The Original Juice

Some of you may have seen this photo on my FB - but this will be the full story of how I discovered this gem.

I still remember that fateful day 3rd of October 2011, my first sister, Ashley, begged and begged me to go with her to Wellness Express Studio (just across the street) for moral support on her first liquid lunch. I was totally dragging my feet to go there because I wanted to eat REAL FOOD. But because I'm a *cough* good *cough* sister, I followed along.

I just listened to what her coach shared with me about the benefit of good nutrition.. How the aloe concentrate mixed with water helps to clean your internal system, and how 500ml of their thermogenic tea is equivalent to running twice around the tracks. I did not doubt the product. What I doubted was the taste and whether it could truly keep me full. I did the free health evaluation but walked away free.

As time goes, Ashley updated me how she's been going there every lunch time that she was available and how she had lost 1kg after a few drinks. And the bell started ringing for me and i thought, "Why not just give it a shot? You've run out of other options. Slimming centre is too expensive. Don't have time for gym. Cant take slimming pills cos not BFing safe."

With that, I bought a 10-day membership pass to drink the shake-tails (chocolate/vanilla/tropical base shake + assortment of fruits) for lunch. After my 5th session, I discovered I actually lost 1kg! I actually was still not entirely convinced. I mean weighing yourself in the morning, you will often find you are 1kg lighter before breakfast. so 1kg was like... nothing.

And then they started bugging me to enter the Weight Loss Challenge to potentially win $1,000 / $500 / $100 / $50 / $50. You have nothing to lose, just fats! The reason why I was so reluctant was because I'm afraid I'd be lazy to make my shakes in the morning. I like drinking it for lunch when OTHER people made it for me. But what one of the operators told me kinda sink in, "You just need to work hard the first 3 - 6 months. After you've reached your ideal weight, you just need to maintain..." I took another couple of session to finally sign up for the WLC.

To make a long story short, I lost 5kg and 3% body fat by the end of the 1-mth challenge. I did not win but I still walked away happier than ever having lost so much and stayed motivated throughout the process, thanks to my sisters and my coach.

That was end of November. December was my "off" month due to my 2 weeks holiday to Turkey and Spain (To be blogged!!!). Surprisingly I maintained my weight with just one shake a day but A LOT of eating! I've lost a further 2kg as of today. and have another 6kg to go till 55kg.

I'm VERY DETERMINED to be healthy! *wink*

I'm supposed to write about how me and my colleagues went out for Eid visiting for the first time! But I haven't saved the pictures they've tagged me on FB yet... So you hafta take this instead...

I'm not sure if this is being OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) or not but I have this sort of habit to finish my stash before opening a new packet or box of something. For example, my stock of treasury tags, the green strings...

Please excuse the messiness of my drawer

Most of the time I will finish the ones that had been taken out from the box earlier, to the very last piece, before opening a new one. I feel like they're calling me to use them... they don't wanna stay in the drawer for long. They wanna be useful!


I will feel upset when a pen, whose ink I have been trying to finish before using a new one, suddenly disappear! It's like I don't have closure to using it till the very last drop!


At the grocery store when buying milk, I can't help feeling guilty when I choose the carton with the longest expiry date because I know I won't be using it to cook within the week.


I can almost hear them scream "Pick me! Pick me!!" Maybe I even sometimes secretly say, "Sorry, I have no choice."

Do you have this kinda though too? Or is it just me?

I'd like to tell you that my first two Ramadhan nights have been fruitful. But that would be lying.

Somebody's screenshot of the game

When we woke up, I tried to feed Tufeil but he had no appetite. He asked to watch some cows and we happily played game again. I finally managed to get him to eat Mashed potatoes with sausage after which, he wanted to sleep again! Woohoo more time for me....

I urged him to eat some more when he woke up an hour later. I made his favourite nutella sandwich. It certainly tested my faith bcos it happens to be my favourite too. LOL. While he ate, I let him watch TV and I dozed off on and off ... until 6pm, when i told myself, "Enough is enough!", pulled myself together and cleaned up and prepared for break fast.

What a total waste of the day when I could have been reaping rewards doing good deeds. I know. I'm ashamed of myself. I pity my soul self.

(That's not to say I did not sleep smiling that night)

At last, I'm officially Divorced.

We separated ways on 12th May 2009 when Tufeil was 6 weeks old. There were attempts to reconcile but it fell through. I recall a few people dropping comments on my blog asking how come I didn't write about Z anymore. I didnt really answer directly to the point because at that juncture, it was also not clear to me whether the marriage would last or otherwise.

It took about 6 months to go through the registration process and counselling and to reach the Filing of Summons stage. And then I ignored that and the case was automatically closed. I reopened it abt a year ago. Had to go through all those again. and after filing of summons was the mediation. Alhamdulillah, we were able to get to an agreement on maintenance for the child and mine as well as custody in one session.

Filing of Summons was about $35 for both parties. Mediation $135 for plaintiff, in this case, me and $35 for defendant.

I won't dwell on my reasons for this divorce. Suffice to say that he uttered the Talak (divorce) and there were a huge communication breakdown and trust issues and that his only reason was because of my family.

It is ok if you think I deserve it. It is ok if you think it's my own doing for being so naive and got married after 6 months of knowing a guy online. I'd like to think that I've come out of this more matured. I've become a responsible mother/person (albeit still a lazy and uninspired one but hey, I've started cooking and cleaning, that's HUGE!).

The most annoying part about being separated/divorced is people assuming you're happily married. I have had complete strangers asking me "When are you having a second one?" and a cab driver "Wah you go out alone with your baby ah? Your husband never follow you ah? Wah so good are you. you let him sleep at home." Most of the time I don't care to explain that I'm separated/divorced because it will inevitably lead to insensitive questions like, "Oh what happened?" And then... "Oh im sorry..." God! It's like a broken record.
I don't miss him at all. In fact, believe you me I'm very much happier from the moment he left. All the worries and heartaches just poofed into thin air the moment I decided I no longer care. However, I do miss being loved and taken care of. God knows it has been more than just those 2 years of separation. I am not entirely certain the right guy is out there for me. But, a girl can dream.

Most importantly is I have sole responsibilities of bringing up Tufeil to be a good muslim. It won't be easy but Alhamdulillah for the good support system I have. I may complain a lot but without my family and friends, I'd've prolly turned crazy by now.

Nowadays, I live one day at a time. One paycheck to the next.

At the last minute, my parents decided to bring Tufeil along to their 2D 1N Port Dickson holiday cum wedding invitation for the weekend.

Of course, I was totally elated! This is my first ever free as a bird weekend! Let me see what did I do...

Sat, 2nd July 2011

Woke up at 7.30am to get Tufeil dressed. Watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy and back to bed from 10.30 to 2.30pm. It wasn't really refreshing bcos I kept getting nightmares of waking up late for my 4pm appointment. You know the kind where u though you've woken up but realise you're dreaming and your body is still on the bed?

4pm - Eye and face treatment at NYS.

6.30pm - Library. Found 4 of Mary Janice Davidson vampire queen's novels

7pm - Dinner @ Breeks with my books and beautiful Ice Cream Crumble. I had to specify to them that I want more crumble because the last time it was pitiful!

8pm - 10pm Changed bedsheet, vacuumed and mopped the house.

10pm onwards - watched more grey's anatomy and played SuperMarket Mania 2 while streaming the video (WHY SO SLOW NOWADAYS SINGTEL?!?!!?!?!)

11.30pm - ZZzzzz

Sun, 3rd July 2011

Had to wake up early (9.30am) because I have a singing practice at 10.45 at my friend's place. Followed by TRANSFORMERS

Just finished my 4th lesson of Cardio Jam and I'd like to think I'm getting better at it.

First lesson, a temp guy trainer taught us and it was awful cos i cld feel his lack of dedication. Without any clue how it was going to be, I was shocked at how strenuous it was! I also didnt have any sport shoes so i wore my comfortable mary jane instead and my knees hurt.

The next 2 days, my whole body ached like crazy. I blamed him for not stretching us properly.

Second week, Ange, our ex colleague who now owns her own dance/exercise mobile school, started. I still didnt have sportshoes so i went barefooted. It was horrible bcos i cldnt jump as it cld hurt my knees.

It was more fun w Ange bcos we know her and her style is very much like the previous dance instructor we had all gone for. She's attentive and corrects our posture and explains which muscle should be feeling some stretch, and that stretching your obliques (in various twisting moves) will help to tone your waistline. The most important thing is to focus everything on your core muscle: the abdomen. Always tuck it in (and therefore engaging it) when doing anything. Again helps you to slim your waistline.

Basically the session would start with some cardio moves incorporating some stretching movements like shoulder rotations while on the move, that make me feel like dying! And then proper stretches before we start being introduced to 5 or 7-steps routine. and then the winding down stretches which still involve a lot of abdominal engagement I can't really do.

On the 3rd week, I got my shoes already but was feeling a bit wheezy so I opted for lo-impact one - meaning there was no Jump in my steps. By the 4th week, the DYING feeling was very brief and I could even jump a bit.  I'm loving it!

We actually have another Stretch & tone (basically Yoga, i think?) class on Wednesdays. But I didn't think it would be effective for me so i don't go for that one. Besides, My parents have class on wednesdays anyways.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the 5th lesson this friday! We only have a total of 12. And can't wait for the dance class to start next!

Thursday, 16th June 2011.

Tufeil is out for the day and I squeezed in most of the things i needed to get done that day. I went for my eye treatment after such a long hiatus. The pause is caused by fungal infection (panau) on my face. While i suspected that it was because of the facial wash I bought at the Dead Sea, I also noticed that it got aggravated after each session so I stopped and waited for it to clear up using a medicinal cream called Fungicort.

Anyways, I forgot how lovely it feels afterwards. Because it's been so long, I immediately noticed the difference. I had been feeling so low because (among other things) my skin was so dull. I feel sorta rejuvenated now. Now that my parents don't have anymore classes on Sunday, I can start going regularly once and week.

LOVE IT! Love that they told the story of how Beast came to be and how Prof X got paralysed. Believe it or not, I used to watch the cartoon a lot when I was in primary school. I mean its not really a girl kinda show but I had loved it even then. However, if you ask me, the actor playing Prof X looks too young and cheeky for my liking. HAHAHAHA



Hate Flash



So with a 5% increment and the end of two loans, I felt ready to look at increasing my own insurance coverage. Because I was being loaded (extra premium) @ Manulife, the adviser told me to go back to Prudential where I have existing policies. I met up with Salmah my ex colleague who's handling my portfolio.

Inevitably, with the many health declarations I made, I was being sent for medical exam, lipids test and the like. My major concern is actually diabetes. I had Gestational one when I was pregnant and never did a glucose test again at 6th week, and family history is not on my side, so i really worried like hell. I prick tested myself sometimes. While in the morning the reading was good at 5.0, an hour after a simple meal gave me a 7.5 (ref range 5.5-7).

On top of that, I found out that the reason I was loaded by Manulife was not due to diabetes but to abnormal liver function test!!! What is this Abnormal liver function test?? I tried to google it, but I couldn't understand anything out of it. But it did say that it's actually pretty common and that it could or could not lead to other diseases.

This made me feel quite frustrated with the M adviser. Because firstly, he only told me that my health was "terrible, very terribly" when I asked the reason for the loading which led me to suspect it might be diabetes. And secondly, Salmah pointed out that there's no use of an insurance policy for my son if I, as payee, is not insured. Meaning to say that if I, wanauzubillah, fall sick or whatever, I would still need to keep paying that premium.

Now the results from Prudential is back. They are loading me. But for totally different reason. They've also excluded bladder cancer and carcinoma insitu (early and concentrated cancer) bladder. From $50 budget, I hafta pay $104 per month for Early Crisis Cover. This program will actually pay for medical and other expenses if critical illness are discovered as early as Stage I and II. I actually didn't know that my current critical illness coverage would only pay out at advanced stage. *Slaps forehead*

But the good news is I'm cleared of Diabetes and any abnormal liver function. For that, Alhamdulillah wa shukru lillah.

I was a bit skeptical about Water for Elephants at first because the movie poster wasn't good enough and I'm not sure if I like a vampire turning soft. But that was the only show with the perfect timing other than Thor which June wanted to watch with her Abang.

And it turned out quite alright. Romantic and loveable. I just don't like how an old man was telling the story. Make me cringe at the prospect of such a good looking man could really age badly. LOL Sorry I'm so superficial! hahaha

And because we got our attractive VB (Alhamdulillah), I managed to finish of my study loan. Just 3 months in advance. HAHA but at least I feel a burden has been lifted! And I treated myself to MAC's primer and liquid eyeliner. =D So mentel me nowadays.


We were about 15minutes late for the hi-tea!! We got a lot of catching up to do, in terms of food intake, with our two friends who were already there.

A bit disappointing that today's theme for main dishes was Asian. Imagine Nasi Lemak, Chicken Rendang, Indian Rojak and prata, Spring Roll, You tiao, Pie Tee, Dumplings, etc... Cold dish, salad and dessert counters remain. PLUS they have DIY ICe Kacang!! YAYY MY FAVOURITE!



Prawns are a must. Mostly, its the sauce that's DELISH!

I had Lychee, jelly and peach in mine. w lotsa syrups

 

The Four of Us Behind from left: Hamidah, June In front: Haryani and Me



URGENTLY looking for someone to accompany me to go to Bintan / Batam or wherever this coming weekend. Without babies.

Sunday 3rd April 2011. I had about 5hours to myself at home and I got cracking in the kitchen. Thanks to kak Norza for sharing her Tasty Tuna Bake recipe she found in a book.

Tasty Tune bake
from Little Kitchen
1 small red capsicum, seeds and white membrane removed 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ cup milk
1 tablespoon plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 pinches of black pepper
1 x 425 g can of tuna
1½ cup cooked white rice
1½ cups grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the capsicum and onion into a food processor and blitz it to a paste. Tip the paste into a small bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Carefully scrape the paste into the frying pan. Add the tomato paste and fry for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Add the milk, flour, salt and pepper to the frying pan. Mix well and cook over low heat for a couple of minutes. Add the tuna, breaking up the chunks carefully and mixing it in very well. Spread the cooked rice over the base of the baking dish. Spoon in the tuna mixture and spread it over the rice. Finally, top with the grated cheese. Bake into the oven and cook for 14 minutes, or until the cheese is golden. Remove the baking dish from the oven and divide it into 4 big portions.

They actually ran out of Red Pepper at the Fairprice supermarket near my house so I had to use Green Pepper instead. And then to my horrors, I found that my fresh milk is gone from the fridge! (Not sure if somebody drank it or threw it away cause it may have expired?) So I had to substitute with Soymilk instead! HAHAHAHa Instead of rice, I used COUSCOUS because I have bought one quite some time ago and still haven't used it. Also, instead of Tuna, i steamed the Sutchi fillet I still have in my freezer.

I totally cheated by using sliced cheddar cheese.

Some people say the sliced ones are not 100% real as it contains fillers? *shrug*

•4 eggs
•1 1/2 cups sugar
•1/2 cup vegetable oil
•2 cups flour
•4 teaspoons baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup fresh orange juice
•zest from 1 or 2 oranges
•1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation: Preheat your oven to 350° F (180° C). Grease and flour a tube pan. If using fresh oranges, zest and juice them. With an electric mixer or by hand, beat together the eggs and sugar until thick. Gradually beat in the oil. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt, and then the orange juice. Beat until smooth, and then mix in the zest and vanilla. Pour the batter into your prepared pan, and bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 7 to 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

Got off on half day in the afternoon last Friday.

Went to The Cathay to catch Just Go With It. My FAVOURITE ADAM SANDLER!!!! But he gained weight, i think. Yikes~


The movie was nice and reassuring for me that you could still find a suitable match no matter how late in the day it is, where and when you least expect it to.

Before that, I managed to squeeze in some shopping at Plaza Singapura to spend my CapitaMall voucher. I went round the first level, second level, nothing caught my eyes. I only had $90 left and Marks & Spencer is just wayyy wayyy over my budget. I definitely wanted some clothes, you know the $10 or $20 kind but no such stores here. Then I saw John Little and grabbed a dark pink inner shirt, 2 t-shirts to wear at home (otherwise, it seems such a waste to be buying t shirts for sleepwear) and Pierre Cardin's Lovelies... LOVE THEM! 2 pairs for $42!

And AFTER the movie, I had to buy some provisions @ Carrefour to prepare for the lunch I'm hosting the next day. So can you imagine the chaos that was I in the train ride home in the rain...?