Don't you just love it when you buy 1 and get 1 free? Well that's what this blog is. First and foremost...this is not a test. Yes, you read the title correctly, 'My journey to the U.S. Open', currently supplementing the 'Adventures of a Chronic Dieter' (see...2 for 1). That said, no I am not a world class tennis player, but who am I to stop my destined path to greatness?
I always regretting not moving forward with tennis in college and since its ridiculous to blame my parents for not starting me sooner, there's nothing much I can do about it, or is there? I recently came across the US Open sectional qualifying tournament that is taking place in Claremont, starting May 17th. Its an open tournament, so its open to anyone over the age of 14. Seeing that I have been on a steady path to regaining my slender and healthy physique, this is perfect timing.
Huh? You're thinking. Yes, I am just crazy enough to spend the $134.88 to get my chance at the U.S. Open. How else am I going to pursue my professional tennis career further? So that's that, the 'Adventures of a Chronic Dieter' series, will temporarily be 'My Journey to the U.S. Open' and until then I will report my trials, tribulations, workouts, hindrances of making my way to the U.S. Open. This just means I'm going to really have to workout good, full, and difficult workouts and play tennis every single day in some way, shape or form.
After coming home from the gym today, I am confident that I can motivate myself to put in all the extra work to at least compete in the tournament and have a fighting chance. Who knows...if Melanie Ouidan can make it, it can't be completely far off for some hope for me.
Well then, welcome to my journey and wish me luck! See you at Arthur Ashe!
--signing off as US Open Superstar--
P.S.: Rahul (my boss) if you're reading this, I'm gonna have to take May 17th off to get my wild card bid to the U.S. Open, I hope you don't mind and thanks!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
The weekend from hell! Pretty Much...
So I don't complain THAT much, but I need an outlet and this blog is about to become that. This is one of the worst weekends I have had in a REALLY long time. Fortunately, I'm an optimist and during the whole thing I wasn't so upset and handled it really well. However, now looking back, I realize that there are very many weekends that would be worse than this. The only comfort I really had was that I have a dear loving boyfriend; who additionally had a hand in making this a sucky weekend, more on accident than anything else.
It all started when I woke up late on Friday. Late for me is 7 o'clock, that means that I missed the gym. Which is not conducive to my mission. However, I was up until approximately 1 am the night before because of tennis practice.
I woke up, and alas....stiff neck. That was just the beginning. I went to work my usual cheery self yet as the day progressed my neck became stiffer and stiffer, until eventually I looked like a robot and could only move my neck if I moved my entire upper body with it. My boss told me to leave early if I wasn't feeling well; that was nice except that meant that I would have to drive, which was a bit difficult for me at the time.
I eventually had to get in the car anyway and drive home to a very sore neck and back, where my precious boyfriend applied lots of pressure to help dissipate the pain. I eventually passed out from being tired of holding my neck up all day.
Saturday - I wake up still in pain, making it hard for me to sit myself up. We wake up super early to drop my bf to work (they were headed to SD for the day). Apparently it was my fault that the alarm didn't go off. So we were like 20 minutes late getting there. That same day I was supposed to attend a bachlorette party and help set up decorations. I decided early that day that I probably should go out clubbing feeling like this, so I figured I would meet up, help out, enjoy some fun and head home for a good night's rest; because Disneyland was the next day and I wanted my neck to feel better.
So I leave the bachlorette party and head to get my bf from work. On the way there, my car starts showing some strange warning lights. Lights go dim, which really scares me. Enough to where I pull over the side of the freeway to stop and re-start the car. I get to his work to get him and he attempts to try to figure what's up; but it was super dark.
We get the car home and go to sleep.
Sunday -BF wakes up, ready to go to Disneyland, YAY! He washes the car and tried to look under the hood to figure some things out. Saabi is behaving well so we figure it was a glitch and we'll get it looked at later. We have an amusement park to go to! We get out to Anaheim to get our tickets, done. From the ticket place to the park...dim lights and some strange car stuff. Immediately after paying our $14 for parking....dun dun dunnnnnnn....car shuts off completely. NO POWER, NO NOTHING!
I decided that I'm going to Disneyland to enjoy myself all day and worry about it later. While at Disneyland, I joined AAA, so that I can get towed from the Magic Kingdom 20 miles and not have to pay a crazy amount. The people at Disneyland are lame but find a way to get my car off to the side in a space for the day.
I haven't been to D-land for about 7 years and have never ventured to California Adventure, so that was really fun for me. On top of that, I went with a bridal party of people I haven't seen in ages, it was a nice reunion. We tried to stay as long as we could but it started getting pretty cold around 10 pm. Nontheless, we went on most of the good rides (Tower of Terror is now a favorite), saw Captain EO (although all this new shaking made me a little nautious) and watched the 2 hours of fireworks (exaggerating). I was pretty happy with the day and had to go back to the doom of getting towed, which wasn't so bad. The tow guy was really cool but my car wanted to cause drama. First we got the car jumped, thinking that would be enough. We get started and as we are driving out of the parking lot, she shuts off in the middle of the lane that goes to the freeway, fun! The same tow guy comes back to get us home.
We get the car home and go to sleep. I spent most of Monday, finding a car place that won't totally rape my bank account and worked from home, which was actually nice for a change. McMillen's Garage is going to fix Saabi up for me; we'll see how our drive out to Palm Desert for wedding goes this Saturday.
I just realized this story is getting long. To make a longer story, less long. The car's in the shop, my back is sore but almost fully recuperated and instead of being the start of a fresh new week; its the beginning of a crazy HECTIC week at work. Go figure!
It all started when I woke up late on Friday. Late for me is 7 o'clock, that means that I missed the gym. Which is not conducive to my mission. However, I was up until approximately 1 am the night before because of tennis practice.
I woke up, and alas....stiff neck. That was just the beginning. I went to work my usual cheery self yet as the day progressed my neck became stiffer and stiffer, until eventually I looked like a robot and could only move my neck if I moved my entire upper body with it. My boss told me to leave early if I wasn't feeling well; that was nice except that meant that I would have to drive, which was a bit difficult for me at the time.
I eventually had to get in the car anyway and drive home to a very sore neck and back, where my precious boyfriend applied lots of pressure to help dissipate the pain. I eventually passed out from being tired of holding my neck up all day.
Saturday - I wake up still in pain, making it hard for me to sit myself up. We wake up super early to drop my bf to work (they were headed to SD for the day). Apparently it was my fault that the alarm didn't go off. So we were like 20 minutes late getting there. That same day I was supposed to attend a bachlorette party and help set up decorations. I decided early that day that I probably should go out clubbing feeling like this, so I figured I would meet up, help out, enjoy some fun and head home for a good night's rest; because Disneyland was the next day and I wanted my neck to feel better.
So I leave the bachlorette party and head to get my bf from work. On the way there, my car starts showing some strange warning lights. Lights go dim, which really scares me. Enough to where I pull over the side of the freeway to stop and re-start the car. I get to his work to get him and he attempts to try to figure what's up; but it was super dark.
We get the car home and go to sleep.
Sunday -BF wakes up, ready to go to Disneyland, YAY! He washes the car and tried to look under the hood to figure some things out. Saabi is behaving well so we figure it was a glitch and we'll get it looked at later. We have an amusement park to go to! We get out to Anaheim to get our tickets, done. From the ticket place to the park...dim lights and some strange car stuff. Immediately after paying our $14 for parking....dun dun dunnnnnnn....car shuts off completely. NO POWER, NO NOTHING!
I decided that I'm going to Disneyland to enjoy myself all day and worry about it later. While at Disneyland, I joined AAA, so that I can get towed from the Magic Kingdom 20 miles and not have to pay a crazy amount. The people at Disneyland are lame but find a way to get my car off to the side in a space for the day.
I haven't been to D-land for about 7 years and have never ventured to California Adventure, so that was really fun for me. On top of that, I went with a bridal party of people I haven't seen in ages, it was a nice reunion. We tried to stay as long as we could but it started getting pretty cold around 10 pm. Nontheless, we went on most of the good rides (Tower of Terror is now a favorite), saw Captain EO (although all this new shaking made me a little nautious) and watched the 2 hours of fireworks (exaggerating). I was pretty happy with the day and had to go back to the doom of getting towed, which wasn't so bad. The tow guy was really cool but my car wanted to cause drama. First we got the car jumped, thinking that would be enough. We get started and as we are driving out of the parking lot, she shuts off in the middle of the lane that goes to the freeway, fun! The same tow guy comes back to get us home.
We get the car home and go to sleep. I spent most of Monday, finding a car place that won't totally rape my bank account and worked from home, which was actually nice for a change. McMillen's Garage is going to fix Saabi up for me; we'll see how our drive out to Palm Desert for wedding goes this Saturday.
I just realized this story is getting long. To make a longer story, less long. The car's in the shop, my back is sore but almost fully recuperated and instead of being the start of a fresh new week; its the beginning of a crazy HECTIC week at work. Go figure!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Adventures of a Chronic Dieter #3 - no pain no gain
As you may have noticed, I'm on another mission. My goals in life are conducted by endless missions that lead to more missions that will continue until I die, I'm sure.
Goal - minus 22 lbs.
Target date - June 15th (the date of my next big work event)
Current Status - very tired with a crick in my neck, ouch! And way to overweight to mention.
Current supportive activities - running, tennis (3-4 times a week), 24 hour fitness hell and counting calories.
This week has been quite a serious one for my goal achieving. Not only have I done really well with the eating and working out; but I've also completed a lot of important work tasks that I had on my list. I have finalized my summer plans in Europe and we are headed on our way to Spain, Turkey and Germany for 42 days. WOW that's a long time! By then I will be on my next mission of craziness.
Anyway, I made a great effort this week to workout at least once a day if not twice. I introduced myself to a new 24 hour fitness at the Irvine Spectrum, which makes me want to workout even more, because of its fantastic facilities. In result, I have been the most tired that I have been in weeks and far less social than I normally am.
In addition, as a pre-achievement gift I bought myself of very expensive shoes. Result: too small for my big ol' feet :(...boo! They are going back, but I can use that money for something more important...like bills. I didn't deserve them anyway, I stalled on my taxes and still have not filed.
Anyway, this quest continues. However, Sunday at Disneyland is not going to make it easy to continue this mission. I've done really well in removing the whole soda thing from my diet so far. The only problem is that I really want a Snakebite (or Black and Tan, whatever you wanna call it). I love the weekends, more time to workout and enjoy it.
The boyfriend probably isn't getting as much loving attention as normal, I figure I will make him dinner tonight to make up for some of it; a healthy one of course.
Forward I march....sigh...
Goal - minus 22 lbs.
Target date - June 15th (the date of my next big work event)
Current Status - very tired with a crick in my neck, ouch! And way to overweight to mention.
Current supportive activities - running, tennis (3-4 times a week), 24 hour fitness hell and counting calories.
This week has been quite a serious one for my goal achieving. Not only have I done really well with the eating and working out; but I've also completed a lot of important work tasks that I had on my list. I have finalized my summer plans in Europe and we are headed on our way to Spain, Turkey and Germany for 42 days. WOW that's a long time! By then I will be on my next mission of craziness.
Anyway, I made a great effort this week to workout at least once a day if not twice. I introduced myself to a new 24 hour fitness at the Irvine Spectrum, which makes me want to workout even more, because of its fantastic facilities. In result, I have been the most tired that I have been in weeks and far less social than I normally am.
In addition, as a pre-achievement gift I bought myself of very expensive shoes. Result: too small for my big ol' feet :(...boo! They are going back, but I can use that money for something more important...like bills. I didn't deserve them anyway, I stalled on my taxes and still have not filed.
Anyway, this quest continues. However, Sunday at Disneyland is not going to make it easy to continue this mission. I've done really well in removing the whole soda thing from my diet so far. The only problem is that I really want a Snakebite (or Black and Tan, whatever you wanna call it). I love the weekends, more time to workout and enjoy it.
The boyfriend probably isn't getting as much loving attention as normal, I figure I will make him dinner tonight to make up for some of it; a healthy one of course.
Forward I march....sigh...
Monday, April 12, 2010
Adventures in Tehachapi...
I went to Tehachapi this weekend to visit my dad at his work site. I knew going into this that it wasn't going to be that eventful, but I thought that it would be interesting to take photo account of my trip. Here are the photos; YOU can see how exciting it was.
Highlight: My Egg, sausage, cheese biscuit at the continental breakfast.
Low point: When my tire blew out on the way home!
Happy Hour before Thai dinner
Getting ready for a Thai Dinner!
Breakfast Time
Going to the site
Trying to get home!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
A lesson on Indian Guilt!
If you don't know about Indian guilt, let me give you a little lesson. Nothing has to be said for you to feel it. It can be the lack of saying something, it can be a sly look that only Asians can give; or it can even be the foe acceptance of a particular situation. The worst kind is when they somehow turn the situation around like you're inflicting some type of phantom pain.
I don't think this type of guilt can be taught, it is ingrained in the DNA of every Asian, specifically parents. It's like once they pop out a baby, you get a free guilt chip installed. They somehow know the way to get their kids home for the holidays, get an apology out of you for no apparent reason, sympathize when they screw up, get you to do physical labor! It is one of the most amazing talents in the world.
I will say, depending on how talented you are, you can have this skill to varying degrees. Let me tell you though, that the Mukhopadhyay's (that's my family), have this skill mastered. The pack is lead by THE master, my mother; with my brother in a tight second place (I suspect he will surpass her skill in the next couple of years). I am third on this list, but don't take #3 too lightly in this situation, however, I only use my powers for good. My dad, not so good at the guilt thing. If he makes you feel guilty, you probably deserved it.
Oh, so...the purpose of this note...I feel guilty! Apparently, pets can inherit the skill too, even if you only have them for a few weeks. If you recall, I once wrote about the 'love of my life', Barkley. I have now come to a time where I will try and replace him with a pup I saw at a local shelter. I know Barkley is in a good home and I'm sure that he has long forgotten me by now; but the guilt I harbor for relinquishing the world's sweetest and most loving pup is still there. No other pup can compare. I will try hard, but I will be off to see 'Giovanni' a cute chihuahua mix later this afternoon, to see if I can fill this hole in my little heart.
Another thing about Asian guilt; when it's self inflicted the scale is unmeasurable.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Adventures of a chronic dieter #2
This is the beginning of week 2. It seems the less that I talk about it and the more that I do, it works out much better. I've been really good in getting back on track and staying focused with the workouts. It helps that I don't feel as bloated as I did last week as well.
Every corner I turn I see something that motivates me to be good. It was hard to wake up early this morning for the gym, namely because my legs are pretty sore from the stairs yesterday; however I WILL make it to the gym by the end of the night today.
I feel like I'm finally getting back on track to at least the way my old body used to be. I was considering putting a picture up in my office to inspire me, but now I realize that what I really want to look like is myself as I was at this one particular juncture when I was in college.
I won't lie, I looked fanTASTIC. So that's what I'm shooting for. I'm inspiring myself with...well...myself. Unfortunately, I don't have anything but a mental photo of that self, but I think that will be enough to work.
Wish me luck as I continue on my journey.
Every corner I turn I see something that motivates me to be good. It was hard to wake up early this morning for the gym, namely because my legs are pretty sore from the stairs yesterday; however I WILL make it to the gym by the end of the night today.
I feel like I'm finally getting back on track to at least the way my old body used to be. I was considering putting a picture up in my office to inspire me, but now I realize that what I really want to look like is myself as I was at this one particular juncture when I was in college.
I won't lie, I looked fanTASTIC. So that's what I'm shooting for. I'm inspiring myself with...well...myself. Unfortunately, I don't have anything but a mental photo of that self, but I think that will be enough to work.
Wish me luck as I continue on my journey.
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