phase 2: fat loss & reset

After a mini-break from weight loss, I am officially on Phase 2 of the diet. Phase 2 is Fat Loss (vs. Weight Loss for Phase I), and will focus on losing those last 6 lbs and toning, toning, toning! As part of my quest to publicly embarass myself online, I will be posting bikini pics every week in lieu of the gym clothes pics. I must really want to lose weight if I'm willing to subject myself to this kind of humiliation!

Phase 2: Fat Loss

• Duration: 8 weeks
• Dates: 5/29 - 7/24
• Goal: 118 lbs
• Total Loss: 6.5 lbs
• Target Pace: 1.5 lbs every other week
• Focus: Exercise, Toning, Fat Loss, Body Image

Starting Stats:

• Weight: 124.5 lbs
• Body Fat: 26%
• Size: 4
• Waist: 29 in
• Hips: 36.5 in
• Thighs/Biceps: TBD

Fitness Focus
Starting on 6/1, I will begin a 30-day fitness focus so that I can build exercising into a consistent habit. If I lacked in anything during Phase I, it was that I didn't work out consistently.

Month 1: Pre-Dance Show

• Mondays or Fridays - Spinning with Isidro
• Tuesdays - Strength Training, Upper and Abs
• Wednesdays - Cardio Kickbox DVD
  
• Thursdays, Saturdays - Dance
• Fridays (or Monday) - Strength Training, Lower and Abs
• Sunday - Pilates Reformer

Month 2: Post-Dance Show

• Mondays, Fridays - 30 to 45 mins elliptical trainer
• Tuesdays - Strength Training, Upper and Abs
• Wednesdays - Cardio fitness DVD - to be determined
  
• Thursdays - Strength Training, Lower and Abs
• Saturdays - either Yoga or Kickboxing
• Sundays - Pilates Reformer

Decisions, Decisions
In the last week, I've made a couple of decisions, just because my mental energy wasn't consumed with thinking about my weight and diet.

(1) I am going off the pill. It sucks that my boobs have shrunk, but its not reason enough for me to be feeling depressed. I've struggled with clinical depression my entire life - my whole family has it - and it seems silly to put myself on an uphill battle for no reason.

(2) I am resetting my weight loss goals. As of Sunday, I reset my start weight to 124 and goal weight to 118, I will track my inches diligently, I will post my bikini pictures, I will start the process all over again. Which leads to ...

(3) I am going to start Core. Thanks to mv for suggesting it! Core never appealed to me much - counting points was really not a big deal to me - but its not just complacency that's keeping me from moving forward. Its habit, and somewhat, boredom. Hard to explain, but I've gotten to a point where most of the time, I don't even need to look up what I'm eating, because I already know. So I don't track as diligently. I don't think about the foods that I buy, because I know what I should.

These are all good things - after all, learning good habits is one of the biggest challenges of weight loss. But since I've lost the 14 lbs, I've been happy to settle here, and an indulgence or two don't bug me as much. I need to mentally re-engage myself and switching plans will help - just like switching up weight training routines. My body has gotten used to the reduced calories (thank goodness), and its not pushing to the next level. Just reading about Core made me slightly dizzy. If it makes me think about what I'm putting into my mouth and keeps me tracking my foods immediately, then I've accomplished two of my goals.

(4) I am going to focus on body image and getting to the root of my emotional eating, drinking, and spending. I have learned tremendous things - awareness, how to curb these habits, or at least how to monitor them. And I sort of know why I'm doing it. But like with my depression, its not enough. I want to get to the root of them, and I need to be more cognizant of my actions in order to do that.

Not to say that I am not hugely proud of all the accomplishments I have made. Really, it blows me away, just looking back on my old postings, how far I have come. But I've never been the type to rest on my laurels, because its just not good for me, and I still have a ways to go until I get to where I want to be. I may be good now, but I want to be outstanding. Its just like with athletics: first you need to get to baseline, then you excel. That being said, I'm now resetting all of my trackers.

Six pounds may not seem like that much compared to the original goal of 20. But as blondeez will concur, those last few are the hardest... its so easy just to be content.

... and kevin turns 21

Yesterday, my baby cousin Kevin turned 21. As he is in NJ as well (long story - see below), the parents and I took him out to a steak dinner. Of course, dork that he is, he ordered a root beer when the server came.

"No way," I intervened. "He turned 21 today. Get him a margarita."

The server was happy to oblige, but Kevin was not. Kev's not a drinker, and I don't think margaritas are to his liking.

*Sigh* We're going to have to teach him how to drink like a man this summer.


"Can we take a normal picture of you two?" my mom asks in exasperation.
"We don't have a normal picture of us two," we say in unison.


The big-ass margarita


Tiny sips of the big-ass margarita


"I think I saw you on the Sci-Fi Channel last night," Dad says.


The parents.

*~*~*~*
On Saturday, as soon as I land, I get a phone call from Kev. "Hey, where are you?" he asks.

"Just landed in NJ. Why?"

"Well, I'm about to be homeless in 2 days. Can I go to either SF or NJ?"

Long story short: Kevin decides to come to SF for an internship (which he doesn't have) and housing (which he hasn't found).

my little refugee dogs

My mother called me three days before I left for New Jersey.

"Have you ever heard of the Nazis?" she asked.

"Yes Mom," I replied, rolling my eyes. I'd majored in Nazi German history in college. "Why do you ask?"

"Our dogs are like the Jews during Nazi Germany," she said, laughing. "Every time we want to take them out, we need to sneak them ou of the house covered in blankets."

My parents finally sold their (1 of 3) house in Somerset, and moved to my childhood home in Edison, NJ. We didn't know this when I was younger, but apparently the townhouse complex that we now live in don't allow pets. We're just waiting for the letter to come when the babies get kicked out.

Until then, the dogs have been hiding in the house. All of our blinds are drawn, we don't let them bark, and we wrap towels and bags around them when we take them into the car whenever we have to drive them somewhere for a walk.

Thankfully, the parents usually go to their place in Blandon, PA on the weekends, where the dogs get to roam free...


My babies take in the sun at Blandon

fare thee well, kimmie and ilan

Today was the last day of two of my favorite co-workers, Ilan and Kim. *Sniffle* We had a picnic to commemorate it, in the park across from Safeway. There were tubs of fried chicken, potato salad, chips, and fruit. And like 3 beers for the entire group.


Da food


David, Bill, Jay and Matias


Frisbee action shot


Daniil, Jane, John and Frederic


Crutch


Kim and Matias dodge a malicious frisbee


Tim and his manly hot dog eating pose


Battle of the Short Timers


Group Pic


Manager Hug #1


Manager Hug #2


Me, Kim and Beer (the beer is not mine)


I told you Ilan and I were about the same height (Ilan is 6'3")


James plays soccer with a volleyball


Jamie, Mark and me


Jamie and the fabulous hair


The HiPer 1.0 team

Too bad we didn't have some of these pics for the scrapbook... some of these are pretty good. On two tangential notes, after the fried chicken, I decided that I want to be back on my diet - I look puffy in these pics again (even though I weigh 123). Oh, and I LOVE my new camera!

playing with camera

I've decided that I've rather had it with cute-and-high-end purchases, like my car and my old Casio Exilim camera. Yeah, they're both adorable, but they're also essentially POS. So I ordered a camera from eBay for only $150 - the Kodak V530. Its tiny, its cute, its functional, and it works.

I've decided to call this series Caro and Thingo In Action.

extortion for dummies

I drove my car in today b/c I have to run it to the shop during lunchtime. Since I was only parking for 3 hours, I thought it made more sense to park at the meters, rather than pay for a garage.

Little did I know that the City of San Francisco was now in the business of extortion, vis a vis the outrageous parking meter fees. It is now ONE QUARTER for every FIVE MINUTES!!! That comes out to $3.00 an hour - and, in any case, who the hell carries that much change with them?

Not only that, but I was literally 2 minutes late to feed my meter again (30 min limit) and I already got a $50 ticket!

I am going to write a letter to every single Supervisor and the Mayor complaining. Seriously. The increased meter charges will give the parking lots more leeway to raise their daily/hourly fees, which is already expensive as it is. I've always been of the belief that the city makes most of its revenue off of DPT - and this only confirms it.

I don't particularly like driving to work, but once in a while it has to be done. If they are going to punish the drivers, then they should at the very least stop raising public transpo costs as well.

Thoughts?

digging a ditch and other news

For those of you who've been wondering where I've been, the answer is: in massive amounts of pain!

On Thursday, some colleagues and I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, as part of our Employees in Action Week. I've done H4H before twice, but both times involved painting or nailing or something indoors. Which is why I totally wasn't expecting to be handed a shovel upon my arrival, and instructed to dig a ditch. And a trench.

Considering that the last time I used a shovel, it involved a sand pail and a bikini (read: I was 5), it should come as no surprise that I was sore/in pain for 3 days afterwards. The 3 1/2 hour dance rehearsal on Saturday did NOT help.

Now I wish I'd paid more attention during O Brother, Where Art Thou?. I could have sang some of the chain gang songs...













My sexy protective glasses


Huddling on the "sidewalk" for pizza


Bob busts out the pick ax


Digging a ditch (not a trench)


The BEA Group Pic

*~*~*~*
On Sunday, Sara and I met over brunch at Town's End. For those of you who don't know, Sara is one of my very awesome WW buddies that I met online through ExP. We've been blogging and corresponding back and forth for months. Since she lives in Daly City, it made sense to finally meet up.

It was a wonderful, and relatively guilt-free brunch, although I did splurge on the carrot-potato cakes. I dropped her off at Stonestown, ran some errands, and then... DISASTER.

And Disaster, Thy Name is Mini.

I've decided that my little car is like one of those hot-but-asshole boyfriends. As I told Kim today, he's totally good for nothing, causes tons of emotional trauma, and is more effort than its worth. Yet you don't want to break up with him because he's do damn cute. And yes, my car is definitely male.

A mere month (?) after finally getting my car back, some fuse decides to short out in the middle of the pouring rain. The engine ran fine. But my wipers, power windows, power locks, a/c, defrosters, headlines and hazards ALL didn't work. Which made driving in the rain completely impossible, and I was on the highway!

I pulled over to the nearest parking lot I could find, and called Mini Roadside Assistance. Why, oh why, did I expect them to be emotionally available in a time of crisis? All they could say is, "I'm sorry, we can tow you to the dealer, but we'll have to charge you b/c its out of warranty" despite the fact that its clearly a manufacturing problem. I refused to pay for it; I hardly wanted it in the hands of the outrageously overpriced dealership anyway. So they kept suggesting that I call 911 and the police.

So I did. And after being put on hold for TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES, the 911 dispatcher informs me that its not an emergency and hangs up on me. Ok, rude - but I understand that the line needs to be kept open for real emergencies. But why was I directed there? And what if I was in a house with a murderer and only have 24.5 minutes until he found me and killed me?? Good to know that we're safe in times of danger thanks to automation.

To make a long and frustrating story short(er), after I calmed down somewhat, I called AAA, signed up, and had them come and tow me. Luckily, about 10 minutes later, it stopped raining so I was able to cancel the tow truck and drive it home without incident.

Fernando headed over shortly afterwards - I had called him during my hysteria, only to find him drunk from Bay to Breakers. He was supposed to come and get me right away, but he ended up going home and passing out for an hour! To make matters worse, he brought over chicken mcnuggets (clearly I succumbed to emotional eating), but without the fries! I didn't even realize it was legal to buy nuggets without fries at McDonald's!

We ended up zoning out in front of the tv, finally watching Serenity, and then the Desperate Housewives finale. Oh well, I'm using this as good motivation to deal with the remaining repairs for my car once and for all.

weight loss diary: week 9 of 15

And, yes, I did it! Finally busted through my plateau, as mentioned in the previous posting. Now comes the hard part: taking off those last 6 lbs.

As of this week, I'm starting what I call Phase 2 of the weight loss: Toning. I've lost the weight mostly through restricting my caloric intake, but the flab is still there. The flab! Until I actually turn that into muscle, I won't feel settled in my new lower weight - although its definitely nice to see the change. So from now on, I'll be posting my inches too - yikes!

*~*~*~*~*

Week 9 Stats:

• Weight: 124.5 lbs
• Body Fat: 27%
• Body Fat #s total lost: 2.96 lbs

The Inches:

• Chest: 31.5 in
• Waist: 28.5 in
• Hips: 37 in

Workouts:

• Mon, 5/8: 20 mins Elliptical, 40 mins Weights
• Thurs, 5/11: 20 mins Elliptical
• Sat, 5/13: 3.5 hours Dance

Pictures:













*~*~*~*
What Helped Me:

• Not drinking. Seriously helped raise my metabolism and bust through my plateau. The calories saved from alcohol and drunk eating didn't hurt either ;-)
• My home elliptical trainer. Yay! I love working out on it.
• Seeing the change in myself. I never knew that seeing an accomplishment could help so much.
• Being OP. Gee, actually following the WW plan actually works...
  

What Hurt Me:

• Complacence. Sigh. I indulged quite a bit this weekend, since I'd lost the weight, feel good about myself and had extra points. Never fear, I did have 6.5 flexies left this week, but I'm terrified that I'm going to lose all control and go off the deep end.
• Fear. See above :-) Can I maintain that self-control once I get more points or go off the alcohol abstinence? I've decided that I'm not going to start drinking until (a) I am confident that I can start drinking and then stop at 2, and (b) I can have fun without alcohol. As it is, I'm quite enjoying being sober, waking up early, and not being hungover.

Week 10 Goals:

• Workouts: 3x cardio on the elliptical or other, 2x weight training, dance on Thursday night and all day Saturday.
• Stay OP! Go to meetings! Blog on ExP! All the things that I've learned and not lose them now that I'm close...
  
• Get over my emotional reaction to annoying ex-boyfriends and their annoying ways, clean the house, declutter my life of annoying ex-boyfriends. Tee hee, see a trend?

And now for the ultimate challenge... I'm starting to date again. Scared...

its official!

I went to Weight Watchers for weigh in today, and its official: I've lost 14 lbs since I started 8 weeks ago. Holy mother of cranberry bunnies!

I was telling Caro that I didn't think I looked any different, so we took this week's Little Black Dress picture early. When I looked at them side by side, I finally started to believe it...













Before: Week 2, 03.19.06 | After: Week 9, 05.11.06

Guess its time to go shopping... Whoo!!

where did all the britneys go?

We decorated my office mate's desk today. He's on vacation, and its long-standing tradition that your desk get pranked when you go out of town. Just to give you some background, Drew is this big, white 6'4" guy. Dry sense of humor, very laid back, very male.

Behold...



The images around the monitor are from a magazine called PopScene! You can't see it in the picture, but they say things like "Get Girly & Think Pink", and contain those embarassing stories from YM. My favorite is the one of this girl who got caught "saying goodnight to all of my JMac posters."

Who the heck is JMac??? Who the heck are 1/2 these ppl?? When I got to Virgin, and asked if they had any Britney posters, the teen-hipster working at the register gave me a disdainful look. "Britney? She's like SO two years ago." Thankfully, we found a suitable replacement with the "dreamy" Orlando Bloom poster.

Boy, do I feel old.

well, i'm not dying...

... but after waiting an HOUR for the doctor, I kind of wish I was.

Grr.

playing with boys

I started off my am with a conversation with Karen.

karen: more fun to play with guys
serena: i know
karen: they hit harder
karen: so i don't have to hold back my power
serena: hahah

She is referring to tennis, of course.

today, i am phone sex-minnie

I have lost most of my voice. Since I usually sound like Minnie Mouse on crack, I've decided that today, I am sexy, husky Minnie. You know, how Minnie would sound if she had her own 900 number.

"Ohhhhh, Mickey! You are sooooo fiiiiiiine."

Ok, maybe I'm just squeaky.

goodbye to tejash, brunch with a tennis ball

Karen, Agnes, Natalie and I had dinner at Chez Nous before heading to Tejash's going away party on Sat night.

Dinner was so-so. I'm not sure if I was just tired and sick, or if it really was so boring. I'd had a busy day - headed over to Berkeley for a haircut with Yossi, then rushed over to Oakland to check out a used elliptical - and I was drugged up on cold meds all day anyway. I usually sit at home for 36 hours straight on the weekends. I only had time for a brief, 2 hour nap before meeting up with the girls and Agnes's beau-du-jour.


The four of us at dinner


A half-awake picture outside

After food, Karen, Natalie and I piled into my Mini and headed north. Driving through the Marina is always a trip - and we drove right through Cougar Corner. At one point, we walked through a crowd gathered outside some club, and we were the only ones who weren't blonde! Btw Marina chicks, if you're going to be so painfully trendy, note that pointy flats are so last season.

I think I spent a total of 15 minutes in Gravity:
- 5 minutes trying to find Tejash
- 5 minutes saying hi and good bye
- 5 minutes fighting my way out of the place

I will definitely miss Tej. Lucky bastard not only got into Kellogg, but scored an internship in Germany for the summer. Makes me nostalgic for Berlin... Maybe that's why I'm listening to "Springtime for Hitler" so much these days.


Yo - me and my homeboy Tej

We parted with the promise to keep in touch.

"Dood, get your ass in gear and apply," he said. "Hopefully, I'll be on the admissions board."

"Well, then I guess I'll see you in Chicago next year!" I winked.

*~*~*~*
On Sunday am, I met up with Andy for brunch at Foreign Cinema. Now THAT was yum! I've never been to Foreign Cinema during the day/when I'm not drunk. In fact, I actually had to call Andy from the corner of 21st and Mission, because I've only stumbled there after too much at Medjool.

When I arrived, Andy noticed that I was looking at him with a puzzled look.

Andy: I know, my head looks like a tennis ball.
Me: Uh, did you know that you're ... colorful?
Andy: I'm red from the sunburn I got sitting outside.
Me: Actually, you're more pinkish, because the skin that's peeling off is white, so it offsets the red.

Being that Andy is 6'7" and I'm 5'2", me sitting in front of the mirror didn't really stop him from seeing his red, peeling face during brunch. Luckily, we were distracted by a yummy meal of Duck Breast Salad with Balsamic Reduction, 1/2 dozen raw oysters, and Dungeness Crab Frittata.

I do wish I had a picture of the tennis ball hair, though. Damn that broken camera!

where's caro?

Yes, the flurry of blogs continue. I have so much to catch up on.

This weekend, we welcomed Carolyn into our home (on Carolina Street!). Apparently, this woman's idea of "packing" is more like "dumping". She has so much stuff in her room that there's no room for a bed.


Its like Where's Waldo, but with Caro.

Thank goodness she has a boyfriend. Otherwise, I don't know where she'd sleep.

weight loss diary: week 7 of 15

Yuck. I'm so sick of being sick. I did absolutely nothing that involved moving this week. Luckily, this prevented me from eating too much, since eating involves moving.

*~*~*~*~*
Week 7 Stats, 4/23 - 4/29

• Weight: 127 lbs
• Body Fat: 27.5%
• Body Fat #s lost: 0.35 lbs, total: 1.62 lbs
• Total Points: 175
  
• APs: None

Workouts:

• Ha! The only thing I managed was Bikram yoga on Sunday, before I got the sore throat.

Pictures:













Incidentally, I'm tres annoyed that my camera is broken :-(

*~*~*~*
Accomplishments:

• Stayed OP the whole week. By the end of the week, I had 21.5 flexies, and I still behaved at dinner!
  
• Week 1 of my alcohol abstinence went by without incidence. On Wed, we went to Medjool, and I was so good I bordered on boring. On Sat, we went out, but I was so messed up from cold meds that I felt drunk anyway.
• Started tracking my finances in MS Money, just like I track points online
  
• Went to WW meeting - without JH prodding me! I went by myself AND committed by buying a 10 week package
• Went to Bikram yoga on Sun. Sigh. I can't help it, I still love it.

What Helped Me:

• Renewed commitment. I decided last week that I had to bust this plateau and FINALLY got OP. No more fudging with the point calculations. And its paying off!
• Listing my meals on ExP. Keeps me blogging and aware, even when I don't feel like it.

What Hurt Me:

• Yuck. Being sick. Need to exercise! I can't tell if the weight I lost is from being OP, or from the muscle turning into fat.

*~*~*~*
Week 8 Goals:

• Working out again... at the gym! This of course depends on me being able to, well, talk and breathe. Since I've got my membership until July 3, might as well use it:
  
  ~ Tuesdays - Elliptical & Weights - Upper/Abs
  ~ Thursdays - Boxing
  ~ Fridays - Spinning & L.A.B
  
  
• Keep going to WW meetings
• Stay OP. Its hard - its Tuesday, and I'm already 10 flexies down
  
• Work the first chapter of RD

In other news, I checked out an Eclipse Elliptical, and think I might be bringing it home on Saturday. We'll need to get a bigger TV, though ... Caro's is only like 17 inches.

Passing out now...

hey baby, wanna yelp?

Last Wednesday, Natalie and I headed over to Medjool for Yelp's Invitation to Flirt event. As soon as we arrived, we were handed little "flirt" cards; the objective was to find our match. Some of the lines were pretty good - my favorite was "I'm not a tease, I'm just a reminder of what you can't have" - while some were not quite as entertaining. One guy got so into it that I started giving him a dirty look, until I realized he was just reading his line with gusto.

Besides the free drinks and appetizers, we got to (re) meet the founder of Yelp. Funny story here: Back in 1999/2000 or so, when I first got to SF, I met some guy named Jeremy at a random house party. Being new to the area, I was collecting email addresses of cool people that I'd met, hoping to find some peeps to hang out with. In my drunken state, I dropped the list.

A few days later, some guy emails me with the list of addresses that I'd dropped. Lo and behold, Jeremy S. grows up to be the founder of Yelp, one of the truly cool sites out there. I only met him the one time, but surprisingly we both remembered the incident 5 years later! And that's the story of how I got into Yelp Elite.


Natalie, Jeremy and me at Medjool

Of course, being the Asian (a.k.a. picture whore) teeny bopper that I am, I had to take a picture with Jeremy. I mean, who knows? One day, when Yelp reaches Google-esque popularity, I can pull it out and say I-knew-him-when. Besides, I'm programmed to be a groupie. I grew up in Jersey.