Why is it always a struggle?

Why is it always so hard?

Do I really not want it?

Why doesn't it get easier after such a long time?

Sigh...

Finding Common Interests Online

Bored, I went online to read some personal finance blogs, and I chanced upon this Get Rich Slowly, about how this guy managed to pay off his credit card debts, and live a frugal existence.  More interestingly, I noted that this chappie was also on a Weight Loss Regime that coincided with his Expense Reduction Regime.  Apparently, these two activities, contrary to what I've always felt, are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, he felt these two activities shared alot of similarities. In fact, you can probably do some word replacements ("budget" for "weight","spend" for "eat", etc) to derive financial wisdom...

Quoting him:

1. Maintaining a healthy weight is more about mind than it is about math. The math is simple — calories in, calories burned. But that’s obviously not enough. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a common trait among people who lose weight and keep it off is that they seek support from family members and friends. When your negative thoughts get in the way of your goal, turn to your support group for encouragement.
2. Goals are important. Be realistic, and think about process goals. For instance, instead of focusing on losing 20 pounds, make it your goal to eat five servings of vegetables and workout for 45 minutes a day.
3. Eat less than you burn. In other words, track what you eat, even if only for a few weeks. You’ll learn about your habits and triggers, which is instrumental for long-term weight maintenance.
4. Eat your proteins and veggies first. Before you reach for the bread basket or down 16 ounces of soda, fill up on something nutritious.
5. Small amounts matter. If you can’t fit in a two-hour run, don’t get frustrated and give up. Do you have 30 minutes? Consistency is what is important. Likewise, swapping a frappucino for a latte might seem insignificant, until you calculate the calorie difference.
6. Large amounts matter, too. It’s just not reasonable to eat a pint of ice cream and expect to make it up at the gym the next day. Learn about portion control.
7. Do what works for you. As with personal finance, there is no one answer. I can tell you my secret was eating kale, but maybe you hate kale. You can tell me that running was the key to your success, and just hearing about it will make my knee hurt. There are a lot of healthy foods and calorie-torching activities out there — experiment until you figure out what you like.
8. Slow and steady wins the race. To quote J.D. when he wrote about this in a personal finance context, “Recognize that you’re in this for the long haul. You’re making a lifestyle change, not looking for a quick fix.”
9. The perfect is the enemy of the good. Don’t bother looking for the “best” weight loss plan — there’s not one. Get started and tweak your plan as you go.
10. Failure is okay. Maintaining your weight is something you’ll do for the rest of your life. There will be vacations, birthdays, and holiday seasons that throw you off track. That’s okay. Get back into your good habits, and make a plan to have healthy foods on hand and fit in some exercise the next time your routine changes.
11. It’s more important to be happy than it is to be skinny. Don’t become obsessed with celebrities diets and models who walk the Victoria’s Secret runway a week after giving birth. As with money, if you’re happy, your weight can be easier to manage, especially if you eat ice cream when you’re sad or reach for potato chips when you’re bored.
12. Do it now. It’s easy to put off weight loss until bikini season hits and you can’t hide under a sweater, but the sooner your start moving toward your goals, the easier they are to reach.

He states that even though he doesn't spend alot, and makes it a point to scrimp and save (coupons, sales, control whims), he splashed out for his Gym membership and his bike.  All these makes me feel a lot better about maintaining my super expensive Fitness First membership, which has definitely paid off.  Since I joined it in May last year, I have lost about 12-13kg, depending on my (unknown) weight right now.

The chappie also bought a bike and works out daily, especially in the morning, so that he doesn't have to wonder and worry about exercising for the rest of the day.  I've been wondering a little lately if I should save up and buy myself a road bike to ride to work, thereby giving the daily commute on the MRT the Kiss of Death.  A lot of accidents occur to riders, and I can see why.  As a driver, I usually get quite annoyed with the road bikers, who either want to throw away their lives, or are complete road hogs.  Frankly, we aren't that near to a riding society as yet, even though we are taking baby steps towards it.  I guess I was spoilt in Boston, where there are dedicated bike lanes, plenty of places to park bikes, and the city actively encourages riding as much as possible.  Plus, it's not so damn hot!

There's also a new possibility that I've discovered.  Before I got shipped off to Manama, I actually managed to run home a couple of times, and it's definitely a fantastic experience, albeit time-consuming (at least 1.5 hours), super exhausting(too tired to do anything else once I'm done), and super tedious (leaving work clothes in office, bringing extra clothes the next day).  Still, I've been psycho-ing myself to attempt this twice a week; will see how.

Conclusion is that I need to wake up early and get my exercise in before work every morning.  It takes 21 days to form a habit right?  Hopefully, Manama will give me the shot in the arm I need to start this.  The chappie on the blog targets to lose 50 lbs this year, and he lost 20 lbs so far, and I'm very encouraged to see people having similar goals and targets and succeeding.  In fact, I'm going to use him as my role model, and like him, have time to work out daily, enjoy doing it, and not spend too much while doing so (i.e. wait till my weight is stabilized before I buy nice clothes to reward myself).

Bahrain!

After 1.5 years of waiting, I've arrived in Bahrain!  The word "Finally" doesn't half describe the agony of waiting and getting disappointed time and again.

We're staying at the Somerset Al Fateh, part of the Ascott Group of Singapore.  The apartment on the 12th floor is really nice, and I'm staying in the Master Bedroom, which has an attached bathroom with a JACUZZI!  Haha, I've been using it every 2 days so far, and it's fun just to lie down and soak in the bubbliness of the waters after an exhausting work-out.  The apartment is kind of out of the way of all the restaurants and malls.  Thankfully we rented a Toyota Camry (TABASCO-coloured) 2008 model, and have drove exploring a couple of evenings after work.

Here are some pictures of the apartment! 

The living room has tv, stereo (never used before), and the ironing board.  We have wireless internet all over the building, but it basically konks out every single day, especially in the mornings when I need to conference call Singapore.  Did I ever mention that I hateeee ironing?  Absolutely the worst activity ever.

The kitchen is very well-equipped, has all the pots, pans, spoons, cups and all.  Shouldn't have wasted my luggage space carrying my cutlery, but at least now I have chopsticks and soup spoon (which I have yet to use, and will probably never ever use in my entire month of stay in Bahrain.

We have a balcony which we hardly step out (the winds are very strong, and blows alot of sand all the time, so we keep all the windows and balcony shut all the time).  Heard there was a sandstorm the week before I arrived, and Bahrain gets the equivalent of haze too, from all the sandstorm and the winds.  It has a good view actually, and we're close to the 'sea', but it feels super duper man-made and artificial, since the land is reclaimed, there's no beach, and no ships or sea life whatsoever.  Wonder if the entire Middle-East is like that as well.

A close-up view of Manama City directly from my balcony.  They have pretty decent architecture here, and land is super plentiful.  Oh, we discovered that the Bahrainis don't really have the concept of addresses.  When asking for directions, they only say it's in so-and-so district, and not provide things like unit number, street number or what-nots!  Even Government agencies and all only utilise a P.O. Box number for their stated addresses.  Damn weird right?

This is my bedroom!  The bed is uber comfortable, can, and have been rolling around when i sleep.  There's also a work table, and even a tv (with cable).  I have been watching Wimbledon on the tv, showing at a much more decent timing than in Singapore.  Same for the World Cup, but it is only available on the ground floor.  That's ok, better to watch with others and cheer/jeer together than to watch by oneself.  Too bad there's no alcohol to drink while cheering on the teams.  Would have generated alot of sales.

My jacuzzzzzi!  I think I want a jacuzzi next time in my place, really removes all the aches and tiredness away chop-chop!  As a service apartment, they come in and replace the towels and stuff daily, EXCEPT fridays, which is their day of rest.  The weekends here are Fridays and Saturdays, so I guess their equivalent of end of workweek night out is Thursday evenings?




The pool!  There's actually two pools here, one on 7th floor, and other on the ground floor, but my colleague tells me the 7th floor one is directly in view of the construction workers in the next building.  The pool looks good, right?  But it's actually super murky, with all the accumulated sand and all.  Can't even see the wall very clearly until I'm almost hitting it.  The palms trees show you how strong the winds here can get.

Our first meal, we ordered in Macs, haha!  I had the McSpicy, and it was quite delicious!  No such thing as an Arabian-y type smell or taste, they are very good at maintaining the quality of fast food here!  Will talk about that next blog.




Oh ya, I've been jetlagging very badly lately, last night slept at 10pm, but woke up at 1am, then 3am, 4am, etc.  Plus, there's construction going on all around us, and they freaking start work at 1+.  I swear I hear them clanking and hammering stuff in the middle of the night, it's super duper annoying! 

Alright, I'm done posting this time round, so will write more later.