I’m a huuuuge exercise junkee. No matter what, I always will work out 5 days a week- religiously. I do admit that I slip up sometimes with eating but working out is one thing I will always, always stick to. Not only is it essential for weight loss but it has so many other health benefits that it’d be stupid not to. I may be a little crazy with 5 days a week but that’s just what I do- I do cardio on all of those 5 days. Cardio is what really makes you burn the fat. Especially for abs, cardio is essential. You won’t lose your stomach fat from crunches but running will most definitely help. Of course you should also do abs too. My schedule as of now is days 1, 3, and 5 out of the week are for abs. I won’t do any abs on days 2 and 4 because they need a day to rest. When you’re doing abs it’s realllllyyyy important you focus on your form. Make sure your belly button is sucked in and that you’re using your ABS, nothing else, to perform the exercise. If you push your stomach out, your stomach  could actually get BIGGER (happened to me). If you do abs and no cardio, your stomach will also get bigger. The muscle will grow under the fat- you need to shed the fat away through cardio to show off that six pack baby!! On days 2 and 4 I do strength training. This means squats, lunges, bicep curls, tricep dips, etc. Basically all arms and legs. I prefer combo moves that combine both arms and legs to be more efficient and get more calorie burn. An example of this could be lunge with a bicep curl. It is really important that you incorporate strength training in your routine. It’ll tone your muscles and strength training has that after-burn effect. Even after you’re done your workout, you burn calories. Make sure you don’t skip out on that!! Since I keep saying cardio over and over I’m go a little more into detail with that. I think the minimum amount of cardio anyone should ever do is 20 minutes. That is if there is sprinting involved. I think minimum 30 if no sprinting. You should mix up your cardio too. If you’re a runner, throw in some spinning classes. The key is to pick what you love to do. But also you need to challenge yourself. Don’t go on the elliptical at a moderate pace because it’s easy. That will get  you nowhere. Also, don’t use machines where you hold on to the machine with your hands. That takes a lot away from your calorie burn. I aim for 45-1 hour of cardio 5 times a week. You CAN do it and you’ll feel great after. The hardest part is getting dressed and going- once you do that and you’re at the gym or out on the road, you will be ready for anything. You are capable of much more than you think you can!!

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p.s. this is all my personal opinion, I’m  no professional. I just read fitness and nutrition articles like it’s my job.

Most if not all people love summer. I know I’ve been emphasizing all the bad points of it but clearly it’s hard not to recognize the good: no studying, no class, no homework, beach, sunshine, hot weather, summer concerts, you name it! Summer is definitely a fun time…you cannot deny it. However, to make the most out of your summer you probably have that thought as it approaches- I’m going to have to be almost naked in front of tons of people on the beach, in the pool, etc. Now (if you haven’t already started) is the time to crack down and really focus on your beach bod before it’s too late. Last year I really started to focus mid-summer and I did lose a lot of weight but I reached my goal weight RIGHT when I went back to school aka when I wouldn’t be wearing bikinis anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good for tight clothes and such but it would have been nice to enjoy that body in a bikini as well. That’s why this year I’m starting early. I started the summer with the mindset that I would just eat healthy and not keep track but I found that I was slipping up and making dumb decisions and even healthy foods I was just overdoing it with huge portion sizes. Saturday I decided to go back to counting calories. It really is the only surefire way to lose weight. I measure out all my food to make sure I know exactly what I’m putting in my body and I write it all down. I would mindlessly pop things in my mouth casually when I wasn’t even hungry and not even think of it before- that adds up! I would snack on healthy things too but you really got to be accountable for allll the calories you consume. A lot of healthy things can be very caloric in large amounts (ex. peanut butter, almonds, cheese, etc.) So I went to the collegetips.com site with their freshman health tips and went to the link called suggested calorie intake. I used the same tool last year and it really, really works. I used the 7 day zig zag cycle so my body wouldn’t just be at one flat rate. I suggest if you’re really serious about weight loss that you do this. Also, don’t guess on calories- look it up and measure!!!! There can be a lot more and even sometimes a lot less calories in some things than you think. Do not starve yourself. Most people think this is the key to weight loss but you’re really just torturing yourself for no reason. If you consume less than you need, your body will go into starvation mode and your metabolism will take a dive. You obviously will never be able to keep up that lifestyle anyway, and when you finally give up, your body will hold on to that food and store it as fat since it thinks that your body is being starved and wants to hold on to that food. Your metabolism gets effed over and it could even be permanently messed up. That’s the last thing you want. Eat regularly and SMART!!! There are so many good foods out there that are good. When you are craving something, make sure you know what you’re actually craving. Our minds plays tricks on us all the time… if you’re craving chocolate you could really be craving something like fruit that will satisfy you. Losing weight is hard work but you CAN do it. You are completely and totally in control of what you put in your mouth. You’re worth it- think of it as a healthy lifestyle change rather than a diet. Focus on your goal; happily taking picture on the beach in your bikini is way more rewarding than a chocolate cake will ever be. That chocolate cake will be gone in what, 5 minutes?? Then what?! You’re just depressed and it’s totally not worth it. A good body is permanent and showin off your stuff is the greatest feeling in the world. You CAN do this!

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I know I mention this quite a bit but this is my biggest issue currently. There’s a lot of factors that go into this that I’ll discuss but being home is SO boring. It’s so hard going from having the time of your life every night to be being bored to tears. The first and obvious reason for this is living with your parents. You need permission or at least need to tell your parents what you’re doing every time you leave the house as opposed to just leaving your room at college. Along with this you might also have to do chores around the house…which is not like cleaning your tiny room up at school. Another thing is not being in walking distance or even relatively close to all your friends. You have to drive everywhere which makes it a huge pain in the butt when you’re drinking. At school you can just pregame wherever and take the bus or walk to the party. No need to worry about DUIs or getting a DD. Getting a DD is a pain in the ass at home because usually the only people you can think of that are willing to drive and not drink are your parents that aren’t going out. There’s no way in hell my mom would ever stay up or wake up at 4am to pick me up so nights get cut short if I have to resort to her picking me up. However, if we do happen to get a kind soul who will go to the party and not drink, there’s one last and huge factor that adds in to this whole boredom- the people!!! This is obviously not the case for everyone but at least for me the people at home suck. I obviously love my close group of friends but other than that, everyone else is a snooze fest. For example, the other night we went to my friend’s house whose parents weren’t home. Everyone just sat around the island in the kitchen and drank. Cool. That’s not fun at ALL. This other girl and I tried to start up a game but no one would join in. What the hell is the point of drinking if you’re just going to sit there?! When I go out with my friends at school we always are either playing a game or dancing…mostly dancing which I LOVE. I was trying to start up dancing too but no one else would have fun. LIKE COME ON PEOPLE DO SOMETHING!!!! I don’t really see a point in drinking with these losers if they’re going to be boring. That’s just a waste of alcohol and a good time. I want to go back to school so bad with all my friends. I’m glad I have a group that I miss this much but it SUCKS being away from them

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“High school” parties essentially start back up when you get back from college. You can no longer walk to places and there isn’t a million parties going on every night. You have to deal with parents again and it’s just a huge downgrade from college life. This is why I was pleased to hear my friend’s parents were going away for the night. I heard about this from a guy that lives with her. It’s a little complicated- my friend, Ali, has a brother that goes to college in Boston but his friend went to Penn State Altoona but got kicked out and went to jail for selling weed. His home life is not the best so Ali’s family took him in to get him back on track. He texted me saying to convince Ali to have something so I did and it seemed like she was NEVER going to allow it. She said it stressed her out way too much and wouldn’t be fun if it was at her house. I was so pissed but eventuallyyyy the guy (Eric) somehow persuaded her. It was only gonna be a small thing, which we were fine with, so I’m guessing that’s how he pulled it off. I got off work at 7:30, came home and got ready for the night. My friend Kim and her boyfriend from school that I met once was coming so I was pumped…but it was mostly Eric’s friends from his grade. I was almost excited about that though, because I’m over the gross guys in my grade that just try to hook up and aren’t even fun. Eric went all out and got a keg and me and Ali also got a handle for us. These people were actually down to party and played flip cup and such. We were all playing music and having a good time and I was downing shots and beer. I was pretty drunk so I was having a good time. A girl that I go to school with ended up showing up with a guy in the grade under me. He’s really reallllly hot but kind of weird. He was talking to me all night, though, so I was not complaining. I got tired so I was laying on the couch and everyone was calling me dead girl haha like I was up just resting! The hot guy, Adam, came over to the couch with me and sat with me and asked if I wanted to go to sleep so we both went in to the other room. We literally just laid together, it was so weird. I think he’s afraid of girls to some extent (def prude) because we only like kissed a couple of times but it was so weird. He kept asking for back massages and I did it for like 1 second- the last thing I wanna do when I’m drunk and tired is give a freaking back rub. I woke up at like 8 so confused when I looked over and saw him but I know we didn’t do anything but kiss and I was okay with that completely. He’s like a waste of good looks.. has no game at all. He was singing to me all throughout the night and he has an amazing voice but he’s not charming at all. Such a shame…. fun night though!

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While you’re back from school for the summer, it’s important you use your time wisely. Now I absolutely advocate drinking and partying (duh, if you know me) but I also think the summer is a pivotal time to rack up some cash for the school year. Some people can manage jobs in college but there’s no way I’d be able to be on top of my studies, have an active social life, AND have a job. There’s NO way at all. That means I have zero income in and a lot going out- on alcohol, going out to eat, etc. My best tip for a summer job is if you don’t already have a good one lined up before you go to college, look during the breaks!!! It’s a mistake to wait until summer for one because it usually takes a long time to actually find one and who knows how long it will take for you to be put on the schedule. That’s valuable money making time wasted. Make sure you have a job that’s flexible too. You don’t want too serious of a job before you get into the real world. I work at a mini golf/driving range place that’s very chill and not too demanding. I know when I get an internship next summer it will be all serious and I’ll hardly be able to get off during the week days. That’s why you gotta look for something that interests you and that you’ll be able to tolerate the whole summer. College summers are a lot longer than in high school and it really gets boring once you’ve experienced how awesome it is in college so trust me you’ll want a job BAD. Then, you’ll have enough money to have fun while school is in session!

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“Dirty Beat” (Ercola Remix) – Filthy Rich: http://youtu.be/dcuRN_ZfH8I

So I decided to take the time today to talk about my unofficial boyfriend. We are unofficial because we actually aren’t officially together yet. He wants to wait to ask me out officially to be his girlfriend because he wants to surprise me and wants to act in a perfect way. I know. He’s really cute (: I love him so much. But the actual real main reason (or one of the most important reasons) why he is waiting right now because my future is a little uncertain for now. I have really big plans and I have a lot of big dreams. I have lots of goals that I want to pursue. So there is a high chance that I might not be around. At first, he was really against a long distance relationship. But, now, I think if I really were to move away, he would be more okay with it and willing to work things out somehow. Nothing is set in stone yet in regards to what I want to do in the future, but it is pretty much 90% likely that I’m staying here in Southern California.

So really briefly, here is our story. I’m keeping it really brief and short because I’m sure I will be talking about him a lot more in future posts. It was January 29th. I had run the First Inaugural Tinkerbell Half Marathon at the Disneyland Resort that morning. I had come into Disneyland to take pictures with my medal and hang out with my friends. It also just happened to be the last day of the Chinese Lunar Festival. A few of my friends and I hadn’t seen it yet so they really wanted to go before it went away until next year. There was lots of entertainment and fun things to do. My unofficial boyfriend was there performing Chinese yo-yo. I have always been fascinated by Asian culture and I had seen Chinese yo-yo on TV but never in real life. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. I wasn’t going to approach him though and just stood there for a good hour just watching him and snapping pictures. It was until I realized that he was wearing the same shoes that I own that I decided to approach him. I recognized the shoes as bboys shoes – also the same shoes that my ex owned. My ex-boyfriend was also a bboy. I knew that at that point I absolutely had to talk to him. We talked for about an hour and at the end, he asked me for my Facebook. I told him I never go on Facebook, and so he asked for my number instead…And that is how it all started (: I will continue this story soon! I need to go study now!

I’ve had an interesting experience as far as friends in college. Freshman year first semester I had a boyfriend and it didn’t seem as important that I made friends when I was with him. He played soccer at another school but he had a car so he’d come every Sunday. I struggled making friends with on my floor and when you meet people in class it usually only stays in class. I am one who doesn’t want to annoy people so I wouldn’t really try too hard to find people. My roommate was alright but she was struggling with boyfriend problems and rarely would go out because of him. Some people from my high school that I wasn’t really friends with until college became my friends. That included 1 girl and a bunch of dudes. The girl, Amy, is really cool and she basically became my best friend at school. Her boyfriend also went to PSU so he was a part of our group. Amy was my closest friend but we’d only really hang out on weekends and maybe get dinner together once a week. Her boyfriend was here so she was occupied with him and wouldn’t usually make it out and would stay in with him. So basically all of my friends were guys…well who I went out with anyway. This meant I never met guys and also they didn’t really understand why I did the things I did. For example, I said I’d have to go curl my hair and they’d all be like WHY no one cares about hair…they just don’t know. I was missing a solid group of friends that was like me. I did break up with my boyfriend after the first semester and that’s when I really realized that I need a group of friends. I did hang out with my roommate more second semester since her boyfriend and her broke up and she went wild. She did ask if I wanted to live with her and her friends in an apartment next year since they were getting the lease from her sister, but those just weren’t my type of people. They weren’t like me and I could only imagine how much I’d want to kill myself if I was around them 24/7. I always would want to come home because I have a great friend circle back at home and I got lonely a lot at school. Sophomore year, though, Amy and I were rooming together and vowed that we would try to make friends from the get go. Her boyfriend transferred to a college back home so she didn’t have him to depend on anymore. Plus, she wouldn’t more girlfriends as well. In the beginning of the year, we were pretty proactive, getting people’s numbers and asking to get dinner with them and everything. I was definitely more into it than Amy but I knew I couldn’t do what I did last year…that clearly did not work. Amy slowly drifted more and more away from trying to hang out with the girls on our floor that I was talking to and eventually was persuaded into joining the sorority that lived on the floor above us. I guess it was the pressure from her family and her roommate from last year that joined a sorority, but they somehow coaxed her into believing this was the only and surefire way to make friends. Now I know Amy and I know she’s not sorority material one bit. Neither of us are. In fact she tried joining a sorority last year too and ended up backing out of it. I don’t know why she thought it’d be different this time but she ended up doing the same with this new sorority. THEN she dropped the bomb on me that she’d be transferring after that semester.. Although this was probably for the best because she was holding me back, I loved her and was really worried about next year. At Penn State you need to choose housing in like October for the next year. It was September and I kinda sorta knew these girls on my floor but definitely not enough to ask to live with them. I’d be a freak. However, I HAD to be persistent with them if I wanted to ultimately room with them. I set aside my stubborn ways and consistently asked what they were doing at night or for dinner. I wasn’t extreme to the point of being annoying but I made sure I saw them a lot. And now look at us. The two of them are my best friends. We have a huge group of friends that we all met through each other and we all agree that this last semester has been the best time of our lives. We all mesh so well.. we’re ALWAYS down to have fun and there’s no drama. It’s important you find a group of people that you can completely and totally enjoy college life with. This, by far, will be the best time of your life and you don’t want to waste a second of it. I already feel like I missed my freshman year without them but I’m so excited for the years to come. I went from counting down to days to when I go home to counting down the days when I go back to school. I was so depressed moving out and last year I was so so so excited. I feel so lucky that I found them and I believe everyone deserves to have friends like I do. The key is definitely not to let yourself fade. I go to a huge school so the chances of seeing someone again after you meet them is slim. Make sure you get their number and that you talk to them a lot. Now don’t blow up their phone and be a stalker but if you are stubborn like I was, they’ll just forget about you. I am a good person and I knew that and that’s why I was so upset I didn’t really have friends my freshman year. I am so happy now and I live my life to the fullest. I just can’t stress enough how important it is to be persistent! Don’t settle for anything less than what you feel is right for you!!

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 Unlike most people (regardless of age, whether they are college students or middle-aged adults), I have a job that I absolutely love. I cannot get enough of my job. On days that I don’t have a shift, I miss going to Disneyland and being in that atmosphere. It’s just a happy place to be surrounded by happy people. I am one of the luckiest people ever. Confucius said “Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.” SO TRUE. I’ve even thought of dropping out of school and just working all of the time! If you live in Orange County or Southern California, I really do recommend you applying. This summer is going to be amazing! I will be part of Disney history as Carsland opens, Disney’s California Adventure will have a whole new look, the Matterhorn is refurbished and will be reopening, and new restaurants and new stores will be opening in Disneyland and in Downtown Disney! It is going to be insane and so crowded but so much fun! If anyone needs help with their application or any questions feel free to leave a comment or hit me up!

Today was my Basic Mediation Training Interview! It is this program we have at my school; here is the official website for it if you feel like reading up about it: http://www.mediate.uci.edu/training.shtml. I got an email a couple months ago about this great opportunity. It looks like something really great to have on my resume and will help me with my professional career. I’m really interested in helping other people and no matter where you go, whether it is within your own family, at school, at work, and even with your friends, you are going to face conflict. I can use it anywhere! And I will be taught techniques and strategies that are proven to work or at least are professional and likely to work! If I want to be a good leader, these are really good skill sets to have! I applied for the program and was selected for the interview. According to the website, about a hundred applicants apply for the 35 open spots. These slots are for all students, faculty, and other university staff members.

My interview went really really well! The three interviewers really seemed to like me! I wish I prepared more for this interview and looked over my application and planned out my answers a little better. I’m sure if I had just prepared a little bit better I could have done much better. But I’m still really content with the answers that I gave! I really want to be in this program but if I don’t get it, I won’t be too bummed out since I’ll be busy with lots of other things! And plus, there’s always next year! But I’ll find out June 1st so fingers crossed!

If you’ve been reading, you know about my heartbreak/failure with this guy, John, I’ve been sort of crushing on recently. Well, at parties it has been extremely awkward between us and I absolutely hate that. This is why I wanted to keep it a secret. Nothing is worse than feeling awkward at a party. I just wanted things to be normal again. I know I should just say hi or something but with all of our friends around that knew what happened, it was just not going to happen. However, I was packing and had 2 sweatshirts from him from nights I slept over and left late and was cold. I wasn’t going to throw them out or burn them like a psycho so I wanted to give them back to him. Also, I didn’t want him thinking I was keeping them because I was so obsessed with him and wanted his clothes…ew. No. Soooo I decided to man up and say something to him about it. I didn’t have his number and I didn’t even want to text him so I creepily messaged him on facebook. I know that’s a little weird but the way I worded it wasn’t bad: “Hey I don’t know if you’re still here but when I was packing I found 2 of your sweatshirts haha..if youre not i can give them to cam or something to keep at his apartment?” I was so nervous sending it but I HAD to. Also, I was hoping it’d break the ice so when we eventually saw each other again, it could be normal. He responded “I left this afternoon, but yea if you could get them to someone who’s still around thatd be awesome, thanks. Either way, hope you have a fun summer and I’ll see you in the fall if not at arts fest or something”. Arts fest is a festival in the summer that all PSU students come back for to get drunk basically. I thought that was really nice of him to say… he didn’t have to add the part about the summer. I know he just feels really bad about the whole thing but it shows how genuinely nice of a guy he is. I don’t blame him for any of this. I was completely hiding the fact that I liked him so if I was him I would have had no idea either. I still am having a hard time getting over him but it’s summer now so it should be easier. :/

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