Week 1 - 10 Aug 2012 - 17 Aug 2012 - My weight loss plan to lose 15.5kg in 16 weeks

I read a few blogs on weight loss and their journeys such as
http://brooklynfitchick.typepad.com
http://www.myallnaturalweightloss.com
http://weight-loss-story.blogspot.com
and quite a few others. And they all seem to have something in common - CONSISTENCY.

I think that is my No. 1 problem in life. to be consistent and maintaining that consistency throughout my journey. I am the jack of all trades and the master of none. i need to refocus my energy in doing one thing at a time so i will get the best result. trying to fit everything in one schedule is exhausting and i am not being the best, just average. and its killing me coz i know i can do better.

so here it is, my new goal for this year - Losing 15.5kg.

Current stats : Date - 10 August 2012
Current Weight - 71.5 KG
Muscle mass - 40.5%
BMR - 1354
Water - 44%
Visceral - 8
Fat - 40.3%

Goal stats : Date - 2 December 2012
Goal Weight - 56 kg
Muscle Mass - 55%
BMR - 1600
Water - 65%
Visceral - 3
Fat - 25%

I have about 16 weeks to lose 15.5kg. That's about an average of 1kg per week. Its a damn tough challenge that i have set for myself because i have a great passion for food. i mean, i love it! but after carefully researching and observing so many of my thin friends, food is the root of all evil related to weight gain. and i need to stop.

My current normal days goes when it comes to food look like this :-

Breakfast - 2 eggs, toast, hainan coffee - RM6.90
Lunch - Mee hoon soup, hainan coffee - RM12.90
Tea break - hup seng crackers, plain coffee, no sugar or milk
Dinner - thosai with chicken or sardin, milk ginger tea
i drink about 1.5 liter of water a day and exercise 3 times a week in the gym.

at the gym, i jog for 30 minutes and do weights for 30 minutes.

So basically for 16 weeks :-
a) no hainan coffee - only black coffee
b) no rice, pasta, mee hoon, thosai, roti canai, bread - basically no wheat at all! gonna die lor
c) increase cardio to one hour at lease 5 times a week - target calories burned - 500 cal per session.
d) only eat before 6pm. if hungry after 6pm, drink water and psyllium husk.
e) do yoga once a week f) no candies, chocolates, laddu, kesari, curry puffs, doughnuts, red velvet - die la g) eat loads of protein and complex carbs

As of 10 August 2012, a typical weight loss diet regime will look like this :-
breakfast - 2 eggs and black coffee or oats with raisins
lunch - roasted lamb with mash and salad / subway (turkey salad without the bread)
tea - 1 banana
dinner - greek yogurt with lettuce, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and olives
drink at least 2.5 liters of water daily

At the gym :-
45 minutes cardio 5 times a week
45 minutes weights as heavy as i can

so here goes. i will blog about my journey from today until 2 december 2012 with pictures every week. if this does not work, then i don't know what will.

Ready, set, GO! 10 August 2012 - Picture of my weight at 71.5kg

This was the only pic i could find today. In future i will take full and side body shots. Wish me luck :D

My weight loss journey

I have officially promised myself that i will take myself seriously this time. No more procrastinating on losing weight as it is detrimental to my self esteem and my health. So i have officially started my journey on 28th July 2011 at 4pm. i had satisfied myself with my ultimate favourite food of Kuay Teow goreng and local coffee from Hainan cafe in Plaza Mont Kiara...so bye bye favourite food..i will see you again when i know i deserve you...*sob* *sob*

The reason why i'm basically embarassing myself by putting this online is i need a sense of accountability. Now i am accountable to no one but myself so i can do whatever i want, whenever i want. Sounds like our malaysian politics eh.....

I drink my 300 calories coffee everyday, sometimes 2 cups a day. i have good big american breakfast almost everyday, and my lunch consist of mostly fried noodles/kuay teow/ bihun/ nasi goreng. and my dinner is mostly fried maggie mee with teh tarik from the cafe down my condo. so i basically indulge in whatever i want. when i really go overboard, then i feel guilty and race to the gym after work and work out with a vengeance...sometimes up to 3 hours per session. then i feel really good about myself, and allow that yummy chocolate flakes to pass through my lips, or that ice cold ais kacang with extra corn and peanuts to quench my throat....and my 3 hours workout was just done so that i can offset the calories from my indulgence.

So yeah, i am officially putting a stop to this. i have reactivated my membership at the calorie counting website, www.myfitnesspal.com - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals and will post what works and what doesn't. i am also going to read Tom Venuto's book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle to get a better idea on how to lose weight properly and healthier.

Current weight : 69kg
Desired weight : 54kg
Weight to lose : 15kg
Duration : 6 months @ 2.5kg per month

So, the big picture here is :-
1. Eat healthy
2. Exercise

The plan is :-
1. Stock up on healthy foods such as yogurts, oatmeal, milk, nuts, fruits, eggs, tuna in water, wholewheat bread, raw veggies both at home and in the office and on my table.
2. Workout at least 5 times a week
3. Dance / Yoga or pilates classes

I don't want to procrastinate anymore so i am starting today evening by just having fruits for dinner. Hope i survive :)

Until next time

Japan!!!

Omg....the havoc that was wrecked by the earthquake and tsunami is so sad and horrible. my prayers go out to you guys that are going through it.

ExAMS!!!

i am so gonna screw up my exams...i have not touched my books for the past few months as i was so busy at work...now i do not have the balls to ask my boss for one month leave. i reli hope there are some outside intervention that can make me pass these exams.

can someone be absolutely happy on love alone? i wonder......

i was just wondering....can someone be absolutely happy on love alone?

i mean blissfully happy happy..... ?????

when i look around me and see the people around me...generally its a no. but then when i think about it, i'm like why the heck not????

Why can't someone be absolutely happy on love alone?

some possible answers are no money no talk, love doesn't pay the bills etc. and the only thing that stared right back at me - MONEY IS ROOT OF ALL EVILS.

I mean 50 years ago, our grandparents survived on minimal sums of money, grew their own food and reared their own meat. They only spent on luxuries when they absolutely felt they NEEDED to and they were happy. and generally if they were unhappy, it stemmed from the situation where someone couldn't do something for another person. It was always about contribution for or to someone else.

Fast forward to now, everything is about individuals. spas, salon, credit cards, house, cars, you name it - everything was about individuals and their worth to other people's eyes. I started thinking like this many years back, and now i'm wondering whether its the right thinking. Why is it that i need materialistic stuff to prove myself to others? why is it the car i drive or the house i live in is chosen based on how others will judge us and view us?

Of course, convenience and growing is definitely part of the plan, but why can't we do it without destroying all our traditional values and ethics? I'll be hard-pressed to name a few people that actually retain views from our forefathers. of course they are that handful of people but to what level? and why do they pick and choose only some rules that garners them "old fashioned" tags.

I think personally that it is love that makes us or breaks us. we are all humans but we behave as if we are better than our peers. even i have that attitude that i sometimes feel that i am better in so many ways. but when an actual situation happens, its not every damn day i perform to my expectation. someone that i totally underestimate will perform better than me. then i question myself, where did i get that idea that i was better? is it because i love myself too much that i can see my faults? i doubt that. or is it because i judge a person by how they carry themselves and deliver my verdict at the same time without taking the time to actually find out whether my verdict was right?

i think its the latter. i think we were given this opportunity to be on earth. we are just passerby s. we do not own anything here. everything is on loan. everything, including our body. so taking care of everything should be our duty, whether we like it or not.

And i think the only way we can do this is by loving and not judging. Even though it might be hard at first, it wouldn't hurt to say hello to people standing in the lift with you. it wouldn't hurt to smile at the guards that is guarding you when you sleep. it wouldn't hurt to give money to beggars on the street. we might say its a conspiracy, its a syndicate, its a ....anything that justify making us feel better.

Face wash - Using only NATURAL ingredients

I have bad skin....haihsey....no i mean ...really really bad skin... its really dry, it flakes because i always "forget" to drink water and i always buy very expensive face wash because my skin is sooooo dry that i can't use soapy stuff else its dries up even more. so every month i go to L’Occitane, spend RM82 bucks for a 100ml bottle of almond cleanser - no soap, oil based and very good in general and smells lovely. But RM82 every month just for a cleanser???? its really pricey for me as i still need to buy moisturiser, toner, body lotion, body wash, toothbrush, etc...you know the drill. Also i found that after six months of using the product, my skin started becoming dry again, and i had to buy their almond moisturiser for better effect. yeah, my skin was really moisturised but it costs RM143 for a damn moisturiser , 100ml....to last a month!!!

That totally spurred me to research the best natural cleanser for my face that doesn't burn a hole..make that a deep one...in my pocket. I found this website http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/ that was very informative.

So i went to my supermarket, got a 500ml bottle of pure olive oil for RM15.90 (i don't like extra virgin as the smell is too strong for me, a matter of preference i guess), a face sponge from Watsons for RM5.90 and i was good to go.

What i am doing to cleanse my face :-

a) dip up oil and spread it over my whole face and neck. Rub the oil gently around and into the skin.

b) Dampen a cotton washcloth well with very warm but NOT scaldingly hot water. Lay the warm washcloth over my well-oiled face and let it set. Relax while allowing the steamy warmth to work on my skin. As the cloth cools, repeat this several times.

c) Then i gently wipe the excess oil from my skin using the face sponge. (Somehow it feels more cleaner) Rinse and wring out the washcloth and sponge - Since my face is dry i very rarely use toner so i just dab two to three dots of olive oil as my moisturiser and I'm done!

For the first one week i didn't like my skin at all- dry skin was no longer a problem (Thank GOD) but my skin was splotchy, my skin looked uneven and i broke out in 2-3 pimples. the only reason i continued was because i knew that my skin was trying to get rid of all the toxins in it and that was the only way to clear it. so i stuck to my gun and continued. Fast track into the second week, i notice that my skin started clearing and i felt much better. it still didn't look perfect to me but was a vast improvement. And surprisingly, my skin didn't feel greasy at all. it really felt smooth and soft to touch all the time.

So i guess this is gonna be my cleansing regime as dry skin "NO MORE" and not to mention i save tons of cash :p

So, i'll keep you updated next week. maybe i should take a picture.. before and after....hmmmm

A new hobby

for some reason i feel that i am going too old too fast!! or being too matured or something....sometimes its so frustrating to be in the same age group and not feel connected simply because we enjoy different things. i get bored easily when conversation get centered around gossips about people i don't care about, or the lifestyles of celebrities. but i immediately perk up when i hear about malaysian politics, money making ventures and slimming techniques. :) i guess my last area of interest applies to all women no matter how thin :)

And i've realised, beside working hard and playing hard, i need to do something to occupy my time so that i don't feel like i'm wasting my life away. for some reason, i have a compulsion to fill my time with errands, work, gym...or anything that makes me do SOMETHING!!! And i realise i need a new hobby coz facebook just doesn't cut it anymore. i'm officially bored.

Hence my return back to the blogging life (after almost a year) as i have decided to venture on a quest to create beauty regimes using only natural products ("back to basics") and to try my level best to compile as much traditional or ancient ways of taking care of myself. i am sort of a guinea pig for now so all test and tried method only will be posted on this blog.

I did a lot of research for this past one month and i am trying to convert my passion into a business. so an idea from my very close friend and my sister have allowed me to put my dreams into action. We are going to have a meeting, hopefully tomorrow to get this idea on board, but this time i am absolutely serious of making this a successful venture because :-

a) the amount of junk i am putting in my body is atrocious
b) i have adapted the attitude of "whatever words or ingredients that i cannot pronounce stays OUT of my house - that includes you SODIUM LAUREL SULFATE"
c) i'd like to think i am doing my bit in preventing more damage to mother nature. i think i have done a lot of damage *sobs*
d) it will be extremely cost effective and i will save bundles in the long run - once i get over my experimenting stage.
e)find a way to educate the public to reduce to totally eliminate stuff that uses dangerous substance that is harmful to our body.

I guess going back to basics has its cons such as i forgo convenience, less mess (think sterile), and wonderful smelling stuff. But i feel that the pros WAYYYYY outway the cons as the alternative is beginning to be unthinkable.

Reducing and eliminating your credit card debt

If you are having difficulty finding a method to consolidate, reduce, or eliminate your credit card loan, here’s an unbelievably easy solution for you …

Discover How You, Too, Can Save RM2,184.44 Credit Card Interest and Settle RM10,500 Outstanding In Just 36 months like me – Guaranteed! (While normally, we have to settle RM4,074.44 interest in 108 months, or 9 years)

You are going to discover simple and idiot-proof ways to help you get out of debt and back on the track to a burden-free financial status.

How can I reduce my credit card debt?

How fast can I reduce my credit card debt, and what is the shortest period?

Can I restructure my credit debt without surrendering my credit card(s)?

Dear Malaysia Credit Card Holders,

Four (4) years ago, I was like many of you, desperately looking for a solution to get rid of my credit card debts.

At the time, I didn’t have many options to choose from. All I could do was to limit my monthly spending and take some of my savings to pay off part of the credit card debt.

After 48 months of cautious planning on my monthly expenses and saving, I managed to pay off RM2,000 of my total credit card debts.

If you are like I once was, you will know that it is not easy to reduce a massive credit card balance, especially if your income doesn’t increase in proportion to your accumulated debt over the years.

I gave up the bad spending habits I once had, until there was no more room for further tightening.

The Most Idiot-Proof Ways to Save Thousands of Interest From Your Credit Card Debts and Eventually Get Out of The Debts in 36 Months or Less …

I thought I was doing well, until early this year … when I discovered a damn simple solution that helped me save RM2,184.44 on credit card interest and offered me a way to settle my RM10,500 credit card debt in 36 months.

At first, I was a bit skeptical about this method.

I mean, this sounded like a ‘mission impossible’ for me, after trying so hard for four years, when I managed to pay off only RM2,000 - but now I can settle the whole amount of RM10,500 in just under 3 years!!

Here is what I managed to do:

In my February statement, my accumulated debt with the bank was RM10,512.39, stated as previous balance in the statement. After the restructuring exercise, I begin paying RM291.67 monthly for the next 36 months.

Look at the summary below and you will be able to see the high impact from this consolidation exercise:

Before Restructuring After Restructuring
Outstanding amount RM 10,500 RM 10,500
Monthly payment RM 525.00 RM 291.67
(5% minimum payment) (fixed installment)
Interest rate paid 18% yearly 6% yearly
Interest payable RM 4,074.44 RM 1,890.00
(108 months) (3 years)
Repayment Period 108 months 6 months

Through this exercise, I am able to pay off RM10,500 credit card debt (including interest) in 36 months. I can save RM2,184.44 interest and use this amount of money to buy many things!! I will be debt-free 36 months later, without needing to change my spending habits.

Just imagine if your debt is double, triple, or ten times that of mine. How much can you save with this scheme? Just bring out your calculator and do the math…the figures will tell you the truth.

What is the best way of reducing credit card payments without interest? I can only pay just enough to cover bank interest each time. I want to know how I can make payments that can be deducted from the principal instead of from just the interest.

When the credit card debt grows too much, to a point that I am hard-pressed to pay off, is there a way to reduce or skip out on interest charges on the credit card debt?

Transferring the balance from one credit card company to another does not reduce the debt; it only postpones the repayment of it. Is there a better method? How do I reduce the debt?

Call me NOW at 016-2095536 if you are serious about living a debt free life. :)

Malaysia change teaching Science and Maths to BM

Malaysia said Wednesday it will dump English as the language of instruction for maths and science in schools, in a highly sensitive decision that has split opinion in the multiethnic country.

Deputy premier Muhyiddin Yassin said that from 2012 the subjects will be taught in Bahasa Malaysia in national schools, or in Chinese and Tamil in vernacular schools.

Critics of the six-year policy of using English to teach the subjects argue that it has dragged down students' performance and is particularly unfair on children who are not proficient in the language.

"I wouldn't say it's a complete failure but it has not achieved the desired objectives that it was supposed to achieve," Muhyiddin told a press conference.

"The government is convinced that science and maths need to be taught in a language that will be easily understood by students, which is Bahasa Malaysia in national schools, Mandarin in Chinese schools and Tamil in Tamil schools."

He said the government would boost the teaching of English in schools, with more time given to the subject and the recruitment of nearly 14,000 extra teachers nationwide to teach the subject.

Muhyiddin cited a 2008 survey which found that students' performance in maths and science had fallen since it had been taught in English, and that rural children were hit particularly hard.

In the months since the government said it was considering dropping English, debate has raged in newspaper columns and letters to media outlets.

In March, riot police fired tear-gas to disperse at least 5,000 Malays who demonstrated in Kuala Lumpur against the use of English to teach the two subjects in national schools.

Govt Plans Using Cars With Automatic Gear For Driving Tests

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -- The government plans to use cars with automatic gear transmission for driving tests as being practised in countries like the United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore.

Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri said the move was expected to be implemented at the year end.

As such, he said the ministry would make several changes in the driving lesson's curriculum and test as well as restructuring the driving lesson regulations to allow automatic transmission cars to be used for driving tests.

The government would have to amend the Road Transport Act 1987 and the Motor Vehicle Regulations (Driving Licence) 1992 to facilitate the implementation, he said in a statement here today.

Abdul Rahim said the plan was currently being studied by the various agencies like the Road Transport Department, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), Road Safety Department and the driving schools association.

He said the move was aimed at producing efficient drivers, besides reducing fatal road accidents in the country.

-- BERNAMA

Creating an online business

There are many different online business that you can create and in this article today we are going to look at a couple of different types. This article focused on creating online businesses and the different types that you can create.

The first kind of businesses that you can create when looking to create an online business would be a website which serves a particular niche in the market. Many people have done on this and this is often done by trying to find an underserved niche, building a website, and then profiting off of this small but profitable match. A great place to find more information on this particular topic would be www.findhotniches.com. Here the author has created a website which finds underserved niches which you could potentially build a website around. When you’re building a website, you’re going to want to find cheap keywords that you can use to help build your business as well as create good content. By creating the content and then creating back links between yourself and other websites, you’ll be setting yourself up to have a high page rank with Google. By using AdWords to bring traffic to your website and then also developing your natural search engine traffic through building up a website, you will have built yourself a very solid business. This is just one way of creating online business.

Another way to you can build and create an online business is through eBay. This is an area which was particularly hot several years ago and still remains a solid business proposition. Many people are able to make a full-time income on eBay. You will need to find a wholesaler where you can get products at a discount to sell on eBay. The general idea when working on selling on eBay is to find a drop shipper. A definition of a drop shipper is a wholesaler sells you a product and will ship the product to a customer. You will buy the product at the wholesale price and then make money on the difference between what you buy the product for and sell the product for on eBay. Using the wholesaler allows you to focus on selling the product without worrying about stocking the product. You do not need to worry about any sort of shipping or backend but you will want to make sure that everything gets sent out. If there are problems with shipments, the customer will be coming back to you and not to the wholesaler to. If you go to worldwidebrands.com, you will find the best wholesale shipping directory on the Internet.

These are two of the different ideas in creating an online business. There are many ways to make money on the Internet but these are two proven methods. You will not have to use a lot of money up front to create these particular online businesses and these businesses can be something that you will have great deal of success with.

Losing weight :)

Losing weight is one never ending battle for most people. For me, i have a love hate relationship with my weight. Due to my very curvy body type, even a one pound gain will be noticeable to everyone. Hence i have developed a win win situation for myself and my appetite (Notice that these are separate :)

Firstly, i do not pick and choose what i eat. I just eat whatever i want. But the trick is in the portion that i take. If i fancy a chocolate bar, then i will eat it. But eating half the bar makes a whole load of difference in your weight gain. I eat half and the other half i pass it to my siblings or keep it in the fridge.

The same thing goes for my lunch and dinner. I use a salad plate to eat my lunch or dinner. Choosing a big plate or a small plate makes the world of a difference to the portion you take. When you eat in a big round dinner plate, it looks like you're not eating much but in actual fact, you're eating a full sized meal. Try transferring the food from the dinner plate to the snack plate. On the snack plate, it looks as if you're trying to feed two people. That automatically makes you feel like a glutton so you just eat half from whats on your snack plate.

I love the idea of exercising but hate the idea of getting up and going to the gym. So i thought it through, went to California Fitness in Mid Valley and i cancelled my gym membership, and instead, bought a resistance band and a stability ball as my tools to workout. Its not that i'm trying to create a gym in my house, but having gears next to you when you feel lazy as hell do spur you to move your butt, even if its just for a little while. Sometimes i put it in the hall, just to remind myself that i've not done it yet.

Cardio is excellent to pump up your heart beat and get your adrenaline pumping. It also stimulates your blood flow and fat burns easier that way. Therefore it is advisable to dance your heart away until you can barely breathe, gulp your bottle of water and use the resistance band as your strength training. Believe me, it works !

Why is everything measured according to how you look?

I recently opened an online lingerie business called Beaudacia.com with my best friend. And on the day we decided to collect the stock from our partner Nic, he informed us that we were gonna meet our first potential customer, if we wanted to. We were both so excited to know it that we literally ignored the way we looked. We were both wearing basic t-shirts, capri pants and our faces were void of makeup. And, our hair were rolled up like some kind of mashed threads looking no where as neat as we wanted it to be.

But we decided to brave the situation and meet her as we didn't want to feel as if it mattered too much. It wasn't us that we were selling, but the lingerie that we carry rite? I wasn't that bothered about it. But when we reached the restaurant, two really hot chinese chicks were waiting for us. Their hair were all styled up, looking like they came out from a french magazine. I just wished at that time the floor would freakin open up and swallow both of us whole. It was so embarrasing. I tried to put on a brave front and act very businesslike but it just didn't work out. Guess why?

We were selling women's lingerie. But at the end of the day, if we do not look like a sex goddess with sex appeal, how are we gonna sell stuff that screams "I AM SEXY". 70% of the time, people purchase from whomever they feel most comfortable and confident. What makes us better than the competitor if we're both carrying the same stuff? How does one customer choose who to buy from?

I learnt then that first impression makes a lasting one. Discounts do play a big part, but at the end of the day, if i look good enough to eat, and carry myself well, most of my customers will be glad to have a supplier that they can be proud of associating themselves with. I know it sounds really mean but sadly it is true. People do judge a book by its cover, for the first few times at least. And that also depends on whether the relationship is personal or business. If its business, they do not give two hoots about how nice you are inside, it matters more about how you look on the outside.