ST Run 2015

Hello people who sleep in on Sundays,

Lucky you. I woke up at 6am because I had signed up for yet another organised run. This time a 5km ST Run in the eastern part of Singapore. While prying my eyes open this morning, I tried hard to remember why I keep signing up for these runs which almost always start very early in the morning. Oh, was it that stupid thing about "a couple that runs together stays together?" Maybe. Anyway, hubs and I don't even run together. He signed up for the 18.45km run while I only do 5km. Last night he went to the venue after work and didn't even have a chance to get any sleep. Me on the other hand made my way to the Sports Hub alone at 6:30am.

I was nearly 14 min late for the flag off because number one, the journey by train to the venue took forever. Number two, walking to the flag-off area took me 15min. Anyway, it's ok to be a little late for the flag-off because there are so many participants the road is jammed and for the first 1km, you can't really run anyway.

Hubs caught me as I ran into the Sports Hub with my usual peace signs. At first I thought I did badly for my timing. I did have to walk quite a bit because sometimes there were too many people on the road and it was impossible to run. There were a few stretches which were very narrow so you just have to walk slowly and patiently. I took around 52min to complete the run but when I checked my app, I realised that the distance covered was 6.24km instead of 5km. So not too bad!

Are you ready for the after-the-run photos?

Here's the banana shot. I love it when the organisers give out bananas after a race because I'm starving.

Here's another banana shot. This one with me actually having banana in my mouth.

Here's the champion shot.

This shot is to show you the stadium. It's huge.

Here's the couple shot.

Hubs didn't look that tired despite not having any sleep.

I was wrong. He crashed on the train and is now snoring happily in a coma.

This is my last run for 2015. I have nothing else booked. Yay, I get to sleep in on Sundays. Unless hubs springs a surprise.

Weigh In Friday - Windy with haze

Hello people who don't live in Singapore,

Lucky you. The haze situation has gotten hazardous.

The PSI for PM2.5 reached 309 for my area this morning. The Ministry of Education closed kindergatens, primary schools and secondary schools. My son had to go to school though as he attends a junior college. It's very strange why junior colleges aren't closed.

You would think with the PSI this high, no one in his right mind would go out without a good mask. Apparently not. Many people walk about maskless, my son and hubs included.

I took no chances as I am weak. I have a large head and face but managed to find a mask that fits me. I noticed some people use hankies as masks or fan their noses with a piece of paper. It's not the smell they should be worried about!

Haze aside, I had a very bad week with food. My stomach didn't quite recover from trying out white rice last week. At one stage, I literally couldn't eat anything. Everything I ate brought forth wind. So I went back to taking the probiotics, VSL#3 my GP had prescribed. I found them available at the pharmacy without a need for prescription. One box of 30 costs $42.80 which is robbery but at least I felt slightly better.

Quinoa, buckwheat and oats are my safe food. I wasn't worried about trying Quinoa Ramen. I was more worried about the taste. Upon opening the packet, I smelled something awful. Ever notice alternative grains tend to smell not so good? I boiled the ramen which cooked easily and mixed it up with some stir fried veges and meat.

Maybe I haven't eaten ramen for a long time but it was freaking delicious. And my stomach liked it.

Yesterday I felt somewhat better and tried brown rice wafer. What can I say? I still crave normal food. It turned out to be one big mistake. My stomach ballooned up with so much wind and pain I almost went to the hospital. Luckily my girl was able to punch the wind out with her magical hands. I can't say with 100% certainty but I think rice, any kind of rice is poison to me.

I want to confess something. I haven't even gone to the polyclinic to get a specialist referral. I said I would but I never did. Yesterday's episode has shaken me up. Next week I will do it even if the PSI is higher than 300.

My Friday's post has gotten quite depressing. I'm not sure if I want to continue posting... Certainly it would be useful to me as a reference. Perhaps it's the haze that's getting me down. Perhaps it's writing about negative stuff that happened to me and thus thinking about it. And thoughts of my fear of eating. Thoughts of not being able to eat delicious food. Thoughts of my being sick and tired of cooking most meals. Ahhhh! It's been a rough week. I shall leave it behind.   

I just remembered that today is my weighing day. As you know, I've already achieved my ideal weight of 57kg. Unfortunately due to my inability to eat 3 full meals this week, my weight continued to drop. This morning I weighed myself and the scale registered 55.9kg. That means a loss of 500g since last Friday. It's not too bad. I'm not worried. The next 7 days I'm going to be ultra careful about what I eat. I'll stick to my safe food and make sure I get 3 proper meals a day. As usual my weight loss is mostly from my boobs. If this carries on, I'm going to be flat as a pancake. Isn't it ironic? Now I have to make sure I don't keep losing weight. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

25th Sep 2015 - 55.9kg
18th Sep 2015 - 56.4kg
11th Sep 2015 - 57.1kg
4th Sep 2015 - 57.8kg
28th Aug 2015 - 58kg
21st Aug 2015 - 58.8kg
14th Aug 2015 - 58.9kg
7th Aug 2015 - 59.9kg
21st July 2015 - 63kg

New shift dress for Lammily Doll

With so many things competing for my attention daily, including lurking at supermarkets, cooking and taking long naps, it's no wonder I often neglect my dolls. The most enjoyable part of playing with dolls is dressing them up. Lammily doll is built based on a more realistic body type compared to Barbie and that itself causes some problems as there aren't many doll outfits which fit Lammily.

With only one stock outfit to her name (see here), I decided to make a dress for my dear doll. I mean I am after all a sewer and taking a piece of fabric and draping it round Lammily simply doesn't qualify as an outfit. I have sewn doll outfits for Barbie dolls and Mell-chan doll before so I can tell you it's a lot of work. Plus I'm quite impatient so handling small pieces of fabric is not the best thing for me.

By hook or by crook, I did it. What do you think? I didn't make it too fitting because I found it a bit hard to sew around the armholes if they were any smaller.

To make my life more complicated, I lined the dress. The lining is totally not necessary because it's a doll dress. How many times are you going to wash it anyway?

I wanted to take a few photos of Lammily in her new dress but it was quite a struggle. I'm using a new camera and I've only read a few pages of the User's Manual. There are 390 pages in all. Some of the things I used to do to in my previous camera, I realised don't always work in my new camera. The biggest problem I face is the focusing. Anyway, I hope to figure it out soon.

Because Lammily doesn't have articulated knees, she can only sit with her legs stretched out in front of her, I had to make sure the dress can accommodate the stretch.

The dress hem sits slightly under her knees. I don't mind making the hemline shorter. My son commented that the shift dress looks like a maternity dress! He's right.

This is only a sample dress so I didn't want to waste my plastic snaps. I sewed two sets for the top. I've forgotten where I bought these plastic snaps. They're perfect for doll outfits!

I don't think Lammily is a sexy doll. Well, it is sort of anti-Barbie... but in this shot, I thought she looks crazy sexy. (not in a weird doll-sex way, you know what I mean!)

With the haze still on going and yes, the western part of Singapore where I live is still the hardest hit, Lam Lam has been going a bit stir crazy. Earlier today, the haze looked a tiny bit better and I saw her pointing at the window.

"Lam go out." 

(why do I assume dolls speak poor English?)

I let Lam sit downstairs for a while. She was pretty happy.

Then she found a blue bench to sit on.

It matches her dress!

Lammily wouldn't budge from her blue chair for a very long time.

I took my eyes off her for one second and she disappeared. Where is she?

OMG. Those are big people bikes Lammily!

Finally Lammily got off the dangerous bikes. Thank goodness she finally stopped screwing around.

Wait a minute...

"Look Jane. No hands."

It's safe to say there won't be any more trips downstairs for Lammily for a while. It got my step counter up though.

Weigh In Friday - Fat Girl Trying To Escape

What a week. Singapore was shrouded with haze, pretty much at unhealthy level most of the days. Today it has gotten better but since it's all dependent on the wind direction, I don't really get too excited. I'm just pissed that where I live in the western part of Singapore, we seem to be the worst hit. In case you're wondering, the haze is coming from illegal land burning in Indonesia. Since this happens every year, we pretty much know this. Indonesia has no control over preventing land burning. It's as impossible a task as getting our locals to stop burning incense in public places.

With the stupid haze at unhealthy level, I did not venture out much. I was so good I didn't even go to my balcony! It was also an excuse for me not to exercise. This week was the first week of school after a 1 week school break. It usually means my sleep pattern is all weird. I sleep 3 or 4 hours at night (because I can't sleep) and I make up for it with a long nap in the afternoon. Then night comes and I can't sleep again. I am tired and lethargic and unproductive. I hope I get out of this funk. It's too tiring to be awake.
 

I tried white bread - burger buns and paired it with the worst meat ever, luncheon meat. It was delicious but sadly, I don't think my stomach likes it. The low carb, high protein bread my stomach prefers is simply not delicious. Too chewy for my taste.

You know how I've become obsessed with looking for alternative food? It turns out I'm doing something right.

Yesterday I was at the hospital for a prick test and the nurse talked to me a little bit about my diet. In case you're wondering, a prick test is not painful at all. Two sets of plastic pricks are pressed against my forearm and I wait 20 minutes for my skin to react. It feels a little itchy at first but nothing bad at all. I am allergic to pollen and cockroaches. I have always known I react to pollen as my skin swells up if I exercise early in the morning or late in the evening. I also react horribly to products that contain tea tree oil and aloe vera. But cockroaches? That was a surprise. Anyway, the nurse said that my sensitivity could come from the food I eat. After learning about my bloating and headaches, she suggest that I don't eat the same kind of food every day. Instead I should eat the same food once every five days. It sounds so complex I feel I need to read up more on this food rotation. Has anyone done this food rotation thing?

Now that I have a legit reason to look for alternative food, I don't feel so crazy lurking at supermarkets.

Have you tried this 7 grain drink? It's very, very pleasant. I could drink the whole carton in a day. Originally I bought it for my cereal but they don't seem to go well together.

One of the reasons I gained weight in the past was my weakness for biscuits. Looks like the fat girl in me is trying to escape again! I tried Rotondo biscuits this week and fell in love immediately. Love at first bite. These are too delicious to be healthy. I bought these for breakfast but ended up eating them all day. They aren't entirely fat free so I had better watch out.

I tried another brand of sweet potato chips and it's again delicious. Finished the whole bag in a few minutes. Help! My girl has become influenced by me and bought some chips which are gluten-free and she said I could share them with her. Unfortunately they tasted good so I had to get her to prevent me from eating them. I'll confess. This morning while my girl was in school, I searched everywhere for them. She hid them so well I couldn't find them. I'm so out of control. Can you picture it? Me with a crazed look turning the flat upside down for a bag of chips. When she returned home from school, I asked her where she hid the chips and it turned out she had eaten them all! Now that's a great hiding place - in her stomach.

My stomach has been feeling really good of late and I'm no longer satisfied with a light breakfast. The old hungry Jane is back. I bought these multigrain O's with quinoa and hit jackpot. These are a lot more filling than the kamut, wasa or buckwheat puffs. However, they are not delicious. Not horrible, just very bland. So no worries I gorge on them.

I bought these buckwheat spirals as my alternative pasta and I'll be frank. They don't look good. I was quite apprehensive about eating them. They take a lot longer to cook than regular pasta.

This week when I cooked seafood pasta for my kids, I made buckwheat spirals for myself and I have to declare they are delicious. I think the spirals without any sauce wouldn't taste good but with the sauce, they tasted no different from regular pasta. Success! Buckwheat spirals are filling so I'm careful not to eat too much. In case you're wondering, I cooked the sauce with olive oil, garlic, canned tomatoes and a bunch of seafood. My girl who doesn't like to eat much carbo had 2 helpings of the pasta so I'm going to say my cooking has improved!

Yesterday I felt so fantastic I decided to try white rice. The main reason I want to try white rice is to make life easier when I go out to eat as most restaurants serve rice instead of potatoes. Unfortunately, my stomach reacted badly. My stomach almost blew up. This is the first time my stomach hurt so badly I thought I would die. Luckily my daughter is very skilled at massaging her mama and she managed to beat all the wind out.

I was expecting a weight gain this week with all the biscuits and chips. Oh, I haven't confessed to drinking two cups of sweet tea a day plus I had Mr Bean ice cream twice. Ugh. I almost wanted to skip a weigh-in because I didn't want to know how much weight I had gained.

Much to my surprise, I have registered a loss. Last week my weight was 57.1kg. This morning I weighed 56.4kg. Actually when I first read the scales, my brain thought it was 57.4kg because I was convinced I had gained weight. All that sweet food and chips and zero exercise and I lost 700g. Something must be wrong with the machine! Am I not eating enough?

18th Sep 2015 - 56.4kg
11th Sep 2015 - 57.1kg
4th Sep 2015 - 57.8kg
28th Aug 2015 - 58kg
21st Aug 2015 - 58.8kg
14th Aug 2015 - 58.9kg
7th Aug 2015 - 59.9kg
21st July 2015 - 63kg

Anyway I have discovered where my weight loss has occurred - me boobs! I have gone down one bra size. You know what this means? I need to make a trip to the teen section in the lingerie department. My tummy has grown fatter. My skirts feel tight again. I need to get back to exercising my tummy. Why am I so lazy? I have no discipline.

Next week I can afford to gain 600g. Will I go crazy and buy more biscuits? And somebody please stop me from going to Mr Bean for the ice-cream again.

83-06

Dear internet friends,

If you live outside Singapore, you may not have heard. Singapore went to the polls on Friday. For the first time since independance in 1965, all 89 seats were contested. Yay, every eligible voter gets to cast a vote! One time I lived in a constituency that had a walkover and I felt extremely pissed and left out.

Yesterday, the results of the polls showed the ruling party, PAP won by a landslide of nearly 70% of popular vote winning 83 seats. Not only did it manage to wrestle back one seat from the opposition, it also increased its votes in nearly all constituencies including the ones held by the opposition.

I believe most people are shocked by the results including the ruling party who must be kicking themselves for not fielding a much stronger team to re-capture Aljunied, a 5-seat constituency. The results showed the oppostion won Aljunied by a very scant margin of 50.95% versus 49.05%. That's just 2,612 votes. Hindsight...

In the days leading up to the polls, the rallies by the leading opposition party WP were very well attended. Since I'm pretty old and can remember the old days, this is always true of rallies by the leading opposition parties. The huge turnout at opposition rallies give people the impression the support for these parties is strong. But the attendance rarely translates to votes.

I'm so glad election is over and we can all get back to normal life. Will the ruling party revert back to its old arrogant ways with this resounding mandate? I hope not. Based on changes in policies in response to criticism and the number of times the words "humbled", "deeply humbled", "humbling" were used in the victory speeches, I believe PAP is changing with the times. Besides, we have social media now and we don't stand for that kind of nonsense anymore.

Read hubs' take on why pap won big here (if you care).

Weigh In Friday - Do you puree?

Lately I've become interested in drinking pureed stuff. It started with checking out a Low Acid Diet cookbook and I noticed a number of pureed drinks. I haven't tried making any blended drinks myself because number one, my blender is old and dirty and number two, I don't know what and how much of the ingredients I should put in the blender. Okay, who am I kidding? It's the washing up I really hate.

One day I walked past a smoothie bar, Bounce and I ordered Berry Manilow. Its main drink is apple juice which you may probably already know is extremely good for a stomach like mine. Apples and apple juice have this calming effect on me. In fact after discovering this amazing effect (thanks Serene!), I have made it a habit to drink one glass of apple juice in the morning. Berry Manilow costs $5.90 which is a bit expensive for a glass of juice. To make up for it, other ingredients are added. Of course not having to do any washing up is the best part about buying your smoothie. And the handsome staff at Bounce gave me a bright big smile and asked me to enjoy my drink! Yes, yes, I know he says it to everyone.

While haunting the supermarkets, I came across nudie. It costs $2.90 each for 250ml. I thought of having these smoothies for breakfast. It has been quite pathetic for me breakfast wise because there is a shortage of oat milk in my area. Apparently I have bought up all the supplies. Until new stock comes in or I travel further to another supermarket to lug home a few cartons, I have been quite lost without my oat milk. Anyway, I soon realised that having nudie for breakfast just won't do because I already have one glass of apple juice early in the morning. So I saved nudie for a snack in the afternoon. I tried the cranberry raspberry first. It was too sweet for me. I don't think I will buy it again. The green nudie I was almost too afraid to try. I am not a fan of green juice. When I finally braved it, I was right. It tasted horrid. Like something had died inside.

I will make up my mind and buy a blender soon. Hopefully I can make my own smoothie and you can be sure I won't add in any green vegetables!

Remember my quinoa craze last week? I tried a quinoa with cauliflower and salmon at Grill Knife, Union. Wow. It was super not nice. The cauliflower totally ruined the quinoa. Plus the cook couldn't get the salmon right either. I get so angry when salmon tastes lousy. It rarely happens.

I wasn't very adventurous with food this week. I stuck mostly to my safe food. Now that I rarely suffer from headaches, I FEAR eating the wrong food that will trigger the headaches. It's really nice living without headaches. Is this what it feels like for everyone else? I like it. I super like it.

Last week I said I will try rice? I chickened out. However, this morning I tried bread. (with blueberry jam) I'm quite sick of eating potatoes. I bought a loaf of high protein, low carbs bread which I hope will not give me any problems. My body has already gotten used to eating very little carbs and I no longer feel hungry frequently. My energy level is quite high and I don't feel lethargic. But it's nice to be able to eat a sandwich with bread, not leaves like a normal human being.

Once I started feeling better, I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. My desire for crisps was a record high this week. I ate half a bag of sweet potato chips before I remembered to take a photo. There is a slight sweet taste in the crisp that I do not quite like. Having said that, I would buy this snack again. It's only 3 bucks. I did feel very guilty after eating half a bag of sweet potato crips. Then the next day, I promptly finished the rest of it. I think snacking is a very bad habit that is very hard to break. Once you start, there's no turning back.

Remember this bag of Lisa's potato chips I bought and was saving for Polling Day (today)? I opened it a few days ago. No worries about me overeating these because the smell is really horrible. I think it's like very old sunflower oil kind of smell. The taste is alright if you can get past the smell.

Yesterday I bought another bag of potato chips and this time I decided to try Freedom. It's very expensive (over $5) and as much as I enjoyed them, I don't think I will eat these very often. The taste? It's like very pure potato chips without any seasoning. I like these more than the sweet potato crisps.

I had my eye on these crackers for a while and hubs bought them for me and my girl to try. Big mistake. It was like eating a cracker soaked in soy sauce. I checked the label and it contained 2 taste enhancer. For a food item that is gluten-free, baked, not fried and 99% fat free, what's the point of adding flavour enhancer? (E627 & E631) So stupid, right?

By the way, in case you're wondering, I don't have a gluten problem. I just want to avoid food with unnecessary food additives.

I haven't been good with my exercise again. No running due to the haze. Hubs got me a fit bit zip which I wear around my neck on a chain. Previously I used a phone app to track my steps. But on my phone, the app won't track my steps unless I have the app open. I often forget to turn on the app plus the app drains my battery. Anyway, hubs finally got sick of hearing me rant about the app and got me the fit bit zip. I still have to remember to wear it or my steps don't get tracked. I've realised my phone app is a lot more generous in counting my steps. On my fit bit zip, you have to work much harder to get your steps counted. The target is 10,000 steps. Let me tell you, 10,000 steps is pretty hard to achieve. I've only hit it twice. If I don't get my 10,000 steps I still try to reach 8,000 steps. Having to stay indoors because of the haze, I have resorted to skipping to stay fit. Skipping is tiring. And boring. What else can I do at home to stay fit? I hope no one suggests housework! Next week if the haze clears I would like to start running again.

This morning I weighed myself and was surprised to see a loss. I am 57.1kg. Considering all the junk food I have been eating, it doesn't feel right. Well, I did buy low-fat junk food if there's such a thing!

Last Friday I weighed 57.8kg. This means I lost 700g this week and a grand total of 5kg 900g since 21st July 2015. I am just 100g away from my target weight! Wished I had pooped before I weighed myself.

11th Sep 2015 - 57.1kg
4th Sep 2015 - 57.8kg
28th Aug 2015 - 58kg
21st Aug 2015 - 58.8kg
14th Aug 2015 - 58.9kg
7th Aug 2015 - 59.9kg
21st July 2015 - 63kg

So far I think I've been having a relatively easy time losing weight. At first, it was due to my inability to eat much food and also, I ate very little carbs. As my digestive system is much healthier now thanks to potent probiotics and I want to credit apple juice as well, I am slowly reintroducing carbs back. This means I will definitely start to gain back my weight and I realise it's going to be a difficult task to keep my weight at 57kg on a diet with carbs. I don't have any idea how to maintain my current weight and still enjoy my life eating tasty food. Right now I'm just going by trial and error. Ideally I would like to continue with a low-carbs diet with plenty of fruits and veges (yes, I'll get my seafood and chicken as well) and at least some exercise.