Dumpling festival

this year, i helped my grandma and aunt with the making of dumplings. They're making it for sale so i can't practise much with the wrapping. Anyway, i learned how to put in the ingredients the proper way so my aunt can wrap it easily. I never knew that making dumplings is that laborious. i think one whole afternoon of dumpling making is equivalent to jogging on treadmill at speed erm.. 5 or 5.5 for 30 minutes. I'm estimating it based on the amount of my sweats :p
but i didn't eat a lot of the dumplings. Because last week i had problem of indigestion, maybe due to too much heavy food.

for any of you who are taking meal replacement as a weight-loss tool, you can try mixing the meal replacement with yoghurt drink plus banana. I saw this on a magazine. Haven't tried it out though but it sounds delicious to me. Compare to other fruits, banana has more calories but many magazines i've read claimed that it's good for weight loss, as it is an effective solution to treat fluid retention. I never really understand the way they explain it in chinese. But i guess it's got to do with the high potassium content in banana. Too much salt will lead to fluid retention. With the high potassium from banana, i assume it will balance out the high sodium ions in our body and as a result, osmosis of the potassium/sodium pump at the cell membrane will work in a way that excess fluid will be excreted by the cells and flush out from our body through urine and sweats.
am i right?? Apart from the potassium, banana also has lots of fibre, which can help with the bowel.
Last week i bought a banana choco chip blizzard from DQ, the cashier asked me if i want extra banana, i was glad that he asked because it didn't occur to me that i can ask for more banana. Later i found out that there's no extra banana. Either my extra 50 cents got cheated or like dear said, he ate all the extra banana :(
I'm craving for banana now.

In case any of you is interested to know, fluid retention can be avoided by reducing salt intake and doing more physical activity, like walking. Brisking walking also facilitate the lymph flow in our body, which can aid detoxification of our body (according to one of the books i read).

Last two weeks, i came across a website (here if you can read chinese) that listed out the time of detox for various organs in our body:

21:00 - 22:00 >> lymphatic system

23:00 - 1:00 >> liver, can only take place in deep sleep (that's why we're advised to sleep before 11)

1:00 - 3:00 >> gall (if i translate it correctly; it's inside the liver. For me, gall is important for slimming down because it produces emzyme that emulsify fats so fats can be digested easily)

3:00 - 5:00 >> lungs

5:00 - 7:00 >> large intestine (the author said it's the best time to go to toilet. yeah right, as if everyone can control his/her bowel :p)

7:00 - 8:00 >> small intestine absorbing nutrients, so it's the perfect time for breakfast (my opinion: provided your breakfast is a healthy one, not things like maggie, nasi lemak, etc)

You see, people, sleep is very important to us. When we sleep, we're resting but our body is not. It has to work hard to flush out toxins in our system. So, don't you think you should love your body more?? It really gets on my nerve whenever i come across people who don't take their health seriously.

Last week i was quite busy. A relative of mine got married so 10 people came from Labuan to attend the wedding. 8 of them stayed over at my place and i had to sleep in my mom's room. i brought my pillow with me so yeah, i managed to sleep well. The labuan people (that's what we call them) went back yesterday and today my parents had gone to labuan.
My house has become quiet suddenly and i'm alone most of the time. So i spent a lot of time thinking, thinking and thinking. I found out that i made a mistake in my final year of uni. I gave up lots of things, like japanese courses, attending su yee's wedding, aerobics, caring for people i love and many more. I keep telling myself those things can wait, it's my final year so i must study hard, put all my attention on my study. Then i realized today, because of my decision, i lost quite a lot of things.
I lost my figure (gained a few kilos and i'm still struggling to lose them now), my health (especially mental), my time with family and dear, and most importantly, i lost some of the best part in me. I can't remember since how long ago, i studied because i want to get good grades. But before, i study because i love it. No wonder i didn't enjoy much for the last sem. I was too busy with getting high marks and missed out lots of fun. and last week, it suddenly occured to me that i've been concentrating on myself so much that i can't remember when was the last time i lend a hand to another person without any purpose. My god! I've become the type of people that i despise before. I can't believe that i become ignorant to others' needs just to please myself.

Ok, it may not be as serious as i think (let's hope it's not) but i have to stop being that way. Good thing is, i've stopped! Well, i have to, because even me start to feel disgusted at myself sometimes. I'd made my own life miserable by pushing myself too hard in my study, especially this year. When i no longer think that i should be the best, should get A, everything becomes so simple and easy. Life becomes so much enjoyable. So, actually all the criticisms i gave to myself for one whole year is just because i over-pressurized myself.
How silly i am! But i'm not too bad i guess, because i am alert to it. So not a big problem. I'm beginning to appreciate my life all over again. Perhaps, this time i'll see things more clearly and find some of the things which i'd missed out for a long time ^_^

Hoo~ a long post. Proved that i'm really free now, don't have anything to do, except blogging :p