Thoughts On Exercising

As much as I try to deny the weighing scale any hold over me, I still get on it every single day--and twice. When this addiction of my constant kg-patrol began, I can't remember. All I know is, and as terrible as it sounds, whatever digits manifest on my mini pink digital scale dictate how I'll spend the rest of my day.

Myself being an exercise-fiend or any form of physical activity, really, "commitophobia" always creeps up on me whenever I sign up for a gym membership. In the two years I've been living here in Japan, I've been a bit of a gym-whore, having gotten around a bit, you know. Jokes, I've only been to three: 2 months at a Bikram Yoga studio, 3 months at a previous gym and just between you and me, I think I'm going steady with my gym now. We stand at 4 going on 5 months. :3

The complexity of the conversations I have with myself about going to exercise are wildly entertaining. It always starts with "I'm going today" then erodes to "We'll see how the day goes" and then there are bad days when it drops to an abyss of self-destruction, "Screw you, Body". However, I realised, the MOST DIFFICULT part about exercising at the gym is actually getting there. The very moment I step inside the gym and slip into my one-piece swimsuit (I know, so very unattractive), my fate has been sealed. I have also began taking pleasure in the idea of playing mermaid with sheer disregard of everyone else around me.

Frankly, I don't think I would've consciously decided on religiously exercising if not for the embarrassing weight I gained post-uni. Since last year, I've lost about 5kg and not through any crazy red flag-raising diets like before but just by eating less dirty and living less sedentary. I try to be as mobile in any way possible (walking, cycling, swimming) because I do love me some food. More than wanting to lose weight though, exercising gives me the only time I can shut my thoughts off and just focus on finishing the lap. I used to raise an eyebrow at people who went to the gym to de-stress because I thought being at the gym was stressful but I think I may now be one of them. The swimming pool is one of my current favourite places (next to my mum's kitchen, of course).

It's funny that as I write this I'm already at the second stage of my Exercise Debate. I'm exhausted having barely slept last night because I was hungry. I was hungry because I only had a spinach and blueberry juice for dinner. I had just that because I weighed myself after my swim and the numbers were not so much admirable hence the skewed decisions. See what I mean?

Thoughts On Sleeping Better

I have trouble sleeping most nights. Lest I sound wanting to feel special (or defensive for that matter), I know many others struggle with falling asleep, too. However, those are different things. It's unfortunate but I suffer from both. I have tried every trick: counting sheep, drinking chamomile, meditating, reading from my Kindle, stalking beautiful creatures on Instagram. DO NOT DO the last thing, btw.

So on nights when I'm wide awake like a deer on headlights, I get on my phone searching, ogling for whatever I can purchase because new things make me happy like that.

Bottom right: Aesop but from The B Shop.

The latest obsession comes in the usual liquid form (not liquor, btw). I'm 22 and though there's a higher probability that I'm just overreacting, I have an omnipresent fear of ageing, as in looking old. Despite my theory that all these beauty forums are only ingeniously engineered to drive self-absorbed individuals like myself to mass consumption of their commercial products, I find a couple of upsides to it: 1) I'm driving the economy. 2) I'm happy with a better chance of falling asleep and sleeping.

Despite living in a place where the soul of the loyal skincare-disciple is fed well by Shiseido, Shu Eumura, SKII etc, I found my hunger veer elsewhere, particularly strong favour towards less popular beauty lines like Trilogy (among Asians, at least). Note that this favour only comes from diligent research online. I haven't actually tried any products from Trilogy prior to being hooked on it. I'm so trusting like that.

A quick stockist search and I've found my new Mecca: Cosme Kitchen. The photos above are nervous snaps I took whilst browsing through their merchandise. Balms for the lips, hands, body, organic hair products, organic make-up, I felt so dirty being there. I wanted everything. But as my bank account dictates my life's decisions, I had to settle for a single purchase that was enough to get me a membership  plus a 10% discount. 

My beauty haul: Nars concealer, Trilogy RHO, Shu Uemura eyebrow brush

Perhaps I will sleep better from now on. Perhaps not. But it's alright. I'm happy now.

South Coast Road Trip Vol. 2: Common Ground Café, Katoomba

We haven't had a working internet connection at our apartment building the entire week. I think it's one of those situations when push comes to shove: I  think it's about time to subscribe to a private connection. It was another long week that involved a lot of work, feelings and eating the latter. I'm just glad that I can always take refuge at my folks' where I can always expect the best leftover home-cooked meals by my mum, fresh pyjamas and fail-proof wifi, too.

South Coast Road Trip: Vol. 1: FLAT ROCK

"Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough."

-Alain de Botton

Sometimes Twitter can be full of rubbish (that I graciously contribute to) but sometimes, in that pile, you find gems like the quote above.

It's surprising how fast time has elapsed and we're already halfway through the year. Though I can't say that  I'm a better evolved version of myself from the onset of 2013, I do feel as if I have made better decisions this time compared to last year. And in light of making better decisions, I'm going to make the conscious effort of sharing some photos from my previous travels starting with the ones I took from the holiday road trip with Ivy and Rich.

These are from the first stop we literally made on the way to Cowra from Sydney. It began pouring bullet-sized raindrops just as we were closing in thus drawing some disappointment from us. But sometimes the clouds can take you by surprise and then just like that, we could step out of the car and take in such captivating views and even go further by immortalising them through a few photos.

When In Transit

I've just learned that ALL of my photos and videos from ALL of my travels in 2012 are now in a much better place (as I hope). You may judge and I'll respect that because it was not smart of me to have all them only saved in an external hard drive.

I'm in the midst of my grieving process and while at it, there have been a few people who have given me small patches of hope in retrieving the files. I haven't looked into them yet.

I was in Beijing for an entire day in transit from Sydney as our flight back to Nagoya was bumped to a much later schedule in the evening. I hate lay-overs but having never been to Beijing before, I thought it was an opportune time to see the sights I have only ever read about.

Here are some clips from the shameless touristy things my sister and I did at the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven.

I look forward to flying to China again someday. I'm not sure I'm keen about Beijing sans The Great Wall but I've set my sights on Shanghai.

Beijing Express

from inadizzle on Vimeo.

Asahi Brewery Tour, Nagoya

Beautiful view from the beginning of the tour

So it's a weekday noon in Nagoya, you're already done for the day. You're having lunch and enjoying a glass of draft beer, you know, the usual. You scramble for ideas on how else you should be spending the rest of the afternoon because you've recently embraced the carpe diem-motto. What do you do?

Good Eats: Mamak, Chatswood

It's only been nine days since I got back from my holiday in the Philippines. N-I-N-E. And I already find myself having travel-envy. I'm back on the daily grind of going to work, dying in the pool and emotionally tormenting myself as I forcefully subsist on canned tuna (I'm so sick of salmon, to be honest).

As a creature of habit, I'm back to combing Skyscanner and Expedia for whatever deals they have on offer. I speak as if I can afford it at the moment but in a Utopian world, I would be walking around Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur now, just eating my body weight away. Budget Flights gods, hear me out?

Malaysia's one of the countries I never really had thought of much, if not at all until I first traveled to Australia. As I've previously elaborated on before through my shameless foodstagramming, food is a major selling point for me when it comes to travel. There's an already sizable and still growing population of Malaysians especially in Sydney so it's not surprising how you could easily walk past a restaurant that proudly shouts of home. My Mamak experience only wrote my promise of travelling to Malaysia on stone.

From what very little understanding I have, "mamak" basically refers to a food stall that sells Malaysian/Muslim/Hindu dishes. That's the great thing about Asia, you never have to walk to anywhere to enjoy a delicious meal because these food vendors just come at you from everywhere!

Malaysian-style Iced Tea with milk

It was the perfect last supper to be had. Mamak in Sydney was sitting firmly in my list of restaurants for my holiday which led to my frustration because each time we planned on eating there, getting seated was just ridiculous. It had to be at least an hour and a half wait outside their Chinatown branch! Newsflash: head to Chatswood on a weekday instead.

I had an early onset of separation anxiety and I was certain only Asian food could make me feel better. That feeling coupled with the tower-high expectations I had of Mamak's food, I was in choice-paralysis. Luckily, I dined with two people who had good heads over their shoulders and an accountable Malay food experience, I let them do the ordering for us.

Mamak's pride and joy

We start with some Malaysian staples like the Teh Ais and Roti Canai. Many people would argue Mamak to be The Best Malaysian restaurant in Sydney however I think there is no contest when it comes to their Roti. Fluffy, almost pillowy in texture, and then doused in either of the curries and the spicy sambal sauce. Wow.

Stir-fried Maggi noodles

It felt like an instant throwback to my childhood when the Maggi Goreng landed on our table. I haven't had Maggi noodles in forever! I remember how exciting it was to have it each time because of the free Disney stickers in every packet. However. I didn't find this too special as I thought it to be lot similar to pancit canton (and also because I'm not a fan of noodles). I was saving my food rage on the satay and nasi lemak.

I'm a peanut-head yet it was still dumbfounding to me how brilliantly thought of the dishes were! Everything I needed in life that time was literally served on a plate. I would particularly harp about the nasi lemak. The dried fish sweet, the sambal spicy, the fried chicken salty, the cucumber fresh and the peanuts perfect, it was an epicurean dream come true.

Malaysia, stop flirting with me like that.

I'm not sure if writing about this is the scratching my travel-itch warrants.



Nope, it's not. Off to Skyscanner I go.