Health – Personal Excellence

What Nutella Really Looks Like

Celes — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 03:30:29 +0000

Last week while conducting The Emotional Eating Course, I was sharing with the participants on the nature of food products today and how they are glorified through creative marketing. (I would know as I used to be a marketing major and worked in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.)

Take for example, Nutella. Some of you may love Nutella. I used to eat a lot of it. Spreading it on bread, licking it with the spoon, consuming it directly from the bottle. As a child, I remember the Nutella mini-packs marketed at kids that cost 20 or 50 cents (those were the times before massive inflation).

One of the many lovely Nutella images we would have seen in Nutella advertising along supermarket aisles, on TV, etc. (Image: Wiki)

But did you know? Nutella is made up of over 70% sugar and palm oil. The largest ingredient is sugar, with more than 56% being sugar. Here is a visual representation of the ingredients in Nutella:

Click to see bigger image. Nutella only has five main ingredients: sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, skim milk, and cocoa. Over 70% of the product is sugar and palm oil. (Image)

Nutella Nutrition Label.^[1] They don’t show the percentage composition of the ingredients since it’s only going to demystify their marketing. But they have to show the sugar content and as you can see, 21g of every 37g serving is sugar. That is over 56% of what is often marketed as a “chocolate/hazelnut spread.”

So when you eat Nutella, you’re really eating sugar and oil. If you don’t already know, sugar is a deeply problematic ingredient. Sugar intake has increased sharply over the last 100 years while diabetes-related deaths and diabetes prevalence rates have risen in parallel.^[2]

Parallel epidemic of diabetes and sugar consumption (Image)

In a 2013 study by Basu, Sanjay et al., it was found that duration and degree of sugar exposure correlated significantly with diabetes prevalence in a dose-dependent manner.^[3] Sadly, sugar refiners and manufacturers of sugary foods and drinks have sought to influence medical research and even public health recommendations, so you’ll find conflicting studies on the health effects of sugary food/drinks depending on the researcher’s financial ties to the Food & Beverage industry.^[4]

Palm oil is another problematic ingredient found in almost all our foods now. In a 2016 study by The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), they investigated three substances found in vegetable oils when refined at temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius (a routine process when making processed food). Reviewing previous scientific studies, EFSA found that repeated exposure to glycidyl fatty acid esters (or GE), a substance in vegetable oils, increases the incidence of tumors in rats and mice — probably by damaging the genetic information in their cells. Most vegetable oils contain GE while palm oil contains the highest level of it.^[4][5]

Dr Helle Knutsen, Chair of the CONTAM Panel, said: “There is sufficient evidence that glycidol is genotoxic and carcinogenic, therefore the CONTAM Panel did not set a safe level for GE.”^[6] In 2016, Coop, Italy’s largest supermarket chain, pulled around 200 products containing refined palm oil from its shelves for this reason.^[7]

Bottomline? If you want to eat hazelnuts, buy actual hazelnuts. If you want to eat cocoa, buy real dark chocolate. Even the nuts used in Nutella aren’t the healthiest form of hazelnuts — they are roasted and there is a wide range of trans fatty acids and acrylamide that could be potentially be present in (commercially) roasted nuts.^[8]

Don’t buy Nutella thinking that you’re buying “hazelnut cream” or “chocolate cream” (under the Italian law, Nutella cannot even be labeled as a “chocolate cream” as it does not meet minimum cocoa solids concentration criteria^[9]). These are marketing spins to create a brand image, and this brand image is often associated with strong emotions due to candy companies’ strong hold over mass media today with their significant spending (see how Nutella tries to build an emotional bond with its brand with advertisements of family eating Nutella together, kids enjoying Nutella, etc.).

This then leads to emotional consumption where someone eats something to chase after an emotion, when they should really be eating based on their real food needs. This is something that I’m currently working with my participants to break through in The Emotional Eating Course, and it’s amazing to see my participants breaking through their past ties with food week after week.

Unfortunately emotional eating is deeply rooted in our food culture today, but by gaining awareness and consciousness of our eating behaviors, and the actual nature of the food we are eating, we can slowly break this link and unhealthy behavior. :)

Read:

How I Overcame Emotional Eating (series)
The Emotional Eating Live Course (class is full and registration is now closed for the 2018/2019 run)

10 Meditation Videos to Relax Your Mind

Celes — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:00:12 +0000

This is part 3 of a 3-part series on meditation, including the benefits of meditation and how to meditate.

Part 1: 10 Reasons You Should Meditate
Part 2: How To Meditate in 5 Simple Steps
Part 3: 10 Meditation Videos to Relax Your Mind

(Image)

Did you know that being in nature can calm your mind, heal your body, and improve mental functions?

In a study by Japanese researchers, it was found that walking or staying in a forest (a practice known as forest bathing) decreased hostility and depression significantly while increasing liveliness significantly among participants.^[1]
A University of Michigan study found that short-term memory of test subjects improved by walking in nature, or even just by viewing pictures of nature.^[2]
In a University of Sheffield study, it was found that natural, tranquil scenes (beach) enhanced connectivity between different brain areas, whereas non-tranquil scenes (motorway) disrupted connections within the brain.^[3][4]
A study revealed that among patients recovering from gallbladder surgery, those assigned to rooms with windows looking out to a natural scene required a shorter stay, needed less pain medication, and had fewer post-surgical complications than those facing a brick wall.^[5][6]

While the best thing to do would be to move to more natural living environments, this may not be possible for many of us. If so, here are some free nature videos for you. These videos are great for relaxing and meditation. Watch before you sleep and feel calmed instantly.

1) Waterfall

One of my favorites, this is an HD video of a gentle waterfall to several soothing music tracks. The music starts off quiet with the sound of a waterfall, followed by nature sounds, and then builds up to a wonderful mix of people humming, tribal music, and upbeat tunes.

2) Sea Waves

Teleport yourself next to a sea now without a plane ticket. No music, only the sound of sea waves and a video of gentle waves and a palm tree swaying. Project this full screen on your TV/laptop and sit back, watch, and relax.

3) Celtic Music

This one made me feel like I was in the Lord of the Rings . This Celtic piece is composed by Peder Helland and contains gentle flute and harp tunes. Its gentle, soothing tune is great for relaxing.

4) Relaxing Piano Music

This gentle piano piece is accompanied by the gentle sound of a water stream. Like Track #3, the video is a collage of different pictures of nature. If you like this, check out this track with a more sweet and romantic vibe.

5) Deep Sleep Music #1

This video is a collage of different clips of nature, from sheep running across a mountain to flowers swaying in the wind to snowy landscapes! Just watching the video is consciousness raising. It reminds us that we are one speck in this universe and not to get lost in our problems. I recommend to listen to the music and watch the video at the same time.

6) Deep Sleep Music #2

Great for stress relief. This soft, calming piece is accompanied by a static image of a silhouette staring right up into the sky, creating the feeling like you are the only person in the universe.

7) Rain

Do you like the sound of rain? If so, this track is for you. A 10-hour clip of just rain sounds — play it while on the bed and you should fall asleep enough. :) If you prefer gentler rain sounds, click here.

8) Rainforest

This video brings you right into the heart of a rainforest with water stream and animal sounds. If you prefer just a track with water stream sounds without animal noises, click here.

9) Harp Music

Charming harp music by Peder Helland. Relax your mind and unwind after a long day.

10) Flying Through Clouds

If you like to see clouds float by when you’re on a plane, this video is for you. This video brings you right to the sky — it’s a 3-hour clip of you floating over white clouds as you fly towards the sunset (or sunrise, depending on how you see it).

Here’s a nighttime version:

This is part 3 of a 3-part series on meditation, including the benefits of meditation and how to meditate.

Part 1: 10 Reasons You Should Meditate
Part 2: How To Meditate in 5 Simple Steps
Part 3: 10 Meditation Videos to Relax Your Mind

What Happens When You Quit Smoking [Infographic]

Celes — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 17:06:19 +0000

As most of you know, smoking is dangerous and a key cause of death everywhere in the world. It is actually is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States — ranking higher than obesity, substance abuse, infectious disease, firearms, and traffic accidents.^[1] A study by BMC Medicine asserts that in Australia, up to two-thirds of deaths in smokers are due to their smoking.^[2] Every 6 seconds, one person dies from a tobacco-related disease — that’s 10 people every minute.^[3]

Unfortunately, smoking is addictive — the nicotine inhaled via the cigarette smoke goes to the brain and leads to the release of the chemical dopamine in the brain, creating a sense of relaxation and calm. When the brain changes to adjust to the nicotine intake, the smoker experiences withdrawal symptoms when there’s insufficient amounts of it. Addiction to the nicotine in tobacco can happen very quickly, after only smoking for a short time or smoking a few cigarettes.^[4]

Because of the highly addictive nature of cigarettes, it’s difficult for smokers to quit. Many have tried time and again over the years, only to fail repeatedly.

For many smokers, the more plausible goal is to stop smoking by the day, with some by the hour. The good news is that the positive effects of not smoking starts as soon as within 20 minutes of putting down the cigarette. Here is a timeline of some of the immediate and long-term changes when you put down the cigarette:

(Click image for larger version (Infographic by Wade Meredith))

My husband used to be a heavy smoker in his 20s, smoking 12-15 cigarettes a day for six years. He quit smoking two years ago (in 2013), and some of the benefits he has experienced are (starting from most immediate):

Food tasting better (his senses were previously numbed from smoking);
Air smelling better, cleaner, and crisper;
No smoker’s breath;
Throat no longer feeling dry and sore;
Saving $120 USD/month (previously spent on cigarettes) which can then be put to better use;
Without any training, shaving one full minute off his 2.4 km fitness run in the army, and getting a silver award for the fitness test for the first time in 10 years;
More hair growth;
Becoming more productive and sociable as he no longer needs to pause what he’s doing to get his cigarette fix;
Improved self-control and focus as he has learned to overcome chemical/psychological urges of smoking.

While the quitting process wasn’t easy — he experienced acute coughing and wheezing for three weeks as his lungs purged out the toxins built up from the years of smoking — the results have made it worthwhile. Of course, knowing that he is now healthier and has dramatically improved his chances of living to an older age is probably the biggest reward of it all. We can’t prevent death nor know when it’s gonna hit us, but the least we can do is manage the factors within our control and leave the rest to the universe.

Whether you’ve been smoking for a few months, a few years or many years, know that it is in your power to quit. Here are some resources to help you:

smokefree.gov — A website that provides free information and assistance to help you quit smoking and stay tobacco-free.
Tips From Former Smokers — This CDC campaign Web site lets you view the ads, learn more about the people featured and their health conditions, and access quit-smoking resources.
Harms of Smoking and Benefits of Quitting — A fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute that summarizes the harmful effects of smoking and short- and long-term benefits of quitting.
The Easy Way To Stop Smoking (by Allen Carr) — Allen Carr, the writer, used to smoke 100 cigarettes a day until he quit and wrote this book to help others quit smoking. It has since become one of the biggest selling self-help titles with 13 million copies sold worldwide and is the #1 bestseller in Smoking Recovery.
What Happens When You Quit Smoking — Healthline has another quit smoking timeline which goes into further details.

In the process of quitting smoking, it is important to (1) have a strong WHY to quit, (2) understand your triggers for smoking and decouple them from the negative habit itself, and (3) have a clear plan to stay off. I dive into habit triggers here: How a Relapse Begins: The Key To Removing Bad Habits.

Also, come up with some replacement activities to replace smoking. For example, perhaps you took up smoking when you were in college, as a way to relieve stress. So smoking becomes your go-to activity whenever you feel stressed or uncomfortable. If so, come up with some simple things to do to relieve stress, such as watching your favorite show, going for a walk, lying on the bed, or listening to some rock music.

Don’t overwhelm yourself in the process of trying to quit; rather, work on it in manageable chunks. Work on not smoking for the next 24 hours, and by the end of the 24 hours, work on not smoking for the next 24 hours. Work on it on a day-to-day basis, and soon you may find your desire to not smoke outweighs any interest to smoke.

Whatever it is, know that you’re not alone in this journey. There are many people out there working on quitting smoking, and everyone is working through it one step at a time. Focus on loving yourself, fulfilling your inner-most needs, and honoring yourself. Get a support group; join online communities (such as Facebook groups) on quitting smoking. You have it in you; believe in yourself and never give up. In time to come, you’ll find the days of smoking long behind you.

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Good Carbs vs. Bad Carbs [Infographic]

Celes — Thu, 14 May 2015 20:42:39 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of working with two coaching clients to lose weight, with each of them losing an average of 3.5kg (7-8lbs) after two months.

While exercising was part of their action plan, a huge part came from eating a cleaner diet — cutting down unhealthy food like chocolates and fried food, doing more home cooking, and choosing good carbs over bead carbs.

Today’s infographic gives you a lowdown on good carbs vs. bad carbs and the carbs you should eat more of:

(Click image for larger version (Infographic by Online Nutrition Degrees))

While many people tend to advocate the elimination of carbs, carbohydrates are not the enemy here — it’s the bad carbohydrates like sugary cereals, sodas, candy/desserts, cookies, cakes, instant products, and basically most of the processed food you find in a provision shop and along inner supermarket aisles. These bad carbs are digested very quickly by your body, are converted to fat, and also create high blood glucose spikes — which subsequently leaves you tired (think sugar crash). Long-term consumption of bad carbs can increase the risk of heart diseases.

The answer? Choose the good carbs which are the complex carbs. These include green vegetables, fresh fruits, sweet potatoes and yams, carrots and other root vegetables, mushrooms, and whole grains (read more healthy living tips in 45 Tips To Live a Healthier Life).

It doesn’t mean that you need to eliminate the “bad” carbs altogether — it’s okay to eat a candy bar once in a long while — but I recommend introducing more complex carbs and make them a mainstay in your diet. I always opt for wholegrain over refined grains, fruits over cookies/candies, and vegetables/salads over fries — to the point where it has become a habit. There are times when this isn’t possible (for example, some restaurants don’t serve brown rice, or some days I just want to eat ice cream), but the most important thing is to have an overall healthy diet that gives you the nutrients you need. Oh and of course, remember to exercise regularly too! :)

(By the way, I find it strange that Snickers’ Bars and M&Ms are rated as the “better” snacks in the infographic. I guess it’s on a relativity scale and they’d be better than popcorn or pretzels. I’d personally go for a banana or apple as a snack. These fruits have fiber, help with digestion, and are loaded with vitamins and minerals!)

Here’s a helpful list of glycemic index for 100+ foods from Harvard Health Publications. Remember, the lower the index, the longer it takes to digest, the more it helps stimulate your metabolism: Glycemic index and glycemic load for 100+ foods

Read more healthy living tips in 45 Tips To Live a Healthier Life.

Healthy Living Challenge Roundup: Reflection, Feedback, and Moving Forward!

Celes — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:31:45 +0000

This is the roundup for the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D This is the final post for our Healthy Living Challenge, where we round up our thoughts/feelings about the challenge, share feedback, and say our goodbyes as we move forward! :D

All Challenge Tasks

My Day 14 in Pictures

Before that, let me quickly share a recap of my Day 14 in pictures, since I’ve been doing that for Days 1 to 13:

First meal of the day: Rice salad and banana before a coaching call! Had a terrific coaching call with one of my clients today and so excited about what’s next for her and her business (incidentally she’s starting a coaching and blog business as well).

Dinner: Same wholemeal pasta as yesterday, made by myself! ^_^ With mushroom sauce, chickpeas, and bacon bits.

Snack: Apple and guava soup (same as Day 13’s) with wholemeal bread and grapes. Very tasty.

My third exercise for week 3! Morning jog of 2.62km at 8:07 min / km, burning 175 calories.

Homemade salad: Lettuce, tofu, chickpeas, home-made croutons, bacon bits, and cheese (Also later had a wholemeal bread with peanut butter, not in picture)

In total I had two salads on Day 14! That’s great! I guess my first salad of the day really counts as my salad for Day 13, since I fell asleep earlier than planned.

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – Check!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – Check!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 14’s comments section!

My Reflections from Being in the Challenge

So this is it! After two weeks of healthy living, posting pictures and updates of our meals/exercises every day, and doing the daily tasks, the Healthy Living Challenge has finally come to an end.

For me, it has been a very eventful journey. Before the challenge started, my eating habits have been fairly good, as I’ve already been working on healthy eating since 2007. With this challenge, my plan was to take things up a notch by cutting out fried/oily food (for those of you in Singapore, think typical hawker food and a lot of the traditional Chinese/Malay/Indian food here, not to mention fries and chips), exercise three times a week, and eat a salad more regularly, ideally once a day if possible.

It has been a blast. I’m excited and proud to share that I’ve met all my targets, and in the process busted the previous barriers that were preventing me from adhering to my plan. :D An overview sheet of my previous barriers and how I’ve effectively busted them during the 14HLC, below.

My previous barriers:

Goal #1: Cut out fried/oily food. Previously, I would have some oily/fried food every day or every other day, even if I were eating healthily the whole day. Two reasons:
- My environment simply doesn’t cater to healthy living. The default food in my neighborhood (or in most shopping malls in Singapore really) tends to be fried/oily food.
- I wasn’t eating sufficient calories on my usual healthy meals. This was why I would sometimes eat oily/fried food because it was a fast way to load up my calories and meet my TDEE for the day! This was an AHA for me doing Day 3 and 4’s tasks, which I’ve shared here.
- My husband eats not-so-healthy food, but this doesn’t bother me at all. He’s free to eat whatever he likes; I encourage to eat healthily for his own good but his eating doesn’t bother or affect me in my own diet/living plans. The only times I feel like eating his food (say fries, fried rice, chips, refined noodles) is when my TDEE is not met for the day / I did not eat sufficiently, which leads back to reason #2 as opposed to it being anything to do with him. So it’s more to do with me than him.
Goal #2: Exercise three times a week
- For the few months leading up to 2015 I wasn’t exercising much if at all, mainly due to my husband’s knee injury which I shared in Day 12’s post). There’s the expectation that we should exercise together since we’ve been exercising together all this while, so when he got his injury, I subconsciously felt that I shouldn’t exercise too, which was a self-limiting thought.
- The other reason was simply being busy with work and hence putting off my workouts. When done a few times, it subsequently becomes a habit to skip exercises.
Goal #3: Eat salads more regularly
- The nearest salad bar to my home is 40 minutes away (one way; so almost 1.5 hours both ways). Hence, I couldn’t eat salads as often as I wanted, especially during busy times.
- I tried making salads myself before; couldn’t sustain the habit to do it every day. (Considering the frequent need to replenish the food and go grocery shopping since vegetables go bad quite quickly.)

My solutions that have busted the barriers:

Goal #1: Cut out fried/oily food.
- Realize that in opting for a healthier diet than most people in the society, I naturally need to take actions atypical from most people. This means pre-planning for my meals, identifying the places that sell healthier food, and making an effort to get my food for those places. Also, being ready to cook sometimes will help address situations when my house is out of food.
- Stock up on healthy food. I’ve been doing this throughout the challenge. Now, I always stock up two days’ worth of healthy food, namely fruits, sandwiches, soups, and salads.
- Ensure I consume sufficient calories to match my TDEE on my healthy meals. This includes including healthy calorie-dense foods like avocado (I’m planning to get this in my next grocery trip) and eating small meals more frequently.
Goal #2: Exercise three times a week.
- Realize that I can exercise by myself and there’s no need to feel bad about that. I’ve been doing this with no problem since the challenge sarted. The funny thing is that, my husband actually accompanies to my jogs anyway! He just sits there and listens to his podcast while waiting for me to finish my run! ^_^*
- Scheduling my jogs into my calendar so they don’t get missed. I have a three-times-a-weekly exercise appointment with myself. For my jogs, I make a point to run at least 2.4 km. By keeping my jogs no more than 30 minutes long, it’s easy for me to just wear my gear and go downstairs and run, then come back and shower (time boxing).
- Listening to podcasts while I jog, which gives me more reason to jog. Previously I did feel that jogging, especially doing it too often, was a waste of time. But by listening to podcasts (which I always want to listen to anyway, but don’t have the time to do so), I’m effectively combining two things that I want to do into one session. Perfect! :D
Goal #3: Eat healthy fiber more regularly
- Going grocery shopping every Friday to get my fruits/vegetable supplies. I do this every Friday with my husband. And we recently realized there’s a 24 h supermarket 10 minutes away from our home, so it’s the perfect place for nighttime shopping!

My plan moving forward

My plan moving forward are these guidelines:

Good proportion of macro-nutrients: Carb, Protein, Fat
Adequate amount of water
No fried/oily food (once a week okay)
Exercise 2-3 times/week
Buy a week’s worth of food to ensure sufficient healthy food at all times

I’ll be refining this as I go along, but it reflects the things I’ve been doing before and want to continue, as well as new guidelines I created for myself while doing the challenge.

I think my biggest realization from this challenge is that the more you want something that’s not orthodox, the more effort you have to make (initially) to make it happen. It’s the same for anything, really — if you want an out-of-the-world life partner whom you’re head-over-heels in love with, then you’ve to spend more time (and effort) in your search for your soulmate. This means not settling, working on yourself, and working on attracting your soulmate into your life. If you want a terrific career/business that you love, this means spending the time/effort to make this career/business happen, and this isn’t going to happen overnight either. Likewise, if you want a pristine diet that’s healthy and reflective of your personal needs and beliefs, and if society / your environment doesn’t support this at the moment, then you’ve to make the effort to make this lifestyle happen.

Realizing this has helped me to manage my expectations and hence seamlessly ease into my healthy living plans. Before 14HLC, I often felt disgruntled about how difficult it is to get healthy. However, now I know that it’s simply because my diet and lifestyle of choice is one that’s not typical of most people and the society, and that’s why my environment doesn’t support it. If I want to make my version of healthy living happen, I’ve to put in my due effort to make it happen. And that’s what I’ve been doing in the past two weeks of the challenge, and what I’ll continue to do moving ahead.

The great thing is that like every new habit, the bulk of the work is done at the beginning to transit to the new habit. When the roots have been cleared and new structures are created, the new habit then becomes an automatic reflex action, while the old habit becomes a thing of the past.

Thank You to All of You!!!!

At this point I want to sincerely thank all of you who have taken part in this challenge, whether by reading, by taking action in your lives, or by actively commenting and replying to the other participants in the daily threads.

fufu/anonima, Bette/Swann, Maryna, Miss Elf, Lina, VickiB, AvocadoRulz, Maria, Glenn, Educate Yourself, Susan, Kristine, Ken, JadePenguin, Moonsparkle, Calae, and everyone else who has been a part of this challenge, thank you. Regardless of how many posts or how frequently you posted, all your posts made a difference for me and I’m sure for the others passively following and reading the challenge as well. Thank you.

I want to especially thank those of you who actively participated by taking pictures of your meals, sharing updates on your diet / exercise / daily task posts in the daily posts, and responding to the other participants. Really, thank you. This challenge would have never been the same without your active sharing each day; your words and pictures make the challenge come to life. Like I mentioned on Day 6, a challenge without any engagement quickly becomes an empty challenge, and it’s very difficult for me to write subsequent tasks in a meaningful manner because I’ve no idea how you’re progressing. (If it isn’t obvious, I adapt every course and challenge to match participants’ consciousness and progress, even if it’s one I’ve done before.) You guys made all the difference for me. So, thank you!

Fufu posted a comment in Week 2 that really warmed my heart. Basically, she’s underweight and has always been wanting to gain weight her whole life to no avail (and this I’m aware of as she has consistently mentioned about this issue in her other comments on PE and in PE forums. Apparently, Day 4’s task on TDEE made all the difference for her in busting this life-long issue as she finally learned about the number of calories she should consume to hit her target weight. See her comment to me on Day 10:

… to let you know I weighed myself yesterday at the doctor and I’m super happy and felt like sharing this excitement with you! ^_^ I was 88.8 when I started this challenge. Currently I’m 90.2!! This is only the second time in my life that I’ve reached 90! I’m so happy to see result and this motivates me as I know I’m going in the right direction. :)

Congratulations fufu, I’ve already said this to you but I’m SO, SO happy for you!!! :D I’ve heard you mention so many times about wanting to gain weight but not able to, and to finally be able to do that now, because you were part of the challenge, is just amazing to me!

Maryna (one of the challenge participants who has been posting absolutely inspirational meal photos) posted this very inspirational comment in her Day 14 reflection:

I noticed that before the challenge I thought the main obstacle for me to live a healthy life was LACK OF CONTROL, now I know it was LACK OF INSPIRATION. I kept eating the same healthy foods every day for half a year (at least) and was so bored with their taste that I could not make myself eat them.

During these 2 weeks, I brought back to my diets products I haven’t been eating for a long time. Today I am eating coconut for the first time in 2014 and 2015. When my diet is more diverse, I do not need to control and make myself eat healthy stuff. I enjoy it, and this is what I should do. I do not need to do the same intense workout every time, I can do something different (even if it is not that intense) and enjoy the freshness of the new experience I get.

I say, “WORD Maryna!!!” If your diet / exercise regime is boring you, then perhaps it’s simply time to change things up, just like what Maryna did for herself in 14HLC! When there’s a lack of inspiration, it’s not about waiting for inspiration to strike; it’s about CREATING that inspiration OURSELVES!

And here’s a very inspiring chart review by Miss Elf, based on the 14-Day Healthy Living Plan template I provided on Day 0:

Miss Elf’s Healthy Living Plan

Miss Elf says of her 14HLC results, which I find amazing:

I ate very very little chocolate in the last 14 days. :) I am capable of eating one chocolate or one box of chocolate cookies a day. In the last 14 days I did not have cravings for sugar and there was no need to resist chocolate since there was no need to eat it. It was effortless. I ate lots of fruits. I went on lunch out during work and ate in peace. I drank lots of water.

[Exercise-wise,] I was organizing my activities in the spirit of the challenge; when I did not have my bicycle, I did not go by bus to work, but I combined walking and bicycling with a borrowed bike. I practiced yoga at home. [Celes: Wow, kudos Miss Elf!!!!]

I also did 13 of 14 challenge tasks (92.8 %); I missed day 8. This is the first time I really stuck to a challenge almost 100% and did the tasks although I (falsely) thought they would not be beneficial.

[I learned that] I should be more specific with taking-a-walk goal — I should set an hour when will I go. Statistics in % gives me better insight into my performance (more objective and realistic), that way I can see how every single day is important. My motivation [during the challenge] was the printed 14-day healthy living plan, the printed meal planner, scheduling and keeping track, and commenting and sharing my results.

Whoever you are, and whatever you’ve gained (no pun intended, fufu!) from the challenge, I want to thank you for being a part of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. It has been my joy conducting this challenge, posting the daily tasks, supporting you guys, and working on my healthy living goals in the progress, and I hope this challenge has helped in one way or another in your healthy living goals.

Once again, thank you. :)

Now, as we wrap up the challenge, let’s move to today’s roundup task!

Today’s Task: Roundup of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge

Challenge Overview

For convenience, I have listed all challenge tasks and posts in an overview page. Visit here: Healthy Living Challenge Overview, Jan 2015

Moving Forward

If you’ve found the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge useful, then you should most definitely check out Live a Better Life in 30 Days and Be a Better Me in 30 Days. The former is my 30-day program to transform your life while the latter is my 30-day program to become the highest version of you. Both are premium programs at PE that have transformed the lives of many around the world, and continue to do today. The tasks are timeless and can be done again and again (recommended once every six months to a year).

In the meantime, I look forward to connect with you further on PE. :) Subscribe to the free PE newsletter if you haven’t already!

What’s Coming Up Next at PE: New Soulmate Course! (Attention Singles!!) ♥

Coming up on PE, I’ll be conducting an all-new soulmate course (a PE premium course) next month, February. I’m SUPER excited about this one guys as helping others find love has been a topic I’ve been passionate for a LONG time, being someone who was single for almost all my life and took a while to finally find my one. In fact, this was a course that I wanted to launch last year February but didn’t since I was busy with many other things, but this year, it’s definitely coming to PE.

For those of you singles, and you’re serious about finding love, stay tuned for this course. I’ll be posting details nearer to the launch.

Also next up, I’ll be working on creating video content. Your support will be crucial to making these videos happen, so do watch them and post a comment if you like more videos! First one is now up! Watch: How To Deal With Backstabbers

Share Your Comments!

Post your roundup in today’s comment section
Make your necessary replies to other participants in the other days’ threads
Bid your farewells to the other participants!

(For those of you still working through the challenge, keep going! I won’t be closing the comments thread for the challenge tasks so you’re still free to post your responses, though note that the comments won’t be moderated.)

(Image: Women running)

Healthy Living Day 14: Review & Your Best Health Ahead

Celes — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 08:09:57 +0000

This is Day 14 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 14 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge! While this is the last task for the challenge, it’s NOT the last post for the challenge as I’ll be posting a round-up post tomorrow to gather feedback. So, don’t bid your goodbyes yet. Now, let’s hop on to today’s task!

Challenge Tasks to Date

My Day 13 in Pictures

Here’s a recap of my Day 13 in pictures:

First meal: Veggie patty and banana! (Combining pictures from before as I forgot to take a picture)

Dinner: Wholemeal pasta (cooked by Ken), bacon bits and chickpeas! I went to the supermarket to buy the wholemeal pasta so that I would have some healthier food in the house I can eat in case I run out of my sandwiches/soups/salads!

Supper: Apple and guava soup, grapes, and tea! I really love the soup and grapes (very juicy). I ended up not finishing the tea. Not that it wasn’t nice; I just stop eating/drinking when I’m full or half-way full, as part of conscious eating.

For yesterday’s task on creating a healthy living guidebook, I’ve already started doing this since 2007 (or even earlier). Over the years, I’ve condensed my guidebook significantly as I’ve integrated majority of my ideal healthy living practices into my life (and mind) and hence didn’t need to track many of the things I used to. (For example, I tracked my calories daily in 2008 when I was working on losing weight, but today I’m at my ideal weight and I subconsciously know the calorie content of each food, so I don’t do it anymore.)

Yesterday, I refreshed my healthy living guidebook with areas I’m focusing on right now. It currently has

My healthy living guidelines, or what I call “commandments” (including the ones I’ve been working on in the challenge, like removing fried/oily food, exercising regularly, eating a salad daily and every other day). These commandments are based on priority areas to me now as well as principles to help bust my past common healthy living pitfalls.
My favorite list of fruits and vegetables of different colors of the color wheel
My grocery list to replenish my supplies every Friday
Healthy places to buy my meals from
Nutritional information of foods that I’m currently eating weekly (We worked on this in Day 3’s task)

Here’s a topline screenshot of my guidebook (in Excel, my preferred format for all my guidebooks):

Some sections of my healthy living guidebook: My Healthy Living Commandments, Fruits list (to remind myself to eat fruits of all colors), Grocery List, and Healthier Food Outlets to get food from.

My calorie and nutritional list to help me get calorie on the calorie and fat content of each food

As this moment the simplicity of my guidebook is great in helping me to focus on key areas, and I plan to build on my guidebook as I embark on my new phase of healthier living. :D

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – My third exercise for this week will be later on Day 14!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – No salad today (Day 13) but that’s because I ended up sleeping earlier than usual. I was planning to have a salad as my last meal before I sleep. But it’s

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 13’s comments section!

With that, let’s move to Day 14 and our last task, which is…

Day 14: Review & Your Best Health Ahead

So… this is it. :) After two weeks of healthy living since the year started, we’ve now reached the end of our Healthy Living Challenge. As with all PE challenges, everything has to come to a close, and it’s time to gather what we’ve learned and synthesize them into meaningful steps for our journey ahead.

How have you done? Are you happy with what you have accomplished in the past two weeks of the challenge? Did you complete your tasks as planned with each day? If no, why not? What can you learn from your progress in the past two weeks?

Today’s task is for YOU to review YOUR progress, catch up on the challenge tasks so far, and create your healthy living plan moving ahead.

Step 1: Catch Up on the Challenge Tasks

Have you completed the tasks for Days 1–13? If not, catch up on them today!

Step 2: Review Your Challenge Performance

Think about the past two weeks since you started the challenge. Then, answer the following:

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your own performance in the areas of your (a) diet and (b) fitness? Why?
What goals did you set for yourself for the challenge? How have you performed in them? Why?
Were there any obstacles preventing you from sticking to your healthy living plan? If yes, what were they? How can you overcome them moving forward?

Step 3: Set Your Healthy Living Plan Moving Forward!

Now the challenge is coming to a close, it’s time to create your healthy living plan as you move ahead.

What are your key goals for your health and fitness moving forward? Review your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan and add on/revise your tasks/goals as needed. If your goals are the same, stick with what you’ve written.
What are your key action steps to ensure that you’ll 100% achieve these goals? Look back at what you’ve done/learned from the past two weeks, especially the answers you wrote for the tasks on Day 7 (Week 1 Review), Day 9 (Healthy Living Pitfalls), and Day 11 (Food Struggles). Identify the steps that will help you to achieve success in your healthy living plan in the long term. Then, start acting on them!

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 14 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 14 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Take pictures of your healthy meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and mid-day snacks if any — and share them in the comments section. :D After all, a picture tells a thousand words, and when you share photos of your healthy meals, it inspires others to eat healthily and gives them ideas on what healthy food they can have too!

Post your initial comment sharing your results for today’s challenge task, then add on throughout the day as you have your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and/or if you’re doing any workouts. Attach photos of your meals by clicking the image icon on the bottom left of every comment box. As you add on to your comment thread, be sure to click on the reply button directly below your original comment so that you reply to your own thread (as opposed to starting a new thread).

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

Your reflections for the challenge
Your healthy living plan moving ahead
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

PS: Since I always post my day’s progress in the subsequent day’s recap, my progress for today (Day 14) will be posted in the comments section of today’s task (as I always do) and shared in tomorrow’s roundup. I’ll also be collating my thoughts for the entire challenge in tomorrow’s roundup as well.

After you’re done, proceed to Healthy Living Challenge Roundup: Reflection, Feedback, and Moving Forward!

(Images: Women running, Orange, notebook, measuring tape)

Healthy Living Day 13: Start Your Healthy Living Guidebook

Celes — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 09:06:59 +0000

This is Day 13 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 13 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. There’s only one day left before our challenge ends, so let’s make the best of the time left in the challenge! :D

Challenge Tasks to Date

My Day 12 in Pictures

Here’s a recap of my Day 12 in pictures:

First meal of the day: QQ Rice and grapes!

My second exercise for week 2 of 2015! Morning jog of 2.47km at 8:46 min / km, burning 150 calories.

Dinner Part 1: Mushroom soup, wheat bread, and banana

Quinoa and brown rice salad with pumpkin and capsicum of all colors, and mushroom soup

Dinner: Tea with veggie patty

And with no relation to the challenge at all: My kitty cat (Nancy) sleeping ♥

Yesterday’s task was important reminder in conscious eating. I’d say that I first truly practiced conscious eating in 2011 after my 21-day fast, when I started having proper meals after not eating anything for 21 days. For the first time in my life, I experienced eating in a way I never had. Everything from the taste, the texture, the crunch (of the vegetables), to the smell, I could feel them at such a dense level!

Ever since then, I’ve remained aware of the role food plays in my life. It’s like every past observation I had about food doesn’t get lost; it simply becomes part of me, part of my consciousness. I strive to eat consciously each time, be aware of the bites I’m taking, the food I’m chewing in my mouth, the food that I’m taking into the body, and the sensation in my stomach as it fills up. In fact, I dislike having a conversation when eating and rarely do it; my husband knows it! (In between bites I’m okay to chat, but when I’m eating and chewing/biting, I focus on my food, not on other things.)

Every time I eat, I always make sure to eat the right and sufficient amount of food we need, not shove food down our throats. I stop when I want to (based on whether I feel half-way full or when I feel I’ve consumed enough calories for my TDEE needs), and not when the food is finished. I make it a point to always stop eating when my stomach is 50% to 70% full, because I know eating till the point when I feel 100% full is too late as it takes a while for our stomach to give feedback on its sensations. Not to mention, it’s way too uncomfortable when you stuff yourself to that level.

So for yesterday, I continued practicing conscious eating. For every meal yesterday, I set aside a small break session to take my meal, as opposed to doing it with any other task (writing notes, thinking about other things, using the phone). While there were times when I found my thoughts floating away, I would take my attention back to the food I eat. As I ate, I observed the food slowly, and also thought about all the effort that went into the procurement and creation of this meal — including the farmers harvesting the food, the delivery trucks delivering the food to the markets, the planes/ships transporting the food to my country, the local shops procuring the supplies, the shops selling the food, then finally the making of the meal. Every step of the way, I recognized the people working hard to make this food possible and available for myself and for others. I sent my love and appreciation to the people who made this meal possible.

With every session in conscious eating, I also became more aware of the colors, the texture, and the taste of the food. I never realized just how chewy the bread I’ve been eating really is or how colorful my food is! A funny observation I had yesterday was that the banana I ate was really sparkly! See what I mean here:

Closeup of banana. See how sparkly it is??

I wonder why? Maybe it’s the reflection of the light on the fiber? Anyway, I wonder if it’s the case for ALL bananas?! I’ll continue observing!

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – Done my second exercise for Week 2 today!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – Check!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 12’s comments section!

With that, let’s move to Day 13’s task, which is…

Day 13: Start Your Healthy Living Guidebook

Hi everyone, today is the second last day of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. If you’re still with us here, I congratulate you. It’s easy to be enthusiastic and jump on the bandwagon at the start of a new project; it’s another thing to continue with your plan after nearly two weeks. In fact, the fact that you’re still here, reading this, already means that you’re truly serious about living a healthy life. Because of that you’re going to succeed in your healthy living goal.

By now you should know that to succeed in living healthily, we need to make a real lifestyle change. It’s not just about forcing ourselves to behave a certain way for 14 days, and then revert to our past habits after that. That does nothing at all.

My goal here, as I’ve mentioned at the beginning of the challenge, is to make healthy living part and parcel of our everyday living. Be it drinking water, eating at least five servings of fruits/vegetables a day, being conscious of the calories and nutrition of the food we’re eating, knowing our daily energy expenditure (TDEE), eating in line with our daily caloric needs (or lesser/more if we want to lose/gain weight), knowing our ideal meal plans, staying true to our ideal meal plans, reviewing our progress, exercising, being aware of our healthy living pitfalls and food struggles, meditating, or conscious eating, these are habits to do for life. When it comes to things like our ideal meal plans, TDEE, and calorie/nutritional information, they are important information to refer to every day/every other day.

So how great is it if we have a guidebook that contains all this information needed to help us live our healthiest life ever? I call this our “Healthy Living Guidebook,” sort of like how our “Life Handbook” is our guidebook to live our best life. Creating a Healthy Living Guidebook was a task that I worked on with 2011 and 2012 Healthy Living Challenge participants. Think of this book as your holy grail to healthy eating, because it reminds you of your vision to live healthily and supports you in achieving this goal.

So today, you’ll be creating your healthy living guidebook! For those of you who’ve already created yours from a past Healthy Living Run, it’s time to update your book today. Let’s go!

Step 1: Pick a format for your healthy living guidebook

You can use hard copy or soft copy for your healthy living guidebook. If you’re using hard copy, you can pick any book in your house or even buy a book specially for this. Your soft copy format can be any processing software of your preference – Word, Excel, or even Powerpoint if you like.

The benefits of soft copy is that you can easily edit/format it, while for hard copy you can refer to it even when you’re not at your computer. Either way, use what works best for you!

Step 2: Fill up your guidebook

It’s up to you on how you want to structure your guidebook and what to include in it. Everyone’s book should be customized to meet his/her needs. I recommending starting off with these information (all of which you’ve actually worked through in the challenge tasks; it’s just a matter of putting them together and tidying them up):

(Your) Healthy Living Vision (What we covered in Day 0’s Pre-Work)
Action Plan to Achieve Your Vision (Day 0)
Current Healthy Living Struggles (Day 7: Week 1 Review, Day 9: Identify Your Healthy Living Pitfalls, Day 11: Identify Your Food Struggles)
and… Strategy to Bust these Struggles (from Day 7, Day 9, and Day 11 as well)
Calorie List (Day 3: Calorie List)
TDEE (Day 4: TDEE) — So that you know how much to consume to maintain / reach your weight target
Ideal Meal Plan based on TDEE (Day 5: Ideal Meal) — To guide you in your daily eating, so that you stay on track vs. your ideal meal vision

Here are other sections to consider for your guidebook too. Obviously not all of them will be relevant for you, so pick and choose what you want to include.

Ideal habits — A list of the habits you want to cultivate daily, such as drinking water, eating at least five servings of fruits/vegetables, meditation, waking up early, exercising, etc.
Daily Tracking Plan — To help you track if you’re sticking to your habits.
Food Journal — Helps you to track what you’re eating so you know if you’re over/under eating.
Favorite Recipes — To keep track of your favorite recipes, and even create your own!
Shopping List (Food) — I find that having a fixed grocery list helps me to be more structured in my grocery shopping. What is a list of items that you’d want to buy every time you go grocery shopping?
Exercise Plan — Your exercise regime, caloric expenditure for each exercise, and your progress in your current exercises.
Other sections — Are there any sections that you’d like to include?

Decorate your guidebook with pictures if you want!

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 13 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 13 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

Your healthy living guidebook — What format did you pick? What sections do you have? Share pictures if you like!
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

After you’re done, proceed to Day 14: Review & Your Best Health Ahead!

(Image: Women running, Blank notebook)

Healthy Living Day 12: Practice Conscious Eating

Celes — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 07:56:44 +0000

This is Day 12 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 11 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Only three days left before our challenge ends! Let’s go!

Challenge Tasks to Date

My Day 11 in Pictures

Here’s a recap of my Day 11 in pictures:

First meal, same combi as my dinners on Day 4 and 6): QQ Rice and freshly squeezed orange juice!

Mid-day snack: Banana and grapes

Supper: Same as yesterday — Century egg porridge and chee cheong fun

So yesterday (Day 11) was kinda funny — you may have noticed that I only have three food pictures above. That’s because I ended crashing out! I had barely slept the past 36 hours (three hours at most) because I was busy working (preparing for the Passive Income course, writing the challenge posts, posting comments, editing a new Ask Celes video, editing my old articles) and we had house visitors in the day. So while I had planned to exercise and have a salad before posting Day 12’s post and call it a night, I fell into a deep sleep after crawling into bed for a short rest!

My priority for next month, after the challenge ends, is to normalize my sleeping hours (and once this is done, to meditate more regularly). My focus when the year started with 14HLC is to upgrade my diet and also incorporate exercise, and now that these have been kicked into gear and are going well, I’m excited to work on other parts of my lifestyle.

So yesterday (Day 11) I had meant to do a workout video with Ken like I shared in my Day 10 post. But then he was busy the whole day (literally, from morning to almost midnight) so we couldn’t even do it together. Then I realized this would often happen to our couple workout sessions — like we used to jog together, but then he got a knee injury (which is still there) since three months ago and ever since then we couldn’t jog together, and so this then made me stall on my jogging sessions. Until 14HLC started which was when I kicked back into jogging gear.

It’s not his fault of course and for me I realized I need to make my workout sessions more independent, so that they fit my schedule better and don’t get disrupted. So for now, I’ll just stick to my two-to-three-times-a-week jogging routine for predictability and regularity in my routine. It can be difficult to introduce too many variables into a routine activity (in this case, the variable is his ability and availability to exercise) and I found that when it comes to a routine activity like diet and exercising, an important ingredient for success is to make it as idiot-proof, simple, and easy to execute as possible. So in my case, simply having a fixed time slot every other day where I just put on my jogging gear, plug in my earphones, head down and jog and come back 30–40 minutes later.

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – Exercise session got thwarted, but not to fret as I’ll instead jog later today. Then my third exercise for the week will be at the end of the week on Day 14, yeah!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – I think this is the only day in the challenge so far where I didn’t have a salad! And it was because I crashed out. I’ll be having a salad later today (2012)!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 11’s comments section!

With that, let’s move to Day 12’s task, which is…

Day 12: Practice Conscious Eating

How do you usually eat your food? Are you aware and present whenever you’re eating, with every single bite you take? Or do you usually chomp down your food, fill your mind with thoughts about work and other stuff in between bites, or even eat while doing (and only while) other activities?

Unfortunately, most people in the modern society today do not eat consciously. Conscious eating means to eat with full attention and awareness of your food, to be cognizant of what you’re putting in your body, and to appreciate and savor your food as you’re eating it. Most people don’t; they take big bites, shove their food down the throat, and think about all kinds of things while they’re eating. Some stuff their meals in the middle of work/TV; so they literally chomp down their food while working away on their laptop, while watching the big colors and words flash on their TV screen, while reading the newspaper on their dining table, while fiddling around with their smartphone. And then there is a large chunk of the society who mix eating with socialization: they only eat when there’s someone with them; they eat while talking; they talk while eating; and while eating they don’t concentrate or stay cognizant of their food, but rather are busy thinking of the next conversational topic and what to respond.

The very bad thing about unconscious eating is that (as I mentioned in How to Stop Emotional Eating, A Crucial Guide, Part 2: Rebuilding a Healthy Relationship with Food) we don’t know we are full until we have eaten way more than we should. When we’re eat unconsciously, “it makes us numb to the sensations in our stomach, which then results in erratic eating habits thereafter, because we confuse emotional eating triggers with hunger cues.”

When you eat consciously, it helps you to (a) be more in tune with your hunger cues, so you don’t overeat, and (b) be more conscious of the role of eating / food in your life, which supports you in building a healthy relationship with food. This is why conscious eating is also my fourth tip to rebuild a healthy relationship with food.

Today, your task is to eat consciously! Here are my tips (from How to Stop Emotional Eating, A Crucial Guide, Part 2: Rebuilding a Healthy Relationship with Food):

Don’t mix eating with other activities. Before you eat, put everything aside, including your laptop and mobile phone. Concentrate on eating and eating only.
Know what you’re eating. Examine the ingredients. Look at the nutritional content. Educate yourself on what you’re feeding your body.
Before you eat, feel the sensation (of hunger) in your stomach.
Examine the food you are about to eat. Look at the colors. Look at the composition of ingredients. Smell it if you desire.
Be grateful for this food that you’re about to eat. Think about all the work that went into the creation of this food — the harvesting, the procurement, the delivery, the preparation, the cooking (if the meal was cooked), etc. Be thankful for each and every person who was involved in the creation of this food.
Now as you eat, do so one bite at a time. With each bite, chew very slowly and deliberately. Relish the taste of food in your mouth. Feel the texture.
At the same time, be aware of how your stomach feels. Feel the sensation of hunger fade away slowly with each bite. Feel your stomach being filled up as you eat.
Then, stop when you feel halfway full or you have consumed enough calories for the meal.

Even if you’re eating with friend(s) today, you can still eat consciously. Don’t chew and talk at the same time. Every time you take a bite, focus your attention on your food, and concentrate on chewing, savoring the taste, and digesting the food. When you are done with the bite, put your attention back to your friend(s). Listen to what he/she has to say. Say what you want to say. Do that in turns and you’ll be fine.

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 12 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 12 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

Your experience eating consciously today
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

Stay tuned for Day 13’s task tomorrow! :D Just two days left everyone!!

(Image: Women running, Apricot)

Healthy Living Day 11: Identify Your Food Struggles

Celes — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 07:39:29 +0000

This is Day 11 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 11 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Only three days left before our challenge ends! Let’s go!

Challenge Tasks to Date

My Day 10 in Pictures

Here’s a recap of my Day 10 in pictures:

Veggie patty again, this time with multi-grain bread (finally)! I was busy the whole day preparing for the Passive Income Course, so I only ate this in the day. (The class was a blast as usual; such fun working with the participants to plant the seeds for their P.I. businesses!!!)

After the course, went to the usual Chinese place to have “supper” (which was really my second meal for the day) with Ken. It has become a practice to go there every Saturday after my live courses. Sugar cane juice and century egg porridge, and chee cheong fun (it’s a Cantonese delicacy called rice noodle roll), shared with Ken!

Then, went grocery shopping for supplies for the week. Grapes, bananas, tofu, vegetables, bacon bits, and chick peas!

Grapes and salad (consisting of lettuce, chickpeas, pineapple, mushroom, sesame seeds, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and bacon bits). Water as usual. Big yum!! :D

Last but not least, a banana! Unfortunately not as ripe it should be for optimal effects, but there was nothing else to eat so I thought better a banana than Cheezels (Ken’s favorite snack; he just got two packs yesterday)! Also two slices of wheat bread with peanut butter (not in the picture).

Today I meditated for 10 minutes (as per the challenge task) and felt very relaxed at the end of it. In fact, I was so relaxed that I took a quick nap for one and a half hours! It’s not surprising given that meditating clears our mind and relaxes us, hence making it easier to sleep. While meditating, I cleared out thoughts of random things that happened in the past few weeks — always interesting to observe. I’ve found that the longer I meditate, the “older” the thoughts that get processed. For example, when I meditate for 30 minutes, I can be processing thoughts from a month ago or two; when I meditate for one hour, I can be processing things from months ago in my mind.

Doing the meditation task has reinvigorated my interest to work meditation back into my life as a daily (if not near daily) habit. For the past couple of years I’ve been practicing meditation as a state of awareness that I uphold throughout the day; while this is good, I feel that setting aside 10, 15 minutes a day solely for meditation can give me stronger effects. I’m considering making it a 7- or 14-day experiment like how I did my 21-day fasting experiment before, where I meditate intensely for each day (say an hour) with daily journaling on significant observations and benefits (if any), but I’m not sure if there’ll be any interest in it.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments section. Perhaps I can even jokingly name it as my experiment to “meditate to nirvana,” LOL! Journaling or not, daily meditation is something that I will be doing because I see the long-term benefits of doing so.

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – My second exercise for the week is tomorrow!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – Check!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 10’s comments section!

With that, let’s move to today’s task, which is…

Day 11: Identify Your Food Struggles

It’s been 10 days since the new year started. In the past 10 days, we have authentically shared our meals and diet progress with each other. Some of us have been doing great in our healthy living plan. Some of us have been having moderate success. And then there are some of us who may be struggling to get our diet to where we’d like it to be.

No matter where you stand now in your healthy eating, I’d like you to know that you’re not alone. Big or small, many of us have our food struggles. For example, long ago my biggest struggle with food was that it was my agent of comfort and love. And comfort and love it was, for I would turn to it whenever I felt anxiety, stress, uncertainty, or even — get this — happy. Because of that, I could never eat in accordance with my ideal calorie intake. It was a long, painful struggle as I would exercise to try to shed off my excess food intake and then eat more than I should like a woman possessed. This overeating could happen once every few days to at its worse, for a continuous period of weeks. (I have since worked through my emotional eating issues after many years, and share my complete solution to addressing stress eating in How to Stop Stress Eating Program.)

For today’s task, I would like you to share your food struggles. While overcoming them won’t be an overnight switch, my hope is that by having this space to share your food struggles, it will (a) let you know that you’re not alone, (b) let you air out your personal difficulties with food / in your diet at the moment, and (c) perhaps help you to identify the initial steps towards tackling them. Because at the end of the day, know that we’re in this journey for healthy living, not a race or some quest for perfection.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Identify your current food struggles

What are your biggest food struggles at the moment?

Perhaps you wish to remove fried food from your diet but you keep eating it all the same.
Perhaps you want to stop having dairy but you still continue having it — and the worst thing is when you do, it triggers the eating of other foods that you want to keep out of your diet.
Perhaps you want to remove the unhealthy, sugary desserts in your life but you can never bring yourself to say “no” when it comes to a cupcake or a cake.
Perhaps you really wish to eat healthily but the food all around you is unhealthy, from the eateries around your home, to the food that’s stocked in your house, to the food that your family members cook / bring home.

Whatever these struggles are, write all of them now. If you have specific food struggles (e.g. issue with cupcakes, or issue with cereals as was the case of one of my How to Stop Stress Eating Program course participants in the past), write them down too!

Step 2: Identify possible solutions to these struggles

For each of the struggles you just identified, what are some possible solutions that can tackle this?

For example, let’s say you have a weakness for cupcakes. Why is that? Perhaps your mom has always bought you a cupcake when you were young, as reward for being a good boy/girl. Hence, cupcakes have been ingrained in your mind as being synonymous with love, with being a good person, and with reward. Given that, your possible solutions can be

Recognize that you don’t need to eat a cupcake to feel love, to feel like you’re a good person, or to reward yourself. There are other ways to do this.
Practice tiny acts of self-love each day. This can include hugging yourself the first thing in the morning as part of your morning ritual, taking regular breaks out for yourself, giving positive words of affirmation for yourself, and doing activities you love.
Recognize your worth as an individual. Read: How To Be The Most Confident Person In The World
Identify other forms of reward that don’t involve food. For example, a reward can be reading your favorite book, watching your favorite movie, taking a rest after a long day of work, listening to your favorite podcast, and reading your favorite articles at PE. These will make you feel more emotional rewarded than eating a food that you intrinsically do not want to eat, and subsequently feeling bad after that.
Know that you can say “no” to foods that are bad for you, and you should say no to them because that’s how you can then say “yes” to your ideal healthy diet and life.

Step 3: Read the participants’ comments and share your encouragement

Just like you have your food struggles, other participants have their food struggles too.

Read the other participants’ comments today, and respond to at least one of them. Share some positive words of encouragement to their situation; if you have some ideas of your own, you’re free to suggest ways they can break out of their food struggles. Remember, we’re all in this together as a family, and together we’ll work towards healthy living together — one step at a time!

For More on Overcoming Stress Eating

If you’re going through stress eating, know that you’re not alone. I’ve created a complete solution to overcome your emotional eating, How to Stop Stress Eating Program, which is my premium four-week course to overcome stress eating for life. Check it out in the Courses Section.

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 11 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 11 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

Your food struggles and possible solutions to them
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

After you’re done, proceed to Day 12: Practice Conscious Eating!

(Image: Women running, Raspberries)

Healthy Living Day 10: Meditate

Celes — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 02:42:28 +0000

This is Day 10 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 10 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Only four days left before the challenge ends, so if you haven’t been joining us in the comment threads, now’s the time to do so! Once this challenge ends, the comment sections will no longer be active since the posts will be archived. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to engage with other like-minded participants (fufu, Vicki, Swann, Lina, Maryna, AvocadoRulz, Maria, Glenn, Miss Elf, myself, etc.) and work together on your health and fitness; the last time I conducted the Healthy Living Challenge was three years ago, and I don’t foresee a new run of the challenge for the next two years at least.

Now, let’s get started, shall we? :D

Challenge Tasks to Date

My Day 9 in Pictures

Here’s a recap of my Day 9 in pictures:

First meal for the day: Veggie patty wrap and grapes. I left home 45 minutes earlier today to take away food (in light of yesterday’s lesson), but Subway ran out of bread so I had to get the wrap in the end! -_- Better than nothing though; tomorrow will be better!

Mid-day meal: Salad (lettuce, pineapple, mushroom, sesame seeds, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and bacon bits), dragon fruit, and ginger tea! :D

Curry pumpkin soup with bread. My first time having this soup I think; it’s surprisingly good! (Ate a small piece of bread with peanut butter later in the day, though not in picture.)

I felt surprisingly full today despite not having ate a lot. I think the wrap was very filling, and then the salad was very filling too (mushroom and veggies tend to have that effect). I didn’t finish the dragon fruit (nor the ginger tea for that matter) and kept the unfinished fruit in the fridge for tomorrow.

By the way, in Day 8’s post, I shared that my complexion has improved since the challenge started. If it was even possible, my complexion feels and looks even better now! I did get a couple of pimples today (which is normal for me; usually I would get one to two large pimples and several zits / small pimples every two weeks, and I believe this is quite typical for Asians in tropical climates), but this aside I’m actually very happy with the effects of my improved diet on my skin!

While my original motivation for improving my diet was overall health and wellness, seeing the all-round benefits on my body in just 9 days (better skin, weight loss, no bloatedness, frequent and easy bowel movements, possibly healthier gums) is making me quite excited — it’s basically affirming the value of my decision and letting me know that I’m moving in the right direction towards better health. I’m actually very sure there’ll be more good things to come (maybe healing of old scars (I got one on my right hand), thicker hair, improved eyesight (?!?!), who knows???), so let’s see what’ll come next! ;)

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – My next exercise is planned for Sunday / Day 11! I plan to do one of the YouTube workout videos with Ken!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – Check!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 9’s comments section!

Healthy Living Pitfall: When Your Days Get Derailed

Yesterday’s task was to identify your healthy living pitfalls, and participant Susan posted this heartfelt comment:

My biggest pitfall is what I call “domestic disturbance”. That could mean anything from an argument with a family member or a child getting sick or a major item breaking down and needing emergency repair. This week, it was a major disagreement, followed by days of angry tension and feelings of despair and grief. I could not focus on the challenge at all, so I didn’t even post anything all week. I’m still looking for that way out of despair. I have been reading all of my inspirational material daily, but so far, I’m still stuck.

Reading Susan’s situation, I felt very empathetic to what she is going through. I’m sure we all have times when we have big goals and plans that we’re ready to act on — only to get derailed by some disruption.

Now, when we’re living with others, or we have a long string of responsibilities, or we have dependents, it’s normal to have days upon days of external disturbances. In fact, for many of us this can be a multiple-times-a-day affair!

The question then isn’t really about how to “cut away” these disturbances since they are a natural result of our life’s setup, but how to get ourselves back on track when these disturbances happen. This is where meditation comes into play, which is our task for today.

Day 10: Meditate

So far in the challenge, we’ve focused on healthy living through our diet and fitness. From drinking enough water, to eating (at least) five servings of fruits and vegetables, to creating our calorie list, to calculating our TDEE, to creating our ideal meal plan (and following it), to working out, these pertain to the physical aspects of healthy living.

Now, healthy living isn’t just about having a great diet and great fitness regime, though these are crucially important (or we wouldn’t be doing so many tasks on them in the challenge!). Healthy living also involves having a positive mind and soul. When you’re constantly weighed down by negative thoughts and emotions, it doesn’t matter how healthy your diet is or how rigorous your fitness regime is — you’ll ultimately still be weighed down in life by your negativity, which will eventually manifest negatively on your body too. (Consider how the root of emotional eating often lies in emotional baggage, and how negative / fear-based people often suffer from more physical ailments than the average person.)

This is where meditation helps. If you’ve never meditated before, it is an amazingly simple ritual that can create huge, positive ripples in your life. Get this — the one common habit that strings together C-level executives of Fortune 500 companies is meditation! Consider the following quotes:

“Meditation more than anything in my life was the biggest ingredient of whatever success I’ve had.” ~ Ray Dalio, billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates (the largest hedge fund firm in the world).

“It’s almost like a reboot for your brain and your soul.” ~ Padmasree Warrior, CTO, Cisco Systems

“I walked away feeling fuller than when I’d come in. Full of hope, a sense of contentment, and deep joy. Knowing for sure that even in the daily craziness that bombards us from every direction, there is — still — the constancy of stillness. Only from that space can you create your best work and your best life.” — Oprah Winfrey, who sits in stillness for 20 minutes, twice a day

“You don’t have to believe in meditation for it to work. You just have to take the time to do it. The old truth is still true today, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ My advice? Meditate.” ~ Russell Simmons, American business magnate

What exactly does meditation do and how does it help? The truth is that for whatever negativity we receive in life, our body has the ability to cleanse itself of them. When we meditate, we’re creating this space for our mind and soul to process the stimuli (both positive and negative) that we’ve been bombarded in for the past X hours/days/weeks/months/years (since we last meditated), to dump the negative junk, and to rejuvenate themselves. In essence, meditation really helps us to remove the negative baggage from our minds and souls.

The most awesome thing? It doesn’t take any work on our part, except setting aside 10 to 20 minutes a day (or longer, if you can), sitting in stillness, observing the reality, and letting our mind do its work.

Now, let’s get started! :D

Your Task: Meditate

There are MANY forms of meditation and MANY ways to meditate, so if you’re familiar with meditation, simply meditate in any way you like for today’s exercise! If you’re not familiar with meditation, follow the five steps outlined here: How to Meditate In 5 Easy Steps. The simplicity of these five steps means that you can do this meditation anytime and anywhere!

Meditate for as long as you want, till you feel cleansed, purified, refreshed and good to go. I recommend 10 minutes to start off; if you are game for a longer duration, try 30 minutes. The longer, the better! (Once I went for a Vipassana retreat and underwent almost 100 hours of intense meditation! Through the process, I worked through A LOT of latent memories and thoughts I didn’t even know were there!!!!)

As you meditate, observe all the thoughts going through your mind. Don’t engage with them (i.e. entertain the thoughts or introduce new thoughts). Simply sit and observe these thoughts as an external observer of reality. You’ll find a thread of thought will typically circle in your mind for a few minutes (or longer if it’s deeply wedged inside), after which a new thread will take its place! The longer you meditate and observe, the more thoughts you’ll see floating through your mind! Every time a new thought appears, it means that the previous thought has “floated” away and exited your consciousness (i.e. it has unlodged itself from your mind and soul)!

PE Articles on Meditation

I’ve already written a lot about meditation on PE, so these are articles to read in your own time:

10 Reasons You Should Meditate — How I got started with meditation and the benefits of meditation
How to Meditate In 5 Easy Steps — A simple overview and tutorial on meditation
Vipassana 10-Day Meditation Retreat — My experience going on a 10-day meditation retreat
21 Days To Cultivate Life Transforming Habits — Practice meditation for 21 days and turn it into a habit!

For those of you with Live a Better Life in 30 Days, meditation is one of the tasks in 30DLBL too! Refer to Day 21 for the task on meditation.

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 10 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 10 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

Your experience with meditation today and how long you meditated for
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

After you’re done, proceed to Day 11: Identify Your Food Struggles!

(Images: Women running, Woman meditating)

Healthy Living Day 9: Identify Your Healthy Living Pitfalls

Celes — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:55:32 +0000

This is Day 9 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 9 of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Let’s get started!

Challenge Tasks to Date

My Day 8 in Pictures

Okay, so my Day 8 is a perfect example of how my healthy eating plan can go potentially sideways when I get too busy. Because I was busy working the whole day, I only managed to get out at about 9+ pm to get food. And by then, most stores were closed!!! I was lucky to get a burrito which is marginally okay with its fresh vegetables, beans, and corn. But not so much for the wrap though (which is definitely not wholegrain) and how they grill it (the bottom part was completely charred today so I had to remove it manually):

First meal: Burrito with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, BBQ sauce, black beans, corn, and mash potato

Plus grapes! Can never forget fruit! :) (Read: Day 2: Eat 5 Servings of Fruits & Vegetables

Later in the day, the same grilled red pepper and tomato soup (leftover from yesterday) and ginger tea. Do you see the smiley face? ;) That’s for you guys!!

I got hungry in the early morning but there wasn’t food, so I ate 3/4 of an egg muffin (wholegrain) that Ken got for me. Not part of my ideal meal plan, to be honest, though it can be worse like eating fries or instant noodles (there is instant noodles in my house that Ken bought for himself, but I didn’t touch that). Normally I don’t eat eggs unless there’s nothing else to eat or it’s mixed into a dish or food that can’t be separated (e.g. birthday cake). Also drank some orange juice (no pictures). Now that I know the shops here close before 9:30 pm, I know to go out earlier next time.

My first exercise for week 2 of 2015! Morning jog of 2.73km at 8:06 min / km, burning 184 calories.

Last meal of the day: Healthy homemade salad by Ken with chickpeas, tofu, lettuce, homemade sauce, and bacon bits. Yay!! :D

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – Check! Did my first exercise for Week 2 today!
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – None of that today, check!
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – One salad today, check!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 8’s comments section!

With that, let’s move to Day 9’s task, which is…

Day 9: Identify Your Healthy Living Pitfalls

If you have made it this far, I want you to congratulate yourself. Please, give yourself a HUGE pat on the back!!! :) After all, many people tend to start off the new year with resolutions and promises to eat healthily and exercise regularly. However, the same many people also slip off their plan and forget about their goals within a goal or two later. For you to still be with us in this challenge — I say, kudos to you!!! I’m proud of you, and I hope you’re proud of yourself too!

Now, I’m sure many of us have times when we fall offtrack in our healthy living plan. Many of you have openly shared about your obstacles sticking to your ideal eating/exercising plan in the challenge comments in the past week, and I applaud you for your honesty. Myself, I’m no exception. There have been so many times in the past when I diverted from my ideal eating/exercising regime for all kinds of reasons: from emotional eating issues, to other priorities in life demanding my immediate attention, to distractions, to lack of availability of my desired food (as can be seen from my Day 8 recap), to poor planning.

Look, like I’ve continuously iterated throughout the challenge, it’s normal to fall off the wagon. Rather than beat yourself up, the most important thing is that YOU understand what went wrong, address that, and then get right back on your healthy living goals after that.

Today’s task is to identify your healthy living pitfalls, understand them, and identify steps to address them, so they don’t recur. Let’s go! :D

Step 1: Identify past incidences when you went offtrack

Write down at at least three to five past incidences when you went offtrack in your healthy living plan. It could before the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge — from as long as several years ago, to several weeks ago, to something that happened in the past 8 days when the challenge started.

If you can think of more than five incidences, that’s even better. Basically, the more incidences you can identify, the better! For example, when I did this exercise in the past, I could easily identify at least 20 incidences where I went off-track! This then made it easy for me to do step two.

Step 2: Pick your top two pitfalls to healthy living

Refer to the incidences you just wrote. Are there any commonalities among them? Try to see if there are any patterns causing these situations where you go off-track in your diet/exercise.

Based on these incidences, identify your top two pitfalls to healthy living. Write them down. If you can identify more pitfalls, go ahead and do so!

Here are common healthy living pitfalls people have:

Emotional eating
Poor planning
No time to exercise
Not able to exercise due to circumstances (i.e. bad weather, no nearby gyms)
Lack of healthy food options around you
Prioritizing work over health
Family buying unhealthy food
Friends and family are bad influences as they do not eat/live healthily

Step 3: Identify steps to address your healthy living pitfalls

Now, for your healthy living pitfalls, what actions can you take to tackle it?

For example, if your pitfall is your friends and family are unhealthy influences, your action plan may look like this:

Take ownership over your diet and health. Know that you don’t need to be influenced by them; if anything, they should be influenced by YOU!
Look for friends with similar interests in eating/exercising; Spend more time with them.
Join communities and meetup groups where you can be around like-minded people.
Make a commitment to engage in these communities often so as to get the best of what they can offer

Then, take action on these steps!

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 9 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 9 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

Your top healthy living pitfalls and your plan to address them
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

After you’re done, proceed to Day 10: Meditate!

(Image: Women running, Girl crying)

Healthy Living Day 8: Get a Great Workout!

Celes — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 01:15:20 +0000

This is Day 8 of the 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge held in Jan 2015 where we work on improving our diet and fitness for 14 days. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.

Hi everyone!! :D It’s now Day 8 and the second week of our 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge. Let’s get started!

Challenge Tasks to Date

Announcement and signup page: Join 14-Day Healthy Living Challenge!
Day 0: Create Your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan | Comments
Day 1: Drink 8 Glasses of Water | Comments
Day 2: Eat 5 Servings of Fruits & Vegetables | Comments
Day 3: Create Your Calorie List | Comments
Day 4: Calculate Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure | Comments
Day 5: Create Your Ideal Meal Plan | Comments
Day 6: Follow Your Ideal Meal Plan! | Comments
Day 7: Review & Set Your Plan for Week 2! | Comments

My Day 7 in Pictures

Here’s a recap of my Day 7 in pictures:

Brunch: Grapes and the same mushroom overload burger I’ve been having. Yum!

Dinner part 1: Mini-QQrice (with emperor vegetables) and grilled red pepper and tomato soup

Dinner part 2: Chickpeas and grapes

So dinner was kind of strange because I wanted to eat these salads that Ken got for me from Cedele, but couldn’t stomach them beyond the first few bites. The first was a potato salad which was way too creamy and thick; the second was this tofu salad which was just oily and didn’t taste fresh. Both were just terrible IMO. I think eating clean and healthy meals in the past week has made me very sensitive to overly creamy/oily food; in fact I just find them repulsive now! I subsequently passed the salads to Ken and went for chickpeas and grapes that you see above!

Supper: Dragon fruit and Tofu burger with pumpkin bun (I ate one full burger while the picture shows only one half of it)

Doing Day 7’s reflection task, I rate a 9.5 for my diet and fitness progress in the past week! :D 9.5 because I’m really happy with how I’ve naturally eased into my new healthier diet and fitness regime — being a part of this challenge and openly journaling my progress has definitely helped — but not 10 as there’s room for improvement in any diet/fitness plan. For example I learned some interesting tidbits last week from PE readers Paolo and Glenn about burnt carbs being possibly carcinogenic and bananas being the healthiest when they are the ripest. I mean, who knew?? (I sort of knew the former but didn’t know the latter. Now we know when to eat our bananas!!!)

As I was telling participant Mel, I’ve been seeing the positive, physiological changes from my healthier diet even though it’s just been a week. One, I look thinner, and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost weight in the past week (though I wasn’t aiming to do so in this challenge). Two, I feel healthier and “cleaner.” When you cut the oily stuff from your diet, you naturally will feel the same way too. Three, my complexion is smoother and more radiant than ever. While I used to have numerous zits on my forehead and the occasional pimple on my face, my zits are clearing up and I haven’t had a pimple in the past week! I already knew that this would be a natural consequence from cutting out fried and oily food (I realized this during my fast in 2011 when I didn’t eat for 21 days and had the most amazing complexion ever, hence realizing that many of our skin troubles can be heavily tied to our diets), but it’s still pretty awesome seeing it manifest in reality and so quickly too!

For Week 2, I plan to continue the same plan that I’ve done for Week 1. A sandwich, soup, and salad each day, as well as a jog every other day. Strategy to make this happen will be to stock up on healthy food supplies including weekly grocery shopping every Friday, taking away healthy food from Cedele/QQRice every other day, and to listen to podcasts during my jogs to keep them interesting!

Reviewing my 14HLC goals, they are

Exercise at least three times a week – My first exercise for Week 2 will be tomorrow :D
Cut out deep fried / oily food from my diet – Check! I kinda find deep fried and oily food repulsive now, actually! (Read above)
Eat salads more regularly, ideally once a day if I can – 50/50. I ate salads today, but they turned out to be too creamy/oily so I decided to switch to chickpeas and grapes instead, which are cleaner. I’ll be making a homemade salad tomorrow!

Check out other participants’ amazing food logs and progress updates in Day 7’s comments section!

With that, let’s move to Day 8’s task, which is…

Day 8: Get a Great Workout!

Today’s challenge task is to get a great workout! :D Just like our diet, exercising is fundamental to living a healthy life. Even if one eats the healthiest diet and meditates regularly, one can’t hope to be truly healthy without exercise. There have been countless research that shows a strong link between increased activity and better health. Research has also shown that exercising daily brings tremendous benefits to our health, including increased life span (as long as four years), lower risk of diseases, higher bone density and of course, weight loss!

Now, note that while I use the words “exercise” and “workout” here, I don’t necessarily mean running 10 km or spinning for an hour. That’s cool if you enjoy them (I personally love a rigorous workout session to sweat it out too, though maybe not for 10 km!), but perhaps some of you aren’t able to do intense workouts due to existing body ailments/conditions/injury. If so, that’s perfectly okay. Today’s task isn’t about exercising till your body goes numb, but about engaging your body in more activity and incorporating more movement in your life. For example, walking for 30 minutes when you are usually sedentary is considered a form of exercise. Climbing the stairs when you normally take the lift is considered a form of exercise too.

So for today, let’s get out there and get a great workout! If you’re already planning to exercise as part of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan, even better! Let’s all exercise together! :D

Some tips to integrate exercise into your life:

Increase your activity level on a daily basis. Besides the standard sports and running, exercise can also come in other forms, such as brisk walking and stretching. Choose walking over transport for close distances. Climb the stairs instead of taking the lift. Go for a walk in the park.
Pick exercises you enjoy. When you enjoy your exercises, you’ll naturally want to do them. Exercise isn’t about suffering and pushing yourself; it’s about being healthy and having fun at the same time!
Have a variety of exercises to choose from. Adding variation can keep things interesting. What are three to four exercises that you enjoy? Rotate between them to keep things fresh. Of course, perhaps you’re like me — someone who prefers to stick with one same exercise for familiarity and convenience. If so, that’s great — do whatever works best for you! :D
Group exercises. Individual exercises are great but sometimes they may get stale. Pick some group exercises every once in a while and work out with your friends. When you enjoy something, you’ll naturally want to do it more often and be more committed in it!

Home Aerobics

My exercise plans often get cancelled due to bad weather or when I’m traveling, and it can be very frustrating! If you share the same problem, here’s a solution: Home Aerobics! With home aerobics, you can get a great 30- to 40-minute workout whenever you want, wherever you are, regardless of the weather! In fact, I prefer this to actual class aerobics because it’s so convenient and I can do it whenever I want to!

What’s even more awesome is that YouTube has plenty of these home aerobic videos — free — so you can just load up one of these videos on YouTube and get moving! (If you want to download the aerobic videos onto your computer for offline use, here’s a website to download Youtube videos.)

Here are some workout videos from YouTube — you can even pick one of them to do for today’s task! :D

1) Standard Aerobic Workout (30 Minutes)

2) Latin-Dance-Style Workout (50 Minutes)

3) Ultimate Fat Burn Workout (20 Minutes)

Next, Follow Your Plan for Day 8 (Take Pictures Too!)

What tasks have you set for Day 8 of your 14-Day Healthy Living Plan? Do them today!

Share Your Results (and Photos!)

Share in the comments section!

What workout you did today
Your progress with your healthy living plan today
Pictures of your meals
Pictures of your workout (if any)

Do check out the other participants’ comments too and share a word of encouragement or two. We’re all in this together, so let’s support each other as a group! :)

After you’re done, proceed to Day 9: Identify Your Healthy Living Pitfalls!

(Image: Women running, Workout)