When feeling stressed ...

Maintenance

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I am not a regular gym goer... what more about being fit and looking fit. I think I have given up hope long time ago to ever have a greek god type of body. I am just happy and contented if the current one that I have do not get any worse.

Growing older really sucks... the hair goes off (well..at least for my case. If you are a guy around my age and have full set of hair on your head, do note that I hate you!!), the smoothness of your face goes off, the elasticity of every part of your body goes off... I think I don't even need to list down more as these top three are already depressing enough.

So I guess that's why I feel really guilty if I skip gym for too long... well also because I am paying RM175 per month for that! I feel besides "maintaining", it is really crucial for health.

I don't do much weights when I am in the gym. I usually do the cross trainer for about 20 mins, then use the equipments for the abs, chest and shoulder for the rest of my gym time. My gym time also includes pouring myself a nice cup of coffee, then getting a nice seat and start reading the newspapers/magazines there. I guess that's why JW always sarcastically remind me that it is not a library. Well..at least I am still going to one, JW!!! What about you?!!

Well, I have been putting effort to wake up early on weekdays for gym nowadays. So far for the past month, I have been successful 2 times. Woohooooo.... aiya..must give ourselves some encouragement and motivation ma. Lets see how long this will last.

People my age (i.e. over 30).... how are you maintaining yourself?

Weird Dream

I have been wanting to get up early for gym these past few days but to no avail. Although I slept earlier than usual, my sleep had been plagued with weird dreams. So when my alarm went off at 7.00am, I woke up feeling very drowsy and continued to sleep until 1.5 hours later.

Am feeling so damn guilty now for not going to the gym for a month plus already. Tummy is also getting bigger. Darn!

NOT MINE!!

Anyhow, I remembered part of my weird dream from yesterday. I dreamed my boss came to me and told me that one of my colleagues is resigning. Then she pointed at the aircon unit with english text display and asked me to go find a software patch that can turn it into a simplified chinese display. How weird is that, I don't even read chinese!!

Hope I will sleep soundly tonight... I have a gym to go to in the morning.

Fish Spa

I have heard of Fish Spa for a while now but have not given it any thought until yesterday. While window shopping in Midvalley, we came across Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa and decided to give it a try. The fish spa treatment is not really so expensive, it's RM38 for half an hour... and this is only for the feet treatment.


Every customer will be issued an access card which serves as your time keeper. After washing your legs (yes... they do not want your smelly feet to kill those fish!), you will scan your access card to enter into the treatment area. 30 minutes after that, your number and name will be flashed on the LCD monitor to tell you that your time is up.

There were 2 round and 3 rectagular pools where these so called Doctor Fish were. Different pools have different sizes of fish. When I dipped my feet into the first one, it was so ticklish that I could not help shrieking. The aunty who shared the same pool as me looked at me with suppressed laughter.



I didn't want to embarrass myself further, so I concentrated and focused on something else...taking pictures. After a while, I got used to the sensation and tried the different pools there. Those fish were really a hungry bunch as once you dipped your feet in, a whole school of them would be nibbling away.


I am not sure how effective it is but I have to say that after the treatment, the soles of my feet did actually feel smoother.

After I reached home, I did some reading on this Fish Spa craze. Do click on the link for more info.

There are these debates going around about how most of the spas here are not using the original Doctor Fish which originated from Turkey. Most of these outlets are using a cheaper alternative called the "Chin Chin" from China which to us is known as "Tilapia". Those which nibbled on my feet yesterday were definitely baby tilapias.

Oh well... I am not really sure whether this should be bothering me. I guess as long as they do the job and nibble away my dead skins, I am fine with it.... oh and as long as they are NOT from the following species:

Postures

If you know me personally, you will know that I am not one of those people with good postures when walking, standing or sitting. Perhaps that's why I always get this neck and back pain. Hmm...maybe I should change my mattress and pillows as well... when I get my next year's bonus la.

Anyway recently I received this forwarded e-mail on correct postures when sitting and using the computer. Very very important for us desk bound people. If you have seen it before, no harm reminding yourself again, right?

Neck Pillow

One look at this and you would think that this is a neck pillow.

You are correct!

However this is no ordinary neck pillow. First of all this pillow is not fluffy and is heavier as compared to the other neck pillows.

When you turn it to the other side, you will see an electrical socket. Yes, this pillow comes with a power cord to be used with the socket.

This is the Taiwan Kang Bao warmness healthy pillow.

I got it for RM48 yesterday at NZX in Ara Damansara. Initially I was a bit sceptical about this product but after 2 of my colleagues bought some, I thought no harm of giving it a try. After all, it's not so expensive and I can really use something to help with my constant neck pain... that is if I don't turned out to be a sucker.

This pillow is filled with medicinal liquid (according to its brochure) and is effective in relieving bodily pains (also according to its brochure). So if you have neck pain, you use it on your neck. You have stomach pain, you use it on your stomach. You have waist pain, you use it on your waist.

When I got back to my apartment, I plugged in the electrical cord to heat it up. It took about 5 minutes to completely heat up. After I unplugged the power cord from the socket, I used it on my neck. It felt really hot at the beginning but after a while, my neck pain really gone!!

I guess it's like bathing with very hot water as hot water relaxes the muscles... except that with this pillow, you don't get wet and the heat is concentrated on a particular area. I used it again today and am really happy as my neck felt like it could turn 360 degrees now (well not exactly, hehe).

Indeed I am one happy customer. Oh by the way, this is not a paid post, okay??

Cough Cough

Since coming back from Bangkok, I had sore throat which slowly turned into terrible coughing. At times I felt as if my whole lung would fly out from my mouth. What didn't help was the office's air-con which made the cough even worse. I couldn't even turn on my room's air-con at night because it would cause my throat to go dry and my coughing to go non-stop.


This morning, I woke up as usual (around 7.30am) to feed my dog and felt rather lethargic. After a while, it didn't get any better and I decided to sms my boss that I would be taking MC today. Made myself Milo plus Quacker Oats and watched "Breakfast Show" on NTV7 hosted by Naz and Daphne for a while. I love them by the way. They just have this great chemistry hosting together. In between them talking about today's headlines and their interview with a makeup artist, I fell asleep on my couch.

I woke up but my dog was not in sight. Usually he would be at my feet. Got panicked for a while fearing that he would be marking his territory here and there (well, he recently became a big boy and started to pee here and there when no one was looking). Then I found him snuggled in his kennel.

Continued watching the TV and Martha Stewart came on air. She made some lemon tarts. I never knew how to cook but I do find it fascinating sometimes watching all these cooking programmes. Cooking seemed to be a very systematic and step by step activity and at the end, you get the product. Hmm... I did think of taking up cooking lessons but I am sure the plan will be swept under the carpet along with my plan of taking Thai lessons.

After that, I went to consult the doctor to get my medicine and MC. Apparently it's a coughing season now as the doctor said "Oh...you got it too!". He prescribed some tablets for sore throat and phlegm; some antibiotics and the whole bottle of cough syrup. Total=RM40. I then had pan mee for lunch and now back at home.

I wondered, what do people normally do at home when they are on medical leaves? Well..I meant the genuine case of sickness la. I doubt they can sleep all day right? Hmm...for me, I guess I would probably sleep a little, watch a little bit of TV (I don't have Astro!) and surf the net a little.

Hope my cough gets better tomorrow. I wouldn't want my colleagues to avoid me like a plague.

Detox Plan Aborted

My detox plan this weekend is aborted. I got the flu bug.

Guess I will have to do it some other day... maybe after my vacation to Thailand next week. Don't hate me.... AirAsia had some promotion and I could not say "No". Furthermore, work load is at the low point during this period of time, so I quickly seized the opportunity and applied for leaves. Geez...I am sure I will be eating a lot of sinful stuff during my vacation!

Well, seems like it's the best time to do my detox then. I will be broke after the vacation, and fasting will help me to save. See...more reasons to fast!!

Detox

I am planning to do a Detox Fasting this weekend. It is basically a Water Fast where for the whole day, you do not take any solid food. Water or pure fruit juice is allowed. Then the next morning, you take some "potion" and then start purging.

I have used this method before a few years back but I only did it once because it was very tough!!! Imagine having to fast when you love food so much! I remember the last time when I did it, I broke fast the next day with a big bowl of.....CURRY MEE!! So much for detox, right?

Anyhow, I need to take up this challenge as my favourite jeans seemed to be getting tighter lately. Besides it may help with lowering my cholesterol too.

So I e-mailed my good friend, Flo to get the instructions of doing this Detox Fasting. Apparently this is the way advised by Yoga practitioners too....although there may be slight variations.

Instructions
(excerpt from Flo's e-mail + my own words):

This fasting must be done 1 - 5 days before 1st day or 15th day of Lunar Calendar. So choose any one day which is most convenient for you.
I can't wait... so I am doing it this weekend!

Day 1:
Drink 500 ml of water in the morning after waking up.

Do not take solid food for the whole day.
Try not to drink the whole day unless very thirsty - take a few sips.
If really really hungry, then take an apple but advisable not to.
Go to bed early at 10pm.

Day 2:
Wake up early (If working day - 5am. If Sat/Sun - 7am)
Prepare the "potion" (i.e Juice from 1 lemon + 1 teaspoon of sea salt + 500ml of room temperature water)

Drink the "potion".
Half an hour later, drink 500ml to 1 litre of water.
Purging will happen anytime soon and may happened a few times at no specific interval.
In between purging - drink about 500ml of water. Don't drink until want to "muntah".... Just drink what you can drink.
After all the purging, swallow little little bites of 1 banana - do not chew. This will act like a sponge to clean the lining of the intestines.

After that, u can take either fruits or yoghurt for breakfast. Yoghurt is good to replenish whatever good bacteria that is lost during the detox.
For lunch, take something light - vege or fruits then night as normal.

Bad Report

Got my blood test report back yesterday. I have been trying to make it a routine to get my blood checked every year although I skipped that last year. I usually go to Pathlab for this.

Anyway my report is noooooooo gooooood. You know like in your school exam papers when you made any mistakes and the teachers would highlight them with red ink?.....well in Pathlab's reports they would highlight those test results which fell out of the healthy range. They do this using the fluorescent yellow highlighter though.

My report has quite a bit of highlighting done.. :-(

My main problem was low HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), borderline LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and high triglycerides (fats!). The other problems were pretty minor and due to stress, sleeping late and too much of beans intake (yeah...I took too much of soya bean milk!!).

The consultant who explained my report to me told me that I need to really adjust my diet due to my cholesterol levels. She said with my slim size (did I tell you how much I liked her??), the fats could easily cover most part of my blood vessels.

Looks like its bye-bye to all my favourite food like nasi lemak, rendang, curry, fried kuey teow etc etc... oh dear, why am I feeling depressed writing these... :-(

Mmmmm...

Oooooooo...

Yummy.....

I think I should just go kill myself now.

Oh... and I will need to start my gym routine again....and it's no longer for vanity sake!

Sinful Breakfast

I was about to chow down on my breakfast at my working cubicle just now when a colleague walked past and shrieked. She saw the breakfast that I was about to take and reminded me on my cholesterol level (which is by the way, just a little teeny weeny above normal). The breakfast I was having is fried noodles with fish cake:

She then proceeded to make me feel bad by telling me that her usual breakfast is oats. She has a good point. I have been having Nasi Lemak or fried noodles for breakfast rather frequently. Coupled with my gym skipping for more than a week now, I am really leading a not so healthy lifestyle.

Okay...let me finish my delicious looking fried noodles and fish cake first... then I think about a healthier lifestyle. Mm.....so yummy.....