Having "Me" Time

If you've been following my blog you can probably tell that my life revolve around traveling, exploring new places, finding good places to eat and then running it off.  One cannot have all the good stuff without some spending some time to exercise and take care of one's body.   One important factor to maintaining one's health is to also understand what we eat.  What goes into our bodies?  What ingredients are used to cook what?  How is a croissant different from a whole wheat bread? They are both bread aren't they? What's in a quiche and fruit tart? While baking quiche and making fruit tart over the weekend a thought hit me.  This was a wonderful way to learn and realize what really goes into our food!  Here you get to know all the ingredients! Croissant, a favorite of mine requires lots and lots of butter for it to get all those layers and soft texture.  Oh how divine it is to just sink your teet...

My breakfast discussion this morning concerned attitudes and how most things in life depends on how you view and see things.  Definitely true.  While bicycling later on this past afternoon at the gym I read an article on how exercise is about setting goals and believing you can do it. Also very true.  I've experienced it myself and I know losing weight for me required first and foremost a change in attitudes and the way I perceived things.  You may think that achieving is mainly about reaching the goal, but in reality, how you get to the goal is really a process that involves a lot of changes in attitudes and how you think. As we all probably know,  if you want to accomplish something, you have to set a goal.  What is it you really want in the end?  What is the end result?  This is simple enough.  To achieve anything we need a good and clear goal that is, of course, measurable.  Take for example losing weight.  I wanted to lo...

Many of us can be a little lazy when it comes to exercising or maintaining our health.  Okay, not just "a little" we can be "very" lazy.  It's been over a year since I've lost the 15kgs worth of fat and so far I've been pretty good at maintaining it.  I have not gained more than 2 kgs and when it goes up a kg or so, I push it down.  I am, however, starting to feel the laziness creep up on me. Since the New Years,  moving house, unpacking, traffic, and whatever excuse I can think of, I've been waking up a little later each morning.  I rush out to run yet it is losing steam.  I sleep a little later each night which is terrible when I need to wake up early.  In addition, when I come home each day the table is set full of food.  Oh how tempting all this wonderful food is.   When I insist on having fruits, worried looks appear.  Perhaps I will be lacking some proteins or vitamins.  One must surely eat more...

This morning I went running and still even though its been over a year since I started running, I still can't quite get the breathing right.  I take short breaths in and long breaths out.  I gasp for air and my legs start to go all wobbly.  All I can think is when do I next get to stop.  Oxygen isn't getting to me fast enough.  I feel like I'm suffocating a little.  I can feel my lungs heave against my chest.  I reach the end of my minutes and I heave for air. This is not how my breathing should be and it makes me tire more easily than I should.  There has to be a better way to breathe.  I can't quite get over my neighbour who is running along as if he were out on the countryside smiling, looking left and right.  His breathing is calm and relaxed.  His running looks so easy.  His feet are quiet.  I take a peak at his speed and he's running at 10.5 km/hour!  Wow. That's ve...

We've all heard of "Good" fats and "Bad" fats but do we really know how to look out for them? I always get a little loss looking at the label.  Sometimes there is the polyunsaturated fat or transfat? Monounsaturated and Saturated.  Anything that has the word "fat" in it sounds scary, when in reality some of those "fats" are actually good for you!  Below is a great video explaining how to watch out for "bad" fats on food labels :)  Let's all take care of our health.  A little here and there helps a lot.  Remember, each little step that brings you closer to good health is a step in the right direction!

Ever since I've moved house earlier this year, I've had the opportunity to see another part of life I had never previously seen.  I now live next to a military base that is also open to the public. Cars pass through in and out to get to the main road on the other side of the base.  Most mornings and evenings that's the route I'd take.  Unexpectedly though, on a quiet day you can be most certain to hear the sounds of soldiers in training.  Just half an hour ago as I lay on my bed relaxing, a beautiful sound came through the window.  It was the sound of trumpets playing a tune that reminds me of war movies. It was 9pm.  Like an alarm clock, every evening and not a minute late,  the sound of trumpets playing a tune will echo through the air and flow through all the houses in the surrounding area.  It sounds magical.  If you wake up early, you're hear the same tunes being played at the wake of dawn.  5am.  The...

Now the year has started and the holiday festivities are slowing losing momentum (at least until the Chinese New Year) let's all start the year out being fit and healthy!    A lot of people start the year with a resolution to lose some weight and be healthy.  It often works for a couple months and then somehow the goal gets lost amidst all the work and whatever life brings us and we end the year having gained weight rather than having lost weight. That was me for probably more than a decade or so. No more.  It still feels surreal having lost 15kg (32 lbs).  This time last year, I was still working on my last few kgs. Wow. This year, for the first time, my goal is to just maintain my weight and I tell you it feels WONDERFUL. It's amazingly less stress and I don't have to start the year with a guilty feeling knowing I didn't make it happen last year and so I have to do it again this year.  I can move on with my l...

With all the festivites going on, Christmas and New Years is undoubtedly one of my favorite time of the year.  I get to meet friends, catch up over lovely meals accompanied by weather that is nice and cool in winter. It doesn't snow in Thailand, but the temperature drops to the mid-twenties (celsius).  It's lovely and cool.  Perfect.  And as one of my friends put on her facebook status it is the "perfect weather to get fat."  I think this perfectly describes how we all feel. A lot of activities during Christmas and New Years undeniably revolve around eating.  We meet, we eat.  We celebrate, we eat.  We travel, we eat. Then we sleep in between those "meets" and "eats."  Oh how easy it is to pack on those pounds that won't just go away.  Nevertheless, do not fear them...there is a way to overcome them and one tip is to Plan Your Meals . I used to never plan my meals.  I'd just eat what I felt like eating each meal a...

With the holiday season knocking at the door, it is always a challenge to keep fit and healthy.  To maintain one's weight during the year is not so easy for most of us, let alone maintaining one's weight during the holiday season! All that turkey and holiday parties are extremely deterimental to one's waistline. So today I want to share with you a little secret on how to stay active and burn away a little of that holiday eating.  I realized this was something I had only begun doing recently since I began my weightloss journey over a year ago.  Now it has become a part of my routine.  What do I do?  It's easy.  I eat first then I shop. Didn't I say it was easy?  Now the important part is implementing it.  Before in my much much chubbier days, which I am happy to say is now behind me,  I didn't give a slight thought as to what I'll eat and when I'll eat it.  I'll eat when I'm hungry and t...

We've all heard about Body Mass Index (BMI), but what is it exactly? According to the National Institute of Health it is " a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women. " It is one of the three criteria that the the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) use to evaluate whether someone is overweight or not. 1. body mass index (BMI) 2. waist circumference, and 3. risk factors for diseases and conditions associated with obesity. (These include high blood pressure, high glucose levels, cholesterol levels, triglycerides, family history of heart disease and smoking) I was surprised when I first calculated my BMI..I was borderline normal weight going on overweight! (Ok, I'll stop being in denial.. I was slightly overweight!) Check out where you stand at the following websites. Don't be in denial! http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned The latter...