It's a Pinky Friday!

I was just in the pantry when one of my female colleagues commented that quite a number of us are wearing pink today. Last week, quite a few of us wore black. Now, it's all purely coincidental that we all happen to be colour-coordinated but hey, it's fun to notice these little things. We're a small office, about 30 people so when 5 girls are wearing the same colour, that's 15% of the office already!

So anyway, it's Friday... and that makes me happy. I need to catch up on sleep tomorrow since that's something I've been seriously deprived of (although I did a pretty good job last weekend on replenishing my sleep hours).

Oh yea, another colleague commented earlier that I've lost quite a bit of weight. Yippee! Results! Now, as I have said before, I have not weighed myself so I have no idea how much (I personally think it's not much because I've been having slices of good coffee swiss roll filled with cream for dessert the past 2 nights). BUT, my clothes are telling me that I have lost a bit, and that's what I'm after. Yay!!

On knitting, I've been itching to go to Jet Sun to browse around but I haven't found a free lunchtime slot this past week. I'm thinking of going today but I also need to go to Parkson Pavilion to get my eyebrows waxed at the Benefit counter (they've called to tell me that I've not been there in a while - which means my eyebrows are totally ungroomed at the moment). And I also am in need of a good manicure and pedicure (the Colour Culture shop in Pavilion called up a few days ago to remind me that I haven't gone in a while too). Sigh, all the things we girls have to do for "maintenance".

And, I have a confession to make..... I got a case of "itchy fingers" a few days ago and did some shopping on Etsy. I've been eyeing a Sushi stitch marker set and a Sushi straight needles set from scarymerry and finally got round to buying them. So cute!!! Then I also bought some laceweight silk yarn from stseraphinaknits: Winter Sunrise and Meditation. So pretty!! Now I just have to sit and wait for the parcels to arrive..... Wheee....

Non-Diet update

When I tried on one of my Trucco trousers for work this morning, it was surprisingly a bit loose. Compare this to it being unflatteringly "fitted" a couple of months back which is when I last attempted to wear it!

Does that mean I'm losing weight?? I sure hope so! I am still being stubborn and have refused to weigh myself. I'm just going by how my clothes are fitting since my ultimate goal is to fit into my existing wardrobe.

And, this is all done without much dieting surprisingly. I'm not expecting to lose much in a short period of time given the regular bingeing sessions I still have.

For example, Rommel and I went to Wasabi Bistro at the Mandarin Oriental KL last Friday to
(1) "celebrate" me passing 2 key hurdles at work that day, and
(2) to cheer Rommel up after his car was hit by some idiot a few days earlier and he has to fork out RM2500 to change the entire back left door. (We always have excuses on why we should eat at nice places.)

I wanted Rommel to try some of my past favourite dishes at this reassuringly familiar restaurant (back in the day, you'll find half the stockbroking community of KL there at lunchtime). For starters, we had Kumi's No. 1 (shredded crabsticks served with a dollop of good quality mayonnaise and lightly grilled), Dynamite Scallop (scallops and mushrooms on rice, topped with a spicy mayonnaise sauce and baked to perfection) and the sushi roll platter (which has the 3 types of maki rolls unique to Wasabi). For mains I had a tempura soba while Rommel had his usual chirashi sushi.

By the time I polished off Kumi's No. 1, I was actually already so stuffed, it got really uncomfortable for me and I barely ate my soba. The fact that my appetite has shrunk actually depresses me. Okay, okay, I know it's for the better and that I should be able to maintain this diet thing if my appetite doesn't return... BUT..... Does that mean I can't enjoy food as much anymore? *sob*

On the knitting/crocheting front, I've been focusing on my bathroom curtain - decided to use the sky blue yarn I bought from Sally for RM2 per ball. (She bought loads from Ho Chi Minh City and was kind enough to sell it to me at one of our meetups.). I'm using a cute knit-based little design which has the shadow of 2 cats peeking out but I have adapted it into a filet crochet pattern to suit the window. Pictures to come...

It's been a while...

... since I did a proper update. These 2 weeks have passed by at a phenomenal speed.

A quick summary:
- Uncle Loke's passing, the wake service, the funeral, the 7 day prayers. It was a sad occasion but time was well spent with the family. Shows that in times of need, the whole family sticks together (42 of us altogether on my mom's side alone). I'm really grateful to have such a close-knit family.

- Me falling ill (bad cold/cough/fever aka flu), for which I had to take 2 days off work and was put on some pretty strong antibiotics that ended up causing gastritis as well.

- Kid's Fun Day on 6th June. This was an event my mom organized for her clients' kids where they came over to my house to do some crafts and baking. While this event was for only a day, preparations of course had to made days in advance. Mom was the one who spent most time sourcing all the craft items, door gifts and toys. I was in charge of the baking and pizza making sessions so I had to do my share of sourcing - ingredients, decorations, cupcake cases, piping bags for icing etc. Then I had to wake up at 6am and bake 200 cupcakes on Saturday morning before everyone arrived. No wonder why I'm exhausted.

- Work-wise it's been super busy for me too with various meetings and then having to write reports on those meetings (which I have yet to do btw). Plus some updates on my companies as well.

- My siblings have finished their exams and will be coming home in a few weeks. Time to plan all our makan trips and short family holidays. Our earlier plans to go to Japan have sadly been postponed due to swine flu. We are now planning little trips around the country (Cuti-Cuti Malaysia) which is good for me in terms of taking leave and we're helping our own economy. First short family trip is most likely to Pangkor Laut next month. Can't wait to get there and check myself into their spa villas and pamper myself silly.

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Knit update:
Nothing new except my Sunflower top, which was to replace the Storia top as my cinema project (the WIP I bring along to watch movies).

Storia top has been put on hold because I dont like how it feels on my skin when I try it on so now I'm thinking I might just frog the whole thing and make something else that will have less body contact.

The Lorna Laces' shawl is coming along pretty well. I've finished the right panel (finally!) and had cast on the left panel last week. This is my traffic jam project (the WIP I have in my car for me to knit when I'm stuck in traffic jams).

New projects:
I have a headache on what to knit for my upcoming Bali trip (with Rommel and friends). Should I make a light cotton lace poncho or shawl as a cover up when at the beach? Or a nice summery cotton hat? Decisions decisions....

I also want to crochet a new curtain for my bathroom at home. I was in the shower last night and was staring at the current curtains which I realised are more than 10 years old now. Since the bathroom has white tiles with a blue border going for the Mediterranean look, I thought a nice crocheted lace panel using white cotton (like the Katia Nilo that I used for the side table doily) would suite the window. Or maybe yellow to brighten it up. Or maybe make 2 in both colours and change them everytime the curtains are due for a wash!

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Diet update:
Dont think I've lost much weight since I pretty much stopped the Herbalife shakes when I fell ill. For some reason, I was getting hungry rather quickly. And the gastric attacks were not helping.

BUT, I have done something that will hopefully give me a bit more motivation: Rommel bought me a Paul Frank bikini with matching beach shorts, beach towel and flipflops. All for the Bali trip and Pangkor Laut trip. Let's see if that helps!

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Pending posts:
- The Kid's Fun Party - all the pictures from that day need to be uploaded.
- My test-bake session the weekend before, in preparation for the Kid's Fun Party (although pictures are already uploaded onto Flickr).
- Our dinner last night: crocodile meat cooked 3 ways (herbal soup, braised and stir fried with noonles). The meal also included ox-tail stew, neutered chicken, fried fish, stir fried veg and fried rice. So much for my diet! No pictures though because I forgot to bring my camera.
- My feather and fan shrug which was completed last week but no pictures as yet.

Diet update: Day 13

Just a quick update on what's been happening with my Herbalife diet.

Didn't really follow it over the long weekend. I did have the shake and teamix for breakfast on Friday morning but after that was the Kampachi lunch and chicken rice dinner at Supertanker after a whole afternoon of cutting paper and tying ribbons.

Saturday was a blur really. I had the shake and teamix for breakfast before heading to A Cut Above to get my hair done for the fund-raising dinner. Ate lunch with Rommel at this Thai restaurant opposite Eu Yan Sang in the lower ground connection between Midvalley and Gardens. I dont know the name but the food was so awful anyway so I wont bother blogging about it. Dinner was at the event (in Supertanker again) but since we were running up and down most of the night, we barely ate. Ended up tarpauing maggi mee goreng and milo ais from Neela's at 1am. Bad bad bad...

Sunday - woke up in time for 11.30am mass but not to take my shake. Lunch was again in Supertanker where we had 3 types of noodle dishes. Yum... We tried dinner at Cristang which I blogged about *here*.

Day 12, i.e. yesterday, I was good and had the shake for breakfast and lunch. At lunch, I also had stirfried veg as well since I wanted something savoury. Dinner was not so good though cos Evelyn cooked claypot chicken rice and it was laden with chinese sausages. Since we didn't have time over the weekend to buy groceries, Rommel and I went to Bangsar Village to buy meat and veg and ended up also buying strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and whipped cream. Ooh...

So yea, if I don't look like I haven't lost much weight, you know why.... :D

I'm on a diet!

Yes, I mean it.

For the first time in my life, I'm actually attempting to follow a diet plan. Previously, all I ever did was say that I wanted to do something about my weight/not fitting into my clothes/cholesterol issues/spending too much on food etc... and then procrastinated about it.

So anyway, last week, Aunty Diane came over to speak to me about Herbalife. Now, I've heard alot about Herbalife from various people, that it's worked for them or someone they know and so I was receptive to the idea of starting on it. Tried the F1 drink, tried the teamix and decided that I was alright with the taste. So, voila! My diet began last Thursday.

One week on, today, I'd like to report that I think I've lost weight. Let me emphasize that I can only presume that I've lost the weight. Why? Cos I didn't bother to weigh myself before going on this diet. My main aim at this point is to fit into my clothes. And so far, it looks like the clothes that were getting a bit too tight are getting back to normal again. If this keeps up, I hopefully will be able to fit back into my old clothes, which have been chucked aside for the past 2 years.

My colleagues all know ab0ut my new diet plan since they see me in the pantry every day with my whole box of Herbalife products, making the shake for my breakfast and lunch. One colleague then said he's been on the diet for the past month and has lost 3 kgs so far. And he hasn't been that strict about it either! Apparently, if we're really diligent, we can lost about 1kg a week. Not bad not bad.

Shen, if that happens to me, I might be able to lose 8kgs before you guys come back for summer! Muahahaa....

I'll let you in on a secret though... I didn't stick to the diet all weekend, more like pigged out the whole weekend! 2 siew yoke feasts, 1 dip-dip dinner feast, 1 birthday party lunch.... yup, definitely ate more than I should have. But scarily, I'll say that is maybe the usual amount we eat on weekends anyway. No wonder why I've been putting on weight.

And so, my daily diet now consist of:
- Breakfast: 1 cup of teamix after our morning meeting (~8.20am), followed by 1 portion of the F1 shake.
- Mid-morning: 1 energy bar because I get hungry around that time.
- Lunch: 2nd portion of the F1 shake with some cut fruits or stir fried veg from the stalls at the back.
- Mid-afternoon: Another energy bar since I get hungry again.
- Dinner: the usual dinner at home.
- and of course, drink lots of water throughout the day.

So, I've essentially broken my meals up into 5 smaller portions, cut my meat and carb intake and getting my stomach adjusted to less food.

Does this mean less food reviews? I hope not... We still do go out for meals, especially on weekends. Besides, I've still got a few reviews I have yet to do....

Let's see how much weight I lose!