GOAL!!!!

not like goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal when someone scores in a worldcup game, but a goal as is the 2nd definition according to merriam webster dictionary: "2 : the end toward which effort is directed "

the end toward which effort is directed. i like that. goal allows you to focus. and focus allows you to solidify the expenditure of your energy/time~efforts. anyways i decided i need to set some concrete goals for myself, instead of just going on day to day with no real specific reason to do what i do.

so for the purpose of this blog - which is to regain my fitness overall - i decided i'll come up with a few concrete measurable goals to conquer that will affect real changes in my life! and what better time to do this than at the beginning of a month.

so here are some of my goals:

1. get down to 165lbs. I weighed 185 at the start of this blog beginning of july (which is a 30lb gain over 2 years since 2008), and at the last measure, i'm down to 177-178!!! losing weight has an added, financial, bonus. no need to spend more $$$ buying new pants. (a sad news. i could no longer fit into my old 32 size pants. so i had to buy a round of 34 size pants...). ok, so just 13 more lbs to go!

*benefits: savings on shopping means more $ in my pocket, and that's the sound of chaching! you hear. plus, repair self-esteem. hahahahaha.

2. run a sub 7min mile. i ran a 5:35 mile once. back in '93. i was in 8th grade. and that was the peak of my running. ever since then it has been a steady decline. the last time i ran a sub 7 min mile was in ls. it was '04 and i ran it in 6:55. and i barely remember what came after when i finished running except for my eyes rolling backwards and me foaming at the mouth. now, i think the fastest i can run a mile is low 8's.

*benefits: can outrun girls who are angry at you.

3. touch the rim. i used to grab the rim. without a running start. that was back in college. the last time i touched the rim was, yes, once again, back in ls. now, i can only DREAM of touching the rim. i can still touch the backboard without running start. and maybe off about 2 inches from the rim.

*benefits: this really has no function, other than to impress guys who get impressed by stupid things like this

4. bench press 225: that's 2 plates on each side. back in college, during the heyday of my meathead phase, my friend sam and i benched 3 reps of 315 without spot. now, i can barely do 8 reps of 135 (that's just one plate on each side).

*benefits: no real benefits, except to tell the high school kiddies that i can bench press their scrawny arses

5. run a sub 2:00 half: the very first time i ran a substantial race - 2006 inaugural disneyland half - i ran it under 2 hrs. that also happened to be the only time i ran anything under 2 hrs. i've signed up for the upcoming Long Beach Half, in my pursuit for the California Dreamin' troika. it's coming up in october. that gives me 2 months to train for it. and believe me, i'll be training for this race. the last i ran a half - 2009 long beach half, i came in at 2:35. i may not run it under 2:00 for this race. but one day i will.

*benefits: nothing really. just a milestone to aim for, and a reason to keep a disciplined training schedule.

so those are some of the goals for now. i'll update on my progress in future posts.

before i finish, i'mma just post up some food i pigged out to over the weekend:

On Sunday we went to newport seafood in rowland for some family dinner before mom took off for korea.

this lobster was pretty bomb!

their "live shrimp" weren't live when served. i guess they meant that they were live when cooked. these were BOMB as well.

Friday before that, i went to this new burger joint called kalbi burger on the outskirts of k-town.

i got their #1 combo - kalbi burger, fries and a drink. it was pretty good. but i still prefer FO and umami.

5k!

u know, my very VERY first race i've done since my modern era (post ls) was the 2005 nike runhitwonder. it was a 5k around the ghettos of la, but i enjoyed the run. i don't even remember how fast i ran it, because it wasn't that important. i stopped by every music stand listening to all these wonderful one hit wonders blasting out their bests. there was even sir mix a lot!

anyways, since then i've run quite a few races, 5k's, 10k's, 5 milers, half marathons and full marathons. and for me time wasn't all that important. especially for the races that were on the longer side (if you've seen my pics from my la marathon outings, you know it's more of a picnic through la than an actual marathon run).

but there have been races where i actually tried to run at a good pace...because they were all very short (5k's). and i think the fastest i've run in one was under 24 mins for the santa monica classics 5000 in 2007.

well...that was 3 years and many more in my knee years ago. anyways, i met up with my accountability brother, brian, last night at the rosebowl. and instead of running the usual outerloop 10k, we decided to run the inner loop twice.

while we were running, we noticed 2 things that differed from running the outerloop - (1) other runners and (2) we weren't talking at all. you see, seeing all these other runners, we naturally started running a lot faster than our usual pace. and since we were running at a faster pace than we were used to, we couldn't even talk

well, i only ran the loop once. after that one loop, i was done. but checking at my watch, i noticed i finished it in 25:27. That's not half bad! that's under 8:30min/mile pace!

anyways, my entire body was burning and aching. but it felt good to know that i could still run a 5k at a brisk pace. well, brisk being relative.

well, as you can guess, we celebrated our run with appeasing our hungry belly monsters at the paseo yardhouse. btw, their spicy tuna roll is the bomb! and so are their roast beef dip sandie!

weekend updates: the battle

you know weekends are tough. i feel like best intended plans are laid waste during the wkends. for example, my father and i were to go on this hike early sat, but he decided to ditch it for sebyuk gido. so i decided to sleep in instead of waking up at 5 to go hike by meself.

yeah yeah i know, i'm just making excuses.

anyways, some of my eats over the past wkend with absolutely nothing but some hearty laughters that i shared with my good friends to offset any of these caloric injections.

the culprits:

Sat Lunch @Langers with don and min:

the good ol' #19. the absolute bombest pastrami sandie in the world. ever.

then the Fob5 reunion down in southbay @ Hakata Ramen Shinsengumi with chul and tommy (we missed you wooj and scott!):

we all got their combos and it all came with this gyoza. pretty tasty.

and you can pick an appetizer of your choice and me being me, not into studying the menu, i asked the waiter for a recommendation and he said these fried chicken fritters were the most popular. and a bite instantly proved why - these were the BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and finally, what we came for - the hakata ramen. oh man. i thought daikokuya ramen in little tokyo was good. this is on a whole different level. i'd drive down to southbay just for a bowl of this heavenly delectable slurppity goodness.

Sunday dinner @ The Boiler with the bro:

i ordered their house pan roast. which is AWESOME. seriously i wish more ppl could try this place. it's REALLY REALLY good.

anyways, that was my epically indulgent wkend - awash with all kinds of other ingestion of yummy goodness that i'm trying to offset.

anyways, the wkend has been epic in other regard - epic FAIL that is in terms of my fitness.

well, this week's a new week. and so far, i've been to the gym once and ran once at the rosebowl. so i'm giving myself some pats on the back. *pat pat*

tomorrow! another 10k at the rose bowl with brian and jason!

also! i've done some grocery shopping - nonfat yogurt, chicken breasts, whole wheat bread, fresh broccolis.

*note* i'm not turning this blog into some food blog. i just felt like i needed to do some updates and since what i write isn't all that fun, i wanted to post up bunch of food pics...

detours

n. a deviation from a direct course or the usual procedure; especially : a roundabout way temporarily replacing part of a route (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

in life, we run into circumstances that force us to take detours. usually they are road/traffic related, which just cause mild annoyances as 3 lanes converge into 1, having to make 4 left turns to get on the freeway etc. or it could be more substantial and have a profound influence in shaping your life - like you may have to take a job out in st. louis for a few years to put in your due for that promotion in your company. detours pop up suddenly and without a warning. and what it does is to prove that in our life's journey, it's not always a straight and smooth path to where you want to get to. but ultimately you find yourself back on the path you want to be on. or sometimes you may continue down that path of detour completely.

anyways, i don't know why i wrote all that up there. it provides no coherency to what i'm about write for this post...errrrrrr

so, yesterday (wed) i continued my trend of packing lunch (this time, another ny steak with freshly home made salsa and a cup of brown rice). but my boss comes to my office and asks "did you bring lunch today?" i answered "yes" to which he goes "eat it tomorrow, let's go have lunch"

ok, so what do i do? i leave it in the fridge for tomorrow (which is today) and we go have lunch at curry house right across the street.

the Culprit: bossman and the hayashi omurice from curry house

so my plan for packed lunch went kaputz.

next, my plan for hitting the gym. i came to work at 7:30am so i can leave by 5:30 to hit the gym, run a couple of miles and sleep early. wellllllllll, on my way home, i call my bestfriend from college, tommy who lives in arcadia, to confirm our dinner this sat and he tells me he's having a dinner in walnut with his wife! and i'm going yur in my town and you don't even call me?!?! so i immediately make a detour and go meet him at this sulungtang place on colima and fairway (who knew this place existed?).

my original plan was to just catch up real quick with him and his wife and go on my merry way to the gym. next thing i know, i see this in front of me:

the Culprit: college bestie and a bowl of sulungtang

by the time we get all caught up with our tales of post-30 life, it was almost 10pm! no gym for me...so i went home and to drown out my disappointment at not going to the gym as planned, i devoured 3 packs of Suhleim (this korean milk shake thingy).

major failure.

so today, i determined that i'll never deviate from my course - i shall eat my healthy snacks and eat my lunch that i brought yesterday and hit up the 10k at the rosebowl with brian!

well, guess what. my managing director from matzalan was up today and he goes, "hey, let's grab lunch". we go get chinese, and it's like an msg-bomb. and for the first time, i experience the msg effect - where you get super headachey, mouth feeling dry and extremely drowsy.

the cure? 10k at the rosebowl!

success? YES!!!! A MAJOR ONE!!! brian and i finished it in 1:07. that's about 10mins/mile for the whole route.

doh! moment: once again, to celebrate our awesome run, we decided to go to the slaw dog on lake. we are firm believers in rewarding ourselves. and oh man oh man. look at what we had:

truffle oiled parmesan cheese drenched fries

the Thai Dog - BOMB!!! and

the entire feast, including the reuben dog. BOMB!

anyways, i've got much work cut out for me. i realized that you can plan and plan, and even if you want to stay on course, sometimes detours are necessary (perhaps not like the ones i took). eitherway, i hope that these detours, or more like deviation from my plan, will make less of an appearance as i continue down the road of recovery!!!!

snacking

i realized i've been snacking a lot lately. and when i say a lot, i mean a non-stop, constant munching that's almost involuntary and done completely unbeknown to my consciousness until i literally feel the tight squeezing of my pants around my belly. and when i say lately, i mean since may of 2008 (which shall forever and infamously be known as the beginning of my demise).

anyways, i've never really been a snacker. never liked potato chips (including the likes of doritos and cheetos), never liked candies, never really chewed gum. exceptions were ice cream and chocolates. i only started snacking in college. but it was one of those healthy snacking, i.e. protein shake, fresh fruits, raw vegetables, etc. during my time of total meathead domination.

post-college, i've stopped working out as studiously, however my snacking habits carried over. all through lawschool, and beginning of my career, i'd munch on snacks in between meals. but these snacks slowly evolved to a lesser healthy variety, until by may 2008 i was beginning to munch of the likes of choco pies, gummy bears, donuts etc, stuff that i'd never touch in college.

anyways, i'm trying to cut back on the snacks. actually, i'm going to replace these junky snacks with healthier snacks like fresh fruits and vegetables and raw almonds.

here's what i had for my post-breakfast/pre-lunch snack today - THE CULPRIT:
some sweet danish and scone from panera bread. i washed them all down with some dabang coffee (those pre-mixed coffee pouches that have ton of sugar and cream in them).

THE DAMAGE: oh, i don't know, 2 years of nonstop snacking? unmentionable amount of bad calories?

PRESCRIPTION: 10k outer loop run at the rose bowl with jason!

SUCCESS? will update later!

*UPDATE* SUCCESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! it was a marvelous run! thank you jason! thank you eun kyung! thank you God! T.T

let's see if i can keep this up!

packing lunch

so i've started packing lunch and snacks to work. it's an often-told advice, that not only to save money, but to eat healthier, pack lunch.

in the past couple of weeks i've been packing lunch and started eating at work, i started noticing/learning some interesting things:

1. i'm the only guy who eats in the kitchen/cafeteria area. everyone else who eats there are girls. all the guys eat at their desks;
2. even though lunch starts at 12:30, i don't usually eat till 1 even when i pack lunch, simply because the lines for the fridge and the microwaves and the ovens are too long - affirming that old adage "early worm gets the bird";
3. lunch hr really isn't lunch hr when u eat in the office because u end up doing work a lot of the times - THIS being the exception;
4. MOST ppl pack lunch contrary to my belief. almost everyone at work here packs lunch. and i'm so impressed by that because for the past 5 years or so of working, i've almost always ate out for lunch.

anyways, now that i've joined the majority of the workforce in packing lunch, i'd like to say that i've begun to really save money and lose weight. but sadly, i've yet to realize neither of them. the money i could be saving, i splurge on more extravagant dining experiences than i'd normally engage myself in if i were to eat out every lunch. as for the weight, i fear that once yur in the middle 1/3 of your life, they cling onto you like psycho ex gf/bfs, no matter how much fresh fruits/veges and home-cooked brown rice and beef ribs you pack.

anyways, with the exception of tuesday, i've been eating mostly what i purchased from grocery store and prepared at home - brown rice, pickled onions/peppers, fava beans, seasoned beef ribs, protein shakes and fresh fruits.

as for my exercises to offset them? well, i've been to the gym twice this week and ran twice. i'd say that's a start.

i'd like to do a better job of logging in my eats and exercises (anyone know how to create a fanshy spreadsheet for me to use?!?!?), but that may come later.

aite, it's 1:30. back to the old grind...

Reunited!

ok, so yesterday i had a court appearance up in chatsworth. that meant i had to get up at 5, get ready and hit the road by 545, as to make the courthouse by 8. which i did. i left at 545. arrived at 9425 penfield ave at 8. mad traffics yo. and that's not the bad part. my case was heard last. that meant i was just waiting around for the court clerk to call my case, which finally came around 1045. and i don't want to get into the speci

fics, but let's just say i wasn't too happy with the judge's decision.

but on the bright side, since i was way up in the valley anyways, i decided i was gonna stop by the love of my life, aka Porto's, on my way back to the office! u know what that means - portoballs and cheese rolls.....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm devine......

after i got back to my office, i had non stop work till 745. but that was ok, because my dear lovely friends don and annaha (or as some ppl affectionately call them "donnaha") were treating me and wooj out for dinner at bahn, which is this new korean restaurant on western and wilshire.

anyways, both porto's and bahn were BOMB DIGGITTY!

CULPRITS: Mad Good Food (MGF)

porto's cheese roll and potato ball - absolute musts when you visit this venerable glendale institution.

porto's hot pastrami - man i missed these. one of the better pastrami sandies. no langers, but still gooooooooooood.

bahn's galbi - BOMB! these delectable morsels were literally melt in your mouth soft and succulent and so full of flavor. really really really good.

bahn's gohb chang jeon gol - i don't really like spicy stuff, but i like tripe, and this was a very very fine example of such stew.

anyways, there were so much more i had yesterday, but it'd be too much work to post the pics or list them all

THE DAMAGE: oh i don't know, roughly 4500 calories of epically good times?

PRESCRIPTION: i haven't done much back exercises lately....so, 3 sets of 12 pull-ups + 5k run?

SUCCESS? i will report and update later tonight after i get home! let's if i can follow through!

*UPDATE*

so, i went home after work and i actually hit the gym!

i did 3 different chest exercises and 2 different tricep exercises. all under 35 mins!

and then i ran 2 miles around my house in 17:48!!!!! that's 8:49/mile!!!!!

so i guess you can say it was a success!!!!

note - the food i pigged out to documented above was all on tuesday. my exercises came on wed

accountability partners

*note*: i was gonna post or blog or whatever on the sad state of my body and the rude awakenings i've been experiencing, but it was just downright dreadfully depressing, so i'll prolly work on finishing it at some later time when i won't be so weak to run to a tub of ice cream to drown my sorrows in...

instead i'll just recount what i had today and see if i did anything to offset it!

the damage:

BREAKFAST - ox tail soup with a bowl of rice and pickled radishes (cals ~450 mama loves)+

SNACK - 2 clif bars and a bottle of naked juice green monster to wash it all down (cals = 330)+

LUNCH - a bowl of brown rice with 5 pieces of teeny korean pancakes and 3 carrot sticks (cals ~ oh i dunno, like 450?)+

SNACK - these 2 incredibly tasty green ricecakes with whole bunch of beans and peas and nuts in them and 2 bananas (cals ~ 300?)+

IT'S 7PM AND I'M STILL IN THE OFFICE WORKING AND I'M GOING CRAZY SNACK - 2 oh-so-crusty-from-the-morning krispy kreme donuts and an ice cold can of diet coke (cals = 400!)

TOTAL = ~1,930

prescription:

4 mile promised run with brian after work

success?

yes!!!!!!!! a smashing success!!!! our planned 4 miles turned into 6.82 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in 1:03 no less!!!! that's like almost at a 9:30/mile pace!!!! OMG!!!!! i mean, granted towards the end, i could barely breathe, my vision was getting blurry, my jaw slack (mebe i was drooling on the side), my head lobbing side to side...BUT 6.82 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and according to brian's nike+ pedometer, it said we smashed 744 cals out of our fat arses!!!!!! woooot!!!!

DOH! moment:

to celebrate our incredible run, we promptly refueled our famished bellies with chipotle's burrito bowl. damage - 590 cals.

but, all in all, a great day. worked my arse off at work 8-7 and then ran my arse off on a BOOOOOTIFUL near 7 mile run.

and it's only the beginning! yeah!!!!! is that a cheer i hear? *high fives*

but going back to the title. running with brian today i realized once again how so so awesome an accountability partner is for any undertaking. if it were me just running by myself, i would've quit after a mile. i was tired. stressed. just wanted to go home. but having brian to run with kept me going. way past our intended 4 miles. and even when i couldn't feel my legs and lungs felt like they were collapsing on themselves, i enjoyed every stride of it. thanks brian!

1st post

hi, i'm daniel. male. 30yo. and i'm in a fight to save myself.

i decided to start this blog because...well, i decided i needed more distraction in my life than i already have. no. that was my utterly feeble attempt at a joke. actually, the idea came to me as i was ravenously surfing all these incredible food blogs like kevineats and danieleats etc (i LOVE food btw). in the midst of gorging my eyes with the feasts of superfancy photos showcasing indescribably delectable meals, a realization dawned on me - that as the past 3 years saw an explosion of my degustation, so began the implosion of my fitness and health.

this was driven more viscerally and visually to me when my friend sent me this link

http://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/6-fat-man.jpg (WARNING! you may go "UGH!") telling me he found a pic of me. now i know he was only kidding (right, paul?), but it really got me all depressed. because that was me. actually it isn't. but i really felt like i was that guy with all my flabulous belly overflowing over my beltline, my pants popping at its seams, and this really heaviness in my lungs making even breathing a laborious undertaking.

i mean i've been joking lately that my belly now has a gravitational orbit of its own...but i wasn't always like this. i used to run. i used to go to the gym on a consistent basis. i used to eat healthy. i used to really live! what's happened to me?

well, what's happened is i hit 30, really started working, ate like whatevers, stopped exercising and got fat. everyone's typical story. and the scary thing? i found myself complacently resigned to my current state of expanding atrophy. but receiving that pic and hearing it from paul of all people that is who i am was like a swift kick in the you-know-what.

so comes about this blog. i will be documenting what i ate that day (including pics if i can help it) and what type of exercise (or activity) i did to offset it. cuz as everyone knows, it's a battle of caloric in/egress. this will in no way be scientific at all. instead i'll just describe what i had, perhaps not every meal either, just some mentionables, and will attach what i would need to do (purely on a guess) to offset that.

i.e. on tuesday, i had this for lunch:

CULPRIT: a huge bowl of pork chops (6 of them) smothered in thick cheese and tomato meat sauce over spaghetti from boston cafe.

DAMAGE: roughly 3000 calories, give or take 1000.

PRESCRIPTION: run 5 miles.

SUCCESS? utter failure - went home and drowned my sorrows with a tub of ice cream.

as i said, this is NOT a scientific documentation in any way.

now, what do i want to accomplish with this? more than anything it's to keep me accountable. and i'm opening it up to the world (all 2 of youS), so you too can keep me accountable! so i invite you guys as i go, or run, on this journey back to reclaiming myself back!

wish me luck!