Sao Lao

For the past two weeks I have been wondering when I would be the next victim in the class to catch the flu. I thought I was in the clear when I only had a sore throat and a little bit of coughing a couple of weeks ago and got better. I’ve been sitting in the middle of a class with all sick people and in the train everyday so many people were coughing at me. It was unavoidable for me to win this losing battle. I even sat across a classmate on the way back from school on Wednesday and wished him a better health and said to him that I hope I won’t catch what he had and will try not to pass it back to him.

Well, guess what? I woke up to a not so happy Valentine’s Day with fever and a headache that felt like my head was going to explode. Johan had made a reservation at a restaurant for a romantic Valentine’s Day celebration but I told him to cancel it. He thought I would be able to go out with him on the weekend. He was wrong.

I haven’t been outside the building since Friday. On Saturday and Sunday I was not able to keep my food down. I was coughing so hard that it caused me to vomit several times (5 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday). Trying to sleep at night has been difficult because the coughing kept waking me up. It was purse misery and there is no good enough medicine to make it any better. I’ve been getting plenty of rest though and drinking lots of fluid, taking my vitamins and eating lots of fruits and veggies.

Perhaps I need to eat better for breakfast and lunch. Since school started again I have been eating fruits and drinking soy milk for breakfast. Lunch is pretty simple as you can see from the photos. I haven’t been eating my spinach for two weeks now and this is what I get. Then again the weather has been crazy lately with rain on and off and the sun coming and going. I just want to be back in Laos where it is nice and warm and lots of people to take care of me at a time like this.

Ready or not I have to go to school on Friday. I missed three days of school already and can’t miss anymore.

I weighted myself on the new scale yesterday and was happy to see another kilo gone! I am very happy with myself for getting back to my former lifestyle of not eating junk food, at least not on a regular basis. When I was living in the US, I didn’t even eat potato chips or drink pop. The only time I ate any thing sweet was on special occasions like birthday party, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter time.

Somehow I lost my discipline and started to enjoy food like cheese and tart since I came here. I even started to drink coffee on a daily basis more than a year ago. Posting in Food Blog 2006 at Laoplanet.net gave me an awareness of what I have been putting into my body.

My visit to the A - Team in August was the start of regaining my former self. I lost two kilos while I was there and later three more while I was home. Now I am 6 kg lighter than when I was at my hightest weight in December of 2004. I didn’t like the way I look back then and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how I look in these photos.

Just look at my fat and chubby cheeks.

I am not starving myself. For start I have such a high metabolism that I can eat a great deal and if I do any movement at all, I will burn off the fat so easily. I burn calories just by trying to keep myself warm. You can actually feel heat coming from me if you stand next to me (from my tummy area) and I make heat all year round. The only difference is that I am learning to say no when I feel full and try not to feel so guilty. When I go out and eat with my boyfriend or other people, rather than stuffing myself because I don’t want to waste food (money), I told myself that it is okay to put down the fork and the knife when I have eaten enough. Skipping dessert is a good way to cut down calories as well. I also started to drink more water like I used to and no longer eat sticky rice.

As of yesterday I told myself to not drink cappuccino on a regular basis anymore because I put sugar and cream in my coffee. I don’t take sugar in my tea so that is a good thing. I will also say no to a glass of wine when I go out and eat and also at gatherings, like the up and coming Christmas Dinner with my boyfriend’s family. I read somewhere that alcohol will dry your skin. Then again the French live longer because they drink a glass of wine everyday. Hmm…maybe I shouldn’t quit cold turkey, lol.

When I was home my friend noticed that I lost a couple of kg and said she is trying to lose some weight as well. I found it strange that after losing 5 kg, none of my boyfriend’s family members noticed the smaller me last week. They haven’t seen me since Augsut and while I was attending a birthday party, they all noticed my hair cut but not my weight loss. Perhaps they were too preoccupied with themselves to notice such a small thing. Having said that, I can still remember their comment about me gaining a couple of kg, not too long ago.

A couple of weeks ago I bought myself a new scale. I wanted one that will tell me my body fat percentage and all other health indicators. This way I can keep checking on my progress of losing a few pounds. This particular scale doesn’t tell the water percentage like the one we have back home but it will do for now.

Luckily I lost 2 kg when I was in Spain in August. Then after a month and a half in the US, I lost another 3 kg. However, after being back in the Netherlands I put back one kilo. The good news is that a couple of days ago, that one kilo is gone.

I want to lose another kilo before the end of the year but December is not a good month to lose weight, more like a month to gain a few pounds with birthday parties and Christmas parties I will be attending.

The battle goes on.