IM GOING VEGAN: day 14

Very good day. Started early with a 3 hour gym visit:

Workout: burned 1600 calories... wowzzzzeeerrrsss
1 mile treadmill
1 mile stairmaster
500 meters rowing
P90x- kenpo & ab ripper
TRX

Meals:
1 slice wheat bread, 2 tbsp peanut butter
2 vegan ribs, 1 cup cauliflower
Wildcat sushi w/tofu
Some pad thai w/tofu
Miso soup
3 shots

Water: 128oz woooohoooooo

Did some makeup shopping, trying to figure out this contouring & bought a dark lipstick - mahagony by nyc .. I'm loving it! This side pony is giving me totes Yonce!

Date night with the hubby. It was a long time coming and so much fun. Went to the K-States women basketball (they won) and we had some Wildcat spirit. Had tofu "sushi" & he had beef pho. Later we walked around the "ville" where all the college students hang & I had a firebomb (cinnamon & whiskey) it cleared up my cough for a few minutes.

Travel Vlogs | Lost In the Woods

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30 Day Push Goal Challenge: Day 2

How to determine your priorities:

So it's been over a week since I began the 30 day challenge and true to form I fell off the wagon. I really didn't want too but I just felt so overwhelmed with life...and blah blah blah. I HAD thought I was taking the bull by the horns due to creating a color coded schedule for working out, work, school work, hobbies, and life. Kinda realized I went over-board when my printer went schitzo on me. eek

Like most experts, Chalene says "it takes 21 days of consistency to create a habit. But what's the point if you haven't learned how to create the best possible habit?"... Which ties into why I'm posting today: Chalene ask's "The first step, the step that so many people neglect in our fast-paced world is to determine what you want! What are your priorities? It sounds so obvious, but you won't believe how many of us forget to ask this of ourselves. What do you really want? What is meaningful to you?"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH was my original response lol. Now my more educated response :)


Chalene says: "1. Priority Brainstorm: Use the area below to list any and all areas of importance to you in your life today. The bigger the list the better! Think about what makes you happy, what gives you pride, what you wish to be remembered by at the end of your life, what you want people to know was most important to you. Consider what makes you feel good about yourself, gives you confidence and what gives you pride."

• 1. What makes me happy is living my life. 
• 2. What gives me pride is when I think outside the box and go beyond my comfort level. 
• 3. I wish to be remembered as person who lived-- who was honest, frank, compassionate, comfortable, internationally savvy. 
• 4. My priority is my happiness and not being stagnant OR being forced to settle for what others assume I should be happy with. 
• 5.My priority is loving God and being a Godly wife... 
• 6. I'm confident when around open-minded people and I don't have to alter my way of thinking or living or having to assimilate to make others comfortable --racially, ethnically, spiritually, gender-wise, socially, physically, mentally... etc.

Chalene says: "2. Now star the top five areas of importance to you."

• I think I only mentioned five! lol ok so it was 6.. I guess I'd cut #2, because its similar to #6. 

Chalene says: "3. Next, write down your top three priorities in no particular order– Use just a few words like, “faith”, “family”, “Helping the underprivileged” , “Creating financial security for my family” “Helping others” “My health and fitness”, etc. "

• God/Me
• Marriage
• Living Happily

Chalene says: "4. Rewrite the above list in order of importance to you." 

• My number one priority -- God/Me
• My number two priority --Marriage
• My number three priority --- Living Happily

Chalene says: "5. Take the priority you’ve listed as number one and complete the following statements: The reason why I have placed the greatest importance on this area of my life is because:" 

• God is Love and I crave love.  He is everything I aspire to become and when I praise Him I feel calm and safe.

Chalene says: " I will honor my number one priority by vowing to do my best to always:"

• Learn more about his Word, treating others kindly, Loving and Living my life and family. Loving myself and making sure I have mental clarity and physical fitness. 

Chalene says: The following action(s) would be inconsistent with my commitment to my number one priority: To honor my number on priority I will limit:"

• Adultery, Unfriendly behaviors --instead of refusing to interact with individuals, give them a chance , not reading the Bible. Refusing to engage personal development due to being "busy."participating in gossip-fests, judging a book by its cover. participate in self-doubt ..slack because I don't see results. 

Chalene says: "To live my life according to my number one priority I need to make the following changes:" 

• More personal development. If I don't understand the Bible seek aid in interpreting His word. Journal my goals and refuse to slack if I don't see immediate success. 

Chalene says: "6. Be as detailed as possible. Create a Top Priority clarity statement in the space below:" 

• My number one priority is to love God and the life He has blessed me to live. By taking seriously my academic & professional career; by accepting and loving myself, my husband, my family despite our flaws;and by engaging happiness. If there is something I don't feel supported, trusted, or productive or successful in than it is my duty to make that change AND seek assistance. 
• Trust my husband with my dreams and aspirations. Get a stronger vocabulary and have better follow-through in my personal life. So many decisions I fling away but today I want to be stronger and finish. My concrete fitness goal is 140 lbs and wearing a size 6. I refuse to munch away on junk food-- I'm focused on getting fired up!!!! Fired Up for Life! 

30 Day Push Goal Challenge: Day 1

Yesterday, my boss asked me what was my ultimate career goal. I was at a loss because when I think about the past 9 years I've accomplished the majority of my dreams. I graduated from college, I traveled throughout most of Western Europe and a bit of Asia. I'm married and in graduate school to become an Academic Advisor. So what else is there? I asked my boss, do I need new goals? She laughingly replied "No, you just need to build off of them."

Talking to another graduate student 30 minutes later and while discussing her career and personal goals, I sat there stupefied, the only thing I had somewhat in common is that we both felt like we've accomplished a lot in our short lives, but the difference was she had more goals and ideas and I... well. I felt lacking and if there's one thing about me is that I hate to lack something.

It's so interesting that today I started Chalene Johnson's 30 Day Push Challenge, and for Day 1, she asks:

My Goals:

Its crazy that I don't have a concrete answer? I'm constantly comparing my goals on the basis of superficiality. But that's crazy right? Or is it even crazier that I don't have goals.... I mean I do but I don't.

Like I want to have a successful Youtube channel and Blog. I want to be super fit and retain my hair growth. I think I want to inspire people. I also want to learn how to re-connect with people I'm not fond of in my family. Maybe as we have matured we can talk easier ... or maybe there is a reason why we aren't close.

Career wise- I want to work in student affairs/academic advising, and re-shape university academic structures......annnnd 3 languages... and work internationally and travel. Guess I do have some goals.

My Values/Most Important:

I value honesty and frankness. I value having a job/career that I can be happy in. I am important to me. My happiness and my relationship with God. My husband is important to me and I want to be a good and Godly wife. My family and friends are important. Community service is important to me.

What do I want people to remember me by:

I think this is what scares me the most. When I'm dead will people remember me? I just hope to impact one person and just know that "I was Here"....

Guiding Principles: I think I have new guiding principles since college. I'm against burning bridges and discarding potential networking due to personality differences. I'm trying not to judge on appearances or perceived qualities.

Things that feel like a calling for me? Traveling, International Relations, Marriage, Motivating people (admittedly I need to work on my people skills lol ), Working with college students, and having fun lol .. I think I might retire as a librarian.

Hmm...this was fun ...scary and challenging but kinda fun. I'm a bit in shock perhaps? lol



Time for some tea to reflect a bit more.

Thanks, Chalene.

ps. stay tuned for Day 2's report of the #30daypush :)
pss. Chalene Johnson Facebook https://www.facebook.com/chalene?ref=ts&fref=ts
psss. Be sure to follow me on Instagram! @87pages


*************CHALENE UPDATE*******
"PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Your goals MUST have clearly defined measure. I'm so excited to read your GOALS for 2013, but I'm seeing a BIG PROBLEM! ***GOALS THAT ARE TOO VAGUE***

To truly be successful at goal mastery, make sure your goals meet the following criteria:

1. They should be written in first person and thought of as if you've already accomplished them. "I am fit and running 3x a week." vs "start running."

2. Goals need clearly defined measure... like a number of days you're exercising, amount you've saved, percentage of body fat, earnings per week, contacts per day, resumes sent per week. Goals need numbers. "I have lost 25 pounds" vs "I will lose weight."

3. Set reasonable but aggressive timeframes. We all work BEST with short term, pressing deadlines: "I am saving $200 per week." vs "save more."

Take a look at your goals list. Rewrite it in first person. Add measure and a shorter deadline! If your PUSH goal is to save $52,000 this year, then rewrite your goal to say ..."I have cut out all needless spending, kicked up my focus on my business, and I am saving $1,000 per week!" --Chalene Johnson, 1/5/12

Butternut Squash/Sweet Potato 2.0

Hey Kids,

So the hubby (shoutout to our 1 year anniversary!) is not a fan of my soup. His words were "I wish there was something chewy in it" and "it looks like baby food."

As an aspiring cook I'm not too happy with the 'baby food' comment, so I've been playing around with this soup.

The first bit was adding more water. Again I have issues with measuring, but basically I added enough water to cover the soup and than some (because when I reheat it on the stove, the water will dissipate (no one wants that). Adding the water was the easy part, I definitely liked it more soupy and the flavor remained.

When the hubby said "chewy" I thought veggies. Nope, he wanted an animal in there! lol We tried the soup with "sweet italian turkey sausage" which was really good as a side. Next I tried some leftover baked chicken, which was super delicious, but it was a leftover. Lastly, I tried canned chicken. This worked pretty well. I used two cans for the left over soup, and although the chicken was bland, it went well with the soup. <--- br="br" check="check" lol="lol" out="out" s.="s." those="those" w="w">
Next time I'll season the chicken-- more than likely with cumin or curry. 

Oh and a quick note... if you are a horrible chopper (like me), than your soup will have bits of garlic cloves & onion throughout. I would suggest blending the onion & garlic clove and maybe pouring the blend in the olive oil to saute. I'll let you know how it goes.

Good Luck & Lemme know how your soup goes! :)

ps: this past Sunday, the husband and I celebrated 1 year of marriage! woohoo. To commemorate we did a series of Q/A. Enjoy.

3 am bonding moments

Just yesterday I was warm, safe, sleep with my husband. Today I'm sitting at the gate waiting to board for my trip to Cebu. My legs & feet are killing me due to yesterday's excessive hiking adventure. PT and I hiked Mt. Soyasan in honor of loosing carbs but was swept up in the embrace of Buddhism.

May 28 is Buddha's birthday and We were treated with such hospitality and warmth. It was inspiring the laughter we shared as we were moderately encouraged to climb to the top (we tried) and mayhap to enjoy life.

Now 17 hours later I am again encouraged to Carpe Diem. Traveling is a huge passion of mine--budget traveling to be exact... I'm looking forward to my trip and I only wish my husband could attend next time.

Ps. On May 28, we celebrated our 7th month anniversary of marriage. Love u babe :)

Pss. Switching currency at airport blahhh

Do you absolutely need this (fill in the blank) in your life?

Furniture. Beds. Mattresses. Curtains. Rugs. Chairs. Art works. Cups.

I can't make a decision. My current apartment is not decorated or furnished by my individuality but by of the typical foreigner based apartments. We have butterfly wall paper in one room, a air conditioner with intricately laced flowers, faux wooden floors, all white cabinets, and butterscotch curtains. Oddly enough it fits. I'm not against it. I like my Korean apartment a lot and I could see myself growing into it and supplying it with my personality. Unfortunately we'll be leaving Korea in the next 4 months and resettling elsewhere --location TBA.

 So now my fingers are constantly pinning home decor, comparing color schemes, and pondering why a chair costs 300$. It's hard to live in style. I already have difficulty with decisiveness but its becoming worse because Sam and I are not in unison on what we want.

 HE has an idea, minimalism, muted colors, pictures of us, pillow top mattress, a super comfortable couch, 42' tv, xbox, 2 bedroom, 2 bath, spacious
SHE has an idea, bohemian Parisian, muted colors spiced with oranges & purples, 4-5 dressers/cabinets, a living room with a couch, several chairs, a sitting room, tea sets, art work, painted doors, book shelves etc

Clearly we want specific things. Sam has an issue with clutter. I have an issue with not having enough coat rack stands. Everything I can see myself living. He can't.

Recently we've come to an agreement, when we do move into our new location. We'll get the bare essentials and buy furniture as we live, that way we can save money and aren't forced to buy items we don't geniunely like.

Our current furnishments include:

• wooden expandable dining room table and 4 wooden side chairs.
• microwave
• crock-pot
• dell desktop
• dell laptop
• acoustic guitar
• pots & pans
• silverware & cooking ware
• 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 mugs (all blue), 4 glasses (clear)
• 1 baking dish
• armories 

Essentials we need :

• mattress
• car
• dressers
• 
  

Essentials we want:

• headboard
• sofa or sectional
• chaise ** all me**
• 30-42' screen tv **all sam**
• xbox **all sam** .. I'd rather get a wii
• book shelves
• coffee tables
• lamps
• living room chairs
• sofa table
• art work --paintings/posters
• coat racks
• rugs
• accent pillows
• accent cabinets
• chandeliers
• decorative items
• vases :)
• leaning mirrors
• dresser mirrors
• vanity
• guest bed
• cedar chests 
• arm chairs
• china cabinet 
• media cabinet 
• computer desks & rollie chairs
• etc, etc, etc, etc,

My bff suggested that since we did not have a wedding, we should have a reception whenever we come back to the states. IDK.. it seems a lot to "ask" of people. I'm also of the gypsy mindset where I don't like to be tied down to material items (excluding my laptop and phone) ... so we'll see.

I'll continue to wander the furniture websites but I'm more interested in thrifting items.... although I'm going to need someone else to refurbish or paint it.

http://pinterest.com/87pages/decor-interior/ <-- my pintrest fantasy
http://www.ourfirst100days.com/2011/12/01/day-30-chief-inspector-of-russia/ <-- home inspection checklist for those moving into a new place

ps. I really like the "Our First Day Blog" I get great insight and relevant topics that are happening in my life or things I'm thinking about. I used sentence from their blog post for my own post.. and even my discussion today is somewhat mentioned in their blog... For instance, the "Monk Chat Room" post concerning :...

On Detachment From Materialism

The second oldest monk, 32, gives us his interesting take on why wearing the saffron robe helps him to refrain from want of possessions.

“When a leaf falls from a tree and dies, it becomes an orange-yellow color. The same color of our robes. Wearing this color is a reminder to me that all things die. I will die, too. There is no need to be attached to anything.”

...this is a great view to have and I know I need to subscribe to it

pss. I may be disenchanted with school but I got a 3.5 for my first graduate semester.. 1 A, 1 B <--- :)

psss. only 16/17 days until my bff PT comes to visit me in SoKo:)

Just realized I need a Swimsuit

No couch surfing or exclusive inexpensive rentals on the beach or staying at the cheapest motels.

Yesterday Sam said --in reply to my wanting to couchsurf- "No, because I don't want to have Matt Laurer asking me Why didn't I stop you or do more, when they find your body chopped up in small pieces. So you can get fussy but I'd rather you find a inexpensive quality hostel and stay there vs sleeping on somone's couch."

Cute right?

It's weird to have someone worried for you. Concerned about your well-being 24/7. It's also strange that there is another person who gets to make life-decisions with/for you. Sam has been telling me "No" and "I don't like that" quite a bit recently. So we sat down yesterday and talked this out.

Before when we were dating I lived 2 hours away and I traveled all the time. Visiting people, attending local events/parties, and random sleepovers --if the train had already stopped.

After we got married my travels slowed down a lot. To focus on the marriage and build a foundation. It was super hard and distressing because I like my freedom and I love traveling. Of course you can imagine the heated debates centered on these two words; freedom/travel. Yet, Sam and I are trying to compromise and I think this SE Asia adventure trip (I really need to think of a cooler name) is going to be a huge test.

Ps. In other news my ipod touch is broke AGAIN. The screen buttons wasn't working and so I tried to fix it... and now it looks quite disgusting.

Pss. I really need to finish up my grad school course. This was by far an easy class but I didn't do well in it. I'm sure I'll be getting a C, but hopefully it'll be a low B. I'm not going to ask the professor for extra credit, mainly because I chose not to apply myself and I wallowed in procrastination. It sucks but hey thats how the cookie crumbles. I'm realizing graduate school is nothing like undergraduate.

Psss. Couchsurfing like all hostels, hotels, motels, guesthouses, can be quite dangerous if you don't do your research. Check out the legit non-profit website and read up on the members who offer a bed/room/cot to travelers. I know several people who have CS'd in the states/abroad and they had a great experience. http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Pssss. Anyone know of any inexpensive but cute one piece or tankinis?

http://www.victoriassecret.com/ss/Satellite?ProductID=1265789179255&c=Page&cid=1332988402837&pagename=vsdWrapper