Inspiration & Motivation: Something GREAT is brewing..

Very recently, I met up with Jasmine (@jasminedanker if you are not following her on IG yet), it came across to me like a calling when I had to download kik messenger just for her to retrieve my contact details. In the very same week (last week), I met her for the first time. She shared her dreams and passion with me, she told me what she had been wanting to do and could not find the right person to do with, so she decided to contact me.

We met up as soon as we could last week and had a great workout together (though she's much stronger and fitter than I am), we share a lot of similarities. We have the exact same weight, height, BFP, played netball when we were younger, both Roman Catholics, both mixed blood. Well, the major difference is that she studied sports science and had been in the fitness industry for 5 years, coaching, studying and training (and besides the fact that I'm married she's not yet). We clicked right away and started planning our execution plan.

We have great plans and I believe God brought us together for a reason; a mission to help people who needs help, who needs an extra motivation to stay healthy and fit. Our ideas are all over the place now but we will be revealing very soon, once we get everything organized and ready to go public!

Here are some sneaks! Our logo: Why Hapa fitness (@Hapa_fitness)? Stay tuned! :)

Some of the happenings over last week, celebrated Nic's birthday in advance last Friday too! Great Karaoke with the gang, they sing so well! Been awhile since we had such epic sessions, oh yes and that cake at 11.30pm ZOMG.

Happy Birthday Nic!

Some of my meals.

Met Jasmine to gym on Saturday at Gymm Boxx, really helps when there is somebody to spot, correct my form and constantly goes "RELAX YOUR NECK LIMARAN!" (LOL, reason why I have stiff neck ALL the time). We wore pink to train that day, so we remembered to take photos and hashtag #operationpink to do our part for Singapore Breast Cancer Foundation!

Jasmine paid a boy for this photo HAHA

Cooked when we got home and spent a quiet Saturday with baby. Here's our very own chili beef with tortilla chips! YUMMMMSS!

I will be eating all I want (okay not exactly ALL I WANT BUT..) for 4 days (since yesterday) and starting a new diet (which I'll be sharing soon) on November 1st, together with Jasmine. BECAUSE I have completed 10 weeks (11 to be exact, not counting week 0) of Intermittent fasting! Halfway through the diet I thought this didn't suit me, but I wanted to hang in there and complete the 10 weeks so here is the final look (LOL pls don't judge me!).

I started with this OKAY?! HAHA.

Have a great week ahead everyone! Remember to catch us (Jasmine and I) live with regular updates on our IG (@limaranagustina and @jasminedanker) and our new IG account for Hapa Fitness @hapa_fitness! Till the next!

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Health & Nutrition - Quinoa, the wonderful Supergrain

I am going to share the recipe that you have all been waiting for!!

Quinoa with pan-fried chicken and asparagus

Ingredients:
- 30g asparagus
-  whole chicken breast
- Cajun seasoning (you may use your favorite seasoning)
- 1 cup of Organic quinoa (serves approx. 6)
- 2 cups of water
- 1 chilli padi

*I do not have photos of the entire process so bear with me with whatever I have :)

1. Prep the quinoa, make sure the ratio is 2:1 (2 portions of water: 1 portion of quinoa)

2. Wash the quinoa thoroughly with water, squeezing the quinoa while washing and the rinse the quinoa.

3. Pour the quinoa into a pot, drizzle a little olive oil and stir until quinoa is almost evaporated. Be careful not to burn the quinoa, keep the heat low.

4. After which, add the 2 cups of water into the pot and stir for a few rounds, then leave it to boil.

5. Once the water is brought to a boil, lower the heat to the lowest you can and leave it for 15 minutes (using a timer is advised).

6. While waiting, prepare the whole chicken breast, remove the skin (if there is) and chop them up to as little or as big as you like.

7. Add your favourite seasoning and mix the chicken with it. I use cajun seasoning because it's so yummy and goes with anything.

8. Wash the asparagus and chilli padi and then chop them up as many pieces as you like (as usual).

9. Pre-heat a saucepan/frying pan and drizzle abit of olive oil. Put in some garlic and onions if you like, (I used homemade pre-blended ones) and fry till slightly brown. Then put in chicken and fry for about 2-3 mins before adding the asparagus to fry together. By this time, your quinoa should be ready!

So, VOILA! You get healthy yet yummy food!

Why did I use quinoa (pronounced as 'keenwah') and what are the benefits?

• Quinoa is rich in protein as it contains all nine essential amino acids
• Quinoa has a lot of Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) - help create proper energy production in cells
• Quinoa contains twice the amount of fiber as compared to many other grains
• Quinoa is rich in iron 
• Quinoa is rich in manganese - an antioxidant that help protect red blood cells and other cells from injury by free radicals
• Quinoa is high in lysine - essential for tissue growth and repair
• Quinoa is rich in magnesium

I had ICECREAM during the weekend ZOMG! But it tasted heavenly because I haven't had it for ages. Spent the weekend working out as usual, and then spent some time with JasonJJ, since he just booked out on his first weekend and an advanced birthday celebration for the boy too.

The awesome company at The Daily Scoop!

Happy Birthday JasonJJ

Hope your weekend had been great and that your Monday is treating you well so far! Have a good week ahead! Feel free to ask me if you have any doubts in the recipe and do follow me on IG if you haven't, @limaranagustina. Till the next!

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Health and Fitness - The greatest fear

I have been very busy running around this week, which is good especially now that I'm unemployed, the least I can do is to keep my days busy and productive.

Confession: After about 2 years of training, the greatest fear of stagnation finally occurred to me, which is very very bad. I cleaned out my diet so much, worked out as hard or even harder now, but there's still something wrong somewhere that caused me to retain that amount of fats. SO, I'm going to be a real testimony of IF (Intermittent Fasting or you can also call it Intermittent Feeding), together with Edric and Jen (@thefitbean), I'm going to track my progress for 10 weeks, however I'll be doing IF for the rest of my life after the 10 weeks, still keeping my feeding during the 8 hours as clean-paleolithic as possible. I hope to achieve this before the baby comes into the picture (Hurhur, I know Jason is waiting for that to happen soooon). I will try to take photos of what I eat during the feeding hours and what kind of liquid diet I take during the fasting hours and I hope to be able to see improvement!

I get a lot of emails (Thank you for the emails, keep them coming!) asking questions regarding the type of diet and workout since I started writing and I must emphasise that whatever I suggest may not be the best way to attain your fitness goals. You need to read up and play around with what you think may work for you. It takes years of experience, sometimes, to even try to find out what body type you are, genuinely understanding your body and how it reacts to different diet and workout. The bottomline is, don't give up! If you fail (which I do and my gym buddies too), pick yourself up, learnt what works for you and what doesn't, and start all over again. If you feel the need to correct your form and need to start with light weights, accept it and start over again because you know that you will definitely be stronger and wiser than the first round. One diet may work for me but may not work for you, and you need to recognise what your body needs as a basic, and then work your diet into your lifestyle around the basics that your body needs. Your body is unique, as your character and personality are.

I hope everyone gets what I'm trying to say :/ I'm still learning too so please don't quote me. I'm still exploring what works best for me and it's going to be a lifelong journey! Buck up and don't give up!

I'd love to share this video that Jason got me watching, about Steve Cook explaining how to plan and grocery-shop and what he does when he's preparing to get lean for a show. Enjoy and learn as much as you can! Simply click on the title if you need to enlarge.

Backtrack to what happened last Sunday afternoon, we attended Houston's 1st Birthday party and here are some of the photos I got. He's such a love!!

Have a good rest everyone and I'll be back soon to cover more on the IF I'll be going through. All the best to me! It's FRIDAY tomorrow!

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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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