The illusion of Rachel

I went to UK for my A-Levels on 6th January 1996, at the tender age of 17, roughly one month or so after the SPM exams in 1995. I came back to Malaysia for good in 2004. That makes it 8 years plus of being overseas. Throughout the time I was there, the series Friends was a household name. I literally evolved with the series, and as you can imagine, Rachel and Monica where a huge influence in my young adult life.

*Image googled @ gofugyourself.celebuzz.com

It was well known at the time that Jennifer Aniston was permanently on the low carb, high protein Atkins diet to maintain her svelte figure. Since weight gain was a non-issue for me during that period in my life, I never took notice. However, when the side effects of marriage and motherhood crept up on me, the Atkins diet was what I turned to for solutions.

The low carb craze was what initially made me see rice as the essence of evil. More on the rice issue in future post. It was easy to not eat rice, but much harder to stay away from sugar and carbohydrates. Being on Atkins was easier said than done. I never went through the ketosis period I don't think, but my weight would yo-yo up and down as expected when one follows a fad diet.

When SlimWorld prescribed to me a low carb and relatively high protein diet, I thought it made sense, thus further disillusioning me that an Atkins-like diet was the key to weight loss. But deprivation of carbs became a vicious cycle of cravings and binging. After the success at SlimWorld, I continued to struggle with choosing the right food to eat. The subsequent weight gain was unfortunately inevitable...

Feline friends

This entry is for cat lovers and Ms Lady of Leisure yang takut dengan kucing dan semua haiwan berbulu, jahat tak? hehehe

Hari ini pergi melawat student undergrad yang baru baik from cancer. Dia dah take 1 year out from uni. Glad to say that alhamdulillah after the chemo therapy sekarang dia dah ok, mudah2an sembuh sepenuhnya, Amin.

Tengok2 kat rumah dia ada beberapa ekor persian cats. Apa lagi ini makcik sudah excited sebab sgt suka kucing gebu! Kucing kurus kering atau ekor bengkok I tak suka eh, very sorry. And tak sangka langsung rumah tu ada banyak cats cos tak ada bau kucing langsung, very clean. I Like!

Bestnya kalau ada dua tiga ekor kucing gebu kat rumah, tapi jenuhnya nak menjaga. My 3-ft aquarium pun dah sub-kan ke bibik to selenggara...jangan mimpi la nak bela kucing!

Muffin and I

Gorgeously fluffy Muffin

This pose reminds me of Garfield!

This is Sumo.

Cuteness...

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Epitome of juggling

This is not muslimah stuff, but I really love Kimora. She is the epitome of doing the juggling act! A mogul AND a mom. Lets not talk about her millions of dollars or army of maids around the house. I love to see her with her daughters and it always makes me want to connect more with my own children. Extra communicating, encouragement, praises, kisses and cuddles. Fabulousity!

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Put your feet up

I live quite near to my parents' house although I don't get to spend as much time there as I would like. Weekdays sebok, weekends pun banyak hal, nak entertain budak2 and what not, kalau singgah pun sejam dua.

Tak sangka akan membesarkan family di Bangi. Yelah, kerja UPM, Bangi is quite strategic. Kawan2 yang membesar di Bangi pun ramai yang tinggal di sini. Hesh, macam tak de tempat lain je nak duduk :) Tapi sama je kot di mana2 pun, contohnya kalau membesar di subang ke, cheras ke, ampang ke, mesti tinggal di area2 situ jugak. I guess there is something comforting about being somewhere you have known all your life.

Both my parents are from Muor (Muar hehe). Masa kecik kalau orang tanya kita orang mana, saya akan jawab saya orang muar sebab kampung di sana. Tapi sekarang dah ada family sendiri, kalau orang tanya, saya akan jawab saya orang Bangi...

Petang ini mengambil kesempatan to relax here, bermalas-malasan, bercomot-comotan whilst the hubster is still outstation...Suka tengok the small pond maturing, the koi growing and the plants looking healthy. Ni semua pun penat lelahku carik pond specialist to set up the piping and construction, arguing with Dad who thought ponds came cheap, membanting tulang korek a 10x4 foot hole to cut cost (ok, I only did about 10% ;P), pergi Sungai Buloh carik barang, supervise bibik tanam bunga, hehe. I also chose the colour which is really soothing with the green. Walaupun tak secanggih kolam orang2 lain, tetapi saya tetap suka and puas hati. Tak dapat lepak lama, sekejap pun jadilah...


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Last exam of the semester

Melihat students ku slaving away for their exams, daku terpanggil untuk membuat sedikit promo di sini kepada sesiapa yang membaca di luar sana yang mungkin berminat...

Apart from masters by research, my department also offers masters by coursework. We offer Masters in Environmental Engineering and Masters in Environmental Engineering Managment.
Courses I teach not all at once of course include
1. Solid Waste Engineering
2. Principles of Environmental Engineering
3. Green Technology

The courses are conducted during weekends so that we can cater for students who work during the week. In general it works out that I teach one weekend in one or two months (depending if the course is shared with other lecturers). I prefer this arrangement anyway because otherwise we would have to have night classes which is a big no no for me. This is a very popular course and we get many students from all over Malaysia who come down to serdang for the weekend.

So ni nak buat promo sikit, for those who are interested to pursue a masters course related to Environmental Engineering, perhaps can consider us in UPM :D

OK come on guys, 15 minutes left!!! Kalau tak score aku tak tau lah, semua tips pun dah bagi daaa...




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Mail2Blogger

Alaaa...even though I can blog on the go on my BB, formatting is nonexistent. So kena send to draft first and edit. Also, kan best kalau boleh watermark gambar siap2 on the phone as well. Ish banyak betul complain ek. Padahal we get to enjoy so much technology yang melalaikan memudahkan hidup.

Hey ladyLOVESleisure (tukar nama nampak, its just as fab tho) how is blogging on the go with iphone? Boleh format? X aci!

Tapi ok laaa,at least boleh karang2 on the go. Juggling act la katakan...

Esok my masters students ada exam. Kena gi invigilate. On a sunday. Oh sungguh malas. Tapi x pe lah since this is a paid course. Boleh la contribute to the handbag fund...hehe

Laters.

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Slimming Centres in Malaysia

*Tonight Mr. Hubs is offshore, hence I have been hogging the computer all night long. Muahaha. Esok mata lebam padan muka huhuhu.

I could have sworn that the SlimWorld website did not look like this before! It must be new, or I could be wrong. Anyway, I think it looks great. Wardina looks so HOT, in fact they all look gorgeous! I wonder why Amy Mastura is no longer one of the ambassadors...

I love their tagline:
"My work requires me to look good, and like many other women looking good means feeling good" quoted from Wardina I believe.

It may be apparent that I am a big advocate of slimming centres. Be it SlimWorld, Mayfair, London Weight Managment, Keep Slim, Busy Body, Marie France, you name it, I think they work provided that you:

• stick to a low calorie diet that is advised such as the Atkins low carb high protein diet or the Grapefruit diet. During this period you should not exercise because you will not have enough energy to do so on a low calorie diet.
• Go at least twice a week. If you take too long in between treatments, you will not see the results and this will only demotivate you. Plan ahead. The best time to go is during your maternity leave (for women who wish to shed pregnancy weight).

Remember, it is just temporary only. Once you have shed the weight, you can go back to a healthy high calorie diet and exercise a few times a week to keep the weight off. You can also wear Premium Beautiful for example to stay in shape. More on Premium Beautiful next week, insyaallah.

A dear friend who took up a slimming programme at Mayfair lamented today that she was not losing weight this week although she had not been consuming much food at all. It turned out that she had not had a single treatment at all this week! It is well known that by not eating the body will assume it is in starvation mode and will hang on to every bit of fat cell in the body. This is where the treatments come in and does the job for us. Go at least twice a week and insyaallah you could lose up to 1 kg per week.

So before I log off, I'd just like to take the opportunity to congratulate my friend Hanie for losing at least 13 kg so far at Keep Slim. Good luck for another 2 kg to lose babe. You look great! Congratulations and enjoy the new you ;D