My life through my iPhone

Right now San Francisco is an exciting place to be due to the World Series. I'm not really a Giants fan but I will root for the home team. Fear the beard!

View of SF from the Golden Gate Bridge

Looking into Cavallo Point

Fun way to get around the city

My first work out

As I mentioned in my previous post, I really want to lose 1.8 pounds by next Wednesday to be able to haul & use the Sephora Family & Friends coupon. It will be a splurge if I can reach this first goal of losing 19 pounds. It's been over 5 years since I've worked out. Back then, I was going to Curves and trying the Atkins lifestyle. To be able to reach this goal, I would need to be more diligent in my food intake and also work out. I was going to start by walking. Well, I wasthisclose to just not doing anything after I got home from work. Why?

• The walking shoes I ordered aren't here yet. My Converse aren't really the optimal shoe to walk in.
• I don't have workout clothes. All I have are jeans and I wouldn't be comfortable working out in them.
• It looks like it's going to rain.
• I want to watch the World Series.
• I'll go tomorrow.
• I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and I am tired.
• My earbuds stopped working and how can I walk with no music?

You know what these are... freaking excuses!!! I kept telling myself these things on the bus ride back to my apartment. I was seriously trying to talk myself out of walking. But I got home and remembered that I had my original iPhone earbuds so I pulled those out of the box. I put on my freaking jeans and my beloved Converse and I got my booty to the Golden Gate Bridge. I've always wanted to be one of those people who worked out on that bridge and now I am.

The deets on my first walk are pitiful but at least I have a starting point & can only improve from this point forward. I started using the Nike+ app on the iPhone to track my progress.

(click to enlarge)

As you can see from the first picture & if you are familiar with the bridge, I walked to the first tower and back which was a little bit over a mile (1.66 km). My goal will be to improve my distance and/or time every day I walk. Once I got back to my car, I felt a bit winded but also really good about myself for actually doing something to help me lose weight. Yes, it wasn't too comfortable walking in jeans but I did it. And yes, it did start to rain a bit but I'm not made of sugar :)

And oh yeah, GO GIANTS!

Monday Weigh In - Week 5

I usually have a case of the Mondays but I was really looking forward to today since it was my weigh in day. I wasn't sure what to expect since last week was a bit of a shocker to me but I went in with a positive attitude. When I saw that I only lost .2 pounds, I will say that I was pretty disappointed. But then I realized that I now weigh less than I did back in March of 2009. Can't be disappointed at that!

I also know that I didn't have nearly enough water this week and that I lagged in my tracking which I will be diligent about from now on. I also made some bad food choices. I didn't overeat or go over my daily POINTS but some of the food I had was not as healthy as I have been eating. Trader Joe's has these delicious pistachio cookies which were my downfall this week. When I went to the grocery store today, I did not pick up another box. Did get plenty of fruit and veggies.

After 6 weeks on Weight Watchers & 5 successful weigh ins, I am down 17.2 pounds. If I want to be able to take advantage of the Sephora Famile & Friends coupon, I will have to lose 1.8 more pounds by Wednesday, November 3rd. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is.

Friend Makin’ Monday

I saw this posted on another blog and thought that it was a great idea.

The topic for today is What are your holiday traditions?

In my family, the big holiday is Christmas which is typically spent in Mexico City with my family. We celebrate Christmas Eve and open up our presents that night. I have a big family on my mom's side (over 100 family members starting from my grandparents) and although half of us don't live in Mexico City, we all try to gather around during that time. I have many memories of dancing, singing and playing with my cousins. When we were kids, we used to have gift exchanges and lots of traditional yummy Mexican food such as pozole, tostadas, tinga, ensalada de manzana (apple salad) & ponche. And of course going to the posadas was something I always looked forward to.

But as we have gotten older and some of my cousins have married, it is harder for all of us to get together. But when we do, we have a lot of fun and are always making new memories together.

This is me. . .

Kenz from All the Weigh posted this on her blog and I thought it was really interesting so I decided to take a stab at it.

1. What was your highest weight, what do you weigh right now and what is your goal weight?
According to WW, my goal weight should be 164 pounds. If I ever reach that goal, I won't know what to do with myself. Right now, my first long term goal is to get to 200 pounds. I would still be considered overweight but that's a number I can actually consider doable. I still don't feel comfortable sharing my highest weight. I still struggle with that every day because I can't believe that I am this size. However, I've lost 17 pounds so far and I am hoping that by next week, I will reach the 5% weight loss mark.

2. What is your #1 motivation for losing weight?
I want to be healthy. I could say that I want to be skinny and yes I do want that but really, I want to be healthy. I want to be comfortable in my own skin.

3. Have you always been overweight?
I was a chubby kid however, I used to be active. I used to play soccer and was in a competitive swimming league. But after I got to high school, I stopped competing and sort of been gaining weight ever since.

4. When you want to give up what inspires you to keep going?
I've given up many many times but this time has been the longest I've ever been on a journey to lose weight. I like how I've been feeling. I have more energy and I can see subtle changes in me. I've also been reading different weight loss blogs and been inspired by them.

5. What is the #1 thing you look forward to when you hit your goal weight?
Have people look at me and seeing ME and not my size.

6. Do you have support on your weight loss journey?
I've told a few friends and family members but so far, I mostly talk about it on this blog. I am not as open with it because I feel like people will judge me if they see me eating something that I shouldn't and to be honest, I don't think I could handle the added pressure. It's not that I don't want to be held accountable. To me, that is what the WW weigh ins are for and I am committed to posting every Monday whether or not I lost weigh that week. I do appreciate anyone who comments on my posts or responds to my tweets because I feel like people are out there rooting for me.

7. What is your favorite exercise?
I actually can't say that I have one. I just purchased some walking sneakers and will begin a work out routine once I receive them. At first, I will probably walk around my neighborhood and see how it goes from there. I am thinking of taking advantage of the awesome bridge near my house (Golden Gate) and walk on it. It's 1.7 miles from one vista point to the other and it's only 3 minutes from my house.

8. What is the most important thing you have learned on your weight loss journey?
I am still a work in progress but what I have learned so far is that I can do it. These past few weeks haven't been easy but I've been trying really hard and am really making myself a priority.

9. What is one thing you have given up that you miss the most?
Breakfast from Starbucks which included a high calorie hot beverage and an even higher calorie count pastry.

10. What is your strategy for losing weight?
Track everything I eat and stay within my POINTS. Sounds simple and it is but it's so hard to stick to it.

I'll probably revisit this questionnaire later on and see how I've changed.

My life through my iPhone

The sunrise while waiting for the bus

Transamerica Pyramid in the Financial District

Art in Chinatown

Monday Weigh In - Week 4

I wasn't sure how much weight I would lose this week. I was hoping for an optimistic 3 pounds but realistically, I thought it would be more like 1 or 2 pounds. When they told me that I lost 5 pounds I was SO excited. Holy Frak! I feel so happy with myself and the progress I've made so far. I didn't think I would do so great because I had a "bad" night on Saturday. I went to an Oktoberfest event where there was a potluck and lots of booze. I tried really hard to watch what I ate and drank & although I didn't eat as much as I would before, I still thought I went over board. I was diligent with my food intake all week because I knew that I was going to be out of my comfort zone on Saturday and my hard work paid off.

I talked to one of the leaders and discussed goals. I am going to be following their goal setting method rather than doing one on my own since it will be hard to keep track of both. I will reward myself when I meet the goals set by them and see how that works. My first goal is a 5% loss which I think I will achieve in time for the Sephora Family & Friends event. I had originally said 10% but I had a different weight loss amount set in mind. I will now be following the guidelines of set my BMI for my age and height.

Monday Weigh In - Week 3

Another one bites the dust! More like 3. I weighed in this morning and am down 3 more pounds for a 3 week total of 12. I am sort of amazed to be quite honest. I have sort of gotten into a routine and that's helping me a lot. I know that losing weight should be enough of a reward itself but I feel that if I set some short term goals, it will keep me motivated during those weeks where the scale doesn’t move or when I feel like I just want to eat really badly. The past 3 weeks have been going well for two reasons – motivation and planning. Seeing that I am losing weight has kept me motivated. I also think that I found the right mix of foods to keep me full throughout the day. For the first few days, I felt like I was starving all the time. Now I find that I am not feeling hungry towards dinner time and when I do feel like I am hungry, I drink some water and then I realize that I wasn’t really hungry. I am also eating fairly healthy. When I had attempted WW before, I would always get the 100 calorie packs as snacks. Even if it’s 100 calories, it’s still junk food and not very filling. My snacks lately have been honey crisp apples (nature’s candy), raw nuts and carrots with humus. I find that they keep me full and I enjoy eating them. I am sure that as time goes by I will grow tired of them and will have to find other healthy snacks but for now these are working for me.

Planning ahead has really been important for me to eat healthy. Even when I have gone out to dinner, I have looked at menus and calculated POINTS values to make sure that what I order is within my POINTS range. I thought it would be hard because it’s so tempting but a little work prior to going out has really helped me out. It’s shocking to see how many calories different foods have. Leslie commented that "awareness brings change" and it's amazing how my choices have changed now that I am more aware of how many calories different meals have. Even my choices in drinks have changed. Now I think do I want to eat or drink my calories? Here’s an example of what happened last week. I stopped at Peet’s Coffee with my sister and I really like their white raspberry mochas with whip cream. I usually get the large which has 547 calories & 25 grams of fat. Like Joey from Blossom would say… whoooooa! What I ended up ordering was a large venti iced Americano with a splash of cream which has 25 calories & 0 grams of fat. It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out what the better choice was.

As long as I keep myself motivated, I think I can continue down this path. I had a non scale victory this week which is proving to me that losing this weight is working. I’ve been taking the bus to work and if any of you have visited San Francisco, you know that this city is full of hills. It’s fun walking down them but not walking up them. My bus drops me off a couple of blocks from work and there is this one hill I gotta tackle. In the past, I would have to stop midway through it to catch my breath but this week, I have been able walk up it without having to stop. It may not seem like much but for me it was huge. I am no Speedy Gonzalez but I feel good not being out of breath by doing something as simple as walking.

As far as short term goals are concerned, I think when I lose 10% of my desired weight loss, I will be rewarding myself with a little shopping trip to Sephora. Their friends and family event is coming up at the end of October & there are a few items that I want to get. If I work really hard at it, I will be able to reach this first goal by that time. Oh and in case you are wondering what is on my Sephora list, I really want to try the MUFE Smoky Lash mascara, the NARS Loose Powder and Fresh Lip Treatment. I’ve also been eyeing the Clairsonic Mia but that may have to wait for a 30 or 40 percent loss.

What keeps you motivated?

Russia? Yep, I was there.

If I had to pick my favorite spots throughout the cruise, it would have to be St. Petersburg & Tallin for different reasons.

We were able to spend 2 days in St Petersburg but because we didn’t have visas to let us into Russia, we could only tour the city if we were in a excursion with the ship. We signed up for three of them and each of them were very unique in their own way. The first excursion was an early morning tour of the city. Because it was a Saturday morning, the street of St Petersburg were pretty empty so we got a chance to walk around and see a lot since there wasn’t any traffic or people wondering around. In fact, we even saw a couple of girls doing the walk of shame while leaving a club at around 8:30am. The weather was perfect that morning especially since Russia was experiencing a heat wave while we were there. The heat doesn’t compare to how hot California can get but because they aren’t used to the hot weather and it’s extremely humid, the heat was unbearable. But more on that in a bit. Like I mentioned because we couldn’t leave our excursion, after sightseeing with the group for about 4 hours we went back to the ship to get something to eat and then met up with the second tour guide for our next excursion.

I actually liked this excursion a lot because we got to ride the subway which was a neat way to travel. We ended up visiting the Kuznechny market which didn’t really live up to my expectations. It was like a farmer’s market but I think I am spoiled by the farmer’s markets in SF. Afterwards we went to the downtown area of St Petersburg and it was crowded & hot. We ended up going to another outdoor market where they had a lot of matryoshkas, fur clothing, tea sets, amber jewelry and lots of knick knacks for us tourists. I think we stayed out until 5 that day and then our tour bus took us back to the ship. It doesn’t seem like a lot but we were exhausted.

The next day we only had one excursion lined up and that was a 4 hour tour of the Hermitage Museum or as I like to refer it to as the Russian sauna. Remember how I mentioned the heat wave in Russia? Imagine being in a museum with no air conditioning which was packed with people in the middle of the afternoon. I had flat ironed my hair that morning and by the end of the day, it was a hot frizzy mess. The museum was so awesome but the heat made it difficult to enjoy. According to our guide, it has over 20,000 rooms and probably saw 5% of the museum if that. Afterwards we did a little bit of shopping and then went back to the ship. Besides London, St Petersburg is one of the cities that I would really like to spend more time in. I'll touch on Tallin in my next post. Now on to the pictures.

First view of St Petersburg as we ride into the city by bus

Downtown St Petersburg

On our way to the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood

And here is the church. That is actual gold on the tops of it.

On some of the streets, they have framed art and no one steals it. What a shocker!

The back of the Hermitage Museum

Token used to ride the subway

Matryoshkas

Palace Square and the statue of Alexander Pushkin who is a famous Russian poet

First National Bank of Russia

Inside the Hermitage Museum

A view of St Petersburg from inside the museum

How I felt at the end of the day... :)

The Hunger Games Trilogy

I tend to judge books by their covers. I know that I shouldn't but if a cover doesn't catch my eye, I am less likely to pick it up. Thankfully the Hunger Games was recommended to me otherwise I would have missed on this awesome book series. It's sort of hard for me to explain what the book is about without giving too much away. Simply put, the book takes place in the future and they have this event called the Hunger Games which are sort of like the Olympics. The contestants are in their teens and the way to win the game is to survive. That is all I will say.

It took me a while to get into the series because I was being held hostage by paranormal romance books but after I read the first 3 chapters, I was hooked. It took me about 2 weeks to read all three books and at the end, I was emotionally spent. These are considered young adult books but I would've never guessed that. If you are looking for a great series to read, I highly recommend you give this one a try.

Monday Weigh In - Week 2

I had my weigh in today and I wasn't sure how I would do. I stayed within my POINTS this week but I didn't make the same healthy choices as I did last week. My weight loss today was 3.2 pounds bringing it to a total of 9 pounds in two week. Yay!

Some of the things I learned this week is that my willpower is very weak. As a "treat" to myself, I ended up getting a pint of pineapple coconut ice cream. Delish! I looked at the calories/fat/fiber and realized that I could eat a serving and it wouldn't add too may POINTS to my day. I did just eat one serving and kept going back for just one spoonful. One spoonful turned into three and I realized that it wasn't ok. I ended up throwing the pint of ice cream away. Too hard to resist. I think as long as I keep my house filled with healthy choices I will be able to follow through with this new way of eating.

Another thing that I learned was that I shouldn't "treat" myself with food. I need to find a better way to reward myself because losing the weight isn't enough, right? All kidding aside, I should set some short term and long term goals since this weight loss journey is bound to be a long one. Something that keeps me motivated.

For this week, I will work on setting some goals and also upping my water intake. I know that I should be drinking more than what I am right now.