Thursday, June 25, 2009

Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism

I've just survived doing 20 minutes of the 57 minute Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism workout. By the end of the warm up, i was already panting like a dog. This shit is seriously tough and i don't think it was aimed at the beginner's market and i consider myself to be a beginner. This is the 2nd time i'm actually doing it; the first time i tried i only survived the warm up. If you're interested in purchasing this dvd, click here to order from the US Amazon website. Remember that it is probably a region 1 dvd so you either need to have a region-free dvd player or actually own a region 1 player in order for it to work. You might be able to find another region on the UK Amazon website but don't quote me on that. I've been doing my Leslie Sansone 3-mile workout at least 4 days a week but being that i'm getting close to my weigh-in day, i'm trying to put in more work. Because if i go by what my clothes are saying, then i'm definately still in-between a 14 and a 16 and i'm aware that i'll be needing to lose anywhere between 4 to 7 kilos in order to actually drop a dress size.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Wollongong est Baisée!!!

So exams are finally over and i can breathe a sigh of relief. I have approximately one month to rest my brain from the gruelling academic workout of studying. And i'm going to need it since i'll be taking Accounting and International Trade next year. But i've got to move out of my current place on the 5th of July so i'm going to try and start packing slowly as opposed to the night before moving like i'm accustomed to doing. That reminds me, i have no idea when the exam results are actually coming out.....pfft. Anyways i'm going to try and focus all my energy into working out and eating healthy for the next couple of days because my weigh-in is coming up on the 30th of June so it's time to buckle up and get into it. I no longer have the excuse of studying for exams to stop me from doing a 1hour workout daily.

JieJie and I went to Wollongong on Saturday and we were shocked to see that most of the shops inside one of the shopping mall were all closing down. It's such a shocker because this means that there's less eye candy for me for the next one month and this is really scary. Does it mean that the shops are never coming back or is it just a refurbishment? One of the shops had a note on their shopfront window saying they'll reopen in august. August???? What on earth am i meant to do between now and then? Plus i was hoping that i could apply for a job there? Bloody cows! Anway the financial crisis seems to be throwing some wrenches into my weightloss plan. At the moment i need to purchase a new laptop and a new wardrobe and something's gotta give. It's either i forfeit my laptop for my new wardrobe - which i'm considering, or try not to go less than a size 14 so i can still wear most of my size 16 clothes - which i absolutely would hate to do. That is except i can look like America Ferrera or Kourtney Kardashian.

Does anyone know what size these girls might be? If you do, please feel free to let me know in the comments. Australian, US or UK dress sizes most preferable :)
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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Day 27: Exams, Boredom and Guthy-Renker

You might have noticed that i haven't really been keeping up with my food diary. There are two reasons for that and the first is that i'm consistently eating the same thing so instead of torturing your eyeballs with lists of the same foods weekly, i'll only be writing when i've eaten something i wasn't meant to eat in the first place. Another reason is that i've pretty much lost my motivation for shrinking because i feel like i've hit a plateau and my attempts to motivate myself recently havent been working. So instead, i've just been trying to stay healthy and workout out 5 times a week for at least 30 minutes. Of course, sometimes i've worked out an extra 30 minutes on some days just because i'm upset for no reason and need an avenue in which to release the pent up anger without coming across as a psycho. I know i have my goal of being a size 14 by the 30th of this month but if i don't get there, i'm going to try my best not to beat myself up about it. Instead, i'll be looking to Beyonce for some motivation as girlfriend sure knows how to work her curves. I've got exams coming up this week and one day the next week so i probably wouldn't be doing much blogging but i sure am bored already of studying for the exams. Just in case you're wondering why there's no space or paragraphs between post sections, blame my laptop or blogger because i actually put the spaces when typing!
Recently, i've been having trouble sleeping and sometimes i've been up all night till about 7am in the morning before i finally fall asleep. To catch up on the time instead of imagining pink butterflies fluttering on my ceiling, i've been watching the paid infomercials they usually show on TV and i came across Guthy-Renker who's responsible for marketing Sheer Cover mineral makeup and Proactiv solutions. They also have Cindy Crawford's beauty line called Meaningful Beauty. The formulation for the skincare was created by Cindy's dermatologist for 13 years who also happens to be well known in the beauty industry, Dr Sebagh. Anyone who knows this guy knows that his stuff ain't cheap and his eye cream can actually make you broke. Jennifer Lopez is also a fan of his cosmetics so i'm actually interested in trying out her stuff and seeing how good it is. But obviously i won't be doing this anytime soon because i've got other more important purchases to make and i've still got 2 tubs of face cream, 1 eye gel and a facial serum to go through before i try this out. But if you're interested and live in Australia, you can find out more about her products and purchase them here. Another product that caught my attention was Youthful Essence by Susan Lucci which is an at-home microdermabrasion system that is gentle enough to be used anywhere on your body like your face, elbow, hands, back, shoulders and feet. I'll probably be trying this out before i actually get Cindy Crawford's products because if this dermabrasion kit works, it'll save me a fortune on paying for my facials as i usually have to get a Vitamin C peel on a frequent basis to try and even out my skin tone and texture. You can find out more about her products here.

For those of you who might be interested in a fitness bootcamp you can do yourselves, i suggest you read the article here and consider investing in Jillian Michaels' 30 day shred workout dvd. But don't say i didn't warn you; i could only do 5 minutes of it and my whole body still hurts.
Source: Photo, Photo, Photo

Going Through A Pink Phase

Over the week, i've had technology induced problems with my phone and my laptop. Now i'm constantly having to charge my phone daily so i can get some use out of it without the battery magically dying on me in between phone calls. My phone seems to be getting to the stage where it needs to be laid to rest and i haven't even used it for a year; it's just been 10 months i think cause i believe i bought it in september last year for A$100. I'm guessing this is to be expected from a cheap phone that costs less than my flats. But even with this excuse, i'm not impressed by this fact. To make matters worse, my laptop has decided to live a life of its own. It doesn't boot except the battery is plugged on to the wall and i can't use it for more than 5 minutes at the most with it off the wall. On the days when it decides to actually start up with plugging in the battery, it boots half way and then turns itself off waiting for me to turn it back on. Exactly what is the life span of a laptop? Because i've had mine for 13 months now and it's acting like i've had it for 3 years. My technology savvy friend says its because it's a HP/Compaq laptop and that i need to go get myself a Sony or an Apple. Well, i think i'm going to count an Apple out as that's what i want for my graduation present and it has to have at least 320GB of memory in it so that'll shoot my laptop budget to over A$2000 which i'm not willing to shell my own cash for. So this leaves a Sony to ponder over.
Whilst browsing their website, i realised that they've got several shades of pink laptops. Now, on a normal day i'm not one to go for pink gadgets and all but i'm currently undergoing an involuntary pink phase where i'm wanting everything in pink. It all started with me looking specifically for pink sticky notes. And now i'm going to get the Samsung SGH-G600 phone in pink as well. You can add a Sony laptop to the list of bubblegum pink items i'll have adorning my room. As if that isn't bad enough, i would like to crystallise the face of my laptop as seen below but i'm not too sure about the Hello Kitty on my laptop. Maybe using crystals to write over the Vaio logo enblazoned on the cover of my laptop??? How Paris Hilton is that?! And if she were here, she'd say 'THAT'S HOT!'.
I almost forgot to mention, i found an external hard drive by Western Digital in Pink and it'll look soooooo hot sitting next to an iPod nano in pink as well. Talk about total devastation and mentality. I happen to own a deep pink scarf at the moment that reminds me of a friend of mine who lives in UK. This girl is pink diseased as she owns several tops in pink. Her lipglosses compulsorily must be in pink and we had to convince her against getting streaks in her hair in pink as that was pushing it way too far. So i'm sure she's going to be very excited to hear about my new pink interest. Funnily enough, i'm slowly beginning to actually listen to Pink's song 'Please don't leave me' as i've never been a fan of hers in the past. So is it the season of the pink moniker? Or is it the fact that Autumn is now the new Winter. By the way, Christmas in July is certainly drawing closer because i saw a couple of Christmas lights when i went into town during the week.
For those of you who are interested in purchasing or just looking at the specs of the Sony laptop, click here to view one of them.....enjoy!

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Day 24: Dandelion Horror, Mood Diary And Feeling Sexy

I don't know if i'm feeling any better than yesterday, but i did wake up much earlier today - 6am to be precise. I was hoping to squeeze in an early morning workout but i was in no mood for grapevines, squats or jumping jacks so i focused my attention to studying for my microeconomics exam and also doing one of the exercises from Anne Hartley's 'Love The Life You Live'. But towards 11am this morning, i started to feel drab and doudy; a feeling that's common to me and usually counteracted by a cup of coffee from Rush or Gloria Jeans but being that i'm trying to cut down my coffee consumption only to pleasurable moments, i decided to give my dandelion tea a try. I can't even begin to explain how it tasted; all i can say is that it's got a certain acquired taste to it so if you're the kind of person who appreciates green tea and wheatgrass shots, then you'll probably like it. If on the other hand, you don't fall into that category, it's a good idea to have some tic tac close by because you might want to counteract the taste. Or maybe it's just because i had mine with honey; and talking about honey i'm going to see if i can find low calorie sugar tomorrow because i see no reason why i should be consuming 100 calories just from a serving of honey!
Talking about mood diaries, i'll give you a brief explanation as to what it's about and its importance. Mood diaries are basically a timely chat of your mood - hourly - to see what energy state you're in inorder to assess what's wrong with you. You can either be in a low energy state or a high energy state. So if you're in a low energy state, the majority of your diary would consist of feelings like sadness, loneliness, tired, cranky, agitated, lethargic, overwhelmed, worried, depressed....you get the idea. When you're in a high energy state, it's the total opposite. So you'll be feeling happy, estatic, fantastic, energised, loved...etc. My mood diary today consists of pretty much only low energy states. The idea of keeping a mood diary enables you to evaluate what's going on in your head and in your life so if you're consistently in a low energy state, you're meant to try and figure out the main reason that's constantly affecting your mood. Well, i'll be doing mine next week Wednesday when i have my appointment with George. To me, this is another form of the 'Hall of Shame'.
So yesterday i talked about how sick and tired i was of trying to lose weight. Well, after writing that post i sank my teeth into 2 different dvd workouts and exercised for roughly an hour. I did a 29 minute aerobics workout and Leslie Sanson's 3 mile walk at home. I have to say that whilst doing these exercises, i could feel my thigh muscles from walking up and down the hill. The main reason i garnered up some motivation to workout last night was the need to feel sexy again. Yup, all it took was for me to take off my top and see my pot belly and before you could say 'Jack Robinson', i was already putting on my trainers and workout gear. I'm also not liking the 'lift' my breasts have without my bra on so it's time to start doing push ups. Gosh, i absolutely hate them and i could only manage to do 10 before my face permanently kissed the floor. So i'm trying to keep up the motivation by working out tonight as well. I have a date with Leslie Sansone's 3-mile walk and Carmen Electra's 'Aerobic Striptease Workout'. I want to look like both of these models by the end of the year; but i currently look like this!
I've only just realised that an Australian/UK size 16 is actually a US 12! I thought that was equivalent to a US 14! Well i guess i should be happy, and now i'm beginning to understand why Jennifer Hudson said she's a size 12. Go figure! Here are two quotes i saw today:

Beauty is acceptance. Its being kind to other people and accepting yourself.

Sexiness is a state of mind, a comfortable state of being. It's about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments - Halle Berry.

Here's what i ate today
Breakfast: 2 fried eggs and 2 slices of toast with diary-free butter.
Brunch: dandelion tea with soy milk and honey; 2 glasses of water
Dinner: Home-made egg fried rice with 1 glass of water
Post-dinner: I cup of black tea with soy milk and honey

Source: Photo, Photo

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Day 23: I'm Sick And Tired Of Losing Weight

It's only day 23 in my weightloss journey and i'm already tired of it. I'm not just tired; i'm bored and sick of it already. This week i don't have any lectures cause next week is exams and i managed to sleep for 16 hours straight last night excluding the two toilet breaks i had inbetween. I don't even know why i'm so tired but i havent done anything today and it's already 6.15pm in the evening so my whole day has been pretty much wasted. People tend to say that you reach a stage when you hit the 'wall' and can't seem to do anything. Usually you're meant to find something to motivate you to get past this stage but not even Halle Berry, Adriana Lima, Karolina Kurkova, Heidi Klum or even Dita Von Teese seem to be motivating me to get past this stage. Yesterday, i walked for an hour up and down the rigorous hill cause i went to town with JieJie and i also had to walk back home from the bus stop; all because i didn't want to spend $1.90 on the bus. Hmm.....

I haven't weighed myself yet and i have 3 weeks left before i can actually weigh myself. The goal i set was to be 6 kilos lighter and 1 dress size smaller by the 30th of June. I know that i'm still inbetween weight wise because i have a pair of size 14 jeans that i tried on today. After zipping up, i swear i couldn't even breathe and the muffin top i had from wearing it is much more than i've ever had, ever!!!! So that's a clear sign that i'm not fully a size 14 yet so i have a lot of work still to do. Do you think i can get down to my goal in the next 20 days?? By the way, you all know i gave up sugar using the Goop process and i'm not craving sugar so much because i've been taking Chromium supplements and simply swapped sugar for honey. But today, i realised that a spoonful of sugar for my oats is actually worth a whopping 100 calories! Who knew huh? Here's what i've consumed today:

Lunch: Oats with soy milk and 2 slices of toast [told you guys i'm getting addicted to it]. 2 glasses of water.

I'm just off to do a workout now so i'll probably have a boiled egg and a cup of black tea and maybe a cup of herbal tea afterwards as i don't see the point in eating much today since i'll be going back to bed in about 5 hours time.

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Day 22: Falling In Love With Bubles And Burberry

This is the 22nd day so far in my weightloss journey and i was pretty hungry today despite having breakfast and dinner. I had oats with soy milk and two slices of toast; for dinner i had rice mixed with pasta and tomato sauce. Anyway, the picture above is the Burberry fall campaign 2008 and i've just seen the one for this fall at Red Carpet Fashion Awards with Emma Watson and i'm absolutely loving it. I'm seriously thinking of carving a massive chunk off my budget to get something from Burberry when i go shopping at the end of July. But that would mean that i would be starving for quite sometime because the money has to come out from some other place i've allocated my money to go to. Hmmm, my saving account maybe? That's a bad idea; but there's nothing like getting a job with a great pay that would enable me to save up the money necessary to shop at Burberry without having that guilty nag at the back of my head.

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Monday, June 8, 2009

Pump It Up

Hey guys, just finished working out as i thought it'll be a good idea to workout before having my dinner. I just did the Ministry of Sound's Pump It Up dvd workout and i have to say i couldn't finish the whole thing. I only managed to do 20 minutes of it and i think i might have pulled a muscle close to my ribs and another in my butt cheek in the process. Usually in most workouts, there's always someone doing the beginner option but in this one, i couldn't actually find a beginner's option so i had to just modify some of the moves myself to the standard that i could do. Be warned though, if you've got two left feet don't even bother with this workout. I like to think i'm ok with choreography but it took me a while to get some of the moves in this dvd. You can purchase a copy of this workout here.
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Day 21: In Search Of A Chic Rucksack

So, the exam season is almost upon me so i've had to buckle down and TRY to do some studying. I swear it's like i have a very short attention span because 15 minutes after i start studying, i always manage to get distracted by something even though i have a strict plan i must stick to because my exams start next week on the 17th. I've been distracted today by a rucksack. Yep, you read that right. My accommodation next semester is about a 30 minute walk to uni so i need a more comfortable bag that i can lug my textbooks in without damaging my shoulders. I've been using my handbag to carry my textbooks all semester and i have to say that i'm slowly feeling the effect on my right shoulder. What's worse is that i'm not accustomed to carrying bags on my left shoulder so whenever i make the switch, it becomes really uncomfortable that i have to return the bag to the right side.

So if anyone knows where i can get a nice looking rucksack that i can easily wear with dresses, skirts and flats without looking like a tomboy or a kid, please please let me know. The main reason i hate rucksacks is that they're either sporty or childish. I'm yet to find one that's actually chic, beautiful and fashion-forward. I'm not ready to sacrifice style for comfort so i want both at once!

I've been on a mini-fast since saturday so i've pretty much been having one meal everyday. But i'm aware that this can have an adverse effect on my health so i've been taking supplements with my meals in the evening and also having two sachets of benefiber with water. I've even managed to drink a litre of water daily excluding my daily 2 cups of herbal tea. I haven't had dandelion tea yet though, and i havent craved coffee either so i'm guessing that must be a good thing. Tonight, i'm going to make myself egg fried rice for dinner so i'm looking forward to that. One thing that i've been craving on a consistent basis since i started on saturday is oats/porridge. I'm guessing this is because i usually have it for breakfast everyday!

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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Days 16 & 17: Can't Wait For The Uni Break To Come!

All day yesterday, i was busy trying to finish up my reflective journal which i gladly concluded at about 1am in the morning. I'm currently trying to do a reflective summary of my journal. What's more; i don't even get the whole idea behind the bloody reflective journal because i don't even get the gist of reflecting on it. What am i supposed to do? Act like a mirror of my lectures and tutes? The whole process is doing my head in and i can't wait to hand it in tomorroow so i know it's dona and over with. This is my last piece of assessment for the semester after which i have to start studying for 4 exams...phew! I had to say that one pretty fast before i choked on it. Got my SPSS exam scores back and i got 26/35...i'm impressed and i guess it was worth staying up till a bit late to write down all the calculations i needed to know about prior to the exam.
For a while now, i've been contemplating giving up my daily coffee grind and only having it once-in-a-blue moon as a treat for myself. Coffee is known to make people lethargic, stain your teeth, give you coffee breath and also make you feel bloated. Well, i'm going to be taking the plunge on giving up coffee from next week and i'm extremely scared. I bought dandelion tea yesterday because it's meant to be like coffee without the caffeine and lactose involved so i'm hoping i can use that to wean myself off coffee. Has anyone ever drank dandelion tea before? My mum used to drink mistletoe tea when i still lived at home and that crap tasted vile so i've already stocked up on honey because i'm not interested in having any bitter-aftertaste in my mouth. My mum said they taste similar so i'm really not taking any chances on that one.
Here's what i ate yesterday:
Breakfast: 2 slices of toast with diary-free butter spread
Dinner: Pasta with tomato sauce
Snack: 3 mini cubes of chicken [i was trying to convinve myself it was chocolate...ha!]. 3 cups of black tea with soy milk.
Exercise: 30 minutes dvd workout.
And today:
Lunch: Oats with 2 slices of toast & diary-free butter spread
Dinner: Rice, tomato sauce and chicken
Snack: 2 cups of black tea with soy milk
Exercise: 30 minutes dvd workout
For some reason, i'm slowly losing my appetite for food. Instead i've been drinking lots of black tea and herbal tea; i've even been drinking warm water. It's almost like i'm craving any sort of liquid that can be ingested warm or hot. Tomorrow i'm going to treat myself to a cup of Gloria Jeans coffee as it's going to be my last cup of coffee for a very long time. I think i might buy myself a bar of snickers chocolate as well, who knows! I might end up feeling guilty and saving myself $1.70.
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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Day 15: Almost A Size 14!!!!!

Hey guys, it's been exactly 2 weeks since i started my weightloss process and i have to say i'm pretty proud of myself. Today, JieJie and I decided to try on some clothes at our local Myer store and i was excited to fit into a size 14 dress and coat!!! A size 14! I started 2 weeks ago as a size 16 and now i'm almost one dress size down. Almost in the sense that the dress didn't fully zip up; when we got towards the breast region of the dress, the zip refused to move but i'm not bothered about that because it's been only 2 weeks. I'm hoping that in the next 2 weeks i'd have shrunk a little bit and fully gone down to a size 14. That would be super exciting because it would mean that i have a high chance of getting down to a size 12 by the end of July.

I had to call my mum and tell her about the exciting news and she couldn't help but tell me how she manages to keep her weight the same excusing gaining 1 or 2 kilos during the christmas season. She said she tries to go on a fast 2 or 3 times a week; so basically for 2 or 3 days in a week she only has dinner. She just sips water throughout the day and that way she manages to keep her weight steady so i'm thinking of trying that over the weekend and see how i go. I was almost tempted to weigh myself today but i want to stick to the plan of doing it after 6 weeks - 42 days. That way i wont get obsessed with the figures and i can just focus on reducing my calorie intake and exercising. If you've got any tips on how i can shed extra kilos that doesn't require me to cut off any part of my body or become vegetarian, let me know.

Talking about exercise, i can't even bear to do any today because my thighs and butt are still recovering from the countless amounts of squats, plie squats, lunges and leg lifts that i did last night. I didn't count how many i did, instead i just did it till i was dying and couldn't bear to squat anymore. When i walked up the hill this morning to catch the bus to uni, i pretty much felt every single muscle in my body! Here's what i ate today:

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast, Large soy cappuccino with an extra shot
Dinner: Chicken wrap [made it all myself :)]

Just out of curousity, what time do dogs go to bed??? Because i can still hear the dog upstairs running round the house and knocking things down and it's almost midnight! At least it isn't barking.

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Monday, June 1, 2009

Day 14: Not In The Mood

Not really in the mood for a chat today so here's what i ate:

Lunch: 2 slices of tast with diary-free butter, cup of irish breakfast tea + soy milk
Dinner: Pasta and tomato sauce
Exercise: 30 minutes dvd workout

I've got a test tomorrow on Quantitative Methods 1; i'm so not ready for it but i'm tempted to do indulge in some retail therapy tomorrow after my exam to elevate my mood. Might even end up eating something i shouldn't be eating. Maybe in the form of chocolate-coated donut??? Who knows? I might even eat a whole tub of Estee Lauder face cream...

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Words Can't Describe How I Feel...


What a way to start my week...

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