Myself: 'The Diet Master'

My, my... what a terrible haze we seems to be having in Kuala Lumpur in this couple few of days and as a result; my eyes and throats are getting irritated like most of the time. Hopefully the open burning they had in Indonesia will soon died and fades out cause I don't think I could tolerate it anymore if this continues to goes on... :( (wearing mask is not an option).

Anyways... putting haze aside cause it's not going anywhere soon (as far as I know off), let's get back to the main title of this post.. Hehehe... Myself; The Diet Master.

Well well well... as a starter, before I start going into this topic too deep; let me go around by giving a little bit history about myself. Call it a 'confession' if you will, but growing up - I used to be fat. Like super duper, chubby-kinda-fat. I can't remember when the last time my weight was below 60, and yeah it seems like an ages ago - but that's how I used to spend throughout my adolescent year. This unhealthy distribution part of my life continuous to go on until I turned 21 years old when something 'miraculous' finally took place...

It's when I went back to my hometown (Malacca) and proceed with my internship for one semester...

By then, it has been almost 1-2 years since I stayed at home for a quite long period of time (almost 6 months). The last time I ever had was before I went to UKM (after Matriculation) and quite honestly, I could say that I'm not thrilled being back again. Don't get me wrong, staying in college definitely had its perks and all, but it also had been a while since I felt free to do whatever I wanted (eating and cooking whatever and whenever I'm in the mood) so I quite miss it. Being at home again, surrounding myself with familiar stuff, eating good food... yup, that's almost like a dream of mine when I was alone and all by my own in UKM.

But then, the internship started and along with that, the illusion of a good life, are slowly and steadily being ripped off...

Now, lets me start by telling you that to prepare a good breakfast every morning and go to work afterwards, well that proves to be a little bit challenging for the three of us (mom, dad, and me) as all of us need to be there at certain hour to serve towards the company/institution that we're obligated to. So, the first illusion of 'I'm going to have my mom to cook me meal every morning is actually...
FALSE!'. My mother didn't have time for that as she and my dad are both working and have to go to work early (besides they can have their meals at their office/school) and that's left me, the new-kid-in-working-environment to have breakfast on my own every morning which also accidentallly resulted in bringing me to the kitchen closer than ever...

And this is where it all started. Me, trying out recipe in order to prepare the best-tasting and fulfilling breakfast for myself and selecting my ingredients.

I don't know what it's, but not long after I started doing this - I started to grow some conscience over everything I ate. For example, how many sugary drinks had I taken in this morning and today? How many scoop of rice had I put into my plate and onto my mouth? Had I had my little snacks today? What about fruits? Did I ate any vegetables today? You know, those sort of questions that could make me look like a nutter health freak... Haha, I even start being calculative about the amount of fast food that I ate during that month! This might have been strange for people who knows me as a big eater (based on the previous size of my body) but my parents seems to be strangely oblivious about this. Even my brother didn't see much of the difference when he saw me, but my friends certainly could see the differences when I went back (UKM) to finish the remaining of my studies and pointed out to me.

Truth to be told - I was initially surprised. Was it really that obvious? Did my body really had change? Why didn't I notice anything? And most importantly, why didn't my parents and bro say anything about this before? Why does someone else had to say this to me? Hehehe...

This feels so strange, man (0.0):

But, either I really had lose my weight or not - I honestly feel just the same. If anything else, I feel a little bit lighter if I start doing anything physical (jogging, dancing). In a way, dropping weight had thought me to have less appetite or any cravings after you had eaten something. Like no more sugar and salt if you already put them in earlier, or add some more fiber and fruits if haven't already. I think this is all had something to do with the mindset. If your mind knows that you had already have enough food for today, it will also teach your body to not taking in any food or indulge in binge-eating. I think that's what it all is... No diet pills, no crash diet... just a plain calorie count, enough water, physical activities routine (exercise and dancing), and strict discipline that you already had enough meal to get you going for today. And also, a little treat/cheat day to reward yourself with and keep you motivated throughout this new, healthy lifestyle changes wouldn't hurt either ;)

So, that's it guys... A little story about Myself; 'The Self-Proclaimed Diet Master'. Haha, I know that I'm not really that thin if you happened to meet and see me in person, but I can definitely tell you that I'm proud with my current weight because I haven't feel this healthy in years. Even my BMI, blood pressure and urine are on the right track and I couldn't be happier. Hopefully my health and yours reader will continue to flourish and if there's anything from my suggestions are worth saving, be my guest to save and applied it yourself. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Lots of Love: Mimi Said  

The Secret Side of Me: Ian Curtis and Joy Division

Approximately, about one and a half year ago, I was strolling around the The Guardian post when an article about Ian Curtis, the front man singer from the former post-punk band called 'Joy Division', suddenly caught my attention. The article was nothing in particularly interesting, it's about the late singer kitchen table (the one he had at his home when he first moved into the house with his wife, Deborah being auctioned on e-bay or whatnot), but later this one single line caught my interest and made me continue to read until the end;

"The late singer kitchen table sold in online auction for £8,400"

As a normal person would usually react; my first impression when I read this was ... Well, this is NUTS! 8,400 euro? For real yo? 8, 400 Euro? Are they nuts?  I mean, why would anyone paid for large sum of money over some singer stupid kitchen table, right? Give it to me for free and I would asked them to keep it. And the table kitchen wasn't anything grand either, just a normal kind of table that people use to have their meal on it... So what the deal? Buy a new table cause it really wasn't worth the trouble...

And so, that's what I thought....

But, as much as I want to argue about the pricing being reasonable or not; I still try to suppress that kind of thought and avoid passing any judgment before finish reading the whole article. All for my love to The Guardian, the online site I declare as legit (at least to my own standard) aside from The Huffington Post, Telegraph and WikiLeaks (lolz). So, I thought - what the heck, right? Let's finish this article and see what's all about. It wasn't after reading, that everything started to become apparent to me. This isn't just like any usual story about making fast money by using celebrity fame (related, though not something I want to stress here), but I'm actually about to discover something else here. It's the fact that this particular kitchen table seems to have a history embedded upon it.

And it wasn't a very happy, cheerful history or anything like that either. This is something else...

Apparently, on 18 May 1980 around early morning - Ian Curtis killed himself inside of  his home kitchen. He was all alone when he did it, but guess what... the table was also there to witness the whole thing. Now, for someone who may not have encounter with such topic before (suicide), this can deterred their spirits to further reading, but it's a different case with me. Rather than closing the browser and try to find something else light to read; I was intrigue with all sorts of questions. Among of many is who's Ian Curtis, what's Joy Division, and why does people bid to buy his kitchen table to the extent of paying a whole good money for it? Other related questions includes, what's the reason that made him so famous (cult icon), and the impression of him and his existence last even after more than three decades of his death?  Well, these sort of questions my friend, are nothing but fascinating and irresistible to me that I can't help but finding out more about him on the internet as the night drags on...

To dig the story and event that happened to someone famous from the past is not so difficult nowadays, as it might have been twenty years ago. That's what internet are there for, right guys? And so, with that knowledge on my mind - I managed to find out a little bit stuff about this band and the tragic demise of its front man. Videos, Pictures, Books, Movies - those were a good start. A good start to get to know something that you never had laid your eyes on, and what later brings me to fall in love with this band and its ethereal music despite manage to release only 2 albums before being disbanded.

Below are some of the music that I enjoyed from this band;

1.) Isolation (Closer, 1980)
2.) She's Lost Control (Unknown Pleasures, 1979)
3.) Atmosphere (Licht und Blindheit, 1980)
4.) Dead Souls  (Still, 1981)
5.) Digital  (A Factory Sample, 1978)
6.) Disorder (Unknown Pleasures, 1979)
7.) Love Will Tear Us Apart
8.) New Dawn Fades (Unknown Pleasures, 1979)
9.) Shadowplay (Unknown Pleasures, 1979)
10.) Transmission  (Transmission, 1979)

To think of the origin of how did I came across with this band could seems a little bit grim, but rather to think it that way - I would happily say that thanks to that Guardian article, I also manage to gain a new interest on the other type of music; punk. This is a new territory to me for sure, but after listening to the songs time after time - I could say that my interest are really genuine and it wasn't just for show. I usually don't like rock and roll or techno, let alone punk - but for this, I'll have to make an exception because the songs produced by this band are far too awesome to ignore that even after a year and half later - I'm still pretty much in love with them.

Joy Division members. From left, Morris, Hook, Curtis and Sumner.

The late Joy Division front man: Ian Curtis
1957-1980 (RIP)

Also, aside from the music, I have to give a credit to this band for allowing me to meet one of my current favorite actor; Sam Riley. For those who don't know or don't care enough to know - Sam Riley, a British actor who had starred in movies such as Thirteen (13), Brighton Rock, On the Road, Maleficient and so on, got his first taste of becoming an actor from playing Ian Curtis in the 2007 Anton Corbijn biopic, "Control". Winning almost eight awards in total after more than a dozen nomination from this film alone, Sam Riley become a fast-favorite actor on my list (which not so easy to achieve since I'm very picky with my choice).

Imitation or not - this guy is AWESOME!!

Since I'm a huge book lover, I also had read a couple of books written by people who're directly involved, either personally or professionally (music) with Ian Curtis. These two books are among few that I recommended to get to much deeper insight on Joy Division and Ian Curtis.

A book written by one of the ex-member of Joy Division, Peter Hook (Hooky, Guitarist),
and a memoir of Ian Curtis written by his widow, Deborah Curtis. 

When I look back at how much I (secretly) like this band and level of awareness that I had for them - you can easily say, that the evidence is overwhelming. To be frank, I'm almost as half-obsessed with them, but not to the point of travelling to Macclesfield to meet the remaining former member itself (I'm just too shy), Anyway, to sum it up, it's the kind of obsession that come from time to time, caught me when I'm totally unaware and vulnerable. Loneliness, is quite one way of putting it. Anyway, truth be told - the secrets is out now. For those who're interested, THIS IS THE SECRET SIDE OF ME.  Ian Curtis and Joy Division and I put it on this blog for everyone to see.

This has been one of my humble confession: Mimi Said.