the last ten

How many Mondays

2010-05-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

How many Mondays will pass by before I actually start! I always say "i'll start Monday". It's always Monday. Well hopefully I will be able to commit to Monday! I am super excited and pumped to start my AHB work out plan. I have been a upset with inability to keep to any commitment I make. But this time I WILL FINISH!!

AHB

2010-05-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

So as it turns out, Im going to have to start my Action Hero Babe work out a week late. I will be starting at the same time as I start my job and school. Hopefully all goes well.

Inspiration

2010-04-27T19:14:00.000-07:00

Rory Gilmore, you will always be my inspiration!

The Movies

2010-04-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

Seriously why do all the girls in the movies have to perfect! I am currently watching Beauty and the Briefcase an abc family original, so its not exactly the best movie. But Hilary Duff looks gorgeous! And her character is the character that every guy loves, and the cast has so many men! men everywhere! It really does make me want me want to go to express and loft and banana republic and buy all the cute office clothes and work in an office. That would be fun. I would much rather be a secretary than a girl working retail. But I really need a job to earn back all the money that I've spent during the semester.

But why?! Curse you Hollywood for setting impossible standards!

But I seriously LOVED all the looks she wore during this film! All the different shades of red lipsticks and the nude pumps the sexy pencil skirts and flirty tops! Ugh, I feel like I am now im dire need of shopping!!! and weight loss!!

The more I look at my pictures the more weighed down I felt! I feel like I'm gaining so much excess weight and I really can't wait to get rid of it all!

All sort of new ideas

2010-04-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

So what is awesome about fasting, is that I get to explore with foods and try new things. One thing that I love to do is definitely go to Whole Foods and just look at all the cool yummy healthy foods that they have. The latest thing that I happened upon was a brand called Good Belly. I don't have a bottle with me so I can't type all the awesome things it does. But basically it is a probiotic juice that aids in digestion and cleansing the body. It claims to have about 20million live bacteria in the bottle (or per serving?). All I know is that it is delicious and doesn't lie about helping in digestion (if you know what I mean). I've only tried one flavor, I believe it was pomegranate and cranberry, but I can't remember. But I did buy a new bottle yesterday, that was mango flavor. I have yet to try it, but Im excited. The only down side about it is that it is pricy for the amount you get. I think a serving is 1 cup and there are only 4 servings in a bottle, and it costs about $4.00. Which isn't too bad, but I could see that easily adding up, especially if you don't measure out all your servings and if you plan on drinking it once a day.

But another thing I tried at Whole Foods was the Naked Coconut water. I love coconut, but this, I didn't. I just can't even describe the taste, but it was coconutty at all. It kind of gave me tension headaches as I was drinking it. I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't. Im glad I gave it a try though.

But I thing that I really want to do is start being a guru on Youtbe. This however will take a tremendous amount of courage from me. Sine I am shy and don't want anyone I know to see these Youtube videos!! But I think I will give it a try and hopefully everything works out for the better (and then maybe Ill be allowed to be a partner and companies will send me free stuff!! haha) Anyway, Ill give it a shot. It could be a learning experience for me.

But on the topic of social sites. My boyfriend happened upon this website call Bodyspace, I think it is like Myspace, except for people who want to lose weight. It has tons of cool features, But I personally think the website is hard to navigate. Anyway, you enter in all your information like weight and measurements, your goals, and progress pictures. Then the site will come up with stats for you. You can also see other people's profiles and some people are declared "inspirational" which they really are!!. But warning, a lot of the inspirational people are like fitness competitors, so they are HUGE!! including the women! Which is cool and all. But I just want to be lean and healthy. It is a fun site. It is very different from facebook and myspace though. The friends that you have are people who just see your profile and find you inspiring or want to follow your progress. I've already had people comment on my page telling welcoming me to the site and sending luck in reaching my goals. Its really cool! So check that out if your interested in creating your own!

my Bodyspace!

Gluten free

2010-04-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

So I am reading The G free Diet. I could see this being a really good book. However, I just cannot get into it. I came into reading the book without any idea of what the book was about. I know that Elisabeth probably intended the book to be everyone and not just the people with her particular disease, however, I couldn't find sufficient reason for someone like me, who isn't allergic to gluten or has her disease to go g-free. I will say that if I do happen upon gluten free items I will pick those up over the regular stuff, but Im definitely not going to go out of my way to be completely g-free. As of right now, Im debating if I even want to go Vegan.

Well a current obsession of mine is watching Lorraine from theCurrent Boobies on Youtube. And one thing she said was "I enjoy reading diet books" but she also made the point that she doesn't always follow every single thing the books say, she just learns things from them and pick and chooses what she wants to apply. Which is what I want to do.

Skinny Bitch is such a powerful book when you read it, so I really did want to become a vegan. But I also don't want to be one of those people who are easily swayed by everything. So I looked up the pros and cons of becoming a Vegan, and of course both sides said the other side was telling lies. And of course they both have research to back themselves up. Some research says that humans do need important "animal fats" and "animal proteins" and of course vegans say that we don't. So Im confused and don't know what to believe. Obviously, I know people who have been meat eaters all their lives and are at an old age, and relatively healthy.

So I think I just want to keep everything as natural as possible, Ill deal with all that stuff later. Right now I want to rest.

BTW: Ill be taking more pictures during the day to add to my blogs, so they don't look so boring, and maybe people will actually want to read them then.

DAY 3 (21 Days)

2010-04-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Everything is going well so far!! I don't really want to talk about my fasting or anything, In fact I might have said too much already in my previous blogs. But I am still working out. Im said to say that i have lost my stamina. I didn't get to work out since last Tuesday because of the awful allergy season and my asthma randomly acting up agin. So I definitely want to work on getting that back. After all I do plan on running the Gate River Run next year and do the 15k or 9.something miles.

(side note: someone is rudely wacthing a video without speakers next to me in the library ]]:)

Anyway, I love running. It's hard and it takes a lot of breath, but I love it. BTW I finished my skinny "witch" book and am now reading My G-free diet. So expect a review soon!! (maybe) well expect one eventually!!!

The day before Monday

2010-04-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Mondays. I always love Mondays for the sole reason of starting over. Last week was rough because of my massive asthma problems and the fact that I missed one day out of sheer laziness, missed my calculus class because I didn't have my alarm clock.

(which btw, makes me want to buy an alarm clock radio)

So I feel so behind and Monday is the day I regather myself and pull myself together and do things right. Monday sets the tone for the week, So I plan to make tomorrow a highly productive day. Especially since tomorrow is also the start of 21 days, so that means I have to get everything done during the day so that I can attend at night. And I hope to make it everytday this year.

But also because of the 21 days I also get to restart my diet finally!!! I can't wait.

No Meat

2010-04-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

So I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to talk about this on this blog or my other. But I figured the main topic I wanted to talk about had to do with diet. And since this blog is about weight loss, although not particularly anything I'm doing, I would still post it on here.

Basically, I am ready Skinny Bitch, despite the title, the book is very informative and super fun to read. I will probably do a review on it when I finish. I am almost done, but not quite there yet. So I won't say much else about it. Except I will say that because of the book I think that I want to become a vegan. Fortunately for me my church is having a 21 days of prayer coming up. That 21 days also calls for fasting. So even though I wont be fasting for the purpose of my diet and weight, I am hoping that after that 21 days I will be able to easily transition into being a Vegan. The only problem as I stated last time is that I need my own kitchen!!! and budget. But what I am also hoping is that after this semester of college is over, which will be at the end of April, I will be able to work again. I pretty much have a job waiting for me at Express. So that job I hope will help me to save money, and buy my own food and work out supplies. Because as of now I care much more about my body than fashionable clothes. And once I am happy with my weight then I can reward myself. Lat's pray that I am more responsible with my money this time around. Last time I worked at Express, I made no profit because I spent all my money buying their clothes. Its hard to resist when you're around cute clothes all day!! I also hope to save money so that I can pay myself back for all the money I spent during the semester. I hope that i will since it is summer and I could probably be working full time. Now I am excited.

I think I will also being doing research about being a nutritionist and personal trainer, and will probably post in on here. I am at a crossroads right now. I am not sure if I want to go the Health field route. Or do what I originally intended, which is to do research. It's just that my school is so limited in choices, I feel like I can't even explore, Hopefully once I take more classes I will find out what I am good at and what I want to be.

Still Going

2010-04-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

So this week has been rough. I haven't been able to stick to my diet, because once again, we ran out of healthy foods in the house. Oh how I wish I had my own kitchen! I want to try and convince my family to change their eating habits and start living healthier lives, but the honest truth is my family is filipino. It may sound like I'm making a lame excuse, but in the filipino culture, food is a big thing. Everything filipinos do is based of off wanting food. Someone is always cooking, or bringing food, or eating food, or being food? It's just filipinos love food. I love food. Let me give you a typical filipino example of how much filipinos love food:

I don't speak tagalog, the filipino language. So at times there are barriers between me and the elders in church or my mom friends or whoever. But the one phrase that every filipino knows how to say, and through which unites the entire filipino community, young and old is "Eat now". Thats it. Every filipino will know this phrase. It may even be the only english phrase that most filipinos know. If you walk past a filipino, 9 out of 10 they will not even say hello, they will just say 'eat now". Of course it wont sound like "eat now", rather it will sound like "it naw".

haha I'm am cracking myself up. Anyway back to my point after that awful tangent, there's no way I can convince my family to actually buy healthy food.

"I wish I had a catchy catch phrase to end with here" how about "eat now" hahahah

Oh wait!! I forgot to talk about what I titled this post for. (huh?) ok well I've been dying from this whole allergy season, so my asthma has been acting up too. So my work outs have been lame. Not sure if I said this already, But my friends and I have added swimming to our work out regimen. It's a lot of fun, however, I am awful at it. When I was younger no one ever taught me how to do the different strokes! So when I went to an Olympic sized pool with nothing but lanes cut through it, for the first time I was filled with embarrassment! What was I supposed to do? In every other lane were people who had all the gear with their back muscles bulging out of the water as they did their free style strokes. While the only way I knew how to swim was by doggy paddling and doing hand stands and flips. (Again, I went of on a tangent). Point is, I'm slowly learning, drinking tons of pool water on the way. But swimming is so much fun that i've added "finish a triathlon" to my mental list of goals. Actually I should make that mental list into a tangible one. That'd be fun!

new trials

2010-03-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I have already typed about this. But my friend and I have been faithful in working out about 5 times a week. I haven't seen the progress that I would like to yet. But I blame my diet for that. I have been trying out a bunch of new recipes however. It's hard when you don't have your own kitchen, and when you live with a family whose eating habits aren't the forefront of their minds.

I also bought Action Hero Babe, which I heard about from Tone it up. I'm excited but I'm not going to start the program until after 21 days of prayer, because I don't want the diet and the lack of energy to take a toll on my work out plan. Great things will happen this year!!

Today I made delicious turkey burgers, and walked to Walgreens with my dog and boyfriend, Paul. (:

Renewed

2010-02-11T16:42:00.000-08:00

So I had deleted this blog, but I kept the information to reimport it, because I did enjoy everything that I had been doing on here. So I think that I want to start doing this again. I should have started about a month ago. Because a month ago was when I restarted my work out routine. However, it was only this week that I started "dieting" if you can even call it that now.

Perhaps tomorrow I will update again, with catch up information. However, I wouldn't hold your breath. lol

oh well

2009-09-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

lol so i totally didnt think of any plan but on the plus side i did walk my dog today so thats awesome, hopefully ill do some sort of activity tomorrow and be able to walk my dog. im hoping that one day ill be able to jog around my school campus, i see people doing it all the time and our campus is pretty big (walking wise). uhm food wise today i dont think that as far as calories go that i did bad because i actually only had one meal now that i think about it, but ive been snacking on cookies and wafers all day. but i did drink a bottle of water which is good for me because i dont normally drink water. sot hats cool. so yeah tomorrow i will come up with a plan!!!!

but sleep for now since i have class early tomorrow.

new beginnings

2009-09-20T18:14:00.000-07:00

I must admit that ti does get tiring, but I won't give up until I am satisfied. Lately with all the stress from school, home and work, I need to start getting things organized. I can no longer procrastinate and have my physical and spiritual health suffer along with my mentality. So, this is to a fresh start. I pray that the Lord will lead me to do his will and guide me to conquer my goals and be successful in all I do. I want to keep my priorities straight and I love living a well organized life, call me a control freak if you wish. But at least i'll know what I will be doing.

So I'll start with tomorrow: (to do list)

1. CIRT lab and figure out why I can't upload my recordings

2. Plan out my nutrition and work out plans

3. Work out

4. Commit to walking my dog

5. Read my Bible daily

6. STUDY

7. Plan time wisely

8. Money management!

9. Wear sunscreen everyday

Well I am excited and will try my hardest to stay motivated. Out of spontaneity, since I learned that apparently I am very spontaneous, I will list my motivations below:

1. Increase my well being

2. Physical health for the future, I don't want to wake up one day and find out that I have heart disease, skin cancer, diabetes and whatever else

3. Hot bod for the cruise in a year! lol

4. self confidence

5. fit my clothes better

6. feel more in control of my life

7. a bunch of stuff really, I think i'm OMSing so I believe that my self esteem is just simply at a low right now lol.

I think that will do for tonight, I still have quite a bit of studying to do for the week. I have two tests this week. I pray that God will give me the strength and wisdom to concentrate and succeed.

All glory to God.

work out plan

2009-08-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

work out plan work out plan work out plan work out plan work out plan

I need at work out plan! I feel so fat and compared to how I was going, I feel even more like crap. lol HELP!! what should i do?! I need to crack down to some serious business tomorrow no excuses. I can't live like this anymore! I'm going to go insane!!

i no longer need to count days

2009-07-30T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well not much happened today. I pretty much sat in bed and read Harry Potter for the majority of the day. Then found games for my Youth group meeting tomorrow, along with sending a reminder to everyone about the meeting. So I did walk my dog, on the treadmill [it was raining]. Then I did my share on the treadmill. I used my new iPhone app: 321Run. It was actually helpful. I like it so far.

I didn't write down calories today because I figured there was no use, since I have come to the same dilemma I had begun with when I started this blog. There is NO food in the house, so either I starve myself, or i eat ice cream. So I caved and ate a nice helping of ice cream. And in the morning I had eggs. Pretty much, that was the extent of my eating. Not much calorie intake, but not very good choices. Oh, I had McDonald's ]; Again, I was starving at that point of the day. Oh well.

I also didn't come out with a work out plan. It's extremely hard to do. I like videos a lot, but they get boring, and many of the workouts in my health magazines, require a gym or equipment I don't have. But i have not given up. I AM determined to lose 20lbs!! I will be honest however, I think this new found drive to lose weight is out of competition. How lame will I sound as I admit this?! Well there was a YouTube guru, whose twitter i looked at, and she said she lost 10lbs with Zumba. Then something in my brain
snapped and said "This girl is getting prettier than you" and so I immediately wanted to lose weight quickly.

(RTOTD): Why is it that anytime there is a cute pair of shoes on sale, the shoe is never available in my size?!

Also random pictures that make me feel better. The roses are from my 2 year anniversary present from my boyfriend, I am drying them out so I can save them. The second picture is of smoked salmon on top of a brochetta(sp?) with Cajun crab spread.

By the way, the title is I no longer need to count days, because of the fact that I quit P90 and I was about to title this blog "day whatever". lol. but no I feel carefree and able to do as i please, free from the bondage of counting the days pass by. hah

révision

2009-07-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Okay. So i gave up on P90. Do I feel bad and like a failure? Honestly, not at all. I just couldn't stand doing the same thing everyday. It was so boring!! And so I am making a new plan. I don't have it quite have it all figured out so I'll let you know. But I have been trying to still work out. I looked through all my old Shape and Fitness magazines for workouts and I found some old work outs that I used to love. So it will be fun trying those out. And I don't think I could get bored because I have SO many magazines it's ridiculous and totally unnecessary. As seen on the pictures, I don't even know where to store them so their on shelves, in my closet, under the bed. It's crazy. My advice: never hoard magazines lol. It's like such a waste to throw them away too. I have magazines that date back all the way to like 2004!!! Ugh. But no worries I stopped with my OCD problems.

(RTOTD): I have recently fallen in love with Fashion videos. I love to look at accessories and other people's style. Lately I've been watching a lot of The Style Diet on YouTube. She's had some really helpful advice. Hmm, how easily I fall into things. I wish I had the time to pursue all the fun things I like. But I find all these things beauty related. Fashion clothing, jewelry, make up, sewing, and photography. All beauty related (the last one may be a stretch though). So I guess that's what i like. But don't accuse me of being shallow. Because I am not. [maybe only when it comes to certain small things i might be however]

Another point is that i should be going on a trip to the Key West and there's so much I want to do: para-sailing, snorkeling, moped-riding around the island, deep sea fishing, and of course try out local foods, and just relax on the white sand, and swim in the crystal clear
blue water. (which is exactly what we at the beaches where I live.)

i forgot how much I love blogging. hah. It's great fun.

I should come up with a signature end as well.
So much to do.

le quatorzième jour [day 14]

2009-07-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

I dont even want to talk about how badly I have been eating. Seems like all my friends only want to talk about eating and eat out all the time! That's what i get for living in a boring city!

Thank God for Mondays.

le douzième jour [day twelve]

2009-07-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Today, was ok. honestly i don't think there's too much worth blogging about diet and health wise. Actually in that aspect today was a bad day. I missed P90 and didnt walk my dog. But I don't care. tomorrow is a new day.

(RTOTD): On the other hand, in randomness, plenty happened. Today was the day that the young adult ministry turned into Titus ministry! yay! also our verse is Titus 2:11-12!!

Your Big Fat Boyfriend (review)

2009-07-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Your Big Fat Boyfriend: How to Stay Thin When Dating a Diet Disaster and I am filled now which a greater knowledge of my boyfriend and my relationship with him, and how much it has taken a token on my figure. Besides the introduction to every chapter having a cute entertaining story of the author, Jenna Bergen, and her kitchen/gym battle unnamed BFB (Big Fat Boyfriend), the book is filled with brilliant ideas and strategies of how women can keep their bodies healthy fit, and safe from BFB's destructive eating habits. Bergen first helps the reader realize why weight gain is a common occurrence amongst women in relationships, or who live with their men. After she then teaches the science of it all, i.e. why women can't eat like men, how women's bodies function differently than men, and how women's bodies are made to handle different tasks than men. Bergen declares the truth and bluntly states that women simply can't live their lives like BFB, but after the harsh (and extremely unfair) Bergen gives us women nearly everything we need to win the battle against the newly added boyfriend pounds. The book has active dating ideas, delicious recipes, and supportive stories from other girlfriends who are going through the same thing. Bergen even diligently makes lists of foods that are healthier choices, including how they benefit your body (like whether or not a certain vegetable is an antioxidant). But besides everything that was in the book, I, as a reader, found it easy to understand and follow. Although the information she shared in her book may have been obtained from classes in college on how to be a nutritionist, never did I find it difficult to understand. Not only that, but her personality really showed through in the book, making it more entertaining and less like textbook material. Also, to ease the eyes, the pages were all pink and there were even illustrations done throughout the book. Overall, it was a great read. Truly educational and truly girly. I highly recommend it.

le onzième jour [day eleven]

2009-07-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

First i must announce that the whole writing the calories down thing is starting not to work for me.

PROS:
It has greatly educated me about the number of calories that can be saved when eating vegetables and fruits, or even cutting out the yolks from eggs.
It helps me keep my eating in check and balances out how many calories I take in per meal, so that I know how much I can eat for the rest of the day.
It makes me look up calorie amounts in foods that I get when I eat out.

CONS:
It's hard to keep up with.
I usually don't write anything down in public so I have to make a mental note, and it's hard to remember everything.
I have to carry around a notebook everywhere.

Well I think honestly, that I should try and keep doing it, the only thing stopping me is inconvenience, but writing everything I eat down does great for my health.

Anyway, today, Since I ran out of chicken breasts, I kind of allowed myself to indulge a little which is okay every once in a while. I had a little blueberry pastry and, well actually that was the extent of my indulgence lol. not as bad as I was thinking. But today I enjoyed a pleasant day under the sun with my boyfriend, little brother and dog. We went to the park. I laid on the blanket and tried to read, while my BF and Bro played catch [how cute]. Then we all relaxed and laid down together, to have a photo opt, mainly for this purpose. however I had to settle for the use of my phone, because I forgot my camera. ]; And there were some serious tickling sessions. I felt like I almost died from laughter. I wonder if I will ever be able to grow out of being ticklish.

(RTOTD: Hmm, usually I have something to say, but i can't really think of anything as of now. that's odd. I think it's because I have been thrown off by the fact that Blogspot is not being very kind and allowing me to place these pictures where I want them. So I tried reading Harry Potter at the park, the first one. I recently started reading the series. But I haven't gone far because the only places Ive read it is at the beach and the park, both of where I was distracted by something, or just didn't have a lot of time to really get into the book. But when I went to Barnes and Noble, my friend and I were looking at a magazine that had Emma Watson in it, and although i was allowed to see only the first and second movies, I do adore her. She is adorable! And I love the clothes she wears. Also on the Harry Potter topic, ABC Family is doing a marathon on the Harry Potter movies this weekend, oh how I wish I could read all the books just so I can watch the accompanying movies. Especially since harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince just came out. But I don't like spoiling books, by watching the
movie first. And some may argue if you watch the movie first, it wont be as much of a let down because you won't know what was left out. Normally books are better than the movie anyway. But I think a great way to tell whether or not the movie is actually good, is having it measure up to the novels. And I do think that Harry Potter has done just that. Unlike Twilight, my former obsession, but now overrated, which is the downfall of many things. Although, overall I would say that the writings of J.K. Rowling would beat that of Stephanie Meyer's. No offense to her, she has captured the hearts of many young girls, but it seems only like a temporary fad. And the movie destroyed the book. Murdered it. Burned it to a third degree. Anyway, how's that for not having anything to say?! lol.

le dixième jour [day ten]

2009-07-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

Today I continued to venture on in my exploration through living a healthy lifestyle. I am proud to say that I have moved forward and broadened my horizons when it comes to cooking. I have officially sauteed a chicken breast.
This was my first attempt and considering that the time I let is cook was shorter than the last two pieces I cooked, I am surprised that it was cooked all the way through. however this was before i added any vegetables and I used no salt so my dad said it was flavorless. My brother liked it this way though! So I was happy to have pleased someone.This is how the other two breasts ended up looking, i added onions and tomatoes thinking the juices from them would add flavor, however they just ended up becoming burnt vegetable chips. But I would say that these last two were better tasting than the former. (Also don't mind that the picture is supposed to horizontal, but is instead vertical). I also cut these in half to cook the middle better. The first breast I had cooked I kept it in one piece. I am definitely surprised at how the first one ended up fully cooked!!!This is what ended up on my plate: steamed broccoli with a chicken breast. yummy! Chicken breasts only have about 125 calories and broccoli has only 25 calories for a cup. But believe it or not this was all i had today! because I went out and refused to eat the fast food my girl friend wanted. I was famished by the time I got home to cook it. But thankfully I had a Starbucks Vivianno strawberry and banana smoothie! It was only 280 calories for a grande! so delicious. Besides the fact that I skipped two meals in one day, i would say that today was also a good day.

(RTOTD): But what I am more excited about is the fact that my boyfriend is going to watch Mamma Mia with me tomorrow! I simply adore that movie!! Also, lately I've been feeling a bit frustrated due to that fact that i can't read and do something else at the same time! I want to spend more time reading but its hard! When I read I can't be distracted by something else. For example You can watch TV and fold laundry but you can't read and fold laundry (or at least i can't). Anyway, I guess I will just have to sacrifice my WoW time to read. I don;t know how my boyfriend will take the news. /;

forever 21 [no longer]

2009-07-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Many people are huge fans of the clothing store Forever 21, but The more I think about it the more I come to dislike it. Yes, they have great prices and no doubt cute clothes, but in all honesty I don't think the price is worth buying their clothes. I mean it's hard for me to say that I don't like this store because the bottom of the bags all have John 3:16 on it. It's a bold statement and for being such a popular company it is a great way to start sending out the gospel and I am all for that. Yet, I cannot deny the fact that Forever 21 does [sometimes] take designs from higher end clothing lines and replicates them for a cheaper price. Also, the quality of the clothing is less than acceptable. I have three articles of clothing from that store that I can think of, and already, in less than a year of owning them, in fact probably in the span of a month or two from the time that I bought them, two of them have tons of rips and are no longer wearable. I have jeans and shirts from American Eagle that have lasted me anywhere from two to six years. Maybe it may seem pricey when you buy from them at first, but their clothes will last through hundreds of trips through the washer. Unlike Forever 21, which you'd be lucky if it lasted ten trips through the washer, without any damage. So, I don't think it's worth it to pay all that money [which will add up] and then end up having to replace everything you bought. It's a great concept, Forever21, but I am no longer a customer of yours.

le neuvième jour [day nine]

2009-07-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day.

le huitième jour [day eight]

2009-07-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well I must say that I am proud of myself today. Although it was an extremely boring day, I stuck to my intentions. I worked out. I walked my dog. I ate well. And VICTORY! I went grocery shopping. One of the items I am most excited about buying is almond milk. I got it flavored in vanilla, which means 30 more calories than the original, but nonetheless, still 30 calories less than the 2% milk I had been drinking. The almond milk was very delicious! Also today I gave the FAGE [pronounced: fa-yeh] 0% Greek yogurt again, and this time around I really liked it! I had it with cherries and it was much more flavorful than when i had it with apples and cinnamon. And with cherries i did not have to try and salvage the flavor with a spice. Only problem was the seeds, but it made me eat slower, and it was worth it. Downfall to eating organic or natural foods is that it is outrageously expensive. Both the Greek yogurt and the almond milk prices were up there for what they are. Oh how i wish that there was a Trader Joe's(?) out here. From what I've heard it's all the healthy foods at a lower price. Sounds great.

(RTOTD): I'm almost done with the book Every Young Woman's Battle. It has been really helpful and a great reminder of what I have to do as a woman of Christ. I will be honest though and say that because I do read it at night sometimes I don't feel like I understand fully what the book is trying to get across because I am so sleepy. But it has been great and there a lot of verses there that I now want to memorize. So even though I'm close to finishing the book I do think I will go over it again to study the verses from it.

TO DO List: LAUNDRY!!!! I haven't done it in months and I need clothes, I have no decent thing to wear anymore, it's quite sad.

le septième jour [day seven]

2009-07-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

Today was the day for rest. and that I did. i went to church and hung out with my boyfriend for a while, because we can't seem to stay apart for too long, or at least I can't from him. Then I went to sleep and played World of Warcraft; some thing I can't believe that I'm admitting in public. lol. So I have no pictures today or anything really to say. I ate, alright, no food, I didn't get to go grocery shopping because I unexpectedly never came home yesterday. So that's all for tonight. Kind of a useless blog, but just for the sake of doing it.

(RTOTD): I want very badly to read the Harry Potter series. i read up to book 3 a long time ago. But I want to reread it and finish the whole thing. It intrigues me, but i won't let it get to my head. Also I hate horror any thing, especially movies.

day six [done on day seven]

2009-07-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

The reason that I was not able to blog yesterday was because I was hanging out with friends and actually ended up sleeping over at some one's house which is something I have not done in a really long time and it was fun. I should try and do it again lol and even add some sort of spontaneity. There was a party i went to And I know how on Friday I sobbed about how awfully i ate at just a few hours hang out at church but there was a church birthday party and it was just terrible (eating wise that is). I had tons of candy, cake, ribs, egg rolls, hots dogs. YUCK!!!! Hence the picture, my boyfriend's brother came up with the idea to put lumpia (egg roll) together with a hot dog and some ketchup. I don't remember how it ended but he intended the picture of it to be put up on thisiswhyyourefat.com. It is a really funny website, but this picture is not the worst of it all. But even though there was a lot of food, and the quality of what i ate was bad, I don't think the quantity of was. Am I proud? no lol. I had zero self control, if i saw it, i got it and i ate it. any way, I still worked out in the morning and had my protein, but despite the party mishaps the morning was great.

It was the 2 year anniversary of me and my boyfriend. He showed up at my house with a big bag and a picnic basket. I was really surprised because he had given me a Domo doll, which was so cute and I love, but then i opened the basket expecting just food and I get a dozen of roses, a note and the softest gorilla ever. it was a good morning, not to mention that diet dr.pepper is my ultimate favorite drink!!!

(RTOTD): Thanks so much honey for the gifts and the sweet note. I really appreciate everything you do for me. I don't deserve it all. But you really made my day great. I thank you so much for your love and support. Happy 2 year anniversary!! [; I LOVVVE YOU PAPA BEAR!!!!

day five

2009-07-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well today started off really well. i woke up and had my protein. but today I decided to try the chocolate flavor as opposed to the normal cookies and cream. It was okay, I only say that however because I drank it with water. If I has access to a milk other than WHOLE milk, then I'm sure the protein would have tasted like delicious chocolate milk! So I can't say it enough, I can't wait to go grocery shopping (for some reason only now am I realizing that the statement seems rather odd). After that I watched a pokemon movie, a guilty pleasure! i liked it a lot. Afterward I built enough energy to get off the couch and do P90, and it took a LOT of energy. i was really into watching the movie, and cartoon network was about to play ANOTHER pokemon movie right after the one I just watched, but i was able to resist the temptation. Then after I planned to make the normal eggs I always do, with the melted cheese and ketchup. There was no more string cheese. So I rummaged through the refrigerator and came up with this number: egg whites, pepper, diced tomato, and baby spinach. Surprisingly it was delicious!! Absolutely great!!! And afterward I had steamed broccoli with salt and pepper. Another great plus. Who knew that I had vegetables galore in my fridge. And I totally forgot about the vegetable steamer that my mom has. It really put me in a great mood. UNTIL I went out and had 2 slices of pizza, 2 cups of regular soda, a cookie and a slice of cake. Ugh, I feel like running 5 miles just thinking about that crap I just put in my body. I could of had the will power to say no, but for some reason, I just thought "whatever I'm going out" but NEVER AGAIN will I do that. I have learned my lesson!! But even though I probably consumed more than 1000 calories in an hour, because of how low calorie every else was that I ate before hand, my total consumed calorie for the day was only a little over 1400 calories! and according to my calculations from the formulas I got from Your Big Fat Boyfriend I'm allowed to eat 1800 Calories a day, to lose weight. So pretty awesome, but I cannot deny the insane amount of guilt.

RTOTD: French women brilliantly chic. Oh how I long to be one. I do think that I will brush up on my French. I have kept all my old school notes, I have an English French dictionary, and practice workbooks. I do think I will do it. There is this lovely french girl who has her own fashion blog. It's marvelous. She writes in french and English. it is the funnest thing to read in French. Hopefully one day I can travel and be a Parisian. It was funny I was watching a video and the girl, Jenn said her honey moon was going to be in France. She said She was surprised that her husband had it in him to plan it to be there. Then she said all it took was him watching the tour de France, the big bike race. So funny. How typically manly.

Au Revoir Mon Ami

day four

2009-07-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

Ugh, all i can say is I cannot wait until the weekend trip to Whole Foods! Its killing me not having food at the house! I basically cant have a real meal. I didn't have a real breakfast. and I didn't have a dinner. And the only reason that I had lunch is because my boyfriend was kind enough to wait in line at a subway in a mall with only one person working and about 5 people ahead of us. Not only that But I have been insanely cramping all morning, because Aunt Flo has decided to make a visit. Anyway, I ended up just snacking on a bunch of, I don't know, relatively healthier choices. But I did cave and ate another candy bar, a kit kat, 200calories. But considering that I ate only 1meal,calorie wise its ok. Also since I have been reading Your Big Fat Boyfriend, I was able to calculate how many calories I should be taking in daily. It ended up being around 1,800. So I'm happy because its easy for me to stay within that range as long as I don't drink too many juices, sodas and midnight snacking, a few of the bad eating habits I have newly accumulated. I also missed another day of walking my dog ]; I feel bad now. But maybe I'll take her for a walk on the treadmill. She does actually love doing it, and maybe Ill even join her.
LOL. I actually did just stop writing my blog to walk her on the treadmill. and I also did a small ten minute walk. I'm satisfied and slightly re-energized

Random Thought of the Day (RTOTD): Lauren Conrad's new book LA Candy is a novel?! i totally thought that it was some type of autobiography. Well I do think that its great that she's showing another creative side of her. However I did read only the first two pages and I don't know, it seems all too familiar. It really could be just the typical kind of OC or gossip girl novel. With the same boy drama and etc. But I think I'll give the book a shot, only because I love Lauren Conrad. But writing a book could have been the perfect way to show the world there's more to her than any other girl who has been to parties and has friends who likes to hook up. But i cant say anything yet because I haven't read it.
Okay, so I think that everyday that I put on make up I always pull this little number, having mascara end up some where that isn't my lashes!! and its because of this that i ALWAYS do my eye make up before I put on any face make up. i was hoping by now I would have learned some way to prevent this!

i found my wedges.

day three

2009-07-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well Just like how I've said before this whole not being able to buy my own groceries and the house is full of junk food. ]; I also kinda caved in and ate some chocolate however it was dark chocolate, so I consider it okay every once in a while however I wont let my self indulge like every other day. Also since it rained after I was hanging out with Paul today (and I had to go to church early) I didn't get to walk Aiden ]: Again like i said I didn't expect myself to do everything every day perfectly, standards would be too high. So there were some losses today but its okay. I'm happy however that I got to pick up my book that I reserved In Barnes and Noble Your Big Fat Boyfriend: How to stay thin when dating a diet disaster. I'm excited I've already read a couple of pages and I must say for being a diet book it is rather entertaining and it also is very cute.

Anyway I put a picture up here of Muscle Milk because I think a lot of people mistake muscle milk for something completely different than what it is. Which means bad job for the advertising group of that company. It actually doesn't have a lot of protein. it only has 16g which is what I need since I am a female. When I went to GNC they tried to sell me their newly released protein that had 60g! There was no way that Id be able to burn all that protein off before it turned into fat!. So I actually happened upon this because it was on sale. It has a ton of vitamins and tastes brilliant!! I love it! It in no way has that disgusting taste normal protein has. I used to have to pinch my nose and down protein as fast as I could just to get it over with. But like my boyfriend said it's definitely something you can savor. I've only tried cookies and cream but it is so good. I say its worth the money, even though it can run on the more expensive side. So if you mislead by the name of the brand like I was, go ahead and try muscle milk. It can help curb your appetite, aid you in recovering from sore muscles from working out, and gives you your daily vitamins!!

day two

2009-07-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

So I would say that today was rather successful as well.

Pros:
I drank my protein in the morning.
I completed P90 in the morning.
I walked my dog.
I washed my dog.
I tried Greek yogurt. It was kinda leaning toward the gross side. I think next time I'm going to skip on the 0% and get something flavored like vanilla and just add the fruits with that. but I will say it looked very delicious in the picture.
I also made a reservation for the book Your Big Fat Boyfriend: How to stay thin when dating a diet disaster. I love the title so funny lol. I'll probably be picking that up tomorrow.
I was able to cook those scrambled egg whites again. And bonus I used the yolks to make my little brother scrambled eggs and he said he really liked them. I don't how healthy it was those, being all yolk and since I added American cheese :/ oh well though. He wont eat it everyday.

Cons:
I still wasn't able to drink 8 cups of water. i don't know why its so hard for me! i feel like i would have to be drinking water every other minute to meet the 8 cups goal.
Also the dinner I had wasn't very healthy! Again with the no healthly food in the house problem. I was only able to get by yesterday because my boyfriend bought me a lean cuisine to eat. So I need to go to the grocery store with my parents and tell them what to buy!!
But I think that its for the cons.

< Greek yogurt with cut apples and a large dash of cinnamon lol

Random Thoughts: I've really been in the mood to buy make up! I'm not exactly sure what I want to buy though. i want that new 131 blush brush from MAC and some of their MSFs from the colour craft collection. And then I also want a couple of brushes from coastal scents. Since me and one of my friends have been talking about starting our own freelance company together I've been dying to enlarge my own make up collection! Oh how I wish I could get a MAC Pro card things would be so much easier. but anyway, Ive also been wanting a nice pair of wedge heels. i never wear heels But I'm really short and they look so cute so I'm going to be on the look for some lol.
Another confession i want to make: I really want to have my own baby. There must be some motherly hormonal problems inside of me because I want to have one so bad! lol. It just seems so awesome to have this little child to take care of hold and cherish. I don't know haha. well that's enough rambling for now.

au revoir mon petit chaud fleur

day one

2009-07-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

So all in all I do consider this day to be extremely successful. But already i can tell that these new changes are going to really tough. Number one reason for that, and probably the only and biggest reason, is that I am living in the house with my family still. I now just realized that there is nothing in the kitchen but JUNK FOOD. There's 4 tubs of ice cream, 2 packages of American cheese. The only type of cereal there is is fruit loops and cookie crisp; both outrageously high in sugar. There's chips galore, and half of the freezer contains microwaveable pizza, chicken nuggets, and i don't even know what. So obviously when I went to go look for food during breakfast I thought I was going to have to starve myself for the whole day!! just because we had no decent food in the house!!!! but all ended very well. But another reason that things may end up badly is that number two: I don't know how to cook! Ugh! I'm so ashamed. I wish I did! so when i was able to look up and egg white omelet recipe today and make it I was very pleased with myself! and so beings my day:

Well i started out my day by drinking some cookies and cream muscle milk mixed with 2% milk ( which I'm planning to ditch by the way and start drinking unsweetened almond milk [only 40 calories]) It was delicious!! I woke up around 10:30, kinda late, I got 9 hours of sleep, and it still didn't feel like enough. anyway after the protein I did P90, circuit. Circuit in Power 90 is the muscle work out. It was pretty challenging because they focus a lot on arms, and my arms are still sore for Ichetucknee the other day. Any way after that I did a few things around the house and ate "breakfast at 2:00PM lol and thats when I triumphantly made scrambled egg whites with toast.
i even melted mozzarella cheese intho the eggs and added pepper and ketchup onto. the toast was just plan and the whole meal added up to 391 cal! pretty good if i say so myself. But for the whole day i consumed 1461 calories! Well within my range so I am glad. i also logged everything I ate, how many hours I slept, and what exercies i did and I walked my dog. I ate fruit. I wasnt able to drink 8 cups of water though I actually only had 3 ]; But I did have a glass of milk. And me and my boyfriend went on an adventure in whole foods today and i was able to buy Greek yougurt!! Im very excited to try it since the girls from Tone It Up seem to love it as a snack! but I have to go buy fruits to mix in with it! But when it came to sleeping I fell asleep around one, which is an improvement, but I want to sleep earlier (I'm turning into an OLD person! lol). Also i was able to buy a new smaller notebook that can fit into most of my purses now! I know all these thoughts a are random. but Im very excited lol.

Today was definitely a confidence booster. I hope that Ill be able to keep up this energy and spirit until I lose those LAST TEN lbs!!!!!!!!

now time to nerd it up with my boyfriend and play WoW [[;

statistics [day 1]

2009-07-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

height: 5'0
weight: 135lbs
chest (over nipples lol): 88cm
waist: 75.7cm
hips: 93.2cm
right mid-thigh:51.5 cm
left mid-thigh: 51.5cm
right upper arm (around peak of bicep): 27.8 cm
left upper arm: 28 cm

also give +/- 1cm and 2lbs because its the morning and I haven't eaten anything and I also just did P90. plus i did all the measurements myself and wast exactly sure around where I was supposed to measure. lol but its ok.

exercise plan

2009-07-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

Well I am going to be approaching this plan in the same way as my nutrition plan, just to plan it as i go along with everything. but I will set a few things in stone.

Definite Dailys:
P90 in the mornings (I will commit to a workout plan for longer than a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can finish this!!!!! nothing can stop me lol)
Walk Aiden (my dog) everyday
Workout Monday-Saturday
Rest on Sundays

I'll edit more later and maybe do a repost as I get stronger and gain more stamina, So I can continually challenge myself until I meet weight weight goal. then I plan how to maintain. Definitely a lot of great stuff to look forward to in the future!!!

nutrition plan

2009-07-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

i think I probably will be coming to edit this often. I should be able to sit down and do this all at once but I'm going to go for the "as I go along" kind of planning. So the easiest part of this planning would probably be first to set the limits then I will later have to research about what healthy things I should add to my diet.

limits:
NO ice cream
NO french fries
NO fast food restaurants (this is going to be hard considering how often I go out; I should definitely research how to deal with this)
NO junk food
*chips
*cookies
*cakes
NO soda (including my diet dr. pepper T_T)
NO foods high in sugars
NO foods high in fat

[side track: also start reading nutrition labels and try to learn more about unhealthy ingredients and how to know whether or not food is good for you]

additions;
DO drink 8+ cups of water per day
DO eat more fruit (maybe as a starting point 1-2 fruits a days)
DO eat more vegetables (going to have to find a way to work that in, maybe when I start making my own food I can make dishes with lots of vegetable, or simply eat real salads)
DO intake more protein (at least one scoop of muscle milk per day)

extra:
I also will say that I am going to eat 1300-1600 calories a day.
I will eat 5 meals a day maybe about 3 hours apart, and everything in smaller proportions; and if I can do I'm going to try and not let myself get hungry or let myself get stuffed.

the day before the first

2009-07-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

So because i went with my church to ichetucknee springs yesterday and spent an hour and a half trying to prop myself up on this doughnut tube while floating down the river, my entire arm as my biceps, triceps and my shoulders deltoids and traps all hurt extremely bad and are super sore. So may be a minor set back for tomorrow which is going to be DAY 1 (round 2) for P90.

I did well on my first time doing P90 I lost about 5lbs and I made it to DAY 38 (out of 90). The only reason i stopped was because I was going to dance practice for a friends debutant and by the time I got home my feet would be so sore from standing and dancing and heels. So since I worked out only at night, because that's when I had time, I just found myself skipping a week of P90. Then came all the parties for my graduation. Then came graduation day. Then it was 2 weeks. Then family visited from Cali, which is across the nation from where I live. So came even more distractions and I missed 3 weeks, which is way too much.

So hopefully during round 2 of P90, i will have the same will power I had for the first round. But i think that i will only use the P90 workout as a guideline and still be trying to do other activities and other workouts. but one thing that i want to do differently this time than the other, is try and control my diet.

i have never been one for dieting. rather I was always into exercise videos. So hopefully the two combine will get me into the best shape of my life lol. But I don't like to use the word dieting, it seems so temporary. So I'll just say that I am changing my diet. So its exciting for me.

Anyway in the midst of my insomnia last night i made of list things that i am going to do. I figure that I should write it down in here just to hold my self accountable to the public. Even if the public wont read this lol. Just for my own personal thing I guess.

1. write out statistics (ex;measurements of waist, weight, etc.)
2. set an eating/nutrition plan (never done before)
3. start recounting calories
4.start cooking my own meals (also never done before lol)
5. journal everything, in other words, write down everything (*hours of sleep *workouts * food *extra physical activities *where eating out)
6. start fitness blog (check lol)
7. drink protein powder in the morning (had some this morning!!)
8. walk Aiden (my dog) daily
9. try to do P90 in morning rather than night
10. SUNDAY=REST (easy enough)
11. carry a notebook every where to log everything aforementioned
12. no more consistently staying up until 4 in the morning everyday
13. Take check point pictures (especially the "before" picture)
maybe even start taking pictures of the food I eat maybe helpful with proportions and etc.

that's all I have for now. Of course since I'm calling tomorrow Day 1 i do not in anyway expect myself to have done all 12 things. its a lot I'm going to change about my lifestyle and it may take a while to turn those changes into daily habits, not to mention a lot of discipline. So I just plan for the first week to be a kind of trial run. See what works for me and what doesn't.

So I think I'm going to go set up a nutrition plan now and write it down as its own post, and the same goes for my workout plan.

prologue

2009-07-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

This blog is probably going to be about whatever I want really. i think the main inspiration is from Lorraine from the TheCurrentBoobies on Youtube. Her expressing her choice not to limit herself on this second Youtube channel made me want that same freedom as she. But I think primarily this will be about my weight loss. I am also make up obsessed so maybe a few things about that and really whatever crosses my mind!!!

BTW I have decided to call this "the last ten" because for most of my life I have been able to lose weight but what I could never do was lose the last ten pounds. This blog is dedicated to helping lose that last ten finally. right before I make my way to the college life ready to battle the freshman fifteen.

I do not think that I am fat or obese or anything like that. But just like any other girl I do have moments where I feel unsatisfied with the clothes I cannot wear or the way the clothes I do have sit on my body, I am heavier than I have ever been and the purpose of me losing weight is to feel more comfortable with myself and mainly prevention from any further weight gain. I have gone from wearing a size 3/4 to a 7/8 and I miss wearing my old t shirts and having them fit right.

So the adventure begins [;