spoiled chinese girl

I’m all sorts of proud like a momma bear about Camera Guy finally joining the gym with me on Monday.  We all had a great time Monday night with it, even with his two friends ribbing him the whole way through.  There was little complaining to be had, and overall he didn’t do that badly.  The funny part was they kept telling me my turn was coming regarding all the teasing, but I think when they both realized I knew what I was doing they didn’t dare. Haha.

Based on how long I want to be there (which probably will dictate how long Camera guy will be there) I basically figured out an easy-to-follow breakdown of times for workout and what calories will be burned to see what we’d most likely be doing when we get to the gym.  Based on some online calculator I found and promptly lost when I closed my browser…

20 minutes Cardio/Warm up (270 calories) Either Jogging on treadmill, Stair climber, or exercise bike.
30 minutes Weight-lifting (200 calories) Combination of machine & free weights, I selected “Moderate”
30 minutes swimming (350 calories) Again set at “Moderate” level.

Doing that 3 times a week (Monday + Wednesday with me & Friday with just his friends,) he would burn enough calories to lose just about 0.7lbs per week, and a weight-loss goal of 40lbs would take just about 57 weeks. This is based on another website that says you lose a pound when you create a deficit of 3500 calories.

Then I tried to figure out what my workout routine would have me at:

Monday – Warm-up/Weights/Swimming – 820 calories
Tuesday – Aerobic (I picked low-impact) 700 calories
Wednesday – Warm-up/Weights/Swimming – 820 calories
Thursday – Rest day
Friday – Aerobic (I picked low-impact) 700 calories
Saturday – Yoga – 600 calories
Sunday – Yoga – 600 calories

And I’m supposed to be able to lose 1.2lbs per week.  And my goal of losing around 50lbs would take me about 42 weeks.

Fingers crossed!

Today we’re going to try to go swimming for the first time. Scared. I’ve never been in a swimsuit in front of him before!

Oh, and the subject line? That online calculator also gave me an option to see how many calories I would burn during sex, and apparently it would take 7.5 hours to burn 3500 calories.  But I’m guessing that’s if you’re on top.  It would also take 19.5 hours of foreplay to burn 3500 calories. ZOMG.

Considering for just under 10% of the month I didn’t even think of this plan, so my success rate might be better considered as 77.7% since I only missed 6 out of the 27 days I intended to do this new fitness… program.

Here’s what the rest of the month looked like for me:

• 01/24 – Yoga
• 01/25 – Nothing
• 01/26 – Body Combat
• 01/27 – 40 modified push ups
• 01/28 – Nothing (Needed sleep. Badly.)
• 01/29 – Nothing (Cold snap = worried about wet-hair freezing)
• 01/30 – Yoga (but brr! Studio was FREEZING)
• 01/31 – 40 modified push ups (slept in, skipped yoga)

So since before new years Camera guy was talking about joining his friend’s condo gym, that another friend had already joined up at. I’ve been somewhat nagging him to do so because we can both agree he’d be healthier and fitter and have more energy if he got some more physical activity into him.

It’s taken a month of pestering and fork-poking but he’s finally going to look into signing up today. And… I’m apparently going with him. I always said I would join with him though, after all, what this gym lacks in classes, they make up for by having a pool and hot tub! It’s an inexpensive model so I’m staying with my current gym as well (I go for the classes really) and I get camera guy as a project while he gets me as… his trainer(?!) Now there’s a scary thought.

I’m basically using this second gym for weights with other people, swimming and the hot tub(!). So with any aspect of me training Camera guy is pretty much him following my weights routine. And we go swimming and sit in a hot tub. He’ll need to figure out his own cardio, which will likely be when he has days off and can go with his friends.

I need to find my swimsuit now. Poops.

So starting today my schedule might end up looking something like…

• Monday – 2nd gym (weights & swimming) with Camera guy
• Tuesday – Body Combat at my gym
• Wednesday – 2nd gym (weights & swimming) with Camera guy(?)
• Thursday – Off or Unicycle club (I haven’t gone in FOREVER oops!)
• Friday – Body Attack at my gym and/or 2nd gym (weights & swimming) with Camera guy
• Saturday – Yoga at my gym
• Sunday – Yoga at my gym

I don’t do resolutions, never really have, never really want to.

But I do have some goals for the next 365-ish days.  Mostly broad and generalized, some more personal and not-really-for-the-public, and some just… why the hell not, right?

Things I’m certain I’m going to do:

Dec 31st-Jan 1st, Party like it’s on sale for $19.99
What can I say, I <3 Badur’s NYE parties, I’m even willing to (sort of) get dressed up for them!

In April (Easter Weekend), go to Dallas Suscon 2010.
I’ve already got accommodations and car rentals figured out thanks to Mister, so it’s just my flight and the funds I need to really work on, which shouldn’t be too difficult.

By around May/June-ish, pay off the car.
My parents technically paid for the car for me last May/June-ish, they took money out of their line of credit to pay for the car in cash, and I paid back about 65% of it within a week or so.  The other 35% plus interest has been split up over the year so by this time it should be 100% mine. Then I can start saving for other big ticket items (mostly… a house.)

Around November, go visit family in Hong Kong.
Not really sure how that will work out, but I want at least a week-ish (almost two if I can swing it) to go to Hong Kong, and maybe China.  I haven’t been to Hong Kong since grade 7 when I was 12, so it’s a bit over-due for a visit, especially with the not-so-good health of my grandfather on my mom’s side.

Throughout the year, Blog more.
After the last post it seems that I don’t really blog much, especially since signing up for Twitter. Which makes the last post more difficult to write, and generally makes me forget about what I have accomplished within the year.

Things I really really really want to do/stick to:

Going to the gym more.  Is that even surprising? Isn’t that on everyone’s list? Although I seem to have a better goal at the same time, and that’s to get camera guy going to the gym as well.  And I seem to do well with projects.  He’s my project. Which may include me having gym memberships at two different gyms, but we’ll figure it all out.

Going out more (but not spending a lot of money doing it.)  I think this is mostly going to be photography adventures with camera guy.  He wants to work on his photography, as do I, and in order to do that we need to get off our butts & go out & shoot!  Need to find some awesome locations, or figure out how to make ordinary locations awesome.

Be more upfront with how I want things to be.  I’ve gotten pretty tired of people… for lack of better term… using me, physically, mentally, financially, so this is my first attempt at having it end here.  If someone pisses me off, I tell them straight away they’re pissing me off.  If I think someone’s trying to rip me off, I’ll tell them they’re being assholes and to stay the hell away from my wallet.  Those are the only two examples I can think of.

Become more financially independent.  Guitar Hero Boy is supposed to help me with this.  Apparently I’ve got all the “Saving money” bits down, now it’s just the “investing wisely” bits I need help with.  What’s fun is the fact that I really like talking about this kind of stuff.  He really likes talking about this stuff.  And I think he’s all sorts of happy that I don’t do the eyes-glaze-over thing when he starts going on and on about it.

Things that would be ideal but… I’m already not sure it’s really going to happen.

Getting tattooed.  I’ve run out of real estate that I can tattoo that my mom won’t find out about.  And I’m still living at home, I want to respect her wishes in that I not get tattooed (which… I guess I already broke) but visible work will likely have to wait til after I get my own place and move out.

Win the lottery.  This would include purchasing lottery tickets… which I generally don’t do.  I do sometimes because it’s fun to dream when there’s a super duper big pot but most of the time? Meh, I’ve got better things to spend my $3.00 on.

The one thing I noticed while writing this post is… I probably need to blog more, to remember more of the year. I feel like I accomplished much more than what is listed here, but this is all I have really to reference.

• Learned to drive stick (Thanks Brandon!)
• Sold/Returned Mark the Mazda3 (Aww… my first car)
• Broke up with Colin (well, he dumped me over MSN)
• Suspending in Dallas Texas for Texas Suscon (Been telling myself I’d go to the next Texas Suscon for over 5 years)
• Bought Freddy the HondaFit (My first car that’s manual transmission)
• Moved away from iam.bmezine.com dependancy (Moved everything to www.spoiledchinesegirl.com)
• Participated in my first flesh suspension performance (As an extra only… no performing for me yet)
• Attended Nuit Blanche by myself (And after two years of disapointments due to the people I went with… going solo is the only way to go now)
• Expand my circle of friends to include non-BME’ers (Which is a bit weird… you plain-skins… you’re alright.)
• Has my first real “It’s Complicated” (Never thought I’d use the “it’s not you, it’s me” line… but really. I can’t believe I can be this complicated!)

So… what’s up for next year? Not sure yet. Tune in tomorrow?

Oh, and I signed up for formspring.me because I thought it’d be a cool thing to add.  Check the side-bar to ask me any question you want and I’ll do my best to give you an answer! (Please refrain from asking about advanced calculus or fractals… you probably won’t get any answer that will make sense at that point!)

So it’s very obviously that time of year again where commercialism hits. And this year is new and awkward for me.

After two years of being with someone who perpetually was unable to save his pay cheque for more than 48 hours, hanging out with someone (remember, “it’s complicated”!) who can budget enough to have money for when we go out somewhere, is definitely just a strange feeling.

Stranger still, is that we’re doing a holiday gift exchange… and while I already know that (if it arrives on time) he’ll <3 what I’m getting him… I also know that I’m getting something in return that I will equally <3. (Someone forgot to hide said present & I accidentally tripped over it during an evening visit )

Which brings me to… I’ve always felt warm & fuzzy inside giving people gifts I know they’ll enjoy. I don’t do it to get something in return, because trust me if I did, I would probably have never given anyone anything.  This is the first time, ever, that someone’s bothered to pay attention to my inane ramblings and figure out what I’d want as a gift in return.

I’m confused.

How does this work?

I’ve never received gifts well, because I’ve never really received anything that would be something I truly would want.

My parents and I haven’t exchanged gifts really in years.  I believe this year besides the two gift-cards already in my wallet (since my mom doesn’t go to those restaurants and I would) I’m getting a chap-stick.  Previous years have included more chap-stick, nail clippers, snow globes and stuffed animals that I’ve re-gifted to other people.  My dad doesn’t get me anything.  I get them both a handful of cash to go spend at the casino or to go out for dinner. (As I do with any major “Holiday”)  Although this year I’m getting my mom a netbook to surf the internet with (well… she’s getting my old one while I go buy myself a new one, heh.) and my dad’s getting a GPS so he can stop complaining how I have the family GPS in my car all the time (because I’m the one who uses it most often… since he’s out of the country on average 6 months out of every year.)

My friends generally don’t bother with Christmas gifts for each other, there used to be the tradition of everyone piling together into an apartment and ordering Chinese food & generally just hanging out & watching movies for the day instead.  The gift of good times is as good a gift as any I suppose, but there’s just something missing when there’s no wrapping paper to tear off a package. (I think that’s my most favourite part)

The worst example of this is my last boyfriend who decided to get me a matching ring & necklace for Christmas last year… which was pretty… but very little thought was put into the gift.  Because I’ve never worn a necklace or a ring around him, because I don’t like wearing rings or necklaces. I dislike flowers (which is what the theme on this jewelry set was) and the real kicker in the end was the ring didn’t fit a single one of my fingers… and I ended up being allergic to the metal in the necklace, which gave me an unsightly rash… and it was the only thing I’d received in two years? Where I’ve gifted countless video games, gaming add-ons, table-top figurines, clothes, food and meals out… which to this day I never really felt appreciated for.  But I think I’ve ranted on about that enough by now.

So for once I’m actually getting excited about the holidays, because I’m getting to give gifts to people I care about… and while it sounds super selfish… I know I’m getting gifts that I’m going to like and are useful to me!

Edit: Blarg, the post kept thinking my <3 and </3 were HTML tags and tried to link the text in my entry so I had to edit it! Boo-urns I says.