A blog written with a cup of iced black coffee and a bowl of Coco Krispies

This weekend has been pretty great. Friday I think was a waste of my time though. I don't really remember what it was that I did anyway. Oh, long blog, and lots of pictures.

But Sunday and Saturday, it felt accomplishing. It felt like last year's summer in a way. This beautiful weather, wanting to go out, wearing pretty clothing all over again instead of worrying on how to stay warm, going to work in the morning and enjoying the rest of the sunshine of the day. Sitting with a cup of iced coffee (successfully homemade this time♥), listening to classic music of the late early 00's.
EXERCISING.
Getting back into that healthy stage from last summer. It's the greatest feeling, you know? I used to play DDR for an hour everyday but I never knew how many calories I was really burning. So I went on workout mode Saturday after playing tennis, and according to workout mode, I burned 455 calories in an hour! Not only that, it said it was equivalent to a 10 mile jog! I was like holy sh*t. I was doing that EVERY DAY. Plus with the addition of tennis, Saturday was amazing. And I would have done it today too if I didn't decide to take up extra hours at work, worked 8 hours Sunday......

There's actually a few things I want to talk about.
1) This whole concept of dieting.
Recently it's been on my mind. Like what it really means and how it's falsely portrayed in society anymore. I myself am a victim to the fake images and beliefs, but it doesn't mean I have a separate opinion on the matter.
2) New things into my lifestyle. And life. Maybe some personal thoughts after that, depending how deep this runs.

I guess I'll start with number 2.

Ever since I got my new itouch (after my last one broke while in Florida and well this one has much better features +IOS 5.1) I've been app crazy, as always. But two apps in particular are going to start helping me out for the future. I'll explain them.

 I circled two apps here. 'My Fitness Pal' and 'Easy Envelop Budget App (EEBA)'. 'My Fitness Pal' is a calorie counter app. Okay, I know "counting calories" is a bogus religion here, but I do believe it has it's benefits. For one thing, it keeps you reminded on what the heck you've been eating all day. Because that's what I'm bad at.

 I track everything that I eat on here and what's really awesome is that there's such a huge database of food that I don't have to type in calories, it already knows! This has me at a 1200 calorie intake a day so I could lose 4lbs a week. This was my intake yesterday. It also tracks the calories burned from exercise therefore allowing me to eat more because I'll still be in my 1200 space by subtracting what I ate from what I lost. So I think this method of calorie counting has it's benefits, also ONLY if you're eating healthy foods would this work and still exercise. I really like this app so far.

This this is EEBA. It's also a tracker but for how much I spend. I've realized that I've been falling behind and spending too much lately instead of saving for HK like I should be. I'm almost at my goal of course, but I want to exceed that goal now.... by an extra $1,000... lol. Anyway, here's an example of my past week. This way I won't ever forget how much I've been spending.



Then these next two apps are for Chinese. eStroke is a great character/dictionary app I paid $7 for (kinda stupid but well worth it). It can read traditional, simplified, and it also gives me the kunyomi and onyomi for Japanese characters! It also has a dictionary too to define Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese! So cool, right? Well worth it. It'll help me out for this upcoming year for sure. And then the app near the bottom that I circled as well is an app that has a list of Cantonese slang with their English meanings. I'm not sure how out dated they might be, but it's a long list. I just figured it's really good to know and have.


And so this is what I've been working with lately. It's really keeping me focused and after talking with Rob today, he made me want to try harder. He didn't tell me what I needed to do. He said I need to find what works for me. And he's right. It's hard to find the perfect solution to what will continue to motivate me to study what I think is important. Definitely this change in weather will help motivate me. I found a new favorite spot on campus since sitting by the fountain is no longer an option and with the green fence there it has just become ugly. This place would be the small fountain in front of the Science Library. I was hanging out there today and it felt comfortable. You could still hear the water of the fountain and it's not loud there at all. It was really nice. And even in the Science Library I've found a specific place to sit away from things and with a nice view of outside.

After today, I feel like I can get myself on track again. The sun is out, the weather is warm, it's bright and shinning, it's my environment. And it feels like summer again. The summer of last year. One of the best summers of my life. And I'll end with this. The diet thing is kinda important to me too, I really want to give my opinion, but I feel wide awake and in a mood to study. I'll have another glass of iced coffee maybe, 'cause I'll make tomorrow be a good day.