GM cleanse Day 3

  Here's a picture of my stir-fry dinner which I made for GM Cleanse Day 2 :-).. I'm pretty darn proud of it considering I really do not cook much. Let's move on to Day 3!! 

  Day 3 was really a breeze as compared to the previous two days. Honestly, I cannot tell you how much I have missed fruits in Day 2. I'm really someone who love my fruits, I could eat fruits all day (which was why I loved day 1!! The side effects though..) Vegetables.. not really that much for me to love. For breakfast, I had slightly less than half of the watermelon that I cut up on day 1 & went to the gym for a run and this abs exercise: 

  My core isn't really strong at all!! *inserts crying face* I was actually struggling through this seemingly easy workout.. I decided that I needed liberation from my home and really just a distraction and motivation for me to do my work. So I headed to town to study at Starbucks which I ordered a Spearmint Green, boy do I miss my Soy Latte. Having to smell the coffee and watching people ordering theirs, it was painful. Oh yes! I had lunch at town as well, I bought a make-your-own salad from SimplyWraps which consisted of romaine, broccoli, long beans, edamame (don't even know if its allowed on the cleanse but whatever haha the portion was so small), beetroot, cucumber and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette dressing yummz. I studied till around a quarter to seven and I just could not take studying anymore. I had to shop! I walked around but believe it or not, when you actually want to shop and buy clothes, there is nothing you like!! I just don't get it. When I'm broke or too busy to shop, I see the nicest clothes being sold but when I actually get to shop, nothing!! 

  I just ended up settling for dinner at the foodcourt where I ordered Yong Tau Foo (a Hakka Cuisine). You get to choose 7 different ingredients and they would cook it in soup boiled with beans. I chose 5 different vegetables (their portions are quite small), mushroom and tomato. It was surprisingly filling. On the way home, I managed to buy some vegetables to prepare for the Wonder Soup tomorrow. I also saw jackfruits on sale and I really wanted some, so I got them and ate the whole box.. BUT heck I was so full my stomach actually hurts. 

  When I got home, I prepared the GM Wonder Soup. It was the first time I cried cutting up an onion :'(.  But really, 6 onions?!?! I put in 3 onions and my pot was already almost 1/4 filled, so I stopped at three and I had only 1 green pepper in because I really hate that shitz. I added left over asparagus, mushrooms and zucchini into the soup and half a cabbage because I think my pot is way too small.. Oh and 3 tomatoes as well. Pretty excited to be able to eat bananas tomorrow!!! 

  So long, farewell! I'll be back tomorrow for Day 4's update! Off to study now, ugh.    

GM Cleanse Day 2

!!!HAPPY 130th FOUNDERS DAY ACS!!!

  Cannot believe that I'm actually a J4 now, it's been 2 years since we have graduated!! Definitely was not the easiest 2 years of my life, struggled so much with my studies but such good take aways from AC and I really actually miss school. 

  Anyway, on to GM Cleanse Day 2! I talked a little about my day on Day 1's post because I apparently fell asleep the moment I got to my bed. I woke up this morning really tired but I'm guessing it's because I'm perpetually tired and I don't really know why.. (BLAME SCHOOL) I'm pretty sure it is not the detox that is causing my to be tired. I do have side effects from this cleanse though, I have read online a lot about people getting headaches and all but I did not really experience that. However, rashes and itchy bumps started popping up on my stomach, neck and arms, I googled and it did say that rashes are one of the the side effects of detox. (click here for the article!) Little did I know, according to the article, rashes are most apparent in a sugar-detox where one cuts down on sugar after a sugary diet.. Goodness, I did not know I was consuming that much such beforehand. On the bright side, it means that the detox is working!! 

  For breakfast, I stir-fried Bok Chye, white button mushrooms and garlic. It was a little weird having vegetable for breakfast. After that, I was still a little peckish so I ate another bowl of cherry tomatoes! I did not really feel like doing a workout today, so I just did a few jumping jacks to get my heart rate up and I did a workout by Blogilates. I mentioned in the previous post that I did not want to have sweet potato for breakfast because I was saving it for lunch to have it before work to last me through the 6 hour shift and it did! I made a soup like thing for lunch, adding kale, tomato, mushrooms and zucchini into water and boil. When I got to Somerset, I was scoffing down the sweet potato on the way to work, it was not a pretty sight... But it kept me full and that is what is important. I also packed an additional bag of cherry tomatoes which I ate throughout work whenever I felt hungry. 

  I got home and made a stir-fry for dinner at almost 9pm. I added asparagus, zucchini, tomato and white button mushroom. I miscalculated the portioning and made too much which had me struggling to finish it all. I felt like having a dessert and I made myself a Fiberwise 

  2 rounded scoops of FiberWise and 12oz of cold water. I don't know if this is considered cheating on the detox plan but its fiber.. so I guess not? haha. It tasted just like orange juice which was what I needed to kill my craving for a dessert. 

  I got this extract off their website, so if you are interested, you can click on the link and go read more about it! 

                                      I

7 NATURAL FIBER SOURCES • PSYLLIUM • SOOTHING HERBS • ANTIOXIDANTS

THE PERFECT BALANCE

Inside FiberWise is a scientifically balanced blend of seven fiber sources, plus vitamins, antioxidants, soothing herbs, and probiotics.

It’s a broad spectrum of fiber benefits you don’t get from traditional fiber products.

Promotes Digestive Health*

Promotes Healthy Weight Loss*

Helps Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease†

Sweeps Away Toxins and Waste*

Supports Immunity*

Improves Regularity*

GM Cleanse Day 1

  So prior to recess week, I was searching online for a detox cleanse that I could do over this week's break from school and I happened to chance upon the GM cleanse. This diet was formulated for the employees working in General Motors back in the 1980s or 1990s (I'm not too sure of the year!!). It was made for them not as a long term diet, but for them to generally have a better and healthier lifestyle.  I then decided to research more on the diet and it did not seem all too bad thought there were comments claiming that this was a fad diet to lose weight and all, but anyway, the food that we are putting into our body is not all that bad AND you are supposed to eat till you are full. Starvation was never a part of this diet plan, so how bad can it be?

  Arguments stating that there is not enough nutritional intake and the weight loss was only because of water loss, ya-dee-da-da, the list goes on, but I thought about it and.. well, it's just a week isn't it?? I will survive. Weight loss or water loss, does not really matter!! I just want to cleanse my body and put good food into it :-) Thats all that really matters.

  All that aside, it is currently 4pm into the first day of the cleanse! Honestly, I was pretty darn excited to try it out. I woke up today at around 9am, had a mandarin orange and 2 kiwis then headed to the gym. I managed to jog for 30 minutes and got in a POPSugar Fitness workout

  After the gym session, I was not all that hungry but I had to travel to Bukit Batok Driving Centre for my Final Theory Test Evaluation (ugh..) at 1.20pm so I had slightly less than half of a 5kg watermelon. I actually intended to eat half of the watermelon.. but little did I know that watermelons are actually so damn filling?!? But they digest really quickly as well, so whatever haha. I was pretty late for the evaluation test  because I was struggling to finish all that watermelon though.. I had half of the allocated time to attempt the test and.. I failed (SIGH) I only have myself to blame for putting it on the first day of recess week and not having enough time to study for it. I'm not really affected by it, just kinda sad and disappointed that I have to travel all the way down for a retest before I can book the actual Final Theory Test. 

  On the way home, I decided to make my trip out useful. I bought a pineapple, asparagus and a sweet potato for Day 2 of the GM Cleanse! Which explains the above picture with the pineapple, I really LOVE pineapples and I do not think anyone would everrrr understand it!!!!! *inserts emoji with heart shaped eyes* BUT PEOPLE!!! If I can give you a piece of advise from experience... I suggest you do not try to eat the whole pineapple as a snack just because you can and because you love it. It was painful. (literally) Maybe it was because it was my first time cutting my own pineapple (and watermelon!!! I'm actually really proud of myself that I did it) (do I actually sound like a bimbo.. gosh) but anyhoo, the pineapple bit my tongue and the acidity of it really was not helping my grumbling stomach 

  Which reminds me, I just brewed some peppermint tea in hope to soothe all the weird acidity feeling I now have in my stomach. I'm really hoping it works. I'll be off to study a little now, I'll check back in with ya tonight on how Day 1 has been :-) 

The Best is Yet to Be!

  Last Saturday, I went back to Anglo-Chinese Junior College to play in the Past versus Present event where several sports would invite their alumni (the past) to play against the present students. It was definitely weird to be considered "the past". I can still vividly remember when we were the "present" but that has got to be almost 2 years ago now!

  Walking through the school gates once again was really nostalgic, from the memory of being late almost every single day which resulted in me running as fast as I can to the school hall to the school flooding so much at the end of our last A levels paper that we could barely get out and had to call a cab. (why does it seem so negative, I promise AC has left me with positive memories as well, haha)

  Even though university is still a "school" in that sense, the feel of going to class in university differs so much from that of going to class in Junior College. In JC, teachers were stricter and cared more about your well-being and academics, classmates were constants and you knew familiar faces along the corridors, timetables were more structured and skipping class was a big thing!! However, now in university, in attempt to make us Singaporean children more independent and less of the "Strawberry Generation", we are made to take charge of our own education. The feeling of freedom, yet this freedom is accompanied by fear and much confusion.. JC students are definitely too used to being spoon-fed with politically correct answers and guidelines.

  Any hoo, it was sooo fun being able to play with this bunch of people again! Being in different universities has forced us to become opponents and this opportunity to be on the same side of the court as them was something that I really missed.

  Isn't this picture adorable!! Heheh, if you can't tell, we are being killed by the potent fart..  it was fun goofing around since we had to take advantage of the good natural lighting. 

  We also had lunch together at some restaurant in some hotel (I'm clueless???). The formal principal, Mr Wan offered to treat the Old Boys Association (I guess, Old Girls included as well) to commemorate Founders Day I suppose. We had really delicious food and a huge cake!! And we also stood around the cake and sang the ACS Anthem. Seeing the old boys sing the anthem with so much gusto and their effort to fit this event into their busy schedule (we had an old boy fly in from Hong Kong just for this!!!) really led me to appreciate ACS so much more. The school pride that these people have, the way they carried themselves and really the camaraderie amongst all the old boys, the reunion was definitely a pleasant one. One of the old boy actually kept a letter written by their volleyball coach almost 40 years ago. It was written before their crucial match, encouraging them to sacrifice a little of their time to train harder. 40 years later, he laminated the letter with a type-written letter in response and gave it back to his coach for keep-sake. I felt that it was such a sentimental gift and it really showed how much they valued and respected their coach and teammates to the point where they still bothered to organise this Past versus Present event to meet up and play volleyball together after so many years. ACS FOREVER. We bleed RED, BLUE, GOLD. 

 Oh, I also managed to talk to one of the old boys and he shared that he graduated with a major in Economic Sociology and that he had a passion for sociology. It made be thank God once again for putting me into this course which I honestly felt ashamed of in the beginning. It was also very refreshing and assuring to know that there is a future with my Sociology degree.. I do enjoy studying Sociology despite the assignments and exams that come along with it. Without Sociological Imagination, I doubt anyone can understand how Sociology actually shapes the way we view human relations ;-).  Also, there was an old boy (the one that flew in from Hong Kong) that asked to take a picture with me so that he could show his wife that a girl was actually as tall as him! Haha, sometimes I really don't understand how people are so fascinated with my height.. I mean I'm constantly so self-conscious of it that I hardly see it as a plus-point, yet people who do not have the height wish for it. 

The past we inherit, the present we create, for those who hope, work and play, the Best is Yet to Be!

  

#1 Survival

  

  The picture truly depicts how monotonous and dull my week has been. From the start till the end, life revolved around submissions, mid semester tests and presentations. It was not until after everything had ended that I had the time to surf the Internet on the way to meet my mother for dinner that I came across an article on Facebook titled "8 Things Every Person Should Do  Before 8am" (It's worth a read!). It struck me how practically everyone shuffling around me at the train station were pretty much lifeless zombies consumed by their thoughts and smartphones.

  The article suggested that we are all living on 'Survival Mode' where we do not think much of what we have to do, we just do it. Life itself has become so repetitive that we no longer take the time to appreciate what we are doing. To be honest, it is really difficult to appreciate anything in the midst of all the endless assignments but the article mentioned that it is our choice to step out of this 'Survival Mode' and decide to make a difference. The article then proceeds to list out eight steps we can take to change our lives.

  Apparently, the most important step of all is to get 7+ hours of healthy uninterrupted sleep! (I'm still working on it!) I think we would all agree that the idea of getting more sleep sounds extremely appealing, don't we? (The irony, I'm writing this post at 12.40am) Well, I guess we would all also agree that it would be nice to have more than 24 hours in a day so that we can do more of what we like yet finish our work. Since the upcoming week would be recess week (FINALLY), I will definitely be catching up on my sleep debt.

  Well, just a brief thought for the first post up on this blog :-). Dinner with mother was great! We went to Naked Finn at Gillman Barracks. The fish we had was really fresh and tender. Though it would be rather difficult to get there without a car (which is why I have to get my license soon), I really would not mind going back for their Fresh Coconut Sorbet which my stomach did not have the capacity to take in.

  Till next time!