Ever since the last time I posted, I've been studying and working like mad. Although I did workout, those were tiny specks of time when I actually get to do what I like. I haven't been on a date in while :'( and I really miss going out with my boyfriend, stress free. I miss heading to places that I like and just walking around charming areas in Singapore. Pretending to be a tourist in my own country is one of my favourite past time.
Can't believe, it is now the 3rd week of December. Have you done your christmas shopping yet? I've done most of mine.. The damage just keeps getting bigger every year >.< Although I must say christmas shopping is fun. As the presents start streaming in steadily, I've been preparing cookies just to give away. One of my de-stressing routines is to bake and cook. Being in the kitchen and whipping up something is like embarking on a major science experiment for my loved ones. Yes, it makes me exceptionally happy whenever my boyfriend and family tells me that I've made something good, or they like my cooking (which is a rare occurrence sadly)
Anyway, some highlights during these tough times: My boyfriend presented me a ring!!! LOL from Rockme, a mainly handmade jewellery brand from Thailand. The stones used are moonstone and amadite. Moonstone :>
We had ice cream at Sunday Folks, they have the BEST CHOCOLATE SOFTIE EVERRR. I added on some matcha squares because matcha thats why.
And heading out to Da Shanghai for my mom's birthday lunch. Finally a reason to doll up again :)
Just another day at work. Le wild tiny human spotted:
Anyways, I hope you're having a good December so far and Merry christmas in advance. I'll probably blog about working out again after all these festive craziness is over. I really can't wait to take a break and spend christmas eve with my boyfriend gahhh
Throw back to Krabi market crawling.. sigh.. Need a vacation badly.
Hello Fluffies, I thought I was gonna post a lengthy post on my workouts for the past few weeks. An update is seriously long overdue. But I didn't feel like bombarding you with lists of lengthy workouts so I'm gonna show you my favourite workouts for the past weeks, followed by, my past few weeks in pictures :)
800 Calorie No Equipment Total Body HIIT Workout
Even though this was a 800 calorie workout, it felt alot more like a 500 calorie workout albeit tiring. More doable than the usual HIIT routines with promised burn, still a good burn nonetheless! It felt like a limbo by the second round though.
Plyo Plank Challenge | 500 calorie Burn HIIT Home Workout
This one was good. It felt like a total body workout with all that plyometrics and planking. Plyometrics simply means jumping and planking, well its planking haha. It worked alot of my arms, core and legs.
6 Min to a Sexy Booty!
Cassey came up with a series of new videos recently and this booty workout was great. 6 mins and it gets your butt sore. It always served as a cold reminder that my booty still has alot more work to do.
40 Min Cardio HIIT Workout + Butt, Thighs, Abs: Ultimate Workout for Belly Fat Loss, No Equipment
This one wasn't too bad. As always, Fitness Blender's workouts are usually very doable, no crazy stunts that require extreme balancing.
30 Minute Intermediate Full Body Workout
A change from the usual HIIT routine. Pilates for the lazy days :)
Between assignments, I make healthier lunches and I bake. I try my best to go as gluten free as possible because well, it is a diet that works for me. Sucky because I love my sweets and pastries but its okay as there are always alternatives :)
Tell me you are not impressed with my gluten free bread???? hehe OK, theres definitely room for improvement tho because it tasted quite strongly of baking powder :/
Just recently, my boyfriend and I went on an impromptu trip to JB because we had time to spare. What an adventure hahaha I had so much awesome food from daylight to sunset. I had a great time exploring the street food. We even had time to catch a Big Hero 6! But the movie theater snacks was shitty. There was no popcorn smell at all so that was kinda of a bummer to me because movies should smell like popcorn to me :/
We had curry chee cheong fun but unfortunately the pictures are with my boyfriend, but i assure you, it was really dang good. We made it a point to have authentic chinese-malaysian food outside of the typical shopping malls because we wanted to have a more local experience.
Dinner time in one of the bustling back alleys
My man of a thousand expressions
ME. Duh.
If you're like me, you love the oysters in your Oyster omelette to be BIG, JUICY and FRESH, sans the starchy tapioca flour that you tend to get from the usual hawkers, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.
My darling ordered fish for us hehe, my favourite fish ^^ Meowww
As November is ending soon for us, I leave you with the final picture depicting my latest happening endeavour. Hui Qi's suprise 21st Birthday Party! I'm glad it was a success and felt really happy that she got a celebration. Everyone deserves a smashing 21st and don't you just love birthdays!? There's always cake!
Hi Fluffiesss, Its been 2 weeks?? The days flew by so quickly, halloween came and went, its November now! Mugging period is coming and I'm totally dreading it. For now, I'm just gonna bask in the few happenings in my life, juggle school and work at the same time.Quickly after my last post, I fell sick. It started off as a sore throat which soon manifested into a full on fever. I couldn't do much but I felt really really restless so I did an easy workout to loosen my limbs. Oh, I recently got my mom to start exercising with me! It's not the most fun thing in the world to be exercising with your mother but it sure as hell is funny trying to help her figure out how to keep her form! Perhaps I can try to get some pictures next time....Anyways, here's what I had to start my workout week with. An easy beginner's pilates workout. Really really manageable, even for someone who was done with a cold. BEST BEGINNERS PILATES WORKOUT - Slimmer, Stronger Body with this 45 min fitness routine
Extreme Total Body Fat Burning Workout | Level 3- BeFit in 30 Extreme
I supplemented my regular pilates workouts as usual with some additional cardio routines just so to up my metabolism. As soon as I felt fine, this was the first workout that I attempted.
Power Yoga with Bryan Jones - 1 Hour
I can't exactly remember why I chosed to do a power yoga sequence in place of a cardio routine but it will most likely be because I needed a bloody good stretch and didn't feel like stomping on my floor at 11pm KD. Anyway, I don't recommend anyone with zero background in Yoga to do this because well, it is very likely that you may lose your balance and fall face first on the ground.
Extreme apologies in advance.
Brace yourself...
Christine Salus HIIT workouts swarming in
So.. I think I've developed an obsession with Christine Salus' HIIT workouts. Let me just say... Her 20min HIITs kills me more than my usual full hour and more workouts. Yup. I've begin substituting her HIITs for Blogilates' cardio workouts because they are much more effective for me at the moment. There are so many workouts out there that tell you 'BRUTAL', 'KILLER', 'EPIC' etc but her workouts are probably all of them combined into one.
Brutal Bodyweight HIIT | Burn 300 calories in 21 min
On my first attempt, I managed to complete this in like.... 30 plus mins I think? I paused the video several times because I was just so tired. My second try was better. I came in at about 25mins.
How to Increase Your Metabolism - Brutal 30 min HIIT workout
700 Calorie Burn HIIT Home Workout
After all that working out, its time for some regular human activities. I visited a quaint coffee place called 'The Provision Shop' in Duxton area. It is such a lovely place I can't wait to be back again just to soak up the atmosphere.
I must say tho.. The food was pretty average :/ Not the best cafe food that I've had.
A little walk through the charming old streets of Singapore. If I ever have to leave Singapore, this would be one of the things I would miss most.
In the spirit of Halloween, my friends and I went on a TRIPLE DATE to USS for Halloween Horror Nights! The queueing was insane for the last attraction but it was well worth the wait. I was extremely exhausted by the time we reached the last attraction but I was probably the one that screamed the loudest and even scratched my boyfriend at some point. The Lab, was so well done and I just couldn't handle the size of the aliens towering over me. All I wanted to do was run.
Along the streets of 'New York', ghouls, gargoyles, zombies roam. I didn't manage to take alot of photos but the set was really really well done.
And I took some time to come up with my first ever halloween baked goodie for my friends and I:
Paleo witch fingers!
And as for the weekend after Halloween, I kick started it with a gym session at Energyone with my classmates.
Our workout session routine (Weight recorded is for my sets):
Running on treadmill: 1.2km
Lateral arm pulls: 4 sets of 12 reps, 18 to 25kg progressively
Tricep push ups on some arm machine: 4 sets of 12 reps, 22 kg support I think?
Regular Squats: 4 sets of 8 reps, 20kg barbell with 15 to 20kg progressively each side
Sumo Squats: 4 sets of 8 reps, 20kg barbell with 15 to 20kg progressively each side
Walking Lunges: 4 sets, 20kg barbell with 10kg weight
Quad extensions: 4 sets of 8 reps, 25kg
Hamstring extensions: 4 sets of 8 reps, 25kg
I did an additional round of arm workout because I wanted to work my upper body a little more and build more strength.
I think we couldn't be any crazier by going for a round of creepy mind boggling fun at the Escape room after our workout. We did the resident evil's challenge and it was hard! We weren't allowed to bring in anything, not even our phones, a pen or paper so there was no way for us to cheat. But hey, someone in our group managed to cheat after all. LOL thief in the making.
And finally, the day I've been waiting all week for.. Pak Tor day with my boyfriend! We went to creamier and had our favourite waffles (Altho they didn't taste as good as usual) and ice cream!!! Ice cream days are probably my favourite days lol..
While waitingggggg and waittingggggggggggggg
It came! After almost 30mins of waiting. We probably finished it within like... 15mins or less lol
That marked the end of October. Is it just me or the excitement in the air.. Can you smell Christmas like I do already?
Happy November guys.. Approximately 2 more months to the 2015. 2 more months to fulfil whatever your goals this year :)
Submission for the current module is finally over! Last week, I've finally made my way back into the gym on Wednesday with my uni friends after a long hiatus. I can honestly say, I missed the squat rack. I miss gymming on sunday mornings. It was great being able to work out like this again! We headed to energyOne gym at Toa Payoh Safra. Frankly when I realised i had to pay the $8.85 entrance fee, I was taken aback. I was used to paying between the range of $4 to $5.50 for gym, anything over is pricey.
Photo evidence of our time at the gym KD
I started off my workout session with:
Running on treadmill: 1.2km
Lateral arm pulls: 4 sets of 12 reps, 18kg
Regular squats on assisted squat machine: 4 sets of 12 reps, 20kg each side
Deadlifts: 4 sets of 12 reps, 20kg barbell with 5kg each side
Walking lunges: 3 sets of 12 reps, 20kg barbell with 5kg each side
Hamstring curls: 2 sets of 12 reps, 18kg
Quad extensions: 2 sets of 12 reps, 18kg
Talking and laughing: Alot
Fun: Alot
But in the end, I gotta say, it was worth it. I had a good butt workout in a clean and pristine environment. So much more hygienic than the gym that I used to frequent. The ultimate highlight was the hot shower and clean towels available.
My Wednesday ended with a homemade version of Llao Llao and binging on the internet.
So for last week, I've tried 4 new cardio heavy HIIT workouts :
1. Silent Bodyweight HIIT
As you know I've previously tried and reviewed a HIIT workout from Christine Salus. It was fabulously tiring so I decided to try other workouts from her channel. This Silent Bodyweight HIIT did not disappoint because it was by far one of the hardest silent HIITs that I've done.
2. Full Body 45 Min Sweat-Fest | Burn 700 Calories | Cardio | Strength | Abs
This one was great. TIRING. But good old effective HIIT workout. I was floored again.
3. How To Get A Perky Butt (HIIT Workout)
This one was tiring and not too bad on the cardio side. Good cardio and butt toning at the same time!
4. Interval Power Yoga Level 2 Intermediate Backbends Impact HIIT Cardio Weight Loss
In an attempt to replace my scheduled cardio workout and relaxation time, I tried a power yoga HIIT sequence. What??? LOL I have never come across such a combination so I had to try. My verdict? It is tough and not for beginners. It would be better if you have some background in practicing yoga. Or else you could hurt yourself.
And that's all for this week! I hope you have a wonderful, happy and healthy week ahead :)
This week, I tried 5 new workout videos! Haven't been this adventurous in a while so it was a pretty tiring week.. Physically and mentally straining. However, it was fun trying new workouts! In fact, one of the things that relaxes me most is actually a good workout. Somehow time always pass so quickly whenever I do my workouts.
Fat Burning and Abs Workout Level 1 | BeFit in 30 Extreme
Total Body Weight Loss Workout Level 1 (Calisthenics) | BeFit in 30 Extreme
I did this workout right after fat burning and abs workout. I wasn't expecting that from the trainer because he looks too pretty to be serious. But, alas do not judge a book by its cover. I can say this workout's a keeper.
500 Calorie Total Body HIIT workout (NO equipment needed) PLUS Bonus 8 minute AB CHALLENGE!
and then, there's THIS ONE. IT WAS SUPER HARD. For me at least. By the end of the workout session, I literally died on my mat because I was that tired. I do not know if its really a full 500 calories burnt but i felt as if my life was sucked out of me. This really isn't your everyday workout so I'd probably only want to do it once or twice a week if I have no other workouts to turn to.
Quick Ab Workout!
Quick abs by blogilates, nothing too crazy, just the usual sisterly pilates workout :)
Sexy Outer Thighs and Butt Lift Workout!
I tried this for a change. Not very effective compared to the other workouts that I've been doing. In fact, its pretty strange that the trainer seemed to be so tired while doing her own workouts when it didn't really tire my mom and I out.
'YOLO' food of the week
This week, I made something pretty yolo for my mom and I.
3 EGG WHITES and 1 YOLK FRENCH TOASTS~! With strawberry and dark chocolate stuffings and a dash of sherry wine. ^^ I've always loved baguettes more than regular white bread so for this recipe I used baguettes! IMO, I really think that baguettes make better french toasts.
I'll be making it again when strawberries are on sale again haha
My boyfriend and I had another YOLO and adventure day to Little India since Deepavali is coming really soon. As usual, the lights were really pretty and we had alot of fun shopping at Mustafa. ITS A SHOPPING PLAYGROUND hahaha. Everything is sooo cheap!!
As for YOLO food, well, I had 3 vege vadais, deep fried fritters of sorts. Was it worth my calories? Hell no. But, come dinner time at Komalas? Oh yes.
We got tanned after a recent swimming session lol
This is what I'm talking about. KOMALAS. I love komalas, its like sin but vegan style. I don't know if I am the only one but the idea of it being vegetarian used to make me feel better just because there's no meat. But now that I know more about my food, they are really just plates of carbs, carbs, carbs and more carbs.
BUT, I cannot give this childhood sweetheart a miss and honestly, I felt alot more guilty about my 3 tiny vadais than polishing off most of the food on my plate. ( I left the rice out) These are calories well spent okay! I'd gladly come back any day for my Indian food fix.
Oh did I mention, the plate of south indian set costs SGD$6.20. lol so cheap omgz. My boyfriend had the uhm... I can't remember the name of it but it's that triangle giant tortilla lookalike. That was about SGD$5.80? Super affordable. Super NAISE.
For some reason, I can't seem to embed blogilates' new video here. But it's ok, there's the link and judging from the title, you should know what it is. It is a HIIT workout. Not the toughest from her that I've done, but worked me up a sweat in no time.
And then there was:
Brazilian Booty Burn Workout: Burn to the Beat- Keaira LaShae
To feed my obessesion with building a bigger butt. It felt more like a regular dance cardio workout and I am thankful that I do most of my exercises in the comfort of my home because no one would want to watch me try to keep up with this lady and her dance moves. I'm terrible at keeping with dance cardios. This is one of the easiest ones that I've done. Although I love the idea of dance cardio, but my body just CANNOT COORDINATE FAST ENOUGH.
The next cardio workout I tried was:
30 Day Fat Burn: Cardio Crush Workout by BeFit
I still prefer doing a set by set, rep by rep kind of workout. This one was pretty good. It was easy to follow, simple enough moves, worked me up a good sweat too. I'll probably fit this into days where I just have to work one part of my body. A little cardio to supplement spot toning!
I got these bright coloured cupcake liners recently. They make me want to bake all the time! I've always been a little skeptical about plastic products and heat but these babies can withstand up to 200deg celsius. Pretty cool huh?
Spinach, tuna and cheese frittata that i made the other day, so prettyyy
Compared to regular paper liners, removing these plastic liners is like dream. It came off so easily my jaw dropped. So if you hate the annoying problem of food sticking to cupcake liners, this is a great option.
I was experimenting again and want to try to make some kidney bean cupcakes with lavender & strawberry cashew cream cheese. This time tweaking the recipe a little but replacing cocoa powder with 'coconut flour' (grinded from dessicated coconut).
Little kidney bean cupcake babies in-the-baking.
These cashew nuts are gonna be soaked overnight, blended honey, lavender, and 4 microwaved strawberries to make lavender strawberry cashew cream .
Finally, the cupcake is born!
The addition of 'coconut flour' did help to fluff up the batter a little so its starting to taste more like a regular cake, without all the nasties :)
