​Over the weekend, I did my one-week grocery shopping at NTUC and bought the following

1. chicken breasts 
2. broccoli
3. carrots 
4. potatoes 
5. Fuji apples
6. cilantro
7. iceberg lettuce

For tomorrow's lunch, I decided to try something slightly more different. I usually microwave the chicken breasts (diced or sliced) with any veggies that require cooking, such as broccoli. 

What I did this time was to cook the vegetables, including the baby potatoes with Japanese sesame sauce and a little bit of butter. I then diced the chicken breasts into smaller cubes, and then added some sesame oil as well as the Japanese sesame sauce and then stirred and mixed them, to marinate the chicken. 

After the veggies are cooked, I then added the marinated chicken and then cooked it again. 

The Chinese Celery or Cilantro happens to be a really versatile vegetable to have. Adding cilantro is a great way to add flavor to a dish or beverage without adding extra calories, fat, or sodium.

Cilantro is a tender herb (along with mint and basil) which has gentle leaves that are best to add either raw or near the end of cooking in order to maintain their delicate flavor and texture. Unfortunately, my cilantro is getting shrivelled, so I decided to snip all of it to add to the salad. 

Making salads can be really quick and fun, and it's healthy! 

​Finally, it is done! 

The Hashtag challenge has been an interesting observation and a fascinating social experiment. About a month ago, on National Day in fact, I was tagged by Ming Hung on the #30Day60SecCoreChallenge. Ming Hung was probably inspired by the 22 Push Ups challenge, which he was already doing for a couple of week. I gamely accepted the challenge and thought that this could provide me a means to test a few things: 

A. I have not really used the video camera function for my LG G5. With the onslaught of video content materialising in the likes of Instagram (videos and stories), as well as Facebook (live, video, etc.) I wanted to see if it was easy for me to take a short video and post it online. 

B. I had a Youtube channel which I created many years back, but did not really use it as a repository for my video feeds. I wanted to see if it would be easy to store the videos onto Youtube and then do a cross-post onto other platforms. 

C. I was reading an article about Social Proof, and wanted to see how receptive would my friends and acquaintances be with being tagged. Would they be inspired to do the Core Challenge as well? If they did, would they be game enough to post it online? If they were tagged, would that make them more receptive towards such a challenge.

Mind you - the challenge by itself was not a difficult one. It was a "60-second" challenge, which meant that all it took was just a minute to execute. The variation of exercises could be a simple series of sit ups, or even a one-minute plank. Hence, it was something easily executable by almost anybody. 

It was a great yoga outing today. 

Okay, I had to wake up really early on a Sunday morning. At 630am in fact. After I washed up and drove over to Kallang Wave, I was wide awake and ready for my noob yoga session. 

It all started the evening before. Andy mentioned that he was reaching out to the team from Wildfire for possible collaborations. Patrick invited us to join the yoga session, and I decided to blast this event through the group chat. It was at 630 am, on a Sunday morning, and while I was reluctant to wake up so early (I was hoping to get more rest this hectic period), I decided to see if there was anyone who would attend. Should there be one, I would join in as well. 

Wei Ann promptly replied the group chat: "I'm in." ​

Our group swelled up to five of us, which was pretty impressive despite given a short notice (and on an early Sunday morning, I have to reiterate again lol). At the running track area of the Sports Hub, the morning air was fresh, and I was surprised by the number of enthusiasts that were already jogging around the track. XY, our yoga coach for the morning, ran us through the warm ups, and did some good stretching. 

I particularly found the partner yoga to be fun and interesting - which reminded me of Pink's acrobatic movements during the MTV awards (I think). 

After the yoga session ended, we proceeded to Starbucks for the collaboration discussion, which went well. I was particularly enthused by the team spirit, and I certainly hope that the #wellaholic movement would continue to grow, and in this process of this, we are able to get more like-minded folks to join us on this journey towards total wellness. 

#livethechange!!

​To find out more about Wellaholic, please go to www.wellaholic.com
To find out more about the list of wellness marketplace events, visit http://www.facebook.com/teamwellaholic/events/

Day 29 of the #30days60secCoreChallenge + Day 12 of the #wellaholicabroller Challenge

It's always fun to do ab roller exercises when I have kitty company. Had to give the shy Yuki some airtime since she prefer to watch from the side. And of course, Tigger had to hog the camera as usual. I love my little babies! =) 

Here's how Ming Hung say it should be done: 
1. Execute a core exercise movement for 60 sec, 30 days. 
2. Video, post online, hashtag #30days60secCoreChallenge and#livethechange
3. Tag 5 friends to get them into action too.
4. Explain why we do it. (transform ourselves and one person at a time). ​

Day 28 of the #30days60secCoreChallenge + Day 11 of the #wellaholicabroller Challenge. Two more days to go before the challenge is complete! 

Here's how we do it: 
1. Execute a core exercise movement for 60 sec, 30 days. 
2. Video, post online, hashtag #30days60secCoreChallenge and#livethechange
3. Tag 5 friends to get them into action too.
4. Explain why we do it. (transform ourselves and one person at a time).

Decided to do a quick 60 second plank at the hotel corridor!

Here's how we do it: 
1. Execute a core exercise movement for 60 sec, 30 days. 
2. Video, post online, hashtag #30days60secCoreChallenge and #livethechange
3. Tag 5 friends to get them into action too.
4. Explain why we do it. (transform ourselves and one person at a time). °

Day 25 of the #30days60secCoreChallenge°
The challenge can be performed anywhere, and it's really just 60 seconds! I'm doing it with the fishes and the sea urchins! °
°🎏🎏🎏
Here's how we do it: 
1. Execute a core exercise movement for 60 sec, 30 days. 
2. Video, post online, hashtag #30days60secCoreChallenge and#livethechange
3. Tag 5 friends to get them into action too.
4. Explain why we do it. (transform ourselves and one person at a time). 

So sometimes, when I feel like having an alternative to having a salad for lunch, or when I have excess leftover vegetables, I would make a vegetable stew. The stew is not difficult to make; and at times, a savory home-cooked stew of vegetables and chicken warms the heart on a rainy weekend (especially if you have the air-conditioning on). 

I would use whatever vegetables that I have had left in the fridge. For this case, I chopped up all the celery and carrots, as well as the broccoli. This time round, I decided to add some baby potatoes for the carbohydrates. Rather than to add the potatoes whole into the stew, I decided to slice them into quarters, so that they will cook more easily. Instead of adding oil, I added some butter as well as a vegetable stock cube to give the stew the necessary flavour. 

For a natural sweetness to the stew, I added a whole onion. As the onion would disintegrate in the simmering waters, you wouldn't find much of it whole in the stew. For onion varieties, yellow onions have a complex flavor, and a firm texture that can survive long cooking. Red onions are good for raw salads, but you could also add them to the stew if there are no other options available. In this case, white onions are especially good with stews and soups. 

To add some colour to the stew, I added a few red chillies to the pot. Prior to cooking, the colours of the vegetables are bright and cheery, but usually their colours would fade away, from the continuous cooking and boiling, However, the redness of the chilli stays, and hence provides not only a nice colour but also the spiciness to the stew.  

The diced chicken would be microwaved separately first to cook them a bit longer, and then I would add the half-cooked chicken cubes together with some oregano, nutmeg and black pepper, and 3 cups of water with a dissolved vegetable stock cube. Then it is simmer and simmer away before the stew is ready. If you have a bay leaf, you could try adding it for an enhanced flavour. 

The stew could be eaten on its own (this is probably enough for a full main course, or shared with two to three persons), or as an accompaniment to a main dish with rice. Enjoy!