I’ve been a vegetarian for over a year now. it took me a while to give up meat cold turkey, but thankfully I was able to combat my meat cravings through self-control. Still, these past few months has been a struggle *sigh*. When I was in California, I just gave in to my cravings and ate A LOT of seafood and totally binged on the chili Seth’s mom made. I hope this year with more self-control I will continue with my vegetarian lifestyle.
So Jing, is a Vegetarian diet the most healthiest way to go?
Yes, and no, certainly, a vegetarian diet is a great way to stay healthy and help you maintain a healthy weight if you follow a nutritionally balanced diet. On the other hand, avoiding meat won’t keep you healthy, vegetarians must find a way to get the protein, iron, calcium, amino acids, Omega fatty acids that are lacked in Vegetables and fruit. However in the long run a vegetarian who sticks to a balanced diet tend to live longer and healthier lives than do animal eaters.
(tip: I get my protein from energy bars or protein shakes instead of meat).
In terms of my working out as one of my New Years resolution, I really want to improve my endurance! I’ve been doing a lot of HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING as well as strength training (I personally prefer strength training). My current routine is 30 minutes of HIIT and 30 minutes of weightlifting everyday. I LOVE IT! One of my motivating factors in working out more at the gym is, listening to music. By listening to my favorite music I was able to workout harder and be more energized. My goal this year is to be able to run 4 miles in 45 minutes (every other day)! At the same time I want to increases my reps to 40 all by the end of 2012 *fingers crossed*!
I’ve been working my ass off these past few months on the pre-requisite courses for nursing school, still I feel I could do better. Just one more year left on this battle ground and it will soon pay off. I must work hard!
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What can I say, 2011 was an amazing year; First and for most, I have met the most amazing person in the world, Seth. I’ve established my future in NURSING. Most of all, I’ve come to accept the things I cannot control and I’ve gained courage to work on the things in my life I can control. Since no one really read any of my blogs, I’ll just rant about some of the stuff I did over the past month.
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I went to California again on my birthday (11/14/86) to Seth! While I was over there he took me to Disneyland and Knott Berry Farm! I rode on a rollercoaster for the first time (Ghost Rider). My experience? “I felt like a bear mauled me and took my honey!” *long pause* In all seriousness, I was so scared! I closed my eyes throughout the whole ride. I had saliva all over my face after the ride.“What the heck!” Apparently, Seth thought it was amusing. LOL. Never the less, I would say this was one of THE best birthdays I’ve ever had in my life because I was able to spend it with Seth. Ha! We also adopted a homeless dog and named it JING.
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Personally, I think the true meaning of Christmas is screwed up nowadays. Traditionally it’s about observing Christ and living life in simplicity and humility, but Its now all about presents, food and shopping. WTF! Whatever. My family never celebrated Christmas (like I mentioned before) we kept it very simple and just invited a couple friends over and ate some leftovers! LOL! The two people we invited were these two teenagers (YANG CHENG , 15 & DA GUO, 18), sons of my dads friends from China. They hardly spoke much English so we just conversed in Mandarin Chinese. They were quite nice though. I am also in the process of sending out Christmas cards to friends overseas. Other than that, my Christmas has been studying for my Pre-requisite courses for Nursing and talking to Seth. So yeah, my Christmas wasn’t as extravagant like most people but it was simple, the way I like it.
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2012
As we come to the end of 2011 year, looking back I’m sure all of us has changed somewhat since the beginning of 2011. I know for me I’ve accepted the fact that there are things in life that you can’t change, you’re only best bet is to make the best of what you have now and work on the future. I leave you now with one of my favorite quote from the Bible….
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
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Currently: Thinking about Seth
Listening to: YANNI
Watching: HOWLS MOVING CASTLE
Eating/Drinking: Pasta w/ Alfredo sauce
and drinking Acai (I need to loss weight)
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We come to our last 2 days of my stay in California. This is by far MY MOST FAVORITE DAY during my stay in California! I finally get to enjoy some good old home cooked meal. Seth was working (again) and so he decided to introduce me to his parents to keep me feeling less bored while he was working.
My first thought was “Sweet! I can finally cook some good old home cooked Chinese food for them” Ha! As awesome as they were, they actually drove me to this Asian market place (Vietnamese I think) so I could pick out all the groceries and stuff to prepare.
Here are the dishes I made: Egg w/ tomato, Eggplant w/ green peas, Mushroom with green pepper and Grilled spinach w/ chicken.
Later on Seth’s family and I set around their dinner table and totally pigged out! Gave the left overs to Seth! Ha! So around dinner time while going through home videos of of Seth childhood his mom was preparing some delicious Enchilada. This is real authentic home made Enchilada not the fake ones by Taco-Bell (which I never had any) The preparation was complex man!
I’m just a simple person really, doesn’t take a lot to make me happy. A simple home cooked meal with my close friends and family is all it takes. This day surpassed all the sites and attractions that I saw in California. I am definitely looking forward to hanging out with them again!
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So we come to my last day in California OCTOBER. 07. To be honest with you I didn’t want to leave. Not because of how fun California was but because of the great people I met while I was here. Going back to Omaha, NE would mean I would not see them for a month (November 11th).
We didn’t really plan to do much that day, just decided out of the blue we go to Laguna Beach. So after 2 hours of tedious driving we made it and was welcomed by annoying flies and smelly sea weed. Oh yes that was pleasant indeed *eye roll* but that aside we had a great time. By the way it surprised me that LAGUNA BEACH series was filmed in this location. Anyway, stay in Laguna beach, strolled down the street and came home around 6:00pm.
Overall my trip to California was good. Not sure about living in California in the future though. Property tax are like so damn expensive! I would also miss the winter season ALOT. So I would not want to move to California as of now but we’ll see what happens.
Anyway, I shall return to California on my Birthday….
so I’ll end it here. Adios!
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BLVD
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Have I mention how awful the traffic is in SoCal yet? It took us about 4 hours to get here (Hollywood Blvd) its madness I tell you! LOL! The day started out a blast. Seth had to go to work so I asked my friend Greg to show me around. To be honest I thought Hollywood Blvd was not as magnificent as I thought it would be. I thought the place would be bursting with people and noise and sites and sounds but when I arrived the place was quiet, not many people on the street, and some run-down places that I rather not even go near. Honestly, from a scale of 1-10 I give Hollywood Blvd a 7.
Greg and I (a.k.a my friend/tour guide) also took a tour bus to see all the “celebrity houses” up on Beverly Hills (was an hour long) and apparently our tour guide bragged about how he knows numerous celebrities that lived there *eye roll* yeah in your dreams buddy! I’m still not sure whether he was telling the truth or making all the stuff up about where those celebs lived. On a personal note, the day ended quite bad due to me being an idiot and pretty much ruined my mood during the rest of my stay in California. What happened, happened and I’m glad things has gotten better.
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If there are two thing I liked most about my trip to California it would have to be the FOOD AND HANGING OUT WITH MY BUDDIES (Seth and Greg) Seriously, I don’t care much about shopping in named brand stores, I don’t care about the beaches or the whole Hollywood aroma. All I care about was the food and hanging out with two of the most nicest people I’ve ever met (Seth and Greg).
This day Seth was still working and so Greg took me around Chinatown and Korea-town. In Korea-town (of all places) he took me to this really nice Mexican restaurant. The food there oh man! It was probably one of THE best places I’ve ever eaten. I’m pretty sure I gained a few pounds there that day. Ha!
All-n-all it was a really simple and relax day. We didn’t do much site seeing but rather went to the mall and ate damn good food. I wish Omaha had a decent Mexican restaurant. Kind of embarrassed to say we only have Taco-Bell that I have never eaten.
Please excuse this belated blog entry. I’ve just been a lazy sloth lately. LOL *lowers head in shame* So without further a due I’d like to share some personal thoughts on my first trip to California (SEPT-OCT)
I’ve never been to California. Before this trip, I’ve always had a bit of a disdain when it comes to the subject of California (the reason shall be discussed later). Materialism, shallowness, air-pollution are some of the words that would pop in to my head when California is mentioned. I never really thought of going to California either since I’m so used to living in a peaceful small towns here in NE. But alas, the only reason I decided to go to California this time was to meet one of the nicest and one of my closest friends, SETH.
However, since coming back from California, I actually think its not a bad place at all. Some people in California were actually much nicer than I had imagined. Ha! And the air wasn’t all covered with dense CO2 smog as I had thought. But the bad traffic still remains, aye. Blah! I sound like a travel agent, screw that. I’ll just jump to the good stuff and talk about the places I’ve been, aye.
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DAY 1- VENICE BEACH ![2368575qkf7jxvna8[5]](http://mizzjinghu.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/2368575qkf7jxvna85.gif "2368575qkf7jxvna8[5]"){kind=small}
OCT.1- I remember Seth waking me up at 7 a.m. that day so we won’t have to endure the execrable traffic. Indeed I was a walking corpse that day due to the lack of sleep. We arrived in Venice Beach around mid-noon. The first thing I’ve noticed was the tall ass palm trees the far as the eye could see I was like “Wow!” (What do you expect! I live in the mid-west. We don’t have those there! lol)
Now, having been to HAWAII (home to one of the worlds most beautiful beaches) Venice beach can’t compete. but I will say this, the small shops. the variety of entertainment, the Venice beach gym and all the craziness along the boardwalk are quite unique and I love it.
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DAY 2 – GETTY MUSEUM
Now I know most people would say “Waahhh! Jing, why you show us pictures some lame museum!” Waahhh” But this is more than a museum it USED TO BE A GUYS’ HOUSE! It used to belong to an American Industrialist named J. PAUL GETTY in 1954. He expanded the house with a museum wing and later build a replica of an Italian Villa to better house his collections. Its truly a beautiful place. Man! How I regret wearing my Jeffrey Campbell boots that day! At first the shoes felt quite comfy and I thought “hey maybe I can try it out today” but just when we got to the Garden my feet was in pain! And I’m not just talking about “oh dear, my feet is a tad bit soar” I’m talking about “holy shit! my feet hurts like a [censored] and I’m about to go fall” you get the idea. So due to my feet we left Getty Museum early and headed home.
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Current mood: content…
Listening to: YANNI- THE STORM
Drinking: Bottled water and cashews
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I want to share with you all some of my workout tips. I’ve listed some terminologies so you can all follow through and start toning up your body. It has done it for me! I hope this helps you all to loss weight and tone up. I’m not going to lie, it takes A LOT of hard work, dedication and sweat to stay fit. I believe the key to losing weight are…COMMITMENT AND DEDICATION.
MY STRENGTH TRAINING WORKOUT
+SHOULDER PRESS (targets: shoulders)
+LATERAL RAISE (targets: medial deltoid)
+ FRONT RAISE (targets: clavicle)
*FRENCH PRESS (targets: triceps)
+PUSH-UPS (targets: shoulders and back)
*SQUATS (targets: inner-thighs)
MY CARDIO WORKOUT
*I RUN 3-4 miles (5 days a week)
*I WALK 2-3 miles (everyday)
*I JUMP ROPE 15 minutes (3 days a week)
*I DO STEP UPS AND LATERAL STEP-UPS EVERDAY
(targets: gluteus Maximus-minus, hamstrings, thighs)
*these pictures were taken in FEBRUBARY OF THIS YEAR. I think I lost a bit of weight since then.
By the way, I’m actually 5’3′ (it’s all good!)*
To be honest. I never diet. But alas I shall share 3 simple rules I follow.
1. Eat in small portions frequently. This will cause your metabolism to rise.
2. BUILD MUSCLES! Muscles are 10x more metabolic than fat. Strength training is your best friend.
3. Cut back on bad CARBS and eat MONO/POLY UNSATURATED FATS (found in almonds, cashews, walnuts, fish etc.,) to build a strong heart.
****If you eat too much bad carbohydrates your body will store that extra unwanted carbs into stored energy (a.k.a fat). When that fat builds up in your bloodstream over time it will lead to “Atherosclerosis” (hardening of the arteries)
EAT “GOOD” CARBOHYDRATE FOODS LIKE:
AVOID BAD CARBOHYDRATES FOOD LIKE:
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Veggies we planted this summer….
This summer hasn’t really been a great season for planting vegetables in our garden. There has been numerous hail storms, thunderstorms, ridiculous amount of rain and flooding here in the Mid-west. Oh and did I mention, when we had a hail storm back in June it killed ALL the cucumbers I PLANTED !?! *shakes fist at the sky* So we replanted it and now its suffering from some sort of undiagnosed disease. *sigh* We doubt its even alive now. In any case we DID manage to ripe some really great LEEK, LETTUCE, PARSLEY, GARLIC, CABBAGE! ![anim_64[3]](http://mizzjinghu.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/anim_643.gif "anim_64[3]"){kind=small}
Here are some STUFF WE PLANTED IN 2009. Good times! I tell you, that year we ripped so much stuff (e.x peaches, tomatoes, eggplant, leeks, cucumbers, bitter melon, apples.,etc.) I guess this year was alright. At least no bugs ate off the leaves.
I really hope more people can grow their own food.
Its healthier, cheaper and definitely rewarding!
Lettuce (top) & Garlic (bottom)
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stem lettuce (left) & parsley (right)
Onion + Leek (left) & Spinach (right) 
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Current mood: Procrastinating
Listening to: MASSARi- REAL LOVE
Eating/Drinking- ACAI JUICE
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I just want to make a quick update on all the exciting event going on in my life (not really). I’ve been taking a couple of Nursing courses and it has taking most of my time . I’ve been waking up at 6:00 a.m. just so I can get a decent parking spot (it’s crazy). And by the time I come home it’s usually around 6 p.m. The rest of the time I just workout at the Gym (I love it!)
I’ve started HIIT! And the workout HIIT gives you is amazing!
HIIT is a very demanding workout, but the results are rewarding! HIIT produces EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption). This is increased oxygen consumption and increase in metabolism after strenuous activity. The body continues to require oxygen at a level that exceeds oxygen requirements when the exercise began in order to re-oxygenate the blood, restore the body’s pre workout temperature, heart rate, and breathing. —HIIT will make you faster, leaner, stronger.
(For more info on HIIT visit this website)
|http://www.lovetheburnblog.com/exercises/hiit-high-intensity-interval-training/
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Keep in mind I do HIIT 2-3 times a week
1. 5-15 minute warm-up
2. 5 minutes of stretching
3. On 3.8 MPH LOW INTERVAL
(for about 3-4 minutes)
4. On 6.0 MPH HIGH INTENSITY
(for about 20 minutes)
5. On 4.0 MPH LOW INTERVAL
(for about 10 minutes)
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February. 21-24th- Indeed our trip to Hawaii has been one of the best vacation ever! On our last day in Hawaii we actually ate at a very small Hawaiian restaurant. We tried LAULAU, POL, SQUID LUAU for the first time. And I actually liked POL! Many Hawaiian didn’t like it but I thought it tasted like yogurt with a dash of salt. Mmmm!
We also manage to go to WORLD MARKET the day before we left Hawaii. In a nut shell, the WORLD MARKET as these small shops that sold merchandises and artifacts such as woodcrafts and orchids and leis ALL AT AN AFORDABLE PRICE!!!! And I need to exaggerate on the affordable because EVERYTHING outside of the International market Place items are about 10 times more expensive. REAL TALK! So my family and I definitely bought a lot of stuff here. yeah like over 10 orchids. LOL!
. 
*Obviously they love their home state PRESIDENT, don’t they? ^____^*
BOBBLE HEADS OBAMA FTW!!
Right beside the International Market place is the DUKE PAOA KAHANAMOKU *phew* Statue. Duke Paoa Kahanamoku came up with the whole idea surfing. He actually won the first ever surfing competition in the Olympic games. No doubt, he is a cultural symbol and loved by many Hawaiian people. Notice the Leis and fire torches: they said it was to pay tribute and respect to Him.
BACK TO OUR HOTEL
My mom decided that we take the bus back to our hotel. So we took the bus and about 30 minutes we were back at our hotel exhausted. I literally just collapse on the bed I was just pooped. LOL. As much as I have LOVED Hawaii and enjoyed almost everything about it there were however situations and things about Hawaii that left a slight negativity during our stay.There were times we met some really rude, and cold people. There was this one lady that I asked for directions to didn’t even look me in the eye when I was talking to her. And that lady at the first restaurant we went to made us wait without any consideration for an hour. But then in every place you get mean and kind people so I guess this is not a big deal but still it left a slight bad impression. Then there was the expensive food and housing prices in Hawaii. EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING is expensive in HAWAII”even a gallon of milk costs over 8 dollars! O__O* You have been warned! And the living cost is just tremendous amount of money 1,500 dollars a a week if you were to rent out an apartment (NOT including bills and food) Seriously! O__O
On the 24th of February morning,we packed our bags and headed to the airport and bit farewell to HAWAII. *sniff* *sniff* Honestly, I didn’t want to leave Hawaii! It was just such an amazing place. The beaches, the food, the culture and the warm weather of Hawaii can never be surpassed by any other State in the U.S. (in my opinion at least) Sure, like I said before there are negative aspect about Hawaii (everything being expensive, the reserved sometimes cold attitudes of some Hawaiians), but every place on this planet has its pros and cons when it comes to traveling, one must have an open mind. But when it comes down to it’s a great place for vacation!!! I shall leave you now and let you all absorb the last few picture of Hawaii!
MAHALO NUI LOA FOR VISITING!
