6 Years Of Couplehood

We've just recently celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. Today, we celebrate 6 years of couplehood. So last night, we had yet another degustation, this time at Print Hall, a restaurant in Perth City. Print Hall has won restaurant of the year for a few years consecutively. Going into the city is always a nightmare as we're unfamiliar with the roads & they often split or change into turning lanes which isn't shown on the GPS. Nevertheless, we still reached our destination with 15 mins to spare. It feels a bit like Clark Quay/Orchard. 

When we got there, 1 of the bouncers (yes they have bouncers for the attached bar) showed us to the maitre d. The street where we parked on had broken glass all over. Coupled with the fact that there were bouncers, I reckon they see plenty of rowdy drunks all the time. We were shown to our table in a nice little corner. The dinning room is smallish, probably holds about 20 odd tables for varying group sizes. They offered matching wines for $115 but I knew if I had to drink 7 glasses of wine, I probably would be flat on the floor. 2ndly, I didn't want to consume so much calories. So I ordered just a glass of red.

We could see the bar from where we were sitting & hubs kept telling me that we should come back for their bar food 1 day. The restaurant filled up slowly. I always love to make reservations for dinner at 6 pm, when they open. That way, we'll be served promptly & finish at a decent time. At 7 pm, the restaurant was probably about a quarter full. But by 8 pm, it was mostly full & we were almost to the last course already. I had a dessert wine right at the end to finish off. It really is interesting to taste how different chefs come up with different sort of flavours & combination of ingredients. Next up, Amuse in December. Hehe.

Canapes of cheese & fruit, bread & butter, camel tartare, blue manna crab.

Stinging nettle & potato, pan roasted coral trout, iceburg salad, wood grilled beef sirloin.

Cheese, palate cleanser, desert lime vacherin, raspberry shortbread/marshmallow/jelly.

So Drama

I didn't want to mention this until I actually got it. But after all the drama on Friday, I might as well. You see, even though Eba (my 1998 Honda Integra we bought for $2350 as a replacement for the Mits Lancer that was written off after a woman crashed into me 1 month after we arrived in Perth) was in a pretty decent condition when we bought it, I've always thought I'll drive it till it's no longer drivable or gets too costly to fix. The previous owner is a car mechanic & he does the servicing himself. He told us that he kept the car in good condition as  his wife is the 1 driving it & he wants her to be safe. We've not done any repairs to it other than having my front tyres changed just 5 months ago. A month back, during a routine check, hubs discovered that my engine is now leaking quite a bit. It wasn't leaking when he last changed the oil 5000 km ago. I don't know what's that called but it's leaking from the gap where the top & bottom half of the engine covers meet. I haven't got oil stains where I usually park which means it isn't a terrible terrible leak. That was when I start to seriously consider getting a new car.

I've been checking out some of the cars since early this year, thinking, that way, when Eba does decide to die on me, I'll have already made up my mind about which car to buy next. I never did come to a conclusion though. But the news of Eba's engine leaking prompted me to really look into it. I was weighing the pros & cons of getting it fixed versus buying a new car. I know just to get the mechanic to open up the engine to check where the leak is coming from will cost over a grand & that's excluding parts & labour for fixing it. Also, Eba's approaching 200 km which means I'll need a new timing belt & water pump which can easily cost over a grand too. On top of that, I noticed that when I come to a stop, my engine rpm is swinging rapidly between 700 (the usual) to just below 500, causing the engine to vibrate (as if I've not accelerated enough on half clutch & the car is going to stall on a manual). It occurred once perhaps 3 months back & has been increasing in frequency. I don't know what the problem is, but it sure will cost money to fix. I know my CV joint is also leaking which means it's at the end of its lifespan too. If I were to fix everything up properly, it will probably cost me anywhere from 4 grand upwards. That's not including my shock absorbers which were already worn from day 1. I drive avoiding all uneven surfaces as much as I can. But there's no preventing the squeaking sounds when getting in & out of the car. I thought if I were to spend 5 grand fixing Eba up, I will want it to last another 5 years (going at the depreciation of $1k a year). Will it, can it last 5 years? It's anyone's guess.

When I decided to convert to the full time position, I thought, I might as well buy a new car. I decided to go with Honda since I love Eba so much. The cheapest car in the Honda range is the Jazz. So that's my final choice. It all comes down to the money, isn't it? I get to do this thing called Novated Lease through Smart Salary (my salary packaging company). Though the fortnightly installments for the car is post tax, the running costs are pretax. It means that my fuel, servicing costs, tyre replacement, rego, insurance etc are all pretax. Upon calculation, I will save about $2k on tax a year. As Smart Leasing frequently sources cars for employees Australia wide, they have the buying power & they can source the cheapest car. I know Honda is offering free CTP, extended warranty, free roadside assist as end of the year sale bargain. But the price of the car remains the same. My homework showed that the original Jazz manual is selling for $16999, $19200 for the auto transmission. Sports version costs $22600 & the Luxury version costs $25388. They secured a Sports version for me for $19k, which is the price of the original auto Jazz had I gotten it from Honda direct.

The drama came when I was contacted by the dealer at 9 am Friday morning, informing me that my car was ready to be delivered to me & that he would be sending me an email of a form to be signed which I can emailed back together with my driving license. I requested for 4 pm as that would be about the time I could get home. Past 12 noon, he called back to inform me that the delivery team can only do 3 pm & I agreed. At the same time, I informed him that I would send the documents when I got home from work. That was when he told me that it must be sent to him or the car is not considered registered & the police will tow it away. Why wasn't it mentioned that the documents are urgent?

Immediately, I tried to print the licensing form but alas, the server at my work place was down. I was unable to log on at all. I resigned myself to the fact that the car won't be delivered on that day itself. Then 1 of my colleague asked me to use her computer which was already logged on. I managed to print the form but I couldn't scan it as that computer doesn't have a printer/scanner. I thought I'll just bring the forms home to scan & rearrange for another delivery next Friday when I'm working half day again. Another colleague then suggested faxing it. Alamak! Why didn't I think of it? My colleagues are obviously very excited for me to get my car given all the suggestions they gave me.

On my drive home after work, the dealer called me. So I did the illegal thing & talked on the phone while driving. Halfway through I finally managed to switch it to speaker mode when I came to a red light. He gave me 2 options, to either pick it up in Melville on Sat morning or have it delivered on Monday. So I told him that I would need to speak to hubs to see if he can take leave on Monday. I couldn't do Sat as I have yoga class & I'm going to the dog refuge to see if I can adopt another dog. When I got home, I saw hub's message to call him & that he was still at his work place. I thought it was weird coz he should have been on the way home by then. Turned out that his car wouldn't start & D was on his way there to see if he could fix it. I was like, "Oh my gosh! Can this day get even more drama?" I knew then I would have to pick up the car on Sat so that we will have 2 working cars come Monday. I had to reluctantly cancel my yoga class (I was so looking forward to it), dropped the idea of going to the dog refuge & informed the dealer that I would pick up the car myself.

Early Sat morning, we left the house to set off for Melville. That was when I realised my front garden was trashed. I knew last evening, a bunch of kids were laughing & carrying on right outside the house. I should have gone out to check but I didn't. They had thrown my mulch all over the front door & it was strewn all over my neighbour's door on my right too. Then I found mulch & broken pieces of my grasstree in a heap in front of my neighbour's house to my left. I was the only 1 with the grasstree in my row so it could only have been from mine. Plus, the mulch colour couldn't be wrong. Nobody else used bright red mulch. On top of that, they stole 1 of my solar lamps. I was absolutely fuming! Not even the prospect of picking up my new car could calm me down. Hubs tried but I was beside myself. Now I had to spend money to replace the stolen solar lamp, spend more time & effort sweeping up the mess they made to my neighbours' houses & top up the mulch in the garden yet again.

But when we got there & I saw my brand new car gleaming under the shelter, everything else fell out of my mind. I absolutely love it. When we got home, hubs left with the mechanic for his work place to see if he could fix it. But it needed a new distributor & he was going to source it on Monday for hubs. When he got back, it was almost time for us to get ready for our dinner date. That concluded the mess that spanned Friday till Sat.

Gym Work In Progress

My 1st set of measurements were dated 15th Oct. At the 1 month mark on 14th Nov, I've gained 1% muscles, lost 2.1% fats & a weight loss of 2.5 kg. Not too shabby. I don't see any physical changes probably becoz the weight loss is still very little. But I can definitely feel the difference. When I started, I could barely do 10 reps in each resistance exercise I was supposed to do. Now, I've hit 15 reps & had just started increasing the weights this week by 1 kg.

Perhaps the most definitive of increasing stamina & fitness is my pulse rate. I started with a resting pulse rate of 68 on the average. It has since gone down to 62. Mid way through my jog, I would always check my pulse. I started off at 182 bpm which is almost 100% of my maximum heart rate (188 bpm). I watched my pulse rate went down to mid 170s at the 2 week mark, to the current 168 bpm mid jog. Although I'm hoping to train for endurance rather than speed, I also found that I've gone from 18 mins for 2 km jog to 16 mins now. 

Some days, jogging 500 m seems like such a chore. Those are the days I will stick to the minimum of 2 km. But on days when I feel I can go further, I'll push to go 2.5 km or even 3 km. Hopefully, in the months to come, I'll gradually be able to stretch it even further. The only exercises that didn't seem to get any easier are the crunches & planks. 15 crunches are still hard. 30 seconds planks are still hard. That's alright. I'm still very happy with my progress.

This evening, I'll start my 1st ever yoga class. I'm so excited that I'm finally getting to do it after so many years. I've gotten a pair of tights (as requested by my instructor). As expected, I look terrible in them. Tights are meant for skinny people. On flabby people like me, every single bulge shows. Oh well, if I keep this up, the flab will eventually go.

I watch what I eat on a daily basis. But I still eat a decent meal once a week. By decent I mean bigger than usual. It's good. It keeps me on track. I also listen to my body. Some days I feel like having just that little bit more & I do.

I've also overcome the insomnia that came with exercising. I couldn't sleep coz I had so much energy at night. I still am energetic but now, I have no problems falling asleep. Even if I wake up in the middle of the night, I no longer toss & turn for another hour before I can go back to sleep. My body is obviously getting used to it. Yay!

Work Can Be Rewarding

When I 1st joined my company, I wanted a full time position. But I was told that all staff in Day Surgery are on permanent part time positions. Recently, my manager informed me that the HR is allowing staff to convert to a full time position. I wasn't too keen on it initially as I was working full time hours even though I'm on a 30 hour a week contract. The other thing is, if I don't hit 37.5 hours in Day Surgery, I'll have to go work in the clinics to make up the hours. After thinking about it though, I've decided to make the switch, mainly for financial benefits. At the moment, I'm earning leave based on 30 hours a week, even though I may be working 40 hours a week. My employer super contribution is also based on 30 hours a week which means I'm getting much lesser. I officially start on the 30th this month.

I handed the new employment letter to my manager to bring over to HR (they're in another building to which I have no staff access). During that period, we had a big hoohaa in the department. We have a staff in recovery who can be quite negative & her comments can be sarcastic. She's gotten into arguments with my previous manager & they didn't speak to each other for half a year. Recently, we have a new staff & they were working in recovery together. I don't know what happened, from what I heard, it seemed that some not so polite words were said to the new staff & she was seen crying in the change room. My manager took them both to her office & they were trashing it out there. My manager then decided to put me in recovery instead. With this staff, I've never taken offense regardless of what she said to me. I know it's her character & I just let the comments bounce off me. But the new staff obviously took it to heart. As the new staff can't scrub yet, my manager had to. It was quite a bit of a mess with the roster there.

Anyway, when she came back from the HR, she told me that she had requested that I be given an additional jump on my salary on top of the yearly increment. Her exact words to me were, "You're worth every single cent we pay you." I was shocked speechless. All along, I've never said no when she wanted me to learn work in a new area, not becoz I wanted recognition or anything but rather, I've always felt it would be beneficial to know more. I liked being able to go to which ever area where I'm required. Most importantly, if I ever lose my job, it would be easier to find a new 1 if I'm not so restricted that I can only work as an ophthalmic scrub/scout nurse. I can always look for a job as an aesthetic nurse, a recovery nurse, a laser theatre nurse or a clinic nurse. I never expected to be rewarded for it.

I don't know. Maybe what prompted this on was becoz of this big hoohaa that we had. I've always tried to choose my words carefully so as to not hurt other people's feelings. If I don't feel like I should comment, I will always smile & nod my head in acknowledgement. Perhaps that is why I don't have clashes with my colleagues. Life can be so hard, so why make it harder on yourself? We spend so many hours a day at work. It will only make us miserable if the work relationships are strained.

I'm very thankful for the way things had turned out for me. The extra money will be of great help. If we stay true to ourselves & have good work ethics, even if we're not rewarded, we'll feel good about ourselves & our outlook in life will change positively. I think that beats any other kind of rewards we will ever get.

3rd Wedding Anniversary

Just realised that I started this post on the 7th & completely forgotten about it. It's about time.

5th November this year fell on a Thursday. 3 years ago on this day, we exchanged our vows at the Registry of Marriage in Fort Canning. That date was chosen by a feng shui master who, after calculation told us that it was an auspicious day for both of us. 旺夫也旺妻。It was an unlikely union. Read any of these feng shui books & they will all tell you that the fire snake (1977) & the water pig (1983) is a terrible match, the marriage doomed for failure. But I didn't care & in Nichiren Buddhism, we're taught that regardless of your situation or karma, you can turn it around & achieve victory & happiness. She said that although the fire snake & water pig is usually an awful match, we're actually not too bad after taking into account our 八字.

We didn't do anything special on Thursday becoz we both had to work. But I did get home earlier since I skipped gym due to my 1st bout of hives. Even then, it was just dinner & off to bed. After our pleasant experience with degustation at Mandoon Estate, I decided to book degustations at different venues for all near future celebrations. Since our anniversary fell on a Thursday, I booked us a dinner for Saturday, the 7th. This time it was for Petite Mort, a contemporary french restaurant just a short drive from my work place.

That morning, I went out to buy a pair of heels to wear with my dress. Nothing fanciful, just $20 as Big W was having sales on shoes. Heels are not my thing. They hurt my feet too much. So they're reserved for sit down dinners. I chose 1 of the dresses I brought over during the trip back to Sg in March. I can no longer fit into some of them but I told myself I'll get there someday.

Before we got there, I told myself that I wouldn't drink coz I certainly didn't need the extra calories. But when we got there, I was in the mood & I accepted the wine suggestions given by the maitre d. We have such different palates. Hubs preferred the food at Petite Mort while I felt that the food at Mandoon Estate are more sophisticated in flavours, executed with more techniques. Like the glass of apple cider I had at Mandoon Estate, the 3 glasses of wine (1 white, 1 red & 1 dessert) went straight to my head & I left the restaurant somewhat giggly. I'm looking forward to the next degustation next weekend to celebrate 6 years of couplehood.

Table setting.

Degustation menu. We didn't take the cheese.

The macarons & chocolate truffles were complimentary. 

Producing Hives

After my extra long gym session on Tuesday, I went back to the original routine on Wednesday. Nothing much different, except that I felt 2 km on the treadmill was tough. But that was to be expected. I usually fare a bit better if I had a rest day. It was the usual 1 hour drive home. When I got home, I took off my clothes & realised that I was red from the neck to naval, all over to the side of my body. My back was completely clear. I didn't think much of it. My face always got flushed after jogging so I thought that was the case for my body even though it had never happened before. I took my usual as-hot-as-I-can-tolerate shower. Immediately after, I started itching. It was when I finally started to develop red, raised welts on my arms (near my armpits), groin & upper thighs that I realised that these were hives, which meant the neck to navel patch was nothing but 1 gigantic welt.

In the event of an allergic reaction, antihistamine is your best friend. I did everything the same, wore the same clothes washed with the same detergent, ate the same thing everyday (it's easier when you're trying to lose weight), came in contact with the same things. I really couldn't figure out what I was reacting to. I went to bed & had another flare up between 12 mn to 1 am. I tried very hard to ignore the itching but I couldn't sleep. Sometime later, I don't know how long, I finally drifted off to sleep. Needless to say, I went to work sleep depraved & the histamine circulating in my body made me really drowsy. I already knew I was going to take a day's rest from gym so I went to work in my normal clothes.

When I got home from work, I had a cooler than usual shower so as to not aggravate the situation, had dinner & took another dose of antihistamine. Everything was fine so far, no new welts, no itching but I just wanted to take 1 more dose to be sure. Went to sleep & was woken up by incessant itching at almost 1 am. This time on my lower arms & wrists. It was crazy. I had antihistamine in my system & yet I got another flare up. I had a good look in the morning & found welts on my entire lower arms, wrists & back of my right hand. I also had new welts from the back of my thighs just under the butt all the way to the back of my knees. I was like, "What's going on man?" The last time I had hives was 17 years ago.

I had already skipped gym on Thursday so I refused to skip it on Friday too. I was asymptomatic other than feeling somewhat drowsy. By the time I got to work, the welts had flattened & the redness more subdued. Perhaps it was becoz of this attack, I felt I wasn't in tip top condition. 2 km, like on Wednesday, felt difficult. But I've told myself before that 2 km is my absolute minimum so I pushed on & completed it.

Coming back home, I was kinda apprehensive. Twice, I've flared up in the middle of the night at the same time no less. It's gone from my torso out to my limbs. I just had this feeling that whatever it was, it was leaving my body (becoz it was moving away from my core). Taking a risk, I didn't take antihistamine after dinner. Here I am, Saturday morning, no more flare ups at 1 am, no more new welts, all previous welts have faded away. I wonder if it was an allergic reaction to something external at all. For some reason, I have this feeling that my body released a load of toxins & it was that which I reacted to. There's no way to prove it since it's a psychic feeling & I don't think I'll ever have confirmation.

Up Up & Away, Stamina!

We only have a half day list today so I thought I'll spend a little bit more time in the gym. Even with the additional sets of exercises, I was done in 1 hr 20 mins. The exercises are starting to get a little bit easier. It makes me happy coz it means my stamina is improving. I guess I'll have to up my reps in the near future. To finish off, I jogged on the treadmill with an initial target of 2.5 km. As I approached the goal distance, I thought that I could probably do more. So I completed 3 km before coming to a stop.

I think there's been a shift of focus in my mind & heart. My 1st gym session was on the 21st Oct, after which, I fell sick & didn't resume until last week. Between then & now, I've only lost 1 kg. Watching the intake carefully & exercising for 2 weeks only produced a loss of 1 kg? If this were me in the past, I would have given up. I really don't know why but unlike in the past, I find these exercise sessions very enjoyable. Of course, I still want to lose the weight. But it's no longer exercising just for the sake of weight loss. Perhaps without unrealistic expectations & a shorter work week (I used to work between 55 to 65 hours a week in Sg) makes it possible for me to enjoy the process. Maybe 1 day I just may be able to attain my long time goal of doing a 10 km run event but I'm probably looking at months of work in progress.

1 step at a time. It's only just the beginning. Heh.

Advance Reiki

I've had a very busy week. It was work, then gym from Monday to Thursday. Then I had to attend a Operating Room Nurse Association seminar at The Duxton on Friday. My colleague who lives along the way wanted to carpool with me so I was up at 4.30 am to get ready. I was at her place by 6 am & she invited me in for a cuppa before we made our way into the city. The seminar was supposed to finish at 5 pm, which would give me an hour to get to East Freo, where I was about to attend my Reiki 2 course. But of course, they ran late. I was constantly checking the time & panicking that I couldn't even enjoy the fact that I had won a pair of work clogs in the lucky draw. It was 5.30 pm by the time I got to the carpark.

City driving at peak hour? Absolute nightmare. The journey was only 17 km. But it took me 50 mins to get to my destination. Everytime the light turned green, I could only inched forward 50 m as depicted by my GPS. It didn't help that I was in the lane to turn left & people who didn't want to queue would drive on the right lane all the way to the front, then signal that they wanted into the lane. I hate to be late. I hate the feeling. I like to drive leisurely & take in the sights. That's why I leave home for work half an hour early everyday. I was wound up so tight the entire drive to East Freo. I was like, "Come on! Move it!!!" Not a pleasant feeling. Anyway, I got there at 5.20 pm, where I found out that I was the last to arrive. They couldn't start without me as what Barbara was going to teach is sequential so everyone had to be present before she could start. Yikes!

By the time we finished at 11.10 pm, I was bushed. I was looking at another hour's drive home. I literally dropped dead in bed when I finally got home at 12.20 am. It was a miracle that I managed to stay awake throughout the drive home. That was a 20 hour day for me. Usually, regardless of the time I went to bed the previous night, if I wasn't awaken by my alarm, I'll wake up naturally at 6.30 am or 7 am the latest. My intention was to go for a jog you see. But I actually woke up at 9 am. There wasn't enough time for me to jog (& I had to shower coz I didn't do so the night before) since I had to leave at 10.30 am to get to East Freo by 12 noon. I don't really have to, but the mild perfectionist/obsessive compulsive streak in me wants to arrive with 30 mins to spare. So yeah.

We had a couple of exercises to practise on after the 1st energy transfer. We had to bring a picture of someone whose health issues we know & we were given at random, someone else's photo. But I didn't seem to be too accurate. I saw dark purple, I couldn't take my hand off position 1 on the right side (which is over the liver) & this pressure in my head but my classmate, the wife, couldn't think of any associations with purple, or problems with the liver or headache. But my other classmate who did hubs was pretty spot on. She received waves (loss of balance) & nausea over position 1, right ear pain, an impression of a father, loss & emptiness which gave way to joy. On the crown, she received feelings of isolation & distance. Over the liver she got swaying & nausea. Hubs used to drink so much with his friends to the point of being completely drunk & puking into the drain at the back alley of the pubs. Naturally, liver processes & breaks down the alcohol. The right side of the body has to do with male. So for her to get right ear pain means there was or is a male figure in hub's life whose words were/are nasty to the ears. Remember she got father as well. Hubs didn't have a good relationship with his dad. (I'm gonna leave it at that but it was really really bad.) I interpreted his emptiness as his life before me (again, I know his history so I can only say it's true) before finding joy (perhaps with me?). On the head was sense of isolation & Barbara asked if it could be becoz he missed Sg. That is very accurate. Between the both of us, he's the 1 who misses Sg all the time.

On the 3rd day, which was yesterday, we received our 2nd energy transfer. This time, we were doing on fellow students. Everything I received about my classmate (D) was accurate as confirmed by her. But becoz those are her problems, it isn't appropriate for me to share here. A different classmate did me. She received thumping of the right temple (I was having a bit of a headache at that time). She had ringing of the right ear which, as previously mentioned, had to do with a male figure. Probably my dad. She also started tearing but she had the sensation that it was tears of gratitude. Ever since my move here, I've really been very thankful for everything. I've been saying that on my blog for ages. This is a stranger who knows nothing about me. Similarly, I know nothing about my fellow classmate. Even the cynic in me has to concede defeat. Lastly, when she went to the head, she had a feeling that I need to do deep breathing. (When we move to the head, we would ask what would help this person to a better good.) Knowing my inclination to be wound tight, this is probably a very good advice which coincidentally, I will probably do when I start yoga. She also got the feeling that I need to trust in my journey in Reiki. This also came very timely becoz as I was doing my classmate, D, I held back some details coz I doubted what I saw. When D probed further, she realised that what I saw in totality made sense & told me to believe in myself. Finally, she felt that my 3rd eye (the area in between my eyes) was pulsating & that my clairvoyance ability is coming to the surface & will continue to develop.

Barbara has always said that all of us are psychic. It's just that in most of us, it is latent. As with everything in life, you'll get better the more you do it. I wonder where this journey will take me. But 1st thing 1st, I can now do distant healing on my mom. Yay!

P.S.: On the drive home yesterday, the police was stopping everybody at a road block for breath analysis. There's always a 1st time to everything. I wasn't the least bit worried coz I hadn't been drinking of course. Pretty exciting way to end the evening.

Gym Bunny

That's what my colleagues call me these days even though I've only been to the gym regularly for a week. Everyday after work, I'll head off to the gym. Although I've imposed upon myself a cut off time of 5.15 pm, there was a day I still went even though it was already 5.30 pm. The reason for the cut off time is becoz I don't want to get home too late. If I follow the trainer's exercise plan for me, it'll take me an hour to complete it. Add another hour for me to drive home equates 2 hours. I'll like to be home by 7 pm so my aim is to leave the gym by 6 pm. On days when I couldn't get to the gym before 5 pm, I've been dropping a couple of resistance exercises in favour of an intensive hit of jogging. Erm... well, intensive to me that is.

Over the weekend, I'm trying to jog at least 2 km, with a rowing warm up. I've got this cheapo rower which even on resistance level 1 requires quite a fair bit of effort to pull. Well, at least I've gone from being able to pull only 20 times to the current 50 times. Then, I'll follow the warm up with crunches, planking, more crunches, back raise & finish off with another set of crunches. The last is the jogging part. I've pushed myself a little bit more yesterday, jogging 2.5 km instead of the initial 2 km.

So I've been to the gym 4 times this week, plus 1 session at home. I've lost 1 kg and based on the built in body analyzer in the weighing machine (if it's accurate), the entire 1 kg came from fats. I even gained 2 grams of muscles. Lol. This is exciting news. When I used to severely restrict my calories without exercise, I would lose fats, sure. But I would lose muscles as well since they're the 1st to go as they require more energy to sustain & it's the body's way of self preservation.

I'm looking forward to going back to the gym this week. Although I've requested for a day off today, I didn't go jogging. It was too humid (93% rh) & for some reasons I was nursing a headache from the time I woke up. Somehow, it's also easier to get going straight after work. When I'm at home, I don't feel like heading out. Ok, back to the gym tomorrow.