Trip to Pooooooket!

I think I'll take this time to blog about my Phuket trip!

Last two weeks, Ee Vonne and I tagged along on Bee Tin and Lee Xin's annual Phuket trip for three days and two nights!

What happened was, Ee Vonne and I had exams until the 9th of Jan and BT and LX were gonna go to Phuket from the 8th to 11th! So they told us to just COME and buy tickets on 9th itself and then we could all return on the 11th together! So about 5 days before the 9th EV and I frantically went around airasiago's website and looked for the similar deal that BT and LX bought! And we managed to find them and get this: We only paid RM350 each for return tickets AND two nights of stay at Chang Club Hotel!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHEAP DIE US

And so on the 9th, right after our last paper, EV and I bolted out of UM and headed immediately to KLIA2 to board our flights! After a series of unfortunate events (sold out bus tickets, massive traffic jams, expensive taxi rides etc) we managed to arrive in KLIA2 just 20min before boarding! But that was good enough lah cos we managed to stuff ourselves with McD lunch cos that was our first meal of the day and it was already 5+pm!

1.5 hours later we arrived in Phuket and we boarded a minibus which took us to our hotel. Many waits and delays later we finally managed to meet up with BT and LX and they brought us to have glorious Thai dinner!

Super yums pineapple fried rice.

Super yums garlic pork! Somehow the garlic bits tasted even better than the pork itself haha!A must in Thai restaurants: stir fried mixed vegetables.After our dinner, EV and I still felt like we wanted to eat (because it was Thailand!) so we walked around and bought this banana and chocolate crepe thing that BT super recommended! She reported that she ate about 2 servings of this per day the last time she was in Phuket hahahahaha!After that, we went to the street Phuket is famous for: Bangla Street!

And it was damn, damn cool! It was like this whole stretch of road where on either side there were bars after bars heavily playing loud clubbing music! Each bar had colourful lighting and designs unique to their own and in some of them there were girls (some born female, some weren't) dancing on table tops in skimpy clothes!

And drinks and cocktails were going like 80baht (around RM10) a glass and there were just soooo many people walking around laughing, drinking, and just partying! I LOVE BANGLA STREET LAH!

We all went and bought bottled beers from the many convenience stores located on the street and it was only 37baht (around RM5) each WTF damn cheap like shit BUY ALL THE BEERS!

Then when it was close to midnight, BT and LX brought EV and me to their favourite club on Bangla Street which was...

Seduction Club haha!

We were greeted by a performance by a group of famous B-boys haha! And ironically we ended up drinking with them by the end of the night because they kept coming to play with us! One thing fun about clubbing in Phuket was there were always random people who would come up to us and offer us free drinks!!! We bought ourselves a tequila shot each each night but we actually didn't even have to bother lah! Hahaha

I don't have photos of us clubbing lah obviously cos I was too busy dancing but you will see some awesome photos at the end of this post ok! HAHA

The next day, we went island hopping! I was operating on only 2 hours of sleep so I looked like shit wtf but never mind, my shades helped cover my panda eyes haha!

Give all the fippers to Ee Vonne! Why? We don't knowwww! Hahahahaha

Not much photos of the island hopping trip because jeng jeng jeng...I had seasick WTFDamn loser or what wtf fml I never used to get seasick you know! Never! I don't know what is happening to me! I'm becoming so weak these days like can you imagine the other day I fell down and very lightly some more, but the pain in my left knee lasted for like months wtf And then now in Phuket on the boat to the islands I was trying to keep my vomit down wtf while everyone else on the boat was having fun and looking forward to snorkelling. I couldn't even go snorkel fml and I just sat on the beach asking every single person unfortunate enough to cross my path if he or she felt the island wavering or not WTFBut good thing from this is I didn't even get tanned one shade darker wtf cos I kept sitting at corners and hiding under my towel trying to maintain my composure hahaha...After island hopping, BT and LX went to get a massage but EV and I went back to our hotel to take a nap. By the time we woke up, BT and LX finished their massage and went back to get their naps instead haha so we had separate dinners. So EV and I walked around our hotel area for street food stalls! FUN!

One of the best parts of Thailand has got to be the street food stalls! Cheap and good food at just about every corner of any street! Hehe

Had fried chicken. Haha

Somtam which is their papaya salad!

EV trying not to cry because the somtam was damn spicy wtf

Our matchy outfits for our food hunt heheThen while walking, we came across this street food galore!!! It was like their pasar malam and everything looked sooooo good! AHHHHHHH

The real and original Sangkaya.

EV and I were damn full from all the random street food we had prior but we succumbed to buying this pork leg rice to share in the end haha it was good! Tasted like bak kut teh hahaAfter we finished our dinner walk, we went back to the hotel to meet BT and LX and then we headed to Bangla Street again! Hehe another night of clubbing at Seduction!

We shared a bucket of vodka + sprite before it hit 12am (clubbing starts at 12am duh) and the bucket damn cute or what! And only RM30+!!! CHEAP!!!

View from the rooftop bar.Again, no self-taken photos but....HEHEHEThe next day we woke up early and went to the nearby wet market to get fresh seafood so that we can bring them to the stalls above the market to get them cooked!!!

A lot of live seafood but it was a last day in Phuket so we didn't have that much budget hahaha but we still had a feast!

Stir-fried cabbage.

Yummy pineapple fried rice.

Damn oily but yummy omelette.

Thai style fish! We had crabs too but I didn't upload the photo because it looks very ugly and it didn't taste very nice. I don't know how Thai people can ruin yellow curry but this stall did.And......................as promised:

HAHAHAHAHA party photos professionally shot by the photographers in Seduction and gracefully stolen by us from their official Facebook page!!!And in the last photo, obviously I am the focus of the shot instead of the guy getting fed vodka from stage LOLAll in all, Phuket was so fun and we want to go again!!! ANUALLY! HAHAHAHAHA 

My weight loss journey!

I think I'll take this time to blog about my weight loss! 

So in September 2014, when I went back to Korea for the second semester of my exchange program, I weighed something like 78kg wtf which was the heaviest I've ever been in my life.

I've always been around 72kg - 75kg (I'm 172cm btw) during my pre-uni and university years and I've always thought myself to be, you know, meaty wtf and not fat but now that I've lost weight, I really can't understand how I've managed to live like that still thinking I was somewhat good looking WTF I think my self-confidence is really damn high HAHA

This was before I left for Korea at all, I guess I was around 74kg this time?

When I returned from my first semester in Korea, I guess I binged a lot on Malaysian food cos I missed it so much after being away for four months. I stayed in Malaysia for another month before my second semester in Korea started. So when I returned to Korea the second time, I remember weighing myself at the gym in my dormitory in Seoul and saw that I was 78kg wtf.

I wasn't shocked initially because I assumed that digital weighing scales were always inaccurate anyway but anyhow I made a pact with Ee Vonne to start gymming and eating healthier! I also got really close with Melli who also wanted to lose weight so I guess that was how my weight loss program started!

This was during my first semester in Korea, and I think I was around 74-76kg? You know seeing the number 7 when typing my weight really scares me because like damn, did I really ever use to weigh so much wtf

And this was when I was in Malaysia for that one month before I returned to Korea for my second sem. My face looks damn round in this shot wtf and to think I actually thought I looked great then damn wtf

So back to my weight loss program. I began diligently exercising almost everyday or at least 5 days a week when I was schooling in my uni in Korea, CAU. The gym back in the dorm in CAU was really nice because it was clean and small and often not crowded. I would run on the treadmill for maybe 30-45min and then move on to lifting 3kg weights. I did 5 sets each day. I think per day I was burning maybe max 300 calories cos I really didn't do anything hardcore unlike Melli who burned something like 1000 calories each time wtf

But to be honest, the gymming thing lasted for only about 2 months cos after that I became demotivated and lazy wtf. But I continued to watch what I ate to compensate for not gymming and I guess that worked too!

One thing I used to very diligently do was tabulate my calories intake in the My Fitness Pal app. And man, that really, really did help me lose weight. According to the app, if I wanted to lose weight as fast as possible (which was 1kg per week lol) I had to eat less than 1200 calories per day. And that was what I did! Every time I ate I would record the amount of calories in the food and made sure I did not exceed 1200 cal a day. And I guess for a few weeks I was doing really well and sooner or later I got used to estimating how much cal what kind of food had and how much I should be eating per day so I stopped recording my daily cal intake. I got used to eating that way and I guess that was how my weight continued to drop even though I wasn't consciously trying to diet.

This was taken a month or maybe a few weeks after I started my gymming routine I think, so you can see my face didn't look so much like a balloon then when I first came back to Korea haha I think I already lost a few kgs here.

Another thing I did when I was in Korea was take up this 30 day challenge with Melli where we weren't allowed to eat anything fattening like carbs, bread, rice, noodles, sweets, junk food, desserts, fried foods and even alcohol! We made some allowance for ourselves to have alcohol once a week though and we also had the occasional cheat days where we would sneak an ice-cream or a piece of chocolate haha

But this also really, really helped me lose weight I guess. I didn't check my weight every day at that time, but every time I did, I would weigh less than what I weighed before! At first I didn't actually believe that I was losing weight (similarly, I didn't believe that digital weighing scales were accurate haha) but soon I realised that my clothes were becoming loose wtf

Soon Ee Vonne, Melli and I finished our semester in CAU so we had to move out from the dorm. We moved to this other student housing in Hong Dae and they had a normal weighing scale. I weighed myself around December I think, and I was surprised to find that I actually weighed 68kg WTF 

Again, I didn't believe that the scale was accurate (even though it wasn't even a digital one haha I guess I just have trust issues wtf) because it's been YEARS since I've seen my weight start with the number 6! And if you think about it, how is it possible that I could have managed to lose 10kg in 3+ months?!

This was taken at the end of December 2014 I think, close to when I was going to return to Malaysia for good in Jan 2015. My faced looked significantly sharper than before but I still didn't think much about how much weight I'd lost cos it was winter and we were always wrapped up in really thick winter jackets and so I still felt fat wtf haha

It was when I returned to Malaysia and weighed myself on the weighing scale at home that I realised that I had really, really lost a lot of weight since the last time I was in Malaysia. 

My sister was always slimmer than me and her clothes were always one or two sizes smaller than mine. This time however, I could fit into almost all her clothes! I really couldn't believe it but every piece of my sister's clothing that I tried on really helped me adjust to the fact that I wasn't the fat person I was before.

When I tried on my own clothes, I felt even more in awe that I'd lost so much. I couldn't believe that I was 10kg heavier just 4 months ago. From then on I started being really motivated to maintain my weight because I'd never felt so pretty in my life. For the first time in my life, I could wear clothes without looking like a hippo and when looking for sizes when shopping, I didn't have to ask for the largest one. It was indescribable happiness, really. 

This was in early of 2015 when I was around 68kg. However, as 2015 went by, I still kept losing weight. I didn't consciously try to diet but I think I did eat significantly much less than what I used to. I guess I was too afraid of regaining all the weight that I've lost in the past few months so subconsciously whenever I ate, I got full faster and didn't snack so much on sweets or junk food anymore.

I also felt much healthier with my new weight so whenever I ate or drank sweet stuff like soft drinks, frappucinos, cakes, chocolates, ice-cream (which I used to have no qualms about finishing an entire serving alone) I had this unintentional phobia which made me feel apprehensive about having more than two bites. Like just looking at those food made me feel how much sugar they contained and thinking how they would transform into fats in my body just made me lose my appetite for them haha! So dramatic right but it's true! I still like to eat sweet and fattening stuff of course, who am I kidding right, but somehow it's easier for me to say 'enough' and stop now whenever I eat them.

So gradually, I began to lose weight again even though I rarely (ok fine, never) exercised. And by the end of 2015, I weight myself and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was 63kg! I lost another 5kg since the beginning of the year without even consciously trying to!

So in Jan 2015, or like a few days ago, this is how I look. Photos below were taken in the past week.

Right now I am 172 cm and 63kg, BMI 21.3 haha. Total weight loss is 78kg (BMI 26.4 btw) - 63kg = 15kg in I guess, 1 year and 4 months. 

Even after losing 15kg, maybe because I didn't do it by exercise, I still don't think I am slim. I still have a lot of flabby flesh around my arm, thigh, and belly areas. I do agree that I am no longer fat though, but I still have a few kgs to go before I can be truly be satisfied with the way I look. I want to be 57kg and maybe with more toned arms and thighs so this year I'd work for that. Just 6kgs more to go!

If you read my older blog posts in my other blog (joeyjoeldavid.blogspot.com) you'd see how I've always struggled with my weight. That's why it feels so surreal writing this post because I feel like I've finally managed to overcome my weight problem after fighting it for so long.

I really feel proud of myself and I believe I will be able to reach my ideal body soon. Within the first half of 2016, even! So if you are trying to lose weight, or have a goal you are are trying to reach, just believe that you can do it. And you will, trust me, DEFINITELY achieve it. DEFINITELY.

I remember when I started gymming, I promised my cousin Aun Jie that I would return to Malaysia a different person and I really believed in that. I believed in that so much that I didn't even feel the struggle of trying to lose weight, even with the gymming and the eating less. Just believe in your goal and you will achieve it.

Just see where my belief brought me! :D