How To Lose Weight Effectively

First of all, I want to thank you all for your strong interest and your remarks about my workout, which I posted through Twitter/Facebook, that inspire you all to take good care of your health! The purpose of this blog is to share with you all how I manage to lose a lot of pounds.

Secondly, I am trying to share a simple blog because I went to stores and websites. There are way too many information to digest in our heads. I even bought one book and realized that I wasted my money... So, instead of telling you guys to read this book, that book, research the website, subscribe the magazine... Forget it! I just want to share free of charge for you people to grab the opportunity to cultivate your healthy future!

To be quite frank, it will be much easier once you set your habit. Please don't feel discouraged if you feel it's impossible. Please seek someone as your sponsor to keep you on the track with your health. I can't be there for you all because I am just a human being with limitations.

I had been through a lot of experiments by researching and doing various things. At first, I was recommended by my doctor to use Slim-Fast. I did, and it worked. However, the problem is that it's taking some time. Furthermore, I love food. So, I felt really struggled with my dietary habit, but I did not give up.

To my surprise, 60% of weight loss is based on the food you are eating! If you work out five times a week and you eat a lot of junk food, it's GAME OVER without question. I was there myself and, believe me, I really regretted those years I worked out and ate a lot of junk foods. I assumed that my workout routines would burn out the bad calories.

That's where I was very wrong. 40% of weight loss succession is physical workout itself, believe it or not!

Does that mean I have to skip one meal? Absolutely not! In fact, the more meals you eat, the better metabolism you will develop. That was what it happened to me.

Here is the list of meals and snacks I eat regularly:

Breakfast - Cereal. I eat that everyday. Trust me - breakfast is the most important meal that will increase your metabolism. Be sure it's low calories cereal. Multi-grain Cheerios is one of those great cereals. Be sure to eat half cup of cereal with 2% low-fat milk (half cup).

Snack - yogurt, nuts, and fruits (it has to be raw!) Be sure to eat small amount as big as yogurt.

Lunch - Spinach salad with chicken breasts. (I eat the same almost everyday and I still love it!) But, you can be creative with your salad for your taste as long as you watch the calories intake!

Dinner - 8-inch plate. Be sure to eat small amount that fills up 8-inch plate.

Drinks - a lot of water! Teas are fabulous, but avoid SODA POPS! They are harmful to your bodies!

Now, what do I eat for dinner? Be sure to eat healthy meats such as chicken and fish, potatoes, brown rice, salad (be creative), and all of those kinds of vegetables. The more raw vegetables you eat, the better it nurtures your body! Best meats I learned is chicken, turkey, pork tenderloin, and top sirloin.

AVOID FRIED FOODS! AVOID WHITE STUFF (White rice, white bread, anything WHITE)! AVOID BBQ (They are so tasty, but oh-so-FAT calories-filled! In fact, one meal from BBQ grill can count up to 2000 calories!)

You can really eat anything as long as you eat 1200-1400 calories a day! How do you count calories you eat daily? For iPhone users, check out the app you can download for free of cost - LOSE IT! From there, you can check out which food you can eat. For Blackberry users, check out this website. I am not sure if it's good because I am an iPhone user. SORRY! But, they have the website where you can keep all of your information with your weight, food, and exercise - fatsecret.com.

Do you know that if you eat 2000 calories and then you do a workout for an hour that can burn about 700 calories, that means you eat 1300 a day? Therefore, it's already considering as a diet!

Good news - you can eat JUNK FOOD as long as you eat it ONCE a week. After a whole week of your commitment to food habit, you can reward yourself by eating one NICE BIG MEAL that you really love: Pizzas, dinner meal at Chili's, calories-packed BBQ meals at backyard, whatever you like! And then, go back to your habit.

What about desserts? You can! Again - CHECK THE CALORIES! Be sure to keep it under 1400 a day for six times per week!

What are so important about calories count? For a man, he would need to eat 2000 calories a day. Woman needs to eat 2500 calories a day. However, junk foods in America will add up to about 4000 a day!

Imagine this: for a normal week with normal calories, it's supposed to be 14,000 calories. But with junk food, it's like eating 28,000 calories.

In fact, 3,500 calories is EQUAL to ONE POUND OF FAT!

If I eat only 1,000 calories a day, then I will eat only 7,000 calories a week. That means I will lose two pounds. That means I lose eight pounds a month!

Now, that's where big advantage of EXERCISE comes in.

If I eat only 1,000 calories and then I went to gym to burn 600 calories, then I took only 400 calories a day. For a week, I ate only 2,800 calories!

For workout, I normally use total body crossramp for 60 minutes each day. I do four times each week. It burns about 600-900 calories. It depends on how hard you work out and how much weight you weigh. For example, I weighed 200 pounds (ugh!) and I did high resistance for an hour, I burnt 915 calories. But, I currently weigh 157 pounds and I did the same, but I burnt only 700 calories.

Of course, you can choose whichever you wish to exercise such as running, bicycling, swimming, and so on. You can research to find out which burns the most and then choose the exercise that you really enjoy! The truth is that the swimming itself is the number one calorie-burner of all, but it heavily relies on how hard you perform and how long you maintain to swim!

By now, I am positively sure that you feel overwhelmed with ideas and may feel it's impossible to achieve. To be quite frank, all you need is to worry about today. Don't worry about tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next decade, or next century (if you live that long...) Ha! Just focus on today and then work by writing down on paper, typing on your computer, or use your phone to record your activities and food you eat.

I am positively sure that after a month, you will get used to it. After few months, you will be so used to it that you didn't even have to think about it and you will realize that you are in far better shape... That's because I am already there!

Of course, because of our lifestyle in America, we want everything happen within a second. Unfortunately, because of the time we spent neglecting our bodies, it's a small price to pay to maintain our health. Yet, that is the best part because you will realize that you are investing in a better healthy future.

My advice for you all is to make an ultimate goal not for only yourself, but for your family, your friends, and the ones who really cares about you. Please don't give up! Be grateful for the life you receive, so you can share with the loved ones.

If I can make it, you can make it!

Five Great Reasons For Weight Loss

Before reading, I want to express the reason why I wrote this blog, which is pretty simple. This is to encourage everyone to maintain their health. I have no intention to intimidate anyone. I simply want to encourage you all to maintain your healthy habits.

Secondly, I do not rank the reasons. To me, those reasons are equally important for me and I just want to share with you all. Since I made it, I know you all can make it.

What motivates me to share the reason is when the hot summer finally hit southern California on 14th of July, I didn't feel too hot or break a sweat. And then, people said it's so hot. It got me puzzled and I checked my iPhone for the temperature. That's when my eyes popped wide open because it was 93 degrees.

In the past, I sweated easily if it's 85 degrees or warmer. But, on that day, I did not sweat and I thought it was 82 degrees! That made me realize how great I feel after a year of working out. Therefore, it inspires me to share with you all.

1) Coping with hot weather easily! With weight loss, you will be able to deal with hot weather a lot better. Don't forget that it will save you a lot of money from electricity bill or gas from using AC in your car during hot weather.

2) Better mental alert! With workout as part of your routines, you will be able to notice that your mind works much better.

3) More energy boost! Oh man, I remembered those days I played with my nephews and I got so tired easily until I made a strong commitment to weight loss. That's when I realized that I lasted much longer and made it at the end of the day without a nap!

4) Save a lot of money! How can losing weight save me money? The answer is simple - less food to spend, less medicines to pay, and save your trips to see a doctor. That's true. I have been noticing myself that I don't need any more medicines comparing to last year. In addition, my friend finally joined the gym by my persuasion and she came to me one day saying that she noticed that she did not need to take Advil, which she normally do daily.

5) Better self-image! It's not about showing off yourself to people, but it's about looking in the mirror and feel proud of your achievement! Being in a good shape will show everyone how much you really take care of yourself. It will make yourself looking healthy and strong,

As you see, I can't really think of good reasons why to gain weight. I posted a picture above showing myself BEFORE and AFTER. It's clear that I looked older and unhealthy in BEFORE, comparing to AFTER.

By the way, to share my short story how I began losing my weight, it was that day I visited to see my doctor. My doctor wrote a simple note, "You are a little bit overweight. You need to watch your weight." That message really struck me and I did not really like what my doctor said, but at the same time, I realized I denied for a long time about my weight. Immediately, I set my goal on first day by researching about methods to lose my weight.

Truth be told, it's really hard at first because many friends of mine said, "Ohhh, good luck!" The others said, "Well, try your best." It's not that I blamed them. It's because it's rare to see people keeping their words nowadays. The point is that when my doctor said about my weight - it hit me that I did not really take care of my body. I did some research on Google about overweight and I was stunned to see that being overweight will cause issues on heart, liver, blood pressure, and you name it. If it doesn't affect in age of 20-40, it will be a big consequence in age of 50 or more. It will lead to taking more and more medicines.

Because of that, I became so determined to change my eating habit and my workout habit. It took me 10 months to achieve. Lately, many friends of mine were stunned to see the big transformation I succeed.

In the next blog, I will share with you all how I did with my eating habit and my workout. But, the purpose of this blog is to encourage you all to reconsider about your health, self-image, and true happiness. It's about investing your health in your future.

What I am trying to say is that each one of you out there is beautiful as long as you are taking care of yourself. There are a lot of benefits in maintaining your health daily, including happiness and better lifestyle.

Remember those movies or TV shows that show a person winning at the finish line with a joy on his/her face? That's how I felt when I reached the finish line and I am still maintaining my health daily.

Stay healthy and keep warm! :-)

Love Yourself

Once again, please keep in your mind that this blog is not short. Therefore, read it when you have a time with a coffee or tea in your hands.

Why did I come up with this title while this title itself is repeated everywhere? I am sure that you heard this quote in many forms so many times that its meaning may be invalid or meaningless. However, I see differently. This quote still inspires me.

Before I move on, please read my blog “To Judge or Not To Judge” because it concerns the attitude of passing judgment on the others.

What I am trying to say is that if you find yourself judging the others, then you really do not love yourself. Before I move deeper into the discussion, I want to share a story that is based on King David’s action that reflected his poor judgment as a king. You may read the passage (2 Samuel 11-12).

King David had been quite a successful king and won over many battles, leading his armies successfully. One day, he decided to stay home while his armies go on the war. One night, he saw the naked woman, Bathsheba, bathing. First of all, he was the king and he was supposed to establish an example as a man with moral values. Nevertheless, he summoned her to his bedroom and had a fun night.

Moreover, the woman King David chose to have an affair happened to be married to a man who is faithful soldier of King David. And to make things worse, Bathsheba got pregnant. Instead of telling the truth, King David summoned Bathsheba’s husband and got him drunk and to sleep with his wife to cover up.

But, the soldier was too loyal and he refused to sleep with his wife while he was currently on his duty as a soldier. (Poor soldier for being so loyal blindly to King David…) Anyway, King David got an idea by writing a letter. After sealing it, he told his loyal soldier to deliver it to the enemy at the front line.

The loyal soldier obeyed without asking a single question. At the front line, he delivered the sealed letter to the commander. Inside the sealed letter, it told the enemy commander to have someone to kill the soldier. Unfortunately, the faithful and loyal soldier was killed. That way, King David can marry Bathsheba after a month of mourning and everything was good.

What he had done is lie, steal, kill, and adultery while he was supposed to be an example of a man with moral values. So, one day, the man named Nathan who is known as a prophet of God came to him. Once King David saw Nathan, he gave the prophet a big welcome and said, “What is it I can do for you?”

Nathan sighed, “Well, I want to share something that bothers me.”

David inquired, “What is it? Is there something I can do?”

Nathan nodded, “Okay, you see… there was a large farm owned by a rich man. He has so many sheep and plenty of harvest that he has many tenants living around to do all the work. You see, one of those tenants is a poor family that owns only an innocent lamb. They are very poor that they feed the lamb from their own table.

“Unfortunately, once the rich man realized that his guest is coming, he wanted to prepare a finest meal, but he did not want to use one of his sheep. Therefore, he decided to have one of his servants to snatch that innocent lamb from the poor family, breaking their hearts.” Nathan shook his head, “It’s so sad to see the children crying as they watched their lamb being taken away. The lamb was killed mercilessly by the servant and was prepared for a dinner meal for the rich man and the guest. Of course, the rich man and the guest ate without expressing their gratitude. So, what do you think we should do with this rich man?”

King David was so furious and said, “Surely, that rich man deserves to die! And he should pay back four times for what he stole!”

Nathan turned toward King David and said, “Indeed?”

King David shouted, “Yes!”

Nathan pointed toward King David and shouted, “You are that same man!”

It caught King David completely off the guard. Nathan continued, “You are the king and you have several wives, but you chose to have an affair with this woman and to end her husband’s life!”

King David suddenly confessed his mistakes and asked for forgiveness.

I can continue, but I am focusing on the topic, “Love Yourself.” Why did I share this story? You see, King David was angry with the person for his mistake, but it was himself that he was angry and loathing at!

If I look at someone and felt negative against someone, then it’s ME that I am having problems with. It’s in my personal experience that I judged the others because I don’t really love myself.

After facing my worst time of my life in the past, I realized that my life got so much better just because I learned to love one other as I love myself. Loving myself is not easy because I did hate myself for many reasons. Hence, it was the reason why I judged the others harshly.

So, my question: Do you really love yourself regardless to the flaws you have? If not, please do. Life itself is quite beautiful once you learn how to love yourself and to forgive yourself for your mistakes in your past. From the point, I believe the journey to true happiness will begin.

Church Is An Ugly Word

Before you shout your head off at me, I am asking you politely to read the whole blog to consider the purpose of my message.

The question: What makes me thinking “church” as an ugly word?

The answer is pretty simple. After the years of going to churches, I had been witnessing a lot of mistreatments that were going on. I used to be a pastor, making poor judgmental calls and becoming ultra-conservative Bible thumper. In year 2002, my life turned around and I finally saw many things differently. After socializing with people outside of the churches, it was like opening my eyes to the new world.

Once I got the short message from cool guy, “Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.” Once I posted it on my facebook, it suddenly stirred up a debate. From that point, I grabbed some time to observe and to think about things that are going on around nowadays.

The truth is that I do hate going to churches. My close friends and my family are very aware of that. I have no secret about this. It is simply because the churches failed to understand the significance of support system.

I want to share one story with you guys. It’s about my friend who is a mother and was an alcoholic. She had an affair with a married man and got pregnant by him. Unfortunately, that man had to leave her to stay with his wife. Furthermore, she faced more hardships: (1) being an alcoholic and (2) unemployment.

She refused the choice to abort and she did not want to drink any alcohol beverage to harm her child. One night, she showed up at the Alcoholic Anonymous, baring her soul as worthless, stupid person with no value. However, a week later, the group gathered to offer her a plenty of help that she did not ask for. She got a new room prepared for her child. The group also scheduled meals ready to serve her after the birth, and she has plenty of supplies such as diapers, clothes, and so on that last for a year. And the best part is that she did not have to pay one cent for hospital to deliver the child.

After listening to this story, my jaw was on the floor. Why is that? It’s because I never witness such love from any church in my entire life. That made me wondering: What happens to the churches nowadays?

Therefore, the church itself is becoming an ugly word because if I asked my friend who is non-believer to come to church with me, I am sure he/she will feel apprehensive. And, I don’t blame him/her for this.

Another question: Why do I write this?

It’s because I want the Christians to wake up and to start sharing love, not passing any more judgmental calls. And it's because I am so tired and sick of hearing many people out there telling me how cold Christians treated them whenever they go to church.

Especially whenever the person missed for whatever reasons, the others tend to ask the person why they missed last Sunday. What kind of love is that? If the person missed, the others could simply contact to talk and to hang out. Now, that's what I really want to see in the churches nowadays.

Therefore, church is truly an ugly word because it doesn’t sound welcoming for people in general. It’s time for you church goers to wake up and to examine your hearts. It’s because as a Christian, we are called to share the love. Sadly, church itself is now dying and nowadays people chose to believe that church is simply a place for feeble-minded religious freaks. I don't blame them for thinking that way.

My final question: What is the solution?

What I can say is to check your heart. Do you really love anyone? Love them regardless to their different lifestyle? Different beliefs? Different opinions? If you say no to one of those, you would need to examine your heart because we are not here to judge the people.

Here are the passages for you to consider:

II Peter 1:3-9

Ephesians 4:2-3

I can go on and list more passages showing how important it is to love one other.

Also, my good friend shared the passage with me from the book called, "UnChristian," which I had been postponing to read. Nevertheless, please read this passage:

"As Christians, we have to keep in mind that response rates are not the ultimate goal but rather the wise and careful stewardship of the image of God. Today's media and technology create unparalleled opportunities but they also wield the potential to harm the Christian image among many outsiders. If you create more barriers with outsiders because of your tactics, you have not been good steward of the gospel. How we choose to share Christ is as important as our actually doing it."

Once again, we have to remember: we have NO rights to judge. Matthew 7:1 stated, "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged."

I personally pray that the Christians change their attitudes and transform themselves into loving people. Otherwise, church remains as ugly word to the outsiders.

To Judge Or Not To Judge...

NOTE: There are three notes for you to consider:

(1) This is going to be a long blog – so, please read it when you are having a cup of coffee or a tea and relax. ;-)

(2) This is focusing on the Christians. However, I welcome anyone to read because I still care about you whether if you are Christian or not. :-)

(3) This blog is not going to be theological discussion such as “how to be a good person before going to heaven.” I am simply focusing on behavior of Christians in general nowadays.

Before I starting writing, I want to make this clear to readers – I am a Christian and I used to pass a lot of judgmental calls on people. Of course, I went through the dark valley where I felt like there was no hope for my life and me. That was when I learned to realize God’s love through people I met, especially gay and lesbian people. For them, I am eternally grateful for the new life and for the lessons to love the others. Bottom line – the purpose of this blog is to encourage the Christians to LOVE ONE OTHER without making any judgmental call.

What makes me to participate NOH8 photo event? The answer is pretty simple. They were there for me and I want to show that I am there for them too. When I faced the hardship, many Christians I knew backed off while gay and lesbian people came in and support me. That is an experience I will never forget because I used to gloat and to judge on them as hopeless sinners, condemning forever to hell. One day, I asked one lesbian friend, who is still my dear aunt, if she knew I was a pastor and I used to make judgments. She said she knew, but she can see my real love in deep of my heart.

That makes me realize after all of those years of being a Christian in churches since I born, she made me see who I really am in God’s love. For this, I called her my aunt ever since. (I still love you, AUNT!) Point: they were there for me when I faced the darkest times of my life. It will be very hypocrisy of me if I don’t attend to show my love. Believe it or not, I did pray about it and I found peace in my heart to go. I have to thank to my dear friend, Jasun Hicks, for welcoming me to NOH8. He came to me gently and asked me politely. Why should I say, “No, because you are gay!” What kind of love is this?

Anyway, I faced a new experience that one person gloated at me for using my Bible at NOH8 photo event. Furthermore, he gloated to my sweet lesbian friend, who felt so confused and worthless to be saved. That’s where I rolled up my sleeves and decided to shed the light on those Christians who keep passing judgments. To Christians who continue making negative judgmental calls, I am asking you to back down. If you disagree with me, please read James 1:19-21 and, most importantly, Matthew 7:1-5 (which clearly states that we have NO RIGHTS to judge, PERIOD).

And, now I want to show you readers that I know some people who were hurt by Christians and they are NOT gay and lesbian people (they left their comments on my facebook and I removed their names for their privacy):

"Most of time Christians can be very judgmental on people. That s why I quit to have a social with christian people. They just put all wordswith rage, jealous, judgment, and more to me. There were no love of God in this enivornment. I m sorry to say that church is considering one of the most unsafe place to go unless they change their attitude toward people like me."

"I'M W/ (name deleted) BC NO MATTER WHAT CHUCH I GO TO ALLL THEY DO IS JUDGE ME VERY BADLY W/ THIS HORRIBLE RAGE W/O EVEN GET TO KNOW ME FIRST. THAT IS WHY I DON'T GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE. WHY BOTHER GO CHURCH WHERE THERE IS NO LOVE WHATSOEVER! HOW CAN THOSE CHURCH CHRISTIAN JUDGE ME Q DOES JESUS JUDGE U Q THE ANSWER IS NO JESUS DOES NOT JUDGE U. I AM A STRONG BELIEVER IN JESUS. IT IS VERY SAD THAT THOSE CHRUCH CHRISTAIN DARE TO JUDGE W/O EVEN THINK BEFORE U SAY IT. BUT I DO PRAY FOR THEM EVERYDAY NO MATTER WHAT. GOD BLESS ALL SMILE."

Also, I got this wonderful email from one of my friends who happened to share a wonderful story. Please check this out:

I am sorry that you going through this. I know this issue is very sticky situation. As a christian I always show them grace, mercy and love and does them one of my good friend was a former lesbian and somehow she found Jesus and is now sharing the gospel and is on fire for the Lord. that why I feel totally disgust to those who bash out to gay/les with wrong approach. Very dangerous as same concept as
John 8:7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
It is my call on toward this people because of my father was leading a double life and he passed away of AIDS in 2007. I never forget all of my visitation to my Dad. I never knew until he was dying. I change my view on gay/les because of the Lord show me clear and I even pray and sense the heavenly glory and show deep love, grace and mercy toward my father and I see his tears! It was powerful!!!! Good part that he accept Jesus and went to heaven. So that why I support you on this. May God bless you!!!!

In Christ,
(name deleted)

I want to grab this opportunity to discuss about this passage that was mentioned in the recent passage (John 8:1-11). It was when the religious leaders tested Jesus by throwing the prostitute on floor before Jesus and mentioned that in Bible that if the woman was caught in committing adultery must be stoned to death. The religious leaders tried to trap Jesus: (1) if Jesus said to cast a stone, Jesus will be accused as murderer or (2) if Jesus chose not to cast the stone, he will be accused for not following the law of God. (And Jesus knew that.) Instead of making either decision, Jesus answered that anyone without sin cast the stone, everyone ended up leaving the woman alone. What does it mean? We ALL make mistakes.

For the person who accused me and passed harsh judgment on my lesbian friend, it shows me that he lacks the true meaning of love, grace, and mercy. Therefore, he has my true sympathy because he missed out the beauty of life itself. Life is so beautiful – full of love, joy, and... you name it.

Now, as a Christian who really wishes to see a better community, I am asking you to stop passing judgment and attacking the people. It’s pointless to attack because it clearly shows that you did not share your love.

I want to share one more thing – in the passage (Mark 10:17-22) where one rich man asked Jesus how to be saved. Jesus told him to follow the laws and normal rules, and then sell everything and give away everything and follow Jesus. The rich man refused. So he walked away. What did Jesus do? He respected his choice. And, the most important part is Jesus did not backstab that person. Jesus did not even came to him and screamed his head off, “DID YOU KNOW THAT IN THE BIBLE, YOU WILL BE SENT TO HELL, DIDN’T YOU?!”

The bottom line for me to say to my other Christian fellows: To judge or not to judge...? That's NOT even a question... As a Christian, I am asking you to set aside your judgmental calls and to start learning how to share the love. It is simply because we are not called by God to judge.

And I am sorry to say this, but… If you are a Christian and you look down at the other person for different lifestyle or different belief, you are not a true believer.

Once again, if you do judge the others, you will be judged.

Support or Oppose AB 2072?

Before I start this blog, this message is to address to the hearing people who supports AB 2072.

I noticed that several hearing people did not look at providing CI or oral program as "fixing" Deaf children. Therefore, I decide to write down a blog to express how I feel as a Deaf adult who born Deaf and raised as a Deaf in a Deaf family. I mainstreamed in hearing classes for many years.

My English was not good as I had been struggling to improve my English. When I enrolled at university in Minnesota, it was the moment my life changed because I was exposed to American Sign Language. At the point, my English had been improving dramatically as I immersed into American Sign Language.

Now, to hearing people who believed that providing CI to Deaf children, please research with Deaf people rather than to focus on medical research. I don't mean to judge, but those doctors literally have no idea because their researches are completely one-sided argument. In fact, American Sign Language is literally a language.

Check out the link: ASL is a language.

Didn't you know that the children who grew up in families with two languages have a better chance of learning acquisition? I have been meeting a lot of children who are CODA [child(ren) of Deaf adult(s)] and they are very smart for their age. I met several people who are hearing with knows two or three languages. They are very intelligent. Now, I have to say this: it's even true for Deaf people who use American Sign Language since the birth and learn English through American Sign Language.

Now, to persuade the Deaf child(ren) to get CI and to work on oral skills, that's a whole different story. To us, you limit the Deaf children from allowing them to expand their learning skills. In fact, I do have friends who got CI after their births and all of them were rather angry at their parents because they wished they had the opportunity to learn sign language in early age. Nevertheless, they are fighters.

Once again, if you still believe that CI and oral program are only the best way to succeed the Deaf child(ren), then why can't you at least allow the children to use sign language?

In fact, Deaf people like me out there are struggling with the job opportunities simply because the hearing people continues to focus on talking skill than the skills and potentials we do have. The Deaf people like us are very able to do endless things. However, because the people generally kept limiting themselves virtually to the capability of speaking only, they failed to recognize we are full of potentials.

Before you argue that Deaf people lack of literacy skills, I have to stand up and say, "That's because you prevent them from accessing to sign language and because you as parents lack the motivation to communicate with the Deaf children as your own."

There are many issues to be discussed, but the basic question is: How much do you as a parent love your Deaf child?

To Deaf people, you are welcome to express your feelings. Especially to the Deaf people who got CI after birth, please feel free to express how you feel because I don't have CI since my birth at all.

Back to the title of this blog, "Support or Oppose AB 2072," I believe you know my answer.

Something Fun To Do!

Before you read below, go to this link - What Your Name Means (Numerology)

Therefore, I decide to share mine. Enjoy your day!

You entered: David John Ballard

There are 16 letters in your name.
Those 16 letters total to 65
There are 5 vowels and 11 consonants in your name.

What your first name means:

Welsh	Male	Beloved or friend, from the Hebrew. Sixth century St David (or Dewi) was patron saint of Wales.
Swedish	Male	Beloved.
Scottish	Male	Beloved or friend, adopted from the Hebrew. David was a common name of Scottish kings in the Middle Ages.
Hebrew	Male	Beloved or friend. The Old Testament David killed the giant Goliath in 10th Century BC, then succeeded Saul as King of Israel.
Biblical	Male	'Well-beloved, dear'

Your number is: 11

The characteristics of #11 are: High spiritual plane, intuitive, illumination, idealist, a dreamer.

The expression or destiny for #11:
Your Expression number is 11. The number 11 is the first of the master numbers. It is associated with idealistic concepts and rather spiritual issues. Accordingly, it is a number with potentials that are somewhat more difficult to live up to. You have the capacity to be inspirational, and the ability to lead merely by your own example. An inborn inner strength and awareness can make you an excellent teacher, social worker, philosopher, or advisor. No matter what area of work you pursue, you are very aware and sensitive to the highest sense of your environment. Your intuition is very strong; in fact, many psychic people and those involved in occult studies have the number 11 expression. You possess a good mind with keen analytical ability. Because of this you can probably succeed in most lines of work, however, you will do better and be happier outside of the business world. Oddly enough, even here you generally succeed, owing to your often original and unusual approach. Nonetheless, you are more content working with your ideals, rather than dollars and cents.

The positive aspect of the number 11 expression is an always idealistic attitude. Your thinking is long term, and you are able to grasp the far-reaching effects of actions and plans. You are disappointed by the shortsighted views of many of your contemporaries. You are deeply concerned and supportive of art, music, or of beauty in any form.

The negative attitudes associated with the number 11 expression include a continuous sense of nervous tension; you may be too sensitive and temperamental. You tend to dream a lot and may be more of a dreamer than a doer. Fantasy and reality sometimes become intermingled and you are sometimes very impractical. You tend to want to spread the illumination of your knowledge to others irrespective of their desire or need.

Your Soul Urge number is: 9

A Soul Urge number of 9 means:
With a 9 Soul Urge, you want to give to others, usually in a humanitarian or philanthropic manner. You are highly motivated to give friendship, affection and love. And you are generous in giving of your knowledge and experience. You have very sharing urges, and you are likely to have a great deal to share. Your concern for others makes you a very sympathetic and generous person with a sensitive and compassionate nature.

You are able to view life in very broad and intuitive terms. You often express high ideals and an inspirational approach to life. If you are able to fully realize the potential of your motivation, you will be a very self-sacrificing person who is able to give freely without being concerned about any return or reward.

As with all human beings, you are prone to sometimes express the negative attitudes inherent to your Soul Urges. You may become too sensitive and tend to express emotions strongly at times. There can be significant conflict between higher aims and personal ambitions. You may resent the idea of giving all of the time and, in fact, if there is too much 9 energy in your nature you may reject the idea. You may often be disappointed in the lack of perfection in yourself and others.

Your Inner Dream number is: 11

An Inner Dream number of 11 means:
You dream of casting the light of illumination; of being the true idealist. You secretly believe there is more to life than we can know or prove, and you would like to be provider of the 'word' from on high.

Medication VS. Healthy Food and Exercise

Recently, I made a tweet about my health. I noticed that several people contacted me about the information. So, instead of replying to each person, I decide to make this as my second blog.

To share a little about myself and my history, I was diagnosed with G.A.D. - General Anxiety Disorder. I was recommended to take Paxil and I decided to grab it. First of all, it does really help me a lot for first few years. I did notice myself to be much mellow and more stabilized than before. Before taking Paxil, I had a lot of anxiety attacks such as worrying endlessly over a simple project facing the deadline which will not end my life. I even suspected my own family and friends for backstabbing, which was not even true. Anyway, it was my struggle years ago. As few years passed, I tried to stop Paxil, but I noticed that my "bad" self is coming back. Some of my good friends wonder why I had been gone "nuts." I realized I didn't take Paxil and resumed taking them. I became normal in a couple of days.

Now, how did I discontinue taking Paxil without having any anxiety disorder or effects? The truth is that it's the FOOD you are eating and how often do you exercise for your body. First of all, if you want to know how much junk foods affect your health, please do check the links as following:

Harmful Effects of Junk Food

Depression and Diet

You can easily google by typing "junk food health" and you will be shocked to see the information given to you.

Therefore, the important question we need to keep in our mind - how much healthy food did we eat daily? Truth be told - I used to love Panda Express, Carl's Jr, McDonald's, and etc. so much that I ate one of those at least twice a week. Of course, it did affect my weight greatly. How did I decide to change? After a visit to doctor who said that I am slightly overweight, it hit me so hard that I decided to change my eating habit. So, I cut out junk food immediately. I started to eat cereal, yogurt, fruits, salad (Romania lettuce or Spinach), smaller portion dinners, and so on.

Eating raw food is very important because it contains a lot of enzymes that will help stabilizing your body. (To learn more about enzymes, please visit this site: enzyme) That's vital part of healing your brain and your body by natural food. (I wish I did that years ago, but at least, I

started last year.)

Secondly, it's very important to exercise because it does help me in many ways. Exercise will release natural chemicals which are considering as "drugs" that will help balancing your mind and your body. In short, our bodies are amazing with endless complications that there are many endless researches about our bodies.

What I did is workout five times a week. I had been doing this since June 2009. At first, it was not easy for me to commit, but I determine to invest in my health and to the better life and happiness.

Here is the result of myself (before and after).

BEFORE (That's me in red shirt on the left) - it was when I loved eating a lot of junk food. I even EXERCISED at the gym!

AFTER (That picture was taken very recently):

My purpose of this blog is to encourage you all to watch what you are eating and to commit yourself to exercise. I look back and realized that those two factors really change my life dramatically.

As you can see, on the first picture, I looked little older than the second picture. Because of food intake and exercise, it's like taking a drink from the fountain of youth! After almost an year, my body changes a lot and I noticed that I missed Paxil several times, but my "bad" self was not coming back. So, I started to withdraw by cutting down the dosage. Today is the day I announce that it's been nine days since I took the half dose of Paxil.

Please don't be discouraged because you can do it! I hope my blog helps encouraging all of you to make a difference in your life.

As Spock said, live long and prosper!

Cheers!

Wall-E Reveals Dark Secrets of America

Here is my first blog. To be frank, I have been considering to be a blogger. Finally at last, I decided to start today, and I will start to make some discussions. Meanwhile, enjoy reading my first blog!

Okay, why do I decide to start my first blog regarding to Wall-E? The simple reason is that this film has a lot of hidden messages that I believe Americans need to be aware. This film is truly fantastic in every way and I had been watching this film more than 7 times. Before you read further, please be sure to watch Wall-E. This is NOT a review of Wall-E. Therefore, it contains spoilers. At this point, you've been warned.

From the point where Wall-E hitched a ride on a spaceship with EVE back to the spaceship called Axiom, which had virtually every human being on a machine to take them to wherever they wish to go. Every human was badly overweighed and was unable to walk because they never walk. On the machine they rode, they have the screen right in front of their faces for the whole time. While those people were being terribly pampered and spoiled by the technology they created, the robots worked endlessly to keep everything the same.

Don't you realize that it has the hidden messages right there? Let me share my thoughts and you all are welcome to agree or to disagree. To me, the robots represent the government that rules the people against their free will. The people in Wall-E were obese, symbolizing the population generally in America who accepted whatever the media, controlled by government, says. For instance, inside Axiom, they spread out the announcement to try blue and then everyone simply pressed a button. Viola! Their suits transformed from red to blue. Why is that? Because the media simply told them to "try."

It appears like that the creators of Wall-E is concerning the future of Americans if we continue in complete blindness.

Of course, I am not saying that America is terribly corrupted beyond hope. I am simply stating that we have the privileges to stand out for the better future for our children. I am trying to keep this topic general as possible by sharing my thoughts and to welcome your thoughts on this.

Hope you enjoy my first blog. I will continue sharing more in near future.

Cheers!