Yoga with Tara Stiles.

So a couple of weekends ago,
my baby sister won an opportunity
with Shape Magazine for
Yoga in the Sky with the amazing, Tara Stiles
sponsored by Reebok!






It was 630am and the best thing about it was,
the event was held on a helipad
and the view was just breath-taking.





Look at that sky.
No photoshop. No filter.

Just so dauntingly beautiful.






And the best part of the day was
I finally learned how to do a proper
Bakasana (aka crow pose).




Such a proud moment.






Wonderful goodie bags to take home
including two big boxes of Special K cereals
and boxes of Anlene chocolate milk!

What a great experience
which made me love yoga even more! x

Edited: A new healthy regime.

So i know that ive lost a successful
amount of weight in a very short amount of time
and ive worked very hard for this.

A strict diet, a discipline workout
and definitely no late night suppers.

I feel my body changing
and i know its not coping well
with the sudden drastic drop in weight
because I cant sit down properly as it hurts,
and i cant lie down properly as it hurts
but all those didnt matter because
I was happy i was losing ALL THAT WEIGHT for the wedding.

People have been telling me that
i should be putting the weight back on
since the wedding is over
but it has never registered to me
and i'd always think this is the best
ive ever looked in the longest time.

Until I saw this picture (above)
and to tell you the truth in the beginning,
i loved it.

I loved seeing my bones
and i loved how skinny i looked
but bear in mind,
im not underweight yet according to the BMIs!



This was taken about a month
AFTER the wedding and to tell you the truth,
I was about 400-500 grams LIGHTER in this picture
compared to what i weighed during the wedding.

Cant see a difference? Yeah neither could i.

So hence you see,
I could never tell
that i was losing weight so quickly.

Here's my routines daily:

600am: Wakeup.
635am: Running for 30 mins and 5 mins cool down. I practice *tabata training*.
735-800am: Shower and eat breakfast.
Breakfast can be cereal (50g) and milk (50ml) or protein shake (500ml).
1030-11am: Mid morning snacks: Green tea with Oats (200ml) or granola bar (1) or biscuits (i take meiji low cal biscuits: 7 for 90cal)
1pm: Lunch: Salad with very lil dressings or if im taking meat i usually poach them. Or if im very hungry that day, a bowl of pasta.
3-4pm: Mid day snack: Green tea with yogurt or 1 kiwi or biscuits or oats or granola bar
5pm: Sometimes if im very hungry, i have some dried apricots or 1 kiwi.
530pm: Yoga (i practice Ashtanga and Vinyasa)
8pm: Reach home, shower and do laundry
830-9pm: Dinner: Protein shake or oats (25g).

Note: I never let myself go hungry. When im feeling peckish, i'll eat but in small portions.
Also I drink alot of green tea and water in between and i count my calories and weigh my food obsessively.

Dont get me wrong.
I have my cheat days.

And honestly up til today,
i still hate cardio
and i still hate portion control.

I would love if i could to eat cake all day
and dont exercise at all.

I have many cheat days a week too,
the above is just what i'll have
when im alone at home.

Because i know the more you restrain yourself,
the faster you're gonna put on when you start
eating as per norm.

So i gave myself some leeway
for some cakes and chocolate (dark of course!).

But anyway when I saw that picture
of me at the wedding,
I decided to switch things up with my diet.




My fave breakfast drink at the moment,
banana and strawberry smoothie. :)

2 ingredients, fast, easy, healthy
and keeps you full for at least 2 hours! hehe.

(I never used to take bananas and chocolate milk because i hear they make you fat! But ive incorporated them into my new diet regime now to take them quite regularly as they are afterall healthy refuels for your muscles to build!)

So im constantly trying to change my diet
and also incorporating with my old one
that ive been doing for the past 10 months
to improve my health.

Plus my love for yoga has grown
especially since now ive stopped running
and eating more healthily.

Ive pretty much stopped trying to weigh my food
although I know its become a habit that i still do
and im still trying to change that. :(

In fact, im trying to do this new
*raw foodism* diet that i believe
might take me a while to change to
but im gonna take it one step at the time.

However at the meantime,
due to my lack of interest in food
for the past 10 months for the wedding,
i have a whole list of food places
that ive been dying to try and indulge
at a pleasant and controllable amount!

Afterall, PORTION CONTROL IS THE KEY! x

That drastic weight-loss.

So i wrote a majorly long post
last week about my weight loss.

But now that im trying to come out
or rather just eating healthily
just to maintain this weight
is proving difficult.

Im constantly afraid of eating
and im still secretly counting
and weighing my food.

To wrap up exactly how i feel,
here's an *article* i found today,
well except i do actually eat
and i dont starve myself.

But just everything else,
from the awareness of the disorder
but still afraid to eat,
to the measuring of everything
i put in my mouth in the article,
just absolutely describes my fear.

The boy's aunt had been diagnosed
with lung cancer and is due
for a surgery today.

It's times like this that
i really want to change
my eating regime to be healthier.

Less oil, less frying, no canned food
and trying to eat a healthy balanced meal.

I know it'll take time
but its gotta start somewhere
and i'll work on getting over this
by eating more and healthier. :')

xxx

ps: you can read a bit more detailed
on what i did on this 9 month
weight-loss journey below, if you'd like
but be forewarned that I know what ive done
is quite extreme and isnt exactly healthy.
(which i wrote halfway then stopped! haha)

Stay happy everyone! x

----------------------------------------------


Okay so everyone has been asking me,
what have i been doing to lose the weight
in such a short amount of time.

I didnt quite want to blog about this
until after i hit my goal
(which has been a rolling goal haha)
just in case half way thru i lost the will
and decide to put the weight back on again
BEFORE the wedding. -_-

Thank god that didnt happen! haha

Honestly,
theres no short cuts.

I watched my diet and exercised,
just like every normal person would,
except the most important thing is,
I counted my calories.

Yes. As in literally weighed my food
to every kgs and every milliliters of milk
that goes into my cereal.

I was THAT obsessed.

It started with me talking to my baby sister
who is a nutrition graduate
and she said it was difficult because mainly
of the discipline that people cant maintain it.

So i decided to challenge myself.

The first few weeks were hard,
then it stuck on like a habit
and then it became an obsession.

To the point that it wasnt healthy anymore
and I was losing weight so quickly
(and everyday in fact i was losing bit by bit)
that if you didnt see me in a week,
I could have easily lost a kilo.

There were many points of time where i was afraid
that i might be sick and tried to change my ways
but then I'd go back to the gym and run off
all those extras that i ate during lunch.

Then i started keeping secrets
(which im about to confess now haha),
I took 2 hours away on the eve of my wedding day
just to go running in the gym.

I was so paranoid about looking fat
and honestly till today,
i still cant bring myself to take a selfie
because I just cant find the right angle
that made me looked thin,
even when i was already down 16.5kgs from January.

Of course there were many times,
especially during those time of the month
where I crave for more extras
and many times i came close to giving up
because i miss eating (ie milo which i had to give up for 9 months now),
then i reminded myself that i needed to look great
and be able to fit in my gowns
and constantly remind myself with loads
of fitness motivation quotes that kept me going.

And of course,
the constant nights which the boy
wasnt able to accompany me to eat
so i just stuck to simple things
like cereal, protein shakes for dinner
and then head to bed early for another round
of early morning gym session.

I think what made it even more drastic
was when my family did the annual vegetarian for a month
for the ghost festival (7th Chinese month)
and then i decided to gym twice a day
up to 6-7 days a week as it came closer (1 month)
before the wedding.

There were many times,
I just didnt want to run anymore
but the guilt that ive built this mentality in me
burns me literally and then I'll be feeling upset
and moody for the entire day.

Every slight changes to my weight affects my mood
and it has become a burden which even the boy realises.

I remember that one point when I didnt know
that PMS causes some extra water retention weight,
and ive been craving stuff all week and yet restricted myself
but still saw weight that ive put on on the scale,
and went to a corner of the kitchen and started crying.

It was a major nightmare.

Another confession is that its secretly pleasing to hear
when people are worried for my weight loss
and telling me im too skinny.

Just eat.

So for 7+ months,
ive been watching my diet,
counting my calories and exercising
like my life depends on it
that ive become so deprived
of sugar and carbs.

As of yesterday ive lost a total
of 15.2 kg in 7+ months
and as proud as I am with the results,
im blessed to be a girl as ive learned to realise
that no matter how much i eat within the lines
of that 1 and a half weeks before that "time-of-the-month",
water retention weight will definitely
take its toll along with constant hungers and cravings.

So yes, I still eat haha,
and i give in to it.
(most of the time in fact)

My weight goal is constantly rolling in fact.

Ive long hit my first goal
before shifting it lower
(ive got another 1.4kg to this 2nd one)
and now ive moved my 3rd goal even lower,
so taking a break once in a while
(well quite often actually haha),
is really cutting slack from all my deprivation. :)

So when it came to
satisfying my cravings,
i go all out,
especially when it was 1130pm
and I wanted a big plate of cabonara
at the Williams mamak stall.

It even glitters in your face, yo.

Heaven sent.x

Getting back in shape!

Im finally back home after 14 days away
and it feels so great to be fresh
and totally rejuvenated (except for the jetlag of course haha).

One thing i loved being back home
after a long long holiday,
was having to shop
and eat the amount of calories
I choose everyday,
which makes me feel in control of my body.



So craving for something healthy yesterday,
I whipped up a tofu salad quickly
in less than 15 mins for lunch.

Ingredients:
1) Half a romaine (which i thought was too much as well -_-)
2) One small red onion
3) One piece of tofu
4) 10 cherry tomatoes (again i thought that 5-7 was enough actually)
5) Furikake
6) Japanese salad dressing - roasted sesame seed (my fave!)

***

On a side note,
Ive a little less than a month to go
to my exam and I feel so unprepared.

Maybe rescheduling would be a good idea. -_-

Suzuki Night Market @ Melbourne.

Ive always been a flea-market-kinda girl
so i was so excited that we managed
to catch the famous Suzuki Night Market @
Queen Victoria's Market,
and only during summer that its around!

I loved the vintage clothes
but they were unfortunately
really out of my price range,
especially with the exchange rate
skyrocketing at that time we were there
but i did get two lovely handmade earrings
for a very good steal for both me and my sister. :)




And of course,
what is Melbourne without some
late night Max Brenner and great company? HEHE.


-------------------------------------------------


My lil heroine.


I've refrained from talking about the situation
on a public blog but I realised
how much i need to note this down
so we can look back at this day to celebrate,
"yeah you beat it".





Cant wait for you to get well
and be dancing with us on stage
at Chichi's wedding. :)

XOXO.

Randoms in January

MachoGary treats dinner! @ Japanese Restaurant (in Saujana)





Yummy but freakishly expensive!

HEHEHEHE Thanks MachoGary!


MSG.HennWei donating blood for the 1st time!





The boy finding out for the first time
what blood type he is and...
donating blood for the first time too!

His first good deed of the year!
So proud of him! :)

Unfortunately for me,
I had low count for blood cells
so i was unable to donate any. :(


Muah Chee.




Learned how to make muah chee
from scratch for the first time
from my aunt who was down from Amsterdam.

I also learned how to cook
*pan mee*, bake choco chip cookies
and also peanut cookies for CNY,
all from scratch!

Yay me!


Going on a healthy diet.




Changing my diet
for a healthier new year.

Got dried cranberries instead
to replace those unhealthy munchies.

That was one of my dinner in the 2nd picture:
Omelette with spinach and tomatoes. :)


Allen Tracy is home. :)



After not seeing the boy
for 5-6 years,
he has finally returned. :)

The boy joined the US army
about 5-6 years ago
and ive not seen him since!

My, my, how much he has grown!

Here's a picture of him and my sister
when we had a late dinner at Williams.

Unfortunately, he was only home for a short 3 weeks. :(


Suet Yee & Ernest's wedding!







One of the most anticipated
wedding of the year.

Congratulation you two
and enjoy your holidays! :)


Breakies with SF and Juls.



Unfortunately there wasnt any other photos taken. -_-

But it just comes to show,
how happy i was in both of their company. :)


Shamini's wedding!







Nearly teared
just watching how beautiful
my college classmate walked down the aisle.

It was rather confusing at first,
'cause her twin was in front of her
and was wearing a really similar saree
to her colour. T_T

Congratulations darling! xxx

Disclaimer: Not all pictures were taken by me, so thank you to all who generously provided me to steal. :p Sorry! haha!