Row row row yer boat!

So today I woke up early, couldn't sleep much last night anyway...got to school by 8am, got tea and a slice of french toast with honey (yumyum!) and did some work. Picked up assignments from Prof and went to the gym.

Did stretches, 20mins on the elliptical, 20 mins on the rowing machine (2km!) followed by cooldown crunches and stretches. Funnily, wasn't too tired at the end of it all!! I guess I need to slowly up the intensity...and keep gymming through the holidays else I get fat. No like.

My friend's blessed mommie has been providing us with lunch! Yesterday I hogged basmati rice and rajma! Today was chappati and paneer!!! No idea what's on the menu for tmr, but yummy homefood in exam week is the best! Thanks to Aunty =)

In the evening I got a cuppa coffee, and my tummy didn't feel too good. Yesterday I had Starbucks =) Treated my friends to coffee for Xmas. And Xams. White chocolate mocha yum yum. Which is why I worked out so faithfully today. So now it has been established that the only coffee I can safely consume is Starbucks hahaha! Kidding. Only tea for me now. Dinner was Subway sandwich.

Studies go slowly. Not good. Have to finish this subject off tomorrow or we're doomed Sluggo! Statistical Process Control, why art thou so daunting?

14th Weekiversary - Why no more comments? =(

Hello, its been 14 weeks now, I am now 63 kgs, couple of inches slimmer and haven't fallen sick since July. =)

I'm sitting in my uncle's house after an amazing lunch of daal with spinach, chappatis, rice and beans. Can't wait to go home and eat more yummy home food. I don't think I'm going to eat out at all for the whole of Dec. Except for Amruth, my fav idli dosa joint near school =) I've promised Chani we would go there!

Been going to the gym and eating ok. Nothing too unhealthy except for McDonald's pancakes and a hash brown on Friday morning. I tried the rowing machine at the gym yesterday for like 15 mins, rowed 1km on lowest resistance. Supposedly really good to strengthen core muscles AND good cardio at the same time since you use both arms and legs.

What have YOU been eating?

Return to Gymland

Today I got back in the gym for half an hour on the elliptical and some stretches before and after. Feels good/ now I'm going to go home and sleep reaaaally well!

Foodwise, yesterday I had a fruit smoothie and a large pear for dinner. Today was a granola bar and pear for breakfast, naan veggie and rajma for lunch and Thai olive rice for dinner after my workout. Had a cappuccino as well, it was way too sweet so I think from tomorrow I'll just have green tea or something.

My friend just commented that I've lost weight :)

Over and out!

Rare Tuesday Update

So yesterday it was raining so I didn't get to go to Soup Spoon for lunch. Ate veggie spaghetti at the food court with my teammates instead. Dinner was a Subway Italian BMT since I was having a meat craving (needed protein after carby lunch) Later I had just a bite of birthday cake! Slept in this morning and just had a South Indian meal for lunch at Komalas. Rice and saaru and veggies and curds :) Going to get some coffee now!

Done! (with projects)

So this last week has been pretty crazy overall. After Wed's resolution to eat healthier I've spent nights in school, slept on couches and floors and last night was the first time in a while I actually slept in my own bed [not that I've been bedding anyone. Not yet at least ;)]
Foodwise its been crazy. But I try to keep it as good as possible. Parties involve indulgence in alcohol, chips and 7up. And yesterday I had McDonald's for lunch. Need to exercise, but not today since I had to rush early to school for an 8:30 presentation and I need a day off to do some room cleaning and general musing. Maybe read another chapter of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Yes I'm obsessed with the dude. He's such a dude. The fact that I'm calling him a dude indicates brain damage from too much stress. Must get it together this week and do well in the exams.
On the menu today: Mango donut (presentation client was donut company so we got donuts for the whole class) and a swig of my co-presenter's diet coke for breakfast.

yeeeesh....UNHEALTHY

Will probably head to City Hall for lunch at Soup Spoon. That place makes me soooo happy :)

13 weeks later...

...and so I haven't exercised seriously in the last 2 weeks. Been eating ok, not too badly but not too healthy either. Skewed sleep cycles lead to skewed eating cycles and I often only eat 2 meals a day and not enough fruit. I manage to get good amounts of veggies though.

I won't have time to exercise til Friday due to submissions and things. After that I may not be able to exercise as often as I like because I will have to start studying for exams and wrapping things up before I take off in Dec. Since I've not been eating too well I've decided to revisit this blog to get into a healthier state of mind. My thighs and tummy are telling me its time to watch out!

Other factors have also prompted me to get back on track with the diet and exercise. At my friend's bday this Sat her dad was being dad-like and telling 2 of us how important it is for us to have healthy habits from our younger years and not wait for health problems to crop up before doing something about it. Also, every time I pass the gym I remember I've missed all my last few yoga, pilates and aerobics classes and I feel really bad.

Then next to me in the library is this guy who's really getting on my nerves. First is his squeaky high-pitched voice with the most terrible Singaporean accent I've EVER heard coming from a person. Second is the fact that he's possibly 30kgs overweight and is eating an ENTIRE bar of white chocolate Toblerone! I have half a mind to just grab it and throw it in the dustbin for his own good. But there's no use now, he's already consumed half of it. There are probably other things which have led him to be the way he is now and who am I to judge a stranger?

So, its back to recording what I eat on this here blog. Today I got to school at 11:45, so went straight for lunch. Sweet potato soup with chickpeas and pear chunks, half a felafel and hummus wrap and home-brewed ice lemon tea at Soup Spoon. That should keep me going all day. I just had an apple and a cup of coffee. Tis big and full of sugar, so light dinner of fruits or salad later. The caffein kick is what I need to get my work done tonight. Plus there's nothing like hot coffee on a cold rainy day.

I find that since weaning myself off daily coffee, my body is more sensitive to the caffein. I need to drink less of it. And drink more water. My project for mobile and pervasive technologies was a water bottle that reminds you to drink water :) 4L a day for optimal health people!!!

Ok, that's it from me. Will update on what I eat tmr. This blog really helps me control my intake of unhealthy junk. Like on Monday I had a whole 500ml bottle of an isotonic energy drink for breakfast. WHAT WAS I THINKING? No more sugary drinks. I cannot and will not relapse into lethargy and bloatedness!!! Exams be damned, I need to get healthy again! Exercise actually will make my mind sharper. Ok need to get back to work!

Early 10th Weekiversary

Ok so I've not been following the diet too strictly this past week, mostly because I've been exercising every day (yup, EVERY day except sunday) and need to eat something substantial in the evening because of that. Yesterday I was having a weird hormonal mood swing and ate peanuts and oreo wafer sticks for dinner. This has resulted in bad skin which I am trying to counteract with lots of water, tea tree oil face wash and fruits. Yes, yes, its my karma (mamma).

Got a paper due tmr and lots of other stuff to work on. Too tired to think of anything to blog about right now...back to Wal-Mart case study!

9th Weekiversary - already?!?!?

Gosh how the time does fly!!!

This week I magically managed to go to the gym every weekday! On Monday I experimented with gymming before an 8:30 class! I was 15 minutes late (since the class was on the other side of campus) but it was worth it. I was so awake and alert in class and was able to participate a lot in the discussions even though I was late! Getting the mind-body connection early in the morning is really beneficial...

Tuesday pilates was cancelled since Agnes was sick, so I did 30 minutes on the elliptical instead. Wed was the ever-fun aerobics class and Thurs yoga. This morning I did 10 mins of hill-interval on the treadmill and 20 mins on the elliptical.

On Wed I bumped into one of my Profs from the school of social sciences. He asked me what I thought about the Indonesian artwork along the walls of the concourse, and I told him quite frankly that I found it too disturbing for something students pass by every day. For me its most terrible that these huge canvases of gory art are right in the line of sight of treadmilling gymmers, and personally I hate looking at them early every morning. While its great to have art exhibits around campus, someone should seriously consider the feelings they invoke in the future leaders of society. How the heck are we supposed to stay positive and stress-free with weird three-eyed bleeding heads staring at us?!

Ok thats my rant for today...

Frenzy

Happy 8th weekiversary for my diet! Have been busy with job applications, career fairs and networking sessions, and even though it was break week well there was no break. Did manage to go for aerobics which was fun as always! Had to forgo pilates and yoga though, sad about that :(

I think I've reached a weight loss plateau since a) my weight is normal as it is and b) I've not increased the intensity of workouts too much, even though I realize the instructors are going much faster these days and introducing new and more intense moves. I try my best to make it to the gym as much as possible, but sometimes its just not feasible.

Goal for this week: drink more H2O! And also eat at least 2 fruits a day (I usually eat a lot of veggies but not enough fruit consumption has been happening) Oh, and I have piles of work to get done over the weekend. Sigh! But it will be a good feeling to get all the things on the to-do list (which I'm gonna make in a minute) crossed off and done with!

Peace out!

7 Weeks Flown By!

Everyone has an inbuilt time-sense which makes them feel that time's passing slow, fast or at just the right pace. In reality, all us earthlings are travelling through time at exactly the same speed in relation to each other (yes, don't get me started on the theory of relativity!) but you can't help but feel its something that's felt at an individual level.

That being said, the 7th weekiversary has come and gone without me even noticing. For the first time in my life, I found myself hating a public holiday this Wednesday, since it meant the gym was closed and no aerobics class. I was really sad that day...I love my mid-week endorphine high from jumping around the room to upbeat music!

Nevertheless, I didn't miss pilates or yoga, and on Saturday I had a nice work out where I did 5km in 40 mins on both treadmill and elliptical!

No classes this week, but lots of project meetings and have to do a customer satisfaction survey at this donut place. Will have to exercise massive restraint or exercise massively...

Over and out!

Coffee Shops

Yes, the 6th Weekiversary came and went and I totally didn't have time to blog that Thursday...anyway, today I thought I'd blog about Starbucks because of something that happened today which was a huge wake-up call for me.

When it comes to coffee places there's no dearth of them on the Red Dot. Walk down a main road for about 10 minutes and you're likely to come across one (unless you really live in the middle of nowhere) Apart from Starbucks, there's Coffee Bean (closest to my home), The Coffee Connoisseur (aka TCC which has really good food and interesting iced concoctions) and Coffee Club (which again is at the mall near home but which I've never visited to date). Each is good for its own reasons, but there's something about the smell of coffee that hits you when you step into a Starbucks outlet that catpults me into a state of ecstasy that is unrivalled by any other cafe.

I don't remember whether it was the first time I went to Starbucks, but my earliest memory of the place was meeting my dad there the first year I came to the Red Dot and he travelled here on work. We met up there and had coffee and muffins :) At the time, it was one of those places I never considered going to unless a parental unit was there to pay, and dad doesn't mind paying more for a good cup of quoff-ee!

So today after lunch at Pastamania (yes, maniac is aslo a pastamaniac), I dragged my best friend to Starbucks for my weekend treat of an ice-blended coffee (ordered the "light" base which is 1/3rd less calories apparently, must be low-fat milk and less sugar). So I dig out my wallet and realize I have exactly 4 dollars when in fact I should have about 40, having withdrawn $50 the previous day. Suddenly it hits me that the Pastamania guy didn't give me back $40 change, and I was sure I had given him a $50 note and not a $10 one!!!

I ran back to Pastamania, stuck the bill under the same cashier's nose and asked him to count the cash he had in there and check if he had $40 extra. And in fact he did!! Wheeee!! Thanks to Starbucks, I got my $40 back and learned a good lesson about paying attention during cash transactions!!! If I hadn't made another purchase after lunch, I may not have even realized till dinner, which may have been too late if they had cleared the cash register or something!

Ok, that's it from me. The gymming and light dinners continue, except last evening I had fries *hides in shame* I will work out extra-hard tomorrow to make up...

Lazinessss

So I haven't exercised at all since Thursday and feeling terrible! Was finishing the last 2 installments of Neil Gaiman's Sandman which I just could not put down!!

However, I have not been pigging out on food so its not so bad. Gym is closed today, and I have a lot of reading to do for the next 2 days. I shall try and work in a walk this evening...will be good to get some fresh air. Its a lazy Sunday sitting in the library with a friend and watching people walking across the campus green. Back to my readings and case studies!

5th Weekiversary!

Don't have much time to blog today (or for the next 2 days) with all the readings piling up. Just wanted to note that cereal breakfasts, good lunches and light dinners continue (exception for last night hehe!) and at the gym the instructors are stepping up the intensity with each session. My thighs are happy and long gone are any feelings of bloatedness!

One thing I can't give up some days is coffee. Perhaps its a cultural thing coded into my DNA? I'm enjoying my ice blended cappuccino right now :) Its a very balmy day... yoga class today was all about water and flowing movements... I need to get my assignment done now!!

Of core strength and random bicep curls

Almost through 5 weeks. Pilates yesterday had us all lying on our backs and pushing our kidneys to the floor. Gosh its harder than it sounds to flatten out the arch of your back. It uses all sorts of muscles you never knew you even had...anyway, my abs are all slightly harder and I like this feeling of soreness from newly flexed muscle, not just in my torso but also my legs.

Last evening I got home early and went grocery shopping. On the walk back home I used the shopping bags as weights and did a bunch of bicep curls as I walked. My arms are feeling tighter now! Its what I call integrating exercise into daily life at the expense of looking like a crazy person on the road...

Aerobics class in half an hour! Yay! I enjoy jumping about to the music and flailing limbs all over the place. Sorry if you stand next to me in class and get knocked out...will be jumping around like mad since dinner today is going to include homemade biryani and a carrot walnut cake from Cedele. Its my uncle's birthday and his fav type of cake is carrot. Walnuts are full of good cholestrol, considered "brain food" too. Cedele has all sorts of yummy foods, all without trans fats, no refined sugar, eggless cakes on request and all organic foods. A bit on the expensive side, but if you're one of those yuppies with cash and no time to cook I guess its a good place to eat healthy.

Today I discovered a nice vegetarian stall at the Food Junction in Bugis. $5 for brown rice, 3 veg dishes, soup and small salad serving. The mock meat was quite nice and the soup was quite like rasam. It was a big plate of food but surprisingly not filling. A bit pricey for a food court but hey, with the inflation one ends up paying that much for a subway sandwich too, and anything cheaper is too oily for words...I forsee I shall be going back there again for more lunches.

I have a big case study on Texas Instruments due tmr at 3:30...am lazy to start typing the answers out ... haha better get back to it then!!

4th Weekiversary!!!

Hey hey hey!!! Yes, today marks the completion of the fourth week of the whip-maniac-into-shape routine. One month has gone by pretty quick, but a lot of adjustments have been made in terms of environment and routine since returning to uni.

So far I've started eating healthier and having light, non-carb dinners, tried to have breakfast everyday as far as possible by waking up before noon, and am in my 2nd week of a regular *crosses-fingers* exercise regime. Next week the exercise will be stepped up to cardio every weekday. Need to figure out if I can share my roomie's locker and leave some of my gym stuff there...alternatively, I need to come early enough every morning and get a seat in the library and just leave all my things there all day. OR, like I did yesterday, hang out all day in gym clothes and sneakers and go home once the workout is done.

Aerobics yesterday was more intense, but its easier to remember the routine and concentrate instead on jumping a little higher and pumping my arms a bit harder. The crunches were manageable too!! I wonder if cardiodance is very different, maybe I'll go for it on Monday! Beats treadmilling anyday :P Yoga this morning was fabulous as always! I'm all stretched out and serene now!

The realization dawned upon me today that the reason why its easy to give up diet and exercise is because its mentally taxing to keep it all in your mind, along with all the other remembering and planning you have to do all day in your head. Therefore, exercise and healthy eating should become HABIT. A kind of routine thing that's an automatic reflex and doesn't require too much thought or choice. A "Just Do It" phenomenon, corny as the phrase has now become. What do you think?

By the way, weighed myself this morning after breakfast, I seem to have dropped from 65 to 63.5kg! I thought my eyes were deceiving me...but it could also just be water weight fluctuation. I won't get excited til I'm down to 60, which is a reasonable weight for my height.
I was just checking out my BMI at fitnessmagazine.com:


I also found my target heart rate for when I'm doing cardio:


Yay for the internet and all its resources!

I had one more moment of realization, and that was that none of my fitness instructors have "perfect" bodies, they're all shapely and yet energetic, healthy ladies. Sometimes you have to just embrace the body type you have and learn to live with it. Not everyone was meant to be skinny and dainty like the women in the magazines and on TV, or a majority of Singaporean girls who eat a lot of fried chicken and fried fish but still don't have an ounce of fat on them. I guess their health problems will get to them later in life..

Wednesday's are not really off-days...

So yesterday I skipped pilates class because I decided it was best to catch up on lost sleep and not burn out barely 4 weeks into the term. Also stomach cramps need not be further aggravated by core exercises!

I'm thinking that from next Monday I try out stepping up my gym routine from just walking to a walk/run workout as described here by Shape magazine. As a non-runner, I often pooh-pooh my friends who get on the treadmill and run their butts off for like 5km everyday, but it seems to be a good way to increase overall metabolism. I usually just walk at a fast pace on an incline. Also, this plan gives me a schedule to follow for 6 weeks so I don't get bored and can pace the intensity through the week.

Try not to laugh if you see my running in the gym. I know it looks awkward, but I assure you I am more graceful in water than on land...

So now I go for aerobics class, get home and finish a case assignment due tomorrow afternoon. Who said Wednesday's were slack days? I've been busy all afternoon with an upcoming team presentation. And there's always more on the way...off to class now! Hopefully I'll survive the crunchy cooldown...

Lack of sleep

Last night I got 4 hours of sleep. But managed to get all my work done - a case writeup, my part of a report for service processes, and pretty much the whole proposal for the mobile apps project.

Woke up at 7, had a bath, went to class, went to meeting, snoozed in the library, did some work, went to the alumni networking session at 7, went back to work, ended up not accomplishing much due to sleepiness, went to Komalas and got some curd rice for dinner, and now off to Sophia for my best friend's birthday cake-cutting and stuff. Going to go home, bathe, sleep. Wake up at 6, read 2 papers, write-ups for 3 and hopefully by 10 I can be at pilates class. Go for class at noon and then hopefully will be able to get some rest.

Life....it never stops.....

Weekend shenanigans

While eating healthy is daunting task, one cannot completely forsake the more sugary/starchy/fried temptations that taunt one's day dreams when hungry. So what I like to do is save one indulgence per week to the weekend. Last week it was fries, this week it was ice cream. So on Friday evening I treated myself to B&J's Chocolate Therapy, and I had a blackforrest cornetto last night. Ok, so I cheated and had ice cream twice, but hey I totally burned it off by dancing for 3 hours!

Dinner last night was at Sofra, a Turkish restaurant. I had the chicken kebab which came with a small side of broken wheat and chickpeas and lots of salad- not too bad. I would have liked a slice of lime for the kebabs though.

Going to Clarke Quay to celebrate a friend's turning 21 is beneficial in that you get to spend time with friends and listen to a good live band and dance about to some good hip-hop for the cost of a glass of house wine ($10 - the same as going for a movie) and dancing is highly aerobic exercise in my opinion. Not to mention I had done 30 minutes of brisk walking on the treadmill before that.

The only trouble is that you end up collapsing into bed at 4am and waking up the next afternoon at 1:30 with aching muscles and piles of work to finish for the next day. This slight upsetting of the body clock works counter to the rest of the week's healthy habits. Therefore, it should be practiced in moderation, and not too often. I'm becoming quite a stickler for routine...

Yoga makes me happy =)

So its been 3 weeks now, there has not been a single heavy dinner of pasta/rice/bread-based food and boy does it feel good!

Fitness classes have begun as well, and I hauled myself out of bed for yoga this morning. It was totally worth waking up for, the instructress is good in that she goes at an easy pace and guides us on the proper alignments, breathing, etc as we go. She tells us exactly what we need to be stretching at what point, so if we're not feeling it we know we're not doing something right!! My challenge is always with the poses that require a lot of balance, but hopefully that'll sort itself out soon enough.

I've also been very easily irritated the past few weeks. Going for pilates/aerobics/yoga or just doing 30 mins on the eliptical trianer helps a lot to just breathe, calm down and be aware of one's body, especially the muscles you haven't used in a while. The "prana" or "life flow" one feels after yoga is probably just better circulation of oxygenated blood to every part of one's body. It makes me happy! :P Not overly excited, but serenly happy...

Pilates is less about the stretching and more about the building of core muscles. Aerobics gets you jumping all over the place to techno remixes of your fav early 2000s songs (Lady by Modjo anyone?) and remembering the steps can be a bit confusing at first :P But it leaves you sweaty and red in the face and when that happens you know its a good thing! However, the "cool down" for the aerobics class is.....CRUNCHES!!!!! LIKE 80 OF THEM! NOOOOOO! Haha, I hate crunches...

I already feel way more healthy, balanced and generally lighter on my feet. Yay for unlimited fitness classes at only $10 per week!!

Yesterday I hopped over to watch Puccini's opera "Turandot" at the Esplanade - Cooky was in it and so cute as a Chinese peasant girl :) The opera was good, costumes amazing, subtitles could have been better, orchestra was awesome! Had dinner at the Esplanade mall, tried out the Minestrone soup at this place called The Stock Pot. I find it better than Soup Spoon because there is much more variety of veggies in all the soups. In soup spoon the tomato is just tomato soup - nothing else in it. Same with the mushroom. Boooring! Here the minestrone has chickpeas, black beans, chunks of yummy tomato and green peppers. The serving size is just right, doesn't fill you up too much. They also have sandwiches and salads the size of Texas which looked very yummy.

Later I passed the Cookie Museum, Chocz and Haagen Daz...managed to avoid them and gulp down my hot green tea instead. Met up with some of my school friends too...quite a lot of them at this show! Ok, time for me to get to class - Quality and Sustainability in Business Operations. There never was a longer title for a course...

2 weeks later...

Yes, tomorrow will be the 2 week anniversary of my starting to mind what I put into my mouth. Sorry if this blog isn't as entertaining or insightful as you would like, oh reader, but I do what I can. This is more for myself than anything else, after all.

Its nice to always think before you eat. Especially when you can think "Now I have to be totally honest about what I had for lunch to my mom on my blog- not even one little lie or bit of food left out" That being said, I've been having a cup of coffee almost every day mom. But not today! And been eating at least one fruit a day. Which reminds me, apples are still sitting in the fridge...

Today's meals: Breakkie - cereal and milk. Lunch- salad and a potato burger from MOS burger (its a japanese fast food place)...the rice burgers there are good too but I didn't feel like eating beef today. Incidentally, the rice burgers are where the bread buns are replaced with rice cakes! Its yummy and filling and more healthy than refined bread! Dinner-yong tau fu as usual! Brocolli and babycorn... yummy!

Today I realized to what extent exactly I'm somewhat an emotional eater. I had a rough meeting in the afternoon and when I got back to school, I thought that only a steaming caramel latte and walnut chocolate chip cookie would make me smile again. Then I realized the real resolution I needed to reach was coming to terms with things that had been said and done, and eating would just hinder and not help the situation in the long run. Its so easy to unconsciously get into the habit of eating nice things to feel better. Someone's not having a good day? Offer them chocolate. Or take them out for a great meal. Why has food become a part of the emotional healing process? Most unhelpful for those of us trying to cut back the calories. Comfort food, bah. I need my bed more... pillows, my soft toy dog Barney and cozy blanket. Sleep.


Edit: I can't wait for yoga classes next week! It is definitely the best way to stretch out your body, and the breathing makes you feel so calm. I found this video of a yoga teacher doing a headstand, she's pretty cool huh?

Step 4 - Retail Theraphy aka Spend birthday moneys on beauty and wellness products

Hola, como estas, all that good stuff....

So I don't remember exactly what I've been eating since Thursday, but I can say that I've been eating only light dinners, and on Sat I had a craving for chicken biryani so I had it for lunch. Other than that its been the normal foods, rice at lunch and tofu/milk/fruit for dinner.

Next week the fitness classes start. Going to go for cadio dance, yoga, pilates and aerobics! That combined with better eating should get me in decent shape by December!

Yesterday I was feeling a bit crazy so I splurged on some much-needed Body Shop products. Check em out:


So the seaweed range is supposed to be ideal for my kind of skin, which according to the body shop skincare diagnostic tool is "combination/oily" skin since I have an oily T-zone but the rest of my face is dry. So I got the toner to remove any excess dirt/makeup, the only makeup I wear being:
-> Ze bronzer powder which I got a month ago...its light enough to wear everyday without foundation and all that jazz...

Yeah, so I use the toner in the night after my bath to make sure all traces of the powder are gone from my skin, those sparkly particles sometimes don't wash off properly. The toner also cleans your pores and makes them tighter, thus preventing oily porey issues.

The second seaweedy item I use is the SPF15 lotion...this is the first time I'm actually using a lotion on my face since my skin is usually oily so I leave it alone. But since the seaweed is supposed to help mitigate the oiliness, and since air conditioning kills any moisture in the skin, I figured I'd try it. My skin feels rather moist right now, not at all dry, but perhaps I should use a bit less lotion next time.


Enough of seaweed, my next purchases focused on my super-dry lips (caused due to the aforementioned aircon) so I picked up the Lip Scuff, which has all sorts of natural oils, peppermint, and coarse exfoliating particles in it to help get rid of dead skin. It was great when I used it yesterday, but this morning it wasn't giving me the desired effect since the stick had become a bit dry overnight. yIt may be a good idea to keep it in the sun for a bit to thaw the oils (as if that made any sense...)

With job interviews in the near future, I realized I don't have a decent lip gloss with a bit of color, just to add a bit of a grown-up look (haha...who wants to look grown up?) Anyway, I got the Hi-Shine Lip treatment not just for the lippy in itself, but also because all revenues from its sales go towards Body Shop's Stop Violence in the Home campaign. Having personally witnessed a guy shouting at and hitting a girl on the ground floor of a housing block, I think its a great campaign to support, since the girls usually do not stand up for themselves when being abused by someone in their homes or whom they "love". What confounds me is that the girl did not even attempt to run away towards the crowded market place not a few meters away, and that a passing resident man did nothing to stop or report what was happening. Its horrifying to think of the amount of domestic abuse that takes place and nobody does anything about it.

I just realized this post has been free marketing of Body Shop, but nobody reads this blog other than my mom so I doubt I can demand payment for an "advertorial" (free stuff would be nice tho...) Bloggers can earn a pretty penny doing this stuff...maybe I should consider writing a serious blog or something...hmm...

Step 3 - Step up the exercise

Greetings Earthlings! Progress update since Monday:

1. I've been eating yong tau fu soup (various veggies with tofu squares) for dinner every day, usually with an orange...my friends must be thinking I really love the stuff (and they would be right, considering everything else available at the food court is full of oil and msg)
   
   
2. Tues breakfast was a vegetable pau and milk; lunch was rice, daal, beans and sprouts
   
   
3. This morning I didn't have class so I went for a walk around my neighbourhood, did some grocery shopping (picked up an excellent jar of mixed healthy nuts and raisins yum yum) and carried 1 kg of apples, 1 litre of juice and 1 litre of milk back home...'twas heavy! So if I keep going for one-hour walks on mornings I don't have class, I'll get 5 days' worth of good old aerobic cardio exercise and a proper morning awakening every day...
   My thighs are a bit weary from the walk, but they are very happy indeed :)
   
   
4. Today for lunch I had peta bread and felafels at Soup Spoon followed by yummy (but low fat) blueberry frozen yogurt from Ben & Jerry's. For dinner, which I am now having at Coffee Bean in Ngee Ann City (leeching the internet), it's a salad and milky tea...just after getting my hair rebonded for the 2nd time! It's super-awesomely straight and shiny right now :) Updated at 7:45pm
   
   

Step 2 - Perseverance in the face of carb cravings

Day 5 of the diet and I'm doing ok. Day 1 I met up with Anjie and had Yong Tau Fu soup and fruits for dinner.

The next morning was not so healthy since it was my last day at work and I took loads of over-buttered kaya toast for everyone. So was pretty much munching on it all day long and had 2 slices for dinner. Lunch was Cecilia's treat - she even got curry puffs and veg spring rolls (I took only the spring roll at 5pm) and Madam Tan brought an eggless chiffon cake and promptly deposited it with me. Luckily I could just slice it and leave it on the table and the cake disappeared in no time! Damn these delectable bakery products!!

Saturday I woke up only at noon, and had tea and herby linguine for lunch. Ok, so I had a chocolate chip walnut cookie too, but hey I totally needed the energy to move all mine and my roommate's stuff to the 3rd floor apartment! No elevators either - but I did have help from 3 really lazy workers at my apartment complex who begrudgingly carted up the heavier boxes. No matter, dinner was 4 bananas and that was enough.

Yesterday again I skipped breakfast, went to Ikea to get a throw pillow, dustbin and storage for my cupboard and ended up having lunch of a veg subway sandwich only at 3pm. Sidenote - I found this totally cute soft toy at ikea - fabler hund, a grey hound with the body of a daschund - and since he's all suited up we named him Barney (after my fav character on How I met your mother).

My roommate landed at 5 and we went down to Great World City for dinner where the yong tau fu soup was really good. Snacked on the rest of the bananas through the day. I realised I don't drink enough water though, should make it a habit.

Its tough to keep it up when that bowl of rice goes so well with the tofu soup. But then I try not to think about it and console myself with the fact that lunch and breakfast are when I can load up on my rice/noodle/bread quotas for the day. Skipping breakfast therefore should not be an option.

Also, I'm signing up for fitness classes in the school gym. Doing yoga for sure, and pilates and cardio dance sound interesting too! The swimming pool is open once more, but thanks to the sty in my right eye, I don't think I'm going to be back in the pool for another month. Ouchie in my eye :( Just got the teramycin ointment from the clinic, its a pain in the eye literally but my sty should be gone in a day or two. Thank goodness for antibiotics and damn all tropical bacterial infections!!

Oh yeah, today I had a bit of an unhealthy breakkie - coffee and chicken sandwich - but I was in a hurry to get to class and didn't have much choice. Anyway, had 2 fruits later. Speaking of class, I get into the Service Processes seminar room and who do I find is taking the class but my old Business Processes prof who's kinda kooky and isn't ever happy with the quality of anyone's research. Well, at least I know what he's looking for now, and this time I will read the textbook every week and prepare well for the exam. Last time I just spent the entire night in the library with my group mates trying to mug up the notes just before the exam, not a good strategy at all...I totally fell sick after that exam...le sigh!

Time to go buy textbooks, pay fees and meet the girls for lunch! Over and out!

Step 1 - The Nudge

Greetings ye who read this blog. I have no idea why I'm doing this on a blog, but I have an experiment I want to try out so stick around if you want to see the results.

So yesterday I was talking to my mom (we have a long-distance relationship going on these days) and she asked, "So did (friend-from-high-school-who-visited-this-weekend)'s jaw drop when he saw you?", referring obviously to the fact that I'm not as skinny as I was in high school. So for once I actually agree with my mom (reluctantly) that I am in bad shape and need to do something about it. Pronto.

You see, this time last year I was back home for the summer and thanks to the inspiration that is Michael Phelps, I was a total swimfreak for 3 months. I didn't lose much weight, maybe 3kgs, but at the time I was quite a healthy weight for my height and the goal wasn't to shed the kilogrammes/pounds/whatever, it was to shed the flab and have an awesomely tight swimmers body and to look good in my new Speedo.

Well lets just say its easy to swim every evening when you're living at home and have someone to do the cooking and cleaning for you. This summer was different, my job was more physically and mentally demanding and I had nobody to cook healthy meals for me everyday. I often had nothing but coffee for breakfast, followed by a lunch of Chinese vegetarian food (usually brown rice). After hours, I'd meet up with friends in town and have a pretty substantial dinner, pasta or bread-based and usually in large portions and sometimes covered in cheese.

Now the summer's ending, I have only one more day left at work (which explains my writing here, I'm lazy to finish that stupid asset list now - argh) and soon it will be back to school. There will be changes in life patterns and habits. I like momentuous moments like this. Time for a change, and what better place to start than with my corporeal form which has been under a lot of unnecessary stress and requires renewal.

Every process of change needs the initial push to get it started. Last year my health-consciousness was inspired from within myself, with Phelps as the role model and flab and lethargy as the enemy. This time the inspiration is my mom, and a desire to have my old body and self back.

Since realistically I will not be able to go back to the eat-healthy, swim-everyday routine from summer '07, this time I need a different plan. So here's the new plan, mostly suggested by my mom:

• Healthy, filling breakfast of cereal and milk and 1 fruit (a doc once told me I should eat at least 2 fruits a day- fruit juice doesn't have half the benefits of the natural whole fruit)
  
• Heavy lunch - rice/noodles with veggies and 1 fruit
  
• Light dinner - fruits/ salad / soup with a cup of milk or yogurt
  
• Lots of water, and iron and vitamin supplements everyday since I don't eat meat and am anemic
  

Being the type of person who gets snack attacks real often, loves coffee and believes that one cannot sleep on a empty stomach, this kind of plan looks like suicide. =(

But Mom's right, in the long run its going to make me feel a whole lot better than having cheesy-baked-pasta or fries for dinner. Definitely no fries at dinner! But they do qualify as a veggie at lunch =p hehe!!!

Things to avoid consuming:

• Carb-heavy dinner
  
• Coffee once in a while is ok but not everyday and certainly no more than one per day
  
• Sugary drinks
• Sugar-based candy, mints and chocolate
• Creamy creamy ice creamy - sherbets or yogurt without sugar are ok
  
• Bakery products (good thing my cupcake-obsessed friend is off on exchange soon)
• Anything with mayonnaise and too much cheese or deep fried (sniff - fries!)
  

The challenge is to follow the plan for 4 weeks and see where it gets me. While my mom swears by scales, and propounds that I'm getting "overweight" , I prefer to focus on flab, bloating and the general feeling I get in my thighs when I'm not eating right. Don't measure the success of a diet by the kgs, since scales weigh muscle, bone, organs, water and whatnot - everything except fat which, in fact, doesn't weigh as much as muscle. ALWAYS listen to your thighs is my advice.

Here it begins. I had a cup of oats for breakfast, brown rice with veggies for lunch (with Cecilia's amazingly fiery chilli sauce). What's amazing about Cecilia's chilli sauce is that you only need a small pinch of it to get your eyes streaming - unlike others which are more oil and less chilli...ok I digress.. I'm not exactly looking forward to a dinner of just fruit, so maybe I'll get the subway salad instead. Let's see if I'm still standing without carbs at 7pm. The more I think about not having carbs, the more I want them.

Peace out hombres!