如何保持苗条、健康？

一整年都有大吃大喝的时候！

一月：新的一年，新的学年，先吃个开心！Auntie 我生日，吃蛋糕，吃大餐！

二月：农历新年通常这时候，可能吃上三顿团圆饭！就算是一月，十五的元宵火锅也一定在二月，吃吧！

三月：第一学期结束，吃大餐庆祝加慰劳一下！还有过年的黄梨挞等零食，可以吃上几个月！

四月：都说了，黄梨挞……晚上看剧时吃最爽！

五月：孩子他们爷爷奶奶生日，吃蛋糕，吃大餐！第二学期结束，吃大餐庆祝加慰劳一下！

六月：端午节通常这时候，吃粽子！扬生日， 吃蛋糕，吃大餐！

七月：铠生日，没有蛋糕可大餐少不了！

八月：国庆日，过去通常打包炸鸡，今年可能换家常，八月没有大吃！👍

九月：第三学期结束，吃大餐庆祝加慰劳一下！中秋节通常这时候，吃月饼！

十月：宇生日，他外婆生日，吃蛋糕，吃大餐！

十一月：老公生日，吃蛋糕，吃大餐！学年结束，吃大餐庆祝加慰劳一下！

十二月：圣诞，跨年，吃大餐庆祝庆祝！

中间也少不了和老公两个一起到处吃吃喝喝，或兴起煮上十个八个馅饼、烘上几个蛋糕的。也有嘴馋时，非要买点豆沙饼什么的。

所以，回答问题：如何保持苗条、健康？还是适量吃吧！

（最近觉得有点肉，有感而发。）

A thought about plastic bags

It has been almost a year since July 2023 when the supermarkets began charging for plastic carriers.

I remember having a huge store of plastic bags from supermarkets when we had a helper. After we axed the helper, the store dwindled down to a very manageable number - always enough for rubbish with no more than a few extras just in case. 

I suspect it's the packing. Helper paid at a manned counter. The cashier probably double-bagged the milk, and we bought four to five of those 2L bottles every week. When I went to the supermarket, I packed as much as possible into one bag and I never double-bagged the milk. Sometimes, I didn't even take a bag if I bought only one bottle.

Still, when I heard the news, I felt sian, coz I would have to spend money on what had been free, to line my rubbish bins. As it turns out, I realise I don't need to spend a lot on plastic bags. Almost a year on, I'm maybe into my second or third pack of 30-a-pack plastic bags. 

In the old house, the rubbish chute was next to the lift. I only wanted to go out max once a day to throw rubbish coz I was fearful of the small (heng!) cockroaches which were often around the chute. Once, I opened the chute to find it filled with a big item that didn't go down and I had to spend more time there to push it down - didn't know which neighbour, grrrr...

Also, there was an ant nest somewhere in the kitchen and they came very quickly if I left food out. So I always put the clear bag* of food waste from food preparation into the rubbish bin. This means the rubbish bin definitely filled up by the end of the day. On days I didn't cook, the bin might not fill up but if there was any food scraps like biscuits, I would also throw out the bag.

* These are the rolled bags in supermarkets used to contain loose items of vege and fruits. I also use them to contain meat packs in case meat juices leak out. Still free in supermarkets but they seem thinner these days...

So I used at least one bag per day for rubbish in the old house. On Fridays when I empty the vacuum, it's plus one. Now, I throw out one bag every two to four days. No, not gross at all.

The chute is now right next to my sink. After preparing food, I tie up the clear bag (or ziplock bags that come with my frozen meat, a new favourite) and throw it into the chute immediately. In the evening, I also throw out a small bag of wet food scraps - could be as small as those bags for individual buns, or as big as a clear bag if I have to throw out soup scraps. A little torn? No problem - tape the hole with masking tape. 

So my rubbish bin only gets tissue, snack wraps and dry food scraps. There were ants at first but they were due to snack crumbs dropped on the floor near the bin. I cleaned out the bin a couple of times. Eventually, after applying insecticide at all entry points, I can afford to leave some food scraps in the bin for some time. The exception is banana skins which attract fruit flies easily. 

With Yang having a banana every morning, I now have a secondary bin in the fridge, to store food waste to throw later, when the rubbish bin is relatively full. These are from individually wrapped oranges, strawberry boxes, and even ice cream pint tubs - when we finish a tub of ice cream at night, we don't throw it in the bin coz it may attract ants, or down the chute coz it's not tight enough AND we don't want some nocturnal thing flying out of the chute at us! So we leave the tub in the fridge, perfect as my little food rubbish bin. 

Big empty cake boxes with cake stains can stay in the fridge too until I'm ready to bring to the bin downstairs - no point wasting a bag to bag it and it may be too large to go smoothly into the chute anyway.

Then there are bags that don't fit our rubbish bin:

• Small carrier bags, e.g. bakery, Old Chang Kee, clinic - perfect for the vacuum dust box or barley from our weekly boil. They get tied and fed directly to the chute.
• Big carrier bags, e.g. Daiso - store recycleable stuff until it's full enough to bring to the blue bin downstairs. This also helps to protect the recycleables from contaminants.
• "Untieable" bags, e.g. Watsons - I don't take them but Sito sometimes blur blur brings one home. Tie with rubber bands if I have any, or use it for recycleables.

Sometimes, we get supermarket-size plastic bags too - forget to bring our reusable bag, buying more than our bag can take, shop doesn't charge for bags :p So each pack of 30 plastic bags can last a long time. But actually, these are only slightly cheaper than the 5cents at supermarkets.

There are two side effects of charging for plastic carriers.

1) Excessive number of reusable bags!

Been around for some time. In fact, I wrote about it before. I think reusable bags are sturdier than plastic bags when it comes to heavy stuff. Nowadays, we buy six 1L cartons of milk from Cold Storage and one plastic bag would not be able to take it due to the stiff edges of the cartons. 

Usually, one bag is sufficient for me. But a few times when we went to Sheng Siong, we bought too much for our bag. I don't always remember to bring a second bag so I would buy a plastic bag.

Why don't I buy a reusable bag? Coz honestly, I have a lot of reusable bags. And I much prefer fabric bags and not the plasticky type sold at supermarkets. It's inevitable that some meat juice or vege soil will dirty the bag. I find it's better to throw it into the washing machine to wash than to just wipe with a wet cloth.

2) Dirtier chutes?

One of the first thought I had when I heard about the charging of plastic bags was whether more people would just throw rubbish directly into the chute without bagging them *.* I hope not... I'm glad we're on a high floor so less chance of unbagged rubbish hitting our chute. It's very gross lor!

I'm all for being environmentally friendlier but let's be honest, we do need plastic bags to hold some shopping and to contain rubbish. While it is possible to bring a reusable box for your next bakery run, it is not always feasible. And rubbish - if it's not contained, we will end up with smelly environments thanks to decomposing food in this hot climate!

In summary:

1. Give all the plastic bags you receive from shopping a second chance - these may be carrier bags, supermarket clear bags or bakery bun bags. Keep the big ones for lining the bin and use the small ones for peskier rubbish. Other shapes and sizes can be use to contain recycleables.
2. Fill up each bin bag so there's no wasted space - separating your waste can extend the lifespan of the bigger bin bags until they're full. Just throw peskier waste in smaller bags or keeping them in the fridge until you're ready to empty the bin.

Fathers' Day game

Yu decided on his present for Papa the Friday before Fathers' Day. He hid it and planned a treasure hunt for Papa to find. And wait, that wasn't enough - he pitted me against Papa to find the present! 

In the end, I found it and gave it to Sito :)

That's why there are two sets of clues :)

As for Kai and Yang, well, no school means no preparation!!

The third boy is really after Papa's heart :)))

First NAPFA tests

Kai and Yang had their first NAPFA tests in May. I seem to remember it being an annual event during my time, starting from P4. But now, it's for P4 and P6; I shall learn about secondary school later...

Due to COVID, Kai missed his P6 NAPFA. So the two brothers "practised" for the test - jumping across the tiles, and pulling out Sito's unused exercise mats for sit-ups.

Plus pull-ups near AhMa's place

That was taken back in September last year actually, coz they have been playing with those bars for ages. So nice to see three of them wearing the same design and standing in line with Papa :)

Kai even went jogging with Papa

But just once :p Btw, he wore Papa's shoes! Sito's current pair has a tighter fit. He wore his old pair instead.

So they passed every NAPFA item except Kai's shuttle run. Very good - Mama only passed shuttle run haha!

Gastro-intestinal issues

On 1 November last year, I had a shock when I went to pee. My pantyliner was yellow with - what?! Then I saw oil floating in the toilet bowl. It looked black but the toilet paper showed yellow so should be it.

It turned out that I leaked oil when I, um, flatulated. Such a polite word. I should just say "farted".

I continued to leak oil in the next three mornings. I don't know why there was nothing in the afternoons. After that, nothing until 9 March when I had oily poop. I continued to have oily poop for the next three days but only one episode of leaking oil when farting.

I went to the polyclinic on 2 November coz this was such an inconvenient bodily malfunction! Imagine if I were in the office?! Did an amylase test but all was fine. When I went back for a review one week later, I was referred to a gastro specialist at Alexander Hospital.

During the specialist appointment on 13 February, I brought up four issues - might as well!

1. Oily gas and poop
2. Cramps just before passing gas/poop sometimes - first instance after delivering Kai
3. Tummy ache with cold water
4. Gastric pain despite eating

Doc sent me for a CT scan and recommended gastroscopy and colonoscopy.

Had my CT scan on 20 March. Was injected with dye via an IV line. Nothing complicated. Doc called me two days later to say things look fine but my womb looked swollen so she would refer me to a gynae. I told her I decided to proceed with the scopes so she arranged those for me (I tried calling but the wait!) and postponed consultation until after that.

And now, I'm going to give a detailed breakdown of having the scopes. I hope someone who is anxious about getting these procedures may find it helpful...

So I finally had the scopes done on Friday, 7 June. Right after our anniversary lunch on 3 June, I had to stick to a restricted diet - from 4 June, I could not have vege and fruits, milk and soy products and red meat. I was given a brochure with the list of oks and not-oks when I went to collect the laxative - oh yeah, laxative, keep reading...

The diet was torturous!

Now, I'm not such a foodie. But I felt awful that I couldn't have the usual things. It's one thing if I decide to not eat. But you know, when you tell me to not think of a lizard, I'll keep thinking of a lizard *.*

So I had bread with butter, chicken noodle soup without vege, kosong instant noodles, mee hoon kway, hardboiled eggs and chicken rice. For drinks, I had only water and plain tea. I'm glad I like my tea kosong. I can't have my usual coffee without milk. Everything else, I feasted with my eyes by watching short reels on cooking...

Actually 6 June was pretty sad. I wanted chicken rice like for 5 June but the stall was closed! Luckily I had kosong instant noodles in the pantry and hardboiled eggs in the fridge. Must eat by 5 pm that day coz I had to clear my bowels from 7 pm. How?

With these!

I was supposed to finish four packs of the Fortrans with four litres of water from 7 pm to 11 pm. I had to "save" water from the afternoon so that the water could all be at room temperature - this was the only time I thought a water filter would be useful, no need to keep boiling water!

I also had to dissolve the Fortrans laxative in batches in my 500ml measuring jug as it was tricky pouring the white powder directly into the tall flask with its small mouth. These Ikea flasks have 1L capacity so just nice for one pack of Fortrans.

But four litres are really a lot of water to drink in such a short time. I'm not used to drinking even two litres throughout the day! The drink tasted like flat 100 plus but less sweet so not terribly nice too. Worse, from 8.20 pm, I started pooping madly, like every 10 min for the next hour before the frequency began to reduce, partly coz I was lagging behind in drinking...

By 9.30 pm, I was seriously falling behind in drinking. Eventually, I finished 3.5 litres by 11.30 pm. JY told me she skipped one whole pack of Fortrans. And I figured my bowels looked clear by 9 plus anyway. I'm not sure if water going through the intestine would just look yellow or if it was the Fortrans - but later when I wiped the table, I found that the wet powder was a little yellow on the cloth.

I managed to go to sleep at midnight, but woke to poop a few times. Even in the morning, I had to poop before I left the house. By then, I had poop some 20 times! Really 屁股开花 already... 

Btw, I had no anxiety. The desire to eat what I wanted filled my every braincell. No more cells to consider the risks, which are minimal anyway. That and the poop made me just want to get it over and done with.

My appointment was 10.30 am but I had to arrive at 9.30 am for preps. I changed into a kimono covering a surgical gown in a handicapped toilet - I wish they had a proper changing room... I was given a big plastic bag to keep my clothes and bag. I read an e-book until the nurse came to get me and cable-tied my bag, leaving me with only my reading glasses and slippers. My hair remained tied up, no hair cover.

Then they gave me Fliumicil to clear bubbled in my stomach, and inserted a straw in my right hand which would be where they gave me the sedative later. But the nurse warned me - my blood pressure was too low to be given the full sedative so I might not be knocked out!

Indeed, I couldn't be knocked out.

My plastic bag and slippers went under my trolley bed. A nurse removed my disposable underwear and another sprayed a numbing solution at my throat. I was to keep it there and swallowed only when told - bitter. I'm connected to a blood pressure reading machine. A mouth guard kept my mouth open while I lay down on my left. A nurse held my head still. 

We started with the stomach scope. The scope was a black tube of maybe 1.5cm diameter. I felt it a little but it wasn't painful. But as it moved, I could feel it going through to the stomach. 

And I could see the inside of my stomach! At one point, I saw lots of folds. Gosh, I could eat a lot and the stomach could take it :p Then I saw a thin orange tube going into the black scope. It emerged again on the screen and I saw the metal clip at the end. It pulled at a cute little blob in my stomach. 

Next, my bed was turned 180 degrees as my bum would now face the machine with the scope. I couldn't see but I trusted that they changed the scope? Haha!

Doctor said she would apply some gel first. I didn't really feel it. Also didn't feel the scope until she started pumping air inside to open up the colon. That was painful! It was like the cramps I feel sometimes when I need to poop/fart but this time, I couldn't!

The doctor had told me to just fart before she pumped the gas but I couldn't. Had to bear with the pain. A nurse held my belly to help manipulate the scope from the outside. Another nurse came to pat pat me and encouraged me to fart. 

But finally, it was over. No more gas. Doctor sprayed in water instead to remove remnant poop (I could see on the screen - yellow mucousy stuff) so that she could see better. No pain. 

Then the nurse put back my underwear and led me out to the resting area. As I was wheeled out, I could see a big cylinder of yellow solution - probably sucked out when doctor was spraying water inside.

At the resting area, I saw the uncle before him sipping Milo and eating biscuits. Strangely, I wasn't hungry at that time. When my drip finally finished, the nurse sat me up and gave me the same food. So nice to sip on hot Milo coz it was so cold there! 

The nurse went through the scopes with me and showed me photos taken. So I had a polyp in the stomach - yes, the cute little blob - from which the doctor had removed tissue for testing. There was also an inflamed part. Colon all ok. Then I could go.

But I had to make a trip to the toilet - last watery poop! But I continued to feel the peristalsis of the colon until the night...

At the follow-up visit this morning, I recorded 56/48 blood pressure - crazy auto machine! Anyway, doctor said the histology of the polyp had not come back but at the size of 1 cm, she recommended removing it regardless of the result. She couldn't remove it that day coz it would take more time, with a slightly higher chance of bleeding given the size, and I wasn't knocked out.

While waiting for her to schedule the scope to remove the polyp, the histology report came back - ok but may not be representative of the polyp given the small sample. I was reading that a small % of stomach polyps may become cancerous so ya, better to remove.

Waited a while more and got a date - subject to changes as they had to coordinate with an anaesthetist as well coz must put me under. Asked them to avoid PSLE dates :p

Now to tie back to the original reason for seeing the doctor? No conclusion, sighs... Everything looks fine except for the polyp. Maybe it's destined for the polyp to be discovered like this? Hope I don't get the oily farts/poop anymore...

端午节吃粽子

It's 端午节 today :)

Yesterday, we all went to Mother's place to (watch me) wrap rice dumplings. But we were very late - Yang finished his breakfast late, it rained, we went to the market to pack brunch for parents and lunch for kids.

So Mother had started wrapping some. She made them quite big as the leaves were big and complained about longer cooking time. Somehow, she couldn't manipulate the size. Nvm, mf to the rescue! Made the rest a little cuter :) Coz I like to eat two at one go so they cannot be too big :p

Yu had the patience to watch me wrap just one

Kai and Yang already watched me wrap dumplings two years ago. The kids watched a lot of Netflix while I wrapped dumplings and waited for the dumplings to cook and cool down. Sito and I had our brunch on arrival while the kids had their lunch around noon.

This time, I took way under an hour to finish up the rice. In all, there were fewer than 40 rice dumplings. We brought 19 home :)

Swung by AMK Hub to walk walk and cool down, scoring some Krispy Kreme doughtnuts along the way. Then we ended up at One HV - one receipt for milk let the three play the dragon bouncy castle while Sito brought all the food home. 

Our kids were a menace to themselves and other kids *.* Luckily, Sito came back quickly enough and I got them out of the bouncy castle...

Dinner was at Little Pond - this time, we didn't order the vege and ordered more shabu beef instead. The ice cream selection was different from last time - chocolate and green tea and surprisingly, Kai liked the green tea more! Sito and I enjoyed their hot tea :) We plan to come back to eat their skewers (with yummy Chinese spices) and enjoy free flow tea at some point :)

Anyway, this morning, we had doughtnuts for breakfast. Even though Yang enjoyed the rice dumplings two years ago, he didn't like this time! I let him have a bite of mine and he decided to have ham and cheese sandwich instead. Kai, Yu and I had two each while Sito had one. Now we're left with only 12! :(

15 :)

Been late posting in recent years :p It happens coz kids...

Mango pudding on vanilla ice cream for us :)

With our anniversary in June, it is fated that we would celebrate with kids in tow for some years at least. So we tossed some ideas about where to eat that the kids would enjoy too - steak? BBQ? Eventually we landed on...

Kiseki!

Love their expressions in that photo :) I brought them to wash hands and take photo while Sito stayed in the reservation queue. Kai was charged as adult given his height.

They had not had Japanese buffet before. Japanese BBQ buffet yes but that is different. At Kiseki, they had tempura, karaage, yakitori, mini sausages, tamago sushi, ramen, shabu beef, ice cream and jelly! But actually, they were pretty selective about what they ate. So most items were only at tasting portions. But for those they like, gosh...

Yang had 12 tamago sushi!

Kai had 10. The two of them disappeared after we put down our stuff at the table. I found them emptying out the - thankfully not big - tamago sushi tray *.* Told them to stop and try other food before going back for more...

Kai had 11 of these mini jelly cups and six tubs of ice cream!

He didn't really eat much apart from tamago sushi and sweets. He also had one yakitori (too lazy to wash hands after handing the stick with sauce), a couple of karaage (not so nice), and some noodles with beef shabu (not so nice), and tried a slice of salmon sashimi (not nice).

Yu had nine mini jelly cups and five tubs of ice cream!

In the picture, he only had eight mini jelly cups; the ninth one was later... He must have eaten the most among the kids though. While waiting to start on sweets, he just picked at the plate of beef shabu and finished it! Kai and Yang didn't really like it. 

Later, when I told him to rest after four tubs of ice cream, he discovered the mini sausages and had maybe six?! Actually I wanted him to stop eating! And of course, he also discovered the mini jelly cups. He also had prawn tempura, yakitori and some noodles. Pretty scary...

Yang decided to wait on his brothers and brought them many mini jelly cups :)

He had one and didn't enjoy it. He also had only one tub of ice cream coz it was too cold. I think he was full from the tamago sushi... Oh but he had some seven mini chocolate tarts. He didn't eat much of the others, maybe a karaage and some noodles which he didn't like.

Happily posing with all the mini jelly cups :)

It was the uncle who was clearing our plates who gave them the idea. I asked him not to clear the cups and he said sure, many customers stacked them up, some as high as 20! 

Sito and I each had our own poison. He had a hotpot going so there were the usual suspects. But we didn't have any beef shabu coz Yu finished it all and we just didn't take more. I'm the only one who enjoy sashimi so I had my fill of that, plus leftover karaage, leftover yakitori, and some tempura. We also had some of their desserts - quite nice :)

So overall, it was a very successful trip. Everyone enjoyed the food, never mind that some had more desserts than proper mains... The free flow drinks were also popular with the kids. Sito and I had quite a bit of tea at the end to wash off the grease of the food.

Happy boys :)

And so happy parents :)

Aiyoh so sweet :)

We took a walk to Plaza Sing to buy bah kwa. The salesperson was very friendly, and was happy to show me what 500g of bah kwa looked like coz I had not bought this shape for a while... Also bought tau sar piah - buy 10 get two free! But I couldn't eat them yet - more on this later...

Happening at Plaza Sing - we'll probably watch it later this month

Sito and I couldn't have dinner but we had some dessert with drama :p The kids surprised us. Actually, Yu surprised us - he was the first to say he was hungry at 6 plus. I asked the brothers - both ok to eat. So I made a simple meal - prata with ham and cheese. They were gone very quickly. Growing boys indeed!

And with that, we embarked on our 16th together as Mr and Mrs Sito :)