My cat

My cat is very lazy, she sneaks into my bedroom while it's still cold and can sleep in there for 6 hours without anything to drink or eat. I let her in there because I love my cat. Lazy cat loves to lay down on the marble floor, the hard wood floor, the marble dining chair, the wood coffee table, and a pot with a plant in it.
My cat loves milk, sometimes she makes a sound that sounds very similar to the word "Milk". I'm a sucker for lazy cat. Sometimes, I try and reason with her and explain to her that she's already had a little dish of milk today, but no, she seduces me with her little cat body and I have to oblige to her every whim.

Tonight, I was regularly raiding the fridge, when I felt a familiar furry tail brush on my calf. "Cat, you can not get any milk tonight." She looked at me with her pitiful yellow eyes, "Why are you doing this to me, Human?" she meows. I look down at her and close the refrigerator door and walk to my room. Cat trots behind my feet expecting a pass to enter my sub-zero temperature room. "Cat, no" I say, and she stops. I close my door and I lay in bed. Three minutes later, I hear a noticeable crash and her meows for help, I want to make sure that she's okay as her meows got louder.

Frantic, I opened my door. I see cat sitting in front of my door, with a very pleased look on her face. Embarrassed, I went to the fridge and got her some milk.

I am my cat's bitch.

Thanks for reading!

How to create a workout routine that works for you!

In my apartment, there's a tiny gym for all the residents. It's not great, but it'll do. Women, before I get this ball rolling, I need to set something straight with you.

This is what you think will happen to you when you lift weights:

Trust me, she's heavily medicated on steroids. 

Believe it or not, below is what you'll actually look like. 

You can tell by her muscles that she works out hard, and not only that, she lifts heavy too. Don't be afraid of lifting heavy weights! Your body won't turn out like the woman in the first picture because a woman's body does not have enough testosterone to have bulging muscles like men. Lift heavy weights! That's the only way your body will turn out like the woman in the second picture. 10 pounds, minimum. Right now, I'm not strong enough to lift more than 15 pounds in dumbbells. Lift as heavy as you can without injuring yourself! Trust me, you'll achieve your desired body MUCH faster! Scout's honor. 

So, with a combination of cardio and weight lifting, I created a workout routine that keeps me focused on two or three muscle groups every day. This is designed for 5 days a week, with 1 all cardio day and 1 rest day. 

There are some exercises that you can't use weights for, but you are using your body weight which totally counts. This plan keeps me focused, and makes me stay on track because having a small gym makes you want to crank out and do everything on one day, but makes you so sore the next few days and makes you not want to go again. To minimize that, this is a great way to stay focused. I did all of my strength training two to three times, depending on how busy the gym is and how tired I am. One more thing you may be confused about, what is HIIT? HIIT is an acronym for 'High Intensity Interval Training', this type of cardio is great because you do it for maybe 8-15 minutes, you get a couple rests but mostly you work really hard. For example, I do my HIITs on the bicycle and I use the Tabata technique, so I have a 10 second rest and then I sprint for 20 seconds. That's one cycle, then I repeat that 20 times. Typically I have a 5 minute warm up, and then do 20 rounds, and I'm usually done within 15 minutes! 

If you want more information on HIITs, click this link!

If you have any questions, please leave them down below!

Thanks for reading!

My Weight Loss Story.

I've always been a self concious girl. Growing up, I had parents who wanted the absolute best for me. My mom, when she was growing up, was overweight, and as soon as she turn 18, she knew she had to do something. The way she lost weight was such a horrible one, all she ate was crackers and water, which caused her period to stop. But once she reached a good weight for her, she ate normally and she has maintained that weight ever since. She is 5'0" tall, and very much like a typical Chinese woman, petite.   My dad is like any typical grown man when they have too many beers. Growing up, he had a fast metabolism and played sports. When my dad reached about 50 years old, he started to pack on the pounds. Living in the Chinese culture, there is such a pressure to stay thin, and my dad had many bad attempts at losing weight but never fully keeping the weight off.

My parents didn't want my weigh to escalate, like any good parents would, they wanted me to eat healthily and also participate in a lot of exercise. I remember always being self concious and unhappy with my body. I'm only five feet and one inch tall, and I have very muscular legs. I have a love-hate relationship with my legs, on one hand they were strong and allowed me to run fast to play soccer, on the other hand... they were always big. The only time I ever liked my legs was when I was playing soccer. As you can tell, I didn't have a very good self image of myself. Never have, never will. I'm my harshest critic. 

Anyway, during my senior year, I reached the highest weight I've ever been, 138 pounds (63.5 kg). In my junior year, I was about 124 pounds (56 kg). I have many reasons why I gained so much weight, all of them contributed, and I'm really kicking myself for not being smart enough to realize them. Firstly, I was employed at my local Best Buy for two months. I resigned because my grades were suffering, and my grades are the most important thing to me, so having a job wasn't even an option because of that. Secondly, I was taking the birth control shot called Depo-Provera, which is notorious for making women gain weight. One dose is 3 month's worth of birth control, I took 2 doses and then I quit. Is Depo-Provera worth it? NO, but that'll be another blog. Thirdly and fourthly, I was simply not eating as healthily as I used to, and not getting enough exercise!

On the top is before I even started my senior year. On the bottom was during the fall. 

Now, on the picture to the top, I was probably around 126 lbs, and on the bottom I was about 136 lbs. You can definitely see the difference between the pictures, mostly in my face. I have a heart shaped face, which gives me this great pointy chin, but in the picture to the bottom, you can only see the doubles. Gaining that much weight depressed me. I literally would not take any pictures of myself. I still don't. Already having bad self esteem about yourself and then having something like this happened? Ridiculous, I cried every night.

After reality hit my square in the forehead, my dad and I decided that we needed to do something. He had also gained a lot of weight, and in January we decided to try a new diet and got our gym memberships. If you think you're going to lose weight and still maintain an awful diet, you're wrong. You can't out-exercise a bad diet. I'll briefly go over my diet, it's called the "Four Hour Body" diet and Tim Feriss came up with this idea and published a book about it. Basically, I can't have any carbs or sugar 6 out of 7 days of the week. So, no pasta, no rice, no fruit, no bread, and no oatmeal. As an asian, when I first heard this, I rolled my eyes while thinking "Pfft, we'll see how long THAT lasts." I'm still doing this diet today. The main idea is that sugar, the basic component of ANYTHING delicious, is the match that lights a full on craving for more sugary things. Makes sense right? As soon as you burn off the bagel that you had for breakfast (it'll do that really quick), you'll want something else, probably a slice of toast, and so on and so on. On that 7th day, you can eat anything you want to eat and as MUCH as you want. The idea of that is to encourage you waiting until cheat day to have your bagel, AND to kickstart your metabolism for the next week. Most diets don't work because after the first few weeks, they stop working because your metabolism (what burns that food) is so low. To keep your metabolism going, you need to eat more food. Metabolism is what burns off the food. If you want to lose weight, you want a fast metabolism.

With our working out, we also paired what we ate with a high protein diet. We had a lot of fish, a lot of vegetables, a lot of chicken, and we also had a whey supplement. We wanted to gain muscle because muscle burns more calories when rested, the idea is that the more muscle you have. No muscular person is ever fat.

She is a great example. I'm sure that most women want abs like hers, right? Truth is, her body fat percentage is probably around 13-14%. The models you usually see that are "fit" are about 16-17%. For women, an average body fat % is around 20-25%. I can tell you that she worked her glutes off to gain those muscles. One day, I'll aim to achieve her body, but right now it's not going to happen.

My dad and I were going to the gym 5 times a week for 5 months. When May came around, my dad had to leave to Malaysia for 2 weeks and cancelled both our memberships. I tried to do Insanity for a little while, but I just gave up.

This whole time I've been in Malaysia, I just could not break the 60kg mark. No matter how little portion size I ate, I would never be less than 60kg. But, today, I was 59 kg (130 lbs)! And let me tell you, it feels great! This week I took on a new approach to losing weight, I went to the gym 5 times this week and did both cardio and weights. I'm going to do this from now on. The past 5 weeks I've been in Malaysia, I've been lazy, I was only watching what I ate instead of going to the gym. I feel very crappy about that. After losing 1 kg this week, I'm determined to do this again! I used to do it in the states, and now I'm going to do it again! To lose weight, you need to be inspired and you need to be motivated! Now that I've found my motivation again, I'm going to go twice as hard!

My next blog will be about how to plan a workout.

If you have ANY questions, please don't hesitate to comment down below!
Thanks for reading!

Dorm Room Inspiration!

There are so many ways that you can decorate your room and make it completely yours. My room mate and I decided we are going for a Pink and Black theme. We're totally not 18 year old girls at all. Truth be told, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to decorate my room. So I've collected some photos from various websites that are of dorms/rooms that reflect a fun, cool, and home-y vibe that I would like to recreate.

Source: Here.

For the first picture, the first thing I notice is the lights! It totally brightens up the bed! I also really love that song! Or maybe I'm just partial to the cat... This picture definitely screams dorm, and the great thing about the lights is that it makes your space look cozier, and larger! 

Source: Here.

As you can see, I really love lights when it comes to dorms. I keep reading online that dorms just have the most awful lighting. In this picture, it looks like there is a cork board as the headboard for the bed. That's such a great idea, you can put your reminders, due dates, messages, pictures, and pretty much anything that's pin-able on your cork board. I'm definitely going to need that for my dorm.

Source: Here.

I have to commend the person who designed this set up. It looks so neat and organized, an absolute dream for most girls. Displaying your photographs in a uniform manner makes the area look so much neater, despite having a un-made bed. I have to remember that for the future! Okay, you guys get it, I love the lights.

When I do decorate my dorm, I will definitely post a picture for you guys. I'm just so excited for college JUST to do this!
For more dorm room inspiration, please visit dormdesign.tumblr.com!

Thanks for reading!

Once you go Mac....

You never go back. Oh. Thats not how the saying goes?

Well, it's inevitable. My parents got me my first apple laptop when I first moved to the US back in 2009. I have been begging, pleading, selling my soul, and begging some more for the lowest end MacBook for years. I was relentless. By the time my birthday hit, I was triumphant.

I got the 2008 model of the MacBook White, not knowing that the new model came out 3 weeks later. I did not let that little tid bit ruin my mood!
I was off in my bubble in Apple Land. My MacBook was my baby, at that time I was mostly interested in making videos on iMovie for YouTube. I would show you my vlogs, but I deleted them after my boyfriend found them when we first started dating. It's really not a creepy as it sounds... Okay, maybe it is. They were so atrocious, I never knew I could be so embarrassing... Which is why I do not let any one record me on video to this day.

Fall 2010, my baby started to poop out on me. It started being slower than Christmas, my battery started to frizz out on me, and like the little engine that could, is still powering through.

Now that I'm a collegiate, I need something more reliable. My baby is about to get an upgrade! For my graduation present, my parents are splurging, yet again, on the 2012 MacBook Air. Love you Mom and Dad!

I was torn between the MacBook pro and the MacBook air.
On one hand, I want a fast and powerful computer. On the other, I travel a lot and my current 13 inch feel like it weighs a ton. I work out! My five pound MacBook white makes me feel weak whenever I lug it around the world.
The MacBook air is faster than my MacBook white, which is absolutely fine with me. Considering the processor got an upgrade to the Ivy Bridge, I'll be A-okay! So far it seems like the MacBook air is a go!

Here it is!
The unboxing of my MacBook air!

 

Cat was so excited!

Yay!

My mom wanted a close up.

 But it really is true... Once you go Mac, you never go back.



Thanks for reading!

Ps. Sorry for the awful photo quality, all I have is my iPod Touch to take pictures.

Living on your own Part 1

So you're off to college, where you'll probably be living on your own for the first time. Perhaps with a room mate, or two! Not to mention you'll be living in a building with many new, scared freshman like yourself.
I'm a scared freshman, terrified would be a more accurate term.

So, back in April, I came to the realization that I will be living alone... With a stranger... Three hours away from my home... With my parents across the world! The only comfort that I find in this awakening is that I get a brand new, fresh start.
The first thought in my head was: I have to do research. I use google for anything and everything, if you can't find what you're looking for within the first three pages -- it doesn't exist. I don't know where I would be without the Internet, probably still in High School. Reading articles about the college experience calms my nerves a lot. I've stumbled across hundreds of web pages (no, I'm not exaggerating) about dorms, dorm life, college life, and I think I've stored everything in my head for when that first day actually arrives. However, there is one thing that requires planning before I arrive on move-in weekend.

I love back to school shopping, who doesn't? The idea of getting new pens, notebooks, binders, school bags, and planners makes me so happy. Unfortunately, my school shopping requires a lot more things now that I'm living on my own, in a new scary dorm. So, I will be sharing my own, personal list of things that I need for my first year of college.

I'm trying to find the best deals and the best price, since I'm now a kindof self supporting college student, I need to save my own money in order to purchase these items. The blue highlighted text is what I have at home and/or have already purchased online. The yellow highlighted text is what I need extra of. The uncolored text is things that I still need to purchase.
It's really hard to be in another country shopping for things that you can't see in person. This is a very bare bones basic college list, I'll eventually add more when I'm at college.
My wonderful boyfriend (and his parents) will be receiving all the things I ordered online. Thank you, Austin! The problem is I got them from all sorts of different websites, I wish I wasn't so much of a hassle, but I literally have two weeks from when I arrive back in the States until I ship off to college. Not to mention I got to squeeze a little beach time then too... Hehe!

Thanks for reading!

The 'What If' worry

I think I've reached the point in my life where the most important question is "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?". I could tell you what I dream to be, a doctor, but I see no point in advertising that. From the freshman year of college until my last year at medical school, my life could turn in so many ways, assuming I get accepted, of course.
I think I'm the type of person who hates being embarrassed, for something that requires ambition, focus, a lot of coffee, and 8 years of your life, who knows if I'm able to achieve that dream? When people ask me what I want to do with my life, I usually tell them the generic "Whatever, I guess".
I should be proud that I'm willing to be going through a very academically rigorous lifestyle for the next few years, but I am the worst critic of myself, what if I don't get in?

The 'What If':
'What ifs' are a very big part of my life, I remember trying out for my Varsity Soccer team in High School, absolutely TERRIFIED that I wouldn't get in by the time try outs rolled around... 5 months before they actually happened.
I'm a worrier, guys, I get that from my Mom. Honestly, I got so worried about not getting on the soccer team that I cried... Multiple times. What I have learned from my worry is that it makes me try so much harder to achieve it. I did make the soccer team, and in the end, my worry made a serious, positive impact on my life.

The difference between 'What ifs' is how YOU make it impact your life. In my case, my what if worry made me work even harder for my goal. How do you want it to impact your life? Positively or negatively. The wonderful thing is: You can choose how it affects you.

Do you want to be a Vet? Want to be a Chemist? How about an Aeronautical Engineer? A Sea World dolphin trainer?

You can choose!
But don't let your what ifs get the best of your worries.
If you have a goal, you have to work hard to achieve it. However, don't be afraid if your life doesn't turn out to be what you expect it to be. That is the beautiful thing. If you love what you do, you'll never be unhappy.

Thanks for reading!