The Pregnancy Scare

I'm on a recent binge eating spree. I have no idea why. I've put on 4lbs over the last weekend alone. Then again it might be due to the birthday celebration of my buddy, which I organised at my house. I did home made Portuguese Egg Tarts, and a boobie birthday cake for him. He's almost like a younger brother to me, and while our friendship did not start up quite right, I guess over the course of one year, we have grown so much closer, probably due to the fact he's pretty close with my hubs, we've been going on a whole lot of roadtrips together, and has been staying over at my place almost every weekend. We've been so accustomed to each other's habits and such.

That said, finally my stress is over. I actually thought I'm pregnant. My period was late for 2 weeks and together with all these weight gain, and cravings for food, I was freaking out. I kept having the urge to puke, and was feeling nauseous at some point. I was feeling tired all the time for the past few days. To the extent, I actually used a pregnancy test kit on Sunday just to be sure.
My friend even commented my double chin is coming out again, and so was my ever bloated tummy.

My period finally came today, with a whoop for joy from me when I went to the toilet to pee. Don't get me wrong, if it turns out that I'm pregnant, the hubs and me are more than willing to keep and have a baby of our own. We're ready to complete our family, yet at the same time, we don't have any idea when is a good time to start "making babies" to prepare for that long 9 month discomfort. Plus, I have no idea how many month old does the baby have to be in order to get on the plane to fly back to Singapore in due time. I'm also worried as hell about the care of a baby since its one of my biggest fear to carry that fragile little creature, or how to give comfort to that crying beast.

We have been discussing about having kids pretty much recently. The hubs is worried that if we have one too late, health problems might arise for me, as well as the kid. We did think about having kids when we first came, and I stopped my contraceptive pills for that. I've been taking them for the past so many years, to control my menstrual flow and my cycles, due to my low blood pressure, I tend to feel faint during my period. However, seeing other families and their raging kids scares the hell out of me, and I made the hubs wear the rubber when we came around to having our bedroom workout.

I just wasn't ready for it. I don't know when will I ever be. I often wonder how other parents handle these. Hubs say, often, the skills will come naturally when it comes to you. I'm still fearful, and I feel the need to read and learn more about it before we conceive. But who am I to control the fate of nature? I guess in due time, we'll take away the rubber, and let nature decide.

My 165 rep sandbag workout today

I saw the 365 rep workout on bodyrock and decided to try it out, but I modified it as its 12am in the middle of the night when I did the workout, plus I'm still not in that much of a good shape, yet.

So instead of doing 30 each, I did 15 reps of each exercise.. And again, I modified it to suit the equipment I have. I used a 12lb "sandbag" which is actually a duffel bag I filled with pebbles.

The workout:
-Sandbag squat  backward lunge - 15 reps
-Triple knee tuck- 15 reps
-Sandbag combo - full body - 15 reps
-Forward & backward lunge w/ sandbag - 15 reps
-Sit ups - 15 reps
-Sandbag squat - 15 reps
-Plank side jumps - 15 reps
-Dips with legs straight - 15 reps
-Pendulum - 15 reps
-Push up - 15 reps
-Mountain Climbers -15 reps

Time taken: 15 mins 18 seconds.

I ended the workout with HIIT high knees. 4 mins of 20 second work, 10 second rest.

Super sweaty! But feeling oh so good! Did some ME time today, have u?

Falling off the bandwagon.

I've been saying that I want to go on this 100 day fitness streak started off my Sparkpeople, and I've tried it twice, each time only to fall short of 20 days, and fall off the bandwagon. Have you ever fallen off your fitness routine, how did you overcome it?

I found it hard to stick to it on weekends. While I know, I'm active on weekends window shopping, and gymming on Sundays, but I always feel I'm not worked out enough! Therefore, making me feel ashamed of not being disciplined enough to give myself 15 mins out of a 24 hour day. Have you ever felt this way? Feeling that you're not giving yourself enough? I like how my body is slowly toning up while I was stuck onto my routine, but once we hit a long weekend with a good 2 days of PH, and we get on a road trip, all that fitness flies out of the window.

Firstly, while on the road trip, I'm in the car sleeping half the time, 2ndly, I'm not alone in the room, we share with others, and its kinda hard to workout in shorts and sports bra while getting into awkward positions with another guy, other than my husband, in the room. I don't even workout at home, when my husband is around.

I don't think looking all wet and sweaty, with my specs about to fall off looks attractive. Plus, its hard to focus on yourself, when you're trying to avoid awkwardness with someone else staring at you. Especially not when, you have a layer of tummy flab all around you. Don't get me wrong, I love myself, and I'm not one of those obsessed with my physical appearances that I need to workout day in day out to get skinny till I look like a skeleton. As much as I hate that flab around my tummy, I'm not about to go on a crazy diet just to lose my weight.

I workout to feel good internally. To get rid of those pent up frustrations. To get stronger, so I get do more around the house than to wait for some handsome, kind, young soul, to come help me out with it. Anyone who knows my husband, knows that it takes ages to get him up and moving to get a task done. I have to nag probably 20 times to make myself feel like an old grandma, before he lifts a finger.

Given that my husband leaves me from time to time for work, each time weeks to months long, I guess its a good start for me to get myself stronger. Why do YOU workout? What keeps YOU sticking to your fitness routine?

I do need to get some sweat going, hopefully to release some frustrations of being lazy this week. I only squeezed in 1 workout this week, and its not making me feel any better.

AA - App-aholic Anonymous

I need help. I'm App-aholic. What does it mean? Yah, I self created it. Basically, if you're like me, constantly downloading new apps, checking them out on Itunes or Android Market, and you get more Apps than clothes, that's App-aholic behavior. You spend hours and hours on your gadgets, and the juice in them can never last an entire day without charging.

I haven't blogged for like almost a month, and if you do follow me on Twitter (@natxwang), you would have found out about my recent purchases. The new LG G2x Android phone, and the ultra sold out, Ipad 2.

I did mention that getting the Ipad 2 will help me blog more often from everywhere, but who am I lying to? There's so many things to do on that thing, and plus the new phone, I hardly have enough of the Itunes, and the Android Market. ARGH!

I'll probably put up some reviews on Applications for both markets that I really like. I have like 80 - 100 Apps on my Ipad 2 and counting, and probably another 50 on my Android phone. I've been trying to rearrange all my short cuts, my scrolling is endless, and I have 100+ of podcasts and almost 20 magazines that need my attention. Yikes!

I love that I'm hardly bored, or idle. I'm a gadget girl. I can do without my Guccis and Louis Vuittons, I don't own any of them. But I can't do without my gadgets. And, I really do look after them very well. They are like my babies. My camera - a Panasonic FZ35, my Ipad 2, my Asus gaming laptop, my 1tb portable drive, my phone, and me. And they go with me everywhere, on every roadtrip, holiday and all.

You can imagine how many chargers I have to remember to pack, how many batteries I need to make sure are well charged before I set off. Not forgetting all the backups. And, most importantly, the accessories. Camera lenses, cleaning kits, tripods, mouse, blah blah blah. The list goes on and on, yeah its heavy, but I really can't do without them, can't do without a small handbag either, need to fit my camera and Ipad 2 at the same time!

Sigh, I'm excited about the upcoming summer road trips. My ipad and phone is all loaded and power packed with entertainment, and ready to go! New lenses are coming today for my camera! Just ordered another 16,000 mAh external battery pack that can provide an extra 30 hours usage to my ipad 2 and g2x. I'll drop a review for both gadgets soon, and what accessories you need to buy. Any app-aholic anonymous meetings for me?

Getting fit & making smart choices.

As I've said before, I'm going on a fitness streak. I haven't stopped of given myself any slack at all. Its probably one of the craziest things I've committed myself into. And trust me, I have plenty of excuses reasons not to workout on any day. However, due to this commitment that I made to myself, 100 days of 15 mins of fitness each day, I need to do it. Hopefully, its going to turn into a habit, and it will do good for as long as I can hold onto it.

I've been trying to push the hubby to workout more, and he's been trying to get himself to go to the gym to workout more often. Starting his time at the treadmill. ;) I'm really happy, and to encourage him, I go with him, and we run side by side. He's actually a pretty good runner! He started at 6.5 after warm up, and till now, the max I can go is still 6 only. :(

But so far, he managed to go gym once this week only, and every Sunday, he would go for badminton. Let's see if I can push him for 2 times a week of gym, and 1 badminton session on Sunday. I miss his slimmer days. He's almost overweight now. I guess its my fault for cooking all those food for him.

Yesterday night, after his work, he was hungry, and asked me to fix for him supper. I told him I didn't have any food defrosted except salad. And I went ahead and fixed him a salad with some turkey ham, and hard boiled eggs. Topped with dried pear, Crasins, and walnuts. This was my dinner without the eggs.

 Maybe its our first step to healthy living. I hope its here to stay. I may be pushing my buttons, but its going the way I want it. Now, I need to educate myself more on fitness and nutrition. I take it upon my duty as his wife to allow him to live a better life, by encouraging him to take on healthy choices. I want to be that Savvy Wife, who knows how to be her husband's personal trainer / nutritionist in the home. Its a choice you have to make.

Updates on the workout I've been doing:

26 Apr 2011 

Rev Abs - Total Strength & Mercy Abs 63 mins














27 Apr 2011

1.5 mile walk / jog on treadmill 20 mins
20 mins doing strength training on machines with focus on arms

28 Apr 2011

Rev Abs - Rev up your Abs 45 mins
















29 Apr 2011

RevAbs - Power Intervals 1 25 mins

I will do reviews of the dvds I've been doing, so if you're keen, you may purchase it for your own use. I'm not a Beachbody Coach, and I'm not paid or sponsored by them. Although I'd love too. =)

I also mix other DVDS in my workout, and I'm currently crazy about, Biggest Loser workouts, Jillian Michaels, and Bob Harper, as well as, this RevAbs series. I like to keep switching things around so that I don't get bored. I'm always on the lookout for new workout DVDs as well, so if you have any to recommend, just leave me a comment, or drop me an email. Preferably, with minimal workout equipment and doable in a small space at home.

The Fitness Streak

My food's now back to the average, aside from the slight disappointment the husband shows when its alittle on the bland side. He kinda told me off today, that the food was a little boring, and he didn't want to share it with his friends. Oh well, his way of telling me to buck up on my cooking. Yeah, thanks! I'm trying hard alright!

So, I've been saying how much I needed to workout, and how much I haven't been working out. I let my body laze for 1 entire month straight. All along, just feeling guilty but not doing anything about it.

I've been using Sparkpeople, to log my workout minutes for quite sometime. I love that its free, and they have articles on nutrition, meal plans, and they count calories for you too. They have a forum, and members blogs, which they share their stories and motivate each other. I'm kind of a quiet lurker, but I love it there. Just logging my own time.

So I came across Sparkguy's blog, and he mentioned that he's going to go on a 1000 day fitness streak. Whereby, each day, he had to do 10 mins of activity, and log it, until he hit 1000 days. So that strike a spark (pun intended) in me, to get into a 100 day fitness spark. I haven't been active for that long before, and I wanted to get my fitness on track, without scaring myself off. So now, I'm on Day 5 and still on track with drinking 8 glasses of water a day, and a minimum of 15 mins of fitness activity a day.

Here's what I've been doing:

20 Apr 2011

Biggest Loser Cardio Max Lvl 1 and 2 (35 mins)















21 Apr 2011

2 mile walk (30 mins)

22 Apr 2011

1 mile walk ( 15 mins)

23 Apr 2011

1 hour walk around Boise Farmer's Market

24 Apr 2011

Jillian Michaels Biggest Winner Cardio Kickboxing (30 mins)













25 Apr 2011

Chalean Extreme Day 1 Burn 1













Care to join me in my fitness route? Are u doing something to keep yourself active everyday?

Worst meal I ever cooked!

I had a great start to this week, where my hubby gave me daily compliments and told me how wonderful everything was. I packed up our shoe racks, and our kitchen. It made the entry to our house less cluttered, and everything was much neater. Each compliment made me a happier wife, and gave me energy to want to do more for him. I felt so much love, I put it all into the cooking, and he was full of good words for all the dishes I made.

That was, until yesterday, the most disastrous dinner I ever made. Gosh! I can't even believe it. It's probably worse than dog food. So, this smart litte bitch in me was packing the kitchen shelves, and saw 2 cans of sardines.

I, for a fact, know that the sardines in USA have this very strong stinky smell to them, and the smell lurks into the entire home. It doesn't just go away, and after u eat them, the after taste gets stuck in your mouth. As I packed the rest of the stuff, I saw a small can of curry powder, which I've been trying to finish using, now, having the new spicier powder that I brought back from Singapore.

So, putting 1 + 1 = 2, I started googling for curried sardines, thinking that the curry could cover the fishy smell. I decided in the end, to just follow the instructions on the curry can, and cook it like how i cook curry chicken, with onions and garlic and coconut milk.

I also found a packet of pureed corn soup in the cupboard, and decided to use it as well. I warmed the soup, added potatoes and carrots, and brought it to a boil for 20 mins. My itchy hand decided that blending all the vegetables together would make it like a creamy version of the ABC soup, and that's what I did. I did do spoonfuls of tasting while cooking, and it was pretty alright.

When we sat down for dinner, I spat out the sardines after the first mouthful. It was like dog food. And while trying to wash down the after taste with spoonfuls of the soup, I realise they were like baby food, and after a few mouthfuls, my palate was bored of it. I lost my appetite and decided to fry eggs for me and hubby to eat with our coconut milk flavoured rice.

No photos, I don't want to be reminded of this terrible dinner.

Lesson learnt:

Stick to what you're familiar with, or at least, tried and tested recipes.
Stop experimenting.
I'm still not that good at cooking.
Fresh ingredients are still, always the best.
To hell with canned food.
Hell yeah to fresh food!