Hi guys,
Just a quick note today to wish you all a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!
My 2017 had many highlights to celebrate and low lights to learn from.
For my post next week I’m putting some thoughts together on goal setting for 2018 which has been a great exercise for me this year.
It helped build an improved version of me in 2017 and I hope it benefits you too 🙂
Wishing you a safe and happy Christmas and joyful New Year!
God bless,
Leki, Belinda, Emelina and baby 🙂
Christmas is almost here like literally 8 days away.
We all have so many Christmas parties and maybe holidays this time of the year. What do you do when you get so caught up with it especially when you are eating well and being physically active? Do you let yourself go into lapse and let all your effort gone down to the drain?
I am going to discuss how we are going to manage our lapses.
A lapse is a brief and small slip in your efforts to make healthy changes. A lapse might be overeating at parties for a day or two, or skipping your physical activity for a week while on holidays or too busy catching up on Christmas shopping and lunching/coffees with friends. Experiencing a lapse is normal. You should not view them negatively.
To deal with lapses, it is important to be prepared for them. If a lapse is left unchecked, it can sometimes grow into relapse. A relapse is a full-blown return to your previous habits. It usually results from a series of small lapses that snowball into a relapse.
Lapses can sometimes be a trigger to give up on your goals for healthy changes, but they don’t have to be! Lapses can be a chance to learn about yourself and can help you to become stronger in your will to change.
The key to sticking with your new healthy habits is to work out your strengths and weaknesses.
You can then learn to identify your lapses early and deal with them before they turn into a relapse. You can also plan for a lapse so you are in control of how often and how much you lapse.
Here is a task to help you make a controlled, pre-planned lapse in eating.
My plan for a lapse:
My own rules for lapses:
What would you do on the Christmas Day itself?
I would suggest go for a long walk before the day start and it’s going to be crazier. Enjoy the day and perhaps go for another walk after the meal. It doesn’t have to be long, 30 mins it’s a good to start. I hope this would help you managing the festive season.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
Hi everyone,
Thank you for tuning in 🙂
Today I wanted to talk about the differences around different generations and how I came to observe this…
I was lucky to have 4 x generations under one roof earlier this year – My maternal grandmother, mother, myself and my daughter. It was great time and it was heart warming to see my grandmother play and interact with Emelina even though she doesn’t speak English well and Eme only understands basic Tongan. The way they communicated was through the international language of love and affection 🙂
While talking to my grandmother I started to wonder about her experiences and I was transported to a different time.
My grandmother belongs to a generation called Traditionalists.
She grew up in a time where there were disastrous world war conflicts (WWI and WWII), raised by her parents (my great-grandparents) who had just survived the post-Depression years with food and services were not readily available so I can understand these testing circumstances will shape the core values of the people of this era.
Just take a moment and think about your own grand parents. Are they spend thrift? Do they focus on saving money rather then spending it? If something is broken do they try and fix it rather then pay for a service to fix it? Are they more inclined to walk from A to B rather then drive? Do they feel like a burden if they ask for help because they would rather do everything for themselves? Do they typically eat ‘just enough’ rather then over indulge on food?
How did you go? Did you mostly answer YES to the above? Interesting thought isn’t it?
What is abundantly clear to me is that they lived in a different time to how we live now.
Let’s look at our current living conditions…
According to the table above I belong to a generation called Millennials born from 1981 onward.
This informative chart describes exactly what I’m feeling but finding difficult to express.
We are living in a time of convenience. We expect things to be available on demand, head to the local shopping centre we expect longer trading hours, on demand TV to watch programs when we want, purchases made on the credit card with one flick of the wrist, online shopping, self-driving cars… the list goes on! Wow, what a time we live in! Although there is nothing wrong with advancements in technology I also sense that there is a negative side to all these positives.
Thinking about my own experience when I was a teenager I had different ideas on what was important to me. Make up, boys, wearing fashionable clothes. Then as a young adult working full time my focus shifted to meeting different people, having a great time out in town and having difference experiences. Meeting Leki and getting into a serious relationship shifted my focus from experiences here and now to forecasting the future together. Pretty much moving from a single focus to a shared focus. But now, having a little family our outlook has shifted again to our children and what their future holds.
The family unit is the bedrock of our society. When I was a young single adult without a life partner or family I would typically have no issues with taking risks. When you have a family you start to question everything you do and make conscious decisions to reduce the risk of harming your family.
My observation is that the Family unit is the foundation of our society.
Living in a time of convenience means longer trading hours so families can typically go longer without Mum and Dad while they are at work, we can be distracted with too much screen time, being time poor we make bad decisions on food, alternative working hours mean that families don’t sit and eat together, people don’t simply talk to each other anymore when texting is less confrontational…
If you’re ‘with me’ you feel a sense of uneasiness as the generations are vastly different across the whole spectrum including home life, working career, lifestyle choices, technology, money, education, social, political, economy… and so on.
I almost feel like I belong in a different time.
The time of my grandmother. I belong at home and find genuine happiness raising my children, preparing meals for my family, making things, fixing things and keeping the home homely.
The simple life.
With love,
Belinda.
Hi guys,
Some of you may realise that I am not quite white and not completely brown.
My mother was born in Tonga which is a little island found right along side our more famous neighbour – Fiji – in the expansive South Pacific ocean. Mum’s skin is a sun weathered brown with black hair and dark brown eyes. My father on the other hand is a true blue Australian and from English stock with accompanying blonde hair (greying now after having to deal with four daughters?!) with piercing blue eyes.
So my sisters and I are the result of their union – we are half caste. Half Australian, half Tongan.
FUN FACT:
Having been born and raised in suburban Australia I always felt different from most other kids. You see I never felt completely accepted by either community. I wasn’t white enough to be Australian or I couldn’t speak or understand the Tongan language enough to be 100% Tongan. I was in this ‘twilight zone’ where I didn’t belong anywhere.
This is not a reflection on the job my parents did. They did a fantastic job and managed to raise girls successfully while making us feel included and accepted – it was just a gut feeling that you knew but not widely acknowledged.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. I was raised in a devout Catholic household and we went to Mass every Sunday and our Tongan Catholic community was very active and always held barbecues which kept us very close.
Being raised in a Tongan household meant that you had certain duties to perform as the culture is quite hierarchical. On the flip side having Australian roots also gave you a sense of ease as there is not as much importance placed on things that Tongans emphasise. On reflection, growing up it in that environment made things very confusing for me personally.
Being a young Tongan girl albeit half caste, there are cultural expectations that are placed on you. You obey your parents, daily chores are expected to be completed without fuss or promises of reward, firm discipline/getting a smack is normal and there are so many branches to the family tree it can be challenging to keep count of how many cousin you have 🙂 As with anything you always take the good with the bad with a pinch of salt.
During times of despair (such as a funeral) or celebrations (such as a birthday) having a certain structure within a culture can help with you cope. Being a hierarchical community your know your ‘place’ within the Family and community at large.
Within the Tongan culture you ‘rank’ higher if you are a descendant from the female rather then male line. Indeed your Father is the head of the household but the actual ‘rank’ within the Family and wider community comes from your Mother’s side! Sounds good to me 😉
We can also party! Our National Rugby League team – Mate Ma’a Tonga – played courageously during the recent Rugby League World Cup and the Tongan community worldwide was swollen with pride and enthusiasm – check it out here.
From all over the United States, the foot of the Eiffel Tower, in the Australian Outback to the humble homes in the Islands you can see the red and white flags waving furiously in proud support. Check out my friend Alan Latu’s popular video below! Not bad for a little Island in the Pacific 🙂
I love learning about all types of people and cultures and I come from a special mix myself! I used to see this as a weakness or that there was something wrong with me. Now I feel completely different about it.
This is an affirmation that I’m happy. Celebrate who you are.
With love,
Belinda
Hi guys,
Today I’m going to share the ongoing challenge parents face that is discipline and kids. I am only sharing my observations with how Leki and I discipline Emelina and it is an ‘educated trial and error’ process. Your mileage may vary 🙂
One big theme I would like to share first is the mindset or psychology of discipline. The link here can explain in a bit more detail on what I’m talking about but I would like to present this idea in the context of disciplining children.
Our daughter Emelina will be 3yo in March 2018. She is a curious, adventurous, cheeky and a loving little human – she is not special in that regard as it is typical for most children. At this age she will explore her environment and a lot of what she encounters will be for the first time and/or she’s learning how to process something that looks or feels familiar. It is that curiosity that shapes her views on the big wide world.
On a slight tangent we as her parents have experienced this worldly environment for over 32 years. We already know the risks and dangers that exist in this world. We as parents understand the challenges of pouring water into a cup and the risk of spilling it, we have felt the pain of running around outside and falling scraping our knees bare, we know that sharp pointy things can be dangerous, we have felt that immense fear of being lost at a supermarket with unrecognisable people walking by ignoring you – there’s so many examples of pain and suffering we want her to avoid.
In reality there is only so much we can do to create a sense of safety for Eme allowing her to explore her environment by encouraging a healthy dose of curiosity.
Now let’s present this real life example of how we practice Curiosity over Judgement.
We are in the deep throes of toilet training Emelina. She shows signs of being ‘ready to go’ from nappies to undies. When she has a wet nappy it’s soaked up pretty well and so she’s comfortable. Different story when it comes to a dirty nappy – the feeling leaves her irritable and she’s wanting to be changed ASAP. We’ve used this opportunity to get Eme on the training toilet…. but we’re being met with some resistance.
So instead of getting frustrated with her or scolding her to ‘hurry up’ and kaka our code word for no. 2 🙂 or weewee we ask ourselves why she’s not wanting to use the toilet or how can we help her understand that this is a normal part of growing up. Granted it is a challenge to hold a conversation with a 2.5yo but we feel that should not limit you trying. We talk to her as if she’s 6yo but make sure we do it in a way that she feels comfortable and can process what we’re saying at her own pace.
After our initial attempts – 4 weeks in total – without any activity on the loo we trialled a reward system. Instead of promising nice treats or snacks we said that for every successful effort made on the toilet she’ll be rewarded with an Emoji sticker from the popular children’s movie. The result? Two successful weewees in ONE DAY!
I’ve been following the efforts of Susie at ‘Not-Your-Average-Mom’ blog and she has a great perspective on this theme involving discipline and Kids check it out here.
I don’t believe there’s such a thing as ‘terrible 2s or troublesome 3s’. The challenge will always be there regardless if they’re 2yo and not sleeping at night or 6yo and getting bullied at school or 10yo and wanting to try on make up or 12yo and wanting that new flashy mobile phone or having boy trouble at 15yo or falling pregnant at 18yo. These are all very real scenarios and fears all parents of young girls face but it is our responsibility to help these children grow and help guide them as they navigate their own journey. So how can we ensure we can keep them on the right track? While there’s no perfect solution practising Curiosity over Judgement can certainly cushion the fall.
So, another tough situation we experience with our little one is when we’re sitting in church. Now you can picture the struggle here. A church that can be a place of hushed quiet reflection and you have this child who refuses to sit still or wants to go an explore her new surroundings. How can we teach Eme to understand that there is a time to be playful and there is a time to be still and listen?
We taught her why it’s important to spend time together as a family, sing songs of praise and be grateful for the things we have in our lives. Does she understand completely what’s going on? Probably not. But we explain things to her anyway and more importantly show her by being quiet ourselves and being an example of how to be and act in times of quiet reflection. Any time she decides to act up we correct her behaviour and remind her again that this is not the right time to play. We make it up other times during the week by making sure we play with her so when we ask her for 1 hour of obedience we find that it’s not such of a big demand 🙂
So in short it is not my intention to paint this idyllic scenario where we are living error free and that everything is perfect. Far from it. The difference is that I am always striving to have the perfect day with my husband Leki and our little girl Emelina.
Curiosity over Judgement is helping us and I sincerely hope it helps you too!
Happy days,
Belinda.
I was driving along in my comfortable medium sized car, Lucy, and yes I am one of those people who name their cars, when I began to think of cars I have known.
I grew up in the era of manual gears, no power steering and bench seats front and back.
To indicate that you were turning right you put your arm out the window, holding it straight. To indicate that you were stopping you put your hand out the window with your elbow bent at a right angle to your shoulder.
There was no heating and certainly no air conditioning. Many a long trip in the summer heat meant open windows and wet towels wrapped around shoulders and necks. Windows were wound down with a handle; there were no childproof locks and seatbelts were unheard of.
If your battery was flat, hopefully you were on a slight slope or had other people to push. You took off the brake, put the car into 2nd gear using the clutch and when the car picked up speed, eased off the clutch, pressed the accelerator and hoped the car would start. I started my first car many mornings using this method. Fortunately we lived on a small hill.
My parents had a real talent when it came to cars; they invariably bought a lemon. If the steering wasn’t faulty, the electrics were or the exhaust pipe fell off. We lived in the Southern Highlands of NSW about 2 hours south of Sydney and it became common practice if we were travelling more than 20 miles (about 24 kms) to pack essential supplies.
These consisted of a frying pan, eggs, tomatoes, bacon, bread and butter, matches to light a fire by the roadside (no total fire bans in those days), a billy for tea, mugs, plates and cutlery. We always carried blankets (no doonas back then) and pillows as many a night we slept in the car. A large container of water was always in the car for when the radiator boiled and for the afore mentioned tea.
There were of course no mobile phones. In fact our landline was a party line and went through a telephonist at the post office. A party line meant that everyone’s phone was on the same line and the number of rings indicated the person being called. Of course for many of the others on the party line it was irresistible to lift the receiver to listen in to other people’s calls. I can remember phoning my mother on one occasion and two other people telling me she wasn’t answering because she was visiting Mrs Brown who’d broken her leg.
When you wanted petrol you drove into the petrol station and a person came out, asked how much petrol you wanted, filled the tank and cleaned the windows. You handed over the cash (no credit cards then) and the person returned with your change. You could only buy petrol or oil, certainly no food or drink.
There were no McDonalds, Kentucky Fried or roadside cafes. Every country town had a Parthenon Cafe where you could buy milkshakes, tea, coffee and light meals. Hamburgers were a later edition or you could go to the hotel. No women other than guests were allowed into a hotel except for the dining room where basic meals were served, usually a roast dinner. A Chinese cafe of that era served Steak and Eggs, Chow Mein, Curried Prawns with rice and banana fritters.
When I married we bought a car which got us from point A to point B with no problems. I couldn’t help thinking some of the adventure had gone out of driving.
Hi guys,
Wow the year has flown by so quickly hasn’t it? Well another week and another blog post on something I’ve been working on or observing.
Today I wanted to share the work we’ve been applying over the last 18 months in regards to our diet and general outlook on well being. It’s a bit of a buzz word at them moment but what does ‘well being’ mean? It varies from person to person but to me it means being happy and having energy to spend it on doing the things you enjoy.
To give you some idea on what I’m talking about – let’s change the framework.
Let’s imagine you’re 18yo and it’s Saturday night and you’re gearing up for a big night out in town with your friends. You have a great night and you drink more ‘happy drinks’ then you should and decide it’s a good idea to have fast food at 4am. Remember those days? The funny thing is when you’re a spring chicken and 18yo you recover almost instantly and can bounce back to your feet and attack the next day with the same energy and vigour.
Now imagine the same scenario as a 30yo+. Those of you who are around this age or older know exactly what I’m talking about. A big night in town enjoying yourself can almost put you down for the count for almost 3-5 days. If you have children and you have calibrated your days to be in bed by 9pm then staying up until 2am will cause you some damage it’s almost guaranteed 🙂 Add to that some nice cocktails and dancing in heels to your wounds the next morning!
Another example is to think about times when you were fit and healthy as a young 18yo – at the peak of your powers. You could almost eat anything you wanted and nothing would stick on you. (Of course this is not everyone’s experience?!)
You’d eat poorly and not bear the consequences of it. Then, after high school finishes up and you start work or higher education and you notice the drive for regular exercises starts to drop down the list of priorities. Sound familiar? The thing is you continue to eat poorly thinking you have the magic powers of youth still but you’ve run out of the magic stuff. Next thing you know you’re in your mid-20s and you are overweight, feel overwhelmed because work is very busy and feeling unfulfilled because you don’t have as much free time available as you once did to enjoy yourself.
That was my experience. That was me.
To be honest – there are no shortcuts and if there were I wouldn’t recommend you take that path because you won’t learn the lessons that ‘failure’ teaches you.
I felt the pain of poor self image. Being unhappy by not spending time the way I wished I could.
Craniofacial erythema which is a fancy term for uncontrolled and often unprovoked blushing was a BIG stressor. Sounds pretty minor but it really affected me (and to some degree still does).
I’d go pay for my grocery shopping – start blushing. Walk into a retail store to try on clothes I can feel my cheeks throb and turn a crimson red within seconds. Talking to friends and they would innocently ask if I’m ok because they can see my cheeks turn more red with every second during our great conversation – and what would you guess – more blushing because I’m feeling embarrassed! It was torture.
So I would like to share helpful solutions to curb or control my problems:
1. Food
I would suggest that 80% of my weight loss challenges were due to the type of food I was eating. My personal experience is that when I exercised regularly but ate poorly I didn’t lose weight but I put weight on. Sounds strange doesn’t it but it happened.
I’ve outlined what worked best for me previously here and here but I would reinforce the idea that quality food plays an integral part of how I feel and look healthy.
In terms of weight loss I detailed how I managed to track and lose weight here and it helped regain some lost confidence. I’d like to give a shout out to our mentor Dave Asprey and the guys at Bulletproof for all their educational material and sharing the awesome ideas of ‘biohacking’ which is becoming wildly popular with each day.
We’re glad we found Dave but to filter everything back to when we first started our journey we simply followed a ‘paleo’ diet otherwise known as the caveman diet. It’s all about eating things that are naturally occurring and not manufactured. A whole heap of vegetables, cooked meats and small amount of dairy.
2. Mindfulness
I sought medical opinion for my blushing problem. After a review with my local doctor he recommended some psychology sessions to help curb my anxiety and improve my coping strategies.
Psychology sessions helped with some of my long held and unhelpful beliefs but it didn’t do too much with my uncontrolled blushing episodes unfortunately. Medications were prescribed but I never took them as I felt it was too heavy handed without exploring all my conservative options.
So what helped? Working on being mindful and having a way to sort and process my feelings to unpack what is actually happening.
For example I used to repeat to myself that “it’s only redness there’s nothing wrong with you” whenever I felt the onset swelling rising in my cheeks. With the support of my hubby Leki I would share specific times during the day that I would go blush and go red. We were basically normalising the fact that blushing happens to everyone and that it’s more pronounced for me – that’s all. With constant self evaluation and reflection I was ‘de-regulating’ my anxiety associated with blushing.
I can now report that my blushing episodes still occur but less regularly and less intensely. I’ve been some similar ‘stressful’ situations which used to turn me into a red firecracker and now I barely register any signs of blushing 🙂 As always, it’s work in progress!
[DISCLAIMER: Please seek medical advice if you have trouble with anxiety.]
3. Sleep
Sleep can be a currency that measures your quality of life. If you are blessed to have great sleep then have a couple of poor night’s sleep you feel your quality of life drop away pretty quickly.
With attention to the small details we make it a priority to have adequate sleep. A typical weekday will have us preparing Eme for bed at 7:30pm and she’s tucked in at 8pm. She may self soothe for up to an hour but it usually takes her 20-30 mins to sleep.
Leki and I then aim to be in bed by 9pm and sleep within the hour. I have tried very hard to change my sleep routine at night and reduce my mobile phone use. The over stimulation on the phone at night can keep me awake and leave me with less energy and strength for the next day.
Something that I’m trying to improve on is spending less time on the phone at night and getting that solid 8 hour sleep to recharge the batteries. This can vary depending on how Eme sleeps overnight and visits to the bathroom can disrupt my sleep.
The last improvement I’ve made recently is trying to nap during the day. With this pregnancy I’ve tried to remain active and a quick 30-60 min nap can boost the energy reserves again. This is almost a skill as I had to learn ‘how to nap’ 😉 Historically if I did sleep during the day (which was rare) I would have to sleep for 4+ hours. I’ve now been able to re-calibrate my sleep to encourage a nap which usually marries up with Eme’s midday nap! The skill of napping should serve me well when our little bub arrives in January 2018 and sleep will become a priority 🙂
So what does being Bulletproof mean to me?
It’s about feeling good about myself. Don’t worry about what other people think – do what makes you happy.
Feel fat? Lose weight.
Feel tired? Have a nanna nap.
Feeling anxious? Do the things that make you feel good.
Sounds pretty simple and I don’t want to be preachy but if you’re not feeling good about something why put yourself under all that pressure and noise?
Be Happy & Be Bulletproof!
With love,
Belinda.
Hi guys,
Today I would like to share the gospel of online shopping!
I enjoy being spendthrift but it doesn’t mean I’m penny pinching. I just want to make sure I’m getting the best possible price without compromising on quality and value. I’m not the type of person who may ‘scrooge’ on little things but then have no issues in spending $$$ on big ‘non-essential’ things. If it’s valuable and at a good price – consider it sold 🙂
For example – I really cringe on buying maternity clothing. Not because of the design or the quality. Just the price. $90 for a simple top from my local retail store vs 4 x dressy maternity dresses for $70 online – that’s a pretty simple equation to me. Online wins hands down!
Now I have been a recent convert to buying (particularly clothes) online. Because of my awkward body shape 😉 I prefer to try the clothes on to fit in person. I would be classified as having a rounded figure (above) so some dresses/clothes are a very good fit for my body shape and others not so much. I have to be really careful with what I buy online because it may look really nice on the computer screen but then I can be flatly disappointed because I forgot to factor in my body type.
So I jumped onto Pinterest and thought I’d find some nice infographics that could help me understand body shapes better so I can be more aware of the type of clothing that’s a good match for me. I hope it helps you too!
So as I’m getting more confident with how to shop for myself online – where do I shop? Well I have 2 main sites I personally use:
Boohoo.com and Asos.com. They both offer different things – for example I really like ASOS for the more formal and dressy creations for birthdays, weddings and ‘glam’ outings. Boohoo I love for a more casual look and something that I would put on for low keys events or something casual to be out and about in!
Other sites I usually keep an eye out for are Buy Swap Sell groups on Facebook and Gumtree (very popular in Australia and similar to CraigsList in the USA). Ebay is very popular and Amazon in the early days of being set up in Australia which should be interesting! Here are some pros and cons of these sites detailed below:
The biggest fear I had when I first started online shopping was fraud and piracy. You hear a lot of news about people having their identity stolen after visiting websites for online shopping. So instead of being too scared to try I went out and hunted for some information about online security.
After a bit of research to ease my skeptical mind I found one of the easiest ways to ensure ‘cyber safety’ was simply keeping an eye on the browser. Make sure you use HTTPS whenever you transmit sensitive information across the internet such as credit card details or passwords.
The browser should indicate whether the current page is encrypted through a little lock icon in the URL bar (see above in green Secure). Although the look of the icon can vary across different browsers it should be easy to find.
The world is moving quickly with online shopping so I think it’s important to keep an eye on what is popular. But also make sure you’re careful and prudent with information you send out into the internet-sphere 😉
I’d love to know what online shopping sites you use! Or, if you have any internet safety protocols you follow that you’d be happy to share 🙂
Have a great day,
Belinda.
Hope everyone is enjoying Melbourne’s summer weather.
Belinda has suggested to me to write up about the difference of education system between Malaysia and Australia.
What a coincidence as my partner and I talked about this not long ago. We don’t mind our little one goes to the public school and don’t really mind he goes to Prep at 5yo even a lot of parents that we spoke to would hold them back if they think their child is not ready for it.
In Malaysia, the education system is really different from Australia. We start kindergarten at 3-6 years old. You either attend 2-3 years of kinder which I did for 3-years and then enter Grade 1 at 6 years old. I believe in Australia there is a “cut off” date of when you could go to prep according to the month of the year. In Malaysia, you attend school according to the birth year. So, by saying that, if you are born later in the year then you’ll be the youngest in the class (I was born in November and I was one of the youngest in the class).
Adapted from Wikipedia – Kinder to Primary School in Malaysia
“There are no fixed rules on when a child needs to start preschool education but majority would start when the child turns 3 years old. Preschool education usually lasts for 2 years, before they proceed to primary school at age 7. Preschool education is not compulsory.”
In Malaysia preschool education is mainly provided by private for-profit preschools, though some are run by the government or religious groups. Some primary schools have attached preschool sections. Attendance in a preschool program is not universal; while people living in urban areas are generally able to send their children to private kindergartens, few do in rural areas.
All schools admit students regardless of racial and language background.
Malay and English are compulsory subjects in all schools. All schools use the same syllabus for non-language subjects regardless of the medium of instruction. A National School must provide the teaching of Chinese or Tamil language, as well as indigenous languages wherever practical.
I started in Grade 1 as 6yo and attended a Chinese school as my Mum thought it would be a great idea learning Chinese given our background. Unfortunately, my Mum didn’t like the teaching methods as it was too simple especially with Chinese writing/characters. So, then I switched over to a Public primary school at Grade 2 and continued on here all the way to Year 11.
Adapted from Wikipedia – Primary to High School in Malaysia
“Public secondary education in Malaysia is provided by National Secondary Schools/The Malaysian government and Malay is the as the main language medium of instruction. English is a compulsory subject in all schools.”
Secondary education lasts for five years, referred to as Form 1 to 5.
Form 1 to Form 3 are known as Lower Secondary, while Form 4 and 5 are known as Upper Secondary.
Most students who had completed primary education are admitted to Form 1 but there is a minimum standard to achieve in primary school become you are admitted to high school.
At the end of Form 3 a Lower Secondary Evaluation is taken by students. Based on these results and choice, they will be given three streams to choose from, (1)Academic Stream (Science/Art), Technical and Vocational Stream, and Religious Stream. The Academic stream is generally more desirable. Students are allowed to shift to the Arts stream from the Science stream, but rarely vice versa. [Belinda edit: This seems very similar to being in Year 9 and picking elective subjects for Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE)]
At the end of Form 5, students are required to take the Malaysian Certificate of Education examination, before graduating from secondary school.
My main observation with the education system in Australia compared to Malaysia is that in the last two years of high school really make a big difference to be accepted locally or going to oversea to study at University. There is a very low chance of being accepted into a local University being a non-Muslim with only 10% acceptance rate.
Adapted from Wikipedia – University in Malaysia
Tertiary education is heavily subsidised by the government.
Students have the option of enrolling in private tertiary institutions after secondary studies. Private universities are gaining a reputation for international quality education and students from all over the world attend them. Many of these institutions offer courses in co-operation with a foreign institute or university — especially in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia — allowing students to spend a portion of their course abroad as well as getting overseas qualifications.
Many private colleges offer programmes whereby the student does part of his degree course here and part of it in the other institution; this is called “twinning”. Some of them are branch campuses of these foreign institutions. A branch can be seen as an ‘offshore campus’ of the foreign university, which offers the same courses and awards as the main campus. Local and international students can acquire these identical foreign qualifications in Malaysia at a lower fee.
I didn’t do quite well in Year 11 (too involved in playing sport) and didn’t get an offer to study in the public school Year 12. I took some time off and went to work part-time. I realised I really like sports and I did a Diploma in Sports Injuries in a local program.
After 18 months I completed the course and I decided I would like to continue in this field and went back to do Year 12 in a private college so I could go to an oversea university since I didn’t qualify for the local university. Unfortunately I was late to enroll as everyone had a head start being a month ahead of me and I was also the oldest in the class. I struggled to catch-up and it was a big challenge as all the subjects are taught in English.
I also struggled with Maths and I hired a tutor to help me. I chose odd subjects so I could get high scores to get into University – Maths and English are compulsory subjects then picked subjects: Biology, History and Malay then I got accepted into the Australian Catholic University and did a Bachelor Degree in Human Movement.
PS: On top of going to school, a lot of my friends attended extra tuition classes after school. I did a few sessions and hated it. My mum hired private tutors for us. All I can say, I didn’t like studying back then.
School also divided into 2 sessions, morning from 7.30-1pm and 1.15pm to 6.30pm Monday to Friday which makes a very long day!
Hi guys,
I’d like to share the meal plans that I organise for the working week. The way I work it is that I prepare the food for the next day, today. For instance, on a Sunday I would bulk prepare a larger portion so that we have it for Sunday dinner then have enough to spare to have for lunch the next day and for Leki to pack and take to work.
Using the grocery list I outlined earlier here – I prepare the following main meals which alternate during the week:
All portion sizes are about 200g per meal which average around 350-500 calories.
As a general rule I try and make sure that the meal plans are nutritious, easy to prepare and have a low calorie count. These meals take about 20-30mins to prepare. The steps to follow:
We only use coconut oil for all pan grilled prep work and it costs about $12-$15 per jar at Costco.
Here is the overall strategy – it’s more of a game plan rather then a strict protocol to follow.
Breakfast is also on auto-pilot and Leki usually cooks that for the family. Check out how he goes about it here.
We aim to consume somewhere between 1,600-2,000 calories of food for the day. If the main meals – breakfast, lunch and dinner average 500 calories per meal then I have about 500 calories remaining to ‘snack’ throughout the day.
Here are my go to ‘snacks’ for the day:
My main weakness is dessert and sweets. We tend to alternate below if our calorie count is low enough for the day:
The aim of this post is just an introduction into how we keep on top of our food prep and making sure it is healthy and most importantly tasty! No one likes eating cardboard 🙂
During my pregnancy I’ve replaced one of my mid week meals with a takeaway meal that I’m craving (usually Hungry Jack’s) but I try and be really good 80% of the time 😉
I hope you’ve enjoyed my post and as always I’m happy to hear feedback on what works for you!
Have a great day.
Belinda.