June 28, 2009

Thoughts about confidence!

I haven't written any topic recently both because I was too busy to think about it and too busy to write about it. But today I want to spend some time to share an interesting topics (at least for me) with you: Self confidence.
A reader asked me if I'm confidence about myself and how to balance confidence and modesty? I think she raised an interesting question there! I've always consider myself a very confident person and I think everyone that knows me in person will agree. Girls use to tell me that they want to be as confident as I do. Men tell me that one of the key feature about me is my self confidence. I agree and disagree. The true Me, the one that I might hide from others isn't all confident. I have my fears and insecurities. Some times I wonder if people really likes me, or if something that I do would be proved by others. Fortunately this doesn't happen often and most of times I don't care about what others think. Everyone has a weak area, yours might be self image, weight, career, etc. Mine is definitely relating to people, especially who are close to me. Many times I'm obsessed with what my best friends think about me, whether they consider me as their best friends too. It's awful to feel like a big looser with personal relationships, feel that I'm not someone that worth their friendship and loyalty. So, that's my weak area and I'm trying hard to build confidence. And with respect to balance confidence and modesty. I think it depends. When you are with people who despise you, who consider you as inferior than them, that's when you need to be most confident. But when you're with people in the same situation as you in term of career, marriage, life, modesty is much more appreciated because then you'd be not only successful, but also loved and respected by others.
So, what's your thoughts about this?

Now, recap of the rest of week.
Thursday: yoga + work
Breakfast/Lunch/Snack: apple oats (blended green apples, steel cuts, cinnamon), pineapple muffin, peach and pasta with veggies & tofu.Dinner: last one pot mealDessert: KABOCHA!

Friday: gym + work
Breakfast: mixing bowl of greek yogurt, blueberries, oats and white fungus.and more greek yogurt with cinnamon
Lunch: sauteed veggies & tofu with pasta
Snack: peach and muffinDinner: porrridge + sauted greens + seaweed saladDessert: KABOCHA

Saturday: yoga, meet friends and went to cinema to watch Transformers which was disappointing. I liked a lot the first one but this one is just tooo long and tooo boring.
Breakfast: toasted arnold thin with LC, an egg omelet and a grapefruit.Lunch: leftover sauteed veggies and a rainbow steamed corn.Dinner: no pic (I was with my friends)

Sunday: yoga, groceries, preparing for the week (laundry, cleaing, washing all the veggies and fruits, some baking)
I know that my eats were boring lately and I found that when I spend <50 style="font-weight: bold;">a lot of salads. And also to give a break to my belly, NO Kabocha this week. I'll see if that helps with my IBS and over eating at night! oh.... I'm already missing it!!!

Breakfast: another sammie with grapefruit. And before I left for yoga, I had an apple with AB. Soooo good!!!Lunch: first pretty salad made with mix of greens, celery, tomatoes, sprouts and chickpeas. And another steamed corn (I love corns!!!) I munched on fresh strawberries and nuts during the afternoon. And spent 2.5 hours talking with a friend who lives in Germany, it was hilarious talk!!! hahaha......
Dinner: porridge, sauteed greens and zucchini with chicken and mushrooms. Dessert: Dairy free chocolate!!! Yes, it's back!!! ^_^
Question: Where is the most exotic place you've been? My friend spent two months in India. She loved it and what amazed her most was that India is totally in chaos but everything seem to work!

June 25, 2009

One pot meal for a lazy/busy woman! :)

I've been really lazy last couple of days so instead of preparing pretty meals, I just put everything in one pot making sure that it has enough nutrients and flavor and careless about its appearance. As Maggie said, I don't want to please anyone but myself. ^_^
Bad news: my IBS have been worsen lately, a discomfort that annoyed me all day long. I don't know the cause of it and gave up long time ago to figure it out, now I just want a SOLUTION. I even began to drink apple cider after Maggie said it might help to regulate. But so far it's not helping. Any help?
Good news:
I tried to do yoga by myself for the first time after Maggie's suggestion. (Maggie, this seems to be a post dedicated to you! ^_^). I did for 45 min (calculated with music songs that guess who sent me? Maggie!!) And I can't believe how sweaty I was at the end!!! I was almost comparable to a cardio session! I swear I've never worked that hard doing yoga with a podcast!!! It feels soooooo good, I felt soooo strong afterwards. Thanks Maggie for introducing me to it!

Okay. Now to the boring part.... recap of my one pot meals, but my breakfast have been interesting!
Monday: no workout because it was rainy and because I didn't go to sleep until 12pm on Sunday.
Breakfast: another new FEATURED breakfast! In the mix: overnight soaked oats, Greek yogurt, wheat berries, dairy free chocolate pudding, blueberries and AB.
Lunch: one pot pasta (pasta, zucchini, chickpeas, cauliflower and sauce)Snacks: a peach and pineapple muffin
Dinner: one pot "noodles" with bamboo chicken, bok choy, mushroom and black fungus.Dessert: KABOCHA!!!

Tuesday: gym + work
Breakfast: I craved simple oat bran so I made 1/2 c. oat bran with almond milk and blueberries.With AB of course. And before I stepped out I had a muffin.Lunch: rainbow beans porridge, stir fry lotus, black fungus, tofu and broccoli
Snacks: fruits
Dinner: one pot "noodle" with bean sprouts, mushrooms, black fungus and marinated tofu and egg.Dessert: KABOCHA!

Wednesday: yoga by myself + work
Breakfast: inspired by Sarah. Steel cuts parfait with strawberries. I just boiled strawberries with some water and 1/4 c. flax meal and some vanilla. Topped with some cocoa powder.Lunch: one pot pasta as Monday
Snacks: peach and muffinDinner: one pot "noodle" with lotus, marinated tofu and egg, bean sprouts and chinese mustard.

Dessert: KABOCHA!

oh... I must say these one pot "noodles" are really filling (this is a big salad bowl and it's almost full) and tasty!
I just found a new chinese tv series that is really intriguing but the problem is that I got too excited after watching it at night and couldn't fall into sleep. Damn.... why something good has bad side effect!

Have everyone a great Thursday! I can smear weekend already.~~ So, what's your weekend plan?

June 22, 2009

White Fungus tutorial and trips to come! ^_^

Hey sweeties! How was your week and weekend? Mine was busy and fabulous!!! I always like to work hard and play hard and being a grad student didn't allow me to always do the play hard part! :) But now, I'm a normal M-F working person so I appropriate adjust myself to the role! :)
A couple of things to announce, which are sooo exciting for me!
1) I'm going to CHICAGO!!!! yeah~~~ just for a leisure weekend! I've never been there since I came to US and heard great things about it, so I always wanted to visit. I'll be going on the weekend of July 10th.. so anyone from Chicago want for a blog meet up? let me know! :)
2) I signed up for the yoga retreat!!!! I was hesitating because although I love yoga and I love the idea of spending a whole weekend doing yoga with my favorite instructors in a nice mountain retreat, but it is kind of expensive. But my lovely dear Star encouraged me to do it because he knew I much I love yoga and going there will make me happy!!! Thanks dear to LOVE me sooo much!!!
Tentative planning:
3) Go to Toronto to attend a friend's wedding. I'm still not sure if I'll go or not because it's a lot of $$ and plus I need a visa to go there. Bummer!
4) Go to Ocean City with my 3 best friends!! Date isn't confirmed because they're all pretty busy! Bummer!
But I'm sooooo excited for the first two that are CONFIRMED!!! ^_^

As I showed thousands of times of my porridge and mentioned white fungus, I thought you might want to know what exactly it is and how to prepare it.
This is how it looks like if you go to asian marketIt comes dry and has this flower formYou need to soak it for at least 2 hours. I soaked it for 4 hours and it expanded to this sizeSplit the flower and rinse 2-3 times. For this week's porridge, I soaked dry corns, aduki and mung beans overnight.So now put white fungus and the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker, put high and let it cook for 8-10 hours (adding some sort of thicker ingredients, I used wheat cream this time, but you can also add oatbran, oat meal or rice). It's so easy and delicious! :) Love it!

Now, recap from Wednesday to Sunday.
Wednesday: blog + 30 min yoga + work
Breakfast: toasted zucchini bread + AB + green monster with kale. I must say it doesn't taste half good as spinach monsters.Lunch & snacks: pesto pasta was deliciousDinner:Dessert: KABOCHA

Thursday: 75 min date with Dave Farmer + work
Breakfast: a NEW COMBO inspired by B-cookies! Overnight soak oats + wheat berries + greek yogurt + chocolate pudding + berries + AB = FEATURED SUMMER BREAKFAST!!! I'm serious, this is soooooooooooo good!!! You'll see it often now on!!! ^_^
Lunch & snack: the packages are lotus powderDinner:Dessert: KABOCHA

Friday: gym + work
Breakfast: obviously the new favoriteSnack and no lunch because we had chinese food lunch with all stuffs at work
Dinner: Dessert: KABOCHA!!! I'm not getting bored of it yet! :)

Saturday: yoga + lunch with new friends + baking + swimming + relaxing at home
Breakfast: I had no more Greek yogurt so I had to use plain yogurt and it turned out a little watery. The combo: oats + plain low fat yogurt + berries + wheat berries + AB + frozen banana
No lunch pics. But we went to a taiwanese restaurant.
Baking: I made pineapples muffins for this week.And this is mung bean soup. Chinese people drink this a lot during summer because it helps to cool your body.
Snack time: Arnold Thing with LC, a muffin and a gigantic grapefruit.Dinner: tortilla pizza + kale chipsDessert: Kabocha + mung beans popsicles
Sunday: yoga + facial at HELA + meet my best friends and had dinner with them in a fancy Italian restaurant
Breakfast: I love this combo for Sunday (I don't know why). 2 whole eggs omelet, toasts with LC and strawberries.Lunch: had to be quick so chicken bamboo + bok choy + " noodles"Dessert: strawberries with chocolate puddingWent to HELA for a 90 min facial which made me feel soooooo relaxed and sooooo pretty!!! ^_^
Dinner: I only took a pic of the octopus salad, but I also had 2 slices of thin crust pizza, they were allll delicious.
I was a long recap but I had great time and wanted to share with you. I hope this week will be even better, for all of us! ^_^

Question: How $$ enters in your decision when you plan for vacations? Are you a budget/planned person?
Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin