Bollywood Vs Danza!

When I finally get the chance to, you'll get very entertaining updates soon from the past couple of very very very busy months. I have over 12 image intensive posts that are lining up to be posted here so check back in constantly to see if there are updates! But for now, back over on the 6th of April... my gosh.. that was over 4 months ago since I've last updated my blog.. *whoa!!* I had the honor and experience to be part of my very own dance competition! 

One of my corporates who I teach dance to had decided to make good their lessons by culminating their efforts with a dance-off in a internally viewed audience judged performance show called "So you think you can't dance?!". 

It was a very entertaining duel between the Bollywood team and the Danza team which I was so very proud of being given the honor and opportunity to choreograph and instruct. 

A total of 4 dance sets, 2 Bollywood tracks by the other team and 2 tracks by the Danza team. We chose  the "Waka Waka" and "The Time" to present in the short segment. And Boy! Was I proud as hell when my teams hit the stage... full of smiling faces, fully rehearsed confident moves that were filled with energy.. I was one beaming proud "mama" indeed.... I could not stop smiling...  my heart was bursting with pride...

My "The Time" team above with their cool black n gold costume backstage and my "Waka Waka" team below with their colourful whimsical costumes as they get all dolled up and psyched for the stage performance... I thought they looked great! Each & every one of them... thank you for the effort!!

And a team of 3 judges, including myself to comment on the performances as they were rolled out made the afternoon even more exciting as we attempted to be our homegrown Simon, Randy & J-Lo judges and all I took the opportunity to root & rally the ladies as they listened & paced about nervously behind stage...

Somewhere towards the end of all the performances, the organiser gathered the audience up to stand and join in a dance number with the dance students and we all did some simple dance moves on stage for some crowd interaction and that was fun indeed... I was impressed at how elaborate they had made their contest, even if it was an internal challenge within their organization itself.. and I was so pleased to be part of it... and what was even more impressive was the table of trophies that everyone left with... everyone who participated was a winner and there were 2 special prizes too! 

Trophies for all the participants that day, Bollywood and Danza and 2 special trophies. One for Best Dressed and One for Best dancer from each class... when these prizes were given out, the cheers and hoots for the winners were priceless... 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be your instructor... keep happy, keep fit and stay healthy. Dance on!!! 

HONEYMEOW GIVEAWAYS!

My blog has been running for some years now and over the years, there have been contests, endorsements, sponsorships that are mixed along with my personal chatter. I have made some good friends from many who have read my blog and gotten to know me personally and students who read me and have come for my classes or taken training with me or just those follow my blog regularly to keep up with what I'm up to. Thank you for making me a little part of your life and spending these few minutes interested in reading what I have to say.

While I realise that not all my readers are female, I have a giveaway from ME!! for my female readers so if you're one who have been reading me for awhile, you may be interested in the following... but if you're male and want to do this to give the item to your girlfriend / wife / lover / mistress / mother / sister / aunty / etc haha!, please feel free to join too! :) VALID for readers in SINGAPORE only.

See the lovely long wallets, metallic mesh pouch and bling bling hand purses up there? I have 20 pieces of a combination of what you see above for 20 lucky readers who do the following if you want one. Gifts will be randomly supplied so winners will not be able to choose which one they get but they're labelled as No. 1 to No. 20.

UPDATE: IF YOU HAVE SENT IN YOUR ENTRY SUCCESSFULLY, you will be listed here and know that you have won one of the items. Thank you!

1. Pauline Tan (Posted!)
2. Twirling Penguin (ST) (Posted!)
3. Ann (LAT)(Posted!)
4. Mizuki Chan (Collected)
5. Valerie Lim (Posted!)
6. Waine Shih (Posted!)
7. Frond (JP) (Posted!)
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

Each winner will be listed down a list of consecutive numbers and you will get that respective item. :) Giveaway ends once the first 20 entries are in so I can arrange collection or postage. I will make an announcement once all have been claimed.

What you need to do to win one of them?

1. Read my Blog. Again. Yes.. again...
2. Give me the URL of your favorite 1 blog entry from EACH year** from 2007 to current and tell me WHY you like it or how it has entertained / inspired / affected / angered / pissed you off.... whatever... "I just like it!" is not a good enough reason. Thats a total of 5 links. 2007 (1), 2008 (1), 2009 (1), 2010 (1), and 2011 (1). (Pls. note that no more than 2 URL links out of the 5 chosen can come from my side bar popular posts listing.)
3. Leave your comment entry here on my comments box of this post.
4. *Important* Send me your contact details - Real Name, Home Address, Mobile No., your personal blog URL if any to honeymeow@gmail.com together with your URL list entry so I know which one is yours.
5. And finally, either give me some link love by linking my blog URL on your blog/website if you haven't already done so. If you don't have a blog, give me a shoutout with my blog link on Facebook and @pamelasim tag me so I know you have linked me up. :) If you don't have a blog/website or facebook. Then let me know.

Thats it! :) So easy right?

How are you going to get it?

Upon receiving your entry and email with personal details. I will arrange either to post the item won to you so don't forget to provide me with your home mailing address. Don't worry, I won't share your personal information with anyone.

OR you can arrange to meet me to pick it up while I transit around Singapore for my classes/training. I will have a schedule that you can check to see where I am for that week to meet me to collect your item and SAY HI! in person too!

However, if we have arranged for collection and you stand me up. *frowns* Your item will be given away to someone else and no, I will not post it to you after for wasting my time. These items are not light weight so carrying them around will not be easy.

I will release these details if there are any self collections (those who are in my classes or those who I see on a weekly basis and if you're one of the winners, I'll bring the item directly to you in class). Good Luck!!!

Win with Tao Kae Noi!

Recently, I have had some work relations with the very generous people at Tao Kae Noi and they have a real fun promotion running now at your nearest retail outlet selling these favourite crispy seaweed snacks! I love Tao Kae Noi!! And you know what? Its low carb! So it makes for a great low carb snack even if you're on a diet. Click on the image above to read details. :)

24hr SG Blogathon July O9 - Tangs/Lenovo/Intel *VIDEO INTENSIVE*

On the 17th of July, the Ogilvy team.. same lovely peeps who came up with the SOYJOY GI Challenge came together with 10 bloggers, CK Tangs, Intel and Lenovo and did a 24 hour Blogger Challenge.

Location? The display windows of CK Tangs at Orchard Road. Task? For these 10 bloggers to last the 24 hours without sleeping, fulfill blogging tasks within the time period and garner public support in terms of onsite votes to see who would be the people's choice and judges choice in terms of who gained the most online comments with their blogging post tasks.

There were many involved but I was there mainly for Claudia, Nadia, Jayden and DK. I am not familiar with the rest so I was definitely rooting for these 4 to come up with something and to witness Singapore's first Blogathon in Action! *excited!*

Luckily for me, it started on Friday - where I also run ZumFit classes at Orchard so before classes started for me, I popped by to say hi to my blogger pals.

In the first hour, each participating blogger was allowed to bring in a friend or fellow blogger to accompany them as they get accustomed to their area and being in the window with so many onlookers. Diana took the first picture *up there* while she was inside the display case looking down at me.. and I must say.. I was looking MIGHTY happy to see them there...

With that, I said Hi to Diana @ molemole who accompanied Claudia in her first hour. And who did I meet outside? Hisham!! Even with his gout pains, he still made it down to support the group in their challenge! Go go Bloggers! We support you guys all the way!!

I then went to check out Nadia and Jayden in their window. Each pair got to swap and move to a different window display every 6 hours and with 4 different windows to experience.. each of them surely had their share of ups and downs with each setup. Nadia invited Muz to be her first hour partner!! Hi Muz!!

The challenge started on Friday, 17th of July at 6pm and it ended on Saturday, 18th of July at 6pm. After giving my greetings, I went off to class and returned once it was done to check up on the gang to see how they were doing! So far so good! They were being given their dinners which they got to order from the Tangs Island Cafe.

Nadia doing well so far.. still chirpy.. still alert and happy too!

Claudia.. also still getting used to her window display and in the midst of dinner...

Guess who came by to say Hi too! Mr. Miyagi aka Benjamin Lee with his uber cute BABY!! Hi Baby!!! *wave wave*

Every 2 hours, they were allowed a 10 minutes toilet break and Tania aka @unfluff / Twitter walked about with her Toilet break sign to alert the bloggers of their impending 10 minutes of "relief".

Throughout the event, there was constant communication between the bloggers and the public through twitter. Friends, family and new online peeps "spoke" through twitter online, through their phones and many of the public watched as several live - twitter screens showed the conversations as it flowed throughout the 24 hours. On twitter.. everything was found under #bthon.

Many of us relished in taunting the bloggers with ice-cream as we stood outside the windows to oogle at them. We took photos of them from the outside and they took photos of us from the inside... and with that I left them for the evening to go home, "talk" to them through twitter and watch them through the live video feed that they set up to watch them online.

The next morning, they had a Twitter Retweet contest at 1015am. The first 20 Retweeters who tweeted the special message from 1015am-1030am and made their way down to Tangs to verify their Retweet and contact details would have won a $50 Tangs Voucher.

Nadia reminded me before I went to bed to be up on time and I literally JUMPED UP FROM BED AT 1015AM exactly the next morning. Absolutely gave me a headache jumping up so abruptly and running to my computer like a mad woman! "Retweet!! retweet!!" I screamed.. MAKE WAAAY!!!... *thumping my floor running like a clumsy elephant*

I rushed to my computer, turned it on and logged on only to see that the RT-Retweet Message was only released 2 minutes prior. I Retweeted and prayed that I had it in the bag. I woke my girls and then went to wash up.

I had to run my girls through a little breakfast routine and to wash them up and kept on screaming on twitter to HOLD MY VOUCHER!! slowly but surely people made their way down to Tangs to claim their voucher and by the time I could get my girls ready and run out the door, it was down to 6 pcs left!! OMG!!! *Grab a cab - who went by a LONGER WAY!! Damnnitt!!*

On the way there, I said to my girls... "if we reach there and we get the voucher.. You both can have it, $25 each and get something nice." Our taxi stopped and we ran out squealing to the Tangs front entrance with our arms in the air.. "Did we get it?!" Yes we did!! *cheers!*

Lauren did a little happy dance right there and Eirian jumped up and down.. Whooot!! The funny part there as that a couple of minutes later.. Lauren's slippers BROKE APART. Literally fell apart in several sides. So she used her budget to buy new red Ipanema designer slippers.. and a small purple CareBear while Eirian used her budget to buy a brand new Disney Princess school bag!

We "caught" DK doing a snore on the sofa.. *snigger*... we were hoping to catch at least ONE of the bloggers who would doze off but none did throughout the Blogathon.. perhaps next time it should be 48 hours.. then there would REALLY be some snoring somewhere. It would really be quite unbearable for 48 hours and that would REALLY be a challenge indeed.

What do you get when you put a new Coffee Maker with DK for 6 hours? A Coffeemachine Demonstration Salesman!

The guys over at a new window in their last 6 hour stint.. by this time, they have already been in there for more than 18 hours... rotated against 3 other window displays and have done several blogging tasks throughout the night.

Eirian was happy to be there too!

And my happy girls who got to use their $50 Tangs voucher that their Mommy so unglamourously won for them in the morning... *pffft*...

DK got a little mental by the last 6 hours and started doing his Michael Jackson Impersonations with his hat in the window.

And he decided to be a frozen mannequin for some time and we signed to him.. "YOU CAN'T BLINK!!" and he didn't! wahahah Hilarious... he stood there for a while.. frozen and not moving.

Nadia had a whale of a time with the Khiels Boys who went around to the different windows and to the public to promote Khiels products and to motivate the Bloggers to keep on going...

And who did I meet there but @brokenshardz aka Robert Sim.. this is the guy who people mistaken for my husband online for as they share exactly the same name. Hahaha!

My dear friend, Joe Augustin was engaged to be there on both days to emcee the event and at 4pm on the 2nd day.. there was a scheduled talk in the biggest window display where all the bloggers got together along with some public crowd to have a "talk".

All 10 bloggers in one window.

DK doing a studious compulsive geek on his laptop.. must blog.. must blog... *nervous twitch*... must blog. *twitch twitch*

And Nadia & Jayden.. really quite tired by the time evening came around... almost coming to a close!! and at 6pm.. everything came to a close... and at 630pm... the results were announced.

Nadia won the public's choice with 61 onsite votes! Congratulations! This girl has been on a blogger winning spree all month!! Insane!! Wahaha!!

And Nicholas won the Judges choice with the most points via online comments through the blogging challenge in the 24 hours. Congratulations too! And thats it! 24 hours, 10 bloggers, 4 Tangs display windows, Prizes galore, Public, Friends and 2 Big Winners...

The Marmalade Pantry w/ Ogilvy & SOYJOY

The day after the SOYJOY awards night, SOYJOY's boss - Ricky Suhendar and the Ogilvy peeps set out to give a dinner treat to the blogging contestants and for everyone to mingle and get to know each other more since we haven't exactly gotten to know each other while doing the contest and pitted against each other.

However that evening, I was due to conduct one of my AquaFit classes so instead of joining everyone for dinner, I grabbed a cab *as seen in picture above* and met up with the Ogilvy gang and Ricky for lunch instead! We met at The Marmalade Pantry over at Palais Rennaissance.

It was a pleasant meeting with conversation flowing easily and the food was pretty amazing too! I've heard so much about The Marmalade Pantry and now I see why it has been raved so much about! I'm definitely going back! I'm still fantasising about my Warm Spinach, Roast Onion salad with Bacon, Fried Mozzarella Cubes, Pine nuts, Poached egg with Added Chicken. (Chicken - Special Order of course!)... and my "Daniel" smoothie - Banana Orange SoyMilk Natural Yoghurt & Wheat Germ... both were SO DAMN good... *drools*

It was great getting to know each other more and sadly, it was sad that I had to miss the dinner with the rest of the bloggers and the rest of the team. Thank you once again for the lovely lunch! I enjoyed that tremendously.. I'm so going back soon!! Marmalade Pantry! Here I come!!

Challenge 4: Stay Tuned!

My Challenge 4 (Much Effort - Little Effort Slideshow) will be out later this week! Stay Tuned for this... and check back with this entry! As with the other challenges, I would love to hear from you so leave me a comment! :) In the meantime, enjoy this little SOYJOY commercial from Japan! Its uber cute lah!!

You can check out the other challenges here if you haven't seen them yet. :) Thank you for your support!

Challenge 1 - Feed the Office with SOYJOY! - Thank you for your participation! Results are out for this Challenge. I didn't win this one but I'm sincerely appreciative of all the support that you've shown me! *hand to heart*. I've gotten to know some pretty amazing people throught this challenge, loved the interaction!

The coordinator is now in the midst of contacting each registered contact for delivery arrangements and you should be receiving or would have already gotten your free bars this month to enjoy! Do leave me a comment and tell me how you guys like it or don't like about it! I'd love to hear from you! :)

http://honeymeow.blogspot.com/2009/05/have-you-tried-soyjoy-bar-yet.html

Challenge 2 - How I like my SOYJOY Best! The Kitty Pictures won the popularity votes! Thank you for your comments! I like them too! Work for Food and Act Cute for Food!

http://honeymeow.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-i-like-my-soyjoy-best-challenge-2.html

Challenge 3 - What is Low Gi? Find out more about what it is!

http://honeymeow.blogspot.com/2009/06/soyjoy-challenge-3-what-is-low-gi.html

So check back in later this week for the final installment to the SOYJOY Low Gi Challenge.. RSS or Bookmark me NOW! :)

As I've mentioned in my video greetings... Signing out.. This is Honeymeow..You should know me by now.. Ciao!! ~

SOYJOY Challenge 3: What is LOW GI?

With all this talk about SOYJOY and its LOW GI factor.... What exactly is Low GI (Glycemic Index)? Lets explore this and at the end of this entry.. tell me if it was helpful in your understanding towards what LOW GI is about. And perhaps let me know if this would now help influence the type of food choices that you consume from here on?

Let me thank those that have supported me by helping vote for me at http://www.gi-joy.com/ these past weeks. If you have not put in your vote today, please do! You can vote once every 3 hours from now till the 28th of June 09. Thanks! *hand to heart*

A word of thanks too to those who have supported me in Challenge 1 "Feed the Office" Challenge and in Challenge 2 "How I like my SOYJOY best!" Picture Challenge.. you can still leave comments there as it would be great to hear from you! Let me know which one you like! :)

The Glycemic Index was devised about 20 years ago by a Professor of Nutrition, Dr. David Jenkins. Researchers looked closer at the dietary recommendations for diabetics; which was to eat more complex carbohydrates (starch) because they took longer to process and digest than simple carbohydrates (sugar).

The glycemic index (GI) is a ranking of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the extent to which they raise blood sugar levels after eating. Foods with a high GI are those which are rapidly digested and absorbed and result in marked fluctuations in blood sugar levels. Low-GI foods, by virtue of their slow digestion and absorption, produce gradual rises in blood sugar and insulin levels.

Explaining this simply, you can check out this video of this guy named Kieran explaining LOW GI in easy terms for those who would rather hear it in audio version.

You can find out more on the GI levels of individual food at this website. http://www.glycemicindex.com/

Low GI = 55 or less
Medium GI = 56 - 69
High GI = 70 or more

You get a bell-shaped curve when you eat food containing carbohydrates; the blood glucose rises and as your body produces insulin, it pushes the glucose out of the blood and into tissues, and then you see the blood-glucose level falling.

When eating high GI foods, you get a very high bell curve response with a dramatic drop. With a low-GI food, there is a slower and steadier rise in the blood glucose level.

Research has shown that very high glucose levels after meals, called glucose spikes, are damaging to our arteries and various blood vessels, and they promote far too much insulin to be around.

Eating low-GI foods means you avoid those spikes and dramatic falls in blood-glucose so you get a much steadier stream of energy. You, therefore, reduce your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases that are implicated by those blood-glucose fluctuations.

How does LOW GI contribute to weight control?

High GI foods are bad for weight control for two reasons, the glucose spikes stimulate hunger because you are getting that dramatic drop in glucose, 90 minutes to two hours after eating. By eating low GI foods, you feel fuller for longer and are, therefore, not as likely to go searching for snacks every two hours.

Secondly, insulin is a storage hormone that stockpiles nutrients for later use by the body. A high-GI diet causes a lot of insulin to be produced and when you have too much insulin in your body too much of the time, it makes it easier to store fat and harder to burn it.

If your chosen weight loss plan leaves you feeling hungry then it will be even more difficult to resist eating between meals. GI eating promotes foods that raise your blood sugar slowly, so you won’t suffer from mid afternoon energy slumps that can leave you craving sugary snacks.

Getting a little scientific here... Foods that stimulate insulin surges can cause people to eat 60 - 70% more calories at the following meal! Low glycemic foods do not stimulate food-craving hormones like Neuropeptide Y and Lipoprotein Lipase. Stimulation of these hormones can cause chemically-triggered cravings for food and uncontrolled eating binges. Definitely something that we would like to keep under control!

Why do many high-fibre foods still have a high GI value?

Dietary fibre is not a chemical constituent like fat and protein. It is composed of many different sorts of molecules and can be divided into soluble and insoluble types.

Soluble fibre is often viscous (thick and jelly-like) in solution and remains viscous even in the small intestine. For this reason it makes it harder for enzymes to move around and digest the food. Foods with more soluble fibre, like apples, oats, and legumes, therefore have low GI values.
Insoluble fibre, on the other hand, is not viscous and doesn’t slow digestion unless it’s acting like a fence to inhibit access by enzymes (eg. the bran around intact kernels). When insoluble fibre is finely milled, the enzymes have free reign, allowing rapid digestion. Wholemeal bread and white bread have similar GI values. Brown pasta and brown rice have similar values to their white counterparts.

Many people make the assumption that since the amount of carbohydrate in the foods is the same, then the areas under the curve will finally be the same. This is not the case because the body is not only absorbing glucose from the gut into the bloodstream, it is also extracting glucose from the blood. Just as a gentle rain can be utilised better by the garden than a sudden deluge, the body can metabolise slowly digested food better than quickly digested carbohydrate.

Fast- release carbohydrate causes "flooding" of the system and the body cannot extract the glucose from the blood fast enough. Just as water levels rise quickly after torrential rain, so do glucose levels in the blood. But the same amount of rain falling over a long period can be absorbed into the ground and water levels do not rise. I believe this analogy makes for a very good reference to how your body assimilates High and Low GI food.

You can watch and listen more about this with this lady who gives a rather detailed explanation of what LOW GI is about and examples of various food selections of what a Low, Medium and High GI food category entails.

So tell me about common LOW GI Food options?

PASTA
Pasta has a low GI because of the physical entrapment of ungelatinised starch granules in a sponge-like network of protein (gluten) molecules in the pasta dough. Pasta is unique in this regard. As a result, pastas of any shape and size have a fairly low GI (30 to 60). Asian noodles such as hokkien, udon and rice vermicelli also have low to intermediate GI values. Pasta should be cooked al dente ('firm to the bite'). And this is the best way to eat pasta - it's not meant to be soft. It should be slightly firm and offer some resistance when you are chewing it. Overcooking boosts the GI. Gluten-free pastas based on rice and corn (maize) tend to have moderate to high GI values so opt for pastas made from legumes or soy.

POTATOES
The good news for potato lovers is that a potato salad made the day before, tossed with a vinaigrette dressing and kept in the fridge will have a much lower GI than potatoes served steaming hot from the pot. The cold storage increases the potatoes' resistant starch content by more than a third and the acid in the vinaigrette whether you make it with lemon juice, lime juice or vinegar will slow stomach emptying. The GI value of potato chips or french fries is lower than baked potatoes. Most potatoes tested to date have a high GI, so if you are a big potato eater, try to replace some with lower GI starchy alternatives such as sweet corn, yam or legumes.

BREAD
Try to increase the soluble fibre content by partially substituting flour with oat bran, rice bran or rolled oats and increase the bulkiness of the product with dried fruit, nuts, muesli, All-Bran or unprocessed bran. Opt for breads made from chickpea or legume based flours. Chapattis made with besan (chickpea flour) have a low GI.

Did you know that freezing slices of bread and popping them into the toaster the next morning, lowers the GI level of bread?

FRUIT & VEGETABLES
Temperate climate fruits - apples, pears, citrus (oranges, grapefruit) and stone fruits (peaches, plums, apricots) - all have low GI values.

Tropical fruits - pineapple, papaya, rockmelon and watermelon tend to have higher GI values.

Leafy green and salad vegetables are not measureable in terms of GI as they are very low in carbohydrate. GI Higher carb starchy vegetables include sweet corn (which is actually a cereal grain), potato, sweet potato, taro and yam, so watch the portion sizes with these. Pumpkin, carrots, peas, parsnips and beetroot contain some carbohydrate, but a normal serving size contains so little that it won't raise your blood glucose levels significantly.

NOODLES, GRAINS & LEGUMES/NUTS
Buckwheat (soba) noodles; cellophane noodles, also known as green bean vermicelli, are made from mung bean flour; rice noodles made from ground or pounded rice flour, are available fresh and dried. As for wholegrains, try buckwheat, quinoa, low GI varieties of rice such as basmati and sweet corn. Contrary to popular belief, brown rice does not have a lower glycemic index than white rice.

Legumes (pulses) including beans, chickpeas, whole and split dried peas and lentils. When you add legumes to meals and snacks, you reduce the overall GI of your diet because your body digests them slowly. Nuts are high in fat (averaging around 50 per cent), it is largely unsaturated, so they make a healthy substitute for foods such as biscuits, cakes, pastries, potato chips and chocolate. They also contain relatively little carbohydrate, so most do not have a GI value. Peanuts (actually a legume) and cashews have very low GI values.

DAIRY
Low fat dairy foods and calcium-enriched soy products low fat milk, yoghurt and ice-cream or soy alternatives provide sustained energy, boosting your calcium intake but not your saturated fat intake.

How can LOW GI choices affect my health?

Apart from its physical *weight loss or weight maintenance* and emotional & psychological benefits that the properties of GI choices provide, individuals who followed a Low GI diet over many years were found to have a significantly lower risk for developing and/or controlling both type 1 & type 2 diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypertension and coronary heart disease.

So with SOYJOY, what additional benefits does do the bars hold? With each flavour combination, I've found the following fun facts that you may be interested to know!

With the Raisin Almond SOYJOY bar, almonds has been regarded as a food that could help increase vitality, improve complexion and improve body’s capabilities to resist intoxication! Good Combination already!

With the Cacao Orange SOYJOY bar, chocolate studies have shown that consuming a small amount of chocolate everyday can reduce blood pressure in individuals with high blood pressure. Chocolate also stimulates endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure. It also contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant. As well as theobromine, caffeine and other substances which are stimulants. Another good combination!

With the Hawthorn Berry SOYJOY bar, Hawthorn berries have a long history of use as a heart tonic. The Chinese used the berries for both digestion and circulatory problems and the Greeks employed hawthorn berries primarily for heart disorders.

And finally with the Apple SOYJOY bar, Apple is a rich source of flavonoid and polyphenols both are powerful antioxidant. Apples also contain a large amount of minerals and vitamins that can strengthen the blood. Eating apples daily can lower cholesterol and reduce skin diseases too!

So with all these benefits... using this knowledge of Low GI, we can now make more informed and preferred food selection in our daily lives. Snack wise, SOYJOY can be an excellent alternative to your other "sinful" non beneficial snack choices that your body will thank you.

You are what you eat is never more true.

Thank you for taking the time to go through all that information with me, I hope it helped you understand more about what LOW GI is about. Please feel free to leave me comments or questions or if you feel that there are facts or details here that can be more accurate, please drop me a note here in the comments section or email me at honeymeow@gmail.com.

Information above has been researched & collected from the following sources:
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
http://health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=693899
http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/gi_diet/glycaemic_index_tables.htm http://www.the-gi-diet.org/lowgifoods/
http://www.lowglycemicdiet.com/gifoodlist.html
http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/carbs/8/

How I like my SOYJOY Best - Challenge 2

It is Week 2 of the SOYJOY GI Challenge and this weeks' challenge is a picture challenge to show.. "How I like my SOYJOY best!"... First Week Challenge details can be found HERE.

I want to thank everyone who participated with me in listing your company to recieve FREE SOYJOY bars! Thank you for your support! ... :) Challenge No. 1 is now CLOSED.

Now for this challenge.. I thought about this for quite a while... and in line with my kind of preferences and lifestyle. I found that I would have liked to marry my love of felines thus.. my nickname "Honeymeow" with comfort food and an active lifestyle to represent how I like my SOYJOY best...

Above there... the kitty having a nibble on a SOYJOY bar... no.. SOYJOY IS NOT pet food but pets love it too! I know because I've tried feeding it to the cats I love and they ate it with much gusto! BUT... its NOT pet food okay! And Don't feed Chocolates to Cats! It gives them respiratory distress...

Then I wondered.. how else other than just opening the pack and nibbling on it can I enjoy the bar? Dunked with coffee like a biscotti side treat? Yes.. Dunked in chocolate fudge maybe! Hell yeah!! But it also kinda defeats the purpose of the low GI factor by adding so much sugar to "compliment" it. But those still sound awesome don't they?! I tried these combos too.. not bad!! *slurps*

So I tried it with some low fat Frozen Yogurt and chopped up a chocolate orange SOYJOY bar and used it as toppings and threw on some of my favourite red heart toppings for colour.. Visually, it was pretty enticing. I threw it into the freezer for an after dinner treat and a treat it was indeed! The bar bits dried out just a little bit making it a little crunchier at the ends which gave it excellent texture for people like me who love chunky yogurt/icecream treats!

And it was really satisfying too! I'd definitely use this combo again soon!

And then coming back to my feline loves... I thought it would be highly representative of me to show how I love SOYJOY through these uber cute furries who "help" me show my SOYJOY message of...

(UPDATE! Based on Readers Choice! SOYJOY "Work for Food" Picture WINS the popularity vote!!)

"Much Effort!!" - Will work for food Kitty... (Peddling SOYJOY...buy one pwease?) Hahhaha!!

and a "Little Effort!!" - Act cute for Food Kitty... Awww... Shooo cuute.. I like! *rubs screen* ....

But as it all culminates to a final picture that I would feel that taking a product such as SOYJOY, pulling into factors that it is based on a LOW GI formula *what? what is low GI? - Find out next week! I will be telling you more about this then"!* and that it makes an excellent snack alternative. I feel that an active, healthy lifestyle would best represent how I like my SOYJOY best..

With the company of some of my friends, after a great workout... my own ZumFit dance class nonetheless.. with our bars that helped us sustain a great satiety and energy to last the class through and to provide a non greasy, non sinful, filling treat after... Yep.. thats how I like it... *I'm proud to allow association with my ZumFit program with SOYJOY as they both work towards the promotion of healthier lifestyle choices*

So.. tell me which of these photos you like best? Leave me a comment here! Yeah.. comments will help in this challenge too! I'd love to hear from you! What do you say now? ZumFit!! Oooppss! I mean.. SOYJOY!! Gotta love it.. Hahaha! :)

Oh! And Vote for me at www.gi-joy.com! You can still vote from now till the end of June every 3 hours.. Thank you! So... now.. leave me a message and then GO VOTE!! hahaahaha! Love ya'll.

Class 95 - Morning Show Spot

SOYJOY had placed a spot over at Class 95, Morning Show with Glenn Ong and Vernetta Lopez to talk about the SOYJOY Challenge and each blogger. This morning at 750am and another one at 940am, the first release of my feature came out for all of Singapore to listen in to. :) Click to listen in!

Oh and the Flying Dutchman is on leave this week and its HIS BIRTHDAY TODAY TOO! Happy Birthday FD! :)

Listen in HERE.

"Have you tried a SOYJOY bar yet?"

It begins! Part One of Four Challenges for the SOYJOY GI Challenge 09. "Feed the Office" with Free SOYJOY bars!

SOYJOY is giving away FREE SOYJOY BARS!!

The first challenge is for all 5 bloggers to recruit AS MANY offices / schools / organisations / businesses AS POSSIBLE to receive FREE SOYJOY bars!

We will each be competing to find AS MANY workplaces to list up with us so please send me your emails to join me! Forward it to working friends, family, partners and clients! :)

So please show me your support! Email me with the above details for SOYJOY to arrange to send Free SOYJOY Bar Samples to your work place! Yes, there are reasonable limits of about a max of 40 bars per location and no, it cannot be sent to your home. The lovely SOYJOY peeps will go to your workplace and distribute the bars individually to you and your colleagues to try!

So if you're working in an MNC, I believe the distribution would be limited to those in your department. If you can, break up the registrations to different departments & person registering for that department so that your whole company can enjoy the bars together!

If you're working in an SME and don't have excessive staff counts, update me with your company headcount for me to chart in.

So don't hesitate to email me at honeymeow@gmail.com TODAY! This challenge will run from the 25th of May 09 to 30th of May 09 ONLY!

If you want the mailer by email, let me know by email! I'll forward it up to you! Alternatively, you can click on the image above, right-click - save and use accordingly in your own email communications.

Show me some looove people.. spread the word. GREATLY GREATLY appreciate it! *Looking into my gmail account and looking forward to seeing many many more emails with your details coming in!*

honeymeow@gmail.com

THANK YOU!! Oh! And leave some comments! Not only would I love to read them but they would help support me in each challenge in terms of reader response. Winner of this challenge gets 10 points.

So if you regularly leave comments, please do. If you were shy before, now would be the time to say Hi! and leave me with something :) Talk to me!!

Simply Her/Shape Mag - June 09 Issue (SOYJOY)

There is a full page on page 89 of Simply Her - June 09 issue and also on page 61 of Shape Magazine which features us with a little highlight! :) How nice... :) Voting is still going on from now till the end of June and can be clocked in once every 3 hours on a daily basis.

You can vote for me, Honeymeow at http://www.gi-joy.com/ ! Thank you for your support! And thank you so far to all those who have clicked a vote for me! :) Greatly appreciated and heartfelt thanks.

Details on this SOYJOY Challenge were introduced HERE. Go check that out and then come back next week to support the challenges too! Leave some comments- it would greatly help! Thank you!!

In the meantime, the full page here for those who don't read Simply Her and just wanna find out more on what the advertorial was about. *Click on image to enlarge* :) SOYJOY!

No, We didn't get into the Finals.

Continuation to THIS post... ... we went to the Mother/Daughter Cheongsam Pageant that was held by Singapore Expo on Friday for the Qualification round. Around 35 or so, pairs signed in.

No, we didn't get in to the final 16 but it was an experience nevertheless. Not exactly a good one but.. whatever. We went there at 1pm but spent the rest of the time lobo-ing around while we waited for the other contestants to stream in.

Luckily there was the JL sale going on and other super duper cheapo sales *$3 for shirts!, $2 for halters?! I should have bought more...* going on so it "entertained" us for a while.

We were registered as M4 and D4. Just before we went up on stage for our bit, Eirian started to FREAK OUT. So I calmed her just before we went up the ramp but obviously it was not enough.

She clammed up and HID BEHIND ME during the whole thing. Which was surprising to me as I threw her on stage before and she sang a song infront of a crowd beautifully and not shy at all! See that HERE.

And the emcee had to ask the URGH!est questions to her which she doesn't know, even I didn't know how to answer. Ie "wow! your name is very unique? What does it mean and where did you get it from?!"

And that was not something I had discussed with Eirian before and she really couldn't be bothered knowing so both of us just went.."huh?" -.-''. *SILENCE... (cricket chirping)

Then we had to CATWALK and bc she was already ATTACHED TO MY BACKSIDE, it was literally a case of DRAGGING HER ALONG the stage floor while I attempted to stride & pose. Very hard to do so when u have a 26kg lump o child attached to ur ass.

Then I had to take a qn out of the fishbowl and my qn was "Name a strength and a weakness that you have and tell us why" so.. I'll leave it up to you to guess how I answered that but I did pretty well if I might say so myself. I attribute my emceeing experience and somewhat public speaking at my events/workshops training enough to know how to talk through a smile.

Then we said thank you and walked off the stage. Pfft... it all ended around 6pm when the rest of the contestants finished the rounds.. announced the winner then we just left. So thats it. No Cheongsam contest prize.. that red cheongsam can just stay in its little cloth bag to see better days someday. Pfft... till the next contest perhaps...

Ben & Jerrys' VERMONSTER Eating Contest

Click on the above image to go to the Ben & Jerry's Website to check out details of this Contest on the 6th of December 08.

For a person whos watching her diet and insanely exercising, it would have come as a surprise that I would have so readily agreed to join a team for this Eating Contest... but but but... its' ICE CREAM LEHHH! Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream somemore.. SINFUL ARHH! Soo nice!!

So when Claudia buzzed me over MSN asking me if I was an ice-cream eater and invited me to join her team. I checked out the details online and WhoooT! .....

I am now part of Team "LADIES LICK-A-LOT!" which comprises of Claudia, Nadia, Yin and Me in the required team of 4.

Prizes? Well nothing too fantastic but how fun would it be shoving ur face with a bomb of an ice-cream serving in record time heh heh heh! THAT would be an experience... winners would get trophies, a Chunk Fest tee, B&J vouchers and a goodybag worth $200. I'm so in it for the vouchers, my girls WOULD love having ice-cream throughout this coming school holidays... heh heh!

So what does this Eating Contest entail? welll... the following...

Looking at the list of what we had to down and it sounds relatively simple.. about 5 scoops of ice-cream each.. okay.. easy enough.. 7 types of toppings and a brownie shared amongst all 4. Can larh! Now only to finish all that in RECORD TIME is another story... -.-''

I would be working out LIKE MAD at Dance class after this contest... FOR SURE...

Apparently there will be a shortlisting of teams, Claudia has registered the team and we're now waiting for the reply from B&J if we're in. Whoot! *Ice-Cream! Ice-Cream! Ice-Cream!!*