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.

Vox

AT THE OFFICE

Another day at the office. Location: Just outside of Starbucks (the non-aircon area), at Sunway Pyramid.

Taking a picture using my Samsung Galaxy S-23 Ultra. Here, I am using the S-Pen to shoot the shots.

Not very conducive working here at the moment. A group of young guys are happily chatting away and laughing out loud. Perfectly alright with me as they are happy. I have to master the art of working in even the noisest conditions..

I decided to sit outside here to get another perspective of my “office”. Location: Wherever I am at that moment.

I like this sort of arrangement, where I can work from anywhere at anytime. Different places, different ambiences and environments. Sunway Pyramid was not in a over-crowded situation as it was last week. The main concourse areas where roadshows are usually held was empty. Thursday is almost up. Are we going to see empty concourse areas this weekend instead of the usual roadshows that take up these spaces every weekend and sometimes week days too?

I am not complaining as I did not have to weave in between so many people just to get from one place to another. The shopping mall experience last weekend was uncomfortable. Not only here in Sunway Pyramid; but Mid-Valley Shopping Mall and 1- Utama Shopping Mall. We were at 3 shopping malls last week, quite a feat I think. Though it is quite the norm among Malaysians.

If any of you are around this area, you can meet me here. Just to get you in perspective, today is August 10th. Time: 9.37pm. However, I won’t be here for much longer. Have been here for over an hour, just after having popiah for dinner with Jeannie at “Sisters’ crispy popiah”.

The popiah today was not up to it’s mark, not as good as it usually is.

Yes, it’s me😁

I will be heading home soon, where I hope to put more ideas down for my book. A lot more planning has to go into the book. I know I have not even begun to get the real thing going. But it has started and that is a beginning.

Oh, at the Sisters’ Crispy popiah mini restaurant, they serve a fruity drink called “umbra” I think. Super delicious! The main ingredient is umbra. I think it has a tinge of lime in it. A “kana” (preserved plum) is added. Water and ice. When swallowing this delicious drink, I can feel the coarseness of the umbra fruit fibre in the drink graze against the back of my throat. The more coarse, the more “shock” the drink is. Even more oomph when it is cold. You should try it.

NOTE:
All photographs were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S-23 Ultra, with the aid of the S-pen for the shutter button. I have not gotten the hang of using my Fold 3 for selfie pictures, especially when it is unfolded. There are quite a few things that this ultimate device of devices, can’t do. Though it has quite a few competitors that have entered the market, the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 (the latest iteration of the Fold), is still king of the Foldables.

TEARS OF JOY

That’s the best way to describe our meal, to be more specific, meal.

We, Jeannie and I, are at OldTown Kopitiam restaurant at Empire Gallery Shopping Mall, Subang Jaya. We dropped Laura off at the gym and decided to have our dinner here.

Jeannie is the order taker. I am at work.

Jeannie, working in a food related industry, takes it upon herself to go through the menus of restaurants. I find that menus can get quite complicated. More frustrating is in many restaurants now, they “encourage” you to scan a QR code with your phone, open the menu on your phone and scroll and scroll and scroll. And scroll and scroll through their menu. Wait a minute… Did I order a chicken meal with side orders…was it a set with a drink included?…Scroll up to check it again. Then, continue to scroll down looking at the pictures on the menu, which look so small and you can’t enlarge them to get a better view. Can you imagine if you had 3 people or more ordering together? Frustrating.

What about those large order screens at the fast food joints, where you have to scroll through their pages of menu. Tapping on the sometimes poor responsive screens can be numbing to your fingers. For the fast food and “specials of the day or week”, they don’t show up on the large screens. You have to scroll through the app on your phone to make the right choice. A case in question was the other day at McD’s. Surprisingly, Artificial Intelligence or it’s more famous identity, “A.I.”; has not caught on to this to make decisions for each and every individual. 😏

The expert orderer at work.

Fortunately with a great sense of relief; Oldtown still has physical menus that makes it so much easier to make our food orders, confidently.

Our meal, arrived.

Jeannie ordered two soft boiled Omega eggs, Kaya butter dark brown bread toast and a soya bean milk (hot) drink. Her soya bean milk looked like it was a two-colored drink: the bottom half of the drink looked dark brown and the top part; white.

I ordered a Meehoon Siam bungkus and a Assamboi Pandan Lime drink. “Bungkus” (1) was just part of the name of the meal, as it did not come “bungkus-ed” (Bahasa Malaysia word with a sprinkling of English in past tense – English-ed by me😉😅).

Jeannie’s set order: Kaya butter dark brown bread toast, two soft boiled Omega eggs and a soya bean milk (hot) drink.

Though I am not into soft boiled eggs, Jeannie’s meal order looked good. Not heavy for dinner. Top marks for presentation even though this is a simple meal. It certainly makes the meal look appetizing.

Just by looking at the brown bread in the picture, you know it is good and tasty. The usual condiments that would come with the soft boiled (more commonly know here as “half boiled”) eggs is the “kicap” (pronounced as “ki chup”) or soy sauce (in English), and pepper. These items came in little sachets with the meal. Quite unusual.

In most coffee shops (restaurants), the soy sauce comes in this type of container, together with your order of half boiled eggs.
The soft spoken waitress who took our orders.

My meehoon Siam bungkus. As you can see, it is not bungkus. The dark brown onion sambal looks dangerously spicy. It was!

My “unbungkused” Meehoon Siam bungkus look very appertizing when it came. Nice presentation. It came with two large slices of cucumber, strips of fried egg, some green vegetable (more commonly referred to as “vege” in Malaysia), a slice of lime, and what looked dangerous yet delicious – sambal with lots of onions in it.

My meal did not disappoint. I was perspiring 😅 from eating the very spicy sambal though the restaurant was air-conditioned. In fact, the sambal created tears of joy. 😂 Squeezing the lime juice on it gave it a slightly tangy taste. The “Meehoon Siam Bungkus” is worth the try.

The Assamboi Pandan Lime drink is worth a mention, too. I talked a little about it in my previous article: http://leatherpotato.com/2023/07/14/at-oldtown/
It comes with an assamboi (1 seed), a slice of lime and sweet pandan syrup. The drink was not too sweet this time round. Nice drink.

One very satisfied customer after her meal.

Oldtown is worth the place to come and dine at. Meals are reasonbly priced. Nice ambience – Fairly typical nyonya (baba?) setting.

Jeannie and I had a good evening here.

NOTE :
1. Bungkus is the Malay or Bahasa Malaysia word for “packed”.
2. Oldtown Kopitiam restaurant at Empire Gallery Shopping Mall, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

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.