I'm a pig, literally and figuatively

Literally in the sense of Chinese astrology

Figuratively is to describe what I did tonight. In honor of the 49er vs. Giants game, I made homemade pizza with dough and sauce from Trader Joe's, had a beer, and finished off my meal with chocolate chip cookie... dough and milk for dessert.

Just as I'm doing good on my diet & exercise plan, 49er had to go and lose the super bowl dream and cause me to eat the yummy spoonsful of cookie dough in depression.

I was so proud that I ran 4 mile last Wednesday (a personal achievement), I felt lighter, fitter, and just to bring myself back to what I'm used to, I downed a pizza, beer and cookie dough. Good job to me!

I have a new goal now. The goal is to look hot in a bikini and show off my body at my friend P's bachelorette party in Vegas this June. That gives me 5 months... I can do it...

Oh, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! No, I am NOT having a dragon baby so stop asking.

Starting Over

Isn't it the perfect time to do that? 2012 will be better (this is what I say every year end about the next year)

2011 was not bad, it treated me kind. Igot a series of raises at work that totaled 27% when compared to last year and my husband got about 4 promotions during 2011. Thinking back, 2011 did us good. I also started blogging, cooking more, putting me first instead of work, etc. It's really made me a happier person. I will continue this path into 2012 and that is why I believe 2012 will be even better.

As for my jogging/runing situation, that was seriously put on hold during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, but it definitely helped me because I have been consistently 3lbs lighter for the past two months. Will definitely keep this up into 2012 as I try to capitalize on the last two years of my 20's and be the fittest I can. With that said, I will not pass up a mocha or a piece of cake if it's offered to me. hahaha.

Lastly, two big changes in 2011. I started to eat pickles, something I hated my whole life but now find them really tasty (must be my German side finally showing) and I learned I'm allergic to Burt's Bee Chapstick. The visual impact is not bad because I feel a little Angelina Jolie but my lips hurts, burns and stings all at the same time. I initially thought it was infection spread from a makeup counter lip gloss applied on me by a lady that works the counter in Neiman Marcus, but I opened a new Burts Bee yesterday and what do you know, my lips are f*cked up again.

Bad Bad Me

There were a couple of 2 mile runs last week. Regarding my progress this week... let's just blame it on the turkey and family gatherings!?

Today, I ran my one and only run this week. Warmed up with a brisk 0.5m walk, ran 1m, walked another 0.5m and ran another 1m. There must be progress because I am faster and can run 1m without stopping. Still plan to start trail running, maybe next weekend! What I've noticed is, when I stick to running and eating healthy, I see my weight starting to dip, but then I spluge and have some not-too-healthy food which makes me go back to where I was. Hence, running is allowing me to eat without weight gain! What a huge plus? But my goal is still to get leaner.

Non-running related update - Thanksgiving Weekend Shopping!

I got a pair of Joe's 'ICON' jeans 25% off at the Joe's Jean store on Grant St., thank goodness I didn't buy them last week when I was birthday present shopping for myself. They are so comfortable because they are wider at the thighs. That's right, my half-white body is finally catching up to me (or maybe it's all that muscle I've been buidling with running, jk). Most exciting of them all, I got Theroy jacket & pants 30% off at Nordstrom today! The discount was very discrete, just one sign that said "discount will be taken at register" but no notices on the amount of discount. Trust me, I had a good day.

Week 3 - The "Workout" Look

It's sad that one 1.5 mile run warrants a blog post but here it is, haha.

I got back in the States this past Sunday evening and have been experiencing slight jet lag. I would come home from work, eat dinner and pass out around 9pm just to wake up at 4 or 5am. While it is nice to have this schedule, it is not me and I haven't been hitting the gym at night like I used to. So, to work around what God is doing to me, I decided to take advantage of my AM time. I managed to squeeze in 1.5m between 7 to 8am, leaving enough time to do some free weights and get ready for work.

Getting to the gym yesterday required a very early morning so I drove in my workout clothes with no make up. It's the first time I tried the au naturel look at a gym and there's definitely some observation to report. I can TOTALLY see the change in the front desk attendent's face between when I first walked in looking like shit and a half, and when I walked out ready for work (post makeup). I must say I agree with his reactions because I even scared myself when I went from running in front of a window to free weights in front of a mirror. Bottom line is, working out in public places requires a minimal "workout look" - undereye concealer, eyebrow and a light eye liner. It was Kelly Osbourne who first brought this discussion to my attention a while back and from what I've seen around here, some should consider.

Week 2's Run #2

Go me! I just completed my second run of week 2. This will probably be the last one of this week because I check out of the hotel tomorrow morning and won't have access to a gym till next Monday (no, I don't want to run on the streets of Taipei).

This second run was done correctly. I put my math skills to use and calculated according to the "plan" I am to walk/run 0.8km, run 0.4km and walk 90 seconds (repeat 7 times), then finish with a walk/run of 0.8km. This time around, I was about done during my first 0.4km run but it became a game of mind vs. body. I convinced myself to keep going by shifiting my focus away from what I was doing. Instead of my usual "what am I doing here!?" way of thinking, I focused on breathing and relaxing my shoulders. I suppose watching TV helps but why do they put that thing so high up that my neck hurts after 5 minutes? Next thing you know, I'm on the 5th set thinking I have to finish so I can blog/talk about it. I do worry about falling off the treadmill when I'm not paying attention.

Today's run/walk was 6.1km or 3.66m in 45 minutes including approximately 10.5 min of walking time in there (90sec * 7), wam up 0.8km run/walk and the cool down 0.8km.

Week 2 to 5K

Congratulations to myself for entering week 2! I ran my first run this week per the following:

1/4 walk
1/4 run
90 seconds walk*
1/4 run*
*repeat 7 times
1/4 run
1/4 walk

I grabbed the above plan from the Shape mag "5 Weeks to a 5K" mentioned in my previous post, the measurement above was for miles but I misread and ran kilometers instead. According to my calculations, I ran just 1.7 miles and walked 1.4 miles to come a total walk/run of 3.1 miles. At least this walk/run of 5K or 3.1 miles is faster than my last one, it was completed in 45 minutes!

While 45 minutes seems lame, I'll tell you this is a lot more running than I ever did in one setting before. I used to only be able to run one mile and never ventured out of that comfort zone. Having a "plan" made a dramatic difference as I am able to count down the sets. I was about done after my second set of 1/4k run but I kept going, telling myself "5 more to go," "4 more to go," "3 more to go," "2 more," "LAST ONE!" Also, my pride got in the way because I really wanted to finish it so I can blog about it. =P

Since I'm a loser and misread miles for kilometers, I feel I inadvertently cheated. Therefore, my next run will be the same but actually in miles!

Running, or trying to

I ran my first race on September 21, 2011. It was the 3.5miles JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge in San Francisco. We started at 7pm from the AT&T park around this huge lot behind the new UCSF building. I always wanted to run around SF like the many others I see when I drive by, especially when the roads are blocked off all to myself. But boy was I embarrassed. Not only was I out of breath, I was the most physically out of shape person in all the participants from my firm. You can never tell of course; people thought I was joking when I was preparing for the race that I just ran a 20 minute mile last night. I would probably be faster if I walked. Then again I tend to walk slow, more of a strolling pace than a brisk walk required by cardio workouts. God I hate to sweat. There was a moment though, when I sprint through the finish lines hearing all the people I don't know cheering for me. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's cheesy as hell there are people saying "good job!" to a not-overweight 27 year old that just finished huffing and puffing a 58 minute 3.5 miles walk sprinkled with light jog, it did feel pretty good.

A number of reason could have caused my "I'm-an-angry-fat-lady-on-the-inside" problem such as excessive work hours, increased stress, lack of excersize, eating lots of snacks, was a smoker for approxmiately 6 years, etc.  While the weight gain is an issue worthy of another posting in itself, the overall decrease in my "healthy-feeling," i.e. strength and energy level, or worst of all, body shape, is enough cause for any non-doctor's concern. That's right, you don't have to be a doctor to tell that I'm snowballing towards my sad ugly death that is, hopefully, at least 50 years away.

With that said and my clothes all feeling too tight, I have a goals in mind.

GOAL: Start Running (and blogging about it)

I avoided running for years because I always had pain in my knee caused by a horrible cross country coach when I was in 6th grade. This is until my husband the Chiropractor/PT told me to strengthen my leg muscle all together. I followed instructions and started working out non-running style. Work got in the way and I got lazy so that all stopped until the JPMorgan run. With that pathetic experience explained above, I am now going to start the Couch-to-5K plan. Very sad I didn't hear about this before the JPMorgan run but never too late. Hopefully next year I can run the whole 3.5miles at JPMorgan.

Another reason is also reading the entire October 2011 issue of Shape on the plane to Asia and seeing Olivia Munn on there. What the heck, that could of been me. There is also another cool 5 week to 5K plan on pg 159 which have more cross training plans than the couch-to-5K. At this point, any motivation helps so I will use them both as a guide and find my own 5 week to 5K plan.

Another thing I want to committ to start is running trails. There are so many of them in the SF Bay Area, I never realized I was missing out for the past 8 years until it hit me recently (must be the hormones talking) when my avid runner coworker showed me a picture from her run at Outer Richmond's Lands End Trail (or Yelp here) where you are high up with a great view of the SF Bay. So here I am, trail maps in hand. Hopefully my next blog will be about my run at Cave Rock Loop - an unexciting run in the Milpitas/Sunol area that I will start my trail running life with because of its proximity to my house and the short distance. =)