Salam Ramadhan al-Mubarak

Ramadhan tiba lagi! Sungguh bulan ini amat dinanti-nantikan dan bagi saya sungguh banyak kenangan manis dan juga keajaiban telah berlaku kepada diri saya sepanjang sejarah Ramadhan ini. Sesungguhnya bulan ini amat diberkati Allah! Saya ada beberapa 'Wish List' buat Ramadhan tahun ini:

1. Berbuka bersama suami tercinta (tahun kedua puasa bersama-sama), mak, abah, adik2 dan juga semua tersayang termasuk ibu dan bapa mertua
2. Solat terawih setiap malam (kecuali malam-malam yang betul-betul tak boleh)
3. Bacaan al-Quran 1 juzuk sehari (InsyaAllah khatam dalam bulan Ramadhan)
4. Sihat bertenaga sepanjang Ramadhan dan dapat menunaikan segala tanggungjawab dan tugasan kerja dengan sempurna
5. Kekal cergas dengan senaman bersama 'personal trainer' di gym Fitness First. Mahu membuktikan puasa tidak menghalang umat Islam kekal cergas dan bertenaga!
6. Memperbanyakkan ibadah seperti solat Dhuha, solat di awal waktu, solat tengah malam dan solat berjemaah InsyaAllah

Semoga ibadah saya dan semua diterima Allah dan segala doa dan usaha dipermudahkan.

Selamat menyambut Ramadhan Al-Mubarak buat semua muslimim dan muslimat!

My personal experience towards healthy living

Ever since I was young my body weight has been fluctuating from ideal weight to overweight. All within the 5-7kg range. Not only that, this coupled with my hectic schedule, I often would skip meals and by the time I get home at around 11pm, I would have dinner, often big portions and straight off to bed. Because of that, I would wake up feeling lethargic and for the last year have fallen ill quite often. It seems that the years of neglect have finally taken its toll on my body. People who know me well would know that I spend thousands on facial and spas, hair and, Bobbi Brown makeups and beauty products. Basically I have been focusing a lot on my outer health but very little on my inner health. I don't like taking vitamins as I get headaches every time as my body does not fully absorb the capsules.

Until 3 months ago when Isya introduced me to Herbalife. I was skeptical at first. For years I have tried so many products and spent thousands of dollar on health products and not many delivered the results. But at that time I tried anyway.

One thing I have realized is how convenient it is. With my busy work schedule, I sometimes skip lunch and breakfast. But with the Herbalife pack at my desk, I can easily 'shake' my breakfast and have them as I check my emails. Then during lunch, back then when I am busy, I would ask some of my team members to buy me fast food such as McDonalds or KFC, pizza with each around 850 calories per meal and costed a minimum of RM15 each. But now, I take the shake for lunch and consume only 89 calories per shake. Best still it only costs me RM6 per shake whilst getting the best nutrition and protein for my health. Just imagine the money I could save, how convenient and most of all how healthy and easy for me to maintain my weight.

The Starter Pack - All you need for perfect nutrition and healthy weight management

I didn't intend to get involved in the business at first considering that I already have a cushy and stable career that I love. But after losing 5 kilos and also more than 5 inches, people started asking about my improved health and reduced weight and waistline and they asked where they can buy Herbalife. It seems that Herbalife could be seen on bill boards with Lionel Messi and Beckham having them and also on the Barcelona jerseys but since it has just only arrived in Malaysia in 2006, there are still plenty of growth opportunities as the number of customers have outgrown the number of distributors. It all started by me just buying for my friends and colleagues. But now with the growing demand I have started being a distributor myself and have also organised shake parties. 

My Herbalife Team = My positive vibes ;-)

But what I like most about Herbalife apart from the awesome products are really the people that I have met. The level of positive energy is simply so high! I guess healthy people smile more and they look good too! Today for example, we had a Herbalife shake party. Thanks to my brother Hakim, a talented and established interior designer whom provided his cool Infinite Designworks office space as venue, Isya Malik, whom came all the way from Cheras to Shah Alam, Batul, Izzah and Nurul (the famous blogger 'Nurul Cakap Cakap' and fashionista ;-)) all came rushing all the way from Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur where Nurul just won the 'TopFashion' award from the 'So You Think You Can Style' Challenge. Sazlin Aida was also such a good sport in assisting with the setup and preparing shakes. The Herbalife vanilla + Monavie shake she made was superbly yummy! There were also Milhan, Bee, Amir, Afiq whom despite sleepless nights finishing design came over for support as well. You see so much energy and support from everyone. The teamwork was just superb! Very special thanks to my hubby, Amin Ahmad whom missed half of the football game Malaysia v. Singapore to help me setup the party. Thanks hunny! Im glad I married you ;-)

Just look at our Kak Nurul Wahab in her beautiful body fitting purple kebaya below. She is in our Herbalife team along with Isya, CT Shuhid, Aida and Batul. Just look at how gorgeous she looks! I think she looks prettier than ever. :-)

The talented and beautiful Nurul Abdul Wahab

Also check out my brother whom recently won 5th place in the AXN Big Challenge. He has been taking Herbalife protein consistently for the last 3 months and it has helped him build his stamina and muscle.

The energy to climb to the top!

Winners of the AXN Big Challenge 2011

Aint No Mountain High Enough

I see life as quite similar to mount climbing. There are challenges, easy and hard trails, people you work with whom may support or abandon you. Like my husband who is a seasoned mountain climber would say... "Nature is the greatest teacher".

That was me below a couple of weeks ago attempting to climb the wall at the Shah Alam Extreme Park.

I recalled when I was 18 during our camp at Outward Bound School in Lumut, I was breezing through the rock and hill climbing sessions. In fact those were my fittest moments. Now fast forward more than a decade later, I could not finish the climb... I realized how different my fitness level is now compared to back then.

Being the typical determined me always ever so eager to turn a weakness into a strength, I signed up for Fitness First personal trainer and gym membership the couple of days later. We also booked to climb Mount Kinabalu in March 2012. That gives me a goal to finish that wall climb by this year end or earlier!

10 Things to Know About Torture

During our visit to Cambodia in February 2011 as Malaysian delegates to the Asian Renaissance 5.0 organised by the Institute for Policy Research and Sasakawa Peace Foundation, Japan, one of the things that came up over an over again was the Cambodian torture history by Pol Pot. It all started with an all out country-wide environment of fear, media control, ideological warfare and ultimately torture and massacre by the authoritarian Angkar regime of their own people. 2 million people died within a short period of time of less than 2 years. The world just watched as one by one of their civilians were butchered in silence whilst the country officials tried hard to give a grand impression to the rest of the world that everything was 'fine' under the Democratic Party of Cambodia administration. Mind you that the word 'democratic' in this case was highly misleading as there was nothing democratic about the party. In fact it was far from it.

My husband Amin Ahmad wrote a good article about "Year Zero in Cambodia" here, albeit in the Malay language.

Via: MedicalBillingAndCoding.org

Facts about the Internet

Via: MedicalBillingAndCoding.org

Interesting Facts about Sex

Now that caught your attention didn't it? ;-)

Via: MedicalBillingAndCoding.org

Is there such a thing as a 'perfect life'?

The show ‘Desperate Housewives’ was one of my favourite. Although highly exaggerated with their family, secret lives, tricks, trysts, affairs, murders and all these whilst maintaining a perfect looking household in a well to do suburbia and giving an appearance of a perfect life ‘to-die-for’. As a single young lady in her 20s, watching the series almost every night at 8.30pm, in my cozy bachelorette pad in Sydney whilst having TV dinner alone was my idea of a perfect night after a long day of work (I finish work at 5.30pm every day!). It gave me a glimpse of how hectic and crazy married life can be and to remind myself to enjoy my single life to the fullest while it lasts. Most of my friends back then were single ladies as well so we more or less concurred with this notion.

Fast forward 5 years later, I am now a happily married woman. Most of my friends are married with kids. Last night when I watched the ‘Desperate Housewives’ reruns, I realized that I no longer found it ‘funny’ but instead empathized their struggle and I can even identify among my circle of friends the Susan Meyer, Lynnette Scavo, Bree Van De Camp, Gabrielle Solis and Edie Brit.

What I find causing so much worry and tension among us married woman is the idea of ‘perfection’. Often, when we marry, we fall in love with the ‘fantasy of marriage’ rather than the man himself and the life that we built and what hurts the most is finding out reality is far different than the ideal life they envisioned.

We almost never ask ourselves and have a back-up plan, for “What if live does not turn out the way we thought it should be?”

We want a perfect career, whilst at the same time a perfect happy family with children that make us proud, interior designed home with top notch appliances, best and beautiful clothes and accessories, enviable continental car and a happy good looking husband in tow.

But often times, we found ourselves at work until the middle of the night and even weekends trying to bring in the money and resources to bring our dreams of the perfect life into reality.

But, by the time we get the perfect house, kitchen, children, and husband and family, we are NOT even there to enjoy them, often returning home fully exhausted and only an ounce of energy left to drive home and go straight to bed. Worst still we yell at the slightest annoyances and efforts to start a conversation when all they want is our attention. We see them as not empathetic of our struggle and not understanding of the needs of a career woman.

After a couple of years we forget how it was to smile, laugh and feel pleasure again and all we can remember is the pain of missing the important events and moments with our loved ones.

Or we can choose a heartless existence where we pretend that we do not care, love and want to be close to anyone. For fear that our hearts will be broken beyond repair.

But at the end of the day, when you are on your death bed waiting for your final moments to arrive, how would you like to be remembered and what memories would you bring to grave?

It is not easy.

We need money to live, pay rent, our bills and send our kids to the best school out there.

But where do we draw the line? How do we know when we have crossed the line?

We sometimes don’t.

But when we do realize, let’s just hope that your loved ones are still there to give you a warm embrace and simply happy to have the ‘real’ you back.

Sitting is Killing You

As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, there is one thing nearly all modern Malaysians have in common: we sit all the time. Though our great shift towards computer-based work has done great things for productivity, it has, unfortunately, done terrible things for our health. From increased risk of heart disease and obesity in the long term, to sharply hampered cholesterol maintenance in the short term, the negative health effects of sitting are starting to weigh heavily against the benefits. Even the medical field – the greatest advocates of reducing sitting time – is plagued by this new health issue. Though doctors and nurses get plenty of walking time, it usually falls to the secretaries, billers, and coders to do all the sitting. And, as we can see, something has to change....

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Perginya seorang ibu, isteri, pemimpin wanita, doktor, nenek, teman dan pejuang...

Malam Ahad lepas, 17 Julai 2011 tepat jam 10.15 pm saya dikejutkan dengan berita pemergian seorang wanita yang amat saya hormati Dr Lo' Lo' Mohd Ghazali, MP daerah Titiwangsa dan juga ibu kepada teman sekerja saya Fawwaz Aminuddin (berbaju hitam di dalam gambar di bawah). Malam itu saya melihat wajah Fawwaz menggalas keranda ibunya yang baru dipindahkan dengan van jenazah daripada Hospital Selayang. Jelas kelihatan wajahnya tabah dan sabar menghadapi dugaan Allah. Esok paginya beliau juga berada di barisan hadapan sekali menggalas jenazah ibunya untuk dikebumikan di tanah perkuburan Datuk Keramat. Sepanjang mengenali anaknya Fawwaz dan isterinya Hafizzah saya kagum dengan kehebatan Dr Lo' Lo' dalam mendidik anak-anak beliau dan bagaimana dia berjaya menggabungkan didikan duniawi dan akhirat sehinggakan anak-anak dan menantunya tampak berhemah dan sopan. Walaupun berpendidikan tinggi daripada universiti hebat di luar negara, masih tinggi akhlak mereka, zuhud serta merendah diri dan sanggup ikhlas berkhidmat untuk negara. Bagi saya Dr Lo'Lo' adalah contoh seorang wanita yang berjaya dari segala segi walaupun kita lihat tutur katanya lembut dan kekal personaliti seorang muslimah, dia adalah seorang wanita yang kuat, tabah dan pandai dalam banyak bidang. 

Saya amat sebak sekali melihat gambar di bawah. Ia amat mengingatkan saya betapa singkatnya hidup ini dan supaya menggunakan masa sebaik mungkin untuk membantu seramai mungkin manusia di bumi Allah dan yang paling penting untuk lebih banyak menghabiskan masa dengan mak saya sendiri....

Kerana kita tidak tahu bila Allah akan menjemput kita pulang....

Al-Fatihah

Touching hearts and lives

There is this Pakcik working in the same building as me but with a different company. For the last couple of years I have observed him walking by in his worn out jacket and raincoat, waiting for the lifts and sometimes on days with heavy rain pour I would see him wearing garbage bags as an oversized rain coat. I respect his willingness to strive in life but at the same time empathized his struggle to make ends meet and support his family on limited earnings.

Anyway, today was another one of those days with heavy downpour, bad traffic jam, the usual flash floods and multiple accidents that accompany such weather in Malaysia. I was in the lift on the way to work (juggling my lunch bag, handbag and a wet umbrella) when the Pakcik said Salam to me... for the very first time. "I always see you with so many bags"...smile...(apparently the Pakcik has been observing me too) "Today was a bit tough with the rain... but lucky with my jacket and this (the Pakcik was referring to his garbage bags) I managed to keep myself dry" I asked him "Isn't it dangerous to be riding the motorbike in this weather "No choice, I know it is dangerous sometimes and I have almost been in accidents before, I don't have any other choice. This is what I can afford and I have many mouths to feed"

This was the Pakcik I referred to in my article in The Malaysian Insider and how his struggle touched my heart with overwhelming emotions and determination to make things better for my beloved country. I somehow suspected that 'he knew' about what I had pen down about him, but told myself maybe not and this is just a coincidence. But more than ever I am reminded that life is tough if you are an 'underdog'. Those without special privileges, no connections to boast, no inheritance to live on, just family support and lots of love and care from their family and children. Hoping that somehow they do not have to inherit this life as "poverty is not an inheritance" and that their children would have a better future.

Question is, what can we do or already doing today to make this hopes and dreams a reality?

Fatal Distractions

There is a troubling disconnect in Malaysia. While most Malaysians are worrying about paying their rent, mortgage, putting food to the table and their children's future, our political leaders debate which of our vocal students, parliamentarians and opposition leaders they should reprimand and take actions for speaking their minds and other social distractions like "The Obedient Wife Club" and who's wife is a 'pelacur terhormat' (esteemed hooker). We let these so-called leaders hijack our political agenda to serve their special interests groups, while regular Malaysians care most about jobs and the state of the economy.


Mind you all these forms the backdrop as we prepare to celebrate our 54th year of independence from the British on this coming Wednesday, 31 August 2011.  Now are we having a mid-life crisis or what?