The 3-Day Juice Cleanse

I had been wanting to get on to the Juice Cleanse bandwagon for a while now. But was always kind of put off because they were usually pretty expensive and of course my hubby always said to me, that I would never last! He knows how much I love to eat and cook. But I figured how hard can it be, you just drink a bottle of juice every 2 hours, there's no way you should feel hungry. So I recently came across a relatively inexpensive deal on Groupon for a 3 Day Juice Cleanse by J3 healthier juice.soda. You can see the groupon deal here. For $99.80 with free delivery, you get 7 juice bottles a day for 3 days. So for 21 bottles of juice, that works out to only around $3.70 per 350ml bottle which isn't expensive at all considering it's pure cold pressed juice. Some even have up to 11 different types of fruits and vegetables!

The juice is delivered on your nominated date and time and is delivered in a cooler bag. The juices are not pasteurized so needs to be refrigerated immediately.

Detox Type 1 consists of - Wheatgrass, Pineapple, Guava, Orange, Green Apple, Cabbage, Carrot, Spinach, Plum, Mix Berries, Cucumber

There were 2 options you could choose from, Fundamental Package and the Greener Package. The difference being the Fundamental Package included two types of Refresher Juices. The Refresher Juices were just purely fruits (wait, is cucumber a fruit?), about 5-6 types of fruit mix. So this is the kind of juice I'm more used to drinking. The other juices in the package included raw vegetables like Kale, Cabbage, Broccoli, Celery, Spinach - these were the ones I wasn't used to drinking. It just tasted too earthy and raw....but I did finish the juices. The worst one in my opinion is the Nut Milk which is a mixture of Almond, Cashew, Walnut, Honey and Alkaline Water. This just tasted really unpleasant for my palate. I've had almond milk before so that's nothing new but this mix had a slight sour taste to it. Now I'm pretty sure it hadn't gone off, I think it was just the Alkaline Water that gave it that funny taste. The Nut Milk bottles were the only ones I couldn't bring myself to finish. You can check out the J3 website to read what each bottle consists of. One of the reasons I also chose the juice cleanse from this company was because I generally thought that I liked the mix of juices per bottle and wouldn't have a big problem drinking them. Some other juice cleanses have a lot of things in them that I don't like such as Ginger or maybe Coriander, etc. Do keep in mind this is Cold Pressed, so the juice is quite thick. I'm ok and used to this because I actually have a cold press juicer at home. And your next question will be why then don't I just make my own juice cleanse. Well considering how many types of fruits and vegetables went into it, the prep work would just be too time consuming not to mention all the washing.

Now this is probably the part that will interest most people, how did I feel while I was on the cleanse. Well I tell you, it was quite torturing, I felt a little light headed on the first day and just a general lack of energy. Oh and did I mention that I was literally starving for all of the 3 days! Even on the first day I couldn't hack it and resorted to eating something here and there. I ate some eggs thinking the protein will help make me feel full for a little while and that definitely helped. I also ate some fruits - I figured hey I'm drinking fruit anyway. But fruit has never really ever satiated my hunger in the past and it was the same this time. It was more like a temporary filler. The second day was easier and I was set on trying not to eat anything, just juice. But again I had to eat something here and there just to take away the edge of the hunger. I was never hallucinating or dreaming about food while I was on the cleanse, I was just thinking about how hungry I was and what I could eat to just take the edge of. This is a bit different to how I feel when I'm on a strict diet where I most of the time would be dreaming of all the food I couldn't have. Perhaps I also cheated because I really lack discipline :p There's also something that no one really considers before doing a Juice Cleanse. That is, that you will crave something warm and savoury. Not necessarily together because if you crave something warm, you can just drink tea I guess. But the savoury bit, that was hard for me because I don't really have a sweet tooth, I am more of a savoury person. So that's why I had a pan fried egg in between with a healthy sprinkling of soy sauce and pepper. That was enough to help me not feel blah about having to drink so much sweet stuff all day. Another thing that makes it difficult to stick to these kind of cleanses is if you are a mother/parent who needs to prepare meals for their little ones. You're basically waging war against yourself, lol! This is also why I'm not very successful in sticking to diets.

What about the end result? Well I did lose maybe about a kg or slightly under a kg, about 2 pounds I guess. My silhouette does look slightly slimmer (yay!) and what I also noticed is how healthy my hair seems! I don't regret doing it at all and if you want to do it, just go for it. If you realise half way that you can't just go without eating, then just take the juice and drink it as a compliment with your meals. And hey it's still cheaper than drinking coffee from Starbucks! But if I had to repeat this again....um...let me think about it first...hehehe :D


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My Manic Panic Experience

Lately I had been wanting to change up my hair colour. I have always always wanted purple in my hair, in what way I'm not sure. But anyway I recently saw on my FB feed one of my friends dyed her hair Blue! Like Marge Simpson blue! I was in awe, but she did say she had to bleach her hair first to achieve the vibrant colour then used this semi permanent dye called Manic Panic, which I'd never heard about before until now. So off I went to Google it. Pretty much almost all the sites and videos I watched said that you have to bleach your hair in order for it to show. Well my hair wasn't exactly black, nor is it super light as you can see on the right. But my previous colour was a light brown, so I thought that some purple should show up without needing to bleach....right? I am quite terrified of bleaching my hair considering how damaged my hair already is (but I'm not ruling it out in the future). I think I'd love to have a gradual purple ombre of some sort. And this was what I was thinking that I might be able to do on my own with Manic Panic. 

So to my surprise I managed to find an online seller on Qoo10 that sold Manic Panic in Singapore. At $22 not including postage, it is a little pricey, but it is from the US and it's all Vegan, so I guess you pay for quality. After contemplating which colours to get, there was soooo many, and after researching all over the place, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram, you name it, I settled on Ultra Violet. 

I found this Hair sample comparison on Pinterest from Manic Panic Japan. I think my hair was pretty close in colour to the far right one, so I thought great I'll see some purple.

The tub isn't very big.

It's like poster paint my friends say.

So I was pretty excited and nervous to try it out. And the best thing from watching all those Youtube videos was a tip on using those black garbage bags as a smock. What a great idea! Why hadn't I thought of that before.

Fancy Garbage Bag Dress

I decided to do just the bottom half of my hair...not realising how weird it would look.

Ok, it doesn't look super bad....right?

Looks a little like a reverse Ombre effect right? Hmmm.....I really couldn't decide what to do. So I sent my pic to a few friends. Some said just leave it, but most said think it's better to do the whole head. So I redid it. And this is what it looks like:

 How bizarre, now it looks like I have jet black hair!! What's going on?? It was night time so I couldn't wait for the next morning to see what it was like under light.

 This was taken with flash, ok, so you can see the purple streaks. I liked it a lot, but shame you can't see it more prominent. 

Next morning, standing in the shade, this is what it looked like. Puzzling....coz it still looked pretty dark. 

 

And then this happened! I had the sun directly shining on my hair and lo and behold my hair was so bright! I was totally in love with this colour, it's exactly what I wanted! I just wanted to stand in the sun all day just to have this colour show up. Too bad that this isn't the colour in the shade. Maybe I should really consider doing this colour permanently.

3 days later after 2 washes, this happened. I was walking towards a building and suddenly saw a spot of sunlight and look, my hair now looks red! But on the right you can clearly see it's still pretty dark. How can one hair colour have so many different hues!

Now my hair is slowly washing out, I don't wash my hair everyday, just every second day (sometimes if it's overly oily I will wash two days in a row). Everytime I put shampoo in my hair, the shampoo turns a bluish purple, so now I understand how semi permanent dyes work. My hair is still pretty dark after a week but I can start to see it lighten up more and I guess slowly it's going back to my previous brown...so now I'm patiently waiting till I can dye my hair another colour again....coz girl, my natural roots are startin to show!

So if you're thinking about dying your hair with Manic Panic, just do it! After all if you're not happy with it, in 4-6 weeks or less it'll all wash out. But here's a few things to take note of if you decide to go ahead:

• Make sure you cover up, this stuff really stains and avoid wearing anything light coloured for the first week;
• Put vaseline around your hairline, neck areas, chin, ears, this will make it very easy for you to just wipe off any stray colours and trust me you will get some strays;
• Although they say use a brush to 'paint' it on your hair, I found it was just easier to dip your Gloved fingers and rub it into your hair and then use a comb to spread it out more;
• Wear gloves! Because it will stain your hands for days! I wore gloves and still had staining on a few fingers;
• Even after you wash with shampoo, when you are styling your hair or blow drying your hair and you run your fingers through your hair, your palm and fingernails will turn purple! Which only goes away in a couple of days.

The best thing about this dye though is that there is none of that nasty chemical smell. No amonia smell to burn your eyes and no burning sensations when you put it close to your scalp. Though it may not work exactly the way I wanted it to, I still give it two thumbs up. But because it's a bit costly, I doubt that I'd be doing this too often.

I know it's been a rather long entry, thanks for making it this far! Happy Colouring!

UPDATE 25/8/15: After less than 2 weeks and after washing my hair on alternate days (sometimes everyday) the purple has all pretty much washed out. My colour is slowly returning back to its original brownish colour. But it's still not exactly the way it used to be, I guess there's still some dye in my hair. I wonder if it'll all wash out eventually? I miss my old hair colour :(

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Tofudles!

Tofudles! This is the answer to your noodle craving when you're on a low carb diet. When I sad this posted by Budget Pantry, I knew I had to try it. I had bought this tofu before but didn't like it. And I guess had no idea how to cook it. Never thought of unrolling it. So this time I tried cutting it into wide strips like Parpadelle pasta and cooked it with Pesto, Chicken and Sweet Peas. And the taste? Well you definitely know it's not pasta, but I liked it. There is a chewiness to it and you can still taste the tofu(ness).

Baiye Tofu

It wasn't that easy to stir the tofudles, once I mixed the pesto in, they kind of clung together. Next time I will cut them thinner Linguine like. And I'm actually excited to cook it again. See what other ways I can cook it. The amazing thing was my 8 year old finished all her portion! High Five Tofu!

If you're living in Singapore, you can buy this Tofu from NTUC (and probably other supermarkets).

The Tofu after it's been cut and unrolled into strips.The great thing is the tofu is not that delicate, so it doesn't break easily when you stirfry it.

The finished Dish. Delicious!!

Convert your Shoulder Bags into a Messenger Bag

I came across the idea of converting my shoulder bags into messenger bags after watching the following Youtube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_ATEArsoo

She has the exact same bag that I have, the LV Delightful MM, and I thought that it was a really smart idea to be able to extend the use of the bag as a messenger bag. She however had bought LV straps to use, while it would be nice to have an LV strap for my LV bag, seems like it is a spare part that you can only order if you own the bag that goes with the strap. So I did a little more research and came across this video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URbmUUSI8sA

The straps this lady bought from an online shop called Mautto looked quite elegant. But I wasn't sure if I was willing to pay that much for a strap since I also wasn't sure if I would be using it often. Since the online store is based in the US once you add on the shipping costs to Singapore it wasn't that cheap.  What I do like about Mautto is that you can find different size straps, eg. 1.5" 1" etc and the type of material like Nylon, or Cotton or even leather or chain.

Anyway so I decided to check elsewhere and found one on Aliexpress. For US$8.98 including Free Shipping I thought it was a good deal to try out. The pictures showed the strap with a shoulder pad and silver hardware so I mailed the seller to ask if it came with gold hardware which they confirmed they could do. So I went ahead with the order and I requested that the shoulder pad be removed if possible but I was also prepared to cut the pad out if it came with it. So about 1.5 weeks later I received the strap in the mail via registered mail and I was somewhat okay with it. The strap itself was a good quality nylon with a slight sheen to it. What I was annoyed about was that the hardware on the slide part was silver whilst the clips were a light gold colour. Hmmm....was it by mistake or they just don't have the sliding hardware in gold? Anyway I'm pretty sure I could live with it...hopefully no one really notices :p I reckon the strap matched my LV monogram well and it's comfortable to wear. So overall it was worth the buy, maybe in future I might trade up to the one Mautto sells. I do like their clips better.

The clip looks silver here, but is actually a light gold. 

From Mautto Website

Riders Cafe (Singapore) - A truly hidden gem.

I kid you not when I say it's a hidden gem, because this place is so hidden away! Located at the Bukit Timah Saddle Club, which is just right next to Turf City, I never would have found the place had it not been for my friend's recommendation.

We went there for a birthday breakfast. Do you know how difficult it is to find a cafe that opens early?? A lot of the cafes in my area only open from 10am or 11am onwards on weekdays and they will only open early for brunch on weekends. Not everybody works and those that work don't necessarily all work conventional working hours. Would be nice if there are more places other than fast food joints and hawker centres to hang out in in the mornings after we've dropped off the kids at neighbourhood schools.

This cafe is definitely not accessible via other modes of transport other than private vehicle or taxi. Upon entering the street leading up to the Saddle Club and the Cafe I felt transported to another world. There was so much lush greenery and overhead bridges that we drove under, it kinda felt like we were driving up the Shire looking for Bilbo or Frodo Baggins' house (you know, from the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings?). There were also lots of little monkeys running around so do be careful when you drive.

There wasn't a breakfast crowd but I think it gets more and more crowded as the day progresses. And according to their website, dinners are usually booked out so it's recommended to call them first to make a reservation.

"The Usual" - $18++. Two Eggs, Bacon, Breakfast Sausage, Mushrooms, Tomato, Rustic Bread. This was a huge portion (for that price it better be!). My friend did mention that the bread was too tough...over toasted. 

This is the same dish as above but the eggs were done Sunny Side Up rather than Scrambled. Either way I think it looked good.

Fizzy Sunrise Drink $6.50++. Only order if you like sour drinks.

This was my Smoked Salmon with Sweet Corn and Potato Hash, with Avocado, Spinach (which I didn't really realise was even in there), and two Perfectly Poached Eggs (resembled the ghosts from pacman...hehehe) $17++. Honestly after seeing my friends' dishes I was a little disappointed with my serving :( Good thing that the flavour made up for it.

Overall we thought the food quality was very good. Price is a little on the high side, but I guess you pay for the location and ambience. But I definitely wouldn't be able to afford eating this everyday ;p

Tip: ask to sit on the deck so you can stare out at the horses while you enjoy your meal :)

Pretty interior.

The Stables

Is this really in Singapore?

Horse Crossing!

It's a real life merry go round! This is how the horses get their exercise it seems.