Neo Nomadic Dreams
& Caffeine-Induced Reality

Craptastic

You guys should see the amount of groceries I have.  I’ve been stocking up because I know that by the end of the month I’d probably have less than stellar amounts of cash in my bank and, well, you know what that means in terms of food consumption.  You can pretty much see the spike of spending throughout the month with the last week almost going down to a flat line and, to be honest, it’s a bit pitiful.  So yes, my cupboard is filled with milk, cereals, oatmeal, fruit, soup, and noodles.  If I were to end up impoverished in the last leg before the next paycheck, at least I know I’ll be well fed.

On the bright side, the cut down on food is probably a good sign considering that I’m still looking into losing the last 20 lbs.  I’m coupling that with 250 minutes of cardio per week which, if I do it right, will help shed the unwanted pounds.  My recent bout with fever has left me weak and inactive for two weeks that didn’t do well to my waistline.  I know I’ve parked my ass in the chair and watched episode after episode of True Blood and Mad Men (good shows, must watch) and now I’m going to have to work to get myself into tip-top shape – again.

In other news, I’ve been quite lucky this week despite the weekend hullabaloo on Orchard Road; oh you know, the usual bird droppings finding its way to me is getting kind of suspicious.  Turns out, the lucky bird poop theory could actually be true because I just won one of the ten $50 Yoguru vouchers for having guessed their new mystery flavor.  Yeay! More frozen yogurt for me.

Also, David accidentally purchased himself a gift of Flickr when he renewed his pro account. Can you guess to whom he decided to give it to since he couldn’t have it refunded?  Me.  Haha, wasn’t that obvious.  You should have seen my face when I got his email and the redemption code was there, I think my head almost blew up from all the blood rushing to my cheeks due to blushing.  Hmm, I know what you’re thinking, I probably should dust off my cameras and get clicking if I want to get the best of the Flickr Pro account.  Thanks David!

Now, to get some cardio for the day…

End of The Month

Love how the light hits the street sign (Photo taken by Rui using my Sony DSC-W120)

The month of March kind of went by in a blur.  I don’t know if time is playing tricks on me but tomorrow is the beginning of the last eight days of March and I’m wondering what had happened in the previous weeks that passed.  Although most of what I remember seem to be segmented into birthdays and client meetings, I still believe that it went by too fast for me to notice.  Or maybe I was just being productive and too stressed to actually have noticed.  Even Sunday afternoons, the portion of the week that seem to go by real fast (next to those of Friday afternoons), just whizzed off in front of my eyes.  Before I know it, it’s Monday already.  Ha!  Time has this not-so-funny way of getting on my nerves where it feels like every time I wake up, it’s Monday again and again and again, as if all the days of the week have been renamed to Monday.

On a totally different note, I have decided to start my detox diet tomorrow.  If all goes well, I am looking forward to feeling lighter and healthier.  Of course, some people may think it too extreme but I have my reasons.

The diet requires that I go ten days without anything solid; if you’re smart you’d have guessed by now that I am going to be doing a liquid diet.  Georgina (@ilovegeorgina) is actually on her sixth day of the so-called Master Cleanse (aka Lemonade Diet), the same one I am going to attempt to do this week.  However, given the very specific instructions of this diet, I now realize that I’m not quite ready to begin it yet (couldn’t find cayenne pepper).  Therefore this week should probably be my Ease-In period wherein I try to limit or reduce my food intake into semi-solids such as soup, porridge, and paste.

I would definitely keep a log while I do the Master Cleanse as reference for those who might want to do it in the future.  The NY Times has an article on the Master Cleanse too.

Anyway, since I’ve been spending quite a lot of time in the supermarket looking for the ingredients and the perfect organic lime concentrate (might actually just do the lime juice fresh myself), I finally found almond paste powder.  This would allow me to make my own almond paste at home or the office at a fraction of the cost than if I got them ready-to-eat in a Chinese dessert place.  I wanted to try it tonight to see whether it was any good but the instructions were missing something very crucial – the amount of hot water needed.  It is, afterall, a dessert paste and too much water would just turn it into soup and too little water would make it into pudding.  See my dilemma?  Sheesh, even the Japanese instant noodles I love have way better instructions than this.  Someone failed Product Packaging 101.

The Conclusion to 6-in-8

The weigh in that happens every two weeks since I started 6-in-8 pretty much gave a good idea of my progress.  But since it’s the end of the project (finally!) I think it calls for a bit of nostalgia.  So what was I like when I started my weight loss project?  Here, let me help you recall:

Weight: 55kg

Waist: 73.5cm

Hips: 95.5cm

Quite a bit plump, if you were to be honest about it.  But these days, even though I’m feeling occasionally bloated, I am proud to give my current status, which is:

Weight: 55kg

Waist: 67cm

Hips: 90cm

Although my weight didn’t budge at all, I lost more than 6cm in my waist, which should make my doctor stop worrying about any signs of heart disease from me. Anyway, I’m 4cm away from my target and that should be something to strive for.  The weight might probably be hard to lose at the moment as I build up muscles.  I definitely love my toned arms.

And as a big gift to myself, I am foregoing the Shameless Food Log today! Woot! However, I will still continue to keep track of my food intake, this time taking note of calories.  All of this will be done in private though and hopefully before 2010 rolls in I’ll be fit to a tee.