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The Tea Drinker, Part 2

14 May

It’s a known fact now that I drink tea rather than coffee. My favorite cousin gifted me with a lovely Crabtree & Evelyn tea & cookies set when we caught up over Chinese New Year. The packaging is just so lovely. And I am sure the tea choice is equally lovely to enjoy.

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The tea came with cookies! Yum…

Besides my usual two tea choices (Japanese green tea and decaf Earl Grey), I recently bought two other types of tea to drink – Tesco’s Peppermint Infusion tea and Mark & Spencer’s Empress Grey, the peppermint for the office and the Empress Grey at home.

Very refreshing!

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Back On Track

3 May

Now that the month of April is over for all the birthday celebrations, I am back on track to continue with the 16/8 diet to achieve my target goal weight. Last week when we went away to Awana Genting to celebrate my birthday, there was a lot of eating and drinking. But there was also a lot of exercise and activities to offset the intake; so the weight gain was only a 0.2lbs increment. Minimal I’d say.

In fact, it was the week before the getaway that the weight spiked. Thanks to my beer intake when we visited the Carlsberg brewery. Sigh…

I was skeptical this morning when I stood on the bathroom scale, thinking I wouldn’t do too good this week to shed all that weight gained. Up to last night, the numbers didn’t look encouraging.

So it was indeed a pleasant surprise when the numbers showed a mere 0.3lbs away from my target goal! Oh yay. This is even better than the last good achievement, which was 0.7lbs from target. I actually lost weight, a net loss of 1.6lbs after deducting the 0.2lbs gained at the start of the week. Awesome.

I attribute this achievement to total discipline this week, eating healthy lunches, snacking on nuts and not cookies, lots of water and light dinners. Plus a golf game on Wednesday morning because of the Labor Day public holiday helped burn some calories. This is so motivating.

So if all goes as planned, I should be able to achieve my target goal weight next week. Discipline is the key here. Then I will reset with a new target to lose another 6.0lbs before the end of the month. I can do it!

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Beer’s the Culprit

8 Apr

I am semi-convinced now that beer is the culprit on my weight gain the previous weekend, having down three glasses. This week, despite two big birthday dinners, a little champagne, wine, whiskey and cake but no beer, there was no weight gain which is good. In fact, I am starting the week with a slight 0.2lb decrease from last Friday’s weigh-in. Yay!

If things work out this week and looks like I am back on track, I anticipate a couple more pounds can be shed by this Friday. Stay tuned for the weigh-in then.

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Not Being Disciplined

5 Apr

This week I was not being very disciplined as far as the 16/8 diet is concerned. I didn’t keep to the 16/8 window, rather it was more like 15/9. And I snacked throughout the week on things that I don’t normally eat. Bad…

Subconsciously, I wanted to see if what I ate had any bearings on the outcome, whether it would affect the weight within a few days. I hope not to repeat this again though.

So what exactly did I indulged in? Sweet preserved Chinese plums. Sugar right there! And cookies and candies. More sugar! I even ate chocolate and suffered the consequences, remember my Endometriosis?

Prior to the start of the week, on Sunday night, I drank three glasses of Kronenbourg beer to replenish my soul after that morning’s energy-sapping golf game and this immediately spiked up the weight. And although we had gym on Monday, I didn’t push myself enough to at least burn off the beer calories.

Thankfully all the week’s snacking did not add on anymore weight and only a teeny weeny reduction when I stood on the bathroom scale this morning for the weekly weigh-in. So the increment at the start of the week was due to Sunday’s beer. I think by not keeping to the 16/8 regime played a role in this result. This is not the way to go if I want to reach my target weight goal; I’d better be more disciplined.

But April being the family birthday month – Mom’s, the twins’ and mine, it’s impossible to stay disciplined when there are birthday dinners lined up to celebrate. In fact, I have a big birthday dinner celebration tonight with my golf friends and with the family come Sunday night. Hmm… I’d have to manage and stay more focused.

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On Track, Part 3

22 Mar

It’s Friday and the weigh-in day to gauge my progress. It’s Week Four of the weight loss challenge and I am thrilled to say, being on track and staying disciplined is actually quite a fun and uplifting thing to do when you see the results!

I thought I wouldn’t fare too good this week because mid-week, I met up with friends at the bar for dinner and drinks. Two drinks to be exact, a glass of white wine and half a pint of Kronenbourg 1664 beer. I even snacked in the office this whole week, and had one Kisses chocolate yesterday without guilt though.

I do notice it doesn’t matter what I ate, just as long as I don’t go overboard, but when I ate that was critical. This is the essence of the 16/8 diet after all. The next day after that bar visit, I maintained the 16 hours window with a later lunch than usual. And this morning, standing on the bathroom scale, it’s a number to be proud of. Officially, from 25 February until today, I have lost 4.1lbs! Woo hoo…

I am now 1.6lbs away from my set goal weight. Although it’s not 15lbs that I had mentioned that got me started on this challenge, losing 4.1lbs in total is quite an achievement by itself within a month. So proud of myself. Of course, if I stuck to the three months time frame, and knowing now this works, 15lbs is not impossible.

But perhaps once I do get to shedding the balance (1.6lbs), I will take a break and decide later if I want to embark on the second phase to lose more weight because I like how I feel now. We shall see.

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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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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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900 Days

8 Feb

In the midst of celebrating and enjoying Chinese New Year, I was obsessing to achieve my milestone for Candy Crush Soda! The last four days, without fail I synced my iPad Mini to my iPhone5S, using the Personal Hotspot setting for connection to get the Daily Bonus. If this isn’t being obsessive, I don’t know what is.

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Today I hit Day 900! I am trying to convince myself once I hit the thousand mark, I will stop. I think.

I don’t know…

Yesterday our journey home took six hours, which was not too bad considering I was prepared for a ten-hour drive, unsure of the traffic condition before we started. After three hours on the road, there was a stretch that took longer than necessary but thankfully, the drive home was quite stress-free.

We packed lunch to eat in the car so we don’t have to stop and only did one stop for a toilet break.

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You see nothing but paddy fields in the first stretch of the journey

After a good night’s rest, we are back to work today, otherwise the holiday long break is too long and work will pile up come Monday. Better to clear some now and so that the weekend is more enjoyable with gastronomic gatherings with friends and family. And of course, continue on with the next pursuit for the 1000 Days milestone.

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A Tradition of Sorts

7 Feb

We played two rounds of golf this trip. On Monday, we had our golf game and it’s becoming a tradition of sorts to play golf whenever we are back in hubby’s hometown for the Reunion Dinner.

The obligatory selfie before tee off!

My game is improving but I can also feel the pain in the left wrist upon impact in certain situations. The fairways of this golf course are very hard and dry, so I had to constantly adjust to avoid injuring myself again.

Then after the family obligations for the First Day, we played another round on the Second Day of Chinese New Year. This time, I had an even better score, having played on Monday and understanding the course conditions better. We had the golf course all to ourselves and in four hours, completed our leisurely paced game. Enjoyable morning.

Darulaman Golf Club

The Second Day ended with more family time and food, with lunch at the Aunt’s and dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Burp!

Home-cooked spread! So so good.

We head home today, bracing for a long journey ahead. I hope it won’t be a ten-hours drive. We shall see.

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Gong Xi Fa Cai!

5 Feb

It is officially the Year of the Pig and here’s wishing everyone ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’! May the pig bring you peace, happiness, abundance wealth and the pinkest of health.

The First Day of Chinese New Year is a family tradition, with all family members who have made the effort to return, gathering to exchange angpows, eat, laugh and catch up. Basically it’s all about tradition, family and food. 

This year the Reunion Dinner was a small affair with lesser family members in attendance. And being a smaller group, the family opted to dine at a restaurant last night. It was one noisy affair as the restaurant hosted not just our table of 12 but 126 other tables simultaneously in one seating for families who opted not to cook for a home Reunion Dinner. There were 65 tables downstairs and 62 tables upstairs at the restaurant.

Fixed menu for all 127 tables

The occasion was akin to a typical Chinese wedding dinner. Food was served for everyone at the same time by uniformed waiters and the atmosphere was lively and noisy.

Big dinner crowd!

But unlike wedding dinners that I have attended, last night we had scantily-clad singers and dancers entertaining the crowd. The screaming, err… singing I mean drowned out even my thoughts, what more to have a decent conversation over the meal with everyone at the table. What an experience to usher in the Year of the Pig!

Like I said, may the pig bring peace, happiness, wealth and health! Happy New Year everyone!

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