=]

Again work has sucked the life and time out of me and also some drama at Twitter!

Had the biggest argument with one of my closest cousin ever over there but its over. We're good now. I have said things I should'nt have said and didn't meant things I said.

But ironicly, I was laughing 80% of the time!! I've been a very happy person of late. Except yesterday night when things got a bit serious, especially when some topic touched on my mom, and we argued until 4am (Aussie time)!

But glad things are cleared now.

Gawd, spent whole Saturday rotting in the room, finishing 1.5 pack of TIMTAMS (and 2kgs of blood oranges- no need to emphasize so much cause its not as deadly as chocolates in the diet world)!


F UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU chocolates for being freaking hell addictive! Won't buy you regardless of all the antioxidants you provide. Seriously, for all the calories it contains, people probably look younger from chocolate because it fattens you up and smoothen wrinkles rather than the antioxidant thingy.

Didn't exercise and all I did was EAT. Cause I don't know. Probably deserve a break for working 5 days a week, and also worked out after work that whole 5 days! It was freaking exhausting. Many times I exercised with my eyes half closed -_- Even my heart pumping and all, huffing and puffing, I was still tired but pushing myself. Stand whole day from 9/10am morning till almost 6pm for 5 days and exercised an hour + after that leh!

But feeling guilty. Next week's my birthday, probably celebrate with loads of food and then go back to square 1 =(

Nahhhhhhhh maybe not. Will slack only on my birthday!

I love my legs right now. More like thighs lah.  HAHAHAHAHA. Thanks , cardiovascular.

I used to feel that cellulite are growing all over, but exercise really did fight them off ! Tomorrow got to exercise again!!!! argh.

But have you ever feel that you look a couple years younger RIGHT after a good workout? Each time after exercising, I will look at myself in the full length mirror at gym ... albeit looking gross, sweat everywhere , but hair was pulled off my face and I can see every "pixel" of my face clearly.  Wrinkles was gone, pores was no where in sight...and I feel heaps happier! =D

But like an hour after that they come back la, but still...somehow I feel its fighting age off ! ^^

Why so cheating one!

Sigh, been cheating a lot on my diet lately. Had Kinder Bueno yesterday, and KIT KAT CHUNKY in Cookies and Cream flavour TODAYYYYYY!!!!! 

Just suddenly crave chocolates! Been snacking A LOT on nuts also....and nuts can make me bloat up within a night! Diuzzzzzz.. And I have about a week's supply of nuts. In form of mixed nuts, nut bar, and  also in form of small 1 serving kinda boxes like : 

to control my nut intake (it's also the exact nut brand I have right next to me, tempting me to savour it!). 

Honestly, eating from a bag..regardless of it being 100g to 1kg , I can finish it all in one sitting. 

Nuts are soooo addictive! 

Anyway, I've been working a lot lately, it's exhausting. Regular customers commented that I look tired today, and so, I skipped gym today (eventhough I ate chocolate yesterday and today!). 

But I had a good workout session yesterday night, body ache whole day today morning =D 

Anyway, I also bought salmon to pamper myself :

Cooked my stupid tofu with my mushroom.

I impulse-bought my tofu, thinking it's healthy and I should consume more of it. Then when I had it in my fridge, it was sitting there for 3 days, and me not knowing what to do with it (don't know what style to cook it with). Then I just take out only and stir fry -_-.

I like tofu but in fish soups (too much work and time consuming) , claypot tofu (too fattening), fancy steam tofu with meat on top ( C.B.F.) ...hahaha in the end stir fry only loh.

Taste quite horrible, cause the tofu taste is too strong! Don't know what kind of super organic and authentic tofu I bought. Some more I stir fry only without much taste. In the end, I chow down everything with Tobasco sauce. YUM.

Z END.

Sighhhh...

All flights out of Melbourne/ NZ/ Tasmania are cancelled/delayed because of the ash from a volcano in Chile that is about to erupt but still not quite. It's like farting only, waiting for the shit to come out.

I've got a holiday planned next week (June 20th), going down to Sydney from Canberra. I am not directly affected, but Eddie will be flying down to Sydney from Melbourne!!!

I've been looking forward to this 8 days holiday with Eddie and friends :( It's still a week away...........it's ONLY a week away (geddit?) !!!

This ash cloud was from the volcano on June 5th !! It's June 13th now. 1 week....more ash?? Please stop being constipated, volcano. 

......

Talking about healthy food prices, time to eat my own words....they are really expensive :(

Cherries = $10 !!!! 

Organic kiwi  x6 =  $4.99!!!

AUD52.15 on mostly fruits!!!! How la..

Wanted to buy Blueberries, but a 3/4 cup of blue berries = whopping $9.99!!!  wth!!!

Too expensive!! :(  I tried to think of ways to afford everything organic, but I can't. This AUD52.15 bill is the highest price I've paid for my grocery for 1 person , and only 1 item is organic. 

And I am not done buying some more.. the reason I stopped shopping was cause the cart was getting too heavy. Going to quit eating cereals, and start eating oats instead. They are toooo high in sugar........! But wait till I finish my cereals first lah, sighhhhh. 

High cost of living sucks. 

Healthy food taste bad?! Saying I have bad taste ar!

Reading this article : http://www.fooducate.com/blog/2010/11/28/40-of-shoppers-healthy-food-tastes-bad/

Proves that people are not knowledgeable when it comes to what to consume, and what is healthy , what nots.

I won't deny the fact that unhealthy food is yummy, I just had 3 BOWLS OF PORK FLOSS FOR SUPPER AT MIDNIGHT!! I was tempted to eat it at 9-10pm, but told myself, I shouldn't ..but when the clock strikes 12am, hell broke loose. I binged instead thus 3 BOWLS of :

Moral of the story...don't be too strict on yourself T.T

But that doesn't mean healthy food is not nice. Ya, trying to call me a hypocrite cause I ate something unhealthy while claiming healthy food is yummy and why am I not eating healthy food as supper.

I just had a particular craving for pork floss. I always have cravings, be it as healthy as tomatoes, apples (finished 2 bags of apples in 4 days =/ had 3 apples for dinner just now), muesli.. to as unhealthy as chips, french fries and pork floss.

How hard is it to prepare healthy tasty meal? Just throw all the raw food together in a saucepan , stir fry it , when done, sprinkle with sea salt/ chilli powder/ herbs/ freshly grind black pepper etc! At least that's what I've been having. Or throw everything into a pot and make soup.

When it comes to grocery shopping, just choose food that is at its original form, not packaged ..ie. meat that turned into frozen nuggets/sausages(try to avoid sausages!! loads of preservatives and are made of bad, rejected meat that are seasoned heavily) , or potatoes that turn into frozen chips...etc.

Oats, muesli , nuts..they are super yummy to me! In fact I love healthy food so much until they become unhealthy for me cause.. I consume too much lor.

Like few weeks ago, I got addicted to this super fibre that I sprinkle on my muesli..ate too much of them and didn't drink a lot of water = constipation,uneasy bowel + bloated.

I love nuts so much...they get me really addicted to them and I can finish 500g (half a kg!!!) of nuts within 2 days.

Manuka honey is yummy and its super healthy. What's so hard making them? Just take a spoonful and dilute it luke warm water. Easier than making coffee what.  Best is when you chill them after diluting them ...HEAVEN!!!! 

I don't really like gassy drinks as they make me burp A LOT, and well, sugary drinks make me guilty.

I like tea..chinese tea, green tea, jasmine tea. kuan yin tea...they are like flavoured water ! Not really a fan of English tea with its added milk and sugar.

Fish are just like other meat, they are freaking nice(ate fish everyday for 2 weeks when I first came to Canberra- was addicted to fish)! But why people prefer the tougher meat like beef, lamb, pork? Chicken and turkey also dam nice what. If ostrich meat is easily available, I will so buy them/ replace chicken with ostrich. Ostrich meat is freaking healthy one weh, and I ate them before, NICE!!

Maybe different people different preferences lah. But healthy food , apart from being yummy, it gives me a good feeling about what I've ate.

Like after eating a bag of chips or pork floss, my stomach got 1 weird feeling one...as oppose to eating 3 apples and feel good.

Maybe healthy food are slightly more expensive, but why eat super cheap processed food when you're going to succumb to sickness early and spend more on your medical bills in future?

Aiyooooo Health is Wealth ! 

Health and grocery shopping!

I love going grocery shopping! In fact I do that like at least 5 times per week.  And the last time I shopped for clothes to change wardrobe was December last year. Can you believe that? I did buy 1 piece of T shirt this year, but that was my uniform for Passionflower, and money spent on that shirt was donated to the Queensland flood.

Usually after gym, I spend about at least 20minutes up to almost 2 hours on my own walking in Supabarn (main super market for Canberra). I really LOVE this place. It is bigger than Coles and Woolsworth (main supermarket for Melbourne), and there are way more varieties of stuffs in there! 

No thanks to my obsession with health lately, I never fail to come home with goodies. Discounted groceries makes me crazy. Few days ago, they had like AUD2 per pack of cherry tomatoes, I bought 8 boxes. -_-

There are just so many things I want to buy! Like Lecithin (for brain and cholesterol), more muesli, more fruits, and I buy cherry tomatoes almost on a daily basis. Just loveeee cherry tomatoes! 

So I am actually broke now because I cook at home, not cause I eat out.

But here's my "loot" for today! 

Iodised Sea Salt, Chili powder and black peppercorns! 

From what I know, about 2 billion people in the world suffers from iodine deficiency - meaning they are at risk of getting goiter (thick big necks). Our body needs very little amounts of iodine, but yet a lot of us don't usually consume them. They are mainly found in sea weed, fishes, and whatever from the sea.

Back in Melbourne, I always eat organic kelps for my daily dose of iodine. Whenever I cook, I'll throw in handful of them.

After moving to Canberra, I just feel uneasy. Panda's mother had goiter, and had to go through years of surgery to remove them. So I'll just do what I can to prevent them!

So benefits of Iodine Salt :
1) Improve Thyroid function
2) Improve Brain Function
3) Healthy pregnancies 
4) Fight depression 
5) Weight Control (woohoo)
6) Irritable Bowel Syndrome
7) Improve Appearance
8) Remove toxins
9) Fights cancer 
10) Heart Health 

Read more yourself from this webbie : http://www.3fatchicks.com/10-benefits-of-using-iodized-salt/

And I bought iodinised sea salt, not processed salt ! heh.


As for the chili powder, some spice in your food will increase metabolism, and if you eat super spicy, can increase up to 50% !

Lastly, the black peppercorns..the benefits read from here ! http://www.naturalremediesblog.net/top-10-health-benefits-of-black-pepper/

Don't want to bore anyone with so much facts !

Ok fine, I summarize :

1) Aid digestion

2) Help relieve cough and colds

3) Can fight cancer

4) MAY help in weight loss

5) Improve skin condition

6) Promotes absorption of nutrients

7) Fight tooth decay :O 

8) Natural anti-depressant

9) Antioxidant

10) Reduce inflammation.

My friend has the normal ground black pepper powder, but I prefer it if I grind it myself, hence buying the black peppercorn with the grinder on top. This is because some of the nutritional stuff in the black pepper can oxidize, so we're just eating for the taste, and it doesn't benefit us that much.

I cooked my dinner just now, used all 3 items that I bought up there. There was a really huge difference between using ready-grounded black pepper and the black pepper I grind fresh. The scent was stronger, the taste was more obvious and I didn't use a lot ! 

Ok this is getting too long.

Bai ! 

Yogurt Trend.

I know 'yoghurt' is spelt as 'yoghurt', but I prefer spelling yogurt and it's a valid word and meant the same as yoghurt minus the 'H'. I don't know, it just looks wrong when you split yoghurt into two words its yog-HURT. It's healthy stuff ya know!

I've never been a yogurt person until the invention of Froyo - frozen yogurt. It was Love at first bite - I was hooked to froyo, spending AUD10 per Large yogurt almost everyday in Melbourne.

Since I moved to Canberra, I've been deprived of froyo. The only shop that sells froyo here...it doesn't even taste like one, and it's a sandwich shop that sells them.

So I've decided to find a proper substitute that would actually curb my cravings, and then I found THIS:

It's LOVE. 

It's the best watery yogurt I've ever tasted !!!!!! It has actual strawberry bits, and the best part is it has very low calories! Only 66 calories per serve. It's a 1kg tub, I did the calculation and....the total calories for the whole 1kg tub is ONLY 376 cals!!!!!

That's very little for 1kg.....100g of "low fat/baked not fried"chips is already 492 calories.

Oh well. I finished that 1kg in less than 24hours. Infact...lasted only 2 meals (dinner yesterday and breakfast today). It's insanely addictive!

Then cooked : 

for lunch and dinner.

It's super healthy eh. The only ingredient was cherry tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, chicken meat, spiral pasta (100% durum wheat & organic , ie more protein than carbs)  and salt and pepper. Tomatoes are extremely healthy and aids weight loss ! =D

So yeah, still dieting and gyming for 6-7 days a week ! Losing weight is hard but...

I'll quote Fitness First :

"Motivation is what gets you started, Habit is what keeps you going".

It's kinda my habit now to go to the gym, 1 day without gym makes me feel all guilty!

Kidneys are dying..

Thought I better write a proper post, rather that post that bores people with my insights of ..nothingness.

My sleeping time is screwed. I read the evil book till like 11am today. And wasted one night of body-healing-kidney-resting sleep. Traditional doctor all say our kidneys' rest time is like 11pm till 2am. I forgot when was the last time I ever slept before 11pm. Not even before 2am. Not even 3am. 6 am seems to be the earliest time I'd sleep. sigh.

So Slept at 11am today, woke up at 5pm. GOsh. I'm going to so age faster than my actual age.

Usually when I wake up at 5pm, I will eat something heavy, and tell myself, "no dinner, no dinner" and "try to sleep before 1am dammit"..but in the end, toss and turn, and cook not only in CafeWorld but in my kitchen .... and have breakfast at 4-5am :

Eddie and I both ate at that time. chilly dogs, omelette, red beans...TOBASCO SAUCE (my favourite, though it stinks)

Body growing fatter. Where is my SELF - DESCIPLINE.

Last year immediately after exams, I'd sleep early, wake up early, jog my fats away...go Queen Victoria market, buy groceries, come back in time to cook breakfast for Eddie. Did that for a month and lost quite some weight. Went home and got loads of compliments.

Now? Gaining freaking excess kgs during holidays. Sigh. 12.30am now. Going to read a little here and there, and sleep.

I don't want to return home looking FAT AND UGLY, especially for my internship that should be starting around December. I need to look perfect.. smart, all in a body fitting office wear that will show my curves, not my spare tyres.

Pasta ala "Eddie and I"

I am sure behind every recipe there is a story. Same goes to mine! Upon request of people who openly asked / secretly wants this recipe. And for those who can't cook...you can see how easy this is! Never try, never know.

Everything said here is based on my memory when I cooked it. Haha. Hope you like the end result.

Introducing (sorry, no measurements! but this is roughly it) :

Pasta ala "Eddie and I"

Half a pack of spaghetti /angel hair

1 can of cream

1 onion (diced)

1 garlic clove (mashed)

4 x italian pork sausages (or any other italian-marinaded meat)

2 box of cherry tomatoes

some chilly flake (depends how spicy you want)

some Italian seasonings (which I threw it for fun, cause this is, afterall, an Italian dish)

some milk to stand-by

Parmesan cheese (the flaked one) to taste

black pepper and salt to taste also

1. Cook spaghetti the normal way, set aside in a bowl.
2. Take out the transparent thingy that holds the sausage meat inside together. Cut it into bite size.
3. Take some oil , fry the sausage meat and throw in some chilly flake.
4. Sausage meat half cook, throw in the garlics and onions.
5. When the onions and garlics soft already, pour in the cream (usually I use half and half- half milk, half cream, so it'll be less fattening, but less tasty,too..up to your own preference. I used full milk before, not that satisfying).
6. Let them simmer for like 2 minutes, or when everything is cooked, throw in the tomatoes.
7. Put loads of salt and black pepper, to taste

By this step, it should look like this :

Then after that, throw in the spaghetti, and mix it! Cause usually the spaghetti will make the sauce taste a bit bland, that's when you add the Parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper kao kao! The Parmesan cheese, depends how Parmasancheesy taste you prefer. Can add one tablespoon per tablespoon. I used my hands and take out cheese from the package leh. Don't know how many grams is that.

And thou spaghetti shall look like this:

Gross , but yummy okay, at least to Eddie and I, haha. I ate two bowls at 2am, and stole 2 mouthfuls at 4.30am. And Eddie said no more for me because it's his breakfast T.T

Want to eat you up!

To Annona, who asks :

To my cousin, Elsie ..who always think she can't cook. You can! Everyone can cook.

The story behind this pasta was because I LOVE TOMATO -based pasta, whereas Eddie prefers cream pasta. In general, I love pasta cream ones also la, but would prefer tomato based-depending on my mood actually, Eddie is alright with it only. So rather than making Carbonara (that requires egg YOLKS), I tried making a healthier version..substituting egg yolks with uh tomatoes? and wala, we settled for this, every time we were to eat italian pasta, home made.

Not too tomato-ie for him, and just the right amount of cream for me! :)

And according to Annona, tomato is a slimming agent, so "Eddie and I " Pasta 1, Carbonara 0!

Healthy Grill'd Burger? NOT!

I'm sure everyone that stays in Melbourne are aware of this restaurant called Grill'd Burger.

I had dinner Grill'd Burger with Eddie, the one that's at Melbourne Central.

Next to Hyotts Cinema.

Some brief introduction about the restaurant to people who are not in Melbourne.

Grill'd is a burger chain restaurant that portrays itself as a restaurant that serves healthy burgers.

See:

The poster that I copied from their website. The words "HEALTHY BURGER" in black all over the page (top left, bottom right).

But I STRONGLY DISAGREE.

My burger:

Huge yala, I finished it all and slept immediately after somemore

Look at the insides!

SO MUCH CARBONS.

I hate it when there's alot of them. It's so unhealthy. Cancerous. There's still no cure and cancer cases are rapidly increasing. I read from an article long time ago, that right now, 1 in 3 people have cancer.

Why? because of these kinda restaurant that portrays themselves as healthy, when infact - they are certainly NOT!

I'm no science student, but yet I can find faults in this. Imagine the other people who are in the know...how many other products that are labelled as healthy, are unhealthy in truth?

The general knowledge is that all processed food are unhealthy anyways. No matter how much they claim themselves to be of vitamins, no fats, omega3. Human body are never made to digest refined-man-made food that has gone through so many artificial flavours and chemicals. Even those that've gone through the science process (forgot what its called), eg. seedless grapes and watermelons.

These carbons are like unhealthy processed food, extra unhealthy.

Thats why I don't like to eat Nando's (their burgers and pita breads are alright), Korean BBQ (the ones with waiters that help you grill one) and any other food that are cooked through grilling and roasting by other people.

And if I do eat in them when forced to... many other people I know likes to eat in those restaurants (they even admitted they like the taste of burnt food aka carbon :(!)..

I'll peeled those carbons off. My meat was like almost half gone by the time I finish taking all the carbons off. This is only the first side, mind you.

A bit gross, the way I eat. Many of my friends are turned off by me already. =/ Eddie? immuned.

I know if I do get cancer, it'll probably be from all the excessive radiation by facing the computer almost the whole day. Sleep next to it while it's on too. But at least I'm preventing other parts of my body from getting cancer.

So make wise decision on what you put in your mouth. You are what you eat!

Wronged sleeping time !

Slept at 8am + and woke up at 5+pm. IZ DIS NORMALL?

I'll never have a life here in Melbourne, except on Fridays (when the malls are opened till 9pm) if I continue with this nocturnal lifestyle. Other days, shops only opened till 5-6pm. I missed shopping again, today! :( How I miss home!!

This also means that I'm never going to be able to sleep early tonight.

Cereal eating at 5.40pm. It's actually quite yummy, cause it's honey and almond coated. HAHA. Not your plain ol' cornflakes.

This is a wierd lunch/dinner to me. Somehow the idea of eating cereals applies to breakfast in my mind. Oh well, woke up late with no food at home, and Eddie's out (to DOTA).

Just wondering if anyone drink a lot of water right after they wake up? As I heard from my mother , teacher and all the chinese traditional doctors, we're suppose to drink at least 3 cups of water right after we wake up, before brushing our teeth.

It can cleanse our system, in which our body organs omit into our body during our sleep. And the point of not brushing our teeth cause our uh...(dirty) saliva is supposedly good for our health, so we drink water to wash down the (dirty) good-for-health saliva down our throat.

I still remember my Economics teacher say to drink at least 1 litre of water right after we wake up, and pee umpteen times, if lucky, even (shit) gold comes out. THAT IS if you are sure that you have access to toilet everywhere you go for the next 2 hours. Yeah, the Economics teacher, talking about waking up and drinking plenty of water.

Anyway, I've been trying to drink at least 750 ml (not that I count, my biggest bottle can only contain 750ml) right after I wake up. From my experience after 1 week of doing it religiously, I find it harder to gain weight, and I really feel more awake (rather than sloppy self) during lectures albeit the rushing-out-to-pee part is bothersome! You feel light and happy, too! But the habit of drinking 750ml every morning is quite hard to keep up!

I just started today again, considering I'm on a super long (5months) holidays.

Got to go!

-toilet break-