HANZKY

I think we're all agree that a big part of managing a business is actually managing people. Go Girl started way earlier than Female Daily Network so Nina has gone through a lot, from happy times to tough times to even tougher times. Just like Female Daily, Go Girl started small. It's still a growing company where they have to learn through trial and error on what's work and what's not. Go Girl back then of course is a lot different than Go Girl today considering it's been more than 10 years since they have been around. And of course, that's a good thing. If they stay the same that means they're not growing, right?

Business-wise, this week has been a really interesting week. Last Wednesday I (along with Affi and Nopai) was engaged in an intense business discussion for 4 hours until close to midnight at Pacific Place, with people I've just met for the first time :D. It was entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Surely put things in perspective. It's always nice to know other people's point of view, especially if they are people who understand the digital landscape here in Indonesia.

Thursday was no less interesting with the email offer we received from someone we've been meeting back and forth with, shared documents and even signed NDA for the last 2 months. Note to self: reply the email.

Just when I thought today would be an uneventful day I heard these words proposed to me in the meeting room; Palo Alto in October. I was stunned for a short second before I cracked a wide grin and said oh yess of course!

Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Coca Cola office in GKBI. Not only I got to see the nice office, I also had an hour with Martin Gil, the CEO to share Female Daily story :). The kind of opportunity that doesn't come very often.

By the way, stepping in to the office and seeing all the bottles nicely lined up as the room divider takes me back to 1999 where I visited Coca Cola museum in Atlanta.


One of the interesting things that came out of the one hour meeting was how surprised he was knowing we only have 25 people in the office doing 3 online medias, 1 social network and 1 forum with 70,000 members!

Jib had been craving for popcorns since last night. And he was bummed to know that since he is fasting, he couldn't munch on popcorns while watching Despicable Me. But turned out we got the 5 o'clock session, meaning we would break the fast inside the theater. So Oki went out to buy some popcorns and other snacks right before Maghrib. Jibran was so excited and gobbled the popcorn for the first few minutes, but he didn't finish it.

Before we watched the movie, Jib said he wanted to eat Yoshinoya, so that's what we did. Upon finishing his food, he realized that I buy some for takeaway too for sahur. And he was like blahhh.

Then he asked me that why is it every time he wants some food, that food looks sooo appealing, but when he eats it and especially after he finishes it, the food just doesn't taste as good anymore. :D

I told him some times I feel the same way too. It's called the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility. The more you consume/buy, the less satisfied you will be. The last bite won't taste as good as the first bite. It took me an economic class in college to learn about that :D. Now if only I know how to apply the concept in other parts of life.

Running out of idea for a title, eh?

By the way, this is what happened when you took a shower at the gym and carelessly put make up in a moving car. I guess I forgot to apply powder. Or maybe I applied too much CC cream. I didn't realize the white cast all over my face until after we took picture at the end of the interview. I was totally horrified when I saw it! Oh well, lesson learned :P

Since the Canon 5D is now the office property, I had been on the hunt for a new replacement camera. I'm that kind of someone who needs to have a nice camera and need her family life documented in pretty pictures :D. They definitely deserve more than iphone and instagram pictures :D. My most precious possession is all the pictures I have taken since the first time I owned a digital camera.

Of course, there's no contest with the Canon 5D but that thing is huge that it wasn't very convenient to carry it in my purse everyday. But I did that most of the time and I don't think my shoulders were happy with it. So to replace it, I know I wanted something that produce image as sharp but in a more compact size. So insert here; the Fuji X100s.

I've read all the reviews that made me 100% sure to get this one. The camera has a fix lens but even with Canon I've always liked the fix lens better and this one is equivalent with the 35mm I always use. But the problem is..this camera is hard to get. Even in the US! I've called every single Camera store in town and no one has a stock until I did some more Google and found one in Camera Indo, and off I went to Mangga Dua Square to get my baby :D. The owner, his name is Aries was actually surprised that someone is looking for this particular camera. By the way, if you're looking for any items related to camera, he is a recommended seller.

So here's some straight out of the box pictures. I didn't play around with the setting nor read the manual. As you can tell I'm pleased with the pictures :).

So the public speaking series I have to do this month was wrapped today..(or so I thought because I just received one invitation for May 30th which I'm still contemplating).  I've spoken in front of different kind of audiences, from elementary kids to high school kids, to university students, business owners as well as brand managers. My favorite bunch is always the university students. I don't know why, maybe because I was a student like them not too long ago (Haha!), or maybe because I LOVE school in general and love love love to be back on campus and see the fresh new spirits.

Has it really been 4 months after the new year? Where did the month go? Before I know it, May will be gone and then Ramadhan will arrived, followed by Lebaran. And then *bham*...we already at the second semester of 2013. It's crazy and scary to think how fast time moves. I can only hope I'm filling my days with meaningful activities. I know I should be spending more time with the kids :(.

Anyway, May is going to be hectic. Maybe it will go down as the most hectic month for me. Let see what May has in store for me.

• Public Speaking Activities! I'm not one who enjoys being at the center stage although I have done quite a lot of public speaking activities. I still think I'm not at the level where I want to be when it comes to doing presentation. But I think I see improvement everytime I go on stage. Maybe the public speaking class I took back in October 2011 helps. Maybe I'm getting used to it or maybe I'm just less harsh toward myself :). I used to by my own best critics but now I'm overwhelmed with so many things that I don't have time to scrutinize myself because I have no choice but to forget about it and move on to the next thing.
  
  Let's see what I have this month:
  
  

If I'm not mistaken, I have about 8 kilos of fat I need to get rid of. If that means I have to lose 8 kilos from my current weight, I will weight about 45kg! Scary, right? And even if I lose the 8 kilos, there's no guarantee that it's all fat that I lose, it could be muscle too (even scarier!), unless I eat and exercise according to my goal.

The goal is to lose fat and GAIN muscle, which means my weight will probably stay the same or maybe even heavier. Which is fine because muscle is denser than fat so even if the weight is the same, the size would be different.

Now I don't care at all what the scale tells me. Like the coach said, don't focus on the number of your body going down but focus on the number of weights your dumbbells and barbell going up.

I've written about a glimpse of my Fit N Fab journey in my previous post. Now, let's talk about the progress :). When I started the journey, my weight was within the ideal BMI..but guess what, my body fat percentage is at a staggering 33%. That means according to the table above...I'm on the obese range. That means (I weighted 56 kg), I have 18.5 kg of fat in my body..and that's TOO MUCH!. A higher body fat percentage will link to heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and other illness.

So yes even if your body is within the ideal range, it doesn't mean you are healthy.

A year has passed since I have discovered my body fat percentage. Numerous exercises have been attempted and moderation in eating as well as consuming healthier food has been implemented. But unfortunately, the number didn't move. Not even for a little bit.

I haven't written anything about my quest for living a healthier life in here, except for my birthday blog last year. The reason being is simply because it's hard to squeeze in some time to compose a blog post. I'm writing this at one in the morning cause I had a cup of coffee at 8pm that makes it hard to sleep. And too tired to do anything work related :-).

Anyway, my #FitNFab journey is rather long. Of course it has to be long. In fact, it shouldn't have an expiration date because that's how we should live, right?. It's not always smooth sailing of course. There were times when I failed and gave in to the hot and spicy bowl of Indomie and homemade tahu isi. There were also times when I didn't exercise for two weeks straight. But at least I'm proud to say that since October 2011,  I have somehow living a healthier lifestyle, introducing things bit by bit, trying out new things and making it a part of me. I even worked out during traveling to Bandung, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

So it started with running. I've run a little bit here and there but never enjoyed it. Then I realized I didn't wear proper shoes to at least save my feet from injury. The shoes were a pair of Diesel sneakers I got a few years back :p. So I went to Sports Station and got me Reebok Realflex that made all the difference. I still didn't like running but I knew it was something I had to do as I didn't have choice and didn't understand much about exercise. I would run once or twice a week and when I mean by run is probably 10 minutes on the treadmill. I couldn't run for 1k non stop, maybe not even half of it. In addition to steady run, I also did HIIT run and I thought I liked it better. But I was still intrigued with the steady run cause I felt that it something I've never liked and good at so it was just challenging.

In the beginning of 2012, Wulan started to get serious in #FitNFab and even committed to doing some very intensive home workout that lasted for weeks. And boy did it change her body! Of course I was inspired to take my exercise level up a notch. Coincidentally, not long after that..I got home from eating Mie Yamin Bakmie GM and that night I felt so bloated. I was feeling so full and couldn't stand the after taste that I threw up and swore that I would take better control of what goes on through my mouth. And the next day, I had my first red rice at Warung Tekko for lunch and starting to bring my own lunch, replaced the white rice with complex carbs, eat more vegetables and cut down snacks.

Then in April I decided to join Celebrity Fitness next to my office. I even hired a personal trainer because I knew I would be clueless in the gym. My personal trainer was good as he was the top trainer in the branch. I still maintained my diet although I did have occasional KFC and didn't understand much about nutrition either. Then I started to see a difference, I dropped 3 kilos, my clothes were looser, my energy level soared and I felt stronger. But then Ramadhan came so I stopped workout altogether. Once Ramadhan was over, I went for a family vacation to Melbourne and Sydney and didn't think much about what I ate. So that was like almost 2 months out of the program.

And then the most annoying thing was Celebrity Fitness moved further down the road in Kemang Raya. I couldn't walk there anymore, I couldn't just went there after lunch to do a quick workout then came back to the office. I either had to do it early in the morning before work or after. But my trainer didn't have slot before 10AM so it was impossible to find a time that match both of our schedule.

In October, I decided to switch personal trainer. One that was available in the morning. I trained with him for a few times although I had to admit I liked the first one better as he pushed me more. But well, I didn't have choice. I haven't finished the 12 session but then worked started to get even more crazier so the time between session was getting longer and longer until I didn't bother to contact the trainer anymore.

In January, WRP and Female Daily collaborated on a diet program where we were asked to drink only WRP Nutrition Drink for breakfast and dinner for six weeks. When I learned more about it, I knew it was something I wouldn't follow religiously as it just didn't sound sustainable to me, but it was a quick fix. I also loved the fact that they send us a body combat & Shbam instructor once a week. To top it off, we also collaborated with Master Bootcamp where they trained us twice a week in the office. That is something I couldn't resist :).

So in 6 weeks, I dropped 2 kilos, lost a bit of body fat and gained 2 kilos of muscle. Of course I was happy but I wasn't satisfied! I wanted to gain more muscles and not in the level of 'obese' in terms of body fat percentage. Once the program was over, I was even more strict to my food intake and studied more about clean eating and how to lose body fat. Around that time, I met Tiara, the fittest woman I know, who was about to introduce her Eat, Love, Lift program to the world. Three weeks ago, I decided to become her client and I'm now enjoying the journey so much. I'll continue with the story next time. All I can say is I live waayyy even more healthier now.

Anyway, during the past year, I still run pretty regularly and surprisingly began to like it. Turned out, I hated running on the treadmill as it bores the hell out of me. A morning run in GOR Saparua Bandung changed my perspective. I enjoyed the experience so much that I hit my first 5k with best personal record. Now it still surprises me that I can run 6k non-stop! And this is coming from a girl who couldn't run for 5 minutes straight a year ago. Now I run almost every week in Senayan area with Oki and the kids. But I know running has its negatives too and it won't take me to reach my goal so I won't be too crazy with it.

The past year, I have noticed what exercise and clean eating can do for me. First, I feel more healthy. I rarely get sick, I think I've only had 2 flu last year. I feel more energetic and rarely get tired. Of course, I feel stronger too and pretty proud of my fitness level. The session with the private trainer was really an investment to learn about the basic technique. I began to LOVE exercise that I tried everything from yoga, pilates, zumba, shbam, TRX, masterbootcamp, body combat, body pump, rpm, kick boxing. I enjoyed kick boxing A LOT and will sign up for a regular session next time. I learned a lot of new things too, both in exercise and nutrition department.

So far, it's been an interesting journey and it's time to crank it up to another level. Wish me luck.