Putting God first

(Friday, Jan 28, 2011)

Firstly, I missed yesterday... was a bit tied down in the office for a presentation so didnt have time to write. My bad... my toe is getting better. I am starting to walk back up and down the steps. So that is good...

Anyway, as I have mentioned, I am doing the Divine Diet which requires me to memorize bible passages to. So the first one which I have done is Matt 6 : 33 --> Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things will be added unto you.  It basically sums up the importance of always putting God first, which includes before our weight loss efforts. One of the readings also said that we shouldnt be a slave to the weighing scale which totally challenged my objective of having a weight loss tracker at the bottom of the page! I get the point in which the passage was trying to get at - we obsess with the amount of weight we are trying to get rid of and not the fact that we should be practicing positive and healthier habits which in turn will help to get rid of the weight. So, right now, I am still tossing if I should keep the tracker...

Anyway I need to catch up on my food journal:

Thursday:
Breakfast : cereal + milk + banana
Snack : watermelon juice
Lunch : Miso soup
Snack : Fruits + pineapple juice
Dinner : Miso soup + small bit of chicken
Snack : fruits

Friday:
Breakfast : Coffee + banana
Snack : pineapple + orange juice
Lunch : Salad
Snack : Salad (didnt finish it earlier)
Dinner : Chicken + vege (think I ate too much..)

Exercise:
Thursday & Friday
Up-down the 5 flights  -twice.

Sore toe

(Wednesday, Jan 26, 2011)

My toe has been hurting for a bit, but I have high tolerance for pain (relatively speaking) so I have been ignoring it till i could no longer. Turns out I have a toe infection so I need to lay off covered shoes till it heals.. and to make it worse, a groups of friend just confirmed plans to go to the park on Sat to exercise! But even so, I can still move up and down the stairs... just have to try not to place too much pressure on the the toes.. so today I am taking a break from the stairs till the numbing pain subsides...

Today is day 3 and I am already getting used to it... but because I am on antibiotics, I was encouraged  instructed to eat something a bit more solid. So that totally mucked my detox and my exercise. So am not in a happy bunny mode, will keep this short.

Breakfast :  milk + banana
Lunch : veges & skinless chicken
Snack : pineapple juice & papaya
Dinner : baked potato
Snack : guava + watermelon

Flushing the gut

(Tuesday, Jan 25, 2011)

Every once in a while, I believe it is good to give them pipes a good clean... So, this week, I am starting my detox again. I do this periodically for 1-2 days sometimes, but if you want to see good proper results, it is best to do it between 5-7 days. It was after my first round of detox a few years back when I realised I COULD master my eating habits! It was only a question of IF i wanted to.

When I did my first detox, it was very strict. I followed the diet, ate the supplements, did the juicing and I saw positive ressults.

So, yesterday was my first day... I will go into my menu in a bit, but call it Divine Intervention again, cos last night as I was uploading the previous post, David Chatwin from BTL encouraged me and shared his blog with me. I read about his "cleanse system" which is another name for detox. So again, I felt this warmth feeling that I am where I am suppose to be and God in his quiet awesome manner was encouraging me along the way.

So basically, the rules are:
1. No sugar & salt
2. No carbs
3. LOADS of water
4. LOADS of fruits & vege
5. No meat

So, this was what I ate:
Breakfast : Cereals + milk + banana (the only carbs I allow myself)
Snack : orange & apple juice
Lunch : Vege soup
Snack : papaya
Dinner : Vege soup
Snack : fruit juice

Exercise:
Up and down 5 flights twice...

1 day down... 4 more to go!

Catching up

My net at home has been acting up and lieu of Chinese New Year and me enjoying what little moments of peace I have before the workload starts after it, I have been bumming and really not been thinking much about thinking... hahaha...

Anyway, that explains the silence - but I have been blogging, cos will be uploading them shortly in batches....

A heavy burden

I havent actually told anyone about this blog or my efforts. Heck, even my own bf doesnt even know! I am not really sure why I havent told him, cos I tend him (almost) everything.

BUT... about 2 hours ago, I fessed to a friend of mine - not really an old friend, but just someone I felt I really wanted to share it with...

But seriously... I dont know why I am keeping this such a big secret... I have been reading about a lot of people on Blog to Lose and many of them write about their families and friends being really supportive so not sure why I am not sharing this with them. I guess another question to sleep on while I also ponder on the earlier 2 questions as well...

So, my food journal for yesterday...
Breakfast : Fruits + coffee
Snack : Peanuts - a kid in church offered me a few
Lunch : Salmon steak + Miso soup + vege.
Dessert : A few small spoons of choco pudding + a small piece of pancake (WHAT!? Weekends are off days lah)
Snack : Had some cookies - sampling chinese new year cookies before purchasing it... hehehe..
Dinner : Wasnt really hungry so had some crackers with salsa sauce + lite sour cream

Exercise... er... nothing *hangs head in shame*

Soul Searching

As part of my commitment to losing weight, I have been reading a lot about weight loss tips, healthy recipes and how those successful achieved their goal as well as simple exercises I can do whenever. So, during the course of my reading, I came across this site, which eventually led me to another site which raised 2 interesting questions for me.

1. Why the heck are you doing this?
   
2. What are you afraid of?
   

Interesting questions and whilst I think I have the answer to the first question, I am not so sure about the second... Might need to sleep on this a bit longer!


 
*__*

Blog to lose

I blogged about an article I came across about how some people have blogged their weight loss journey... so as I was reading their blogs, I came across Blog to Lose, an online community started by Roni who also started to blog to lose weight about 5-6 years ago for those who want to lose weight or provide support to those who want to.

So, I decided I needed a support group who will keep track and make me accountable of my commitment and also  like minded people who will not make me feel bad when I occasionally feel like I am falling off because they probably understand how I feel. So just signed up and will figure out how to link my blog to that community (i am not entirely IT savvy... :-P)

So... here is to another step to be more serious about this!

Real Dum Dum!

So I did something dum dum on Friday when I left the office - I forgot my First Place devotion book, so needless to say I havent read my devotion for Sat and Sun! It is a bulky book lah... but then my handbag isnt small either... I can anything in there! Maybe a tank too... (instead of just the regular kitchen sink).

And... I also didnt blog yesterday... was kinda tied up with some work and also recovering from the night out.

As mentioned, I went dancing, and seriously, i have not danced like that in a long time! Although 10 years ago, I used to dance a lot more! But it was good exercise... but I did feel a bit conscious amongst all them twiggies dressed to the nines who were there to get noticed... skirts as tight and high as the moon, boobs almost spilling out from the boobs (you can tell some were def using some seriously massive push up bras!), make-up and hair only suited for the run-way! And I havent even mentioned their uberhigh heels!

And as usual, there I was (sometimes never change, even after 10 years!), a decent top, barely any make-up, some accessories to make up for the lack of flair in my clothes and make-up and FLATS! I do not dance in heels... heck I sometimes can barely even walk in mine... ok... that is a lie... I can walk, but I do not dance in them.

So, that is the work-out... BUT after a night of dancing (and drinking), you get a bit peckish... so we indulged in some terribly not healthy food - hokkein mee (stir fried noodles) at 4am! Went home and went straight to bed... *hangs head in shame!* Needless to say, I didnt wake up to walk... in fact I could feel all the weight I lost crawling back into my butt and thighs!

So... food journal 
Friday
Breakfast : Cereals + banana + milk
Snack : Coffee
Lunch : 2 vege & 1 piece of chicken
Snack : Banana
Dinner : Chicken sandwich

Saturday
Breakfast : Milk
Lunch : small portion of noodles with lean pork
Snack : Weight watcher's cookies with diet rootbeer
Dinner : wasnt really hungry, so had some digestive biscuits with cheese with a pot of chinese herbal tea that is meant to help with the bloated feeling I have been having for a while now.. (not sureif it really worked tho, still feeling gassy!)

Exercise journal
Friday - Dancing
Saturday - walked up my apartment with a bag of groceries... I gave up halfway and took the lift... (ppl, it was 8 flights lah..., BUT I vow to be able to go up all the way by February!)

PS... I am starting a new lable - Hall of Shame... why? To document my excuses so I can see what my pitfall is!

Engine not cranking up as fast...

After blogging yesterday I decided I needed to move my ass. So I started cleaning the house... moved all my house plants which were obviously dying inside to outside my apartment and "relatively" sorted out my room and then swept and mopped the house. Didnt sweat as I normally do, but it was a chilly day anyway...

But today, I realised that while I am slowly doing this, I also need to reprogramme my brain to accept the fact that it is going to be subjected to a lot of physical activity. So today I walked up and down the stairs when I went to get my lunch. Going up wasnt as bad as I thought... so tech I shouldnt have a problem doing that. Also.. because of where my apartment is and my car park I should do that when I get home too! Some form of exercise lah.. I am also planning to take a walk tomorrow... Hopefully i can kick myself out of bed in the morning! The spirit is willing, but the body is so not conforming! Am also going dancing tonight! So I intend to wear my most comfortable shoes and DANCE! I havent danced is a LONG time! 

Ok... yesterday's food journal :

Breakfast / brunch : Yogurt drink + 2 slices of bread

Lunch : mix vege + burger meat + beans (no bread)

Snack : Papaya

Dinner : Tosai + mutton curry (yes I know... clogging the heart!) been a while since I came to this shop lah... plus I am detoxing next week... give me a bit of love lah... 

Exercise journal:

Chores 

Yes... I am starting to journal exercises too.. after all, a proper weight loss plan should involve physical activity also right!? 

A gentle hard kick

"... everytime I get jut a little too far away from Him, my loving Father gently corrects, convicts and draws  me back to Himself"

Today is a public holiday and I woke up lazing around the house. It wasnt till mid-day I remembered my daily responsibility to update my food journal. And aptly the above was part of today's passage. So I suppose this is another "not to gentle reminder" that I am where I am suppose to be... working out this programme again.

Yesterday was a bad day... I was a bit cranky about something... so hence, I indulged in a bit of soul food to cheer myself... not that it totally worked, but it tickled the taste buds since it has been a while since I last had a cornetto. The issue hanging over my head bothered me so badly, I went out for drinks with the girls. I am wondering also if my sudden craving for ice cream due to my soon-to-arrive period... which may also lead me to wonder if the issue over my head due to my hormones.... seriously... women sometimes have it bad lah...

So... food journal:
Breakfast : cereal + milk + banana
Snack : Jambu
Lunch : Cold pasta salad
Snack : cornetto ice cream
Dinner : Buns + soup + watermelon
Snack : Fries + JD with green tea (interesting mix... you should try it!)

PS... I am working towards detoxing next week... Tummy has been feeling off-beat... :-(

Who is meeting all your needs?

Ok... lets start with yesterday's embarrassing food journal...

Breakfast : cereal + milk = banana
Snack : jambu
Lunch : 2 vege + 1 beancurd + mutton curry (i could actually feel the heart clogging!) and no ricelah!
Snack : Jambu & banana
Dinner : Curry mee (way too much santan - do didnt even finish it)
Snack : *gulp* chocolate balls :-(

*sigh*... So much for yesterday's post about me managing my eating... I do... but perhaps not consistently lah... :-/

Today's passage talked about our priorities - what drives us to do the things we do, and in this case, to lose weight. And of course, the monumental statement is "... set my primary focus on Jesus... God is the One and only one - who can meet all your needs."

The last time I did this programme, I did it for 3 months. I lost the weight. Felt happy. Was exercising more. But now in retrospect, I wonder if I was doing it because of Adrian. Adrian is someone I am dating. At that time, his mom said I was fat.. not suitable for her son. *yes... very traditional asian thinking* While I did tell him that this is who I am, so take it or leave it, (which he did take ^__^ ) I still ask myself if I was doing it to prove a point or win favour. I honestly feel, that I am not sure about the answer. Perhaps I did, cos when we started dating again (we took a short hiatus to evaluate the direction of our relationship) i slowly stopped the First Place / Divine Diet plan, BUT the food intact was still in (moderately) check.

So what is different now?
1) I feel my relationship with God straining. Not that I am turning away, but I just feel lonely sometimes... empty. I know he is there but I feel I havent been spending enough time 'dating' him...

2) I do want to lose weight and be more healthy. Mom had a fall and almost injured her operated hip. If I want to be able to bend down and pick up my child (which I hope to have soon within the next 5 years) and sit on the floor to play with him / her, then I need to make sure I am physically fit!

3) The programme works! And it is true... if we can have a commitment to a programme, why cant I make concrete my commitment to God? And if I can make my commitment to God, why not a something (relatively) trivial like a weight loss programme!?

^__^

A sore bum

So as you can guess, I fell of the wagon - with a loud THUMP! But not from the weight loss effort, but more so in blogging about it. I guess I got really busy and somehow couldnt figure out how to fit this in. But the weight has come off... and 1-2 kgs have stayed off occasionally yo-yoing about.

I read this morning an interesting article - it is almost as if God was kicking my behind. So needless to say, I dug out the blog again.

So, here's a recap of my exploits since my last blog. (Lets not even go into the food journal ok!)

I havent been exercising regularly... but I have started back my Divine Diet plan... But I am being realistic about it, as in focusing on getting my devotion in check first. If I can commit to my devotion, then I will slowly be more consistent with my gym and exercise. I have been cutting down on chocies and ice cream, but biscuits are still my evil. So I no longer hoard biscuits at my work station.

So, today's topic in my devotion was the "why" to putting God first. There is a passage that struck me, esp since I am on the path of trying to get a new job that will be less stressful than my current one.

The apostle Paul tells us that God will give us the fruit of the spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control" (Gal. 5:22-23). If my life possesses all these spiritual qualities, then I truly have all these things because my life is richly blessed and in balance.

I know my life is not balanced at the moment... which is why I am starting here, BEFORE I even bother trying to get my weight in balance!

So in a nutshell, it is time to take the bull by its horns and ATTACK!

PS... not the most appropriate photo, esp when the bottom part says "and take a nap" but it is too cute not to share!