Woo hoo! I'm finally done working full time and feel like I have some room to breathe!
This week was a pretty good one in terms of exercise - cardio Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat, and the usual training sessions with Tracy on Tues and Sat. There was a scheduling mixup on Thursday so we didn't lift. Which was just as well since I was still recovering from Tuesday's horrible walking lunges. In fact, today was the first day I wasn't sore.
Lately my lower back has been really sore, which makes me feel old. I tried some stretching halfheartedly, and that sort of helped.
I went to a free yoga class at the Pro Club yesterday, not really expecting anything. But it was amazing - I felt better immediately. I've lost a lot of flexibility when I gained all this weight, so I really need to work on that to avoid problems in the future. The yoga teacher was very "new age" but good at explaining what we needed to do. So I signed up for a weekly class on Friday mornings in November. Woo hoo! I'm hoping that doing this just once a week will be enough to help with the soreness. Note to self (and anyone else local): the Pro Club yoga studio is *very* warm, so dress accordingly.
Today I dragged myself out of bed to workout with Tracy. I stuck around to do cardio afterwards (SHS has a few cardio machines and People magazine). I did the mandatory 30 minutes on the elliptical, but felt pretty good, so I walked for another 15. That's the longest cardio session I've done in months, and it felt awesome. I'm definitely seeing an increase in energy, even if there's no decrease on the scale. So here's to little victories...
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Saturday, October 28, 2006
You've gone straight to my head
Hey everyone! I just finished my last week of working full time. So I decided to spend some time today organizing our digital pictures. There's no good way to deal with all those files, is there? I went through most of our 2006 pictures, deleted the bad ones, and organized them into folders so I'd immediately know what was in them. I'm nowhere near done, but at least I have a system for the recent pictures. I'll tackle the backlog later.
I also uploaded 5 new galleries to our Smugmug site:
http://ramancreath.smugmug.com/2006
So you can see what we've been up to recently: Pittsburgh, Scottsdale, dog park, dog sitting, birthday dinners. It was quite a busy summer for us!
After sorting through all these pictures, I realized that I want to focus more on getting pictures when we go somewhere or hang out with friends. My pictures from Kristine's wedding were pretty pathetic - none of the bride after she got dressed, nothing from the extremely fun rehearsal dinner at Buca di Beppo, or from the church while we rehearsed. I think I was having too much fun to remember to take pictures.
I started thinking about pictures yesterday, when I watched a slideshow a coworker had put together for his wedding. He seemed to have tons of pictures of his fiancee and himself at various events, and with all their friends. We have a lot of dog pictures, but not too many of ourselves, or with our friends. I guess I need to start keeping my camera battery charged and carrying it in my purse. (My cell phone camera is next to useless, with its crappy LED flash.)
My guess is that TJ is not going to be thrilled about my newfound interest in getting pictures of him...
I also uploaded 5 new galleries to our Smugmug site:
http://ramancreath.smugmug.com/2006
So you can see what we've been up to recently: Pittsburgh, Scottsdale, dog park, dog sitting, birthday dinners. It was quite a busy summer for us!
After sorting through all these pictures, I realized that I want to focus more on getting pictures when we go somewhere or hang out with friends. My pictures from Kristine's wedding were pretty pathetic - none of the bride after she got dressed, nothing from the extremely fun rehearsal dinner at Buca di Beppo, or from the church while we rehearsed. I think I was having too much fun to remember to take pictures.
I started thinking about pictures yesterday, when I watched a slideshow a coworker had put together for his wedding. He seemed to have tons of pictures of his fiancee and himself at various events, and with all their friends. We have a lot of dog pictures, but not too many of ourselves, or with our friends. I guess I need to start keeping my camera battery charged and carrying it in my purse. (My cell phone camera is next to useless, with its crappy LED flash.)
My guess is that TJ is not going to be thrilled about my newfound interest in getting pictures of him...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
You're so vain
Yikes, it's been a while since I posted about my weight loss program. Sadly, in the past 4 weeks I haven't lost a stinkin' pound. But I know I've got more muscle, thanks to all the lunges and lifting I've been doing with Tracy. So hopefully the next body-fat measurement will show some kind of downward trend.
After 15+ years of dieting, I guess I should know better than to think I could be lax about what I ate as long as I worked out. That may have worked in my early 20s but I guess the ol' metabolism isn't going to let me slide now that I'm 31. Pity.
I start working part time next week, so it's a perfect time to get serious about this thing. I am debating about signing up for a weekly yoga class at the Pro Club on Friday mornings. I'm so sore these days, especially my lower back and hamstrings, and painfully inflexible. That's only going to lead to problems down the road, so I thought a little yoga might help. And honestly, that's what Thursdays and Fridays are for -- focusing on The Plan.
So far this week I'm off to a pretty good start - cardio yesterday and today for 40 min, and the usual Tuesday weight session with Tracy. Lots of lunges, so I'm sore today. But sore means the muscles are doing something, so that's good. I think I'm going to ask her to push me a little harder so I can make some progress.
Yay for having a plan!
After 15+ years of dieting, I guess I should know better than to think I could be lax about what I ate as long as I worked out. That may have worked in my early 20s but I guess the ol' metabolism isn't going to let me slide now that I'm 31. Pity.
I start working part time next week, so it's a perfect time to get serious about this thing. I am debating about signing up for a weekly yoga class at the Pro Club on Friday mornings. I'm so sore these days, especially my lower back and hamstrings, and painfully inflexible. That's only going to lead to problems down the road, so I thought a little yoga might help. And honestly, that's what Thursdays and Fridays are for -- focusing on The Plan.
So far this week I'm off to a pretty good start - cardio yesterday and today for 40 min, and the usual Tuesday weight session with Tracy. Lots of lunges, so I'm sore today. But sore means the muscles are doing something, so that's good. I think I'm going to ask her to push me a little harder so I can make some progress.
Yay for having a plan!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Back home again
So I signed up for the fancy new Blogger Beta because I was curious about the new features. I like that you can label the posts to put them in categories. But due to my random posting nature, I guess most of mine would fall under the label of "random crap". At some point I'll go back and categorize the old posts.
Since I haven't posted in a month, I guess I have some catching up to do. Lots of stuff going on around here. TJ and I just got back from Pittsburgh this morning. We went there for the weekend because Kristine was getting married. So I'll dedicate this post to Kristine and her wedding.
Kristine and I met in Mrs. Rockwell's Biology II class my senior year in high school. We hit it off immediately, especially when we found out our birthdays were the same day (a year apart). She definitely made high school a better place for me (senior year was a tough one for me, for a lot of insignificant reasons that seemed monumental to my hormonal teenaged mind). She and I were two of maybe 5 Asians in our ENTIRE school of 600 people. Looking back on it, I am so glad to have had a good friend at school who had a similar background.
We did all the usual teenaged girl stuff together: movies, mall, school football games, hanging out with friends, etc. We also went on each others' family vacations and shared the same goofy sense of humor. Since I was a year ahead of her in school, I went off to college first. She came to visit me there a few times, but I wasn't the best at keeping in touch (especially since email was very new at the time).
But we stayed in touch, sporadically, over the years. Kristine went to college in Boston, then moved to Philly to work, and later, attend dental school. That's where she met Mike, her fiance. During those years she visited me in Seattle and Arizona. I saw her a few times when I was in Delaware for work, though now I wish I had stayed in better touch with her since that was the closest we had lived to each other in years. We caught up on big events via email, but that's not the same as talking and hanging out often. (Sometimes growing up sucks.)
When TJ and I got married last year, we were planning to invite only family and 1 friend each (Maid of Honor Kristin & Best Man Dave, both of whom we met at Caltech). But something just didn't sit right with me. I couldn't imagine my wedding without Kristine being there even though we hadn't talked in a long time, and were sketchy with email. So I invited her and she came, bringing her boyfriend Mike, who I hadn't met before. Since we had a very small wedding, I got to spend some time talking to them, which was great. As it turns out, it was a good trip for her, too. Mike proposed to her the day after our wedding!
We saw each other again in Las Vegas the next month and spent nearly a whole day together wandering that strange (and fun) city. It was great to catch up with her. A few months ago when she asked me to be a sponsor at her wedding (a Filipino tradition), of course I said yes.
So TJ and I made the trip to Pittsburgh this weekend. It was the first time I had been there in 8 years and the area where I used to live is a *lot* different, with a mall, tons of restaurants, and more strip malls than you can imagine (think Lynnwood).
I finally got to meet Kristine's friends from college and dental school and her cousin Manher, whom she always talked about. I guess we haven't changed that much since high school, since I *loved* meeting her friends, and thought they were really nice, interesting, and a lot of fun. As one of her bridesmaids pointed out, "Kristine's friends are so cool!" We had a grand time at the rehearsal and dinner (Buca di Beppo, Station Square).
The wedding itself was lovely. Kristine truly looked like a princess (and I hope she felt like one too!). Attending Catholic Mass was like hearing an old song and still remembering all the words. While I am not a fan of religion in general, the rituals of the Catholic mass are somehow comforting to me - the "audience participation" parts, the order of the ceremony, and the fact that the prayers and words are always the same, no matter who is conducting it. The homily the priest gave was pretty funny - he was a young guy and talked about loving the Steelers and root canals (you just had to be there).
I had some anxiety about my role as a cord sponsor, but my "cord buddy", Amor, was Filipino and knew what was going on and what we had to do. We managed to drape the cord around Kristine and Mike and remove it without incident.
At the reception, TJ and I sat with Brian, Heather, Darren, and John, some friends from high school that I hadn't seen in about 10-12 years. It was neat to find out what people have been up to, and try to picture the same kids I knew in high school now with kids of their own. Weird.
By far, the best part of the reception was the music (though TJ thought it was the steak dinner). Not sure if it was the DJ's contribution, or someone in the bridal party, but there was *lots* of bhangra. And people loved it. There were several Indian-Americans in attendance, but *everyone*, including Mike and Kristines' families were bustin' a move to the bhangra and having a *great* time. There was also a lot of hip-hop, which I loooove for dancing.
That was the most fun I've had at a wedding (besides my own, of course!). We met a lot of great people and invited them all to visit us in Seattle. I got to reconnect with Kristine, and will definitely keep in better touch now that my work schedule will be reduced (more on that in my work blog).
We didn't get much sleep this weekend but it was definitely worth it. Congratulations Mike and Kristine!
Since I haven't posted in a month, I guess I have some catching up to do. Lots of stuff going on around here. TJ and I just got back from Pittsburgh this morning. We went there for the weekend because Kristine was getting married. So I'll dedicate this post to Kristine and her wedding.
Kristine and I met in Mrs. Rockwell's Biology II class my senior year in high school. We hit it off immediately, especially when we found out our birthdays were the same day (a year apart). She definitely made high school a better place for me (senior year was a tough one for me, for a lot of insignificant reasons that seemed monumental to my hormonal teenaged mind). She and I were two of maybe 5 Asians in our ENTIRE school of 600 people. Looking back on it, I am so glad to have had a good friend at school who had a similar background.
We did all the usual teenaged girl stuff together: movies, mall, school football games, hanging out with friends, etc. We also went on each others' family vacations and shared the same goofy sense of humor. Since I was a year ahead of her in school, I went off to college first. She came to visit me there a few times, but I wasn't the best at keeping in touch (especially since email was very new at the time).
But we stayed in touch, sporadically, over the years. Kristine went to college in Boston, then moved to Philly to work, and later, attend dental school. That's where she met Mike, her fiance. During those years she visited me in Seattle and Arizona. I saw her a few times when I was in Delaware for work, though now I wish I had stayed in better touch with her since that was the closest we had lived to each other in years. We caught up on big events via email, but that's not the same as talking and hanging out often. (Sometimes growing up sucks.)
When TJ and I got married last year, we were planning to invite only family and 1 friend each (Maid of Honor Kristin & Best Man Dave, both of whom we met at Caltech). But something just didn't sit right with me. I couldn't imagine my wedding without Kristine being there even though we hadn't talked in a long time, and were sketchy with email. So I invited her and she came, bringing her boyfriend Mike, who I hadn't met before. Since we had a very small wedding, I got to spend some time talking to them, which was great. As it turns out, it was a good trip for her, too. Mike proposed to her the day after our wedding!
We saw each other again in Las Vegas the next month and spent nearly a whole day together wandering that strange (and fun) city. It was great to catch up with her. A few months ago when she asked me to be a sponsor at her wedding (a Filipino tradition), of course I said yes.
So TJ and I made the trip to Pittsburgh this weekend. It was the first time I had been there in 8 years and the area where I used to live is a *lot* different, with a mall, tons of restaurants, and more strip malls than you can imagine (think Lynnwood).
I finally got to meet Kristine's friends from college and dental school and her cousin Manher, whom she always talked about. I guess we haven't changed that much since high school, since I *loved* meeting her friends, and thought they were really nice, interesting, and a lot of fun. As one of her bridesmaids pointed out, "Kristine's friends are so cool!" We had a grand time at the rehearsal and dinner (Buca di Beppo, Station Square).
The wedding itself was lovely. Kristine truly looked like a princess (and I hope she felt like one too!). Attending Catholic Mass was like hearing an old song and still remembering all the words. While I am not a fan of religion in general, the rituals of the Catholic mass are somehow comforting to me - the "audience participation" parts, the order of the ceremony, and the fact that the prayers and words are always the same, no matter who is conducting it. The homily the priest gave was pretty funny - he was a young guy and talked about loving the Steelers and root canals (you just had to be there).
I had some anxiety about my role as a cord sponsor, but my "cord buddy", Amor, was Filipino and knew what was going on and what we had to do. We managed to drape the cord around Kristine and Mike and remove it without incident.
At the reception, TJ and I sat with Brian, Heather, Darren, and John, some friends from high school that I hadn't seen in about 10-12 years. It was neat to find out what people have been up to, and try to picture the same kids I knew in high school now with kids of their own. Weird.
By far, the best part of the reception was the music (though TJ thought it was the steak dinner). Not sure if it was the DJ's contribution, or someone in the bridal party, but there was *lots* of bhangra. And people loved it. There were several Indian-Americans in attendance, but *everyone*, including Mike and Kristines' families were bustin' a move to the bhangra and having a *great* time. There was also a lot of hip-hop, which I loooove for dancing.
That was the most fun I've had at a wedding (besides my own, of course!). We met a lot of great people and invited them all to visit us in Seattle. I got to reconnect with Kristine, and will definitely keep in better touch now that my work schedule will be reduced (more on that in my work blog).
We didn't get much sleep this weekend but it was definitely worth it. Congratulations Mike and Kristine!
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Don't wanna go to school today
Hmm, I guess I haven't posted anything in a while. Life got sort of overwhelming. I have a lot of stuff going on at work (more on that in a later post). I went to a resort in Scottsdale with a couple of girlfriends from work for a quick weekend trip last weekend - that was a *lot* of fun.
But now the papers and clutter are piling up around the house, and we've got to get ready for our trip to Pittsburgh for Kristine's wedding next week. So I've been a bit stressed out.
Resulting in less than stellar adherence to my diet and exercise plan. I've attended all of my trainer appointments, thus getting my strength training in, but have been absolute crap about doing cardio. Today I slept all day because I just didn't feel too good. Back to the grind tomorrow, I guess.
I need to get all my ducks in a row so that I feel like I have some time to really focus on stuff - I think work will allow me to do that in a few weeks. Right now I just feel scattered and pulled in a bunch of different directions :(.
Ick, sorry for the whining!
But now the papers and clutter are piling up around the house, and we've got to get ready for our trip to Pittsburgh for Kristine's wedding next week. So I've been a bit stressed out.
Resulting in less than stellar adherence to my diet and exercise plan. I've attended all of my trainer appointments, thus getting my strength training in, but have been absolute crap about doing cardio. Today I slept all day because I just didn't feel too good. Back to the grind tomorrow, I guess.
I need to get all my ducks in a row so that I feel like I have some time to really focus on stuff - I think work will allow me to do that in a few weeks. Right now I just feel scattered and pulled in a bunch of different directions :(.
Ick, sorry for the whining!