“Are you on a diet?”

Tags

candid, dieting, exercise, lifestyle, Rants

There has been multiple times when I found myself in this situation where people assume I’m on a diet. Maybe I’m on a budget and instead of buying more food from the grocery store, I am making recipes with spinach before the spinach spoils.

Another situation that happened multiple times was how my former cubicle mate would always give me her snacks and I use to take her snacks but then I would get sick afterwards so I decided to no longer share her snacks. She assumed I was on a diet or that I needed to eat more. I told her “I already ate.”

But she still would try to give me her snacks. I’ve said quite a few things to turn her down like “I don’t eat anything with trans fats” or “high fructose corn syrup” or “aspartame”. It did annoy her and she kept asking me “if I was on a diet” and I said “no, I’ve avoided all those things since I was in high school.”

But then in the end she decided to avoid trans fats, HFSC, and aspartame all-together. In fact, she became very preachy and I did find it annoying like “ooh this yogurt is good (looks at the ingredients in the back)…eww! yuck there’s aspartame! bleh, I’m gonna throw up! (No you’re not…)” If you were a real health-freak, you should have looked at the ingredients first before you buy it because I’m not buying your whole “I’m a health goddess” act. As aggravating as she came out, I didn’t ask her “why are you avoiding aspartame?” I just kept all comments to myself.

I love reading posts and articles about people’s bad fallout from dieting and weight loss because it makes me realize that I’m not alone. You’d think people would be more supportive of reaching their goals. I wouldn’t think that people would try to  sabotage people’s weight loss/healthy eating effort. 

Why am I writing about weight loss and dieting? Well it’s been 6 months since I left San Diego to Los Angeles and I have noticed a weight loss except the thing is I haven’t done anything crazy. My lifestyle is about the same:

• I drink a protein shake when I wake up in the morning to cut my breakfast preparation. It makes a huge difference since most of my mornings I rush for the door. I use to cook oatmeal every morning but I hated waiting for the oatmeal to get ready. Plus you can’t really drink your oatmeal when you’re on the road.
• Eat whatever I like throughout the day it could be pasta, salad, sandwiches, etc. Snack on almonds, yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit, bread, chocolate, ice cream, and cheeses. Nothing restrictive.
• Going to YogaWorks about 3-4 times per week. Been doing Yoga and other mat exercises for the past two years. I don’t really call it “exercising”, more like a “hobby”.
• I work out more for recreation like running with friends or going out to the pool at my apartment because its hot or kayaking at the beach. I simply like doing active things.
• Still eat out with friends. Actually Friday we went to Lazy Dog Cafe ordered a beer sampler and an ahi tuna burger and it was yum! Plus I finished the whole plate.
• Yes, in the end, despite me eating — I still do exercise.

I think I exercised a lot more though back in San Diego and I felt like I had to work out a lot harder to maintain my weight. My lifestyle now is still the same …or actually I exercised a little less. I don’t run 3-5 times per week (plus do youtube workout videos) anymore to burn off Saturday night’s potluck. But lately, I’ve noticed my clothes have felt more comfortable.

My boyfriend thinks the reason why I’m losing weight is because I’m less stressed. True, I’m less stressed but at the same time, I’m more busy. Busy in a good way. I’m more active in the community and pursuing more hobbies. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just less stress because I care less what people think what I’m eating. I guess that’s what a 100 mile buffer between you and San Diego does to you. I don’t have to hear “that’s it? That’s all your eating?”

Anyways the point is that summer is coming up and there are wedding parties and birthday parties to attend in SD. It’s been a while since I’ve seen people in San Diego– the same people who have guilt-ed me for eating salad and doing outdoor sports and yoga. Not sure what they would think with my unintended weight loss and what I’ve been doing lately. It’s misleading that I share pictures of Aebleskivers pancakes, scones, chocolate tarts, sushi burritos, and bratwursts. The best part of it all is that I am not judged here.

Your days are numbered San Diego!

Tags

20 somethings, life, Rants, salaries, San Diego, sunshine discount, work, young professional

Three years of living in San Diego, I decided to move back to Los Angeles. I got a better job with better pay and a better (stable) company. The truth was all year I was looking for a job outside of San Diego. After three years of living in San Diego, I was still in the same job title doing the same work and I felt like I was not growing here. Sure I got scouted by a few companies in San Diego but they were not offering better work or better pay. The work was either the same work I was doing or maybe less challenging work and I felt the people who were scouting me were treating me more like merchandise rather than someone who wants to grow and add more caps to their feathers.

My group leader who I’ve been working with for the past (almost) 2 years told me how surreal that I’m leaving because I do a lot of the work and I’ve always stayed on top of my work. My group leader was telling me how she was happy I was moving on. She’s not upset that I’m moving on to a different part of the industry but she sees where I’m coming from. She saw my salary and what I made for the past three years and she told me for the work I did, I should’ve gotten a much higher raise. Unfortunately, she does not have control of my raise.

I went off tangent about the salary but there’s just so much I want to write to you, San Diego. How you’re so expensive, but yet the employers collectively don’t pay very marketable wages to live here. Is it the sunshine discount you love to hand around so much? Last year, my boyfriend and his sister were considering buying a house in San Diego but it seemed like with the salaries they were making, they could never buy a house that met their expectations and constantly kept compromising but still expensive. I thought, “wow, if I move in I might be stuck here and struggle to pay the bills for the rest of my life if I don’t find better work.” So that was when I expanded my horizons and told my boyfriend to do the same.

Big mistake was when earlier this year, me and Mr. Fish announced that we were thinking of moving out of SD to our friends. The feelings were 50/50. People fully supported us and other people thought we were crazy. The people who thought we were crazy thought we were ready to leave at any minute. At the time, to me I thought the announcement meant “we were thinking about” or that “we were open to the idea of looking elsewhere.” I would have never thought of making a big deal.

About every week I got the question “are you guys still thinking about moving?” I usually answer, “actually I don’t know” or say things like “I’ve been so busy with school” or “I haven’t found anything better.” I tried side-stepping my answers because I was busy with school and getting asked by the same people week after week about our thoughts on finding opportunities elsewhere made me think people were starting to take us less seriously.

Well now it’s happened. The official news have been announced and the people who have constantly asked us week after week about us moving have sadly stopped talking to us. They haven’t congratulated us or wished us luck on our move. That’s another rant, I’ll mention in another post. It is sad but it’s their problem and I guess they were not truly friends to begin with.

Stay tune for my blog posts and my moving adventures this week. I’ll also talk about how to get through your last two weeks of an old job, not burning bridges, my attempts of moving up, and other fun stuff!

I cleared the PMI-CAPM exam!

Tags

20 somethings, candid, CAPM, Cross Roads, General, life, LinkedIn, PMI, Project management, Rants, resources, study tips, transitions, young professional

See? Look what happens when you study really hard and use your resources — it finally paid off.

I took the test on Saturday and I felt relieved that I passed the test and my PMI membership should be coming in the mail in the next few weeks. Sunday, I felt like I got hit by a train because of all the late nights of studying and researching even though I know I have to wake up at 5:30 to start the work day. I guess you could say that I was retrograding on my sleep.

For those who want to know my strategy for passing the CAPM exam, here is what I did:
1) As soon as I finished my classes and earned my minimum 23 education hours in Project Management, I applied through the PMI website and applied to take the exam.
2) When scheduling for the exam, try to do it about a month after you take your classes so whatever you’re studying for during the month is pretty much review. I was thinking about taking the exam in December but instead I decided the sooner I take and pass my test, the better. Also, I tend to get paranoid about overstudying.
3) My study tools was Rita Mulcahy’s book and Brainbok.com. I thought the quizzes were the most help. I did buy the Brainbok study materials.
4) Everyone said to memorize the ITTOs but with Brainbok, I didn’t think I had to. I think after quizzing myself (on Brainbok), I felt that each output that becomes an input to another process made sense. Or why organizational process assets is an input to one process but not another.
5) I think you should memorize were the equations but there were surprisingly not a lot of math problems.
6) During the week, I studied about 2 hours a day and on the weekends, as much as I can.
7) I Googled “CAPM practice exams”, “free CAPM practice exams”, etc. It was a little frustrating that a lot of the practice exams varied in difficulty. I couldn’t figure out the feel if the real exam was going to be easy or very difficult. I had some results from practice exams that made me feel better and other results that got me discouraged to the point if I should really reschedule my exam. I guess practicing as many exam problems would give one more confidence on the day of the exam.
8) Don’t study AT ALL on the night before exam. I’m sure glad I did. Friday afternoon, I drove to Irvine from San Diego. The testing facility was the closest one that was open on the weekends. I was anticipating on the Friday afternoon traffic but being aware of being stuck in traffic didn’t make me feel less frazzled. Friday night, I stayed over at a friend’s place and just ate and watched “How I Met Your Mother” on Hulu instead of studying.
9) On exam day, I brought a couple granola bars, water, and juice. I had three hours to take the exam and I took 5 minute breaks every 30 minutes.
10) I smiled when I felt being under pressure. It works and relieves my test nerves.

It’s been a long time since I taken any form of test so coming up with test taking strategies were pretty hard. I went on LinkedIn, joining Project Management groups and CAPM groups reading their discussions and their advice.

See? Look what happens you use your resources. Without LinkedIn, I don’t think I would have known about Rita Mulcahy’s book and Brainbok. Reading through threads on LinkedIn, I found links to free practice exams and advice on career transitioning to Project Management with a CAPM. I may have gotten my credential, but I still feel I have to work for it to get to where I want to be.

The following day, I thought about volunteer opportunities in Project Management with non-profits and organizations. You see, I’ve been working in biotech for a long time as a Lab Associate. With the skills I learned on the way, I thought maybe moving in Project Management in the biotechnology, healthcare, or technology industry made to most sense with what I want to do next. But the problem was that most of my work was in the lab such as process development and projects and I was looking for more versatility and doing something bigger. If I want to move on to bigger things, maybe volunteering on the side as a Project Coordinator or Lead would be a good way to show that I have interacted with my team and my community on different levels. Plus earning hours towards your PMP doesn’t hurt either .

(Hopefully, I hear from Engineers without Borders!)

Happy 25th Birthday to me!

Tags

20 something, 25th birthday, birthdays, bucket lists, candid, life, Rants, reflective

I am the big 25 years old! Wrote a list of things to do before I turned 30. Not as extensive as my 101 things list though.

Anyways looking through my 25×25 list, I did ok. Wish I did keep up with the Traveling Bear Project blog but in fact, I do have lots of pictures from the past year taking Mocha to South East Asia, Anza Borrego, NYC, and more! I’m very back logged.

I wrote “Shake things up” on my list. I’m currently taking Project Management Classes hopefully it would help things out. I believe things just don’t happen, you make things happen.

I think “Shaking Things Up” is more of a daily reminder than just a thing on my checklist. I think people need to “shake things up” more in their life.

Happy birthday to me! I hope 25 is just as exciting as 24 and many years to go!

Will also add learning to surf or paddle board on bucket list…

Tags

first time, kayaking, La Jolla Shores, paddle board, Rants, San Diego, surfboard

Did another thing that I did for the first time: going to the La Jolla Caves. Been to the shores many times but not to the caves.

On Sunday, I went kayaking with my boyfriend and friends. Just to let you know, when you rent the kayaks, you’re not allowed to go into the cave unless you are in a tour group – the tour group wears helmets for safety. When you’re kayaking in the cave and when the waves get strong you WILL crash into the rocks. The weird thing is, they allow you to park your rental kayak a few meters away from the entrance of the cave and swim or snorkel to the cave. But you need to proceed with caution. It can get dangerous. Didn’t know until I swam to caves myself.

So I swim to the caves and grabbed on to a rock and just sat and people watch from the rock. It felt awesome being able to be at the caves at last — another thing to cross off on my San Diego bucket list. Then the waves happened, though the waves looked small, they were strong enough to push me back.

I was terrified and I tried to cover my neck and my head so I wouldn’t hit anything there. Since the waves were so strong, I was in an enclosed area and it was hard to swim through and grab to another rock (warning: there are some sharp rocks in the cave).

I swim to my friends telling them what happened. Even though I wasn’t too far from my friends, they told me they saw some waves but they wouldn’t have guessed I fell over. They thought I jumped off the rock and swam away. Scary. I don’t think you can scream for “help” underwater.

Overall, the wipe-out didn’t too much damage to me. I have scratches all over my arm, stomach and legs and back. My knees are swollen so it’s kind of painful to stand up from my chair or my bed. Worst case scenario would have been drowning or getting hit in the head by the rocks and got unconscious.

Maybe I should learn how to surf or paddleboard. For some reason, I always got too scared to learn how to surf or stand up on a paddle board for the fear or falling off, but getting pushed by a wave and getting hit by rocks is probably the worst case scenario when you’re at the beach (and any body of water, I must add). Getting pushed by a wave from a surfboard probably doesn’t sound too bad because I’m not surfing in an enclosed area. I would probably just land on more waves and waters.

Time to Give Back, World

Tags

candid, Ideas, Rants

After my South East Asia trip, I want to travel more often. Thanks for the warning folks.

As soon as I got back home, I was already dreaming about my next trip would it be heading to the Antarctic Circle since I’ve already been to the Arctic Circle? Would it be visiting a fellow travel buddy in South Africa? Or renting a car and driving around Australia? Or would it be taking the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing?

I even dreamed of vacations where I volunteer in countries at a cooperative or a farm or maybe take a chunk of the year to teach English.

All these ideas overwhelmed me because there’s just so much of the world to see and because I like to go to places, I feel obligated to more than just take a vacation but also contribute back to the country. Then an idea happened…well actually…another dream…

Not going to say yet but we’re in the process of making that dream into something more tangible.

How would I describe my blog?

Tags

accomplishments, blogging, General, goals, Rants

I’m not a fan of labels. I’m really not.

I guess I can’t quite put my blog in a label. My blog actually started as a list — a list of 101 things to do 1001 days after my last day of college. I accomplished some on my list and some I didn’t, but that’s fine. Two years after graduation, I’m not doing too shabby but it could be better and it has nothing to do with crossing off more things on the 101 thing list.

When I turned 24, I decided to write a list of things to do before I turned 25. I’ve only looked at the list during the month of September (my birthday month) and forgot about it in October and beyond. Next month I turn 25. I forgot what I wrote on my 25 things before I turned 25 but that’s all right too, I think I had a great 24th year.

I guess to me, my blog is just a self-realization, a self-improvement blog and just a focus on putting my best self forward. I write these  goals to give myself a little bit of direction but it’s not necessarily a destination. The other day, I was reading an article on the NY Times on letting go of the outcomes and expectations of your goals and focus on the process on getting there and also don’t turn your goals into expectations — it’s a sad and defeating cycle.

My blog is a one-woman show. I cook, I do Pilates, I do yoga, I run, I write, I work a full-time job, I catch up with my friends, I travel, I take photos, I study, I do my homework, I clean the dishes, and do the laundry and I wouldn’t have that any other way. You really can’t put a label on my blog. I love write my rants, share things that inspire me, share my photos of places I’ve been and writing about my frustrations, what I can do better, and of course my accomplishments — recording how far I’ve come.

Question for you: How would you describe your blog?

Wednesday thoughts….

Tags

random, Rants

In one week I’ll be going to NYC!! Still need to pack! But I do have a list of what clothes to wear on my trip. I still need to find myself a dressy shrug or a dressy jacket to go into those nice restaurants.

So follow me on Twitter or Instagram (@itsjuliebear) to follow me in between my posting and I’ll follow you back!

I’ve been going back into the habit of walking during my work break. I forget how hot the weather is starting to get. On Monday, I came back and my skin felt really warm at 9:30 in the morning.

Last week, I went and saw “Prometheus” with my boyfriend. Highly not recommended for the super religious and expecting mothers *shudders*. Had to tell my pregnant coworker before she went out and watched it with her husband.

Studying for my CAPM is all right. Maybe after my NYC trip, I’ll apply to take the test.

Might sound a little trite but I do have an Adele song stuck in my head and my boyfriend and roommate ABHOR Adele. There are events that I’m hearing around me (and not ABOUT ME thank god) and the intro part of Adele’s “Rumor Has It” starts to play in my head. Then my head starts going back to the soundtrack of “Rent” which I actually have been singing out loud since Saturday and I think it will be a while for me to stop (I don’t want to stop). The Rent-Head in me has unleashed. Last time I was singing “Rent” songs was back when I was 18 when I first listened to the soundtrack and played it everyday until my CD player broke.

Happy Wednesday

Tags

buzz, candid, random, Rants, Wednesday

Happy Mid-week folks!

I’m starting to feel a little sick trying to balance school and work, so I guess it’s time take some Vitamin C! Yesterday I printed out a practice CAPM licensing exam because I was curious about the exam and what to expect.

I sure forgot how it was like being in school. So…yes, I do feel like I’m in college because I’m taking Vitamin C (check). With all these all-nighters I had in college, I don’t remember getting sick. Maybe because I kept taking Vitamin C. When I started working however, I kept getting sick.

What else to mention…The San Diego fair is open this year. Might attend. My favorite part in the fair is the exhibits where they have all these product demonstrations. That was how I was introduced the wonders of the Vitamix and ended up getting the cost-effective Ninja blender — which by the way is amazing. With the Ninja I’ve made smoothies, salsa, dips, soups, and cookie dough. Should try making ice cream with it or bread.

San Diego fair

Also my friend asked me to attend a TEDx event at La Jolla. Still thinking about it. Tickets are really expensive. They’re 60 dollars now but in July, they’ll raise it to 100 dollars. I know attending a TED session is thousands of dollars. Besides isn’t Netflix going to have TED Talks? But there’s also TED talks in your Android apps and your nearest computer and tablet.

My friend is thinking about setting up a blog. She asked me how I am able to write about my feelings. I came up with a not-so direct answer. I don’t know exactly when I can recognize I write about my feelings so well. My boyfriend pointed out that he likes how I write about previous events. I never thought about it before. I really just think my blog is a space to write whatever I like. I told her when I was a senior in high school, my literature teacher would write a quote on the board in the beginning of class and we would write what it means to us whether it would be to our lives or the novel we were currently reading. I also remembered junior year, a lot of my classmates had Xangas and LiveJournals — remember those folks? It was funny how my classmates and I would all follow each other and write about the same event on our journal entries. I guess from there, I became more conscious about my writing because I knew my classmates would read it and talk about it with me. That was when I learned that I needed to write something worth writing about.

Looking back, blogs were the first social network and I think it will survive all this social networking hype. Reading entries on blogs are more interesting than Facebook statuses.

The Perks of Being Introvert

Tags

inspire, Rants, TED talks

I got this video from Erin (Analyfe) and I thought this was inspiring because some days I feel I am an introvert trapped in an extrovert’s body.

Or…wait…maybe I only pretend to be extrovert. Simply put it, I fake it until I make it.

Yes, people are obnoxious and I feel anywhere I go is a contest of who can scream the loudest and be the most obnoxious and people are just fighting for it. It doesn’t matter how smart they are and they just sound down right stupid as soon as they open their mouth–just as long as they’re the loudest and most obnoxious. That’s the rules of this contest.

To me, I’m reserved and I guess I decide to be more selective of who to be more open to. Maybe I because I like to create mystery in a world where everyone’s identity is whatever you put in your Facebook profile. The more one puts on their Facebook, the more people think they know more about you. For me, I don’t really post on my Facebook wall or update and I have a feeling it drives people crazy because when they see me, that’s when the questions start pouring in and I still give the same minimalist answers.

About the video, the lady was talking about how introverts are better thinkers and they make the most difference in the world but unfortunately in everyday life they’re over looked. At work, I do feel overlooked no matter how witty I am and how good I am with my words and work effort and have listen to people’s daily contest of Who-Can-Speak-The-Loudest. It’s discouraging really. Some days I do jump at the opportunity to reason but in the end it’s not worth it. They’re words aren’t winning, more like dead for me. How the “argument” is more like dragging dead weight around because the topic was just shallow and nonsense in the first place. Like I said this contest is Who-Can-Speak-The-Loudest, not Who-Can-Speak-The-Smartest.

I thought this was an inspiring TED talk and this is definitely to the introverts: the thinkers, the movers, the shakers. It feels so good to get this out.