The PhD and ME

Bikini (no) competition journey (12 weeks out)

2015-09-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

I have started a bikini competition plan but I have no intention of competing so I am just following the three months plan for now. I followed this plan once before for about 2.5 months last year with great success. Last time, my starting weight much higher (~10 heavier) and I went on a vacation and had to cut it short. When I came back from vacation I started having some stomach issues and did not follow the plan and then life happened etc. But since I saw good results with the plan I decided to try it again. Last time I did not end up with a bikini competition ready body but definitely my body changed A LOT! Afterwards I was able to maintain the weight more or less. However, when I did not workout regularly I lost some of the toning and definition in my body, which is ok. This plan includes both food and workout for duration of three 12 weeks and was tailored for my weight, shape, and food presences by a fitness coach (online one). I have done lots of research and realized the diet itself can be the same this time around too but I have to change a thing or two about my workout plan. I will post a before after photo along with my stats soon. The food for today:

Meal 1: Protein shake, 1 tbsp peanut butter
Meal 2: 3oz turkey, 2 tbsp avocado
Meal 3: 3 oz tilapia, ½ cup rice
Meal 4: 3oz chicken, 4oz sweet pot
Meal 5: 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg

Workout:

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Triceps rope pull down	3	15-20 reps
OH extensions vs dips off bench	5	fatigue
Kick backs	3	failure
Lat Raises out in a V form	5	dropping weight
Shoulder Press machine	3	failure
Rear Delt using T-bar	3	failure
Upright Row	3	Failure

and lots of coffee of course. I am also taking some supplements.

Miss M had a rough week

2015-05-21T15:07:00.000-07:00

I am glad that Miss M is diagnosed and is on her way to recovery. She (unfortunately) has gigardia and we started her on metronidazole (125mg) and tylosin (100mg), every 12 hours. It is really sad to see her throwing up and curling up in her blanket but I am glad it will come to an end soon.

How it stated you might asked! well we were away for a week and Miss M was in her favorite boarding facility for that week. When we picked her up last Monday, they told us that a week prior to her arrival at the facility, a dog was boarding and later on diagnosed with gigardia. They added that they have taken the necessary measures to cleanup and disinfect the place and there is noting for us to worry about. When we got home, I googled the symptoms and watched M for next couple of days. She did not show any signs until Wednesday morning when she vomited once. Then she was ok until Saturday when things took a turn for the worse and .... fast forward to today... she has taken her medications and snoozing right now :)

We had guests!

2015-05-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

little guests that is! my sweet niece and nephew were visiting over the weekend and I planned as much fun as possible during their short visit. We start the lunch with a double cheese pizza from our local pizzeria. Apparently the only pizza that kids now day eat is plain cheese (I learned my lesson the hard way). No picture but it was really good. Then we moved to dessert. They love ice cream and their taste changes every ~~second~~ time. It is really hard to keep up with them. And their major complain at our house is that the ice cream is not what they expected. So this time around, I called my sister in law in advance and asked her what the flavor of the day is---> chocolate and rainbow. Of course I could not find the rainbow for the life of me and the closest ice cream to rainbow was Neapolitan. In addition, I bought some smarties and gummy bears for the toppings which were a big hit :) I think I am more than ready to be a mom (I am a fur mom already) :) My niece keept adding the toppings to her ice cream until I told her that she would take the leftovers home and after that she stopped.

My nephew liked the ice cream and the toppings but he could not get enough of the potato chips (Kirkland Kettle Krinkle Cut Chips - Sea Salt). He was moving around with a bowl of potato chips in hand. We also played some games with Miss M supervision of course.

My nephew is so much into the "guess who the famous person" he is describing is. He even did not know more than half of the people he was describing (his dad was whispering into his ear) but still enjoyed it a lot. I think I won the best auntie of the year award.

Mother's day Brunch!

2015-05-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

I am not a mother yet! but my mother in law is visiting us and I made it my mission to take her to my favorite brunch spot. Kerr Cafe <3. I cannot say enough good things about this restaurant. I have been there only for brunch but it has never disappointed me. The wait time is reasonable and the food is amazing. Miss M was with us so we sat in the patio/side walk. It was a bit on the chilly side but well worth it. The best thing about this cafe is their long black (aka big black according to B) and cappuccino.

While sipping on our caffeine drinks, we decided on our food. I went for everything bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Simple but delicious.

B and his mom ordered Warm Lamb Salad with pumpkin. They liked their salads but I do not think I would ever have that as my brunch! Miss M is not feeling well and we have an appointment later this afternoon to take her to the vet. Fingers crossed, things go back to normal soon and my baby fur feel like herself.

It's been for ever!

2015-05-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

even forgot this blog even existed until today that my mother in law, B and I went out to couple of wineries! It was amazing to say the least. When we decided to start winery hopping it was already around 3:00pm (its Friday and a working day people). But still we managed to go to 3 wineries. We bought three a pinot noir and a Rose which was out of this world. I will go in more details later but the plan for the summer is to try all the wineries in Niagara peninsula during this summer. Each winery has its own tasting menu. Some come in flight of 3 or 4 and they costed $5 which can be credited towards purchasing wines. The wineries that we tried were:
1. Thirty Bench Wines: It has a flight of 3 wines to try for a quit impressive menu. Both B and I are red wine lovers (mostly Merlot) so we usually opt for the red wine. We like 2 of the three red wines that we tested. The wines were on the pricier side (compare to other wineries we have tried in the past in the region) at this winery but I think well worth it.

2. Angels Gate Winery: there was a flight of four for testing. There were plenty of wines to select from. Unfortunately we did not like any of the wines we tried and since we were kind of in rush to try more wineries we decided to just leave.

3. Rosewood Estates Winery & Meadery: we were offered a flight of 4 wines to try. The ladies at this winery were super nice and view was spectacular. They had Mead (honey wine) that was amazing. We tried the Ambrosia which was more on the sweet side but still super yum. The Rose was amazing and we ended up buying two bottles of their Rose. I like their Merlot too but B was not really onboard with that.

New Year, New me!

2013-01-03T12:37:00.002-08:00

Not so much. I am pretty much happy with the state I am in right now. So not very drastic changes for me 2013, thank you very much. That being said both B and I have goals that we want to be able to achieve this year. Here is my list:
1. Stick to my schedule 5x a week workout. It has been worked great for me and I am seeing very good results so I want to continue. Unfortunately I am not going to do Crossfit during winter as my schedule is pretty tight and I rather work on my own.
2. Do my comp exam. It is getting really intense with my research work and I think I should consider doing it sooner rather than later. It is on my agenda to talk to my supervisor (Dr.R).
3. I want to have at least one paper this year. Considering the nature of my work which is mainly experimental, 1 paper is great since I won't get a lot of results before finishing the experiments. SO you modeling people do not dare to look done to me!
4. Make sure to floss every night. Does it sound gross? well, I floss but every now and then. But I want to make sure to floss every night.
5. To decrease my sugar consumption drastically. I am already on the right path, meaning most of my sugar cravings have been satisfied through natural sugar like honey, dates, raisin, etc. I have to find a quantitative goal and a good action plan for this item.
6. Last but not least I want to see my six packs! Which means I have to get lean and serious with my food planning and type of food choice.

B list has some overlapping goals with mine:
1. Continue doing Crossfit! It has been working wonder for him. He is much stronger and leaner. His only hiccup this term is his 8am classes 3x a week!!!! We'll see how we can tackle this problem.
2. See his six pack!
He does not want me write about his career goals. We welcomed 2013 with good food and great company. So much fun and laughter!

Double unders

2012-09-24T07:35:00.002-07:00

Another great day at the box. Today we had a different coach than our usual one, still lots of fun. The WOD wasn't a tough as I thought it might have been. I still have a sore back from all the dead lifts I did on Wednesday. The WOD included:
10 Burpees
15 Back squads
30 Double unders
and the skill was front squad. My arms are my weakest part right now and I am really sruggling with pull ups. That being said, I can see myself doing them at some point but monster double unders!!! Don't think they will happen anytime in near future:(
My legs are doing fine so far and i hope I don't get as sore as I got last time.

Breakfast:
I had my new favourate 3 ingrediant pancake:
1 small (~4oz) sweet potato
0.5 cup egg whites
1 scoop protein powder

So good with my coffee. There are contradictory information on benefit or harm of coffee. I am a tea drinker for most of the day and I really enjoy my cup of coffee (which got part of my life when I came to Canada) in the morning. So for now I am going to stick to it.

BK's (hubby) mom left last week and we took M to the airport to keep us company while there. It's not she the cutest in here little bag??!!! She behaved really well and made me really proud :)

The other day at the Costco I was surprised/ happy to see this product. The re giving out samples and it seemed that it was a huge hit! I did not sample it (I am trying to avoid bread as much as I can) but BK liked it but mentioned that it is not even close to Iranian/Persian bread!

Crossfit!

2012-09-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

I survived my 3rd CF class:) Have no idea how it all happened?! Started crossfit with Hubby on Monday (September 10, 2012) and I am already in love, committed, devoted, hooked. That's a first for me, it was love in first sight for sure. I am planning to do 3x a week, which is recommended by my coach and the other 2 days I will practice my same o'l exercise at my gym which has worked perfectly for me.This week is/was however was the first week from vacation and the problem with the car made me so tired so I decided not to the gym and stick to the box only.

The WOD (workout of the day) was a killer today. After not a very intensive warm-up (when we got to the box, people were already in the middle of their warm up process) we started the exercise. O MY. I hated it so much but I loved it so much. I cann't wait for monday to kill myself again:)

Don't worry Canadians...

2012-03-30T08:55:00.001-07:00

source

The new budget is released and off the leash. Yes, Canadians face it we are and were in recession and it was not the conservative government who saved us. We are in big messy situation and cuts on every service imminent. And for me the saddest slash is on Health Care services. I still have to pay 40k+ tax and not get one fifth of the services I use to get. Nice job. To top it off, they Ministry of Environment is almost gone, which in turn means more cancer, new strange diseases, etc.

I am not even worry about the retirement now, how many of us do you think will grow old to see those days by these cuts on health care and environmental regulations....

Women and Engineering!

2012-02-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

There are lots of female engineers in engineering schools and they do very well while in school but what happens to them (us) when they (we) mature and start their (our) real world experiences. Why there are not a lot of us working as faculties in universities? Why they are not significant number of us present as CEOs and top shareholders? Why governmental institute have to enforce rules and regulation for hiring more women forces? What it is that keep us behind?! Is it our commitment to our partners and children that does not let us advance the corporate ladders?

source

After working in the industry for 4 years, I have realized that sexism is one of the reasons that prevent us from advancing in our career, but unlike this time we, women, are doing the dirty job for them. Because we are still being judged by our feminine aspect rather than our brain and competent. Let me elaborate. When someone is promoted to a position based on her other qualifications that are not related to what she is doing, she does not feel secure and at the same time she does not have the independency of making decisions as she is not qualified for the position. So on one hand, you have someone who listens to you no matter what because she is not confident enough to think independently. On the other hand, she will be super cruel to her subordinate specially the female ones since she feels insecure. She thinks she can seduce the male subordinates in most cases as she did with the big boss. But female ones are danger, specially if they are smarter than her. She knows she lacks knowledge compare to them in few years so she starts bully them in various ways. Men are more likely to participate in aggressive bullying behavior (60%), however when the bully is a woman her target is more likely to be a woman as well (71%). So as a junior female engineer please be aware of these fifteen signs of workplace bullying:

Fifteen signs of workplace bullying

Continually undervaluing effort. Recognition of effort is an important motivator for every employee. Without it, people tend to decrease effort, have little desire to be in to work on time, or perform their work to the best of their ability. By undervaluing an employee’s efforts, an exceptional employee can quickly become a problem employee.
Refusing to delegate. Delegation is a tool for getting more done in less time and for developing employees. When an employee is not given the opportunity to develop, they will certainly look for the opportunity elsewhere.
Frequently changing workplace rules. When the playing field is ever changing, how can the players play the game effectively? Changing the workplace guidelines on a regular basis sets employees up for failure, "keeps them on egg shells" because they never know what the "rules of the day" are. It also undermines trust amongst co-workers.
Public humiliation. Reprimanding an employee in a meeting or in the presence of other employees, yelling at or swearing at an employee, or rolling of the eyes when an employee or co-worker is expressing an opinion are all examples of humiliation.
Personal insults and name-calling. Whether in the presence of the individual or behind the individual’s back, this tends to alienate and lends to the forming of camps, further dividing your workforce.
Over-monitoring with malicious intent. Micromanaging with the intent of finding problems undermines the ability of an individual to do their job and do it well. Over time this approach can increase the mistakes a person makes. Micromanaging can make someone feel as though their every move is being monitored and judged. It can make them nervous and take their mind off of their work, increasing stress levels and developing into health issues.
Unfair applications of leave or promotion. This occurs when the rules for promotion are not applied consistently among the staff, when some have flexibility in scheduling, or some have the freedom to come and go as they please and others do not. When one individual is singled out and the rules of the workplace are not applied consistently it constitutes as bullying. This behaviour undermines trust, decreases motivation, and creates a negative attitude toward the supervisor and the organization. This will be reflected in the quality of work of the individual if the individual does not leave the organization first.
Instigating complaints from others to make an individual appear incompetent. Not all staff complaints are genuine issues. The challenge for the supervisor is defining the difference. A well versed bully is able to manipulate others into believing that the person being bullied is incompetent and will manipulate others into joining their camp in ostracizing the one being bullied by filing complaints that are unfounded.
Constant criticism. Feedback, whether positive or negative, is a useful tool for improvement, however some mistake criticism for feedback. Regular criticism that is judgemental in nature is destructive to the individual receiving it, undermines self confidence, impacts the spirit of the individual, and instils a sense of incompetence.
Spreading malicious rumours, gossip, or innuendo. Hard to catch, yet extremely destructive to the workplace, rumours are hurtful and demeaning; they pit staff against one another and undermine the ability to work as a team.
Ignoring or excluding. The act of ostracizing someone in the workplace has the same effect as exiting someone from the community. Shunning creates a loss of identity and belonging. Every employee needs to feel a sense of belonging. One of the reasons people work is to experience a connection to others, as a sense of purpose is required for each individual to feel whole as a person.
Withholding information. When information is required to do a job and the information is withheld, we are setting someone up for failure.
Intimidating a person. Intimidation comes in many forms, and all instil a sense of fear in the person being bullied, whether it be fear of losing one’s job, fear of humiliation, fear of being ostracized, or fear of reprimand. All of these forms of control constitute intimidation.
Removing areas of responsibility or promising projects and not following through. In particular when there is no reason or explanation. By taking away responsibility or not following through on a commitment to an employee, the employee looses trust, motivation and starts to question their own ability.
Deliberately sabotaging or impeding work performance. This can happen in many forms, by not giving information required to perform the job, by not providing adequate workspace to complete the job, not giving the authority required to complete the job etc. This sets the employee up for failure; the result is that the work fails, the individual fails, and the organization looks incompetent in the end.

I am back!

2012-01-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hello!

It seems like forever. Well first and hopefully the hardest semester of all is behind me and I am glad to report that everything went just fine:) I trying to get back on the wagon as soon as I can. The "17 Day Diet" did not go as I planned but it definitely more aware of what and how much I eat. I have realized that I eat way too much and even though almost everything I eat is healthy, the calorie still matters.

I had a great holiday with friends and family and although we don't celebrate Christmas and share the same new year calendar wise, we still enjoyed the season very much. The day after the exam we went for a road trip/shopping to US with B and H (great friends). It was an amazing and relaxing two days trip with lots of shopping. Then in less than a week my parents came to visit us (all the way from Iran!) and then we had another two day trip to US to pick up my brother (S). He lives/study in US. It was another amazing trip along with some shopping:) (so you can say I spent a lot of money but everything I bought was necessary and I would say it was money well spent, even the Hubby agrees:) ).

Anyway I am back hopefully for good. I am planning to blog regularly. This morning I did not have that much appetite and I settle for a nice warm coffee after walking Maggie.

Maggie also got groomed yesterday and was very exited afterwards:

Nicole Richie's Halloween Plea

2011-11-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

I know I defiantly do not appreciate the profs who recycles their assignments and exams. It is just not fair to new students. It is about 2 hours that I have realized in one of my courses the instructor has used the exact same questions for midterms and assignments so far. Do not ask how I realized that but that did not made me happy:(

Well, the life has not been that bad today as I had my favourite food both at lunch and dinner. Teriyaki salmon. During weekend we bought a big salmon from Costco and I marinated the whole thing with garlic, teriyaki sauce, salt, paper, and fresh lemon juice. I had it over salad with Renee Honey Dijon.

Our first run is with my running buddy is scheduled for Thursday. I am so much looking forward to it.

I read about Nicole Richie's Halloween Plea. I found it so stupid to say the least. Nicole, I am not

sure if you can know it or not but dressing slutty is very relative and it depends who is judging. Sometimes

very regular dress is much more slutty than a slutty dress that many of us wear for any occasion. Do all of us

a favour, would you? stop being concerned about our dress!

Running buddy

2011-11-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day for Maggie as I was totally in the mood to walk her around the neighbourhood. She enjoyed sniffing every thing she could. Now that I have no major upcoming deadline (with the exception of one mini assignment) I want to plan to be prepared for the finals and one term paper which is due almost at the same time that I have a final scheduled. BUT I have enough time and if I plan I can do it. For breakie today I had two of these yogurts. They are so good.

I am starting to get hold of things at school. Some people are really nice and that is what matters. One of my office mates is a runner (jackpot) and she lives close to school and preparing for her second half marathon (double jackpot). When I realized it I asked her if she likes to go for runs together and she liked the idea. I am trilled. It means that I have somebody to run with, yoooohooooo. I love running but I am one of those people need a buddy to push me and I think I just find the right person:)

No Halloween Spirit

2011-10-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

Today has been by far the coldest day this year (seriously what's up with the weather?!) I had an early appointment with my dentist for pre-crowing of my tooth. I am not one of those people who hate the dentist office and I guess that is not a good thing. Since I figure if you complain a lot dentist tend to take a better care of you! My appointment went well. Then a long commute to school as usual. By the time I got to my office I was starving and so made myself a cup of coffee and had one of my Liberte greek yogurt. I love these. So creamy and delicious. Both hubby and I are in love with them so every trip to Costco includes two boxes of these bad boys:)

There is no Halloween spirit on campus whatsoever. Not even one single person with orange shirt or something. One of my office mate came in with kind of costume and interestingly she was complaining about the same thing. I guess that's what midterm does to you. Need to get back to studying.

Halloween

2011-10-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

After two midterm exam and not perspective of any school related work (exam, assignment, etc.) it really feels good to spend the weekend with Hubby and Maggie. There were some house cleaning overdue today morning was kind of spent cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, etc. Since precious Maggie is part of family, we have a Bissell's ProHeat 2X Pet® cleaning machines. It has saved our life ever since we bought it from Costco almost four years ago. So it was put in a good use this morning for cleaning the kitchen floor.

Last night we were invited to a friend house for a Halloween party, a great one I must add. I was great get together. Lots of new faces but that is the whole purpose of a party right?! We are going out tonight too but I am not going to wear any costumes.

Hello, I am the Engineer and I am a sugar addict!

2011-10-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, two assignments and one project later, here I am preparing for my first midterm on Thursday. I am nervoussssss, as these marks are very important to me. I have my office now and everything is set but a bit too late, since for the first couple of weeks everything was very disorganized and kind of delayed my study. Anyhow, now everything is fine and that is the important part.

One of the cheapest coffee shops in the world (well Canada) is in the next building where I filled up my coffee mug. A large coffee for 60 cents (tax included!!!!), unbeatable. It has lots of other things such as sandwiches and stuff too (again very cheap) but I am not very interested as I am (drum roll please) on the 17 day diet! I need to lose some weight but I am mainly doing this for sugar detox as I have realized that I am really addicted to sugar. I am on the second day and it is not easy for me as I love my desert and I cannot have any.

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Hopefully things will be easier in couple of days as so many people had the same experience. Lets see.

Paper or notebook, that's the question!

2011-09-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

I am really struggling to figure out which is better for me, paper and binder or notebook. They both have pros and cons. I know for most people the question is between taking notes by typing vs old fashion pen and paper. I am not that old fashion, however, most of my classes (I have to take four courses in total) involve mathematical equations and so fort and I think it is much easier for me to take notes old fashion way.

Binder & Paper
Pros:

Much lighter in weight to carry around (not the binder just the paper)
Can easily be replaced if I miss a lecture by coping others' (not that I am planning to miss any)

Cons:

Can be lost easily
The holes will be tore at some point

Notebook

Pros:

Much easier to organize
Easily can go back to previous lectures

Cons:

Missing one lecture will be really hard to replace

May be there are more pros and cons regarding both ways of taking notes that I have not experience and does not come to my mind at this point but I guess I am leaning more toward notebook. I might miss one lecture probably in October and that is not a big deal. I will talk to the prof who is lecturing that course to prepare for that one.

But lets see, if the lectures have so many online materials and handouts then I will change my mind. I don't like to carry both binder full of papers and a notebook at the same time.

Dinner for one

2011-09-10T08:23:00.000-07:00

Dinner last night turned out to be for one (instead of two) as Hubby went out with his colleagues last night. I had relaxing night with M. Dinner was very satisfying. Teriyaki salmon with millet, yam!

Along with some salad and Renees honey dijon dressing vinaigrette. I love this dressing. It has just enough sweetness to it to do the job for me and it does not have that after taste that most honey dijon dressings have. Hubby is also a big fan of its balsamic vinaigrette dressing but I rather have olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Went for spinning class at 5:30 pm and sweat like crazy. However, by the end of the class was too tired to do any weight training. So it will happen either today or tomorrow. We have not planned anything yet for tonight or tomorrow but we should as the good warm days/nights will be gone soon. I purchased the iMucsle app the other day. Once started syncing it realized that my iphone is not compatible with this app. Huge bummer. I really liked the app as one of my friend is using it. It demonstrated all the workouts really well and you can create a workout and save your weights too. I guess I have to figure another way for my workouts until I get the iPhone 5. Can't wait, telling ya!

Lazyyyy!

2011-09-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

The first day of school is on Monday and I took advantage of my last day at home. This morning, when Hubby was getting ready for work, I was feeling a bit of guilt but when my M came for a cuddle, we forgot about him altogether. Then we went for a quit walk at the marina. Weather was amazing and M did lots of running and we came home to this:

Tired M is a good M.

When walking at the marina, around the beach area, a woman approached us by saying I need you pup!
I find it funny and at the same time I thought I did not understand what she said. As we started talking I realized that she has recently put her 100-lb ~~boy~~ lab to sleep and she was still grieving over it. I totally felt her pain. Dogs are not just pet, they are truly family. It is really hard when they are not feeling well let alone putting them in sleep. I try not think about that day.

On other note, I am trying to corrupting our neighbour into writing a blog. I believe is a perfect candidate for writing a blog. She is a very outgoing, charming single (now) lady in her 40s. She alway has too much to say and share and she just know so many things and lots of people. I think she is the kind of person I would be reading her blog (about her life) and she has the dedication for maintain the regularity of the posts.

On my agenda today:

Going to the gym for the cycling class and possibly some weight training
Make a delusions dinner for two, however Hubby might have his dinner with his colleagues tonight
Plan something exciting for the weekend

Planning

2011-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

What a great day! I know many people complain about the rainy weather but believe it or not I really like it. It is so relaxing to wake up in a cloudy weather. That being said, I am lucky enough to live in a city that does not rain on a regular basis. Otherwise I would have have the same feeling as everyone else. We had a visit to the marina close to our place the other day. It was so sad to see the boasts are taken out of the water (don't know the correct terminology, it should have one).

M (my dog) had a great time however. The weather was amazing.

It is that time of the year for me to start planning. Planning the meals, school work, research, etc. Over the course of the time I came to really like to plan in advance. It gives me a feel of security and control. Multitasking is now envelops with everyday jobs for everyone and almost everyone has so many things on their todolist eveyday/week. And for me, if I see it written done I try my best to GET IT DONE. So on my list for today:

1. Calling CAA to renew my membership (it is a must for me as I have no idea what is going on in a car ~~neither does hubby~~ and I rather be safe than sorry specially with the amount driving that I will be doing this winter.

2. Calling CRA to take care of some tax related issues.

3. Taking my courses for fall semester and organized my schedule accordingly. So far it is the most important task on my agenda. I need to know which courses I will taking and their class schedules. Pretty much everything else will be schedule around them.

4. Calling my previous grad school regarding my transcript, it has not got to my recent school yet!

I have binders, papers and many other things necessary for school, however, I did some cute back to school shoppings at one of my favourite bookstores (Brock University). It has such neat items that I have not seen in other stationary stores.

Anyway back to planning.

Labour Day!

2011-09-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Labour day! I have developed a love/hate relationship with labour day weekend. As much as I love an extra day off in addition to weekend, the fact that Hubby and/or I have to go back to intense schedule of working hard set it all off. In addition, it is kind of end of the warm season for me which is really sad, isn't it?
We have just came back from a vacation in ~~paradise~~ Mexico. We had a blast. It is funny how your taste changes over the time. I always got really disgusted by Mexico vacation stereotype during my early 20s and never would have thought someday I would actually not only enjoy it but also looking forward to go back.
I cannot believe that there is only seven more days to beginning of the classes. I am actually excited that after 4 years of working in industry and going back, yayyyyy. I am going to back to school shopping tomorrow and I am really excited about that too. I really feel that it was about time for me to go back to school. We are planning to take some courses in Spanish as well to have a easier time when we are traveling in Spanish speaking countries.
My goals for this academic year is as follow:
1. Study hard and make sure that I am ahead of my lectures. It gives me so much confidence and motivations.
2. GO to gym at least three times a week. In particular what I am particularly looking forward to is a spinning class that is on Friday nights. It is a killer but at the same time it is one of the best classes I have ever had. It makes you work so hard.
3. Weight Training is one of the addition to my workout schedule that will be taken very seriously. As a matter of fact, I have a copy of "New Rules Of Lifting For Women" with me right now. I am going to make a plan and stick to it and will report my progress here every month. I am still shy for a before pictures to be posted here YET!

GoodLife

2011-08-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

I am currently a member of GoodLife Fitness for various reasons one being it is a great facility (what is not to like, really), it is 5 min drive from my place, it has many locations across Ontario (which makes it very convenient for me when I am traveling for work), last but not least, my husband (Husband) has a corporate discount on its membership. Today plan was to put my two hours of free time in a good use. Since I love spinning, I planned to attend the 9:15 am class and then spent an hour or so in the weight room. However, universe planned another thing for me. I went to the spinning class and half way through, I realized that my head is spinning. Being the smart arse that I am, I left the class to rush to my car. I had a Gatorade waiting for me in the car. However, I did not make it. When I got to the front desk, I got cold sweats and kind of fell/lay down on the floor. They gave me a Gatorade ~~and as much as I insisted afterwards to pay for it they refused~~.
I am wrapping up things at work and this week will be my last week at my current job (yay). I am not that busy but I should be available in case my colleagues who are over taking my projects have any questions or need more information.
Other than that I am keeping it low.

The beginning of my three years journey as a PhD Student!

2011-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

I started this blog to document my daily new life as a PhD student. I had been student before (obviously), however, this time I want to maintain a healthy life style both physically and mentally. I truly think it is possible and just needs some in advance planing. My classes will start in September (2011). As much as I am excited about it, I am a bit stressed too. I welcome the challenges to come and am ready to meet them head on!