Earn more money, eat more food...

...and then gym more to keep the weight down. 

But I think I'm slacking in the exercising department because I can feel myself feeling bloated more frequently. Is it time for another round of Teatox? I know many people do not think much about teatox but I've tried it 3 times and each time it worked well in getting rid of the bloat and excess water. Good to try if you're only looking at cleansing your system and not to lose weight. 

There's always a ranting section in my food posts, so here's one:

I have suffered from acne for 6 years now and I cannot wait for my hormones to settle down and stop giving me shitty skin. I know 6 years is a short time for long-time acne sufferers but if you are a long-time acne sufferer, you should be able to understand the self-esteem issues that I go through. For example, yesterday I went to a trade show at Suntec City, and I had the most amazing lip look ever (a slightly dark and vampy berry colour). However, all I could think of is what others will think of my bumpy skin. I wanted to smile and interact with the stall vendors, but talking to them would mean lifting my head up, and that took a lot of struggle. Why, skin, why?! Evidently, my skin is not as bad as before, but still... 

Western medication doesn't help at all - I suffered a lot of side effects when I was prescribed those pills. So I was thinking of going for traditional Chinese medication. Anyone has done that before? Please share your experience with me. Thank you!

Ok back to food photos!

Jeremy, Kokky and I bit the bullet and queued at Tendon Ginza Itsuki for the legendary tempura bowls. It took us 50 minutes and the stuffy weather added to the torture. But hey, we had a good time talking about random things and kokky's happiness, and the server gave us all free tea, so yes it was bearable. 

Do I recommend Tendon Ginza Itsuki? The tempura bowls were definitely lovely, but the long wait might not be everyone's cup of tea, so I'm on the fence. But if you don't mind the wait, then yes it's a good place to try. They only have 2 main items on the menu - the Special tempura bowl or the Vegetable tempura bowl. Already a great indication of a quality food joint. 

Both bowls were delicious and the prices were highly affordable - Special set for S$13.90++ and Vegetable set for S$12.90++. 

I had one of the best chawanmushis in my life here! 

The Special tendon came with a deep fried onsen egg (very spectacular for eggporn videos), so if you're into the eggporn scene, order this set. 

I had the Vegetable tendon and I was pleasantly surprised. I became an eggplant convert after this bowl of goodness. They also included the deep fried lotus (!!) and I LOVED IT. The deep fried leafy vegetables were a bit greasy too. 

Ginza Tendon Itsuki

101 Tanjong Pagar Rd, Singapore 088522

Kengyang and I tried Kinsa Sushi at HillV2 and wah so nice? It's almost tears-inducing because it's quality Japanese food so near to my house. :') 

I had the Wagyu Beef Bowl. !!!!!

You know the popular beef bowl from Fat Cow? This is almost the same quality and it's much more affordable. I confirm will order this again and again and again next time.

Also lol, they had a Chirashi Cupcake. I had no expectations at all - ordered just because the dish looked pretty on the menu - but wow I was blown away! Fresh seafood atop seasoned black rice. Looked good and tasted good - rare right? :D 

Kinsa Sushi

4 Hillview Rise, HillV2 #02-02, HillV2, Singapore 669320

Finally felt the excess flab, so okay time to eat clean on weekdays, and I'm glad to report that I had salads and fruits for lunch for 4 out of the 5 working days. For a tam chiak person like me, that took serious self control hahaha. 

That's pesto and tuna on top of multiple greens. The only sauce that I will excessively eat is pesto :D

Date night - trying out Korean porridge at J-Story!

The porridge was .. okay lor. Nothing too fancy and no wow factor. BUT, I would come back for the samgyetang - so flavourful! 

J-Story

NEUE B2-53 Capitol Piazza, 15 Stamford Road, Singapore 178906

So yes, that's another round of eating. Are you sick of my food posts yet? 

I'm not that interesting of a person, so most of the time I can only share good food places. Pang chance a bit lah hor? 

Have a good Sunday guys! :) 

Food post: Szechuan noodles, salad, salmon and acai

I like to take photos of food not because I want to instagram everything that I ate, but because I remember the situations better. When I look at a food photo that I took, I remember instantly who I went out with, what the occasion was, and sometimes I even remember the conversations exchanged while eating said food. It's all very deep. Take photos of food doesn't mean very superficial hor, a lot of meaning one okay. 

Last weekend was the first busy weekend for me in a long long while. Staycation, then CNY gathering at Dorabanana's then went home to freshen up, then out again for Kengyang's dad's birthday dinner. I had no nua moment at all. Super rare indeed! 

We were at Paradise Inn for the birthday celebration and we definitely over-ordered. I ordered this bowl of Szechuan hot and sour noodle soup and I was regretting my decision after the fourth/fifth spoonfuls. SO HOT. I'm supposed to be able to tolerate high spiciness level. I ate raw green chili padi when I was 4 because I was curious. Ever since then, I think my tongue got numb to spiciness. Or maybe I thought wrong because this bowl was SO SPICY. I only managed half a bowl and I had a jolly good time in the toilet the morning after. ZZZ. 

Because I had so much good food the last weekend, I felt immense guilt and so I decided to eat healthier a bit. 

After submitting my Japan visa documents, I had this amazing plate of salad from Toss & Turn. So worth my money because halfway in, I was already full. 

Anyway, talking about visa application - why can't some applicants read up online first on what documents they have to prepare? I had some jokers who came in without bringing their identity cards, some who forgot their passport photos and some parents who applied visa on behalf of their children but didn't bring birth certificate. Never bring nevermind, still want to argue with the visa officer and telling them that it "should be" possible to make visa without those documents. Alamak, you know better or the embassy knows better?! These people took almost 10 minutes arguing. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have well-prepared individuals (like me. I'm very proud of this trait that I have okay!) who just chop, chop, chicken chop, and completed the entire application procedure in less than 1 minute. 10 well-prepared individuals could have been attended by the other visa officers if not for those jokers! 

Yesterday was date day, and so kengyang and I went to Holland Village for some fries. We dined at Everything with Fries and it was the most terrible experience of my life. 

It's not because the food was terrible. Kengyang LOVED my king salmon dish and he finished a good 75% of it and his burger dish. The problem is I have always loved eating salmon, but I found out yesterday that I hated, HATED salmon that's not cooked all the way through. Which is of course very strange, because that's how salmon is best served. Basically, I love salmon sashimi (fully raw) and grilled salmon (fully cooked with no pink parts). but this dish came with a beautiful char on the outside and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture on the inside. My first bite was heavenly, but after that it went downhill. I really couldn't swallow the really fatty and oily juices from the salmon. I always vomited while eating this and the gag reaction had nothing to do with the dish at all. I just couldn't take the texture of the fish. Kengyang looked at me as if I was crazy and he gobbled up the entire fish happily. HAHA. 

So now, I have two food items that will make me have a gag reflex:

• any type of skin that's not crispy (chicken, duck, fish, etc etc)
• this type of juicy, fatty, sashimi-grade salmon that's not fully cooked through

I only can eat super raw fish or super cooked (and dry) fish. So strange right?

Obviously my tummy wasn't happy. I needed something healthy to mask that oily, "jelat" feeling at the back of my throat. So, we went to Project Acai for some yummy Acai bowls! 

I really really really really really really really like the acai bowl (this sentence is inspired by Carly Rae Jepsen's new single which was playing when we were eating the acai bowl and Kengyang called the song "sibeh annoying"), but kengyang didn't like it as much. Typical guys haha only love meat and carbs. But I appreciated the delicious and healthy acai bowl very much and I will definitely be back (next time hopefully with Eve!). 

On a completely random note, I cleared out my room on Saturday and now my room looks so clean and empty. I threw away shoes, bags, jewelleries, and now I have so much space!

I was looking through my jewellery collection and I realised I needed a complete revamp. I need to step up my jewellery game! I especially need more statement necklaces because I have so many black outfits. Imagine the pizzazz statement necklaces will bring to my very safe black outfits!

Have a great week ahead guys! Work and play hard! 

2-Day juice cleanse with Gorilla Press Co.

One of my 2015 new year resolutions was to give juice cleansing a try. I have been looking around and I didn't want to just follow what other people purchased because most of them were either 1-day or 3-day sessions. I wanted a 2-day session and I found a 2-day Omakase Set from Gorilla Press Co. I found them through Instagram and to be honest, I was most intrigued by their glass bottles. Yah, very superficial, but if I were to make an order from Instagram/facebook, the visuals got to be impeccable right? 

You can find them at @gorillapressco on Instagram. 

Also, before I start this post proper - I was not sponsored in any way. I was curious, then found them on Instagram, then I ordered. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. 

Service 

I was incredibly impressed with their service standard. I sent them an email regarding my interest on their juices and they responded in less than 24 hours with a more in-depth explanation of the company and provided their juice menu. At that point in time, I was on a 28-day teatox, and I enquired if it was advisable to be drinking the juices and the detox tea together. Through a phonecall, they explained how some people experienced various withdrawal symptoms like headaches, and these may be worsened by detox products. So, I decided to finish the teatox session first before trying my very first juice cleanse experience. 

The most admirable thing is how they were not pushy at all. They don't pressure you into buying their juices and they don't rush their answers when you ask questions. The lady who talked to me on the phone (thank you Valerie!) was very patient and she answered my questions with thorough details. A lot of effort went into spelling out the nitty gritty to make sure that I understood what I was going to buy. She explained the types of superfoods that they had in their inventory and how their juices were made and packaged. It was overall a very informative phonecall, and I don't feel pressurized to buy a set immediately. 

When I finally did place my order (2-Day Omakase Set), they replied with a lengthy email on what to expect in terms of juice flavours and the withdrawal symptoms. I was really excited for my juices to arrive because the menu provided was too intriguing! 

Delivery was prompt and the juices were delivered to my door step. 

After the juice cleanse, Gorilla Press Co. contacted me again to find out how it went. The service was top-notch and I would certainly recommend Gorilla Press Co. for anyone who's looking for a positive juice cleanse experience. 

Packaging

When the delivery came, I was told to immediately place the the bottles in the fridge. With bottles like these, of course I cannot pass up the chance for an Instagram photo. Some more the natural lighting so good! So I spent a good 10 minutes transferring the bottles from the dining table to the floor area nearest to my living room windows and I started to snap away. 

I adore these bottles! They are very simple 500ml glass bottles that are super multi-functional! You can reuse them for storing other liquids or condiments, or you can use them at parties (because these bottles got hipster-feel leh, very cool HAHA) or you can even use them as decorations. I still have 10 bottles with me (I left 4 bottles in office and the cleaning auntie accidentally threw these 4 bottles away. *heartbreak*) and I use them daily to force myself to drink enough water. I would fill 2 bottles up with water and place them in my room, and then make sure I finish every single drop by the end of the night. It's working quite well so far! 

Very chio! 

Juices

Each bottle is labelled 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc. so that you know which bottle to grab for your juice cleanse. 

For this juice cleanse, I didn't start with 1.1. Instead, I started with 2.6. That's because at the end of my second day, I have a dinner gathering to attend and so confirm I will eat one right? So instead of starting my juice cleanse on Monday morning, I started on Sunday night with juice 2.6!

Juice 2.6 contains kale, cucumber, seasonal greens, lemon, apple with superfood chia seeds. 

• I regularly take "green" juice, so this was delightful. Some people cannot take the taste of vegetables in their juices, but I absolutely love the taste of vegetables in my juices! How awesome is that? No need to chew your vegetables, just gulp, gulp, gulp!
• The excitement of finally starting my juice cleanse also contributed to my extremely positive review of this juice - I LOVE IT. 

Each bottle had individual stoppers. Super brilliant for those who want to bring some juices along when they are out and about. No need to worry about spillage! 

Juice 1.1 and Juice 2.1 contain pear and lemon with superfood cayenned pepper. 

• This was my least favourite drink because of the cayenne pepper. The fruit juice was very sweet, not cloyingly sweet, but like you spent a lot of money on Japanese fruits kind of sweet. However, I couldn't get used to the spicy after-taste, especially after a really sweet gulp of juice. 
• The good thing is this juice certainly woke me up in the mornings. :D 

Juice 1.2 contains coconut water and coconut meat with superfood goji berries. 

• As with "green" juices, I also regularly drink coconut water and I really love the taste of coconut water so this juice was easy to down. I actually finished it way too quickly (like under 5 minutes) because it was so good. The coconut meat and crushed goji berries provided some chew and created the facade that I was "eating" something. I loved it and I wanted more of it. But na na nee poo poo, only got 1 bottle. :( 

Juice 1.3 is avocado nutmylk which is dairy-free and contains almonds, cashews, medjool dates with superfood coconut sugar and avocado. 

• Slight headache has set in because of lack of coffee. I'm a coffee slave lah so this should be of no surprise? 
• I also went to the toilet to ... clear my bowels and I was freaking hungry, so yes, I succumbed to bread. Meh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• This avocado nutmylk is really something special. I love to eat avocadoes, but I have never drunk avocadoes (even though I come from a country of avocado milkshakes), so this was a surreal experience. Very yummy and there was this strange smoky, savoury after taste that was quite addictive. So after bread and the avocado nutmylk, I was a happy camper. 

Juice 1.4 contains kale, cucumber, seasonal greens, lemon, apple and ginger with superfood spirulina. 

• I am a green-juice fanatic so anything green and anything packed with loads of vege, I will drink. No matter how terrible. This was fantastic. I also googled spirulina and am amazed at the heaps of benefits. Time to incorporate this in my diet.

Juice 1.5 is a black sesame nutmylk which is dairy-free and contains almonds, cashews, medjool dates with superfood black sesame.

• It is most unfortunate - my headache has set in quite violently. :(
• Taste-wise, this was quite yummy. It's like eating the super delicious but sinful Chinese dessert (black sesame paste) but of course this was much healthier. 

Juice 1.6 contains beetroot, cucumber, apples and superfood chia seeds.

• Oh my goodness. This headache is not funny at all. I think I'm way too reliant on coffee lah. My tummy is also bloated from all the liquids that I have been downing. I have decided to turn in early and prepare for tomorrow! 
• This bottle was really nice but I realised I should have told them to not incorporate beets into my juice cleanse menu. I have slightly low blood pressure and so consuming beets will only make my blood pressure go lower. I have fainted before last time because I had too much beet juice. Yikes. But other than personal health problems, this was lovely, especially because it has bloated chia seeds. Like eating pudding hahaha. 

One more session of the pear lemon juice with cayenne pepper on the second morning. Still couldn't get used to the taste. But I finished it nevertheless! Yay!

Juice 2.2 is cacao and maca nutmylk which is dairy-free and contains almonds, cashews, cinnamon, medjool dates with superfood cacao and maca. 

• Wow, this was a really hearty drink that's a perfect replacement for the usual breakfast food. I was very full after finishing this juice and I was pumped up to get some work done! 
• Also, an update on the headache - it got better, but it was still lingering on the second day. 

Juice 2.3 contains pineapple, cucumber, kaffir lime and ginger with superfood maca and turmeric. 

• This was a rather strange concoction and I say that because I have never used turmeric in a juice. It was strange but weirdly addictive. I would take one gulp, thought about how strange the taste was, then I would reach out for another gulp. It's almost like drinking jamu (Indonesian herbal medicine). 

Juice 2.4 is a matcha nutmylk that is dairy-free and contains almonds, cashews, medjool dates with superfood matcha. 

• You cannot go wrong with green tea one. This was a very welcomed juice because I was feeling a little bit peckish from the lack of food in my system. I was immediately full again and I was back to normal working pace. 
• It's stated as a "caffeine alternative" but to be honest, for a caffeine addict like me, nothing can serve as an alternative to caffeine. Oh well~ 

Last juice of the entire session! Juice 2.5 contains watermelon, grapefruit and mint with superfood turmeric.

• Another juice with turmeric! I was surprised at how much I liked this. The mint was a great addition - I felt refreshed and ready to head out for my dinner gathering even though I just had a long day at work. 
• One point to note - my tummy was unbelievably flat. I consumed so much liquid and it was flat. I think because I went to toilet way too many times also. :P 

And so, that concludes my 2-day juice cleanse with Gorilla Press Co. juices! The juices were delicious and the entire session was very eye-opening - I got to know of so many new superfoods! I didn't even know "maca" existed before this juice cleanse.

Other than the above juices, Gorilla Press Co. also included two bottles of coconut water for consumption throughout the 2 days.

Will I have another juice cleanse session?

As of now, I'm good and I don't think I need another juice cleanse session. To be really frank, I'm afraid of doing it again because of the crazy headache I had on the first day. It's of course largely due to my sad cells who were so deprived of caffeine.

But then again, Chinese New Year is coming and you know how this festival is damaging to self-control when it comes to food!

For those of you without such over-dependency on caffeine, this juice cleanse experience will probably be quite pleasant and smooth-sailing (different body different reaction but I'm generalising here). The juices were very tasty and I like how they included chewy bits in some juices to create that illusion that you're "eating".

A truly eye-opening and educational experience. I'm now pretty well-informed and I know what I want to add into my diet for that superfood enhancement (quite excited to buy spirulina now haha). Thank you for the great experience, Gorilla Press Co.! 

Afterglow (Keong Saik)

Eat clean lah, yoga lah, juice cleanses lah, pilates lah. It's like everyone is trying to stay as healthy as possible. But it's understandable. Once you get out of school and start working, it's really very easy to gain weight and be unfit. For me, I sit down for more than 7 hours a day and that's not recommended at all because halo that's how the tummy blubber starts to accumulate ah. 

So yes, I have also been on a health kick. I try to eat as clean as possible during the weekdays and then exercise as much as possible during the weekends. Luckily for me, I'm accustomed to eating raw vegetables since young so having salad 5 days a week is no problem at all. But I wanted something different last week, and Chay and I decided to go to Afterglow for farm-to-table, non-processed, vegan food.

To be honest, I didn't have much expectations lah. But wow, 2 out of the 3 dishes that we ordered were fantastic! It is truly a great place to dine in if you're feeling a little bit tired of the grease, salt and sugar. 

The Drag-Pom Salad was my second favourite dish of the night. Crisp mixed greens mixed with macadamia nuts, pomegranate, dragonfruit, and topped off with avocado slices. It was really sweet too - must be a good pomegranate day! 

Chay ordered the raw burger and it was alright. She was still hungry after eating this. We're not sure what root vegetable was used to mimic french fries, but we thought they were mang kwang slices. What is mang kwang in English??? Chay didn't like the mang kwang, but I love mang kwang so yay for me. Indonesians put mang kwang in their rojaks, and I love Indonesian rojak, so MANG KWANG FOR ME PLEASE. 

I ordered the Deconstructed Sushi Bowl and it was a winner! I really love this dish, and I was incredibly full after I wiped out the bowl's content. If I were to come back to Afterglow, I would definitely order this again!

Afterglow

24 Keong Saik Road 

Singapore 089131

Phone: 6224 8921

Open Mon-Sat: 12pm-11pm

Facebook

Have a great day guys! :) 

Weekend Brooding

My friends and acquaintances currently fall into two broad categories:

1. Graduate --> Work --> Get HDB --> Get married --> Travel a while --> Have children
2. Graduate --> Work --> Further their studies/travel/both at the same time

Sometimes I wonder what my heart wants me to do and whether I'll be able to do what heart wants me to do. I have a great job in a great company with great colleagues. I complain sometimes to close friends and family but I still appreciate being able to work in my area of interest and being able to learn and grow my knowledge and skills every single working day.

I also am going to select my HDB unit soon with Kengyang and it's both exciting and nerve-wrecking. If we can secure the unit of our choice, then we have less than 5 years to do what our hearts want us to do. After that, we have to go the normal route and get our marriage registered in order to get our first home.

Do I really want to stay in Singapore the entire 4 plus years? I have many grand plans of travelling to exotic places, but it's not that easy to just take off. I'm not one to quit and pursue what my heart wants. I constantly need the feeling of security and stability, and having a job fulfills that need. Also, I don't hate my job. In fact, I love my job despite some challenging days.

But of course, that nudge in my heart keeps making me question my decisions.

The only solution I can think of is to work and travel at the same time. No idea how this will turn out, but it's worth discussing with my bosses right? I'm going to Copenhagen in September to visit the company headquarters and learn from my talented Danish colleagues. I'm looking forward to it and it will be a week whereby I find out if I can do the whole work-away-from-home thing.

This reminds me of my exchange days. The first few months I was enjoying myself immensely. However, I became incredibly homesick (and of course this was when Kengyang decided to contact me again after our break-up and we decided to give the relationship one more try) and all I wanted to do was stay in my bed till the time came for me to fly home. I wonder if I have changed at all?

Kengyang and I both decided that if we were given the chance to work overseas, we'll take up the chance even if that meant both of us will be separated for quite some time. I guess the wanderlust (I hate using this word but well it's what we're feeling) is too strong now.

Moving on to beauty/health related issues, I realised as I grow older, I get more concerned with everything and anything that goes inside my body. Am I eating too much? Am I eating healthy? Do I need more supplements? Maybe some expensive juices? How about intense, daily exercising? To work on health now is an investment for the future right? I don't want to accumulate bill after bill when I'm old just because I didn't take care of myself properly when I could.

This is becoming such a ramble haha thank you for reading guys. :)

Ok, I promise this is the last turn.

I spent over S$1000 last week on a 10-session acne-targeted facial. In the past, I would have shunned such an idea. But now, oral antibiotics and topical medication don't really work on my acne anymore and I'm so tired of buying new products and praying that they will work for my skin (most of the time, they don't). So, I plunged and swiped my card. After the first trial session last Tuesday, I felt both liberated and foolish - yes I finally made an expensive decision and I have the financial power to do so, but was it a good decision? Will I get cheated/conned by this beauty salon? I went home with a surgical mask on my face (I had bio-tech extraction done on the problem areas and I didn't look very good with all the redness, so I asked for a mask, and they gladly gave one to me!) and throughout the bus ride home, I silently prayed for miracles, and I prayed that my money would not be wasted.

It has been 3 days since the facial, and I'm feeling amazing. The bumps are gone, the many tiny spots are gone and the painful cystic demons are gone. I still have scars and redness but those are concealed easily with BB cream and concealer. In the past, my foundation routine took bloody ages because I hate dthe tiny spots and I wanted to conceal as much as possible. Today, I finished applying BB cream and concealer in less than 5 minutes because all I had to cover was the scarring and redness. Indeed, the facial has worked and I'm freaking thankful. My next session will be after my Hong Kong trip and I cannot wait for it!! Once I'm done with 5 sessions and if after 5 sessions my skin still looks good and manageable, I'll share with you guys the salon! :)

OMG such a long post. Yikes.

Have a great weekend guys! :) 

Elixir Juice - Affordable Cold Pressed Juice!

I recently saw a instagram post from Tammy Tay (@ohsofickle) about Elixir Juice and I immediately clicked the link and browsed the website because I really wanted to find a company that sells affordable cold-pressed juices! 

Furthermore, after doing my research (thanks to my resourceful friends) on juice cleansing, I decided that I didn't want to go on a juice-cleanse. In case you don't know what a juice cleanse is, it's a dietary modification whereby the user consumes different types of juices only for a preferred period of time. Many cold-pressed juice companies provide a 1-day, 3-day or 5-day juice cleanse systems. These systems are also remarkably expensive. The highest price I have seen was over S$500 for a 5-day juice cleanse. Of course, there are some people out there who choose to pay that amount for their health and wellbeing. I will not make judgements on them because it's their choice and if they can afford it then why not right? Personally? I think it's way too exorbitant and I think my body (and soul, and mind, and my everything) cannot take just having juice for more than a day. I love food way too much. HAHA. 

This is why Elixir Juice is perfect for me! Just a quick disclaimer - I am NOT sponsored by Elixir Juice. I have purchased the box of 6 bottles with my own money and I genuinely love everything about this company, hence I'm dedicating a post entirely to Elixir Juice! 

4 main reasons on why I love Elixir Juice:

1. Compared to other similar companies/websites, Elixir Juice juices are very affordable. Like S$5-S$7 a bottle affordable. My set of 6 juices was only slightly over S$40, and that's with delivery charges included! 
2. The juices are described as compliments to daily meals. I love this concept! Instead of forcing the idea of juice cleansing, they encourage replacing soft drinks or other sweetened drinks with their juices. This way, your body will gradually adapt to the healthy changes that you are making and in the long run, I think it's more beneficial for your health! Another reason why I don't want to embark on a juice cleanse is because I don't want to let my body go into a "shock" mode because I'm forcing it to handle just juices for a day or more. Hence, thank you Elixir Juice for providing a platform for people like me! 
3. The ordering and delivery process was amazing. Your order will be in packages. Each package contains 6 bottles and in each package you can choose up to 3 different types of juices (they have 32!!). So basically, you can only order in multiples of 6. 
4. The juices taste FANTASTIC. Even those that had primarily vegetables as ingredients. Maybe I'm just used to drinking vegetable juices.  

I think I'm going to make another order now. I really love Elixir Juice! Please don't ever raise your prices okay!!!!

Elixir Juice Website

Elixir Juice Facebook

Health supplements for hormonal acne

I'm going crazy over my hormonal acne. I will have 2 days of no breakouts and then then third day I'll have breakouts at unexpected places (e.g. next to my lip, above my eyebrows). It sucks even more because skincare products that are supposed to help with acne don't really work on my skin. Yes, I my face doesn't feel as oily as before, but the spots keep coming.

If the pimples are those with pus, it's still fine, because you know they will eventually go away. But the ones I have don't even have pus in them! Just spots all around my chin and upper lip area. They are even more obvious when I use concealer. Such a bother.

Hence, I have decided to be more proactive. Let's take some health supplements! Don't worry, I'm not taking random health supplements. I have researched for close to two weeks and reading through good and bad reviews, recommended dosages, and all that awesomeness, I have decided to stick with Blackmores Bio Ace Plus and Blackmore Bio Zinc.

Nope, I'm not taking both at the same time - that will be major overdosage and I'll die...probably.

I'm planning to take Bio Ace Plus for 30 days first since it contains selenium and grape seed extract which really helps in healthy skin. Then after that, I'll continue with Bio Zinc for 90 days to maintain my skin. Bio Zinc is somewhat similar to Bio Ace Plus, just that the latter contains a higher dosage of vitamin A and has selenium and grape seed extract.

Let's see if I'll see miracles! I'm not expecting instant results, but a month or two is a good period right?

Ah these skin issues of mine. :(

Also, I just started on Insanity workout yesterday and my body is aching SO BAD. But IMMA PERSEVERE! ABS COME TO ME!

Low blood pressure - Me?? Really??

The past couple of weeks have been rough. Psychologically, I was healing myself from unnecessary negative thoughts. While doing that, I think I ignored my physical state.

I have been having constant backaches and stiff necks. Migraine attacks hit me more frequently too. Sometimes, whenever I stand up, I get dizzy spells which only subside after I close my eyes and calm myself down. Worse still, I keep getting these weird chest pains when sleeping! Yesterday morning, out of the blue, I had a high fever. To be frank, I didn't care so much about the fever. I thought maybe it was just heatiness, so I woke up as usual and prepared for work. After showering, I almost fainted in the bathroom. Thank God my bathroom is small and I could just lean on the wall to compose myself.

I was freaked out and decided to give work a miss, and of course consult a doctor.

The doctor said I wasn't eating enough and that I was low on iron, hence I have low blood pressure. This is such a foreign term to me. My family history is mostly plagued with high blood pressure/heart attacks/high cholesterol, so I was shocked to find out that I was the complete opposite.

On the way home, I was curious. I have always been researching on high blood pressure and high cholesterol because I was expecting myself to get them. But low blood pressure? Really??

Google really is a magical place and I realised I did have all the symptoms of having low blood pressure.

Hence, it's time to share this newly-acquired knowledge with all you readers!

What are the symptoms of low blood pressure? (Taken from: http://voices.yahoo.com/10-common-symptoms-low-blood-pressure-4843936.html)

• Dizziness and lightheartedness
• Fainting spells
• Chest pains
• Black/maroon stools 
• Irregular heartbeat
• Headache
• Back pain/stiff neck
• Consistent high fever
• Wheezing
• Burning sensation in the urine

I had almost all the above symptoms and I stupidly ignored them. What an idiot. :( 

The doctor also said that it was good that I consulted him early because if I continued ignoring the symptoms, low blood pressure can lead to brain damage (?!) since the first organ to malfunction for serious low blood pressure is the brain. Freaked me out quite a bit, but I'm glad I have some meds to get my blood pressure back on track now. 

I read online and apparently some people are born with low blood pressure, which can be good because that reduces the chances of stroke or heart attacks (associated with high blood pressure). However, prolonged symptoms of a more serious low blood pressure cannot be ignored. 

There are medication available to treat low blood pressure, but the doctor advised me to go the natural way. He gave me some iron tablets though since I was really low on that. 

Natural ways to treat low blood pressure (as advised by the very kind doctor):

• Hydrate yourself sufficiently. 
• Cut the coffee. I told him I was on at least 3 servings last time and I got a scolding (LOL). Now I drink once a day or once every two days, so that's remarkable improvement. 
• Eat more. I don't really eat breakfast (except for coffee and the occasional milo), so yes serves me right. 
• Eat more red meat. This is to increase the iron levels in the body naturally. 
• Sleep more. 
• Exercise regularly, but don't exercise too much. 
• Cut down on alcoholic drinks.
• Avoid prolonged exposure to hot water, especially in the shower.

It's still bewildering to me how I can be diagnosed with low blood pressure. However, looking at my diet, I can see why I have low blood pressure. 

Hopefully, my migraines and dizziness will go away soon because it's affecting my work and my everyday life! GO AWAY YOU, GO AWAY!

Stay health guys! :) Have a find weekend!