Basking in happiness

There's quite a bit to be happy about recently.

My best friend a.k.a. 死贱货finally said "I Do" last Saturday, and I can tell the hubby loves her loads. After wandering from relationship to relationship through the years, she has now found someone she feels she's ready to welcome into her life permanently. At the risk of sounding maudlin, this marriage so warms my heart.

The next happy issue: My fave aunt is responding exceptionally well to her chemotherapy treatments. And she's feeling good and healthy enough to go about her daily life normally, and has even resumed her freelance hairdressing work at home. She has also put on 3kg ever since. This scenario is a far cry from a few months ago when she suddenly became so thin and frail and could barely ingest anything, not even liquid diet. We were so depressed and worried about her condition then and there were so many sleepless nights. Those days were marked by tears and fears. Thankfully, everything is looking up now.

As for myself, I just need to figure out just where exactly I want to take my career next and I will be really happy. For the last nearly 7 years, I was able to work through nights and immense stress just to do as best a job I can with each and every project simply because I knew my goals. I am not used to living without specific career goals. It scares me. However, it makes my mum and my aunts very happy to learn that I am seriously considering switching career haha. They don't care what I do next, as long as it doesn't require me to work my brain 24/7 and have late nights. I know I am lucky to have such supportive family...people who only want me to be well and healthy even at the risk of earning much less. Even though we have plenty of disagreements and even fierce arguments sometimes, I know that these are people who truly love me and care about me and, for that, I am feeling truly blessed.

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My friends and I had been counting our respective lucky stars recently, and we realised that despite the many ups and downs in our lives, despite the occasional pool of shit that we fell into sometimes, we really do have a pretty nice life and plenty to be grateful about after all.

And one of those things to be grateful about is our friendship. Over the years, we had all went through different types of drama (of varying degree in intensity) in our individual lives. And we had helped to see one another through those episodes. Sometimes, it's just a matter of being there to listen, to offer support and encouragement to whoever's in 'trouble'. Other times, it involved more. I know people who have a wide network of friends but yet do not have anyone that they can count on to be there for them in trying times, or simply, a friend whom they can share their more private thoughts with.

Thus, we do know that we are really lucky to have one another - when we really need to sob our hearts out (which is hardly...cos none of us are crybabies and we all have pretty strong characters), we know where to find those supportive shoulders. And when we have reasons to jump for joy, we know there are people who will be really pleased for us.

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I can't say I am 100% happy right now, for that are still stuff that I am worrying over, things that I need to get sorted out, issues that I wish do not exist and so on. But that's life. It can never be perfect. And that's probably what make us grow wiser and stronger too, as we make our best attempts to get over the obstacles. Life is more interesting that way, anyway.

I am gonna hit the bed and think happy thoughts now! Night! : )

Project Redemption: Progress Report

I've been making conscious efforts to shower and crawl into bed as early as possible.

It's got to a point where "Oh shit" will reverberate in my head if bed-time happens at 12am instead of my ideal of 10pm (though the earliest I've managed so far is 10.45pm).

Discipline aside, this is a marked improvement in mindset as I used to go to bed at any time between 3am - 7am, even if I was not bogged down by work, and did not find it an issue at all.

I've also been making conscious efforts to wake up early for a good breakfast.

By early, I mean 7 - 9am. And by good breakfast, I refer to the intensely healthy food that my mum serves up on a daily basis.

One of such is sandwiches with eggs-cum-melted-cheese spread, along with home-grown beansprouts and bean-sprout leaves, a generous splash of some mixed-bran granules and grounded black sesame, a whole chopped tomato, and a sprinkling of black pepper. The breakfast will usually be paired to a mug of Ensure (vanilla flavoured food supplement drink...it comes with loads of vitamins and minerals and such) and it will be concluded with a pear or apple.

Veggies and fish feature heavily in my lunch and dinner as well. And because I am trying hard to fatten up, I am now eating 2 - 4 full bowls of rice per meal. I know this might not be the healthiest way to put on weight but I can't think of any more effective way to do it. Any suggestion?

As for my A-Jog-A-Day programme...it's not really running as smoothly as I would like it to...yet. But trust me, I will work on it.

Oh, another thing, I have also been faithfully downing homegrown wheatgrass every night. It is intensely vile stuff, but it is intensely beneficial for health. I have been drinking it nightly for a while now, but even after all these time, I still find it as vile as ever.

Now, one last note before I call it a night...I loooooooooove my mum!!! Even if I were to end up disgustingly stinky rich one day, I will still insist that being my mum's daughter is the best thing that happened to me in this lifetime! ; )

Project Redemption

It's official - I've embarked on a healthy lifestyle campaign.

I've been reading up on plenty of health-related articles online and I'm freaked out by the m-a-n-y ways our health can go wrong as a result of seemingly harmless enough habits.

For the past 7 years, I've been working my ass off to get better at what I do at work, as well as to meet all the merciless deadlines. Going without a second's shut-eye for over 30 hours at a stretch was common. Going without food for more than 24 hours (due to stress and lack of energy to get food while stuck in the office over weekends) was common. Add to that the vices of my personal lifestyle over the years, I am really more than a teeny bit worried about what all that had done to my health.

My fave aunt's recent cancer relapse did not help too.

Thus, I have resolved to change my lifestyle and dietary habits from now on.

I used to turn up my nose when some friends talked about healthy living. In those foolish days, healthy living seemed like a completely good waste of life (yes, I was that foolish). I had believed that I was much too young to be concerned with healthy living.

It also never really crossed my mind that I was doing my liver, kidney, bone marrow, and who knows what else, a whole lot of injustice and harm whenever I worked through one stressful night after another. I thought burning the midnight oil to get a job done well was simply a matter of discipline and a mind over body issue. And I thought indulging in long nights out everytime I had a chance to was a good way to relieve stress and to reward myself for hard days' work. Gawd, I can't believe how I could have been so foolish.

So anyway, it's high time to make up to my health for all the wrongs I had done it in the past. I'm very particular about my dietary habits now and I am going to cut out or at least cut down on all the unhealthy (but sadly, delectable) stuff that I used to enjoy, such as fermented bean curd, potato chips, soft drinks etc. I'm not saying that I will deny myself those food for the rest of my life, but I am just going to make sure that they are consumed in moderation, and only occasionally.

I am also making it a point to be asleep by 12am at the latest every night, preferably even earlier.

And I've started my A-Jog-A-Day programme! I felt so good after going on that first 2.4km run of my programme! The run was not only good for health, but it also lifted my mood considerably! As I was cooling down after the run, I took deep gulps of the fresh morning air and also took in my surrounding - the bright early morning sun, the merry chirping of the birds...it was such a lovely experience.

These pictures of a sweaty and stinky me marked the completion of the first run of my A-Jog-A-Day programme:

By the way, I just heard on the news that the latest studies had proven once and for all that cancer is caused by prolonged period of unhealthy lifestyle and habits, and not due to sudden traumas etc. Fresh fruits, veggies and brans are also indeed excellent for fending off cancers. On the other hand, red meat, dairy products and food high in fat content should be taken in moderation.

Apart from the first bits about "prolonged period of unhealthy lifestyle and habits VS sudden traumas", the rest all sound like common sense, I know. But speaking from personal experience, it seems like we all sometimes choose to ignore common sense.

Here's another interesting result the studied yield: Taller people are more prone to cancers.

That would be the second reason to be pleased about my height, then. The first reason is that my height is good for hanging out the laundry, as it is much harder for me to fall over the parapet.

Alright, I am calling it a night now...my bed is beckoning.