Sunday Morning with Willing Hearts

This is a 1 week overdue post largely due to my laziness.

Annie, Qianhui and I met up at the crack of dawn on last Sunday to do volunteering at an organisation named Willing Hearts. Annie and I had been there for a few times and we were really glad that we got Qianhui with us this time round. When it comes to this kind of thing the more the merrier isn’t it! 😀

I chanced upon this organisation a few months ago when I was googling for volunteering work in Singapore. Most voluntary organisations involve tutoring school children, counselling, or visiting elderly to have some words with them, all of which are not my forte. I tried volunteering at YMCA years ago which involves accompanying elderly to a lunch event, I don’t think I did a good job because I’m not proficient in my dialects at all, hence the awkwardness when I was not able to convey what I wanted to say to them. I turned to blood donation after this experience because my dad is a frequent blood donor and I thought I could follow his footsteps, but I was rejected for blood donations for 6 times (due to different kind of reasons like low iron level, small blood vessels, low blood pressure and weight). -_-

You can imagine my excitement when I read about Willing Hearts. Willing Hearts is a 100% volunteer-run, non-profit organisation set up to provide for the needy all over Singapore. A major part of their work is conducted through the operation of their soup kitchen which serves about 75,000 meals per month. It survives entirely on kindness of strangers; the food is donated and the help is made up of volunteers. What a better way for me to volunteer than to work with food. 🙂 Although I have to admit that the journey from my house which is in the west to their kitchen in Potong Pasir is often discouraging and long, but I figure it’s the least I can do.

The kitchen operates daily, from 6am to around 4pm. If, like me, you are interested in kitchen prep work, you need to get there very early (6am to 9am) to help out. Otherwise, you can also offer your services to pack the food for delivery, or even help out with the deliveries later in the morning or afternoon.

We were tasked to cut capsicums and peel copious amount of yams last Sunday when we were there. First time volunteers may be daunted by the scale of output, but always keep this in mind, many hands make light work! 🙂 It’s really heartwarming to see people from all walks of life there. Even though everyone is from a different background, all of them shared that common bond to be there at dawn to help in the hustle and bustle. I’m happy and grateful to have older aunties impart their knowledge to me as well. 🙂

There is no entry requirements to help out. If the early timing is a stumbling block to your attempts at volunteering, you can also join the team of Willing Hearts volunteers to scout the streets to distribute bread and water to migrant labourers and homeless vagrants on every Friday evening, between 10:30pm to 3am.

I’m really looking forward to shifting to Punggol in 3 years’ time because Willing Hearts would be just few mrt stops away from my house! If possible I would definitely bring my future kids along as well. It’s never too early to start volunteering. 🙂

Immensely grateful that I have these 2 kind souls with me

Find out more about Willing Hearts @ http://www.willinghearts.org.sg/

It will always be on your mind, and there will always be a reason to put it off. But there is no better time than NOW!

Sweet Potato Salad

I’m so in love with this sweet potato salad (recipe by Kimberly Snyder, my all-time favourite nutritionist) that I made it for lunch for 3 consecutive days! There’s no mayonnaise so it’s dairy-free. The creaminess comes from avocado and dijon mustard. 🙂

Why sweet potatoes and not potatoes?

1.  Sweet potatoes do not produce toxic glycoalkaloids (natural toxins found in white potatoes that act as the plant’s natural pesticide and fungicide. Glycoalkaloids affect the nervous system by disrupting membranes and the body’s regulation of acetylcholine, a chemical responsible for conducting nerve impulses. Glycoalkaloids can also cause the membrane that line the intestines to become permeable, disrupting the intestinal barrier and initiate or aggravate Irritable Bowel Disease.)
2. Sweet potatoes contain more fiber than potatoes; fiber slows down the rate at which sweet potatoes break down into glucose and are absorbed into the blood stream (sweet potatoes have low glycemic index)- safer for diabetics to eat! 
3. Carotenoids, the pigments that give sweet potatoes their lovely orange hue, are powerful antioxidants with a variety of health benefits, including: 

• Pre-cursors to vitamin A
• Boost immune function
• Maintains healthy lining of the digestive tract, respiratory tract and skin
• Improves retinal function, particularly night vision
• Reduces inflammation
• Brightens skin

If your skin is looking dull and lacklustre, eat some brightly coloured food like sweet potatoes, which will impart some of their radiance to you. So always choose sweet potatoes over regular potatoes whenever possible!

Sweet Potatoes Salad Recipe

Serves 3-4

2 large or 3 smaller sweet potatoes

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

2/3 cup ripe avocado

1 minced garlic clove

1/3 cup diced celery (or cucumber)

2 Tbs. minced purple onion

2 Tbs. nutritional yeast

2 tsp. olive oil

High quality sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Peel and cut potatoes into 1-inch cubes and place in a single layer in a steamer try. Steam for about 15-18 minutes, or until tender. Set to the side to cool.

In the meantime, add the Dijon mustard into a large mixing bowl, and mash the avocado into it. Stir in the minced garlic, celery, purple onion and nutritional yeast and olive oil in a bowl.

Toss the sweet potatoes into the mixing bowl with the sauce, and mix to coat well. Season with the salt and pepper to your liking.

Enjoy it with a bowl of greens! I topped my salad with Korean fermented seaweeds to help me digest the starchy vegetables better. 🙂

 

What you say can make someone’s day

“Words are powerful. Words make a difference. They can create and destroy. They can open doors and close doors. Words can create illusion or magic, love or destruction… All those things.” -R.M. Engelhardt

Yes, words can be this powerful. 

Received whatsapp message from bestie and what she said really makes my day and drives me on. I’m more motivated now to influence more people, to get more people to lead a healthier lifestyle. 🙂

And to Angela (I know you will be reading 🙂 ), you don’t know how beautiful you are in my eyes. You always know how to say things that are pleasant to people’s ears, and to date you are still the kindest person I’ve known. I’m really grateful that we met in primary school, and lucky to know you. 

Successful Interview!

Went to Camden Medical Centre for interview yesterday. I’m so relieved that it’s over and I’m recruited! 😀

This eye clinic looks so much more professional as compared to my previous one and what I like about this company is that everyone has their own role to play. There’s accountant who will handle the accounts, receptionist who will book appointments and answer phone calls, staff nurse who will handle the miscellaneous like patching the eye etc, unlike my previous workplace the optometrists have to cover all these.

I’m still grateful to my old company for the experience though and not to mention I met the nicest people there as well. 🙂

The optometrist here is given an office room too and the lunch time is freaking long, like 2 hours. This to me is a luxury. The happiest thing is they provide uniforms! I love love love wearing uniform.

I foresee more challenges ahead as I will be the sole optometrist in the clinic, no more calling of colleagues for help. Nevertheless I relish this opportunity to work independently. 🙂

The clinic is conveniently located near Orchard, so I headed down to Takashimaya to do some shopping after lunch. I got myself a tub of kimchi and a medium-sized container of seaweed from a Korean stall at Taka basement. I’ve checked with the staff and was glad to find out that the kimchi are made by the staff themselves and no MSG is added. For those who are interested, the name of the stall is Chan Chan Chan. So happy to find my source of probiotics goodness. 🙂

 

Special thanks to Annie, who is sooooo sweet to send me links of frequently asked interview questions so that I’m better prepared and my bf, Vincent, who helped me amend my resume. Really touched and grateful that I have these people in my life.

Carousell

So so so so grateful to whoever who developed the Carousell app, it must have benefited a lot of ladies out there. Thanks to Carousell and of course the sellers who agreed to let go at such insanely cheap prices, I managed to buy 2 bags and 1 dress at an average price of ~$5. Made me a really happy girl! 🙂

All the items are in pristine condition 🙂

Scrolling through Carousell has definitely become my new addiction and my way to kill boredom. 🙂

On an even happier note, my bestie Angela has started to navigate into the raw food journey! It shouldn’t be too daunting for her I guess because she’s already omitted meat from her diet long ago, I’m sure that her perseverance will definitely be strong enough for this too. 😀

Count Your Blessings

I was complaining to my bf about something few days ago and at that moment I felt that life is so unfair to me. Today, a cold shower in this crazily hot Singapore weather makes me feel incredibly blessed! I started to ponder how many minute things like this I’ve taken granted for in my life. So, as a good practice for myself (not to brag!), I’ve made a short list of just some of my many blessings, hoping that I can always come back to read them to improve my overall emotional outlook the next time I feel down. 🙂

1. I’m blessed that I’m able-bodied and able-minded. I can achieve so much just by having a healthy body and mind. I’m also thankful that I’m born loving fruits and vegetables! haha
2. I’m grateful that my family members are in good health, that we are financially stable and have a roof over our heads. I’m blessed to have parents who work so hard to support me and also give me all the freedom to choose what I want in life.
3. This can be considered the biggest blessing of my life, my boyfriend, Vincent. He is someone who’s always supportive of my decisions, who gives me lots of assurance and security and  always adamant on fetching me to work and home whenever he has the chance to even if it will cause him inconvenience. Being a smarty boyfriend as well, he widens my knowledge on a lot of things, especially history, marine and animals because he’s such a Nat Geo fan.
4. If I’m the lucky one who walks down the aisle with my boyfriend eventually, I’ll be so blessed to be part of his family because his family members are all so awesome!
   
   Mum & Dad- They are the nicest parents around. I can always sense their love for their children. The mum never forgets my share when she buys bird nest for them, and there’s one time she thought I become skinnier, so she made tonics for me because she was worried. The dad, who made a special trip back home with a set of newly duplicated keys when I’m alone in their house because he thinks that it’s unsafe to stay at home without keys (I’m really touched by this because firstly he’s already on his way to work and he made the effort to come back, and secondly, we all know how difficult it is to find keysmith nowadays!). 
   Sister- The very sweet one who could sit around for hours to listen to me talking about raw foodism, nutrition etc and being open-minded and receptive about it. I would love to be good friends with her. 🙂
5. I’m thankful for my current colleagues, who are two very nice Filipinos; one of them always buys fruits for me and the other always cooks for me her very yummy Filipino dishes. Not to forget my former colleagues, Annie & Jocelyn; I never need to drag myself to work because of them and I can always turn to them for help and support in my life and work. They are people who are truly concerned about me. No doubt the days spent working with them are the best working days of my life and something that I deeply missed.
6. I’m grateful for my friends, who are a bunch of kind-hearted and fun people. I always enjoy hanging out with them.
7. I’m grateful that I’m born in the internet era,  which leads to my foray into raw foodism and gives me access to information outside the textbooks. I cannot imagine life without Google.
8. I’m blessed to be a Singaporean. Apart from the safety aspect, I do appreciate the Summer all year round, especially after experiencing the brutal winter in Korea this year. Winter is not like what I always imagined, people frolicking in the snow, the harsh weather can be unbearable for people to even walk on the streets at times. It is okay to experience it once in a very long while though. 🙂

An analogy came to my mind as I’m writing this:

Your blessings are like many colourful helium-filled balloons floating in the sky, many times they are so scattered that when the weather turns bad, all you notice is the gloomy sky.

By counting your blessings you are gathering all the balloons, it makes you focus on them, and when you look up, you will realise what you have is already sufficient to turn around any negative emotions.

Counting your blessings is one sure way to develop a constant mind-set of gratitude, which can turn mundane life into a miraculous one. Rather you read my list (or not), I encourage everyone to take some time to count your blessings too, best if you can journal it.  It would also be a much more worthwhile practice to count our blessings instead of sheep when we can’t fall asleep at night. Living a life of gratitude can make you happy. 😀

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart