can) then resting for another 30 seconds. We did this non stop and by the end of the half hour, I was almost as exhausted and sweaty as an hour of hot yoga! yes!
The workout itself is quite intense and hardcore but I love it!

Beast Mode - Day 5 & 6

Day 5

Breakfast: Tall Skinny vanilla latte; tomato & cheese panini = 60; 380
Lunch: 5 chicken wings; 1/2 of a hamburger patty = N/A
Dinner: 1/3 of nachos plate; 1 burger slider; 1/2 of shwarma = N/A
Drinks: 1 pitcher of beer; 2 yaggerbombs = 393.6; 420

Exercise = NONE

Sleep = 7 hrs

Day 6

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner: 2 home made burgers; 2 servings of macoroni salad, 1 steak, 2 burger patties, 2 italian sausages, 1 ice-cream w/cone, 2 freezies.

Exercise = NONE

Sleep = 7 hrs

This is demise, the weekend. I find myself going wild on the weekend and I gotta stop it. Not good at all! Going out with the guys and drinking a pitcher to myself plus nachos and sliders? yeah... not good! arrrrgggghhhhhhhh
Ok, I gotta step up my A game and stop eating terribly like this, especially the weekend!!!

I wasn't planning to work out tonight but I think I gotta try to make up for the none exercising and all eating type thing... Muay Thai tonight! I'll let everyone know how it goes! =)

Beast Mode - Day 4

Breakfast: veggie pasta salad; tall skinny vanilla latte = 200; 150
Lunch: whole wheat turkey sandwich = 350
Dinner: KBBQ = 700 (est)
Drinks: 3 beers; tall iced skinny vanilla latte = 330; 60

Exercise = none
Estimated Calories burned = ZERO

Calories/day = 1790

Sleep = 6 hours

Wow, I went over my calorie intake by 307 calories! I'm gonna GAIN weight for sure!!!
On a better note, from now on, if I need my SB fix with no calories, I've definately going to opt for an iced skinny vanilla latte! Only 60 friggin' calories!!

Beast Mode - Day 3

Breakfast: Fairmount sesame seed bagel w/butter; cup os coffee = 230; 110
Snack: 3/4 of banana = 75
Lunch: Seafood salad = 326
Snack: Half a small burger; Tortilla chips = 139.5; 280
Dinner: bowl of pho = 449
Estimated Calorie intake = 1,609.5

Exercise = 2 hours of biking
Estimated calories burned = 894.5

Calories/day = 715

Sleep: 7 hours

Looking at the eating habits in the past 3 days, I've realized that I need to reeeaaaallllyyy change my diet! Half a hamburger? tortilla chips? I could've gone without them. Snacking is my worst enemy! Especially when my parents have all of this junk food all over the house!
I also realized that I get really hungry when I get home from work! yeah, I really need to stop doing that too.
On a good note, Katie and I biked 27km yesterday night. It wasn't as bad as we thought it was. We started off at her house, went across mcniccol, down brimley and across progress to the martial arts gym that's in front of our hot yoga place. This distance was about 9.8km with a down hill elevation.
I know that a couple of my friends have been interested in ditching their traditional gyms and trying something new - well I have. This place isn't that bad! It's about $20/month for the first 2 months, and about $50 after that with no committment. There is an admin fee of $99 (one time payment) but the person who we spoke to said that if we join as a group, he can waive this fee for us. We also have to purchase some gloves which is about $60. They have an open schedule here where we can drop in to any class any time. If you're intersted, let me know. We've already did the paper work but still need to go in to hand in our info for our pre-authorized payment before the end of this month... Monday!
Afterwards, we then headed out to the BP at morningside - went east on Progress, across Markham and then east to Milner. This again was down hill and was about 5.5km.
Yesterday my friends, Byrnes and Ri, asked me to head over to BP because they got hired for DJing there for the night. They're both aspiring DJs who spinat our house parties all the time. They are such nice guys, so I had to go over there to support them. We only chilled for about 10 mins because it was dark and we had to bike home.
The ride home was horrid! It was a steady incline (imapmyride app calculates this) so it was brutal and my quads were burning like hell! I took every chance to relax whenever there was a slight downhill... but that was impossible.
When I got home, I was exhausted! However, I had an amazing sleep though!
Overall, I thought our work out was pretty damn good! We were sweating from all of the biking we did... and it felt soo good!

The weekend is starting! yeahhh for the TGIF!!! Tonight I'm going to the Jay's game so hopefully I don't get sucked into eating all their junk food!

BEAST MODE - Day 2

Breakfast: Cup of coffee = 110
Lunch: Spaghetti = 663 (est)
Snack: Handful of Pistachio = 713
Dinner: Bowl of Pho & cup of skim milk - 449 (est), 86
Estimated Calorie Intake = 2,021

Exercise: 1 hour Hot Yoga
Estimated Calories burned = 700

Calories/day = 1,321

Sleep: 6 hours

Yesterday was a horrible day for me! I started work at 11 and usually wake up 10mins before 10am to get ready to work. I thought that I would have enough time to get some breakfast at work in the cafe downstairs. As I was purchasing my stuff, I realized that I didn't have any cash nor my debit card and they didn't accept credit card. It wasn't until around 5:30pm that I ate my lunch. That's horrible and quite unhealthy!
I can't believe that pistachios are THAT much in calories!! Apparently, many sources on the net say that about 500 calories of the 713 calories are monounsaturated fats. I don't know much about the human body (I wasn't paying attention in biology class in highschool) but I do believe that monounsaturated fats are quite beneficial to your health. According to american heart:

Monounsaturated fats can have a beneficial effect on your health… when
eaten in moderation and when used to replace saturated fats or trans
fats. Monounsaturated fats can help reduce bad cholesterol levels in
your blood and lower your risk of heart disease and stroke. They also
provide nutrients to help develop and maintain your body’s cells.
Monounsaturated fats are also typically high in vitamin E, an antioxidant
vitamin most Americans need more of.

Interesting huh?
I'm glad that I'm starting this open diary of my weight loss journey. Looking at what I ate for the day and the amount of exercise I've had really helps me keep on track. With this being said, I've come to the realization that:

• I need more sleep, at least one more hour
• I need to eat breakfast
• I need to bring food to work

Today's exercise? Biking riding with Katie once again! The bike ride will be approximately 20km both ways. I'm excited!

If you're interested in getting fit, either to lose weight or to just be healthy, nutrition house has great tools for you to achieve it. This is how I calculated my weight loss goal.

BEAST MODE - Intro + Day 1

I've been promising myself that after the winter semester, I would go back to the grind of working out and eating healthy. This means doing a variety of exercises at least three times a week. Also, to help me keep on track, I've decided to keep an open diary of my progress. With this in mind, what better way to do it on my blog! I got this idea from my friend who was keeping track of her diet hyperallergenic diet on her blog. I didn't really read her blog but just thought it would be a good idea to keep things on track.

It's been a month since school ended and I haven't been really dedicating myself to working out and eating properly. In fact, I think I have gained weight anyway which is such a huge no no!
During my trip to Montreal, my exessive drinking and under eating has gotten me to think that I need to do this seriously. Because of the partying, I think I lost a probably half a pound which is still good because even losing 1 pound for me is a huge step!

Nutrition:

So with this in mind, I've decided to write down all my cut offs so I won't cheat myself. I know my major problem is eating... the amount of food I eat and what I put in my mouth has gotten me this big. It's horrible but I know that I will over come these challenges over time.
This is my writing contract to you but most importantly, myself:

• no eating after 9pm
• no soda - water during the day; at least one glass of milk (skim of course!) during a meal
• no fast foods/oily stuff
• no sugar - candy and chocolate
• two drinking nights/month

I know it doesn't seem much but I've realized that cutting these things out really help. I love to eat so cutting things like certain meats and pastas is not good for me at all. However, I am going to opt for healthier choices like, instead of fries, I'm going to order a salad with minimal dressing etc.

Goals:

I find that I am a goal achiever. I've never been a goal achiever up until I started my new program at Seneca. I remember when I first started, I told myself that I would get all A's and above in every graphic design subject. I'm half way through the program and I have achieved this goal (except for that one B+ I got because of this bitch prof!). Nonetheless, this B+ hasn't discouraged me to achieve my goals. Ever since then, I thought to myself that if I set my goals, I know I can achieve it.

• Current weight 123 pounds; Goal weight 100 pounds
• Current dress size L, 6; Goal Dress size S, 2
• Current BMI 25 (overweight); Goal BMI 20 (average)
• Goal calories/day
• Goal obtained by exactly 6 months from now - November 26 2010 - 3 days before my 24th birthday.

Working out:

I've been getting really bored of going to the gym. My work out routines are getting a tad boring which is horrible because I was really losing focus. Joo has suggested that I work do some sort of martial arts. My cousin has also mentioned this to me and my friend has also started to do it as well. I've decided to do some kick boxing. The place that I've been thinking of going also offeres muay thai as well which is a huge plus! On top of that, I'll be doing hot yoga, rollar blading and biking to add to my cardio portion of my work out. This is what I'm planning to do:

Monday Kickboxing
Tuesday Biking
Wednesday Hot yoga
Thursday Kickboxing

I'll probably be switching this up after a month or two switch challenge my body a little more.

Calorie limit/day 1483

Recommended distribution of daily calories:

• carbohydrates 222 g
• protein 37 g
• fat 49 g

I probably sound pretty hardcore right now but I really want to do this. Wish me luck!

----------------------------------

Day 1

Sleep: 6 hours; 1 hour nap

Breakfast: Cup of coffee
Lunch: Bourbon St. Grill's mixed vegetables, blacked chicken with noodles
Snack: half bowl of spaghetti
Dinner: Korean buck wheat cold noodles
ETA Calorie intake : N/A

Exercise: Two hours of cylcing
ETA Calorie burn: 894.5

I actually just thought about this idea today. I initially wanted to blog but didn't know what I wanted to blog about... so I thought that this would be perfect time to start this whole beast mode blogging thing because I just came back from vacation and don't really have any upcoming vacations anymore.
Anyway, you're probably looking at what I ate for lunch yesterday... and yes, I know.. it's terrible. I'm gonna try my best to make sandwiches to bring to work everyday and try out different salads. Also, eating at home is very key!

I feel quite glad that I'm finally starting this! Hopefully this daily blog will keep me motivated!!

The Power of the TWEETS!

When Twitter initially launched, I have to admit... I was skeptical. I thought that it was another fb fad where everyone just wants to be super creepy... and had no life. It wasn't until my girlfriends decided to sign up that I decided to sign up. "Why not?" right? I mean, if I dont' use it, then I don't use it.
Now, I'm addicted to tweeting. I tweet everyday, every moment I guess a chance... and I check my twitter constantly. Nothing passes by me.
I probably sound like one of those deranged anti-social yet net-social geeks out there. Trust me, I'm not. I have a life... thus I twitter about my life.
Recently, I've discovered the power of twitter. Yes, twitter is becoming quite powerful in the networking realm and I wouldn't be surprised if it excels facebook (at least twitter doesn't sell you cheap on your privacy laws).
A few months ago, I decided to open up my profile for public viewing, add a display pic and change to bio. A couple of months ago, I realized that there are tons of people I can follow other than celebrities. I made a decisive decision to stop all of the celebrity bs (except for Nicole Ritchie because I find her hilarious sometimes) and follow those who, I find, are worthy of my time. That sounds completely selfish, but seriously... I didn't want to waste my time reading useless updates. I'd rather read posts, links and pics that I can gain knowledge in.
First, I followed Applied Design magazine. Not only are they a local magazine, their main concern was design... and that was what I wanted to know more about. I looked through who they follow and started following them too.
My boyfriend and his friends always make fun of me because I'm so involved in this twitter fad. Fad or not, I am quite fond of twitter because of its constant feed of information... information that will help me exceed and become a forefront in the design field. That's my goal.
Information is so vast on twitter that it becomes quite overwhelming... I find comfort in this. It's free information, why not use it, right?
I also find that I'm connected to my friends a lot more because of this. I couldn't see my girlfriends as much as I liked to because time doesn't allow it sometimes. Twitter allows me to connect and leave msgs for my girlfriends... kind of like a forum of friends connect and respond whenever they want. I feel a lot more connected to them... AND I also find that we meet up more.
Since then, there were numerous opportunities where twitter helped me out a lot! Some recent examples:

• I received an awesome job offer! (YEP, I got it Kay!!! I would have to ask for you expertise though)
• I got tickets to Just for Laughs: Aziz Ansari show this summer. His show was sold out before the ticket sales were made public (damn amex card holders!). However, that day Aziz posted that he would have a second show! I immediately bought tickets and got awesome seats!

Even though Twitter does have its ups... It can get negative, I have to admit. Yesterday night before going to bed, I was playing around with my Echohon (a 3rd party iphone app for twitter) and found this feature called "tweets near you." Curious, I decided to check it out any tweets that were near/at work to see if ppl tweeted about hating being at my company LOL. It turns out that there was someone who tweeted something on these lines:
"Had a quick look at my outfit today and found out that it was mildly inappropriate."
I actually remember seeing her that day and thinking the exact same thing!!!! LOL It might be a coincidence.. but heck! To me, that was friggin' creepy!!

Anyway, it doesn't matter. I got a job offer and tickets to a sold out show. What can I say? I love twitter!

On a Hunt...

... for a new dress!

This summer, Joo and I are invited to a wedding for his long time friend, Anthony. I'm quite excited because this wedding will the first wedding Joo and I attend together as a couple... to a friend's wedding. The wedding is less than 2 months away... and I'm quite excited.
With this being said, I know I gotta:

1. step up my beast-mode. I've been lacking ever since I've been busy with school. Even though I know I've gotten slimmer, I still wish there are certain parts of my body ie my tummy and hips fat will just go away.
2. I seriously gotta go shopping for a dress. I absolutely love dress shopping. However, the last time I was shopping for a dress (for my cousin's wedding), I went to 3 different malls and ended up with a really nice green dress in which I felt ok in. This year, I want to be beautiful (of course!) yet elegant. I want people to say, "Wow, she's Joo's girl? DAMN!" LOL I know that sounds sooo selfish since, well you know, it's not really myyyy day... but hey! whatever! LOL

I am absolutely in love with this dress. It's edgey, yet so elegant and romantic. The flow at the bottom with the mermaid shape is exactly what I want as my wedding dress. The bold contrast between the black floral pattern and the light pink colour of the rest of the dress is soooo me.
I just wished that I was a lot taller to wear this dress....

"Growing" up...

As I mentioned in my earlier post, a design mag/company has approached me to do some design work for their clients. They asked me if I had my work somewhere on the net for them to view. As I read this, I thought to myself, "frig, I don't." I didn't plan on someone actually approaching me to do some work for them thus, I was not prepared for this.
Yesterday, my cousin and I were talking briefly over pho about developping a sort of campaign to sell ourselves to employers. She's currently working on her's now... I can't wait to see it. I'm pretty sure it'll be brilliant as she is such a connoisseur in design and all... whereas I am... well, not there.
After looking at the OCAD grad show over the weekend, there were a only handful of grads that I thought did an amazing job.

[ sidenote: I was actually very disapointed in the show. I mean, they weren't even undergrads, but grads... and I wasn't all that impressed. I mean, OCAD or shall I call it OCAD U (whatever!) has this sort of self-reputation that they are the "best" art and design post secondary school. If this is true, then their grads - master students - must have some awesome and creative work.... I was wrong. This just qualifies them to be mediocre... and mediocre is... well, not the BEST! I've seen so much better paintings, illustrations, designs at York U Fine Arts department and the York/Sheridan department... and they're undergrads, not masters. Anyhow, I'm getting out of hand with all this OCAD talk. I should leave it for another post. ]

I thought to myself...wow... how can I even try to be on par to these people. How can they develop such clever campaigns like this?
The thought of selling myself, selling my traits and strenghts just scares me. And I think that's what really holds me back.
This past semester, I literally had a breakdown. I was majorly stressed and couldn't handle it. It progressed to a point where, my last night of finishing work, was incomplete. I handed in TWO things half assed because the whole night, I was crying to my boyfriend that I couldn't do it - that I didn't have the skills to do it - that I wasn't meant to be in art alltogether. I looked at my work that I supposedly finished and thought to myself, "wow, this is not me. I couldn't have done this shit."
After a couple hours of crying to Joo and dinner, he cheered me up. He made me realize that I compare myself to a people a lot - I guess it's this sort of personal vendetta I have towards myself. When I finished York U and was about to enter design, I promised myself that since I settled for mediocracy at York, then I am going to achieve excellence in design - I had to, I owed it to myself to be better. Ever since then, I competed with people in my class to be better. Sometimes, I would accept and learn from those who did better than me but I always knew that in the next project, I would have to do a lot better. I guess that's where the problem lied and that's when I broke down at the most crucial point of the semester. My pride and high expectations caught up to me.
Going back to my last 1st point - so as I think about what I want to create for my marketing campaign... or create something that represents me... It's hard to think of. My experiences that represent myself not only lies in art but so many other things. I am so grateful that I didn't choose OCAD and went with York because York U's philosophy in learning is "interdisciplinary" - a collective learning experience from different educative backgrounds and fields that opened my eyes to something greater than art and design... the world. I learned that the world and its culture is what shapes art and design - and shapes me.

But how can I show this? How can I show this in my portfolio? My creative skills to employers? Employers who receive hundreds of aspiring design resumes on their desk every day? And that's what depresses me to stop everything. Designers are such creative people, I feel that the bar to getting a job doesn't lie in a simple business card and resume. My point proven:

(I really hope this vid shows up as it's my first time uploading a youtube vid on my blog.)

How creative is that? Now, that's what I call, thinking outside the box.
I mean, do you not see the extraordinary creative process out there? My point proven.

So I guess with all of this being said, where do I stand? Where do I stand in my design and creative ideas? What should I do to overcome this pride and insecurities (wow, that sounds very contrary) that holds me back?

Also, as I say in my title of this entry... with all of these insecurities and high expecations of me being this "great" designer, I'm growing up. I came to the realization that my life in the next 5 years will be affected by the decisions and most importantly, the campaign that I'll be producing.

How scary is that?

Am I the only one who experiences this? And If I'm not, please share your stories.

Some randomness

These past couple of days have me thinking that:

• I really need to take care of my body more - Monday night, I developped a really nasty cough. It was one of those dry coughs that left my throat feeling soar and unappreciated. With this being said, I really need to get into BeastMode again. I need to feel better and relieve all of the stress that I've been enduring at work for the last couple of months.
• I really need to go shopping. I have nothing to wear.
• I really need to find another job. Yesterday, I called in sick because of my lack of sleep Monday night. I ended up going to Joo's parent's convenience store to spend time with Joo and also work on my designs. As we got there, he immediately started "training" me on how to run the convenient store. lol yes, running a convenient store! LOL Ok, maybe it was the fact that I was complaining to him that I really hate my job and that I'm willing to work at his parent's store (even if it is min. wage) just in case I can't find another flexible job.
• I need to schedule time to do some upcoming design work. It's not confirmed yet, but one of my followers (I also follow them) on twitter approached me to do some contract work for his design company. Basically, he would find clients (or they would approach him) for some work and he would send it off to me. Hopefully this turns out as I need to ditch this dead end job.
• Scarlett Johanson sucks at acting. Yes, I said it! Yesterday night, I went to go see Ironman 2. Was it just me or is Scarlett Johanson an accessory in the movie? I'm pretty sure that she'll have more lines in the next one... but this one...? was it really necceassary for her to be in? No doubt, she was absolutely hot... but I just thought that she was horrible!

I think that's it for now...

This summer....

will be hella exciting! mmmm... ok maybe not.
Since I don't have school... I can finally focus on myself. I'll be working full time - well almost - so I'll be making that doe! As I was rummaging through my closet this morning, I thought to myself, "wow, I have NOTHING to wear." Absolutely nothing. You know what that means?!?!? Shoppppiiinnnnnggggg!!!!!! wahhoooo! lol
It's been a while since I went shopping..... like, shopping shopping!

Firstly, I've been really obsessed with nails.

I'm really liking these colours now! Hmm... I can't wait until I can go do my nails!

Things I gotta get before the summer ends:

• dress pants - I've gone 2 years without wearing dress pants to work! LOL I think this really qualifies for me to get a pair LOL
• summer dresses! - i need some asap!
• really nice tops - I was going through my closet and found that I only have Nike, Puma tees and tank tops!? i gotta get on that!
• SHOES! - I desperately need another pair of black flats...
• skinny jeans - lately, I've been wearing tights and skinny jeans because... well they make me look skinny! LOL
• Blazer - I think I'm gonna try to wear a short suit to work... lol we'll see how that goes!

Now... only if Joo will go shopping with me... =D

China Bud Kits

It's been so long since I blogged. Fortunately, I had a five day weekend this past week :) I caught up on my sleep but was still on the go non stop!

My weekend was pretty awesome. Wed & Thurs, I focused on myself. I started re-doing a project from last semester while waiting for my car to be serviced. After that, I went to hot yoga with Katie. The day after, I finally got to use the spa package that Joo got me =) During the evening, I went for some cheap ikea dinner with Katie and Lucky.

Later that evening, I started sweat shoppin' for China Bud Kits. Now, my friend has been working his ass off for 6 months for one day - the Freedom Festival. He's been designing and preparing all products ever since then.

Thursday evening and the whole of Friday, we were sweat shoppin'... it was like, non stop! Good thing I snuck out to take a three hour nap hehehe

The manuals look awesome! My cousin designed it =D

Saturday morning, the crew headed to Queens Park to set up our booth. It was pretty awesome! && Rony had the sickest set up!

Yes, we had our own DJ!!! wooot woot! We were the only ones wearing the CBK tees... it felt empowering! lol

The best seller were the credit cards! NO DOUBT!! They look SIIICCCKKKK!!!!

I just wished i took more pics...

During the day, Skunk Magazine approached my friend for a potential product review! I hope everything's gonna work out well for him! =D

If you wanna check out China Bud Kits, you can check it here :) Or you can check them out on FB here.