Make your calories count

There are many ways to shed off those fats that could have been haunting us all these while. While we do our best to hit the gym or have our own time exercise regime, diet plays an important part too. Very often, when we hear friends around us saying that they are going on a diet, a diet, a diet, and blahs and if only there is a more effective way to document down what we have eaten.

Almost a year ago, a colleague of mine introduced me to this phone app that can actually track ur calories intake as well as your exercise records. I thought how nice and convenient it'll be. So, i downloaded the app and have been eating in guilt erm, most of the time since. BUT BUT BUT, you want to lose those weight right? You cannot tahan seeing that flabby arms and that pertruding tummy fats accompanied by the giant thighs? RIGHT?? 😱😱 If your answer is YES, then unfortunately you (we) have not many choices left la. 

The name of this app is called iDat. This is one of the initiatives by the Health Promotion Board (HPB). And yes, it can actually track your calories intake as well as your exercises activities. Power right? 

After you downloaded this app, they will prompt you to sign in and you will be requested to put in your current weight, goal weight (see picture below (1) to (3)) such that they can tabulate how long you will need to take in order to achieve your goal weight (4). Of course with proper diet and exercises ya. 

When all settings, goals and visions are set, you can officially start on your calories counting. Well iDat is a pretty comprehensive app to use because it doesnt only have the weight and goal, calories counting, you can actually record all your exercises data in this app too. Just like the one below (left panel): 

And what i really would like to emphasize on is the calories counter. How do we count our calories? Of course through the food we eat. iDat has a pretty conprehensive list of Asian food (thats what i like most! Its so Singapore!) And for a typical Chinese Asian like me, it works exactly the way i like it to be! 

Again from the left panel, you tap Summary and it will tell you how much calories you can take everyday. It aims to work according to your personal goal that you had previously entered and thus the proposed calories given under Summary is what you should aim for everyday. Ie; not consuming more than that amount of calories. 

One example: 

So for this case seen above, this person should only be consuming no more than 1200kcal per day. 

To find out how much calories you have taken, go to the left panel again and tap Meal, and it will bring you to this: 

Again, as seen above, iDat has broken down your intake period into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks. So say you tap on breakfast, lunch or dinner, you will see a long list of suggested food to key in: 

They range from meat to seafood to vegetables to snacks/desserts to beverages and even fast food! My favourite Curry Zazzle from Pizza Hut is an astonishingly 564 kcal!! 😱😱

And so like i'd said, the list is quite conprehensive like these below:

They have almost everything that i can find in Singapore (Asian food). And aftr you have selected your food, it will also give you a breakdown list of how much calories taken for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacktime: 

I personally like this lots and was a little stuck to it for quite a while when first introduced to. One of my friends and her fiance joking complained to me that i got both of them addicted to this app! Lol! So for those of you that are more health conscious or that you are aiming to lose some fats or even trying to maintain your good figure, try iDat from HPB! Have fun! 

GOAL.

I believe everyone has their own set of goals. Some of you may have more goals, and some are pretty content with what they have or where they are. One of my goals this year is to shed off some stubborn fats. My domestic helper stumbled upon a picture of a lady with very flat and lean tummy in a magazine this afternoon and asked "Mdm, you last time like that?" I said "Show it to Sir." And my mister nodded. Well, the key words are "last time", meaning that i had flat tummy, but used to have. 😪

I have always intended to lose some weight but guess that procrastination has become my close friends, so it was put off for a while. Oh, i didnt have a pair of sport shoes to even begin with, so.... Blah blah blah... 

It didnt get started until... One day...

I was approached to do a short video recording for work purpose in my company. 2weeks later, the colleagues ic excitedly asked me to pop over her cubicle so that she can show me the finished work of the recording. I was excited, to be honest. I mean, who wouldnt be right? To be able to see how you looked in the video clip and to see if you look presentable. 

But when i watched the clip, i was shock! I look very very fat. The double chin was obvious and not forgetting that tummy that was bulging out every single second of the clip. My face looked chubbier than usual. It was indeed a 晴天霹雳 truth! Somemore this recording was done on my bday!! Kill me lah. 😭😭

So that was the final straw. Yes, i mean FINAL STRAW. 😤

I want to get back my 'last time' tummy! Like this one: 

Not bad eh, especially love that gap in between the thighs! I have never had those gaps in between thighs since puberty!! 

Or how abt this one? 

WOW... WOW! 

Got this from Instagram and the instructions look quite managable, but if you really do it, its not very very easy also lah. 

In any case, i got very motivated to shed those stubborn tummy fats. It was also my bday period and so, i requested for one of my pressies to be a pair of gym shoes. Thank God, i received some vouchers and headed down to the store to grab one of my favourite brands of sport shoes- Nike. 

So ta-da! 

Okay, it looked red in this picture becos i took this picture in my room and my lights are yellow colour lights, so that it made it look red. But it was actually warm bright pink. A little shocking pink but warmer shade. 

And with this pair of shoes, i headed down to my office gym and started my painful and slow and torturous and very very tiring gym routine. 

FYI, i have been to gym before. I was quite surprise myself too. One of my ex workplace happened to have a gym as well and back then i was building up my body to prepare to conceive a baby, so i went gym, ALONE, for 3 months, 2-3 times in a week, right aftr work. I didnt do very vigorous workout but just started slow and steady. Well the rest is history. ✌

And so, back to my new gym shoes. So i headed down to my office gym and started the routine. It definitely wasnt easy, but i was determined. Very. In fact, before this, i was already exploring the different types of crunches to do at home. Afterall i wanted a flatter tummy so crunches is one of the more effective methods. I googled, and downloaded various type of crunches: 

So far, i have been doing the abdominal crunch, side crunch as well as V crunch. And maybe i didnt do them correctly (even tho i keep referring back to these pictures to ensure my poises are correct), i developed lower back pain aftr a few days. The pain comes if i stand a little longer or even sit in a certain position for slightly longer. So, i decided to stop crunches altogether for time being. Indeed! My back aches were gone by 2nd day! See lah, see lah, even my body is asking me not to exercise?? Ops, excuses ya. Heh... In any case, i will not stop at my crunches, but will be more mindful of my position whenever i do them. 

But meanwhile, besides gym, i do planks too. Wah planks... I hate it, to be honest. One of my colleagues told me that she can do up to 60secs! What??! I tremble and shiver nonstop at 25! Goodness! 

Hmm, i guess our real enemy really is our mentality and mindset. If we think we cant, for sure we cant. But if we think we can, the chances of succeeding increases significantly! So i have been challenging myself to last another 5secs more each week. It wasnt very easy for me but i know i can do it! 

And there are definitely many different ways to adopt in order to have a flatter tummy: 

I havent try this 14 days Abs Challenge tho. Well, you can try them! :) 

Oh, and i absolutely love this one: 

Sweet isnt it. Both of them get to exercise and tone up while lovey dovey-ing. Lol.. I showed this to mister and he jus laughed. I wonder what's that suppose to mean. Oh well. 

So for those of you, like me, that want to shed off some weight, go ahead, try crunches, plank, hit the gym and go for regular runs! I always believe that when we look good, we feel good too. When we feel good, everything becomes good suddenly! Lol... 

So wish me all the best in my losing weight journey such that i can attain my goal. Need some support actually. Hehe... 

And thats all for now frens! See you! 

Covet Fashion

For those friends that notice, I don’t usually play games. Right? *GRIN* But this is one game that got me hooked since last Sep! I accidentally stumbled upon it in Instagram one day and thought that this might be different from the usual games my friends are playing, almost everyday. Afterall, it’s a Fashion Game. Fashion? Yeah, I like! J

So I downloaded it and hasn’t stop since. :P

Let me introduce to you: Covet Fashion. ✌

If you are like me that dont like playing games but yet dont mind fashion games, try this! 

This is the main Home page when you log in.

If you notice the top left corner has got a red colour '1' on the logo, this means i have one notification awaiting for me to read. On the top right corner we can also see one that has the money sign. This is the monry you have earned from playing this game (of course fake money hor), and with the money you've earned along the way, you can use it to buy clothes which will inturn increase your Closet Value. So our goal in this game is mainly to increase such value, because it means you can buy more clothes as and when you want, without a budget! How nice, if in real life, its also this case! Lol... Anyway, next to it there's like another thing with '1/75'. This is the ticket to have if you wanna continue with the game. You can increase the tickets by voting for other player's entered looks. Each set of votes you made, you earned 2 (pathetic) tickets. When i just started playing this, i was so desperate for these tickets that i was continuously voting to earn them! And i did that thru out my train ride home aftr work! So, happy voting ah. :) 

To continue, next to it, you see this diamond shape. I usually dont bother too much about that so i cant comment a lot. Basically to what i understand, either you pay actual real money to increase it, or you have to earn it thru a long term playing.

When you are in the main home page, you can tap on the top left corner that I first mentioned (with a '1' on it) and it will bring you to the following:

The ones that I normally toggle with are My Inbox, Enter Events, Vote on looks, Go Shopping & My Closet. You will receive notifications, latest fashion updates, games updates as well as the results of the events you entered previously under My Inbox. You can get your Ticket given by Covet Fashion on a daily basis, other than earning them through voting (mentioned earlier). Enter Events is really the one that’s fun. Hehe… This is the part where you enter into fashion competition and earn money from there. They are broken down into Closet Value ($10,000, $25,000, $50,000 and so on). And for each closet value game, there’s a theme (aka dress code) to adhere to. For example: You must wear one lace item and a hat, in order to join the event. So its kinda fun actually. Base on the photo below on the right, it will show the listof events you have entered thus far and how long more before it closes such that the results will be out, this way, it manages your expectation too. I was very excited abt my first few events entered and I kept going back to see how long more so that I will know if I won!

 

Besides the usual events you enter to hone your fashion skills and earn some ‘money’ and tickets in order to keep playing, they also have the recently revamped Jet Set Events. From what I understand, this is one of the ways to increase the diamonds (other than buying them using real cash; I mentioned earlier). The thumb of rule is similar to those usual events you enter, just that you earn diamonds through accumulating the number of jet logos you have. As you can see below, Covet Fashion gives out 500 diamonds (wow!) if you have an accumulated of 35 jet logos! Well, I am still accumulating them in order to open up my first 500 diamonds!

To find out whether you have won or not, you will be notified via My Inbox and the breakdown of the ‘results’ is like the ones below:

 

Oh I forget to mention that if you invite your friends to join in, you get $1,000 (game money). You may also borrow from their closet to enter the events if you do not wish to buy.

 Here's a few more screenshots on My Closet: 

 

In general, i would give 8/10 because...... i am still playing with it! Lol... But seriously, i love it because this game can help me hone my fashion coordinating skills that i lack. So, if you are someone that loves fashion and are looking for ways to improve fashion coordination so that you can dress better, smarter and classier, this app game is for YOU! 

Have fun ladies! 

Audrey Hepburn

I had long decided to write on her for my next post, but when i actually sit down and try to put my thoughts into words here, i realised it's not an easy thing to do because for one simple fact that i am not her, so it can only be based on limited knowledge. But still, i went ahead.

Audrey Hepburn. She is (still) famous for the movies she had acted in. But more often than not, she has been widely recognised as the fashion icon during her era. I mean who wouldnt agree with me that her natural beauty is a God-given. Just look at those eyes, nose and mouth!  I dont think she has gone under the knife, seriously. Okay, you say make up, that i definitely have to agree. But in any case, there were photos of her not in thick make up, still she outshined. So talking about 美女, this has to be one, obviously!  

I mean just look at her, every photo is simply gorgeous!  

And Audrey is not one that only has the looks, she definitely has the heart; a kind heart. 

Towards the last few years of her life, she was active in humanitarian works. Being a survivor during the Germany war, she was thankful that she could come out of hell, surviving. Her heart felt for the children, esp those in poverty. She decided to put compassion into actions, and went into the poorest countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Honduras, doing something for the deprived children over there. By this time, she was already quite sick, but still that didnt stop her for doing her part to help the poor. She's truly a beauty inside out! 

We see many of her photos around nowadays, esp those used for classy home decor. To me, she IS very classy and beautiful. Oh, btw, theres even a website set up and named after her and its purpose is obvious. Make a guess? :) 

Yes, you got it! 

To help the poor children. (Children's funds) 

Thank you Audrey for making a difference, to those children, to the entertainment industry & to the fashion industry. You are simply awesome. 😘

         Audrey Hepburn (1929 - 1993)