Walking Until Your Legs Fall Off, Writing Until Your Head Explodes, And More!
Today is my "day off" so to speak. I don't have to walk to Nike, and that is of the good.
Also, since Ayaka didn't message me back (Jun did though....), I was thinking of taking the day off from messaging people today. Yesterday I wrote THREE messages. Ayaka's was 3 and a half pages in Word, Jun was a little over 1 page, and Kana's was 2 pages long and had to be separated into two e-mails because of the website (Jun and Ayaka message me directly at my e-mail). With Ayaka, I've made some rather silly mistakes lately (both laughable and embarrasing), and with Jun I just ended up making some sort of understand particle mistakes. At least my vocabulary wasn't so off in his mail...but, so far the conversation has been much simpler, and I haven't really had to look up the vocab I need. So, I feel that I should message him back, since our mails are the shortest and the "easiest" that way. Also, while his explanations aren't necessarily as good as Ayaka's, who goes into it more, he catches the little mistakes that I'm making that she doesn't have the time (or heart) to pull out (since it would mean almost entirely marking up my message or rewriting it...she had some similar mistakes, but unless it's NOT UNDERSTANDABLE, I've been overlooking them in favor of using the time to discuss the past tense). So, there are some benefits to keeping it short and sweet with Jun.
Kana is still something of a bigger challenge for me because she doesn't use furigana while writing to me, like Jun and Ayaka do, so I spend time just finding out what the words are...and it's so discouraging to me to see "kanji kanji kanji kanji word word word kanji word kanji word kanji kanji word." I go, "Oh god....kanji!! Why?! WHY!?" But, it's also good practice for me to not use furigana too much as a crutch. Luckily, both Ayaka and Jun must have been in the same boat as I am with furigana, at some point in their life, because they're both really good at giving me the reading the first time they use it, and then unless the reading changes, not giving it again in the same e-mail, so if I really didn't pay attention, then I'll have to go BACK and read it AGAIN, which means I look at the kanji again (good).
Last night I also took some time to study 100 kanji. Not writing them--as Jun pointed out, since more people type than write these days, it's more important to know how to read them than write them, just reading them. I'm aiming for being familiar with/able to read at least 700 kanji by the end of the year. It puts me at around 100 a month. That sounds insane, but I'm only learning how to READ them, or at least RECOGNIZE them. Since I won't really know how to write them on my own, it'll be a bit of a problem if I had to take an exam that asked me to write the kanji for a word, but I can go back and study that later. I already use some kanji now that I'm talking to Japanese people, and that means I can always find a way to use the kanji I'm learning to recongize to get even more recognition/usage with it. If my head doesn't explode, that is.
My legs are also just all sorts of complainy this morning. Yesterday, I walked to Nike at a fairly good clip. I wanted to push myself a little without overdoing it. Then, while I was there, we took a walk around Nike for 20 minutes, and then I launched right back into my hour walk. So, I walked for almost a full two and a half hours yesterday! Yeah, if you want to talk about maybe overdoing it...adding that little 20 minutes almost sent me back to bed rest! It was also warm yesterday, and when you're walking for an hour, in the sun, it's not warm. It's HOT. I even burned a little on my front. It's barely noticeable, but it IS redder than the surrounding skin, sort of like I fucked up and put blush on my chest instead of cheeks...
But! Today is still my Day Off. Weekends are sort of day offs too...but, not in the same way. Days like today I don't have a lot to do, but I still have some things to do. I just don't have the same things I have to do like I do when Brian is home, like cook three meals in a timely fashion, and such. Today is also Brian's cooking day, so I just have to make bentos for tomorrow (though I'm allowed to claim a Freebie lunch day, I claimed two last week--one on purpose, the other because I forgot...I'm not claiming any this week to make up for it). And I really want to make myself lunch for tomorrow because Brian tends to make more fattening and calorie-filled dinners than I do. Don't get me wrong, I fill us up. Brian is sometimes even too full after finishing dinner. I just make sure that I don't get too full, and that the food we're eating isn't too high in anything evil.
Yesterday I did pretty well when it came to calories. I ended up with around a 400cal lunch, mostly because I didn't have rice--I had a salad for the rice part. Then, I had one 35cal molasses cookie (no high fructose corn syrup! Yay!), and 30cal of a fruit leather. Dinner was a bit higher than usual because Brian brought home chicken from Popeye, as we didn't have anything and he didn't want a just vegetarian meal. The fried bit was cut off, at our request, so we weren't tempted to eat it. The back was still there, so we managed to work our way up to 200cal with just the chickent. Then, we had rice (I had about half of a small rice bowl, for around 1/4 a cup), and vegetables. There was a major accident on the way back home, so Brian was delayed by around half an hour, so our veggies, which were supposed to be served when he got home, died in the pan a little. They weren't bad, just a little overcooked. All in all, it was around 600cal for me. Plus, I had a cup of coffee with about 40cal worth of creamer.
This all puts me around 1105cal. I always estimate higher, because there are sometimes hidden calories, like in foods that I think would be good...but are bad. Also, I like to try and account for cooking oil, but it's tricky, since it's all estimates in my head. So, I rounded up to 1200cal. It's low--I should be around 1400 for weightloss. But, I didn't have time for breakfast, which would have been something around 300cal, and dinner was a little high, since it should be closer to 500 calories. I like my MEAL FOOD total to be around 1200cal, because I eat and drink other things during the day that have calories, and it's important to leave enough space in your calorie diet for them. I don't want to have to measure out too carefully a glass of orange juice, or exactly how many cookies/popsicles I can REALLY have before I'm way over my limit. And, like I said, I like to try and account for the things that are hard to count, like the calories from cooking methods.
I have to be 135lbs by the end of the week. God, just a few months ago, I was STARTING from 135lbs and looking to be 132...okay! Don't think about it! Just think about your goal! By the end of the week, I hope to have gone from 136lbs to 135lbs. Losing the chubby is the goal! I am aiming to do my best at losing a pound a week for the next ten to fifteen weeks. It's not always going to be possible--I'm very, very aware of that. But, hopefully with bento and walking for two hours at least 3 times a week, I'll be able to lose the weight better. I also have a tight leash on my calories this time, so nothing like pie or ice cream in the house to tempt me off the straight and narrow. Also, Brian has been really awesome and keeping his end of the bargain--if/when I ask/beg to go out to eat instead of cooking, or have him bring home a full meal, he refuses. We're allowed to go out to eat ONCE a week, and only to a place with something I can eat that isn't too evil (the only exception to this is we can eat out at Sweet Tomatoes (Salad Bar) and another place during the week, but that's the only combination...and that's only once a month, when they send out the coupons for a Buy 1 Get 1 Free). Yesterday I was still 136lbs, but I hope to start getting into the 135.Xlbs today. I have yet to weigh myself, as I first checked/read my e-mails (when it's in Japanese, that takes a little longer...). I'm going to weigh myself, then make some tea, and think about what I want for breakfast.
I'm also a little Domestically Excited. Today is going to be a mostly sunny and warm day (up to 77 degrees at least), and so we can finally dry our laundry outside! =D Yay! I've been waiting to use it until our basket overflowed, and I just had to cave and wash it with the dryer the other day. =( So! I will get laundry started and put it out to dry today! Yay!
Also, since Ayaka didn't message me back (Jun did though....), I was thinking of taking the day off from messaging people today. Yesterday I wrote THREE messages. Ayaka's was 3 and a half pages in Word, Jun was a little over 1 page, and Kana's was 2 pages long and had to be separated into two e-mails because of the website (Jun and Ayaka message me directly at my e-mail). With Ayaka, I've made some rather silly mistakes lately (both laughable and embarrasing), and with Jun I just ended up making some sort of understand particle mistakes. At least my vocabulary wasn't so off in his mail...but, so far the conversation has been much simpler, and I haven't really had to look up the vocab I need. So, I feel that I should message him back, since our mails are the shortest and the "easiest" that way. Also, while his explanations aren't necessarily as good as Ayaka's, who goes into it more, he catches the little mistakes that I'm making that she doesn't have the time (or heart) to pull out (since it would mean almost entirely marking up my message or rewriting it...she had some similar mistakes, but unless it's NOT UNDERSTANDABLE, I've been overlooking them in favor of using the time to discuss the past tense). So, there are some benefits to keeping it short and sweet with Jun.
Kana is still something of a bigger challenge for me because she doesn't use furigana while writing to me, like Jun and Ayaka do, so I spend time just finding out what the words are...and it's so discouraging to me to see "kanji kanji kanji kanji word word word kanji word kanji word kanji kanji word." I go, "Oh god....kanji!! Why?! WHY!?" But, it's also good practice for me to not use furigana too much as a crutch. Luckily, both Ayaka and Jun must have been in the same boat as I am with furigana, at some point in their life, because they're both really good at giving me the reading the first time they use it, and then unless the reading changes, not giving it again in the same e-mail, so if I really didn't pay attention, then I'll have to go BACK and read it AGAIN, which means I look at the kanji again (good).
Last night I also took some time to study 100 kanji. Not writing them--as Jun pointed out, since more people type than write these days, it's more important to know how to read them than write them, just reading them. I'm aiming for being familiar with/able to read at least 700 kanji by the end of the year. It puts me at around 100 a month. That sounds insane, but I'm only learning how to READ them, or at least RECOGNIZE them. Since I won't really know how to write them on my own, it'll be a bit of a problem if I had to take an exam that asked me to write the kanji for a word, but I can go back and study that later. I already use some kanji now that I'm talking to Japanese people, and that means I can always find a way to use the kanji I'm learning to recongize to get even more recognition/usage with it. If my head doesn't explode, that is.
My legs are also just all sorts of complainy this morning. Yesterday, I walked to Nike at a fairly good clip. I wanted to push myself a little without overdoing it. Then, while I was there, we took a walk around Nike for 20 minutes, and then I launched right back into my hour walk. So, I walked for almost a full two and a half hours yesterday! Yeah, if you want to talk about maybe overdoing it...adding that little 20 minutes almost sent me back to bed rest! It was also warm yesterday, and when you're walking for an hour, in the sun, it's not warm. It's HOT. I even burned a little on my front. It's barely noticeable, but it IS redder than the surrounding skin, sort of like I fucked up and put blush on my chest instead of cheeks...
But! Today is still my Day Off. Weekends are sort of day offs too...but, not in the same way. Days like today I don't have a lot to do, but I still have some things to do. I just don't have the same things I have to do like I do when Brian is home, like cook three meals in a timely fashion, and such. Today is also Brian's cooking day, so I just have to make bentos for tomorrow (though I'm allowed to claim a Freebie lunch day, I claimed two last week--one on purpose, the other because I forgot...I'm not claiming any this week to make up for it). And I really want to make myself lunch for tomorrow because Brian tends to make more fattening and calorie-filled dinners than I do. Don't get me wrong, I fill us up. Brian is sometimes even too full after finishing dinner. I just make sure that I don't get too full, and that the food we're eating isn't too high in anything evil.
Yesterday I did pretty well when it came to calories. I ended up with around a 400cal lunch, mostly because I didn't have rice--I had a salad for the rice part. Then, I had one 35cal molasses cookie (no high fructose corn syrup! Yay!), and 30cal of a fruit leather. Dinner was a bit higher than usual because Brian brought home chicken from Popeye, as we didn't have anything and he didn't want a just vegetarian meal. The fried bit was cut off, at our request, so we weren't tempted to eat it. The back was still there, so we managed to work our way up to 200cal with just the chickent. Then, we had rice (I had about half of a small rice bowl, for around 1/4 a cup), and vegetables. There was a major accident on the way back home, so Brian was delayed by around half an hour, so our veggies, which were supposed to be served when he got home, died in the pan a little. They weren't bad, just a little overcooked. All in all, it was around 600cal for me. Plus, I had a cup of coffee with about 40cal worth of creamer.
This all puts me around 1105cal. I always estimate higher, because there are sometimes hidden calories, like in foods that I think would be good...but are bad. Also, I like to try and account for cooking oil, but it's tricky, since it's all estimates in my head. So, I rounded up to 1200cal. It's low--I should be around 1400 for weightloss. But, I didn't have time for breakfast, which would have been something around 300cal, and dinner was a little high, since it should be closer to 500 calories. I like my MEAL FOOD total to be around 1200cal, because I eat and drink other things during the day that have calories, and it's important to leave enough space in your calorie diet for them. I don't want to have to measure out too carefully a glass of orange juice, or exactly how many cookies/popsicles I can REALLY have before I'm way over my limit. And, like I said, I like to try and account for the things that are hard to count, like the calories from cooking methods.
I have to be 135lbs by the end of the week. God, just a few months ago, I was STARTING from 135lbs and looking to be 132...okay! Don't think about it! Just think about your goal! By the end of the week, I hope to have gone from 136lbs to 135lbs. Losing the chubby is the goal! I am aiming to do my best at losing a pound a week for the next ten to fifteen weeks. It's not always going to be possible--I'm very, very aware of that. But, hopefully with bento and walking for two hours at least 3 times a week, I'll be able to lose the weight better. I also have a tight leash on my calories this time, so nothing like pie or ice cream in the house to tempt me off the straight and narrow. Also, Brian has been really awesome and keeping his end of the bargain--if/when I ask/beg to go out to eat instead of cooking, or have him bring home a full meal, he refuses. We're allowed to go out to eat ONCE a week, and only to a place with something I can eat that isn't too evil (the only exception to this is we can eat out at Sweet Tomatoes (Salad Bar) and another place during the week, but that's the only combination...and that's only once a month, when they send out the coupons for a Buy 1 Get 1 Free). Yesterday I was still 136lbs, but I hope to start getting into the 135.Xlbs today. I have yet to weigh myself, as I first checked/read my e-mails (when it's in Japanese, that takes a little longer...). I'm going to weigh myself, then make some tea, and think about what I want for breakfast.
I'm also a little Domestically Excited. Today is going to be a mostly sunny and warm day (up to 77 degrees at least), and so we can finally dry our laundry outside! =D Yay! I've been waiting to use it until our basket overflowed, and I just had to cave and wash it with the dryer the other day. =( So! I will get laundry started and put it out to dry today! Yay!