TRX Circuit

I get really bored of the same routines. I find that my motivation is in the challenge of my physical ability. If I find myself yawning in a class, that's when I know I gotta try something new.
The cousin and I have made a pact with eachother that we should be involved in a sport or physical activity every summer. (Mostly in the summer because that's when I have the most free time but hopefully when I start working FT, it'll change) Last summer was kickboxing and hot yoga. On top of that, the cousin would also attend combat classes at goodlife (what a trooper!) This summer we are planning to do boot camp. Hopefully the trial period we're planning to do will be challenging enough for us and HOPEFULLY price will be good too!
I actually found another place we can and hopefully will challenge physcial and mental strength:

TRX Suspension Trainer

Yep, it's basically a resistance band suspended from a door frame or the ceiling. It uses the traditional fitness techniques but caters to the band. You use your body weight for weight training but can incorporate circuits to combine the ultimate weight training and cardio combo in one. I'd really like to try it but since the equipment is limited in Toronto gyms, I can only hope it will go up to North York! =S

Nonetheless, if you're interested, here's the link.

A new beginning.... again?

Earlier this month, I've noticed that I've been getting pretty chunky lately. Not unusual of course because of my eating habits but the more and more I look at myself in the mirror, the more and more I am quite dissatisfied with how my body looks. This sort of emotion has furthered dissatisfaction yesterday. I went to Fairview to look for something to wear on tonight for my sister's 30th birthday.

We are going for dinner at a Winterlicious Chinese restaurant, then heading to a party called the Shuffle Party. I'm quite excited because this party happens for only once a month... and the music is friggin' crazy! Imagine... putting your ipod on shuffle... at a club!!!

As I was trying on things, I've noticed that this huge piece of miztran fat has been juking out of everything I tried! My spare tire has definately inflated over the past months of non exercise.
With this dissatisfaction, there is always a solution - eating healthy and working out. Just like over the summer when the cousin, Katie and I used to go to kickboxing and hot yoga religiously, I think I'm def gonna do the same routine.
Earlier this year, I started blogging again about my out lifestyle change. It changed for a bit, I def got slimmer, gained some visible muscles and lost about 5lbs. It was pretty amazing how hot I kind of looked without my rolls. But nonetheless, I am trying to stick with it every day.

Losing weight is 20% exercise & 80% nutrition!

Monday, I went to the supermarket to look for some healthy lunches for school and work. Not only do I save a hell lot of money, I also really benefit from eating my usual salad with almonds and cashews (no salad dressing!), tamatoes, and cucumbers. I pack either a wrap or whole grain sandwich filled with my favorite deli meats & cheese - hot mortadella, lean smoked turkey and jalapeno style harvati or spicy monteray jack (no mayo, of course!). I find that adding a kick to my sandwich doesn't make it dry nor dissatisfying.
I had this ingenious idea of using filling my sandwich with lots of my spring mix salad, tomatoes and cucumbers. I just compile my veggies and sandwich right before I eat.
To tell you the truth, I am quite happy with what I have for lunch everyday and look forward to eating it.
Now that lunch is covered, I just gotta think of convenient type foods that I can eat for breakfast. My dilemma is that, well I'm always on the go. It usually takes me 30mins to get ready and once I'm done visually prepping for the day, I head out as quickly as I can.

Researchers have found that those who eat a large breakfast every day are more likely to lose weight

I want something that I can eat while driving (and even though dangerous), it is the quickest solution I can think of.

Eating breakfast an hour within you wake up is highly recommended for those who want to lose weight



[ I got a break through just now!!!! lol ]

This morning, J blended me a hearty strawberry, banana shake filled with flax seed and orange juice. I think I'm gonna have J's delicious fruit shake every morning for breakfast! That's perfect, right!!!?? It fills me up quite perfectly, made from real fruits, tastes good AND probably covers my fruit and veggie daily recommended intake every day! Not to mention, it's friggin' convenient!

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As for my exercise routine, I've decided to weight train at least twice a week and cardio four five times a week (if time permits). Weekends are my off days where I can do homework. This will be work out schedule (if you're curious):

Monday: Combat/Cardio
Tuesday: Pump & Cardio
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Pump & Combat
Friday: Cardio

I'm not sure if I want to get into hot yoga again. The reason why I stopped going was because 1. the owners decided to cut the cheap class and 2. it wasn't challenging enough. Maybe I can look relook the schedule to see if I can do it Fridays again? But one thing is for sure: it'll be challenging once again.

Another thing, the cousin and I have bought vouchers to a kickboxing gym. It was $20 for 20 classes! Fucken amazing! I hope we get to start this once again! I'm thinking that we should start going either in March or Feb, and go once a week.

Honestly, I love working out. The love hate eating healthy but hey, that's sacrifice for ya!

Where do I stand?

I've been feeling a little under the weather lately... not physically, but emotionally. Since my trip to Xmas, I've been feeling a bit unappreciated. I find myself reclusive from social events. I thought it was stress from school and perhaps the decline of employment but I find that my social circle isn't there anymore.
I find that I have to make plans with people while they don't bother doing the same for me. It questions the utter friendship we have together. I find myself analyzing if it's worth it.
Last Friday, I was very furious at a certain friend - or so I thought he was. The sequence of events of the night made me question if anyone actually considers how I feel sometimes? I have to admit that, I have conformed to this robot of a friend who is passive etc. That is due to the fact that I don't want to emerge any conflicts between J and his guy friends.
To elaborate -- last week, J, JR, and R asked me if I wanted to go to the casino on Friday night. Not having any plans (and despite that I don't gamble) I decided to take on that offer. Mostly because I haven't spent some good ol' quality time with the guys out. (I couldn't care less of the gambling) R is not a big gambler himself so we decided to bring $40 each and combine our fortunes to hopefully make a profit. I was quite excited as everything was going very smoothly -- or so I thought.
An hour before we were supposed to head out... and right when I got into the car from the taking out cash for the night, J asked me, "How would you feel if it was a guy's night out?"
I felt fucken furious when I heard that. Fucken Furious.
Apparently S wanted a guys night out at the very fucken last minute.
Let's recount -- I was the only girl going.
Do you see something wrong here?
Not only was I de-invited to this fucken shot gun 'guys night out,' J didn't even stand up for me. He wouldn't even look at it in my view and MAYBE suggested to the guys that

1. it was friggin' 10pm at night and I had not plans but to go chill with them
2. it wasn't apparent enough for him to stand up to his friends and say, 'hey, maybe it would be inappropriate to pull this because she's the ONLY girl going?'

The lack of actions I've experienced from J made me really question the relationship we have together. The fact that he didn't quite consider my feeling in this whole ordeal was something to ponder.
I've never, ever, asked him to choose me over his friends but I find that there is this constant battle between me and his friends --- and I'm certainly not the one who starts it. I feel that he doesn't realize this. Whenever this emerges, I feel that he's always choosing them over me.
With this in mind, I feel like he's actually not considering how I feel in the scheme of things.
The pressure of our big 5 is coming up and I feel that things have been quite different. Because of this thing, I question if this is the battle I have to endure through out my future with him? If so, I'm not up to it.

A few weekends ago, I was chilling with JR one Sunday night after the guys left. R came over... and randomly asked, "If J asked you to marry him now, would you?" I tried to avoid answering and replied with a joke. He looked at me seriously.
"I don't know," I replied.
"You don't know?" He looked astonished, confused, surprised - not expecting this uncertain answer from me.
It's true. I really don't know if I really want to committ to someone who has friends that make him choose between me and them. I don't want to go through this constant battle of attention throughout my life.

The day after the casino night, I told JR how I felt towards S proposing this shot gun 'guys night out.' He said to me that he didn't even consider my aspect, or I felt. I was truly blessed to hear the truth from him.
He argued that the only reason why S proposed this was because he didn't want his gf to go. My reply?
"How is this my problem? Why did I have to be so called punished for this shit? Something that doesn't involve me? and yes, it did involve me indirectly... but why didn't HE consult me first?"
To me, that just showed that NONE of the guys AND my BF didn't even consider how I effin' felt.
This, in itself infuriated me.

Lately, I've been feeling this sort of anger towards J. He said that next time, he would consider how I felt in situations like this.... but for some sort of reason, I don't believe him.

In turn, I think this would be the demise of our relationship.

Merry (belated) Xmas?

My cousin's blog kind of motivated me to blog about this... and heck.. as all of my blogs go, It's pretty much about how I'm feeling at this current moment and the thoughts that are going be streaming out of my mind...

side note: if i don't make sense, I don't really care. Figure it out lol

I guess i'll start with my xmas...

My family doesn't celebrate xmas. Nope, we used to have a tree when i was younger but my mom decided to not have it anymore because no one would initate to bring it down... and to tell you the truth, we are just a bunch of lazy viet ppl who don't really care. ever since then, we haven't celebrated xmas.
On friday after working, I went over to Joo's place. I little depressed the whole day because my friend was invited to this annual xmas eve party... but i wasn't. I was lil' embarrassed because the host actually called me out about it and told me not to be foolish so of course, (because by default) i was invited. whatever. i'll leave that behind me.
Our family's (j's fam) don't quite celebrate xmas so we (I) decided that we should just go out for dinner just the two of us. We ended up going to the Keg (not our first choice but everything was closed) and had a steak dinner. It was pleasant because we rarely get to out by ourselves on such a special occasion :)
After we ordered, I surprised him with his gift. He was utterly surprised that I got him what he wanted for so long (because I'm also utterly broke). he was grateful for it ... and i'm grateful that I gave it to him.
During the course of our dinner, I am still amazed that we can still carry on our silly conversations after so many years. It felt quite nice.
On xmas day, I really had nothing to do. I knew everyone had plans so I decided to dedicate that day to sleeping in and cleaning my (hurricaned) room. Yes, Re and cousin, you guys would be proud of me!!! It is quite clean and organized! Hopefully it will last when you guys can come over to witness this!! lol
I also did my nails, cleaned my washroom took a shower then headed over to j's parents house to spend some time with him and his fam. Even though I got there around midnight, it was pleasant to see J and his fam happy to just watch transformers from tv. We didn't stay long after that.
The next day, I was dragged to the mall by my younger sisters to go boxing day shopping. I guess they're at that age where they need to go boxing day shopping. regardless, it was fun and pleasant... tiring but spent some good quality time with my sisters.

I didn't really do much during my break. (I didn't know I had the Monday AND Tuesday off until the Thursday before lol so I didn't plan anything)

As I was reading my cousin's blog entry about her xmas break... I kind of felt the same way. Yes, I did. That lonely, no plans type of thing. That very day, I thought to myself what if J was no longer in my life. What back up plans should I consider to doing instead of sulking around and thinking about this and that?
I then thought about my sisters and family.
So i'm proposing to you cousin, that if you ever feel lonely regardless of the day, please do not hesitate to call me. I always look forward to seeing you and even though sometimes our schedules do not correspond, we eventually always make it correspond. So next year on xmas day or xmas eve or even boxing day - or whenever you do feel lonely - don't be. I am more than glad to spend your lonely day with you :)

Another note, (I'm not sure if i should disclose this on my blog but i'm going to do it anyway) I've been invited to a party next month in which I do not want to go. I think after this party and this whole thing that is causing this party, I've decided leave our friendship behind. When I say behind, I mean behind in 2010. 2011 will be a new year and fresh decade to start with (which reminds me that i will have to do another 2010 flashback posting and a 2011 resolution posting.. maybe tmr?) I think our friendship has seen its strains. Our common interests are slowly fading and I find myself kind of dreading to see you. I'm sorry to say this but I really don't know what to do?

Electric Car

Yesterday night I was going through my usual readings and came upon this article in the toronto star app:

Wanted: Electric car lovers
Toronto Hydro is looking for another 16 volunteers to try driving electrically for the next four years.
They’ll even pay for the juice.

You can find the article here & the official website here

I was quite interested in the article, especially because it's about electric cars. I've always wanted to try an electric/hybrid car. I told J about this article who advised me that I should apply for the program. The only problem is that, I can't afford it. Because I'm in school and only work once a week, my pay cheque all goes to the debt I've encountered through my visa. With this being said, my parents have decided to open an amex for me where they pay for all my gas. Yes good deal it is! My parents spend a lot in gas in a month. So i'm hoping that if i propose this lease to them, they're be convinced that I won't be spending a lot in gas! Especially when the charging doesn't cost me a dime and maintenance isn't too bad either!

I'm gonna ask them tonight and see what they think! Hopefully they agree! =D Wish me luck!

IMC and more

I really want to get into blogging again but been way too busy to update. With IMC projects - interactive, package, ads, POP etc etc - and with the annual report, I've been busying myself with design. Not to mention, I have a corporate identity manual to design for my healthy energy drink brand to work on as well. Flash class has been a mish mash of stupidness but we won't get into that.

Good news though! Our package design has finally been approved! I'm excited!
For the past 4 weeks, my group has been giving our prof a new concept and design each week and each week it kept getting rejected.
So with this new design approved, we can finally move on to the rest of our connecting projects for this package - web design, interface design (prob for the iphone app), social media, consumer & retails ads and finally our presentation. We have about a month to get everything done. This is where me and C work on the ads and J work on the interactive part. Time to hype it up! We have such a unique brand that we can seriously take all our toy to the next level.
On that note, I'm very happy with my group. I think we work very well together and all have a passion for design. A couple of our guys have even ignored their AR (because they've been illustrating our package since we started) to work on this package. I'm very proud of them and being the self-proclaimed group leader (aka the person who organizes and forces people to be on our deadlines), I think we work very well as a group. S & M, they've been incredible with the illustrations. Their talent has been a marvel to all of us! J has been managing all of our production and will be working on our interactive part. C's really good at photocopying (lol kidding) no, her feedback on everything has been essential. I'm looking forward to working with her in our ads which will be type based (but we'll see!).

I guess onto another note: My annual report for Adidas has been going very well as well! As of right now, I've already finished up finessing type and spatial relationships. Now, I'm currently working on the spreads that celebrate the brand, the cover, front cover, back cover and inside back cover. The most important spreads! Hopefully it all turns out well because I think this will be an important piece in my portfolio.
Another project I've been very excited to work on is my corporate manual for my logo/signature I've designed. I'm extremely happy with the outcome of my signature/logo for the brand elan (an healthy energy drink, targetted for the sophisticated crowd). Initially, we had to go into groups and all think of names for this new brand. I didn't quite want it to be named elan but meh. Out of all the brands i've seen for elan, I think mine is the most effective with a high concentration on abstract conceptual thinking. (I got that A+ for a reason, right!?! lol) I thought that corporate design would be weakness, just like illustrating, but I guess not.

Anyhow, I think that's it. I really want to post up my work but don't think I'll be doing it until the semester is done (hopefully if I don't get too busy with ft work and laziness).

My Birthday coming up!

As you may all know, my birthday is coming up. Like every other year, I'm really excited about it because.... I feel special :) And whatever goes, GOES!

I know that a lot of you have trouble getting me gifts. I really don't blame you because I don't even know what I want for my birthday. Every year, I always want one thing and that one thing usually just goes to Joo because I don't really want him running around doing stuff for me on my bday (he's got better things to do such as researching a really good resto for our dinner date).
And if you know me, I'm not the materialistic type of person. I don't really go shopping anymore and I'm not into make up. I don't care about designer shit (except for sunglassess in which I have two pairs already) and don't care for useless, decorative things. What I do say every year to those who ask me what I want for my birthday is to spend my birthday with me. That's all. I invite ppl for a reason and that reason is to build memories :)

However, this year, I'm not going to say that. I'm sorry for being selfish but I think after this semester, I'd really like to get away.... With this being said, here's my devious birthday plan.

I want to go to Florida

yep, I said it. I want to go to Florida. With this being said, I am officially accepting donations/gifts to the "Pauline's going to Florida" Fund. This fund will help me pay for my flight there (which is going to be the most expensive thing I have to pay for). I'm planning to go early January so if you're also thinking about getting me a xmas gift, this is it! =D

Anything would help.

Thank you :)