The heat and humidity, my goodness, how do we deal with it? I feel hot and bothered and am profusely sweating every time I move. Maybe it’s a good thing for all my body’s water retention has reduced tremendously.
Ever since the beginning of the pandemic and the various lockdowns we went through, my weight fluctuated but did not increase. We stopped our Intermittent Fasting because there was no need to continue with it, being lockdown at home. Life went on, and my weight was manageable.
But recently, with the unbearable heat, I find myself having no appetite at all. Besides sweating more than a round of golf, the heat is also helping me burn all my body fat! Perhaps this is turning out to be a good weight loss advantage.
As a result, my weight has been on a downtrend. I am now at my ideal weight, thanks to the heat. For this, I am certainly not hot and bothered by it!
The daily walk routine is not very daily on non-golfing days. The weather has not been kind and disrupts the schedule. Thank goodness, on golfing days, the rain comes down only after the game.
Despite the disruptions, my mission to lose all that fat gained during Chinese New Year has been encouraging. Maybe it’s not just fat but water retention, and I should sweat it out?
Whatever it is, this morning’s walk showed some encouraging numbers as I have lost almost two pounds. Another three to five pounds to shed would be ideal. I have to keep it up, rain or shine, to complete this mission.
I have been snacking a lot lately. Too much, in fact. Two days ago, I stood on the bathroom scale, and the numbers horrified me! I need to do something about it.
Mind you – we have stopped our Intermittent Fasting (IF) regime ever since the pandemic broke. And it’s been a little more than two years already. Initially, my weight was stable, and it even dipped. I was pleased. But it has crept up again recently. I suspect it’s all that after-game beer and snacking on Chinese New Year cookies.
So right after the Chap Goh Meh dinner, I have embarked on a new mission to shed all those extra pounds. On top of playing my regular golf games, I will do a half-hour morning walk on days when I am not playing golf. It will be beneficial for my legs, muscles, and abs.
Let’s see how my number will be after a month on this new mission. Oh, I should also reduce my beer intake after all the golf games. Stay tuned for my progress!
Today is Chap Goh Meh, the last day to celebrate the Lunar New Year. After 15 days of celebration, today is the finale. However, it has been a lack of celebrations again this year because of the pandemic and restrictions. But despite the situation, we are planning a big feast tonight to mark the occasion.
I have to admit I have gained weight over the past two weeks, eating and snacking on all the cookies without any discipline. So after tonight’s big steamboat meal, I will start my diet. From tomorrow onwards, no more cookies, more golf but no beer, and throw in morning walks to shed those extra pounds!
Lately, I have been eating a variety of things that I’m not supposed to. And because of the lack of willpower to stay disciplined, I suffer the consequences because of my Endometriosis.
Chocolate is one food I cannot resist. I find that regular milk chocolate does not bode well with my tummy. But dark chocolate is okay, and I find myself indulging almost every night! My waistline has expanded as a result of this weakness.
Dessert is another food I cannot resist when it comes to sweet tooth indulgence. When hubby made some coconut pandan jelly recently, it was hard to resist despite knowing I am courting trouble. Like milk chocolate, my tummy cannot agree with the coconut milk ingredient. I’m just wondering whether it is my Endometriosis that’s giving me problems with this natural ingredient?
Jelly is something that one does not eat a piece only. You have to have several. So when the intake is more due to indiscipline, the tolerance level is compromised, and pain will kick in soon after. Sigh. It’s a balancing act to maintain without suffering any painful consequences.
I have not talked about my Endometriosis problems lately because there haven’t been any, thank goodness. You could say it is under control. But any pain experienced is purely diet-related and self-induced. Meaning, if I eat things that I am not supposed to, I will feel the pain.
Recently, I went back to drinking coffee with sugar added. If there’s milk, it’s just courting trouble. So far, I must say it’s manageable because I don’t gulp the whole mug in one go. I take my time sipping, and it works out okay. I’m glad because I do have an urge for a nice cuppa once in a while. But with the added sugar, it’s a setback as far as weight is concerned. Perhaps I should drink my coffee black. Hmm.
Coffee aside, cheese is still one food I cannot handle, although I love cheese. It’s too heavy and creamy for me, and I will be all bloated and upset in the tummy. You can guess by now pizza is off my menu. Eggs, especially hard-boiled eggs, are off my menu too. Besides these, onions and beef are also food that I try to avoid.
The current coffee grounds for the French press
It’s a balancing act to manage the intake and not push my luck. Sometimes it’s hard, so discipline is essential to a happy lifestyle and healthy tummy.
Towards the end of last week, I started doing jumping jacks. With all this baking and cooking at home, and having stopped the 16/8 diet, I have to do something to counter the intake. Hence, the jumping jack exercise.
We didn’t have a mixer and ten thousand whisks later to yield a sinful glass of Dalgona coffee
Hubby baked butter cookies. So sweet and buttery, how to resist?
I think it’s an ideal form of exercise without having to go out of the way to exercise. Honestly to even exercise, I feel lethargic just thinking about it! So I find other means to exercise like going up and down the stairs more often, walking more around the house and keeping busy with chores.
Team effort for a golden beer batter dinner! So good.
I even made dhal curry from scratch!
Fresh from the oven, hubby’s new hobby, baking.
Besides I find setting up to properly exercise not conducive when there are days I actually have some design work to do in between the daily cooking and cleaning. So doing jumping jacks has worked out well.
Each time I’d do a set of 50 and they don’t actually take up a lot of time. Spread out the routine and I find myself doing 300 jumping jacks each day!
I do feel good and less guilty. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?
It is Day 5 of our quarantine period but if I include the MCO period, it’s actually ten days being at home. I think both hubby and I are still doing okay but I suspect M2 may be a bit restless, cooped up in her room. All the way home but not quite home, no different from before because we are using the phone to communicate despite being in the same house.
We’ve been sending her food in a Bento box, leaving it outside her room. Almost like a hotel’s room service but this is where the service stops. No housekeeping provided so she has to take care of this chore until the quarantine period ends.
The various Bento box mealsBesides meals, there’s Snack Boxes too
Sometimes I even forget she’s back because she’s been so quiet in her room. Of course being out of sight, she’s out of the mind! But as she has online classes everyday, we leave her alone.
I guess I’m still not used to having her back, sooner than the original plans. Oh well, I’m not complaining. Better to have her here than afar with the ever changing situation of the pandemic.
However once the quarantine period is over, the situation remains except that M2 can leave her room. The government of Malaysia had announced on Wednesday, a further two weeks extension of the MCO! So we still have to stay at home until 14th April. It is with fervent hope that this drastic measure will flatten the curve to fight the Covid-19 spread.
Every other day, a new Whale is carved and completed
And until then, my cooking skills have been improving, my carving has yielded more Whales than ever and my waistline has been expanding much to my dismay. How can it not when I am constantly thinking of all these delicious food that I am now able to cook—because I have the time—instead of design work? In truth, the 16/8 diet has long since been thrown out the window at the start of this.
The baking bug seems to have gotten me. After the success of the carrot cake, I itched to bake again! And so I did. This time I picked up two boxes! A the Zesty Orange Cake Mix and a Banana Honey Muffin for various reasons.
Green’s baking mixes make you look good in the kitchen!
The main reason being I had leftover milk and butter from the last baking episode. They are food that I don’t usually consume, so baking was the only option to use them up.
Reason number two: the brand’s website showed an orange cake with poppyseeds choice but our regular grocer did not have this, only the one sans poppyseeds. And because I love poppyseeds—I used to eat poppyseed bagels whenever I could when I was living in New York City dinosaur years ago—I went out of the way to buy a pack of poppyseeds to add to the orange mix. Clever, ain’t I?
Reason number three: I actually have a muffin tray. Yeah… I know, for someone who doesn’t bake, my baking gadgets seems to be quite comprehensive. Previously, the tray was used to make mini quiches for M2 to bring to school. But now with her being away in college, the tray has not been used.
Back to my baking novelty, this time I was super efficient and needless to say, the Orange Cake was simply delicious as it now comes with poppyseeds. Next week, muffins! With poppyseeds as well.
I skipped the icing topping and the cake is just right with a slight crunch of the poppyseeds
I must attribute the baking success to the brand, Green’s Baking of Australia and not so much of my skills in the kitchen. It’s the mix that makes me look good and feel good. Forget the 16/8 diet for the time being until this baking novelty wears off.
I gave up the idea of baking with my Kenwood Rapid Bake but not baking itself. So another box of cake mix I bought and another attempt.
This time, I opted for a carrot cake that comes with icing! An improvement because there’s another step involved instead of just adding eggs, milk and butter to the cake.
The cake itself was easy – this time, an egg with water and oil instead of milk and butter to add to the mix. And for someone who doesn’t bake a lot, if not at all, I have a fair bit of baking essentials, like the loaf pan that I found. So I didn’t have to use the round pan.
Top: straight out from the oven; Bottom: drowned with icing
After 40 minutes in the conventional oven, my cake was done! Excited I literally drowned the cake with the icing that was mixed earlier, a separate fun task I must say. Maybe I’m not supposed to drown the cake like this? Hmm… but the overall taste was good, not too sweet and just right.
Maybe I can bake after all if I put my mind to it by using the correct equipment, that is the conventional oven and not a bread maker. Having said that, true baking skills come from doing it from scratch and not from a ready-mix box. What I have attempted the last three times was simply novelty and I’m far from being a pro at baking.
If I truly want to pursue baking to hone my kitchen skills, I should keep trying. But do I really want to? Hubby says we will gain weight from having to eat all the cakes, muffins and what nots. Given that we are still at the 16/8 diet, I think this baking novelty will be short-lived.
Angieneering 
Remarks