On Losing Weight 16 May, 2013
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Food & Beverages, Sports & Health.add a comment
I did it! I’ve gone from a bigger than XL to a M/L now, keke… I lost 6 kg in 6 months, now 55kg. Here’s how.
1) Eat less. I try to cut out on rice and have soups-only during lunch. On days when I don’t feel hungry, I skip breakfast. I eat only when I feel hungry, and I eat the foods that I like during this time. For dinner, my plate is only ¼ rice, and a lot of dishes. I try to avoid bread and biscuits and rice and flour, unless I am hungry.
2) Eat my favourites. Nope, not raw yucky salads or fibre-ry wholemeals. I still eat chips and chocolates and fried chicken and milk tea and hot milo, but only when I am hungry (becos I’d skipped breakfast). So I still can have my favourites but these replace the main meal, as compared to becoming an ADDITIONAL in the stomach.
3) Have half a cup of coffee. Or maybe 1/3 cup only. For many people including myself, coffee is a comfort food, but instead of having the daily full cup, I make 1/3 cup only for myself, which is about enough for me to satisfy the taste buds; any extras will only give nominal satisfaction, so not worth it lah.
4) Exercise. Yeah, you still need to exercise to target the right curves. So I wake up at 6am to do half an hour of hula hoop every weekday morning, or replace with 10 min weights lifting or 5 min sit up if I’m too sleep-deprived to get up on time. And more recently, I try to jog a few km during Sundays for a thorough work out.
5) Stay stress free. It’s hard sometimes, but the human willpower collapse easily when you are stressed. I’ve packed back many many grams because of this, when the will is not strong enough and gives in to more snacks and food and sugar drinks and everything food.
6) Have a competition with like-minded friends. Yeah, the 6 kg lose in 6 months was documented because we had a competition among a few colleagues. Maybe I’m competitive, or maybe I’m stingy, but I’d really ‘step up’ on my dieting efforts towards the end of the challenge, because I want to look better than them, and because I don’t want to pay the forfeit.
7) Use a tummy slimming cream. I bought the Bio essence tummy cream, but I really don’t see/feel any effects of it. The waist is slimmer now, but I’ll attribute it to the hula hoops. But since money already spent, I’ll definitely finish the (2) tubes.
8) Don’t finish your food. It’s wasteful, I know, but for this period of time, losing weight is more important than being environmentally friendly. So since Mixed Vege Rice, Fish Soup and Soups do not come in ‘pay less for less rice’, I’d stop buying the rice entirely. For snacks, I’ll keep the rest when satisfaction has been met or hunger satisfied.
55kg was the target that I set for myself earlier this year, so now the next target is 52kg, after which we’ll just have to maintain. Don’t be complacent yet, I have to tell myself, we still want to look our best, so that we can feel the best constantly.
Gambatte!!
- Dear2
Cold Storage Kids Run 2013 Race Pack Collection 13 May, 2013
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear1, Dear2, Sports & Health.add a comment
We are going to Cold Storage Kids Run 2013!
Cold Storage Kids Run was the only kids only run event in the past, so when Dear1 got to know about this last year, registration was already closed and 2 yo Baby1 did not get to go :( Mummy made sure to calender down the event earlier this year – liked Cold Storage Kids Run on her Facebook page beginning of the year, and periodically went online to see if the 2013 web page is up. The event is normally held in May, and it is THE running event for kids, so we definitely have to go this year!
End March, the website is finally updated with the 2013′s details, so we quickly registered Baby1 for it. Being one of the few running events solely for kids, parents all over Singapore are all too kiasu to want to expose their kids to running, so places are reaaaaaally limited and snapped fast.
The pace pack collection was held over last weekend at F1 Pit. We reached the collection place at 11.20am (collection starts from 11am) and there was a already long queue bustling with activity. Having not been to the F1 Pit area before, Dear1 searched for the route online before we left the house.
The route brought us to the Singapore Flyer dropoff point instead of the F1 Pit carpark (more on this later). Luckily, the entrance to the race pack collection area was just about 10 meters from the Singapore Flyer dropoff point. Dear2 and Baby1 alighted and made their way in while Dear1 waited in the car because the dropoff point had no parking lots. Shortly after, a security came and so Dear1 had to drive off.
Dear1 drove round to the other end of the F1 Pit building and had to enter through some deserted looking gravel path to reach the main building. Then, there were no parking lots. Dear1 drove the the point nearest to the entrance where Dear2 and Baby1 got off and waited there. Shortly after, another security came along and told Dear1 that we could not park there. She stated that there was a large signage (which we missed) at the entrance of the Singapore Flyer dropoff point that people going to the F1 Pit building for race pack collection will have to park in the Singapore Flyer underground carpark instead. Because the run organizers did not “book/rent” the open space outside the F1 Pit building.
O..k.. Ramble ramble, spent some time arguing with the security to buy time and true enough, Dear2 and Baby1 appeared just as the security walked away and off we went too. The security went on directing traffic and basically asked all cars to move away from the F1 Pit building. All I can say is that this is poor planning on the part of the run organizers.
Luckily, inside the collection venue, the queue moved pretty fast though we actually have to queue twice, once for the bibs and once for the goodie bag. As per any running events, there’ll be sponsors and we quickly snaked through the many sponsors’ booths before exiting the packed room which, by the time we left, was almost near the point of deafening.
The event is next week, and Baby1 is really looking forward to it.
Constantly hmming ‘Kids Run’ – Checked
Running shoes – Checked
Small hand towel – Checked
Training – Did 400m jog once, so considered checked
Let’s hope this Sunday will be fun, and maybe we can cultivate her interest in exercise (where exercise do not equals to playground, Baby1!). After this, there’ll be the Jurong Lake Kids Run on 7 July too. There’s a kids race for the upcoming Pioneer Run, and some Kids Sprint which we saw the ad in Safra, but we think that it’s probably too much to expect of a 3yo at this stage.
Gambatte, Baby1!
- Dear1 and Dear2
Thank You, Mums and Dads 6 May, 2013
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It’s the time of the year again for eating expensive.
There’s Mother’s Day (this Sunday), Father’s Day (next month), Mother’s Birthday (in June) and Father-in-Law’s Birthday (end of May). 2 parents each for Dear1 and Dear2, plus Dear1’s grandmother, so we have many many festivals to celebrate every year just for the elders (groan….…).
Every year during this season, we will take the respective family out for a restaurant meal, or in recent years, been ‘coerced’ into the meal by our younger but more generous siblings. After years and years of dining, it has become a dread, cos:
1) The restaurants are super crowded during the Father’s Day and Mother’s Day peak. Why can’t everyone just have a sumptuous home cooked meal at home!?
2) We’re paying expensive amounts for just a meal!? (I’ll never forget that $400 bill for 6 pax on a Mother’s Birthday celebration. I don’t even earn that much in a day!!!)
3) The dining experience is really just pure eating for us. Occasionally we’ll chat with the siblings (ermm sorry, the parents just can’t fit into the conversation)
4) Times 4 meals within a short span of 2 months. Omg, the BIG hole in the pocket $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
It was with much much reluctance in recent years that Dear1 and I participate in the yearly rituals.
This year however, suddenly my perception changed. I actually dun mind bringing the Mum out for her yearly reward, and I even proposed to organize the Mother-in-law’s Mother’s Day meal. Hmm, what got into me….?
It has been a hectic year this past year. Mum has been taking care of our little newborn Baby2 daily since birth, now already 7 months old, and before that Baby1 until Baby2 came along. And Mother-in-law is helping to bath and feed Baby1 after childcare every day too, freeing up precious energy for Dear1 and I.
Somehow, the new parents of this generation expect our parents to help out with the kids, perhaps because we ourselves were raised single-handedly by our grannies. Granny probably cooked and bathed and took care of a few cousins at the same time back then. But apparently our parents don’t feel the same now. Childcare centre, nannies, maid, SAHM, relax and enjoy own retirement years – I think our parents really do prefer these than having to stay home all day and babysit.
So, looking at how our own parents sacrificed their ‘happiness’ and be occupied and tired every day from looking after our 2 girls, I think they do deserve a nice treat. It’s just a meal in that 365 days, but that’s a little way of expressing our thanks to them.
We brought Mum out for dim sum last Sunday already, and are planning for a dinner for Mother-in-law next Sunday (read, avoid the actual DAY!).
Have your made your reservations?
- Dear2
Saving Every $ part 3 10 April, 2013
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Dollars & Cents.add a comment
Dear1′s mummy needed some coins, so we decided to empty our piggy banks again to exchange with her. This time, it was only 12 months since our last emptying. The piggy banks were barely half full, so we didn’t have any high expectations.
We emptied all our 50 cents and 1 dollar coins and packed them neatly into rolls of 20 coins each. For the 1 dollar coins, we took some time to choose some shiny ones that we wish to keep. This is because Singapore is going to introduce a new series of coins some time in mid 2013, so the current series may go out of circulation very soon. It happens that all the bright shiny coins that we picked out were minted in 2011.
Then, Dear2 had the idea to keep one coin from each year that it was minted. We went through every single 1 dollar coin and found the following years – 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Of all of them, 1994 was the rarest. We kept one coin from each year. We didn’t do the same for the 50 cents coins because it did not bare any significance to us, unlike the 1 dollar coins.
So finally, we counted 22 rolls of 50 cents amounting to $220 and 22 rolls (what a coincidence!) of 1 dollar amounting to $440, for a grand total of $660. That’s about $1.81 per day on average, which was slightly lesser the $1.94 per day average we saved the last time. Probably, it could be because we set aside all those shiny coins and those to form the minted year series.
Anyway, we kept up with our saving habit. Good job!
Now, to start inculcating Baby1 and Baby2 with this habit too. :)
-Dear1
New Year Resolutions 2013 31 March, 2013
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, For Him For Her, Slice of Life.1 comment so far
Oh no, it’s already the end of March and I’m just starting to write our new year resolutions?! Haha… Well, yes and no.
Yes, I’m writing and posting it today, but no, we’ve this planned out on our yearly retreat last year. Sigh… We used to do our yearly retreat at a holiday but now, with our busy schedule, we did our retreat at Ichiban Sushi at Jurong Point over lunch (with Baby2).
Ok, here’s the big list.
Joint
- Continue looking at property
- Create new $1200 in dividend income per annum
- Join a vertical marathon
- At least 1 date per month
- Visit Legoland, Hello Kitty Land, Little Big Club
Dear1
- Change job
- Write at least 1 post per month
- Do skipping at least once per week
- Spend less time on mobile phone
- Lower my expectations and be more patient with Baby1
Dear2
- Target 55kg
- Get poached
- Write at least 1 post per month
- Kiss dear every week
- Do 2 face mask per month
That’s it. Jiayou jiayou!
-Dear1
Our new routine with 2 babies 15 February, 2013
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear1, Slice of Life.2 comments
This is a follow up of a post that I’ve written some time back titled – Our work and baby routine.
So now that we have 2 babies in tow, it’s time we post an update of our routine.
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6.30 am: Dear2′s alarm clock rings. Usually Dear2 will be able to hear it and wakes up. Oh, Baby1, Baby2 and Dear1 are all KO. It’s good that the kids are asleep at this time. Hopes Baby2 don’t wake up.
6.45 am: Dear1 wakes up and if Dear2 wasn’t already up, then wake Dear2 up as well. Dear1 goes to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and wash up all the used milk bottles from the night and sterilize them. Dear2 packs Baby1′s bag for her nursery school/childcare. Dear1 and Dear2 sits down for some morning coffee and breakfast. Hopes Baby2 don’t wake up.
7.15 am: Time to wake Baby1 up. Cuddles her a bit and gets her ready for school. May involve some bargaining as Baby1 will often declare her reluctance to go to school. Makes milk for Baby1. Dear2 goes to bath and prepares herself. Hopes Baby2 don’t wake up.
7.45 am: Target time to leave the house which we’ve never been able to meet. Mad rush to get ready everything, change Baby1 into her uniform, bring Baby1 to toilet now that she’s almost fully toilet trained. Dear1 prepares himself for work. Quick tidying up of the house. Feeds medicine to kids if any. Hopes Baby2 don’t wake up.
7.15-8 am: Sometimes, Baby2 does wake up. That means someone has to attend to her. That also means our ‘workforce’ is 50% paralyzed. Makes milk for Baby2. Feeds milk to Baby2. Keep Baby2 from crying. Mad rush becomes madder.
8-8.10 am: The time we actually step out of the house.
8.25 am: Arrive at granny’s house to drop off Baby2. Don’t even have time to properly kiss Baby2 goodbye.
8.35 am: Arrive at Mulberry to drop off Baby1. More bargaining. Waves goodbye.
8.40 am: Drops off Dear2 at Chinese Garden MRT station.
9.10-9.30 am: Dear1 and Dear2 arrives at work.
6 pm: Dear1 and Dear2 sets off from work promptly.
6.40 pm: Dear1 meets Dear2 at Chinese Garden MRT station.
6.45 pm: Arrive at Mulberry to pick up Baby1. She’s usually the last few students left before the school closes at 7pm. So poor thing.
7 pm: Buys dinner from the market.
7.20 pm: Arrive at granny’s house. Finally get to see Baby2 again! Yay… But no time to really play with her. :’( Starts eating dinner and feed dinner to Baby1. Pack up all the daily stuff and goes home.
8.15 pm: Reaches home with Baby1 and Baby2 after a long day. Dear2 plays with Baby2 while Dear1 baths Baby1. Then Dear1 goes to bath first, then Dear2 goes to bath. Unpacks Baby1 and Baby2′s stuff. Feeds medicine if any.
9.15-9.45 pm: Bedtime for the kids. Baby1 and Baby2′s bedtime needs to be closely matched so they’ll both go to sleep and not affect each other. Usually, this means Dear2 starting Baby1′s milk feed first while reading her a bedtime story in the bedroom. Meanwhile, Dear1 will start feeding Baby2 in the living room. All lights except the bedroom will be off. When Baby1 starts to doze off, the bedroom light will off. By then, Baby2 will be dozing off and Dear1 will bring her into the bedroom where she sleeps in her cot. Yes, all 4 of us sleeps in the same room.
10 pm: Baby1 and Baby2 goes to dreamland and Dear1 and Dear2 finally have some time for themselves. But all is not done. Dear2 wakes up to dry her hair. Dear1 washes all the bottles from the day (~8 bottles) and sterilizes them to prepare for the night. Also, complete the daily housework such as washing dishes if any, packing up the house, washing clothes, keeping clothes, folding clothes, etc. Dear1 and Dear2 chit chats a bit.
10.30-11 pm: Time for bed.
2.30 am: Baby2 usually wakes up for milk around this time. Dear1 will quickly carry Baby2 out of the bedroom to prevent Baby1 from waking up too. Dear2 prepares the milk. Dear1 feeds Baby2. Dear2 goes back to sleep.
3 am: Dear1 and Baby2 goes back to sleep.
6 am: If Baby2 wakes up again, repeat everything at 2.30 am.
6.30 am: Dear2′s alarm clock rings. Usually Dear2 will be able to hear it and wakes up. …here we go again… Hopes Baby2 don’t wake up… yet.
========
There are 3 critical times that we have to meet each day. First, start work time at around 9 am. Second, Baby1′s school’s closing time at 7 pm. Lastly, bedtime at 9.30 pm. Much of our routine revolves around meeting these 3 ‘deadlines’.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying a routine is a bad thing. In fact, this routine is great because it means that the process can be optimized and we would not have to deal with much uncertainty. It’s just that this routine is so packed and there is hardly time to do any other things. We don’t even have much time to actually interact/play with the kids.
Luckily for our sanity, Baby2 was able to learn her ‘sleep-through-the-night’ skill early. This meant that we only had to wake up once (or at most twice) each night and she would go back to sleep pretty fast after feeding. Also luckily, both Baby1 and Baby2 developed their ‘ignore-crying-noise-from-other-children’ skill too so we at most had to deal with only 1 crying baby during the night.
Phew~ What to do… Taking care of 2 children on our own without a helper (i.e. maid) is like that. We do our best and hope that our best is enough for them to grow up strong and healthy.
As for us (Dear1 and Dear2), we try to cherish whatever small packets of time we have to ourselves – coffee & breakfast in the morning, short drives between nursery and mrt station, and after the kids go to bed. And the occasional lunch time when we could meet up for a meal just by ourselves.
-Dear1
Get well soon everyone 29 January, 2013
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Slice of Life, Sports & Health.1 comment so far
The whole family is going through a bout of sickness now. It started with me falling sick sometime in mid Dec 2012. It was a fever, sore throat and runny nose, it was most likely flu. I saw the doctor several times and had 3 courses of anti-biotics but the flu refused to get better. The sore throat was so bad at night that I trembled as I drank water. After about 3 weeks, I finally got better.
Meanwhile, Baby2 caught my germs and she started sneezing and also had runny nose. Since Baby2 couldn’t really control any of her actions, her body just sneezed frequently, involuntarily, to clear her breathing pathway. It would slowly turn from clear mucus to yellow mucus. Luckily, Baby2 recovered quickly and her runny nose stopped.
At the turn of the new year 2013, Baby1 started her Nursery 1 childcare. Within the first 3 days of school, she started developing fever, cough and runny nose. Maybe it was from school, or maybe it was from me. At this point, I was just recovering from my flu. Baby1′s cough would degenerate to an allergy situation similar to what she had back in Oct/Nov 2011. She would cough and vomit uncontrollably, many times during the night. We took her to the clinic at Dawson Place where she was successfully and effectively treated the last time.
At mid January, Dear2 would fall sick, having similar symptoms to me. At this point, I was already free from symptoms for 1 week and shared some kisses with Dear2 on my birthday. However, because the symptoms were so similar, it was very likely that I had passed the germs to Dear2. According to Dear2, she had the worst sore throat in her life. It was that bad. And it took nearly 10 days for Dear2 to recover.
Just 3 days after seeing the doctor, when Baby1 is recovering from her flu symptoms, she was struck with stomach flu, most likely from her school. Baby1 would wake up that morning and vomit repeatedly. She vomited so much that she had nothing left in her stomach and was vomit yellow gastric juices. It pained my heart to see her in so much discomfort. We went to the Dawson clinic again and it was confirmed to be stomach flu.
The following day, I was down with stomach flu. I woke up at 2 am and vomited. I was up the entire night vomiting until I went to the doctor first thing the next morning. That day (it was a Saturday), Dear2 and I was feeling so drained from the illnesses that we had to ask both our parents to bring the kids out for the day so we could rest and recuperate at home. We would later learn that Baby1 also spread the stomach virus to my mum, dad, and sister who helped to take care of her that weekend.
The following week, Dear2 and I gradually recovered. However, Baby1 started having diarrhea. It began from just once a day. We had thought that it would go away on its own. By the end of the week, it had increased to 2-3 times in the day. At its worst on Sunday night, Baby1 woke up at least 4 times during the night and had to go to the toilet. We quickly brought her to the doctor the next day and confirmed that it was a another stomach virus.
Right now, it had been about 8 weeks since everything first started with my bout of flu. Currently, everyone is starting to feel better. We’ve been drinking lots of barley and chrysanthemum tea and pipagao. We’ve been very careful with our hygiene. No kissing. No sharing of food. Frequently washing hands. Use lots of dettol to clean the floor, clean the toilets, wash the clothes, wash the soiled beddings, clean up any vomits. It is no joke having the whole family sick like this. It is downright awful.
I really hope that everyone will get well soon.
Shoo, germs, bacteria, viruses, bad weather, shoo!
You are not welcomed here. GRR!!!
-Dear1
Update 15 Feb 2013: Baby1 caught the cough and runny nose again on CNY’s eve and the doctor gave her the nebulizer (her first). Then on day 1 of CNY, Baby2 caught the bug and has been coughing until today. Dear1 and Dear2 feeling stuffy in the nose too. Really hope all this nonsense sickness end soon.
The Less You Try to Eat, The More You Actually Eat 16 December, 2012
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Food & Beverages.2 comments
Urgh, it’s so hard to shed those pounds.
When I was in JC, I was too light to donate blood. The minimum weight was 50kg and I was 48kg at that time. Those were the days….
After Baby1, I decided not to attempt to lose any weight. “We’ll be trying for Baby2 anyway, so no point to lose weight now” was my thinking. Before concieving Baby1, I was around 55kg. After giving birth to Baby1, my weight continued to pile on silently and I was 60+kg just before conceiving Baby2. From M to L and even some XLs are even too tight….
Fast forward to present day. Baby2 is 2.5 month old now, and I am still at 62kg. I never used to think kgs are hard to shed – aren’t they just numbers? But my weighing machine is still not giving me the 55 that I want to see, sobz…..
I try to cut down on rice for dinners. I try to skip breakfast if I’m not feeling hungry in the morning. I drink more soup and eat vegetables in place of rice so that my stomach will be full. I drink water/juices/any fluids in the afternoons when I feel hungry. I go to bed with a growling stomach and tell myself no supper at all. I drink half a cup of coffee so that I don’t take in an additional half spoon more of sugar.
But I end up having fried chicken for dinner because I have been having such awful meals the past week. My dinner was durians because I can’t have it as a snack. I had cheese fries because I need to reward myself. I reward myself with 3 packs tidbits and 1 cup milk tea again.
It seems that the less I try to eat, the more I actually eat!
Dieting is so hard, it really takes a lot of will power. And after all that suffering, there may not be even any visible effects.
But this time round, I am determined to lose that weight. I want to be a chio mummy! Jiayou jiayou jiayou!
- Dear2
