Juggling stuff around

Finally, I got a little bit of time to spare to write something up. Things have been quite hectic here that both K and I had to shuffle our activities around. It’s hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle (eat clean, exercise regularly, getting enough 7-8 hour sleep everyday) when you have to take care an ill person. My brother’s condition is still the same although he isn’t coughing as much as before, but he’s still pretty weak. He went to a specialist yesterday and had to wait until the whole blood tests and the x ray come out to really know what exactly he’s having. We’ll see. On another note, we also have to kind of prepare his meal a little differently from our regular meals.

This was from Saturday, I think? He had thick congee instead of regular rice as the staple food. Also had to cut stuff pretty small so he can consume the food easier

Not to mention we had to keep monitoring his body temperatures and wrote it down. It’s been fluctuating around 98.6°F – 100.4°F (37°C – 38°C). Normal body temperature should be 96.8° F (36° C).

Had to record the temperature in Celcius rather than Farenheit so parents in Asia could understand it more.

We even bought these low sugar non carbonated Gatorade drinks for him for the electrolyte source.

my aunt suggested us to give him these so he can hydrate and got extra minerals at the same time

Good thing is he doesn’t have any nausea anymore and can actually eat regular meal.

I had been shuffling my workout hour from morning to evening, depending on the situation.

Despite all these ruckus, I still managed to try making “Averie’s Spicy Doritos Cheezy Dip”. I didn’t have hemp seeds nor cashews or other kinds of nuts so I used roasted flaxseeds instead.

fit everything in my cheap B&D blender...

not bad..I think I didn't put enough nooch so the color is a bit reddish from the bell pepper...still yummy tho!

The result? It surely has that cheesy taste and a bit of spicy. I didn’t put too much chili powder. It’s quite aromatic probably due to the roasted flaxseeds.

steamed egg plants with Spicy Doritos Cheezy Dip

And I also finally made Kale chips using some of the “Spicy Doritos Cheezy Dip”

super crunchy and yet light! LOVE IT!!!

I made this Asian root soup (not sure what you call that “root” in English, it looks like a big yucca to me) on Saturday.

It was very easy to cook this root. Just peel off the skin, cut them about ½” thick, boiled in high heat and reduce to medium, half covered for about 40 minutes to an hour. I added a bit of dried scallops and a bit of salt to enhance the taste. The root itself has its own sweet taste, so the dried scallops could be omitted if you’re vegetarian/vegan.

Originally it was for my brother but my aunt mentioned it might not be good for him to have this as yet. I ended up having this for almost every single meal…Trust me, the soup is still there in the fridge and I’ve been having this for the past 3-4 days!! ARgh! Speaking of which, Ameena and Lynn are also writing about a fear of wasting food! I’m totally agree with them! I really hate to throw away food, unless it’s SPOILED. *SIGH* That means I have to endure another days finishing this soup.

Yesterday, I was having a mad morning rush. After finished with my morning workout, I had to get the congee to him so he could have a little meal in early morning, plus recording his body temperature.  I ate my bowl of oats super duper quick – like under a minute? I felt quite frustrated and even vented out a bit while walked out from the door. I admit it wasn’t a nice scene to watch, good thing nobody was around. I was even shouted out loud that “I can’t do this anymore! This is too crazy! I have my life too!”

I don’t usually shout out my frustration and anger that way, but when the time I was having too much pressure and stressed out, I could lose it. It’s bad, I know. I should be calmer.
After reading Averie’s post regarding full moon, I was thinking it might have some affect on me? But it was happening yesterday morning though…hmm…..But I also had a bit of hard time sleeping last night, which hasn’t happened to me for quite a while ever since I started exercise regularly.

I didn’t workout in the morning today. Went to bed a bit late after skyping with my mom, talked to her about stuff. She knew that K and I and even my aunt been busy taking care of my brother and she even thanking me for those. She even mentioned how my brother told her and my dad he felt really bad for troubling us because of his illness. I felt a bit of guilt inside hearing all of these. To be super honest, I WASN’T that THRILLED doing all of these. Those statements made me feel embarrassed on how I reacted to the situation. I know I’m still ended up doing whatever my aunts told me to do: cooked some good food for him, cleaned up after him, taking his body temperature, bought Chinese herbs and cook it, washed all of his clothing, bed sheets, blankets etc. And I even cleaned up his room! I WOULD NEVER DO this on regular basis. It angered me enough that he’s a super messy person and yet living under my roof. Don’t know what happened, originally I was only going to clean the upstairs rooms and vacuumed, but ended up starting with his room first. Oh well…I guess deep down inside I do want him to get better – so I can have my life back.. Heh! But seriously I couldn’t manage doing all of these if K is not around. I’m greatly thankful for his support in this tough time.

Anyway, I still could enjoy sometime with my girlfriends on Sunday. We went out for lunch at this Korean restaurant.


It was only 4 of us, ALL GIRLS. NO kids, no husbands, no boyfriends. Such a joy! We haven’t done this small gathering for quite a while as everyone is busy with her own thing. I like small gathering like this. I am a person who prefer a small group rather than a big one. Sadly I couldn’t join them for the mall though…had to go back home and taking care the ill brother. Such an “unintended mummy duty” haha!

Last but not least, here are bunch of food pictures in no particular order.

I got this brown rice crackers from korean supermarket. Not bad!

very light and crunchy..just a hint of sweetness..

actual brown rice - a bit soggy..put too much water. heck still finished it

My childhood favorite....a slice of toast with a bit of buttery spread and chocolate sprinkle!!

not quite a big fan of red meat, but once a while I do eat some beef steak

nothing beats plain yogurt with fresh strawberries!

how about plain yogurt with fresh orange? :p

sweet and sour salmon - my aunt even likes it!

red bean bread from Chinese bakery

ran out of almond milk - cooked oats in water...kinda blah but the pb and banana made it up

 

A little quick post and thank you

Seems like I won’t be able to post regularly for the next couple weeks. Been busy taking care my sick brother, good thing my aunt helped me out as well. My parents are flying over from Asia next Sunday cause they’re worried of him. Btw, I’d like do thank you everyone’s comments from my last post. I really appreciate it. On the side note, I should’ve been kinder and just hoping my brother would recover soon so he could stop making everyone around the world worried over him!

 

Various thoughts

Sorry for not posting regularly lately as my schedule is getting a bit hectic as I mentioned on the previous post. Anyway, here are some pics of  foods (not in particular order)

steamed chicken meatballs - I haven't made these for a while..lately I've been making more meat dishes so he can have more appetite to eat.

can you believe I had some of these as breakfast 😛 - just plain or a bit of pb

Bunch of various oats for bfast

fruity oats

oats with bananas, low fat yogurt and some of my failed homemade almond butter

I’ve been cooking lots of Chinese herb medicine for my brother. Those stuff is super bitter and has a very strong smell. The whole house just smelled like herbs after cooking this. This is just one of those. I didn’t have time and energy to take pics of every single time I cooked the medicine. Basically you boiled the herbs with 3 cups (8 oz size) of water until it becomes 1 cup.

chinese herbs medicine ready to be boiled

took about 20 minutes until the water reduced to 1 cup - I think on this one it was a bit too much

wait for it to cool down a bit..then DRINK it. Super bitter, I'd tell ya.

Honestly, I’ve been having negative thoughts lately that I even had to rewrite this entire post. Prior to this one, I had another draft that I was so ready to publish and be done. Instead of writing down all of my negativity, let me just write down my most inner thoughts.

I do not quite like it when my parents want me to let my brother live with me, even after I got married.

I despise my relatives who keeps pointing finger and sort of “blaming me” for not taking care of my brother.

I do not like the “females have to do more housework than men” mentality in my family circles (my hubby is a total exception).

I like my hubby more compared to my family.

I wish I was born as a boy in my family so they won’t try to “mold” me into their #3 mentality.

My hubby is the only closest person to me, whom I can pretty much share all my thoughts. I can’t even do this to my parents.

Even though I have friends that I’ve known since college and high school, I still feel there’s a “wall or distance” between us.

I don’t see my work colleagues as friends. I only talk to them at work and that’s about it. I never hang out nor call each other unless it’s work related. Usually work and romance don’t mix well or depends on individuals, but for me both romantic relationship and friendship don’t mix well with work either. I met my hubby at his old workplace where I was interning and we dated while working together. It wasn’t a smooth ride either. Emotions got in a way, luckily it didn’t affect others around us. But from that point, I decided not to ever work together with someone whom I have relationship with. As for friendship at work place, it’s just way too much politics to deal with. Though my current workplace politic might not be as bad as other places, I prefer to draw a line. I don’t share too much of my personal stuff. For example, I bought a place. I know some of other colleagues actually didn’t mind that they shared that info. But you know what others saying behind them? They are jealous. They start to comparing themselves, how A makes more $$ so he/she can afford a house and the mortgage. That’s just one example.

I wrote this post at the most inappropriate time.

I don’t like it when my routine got disrupted.

Lately I’ve been feeling my exercise routine start to wear me down. Though I like the progress I’ve seen (not much visually but more strength and stamina), I start to burn out. I used to be leading sedentary lifestyle and exercise wasn’t really activities that I enjoy. I am far away from being athletic. Why all sudden I want to be active? Let me tell you something. My family doesn’t exactly have the best gene and stamina. My mom was ill couple years ago, because of digestion issue and now my brother is having something similar as well. I also have some hereditary illness which I am not going to discuss here. But fear not, it’s not life threatening but it can affect me if my body is weak. With all these facts, I presume you can understand my reason starting to be more active. As we’re on this topic, this will lead to another part of my thought.

I plan to be childless for the rest of my life. K also agrees with me on this matter. Part of it because of my family history, which I am not interested to pass another defective gene. Part of it because I realize I am not the most compassionate person. I even complain and whine baby sitting the full grown young man and having a child with his/her constant needs, I know I’m going crazy. People always say “it’ll be different if it’s your own child, you’re going to be lonely when you’re old, you’re going to change your mind someday, you’re going to regret it, blah..blah blah..
Enough with those! Just the of me carrying a living person inside my belly for 9 months and going through an unimaginable painful child birth labor just freak me out. I know I’ll be judged, flamed, and despised by women readers out there, especially the mothers. I apologize for that. Let me make myself clear. I do respect those who want to have children and I don’t judge them. So I’d prefer the same as well. Not everyone is meant to be parent and I know I’m not.

Sorry for such a long post, but I’ve been wanting to write these down for a long time.

 

We are here to serve Prince Ab

Prince Ab is 26 year old, couple years younger than me and currently living under my roof. He mostly stayed in his little room, zoning out in front of his desktop computer or laptop, depending on his mood. It’s summer time, so school is off and with no internship nor job (because of his non immigrant status), practically weekends and weekdays are the same to him. He actually didn’t earn this Prince title recently, until yesterday.

For the past couple weeks, Prince Ab has been coughing, had a slight fever (100°F or 38.8°C), not having appetite to eat, and sleeping problem. It wasn’t a summer cold. It wasn’t a fever. It wasn’t a heartburn. It’s something else, which we might call a “psychologically influenced illness.” It’s actually a term that I invented. Basically, everything is just in his mind and seems like he himself doesn’t want to get healthy. Maybe he feels lonely, because I hardly see him going out. Maybe he doesn’t really have many friends. Maybe he’s just bored at home. Maybe he’s intimidated by my mean personality (according to my parents). Who knows.

Anyway, yesterday I was chatting online for a bit with my parents and they kept telling me to be a little nicer and caring to him. “After all, he’s you brother and you’re the closest family member he has here.” Guess what? That fella is 26 year old, hellooww, can’t he take care of himself? It’s bad enough that he’s still sticking his ass under my roof even after I got married. When can I enjoy my married life with K without a “third wheel living with us”?
Things just didn’t stop there. It got even juicier.

Yesterday, I was on my way home from work, and all of sudden my cell phone rang. From the tune that I set up, it was from one of my family/relatives and turned out it was from my cousin, Dv! Holy crap! Out of the blue, he suddenly called me up! Usually I’ve never received any calls from him, not even for hanging out, though he and his wife claimed we should hang out together once a while, especially they only lived a couple blocks from my in-law’s place. I called them up once a while back for having lunch together. Anyway, I missed the call, but I called him right away after I put on the headset. It’s California’s new law that we can’t talk on our cellphone while driving without using a headset. Big mistake.

The reason he called was because his mom wanted me to pick up some dry Chinese herb from his place…..that day! I was dumbfounded, and I reluctantly agreed that I’d go pick it up after I had a dinner. Yeah, K and I had to drive up 20+ miles to his place to pick up that “amazing herbs” for Prince A, hoping it’ll ease up his gastritis problem. We left without even having dinner.
To top it off, Prince Ab also wanted a cool air in his room, thus our recently bought portable AC was brutally snatched from our grasp.

After picking up the magical herbs, I couldn’t sustain my hunger so we decided to fill up our belly at a Thai restaurant.

We ordered 3 dishes: Pad thai, mixed stir fry veggies (chopsuey), and a bowl of brown rice.

pad thai

Our bills came up pretty interesting. Apparently, the owner decided to try to “scam” us by putting an extra number in front of the actual bill. Good thing our eagle sharp eyes CAUGHT that before signing the receipt.

3 dishes could cost u up to $117.23??!!! REALLY? We only drank tap water, not even a single bottle wine.

So since our AC had been snatched, we had to go to HD to get another one….Luck on our side. We found another Lowe’s 10% off coupon! Yay, saved about $30-$40!

portable AC

Source

Things didn’t stop there. Today we specifically cooked some good fish dishes and some fried rice to lure make him has some appetite to eat. Also we made a reflective board by wrapping around a cardboard with foil so his room won’t be too hot from the afternoon sunlight. That’s what happened when staying in a room facing West side. Not to mention, we both had to cut up some fruits, arranged them nicely on the bowl and even brought it to his room cause he claimed he wasn’t feeling well to come down and eat it.

Speaking of which, one of my aunt who lived close by would come by later on, without specifying the time. Thus we had to canceled our trip to the in-laws and had to be stand by at home, waiting for her to come by. Ah, how nice of us? While Prince Ab sitting and enjoying the AC in his room, I’m here sweating enduring the afternoon sun hitting the computer room’s window. It’s adjacent to his room, so it also facing west.

Now, will you excuse me, I shall prepare another gourmet meal for the beloved Prince Ab.

 

Greasy food for fuel, hemp coupons, background history and many more!

Helloooooooo anyone there??? I didn’t have time to post anything yesterday though I wasn’t that super duper busy, just lots of stuff to take care around the house. Anyway how’s Monday going for you? Mine started off in a sleepy way. I think I was half dozed thru half of the morning and maybe even now….so sorry if this post doesn’t quite make sense in some ways.

SATURDAY

Anywayyyyyyy, as I mentioned at my last post, Ken and I had a birthday dinner with my friends at a Chinese restaurant. Too lazy to type detail, I’ll just post up the pics.

The restaurant

super crowded. Trust me this scene was taken after we were almost done..like around 8:45-9pm!!

super crowded. Trust me this scene was taken after we were almost done..like around 8:45-9pm!!

some Chinese writing display right in front of our table

Seafood veggie soup

Actually my friends ordered some fried calamari but I didn’t take a pic.

black pepper beef

stir fry shrimps

Seafood Crispy noodles with veggies - I only had some of the veggies and the seafood meat

fried crabs - apparently this is the restaurant's most popular dish - most tables had this dish

Another plate of crabs - this one had some sauce

steamed whole fish

clams - didn't have any of these- so oily...

some chicken...also super greasy

veggies - Ong Choy I believed (watercress)

fried tofu

fish fillets - very very salty....ugh...I only had a bite of it.

complimentary orange as the dessert

The birthday cake - Green Tea Mousse Cake I believe

my portion

after - I only ate the cake part & the fruit piece..left the creamy/mousse part behind. Not a big fan of those

We had about 11-13 people sharing these foods. Basically I only had a bite of everything and I skipped the white rice. The food was quite greasy so I figured I went easy with those. We came back home around 10pm, showered and went to bed.

SUNDAY

We kept hitting the snooze button when the alarm went off around 4:15am. We almost almost wanted to skip the beach run but I forced myself to get up and we went…and I’m glad we did. According to my Garmin, I had a better pace today than yesterday!

Saturday run - warm up, run, cool down (power walk) combined together

Sunday - warm up & run

Sunday - cool down power walk

Pretty much same distance, but I think I had a better pace on my Sunday run. Guess those greasy food from the day before fueled my run, huh? Haha..

On our way back, we had to put in some gas at our usual gas station. However, I saw this one on our way and it seemed cheaper if we paid by cash. (Read: CASH).

Cash means cash..no atm/debit card...D'OH!

We figured our ATM/Debit would be counted as cash as well since that was how on the other place that we went last time. BUT, it wasn’t like that. So we ended up have to pay $3.13/gal for regular gas…..blah! And we used our debit card, which had NO REWARD/POINTS, while if we went to the other one per our original plan, we would at least get $3.02 even using credit card AND got 3% cash back from our Amex! Lesson: read the sign carefully!

Got home after picked up some groceries on the way back and had breakfast!

oats are back!!! How I missed it soo much!!! And Kashi cereal!

btw my friend M (the b'day girl yesterday) gave me these mini chillies from her backyard. Apparently despite their size, they're SUPERRRR SPICY! I need to figure out what to make with these.

after last night greasy dinner, I was craving for plain veggies

edamame!

rice congee for my sick brother

And we went to my in-law’s place for dinner. Similar food as usual so I didn’t bother to take pic.

Today
I cranked up half ass P90X Chest & Back and Ab Ripper X this morning. Not sure why, I felt suuuuuuuuper tired and sleeeeeeepy…very hard for me to get up this morning, though I went to bed extra early like 9:30pm!! But I woke up at least 2 times before my alarm went off at 4:15 am.

Speaking of which, I found out from another blogger something about the girl in P90X Chest & Back. I always admired her fitness level in this Chest and Back video. She’s not buff nor super ripped, just nicely toned and fit. After I read something about her other profession, which being a porn star in a super X rated hard core porn video, my imagination just went wild. I’m being totally honest here! The blogger also posted a link to one of her video…BUT….I SERIOUSLY DIDN’T WANT TO WATCH IT! Enough said. It’s bad enough that my mind already imagining all these porn scenes of her. I don’t want to ruin her image in my mind totally! Don’t get me wrong, I am not looking down on her or anything like that, but more like I feel sorry and sad for her but at the same time I can’t help feeling dirty about her either. This is my very honest opinion. Making a living can be very tough for certain people and they can just do whatever it takes as long they get paid decent money.

Ok moving on….I have to wrap this up soon.
Today I received 2 coupons from Living Harvest Tempt from winning Lynn at The Actor’s Diet Giveaway last Friday (Thanks Lynn and Living Harvest!)

one coupon of free pint of Hemp ice cream and one coupon of free hempmilk!

This product is made from hemp seeds (Ken always jokes them as marijuana seeds..LOL), so it’s dairy free, soy free, vegan, gluten free, kosher and non GMO. I can’t wait to look for stores that carry these products and give them a try! More info here.

Questions:
1. How do you feel when your admired person turned out to have some background history that’s totally different from what you expect?

2. Have you tried any hemp seeds products yet?

3. What spicy food/recipe do you like?

 

Kabocha wrestling, steak, non medical bodyache remedy

How’s everyone’s Saturday going?

We started with our early morning beach jog, though we had hard time getting up and get ready. I finally found a way to wear my chest strap heart rate monitor correctly so I didn’t end up with that sucker slipping down when I ran nor that ugly painful red blister across my chest.

carby bomb bfast after the run...haha...shared these w/ hub of course. - I had 2 slices ww bread topped w/ pb and half of that braided cheese croissant

I spent the whole morning and early afternoon alone cause Ken had to go to his brother’s place to help him out with his house project again. Too bad he had to miss this super juicy steak that I made this afternoon. I am not a big fan of meat but once a while I do love to have a good piece of steak.

this tastes good right after cooking it. Will be extra rubbery the next day after reheated. Btw these are well done (I don't do medium rare whatsoever), but still tender and juicy. Some tricks needed to accomplish that! 😀

Oh I also had kabocha on the side. Speaking of which, I always have a hard time cutting kabocha. That little guy has such a thick skin. So I prepared the “weapons” to cut that little fella.

butcher knife and a hammer!

Cut and peeled with the peeler..ready to be steamed!

1/2 kabocha..yummy! I think I ate about 2-3 pieces of these

fresh romaine lettuce with baby carrots..can't go wrong with those!

steak and kabocha pieces on the side - I'd be lying if I said this is how much I ate. I had another 1/2 piece of steak after this pic and more kabocha of course

look at the size comparison between the veggies and the meat.

After that super lunch, I felt I had so much energy so I immediately did the usual house chores (cleaning the windows, furniture etc) for the whole house and done in about 1 hour! Yay me! Since I always clean it every week, there’s no need to be super detail. Besides after finishing the first floor, the water wasn’t even that dirty, proving that our place is still pretty clean. But I’m skeptical and I always think there’s always dust anytime, anywhere. You just don’t see it.

finally more fruit variety other than orange and peach!

Ken came back mid afternoon because we’re going out for a dinner with my friends to celebrate M’s birthday. He mentioned that his brother actually didn’t need anymore help for his house. Instead it was more like a little “housewarming”. He said it was actually a good thing I didn’t go because most of the foods were not something that I’d like (fried egg rolls, roasted duck, noodles, soy sauce chicken and no veggies). I think I still prefer my lunch earlier 😀 Especially tonight we’ll be going out of dinner at a Chinese restaurant, so most of the foods will be pretty greasy sodium loaded and carby. At least I already had one big super healthy meal for the day.
Btw, do you know what’s the non medical body ache remedy? My brother has been complaining his neck is aching endlessly but didn’t want to keep taking Tylenol nor any medicines. The solution? Very simple. All you need is a hot medicated ointment or oil, like this

Source

We have this

A coin (at least a quarter or bigger. The bigger the better)

Apply the medicated oil/ointment on the desired place (in this case is the back of the neck). Rub the area in one direction (vertical) using the coin. It’ll be pinkish at first and then bright red spots will appear. Usually when you catch a cold or have body aching, the bright red spots will appear a lot more and darker.

Hope this doesn’t scare you away!

 

Needles, parking and food

It’s almost Friday again, yay! This short week felt really short for me, especially I took a day off yesterday for going to my appointment. Oh btw, today I had to go to a lab again (this time nearby my workplace) for a blood test. Seriously, when I went in, it didn’t take them that long to draw my blood into 3 tubes, so I seriously had no idea why there were at least 7 people before me in the waiting room.

waiting room - pic taken w/ my bb

I’d prefer to use my left arm for them to draw the blood, but from my previous experience, they seem couldn’t find my vein on there (“your vein is too small”) so I just wanted to avoid being poked couple times with the needle and just used my right arm, which for sure they could see the vein right away!
Good thing the lab was really close by my workplace so I could just sneak out stepped out for a bit and came back on time and still got parking.

Oh a little bit about parking situation at my workplace, it’s super HORRIBLE! We have more employees than the building can accommodate. When I first started working there, you had to come before certain time to get parking space, otherwise, you ended up parking  illegally on the red zone. It went fine for a bit, but then when the fire department found out, it wasn’t pretty. So the solution was? They made the warehouse people to park at the other office parking space and they took the company shuttle to come to our building. It got a little better, but I still prefer to come way earlier than my usual work time. Other than get a better parking space, I can avoid congested traffic and stupid bad drivers. Score that!

Ok enough talk about work, onto the foods

btw this was my post workout drink - almond milk w/ chocolate whey protein powder - ugh..I miss my oatmeal

homemade whole wheat bread..toasted and then topped on pb (after this pic was taken)

Lunch as usual whatever left over from last night dinner and 2 servings of fruits (orange and peach combo) plus a cup of low fat yogurt.

nice veggie plate for my dinner

topped with nutritional yeast

plus edamame

had only 1/2 of one of the yams...was kinda full already

Munched some of the seed crackers that I made last time (I think I had at least 2-3 pieces of those…man so addicting!)

Ok not much for me to say for today, but here are some questions for you (if I actually have anyone read this haha)

Are you scared of needles? Do you dare to look at the needle being poke into your arms during blood drawing?
I am actually ok with it. Heck I even looked at the needle being poked into my arm today and if the person is good enough, it shouldn’t hurt at all (well maybe just a little bit). There was only one time that it actually hurt so badly! The person who drew my blood poked the needle a bit too deep. My arm got swollen for a couple days. Not a pretty sigh.

At a job interview, what kind of unusual question you’d ask?
I’ll definitely ask: “How’s the parking situation?” or “Do we have enough parking space for every employee?”

 

Fasting, hosptial, earthquake

Today was such a “torture” for me. Just imagine, I couldn’t eat and drink for 6 hours because I had a lab exam at the hospital in the afternoon. So in the morning, right after I got up, I chugged down these goodies into my belly before 8 am (the cut off time).

2 chinese bakery bread : polo pao (pineapple bun) and black sesame bun, whole wheat bread slices topped w/ pb and 2 egg omelet

Plus tons of water. This was my biggest breakfast ever. Surprisingly it hold me over until around 3-4 pm (after I was done with the lab exam).

The whole morning I didn’t do much, just sitting and browsing around in front of my computer…trying to conserve the energy here. Luckily the weather had been pretty chilly and overcast for this whole week so I wasn’t feeling thirsty either. But I had to resist a temptation to sip a cup of water. I always drink water every 10-15 minutes, regardless I am thirsty or not. It’s just my habit. So for not drinking water for straight 6 hours made me a bit cranky.

Our bar stools came today (yay)! Ken put them together and now they’re sitting nicely nearby our kitchen island.

we got 3 of these for $85 each. Not bad. The color matches our kitchen/living room area

Source

Around noon, we headed to the hospital. The appointment was around 2:30pm but I had to be there at 2:00 pm for checking in.

got this wrist band and waiting for the nurse to call me up for the exam. I was super hungry and sleepy

The whole thing took about 1 hour. By the time I finished, immediately I drank the whole bottle of water we brought from home. Not that I was so thirsty, more like my throat and mouth were super dry! It was around 3:30pm and we knew we won’t have enough time to prepare food at home, so we decided to eat out.

but before we headed for our super late lunch/super early dinner, ken's car needed gas and we happened to pass by this gas station which had a decent pricing, IF you paid by cash/atm

We decided to go to this small Korean restaurant. We’ve been to this place couple times before. The food was pretty simple but good. It’s not your typical Korean restaurant, more like Korean fusion. The owner was the chef, waitress and busboy.

nice little cozy place. Lots of Korean movie image collage along the walls

can you name the movie by looking at the pictures?

nothing's better than looking at the picture menu! You'll know how the dishes look like!

Ken's dish: Tofu burger with rice and side of salad - was pretty good!

Mine: Spanish Paella which simply fried rice with seafood and chicken. I requested to be spicy and it was spicy! It was even spicier when I ate it hot! I had half of these and packed the rest of the rice for tomorrow's lunch 😀

Complementary salad - the dressing was so good...kinda sweet and sour...

another complementary side dish- mini Korean pancake

more banchan (Korean side dish) - cucumber, kimchi and seaweed

our usual drinks - plain water, no ice 🙂

complementary dessert- chocolate vanilla ice cream. The lady was asking us if we wanted the ice cream or not. She said she thought we might not want it since we didn't even drink ice water..haha

After our super late lunch/super early dinner, we headed home and Ken finishing putting together the last bar stool (he finished 2 this morning before we went to the hospital). I on the other hand was preparing stuff for “dinner” and extra food for packing our lunch. Just the usual steam veggies and I made some baked chicken. Also had to bake another wheat bread. The last one I made was GONE already!

Since I couldn’t workout in the morning, I decided to do it before dinner, despite I still could “feel” the food in my stomach. Good thing today was Yoga, so it wasn’t too bad. Got my workout done, I still wasn’t hungry, but I knew I had to eat now or I’d suffer later tonight and couldn’t do my workout properly tomorrow morning.

orange, peach, steamed veggies, baby carrots and a piece of baked chicken....good dinner. Wasn't too heavy

Btw, for those who’s living in Southern California, did you feel the earthquake this afternoon around 4 pm? We were in the car waiting for the traffic light and I felt the ground was shaking. I thought might be because we were underneath the freeway bridge and there were big trucks passed by, but that wasn’t the case! Seriously, this year I felt the earthquake A LOT more often! Does this mean the end of the world is coming? I always think that I need to prepare an emergency kit, but HOW?? How am I supposed to know what and where I should pack? If I pack everything at home and when the earthquake happens and I am not at home, then it’s pointless.

Anyway, I don’t want to worry too much about it. If it has to happen then it happens. Nothing can stop mother nature.

I felt today I only had 3 big meals and no small meals in between. Kinda weird as I’m soo used to have small bites here and there so I don’t have to have big meal at once. Anyway, it’s getting late….NITE!

 

Another day off tomorrow, GNU review and calorie intake thoughts

Today I thought would be another draggy day but turned out not really. Work wasn’t crazy busy, but more like an okay pace. Heck I even felt the day went by pretty fast. Probably because tomorrow I’ll have another day off? I had to take a day off tomorrow for lab appointment. I had to be fasting, so no drinking or eating 6 hours prior the exam! Gosh! I could handle hunger, but thirst??? That’ll be tough! The appointment is at 2:30 pm but I have to be there at 2:00 pm. Geez, that means I have to stop eating and drinking by 8 am!
*sigh* Also no exercise in the morning. Even though I have a day off, still can’t really sleep in either or else I can’t eat/drink anything until late afternoon!!

Anyway, after my morning workout, I was super hungry so I chugged down this homemade almond milk with 1 scoop of Designer’s Whey Chocolate Protein Powder. Gosh, I couldn’t remember the last time I had this protein drink. To be honest, I don’t really like the taste of protein drink and if you look at the ingredients closely, lots of weird stuff there. I rather get my protein from real foods.

red bean bread bun from Chinese bakery. so fluffy

Had this as my breakfast at work. The red bean was a bit sweet to my taste but thanks to my bitter green tea, it all balanced out. 😀

Unfortunately, that red bean bun didn’t hold my hunger until lunch time. I packed 2 slices ww homemade bread and had those topped w/ PB around late morning. Bad move! I was sooo full that I couldn’t even finish my lunch! 😦 I hate it when I wasn’t hungry at my usual meal time.

But I still could finish the fruits! papaya strawberry post lunch and orange peach w/ non fat yogurt as my late afternoon munchies

Btw, I kept forgetting to put my let me review GNU Foods Espresso Chip Bar that I tried last week.


This bar has a strong coffee flavor! I was expecting a semi sweet bar with a hint of coffee flavor, but that wasn’t the case. This bar is seriously for a coffee lover.  I am not quite a coffee drinker so this bar is a bit too strong for my taste. I was going to have it for my late afternoon snack, but after one bite, I decided to save it for the next day’s morning snack instead. I am quite sensitive to caffeine that I rather avoid having it in late afternoon or I’ll have trouble sleeping.

Lots of steamed veggies for dinner!

chinese veggies (Choy sum in Cantonese or chai sim in Mandarin)

steamed egg plant and carrot

nuked frozen edamame

baby carrots dipped with nutritional yeast

Dessert

yogurt with lots of peaches and some vanilla ice cream

Remember the last post when I mentioned I wanted to gain more muscle weight? Well I’d say it’s not quite easy for me to increase my calorie intake. One thing is I can’t eat a lot of foods all at once and on the other hand, somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s still some “fear” that this extra calorie will backfire on me. I know I can always keep it off as long I keep working out regularly, but there’s still that “fear” that my workout can’t keep up with my calorie intake. Sorry, I know I’m not making that much sense, but that’s how I’m feeling now.

 

Beach run fail, steamed veggies, Mr & Mrs Clean

Today was beach run FAIL. We both didn’t feel like getting up and drove down to the beach for our beach run. However, that didn’t stop me completing cardio workout for today. I did 30 minutes run outside the house and 25 minutes of P90X Cardio X. I felt something would be missing if I didn’t workout in the morning. After I started working out in the morning since 5 months ago, morning workout becomes part of my routine now.

Breakfast was bunch of bread from some Chinese bakery, given by my mother-in-law. I love these Chinese bakery or I’d say Asian bakery bread, very fluffy and smells nice. I tried not to eat too much of these, because of the empty calories and the fat, but after a nice workout earlier, these are my treats 😀

Ken and I shared these breads

shared this red bean bread with Ken

Had two of these ham and cheese bread..so good, but yet so evil haha

After breakfast, we started our usual routine….house cleaning. I skipped cleaning the kitchen counter last week so this week for sure I can’t skip that! The kitchen wasn’t dirty or anything but I am pretty anal when it comes to cleaning. Just because you don’t see it dusty or dirty, it doesn’t mean it’s clean either. Usually I started my cleaning after lunch, but today our lunch was pretty much just whatever left over in the fridge, and just need to add more veggies and we’re ready to eat!

big ass spring mix salad from yesterday, sushi roll from my mother in law, rice, chinese veggies (choy sum) and baked chicken. The only thing I cooked today was the steamed chinese veggies (choy sum)

had 2 or 3 of the spring mix salad after this plate

half corn cob

We spent the entire afternoon cleaning the house. I was wiping all the furniture, windows and doors for the entire house..literally. Ken was cleaning all 3 bathrooms and my brother, who was napping the whole afternoon, finally did his part by vacuuming the carpeted area.

took a little break in between by snacking on low fat yogurt with peach and papaya

I missed my whole wheat bread and the ones from Rudi’s Organic Bakery were long gone, so I baked my Vegan Friendly Whole Wheat Bread. Turned out gorgeous!

can't wait to have these w/ PB for tomorrow bfast!

Dinner was very similar to lunch with these additions:

tomatoes and egg

corn - i had one..so sweet and good!

steamed green bean... a bit too long

Question: How detail are you when cleaning?
I am not a big fan of cleaning but once I got into my groove I could be very detail. For example, I could be wiping every single book on the shelf or wipe all the doors, top of door frames, and everything in my sight that I can wipe.