Herbalife Progress_Week 2

Week 2
14 -20 Jan 2013

Again, I was pondering on Friday night why my weight has not decreased the amount I expected.
Total loss Week 1 = 1.2kg
Total loss Week 2 = 0.8kg

I even went to the gym 3 times (Tue/Thur/Fri) to really work on it, you know. And I was frustrated my weight on Saturday is the same as on Friday (71.5kg). Why? Oh Why?

I tried to think about everything on Saturday morning:
My menstrual won't start until end of the month
I drink as prescribed
I eat with controlled portion
I avoid greasy and fattening foods
I drank Tea Mix more than prescribed

Then it came to my mind, my bowel movement!

So I decided to take a colon cleanse pill later that night and the next day I felt energized. The weight show slight reduction but I was more than happy.

On Sunday night, we went to Alamanda and as usual, my kids wanted to eat at Rasa. I was nervous, whether I could resist the temptation. It was dinner time so I do need to eat. Decided to have Sisters' Crispy Roll x 2 but my hubby ate 1 roll (bravo!). We got home around 9.30pm. I felt kinda full so decided not to take Herbalife (bad decision?).

Before I went to bed, I weighed myself for the last data for week 2. It was 71kg! A drop of 0.5kg! I was even more happy! So the statistics now changed to

Total loss Week 1 = 1.2kg
Total loss Week 2 = 1.3kg Yeay!

Still....Not so much to win the contest :-(

Herbalife progress_Week 1

Week 1
7 - 13 Jan 2013

Everything went fine until Friday. I wanted to go home early but suddenly I was needed to solve some problems at the office. Sigh...
I was eager to go to have my 'dinner' at home (Shake F1)...Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock! It was already 7.00pm. I was so so hungry!... I had to ask my friend if she had something to eat. She had desserts and steamed chickpeas. I chose chickpeas (although the Gardenia chocolate bun was tempting) and ate about 1/2 cup. I decided not to take Herbalife for dinner thinking the calories has piled up from the chickpeas and it was too late to take the shake after 9pm. Boy....I was so wrong. I can take the shake even before I sleep. My 'coach' says the body can quickly absorb the shake and I need the nutrients for weight loss.

I didn't lose much weight after that. During the weekend, my weight stayed stagnant although I jogged moderately round a netball field x 3 (new activity to complete 3 physical activities per week). I also had grilled fish and maybe 1.5 cup white rice and stir fry veg on Sat. For Sunday, I had nasi ayam for lunch and cautiously controlling my portion of rice. I also had chicken & beef satay around 8-10 sticks. I felt I should have lost some weight because I was aware that I need to control my portions plus the added physical activity which I don't normally do.

I weigh myself twice a day bearing in mind this is just for data collection. I remind myself not to be affected by the numbers as it is not advisable to weigh too often (it may have demotivating effect when you see the numbers do not move). On both days Sat and Sun, my weight in the morning is 71.1kg. In the afternoon (logically you'll weigh more because you eat and drink compared to when you just get out of bed), my weight didn't budge at 72.2kg (it even increased by 0.1kg). That was my weight on Thursday night!

I expected my weight to drop a bit because of the low calorie intake. So when the scale showed on the contrary, I was about to get demotivated. When I'm writing this, it's already Day 2 of Week 2. Guess what, for Day 1 the number was still the same!

I started to think of extreme options instead of adopting healthier habits. Totally eliminate rice? Don't have my lunch? Give up?

Luckily, I was thinking of taking the ketone test. I took the ketone test right after I got off the bed this morning, not expecting anything (because the weight was stagnant). Then I saw the test strip quickly turned from faint yellow to maroon. Wow! That really got me excited! I never had that colour when I was on SDII! Maroon means moderate burning of fat. More about ketone and ketosis here. Then, I'm motivated again and asked myself to be patient and just do the best that I can.

Pic taken from here

Today, I went to gym for 1 hour doing the threadmill with max speed of 6.5 kmh burning 155cal in 20 mins. Keep up the good work ok!


P/S: My reason for the stagnant weight is poor portion control although I reduced carbo :-). Things to improve on this week :-)

Welcome 2013

Happy New Year everyone! How was 2012 for you? How about 2013? Hope it will be filled with goodies and continuous effort to achieve any unfulfilled resolutions.

I will start my 2013 with weight loss contest! Organized by Nutricity using Herbalife products, I am determined to win this! This is my 2nd attempt in weight loss contest. The first was last year somewhere in April organized by Nestle. The intention was to get the free 4 cereals boxes knowing it was impossible to lose weight when on holiday (I went to Vietnam) and in 2 weeks. I remember I didn't cut my food intake, exercise as normal and water intake was not satisfactory. Although I didn't win, I lost 0.9kg (which is nearly 1 kg). And they use % loss, not kg loss. So the heavier you are, the kg that you need to shed is more.

This time, I will do what it takes to win. Lama dah tak menang apa-apa.....My intention is to prove to myself that I can control my mind which in turn will control my body. "It's all in the mind" is the mindset that I really need to work on.

Other than to lose weight, my resolutions are basically what I wanted to achieve last year.

Progress of 2012 weight management

Not sure why but my weight creeps from 72kg (early Nov) to 75kg today! Sob!Sob!.... Actually, I do have some assumptions which mostly relate to my eating habit:

• Didn't drink enough
• Didn't control my portion
• Didn't control carbo/fat intake

With holidays and events happened during Nov/Dec, I didn't manage to monitor my weight.

I'm doing ok at exercise department. I still do 15 minutes brisk walking (that's about 120 cal) twice a week. I've been doing that for nearly a year and I'm no more too lazy to hit the gym. I praise myself for that.

Permanent weight loss takes time, doesn't it? Although I didn't reach my target weight (I think to lose 10kg in 2012) at least now I do squeeze in some time to exercise.

OK, exercise...checked. Next, is eating habit. Habit ok, thus need preseverence to improve. If I have a good eating habit, I've could have been able to maintain my weight since day 1!

My next strategy is to embark on meal replacement method. I did try once with SDII in 2009. That was before I was ready to change my habit/routine. I was on SDII just for weight loss without having a good plan or a good understanding that weight loss is a product from changing current habits/routine.

I'm more ready now and I'm thinking of taking Herbalife. Hope 2013 will bring better result with more kg loss!

Taking a breath. Updating Oct-Nov

Only today I manage to open this blog since the last time I wrote. My biggest challenge this year is over i.e. bibik went home for 7 weeks. Alhamdulillah she's already back last week, Friday 30 Nov.

I had a great time when I decided to take a 2 weeks leave including the Deepavali/Awal Muharram week in early Nov. It was a transition period between my mum and my mum in law to help us out during bibik's absence. I was hesitant at first to apply for the leave since it's quite a long break and knowing my boss, she would go beserk about it. However, I kept in mind that if this is for the good of others i.e my kids/parents, insyallah Allah SWT will be with us (new mindset I'm learning to incalculate in me)... Alhamdulillah, haven't heard any complaints and to express my thankfulness, I shall focus with work and deliver with my best ability.


Alhamdulillah too, our company did a salary revision starting Oct and staff in my Band have the highest increment. I can say I'm able to invest with the increment and I'm planning to buy a property for rent...

Plan = investment, Actual = Shopping???

Many things to update but due to lack of apparatus needed for basic blogging e.g notebook/IPhone/ camera, I could see my entries are on the low side compared to previous years.

Anyway, I feel really energetic today. I'm taking a break from work and sorting out pending stuff of my life (bosses are on leave). I feel more empowered to do work after attending 2 courses very related to my work. I'm ready to plan for 2013 for my family.

Today, I'm treating colleagues for lunch at a place they choose. I'm going now, so see ya!

It's starting to get BUSY!

Normally people associate busy with work. This time, my BUSY associates with my LIFE! Yes, I'm kind of having a panic right now.... things to settle, things to plan, preparing physical and mental for a temporary changes in my daily routine etc...Sigh.... Let me bore you with the full brief story....

Bibik is going home for 1.5 months (that's about 7 weeks). I've seek help from my mom and my mom in law to help out two weeks each. That left me with 3 weeks... so maybe my mom will have to do another 1 week,   and the rest...ME! Actually I do look forward to be at home again (temporary) as I strongly feel I need to spend more time with my kids and teach them about discipline and independence. 1 week is sorted out since I just need 2 annual leave to get 1 whole week off since there is Deepavali and Awal Muharam holiday. For another week, hubby will be off to Penang just before the Deepavali week. He suggested me to be on leave too so all of us can go to Penang and straight to Perlis once he is done with his work. I've informed my immediate boss about wanting to take 1 week off to take care of my kids and he said ok. Buttttttt....it's not him who approve my leave in the system....

Thus, I've plans for both moms while they are here as my appreciation for their great help. I want to bring them sightseeing during the weekend while they are here. Places in mind include Sungkai, Ipoh, Bukit Tinggi, Terengganu... Plans only in mind, no action plans yet.

Deadlines.... work related. Borringggg.......

Weddings and cake

My brother who is getting married asked me to sponsor him a wedding cake and I said OK. Browsed the internet to a order a wedding cake ideally Batu Pahat based. Found a few and asked for a quotation. I even googled on wedding cake designs and here are some of my favourites (all from the Internet. Sorry to owner of pictures as I forgot to copy your links ;-(

This is what I call simple and sweet

This is also simple & sweet. Cute with the dots

I first attracted to the polka dots contrast with the shape of the cake

This is what I call simple and sophisticated. I assume people will eat the chocolate frosting instead of scrapping it. Nothing goes to waste thus money well spent.

Love the colour!

The blue is refreshing but I know I won't be able to get that colour

Idea to combine cake and cupcake

I often see wedding cakes are impressive to look at with its grandeur presence but always left uneaten after the 1st taste. Wedding cakes are sometimes not nice at all with overfrosting that makes you feel immediately fat after eating it. Usually people just scrap the frosting off the cake because it looks too 'fattening'.

My original plan was to order a 3 tier (so it will look grand) delicious chocolate indulgence cakes (to ensure money is well spent) but that was before I knew wedding cakes are expensive. Cakes that fulfill my wishlist costs from RM500 to RM2,000! My budget is not even RM400. I have to choose either taste or grandeur. After some queries, possibilities and budget constraint, finally I decided to scale down to 2 tier and combine 7' pandan layer cake and a 10' chocolate cake. Decorated with steamed buttercream with swirls and sugarpaste flower/butterflies cam dlm gambar nih (well, not exactly). Nanti kita tengok hasilnya ya.....

And I ordered the cake from Lovelycakes based in Batu Pahat. A colour combination I like from the blog is as below:

Fingers crossed!

3 Jan 2013

This is the cake made by Lovely Cakes. I picked up the cake myself (the baker was a young lovely lady). I was so happy with the outcome, couldn't stop taking pictures of it (not my camera though). I think I would be so happy to receive this cake if I were the bride. So sweet & pretty!

Nothing went to waste. The icing was edible (not too sweet) complimenting the chocolate cake.

  

Don't know why the pic just doesn't want to rotate....