Kefir Making

I started to look at making kefir, because of Pickles chronic gut condition that we couldnt put a nail on, until recently Dr Dennis Choi conclude it as irritable bowel disease and at a very severe level. 

I hesitated at starting as I wasnt sure if it would taste like rotten food (like the vinegar egg that was extremely popular for a period of time), and I knew with the quantity that they can consume, I must be able to partake the kefir as well. So even though I have read ablut kefir for some time and even bought water kefir grains from amazon, I never really started. 

Just late July, my hubby was diagnosed with mild gout. It was surprising to us as I am the more susceptible candidate to health problems. And it turns out that kefir can help with gout problems as well. I thought, well why not give it a try.. If it works, it benefits everyone in the family. And thankfully one of my hiking friend from last year's Cambodia trip have milk kefir grains to spare and shared some with me, along with a lot of information and a facebook group of kefir lovers. 

What seemed very complicated is actually not too difficult, especially when you get used to the routine. It was a bit confusing on what to do, what to use, how much quantity, on the initial stage. Especially when i started to make both milk and water kefir at the same time. 

But I am not so sure if it helps with weight loss the way many people say. I only see weight going up not down :( 

4 Hour Body Initial Trial

I am not good with words so i will just put in the statistics...

started the diet with 74.2kg

breakfast

NTUC Roasted Chicken, boiled and shredded, re stir fried with celery and portobello mushrooms


Lunch

Hard boiled eggs with broccoli carrots and mushrooms


Dinner was sharing twenty chicken wings with Alice, Hunney, Helmey, Hanping and some for Mummy!


Second day weight - 73.9kg - loss 300g

This was supposed to be first day dinner but become second day dinner. Because I did not start off recording everyday, now i am a bit lost at what i had for everyday meals but I will try and record whatever I ate in the last five days.

Dory Fish and Cherry Tomatoes

Lunch was Roasted Duck at DIan Xiao Er! and half a bowl of rice. Forgot what dinner was??

But I think i had supper.


Tofu Mushroom Prawns Squid Ring in Miso with legumes - yummy!




Third Day morning weight - 73.6kg - lost 300g

Breakfast

Celery Prawns Tofu Mushrooms with Black Coffee


Lunchtime at Amoy Street, too hungry and i hunted down chicken rice instead. tried to wash whatever oil there is, but the rice is ohhh so awesome!!!! ;p

Fourth Day morning - 24th November - 73.1kg - lost 500g

This is the day that deviated. I didn't have enough time for breakfast, and didn't eat it in the first hour of waking, one of the golden five rules. And i only managed to eat half by 12.30pm. 

No breakfast photo. 

Lunch was duck kway chap with mum and i ordered more bean curd, also wanna vomit it out, haha. 

Because I had leg cramp in the morning, which i figured that i may have lost too much electrolytes, I shared a 100 plus canned drink with mum

Because I had too much to eat at kway chap session, i couldn't eat dinner, after a few mouthfuls. 

And I had an extremely late night session with Hanping, Kelvin and his friend (who turned out to be Tze Ming's brother!) and had coffee gao and two soft boiled eggs at 1 am. I was really too hungry. 

The coffee gao was too sweet and probably one of my killer items out of the many on this day. 

Weight on Day Five - 25 November - 73.2kg sobbbbb! gained 100g! 

So today i try to make sure i eat  my breakfast within the first hour of waking up, and also ate two hard boiled eggs. in the book, eggs play a very important part especially in breakfast. 

My breakfast was half of the left over from last night, chicken thigh with vege , legumes, prawns and two hard boiled eggs. 

And then, i missed lunch. sigh.  so my lunch became dinner

today macdonalds have 6 pcs nuggets buy one get one free, and i shared it with hanping. ok i admit i ate more than him! ate it at about 5.30pm in the car. 

Reached home and heat up my lunch (heng haven't spoil), and pan fry a egg omelette of four egg whites and two egg yolks. in the end both hanping and i cannot finish, so maybe leave it for supper.

Pray hard for the weigh in tomorrow morning! 

Kettlebells training

Did I mention that I started kettlebell training with Alice underYusuf at Fitness First Millenia Walk, and already onto Our fourth session. I am not as hardworking as Alice, I hv only practiced once at home, and has not done any other exercise. Not only I hv not slimeed down, I am weighing between 74 to 75kg!!!!!




I cannot help but binge, especially when I am upset. I hv had packets and packets of potato chips, popcorn, instant noodles and deep fried chicken wings. Lets not even count the calories I literally inhaled on my four days Taiwan trip, it's already disastrous.

And I haven't blogged for three months, it felt like I just blogged a few days ago!

I need so much discipline to save me!!!

4 Hour Body Workout - Serious?

My dear sista Alice was reading about success stories using kettlebell, and came across this book 4 Hour Body

it advocates minimum effective exercise and slow carb diet that do not allow you to eat carbs - this is the most difficult part to achieve!

however at 74 kg, what the heck, just give it a try. since i have anyway tried more crazy stuff, why not?

The foods allowed are:
Egg whites with one or two whole eggs
Chicken breast or thigh
Grass fed beef
Fish
Pork
Legumes
Lentils
Black beans
Pinto beans
Red beans
Soy beans
Vegetables
Spinch
Mixed vege including broccoli cauliflower or other cruciferous vege
Sauerkraut or kimchi
Asparagus
Peas
Broccoli
Green beans

check out my loot from carrefour and ntuc!

These are the proteins that I have bought- Dory Fish, Salmon, Eggs, Silken Tofu and Tau Kwa. Will be buying chicken breast and thigh from my supplier. dont think i will eat beef as grass fed beef is expensive.

Vegetables: broccoli, carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, japanese cucumber, ice berg.. these are the usual that my cafe use also, hahaha. also have cabbage leftover from my mum in law that i can use.

I have got some mushrooms too, although this was not in the allowed list. However, it is not in the prohibited list! So i have portobello mushrooms, jin zhen gu and swiss brown mushrooms

kimchi! I love kimchi, though i dun know yet why it is allowed, hur hur. buy first!

No sugar and milk is allowed in this diet, so there goes my 3 in 1 coffee. Hopefully i can survive on kopi o gosong!!

Ok, no carbo is allowed not even brown rice. But i really doubt i can last without carbo for very long, so just in case i cave in to unhealthy carbs, i thought i better have some healthy carbs to stand by.


and now the most important task is to clear the prohibited foods already in my home! toast to chocolate  milk!!! :D

Xbox Boxing

I should have worn my heart rate monitor when playing Xbox with my niece and nephew. I scored an all time low when playing bowling with them, and kena a lot of unintended mockery, like, "Small Uncle first ah! I second, Helmey third.... fourth cannot say.. wait small ah yi angry..."

-_-''''

the real sweat came in when it was my turn and Hanping's to play Track and Field, and Boxing. It is worse than bodycombat! Big drops of sweat and INSTANT arms ache!

I'd say it was great fun and a great workout!

Quote from Men's Health Nutrition Manual #2

" Food is the fuel to fight fat, build muscle, feed your brain, increase performance and preserve your organs. It is your vital weapon against obesity and disease. Ue it to full effect and you will be able to take on ANYTHING."

Kettlebells Part II - Where to attend class

ok next part of the blog is where to attend classes


Apparently it is not as easy to find kettlebell classes as it is to find kickboxing, muay thai or any aerobic class.

this is what I got, after checking webbies and sending a few messages.

Kettlebell HIT at Turf city has a membership, or $10 per visit. I do not think this pay per visit is permanent, probably only for those people who come for the first time. About $100 per month, and has a $50 registration fee.

there is an introductory kettlebell class every Thursday too.

Another downpoint, Turf City is quite hard to go to if you do not have a car.

This isnt exactly what I am looking for as it is a membership, not really a limited 4 session class or something.


Kettlebells.sg classes are also not cheap. They have a free one week trial, after that for once weekly it is $108 per month. ouch. once weekly? so each class is like $27. Sounds quite expensive to me.

Good point would be that it is near Serangoon Gardens, not too far but not sure how accessible.

CrossFit do multiple training but they dont do only kettlebell.

Singapore Kettlebell Club has a trainer named Herman Chau, his sessions are $100 per hour for 2 person, $30 for every additional person.
He seems to have a lot of credentials as a kettlebell trainer. Location is at
Krav Maga Defensive Tactics Pte Ltd
38 Carpenter Street
Hui Seng Building
#03-01 Singapore 059917

This gym does a lot of tactical army type of training, called TACFIT.


Last but not least, (becos this is the most expensive) Marcel Fit. His class is from 9am to 5pm, one day, 4th September. $499! No matter how good he is, i dont think we need such a good training for kettlebells at this moment. i dont think i can afford it.

Another possible alternative is to engage Yusuf Kay, who is a certified Kettlebell trainer to train us, and hope he can give a preferential rate?

From the given options, I guess i would go for Kettlebell HIT to try, or engage this Herman Chau (provided we have enough interested people) for a few sessions.

Equipment is not too expensive but the training is!!!