Done with Week 2

Wohoo! I just finished Week 2 of the Push-up challenge including the progress test… and it has certainly NOT been easy.

Obviously, it is tough for me physically. Try doing 250+ lbs (my current body weight) bench presses and you’ll know what I’m talking about 🙂 The good thing about  the programme though was that it was designed to allow participants to work through their own phase.

Progress tests allow you to see where you are at physically, and follow a path that suits your level. This ensures that you are at a safe level (avoiding injuries and whatnots from overfatigue) and motivated. Forcing you to follow a strict programme (no. of reps) will definitely lower your morale if you are unable to reach them.

Apart from the physical challenge, the more difficult challenge lies within one’s self. Discipline and the determination to finish what I started comes into play here. Many a nights, I wanted to just plop down on the bed and snore away. Thankfully, I was able to suck it up and now, was able to get this far.

I know I’m not even half-way there… but I’m just so glad that I was able to breeze through the first two weeks. I just hope I am able to keep my focus on the goal.

Wee Nam Kee

We finished doing our grocery late and so it was a little past two when we headed out to look for a place to have lunch. Thinking that it was after the usual lunch-hour rush anyway, I decided to try out a restaurant which was brought up in a recent chat conversation with a friend.

One of the most talked about restaurant lately is Wee Nam Kee at the Ayala Triangle (see posts from Didi and Anton)  so we headed for it. Yet, at 2:30pm, we still had to be placed in a waiting list. 6th on the list in fact. I guess, they are really that popular.

The dining experience was a little sub par as we felt that the waiters and waitresses were not properly trained. Also, there were a lot of dishes that were on the menu but not available, such as.

• Pork Asado
• Dumpling Soup
• Cereal Prawn
  • this was actually recommended by the waitress, but then we were told that it was not available
• Marmite Pork Ribs
  • this was recommended by the owner but was never brought to our table

The good thing about the service though was that the owner was more hands-on than the usual. Maybe because the place is relatively new… or maybe because he knew that his staff was not ready yet.

Anyway, enough about that and let’s talk about the food. Here’s what we ordered:

According to the waitress, the Steamed Chicken is the restaurant’s best seller. I am not really a fan of steamed chicken (I like mine fried) but this one was pretty good. Way better than the rest that I have tried before.

Steamed Chicken

The Wee Nam Kee fried rice was OK. Nothing spectacular or extraordinary about it. It did not have a lot of ingredients like the fried rice in North Park or Hong Kong Master Cook (in Dampa), and the serving size was disappointing.

Wee Nam Kee

I first thought that the Sweet and Spicy Chicken was a bad choice because it felt a little too sticky and gooey. However, it tasted really good and had the right amount of flavour and spicyness, for the rest of my companions at least coz I would prefer it to be more spicy.

Sweet and Spicy Thai Kitchen

This was also good but it was a little too dry. Yes, this is under the Dry Noodles section of the menu but I would still prefer a little more sauce on it.

HK Style Birthday Noodles

I liked this one although mom said that it did not really taste like any Oyster Sauce was used. She thinks that they simply used lots of corn starch for it.

KangKong in Oyster Sauce

So, as far as the food goes, Wan Nam Kee certainly lived up to the hype for me. Then again, as my brother would say, “You eat everything!” so don’t take my word for it and try it out.

Take Two

Today, I took the inital test for the hundredpushups.com challenge and made 19 good-form (as good as it gets for me) push-ups.

This is actually the second time that I tried to take on this challenge, but that first try was a total failure. Although that was a preparation for an important event, there really was nothing “forcing” me to complete the challenge apart from my (well, Alaine’s) desire to make me look thinner on our wedding day.

This time around, there is a bigger reason behind this challenge. I am starting to feel the burden of my overweight frame on an aging body and I do not like the feeling at all. Not only that, there were some findings in my latest medical which kinda worried me.

I really am hoping that I will be able to stay with the program and become healthier… and hey, maybe shed a few pounds along the way.

Liar! Liar!

We had our 2nd weekly team meeting today and, as we sometimes do, we had an mini ice-breaker/team-building activity. It’s really more of a wake-up-it’s-really-monday thing more than anything else really, but that’s not my point…

This time around, I had two of my team members lead the activity. The funny thing was, they chose the same activity that I was thinking about, an activity that I learned from our bunso in SkySolvers (Navitaire), Rona.

It was simply called “2 Facts and a Lie.” You write down 3 things about yourself, 2 facts and a lie. Here are my entries:

* I had my first girlfriend at the age of 27
* I used to date a girl who is now one of Indonesia’s pop-stars (or is it RnB)
* I danced Filipino Folk Dance in front of the Indonesian First Lady

Can you guess which one is the lie? All of my teammates got it wrong!

Update: I can’t believe people actually believe #2. Hahaha. She was a close friend but I never dated her. I wanted to but… oh well. Don’t worry, Alaine knows about her. 🙂