Health & Nutrition - Overnight Oats

This was my first jar of overnight oats, and I started packing overnight oats every night following that night, which made me love oats so much more than usual because it is DUPER YUMMY! I'll share more recipes along the way but would like to share my first experience.

The ingredients can be as simple as just oats and banana, or it can be as elaborated as what I did (was trying to be adventurous. HEH.

What I used:

- A jar (I reused the YUMMI honey jar and portion is huge, for 2-3 separate meals)

- 1.5 tblspoon of Hershey's cocoa powder

- 100ml of milk

- 1 tblspoon of greek yogurt

- 1 banana

- 1 scoop (approx. 1.3 cup) rolled oats (uncooked and DO NOT use the instant oats) 

- 2 medium strawberries

- Chia seeds (I would not miss this if I'm at my own home)

1. Prepare a bowl and mix the cocoa powder with milk and greek yogurt. Stir till mixture is almost fully blended and dissolved.

2. Pour about half of the mixture into the empty jar and then top it up with the rolled oats.

3. Now the fruits, cut the banana and strawberries into slices and put the banana slices in first, followed by the strawberries.

4. Last step, pour the remaining cocoa mixture in and cover the jar. Put it in the fridge for AT LEAST 4 hours, if not, overnight (as the name says).

Take the jar out in the morning and you are ready to eat it! I put in another mixture of chocolate protein and water in the morning too. That's your choice. I hope I managed to show how easy it is to make this. It tastes yummy and I usually bring it out in the morning and will keep it in a thermal bag and will be able to last more than 3 hours out of the fridge. Try to keep it as refrigerated if you can though, especially if you like it really really cold!

Go ahead and try it out, post your photos and tag me @limaranagustina!! Have fun! Stay tuned, because I'll be writing about women and bodybuilding next! Meanwhile, enjoy the photos from 'The Piano Guys' concert I went with Jess (@jesslinet). Thanks once again for the tickets babe! Totally enjoyed it, these super talented guys!

Audience of almost 45,000. SO AWESOME!

Have a great weekend everyone, be safe and keep fit! Till the nexttt! :)

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Health and Fitness - The harsh reality hits you

Whether you like to hear/see this or not, I know there are many people (both male and female) who are still living in denial, thinking that they are satisfied with their bodies, they make do with what they have or blame it on genetics. Somehow they envy people who works out, somehow they believe that no matter how ugly, how flabby they become, somebody will still love them (duh, of course!), somehow somewhere out there deep buried in their minds, there is a portrait of a dream body. The problem is, where is the determination, where is the dedication and where is the discipline? They're all in self-delusions. Well, I don't know about you, but I have a dream physique in mind and I'll not give up till I get there, no matter how long it takes, whether family-planning comes into the picture or not.

Yesterday, I went for a body analysis at my gym and since the last I did mine, right after we came back from our honeymoon (June 2013), my bodyfat percentage has dropped by 2%, my weight remained unchanged, muscle mass has increased (not sure where the last body analysis slip was). Well, you may think 18.2% isn't very low but this had shown me how much my hard work is paying off and I'll continue to work hard (even though BMR is still slightly on the lower side though).

As mentioned in my last post, I would like to share briefly about bodyfat percentage and here are some images you can refer to if you do not have access to get your body analysis checked.

For men:

For women:

So, what do you think your bodyfat percentage range is? which one can best describe your physique right now? And which is your ideal physique? 

Remember I said weight is not a good indication of your fitness level and how toned you are? By having more lean muscles in your body, your weight may maintain or even increase because muscles are denser than fats and therefore weigh heavier than fats. The images above are also just rough guides, different body types may produce different results on bodyfat percentage too.

Why do I say muscles weigh heavier then?

The same weight of fats and muscles look very different because muscles are very dense and compact as compared to fats. Would you then, rather have 5lbs of fats or 5lbs of muscles?

Some examples that I found (credits to photo-owners):

This lady has obviously worked out, looking at the slightly rounder shoulders, flatter and more defined abs and you can spot that her butt is perkier and legs slimmer, but she actually weighs heavier than before. Oh, and her posture had also improved (back to that in future posts).

This guy, similarly, has worked out (HARD) and achieved good lean muscles, yet still weigh the same.

So guys, stop obsessing over that little weight gain here and there if you are working out fine. Instead, the mirror is the best judge and of course if you can and want to, get a proper body analysis done.

I will be attempting to perfect my oat tomorrow morning and will post a proper recipe after that. HAHA. Please bear with me while I attempt the best recipes I can to share with all of you. 

What I had been up to during the week so far.

Went for a last tan before I start work next week! On that faithful bloated day..

Thinking that watching this in broad daylight will be less scary, but no, I did not finish the movie. HUR

My beyond-presentable oatmeal

My beloved company for the past 2 days <3

TGIF everyone! Have a great and restful weekend filled with love, health and fitness! Till the next.

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Life & Love - My birthday week

Birthday celebrations kickstarted on tuesday with Jason. We had our workout in the morning before we head to Ikoi for lunch. Having heard so much raves about the buffet, we finally decided to give it a shot. The place looked like a flashback from the 90s and besides the staff, who were conversing in Mandarin and minimal English, everything else looks retro and Japanese (seen in jap dramas though I've not been to Japan. hurhur).

Started with the sashimi and we ordered almost 10 servings of salmon.

We started ordering cooked food after we were finished with the raw ones and found out that they were not worth the sinning at all! We could not bring ourselves to finish the cooked ones and left feeling only satisfied with all the sashimi we had. The soups were very good though! 

Went for an interview on Wednesday morning, followed by gym, before going back to freshen up to meet the RB girls! Been so long since we last caught up with each other. We had a great gossiping session (signs of aging)!

Yes, I had salmon sashimi again the following day. HUR

Almond ebi temppura which tasted soooo good!

Geri left for her flight after dinner so we adjourned to tcc for cakes, coffee and more gossipping!

Thursday was spent with dear Jessline @jesslinet, whom was my gym buddy and shopping companion for the day. Thanks for taking time off just for me and thanks so much for the pretty gift babe! <3

Had our post-workout meal at CBTL and had salmon again! You guys should try this if you haven't, Coffee Bean now serves all-day breakfast and this is my favourite, salmon scramble! It costs us $9.10 with a mug of tea. 

Thursday night, Jason and his gang of brothers picked me up at 10pm after finishing off work the entire day. We started our adventure to the end of Singapore, tip of Johor Bahru for our long-awaited ktv session. Had a quick meal after the long drive in and off we go to ktv! The night ended early in the morning and it's been such a long time since we stayed up late. Thanks once again guys for being so sweet!

We slept in on the actual day and went straight to the gym after lunch with my in-laws. Finished our session, had dinner, headed home to rest while Jason watches NDP and at almost 7pm, we went to the fitness corner for my birthday wod just because I wasn't satisfied with the first session I had in the gym. SOOO MUCH LOVE from the guys!

JJ doing a perfect toe-to-bar

I ended my week with a short workout yesterday with Jason in the gym. It was supposed to be a rest-day but we were determined to do something light and quick to burn off the lunch we had a Houston's 1st Birthday party so we rowed on the rowing machine for 30 mins and did 30 cleans and 30 thrusters with some abs exercises.

To sum up my birthday week, I managed to do everything I wanted to, still working out and keeping working out as my priority before I start enjoying my birthday. YOU are the only one who can make the difference in your own life because you decide how you want to prioritise your life. I am also proud to have a mother who does yoga and pilates at least 5-6 times a week, and a grandmother who never fails to do her workout early in the mornings so there is no reason for me to slacken. It's never too late to start and it'll never be too late to put health and fitness as one of your priority in your lifestyle habits so start now if you haven't! The beginning of change is challenging but once you get into it, your life will change for the better!

Have a great week ahead everyone! :)

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