I wasn't able to blog much this weekend, so I will make a two-in-one recap post, first the recap for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday... then I will make a recap for my Week 3.

SATURDAY, 20 August 2011

Brother and I attended the Blogger Fiesta Manila (see previous post about the topics discussed) and apart from the gained knowledge, was so happy to see our cousin as well as our bloggers at the event. I also gave Marjorie the other April 2011 issue of Yummy Magazine so she could try the recipes, too. I didn't win any of the prizes raffled off, but it was okay, the knowledge I gained was enough for me.

While walking around SM City North Edsa going to the jeepney terminal, I got to see the Slers Store and I got to buy a pack of chicharon. Well, brother told me to just buy one, because he is about to fly to Cagayan de Oro and he will just buy me some directly from CDO. :)

No exercise for me today because of the event, but I would also say that I got to walk a lot for this day. The jeepney driver dropped us off at the main building (near Trinoma), and the event was located at the Annex building. After the event, it was another round of walking for us. :)

Food wise, I'd say I binged today. Brother and I ate at Chicken Deli, and I had two cups of rice to go with my grilled chicken leg quarter. We didn't eat the entire afternoon, and we put off eating dinner until we got home, so I ate a lot for dinner as I was really, really hungry. I had another roasted chicken leg quarter, lots of rice, pancit, and I had a glass of Coca-Cola because I was really dizzy. They now think my blood sugar levels dropped because of exercising and dieting, so they offered me the Coke. Well, I did feel better after. :)
SUNDAY, 21 August 2011

Nothing much happened this Sunday, but I was happy to finally receive the email from Nescafe about the notebook I chose to redeem using my Nescafe points. Nescafe has this ongoing promo on Facebook where fans of their page can use the "One question, Three Answers" app, and each day, fans can collect 30 points (15 from answering the question + 15 if they shared their answer on their Facebook wall). By the end of August, they will raffle off a Samsung Galaxy Tab, a Blackberry phone, and a trip to Boracay, but one must collect at least 1000 points to be eligible for the raffle. I was able to collect my 1000th point two weeks ago, and since fans with at least 600 points up can redeem Nescafe items (shirts, umbrellas, notebook, bag, and USB flash drive), I opted to use my 1000 points to get the notebook (made of paper, not the gadget one). Upon using my points, I received an email asking me to wait for another email indicating the details where I could redeem my item, and today I finally received the e-mail. Hooray!

By the way, I cleaned my closet today. I am now ready to let go of some of the fat clothes, as well as some old underwear. It's time for me to give space in my closet for "thin" clothes.

My sister and my mom asked me to forget my diet a bit and just eat. They are noticing that I am complaining about being dizzy too many times, and they just want me to at least finish the weekend get myself well first and go back to exercising and dieting the next week. For my lunch and dinner, I ate salmon head paksiw, which I think was very okay since it's fish - it's healthy, and... I didn't use any oil to cook it. However, for both lunch and dinner, I had two cups rice and I realize, I still can't get myself disciplined when it comes to fish paksiw.

Obviously, I didn't do exercise today because of the weekend agreement with mom and sis.
MONDAY, 22 August 2011

While brother was busy washing his clothes because will fly to Cagayan de Oro the next day, I got myself busy folding the clothes I am ready to let go. I saw this one denim top, which I only got to wear once (see picture HERE) in 2009 because I didn't look good in it. The top was a bit loose then (sister just placed safety pins near the armpit side), so I didn't wear it again. While folding it, I noticed the holes (kinda like rubber shoes) on each side, so I decided to take out the string, fold the sides to make two columns of holes meet (the original "stitch" was just there for embellishment). After doing it on both sides, I tried the top on, and hallelujah it still fits! :) No need to throw away the top, am keeping it! :)


Food wise, I still am eating quite a lot - I had two small chicken drumsticks which brother cooked ala Chicken Style... I told him the secret to it was "Five Spice Powder," and true enough, it tasted a bit like the one served at a Chinese fast food, but I went to eat just a cup of rice for lunch and dinner. For dinner, I cooked Tilapia Fillets wrapped in bok choy, and it was delish! :)

I went back to do my exercises today, and I was able to do all three Hip Hop Abs routines, as well as the dumbbells exercises. Total cups of water for today: 13 + 2 tall glasses of water, one of which I used to mix the C-Lium Fibre. I still experienced bad reactions to it (no more "butterflies in the stomach" feeling, but I am irritated because it was way too difficult to poop), so I think I'd take a break from it and just get back next month after I get home from my trip.
WEEK 3 RECAP

Week 3 wasn't good for me. I had my monthly period and I started feeling dizzy. I didn't exercise on some days and this week I had my first binge since I started the journey. I feel truly guilty about that, but part of me was telling myself it was all okay because I did feel better after eating a lot. I still haven't weighed myself, but I sure will weigh myself tomorrow because I need to borrow neighbor's weighing scale to help determine my luggage's weight. Anyway, I sure hope this week won't pull me down, especially that my trip is so near and I won't have the chance to do much exercises while away.

As for Lyn's Habit-a-Week Challenge, I totally failed week 3 - Eating a Veggie. I did get to eat vegetables, but my main food for the week was chicken, so I guess I'd continue with this challenge until I get back from my trip.

SATURDAY, 19 August 2011

In one of the prayer meetings I had with my SFC household, our leader Rhona shared to us something she learned from another co-SFC member. She said, as individuals, we shouldn't just use our earnings to save and buy things for our personal consumption, but also, we should use a part of our money to learn more. This means either buying a new book, attend workshops, and buy items that would increase our knowledge.

When I started to blog full time (meaning I blog almost everyday), I only blog to blog... but lately, as I get to know more bloggers and explore different blogs, I started to feel the willingness to learn more about blogging, and applying the same principle as I shared in my intro, I am now starting to read about ways to make blogging better.

When I received an invitation to attend the 2nd Blogger Fiesta Manila, I didn't hesitate and immediately sent my RSVP. Reading articles online sure helps, but I know it's much better to be in the same roof with fellow Filipino bloggers so information exchange has more substance, if I may say so. Together with my brother, we attended the Blogger Fiesta Manila at the Cyberzone of SM City North Edsa.

Hosts. Flow and Omar were the event's hosts... they really knew how to liven the event with their funny antics. :)

There were a lot of talks lined up for the day, and there were so many information gathered, so I'd just make this one concise, as I don't want to make a very lengthy post. :)

Az Coladilla. Az is the blogger behind this event, and he presented the first topic of the day, "Blog Layout and How to Use the Blogger Designer Template." At first, it was a topic I know a bit about as three of my blogs' templates were designed using the Blogger Template Designer. However, I got to learn some more like:

• Your blog's header should be something that is related to your blog niche. You can't put flowery header when you write about emo stuff.
• When putting your blog header, you can do away without the blog description, but never ever take away your blog's title. Also, when uploading your header, always choose "Instead of Title and Description." Your header should be clickable (even if you have your "Home" button under the header), because it also helps with the SEO.
• Never, ever, ever put background music on your blogs. No matter how good the music/song may be, people will be highly annoyed with it - especially if they are also listening to their own choice of music or watching videos while blog hopping.
• If you're blogging using a net book, do consider the font size of your blog - don't make it too big because even if the font looks okay on your end, it may appear too big for people using laptops or big monitors.

Juned Sonido. Juned talked about the recent issue regarding DTI and giveaways put up by bloggers. It's a very sensitive and "heated" topic, and this issue is still not over, although, bloggers can have a sigh of relief because DTI has already set some rules and blog giveaways with prizes below 1M is exempted, and if certain companies will ask bloggers to host giveaways on their behalf, the companies should be the ones securing a DTI permit and not the bloggers.


Jhong Medina. His talk was about "Optimizing Wordpress for Search Engine for Beginners," and since I am no longer blogging using Wordpress, I still get to learn a lot from his talk. Because of his talk, I am now very much aware how to title and tag my posts, as well as use several programs to help with the SEO of my blogs. I have this blog and two photo blogs, which don't really need too much SEO application, but my travel blog and food blog are two of my blogs that I want to have lots of traffic, and thanks to his talk, I understood more and more about how to do it. One major thing I learned: you also have to give the pictures you're uploading the appropriate titles because it can also help generate traffic for your blog.

Jonel Uy. Jonel is one of the successful bloggers I know of and today he talked about "BBB for B" or "Brand Building Basics for Bloggers." The title of his blog maybe about Bs, but it centered in four Cs - Character, Content, Context, and Creator.

• Character - "Who are you?"
• Content - "What do you write about?"
• Context - "What is your perspective?"
• Creator - "Who is the blogger?"

Character and Creator may be similar, but there is this thread that separates one from the other, while "Character" talks about you as a blogger, "Creator" speaks about you as a person making the blog. Confused? Well, he gave another explanation - If "Content" is about the flesh and meat of your blog, "Creator" is the soul of the blog.

Bob Reyes. Being the owner of Turfsite that provides blog hosting services, Bob talked about "Hosting Your Own Blog or Website." He cited several reasons why having your own domain is much better:

• Free blogs is like renting a house - it is yours, yes, but not really yours.
• Owning a domain means buying a "peace of mind." - you can call your host anytime of the day when you have blog problems, whereas if you blog for free, you just have to adjust and put up with the server's quirks.

Personally, I still have some issues regarding owning a domain, and right now I still think blogging for free is much "stable" because my very old blog is still up and running even if I haven't updated it for years. I know owning a domain has its own limits - like losing it when you can't pay up for the domain and hosting anymore, and since I blog to "immortalize" myself, I sometimes think owning a domain isn't really for keeps.

David D'Angelo. Introduction about him said, "He is a cosplayer and a blogger who talks about social topics - politics, economics, etc." His talked centered on "Blog Personalities: Knowing and Writing for Target Audience." His talk is somewhat a continuation of Jonel's talk, and some points he tackled:

• You cannot be the same person in all of your blogs (if you have multiple blogs).
• Ask yourself, "How do people see my blog?" and "Will my personality fit my blog?" To that last question is a follow up question, "Does my personality need to fit my blog?"
  
• Don't blog out of necessities. Don't put up a blog (i.e - travel blog) just because you see your friend's travel blog gaining a lot of traffic.

Major point of the talk: You can create a blog that has its own personality. There is no such thing as a "general" blog because the fact that you blog about something, it already has its own personality.

Carlo Ople. The topic of Carlo's talk was about "Blogging Powered by Social Media Steroids." He made a short introduction about how many Filipinos are using Facebook and Twitter (among the many social networking sites), which meant bloggers can really use these sites to power their blogging. He also gave six blogging tips using social media:

• Understand Facebook's edge rank.
• Place buttons on prominent locations.
• Integrate Facebook comments on your blogs.
• Get exposure on other Facebook pages.
• Integrate Google +1.
• Do your own media kit.

The last point was something appropriate for bloggers who want to get samples from companies (if you blog about products), but the first five points are something all bloggers can relate about. Some people may not like Facebook, but... if you're a blogger, you don't really need to like it, instead you can use it to your blog's advantage. These tips Carlo gave I am now starting to do and if you visit my food blog, I Live to Eat!, you can see that I already put up buttons on the upper right part of each posts... I am now starting to learn how to integrate the Facebook powered comments page.

Jenny Manongdo. Of all the topics, hers was the lightest as she talks about "The Joys and Rewards of Blogging." Though the topic was light, it was also the one nearest to the heart. Jenny stressed the fact that we all should be proud of us being bloggers because it is an extension of ourselves. She also shared a very wonderful quote, "The future belongs to the communicators." (that's from the book "You, Inc." by Henry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith)

Marlon Guzman. Aside from Google Page Rank (hehehe), one of the things bloggers fear are the hackers. In his talk, Marlon shares several tips on how to make our blogs secure, but he also stressed that even if we do all the tips we can gather, our blog is still not 100% safe as hackers will do everything to ruin sites, therefore, we should periodically back up our blogs and change our passwords.

Marnell Delos Reyes. Last talk of the day was about "Resolving Blog Issues 101." His topic was too technical for a blogger like me, but once I gather all the screen shots taken by my brother, I will definitely learn more about it.

So many bloggers present that day, and although I got to see my second cousin Marjorie (the one in green/red stripes) as well as blogger pals Den and Shekinah (right most) whom I first met during the Mt. Pinatubo trek, I also got to meet blogger Dei (of Foodamn!) personally. She has been a friend in Facebook for a few months now and I do visit her food blog from time to time, and it was so great to finally meet the blogger behind the blog.


As always, no bloggers event is complete without the "class picture." Taken by Az, he took three pictures and stitched them together to make this image - that meant holding our pose for a few seconds, but it sure came out good.

Whether you're a hobby blogger or someone who does it for a living, you should really not stop gaining new knowledge and you shouldn't stop interacting with fellow bloggers. If you hear of an event, which may help you gain more knowledge (may it be through photography or art classes or anything), don't hesitate to attend. Life is an endless learning experience.

I hope, too, that you learned something about this recap. :)

*** If you're here because of the "Sunday Stealing" meme, please scroll down for my answers... but, I hope you could read the rest of this post, too. :) ***

FRIDAY, 18 August 2011

• Watching "the Smurfs" in 3D with my favorite girls - sis & mom. My mom really loves watching movies in 3D, and at first I was taken aback at how much one ticket was (so freaking expensive to watch at the cinema nowadays), but I didn't want to let down my mom, so we watched. It was a good movie, we just laughed our hearts out watching this.
• Kikay shopping. There was a weekend sale at the mall, so we grabbed the chance to buy some underwear, as well as toiletries mom and I needed to bring at our out of town trip.

I still am very dizzy today, and when I decided not to have any "sugary" drinks to go with my lunch (we ate out), my family then thought that the reason why I have been dizzy is because my blood sugar level dropped. Well, I stopped drinking softdrinks, iced tea, and juice; I stopped eating candies, and because I am not eating lots of fruits, too, they just thought my body has less sugar to keep me going. Oh well...

*** Brother still hasn't returned the book. ***

FOOD LOG

• Breakfast - none
• Lunch (11:30am) - one serving pancit canton (Chowking)
• Afternoon Snacks (2pm) - 1 large tub of popcorn (sour cream and onion flavor), 1 (1x1 inch) chunk brownies, 1 teaspoon each of mango and coffee ice cream
• Dinner (4:30pm) - BLT Crepe (Crepes & Cream)
• Cups of Water - 8 cups at home + 1 bottled water (500ml)

After doing the grocery shopping, mom said we should have some snacks before going home, and since my sister wanted to eat ice cream, we just went to have snacks at Crepes and Cream. I know ice cream crepe is packed with sugar (my sister's crepe had ice cream, brownies, choco syrup and choco powder), so I went for the savory crepe and chose the BLT because of the lettuce and tomato. The bacon wasn't that fatty, so I was satisfied with it. While eating my crepe, I told them I won't eat dinner anymore, but when we got home I started feeling hungry at 8pm. I just dismissed the thought of feeling hungry and just slept early so I won't have to feel the hunger.

EXERCISE

No exercise routine for me, but I did get to walk around the mall, and during some moments I opted to use the stairs instead of the escalator.

This week's Sunday Stealing is taken from "The Seven Heaven Meme."

1. If you could live in any other time period, which would you pick?

> I would love to live during the American occupation here in the Philippines - no more Spaniards ruling the country, but still Filipinos were wearing traditional clothes.

2. What is your favorite topic to write on your blog other than a meme?

> I love writing about my travels and my food trips.

3. What are some traits that you admire in a lover?

> I love a lover who is faithful, caring, and who knows how to respect (in general).

4. Could you adjust to life in another country?

> If given the chance to live in another country, of course I can.

5. If you could study anything, what would it be?

> Foreign Language - either Spanish or French.

6. What is your favorite possession that cost less than $15?

> $15 is like 600 Philippine pesos... I guess my favorite is my sling bag (see the bag I wore in the first picture of this post), which I bought at a souvenir shop in Banaue, I bought it for only 75 pesos.

7. Which color do you wear most often?

> Black.

8. What has been your “theme song”, or favorite song this summer?

> "Firework" by Katy Perry

9. What's the most romantic thing that's ever been said to you?

> "Thank you for being you." - My dear K always tells me that.


Source - debbiedoescakesnet on Flickr
10. What would be your dream birthday cake?

> A base cake that looked like fluffy clouds (purplish hues) with a quarter moon resting on it - kinda like the one on the image, minus the cow.

11. What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?

> Travel to places on a budget.

THURSDAY, 18 August 2011

• Trying C-Lium Fibre. It tasted fine, but around noon time I started feeling a little weird in my tummy. I have been cutting back on food for two weeks now and it's just today that I felt really, really hungry.
• Going back to my exercise routine. My period wasn't that heavy today, so I went back to my routine and I felt really good.

After I did my last exercise routine, I rested a bit and because brother was the cook for the night, I told him to call me if he's about to cook so I could use the old desktop PC in his room. I wanted to the play "the Sims 2," but while waiting for him, I really felt dizzy. I was actually feeling dizzy for two days now, but I was too dizzy today than I was yesterday. When he called me, I just told him to turn off his PC and told him what I was feeling.

About 45 minutes after, brother woke me up to tell that dinner was served. While walking to the dining area, my sight wasn't clear - as if I was seeing stars, my legs felt wobbly, and my mind was wandering. I didn't know if the dizziness was because of my period, or because I cut back on food more, or because I exercised even during my period, or maybe because of C-Lium. I slept early today because I don't want to pass out anytime.

*** Brother took the "In His Steps" journal at his prayer meeting tonight, so I will just edit this tomorrow. ***

FOOD LOG

• Upon Waking Up - C-Lium Fibre mix in a tall glass of water + another tall glass of water immediately after drinking the C-Lium mix.
• Breakfast - (45 minutes after) 1/2 cup fried rice (mixed with chopped scrambled eggs and squid balls), 1 CDO Ulam Burger patty, 1/2 teaspoon banana ketchup
• Lunch - (12:30pm) 3/4 cup rice, 3 tablespoons canned sisig
• Afternoon Snacks - (5pm) p5 worth of adobo peanuts
• Dinner - (7:00pm)1 cup rice, 1 piece chicken thigh, 3 pieces potato quarters
• Cups of Water - 19

I was supposed to eat just 3/4 cup of rice for dinner, but my family was a bit alarmed with my condition - they felt I am not eating enough (we are a family of hearty eaters). Well, my mind reigns over my body and even if I wanted to eat more (as I feel really hungry), I can't get myself to get more rice after eating the food on my plate.

By the way... 19 cups of water today?!? Wow!

EXERCISE

• 8:00am - Squats, Leg Raises (30 reps each) | Jumping Jacks (30 reps) | Hip Sways (30 reps)
• 9:00am - Hip Hop Abs Cardio (30 minutes)
• 11:00am - Hip Hop Abs Ab Sculpt (17 minutes)
• 12:00nn - Dumbbells (6 sets, 30 reps each set)
• 4:30pm - Hip Hop Abs Hips, Thighs & Buns (20 minutes)
• 8:00pm - Dumbbells (4 sets, 20 reps each set)

Even if I was dizzy, I still picked up my dumbbells after washing the dishes (brother cooked, so I was the dishwasher). My sister got angry at me, telling me that I am torturing myself, but I just can't stop myself.