Valen’s Vanity Square

Having to work with a group of colleagues that share a common interest with you is a blessing. Errr, the common interest I’m talking about here is… food. Haha!

Okay, so we all (except one or two) enjoy eating and love to try new food. That’s good. What’s not good is the ’side effect’ - I have put on weight!

I don’t have to weigh myself. The feeling of increased tightness at the waist and the thighs when wearing my skinny jeans is good enough an indication that I have gained weight. What’s more it’s always around the tummy! Urgh!

My waistline is vanishing gradually over the years, so sad. Looks like I have to follow my sister’s footsteps. She is again on a healthy weight loss endeavor. She has ordered a treadmill, to be delivered to my mom’s house soon. She is eating wholemeal bread, drinking organic soy milk in the morning. She doesn’t skip dinner this time.

Me? I just had chicken chop for supper! Terrible me!

Took out a bunch of flyers and leaflets from my mom’s house mailbox. Food outlets, cleaning services, beauty salons and weight loss products, what else new can you get these days?

The flyer on the weight loss product caught my attention in particular, because it has before and after photos to show the results. Well, the woman really looked like she has lost a lot of weight and got back into shape; not slim, but so much better than her previous weight. I have not heard about the product, but perhaps I would be interested if I’m overweight.

Still, a word of caution to all those who want to lose weight by taking weight loss product, whether it’s diet pills, supplements or meal replacement diet. Always look up for as much information as you could to learn more about the product you wish to try. If you have heard a lot about the diet pill Apidexin, then the first thing you would want to do is to check out apidexin reviews.

Because there are so many options out there to choose from, one has to carefully compare products in terms of safety, efficacy, cost and whether the results can be sustained, before deciding which to use. One can’t be too careful when it comes to health. Better safe than sorry, right?

Thank god it’s Friday! Going for facial tomorrow, plus some shopping to make myself happy.

But I feel so ‘fat’. I haven’t eaten a lot these few days, but somehow I’ve been feeling quite bloated. And passing air out a lot in the office. Shhhhh…. Haha!

I thought after I started working, I would ’slim’ down due to work stress and lack of sleep (and the climbing of stairs!). But when I checked my weight, it is still the same! And my butt and thighs seem to be getting bigger. Grrrr….

May be other gals would have been so tempted to use diet pills to lose weight, it never come across my mind to use weight loss pills. I don’t even take dietary supplements, just don’t have the habit of ‘popping’ tablets or pills or capsules. But for anyone who want to take weight loss pills, remember to do your research, including finding out if there any side effects of diet pills that you need to watch out.

Oh well, it’s Friday night, perhaps I should get onto the elliptical machine and get my butt moving for 20 minutes or so. If I can’t lose weight, at least I make sure I don’t gain weight either.

Two weeks ago I thought I had lost a little weight. I have been eating only three meals a day since I stared to working, no afternoon snack or whatsoever even if I was hungry. I ate moderately every meal, and I was suffering from some mild form of diarrhea. I felt that my tummy was slightly flatter. So I thought finally “I’m losing weight the natural way!”, haha!

But now, my bowel movement is back to normal and regular, I have some muesli bars in my drawers to munch on in case I get hungry in the office, and I eat heartily during dinner time. When I checked my weight on my sister’s digital scale. Darn, I’m back to where I was before.

Oh well, I think the only way for me to cut a couple of kilograms is really to hop back onto the elliptical machine. (Haven’t been exercising lately!) Although I read that one of the ways that celebrities use to lose weight is to drink black coffee, without milk and sugar. I like coffee, but don’t think I can take it without milk and sugar.

Some people said that it’s the caffeine in the coffee that is causing the weight loss. It’s still a debatable issue. What caffeine does is it helps the body to lose additional water, suppress our appetite, and may has some calorie burning effect. But whether those effects can last or cause significant weight loss remain to be answered.

One of the weight loss products that I know of that contains caffeine-type ingredient is Nuphedragen. It is advisable to check out various nuphedragen reviews before one first try it for weight loss plan. Certain people who are sensitive to caffeine should not take this type of weight loss supplement.

I’m not sure if I’m considered sensitive to caffeine, but I do find my stomach feel uncomfortable after drinking those 3-in-1 coffee. Not so if it’s coffee from Starbucks of Coffeebean. Jeez, even my stomach prefers ‘branded’ stuffs. Haha!

Are you on a weight loss plan using diet pills? If yes, then there are some important steps that you need to follow to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the weight loss pill. For example:

• Don’t crush your diet pill and mix it in drinks or soups. Just take it in whole with a full glass of water.
• Take only the recommended dosage. Taking more may not necessarily help you to lose weight faster or more. In fact, it increase the risk of side effects.
• Diet pills have diuretic effect, i.e. you’ll urinate more frequently. So make sure you drink at least 8 glasses of water everyday when you’re on diet pills to prevent dehydration.
• Follow the diet plan your dietitian’s formulated for you, because diet pills will only work if you’re eating the right way.

If you decide to take over-the-counter diet pills (i.e. not prescribed by your doctor or dietitian), make sure you do a thorough research about the product before you start taking it. For instance, if you wonder what are the active ingredients contained in phosphacore, and what are the consumer ratings of this weight loss product, you can always look for the information you want by searching the internet.

While some people prefer to lose weight taking fat burner pills or tablets, my husband’s favorite ‘fat burner’ is the new X-training machine at home.

Since we got the machine last week, hubby has exercised on that machine for almost every day. And every time he got himself soaked in sweat. Oh, more than soaked actually, his sweat was literally dripping! And he is oh-so enjoying that kind of feeling.

As for me, I have been on that machine only once, haha! I think I should work out on it more often, say 3 times a week. I will set the calories to be burned at 200, then slowly step my way while watching TV at the same time. May be 200 kcal is too little if I want to lose weight fast, but that’s better than not burning any calories at all!

Wonder how long will it take me to shed 2 kilos with my slow-motion exercise?

If my vanity is all about my face, then hubby’s vanity is all about his waistline. Haha! Don’t get it wrong, it’s not that hubby wants to have a slim waist. He’s just being cautious of not having spare tires bulging out from the sides of his waist.

Hubby has said to me several times over these few days that he must sign up for a gym membership. Hubby has been very busy with work-related evening events recently, and these events are always accompanied with typical Chinese full course meal with eight dishes. He’s really worried about the after-effects of the heavy meals, i.e. increased waist line and a bulging tummy, haha!

The thing about hubby is that he’s not one of those who are willing to take slim pills or do a body detox program to lose weight fast. He needs to feel his heart pumping and sweat trickling down all over his body to assure himself he’s burning the calories away. Since I don’t allow him to buy a treadmill (coz I don’t think there’s any space in the house for it), and it’s increasingly difficult for him to find time to exercise, thus the idea of rejoining a gym.

Well, I’m perfectly fine with hubby going to the gym, as long as he comes home on time to have dinner with his lovely wife, that is.

Time really flies. There are only 3 more months to go before we come to the end of 2009. Before that, there will be Christmas, of course.

When mention about Christmas season, I always feel like it is the busiest time of the year. Well, companies have to conclude their annual financial status, salesmen will try to close their last sales before closing their account. And certainly everyone will do their Christmas shopping–last minute.

Many people will want to get ready for parties and dinners starting from now, such as to start a weight loss program so that they could get back in shape by then. Well, 3 months are not a long time, and not a short one either. But whether one is able to shed the weight needs to be shed depends on the weight loss method and how persistent he or she is. Some may have started to search for the best weight loss supplement in the market, hoping to lose weight fast and will look their best during Christmas.

For me, I have more than 3 months to lose what I need to lose, as I won’t be preparing for Christmas, but for Chinese New Year!

Are you trying to lose weight? Are you still searching high and low for the best diet pills on earth? Well, you don’t have to. Because if you were like me, rushing to meet a tight deadline for a super-tough writing assignment, you’ll lose weight by the time you completed the project.

I didn’t expect the project that I’m currently doing to be so tough. Work that I usually could complete in 3 hours took me 6 hours plus to get it done! So initially I thought I could complete 4 sections of 3-hour work (total 12 hours) in less than 2 working days. Looks like I need more than 24 hours to finish everything, but the problem is - I don’t have that much of time! Unless I work non-stop for the next day and night or so.

So you could imagine, no mood to eat, no time to enjoy food, deprive of sleep, stress…. it’s impossible not to lose weight after 2 days. But I think you better not follow my way, because it really is a unhealthy way to lose weight.