Archive | March, 2019

Munch Pot 2.0

12 Mar

Our garden is just a wonderful place for the creatures that come visiting. Birds, treating our place as their private kitchen, come daily to feast on the bird seeds put out for them. There’s also squirrels that bound through the hedges happily like their little playground. One of the squirrel, a rascal, will eat official pet number one’s leftover dog food or boldly come into the house and help itself to bananas (if we have this) on the kitchen counter.

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The garden thrives because hubby has the green fingers, not me. I hardly venture out because I stay indoors in my little area to do my carving. Even if I do go out, it’s more at the terrace to do mostly sawing, hammering, cutting or drilling, never beyond the tiled boundary for gardening. So it was a bit of a surprise when I discovered the habanero plant has grown as tall as me! And the chillis are plentiful. I have shared so much of our harvest with friends and family.

The thriving garden also had us discovering a new caterpillar! This time on the Calamansi Lime tree at the side. I wouldn’t have known if hubby didn’t tell me. You could say it’s Munch Pot 2.0.

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This time I decided to take its measurement with a ruler to keep track of its growth. As of now, it’s 2cm long. I hope this little fella will grow well and won’t disappear mysteriously like Munch Pot who used to be at the Calamansi Lime tree in front of the house.

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On Track

11 Mar

It’s been two weeks on count if I consider 25th February as the official start date of my challenge to shed some pounds. There were temptations and distractions along the way but I stayed focus.

But in order to achieve my goal, I adopted the 16/8 Intermittent Fasting, an interesting and easy diet to follow. I don’t have to eat certain food or avoid my favorites to achieve what I want to achieve.

It basically involves an 8-hours window to eat and fast the remaining 16-hours. The hours one sleep are considered as part of the 16-hours. Not that tough to follow, isn’t it? And there are tons of explanation on this out there on the internet.

So the whole of last week, I brought salad lunches to work and kept to the 16/8 formula and I could see the difference visually – on the tummy and waistline.

For comparison – on Week One, with all those dinner occasions in a row, my weight fluctuated but did not increase because I was mindful. By the end of Week Two, despite a missed gym session, I lost 2.6lbs because of the 16/8. It was very encouraging.

Over the weekend however, I did not follow the 16/8 as I don’t want to be such a stickler with a regimented routine.

During the two days – I had lunch with the family (on Saturday) and a game of golf (on Sunday) followed by the usual after game meal plus some whiskey. This resulted in a slight increase in weight by Monday morning. But I’m not worried because if I stay disciplined, I am on track to achieve my goal.

Tonight at gym, I will continue my weight routine with the ten pounder.

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A Hiccup on the Challenge

8 Mar

It’s unfortunate that my challenge mission was interrupted on Monday. A minor hiccup because work was on a tight deadline. And as much as I wanted to do gym to rid myself more of the guilt than anything else, we couldn’t finish the artwork and get home on time. Oh well…

But I don’t feel so bad because this whole week, I made super healthy lunches for the both of us. Lots of greens, bell pepper, baby tomatoes and chick peas (and tuna was added for two days subsequently). The salad lunch was oil-free, fibre-loaded and enough to fuel us until dinner time.

It may be only a few days but I do feel better and not so heavy. I am sure if I keep at this for another week or so, coupled with gym and golf, I will shed (the pounds) effortlessly. A positive sign and on track on my challenge to lose the extra weight piled on me by the bathroom scale.

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Creepy Siri No More

7 Mar

I have Siri activated again on my iPhone XR and am so glad that it’s not creepy anymore. Previously on the now-retired iPhone5S, it activated itself without any prompt and at odd hours, it was creepy so I disabled the feature.

The only problem for now though is Siri not understanding my Asian voice command. Am I not pronouncing words right? They sound pretty distinct to me…

I was experimenting and Siri listed ‘ate’ instead of ‘eggs’ and ‘Martin’ instead of ‘mutton’ when I prompted it to write my grocery list. Hahaha… I guess both Siri and I have to get used to each other.

For now, Siri is useful to set my alarm as I don’t have to hold the phone to do so especially when I am horizontal in bed. Mundane but practical. In time, I am sure I can assign it to do more.

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Daily Bonus Mess Up, Part 2

5 Mar

The Candy Crush Soda Daily Bonus is messing up again. After that episode where both my iPad Mini and my iPhone XR showed the same figure, the next few days it went weird again.

First occurrence, the phone captured the Daily Bonus because I picked up the phone first. Then it didn’t show on the iPad, just like the first scare I had. Then the next day, I decided to launch both together and the iPad captured the Bonus but the phone didn’t. By the third morning, both captured the Bonus!

It’s like both devices are playing tag team to record the Daily Bonus – today my turn, tomorrow your turn and together in unison! I’d never know which devices’ turn to have the honor every morning.

I don’t know what’s going on but I figured if at least one of them is still on track to reach 1000 Days, it should be okay. Then I will stop this addiction after the record is achieved.

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The Challenge Threatened

4 Mar

I seem to be setting myself up for failure. I thought the week before with dinner engagements three days in a row was bad; this past weekend, it’s four days of (three) dinners and one lunch engagements, starting with Thursday right through to Sunday, there’s hardly a breather. Die…

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Thursday’s vegetarian Thai threesome dinner

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Friday’s foursome dinner after golf

But when the opportunity to catch up with girlfriends of yesteryear, golf buddies and celebrating a good friend’s birthday, how could I refuse? Being with these people are important to me and well, I would be silly not to eat because the occasions happened during meal times.

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Saturday night’s dinner (& desserts) for five included a bottle of hand crafted wine

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Sunday’s lunch for eight after golf with half a bottle of whiskey

The challenge to lose weight is now under threat. Tonight I have no choice but to continue with the ten pounder at the gym to work it all off. Die…

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No Pain, No Gain

1 Mar

For two days, my upper body was in pain after Monday’s gym session. Looking back, it did not seem like a Herculean effort to use a ten pound weight as I knew I could manage. Despite stopping gym for sometime, I took a chance and pushed myself to the limit. Maybe a little too much. The consequences thereafter showed that the body was unable to withstand the intense workout.

The pain level reminded me of the time after the Laparoscopy Surgery I underwent last year. I was so bloated upon discharge with all that gas still stuck in my abdomen, making the upper body so uncomfortable especially to breathe and this after-gym effect is almost on par.

By the third day, thankfully my aches and pain reduced. Well, there’d better be some gain for all this pain endured. I play a round of golf later today and hopefully, whatever remaining discomfort won’t affect my game. Come Monday, the cycle repeats itself.

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