still trying... hello week 2!

yup, that's right. week one was definitely a tough one. but i have to admit, i did stick with it and felt great by the end of the week. of course saturday was a really bad day as far as food selection went. but i did do much better yesterday with my eating habits and to top it off, mark and i ran 1.8 miles just because.

oh my, last week's runs were tough. it's been a while since i've been running consistently. i say i'm not back to my usual running self yet. today i feel sluggish and just awful. i did bring my gym bag and running shoes with me to work, but ahhh! the thought of going out for a run on this cold icky gloomy day isn't so appealing at the moment. the weather's changing.. or at least this week anyway. a storm is supposed to come in sometime this afternoon. i hope i'll get home before it comes.

anyway, we'll see how i feel come lunch time. i know i'm supposed to go out and run. ahhh! maybe i'll just run on the treadmill in the gym today or something. i must admit, running does delay my hunger. i don't usually eat until at least an hour after a run.. or at least that's how it was last week. ummm.. alright, we'll see how i do today. if i'm too lazy, i'll probably just get on the treadmill and do 25 mins or something. otherwise, the elliptical or rowing machine will always do it for a good cardio workout. we shall see... :)

one last note, i'm at 102.6lbs this morning. i must admit, it's totally water weight. and the 102lbs is deceiving cuz i know what's making it 102 is totally water. i'm pretty sure my typical weight is 101... so. but i guess we'll find out. well, from now til thanksgiving morning, i still have 7.6 more pounds to lose... so must focus!

getting back on the wagon

summer's over and fall's here. since the start of summer til now, i haven't really been watching my diet or weight. anyway, you can say i gained all those awful extra pounds back again.. yes, the ones i worked so hard to lose! i mean, every night, i was hitting play, doing all 'em pull-ups, push-ups, abs workouts, and not to mention, the countless miles i logged on my ipod nike+ gadget by running.

oh, i feel like the journey back to where i once was a few months ago seems so long. my body is all out of whack. the poor diet i've been eating lately has definitely made me feel sluggish. not to mention, the lack of exercise and countless hours bumming around the house. ahhhh!

alright, well.. today's a new day. i'm giving this another try, with a game plan i hope will help me succeed once and for all. so far, so good. i logged 2.7 miles of running during my lunch hour. ate reasonably well up until now. for dinner, we're having spaghetti so i'll be treating myself to just one serving of spaghetti, with a small piece of bread (lightly buttered) and a side salad w/ a 1/2 tsp of dressing. you can say the overall calories of this meal will be a good 700 calories or so. i know it's quite large, but that's okay considering what i've eaten today. so far, i believe my calorie count is only up to 600. so adding 700 will only give me 1300 for the day. by running for 25mins, that shed off 210 calories, so really, i do have 200 calories to spend if i want to. we'll see if i decide to have dessert tonight. but omg, i seriously need to cut out the sweets. i know.. been baking way too much, consuming too many goodies.

lalalala... stay tune.

starting stats:
weight: 104.2lbs -- ouch!
waist: 27"
hips: 34"
thighs l/r: TBD

personal goal:
weight: 95lbs
waist: 24"
hips: 32"
...and have 'em sexy arms/legs. :P

to-do list:
- cardio (running/elliptical) 20-30mins, 3x a week
- strength training (target areas/circuit) 2-3 sets, 3x a week
- yoga 60mins, 1-2x a week

23.1 miles down, 3.1 more to go

Yes, Mark and I just finished running our last 3 miles this morning to make up the 23.1 miles we have to run before the SFM progressive marathon 5k race we'll be running this Sunday. Ahhh! So excited. It'll be so much fun, I just know it. The atmosphere is just phenomenal at events like this.

Alright, tomorrow's our first ever (indoor) rocking climbing event. I'm so excited! Let's hope I do good. :P

Okay, that's all... more later.

weight gain, socal, golfing, sfm, rock climbing + more?!

so i've gained 2lbs since my birthday. yeah, we were in socal for the weekend this past weekend. actually, more like thursday thru sunday morning. anyway, did tried to eat okay, but of course, you know how it goes sometimes, on vacation, bad food. or more like, anything that's easy to grab. so yup... that's not so great. so yes, mark and i are trying to get back into the routine of things again. we ran the lake yesterday. it's our first time in months! i haven't ran the lake since my leg injury back in early february. omg, it was brutal, but we made it through. :) im just glad to say i can still do it, within a reasonable amount of time. still can't believe the first time i ever ran that lake. my time was like 53 minutes and something second. now, it's anywhere between 42-45mins. okay, of course, im sure there will be times when it's longer than 45mins, but just the fact that i've shed 10mins off of my first ever time, that's pretty amazing. every time i run that lake, im always trying to beat my pr. right now, it's 41:59, yes, just a second under 42mins. would be nice to do it under 40mins one of these days. well.. im not a speed runner, so... dunno when that will happen, but we'll see. i know i should be working on some mini interval running drills, every now and then, but just haven't done it. we'll see about that anyway. im sure mark will enjoy that more than me.

alright, the sfm is this sunday. mark and i still have 3 more miles to log/run for our 23.1 miles before the race. so yup... probably will do that today or tomorrow.. well, definitely by the end of the week, before saturday. oh, we're going indoor rock climbing saturday morning. ahhh! i'm so excited. it's my birthday gift from mark. been asking him forever to go do a rock climbing session with me... he finally said yes! okay, actually, we finally made time for it. so yup... im super excited. gosh, i hope i do well. it'll be both our first time.

oh, speaking of trying out new things, etc... over the weekend while in socal, at our stay at the hyatt in newport beach, they had a 9-hole golf course onsite. we paid and played the course. omg, it was seriously crazy. i mean, i now have a new profound respect for people who actually have the patience to play and finish all 18-holes. not just your eeny meeny short distance holes, but them 200+ yards holes. the course we played yardage range from 50-100 yards for the holes and omg, it was still brutal. by the second hole i was seriously ready to give up. like how am i going to survive all 9 holes? crazy?!!! anyway, i persevered it through, so that was good. very proud of myself for that. but yeah... still brutal. will definitely have to really give it a good thought before i play golf again the next time around. mark did okay. hahaha... but we all still sucked! my score was like 68 and i only played 9 holes (all the holes were par 3's!) hahaha... i think mark finished somewhere in the high 40's and laura in the high 50's. yeah, we sucked! or i mean, i sucked more. :P oh well.

okay, that's all. more next time. :)

happy birthday to me :)

yup, another year... a year older, but that's okay, i'm officially legal legal! i mean, i can now rent a car without all the extra fees. sweet huh? what more can you ask more? next big birthday milestone? hello 30's! hahaha... wow, that's not good right? or nah... actually, i'll be fine. one ultimate goal from now til then? looking nice and tone.. yes, still working on that. oh, and that's not to say i won't be sporting that gorgeous bod from now until then too! hehe... oh, socal later this week. im so excited! wished i had stepped up my workouts for this weekend, but it's okay. we'll get there... eventually. just have to keep pushing play! or go out and run! :P

oh... here's a gluten-free cupcake recipe. made these last night. yum. yeah, been experimenting with different ingredients, trying to get my gluten-free cakes to taste "not gluten" or more like... not dry. okay, here it is. :)

gluten-free vanilla cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
4 tablespoons milk
5 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon mayonnaise

turn oven on to 375 degrees F.

put butter in mixer and beat on medium speed until somewhat smooth. pour in sugar and beat well. add egg, mix well. then add vanilla, baking powder, salt, milk, yogurt and mayonnaise. mix well again. add flour. beat until it looks like it's supposed to and pour into individual baking cups until they are 2/3 full (actually, you can add a bit more, just not all the way full). bake for 20-25 minutes (it will turn golden brown... depending on your oven too i guess).

should make 12 cupcakes. let cool, frost w/ your frosting of choice (a simple vanilla buttercream icing is always good) and eat! yummmmm! enjoy. :)

i'm running again!

yup, you read that right. my leg's doing all better now. i don't feel that awful pain in my right groin area anymore... so that's great! so far i've ran 3 times. the first one was a mini warm-up. mark and i only ran 1.8 miles. oh, while i was on a running hiatus, he was too. so yeah, we ran together for the first time in like 4 months, on june 27. since then, we've ran twice, at 3.2 miles and just recently, yesterday, we ran 4 miles. okay, i ran more than 4 miles, mark only ran 4 miles, but yeah... it was still 4 miles. oh, we're counting all of these runs for our progressive marathon that we're doing w/ the sf marathon come july 26. so let's see... i think we've got 9 miles done and only 14.1 more miles to go to reach the necesssary 23.1 miles we needed to run before race day. anyway, with the distances we're tackling now, i think we can rack up the last 14.1 miles in 4 runs. we want to run the lake again, so that's 4.5 miles there already. with that, we'll only need one of each 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 mile runs. i think that's correct. well, all of our runs should add up to 23.1.. if not, ahhh... iono. we'll have to run a tad bit more if it's not enough. but im pretty sure from now until july 26, we'll have ran more than 23.1 miles. omg, just exciting. i can't wait until race day. im just so glad im able to run again now. i really hope my body stays healthy. it's hope it's all good the rest of the way. :)

oh, yesterday's 4 mile run felt so good. we did what we called "the lawndale route," where we run straight to this one street call lawndale and back. it's a nice simple run with a few hills or lumps? whatever you want to call it, but yeah. there's times throughout the run where the street goes up and down, so you get your inclines and declines along with the straight/flat ones. :) oh, it just felt good yesterday. i feel like my heart could totally handle it, like i was in great shape; everything was just super. hmm... but maybe that could have been due to my pace. well, it was definitely not as fast as i normally would have ran it or anything, cuz i wanted to slow down with mark. but i still finished it in like 40mins, so.. iono. ahhh.. could just be that i kept a pretty consistent pace. anyway, mark didn't want to run too quick this last time. just funny how he was so slow though, he really fell behind. i waited for him one time and then after he caught up to me, he fell back again so i just took off and finished the course. of course, i went back out and finished it with him as well. he did very well, considering having drank 2-1/2 glasses of white wine before the run! hahaha.. yeah, drinking and running isn't such a great combo. so silly!

anyway... let's hope my legs/whole body stays healthy. i want to be running for a really long time. we still need to do our half-marathon/full marathon one of these days, not to mention the triathlon (as soon as i learn how to swim/float!). so yup. :)

ok, n/m, more later.

-2lbs :)

alright, i weighed myself this morning and it reads 99lbs. that's good. so that means for some reason i've lost 3lbs since the last time i weighed myself... which was either yesterday or sunday morning. can't remember. bottom line is though, i still have 2 more pounds to lose to get back to 97lbs. yeah... i know. iono, let's hope those 2lbs can just melt away. of course, im sure that's not going to happen. it'll take lots of discipline and effort from my end. ugh! i haven't exercised in over a week too! on top of that, my diet has been pretty bad.. i didn't do too well yesterday either. now, i must really buckle up and pay attention to what im eating. bottom line, i can't overeat. omg, i swear, i can eat so much, yes... even past the point of being full. hahaha... that's what i did sunday night. i mean, i ate like a pig at the bbq, then came 6pm and mark wanted a nice juicy burger meal from carl's jr. i said, sure, i'll have one too. so i got a famous star burger meal w/ fries and a sprite. thank goodness i didn't finish the burger or the fries... or the drink, but of course, i sure ate a good chunk of the burgers and a few french fries, w/ a few sips of the soda before i said, "no more... im so full!" hahaha.. my tummy was seriously bulging. eww, i know. yuck!

anyway, i feel much better today... although my tummy still feels fat and i still feel a bit bloated. i know i must do better today. will be a bit tricky though, i must say. today at work everyone's going out for my big big boss's 40th birthday at this one Mediterranean restaurant. their food is always so yummy. i can seriously eat so much pita bread w/ hummus. i know... ugh! i can't do that. okay, let's hope that doesn't happen. anyway, i'll just have to be good today. we'll see. :)

ummm... ok, more later. and yes, i know, i need to start running! must do, cuz the sf marathon's 5k is only in 26 days. ahhhh!!! =/