Sorry I haven't been blogging. Been busy and tired. I've been a panda that I wake up late in the afternoon and then go to the gym. Once I'm back it's late in the evening. Then I watch my favorite show Opera Van Java at 12am Australian time which is 8pm Indonesian time. And that goes for 2 hours. Such an unhealthy life style. Please do not follow me.

As you know, I have been injured. My lower back injury comes and goes like temper tantrum. Although I was injured, I still went to the gym and worked out. I spoke to one of the member of the gym, he said it could be because I walk too much. Silly but it could be the reason. Last month when I started going to the gym, I struggled to do 30 minutes on the treadmill. 30 mins would be like less than 2km. Then I started training with my trainer who kept telling me 1 hour of treadmill would play a big part to losing weight. So after that, I have been training myself with 1 hour of treadmill and 1-2 hours of weight training. Recently I got bored with my 1 hour treadmill. In 1 hour, I'd be doing 3-4 km and burning maximum 350 calories. I thought I could speed up a little. This week, I broke the record of doing more than 7 km and would burn more than 500 calories. After treadmill, my body is just tired. I mean, come on, 500 calories burnt.. no energy. Hahaha. I tried to do weights after that but my body was just too tired. However, this is good for me. Because to tone my body, I need to lose the fat I have on my body in order to have a healthier and sexier body.

Once you're so used to your work out routine, it is good to challenge yourself to do more things. However, you need to know your body's limit. I'm going overseas in ... about 4 weeks time and I want to have a healthier and toner body. However, I will be working out when I'm overseas too. You can never have a holiday with working out :)

I hope everyone is well and healthy :)

Just a quickie

I just want to say thank you for the love, care & support that everyone have shown me due to the previous post. I am okay and I am not training with him no more. When I met him to pay the sessions I have done, I tried to end on a good note but... due to his unprofessionalism, he was childish and started making up things. He said I was talking bad about him behind his back. Honestly, from that point on, I knew he was childish. He even ignored me. I'm glad that I dealt with the problem with a mature mind unlike him. But yes, thank you everyone.

Now, I am just dealing with a lower back injury. I really thought I pulled a muscle until just then, I kept on rubbing where the pain was and it's actually the bone. Not quite sure what I did but I am in pain. It will take time for it to heal. The down side is I can't really train 5x a week starting next week because I have to rest :(

I hope all of you have a fabolous weekend. Stay healthy and have a positive mind :)


God bless

What a day :(

Today was a horrendous day for me. Something that I didn't expect would happen. I ended my training with my trainer over the matter of money. I won't be training with him anymore. It's sad because I can now tell what he's really into, which is money. Never thought someone who have played such a major role in my fitness life, could turn out to be someone who would hurt me so deep. I'm thankful that I have a very loving and supportive gym family. The managers and other trainers were helping me clear out my mind. I will be training with another trainer. He seems nicer and he seems to be more understanding than my ex-trainer (as I should call him now). He said that he will give me a free session, just to see whether I like his style of training.

You see, a trainer should be someone who would understand and motivate you. Not to push you over your limit and doesn't understand you as a client. Most importantly, they should respect you. Clients go to trainers because they have an aim and they put so much trust in the trainer and to have that trust broken is just... sad. I need a trainer who can understand what I want and what I feel. I need a trainer that understands my condition, not to always say "your condition is nothing. Keep pushing yourself". Like I said previously, my body can only do so much. Today I realised that my body was just telling me "Sandy, I'm tired". However, I just want to think of the positive and that is, he has made me realise, I can lose weight. I can look good.

I am more than happy I handled the situation with a calm mind. Usually, I'd be crazy and be in somewhat a demonic state of mind hahaha. So, what I'm trying to say is, you will always have people that put you down. In the end of the day, it's your choice to make whether to have that negative aura to surround your life. If something doesn't feel right, stop it. Stop the negativity. You deserve a happy yet healthy life :)

God bless xo

Me on Me

Last week have been such a tough week for me. I was challenged both physically and mentally. I trained 5x last week and it resulted in me hurting my wrists. On top of that, my body was just so tired. Then, I had few problems with a few people around me. You see, when you're so tired, you just can't seem to cope so well in life and you can only take things to a certain limit.

1. You can't please everyone. Last week, I realised I can never please everyone in life. No matter how hard I work hard at the gym, there will always be people attacking me. One of the problem I was facing was I was called fat. I can never accept people calling me fat. Some people are just way too shallow and attacking people without really understanding the concept of human body. From being called fat, I was so furious and I started swearing. Swearing is something I do when I'm super mad. This is 1 problem that I always have trouble with changing. I guess I'm so used to it that it becomes 2nd nature to me. So I swore and it offended someone. I didn't mean to offend that person but I was super mad over what he said. He said to me he doesn't understand me, I shouldn't have done that, blablabla.... Basically he pointed his finger at me and made me feel like I have always been wrong. Truthfully speaking, he did some mistakes and I have forgiven him for his mistakes. It's just so unfair that someone could be so selfish and cruel and put people down like that yet doesn't notice it. What I learnt is that, you can never please everyone. Do what makes you happy. Do what you think is right. Screw everyone who is negative cos you don't need to live surrounding yourself with negativity!

2. No social life. After working out hardcore, I just don't have any social life. By the time I finish my gym sessions, my body basically tells me I need to rest. For me, going to the gym is an addiction. I train 5x a week, 2-3 hours each gym session. If I don't go to the gym, my body will get super mad. I am addicted!

3. Speak out. One of the problem with me is that, I keep my problems to myself. I don't talk to people about it and that at times ends up with me hurting myself. Last week, I could've shared my tears and fears with people I love the most, but I chose to shut myself up. Sometimes I just don't want to reach out a hand and I just end up hurting myself ...

4. I miss my parents. My parents have been gone for few weeks and they'll be back this Friday. I seriously can't wait! I really miss the love, care and support from my parents!

5. Love myself more. This is something that is very hard for me to do. I can never love myself. I always feel like, I'm not special. I realise all these beatings from going to the gym 5x a week, sometimes I feel sorry for my body who is working so hard and instead of finishing the day with a relaxed and healthy mind, I find myself surrounded with negativity. I really should push them negativity away but instead, I chose to deal with it.


This week really is a reflection week for me. I just have to stop and think of loving myself even more. I'm tired. My feelings are hurt. I'm not the usual happy me ... :'(

Gym Starters

I have been asked to give tips on gym starters. First of all, I consider myself new to working out. Secondly, I can only give you tips that was suitable for me. Thirdly, I am no means of a professional and I did not study Sports Science or ... anything that's related to fitness. However, I will share with you my journey on working out. Gosh, I sound so lame.

I started working out 2 years ago. I started with cardio work out. So these are treadmill, cycling, ellipticals. Out of the 3, I only like treadmill and that's what I have been doing. I recommend you to do cardio minimum 10 minutes and maximum 30 minutes. You want to get your heart rate up. Why? When you work out and your heart rate is higher than usual, you are burning calories and building muscles :) Due to being a newbie, I seeked professional help and had a personal trainer. My first personal trainer was a female. Compared to my current personal trainer, I enjoy having a male trainer more. Not because he's good looking or what ever you may think. My trainer has many experiences on personal training. So he knows the bulk of sports science. Every time I train, he would explain to me which muscles I'm building, the benefits for it and other useful information. This is one point that I truly like from my personal trainer. You don't want to work out without you knowing what the work outs are for, which muscles you are building and all that important infos.

If you want to do weight training. I suggest you seek a professional help. Firstly, you will have to adjust the weight of the equipments to the maximum weight you can handle. Once that is done, technique is very VERY important. You don't want to be doing weights and thinking you're doing the right thing, when really, you are just hurting yourself. There is no harm on asking people how to do it. I ask people how to do certain work outs that my trainer has not showed me. Once your technique is right, you build up the weights by doing sets. So for me, 1 equipment work out is 3 sets, 15 each.

You want to understand your body. My trainer is very good in this. I have trained with him for 4 weeks and I could feel and see results. My body is more toned and I'm so much stronger than before. It also depends on how motivated you are to work out. I work out 4-5x a week. Now that is excessive for some of you, but once you are used to it, it is like second nature :) My trainer explained to me that my type of body is endomorphic. What that is, I gain muscles very easily yet fast but I gain weight very easily. This is useful for me because then I know what kind of work out I have to do in order to reach my aims, which are to tone my body and lose weight. Research on these kind of infos, it is very useful for you :)

Motivation. This is the key to all work out routines. If you are highly motivated, you will end up like me, going to the gym a lot hahaha :) If you are just starting out, 2-3 times is the maximum that I recommend. You don't want to shock your body.

Food. If you want to work out in the morning, you may have your breakfast. However, my trainer have told me that if you are only doing cardio, don't eat. By doing cardio, you are actually burning calories from your fat storage. However, if you are doing combination of cardio and weight like me, it is fine to have breakfast. I usually eat a slice of bread and water. Today, I had slice of bread and an energy drink and that was approximately 144 calories. 1 hour of cardio is about 100 calories, depending on how fast you are on cardio :) However, if you want to work out in the afternoon, have you meal 2 hours before you work out. It takes approximately 2 hours for the food to be digested :)

Water. Stay hydrated at all times. When I work out, I drink about 5-6 bottles of water.

On top of that, eating healthy food plays a major role as well. I eat a lot of vegetables but, I can't eat excessively only because it will clot the blood. But, do eat lots of vegetables. Make chicken salad or salmon salad. Substitute your snacks with vegetables. If you want to tone your body, WALK. This actually burns your calories more than you think.

That's basically my tips for people who wants to start at the gym. I hope my infos have been some what useful. Until my next post! Stay healthy!

God bless :)

Just a little rant

I just have to blog about something on my mind about something that just made me super annoyed. I was speaking to someone and he was telling me how girls that goes to the gym are weird and they only go to the gym to check out the guys. Honestly, why the hell would he stereotype me as one of those girls? I honestly hate how some people that talks sh!t about me when they don't even know me at all.

I go to the gym to tone up my body, and losing weight is just one of the result of working out hardcore at the gym. I also go to the gym because it is my 2nd home. I feel very comfortable when I'm at the gym. I don't need to look good, no need to wear makeup. I just train hard with and without my personal trainer. That's it. I don't go to the gym and have the mind set that I will go to the gym, look sexy just for guys to look at me. I work out because I have an aim and it's also vital, in other words important for my current health condition. I will tell you that I have been working my butt off at the gym to the point that I sleep less, I injure myself and I get sick. However, I am highly motivated to be a beast at the gym.

I will say that going to the gym is not highly regarded as important for the Asian culture compared to the Western culture. People need to stop stereotyping and open up more and learn new things. Going to the gym is the same as you work out by running or jogging around your house area. However, gym has equipments that could help you reach your goal faster. By the time I'm typing this sentence, I actually am laughing because I could easily challenge anyone for a good 6km powerwalk/jog/run and 1 hour weight training. I might come off as a show off but I know myself that I am more fit compared to majority of my friends.

Working out is not a harm. Gym is not a place where it is only for the males not females. All I can say is, do what makes you happy. If gym is the place where you find yourself happy, then continue it. I'm not going to let any one tear me down like that.. or I'll smack them with the dumbbells ^^

Until my next post.
God bless xo

Mad for Mad Spuds

After gym, I had lunch with my sister, sister in law's sister and brother at a cafe called Mad Spuds Cafe located in Surry Hills. I love Surry Hills. Love the atmosphere. Love how they have small boutiques and small cafes. Mad Spuds Cafe is 1 of the many cafes that are in Surry Hills. The word Spud means potato :)

 

 

 

 

 

This is called Mad Spud Stack. It consists of crispy potato cake, halloumi (which is a cheese), avocado, caramelised onion, spud skins (potato skins), sweet potato and mint yoghurt. 

 

 

 





















This is called Potato Nachos with beef. It consists of crispy potato skins, spiced mexican beef, avocado, summer salsa and sour cream.

 

 

This is called Whacko Taco Spud. It consists of mexican style beef, avocado, chilli salsa and sour cream.

 

 

If you live in Sydney. Do check them out! Such delicious yet healthy food they offer :)

 

 

 

My "I'm trying to smile" face. I actually look tired. I slept for 4.5 hours and I did 2 hours on the treadmill at the gym. Tired but STRONGER :) Now I have to deal with the consequence of pulled calf.

 

 

Until my next post!

God bless :)