2 Months and Counting ...

I only have 2 months left to enjoy Japan.  How fast time flies.  I feel sad :(((. I will really really miss Japan, my second home for 6 1/2 years. Time to let go and move on.

The next 1-2 months will be very busy for me. I have to take care of relocation matters on top of my busy schedule at work.  So many things to do yet so little time.

What Happens To Your Body When You Exercise

I got this article from my good friend Dan. He shared this article via email. This is worth sharing so I'm reposting it here. There are many reasons why we should exercise.  I exercise regularly, not to lose weight, but to maintain my weight because of my slow metabolism. If you want to know more about the benefits of exercise, read on...

Muscles

The body calls on glucose, sugar the body has stored away from the foods we eat in the form of glycogen, for the energy required to contract muscles and spur movement.

It also uses adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, but the body only has small stores of both glucose and ATP. After quickly using up these supplies, the body requires extra oxygen to create more ATP. More blood is pumped to the exercising muscles to deliver that additional O₂. Without enough oxygen, lactic acid will form instead. Lactic acid is typically flushed from the body within 30 to 60 minutes after finishing up a workout.

Tiny tears form in the muscles that help them grow bigger and stronger as they heal. Soreness only means there are changes occurring in those muscles, says Boone, and typically lasts a couple of days.

Lungs

Your body may need up to 15 times more oxygen when you exercise, so you start to breathe faster and heavier. Your breathing rate will increase until the muscles surrounding the lungs just can't move any faster. This maximum capacity of oxygen use is called VO₂ max. The higher the VO₂ max, the more fit a person is.

Diaphragm

Like any muscle, the diaphragm can grow tired with all that heavy breathing. Some argue that as the diaphragm fatigues, it can spasm, causing a dreaded side stitch. (Others argue a side stitch is due to spasms of the ligaments around the diaphragm instead, while others believe the spasms to originate in the nerves that run from the upper back to the abdomen and arecaused by poor posture!) Deep breathing and stretching can alleviate the discomfort in the middle of a workout, and preemptive strengthening in the gym can ward off future issues.

  

Heart

When you exercise, heart rate increases to circulate more oxygen (via the blood) at a quicker pace. The more you exercise, the more efficient the heart becomes at this process, so you can work out harder and longer. Eventually, this lowers resting heart rate in fit people.

Exercise also stimulates the growth of new blood vessels, causing blood pressure to decrease in fit people. 

Stomach & Intestines

Because the body is pumping more blood to the muscles, it takes some away from the systems and functions that aren't top priority at the moment, like digestion. That can result in tummy troubles.Movement, absorption and secretion in the stomach and intestines can all be affected.

Brain

Increased blood flow also benefits the brain. Immediately, the brain cells will start functioning at a higher level, says Cameron, making you feel more alert and awake during exercise and more focused afterward.

When you work out regularly, the brain gets used to this frequent surge of blood and adapts by turning certain genes on or off. Many of these changes boost brain cell function and protect from diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or even stroke, and ward off age-related decline, she says.

Exercise also triggers a surge of chemical messengers in the brain called neurotransmitters, which include endorphins, often cited as the cause of the mythical "runner's high."

The brain releases dopamine and glutamate, too, to get those arms and legs moving, as well as gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a prohibitive neurotransmitter that actually slows things down, to keep you moving in a smooth and controlled manner.

You'll also likely feel better thanks to a bump in serotonin, a neurotransmitter well known for its role in mood and depression.

Hippocampus

This part of the brain is highly involved in learning and memory, and it's one of the only sections of the brain that can make new brain cells. Exercise facilitates this, thanks to the extra oxygen in the brain.

Even when you stop exercising, those new brain cells survive, whereas many other changes in the brain during exercise eventually return to their normal state should you become less active. 

Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus is responsible for body temperature, as well as salt and water balance, among other duties. As your body heats up, it tells the skin to produce sweat to keep you cool.

Pituitary Gland

This control center in the brain alerts the adrenal glands to pump out the hormones necessary for movement. It also releases growth hormones. As the body searches for more fuel to burn after using up your glycogen stores, it will turn to either muscle or fat, says Cameron. Human growth hormone acts as a security guard for muscle, she says, telling the body to burn fat for energy instead.

Kidneys

The rate at which the kidneys filter blood can change depending on your level of exertion. After intense exercise, the kidneys allow greater levels of protein to be filtered into the urine. They also trigger better water reabsorption, resulting in less urine, in what is likely an attempt to help keep you as hydrated as possible.

Adrenal Glands

A number of the so-called "stress" hormones released here are actually crucial to exercise. Cortisol, for example, helps the body mobilize its energy stores into fuel. And adrenaline helps the heart beat faster so it can more quickly deliver blood around the body.

Skin

As you pick up the pace, the body, like any engine, produces heat -- and needs to cool off. The blood vessels in the skin dilate, increasing blood flow to the skin. The heat then dissipates through the skin into the air.

Eccrine Glands

At the hypothalamus's signal, one of two types of sweat glands, the eccrine glands, get to work. These sweat glands produce odorless perspiration, a mixture of water, salt and small amounts of other electrolytes, directly onto the skin's surface. When this sweat evaporates into the air, your body temp drops.

Apocrine Glands
This second type of sweat gland is found predominantly in hair-covered areas, like the scalp, armpits and groin. These sweat glands produce a fattier sweat, typically in response to emotional stress, that can result in odor when bacteria on the skin begin to break it down, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Face

The capillaries close to the skin's surface in the face dilate as well, as they strain to release heat. For some exercisers, this may result in a particularly red face after a workout.

Joints

Exercising puts extra weight on the joints, sometimes up to five or six times more than your bodyweight, says Laskowski.

Ankles, knees, hips, elbows and shoulders all have very different functions, but operate in similar ways. Each joint is lined with cushioning tissue at the ends of the bones called cartilage, as well as soft tissue and lubricating fluid, to help promote smooth and easy motion. Ligaments and tendons provide stability.

Over time, the cushioning around the joints can begin to wear away or degenerate, as happens in people with osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis.

MIA on Facebook

It's Sunday, now I can sit down and post something in my blog. Writing is not my passion, but I still want to blog if I have time. I have not been blogging and face booking recently.  It's because  I'm hooked on Instagram :).  My daughters introduced me to Instagram and I'm loving it. 

I found my passion and this is where I am spending most of my free time.  Since I can only manage one social networking site because of busy sched, I decided to choose Instagram over FB (sorry FB friends). This is where I belong :).  I am not leaving facebook. My account is still active but I am no longer active on FB as before.  I am on twitter and I do still tweet. You can find my updates on twitter @itsmeglo_gee, but you need to follow me on twitter because my account is private.

Why do I love Instagram?  Instagram is the best social networking site for photo enthusiasts like me, the best social networking site to meet new friends from all over the world.  I found new friends on Instagram.  I enjoy interacting with them because we share the same passion and we speak the same IG language.  It's really fun, enjoyable, and addictive... my stress reliever :). I now have 1000 plus followers. I started with less than 20 followers last March 2013.  More than 200 of my photos have been featured since I started joining feature pages and photo challenges last April.  I'm so overwhelmed :))).

I just want to share my photo entry for the 'happiness' photo challenge by @jj_captureinspiration.  It was just a one day challenge. I was too lazy to look for photos in my files so I decided to try something different. I created this photo using my smiley refrigerator magnets that I bought at 100 yen shop. I assembled the magnets, took a pic, and put the word 'happiness'. Good thing I have enough smiley magnets. This photo was featured twice, first by @jj_captureinspiration and the second was by @jj_editor_simirani for jj forum 'yellow and white' theme.   

If you want to see more of my pics,  follow me on Instagram @glo_gee. 

"Smile every chance you get. Not because life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated, but because you choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things you do have and all the problems you know you don't have. "  (www.marcandangel.com)

Moving Soon :(

I have installed the blogger app to my iPad mini and now I'm writing this post using my iPad mini :). It's already August, only 3 months left in our apartment in East Court 10 before we move to our temporary house in Entente. We will stay in the tempo house for 2 months since we need to pack all our belongings to be shipped to Singapore, then we will move to Singapore end December. I don't have the exact date yet, but most likely Dec. 30. Thinking about this makes me feel sad :(. Kobe Japan has been my second home for almost 7 years. I love everything about Japan, the country, culture, people, and everything. I will definitely miss Japan. I'm so thankful to God for giving me and my family the opportunity to experience a blessed and wonderful life here in Japan.

Singapore, here I come!

Black and White Photography

Black &White photography has become so popular on Instagram lately. I was not a fan of B&W photography before, but now I decided to join the band wagon :). I started posting B&W photos about 2 weeks ago in my Instagram and most of my B&W photos got featured, yay! One thing I learned about posting B&W photos is that the photo should be simple (less is more), must have a story behind it,  and most of all, it must be creative. B&W photography requires a lot of creativity. There are a lot of professional photographers on Instagram,  it's hard to compete with them. I am not a professional photographer. I'm just another amateur photographer who enjoys taking photos and I'm doing this for fun. I don't get monetary reward here, only sense of accomplishment :).

Here are my B&W photos that were featured on Instagram. The first 6 are solo features.

This is the famous Kintai bridge in Hiroshima Japan. We passed by this bridge on our way to Hiroshima. This bridge was featured five times.

.

This is my favorite photo, with my daughter as the subject. This photo was taken in Boracay last December.  

Here's another favorite of mine, my lovely flowers in black and white. 

Here's a happy pictorial of a lovely couple :). 

These are my non-solo features, sharing the square with other featured artists.

MIA :)

I realized that I have not posted in my blog for a month now. I got addicted to Instagram lately, joining different photo challenges :). IG is addicting and I'm really having fun on Instagram. I am not active on Facebook lately. I am enjoying Instagram more than Facebook now. I have more interactions with my IG friends than on FB.

I love taking pictures and I find fulfillment every time I win a photo challenge. Photography is my passion and Instagram is the best social networking site for photo lovers like me. Hooray to Instagram!!!

May Highlight: My Featured Photos on Instagram

This blogger application on iPhone is really cool and I'm loving it. I don't have to log on to my computer to update my blog. I can now blog using my phone.

I'm so happy to share my featured photos on Instagram for the month of May. My IG friends have labeled me "the feature queen" :).  So flattered!!!

Here are my featured photos for the month of May. I didn't expect that I will be getting more after my first feature last April.

My yellow tulips (BL) was featured by Igersworlwide.

My silhouette photo that I took using my iPhone in Boracay (TL) was featured by dailythemes.

My purple lotus was featured by rawmothernature.

My first time to try macro and my droplets on flowers shot  (TR) was included in this feature by macroflowerpassion. I still need more practice though on macro :).

My orange tulips was chosen as one of the finalists for instaphilippines_mayflowers. 

My yellow tulips photo was featured by loving yellow.

My pink tulips shot in was featured by igpinay.

My pink lotus flower was featured by fabphotos.

This was my entry for Mother's Day special and I won this challenge. The topic was "Why I love my mum." I miss my mum who passed away 20 yrs. ago.

So many photo entries for flowerstalking purple flower challenge and my lotus flower photo was featured as the winner. Well I guess it's true that lotus is really lucky :)).

I was invited by a friend to join this 50shadesoforange 4grid challenge. My photo was one of the favorites :).

This photo was featured by flowerstarz.

I love Mount Fuji. So happy and lucky to see Mt. Fuji so I posted this and my photo was featured by mylove4nature. 

This colorful elevator ceiling photo was feature twice - by fabphotos and igpinay.

My orange roses (BR) was featured by photogram_naturepics.

My yellow rose (BL) was featured by flower_daily.

My pink lotus flower (TL) was featured by ig_4every1.

My yellow flower (BL) was featured by mydailycapture.

My infiorata (dried flower petals) photo was featured by ig_4every1.

My purple flower (BR) was featured by fabphotos.

My pink lotus flower (BL) was featured by pict_lovers.

My yellow rose was featured by flowerstalking.

My purple tulips photo (TR) was chosen as one of the winners for the purple challenge along with these purple photos.

Back to Normal

Testing the blogger app on my phone while having coffee break  at work :).

What's up with me? Everything is back to normal. The girls are back in Manila. It's sad to see them leave again for the start of school year in Manila. I will miss them again, huhuhu. But I'm happy too because we had the chance to be together again for a month and spent a few days in Tokyo last week. We were so lucky the weather cooperated with us. We had a lot of fun in Tokyo, the best family bonding. The highlight of our trip was our Mount Fuji-Hakone tour.  

Well, I have to go back to work now. I will write a separate post about our Tokyo trip with pictures. Promise !

One (1) Year into Blogging

It's been one year since I started blogging and I've written more than a hundred posts and got more than 8,000 views. Wow, I can't believe I've gone this far :). I don't get to write more often lately but I plan to write 1-2 posts every month to keep my blog going. Happy Monday!

Photo Thief Victim on Instagram

Last week I found out that one of my followers on Instagram had stolen three of my photos. My Instagram is not private, so everyone is free to follow my IG.  I usually follow back a new follower if I like his or her photo gallery. I didn't follow back this follower. I don't even know if he/she is a male or female. This follower keeps on liking my photos every time I post new photos. I got curious so I checked his IG profile. I was surprised to see 3 of my photos in his gallery. He/She took a screenshot of my photos and he/she posted the pictures in his/her gallery. Really bad!. All the other photos are obviously stolen from the internet and maybe from other IGers as well.  I blocked and reported this photo thief to Instagram. I also posted the  stolen photos on IG Photo Thief Magazine and reported to @C0nscience.  This photo thief is still active on Instagram and has more than 1000 followers. If you chance upon my blog and you happen to have an Instagram account, better block and report this photo thief.  Username is RABAB_JAWELI.

These are the photos that were stolen from me. The pictures were badly cropped, I can even see the lower portion of my profile picture.

http://instagram.com/glo_gee

My Love for Instagram

I have not posted  here for a month because I got addicted to Instagram, haha! Writing is not really my passion. Photography is my passion. I just love taking pictures. That's the reason why I decided to revive my IG account. I created my Instagram account 8-9 months ago, but I'm not active because I don't have followers. I revived my IG account and joined the iHeart faces photo challenge for the month of March to keep me going, but I was not able to complete the photo challenge. I couldn't keep up with the daily challenge due to busy schedule. When the Cherry blossoms and tulips started to bloom the first week of April, I started posting pics again, just for fun.  Then I noticed that my number of followers started to grow and more and more IGers are liking my photos. I gained 400 followers in one month. Unbelievable! And then, four of my photos were featured on different categories this month. Wow, I'm loving IG :)) !! Now the challenge is for me to continue improving my photography skills to keep up with the expectations of my followers.

Here are  some of my featured photos.

My yellow tulips shot was included in this feature by Yellowmazing. 

My Iwakuni bridge shot was featured by Instalove_it.

My pink tulips shot was included in the April blooms weekly feature by IG_Philippines.

My pink tulips shot was included in this feature by FlowerStalking.

Lesson of Time: Karma

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" - Matthew 7:12

Karma is one of the main laws of the universe. Karma is the universe’s way of keeping our world, and the people of our world, in balance and in harmony.  A common saying for the law of karma is ‘what goes around comes around’.  

photo source: google images

To my previous officemate (Trace Trajano) who betrayed not only me, but also our other officemates whom you convinced to invest our hard earned money in your realty business, then  you suddenly disappeared without a trace after getting thousands of dollars from us, watch out for your own karma. The money that you took from us will not make you any richer after what you have done to us. What goes around, comes around. You did something bad to us, so expect bad things to come back to you. Maybe not now, not tomorrow, or next month, but you will surely get your own bad karma, remember that!

Instaquote

Here's another hobby of mine, I love collecting quotes. I remember I used to have a small notebook where I write quotes that inspire me and write striking quotes from the books that I am reading. When I joined twitter,  I stopped writing in my notebook and instead tweet and retweet my favorite quotes (level up na :).  What I like about twitter is that I can always go back to my previous tweets anytime I want to read them again.

Now that I have an Instagram account, I decided to level up this hobby of mine. I discovered this very nice application on iPhone to create beautiful text images. I first tried the free version of Instaquote and I instantly liked this app. Since the options in the free version are very limited, I upgraded to the Pro version which is a paid application (not bad at 170 JPY) so that I can make my creations more creative.  Here are some of the picture quotes that I created and posted in my Instagram account and got a lot of thumbs up from other instagrammers :).  The background pics are all mine.  I love taking photos so I use my own photos as background.

Sakura (Cherry blossoms)

I took this photo on the way to Hachikita ski resort.

Boracay Paradise :)

Spring tulips

http://instagram.com/glo_gee