June 30-p

FUEL:
1000: Jumbo WW Chocolate & Candied Walnut Pancake
300: Ryan's- salmon; collard greens; sweet potato; strawberries; spinach salad; mixed greens; okra & tomato; candied carrots; fruits
1030: Oatmeal
115: Turkey & Graham Crackers
230: Mango
330: Walnuts & Dark Chocolate

FAITH: Romans 8

Life Through the Spirit
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Future Glory
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

More Than Conquerors
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

June 29

FUEL:
700: Power Oatmeal - flax seeds, 1/2 sc protein, few berries, peanuts
915: Kashi Go-Lean, Rosehips & Habiscus Tea
1015: Emerald's Smoked Almonds
1230: Peas and Corn; Tofu & Celery; Turnip; Garlicy Egg White & Tomato (fresh from our garden); Blue Bunny Light Oreo Ice Cream Bar :)
315: Cabot 75% Lite Cheese & Homemade WW Walnut Bread
545: Mung bean soup; Tuna Sandwich; Mango & Watermelon; Peanuts
730: Bag of chips... uh
830: Oreo Crunch Yogurt
1000: Nuts; Dark Chocolate

Yeah...

FUN:
Smilies are a wonderful thing. Just looking at something that's smiling makes me smile. Sometimes when I'm sad, I think about expressing that with a sad face drawn on a piece of paper or my hand, but then I choose to draw a smiley instead, and looking at him makes me feel like "it's alright. hang in there- everything's going to be alright."

June 28

FUEL:
745: Optima Shake
1000: Soy nuts
1230: Soy nuts
100: Bread, Cheese, Tomato
300: Kashi Go-Lean
345: Emerald's Butter Toffee Walnuts
600: Bamboo, Tofu, Mahi-mahi; garlic spinach; turnip; mung bean soup; peas & corn; celery & tofu (Wabam)
730: Watermelon; strawberry cheesecake yogurt
1000: Watermelon; almonds

FUN:
Walk around The Loop w/ my parents

RECIPE: Dark Chocolate and Glazed Walnut Pancakes

Serves 1

1/2 C WW Flour
1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1/4 C dark chocolate crumbles
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C glazed walnuts

1. Mix dry
2. Add wet
3. Cook at 8/10 heat, flip once when edges begin to brown
4. Can also sub walnuts for berries, or top with lite maple syrup

Incredible...

GEAR GUIDE: Garmin Forerunner HRM w/ GPS

A pricey but cool toy. Perhaps the most I've ever spent on a toy/electronic device at $150-ish.

GPS: Satellite searching's been tough at times so far, giving me a weak GPS signal warning, but the device still works, and with pretty impressive accuracy, too. I've estimated The Loop in my subdivision to be 2.2 miles, based on my running pace, and sure enough, the GPS said I ran 2.2. Sweet.
The mapping functions kinda cool too, except it's too bad they only show your path on a blank background.

HRM: Almost not worth putting on, it's so unreliable. Sometimes, it works, but other times, especially at the beginning, it gives wacky numbers. Yeah, one should expect better from a Garmin product.

Pace: Pretty cool to have an pace calculator, but it's only good at the end of your run, when you want to calculate your ave. With the satellite thing, I'm not sure how accurately it gives marginal paces. It's a little tricky reading numbers when you're haulin' it anyways.

Interval: Haven't tried it yet, but it's an awesome idea.

Backlighting: Great for my runs home from the gym.

June 27-p

A happy birthday to my Paulie!

I'm not sure of the format I'll use in the future. Trial and error. I've been inspired by many vegan food blogs that I've read, though. A few favorites so far: blog.fatfreevegan.com, eatair.blogspot.com, speedvegan.com. I like the recipes and the vegan food pics. Amazing shots. Too bad my camera's in storage for the summer. I've been doing lots of experimenting, but none of it's been captured. Anyways, stats for today...

FUEL:
700: zong-zhe (white rice encapsulating pork or beef or something and peanuts and mushrooms... I usually don't eat this kind of stuff- white rice and meat that's not fish or turkey, but it's special for the holiday commemorating a patriotic poet or something. It's been in the fridge for a while, and I happened to be in the mood for it) and 1/2 cup milk
930: kashi go-lean (a good snack for work- slightly sweet so that it's decent-tasting, but still soyey and tasteless enough to be something you don't necessarily wanna keep eating.)
1130: soy nuts
1245: pumpkin & tomato, homemade whole wheat bread + cabot 75% light cheese (best stuff ever)
130: blue bunny light oreo-covered cookies and cream pop- delicious and 110 cal, but I realized after I bought it that it contained partially hydrogenated oil- not enough to make nonzero transfat, but still high up on the ingredients list- eh, one a week or so won't hurt
300: barbecue corn chips
515: mahi-mahi, tofu, and bamboo dish
600: chocolate-berry-whole wheat pancakes - aaaaaaaaaaaaamazing
645: emerald tropical trailmix
1030: watermelon, pumpkin, bit of protein shake, rebound optimum cereal
Plus tonnns of water (perhaps even 2 gallons today, maybe a little less, I dunno)

I eat a lot, don't I? I gained a few pounds last week. Pretty noticeable. Before, it had kinda been stable, but after this week, I really need to do something about this.

FIT:
1.2-mi run to gym
20-min step at 960C/hr
30-min elliptical at level 9- breathing sooo hard, harder than I have in a while
30-min abs
1-mi run home

I usually don't do this much. Not sustainable, this level of activity, for one thing. For another, I'm usually pooped after work and just want to eat and watch tv for hours. But now I'm doing more sitting-down work, which has given me more energy. Now, the only problem is my eyes hurting after any continuous 1 hr of staring hard at the screen. Funny, that doesn't happen when I'm doing fun stuff like this- maybe it's the concentration level required by work. I can do this kinda stuff w/o focusing too much on the screen, kinda lazy-like.

Story- I'm not that great of a swimmer. Oh, I did swim team and piano lessons in 4th grade, swim directly after piano. I would choke on water at swim team b/c I was still new to it, and at the time, I was learning a song called Galatian March. Because of the Pavlov's dogs effect, I'd get the sensation of choking on water whenever I played Galatian March. To this day, when I think about the song, I can sorta remember what it's like to choke on water. But back to today. I'm not that great of a swimmer, and especially on flip-turns, which are messy at the beginning of my swim workouts, I end up inhaling water. Well, even on the elliptical, I couldn't avoid inhaling water- while ellipting (what do you call it?), I tried to take a drink out of my Nalgene, and the water bumped up right as I was inhaling and went up my nose.

Now my left knee's making noises going up steps, sadly.

FUN:
I don't know whether it's endorphins-related, but I laughed a lot more watching tv after the workout. It would make an interesting study, to see if exercise led to more laughing. I was in a good mood.

All for now- probably... I should sleep now so that I don't fall asleep at work.

The Inaugural

The purpose of this blog? I'm not quite sure yet. Something to motivate me to get out and pursue a healthy lifestyle from all angles. A way to track progress in eating healthy and reaching fitness goals. A procrastination tool. A motivation for anyone who happened to stumble upon this blog. We'll see how it goes.

MY GOALS (keep me accountable, understand what I struggle with and what I hope to achieve):

Nutrition:
Moderation (no stress-eating, loneliness-eating, boredom-eating)
Not depriving myself, thinking it'll help me lose weight (going without food for 4+ hrs will start to set your body into a mode where 1. your body feeds off of its own muscle for energy and 2. your body starts freaking out, thinking it's famine time, leading to more fat storage and binge eating later on)

Fitness:
Some dreams - 1/2 marathon (usually, my ankles or knees scream by mile 11, so somehow safely reaching 13.1 would be awesome); triathalon, probably sprint (easier on the body in a way because you're going hard, but the stress is on different body parts and for shorter times)
Not destroying my joints before age 40
Continuing to enjoy the runner's high
Setting aside time for fitness even during busy school days

Eh, that's it for now.