SQUEE!

One of the benefits of living & working in Los Angeles is that they do a lot of filming here.  Since I'm in the middle of the Civic Center, I've seen them do a lot of filming outside the government buildings.  Today, literally RIGHT outside the building, where we cross the street to go to Starbucks, they're doing filming for Bones.  On our way back from Starbucks, we actually saw David Boreanaz standing on the sidewalk, putting on a tie.  SQUEE!  I was actually hoping to see Emily Deschanel.  :)  I may try going back out there later.

ETA - Went back down just a few minutes ago and watched them film a little right outside the Metro station escalators.  Both David Boreanaz & Emily Deschanel were there!  I wonder if I could get a closer look?  :)

So. SORE.

My shoulders, sides, arms, neck, upper back...are SO SORE!

165.25lbs tonight.  I weighed myself after I got back from work/working out.  I feel like weighing myself again tomorrow morning to get a more accurate reading since this was still a lower measurement (at the end of the day) than the last time I weighed myself (in the morning).

Workouts

Tonight was with Melody and it was all kettlebells.  It felt good to do strength training.

30x each with the 12kg kettlebell:
- 2-handed swings
- single-handed swings (right)
- single-handed swings (left)

1-handed presses with the 12kg kettlebell:
- about 15x with the right arm, and hold for 10 seconds
- about 8x with the left arm, and hold for 10 seconds

15x suitcase squats with two 16kg kettlebells

15x 1-handed rows with the 12kg kettlebell

15x assisted pull-ups

15x push-ups on the 16kg kettlebells

repeat the three sets of 30x kettlebell swings with the 12kg kettlebell

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I think the bootcamp training has been helping my stamina with the strength workouts - besides the cardio, it's at least double the amount of strenuous exercise from before.

Food is still the most difficult part to nail down, especially on the weekends.  We go to sleep late (we went out to Lawrence's cousin's friend's place on Saturday night where they played Big 2 & mah jongg until 2am).  We left earlier than usual, but still didn't get to sleep until around 3-3:30am.  Each morning we didn't get up until around 11am.  That pushed back breakfast & lunch so both my sleeping and eating schedules were screwed up.  On the weekends, I think the last thing Lawrence wants to do is eat at home, especially if we're hanging out with Phillip.  It's hard to get enough water too, but that's my fault.  I could be carrying around my water bottle if I put my mind to it more.  :/

vegas food

Just for personal reference, when we were in Vegas last weekend, we ate at:
Sushi Samba, Cut, Daniel Boulud, and Zine.  We also had breakfast at the Mirage's B.B. King Blues Club, lunch at Taqueria Canonita, and grabbed a bite from the Bouchon bakery counter.

We could have but did not go to Bar Masa/Shaboo.  If we had more time we may have gone to try Bar Charlie.  Next time?  :)

weight

We have a scale in the apartment building's shared gym.

I weighed in at 172lbs a couple weeks ago, but I was pretty dehydrated and probably retaining water.  It was also at the end of the day.

At the start of the boot camp, they weight you and I started at 170lbs.

Over the weekend, I went to the gym in the morning to see how I was doing after a week.  166lbs.

I didn't want to get too excited since it was probably all water weight anyway.  It could also have been a fluke - the low end of a varying weight due to who-knows-what.  So, I went back the next morning with Lawrence in tow (I had a bowl of cereal already).  166.5lbs.  I wonder how much of the weight difference was due to pre-menstrual water retention?

Now that my period is over and I'm better hydrated...let's see how this next week goes.

went to Sephora

I stopped by Sephora on my walk back from the gym today.  I needed to get a moisturizer and I wanted something that would go with the facial cleanser that I bought (Philosophy: Purity & Peter Thomas Roth: Gentle Complexion Correction Pads).  The girl who helped me pointed me to the Boscia moisturizer with sunscreen.  I also picked up 2 more products for skin lightening.  She recommended natural products, specifically the Ole Henriksen "truth serum collagen booster" for day and the "enlighten me pigment lightening serum" for night.  She also gave me samples for the Ole Henriksen eye cream and enzyme mask.  I got to try out a foundation too.  I mentioned that I have the Bare Escentuals mineral powder, but she suggested I try a liquid foundation, specifically a brand called NARS, but geez... $42 for a small 1 oz. bottle!  O_o  The other stuff was pretty expensive already.  $48 for each of the Ole Henriksen bottles and $36 for the tube of Boscia moisturizer.

We watched the movies Coraline and Doubt this weekend.  Coraline reminded me a lot of Pan's Labyrinth, except for perhaps a younger crowd.  I didn't really want to watch Doubt.  It frustrated me that it ended without a satisfying resolution.  I don't like stories like that because as Lawrence explained, it's not about the story.  It's about ideas, which in this case was the idea of "doubt".  Apparently Julie & Julia and The Hurt Locker were all rented out at our Blockbuster.

tough day

So after working out yesterday, I was talking to Lawrence on the phone and just started crying.  I don't know if it's because everything felt so hard and I was sick and tired...or if it was PMS and I'm getting my period soon.

I asked him to pick me up from the train station because I really didn't feel like walking home.  We stopped by Border's where I bought a Kakuro puzzle book and then went to Blockbuster where we rented the latest Harry Pottery movie (he watched it without me and I never got around to seeing it).

It was 2.5 hours, but I felt like barely anything happened.  It was nice to get interested in the world again and this morning I thought to pick up my copy of Deathly Hallows and finally start reading it.

ETA - menstruation it is!  about time too...

New exercise regimen

I started a new exercise regimen.  It's a 6 week bootcamp of 3 hour-long sessions a week that takes place right across the street from my office.  Being that it's an hour long and it involves much cardio (including running), I'm not sure how much energy I'll have left if I still want to see Melody on Mondays.  Well, it's only for 6 weeks.

They require you to bring a jump rope, a pair of 3-5 lb. weights, and a yoga mat since it takes place completely outdoors.  It's a fairly large group of probably close to 30 people.  They also want you to track your food in a log.

It's too bad that I'm SICK.  URGH.  I was in Vegas over the weekend and ended up sick.  Initially it was the cigarette & cigar smoke that really irritated my throat and gave me a sore throat.  Then I got a stuffy/runny nose and my brain feels clogged.  It really sucks having to run around for an hour outdoors while sick, but I don't really have the time to make up classes.  They only let you make them up within the current session.

In their initial 2-minute test, I was able to do 20 push-ups and 19 sit-ups.  Body fat was 33.1% - low end of high & high end of normal.  I weighed in at 170 lbs, which has been relatively stable for the past year or two.  I really need to watch my diet more to lose weight and maintain a stable lower weight.  I hope tonight doesn't go too bad.  I'm not feeling great today though my throat isn't hurting.

Japanese-style custard pudding

A few months ago we bought a cup of Japanese-style custard pudding (with caramel on the bottom, like flan) from the Marukai in Little Tokyo.  Lawrence picked it up on a whim.  It was some of the most heavenly pudding I've ever had in my life.  Lawrence was determined to figure out how to make it and started researching the moment we got home.

After much searching on Google, he combined various recipes to make his own version of this Japanese pudding.  He experimented a bit with the caramel as his initial attempts were too bitter.  We bought cheesecloth to strain the milk/egg mixture.  We also used whole vanilla bean pods so that we could scrape out the seeds.  We even bought 2 sets of ramekins.

It turned out SO good.  Lawrence made two batches, the second one perfecting the mistakes made in the first batch.  Unfortunately, over the holidays when I requested he make more, he realized he forgot the exact recipe specifications he used.  I'm going to make him write a blog entry for me so we have it archived.  The stuff is too good to forget how to make.

Monday workout

- 1 minute of jumping rope
- 3 large jumps forward, then sprint to the end of the mat and sprint backwards all the way across the mat, repeat 5 times
- with hind foot on a "slider" (gripped on one side, smooth plastic on the other side), bend down into a lunge, touching 2 weights (10lb?) to the ground; stand back up, lifting weights to shoulders and then above head
- with hands on a medicine ball (2kg?), jump feet back and do a push-up; jump feet in and stand up, then jump with the ball as if shooting a basketball

Repeated all of that twice, but I didn't make it to the last item the 2nd time.

Mistakes

Part of being an intelligent person is learning from your mistakes.  You recognize what went wrong and you don't make the same mistakes again.  Constant improvement means constant progression and self-development.

So why do I never learn that drinking certain coffees gives me cramps??

moosak

anthem trance!

Burned my Bread

I baked bread yesterday and I burned it.  It was either because the thermometer I used to measure the internal temperature was broken (the plastic melted when we stuck the magnetic back onto a too-hot oven door) or the inside of the oven was too hot.  I turned up the temperature to 500F because according to the oven thermometer I got, the inside of the oven takes a long time to heat up.  That itself may be due to the addition of the 2 large clay tiles I bake my bread on.  Being too hot could mean the sugars caramelized on the outside of the bread too quickly for the inside to finish baking.

I had actually hoped I would burn my bread some time soon.  I've under-cooked it so many times that I knew how to avoid that problem.  Now I know - instead of just checking the thermometer, I should check the look of the bread itself as well.