Coffeeholic's Hour

I'm sure many of us, including myself, can't wait to flip this year over despite everyone had high hope in the beginning. Challenging workload when your role is to travel and get things done, inconvenient habit of putting on a mask as soon as stepping out the house, abusively used the word 'virtual', and grounded for a very long period of time. So I thought to myself - why not spend some time to pen down some reflection here: 1. Working from home is about discipline and time management, and thus making you either a highly productive person or a procrastinator. 2. Breathe in a mask outside of OT is challenging - it's super suffocating under the hot sun or humid weather. Mask is new essential. 3. Delivery is SO easy for essentials, groceries, food and gift. It's new way to show love and care towards someone or on special occasions. 4. Substitute traffic and travelling time to overtimes, exercise or reading time. It makes me realise how much time I could spend wise...

I have been bragged about my weight loss journey to my husband as and when the scale shows some positive results in the last 6 months. Some people notice the difference of the overall body shape, while some just notice the face is less chubby now. Most of the people perceive my diet plan is not feasible to begin the change with when I explain about the various intermittent fasting I practiced throughout the 6-month, while some think the drastic change will cause my weight fluctuates once I stop practicing whatever I'm doing right now. What does 10kg weight loss mean to me: Weight went up when I started training twice a day without taking care of my diet and it's rather demotivating on the first month. So, that's where I attempted intermittent fasting and exercise once a day. Result kicked in fast on second month with 2kg loss.  Intermittent fasting is NOT a shortcut to weight loss - it is more like a change in eating pattern. I began with 16:8, 18:6, 20:4, and OMAD at my pe...

Life can be full of surprises or mundane. It's about choices of how you want life turns out to be. After starting my intermittent fasting and workout, this is how I create my anticipation everyday: I look forward to morning stretch after waking up; I look forward to my lunch by 1145am already; I look forward to having a cuppa after lunch; I look forward to 5pm strength training because I saved a new training video last night; I look forward to profuse perspiration at first 10mins of workout; I look forward to cooling down period and my phone moment; I look forward to good bath; I look forward to leg lifts while viewing for new video before bed; I look forward to good night's sleep; And, I still can't wait to start a day with activities listed above. How you create many small excitement in a day is how you want to be responsible for living at every moment. Totally love the change of lifestyle and new norm of living in pandemic, and count my blessings for having a job to affo...

August 6 marked my 4-month of weight loss journey. When my weight was stagnant in the last two months, I hit the plateau already, which was sooner than I thought that's it. On second thought, I was thinking I was at certain weight below what I weighed currently so there must be way to get back. 2 months later, I broke the plateau and the weight further reduced 6 kg. What's more surprising to me is the reduction of my total body fat reduced by 4% while muscle mass increased by 7%. Right now, I am at the weight from 5 years ago, with less body fat and more muscle mass. Learning: Stay motivated by changing workout plan everyday. Those YouTube fitness videos are extremely helpful without thinking how to tweak your routine. If the mood says 30-min, then pick a 30-min routine; if you feel like doing 10-min today, then split 5-min each for upper and lower body. Everything is on your mind - learn one new move every week and practice it. You can't do it today doesn't mean you ca...

心里面没有狠过一次，哪来的淡呢？ 取自〈血观音〉 经历过什么，坚持什么，向往什么，什么才是真的 -- 长大了，事实重要吗？原则重要吗？面子重要吗？赢，重要吗？ 如果能重来，初心一样吗？选择一样吗？目的一样吗？ 如果人生没有狠过，会想要回归平静淡泊的生活吗？ 不是别无选择，只是事过境迁，心态变了。 执着是一种人生态度，放下亦是。

Regular exercise always tops the chart of new year resolution of most of the people, including myself. Never got the heart to start new routine and find excuse for not working out or use workload and travel schedule as reason. Imagine how much times I have wasted on electronic device, calls, meetings and stick on couch throughout the evening.  When lockdown was announced, I took a week off after first quarter closing and lazed my ass off and did nothing. Two weeks later, I felt like potato and the fat around my thigh and belly irked me. What on earth was I thinking? How could I have the gut to sit here and do nothing about this body? I stood on the weighing scale and the number was a lot higher than I thought. This was a huge wake up call! Ditched the couch and I started my HIIT workout. 4 minutes for 1 set - I felt drained of exhaustion. Insisted for another set and I called it a day. I set the alarm for morning and evening workout for 3 weeks. Result after 3 weeks? Weigh remained...