I am keeping to a promise I made to my daughter, Laura; a few years ago.
I’ve chosen the image below.
Will keep you all posted with pictures in my next post.
Keeping a Promise
#65
Self Control or Discipline? Don’t be Tempted
I am finding it quite difficult to write at this very moment, not for the lack of an idea, or two, a story, or more; to have an article up for publication. It is not that I am physically unable….well, yes,…a bit.
Just stood on the weighing scales. It is not that I don’t do this ritual every day in the morning. Then again, after I come back from my 15,000 step (roughly just over 11.0 kilometers [km] or about 6.786 miles) daily walk. And then again, in the night. I take these statistics very seriously.
Coming back to having stood on that platform, that same device that people use in hopes of “telling” or “showing” them good news; however it doesn’t. Yet day in and day out, we still use it – the weighing scales. I am 6.0kg over weight. Now, how did this happen? How did this sneak past me? As a neighbor of mine, Mrs. Teoh exclaimed to me as I walked past her on my walk yesterday, “Wah! You very fat now.”
Could all the articles on my / our (including Jeannie & Laura) visits to the many restaurants and eateries have something to do with it? Well, maybe, just a little bit. However, we don’t really over eat, just have regular meals each day.
Yet, how did 6.0kg get past me? I am one who tracks my weight diligently. I go for my brisk walks. Brisk here means that the average person age 65, walks 1km in 11 minutes. I first hooked on to the speed about 4 years ago. I had to meet this time or inside this time of 11 minutes per kilometer for each of the 10km. Which means my 10km walk would take 110mins or less. In recent times, my overall total timing has slowed down by 3 – 5 minutes.
I believe that one of the biggest culprits to my weight gain is S-U-G-A-R! When I think back over the last few months, my sugar intake, be it in food or drinks has been on the rise. I love chocolate and have been eating more than my fair share per day or week.
I don’t have any sugar health issues. It is just that I want to keep my weight within the limits. For instance, when I eat something that contains a lot of sugar, I will cut back or refrain from taking in more sugary food and drinks for a couple of days at least.
Snacking is a bad habit that I used to pride myself in completely abstaining from. It is a habit not worth having and keeping.
So, while I have all the tools and knowhow to keep being overweight at bay, there is something else that I need to get back on track towards a healthy weight and get rid of my potbelly, too. That is DISCIPLINE.
I thought I was very disciplined with a regimented routine. However, the 100 grams that slip by here and the couple of hundred grams there that escape my notice, adds up. I noticed it, though, I often think I will make up for it the next day. That “next day” has not come in a long time.
Now, I have decided to “take the bulge by its flab” and address the issue. Over the last couple of days, I have cut off most of the sugar and reduced my food intake. I have also refrained from all snacking. Well, almost all. Since I love chocolate, I treat myself to a small piece a day.
I have also put more vigor in the “vigorous”, daily brisk walking. I have put in some stomach crunch exercises (10 x 3 rep) per day. The result after 3 days. Weight is down by 2.2kg. Once I regularize my healthy weight, I will work on keeping it steady.
What is better than self-control or discipline? Don’t be tempted.
AT OLDTOWN
At OldTown, for a quick dinner and catch up on some work.
Jeannie ordered a simple nasi lemak and a lime juice drink. I ordered the mee siam with a lime juice / pandan mix drink. These came as set meals – a meal and a drink as a set.
Jeannie’s meal was very spicy and tasty.
My mee siam was very tasty. It had the sourness that reminded me somewhat of the mee siam I used to get at the hawker when I was in school. His mee siam was very tasty. He added the right amount of chili, too; in each serving. This guy used be parked just outside La Salle School front gate. His mee siam was so delicious that it was always soon sold out. Any boy from La Salle School Klang in the 1970s thru’ 1980s will know of this hawker.
My lime juice is called “Assamboi Pandan Lime”. It came with added pandan syrup(?). I think It was a nice mix, though the pandan was a tad too sweet.
Working on a couple of ideas. I have to admit, this is not an ideal place to work. Very noisy. Lots of chatter very close, all round me. I don’t really mind. This creates a different atmosphere.
Happy Friday evening, everyone.
64 GOING ON 65
Date: July 9th, 2023
Time: 11.24pm
As the countdown towards the last moments that I will be 64 years old counts down; I began to ponder….Hmmn…”65 years old”. I began to compare my dad, his siblings and friends that used to frequently visit us when I was just a teenager….not too long ago….in the 1970s.
Back in the good old days…way back in the mid ’70s, 1970s that is; “ooo weee ooo…I love the rock n roll days”: Lobo’s Rock And Roll Days song comes to mind.
Coming back to being 65 and in the 1970s. We used to think of these people being so old…light years away from us. I think we were surrounded by people who labeled people past 50 as old folks. People of that era who were just creeping past 50, were already planning or /and looking forward to retirement. The old folk of that age spent mornings gathered at the coffee shop (today more popularly known as restaurants), sipping black local coffee, eating two half-boiled eggs with pepper peppered in for additional taste. Some would be reading newspapers. They while their time away towards mid-morning.
A few of them will head to their remisier’s office, sit in front of a small 14 inch or 20 inch black & white tube tv monitor and stare at the screen, watching prices of stock go up and down. These are the “investors”. At a moment’s move up or down, they instruct their remisier to buy or sell their shares. This was the usual daily routine of these “old folks” which they found self-fulfilling.
I am not belittling anyone of that era or maybe still in that “style” of living. It was (is?) an era I took note of and told myself that I have to keep active. From that time, I said that I want to be active, that there is so much to do and live, though I did not know what the “so much to do and live” meant. Maybe, I am a rebel of sorts?
I mean it never dawned on me how close “65” is from when I was a teenager. Well, the reality is 65 is here and now.
Having worked several career paths in my working life (stereotyped to be between 20 years and 60 years of age), I now write. Have been doing so for the past couple of years or more. When I first started journalising life and things as I see them, I had hopes that it would impact the lives of people in a good way. I wanted to make a dent in the world. From the responses of thousands of people from over 80 countries, many telling me how the articles I write, resonates with them in their own life experiences, I plan to keep on going. To make a bigger dent in the world. As Reverend Father Simon La Brooy in his homily at mass this morning in St Thomas More Church, Subang Jaya (2) said, “It is the experiences of life” that was and is important to him. As it is to me, as well.
None of my articles have been done with Artificial Intelligence…wait a minute…does that mean I have real intelligence or the semblance of it? None of it with ChatBGT or is it ChatGTB? ChatGBT?
I am having fun writing. Is it because it is a new found feature in my life? Not really. I have had this “feature” or skill since I was very young (now, at 65: I am a bit older). The late Brother Harold Reynolds, headmaster of La Salle School, Klang (2) (during my time as a student); always, always, always encouraged me to take up journalism. He said I had a natural talent for it. However, at that time, I wanted to try out new ideas. Oh yeah. “There’s no try. Just do”. Haha.
I was in Mid-Valley Shopping Mall, Kuala Lumpur (3); earlier on this evening, when I purchased this Crumpler bag (love the colour) for me to carry more tools of the writing trade if and when necessary.
Being 65 for me is just getting started. I have a very, very long list of things that I want to do. Don’t ask me to list them out. Haven’t figured out what they are yet. It will come as time goes on. I only plan on retiring at 120 (years, that is).😁
Looking forward to spending the day with Jeannie and Laura…❤️
NOTE:
1. I deliberately write in the present and past tense to give a sort of flavoring to this essay.
2. Subang Jaya and Klang are cities in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
3. Kuala Lumpur is a city in Malaysia.