being two (tiny) steps healthier :)

helloooooowwww *waves*
again and again and again, i am such an 'active' blogger, aren't i? *sarcasm intended :P*
sooooo after.... how many months? seven, i guess? okay, so after seven months, i am back with a (quite) useful post, because i am very sure that all of you must have had enough of those angsty-blog-posts-filled-with-eyeroll-inducing-problems that i wrote quite often lately. therefore (oh my god, i can't believe that i am using this word in a casual blog post forgodsake >.<), at this moment, i am going to let you guys know how a very-unlikely-to-be-healthy-me (i should really consider my tendency to write super long, confusing phrases like this, right? :P) finally decided to live two tiny steps healthier ^^v

buuuuuut before i proceed to the main point, i think i need to update a bit about how my life goes lately. so, first of all, i have finally finished my postgraduate studies and i am now an MSc holder! yeahoooo *throws confetti at myself*
the viva voce went for about two hours and i gotta say that i was kinda drained when it was finished because my examiner was veeeeery particular and he went for the questions and corrections page by page >.< but trust me, although i was really exhausted, it felt soooooo good to know that all my blood, sweat, and tears were now in a form of a completed thesis, a published journal article, an accepted proceeding and (soon) a piece of certificate stating that now i can add MSc behing my BSc title. sweet :)
i am currently trying to find a job so pleaseeeee cross extra fingers for me? *huge grin*

okay, i guess that's enough for a quick update. so, without further ado, let's gooooo to the first step!

1. reducing instant noodles intake
all of my close friends and family know very well that i am addicted to instant noodles, and it only got worse since i lived far from my family. until around three months ago, i usually had instant noodles as my lunch or dinner at least three times a week, while it is actually advisable to give a three-day-gap after each consumption to (well, they say) eliminate the ugly chemicals in them from our body.

this bad habit lasted until one day i said to my housemates that my hairfall got much worse. in case you don't know, i have very fine textured hair and i don't even have thick hair to begin with, so i think it is normal for me to be worried about hairfall because, hello, being a bald woman doesn't sound very appealing to me. my housemates said that i probably need to reduce my instant noodles intake since, like what my sister said, instant noodles have even more rumours (about its health-deteriorating properties) than celebrities do XD

trust me, it was reaaaaally difficult to stop having instant noodles as my staple meals because i personally love instant noodles, not just because of its convenience but also their varieties and flavors. i am aaaaalwways curious everytime there is new variant of instant noodles being launched and i would end up buying their pack-of-five and finishing them in two weeks. this is a habit that i am still struggling to eliminate completely from my life until now (hey, i am a food scientist, i have all the rights to be curious of new food products! *evil grin*), but at least i am trying to reduce it to only one pack per month. so far everything went well like how i planned, thanks to my healthier version of instant noodles that i invented by myself :) now now, aren't you curious? *grin*

soooooo i made this as simple, as tasty, but healthier version of fried instant noodles that is MSG free, oil free, and, therefore, less fat! i basically need to always have air-dried noodles, non-MSG oyster sauce, non-MSG maggi seasoning, soy sauce, and ground pepper in my kitchen cabinet, and i am all set. i boil the noodles like instructed in the packet and while i wait for the noodles to be cooked, i mix oyster sauce, maggi seasoning, soy sauce, and ground pepper in a bowl. you can add some bottled chilli sauce too if you want some kick :) i don't use salt because oyster sauce and maggi seasoning give enough saltiness for me, but you're always welcome to add more salt, just make sure that you won't overadding it :) after the noodles are nice and firm, i drain them from the water and mix them with the concoction in the bowl that i make earlier. that's it, the noodles are ready to eat! isn't that reaaaaally simple? i bet even a kindergarten kid can prepare this meal by themselves! this healthier 'fried' noodles tastes awesome, even my housemate loves it! you definitely can try this at home too :)

although i don't know whether the rumours are true or not, i found that my hairfall became much less after i stopped my addiction to instant noodles. well, i still consume it like once in a month, but it is still very normal, i think. i just think of it like having cheat day just like those people who are on diet ;)



2. two mugs of green tea a day
i just started this habit very recently, like around three days ago? so i cannot tell how it works on me yet. the reason why i started this habit was because of the dark circles under my eyes. i can imagine some of you frowning already, thinking why don't i get enough sleep instead if i want to eliminate my dark circles? well, truthfully, i don't really think that i am lack of sleep since i always have at least six hours of sleep a day and trust me, i had even less sleep back in the day and i didn't even turn into a panda.

sooooo i googled and googled and googled and i found that there are actually a lot more causes of dark circles besides lack of sleep, such as genetics and even eye wrinkles. the cause which was the reason why i started this routine was that it might be a sign for a need of detoxification because the liver has been working too hard already. i was a little freaked out reading this because, well, i have to admit that although i have the out-of-ordinary body size, i am actually a picky eater. i am not a fan of fruits and vegetables, but i am a fan of anything fried and sometimes overly sweet. i was thinking of the simplest and easiest way to have my detox without sacrificing my tastebuds, and i directly think of green tea.

i don't like regular, commonly consumed black tea, even after it is sweetened, but surprisingly i can accept green tea although it is unsweetened, in all its bitterness glory. must be the aroma, hmm?
so i finally decided to buy a box of green tea bags, simmer one bag of it every morning before my breakfast and keep the bag in the fridge to have another simmer at night before i sleep. i enjoy this routine so far and i will probably update you again on how it affects my dark circles or maybe my metabolism :)

well, for a food scientist, minoring in functional food somemore, it is probably a shame that i don't practice my knowledge in my own daily life. these two were just tiny beginning steps of a lot more to come, hopefully :)

that's all from me now guys. see y'all later alligator! ^^v