Easy day 1 of the challenge & unexpected visit! ^_^

The first day of the challenge went well, I ate smaller but denser portions, didn't feel bloat and felt satisfied. And the big news was Star is coming to visit me on Friday!!! He's going back to China for work and will stop in DC for one day and when he comes back next week, he'll stay for 5 days!!! I'm so happy about this unexpected short-time visit!!! I haven't seen him for almost two months, which is shorter than our usual reunion, but still missed him a lot. I just like to have him around me! ^_^

I woke up yesterday at 7am (9.5 glorious hours of sleep) totally bright and awaken. I guess I'm getting old and 7 hours is just not enough for me anymore! Prepared a good breakfast for the day 1:

• 1/3 c. flax porridge
• 1/3 c. almond milk
• 1/2 banana
  
• 1/4 c. egg white
• 2 tbsp pumpkin
• 2 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tbsp low fat yogurt
• 1 tbsp maple-raisin AB

A yummy combo of carbs, fat, protein and flavor! It hold me for 5 hours and no AM snack.
I talked to my mom for an hour and spent the rest of the morning surfing on Internet just for leisure. Usually when I surf, I have a purpose in mind: read news, check blogs, look for new recipes, etc, and always felt I'd spend more time reading/doing other stuffs. And vacation is just the moment to do that, even to do those stupid quizzes!! ^_^ I love how I "waste" my time!
Lunch was simple: mini stuffed peppers and spinach over "noodles".Dessert: chocolate, treat from Krista. (I love it!!!)I didn't need nap yesterday so I spent my afternoon on more leisure surfing! I learned a lot about cholesterol and Glysemic Index (all for my Dad). Then I did 90 min yoga with Dave Farmer. I used to do yoga with yogadownload.com and found podcast yoga classes annoying because of the talk. But now I love it! It's so much fun and alive. What he said is not only enlightening, but also made holding long poses easier!
PM snack: low fat plain yogurt (I craved plain yogurt instead of Greek, weird, but true), blueberries, flax meal and chopped chinese dates.And WW bread with LC.After those snacks, I still feel a little hungry. Instead of having more snacks which will be against my new challenge, I had an early dinner at 7pm (I usually have dinner around 8.30-9pm).
Sauteed cucumber with mushroom and sesame oil.Spicy dried pumpkin (homemade by Star's Mom) and Chinese pickles. And black rice porridge
After dinner I went for a walk around the neighbor with Qiao. Came back, ready for my dessert or PM snack (a la Krista): dairy free chocolate pudding and a small piece of the sweet cornbread.PERFECT ENDING! I enjoy day 1 of the challenge! I felt less sleepy, more energetic and satisfied! ^_^ (hopefully I'll adopt this new challenge as my new eating style)

Question:How often do you do blood test for general check?
I'm going to doc for a check today and wonder how often other people do it.

Family issues!

Just after I posted a question related to family yesterday, I got a very bad news from China about my Dad's family. I don't want to go into detail about it...but it's serious and my Dad is in hospital now. (but he'll be fine).
I called my mom when I was waiting for the 9.30am yoga class just to kill time and talk to her. She said she didn't want to tell me about the situation to not worry me, but when she told me my tears just broke out from my eyes. I was angry, upset, concerned, worried and the worst thing was I could do nothing!!! I'm thousands miles away from them and when they needed me most, I could do nothing!!! I felt impotent! My mom was optimistic as always, she always sees the bright side of the situation. I love and admire her so much! She's such a strong and wise women, the role model for me.
The emotional part of me stayed for as long as the yoga class lasted (yes, I did go to the yoga class because my mom and Star told me to do so, they knew it was going to do good for me). When I walked out from the studio, my emotional part shut down and my rational part came out. What is done is done, I cannot change it. I can't help them from where I am and I know they will be happier if I just continue doing what I was doing and do it better, that's the best reward to parents. (be happy and do what I love most). But I will do something more for them (or for me), call them and talk to them more often, share what I do everyday with them, even it's as little things as what I made for dinner. Because they love hearing from me and knowing what I do and think. I always knew I should call them more than once/twice a week. But my selfish part made me not to because the more I talk to them, more I miss them and sometimes it hurts. However, I changed my mind on this, I will enjoy more time with them as long as they're alive, even it's through voice.

Okay. Recap of food (despite of the news, I did manage to eat good food. Although I didn't have much appetite, I knew I needed to eat well to be strong. Strong for me, strong for my parents, strong to be able to take care of them).
Breakfast: pumpkin flax porridge

• 1/3 c. flax porridge
• 1/3 c. almond breeze
• 1/3 c. pumpkin (stir at the end)
• 1/2 banana
• 2 tbsp egg white
• vanilla/cinnamon
• topped with 1/4 c. mixgranola and Cinnamon Swirl PB

Lunch: using the pantry. Packed udon noodles to which I add the leftover mushroom medley and baby spinachDessert: tea and chocolatesLook what I got later: four boxes of holey donuts!!! I won a contest from An Apple A Day, who always hold amazing giveaways!
Needless to say that PM snack was a donutI haven't had donuts for a long long time.. and almost forgot how a donut tastes like. But this one is really good!!!
To balance out I had some gigantic strawberries
Then I did some baking. Another cheesecake. This time I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese, silken tofu instead of firm tofu and add some frozen blueberries. And I cut myself when I was cutting it
Dinner was a sauteed cucumber with mushroom and smoked salmon; seaweed salad and millet porridge.Dessert: dairy free chocolate pudding. (cheesecake was still warm)I know that every family has its own problems and it's not easy to get rid of it.
Question: How do you deal with family problems (not only you and your parents, but also all the relatives)? Are you the one that prefers to stay away from it or you are the active person that try to solve the problem?