Myers Briggs and More

Since the last time I posted in November, many changes have happened in my life. One of which is a Myers Briggs personality shift. I love to assess myself every once in a while to see how much I've grown or get an idea of where I am headed.

@ Flint Center w/ my bro's glasses

In high school I used to be an ENTJ. After the Landmark Forum, in the middle of the Introduction Leaders Program, I became an INTJ. I took the Wisdom Course and I have again morphed. As of last month, I am an INFJ. You can find more detailed description of the personality types here if you're interested. My point is, people do change. I'm not the same person I was since my last post in November.

Why did I not post? At the time, there seemed to be lots of turmoil in my life. Everything that came out of my mouth sounded like another complaint about my relationship with Torrey. To be honest, I felt that I didn't have anything to contribute except complaints. I got so sick and tired of hearing myself whine. I just simply cut it out. Instead of whining, I took actions. Besides, who wants to read another drama? I figure, people want to find inspiration in their lives. They want to connect with other individuals. I was unwilling to just spew garbage out into the world. If I post something, I want it to make an impact or touch and inspire another human being. After all, who I am is the possibility of contribution and making a difference.

Health and Well Being:

Graves disease is a bitch. I have it. How it manifests in me is hyperthyroidism. There was a period of time about two years ago where my heart rate randomly went to 200 at rest. I could barely breathe during those times. It was awful. I was irritable and easily stressed out. My Graves was a sudden onset. I took methimazole for a few months and I was able to go off medicine. What I was doing wasn't working though so I ended up visiting several endocrinologists and looking for alternatives to having to take medication all my life. I found Dr. David Lepp who works with patients with autoimmune disease. Under his watch, I have become gluten free and have been much happier. I am like a different person when the disease is under control. I am happier and so much more vital and alive than I used to be.

I was afraid of exercising for a whole year. I figured that if my heart rate hit 200 at rest, I might die if I exercise. What would happen? I just wasn't willing to risk it. Under Dr. Lepp's careful watch, my hormones became stabilized and I tried exercising more and more. In fact, I now play ping pong, badminton, and rock climb regularly. I even signed up for Tough Mudder at the end of September. I'm very excited to participate.

Fuelband with iPhone app

A couple months back, Torrey told me about the Nike Fuelband. It's this great little device that you wear on your wrist and looks great as a watch. The device can act as a pedometer and also tracks how many calories you have burned throughout the day. However, anyone who's done calorie tracking knows that the measurement isn't very useful. If my little cousin who weighs 70lbs burns 60 calories is not the same activity level as me burning 60 calories. Nike came up with this normalized score called Nike Fuel. It normalizes the activity level based on height and weight and so 2000 Nike Fuel for Torrey is the same activity level as 2000 Nike Fuel for me. It's wonderful. I have my daily Fuel Goal set for 3500 and I track my progress throughout the day. If I'm not at 2800 by 7pm, I need to do something in order to make my goal. It's USB and you can sync it to your iPhone app over bluetooth to track your progress.

Leslie recommended a great product to me recently called Mila. It's chia seeds. I've been using that to supplement my system and so far the effects have been phenomenal. I feel great. Along with all the other things I'm doing, I think I'm definitely in what Dr. Lepp calls a "maintenance" phase where I just do little things to maintain my condition. Woot!

GTI:

Sold MazdaSpeed3. Now own a white 2012 GTI with a moonroof! Yayee!

Moved:

I no longer live in Campbell. I moved to San Jose and I live alone in a one bedroom apartment. It's just me in ~550 sq ft. No more six people sharing 1000 sq ft. and two bathrooms. I love living alone. I love my apartment. I'm surrounded by beauty in my home and everything is exactly how I like it. There is no one else to mess up my stuff. No one who drinks my beverages nor eats my food in the refrigerator. There are no pothead teenage boys that hot box the house. 

New Friends:

(pic from google images)

I snowboarded a lot this past season and met a group of friends through Arthur. How we met and got to know each other was pretty hilarious. Arthur said, let's go Tahoe with friends! I said ok thinking we were going to carpool up. Nope. The man had different idea. Turns out he drove up himself with his friend and he arranged it so that I was to drive up with two guys that I didn't know. When I found out, all I could think of was, seriously?! Common dude! Girl with two guys?! He assured me that it was going to be fine and these people were gentlemen. It turns out he was right. We all had amazing conversations all the way up. It was great. I ended up going snowboarding with them and the rest of the crew many more times during the season. We all hang out and play badminton, ping pong, and get together every few weeks to do dinners. Being in that group allowed me to see many things about myself. I had relied on Torrey for EVERYTHING back when we were in a relationship. I'm certain it was exhausting for him. Whenever I didn't get the type of attention I wanted, I would whine and complain. Being with these friends allowed an outlet for me. I discovered that I could fulfill my social needs elsewhere. I started getting used to "not being in a relationship". It was different.

Career:

I passed my project management exam a few weeks ago. I am now Vincy Li, PMP. Certified Project Management Professional. Torrey calls it certified pmpin'. After I finish the inventory migration project at my work, I will be looking for work as a project manager. If you have any suggestions, please shoot them over!

For Fun:

While I was studying for exams, there were two weeks in which I banned myself from all fun activities and just hunkered down to study. It wasn't fun. I made a commitment to myself that I was going to do the things that I wanted to do after my exam was over.

And so I did.

I went motorcycle riding with Elliot and his friend. Elliot and I had been threatening to go motorcycle riding for years. Finally, after more than a year of threatening, we made it happen. It was a gorgeous Sunday morning. It reminded of how much I missed being in the hills and the mountains. My bike had been sitting in covered neglect in my yard. I had it steam cleaned, washed, and detailed a couple days ago and it's absolutely gorgeous. All the grime, rust, and neglect has been washed away. It looks like a new bike.


Last Saturday, I went with Edmond invited the rest of the snowboarding crew to go with him to track day. Vincent, Hungwei, and I went with him as passengers. I had never been and had always dreamed of going. I knew that Edmond was a driving instructor at Infineon Raceway and I had mentioned to him about doing a driving lesson with me in the hills. We never went. However, he did invite all of us to the track day though. I had no idea it was going to turn out the way it did.

Track days are done in sessions. Each session is approximately 20 minutes long and the car runs in a group categorized by skill level of the driver. Edmond is FAST. He drives a race setup 80hp Miata. In the corners, no one can beat him. He passes BMW, Ferraris, and Maseratis. It's rather impressive. On the straightaways, his little Miata always gets passed. I had a LOT of fun. I had no idea how big a difference that racing slicks made. He was taking turns at 70+ mph. I was very impressed. What was really amazing was that all of the shifting was so smooth. I wish I could drive like that.

All in all, I'm loving my life. Things are great and I have more to share about. I will blog more about what I've learned and realized about being a woman, being single, being an office manager, and being a daughter.

Stay tuned.