Weight Loss Update 24 May 2012

I'm happy to report that I've lost another measely 1 kg - 1.5 kg. That means, in all, since I've consciously stated I wanted to make long term lifestyle changes (was it a month or two ago, maybe?) so that I can lose some weight, I've lost about 3 - 4kgs. It's probably not a lot for anyone else who's on some rigid diet or exercise regime but I have been too busy and distracted to exercise. I'm also not on any particular diet plan.

However, I've re-started taking my Omega 3 Fish Oil capsules. Hoping it helps re-sensitise my insulin receptors. Also, for some crazy reason, I've started drinking 2-in-1 coffee in the mornings! I stopped doing that for more than a decade in favour of plain water and only recently picked it up again. Not because I crave the caffein but because I had started out at first, just trying this 2-in-1 coffee packs we had purchased from the grocery store. It's just coffee and milk, no sugar. Hubs decided it was too bland and stuck to his 3-in-1. But I didn't want to waste it so I just continued drinking it. Then what happened was I realised, after drinking it, I actually could move my bowels more easily. If you recall, I had to have surgery slightly more than a year ago because of piles. I'm not really a coffee person. I am more into English tea. Usually at lunch time, I'll get my fix of Teh-O (tea with sugar, no milk). But I realised that this 2-in-1 coffee was so mild, that it didn't keep me awake in the night. So I guess they've won a new customer. After my colonoscopy and piles surgery, I had to drink my orange fibre mix every day. I've still got a year's supply (I get it prescribed by the doc and buy the whole lot from the hospital - it's much cheaper that way) and I'll probably drink it off and on but not on a daily basis anymore. Anyway, the doc at the last colon review appointment had advised me to try to not be too dependent on it.

OK, back to my measely weight loss. I'm just writing my thoughts aloud. As I haven't been exercising, I was wondering why I was still losing weight. One reason could be that although I've not been consciously dieting, I've just lost my 'greediness' for rice. As part of my long term lifestyle change plan, where there is a choice, I'd probably pick a soupy 'noodle' meal as opposed to one that is with a rice base. Unless of course I'm eating a meal where it's necessary to eat the rice, like Hainanese Chicken Rice or Fried Rice. Frankly, unless you're just drinking soup without the noodles, I feel that 'noodly' meals can also be a carb-filled meal but I don't feel so uncomfortable after a noodle meal so I'm guessing the noodles are easier to digest than rice.

I feel less lethargic nowadays and getting up in the mornings is getting easier. Not because I'm lighter because I'm definitely not looking significantly thinner at all (although on a good day, my tummy seems to flatten slightly). But I think because I'm consuming less carbs. The important thing to note here is I'm not cutting carbs out of my life. That would be downright stupid. I wouldn't be able to take it or make it and I'm guessing it'd be worse to reach breaking point one day and have a surge of overkill with a mountain of pasta and pizza! Slow and steady lifestyle changes. Yep.

Ok, haven't uploaded any pics in a while. Thanks for reading all the way down here. Here's a pic of me in my new progressive glasses:

Me wearing entry level progressive Varilux + Crizal by Essilor lenses

I finally caved. Had to go make a pair of progressive even though they cost much more than ordinary short sighted glasses. Though I'm super duper young at heart, I also enjoy embracing my age. What's to deny? I love being my age. I'll be 44 this year. No hiding. I wanted my frames to be as reasonably priced as possible, to be of good quality, to be in silver, to not have fancy sides and to have big lenses. So I found my ideal pair for SGD$300 in total, including entry level Varilux + Crizal by Essilor lenses. I need these progressive lenses because I can no longer do my office work, with my eyes transitioning / refocusing too slowly from computer to my paperwork or paperwork to computer. I had to constantly peer over my normal specs (like how you see 'old' people do). I've also got my old normal pair for short-sightedness with Transitions lenses and they served me very well for the past 3 years or so. I did not know what had no idea they did to shielded me so well from the glare outside until I started using this pair without Transitions. Would have liked to add Transitions to this pair but the shop salesman told me the price would run into a four figure sum. Ha! Forget it! You'll never find me spending that much on glasses. I'd sooner put on my contact lenses and carry both reading and sunglasses with me. Lasik is out for me. I have floaters in my eyes and I don't know how Lasik would affect that or how the floaters would screw up the outcome. Thanks but I don't have the guts to play Russian Roulette with my eyes. Anyway, back to the new specs. The salesguy advised me to give myself a week to adjust to the new specs but my eyes took to them immediately. No headaches, no nothing. I don't find that progressives fixed my short and long-sightedness problems totally as I have to shift the position of my glasses in order to see clearer, depending on if I'm looking at the computer or my paperwork. But it's better than peering over my old specs.

Hey, by the way, my hair's a tad longer now, huh? But it's shorter than last Friday when I just had it cut. My last proper hair cut at the salon was last year! Then I had a digital perm in January of this year (without cutting) and in between, I trimmed it twice myself. I had followed hubs to have his hair cut at a new salon where 'cut and wash' was only S$6.80 for short hair and S$9.80 for long hair. Actually these low prices aren't such a big deal nowadays when everywhere in Singapore, you can find S$4 - S$10 hair cuts in the neighbourhood salons. But I must say, the salon was spanking new, big and clean.

I refused to cut (asking me to trust a hair stylist is like asking me to bungie jump -- tough!) and sat in the salon waiting until he had finished. In fact, I liked my hair the way it was. The length and the way the curls fell was just getting to be the way I like them to be. I sat there and tied my hair up into a french braid, feeling smug that I wasn't going to cave in to any stylist's pestering.

Then of course, the stylist who had cut Mike's hair had to continually bug me to just have a trim and hubs also urged me to try. She did a decent job on his hair (but really, as I always say to him, he's not fussy about his hair cuts because he has to cut his hair every month anyway!!!) See, this is how it usually goes. I figured I needed someone to trim my split ends anyway (damaged by last salon which had coloured my hair). I'll sit down, tell the stylist, just 'trim the ends' and 'I want to maintain the length' and 'do not thin my hair'. The stylist will nod as though promising full compliance and of course when I'm not looking, she will whip out her thinning shears, pick up my hair and start thinning it from the top of my head!!! Aaaaarrrrrrgh!!!!!! Which part of NOT THINNING do these stylists not understand??? I want to tell them I KNOW MY OWN HAIR!!! YOU CANNOT USE THINNING SHEARS ON THEM!!! THE SHORT STRANDS WILL RUN AMOK AND LOOK FRIZZY!!! IT'S MY HAIR, NOT YOURS, YOU MORON!!!

Ppppffffft!!!! Hubs says there will never be a hair stylist that I'll be happy with. That is probably TRUE! I hate them all!! By the way, why are MOST OF THEM only Chinese speaking?! If I struggle to get my message across, how do the other races do it? Can someone start a salon with a banner that says, 'English speaking stylists'???  Hubs says they call themselves professionals so how come I'm not happy with them? I told him even one who had graduated from a 3 day hair styling course will call him or herself a 'professional'. I went home, tried to tie my french braid and though I could, it was thinner and I was left with a tiny thinned out duck tail at the end. Did I say, that the stylist spent the entire time, telling me what crap shit condition my hair was in and that I should do this and that treatment? Oh please! Of course the ONLY product that would rescue my hair conditioner, was the ONLY treatment product she had on the shelves. The ONLY smoothing anti-frizz leave in conditioner that would help my hair was the ONLY smoothing anti-frizz leave in conditioner she had on the shelf. Not happy. Not happy at all. Looking at the bright side of things, I probably don't have to suffer such a torture again for another year! I think I should sign up for a hair styling course too and get myself certified as a 'professional' hair stylist. What a brilliant idea!

Baby hamsters died

Aiyoh, so sad. Our mother hamster had given birth to 5 babies but I think we're down to 2 now. I did pick up a half eaten dead pup (not with my hands - but with a pair of disposable chopsticks). We did leave the mother and her pups alone and we didn't touch her or the babies at all. BUT we had left the crazy father inside. He's called Dizzy for a reason. He has a tendency to go round and round and round AND not on the running wheel. If he can't run round his cage, he'll chase his own backside on the spot!

Anyway, I spotted Dizzy running into the small house where the mother had built a nest for her babies and he was running in circles in that tiny house! I'm pretty sure he had stomped on some of them or injured them and the mum had eaten them up. We did try to catch him out but we were a bit apprehensive cause we didn't want to intrude into the mother's privacy and make her eat up her own babies in panic. So we made a mistake of letting remain in the same cage as the mum and her pups. Sigh.

I know that mother hamsters do eat their young for a variety of reasons. It could be because she smells an unknown scent on her babies or she senses danger or the baby is ill or she knows she can't feed them all etc. Well, our mum is quite used to being handled by Tessa and Mike. They carry her all the time but stopped after she had given birth. Today, Mike said he opened the cage door and she climbed out onto his hand and let herself be pat. When she returned to the cage, she didn't run amok or into a panic. I think it's cause we had decided to remove the male from her cage last night. Dizzy spent a long time running in circles in his new two storey bungalow then buried himself under the bedding and went to sleep. We intend to keep him separate till the pups are a little older. He's so content running in circles, he doesn't know how to climb to the upper floor!

I think I'm heading to the pet shop after work today to see if I can buy something nutritional for the mum. I'm not keen to introduce vegetables to her at this point because if she dies of diarrhoea or something, that'll mean the end of the pups! Mike was teasing me last night. Said I made so much noise when he and Tess had come home with the hamsters and now, I'm the one who can't get enough of them. That's true. The pups are only a week old. I can't wait to be able to hold them in my hands!

100 plus 50 steps

If anyone even cares to know, I managed to increase from 100 to 150 steps on our Twist and Shape machine yesterday (sorry, I had referred to it as Twist and Step in my previous post -- had a good look at the machine yesterday and it's Shape, not Step). Again, Mike had hopped off after 50 and when I had stepped off panting after 100, he refused to believe I had done a hundred. Huh!

As we do the stepping in our bedroom (with the TV and aircon switched on), I didn't perspire. I don't quite like exercising in an airconditioned room because my throat gets dry (which is why I don't fancy gyms) but hey, something's better than nothing. It's a good alternative on days I'm too lazy to change into exercise gear. In the room, I can be doing it in my nightgown or......nothing, right? (at the point, I can just imagine my kids going.....ewwwww.....GROSS!). Anyhow, I think even 50 a day, every day, is a big help. So convenience is the key here. Hop on, hop off. Hop off, hop on.

After sitting upright for a while to catch my breath, I promptly plopped down in bed to watch TV. After the programme, I decided to hop on the stepper again and managed another 50. Not bad. Didn't feel tired and legs aren't aching at all today. My back's giving me a little trouble though and I think it's because I had doubled up and bent forward while stepping towards the end (just imagine me hunching pathetically, every step in pain, waiting for the goal). No gym pro for sure but I need to be careful. Don't wanna injure myself and have to set myself back a whole month or months again!  

A bit off tangent on topic here but our hamster gave birth to 5 pups 2 days ago. When Tess and Mike had come home with the original pair, cage and all, I had already gone berserk! NO MORE HAMSTERS had been my rule. We've had them before. Smelly and more importantly, MUM (that'll of course be me) will end up doing the cleaning! NO MORE HAMSTERS!!! Well, evidently, that fell on deaf ears. As if that wasn't enough.....we now have 7. Oh yeah, DAD came home with a new double storey bungalow for them today. Yippee.....sigh.

Weight Loss Update 3 May 2012 - 2 kgs (Sigh)

Since I started to be conscious for of the need to incorporate exercise into my life, I've lost only 2 kgs. 2 kgs which weren't even supposed to be there in the first place. 2 kgs after fluctuating up and down. I seem to be able to keep off these 2 kgs. Is that ok? I dunno, I suppose that's better than nothing. My weight is still at a scary point. But slow and steady wins the race (or does it?).

I was busy the past Labour Day weekend and so didn't get any exercise in until last night when I hopped on our old Twist and Step Shape machine in the confines of our bedroom. After 100 twists and steps AND lunch today, I am still 2 kgs down. That means, I've maintained the 2 kgs weightloss without actually reducing the portions of my meals or surviving on nonsensical liquid diets or consuming diet pills. (super non-humility at its best here!).

I need to lose 15kgs in all. But that's a long shot for now. So realistically, I'm aiming for 5kg first. I know for a fact that if I lose 5kgs, the weight loss will start to show on my face (been there, done that). I figured that I have 2 options.
Option 1 is keep exercising and reduce my intake of  food.
Option 2 is to DOUBLE UP my exercise regime whilst maintaining my intake of food.

There is no need to cut out sweets or sugary stuff because I haven't in the first place, been eating sweet or sugary stuff! But I did....eh....munch on nuts....much. It was quite funny actually. I'd watched this Youtube video of a lady who had lost 13 kgs and she was suggesting buying a tin of almonds to munch. In her experience, a few would keep her full (in between meals), as opposed to buying garbage fast food to fill her tummy. She said she kept a tin in her bag, in her room, in her car.....basically, she had tins of almonds everywhere. So my son walks in and watches the ending of the video. Then that night, he finds a tin of almonds in my room and asked me incredulously if I was actually taking advice from a grossly overweight woman on Youtube. Hubs and I couldn't control our laughter either. That came out really wrong. Yes, she was still grossly overweight whilst dishing out diet advice BUT she had already lost some weight. I definitely do not need to lose the amount she has to. I mean, gimme her 13 kg weight loss and I should already have hit the jackpot! (The almond tip works ok, just a few is enough to keep me full. Trouble is, it's addictive and you must know when to stop!)

By the way, back to our Twist and Step Shape machine. It has worked for me in the past. Some years back, I did lose some, just stepping 100 times a day. It's convenient because I can hop on it at any time. However, I guess with exercise, you need some variety. It gets boring after a while. So I'll vary between climbing real stairs, running the park trail, twisting and stepping and doing some very unglam belly dance moves in the confines of my room. Last night, hubs boastfully said, '100? No problem!' After only 50, he climbed off it, huffing and puffing and I innocently asked him where the other 50 went to. He said he was wrong.

I on the other hand, got motivated by the thought of my fat bum and thighs and perservered. At 77, I wanted to get off already, who cares about rounding it off to an even number? But instead, I decided to count to 10, then start from 1 and count to 10 again until I finally reached a hundred. Lying to my ownself. But it worked. Mind over matter. The beauty of it all? My legs aren't aching today.

On a spiritual note, I find that Satan is prowling very close to me. He's a growling, chained wolf and he keeps stretching out his paws, trying to scratch me. To keep it at bay, when I feel compelled, I either sing the few hymns I know by heart (I have a really bad memory) or pray in tongues or recite the Hail Mary. I am trying to pray the Rosary more. Truth be told, in the past, I'd always found saying the Rosary to be quite monotonous. But now, I feel so peaceful when I say it. I feel so good. I'm glad. I'm really, really glad. The Rosary is the story of the New Testament. When I say it now, it has a very calming effect on me. I get now, why so many great religious people have urged and urge Catholics to say the Rosary and why so many common people say it. I was blind but now I see.