21-day RESET

Becoming an adult is something that we cannot run away nor hide from. It will come no matter how much we try to stall. Year after year or day after day, we lose our self and become a new person. Perhaps, I am just too carried-away with the ongoing changes that I had to implement in my life, especially after my 30th birthday. There’s no denying, I am not a child anymore.

Recently, I have been doing several projects that I feel important. All of them are meant to impact change in my life. Since some experts attest that it will take 21 days to form a habit. I decided to tweak small changes in my life and create a daily routine. Hopefully, these changes can somehow help me become healthier, manage my time better, and develop a more optimistic mindset.

I found Pinterest as my favorite go-to place after google. It appears I am a visual person and I prefer when information is presented in a concise form such as posters and infographics. Thus, most of the information below are largely based from Pinterest posts.

Here’s a list of my ongoing 21-day projects.
1. Gratitude posts
I have been watching several self-development videos and Christian ministry videos for the past few years. Meeting my fiance helped me understand Faith deeper, in contrast to religion. Slowly, I began to become more thankful and noticed areas of my life where I have been fortunate. I actively or consciously avoid having a ‘victim-mentality’ and try to understand other people more emphatically. On top of these, I have also become more curious about the similarities among different beliefs, particularly about expressing gratitude. I noticed that being thankful for simple things automatically gives a positive vibe. I decided to develop a grateful attitude, thus I started my gratitude posts in IG.

2. Affirmations and Meditation
Affirmation is just about anything we tell ourselves during personal dialogue. I wanted to do away with negative thinking, blame, fear, and guilt -especially with respect to things that are beyond my control. I know that I cannot be an enemy of myself. I have done that and it never did me any good. So, I want to consciously deprive myself of such negativity by feeding my mind with positive affirmations.

3. Exercise
We all know about the benefits of exercise but most of us take it for granted. I did, despite commonsense. I was able to establish an exercise routine and succeeded in becoming leaner. However, breaking this habit turned out to be so much easier than building it. So, I have to restart my exercise habit for the umpteen time. After the first week of morning exercises, I added evening exercises. This week, I will be adding HIIT exercises. After a month, I will reduce the time I spend on workouts through continuous training instead of exer-resting.

4. Learning
I have decided to learn a thing or two everyday. I will study again and improve my skill set. I really want to take an MBA and learn more about psychology. I feel wasted when I cannot see myself improving or learning a thing or two for a long time. I am yet to establish this routine because my mind is still lost in the universe of choices. Basically, I am learning excel and tesol weekly. Then I plan to increase my online-work-related skills slowly. The important thing is to have a study routine that I can keep. I am currently challenging myself to complete the 21-days clickfunnel course in just 7 days.

5. Intermittent Fasting
I have been doing IF for a year now. However, I was not as strict as I was before. In a sense, I am just restricting my diet at night but I am not actually reaping the benefits of IF because I have more cheat days than essential. Therefore, I am planning to strictly follow the 6:18 IF. I am slowly establishing a meal routine first because I do not want to do a crash IF.

6. Journal Writing
In my journey to establishing this blog, I found out that not anyone can be a blogger. It takes much more time and dedication than normally perceive. It is not just writing whatever one wants, but that is a good start. Some people are gifted. They can easily express their ideas eloquently with words. In my case, it takes more effort. Maybe my world is a tad smaller or my vocabulary is not enough. In any case, I have decided to write posts everyday about my thoughts and my reflections. Journal writing gives me a space to blurt my mind out.

7. Photography
I want to develop my photography skills because I need it as a blogger and because it is one way to earn passive income. I do not need to be renown. I just want to be able to put something in the market that people can buy. I may not have enough capital for a full-blown online shop or online business, but I have a good smartphone. Personally, it will not hurt if I can capture some of our best memories better. Professionally, I could develop the blog better if I know and I have good images. The practice of photography also widens imagination and develop my creativity. To start with, I signed up with Behance, National Geographic, and Foap. For now, I have been taking 1 photo per day and posting it in Foap. I submit photos on Foap missions, not to win but to keep me motivated. While it may be common for many people to take photos of just about anything, I found it exhausting and useless. Therefore, I wish to develop an eye for meaningful photography.

8. Decluttering
I am in Day 5 of my decluttering mission. I have thrown away a good amount of paper and expired products in my files and my kitchen. Physical clutter is not difficult to deal with. I am having problems with emotional clutter and digital clutter more. I started writing a journal because of the excessive mental clutter that kept me stuck. Meditation also helps a lot.

9. Gardening
I love gardening. Today also marks the 5th day of restarting my vegetable garden. I only have one leafy vegetable and one kind of flower though. I have a balcony garden, so I cannot have as much plants as I want. I have given up on herb gardening, but I’ll give it another try. Maybe I can grow them better from seeds.

10. Budgeting
I have had budgets before. The difference is now I have savings goals. I stopped trading for the meantime because I started saving for an emergency fund. It’s been two months now and I am proud that 30% of my weekly salary automatically goes to my savings account. I have also started paying more attention to the things I buy and became very conscious with how we spend our electricity. We are cooking smaller portions to avoid waste. We were cooking rice on stove instead of the electric cooker for the past 23 days.

SAVINGS

I will start with the easiest. Easy to say, difficult to do. Saving money means you have readily available cash but you cannot purchase anything you want because you have to set it aside for who knows what. That is how I thought of savings. So, I never saved. I would for a month or two. But that’s because I want to go take a vacation and splurge. 😛

Now. Well. Now. Now that I am 30. Life came knocking demanding that I take these things seriously.

My first advice to anyone trying to save. Read ‘The Richest Man in Babylon’. I did. I read it 3 years ago. It took 3 years for it to finally sink in. So you’d better start reading as soon as you can. 😀

The first thing that you need to figure out when you are finally decided to start saving is your priorities.
In my 20s, I want to experience life –go to places, try doing new things, eat weird foods, be independent. Now that I am a tad more mature. I decided that my priorities should be having a secured life. Probably, that will be the theme of my 30s.     Security.

Alright. I am on my first year in this journey. I am not good at it yet. But I believe it is best to have a working game plan somehow. Here is where savings get the front row.

How to save?

Piggy bank

The most popular is the piggy bank method or day-to-day savings. So, I will be buying one later. For fun and to keep myself committed. As per experience (in dieting and studying), it pays to start with lifestyle changes. I need to establish a habit and tweak my attitude towards expenditures.

So, here I am writing this blog post. This is not only a reminder. Personally, this serves as an accountability. (I really have to do it or else I will not be credible)

When you have a piggy bank, every time you have spare coins or change, you can just drop it in. It can be a mini-emergency fund or your travel fund.

So please do not sneak some coins out of that piggy!!

UPDATE: I didn’t get a piggy bank because they are SOOOO OVERPRICED
*decided to keep up saving coins on our purse*

 

Budget

If you do not have a budget yet, you need to work on that. It is basically a list of expenses. Basically! If you are an adult, you probably have some fixed expenses and discretionary expenses. A budget gives you an estimate of how much you need in a certain period of time. In order to save money, you need to add savings to your budget and make sure to set aside a part of your income to your savings as soon as you receive it.

 

Debt-free

If you are paying an interest on anything, make it a priority to pay it off as soon as you can. Avoid loans like a plague. Set an emergency fund whenever you can to avoid or at least limit possible loans. Do not rush into the newest coolest gadgets or fashion. Live simply. I am not saying you should be a miser. Just, do not overindulge on unproductive things if you do not have anything to spend.

 

Three-months living expense

You should aim to have an emergency fund worth more than three-months of your living expenses. There is no telling what may happen tomorrow. For an online worker like myself, I can lose my job anytime and finding a new one may take more than a month. I used to live paycheck-to-paycheck. I mean I would budget my expenses depending on the paycheck I am expecting. Maybe you are reading this post because you realized the same mistake. Make it your goal for the next few months to set aside a three-months living expense fund. If you are just starting, consider it as your emergency fund.

 

Diversify

Do not put all your savings in one account or in one place. It is important to make it difficult for yourself to access your savings. Otherwise, you will easily get tempted to shop online or transfer money in a click of a button. It is better to have separate accounts for your monthly budget, emergency fund, and leisure. Leisure and discretionary expenses are still important and necessary parts of life. Taking a vacation or unwinding is not just a time to relax and de-stress but also a stop-point where you can do what you want, be more human, and know yourself better. Of course you may not want to have a leisure account or you may want to set up additional accounts for your child’s education or needs. It all depends on your circumstances. Point is, you need to diversify your savings.

 

Loyalties and Vouchers

Subscribing to loyalty or reward programs is a small savings tweak that you can add to your habits and budget. First, find all loyalty and reward programs readily available to you. For example, since you regularly shop groceries, make sure you are earning points as you shop. Nowadays, you can earn points via the shop’s reward system and your own card’s reward system. Use them to your benefit.
MY LIST

• getgo peso+
• sm advantage
• cliqq
• paymaya app
• gcash app
• pagibig loyalty card

MY PLAN:

Recharge getgo prepaid every month at 7/11 using cliqq. Use getgo prepaid to recharge paymaya and gcash. Use gcash when shopping groceries along with sm advantage card. Use paymaya to pay bills. When applicable use pagibig loyalty card to get discounts. Earn reward points and get free items and free airline ticket after a year 🙂

You can also take advantage of coupons and voucher sites such as Metrodeal in the Philippines.

I’ll update as soon as I have the cards 🙂

**Set your Goals!**

Last but not the least (or should have been the first), set your financial goals. You need to have a game plan. You need to know your priorities. You need to understand until when you are going to save money in this and that account, how much, for what. What are your short term and long term goals and how do they tally with your finances. This will give you an overview of what kind of other investments to make.

 

Pay ‘me’ first: Personal Investment 101

Money, a commodity that allows us to advance trade from its barter exchange predecessor to the cryptocurrencies that are gaining popularity in our digital society.
Money is a recognized and accepted printed medium of exchanged whose value is determined by the market  (mostly in terms of gold reserves). Recently, we have witnessed how money are being wired or transferred digitally through online banking and electronic transfers. This led to the acceptance of digital currencies, most notably –the cryptocurrency known as bitcoin. Interestingly, cryptocurrencies have been gaining popularity despite being intangible. From the idea of cryptography, cryptocurrencies are highly secured and anonymous through blockchain technology and unrecoverable private key.

Finances refers to the monetary resource or capital that comes from revenues and/or income.

So far, everything seems pretty easy and direct.

Financial investment will be anything that set aside current finances for future use, with the intention of increasing its revenue over time.

Sweet.

For me, it is a way of paying yourself.
Probably, you have heard about it too. The term ‘pay yourself first’ has gotten popular among those advocating early retirements and personal savings. It is more like automating your finances so that you will be paying your bills and saving some part of your salary as soon as you receive your income. Financial investment is all about paying yourself…. though you might need to wait a little bit to enjoy it.

HOW?

According to my average googling ability and Facebook posts research 😉
Here are the possible ways to invest financially.

1. Savings (monthly, emergency, leisure)
2. Insurance (retirement, health)
3. Trading (stocks, funds, forex, crowdfunding)
4. Real Estate (own house, house for rent, commercial space, boarders)
5. Online (ebooks, digital courses, online shops, freelancing)
6. Business (Uber, Music/Dance studio, Printing, Buy and Sell of Tech/gadgets)
7. Home-based (hobbies, gardening, blogging)

 

I would definitely be learning a lot when I cover the topics above one by one on my next blog entries.
The above list is my personal financial investment bucket-list.
Thus, my future posts would be all about investment opportunities in the Philippines.

*I am excited to dive into research but I got to finish some work first*

Transcendence

When you hear the word spirit, you are probably thinking of something religious or something immaterial. Indeed, it is somehow related to that. In this blog, spiritual investment is about your non-material qualities like beliefs, values, character, and emotions. For example, how you are dealing with problems and how you let the things around you influence your decisions. It is related to your conscience and moral compass.

For Christians, investing spiritually starts with reading, learning and reflecting on the word of God. Other religions have their own way of spiritual investments (which I am not aware of). In a non-religious sense, it may start with establishing a habit of meditation or contemplation (I suppose).

Spiritual Investment is also related to being responsible for your actions. Sounds easy? However, spiritual investment is not a one-shot win-all event. You need to do it every day because you will only get returns through continues practice. That said, if you stop doing it or missed it, you will lose most of what you have invested.

Why do we need to invest spiritually? Well. I cannot really answer that for you. Try to look around and evaluate on humanity’s beliefs, values, character, and emotions. Reflect on what is life and living. What do you consider when thinking about your future?

Spiritual investment may not be for everyone. It is for those who wish to have more peace and happiness in their life. It is for people who wants to live more authentic lives by owning up their actions (good/bad and right/wrong).

*I studied philosophy in the past and I think that was an spiritual investment. It shaped my personal moral beliefs/standard and made me more responsible and empathetic. Currently, I am investing on learning more about spirituality in a religious sense. Since this is more personal, I would write about it in a different platform and provide the link later.*

*Spiritual Investment in this blog will refer to either religious or philosophical investment that is beyond the intellectual and has more to do with how we associate with others and our personal perspective of how things should work. This is important because some people just go through their life lacking the awareness of how they influence and are being influenced by their surroundings. However, I will not debate on what one must do nor prescribe any philosophical movements or religion. I just like to write about my experiences and thoughts on the topic with —- that what we are doing/experiencing can influence our future self/actions.*

Your Self

Is it not the same as investing to your health? Well, not entirely. Investing in ourselves is more on recognizing our personal value or worth including our time, our thoughts, our actions, our network, our appearance or image.

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Investing Time
Most people live life to the fullest and think that they do not need to worry about tomorrow. After all, if you will die tomorrow, what is the use of investing in the future. You’ve heard of epicureans or Ecclesiastes 2 and Isaiah 22. I will not argue where this phrase came from  ‘Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we will die’ but surely it is not how I want to live my life. I believe in tomorrow, so I want to invest my time wisely.

I invest time primarily on things that affect my day-to-day living. I buy groceries for the whole week. I pay my utilities to avoid disconnection. Nonetheless, I also invest time for the long-term by ensuring that I allocate some of my time today for some future endeavor.

I invest time studying online through Coursera, writing blog entries, and even looking through Pinterest for new ideas. I spend time reading articles and recipes.
I also spend quality time communicating with my fiancé because we may not have so much time in the future when we have to live apart because of work or when we become too busy. I spend time tending my small garden and appreciating nature especially in early mornings. I also try to spend time with my family –dad and siblings, as I have experienced so much lost that taught me about impermanence and gratitude for the things and people I have now.

We even invest time on sleep. It is common knowledge that we need at least 6 hours of sleep. Taking this into consideration, we only have 18 hours at most each day.
If you want to make a schedule or use a planner, it is up to you. I love spontaneity, so I am not a fan of time tables and to do lists. I can use them when needed, like when I am on a tight deadline or when I am working on per hour basis. Personally, I prefer to think about what I need to do in the morning and try to do what I can accomplish throughout the day. I do not stress myself too much at this moment –I want to fully utilize that advantage for now.

 

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Investing Thoughts
The bible warns ‘not to give the devil a foothold’ and to ‘protect our mind, for life flows from it’. Psychology and common sense tell us how positive thinking can reduce stress. Investing on our thoughts means we try to focus on things that can have productive results. As an old saying goes, ‘worrying is like rocking a chair, it gives us something to do but it won’t get us anywhere’. Negative thoughts and worry will come inevitably, it is part of being human. It is actually healthy to keep an open mind. However, I do not think we should keep on worrying or delve into something negative if it does not have positive results.
Thus, it will be helpful to give negative thoughts minimum time. Set it aside after 10 minutes. Then move on. We can find better solutions when we incubate our thoughts. Pounding over and over on the same thought will be a wild goose chase unless there are new factors to consider. We need to learn to control our thoughts, else it will run or ruin our life. Also, when finding a solution, we need to practice critical thinking. If we are worried of something out of wishful thinking or baseless assumptions, it is better to pray for it. If you are not religious, leave it to fate or to the universe. Change your focus and work on motivating yourself to become a better thinker.

I also want to emphasize that you should be careful of the things that you are feeding your mind subconsciously. This includes the things you read, watch, and listen to. We have different preferences, I respect that. But if you watch too much negativity on the news, your mind will form a likely negative opinion. So, just try to protect your mind especially when you are already having a rough day.

 

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Investing Actions
Similar to investing time, we can also invest in our actions. Basically, by doing good to others or at least to yourself. Exercising is a good one. But the best way to invest on your action is by practicing excellence in everything you do. It sounds easier said than done, believe me. I am trying to consciously do my best in the things I do but I suppose habits get in the way. I am not sure about you but in my case, I grew up doing things half-heartedly. I don’t know when it happens, why, or how. Perhaps it is due to a dysfunctional childhood. You got the idea. It will take effortS. While writing this blog, I just blabber about the things in my mind and type them here while listening to some music. Is it an excellent blog post? Well, I am not spending so much effort right? So what does it mean to practice excellence? Excellence is not something that comes out just by effort or hard work. It is about doing your best better than the last time. Excellence is a constant improvement. In my case, I write, read, rewrite, reread, my posts before publishing. I do not want it to be formal and academic-like but I do not like it to look sloppy. I want it to be easy to read and friendly but I do not want it to look like another personal blog. I hope my readers will pick up something new from my ideas and experiences.

 

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Investing in Network
Undoubtedly, we are all social beings. Working at home limits my interaction with others but through online communication, I can still widen my network. We have social media networks, online games, threads, and forums. We have to invest on our network because there are so many things that we cannot do or learn on our own. The people that surrounds us influence us so much more than we know. Just an afternoon chit-chat can expand our view on things we never even considered before. The information age have also given way to shared knowledge. Browsing through social media posts by your friends can ignite some of your interests or inspire your creativity. There may be places you have never been to that are quite affordable to visit. Perhaps there is a new restaurant in town that serves your favorite dish.

In addition to building our personal network, we should also consider our professional network. People we met in interviews or previous workplace can present us with new job opportunities or even partnerships in the future. You will never know where you will end up tomorrow, so it will be worthwhile to keep a professional network. It may start with your college friends, your professors, your classmates, coworkers, bosses or managers or supervisors, and even people at the agency who have made it really difficult for you to get your clearance.

You can also ask others for advice or help others connect with those they need in your network. With a network, you can expand your horizons and help others expand theirs. This comes handy in the future, no matter what field you are in.

 

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Investing in Image
Our physical appearance or our mere presence creates an image of us in other people’s mind. It may not be important for you, after all you are not defined by others. However, as I have earlier mentioned, we are social creatures living in a generation that requires more active investments. Furthermore, first impression woks and it is important in our social interaction and even future career.
We are who we are and no one can take that from us. However, we should wisely invest in the image or more precisely the reputation that we hold in the society. Since this image is subjective and based on opinion, it can easily be changed by the circumstances that you are in. Your previous investments will also shape your image. However, you need to know the things you are comfortable with. You need to invest on knowing yourself. What are the things that you want to do? What are your preferences in music, arts, fashion, books or literature, movies, architecture, furniture, etc. Image is not only about your physical appearance but also your preferences in things, activities you enjoy and the people you surround yourself with.

Weight LOSS

I will start with the most crucial 😉

Let me start by reiterating that there is ‘no size fits all’ in losing weight. I tried several fads and drinks before but none of them was sustainable. YUP! Like everything else around the globe at this age, we need a sustainable diet as well. This is the first thing that you should consider when you are trying a new weight loss program. If you just want to lose weight for a month, you can check other blogs about crash diets and workouts.

In December 2015, my average weight was 48kg. In December 2017, it was 62kg. I will not go through what happened. To keep it short, it was probably caused by zero exercise, working a desk job 8-10hrs a day, and everyday fast food. Looking back, I guess my decision to quit my desk job is one of the best ones I have made. Well, you can imagine my frustration since most of my clothes –even undies, do not fit anymore. I started developing stretch marks all over my thighs and love handle. My arms were 4-5 times the size of my wrists and my core is bulging all over the place. Although I do not care so much about the society’s standard for beauty, I was not happy to see myself in the mirror. I felt sluggish as well and I feared I will spiral down to diabetes –having a family history of diabetes and hypertension.

I have been thinking of losing weight for a while but often put it on the back burner. I guess I was motivated but I lack conviction. Not until I got rashes between my thighs
Anyway.
Let us skip the rest of the backstory.

 

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THINK
With some critical thinking, I recall the things that were effective for me before. So, I suggest you start with this as well.
1. Before 6pm diet
2. Green tea (EGCG)
3. Cardio exercise (jogging)
4. Wake-up crunches
5. Oatmeal
6. Less Calories

Note: I did crash diets in the past in prep for summer getaways.

Now, I do not want to do yo-yo diets anymore. I now know that I need to maintain good health and good shape not just for the summer.

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RESEARCH
Then I researched on why these things worked. I looked into what other things are working for others.
Here are the things I found.
1. More meals vs less meals
2. No rice
3. Keto diets
4. Mediterranean diet
5. Exercise before breakfast
6. Apple Cider Vinegar
7. Baking Soda
8. Spices (cinnamon –cassia vs Ceylon)

Now, we will not delve into details here. With these materials, I started to plan my own weight loss program. As I said, what works for me may not work for you. I am interested in those topics considering that my family has a history of diabetes and I was diagnosed with PCOS before.
Relevance? Insulin resistance.

 

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ACT
Sustainable Lifestyle Changes
I do not want to go yo-yo and I do not want to crash.
With a long-term goal in mind, I decided to start slow.
First, I reduce the amount of rice. As an Asian, rice is part of my staple diet. I cannot just remove rice. So, I decided to lessen rice at first. For the entire month of January, I tried 1 cup of rice per meal. I also made sure I have enough proteins, so I always have eggs for breakfast and some meat for other meals.

Second, I incorporated some exercise. I started with basic yoga or some sort of stretching and a few crunches. My goal is to establish a habit. I need my mind and body to get used to less rice and some form of exercise in the morning.

Third, I reduced the amount of fastfood I eat.  I still ate sweets and junk foods but a lot less. I stopped drinking cola. However, I still ate fastfood and drink sprite or iced tea when we are out to buy groceries. The important thing is, I ate less.

In February, my cousin told me about OMAD and IF. I have read about them from my personal research but thought they were too extreme for me. As I have said, I was looking for something sustainable. BUT, she urged me to read through it and swore by its effectiveness. So, I got myself into their FB group and saw a lot of people changed their health and shape for the better. It was really convincing.

Looking into the guidelines, I realized that what they were doing was a bit like what I wanted to do. Moreover, IF is sustainable. I guess. I am not sure about OMAD but at least IF.
This group forced me to do additional research on
1. Ketosis
2. Calorie deficits
3. Autophagy
4. IF and OMAD

Lo and behold! This IF thing could work for me.
I should tell you briefly about IF and OMAD. IF means intermittent fasting. This works on the principle of DELAY not DENY. You can still eat whatever you want but only during your eating window. OMAD means one meal a day. It is more restrictive than IF because you can only have one big meal and small small snacks when you are hungry.

So, I decided to eat late breakfast and early dinners. I continue to stray away from basic junkfoods like chips and crackers. I still have some sweets like cupcakes and wafers when I work. I use only half of the instant coffee sachet when preparing my coffee and add some cinnamon for flavor.
For exercise, I prepared my own spot-exercise. I know it goes against normal advice. We cannot spot-reduce fats. But the thing is, I want to build different muscle groups on different days. Based on my experience, you will get really sore if you try to work all muscle groups at once. As a result, you are more likely to skip your next workout or miss it entirely. So, for an entire month, I have developed some muscles and trained my stomach on a new diet.

On March 3, 2017, I commit myself to IF -16:8/18:6. This means I will be fasting for 16-18 hours and eat only during the 6-8 hours eating window. Since I already got used to the before 6 and early small portion dinner in the past 2 months, IF was almost a breeze. However, there are times when I still get so hungry. Especially when it is that time of the month. So, I researched again on how to stay satiated.
1. Keto diets with 20grams of carbs (why?)
2. Autophagy (focus on digesting fats)
3. Bulletproof coffee (what is it and why it is recommended)

As you can see, when I research I am always looking for the whys. It is easy to see that after making ABC studies, they found 123. However, I am not satisfied with plain A>B. So,

I look deeper to the mechanisms and organic processes involved. This led to
1. Almonds
2. Omega 3
3. Leptin vs Ghrelin (do not snack)
Walnuts seem to have more benefits, we do not have lots of walnuts here. So, I settle for Almonds to keep satiated at night.
I started a calorie journal but it only lasted for 10-15 days. I think it was important to get an idea of how much calories you are taking but not necessary to actually count everything. For example, knowing that a cup of rice has about 200 calories. If I only eat half cup in the morning, 1 cup for lunch, and a few spoonful at night, I will have taken roughly 500 calories. Since my goal is to have caloric deficit to induce autophagy and increase insulin sensitivity, I need to be mindful of taking in less than 2200 calories per day. Well, 500 calories from rice means I can still eat a slice of cake and some dishes. But I cannot eat an entire family size pizza.
As for ketosis, it seems ideal to enter that state but not really sustainable for me. Our body needs to deplete its carbs and glycogen to enter ketosis and 20grams of carbs is allowable for some keto diets. Snacking is a no-no because it will make our liver work, so I tried my best to follow the advice to ride the hunger. Still, when I cannot do, I take 20grams worth of carbs even at night. I decided two spoonful of rolled oats and raisins will be fine. Taking a glass of water before the snack did the trick.
As for Omega 3, I realized we (personally) have loads of omega 6 from cooking oil alone. So, I really need to balance it with omega 3 supplement. I bought some capsules of Kirkland brand. I started taking 1 capsule before going to bed. I am not sure how it seems to ward off hunger. Somehow. But I thought it would train my body to consume fats when there is no carbs or glycogen readily available.
I hope that’s how it works. I will not vouch for it though. I am not a scientist and I did not have enough qualitative research to back that up.

So, March have been experimental. I establish a daily IF routine, morning exercises, and omega 3 at night. I was already getting some compliments before the month ends. I also noticed my horrible looking stretch marks were fading. I am not really sure if that’s due to autophagy or the omega 3 but I guess they work simultaneously.

 

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REFLECT
Here comes April. It seemed I reached the plateau that everyone in the FB group have been talking about. My weight or at least my physique appears unchanging despite continued IF. I have not measured my weight since January (60.5kg).

For April, I decided to exercise in the morning and at night. However, the intensity was a lot less, especially in the morning. I decided to remove the stairs climbing cardio and jog in place instead. I do not want to have bigger thighs. I cannot jog outside –just because. Diet is still the same, though I am drinking green tea coffee now. It is difficult to find green tea in our local supermarket. I live in the countryside, btw. I want to try OMAD at least once a week but I do not think I am already up to it. Thus, I further reduce my rice intake during breakfast and dinner. I eat enough rice for lunch because it is my main meal.
I try to move as much as I can. Since I am now working online at home, I try to set an alarm so I will get up and move every 40 minutes. I believe it is good for my eyes and overall health.

(will post update on first week of May 😉

Investments

What are investments?
-allocating something you have now for future benefit.

Most of the time, we associate investments with time and money. The most popular investment is financial, which covers monetary, business, and property investments. However, our generation also needs to invest in our health, self, and spiritual qualities because we are more expose to things that deprive us or limit us in these field. Innovation is a multi-edge sword that can improve or cripple our finances, health, self, and spirit.

I decided to blog about these topics to aid anyone who decided to take some steps to invest
Financial
Health
Spiritual
Self