I have to work today ... It's the weekend, I know. But I would not call this all "work" ....
Look at the big boys' toys I get to play today. :-P
This beautiful mini just arrived a couple of days ago into my showroom. A beautiful car. The bright yellow reminded me of the silly Mr. Bean immediately.
Stumbled upon this Korean Restaurant at Suria KLCC. I wonder what Koryo means, because my son belongs to a Taekwondo club which is called Koryo as well ....
I don't think the word koryo has anything to do with food.
My Kids and I spend the weekend at a local community hall. The kids participated in a Taekwondo championship organized by our Local Council, Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya, MPAJ.
Syafiq, my second boy, was eliminated in the quarterfinals and came back home empty handed. His elder brother, Syafie, on the other hand, sailed through to the finals but lost in the final match. It was a close fight, but I think Syafie could have clinched the Gold medal if had tried just a little bit harder.
One thing I learned, and hopefully my kids too, that in a competition like this there're going to be losers. What's important is that he tried his best. With that in mind, I am content with the silver medal Syafie brought home. I bet he wanted to win as bad as I did ... perhaps more ... It is important to win but it's important to be a good loser as well, isn't it?
Here are some shots of the kids in action.
I've been a supporter of this sport since both my children became active in Taekwondo. I covered the events officially when requested. This week, I took photos a parent giving support to his boys.
Raita is a raw vegetable, yogurt based salad, not unlike coleslaw other than the yogurt for the dressing. There are lots varieties of recipe for this salad, but I like mine with mint. I mentioned about this dish briefly in my previous posting, so, I thought I'd share the recipe, my version, of this very cooling salad.
Cucumber-Carrot-Mint Raita
- 1 cup shreaded cucumber (squeeze the moisture out as much as possible)
- 1 cup shreaded carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
- 1/2 cup low fat yogurt
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
Mix everything up and chill in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before serving. Easy peasy ...
This salad goes with just about anything, even just on it's own. My kids love it and it a good way to introduce fresh raw vegetables to their diet. It's good for me too .....
This morning a friend sent me a link to an article about food diary and how it helps to reduce weight. It's a good read but, eventhough I keep a personal journal (and a few other notebooks), keeping a dedicated food diary is not for me. I do write about what ate occasionally in my journal if it's interesting enough or if it's something different.
I tried this food diary "thing" before and I can only stick to the food diary for a few months before giving up, because I felt it became repetitious after some time.
Why?
I cook my own food, so I know what I put in my cooking. I generally plan my meal in advance. A typical meal has 3 dishes, One legume/bean based veggies like, French beans, Okra 9ladies fingers), Snake beans, bean sprouts ... etc. One leafy veggies (white or green) like cabbage, Bok Choy, Kailan ... etc. And 1 protein, tofu, chicken, fish or beef. I rarely go out for lunch so when I jot down what I ate everyday, the menu seems the same through out the week. I lose motivation to keep on jotting down my daily consumption because of this.
Also, I don't snack between meals. Instead, I replace my lunch with a light snack like homemade sandwiches I packed from home or fruits. So, I did not have anythig to write down in between meals.
I followed this type of diet, for more than 2 years now, eating more vegetable based food, but my weight loss has been very minimal. I am still as big as a cow!! ... I used to weigh 122kg a couple of years ago and the weight did drop to 108kg and has plateaued since early this year. In order to lose weight, I need more physical exercise which I know I really lack doing. I know I need to sweat the weight out, but still bogged with self made excuses .... sigh!!!
Not knowing the exact calorie content of the food I cook makes
calorie counting useless, at least for me. How much calorie did I
consume this morning? ...
- I mug coffee with artificial sweetener,
- 2 slices wholemeal toasts with last night's leftover chicken curry.
- 1 bowl of cucumber and mint raita, also leftover from last night.
(love this simple salad, suitable anytime of the day. I'll post up the
recipe someday)
Without knowing how much I consumed for breakfast, I am quite at loss as how much should I take for the rest of the day.
I am not saying the article is off the track or totally wrong, it's a good read and may be beneficial to lots of people. I am just sharing a personal point of view and experience, that I tried it and did not work very well for me.
Yesterday's rain carried on till this morning. As usual, my complaint is traffic congestion. A round trip to send my kids to school normally takes half an hour. This morning, it's been 70 minutes and Im still in the car.
At this rate, I'll get home only at 8.30am and have to get ready for work and drive to my office. I'm going to be late today.
You can only plan for the day, but there are lots of external factors that could affect your initial planning.
I'm late. I'm late ......
Every time it rains, roads in the Klang Valley seems chocked with traffic. It never fails. I've been in my car for almost one hour now and I moved, oh ... about five kilometres.
... woke up this morning with a craving for nasi berlauk for breakfast.
