Contending

I am loving my gym! Thanks e*!

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying out a few of the executive boxing classes (rumored to burn 950 calories/hour)... they are awesome. It's a professional fighters' routine that involving stretching, shadow boxing, bag work, combination drills, lower body conditioning, and abdomen work. The first time I took the class I only lasted 30 minutes. Now 2 tries later I can stick it out for the entire class :)



I especially love the series taught by Lloyd (although those push-up combinations can be killer) and Amine (which is faster paced but good to get you pumped). I am going to try to do this class at least twice a week. I have to put those new boxing gloves to use!

Showin' the lil sis around

Vina came up last night to spend a day with me :) And boy did we live it up :)

I picked up her up last night at 8pm. I let her drive up to LA in my car. I was feeling crazy :) It was only her 3-4th time driving on the freeway and her 2nd car driving my car. Living on the wild side. Once we arrived in LA, Vina felt like eating buffalo wings so I took her to Hooters. What was I thinking? Hooters during the NBA playoffs? Other than the waitresses, we were the only girls there! Then we went to Diddy Riese. Great diet I'm on, huh? :) We shared a chocolate chip cookie-cookies n cream ice cream sandwich. Yum. A whole dollar. Gotta go there more often.

Today we woke up late... we were supposed to stop by SMC in the morning so Vina could get her materials for registration, but we ended up waking up at 10:30am. We had to rush to get ready and we headed to Barneys for a Shu Uemura makeover. They had celebrity make-up artists from Tokyo Lash Bar in New York fly in to give complimentary makeovers. Well, they aren't really complimentary.... they always somehow swindle you into spending hundreds of dollars on make up you think you need. :) After Soomin, Vina and I got prettied up, we headed upstairs for a lunch of Barney's infamous smoked salmon.

After our lunch, Vina and I headed up to Burbank to go prom dress shopping at my friend's warehouse. She's been eyeing a certain BCBG dress that she saw on the website and lucky for her my friend had one in just her size! Awwww... the baby of the family is going to prom! Sigh, growing up so fast.

Then later in the evening we went to the Grove to eat some crepes. I really should start watching my diet. It's taking double the effort at the gym to keep the weight off when I eat like this. Oh well, maybe after this bag of pita chips I'm snacking on right now. :D

Fajita Pita

Yum!

I've been on the hunt for a "healthy snack"... since I've started working out and getting back into shape, I've also been altering my diet. I've been putting more effort into eating vegetables and trying to cut down on fatty meats. I also hold back on "white" carbs when I can... replacing them with wheat bread, brown rice, etc. when possible.

The one thing that I haven't been able to change is my snacking habits. I've tried soy chips, snacking on carrots, even fruits but nothing killed my cravings for Baked Lay's until now...

I was at Wild Oat's and decided to try a bag of Stacy's Pita Chips. I got the parmesan, garlic & herb flavor... and they are really good! Crispy and crunchy, unlike rice cakes or soy-based chips. The flavor is just right, not too much sodium and very low in fat.



Another new snack I've discovered recently are Healthy Handfuls. They are $1 a bag at Jamba Juice or you can find larger sizes at Wild Oats. They taste like a lighter, crunchier, airy-er version of goldfish.

Sunday Outing

Today Richard & I decided to go up to Sunset Blvd. to have lunch. I haven't been to Sunset Plaza in a long time.. so I kind of wanted to check out the shopping scene up there too.

We had lunch at Le Petit Four. I tried to exercise my new "half" diet that my trainer put me on, which I've been doing since last Thursday. Basically I cut all of my portions in half (so ordering at a restaurant I have to immediately tell the waitress to stick half in a togo box so it doesn't tempt me) and I have to eat a small side salad before every meal. It doesn't mean I'm cutting my calories in half- because I'm actually eating twice as often now, every 3-4 hours. Well I figured since we're eating French, I could eat "light" and still get away with it. I skipped the salad and opted for lobster bisque instead. Then I ordered smoked salmon on toast points for the main course. Well I ate the entire soup... I felt guilty afterwards since I didn't have ANY vegetables... and I only ate half of my portion of the smoked salmon. But then Richard ordered Calamari and I had half of that. And he ordered sausage pasta and I had some of that too :-( Oh not to mention I had 2 pieces of bread/butter before the meal. Then afterwards we walked to Coffee Bean and I had a Pomegranite/Blueberry ice blended. So I failed miserably.

Anyhow afterwards we walked around to check out the boutiques. Unfortunately Oliver Peoples was closed... which sucked because I wanted to go look for some new oversized sunglasses... I am loving that oversized sunglasses are in right now because I've long preferred these over normal types because of the coverage... I can't stand wearing sunglasses where the sun can still peek in through the top or the sides... it defeats the purpose.

We checked out the H.Lorenzo parking lot sale... where I found the softest, cutest Marni brown hobo leather bag... even at 70% off it was a little too pricey. Oh well. And actually I thought that the sunset strip was known for its boutiques but I didn't see anything interesting. Mostly European labels and foo-foo overly embellished clothes- definitely not my style. I begged Richard to stop by Robertson on the way back so that I could get my window-shopping fix. Sunset was a disappointment.

When we drove back I noticed that the weather was turning nice. A little breezy but still light outdoors. Perfect for a long walk! We buckled up Moley and Lulu and walked north towards Brentwood. We arrived just as the Farmer's Market was closing down but we got a chance to stop by Peet's coffee to refuel Richard & the dogs. I swear Richard drinks so much coffee. He drinks a cup of hot espresso in the morning after he wakes up. At work he drinks espresso or he drives to Coffee Bean for a large iced americano. Usually on his way home he grabs another large. Then when he gets home he drinks some hot espresso. Then after dinner we sometimes go to Coffee Bean again and he gets another large iced americano. He can drink 4-6 large cups a day. Geez.

Birthday Girl

Pre-Party!



Today is Lulu's 1st Birthday...

This morning I took Lulu to Wagging Tail to pick out a birthday cake... just a small one for her and Moley. I also picked up a red feather boa (pictured above) for her to wear at her bday party next Sunday.

Then we headed over to Cerritos for a small party. Unfortunately, Coldstone's ran out of human cakes so we didn't get to eat any cake. And actually Moley hogged the doggie cake so Lulu didn't get much of it either :-(



Well we are throwing her a real birthday party next Sunday at her pal Minnie's house in Pasadena... call me if you want to come by so I can give you the details! Since we are throwing it at a friend's house, we have 2 rules... 1) no doggies bigger than Moley, sorry :P Minnie is actually terrified of four-legged creatures so we don't want to overwhelm her with any great danes! and rule 2) is P.U.Y.O.S... you can figure this out on your own. The first 2 words are "Pick Up..."