Monday, June 30, 2008

Secondo and Dora


This picture was taken the day after her birthday. She loves Dora and loves the camera.

This one is taken with natural light. She has her own idea of striking a pose.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Wii Fit

We hooked up our wii fit on Friday and Danielle and I had so much fun exploring the various games. She likes ski jump the best and I like hula hooping. I got sweaty after hula hooping for 10 mins and I can feel my abs working. Yoga is a little tough and running in place with a wii remote control in your back pocket is not fun at all. I haven't try the strength training exercises yet.
I set a goal to loose 5 lbs in 1 month and Danielle's goal is to gain 3 lbs in 1 month. We tried to input Secondo's in the system but she wasn't able to stand still for some of the body tests.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Summer reading

Since Monday, I have not been listening to any book while driving and I felt empty and lonely during my drive to work. If felt as if my carpool partner who read for me was on vacation and I really missed him/her.
Last night after I picked up Danielle from her summer camp, we went to our local library and sign up for Summer reading programs for both of us. When she reads 20 min/day for 6 days, she'll get some special gift from the library. She checked out several books from Chronicles of Narnia and is reading Prince Caspian at the moment.

Summer reading for adults are a little different, I'm required to reading and review4 books tin order to participate in a drawing for goodies. I checked out 3 audio books so far
  1. Count Karlstein by Phillip Pullman. I really enjoyed Pullmans dark material series and wanted to read his other works.
  2. The Sun Also rises by Earnest Hemingway. This is one of the book on "1001 books you must read before you die" list so I'm reading it.
  3. Purpose driven life (What on earth am I here for?) by Richard Warren. I've seen Richard on PBS while channel surfing and I hope to learn want my purpose on this planet is after listening to this book.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Getting back on track

Since the beginning of June, I gone off track of my eating healthy and exercising. I felt unmotivated and didn't really see the point of all the hard work of working out. I tried to exercise at night and that hasn't work either. I discussed the possibility of taking time off from exercise with my co-worker but the result will be back to square one unless I eat extremely strict. I noticed my weight creeping back up already as I stray from healthy eating for the pass 2 weeks. The main reason for my going off track is that I had set a goal weight for my birthday and I wasn't able deliver my present to my self. Not only that I didn't reach my goal, I gained 3 lbs from my lowest weigh in since January so I was very disappointed.
Yesterday, on my birthday, I almost continued with my negative mind set snow ball effect because I didn't feel like going to the gym. I got up @ 6:30AM and watched movies with the kids. We toyed around the idea of going to the beach but hubby wasn't so eager with the idea so I went to the gym like always. Besides, I was feeling fat so didn't want to be seen in a bathing suit.
At the gym, I practiced jump rope and cycled with a substitute, Mary who used to take the class with me. Jump rope is fun but hard on the knees; however, it's one exercise I could do anywhere. I'm glad that I decided to go to the gym and burn off 600 calories. I felt sore and old after the workout.
We ate leftover for lunch, & I took a short nap to let my aging body recover.
After putting the kids to sleep, I stayed up a little late and watched Dr Oz "You on a Diet" program where he helped obese folks reduce their waist line to 35" for men and 32" for women via eating healthy and exercise. The eye opening part of the show was when, he showed his clients the differences between a healthy heart and an obese heart. Healthy heart was the size of my fist and the valves were rubbery and the plumbings were clean. Obese heart was 3 times the size of the healthy heart and there were fat or cholesterol deposits on the wall of the plumbings. He also showed a cross section of a person's body where fat surrounds our internally vital organs ( liver, intestines, etc) that could result to heart attack/death. On his shows, most of them were like me. They were on track for the 1st 3 months and then they went back to their old ways of eating and didn't see any result. Dr Oz said to them that it's OK to have set backs because we will and the important thing is to get back on track. He used the analogy of a GPS system. If we missed our exit, the GPS doesn't chastise us but says to make a U turn on the next legal opportunity. After the show, I went to bed rediscover why I spend my time exercising and what my goal still is. My goal is to reach and maintain 32" waist line by eating healthy and exercise. It's OK to stray from the program as long as I get right back in the next opportunity I have.
Today, I stop chastising my self and I made a U turn this morning by eating a healthy breakfast and packed healthy snacks and lunch.
Today I'm proud that I weigh less than I did a year a go and I also found a Wii fit.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I'm changing

Lately, I've been questioning my self of why do I spend the time to exercise on regular basis. If I don't exercise, I will have extra time to do other things with my family.
Last night, I didn't feel like going to the gym but I told hubby that I'm going so I was committed to the task.
The night before going to the gym @ 4:30 AM, I usually don't sleep well. Last night for instance, we got in bed by 9PM and I got up at 11:30 PM to the bath room. I was abruptly woken up by opening of garage door, thinking that I overslept so I checked my watch and it was ~3:00AM. I tried going back to sleep but felt irritated and angry because I should be sleeping through the noise until my alarm goes off. Next thing I remember, my alarm went off @ 4:10 AM so I got up and got ready for my morning exercise. I was scheduled to run 5K but I didn't wear the right bra so I jogged for 10 min and got on the bike for 20 min. I forgot to wear my heart monitor belt so I didn't track how much calories I burned. I did some arm work and walked out of the gym. It was day light and the air felt crisp and fresh on my sweaty face. I took several deep breaths and asked my self if all the apprehension I felt the night before workout was worth it?
It's been 3 months since I started this taxing 4:30 workout regiment and I need a new routine. Next week, Danielle will be out of school, and we don't have home work duty for at least 3 months. I'm going to workout at night twice a week and get a good night sleep.

How does one live with out having regrets? Lately, Danielle would say, I wish I had done this or I should have done X instead of Y.

Juliet,
If you are reading this blog, I hope I could be added to your list of reader. I miss reading how your boys are doing.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

June Entry

It felt as if I just blogged last week but in reality a month has passed and now we are in June.

I. Secondo

Since my last entry, we celebrated Secondo’s 3rd birthday at my parent’s house on 5/17/08 with friends and family. Mom and mother in-law contributed lots of food for the party and I did not remember to take pictures of such festivities. Dad made his special almond pudding dessert which was a hit every time. I took some pictures but they have yet to be downloaded for posting. I rented the jump house for the little ones to bounce off the wall. It was scorching hot that day , the kids could not stand bouncing on the hot vinyl for more than 5 minutes. Some of the brave souls sang Karaoke while the older kids played video games upstairs in mom & dad’s room. One of my friends who lives in Santa Clarita Valley didn’t make it down so I was a little disappointed. One monumental thing Secondo did on her birthday was that she pooped in the potty with out being asked. After she finished her business and announced to the world “ I poo poo in the potty!”. Everyone in the house clapped their hands and cheered as if gasoline price has gone back down to $1.25/ gallon. To side tracked a little; I paid $ 4.45/gallon today at Costco. I’m looking into the possibility of taking the train to work. Back to the story: From that point forward, it was one step forward, two steps back on her being proactive. She would poop in her underwear if she was too involved in a task or when we didn’t pay attention. When we see her eyes get watery, hubby or I would sit her down on the potty. Last weekend, she had been pooping in the potty and I’m so hoping that this is it. She’s finally getting it and no more cleaning after this child. The potty training journey has been long and painful and I’m beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. She started in the 3 year old class this month and she’s not used to it since all her friends are still in the two year old class.

II. Reading

I’m currently listening/reading the dark material trilogy of Phillip Pullman. I saw the movie Golden Compass prior to reading the book and the book goes into more details about Lyra’s journeys, her deamon and her enemies. I like the material and not sure if Danielle would be interested in the book. I’m listening to Subtle Knife , 2nd book of the series and she’s traveling to different world looking for scholars to help her find “dust”. I looked up the movie version of Subtle Knife and it’s coming out in 2009. One movie that I can’t wait to see is “Time traveler’s wife”. It’s suppose to be out in 2008 and I haven’t heard any buzz about it at all.

III. Danielle

Danielle is into Webkinz now. Webkinz sell stuff animal that can also be a virtual pet that she feeds and takes care of on line. Polar plunge is her favorite game and candy bash 2 is mine. I helped her earn kinzcash by playing games and joining tournaments. Next Wednesday will be the end of the school year and she’s looking forward to getting her report cards. She earns cash if she does well in school and she’s ready to buy more webkinz. She gets bored easily now and doesn't draw as much as she used to when she was younger.

IV. Workout

On the workout front, I’ve been running less after I injured my left ankle while learning to jump rope 3 weeks ago. It looked easy for the instructor to jump and land on her heel but when I did it I twisted something. I went back on the treadmill this morning after resting for 3 weeks and it felt OK. I’m planning to do a 5K charity run on July 4th around our area and my time is 13 min/mile. I tried to get Danielle to run 1K with other kids and she said no. I’m tired of my workout music that I have so if any of you has any motivating song list, please post them on comment section. I still exercise 4 times a week and 4:00AM morning calls are easier to get up to and it makes the week go by faster.