The First Meal

It was an interesting experience having to go shopping for the food you can eat. Actually the food you can eat is all there but it's just that we tend to go for convenience and eat the food in another form whereby you have no idea what they have put in it. Armed with my shopping list, I scoured the aisles of Supasave Gadong searching for the food that will fuel my body. It was no surprise that the place I hung out the most was the vegetables, fruits and fresh meat section. I made a brief stint to the oils section looking for olive oil, the biscuits section looking for rice cakes and lastly to the soft drinks section. According to my eating plan, I can drink a can of diet coke! Seeing that I love sugar, I took the opportunity to make sure I had some. You never know what will happen! The other ingredients were already found in my kitchen and a quick survey before shopping allowed me to gauge what I needed and what I didn't need.

At night, I had the most fun task of actually weighing my food and I don't mean that sarcastically either. But before that, a quick stop to Hua Ho Yayasan to buy that digital weighing scale. Luckily with the festive season there was 15% off my purchase and I paid $25.41 for the scale.

So there I was weighing out my chicken breasts and beef slices to make sure I meet the requirements. Packaged them separately according to weight and stored them in the freezer so the next time I know I will have the right amount ready to be cooked. 

After all that was done, I got down to preparing my first meal. A quick look at a recipe book and lemon chicken seemed pretty easy and straight forward plus the recipe allowed me to use the ingredients I was allowed to eat. I chose to use lime instead since there was an abundance of it in the fridge. I stir fried some vegetables to go with it (after weighing it out of course) and I made my first meal.

Now at first I was concerned with the portions because I never in my life have had to weigh my food so I thought that the portions would be small but once I had it all on my plate, it was definitely enough.

Lime Chicken and Stir Fried Vegetables with Balsamic Vinegar

How did it taste? At 4am, not too bad if you like food that is slightly sour to your palette. It certainly filled me up with two rice cakes and some mango to top it all off.

Here's the recipe if you would like to try this at home:

Lime or Lemon Chicken (depending which you prefer)

1. Mix the chicken breast with cracked black pepper and sprinkle some salt

2. Coat the chicken with some olive oil

3. Squeeze a few limes (or limau kasturi) until you think you have enough juice.

4. Heat the non-stick pan with a little bit of olive oil. Cook the chicken.

5. Once cooked, pour in the lime juice.

And you're done!

Shane

I met Shane at the dinner I attended the other night and I asked her about her progress. Shane started on the programme about a week ago. I still remember us laughing and giggling over the portion sizes and what we could and could not eat. When I saw her, she looked healthy and whether my eyes were deceiving me, she looked like she was glowing!

We had a good chat and it's nice to hear the perspective of another person of how they are making the programme work for them because Shane is a busy retailer. Since many of us are busy people, we tend to use the busy-ness as an excuse not to do something like this. Shane said her being busy actually helped so you don't think so much about food!  She said she felt more energetic and did not feel hungry since the programme focuses on ensuring we have our 3 meals a day plus 2 snacks in between if we wanted it.

The result so far after a week? She has lost 2kg! Congratulations Shane!

I am grateful I am not alone in Brunei doing this programme and that I have my own support group whether they are or not on the programme. Shane says I can call her anytime in case I want to give in to that beautiful piece of chocolate cake  

Taken at Angkor Wat, Cambodia - July 2009

From Left: Yvonne, Me, Pek Ching, Angel, Shane & Jeolyn

A message from Mio Ting

Hi Friends,

One of my clients, Jo, was suffering from sleep apnea, high blood pressure, high LDL, low HDL, high uric acid and high blood sugar level before he started with Adventures in Weight Loss. Yesterday his wife Jess came over with the second (6 weekly) blood test report. She was so happy and excited about Jo's health improvement. He is losing so much weight (he was 90kg, now 76kg and still losing). He has recovered from his sleep apnea, his HDL has increased so much, LDL is lower, uric acid and blood sugar levels back within the normal range. This is truly great news! I am so happy for them and a joy in my heart knowing a life is saved.

Regards, 

Mio Ting

The Last Supper?

It felt a bit strange having dinner this evening knowing that it was my "last" no holds barred meal. My mind debated whether I should actually go through with this. Mummy made her very yummy custard which she only makes once a year during the fasting month. And my mind was saying, "think about all those yummy food you're going to miss!" Uhuh. I think I've already stuffed myself with yummy food over the past 25 years (not counting the first 5 years when I was fed food which I did not necessarily choose). What is just 6 to 8 months not eating it all? 

Actually my dad suggested that I ought to start after the fasting month is over and enjoy the first 10 days of Hari Raya. I could. That would have been an option but I was thinking to myself, I've had many years of enjoying good Hari Raya food and for some reason I brought myself back to those days where I felt bloated from eating so much. I don't think I would like to put myself through that. I look at all my baju kurungs which I've accumulated over the past few years and I think it would be nice to fit into some of them again.

Last night I had dinner at Pek Ching and YC's house. The chef was Boon Hui and he cooked us a fantastic meal! We had lamb with potatoes, roast chicken drumstick, seafood pasta, mashed potatoes, salad and pumpkin soup. I really enjoyed my meal but I wondered whether I was eating to compensate I would not get to enjoy some of the food come the start of the eating plan. By the time dessert came, I had my portion AND part of Yvonne's portion and I knew that I was over doing it. I think before I wouldn't have given it much thought. Just the idea of going on this eating plan is already raising my levels of awareness.

Some of my friends who were present at the dinner were saying to me that if I lose all this weight that I have right now I wouldn't be as huggable as they have experienced all this time. *Sigh* I really appreciate them for accepting me for who they see on the inside but it really is important I do this. It has really become clear that I am doing this for myself and no one else. 

It's time to get serious. And I will do my best!

Pills Pills Pills

I carried my folder to work today to show some of my colleagues. And I guess I was hoping I would have time to read it but I didn't. But what was stuck at the back of my mind was that I needed to get the supplements to go with this programme.

Being on a few programmes before, they would normally ask you to buy supplements which are their own brand and product line as part of the programme which I am convinced is just a gimmick to make more money. I was surprised when I found out the programme relied on supplements from Pharmanex.

One of the ways to be successful in a programme such as this is proper supplementation to support the body and through my blood test, they were able to identify which supplements would be ideal for me to consume as part of the eating plan. And when I read further the descriptions of the recommended supplements, I begin to understand why they were recommended. Now I am not sure if this is just marketing involved but it sounds like "wow - so good ah!"

The targeted supplements are meant to help you: 

1. Reduced nutritional cravings - no more cravings for Maggi Mee!

2. Insulin stabilization (loss of sugar cravings) - no more cravings for a DQ Blizzard!

3. Increased energy - more dance classes!

4. Improved sleep patterns - no more sleeping late?

5. Lowered stress and improved cortisol levels - no more waking up with moments of panic!

6. Improved metabolic response - the fat keeps on burning! Great!

The funny thing was when I went to Nu Skin just now, they had none of the supplements in stock! My balloon deflated temporarily but I can view it that (a) these supplements are really popular and (b) they just don't order a lot in the first place. I like to think (a) would be the case! Supplies should be coming in next week and they would give me a call.

I will be consuming the following:

1. Lifepak 

2. TRA Complex

3. Relaxation Formula

4. Marine Omega

Each of them have their own benefits and will assist with the weight loss. In the mean time, I will still continue my other set of supplements while waiting for these to arrive.

In my head, all I can think of is the founder of the programme Graham Park who lost 43kgs in 23 weeks! If he can do it, so can I! And just so you can be inspired too, here are his before and after photos taken from his website http://www.7weightlosssecrets.com/

Thank You Graham!

Finally!

The food plan has arrived! What a strange courier service. It took a week for it to arrive from Kuching. So now that it's here, what do I do? I've started reading the file and collecting questions to ask Mio Ting what I can, can't do, should do, shouldn't do, do a lot of etc.

There's the front cover of this file which I would like to share -

Personalised Meal Plan

Client Name: Siti Rozana M Yunos (they got that from my blood test results)

Prepared By: Dr Barry Ryan - Australian Weightloss and Michelle Anderson - Chief Client Consultant (she lost 10kg in 5 weeks!)

Date: 20 August 2009

Initial Weight: 120kg (yes I am that heavy)

Goal Weight: 60kg (I almost fell off my chair!)

Included in this report:

1. Overview

2. Test Results

3. Supplement Information

4. Personalised Eating Plan (most important!)

5. Exercise Information

6. Food Diary

7. Success Diary and Before Photos

To follow (after reaching my goal weight)

1. Phase two of eating plan

2. Phase three "On the Road Aagain" plan for life

3. Personalised exercise plan

Inside the file is also a measuring tape and a DVD "The Ultimate Weightloss Seminar" and "12 Minutes Activity Program"

I need to do some shopping! Without getting into too much detail here, I will now buy 

1. a digital scale to weigh my food

2. a digital scale to weigh myself and

3. food that fits the eating plan

So I watched the DVD. Some parts interest me and some did not. I listened with great interest to Annie Barki a psychologist who lost 18kg being on the programme and she brought up some great points. Most of the time, it's not all about the food! It's about our minds the programming we've gone through (like we must finish everything on our plates) and that most of us are uncomfortable about looking fantastic for various reasons. The biggest challenge to our success is FEAR. The fear of failure is one but also it's the fear of being responsible because once the weight begins to come off, we are now responsible, we now have to make choices and to always stay in control since we got ourselves there. No more binging and hiding behind our weight to allow us to make unhealthy choices what goes into our mouths.

After reading my file, I kind of have lost my appetite and it got me thinking deeply about myself. I liked it when she said, "it's not about acting seriously but seriously acting." The success of any programme is the ability to take ACTION. And mom reminded me again, "If you don't follow this, I will pull your hair!" Scary! I love my hair!

So now, the journey begins. I will be making preparations over the weekend and then off we go! More details to follow as I progress.

Life IS an adventure!

After our usual weekly Brunei Speakers' Club meeting, Josephine, Liz and myself decided to head to Cheezebox to catch up. The original intention was to help Jos with her upcoming speech. And I sat there thinking, life is not about just "weight loss", even having an adventure in weight loss means you still have to lead your life and life is full of adventures regardless of what you do!

It relates to the cartoon here (a BIG thank you to Randy for allowing me the rights to use his cartoons at a very reasonable fee) that you can be thin but still be unhappy. I then ask, what makes life meaningful for me at the end of the day? Don't get me wrong, I still am choosing to do this programme but I must remember not to be obsessed by it and that there is still a wonderful life to lead and surrounded by great people.

The goal would be to achieve weight loss (yet to be revealed!) and the intention is to be healthy so as to lead a long life that is full of meaning and joy!

And what makes my life meaningful? When I am able to do the things I love and make a big difference to myself and others with all the talents that God has given me. And there's so much to explore out there and so much potential to tap into.

I only ate half of what was on my plate just now so even though the meal plan has not arrived yet (I hope it arrives soon!), it's time to start making choices that will help get me started in that direction.