"Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it"

–Bruce lee.

R.I.P

Aloha Nui Loa Everyone!

PART I – STRENGTH TRAINING WORKOUT

Here are MY 3 strength training workouts, Currently I do about 3 sets with 20-40 repetitions.

Lateral raise (targets: posterior deltoid)-lateral raises target each part of of the shoulders as well as the upper back. When doing shoulder raises,only lift the weight up to shoulder level. When doing rear flies, lead with the side of the hand and imagine you’re making a smiley face as you lift the arms up. My routine 3 sets 40 reps.

 Frontal raise (targets: Anterior deltoid)-the front raise targets the “anterior deltoid muscles or frontal shoulder muscles this move also involveother shoulder muscle groups as well. I recommend using a lighter weight since you are raising both of your arms and holding it for a duration of time. My routine 3 sets 30 reps.

Shoulder press (deltoid muscles) -I believe this particular exercise should be in every standard workout because it targets all the parts of the shoulders. Shoulder press can be challenging for some people because your pressing the weight over your head. I would start out with lighter weights, My routine 3 sets of 30 reps.

PART II- MY “HIIT” CARDIO WORKOUT

I find jogging and running in a constant pace REALLY BORING T_T. So for my cardio, I do HIIT. HITT or “high intensity interval training” 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.

Did you get all that? Hahaha! In layman terms, its basically the best if not THE best all-round cardio workout for your body. Currently, I do about 30 minutes of HIIT and 30 minutes of incline training.

 

*Pictures taken on February, 6th 2011*

 

Day 5- HOME COOKED

MEXICAN + CHINESE FOOD

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!

LAST DAY IN CALIFORNIA *le sigh*- LAGUNA BEACH

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!

Day 3 –    BLVD

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.

Day 4- AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FOOD

(in Korea-town)

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.

TO BE CONTINUED…

(NEXT: HOME MADE MEXICAN FOOD @ SETHS HOME)

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)

MY THOUGHTS ON CALIFORNIA

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.

DAY 1- VENICE BEACH

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.

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.

TO BE CONTINUED…

(NEXT: HOLLYWOOD BLVD)

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! 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)

stem lettuce (left) & parsley (right)

Onion + Leek (top) & Spinach (bottom)

Current mood: tired
Listening to: MASSARi- REAL LOVE
Eating/Drinking- ACAI JUICE

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/

Keep in mind I do HIIT 2-3 times a week

(HIIT is intense and mentally demanding so

try and have a rest day afterward)

MY HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL

ROUTINE

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)

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!

INTERNATIONAL MARKET PLACE

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!!

DUKE PAOA KAHANAMOKU

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  

Overall,
MY TRIP TO HAWAII WAS WONDERFUL!

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!

HANAUMA BAY
AND DOWNTOWN

I must say. Downtown was probably MOST favorite part of my stay in Hawaii! In the morning we drove straight to HANAMUNA BAY. Apparently this Bay is quite popular and many of our family friends suggested we must go and see. To be honest with you. It was good but we didn’t really see anything due to the sea of people! Hahaha! Literally it will take you hours to actually find a quiet area to sit beside the bay.

FEBRURAY 21-22-

TRADITIONAL HAWAII FOOD

DOWNTOWN HONOLULU! Now here is what I most liked! To get to know the history of this unique island of Hawaii. Below you can see the statue of KING KAMEHAMEHA he was the first king to unite the islands of HAWAII. And his wife introduced Christianity to Hawaii. It really made me sad Hawaii too was under the control of colonial power (BRITISH) *shakes fist at the British crown* Oh well. Right across from KING KAMEHAMEHA Statue you’ll find  ‘Iolani Palace, the official residence of King Kalākaua and Queen’

*I actually REALLY LIKED POL*

PEARL HARBOR

The rest of the trip well. We visited Pearl Harbor. When we were in Pearl Harbor’s U.S.S Arizona, I was SO emotionally touched when seeing how these young men (15-18 years of age) with their whole lives ahead of them died so suddenly. The images I saw of USS Arizona and USS Missouri I will never forget.

TO BE CONTINUED….

There is one more to come…