CPF Part 2: Using Medisave & Medishield Life to pay hospital bill

Have been missing a few promises I made to myself on blogging.
But I wanted to squeeze out some time today to write up this post!
So here I am, downloading my research and findings into this cyber space.

Today's topic is...

Using Medisave & Medishield Life to pay hospital bill

Recently the hospital has just sent a chaser snail mail to ask my family to pay up my mum's recent hospitalization bill.

So it reminded me on how I was figuring how the hospital determined how much I need to pay.

I believed many others would not have much knowledge what how this part of the CPF system works, until they finally have to deal with the unfortunate incident of a family member being warded into the hospital.

Well, the main realization is this...

MEDISAVE & MEDISHIELD LIFE DON'T PAY EVERYTHING!!!

This feeling of "Why we pay for Medishield Life every year, we still have to pay so much for the hospitalization bill?!?" resonates with my dad the most after he received the bill. haha..

So how much does Medisave and Medishield covers your hospital bill?
Well, it depends on quite a few factors.
I shall try to make it as simple and straightforward as I can here for an easier comprehension as compared to reading off the CPF website.
Alternatively, I believed the nurses at the hospital could help explain this part (but my experience is that some of them are not that knowledgeable too).

Qns 1: What is Medisave and Medishield Life?

As explained in my previous post (Link here), Medisave is one of the 3 accounts in the CPF that an adult Singaporean would have.

It is a mandatory saving scheme which helps Singaporeans to save a fund to use for their personal or immediate family's hospitalization, day surgery, and certain outpatient expenses.

Once you start working, a portion of your income that goes into CPF, goes into your Medisave account (8-10.5% of your income, depending on age group).

Then what is Medishield Life?
Medishield Life is a basic health insurance plan that is mandatory for all Singaporeans. Just recently on 1 Nov 2015, Medishield Life has replaced Medishield with better coverage and benefits.

As an insurance, its aim is to buffer against the times you incurred large hospital bills, or even certain expensive outpatient treatments (e.g. dialysis and chemotherapy).

The good thing about this plan is that the premiums for this insurance can be fully paid using our Medisave accounts, so we don't have to pay out any cold-hard cash.

Qns 2: How does Medisave and Medishield Life works to offset hospital bills?

There are some limitations of how much Medisave and Medishield Life can actually help in paying the bills.
In my opinion, it's not gonna help much whether you know how all these works.
Because in the end, you still gotta pay up whatever is stated.
But it does however gives me a better perspective of why health insurance should be taken up.

Let's use my mum's hospital bill as an example of how these two Ms work.
She stayed for 3 days in a public hospital, B2 Class ward, and had a minor operation.

Total Charges: $6,015.18
Government Subsidy: $3,621.55 (~60%)
Amount Payable: $2,393.60

They round down the $0.03 out of goodwill I guess. hahaha...

So let's see how this amount that is payable goes through the limitations of Medisave and Medishield Life.

Limitation 1: Medisave Claim Limits

Apparently, unknown to me beforehand, there is a limit to how much money can be claimed from the Medisave account to pay for the bill.
There are just too much conditions that would affect the claim limits, so I wouldn't talk about them here.
Here's the link to the MOH website for the whole list (here!).
Specifically in my mum's case, there are 2 claim limitations that were considered.

A) Medical / surgical inpatient cases

I can only claim a maximum of $450 per day for daily hospital charges.
So for a 3-days hospital stay, my mum can claim ($450*3)= $1,350 from her Medisave account.

**Daily limit has been changed to $700 per day for Medishield Life.

B) Surgical operations (inpatient and day surgery)

A fixed limit would be added to the amount claimable from the Medisave account.
The actual limit is dependent on the complexity of the operation (I'm guess the more serious the operation, the higher the limits).

A minor operation like my mum's would add an amount of $253 to the limit.
(I have to work backwards to get this amount because I am lazy to read through the table of operations to find the corresponding limits)

I believed that these two conditions are the common conditions that would be considered in usual cases too.

Therefore, adding these two limits together...

Total Sum claimable from Medisave: $1,350 + $253 = $1,603
Amount Payable: $2,393.60
Total Sum NOT claimable from Medisave: $2,393.60 - $1,603 = $790.60.

So, $790.60 has to be paid in CASH.

Then what about the $1,603?
Is it possible to use Medishield Life to offset this amount so that I do not have to use my Medisave funds?
This leads on to the 2nd limitation.

Limitation 2: Deductible Limit

Deductible is a fixed amount that needs to be paid by the individual before Medishield Life actually has any practical use.
Here's a table that I koped from the MOH website.

Source

You would only need to pay the deductible once every policy year.
So that means if you got hospitalized twice in the same policy year, and you paid the full amount of deductible during the first stay, you don't have to pay the deductive in the second stay.

In my mum's case, a B2 class ward, and my mum being under 80 years, the annual deductible is $2,000.
For the Medishield Life payout to kick in, the amount claimable from Medisave needs to be more than the deductible.
Since $1,603 < $2,000, my mum's bill could not make use of Medishield Life.
The entire $1,603 has to be deducted from Medisave account, without any help from the health insurance (which I emphasized again, is mandatory, and also useless in this situation).

This was definitely not easy to explain to my parents.
I had to explain around 3 times before they started realizing that their son is making sense.
My dad's immediate response to this limitation was,
"我们每年还将多的钱买这个保险，都不可以用。买来做什么？？？"
(Singlish translation: Every year pay so much for this insurance, also cannot use. then buy for what???)

However, if the amount claimable from Medisave account does go beyond the deductible, a third limitation will set in.

Limitation 3: Co-insurance

Simi si co-insurance???
It basically means other than the deductible, it's an additional amount that the insurance company wants you to pay before they actually pay.

But how is this different from deductible?
Why not just lump deductible and co-insurance together instead of separating them?

That's because the co-insurance component is not a fixed amount.
It is calculated according to the total sum claimable from Medisave account.

Here's a table that I edited from the MOH to just display the Medishield Life portion.

Let's say the total sum claimable from Medisave account was actually $9,000.

Total Sum claimable from Medisave: $9,000
Deductible: $2,000
=> Co-insurance applicable for ($9,000 - $2,000) = $7,000

Breakdown of Co-insurance payment.

[$2,001 - $3,000] = 10% * $1000 = $100
[$3,001 - $5,000] = 10% * $2000 = $200
[$5,001 - $9,000] = 5% * $4000   = $200

Co-insurance payable                   = $500

Medishield payable                      = $7,000 - $500
                                                     = $6,500

In the end, you still need to fork out an extra $500 as co-insurance even though Medishield Life has kicked in.

Conclusion

As illustrated, the mentality of thinking that Medisave and Medishield Life are shielding you from the hefty medical or hospitalization bill is fallacious.
Before the policy even begin to take effect, there is still quite a bit of money that you have to pay.

In summary, you pay the following:

1. Amount that can't be claimed from Medisave due to claim limits
2. Deductible (depends on class ward and age)
3. Co-insurance (depends on total amount claimable from Medisave)

So don't get a shock when you receive a hospitalization bill next time, as how my parents felt when they got the letter of payment.

This episode, and together with my dearest's advice, prompted me into action on getting some better health insurance coverage for myself.
There are plans out there to take care of the 3 payments that I have mentioned above.
I am currently in discussion on this and other insurance matters with a financial consultant whom dearest introduced me to.
I will probably write more about this in future when I'm more or less certain on what's the best plan for myself.

On a side note...

It's been very hard to keep to my promise of blogging twice a week (every Wed and weekend).
I thought I would have time to sit down and track my progress every now and then.
But I was seriously disillusioned that this can happen without me really committing to it regularly.
There is usually very little time left in the evening during weekdays after dinner, watching tv with family, exercising, and chatting with dearest.
And I usually fill the weekends with other activities instead of setting aside time for the things I want to achieve (currently would be learning Java).
I need more discipline and more motivation!!!

rawr.

Spartan Race - Aftermath

The past week has been rather busy with troubleshooting my desktop, and therefore I wasn't able to take time out to write out this post.
So even though I'm a bit tired, I felt like finishing up this post tonight before I rest for the week ahead of me.

Last Tuesday, I took leave to go to Sim Lim Square to do a diagnosis on the desktop from a very nice guy called Nigel (owner of PC Care & Solutions) who managed to drill down my issue to the Motherboard or Power Supply Unit (PSU) in a matter of minutes.
So if you're having problems with your desktop, can probably visit him for help.
Best of all, he did it for free~!

Apart from dealing with the desktop, I have also been resting my tired body from the... SPARTAN RACE!!!
Yes! I have conquered the Spartan Race on 15 Nov 2015!

AROO~! AROO~! AROO~!

It was quite a challenging and fun race for me. My timing was 1:34:17, could do better.
Was resting quite a lot and making myself comfortable before each obstacle. haha...
To note down this rather memorable achievement, below are 3 aspects of the race that I felt made it challenging for me.

1) The LONG run...

I'm not a strong runner, so long distance running is a bit tough for me.

Seeing that it was a Spartan Race Sprint, of which the description on the website said it would be a 3+ mile run with obstacles, I thought the race would be around 5 km only (3 miles = 4.8 km).

What I didn't expect was when I ran past the board which said "6 KM", and I'm still nowhere near the finishing line. -_-"

During the run from Nicoll highway to the floating platform, I kept asking myself... "Where the HELL is that turn-around point?!#$^*&"

In the end, I estimated the total distance to be around 7 km, which is something I didn't really train for. 

On hindsight, 3+ mile oculd also mean 3.9 miles (which is 6.8 km).

Next time I should probably train towards the upper limit, instead of just being optimistic.

2) Monkey Bars

Monkey bars is something I'm used to playing back in primary school days, and also when I was in the army.

Overcoming the Monkey bars back then wasn't that challenging, even with full uniform, helmet, webbing, magazine, boots, and a SAR21 rifle on my back.

But in this race, in just my running attire, I actually failed. 

Here's the actual depiction of what the Monkey bars station was like during the race.

It wasn't just 'bars'; it was a lot more than that!
The set-up wasn't the conventional type that I used to have in army.
It consisted of bars that are not stationary, rings, and hanging ropes with a knot at the end.
And worst of all, as I climbed through the obstacle, the next handle was a bit higher than the one before.

I think I managed to get to the 5th handle, before I looked at the next one and decided that the next handle was too high for me; I did not have the strength to do it.
I just dropped down.
I tried a second time (although I think it wasn't allowed), and failed at the 3rd handle this time, while injuring my right shoulder (which is still recovering from my Switzerland trip in July).

Oh well, 30 burpees it is~
At least this was the only time I did the burpees through the race (*pat on the back).

3) Bucket Brigade

This obstacle was the one I deemed the toughest of them all.

It wasn't like the Monkey bars whereby you can simply fail, do 30 burpees, and then move on.

This was a grueling 100+ metres of carrying a bucket full of stones, which I think is around 45 kg.

It was a torture for me!

Around 15 minutes of carrying this bucket, resting multiple times, dropping and lifting it up...

It took me great discipline to not 'accidentally spill' some of the stones during the obstacle (which a few of the runners did).

I was really using my 吃奶的力量!

But still, step by step, I completed this obstacle, along with the other obstacles.

Aftermath Thoughts 

It has been a short but fulfilling journey of training up towards this race.

I was training for a specific goal, and it felt great to work towards it.

Completing this race is nothing of a great achievement, but it does gives me a small sense of life fulfillment.

Therefore, in addition to labelling this event as an enhancement to my Physical Well-being, I also want to label it as an enhancement to my Lifestyle.

I would definitely recommend anyone to take part in it!

Enjoy the process of preparing yourself for the race, and enjoy the race itself by going at your own pace.

And if you have like-minded friends to form a team, even better!

Bonus GIF of me doing the Fire Jump in 'style' =p

Understanding CPF - Part 1

I promised myself to write this post on Wednesday.
So here I am, in the middle of the night, not sleeping, but pushing through with my objective.

For tonight, I want to focus on a topic which is close to the hearts of many citizens here in Singapore.
And that is...

CPF

Yup, it's our CPF!
It's being talked about everyday, it's a hot topic during election (recall HHH's and Roy Ngerng's #ReturnOurCPF), and it will continue to bug us for the rest of our lives.
Therefore, I feel it's rather important for me to understand fully what is CPF in order to make informed decisions on future plans for my retirement (not that I'm near retirement age, but I do want to retire early. =p)

I will have to keep the materials light because I'm researching on them while I'm typing out this post.
Therefore, I titled this post as "Part 1", hoping that in future I can educate myself more than what I can read tonight.

Well, here goes~

Question 1: What is CPF?

Basically, CPF stands for Central Provident Fund.
It just dawned on me that I have no idea what does the word, Provident, means.
Thus, in the spirit of learning, I have looked up the definition:

Provident (adjective): making or indicative of timely preparation for the future. (From Google)

I guessed that a 'Provident Fund' would mean something like 'money saved for the future', which is generally describe what I think the CPF is. I tried to find a statement to describe what CPF is from the CPF website. But ironically, I couldn't, and so, I turned to Wikipedia.

"In Singapore, the Central Provdent Fund (CPF) is a compulsory comprehensive savings plan for working Singaporeans and permanent residents primarily to fund their retirement, healthcare, and housing needs." - Wikipedia

The word, 'compulsory' was highlighted because sometimes I do feel a bit unfair that I am not given a choice on whether I want to be a responsible adult to save up for my future, or be an irresponsible guy who just spends every single dollar of my salary.

I'm forced to be responsible. 

Sounds like an arranged marriage? 

Like I have no choice but to marry this girl because my parents say so, and feel that this girl will create a better future for me.

Question 2: What are the different accounts in CPF?

Before the age of 55, it seems that I would have 3 different accounts in my CPF.

1. Ordinary Account (OA)
2. Special Account (SA)
3. Medisave Account 

Each of these accounts has their own unique uses and clauses on how they are being managed.

I shall not go deep into them for now because it would take a long time to read and filter the information I think it's important to me (and also because I want to sleep...)

After reaching 55, I believe my OA and SA would become my Retirement Account (RA).

The retirement plan is also another long story. 

So I will leave at this first. 

Question 3: How much of my salary do I have to contribute to CPF?

Or, how much am I getting if I don't need to contribute to CPF?
I believe this arithmetic question has, from time to time, appeared randomly to working adults like me.
I do know that currently I have to give 20% of my salary, while my employer has to contribute an additional 17% of my salary on top of my contribution.
Thus, if my salary currently is $4,000:

Own Contribution (20%) - $800
Employer's Contribution (17%) - $680

=> Take Home Salary - $3,200

So, imagine if there is no CPF contribution.. my salary would be $4,680!
It's quite shiok to think of it this way. haha..

One surprising find from the CPF website is that the percentage of CPF contribution from myself and my employer changes as I hit 50 and beyond (see Table 1). This isn't really that impactful, as it would be another 20+ years before the contribution rates change for me.

Table 1: Contribution rates

Employee's age(years) ​	Contribution Rates from 1 Jan 2015 (for monthly wages ≥ $750) ​ ​
	By Employer (% of wage)	By Employee (% of wage)	Total (% of wage)
50 and below	17	20	37
Above 50 to 55	16	19	35
Above 55 to 60	12	13	25
Above 60 to 65	8.5	7.5	16
Above 65	7.5	5	12.5

Source: Link

An even more amazing find is that there is something called the Ordinary Wage (OW) ceiling.

This 'ceiling effect' limits the amount of salary that will be effected for the 20% contribution.

At the moment, it's capped at $5,000 (will be change to $6,000 on 1 Jan 2016).

So if I am earning $8,000 now, my CPF contributions will be:

Own Contribution (20% of 1st $5,000) - $1,000

Employer's Contribution (17% of 1st $5,000) - $850

=> Take Home Salary - $7,000

I'm quite delighted at this realization, because it means next time when my salary is higher, I get to keep a larger chunk of money (>80%) as compared to now (80%).

The allocation rates into the 3 accounts in CPF also changes over time. 

But the changes start from 35 years old, which is l0 years away for me.

Changes seemed small, but I think these are still considerable factors to ponder over when deciding to transfer funds between the accounts (where applicable) or to dump in more cash from my pocket into the CPF accounts.

Table 2: 

Employee's age  (years) ​	Allocation Rates from 1 Jan 2015 (for monthly wages ≥ $750) ​ ​
	Ordinary Account (% of wage)	Special Account (% of wage)	Medisave Account (% of wage)
35 and below	23	6	8
Above 35 to 45	21	7	9
Above 45 to 50	19	8	10
Above 50 to 55	14	10.5	10.5
Above 55 to 60	12	2.5	10.5
Above 60 to 65	3.5	2	10.5
Above 65	1	1	10.5

Source: Link

Alright!

These are still rather basic information about CPF.

There are a lot of other information to research on, such as the prevailing interest rates, the uses of the accounts, minimum sum, retirement, etc.

But since it's getting late, I shall stop writing and go to bed.

Progress Update

It's been more than a week since my last post.
I figured I should sit my butt down in front of the computer to properly chart out my progress instead of scrolling through the never-ending pages of Facebook, or playing games on Steam, or viewing random Youtube videos, or ... seriously, there are tons of things that are more attention-grabbing and have short term gratification than typing out this post.
But still, in order to live my life, I should evaluate myself more often through blogging.

First of all, I have been quite satisfied with myself on being consistent with improving my physical well-being.
For the past 12 days ever since I have recovered from my recent cold, I have exercised for 9 days, and each time is around 30 to 45 min. Hurray~
It hasn't been easy for me to cater time to exercise; to put on my running shoes, get out of the house, and pant like a dog in view of others.
I would have to say the greatest motivation for me so far is the impending Spartan Race on 15 Nov.
I'm left with 1 more week to prep myself so I wouldn't die from running through all the obstacles.

Previously I was quite into working out at home using the Sworkit Lite mobile app due to the haze which restricts me to indoor activities.
However, the recent weather seemed to have cleared up the foggy sky!
Perhaps it is due to the increased in efforts (or the acceptance of efforts) to extinguish the fire.
Or, it could just be the wind.
No matter what, I'm grateful for the good weather to get my body sweating outdoors!

I felt that it is important for me to get my body conditioned to running some distance instead of just staying indoors and doing static exercises.
I have tried out 2 methods so far:

1) Running 2 km with a 5 kg body weight + arm strengthening exercises

I did this twice, and decided to drop this method.
Although carrying an extra 5 kg load sounds pretty mild, the weight pulled down my speed quite significantly.
It seemed to be good training.
But it caused my back to hurt a bit at the end of the 2 km run.
I figured that the 5 kg load is putting too much burden on my body to train efficiently.
So after 2 tries of this, I decided to give up on running with the 5 kg load.
I felt that the body weight vest would be utilized better when I'm doing static exercises at home.

2) (400m + 10 burpees) * 6

I came up with this routine to train my body in running short distances and also the prepare myself for the possible burpees that I would be doing during the Spartan race.
So far, this routine has been a good workout (i.e. I felt like dying, but not dead yet).
I would probably continue this for the week coming up to the race.

I don't think all these physical training is sufficient to prep myself well for the race.
But it's probably near the limits to what my body can take given the time constraints.

As for my self-guided Java Learning journey, it has been rather sporadic.
It was hard to build a routine of reading and practicing the materials taught in the book, most of the weekday nights I'm quite exhausted from work and exercise.
I did most of my learning on the train if I managed to find a seat while I'm travelling to or from work.
There are 16 Chapters in total, and I'm only at Chapter 3.
It's getting more sophisticated, but it's also getting more interesting =p
The experience of writing codes is rather similar to answering Mathematics problem sums.
Both are finding logical solutions to a problem, and there are also multiple ways of approaching the problem.
Sometimes, I also have to try certain things to see whether a certain approach would work.
Lots of trial and errors.
Feels like learning Mathematics all over again! Wee~!

In starting a habit of reading, I tried to force myself to read a book while I was waiting for dearest to get ready to chat at night.
I only managed to do it for 2 nights so far. haha..
Ya, reading is definitely not my thing.
Therefore, in order to keep to it, I have reduced my daily aim from 15min to 10min.
Hope that helps! >_<

I haven't been doing much micro time management.
That means I'm just doing all these activities on an ad-hoc basis without much planning before hand.
I probably should start doing more planning to ensure that these habits will follow through even when I'm hard-pressed for time.

On a side note, blogging is also become cumbersome because of the time I have to invest to writing this kind of long post (because I could have used the time to play games and watch Youtube videos).
Since it's a way of keeping track of my progress,  I should probably have a schedule for writing on my blog.
Therefore, I have decided to publish at least two blog posts per week; one on Wednesday, and one on the weekends (either Sat or Sun).

I also want to list down some of the topics that I would like to blog on in future so that I can remember them.
I will try to figure out how to put this list on the blog.

So far, so good.

Living my life.

Detailed time management

In order to better manage my time, I have decided to schedule in the habits that I want to build daily in my Google calendar (can be seen at the bottom of the blog).

To better visualize the calendar in terms of my progress in the 5 different aspects of changes, I have decided to label each of them in the following colours:

Physical Well-being

Mental Well-being

Finance

Aspirations

Lifestyle

And for planned activities, or activities that I missed, it will be shown in the calendar, but will not be highlighted. So the more un-highlighted activities, the more I have procrastinated on doing them. haha.. Good reminder to tell me I'm not doing something that I'm supposed to. =p

In addition to exercise and Java learning, I have also scheduled in time for reading!

On a side note on my journey to learning Java, I realized that in the notes of the MIT sources materials and the book "Think Java" which the materials closely followed, there wasn't any instructions on how to execute the Java codes using the Java Development Kit or the Eclipse (or am I supposed to use something else?). So I have typed the codes inside the notepad++ (a code editor which I have downloaded earlier for learning Python, of which I have prematurely given up halfway previously), and now I have no idea how to run the codes. -_-" Guess I will go through some spoon-feeding over at the SoloLearn website.

No time?

Well, I have failed to attain 4 hours of learning Java last week.

I thought I would have more than enough time through the week and on the weekends to attain that short 4 hours of sitting down, and looking at the learning materials.

But I didn’t.

Why?!!

Alright. Let me review through my last week schedule to determine the reason and improve from here.

During the weekdays, I thought I would rest at home after work, especially when I wasn’t feeling well (my throat still hasn’t recover yet -_-“).

I thought I could easily get down to that few hours of learning on the weekends.

Although on the way to work, I did manage to look at some of the learning materials from a mobile app called Learn Java (link here) from the company, SoloLearn. It’s a company that seems to specialize in allowing daily commuters to learn things like Java and other programming languages through short videos and short test after every video.

The main advantage of this learning approach is that I can learn it on the way to work; very convenient!

And I also found it more hand-holding than the MIT course materials, which is better for me since I’m a beginner not only at Java, but also in programming as a whole.

But it ate up around 500MB of mobile data within a day of travelling between office and home, which means my mobile data limit of 3GB would burst after 6 days of using the app.

I can’t download the video beforehand too.

So, this app is a NO-GO to use while I’m without wifi connection.

Then how about the weekends?

Hmmm… I was also busy with activities such as spending time with dearest, going to comedy night, going to see grandma with mum and sis, picking up my Spartan race pack, and spending time with my guys (playing mahjong).

All these activities took up my entire Sat and Sun.

Wow.

If I don’t do any planning, I guess my time would be taken up by other activities.

Dearest also advised me to do deliberate planning for the activities that I want to fulfill.

                                                        

Therefore, for a start, I shall aim for at least 30 minutes of Java learning daily during the weekdays, and 4 hours of Java learning during the weekends.

It’s not easy to succeed in life.

But I’m not gonna just live by and die.

*Just found out that the SoloLearn has a website on its own. So instead of learning it on the small screen of my Galaxy S4, I can watch the videos tutorials on my 23" monitor. Link HERE.

Project Aspiration: Java Apprentice

As I am still recovering from my cold, so I can't really exercise.

I decided to get started on another thing that I have been putting off.

For a while now, I have been generating ideas that could either be helpful to the society (or me), or they could be a secondary source of income. I logged down all these ideas in a private notebook and really hope to work on some of them one day. The main challenge is that these ideas require programming skills to materialize, and I have almost zero experience in it. I could hire a programmer to do the job for me, but how fun can that be? plus I don't really have a lot of money to hire them, especially knowing that it's not certain that these ideas would eventually have a ROI. So, I decided to just learn it myself, and this became a part of my aspiration.

The first step to being an app developer is to learn programming.

But what programming language should I learn?

This was something that bugged me when I started to toy with the idea of developing app.

However, a quick search on Google could easily solve the problem.

Link

According to the above flow chart, the programming language for me to start on is ... Java!

There's also an interesting analogy of the programming languages to the characters in Lord of The Rings. Apparently, I'm going to be Gandalf.

I have saved a few websites to learning Java previously. 

But I think I will start with a more conventional course from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

The course is called, "Introduction to Programming in Java".

The link to the course can be found here.

It feels like I would having a proper learning structure to form a strong foundation if I start from here.

I didn't have the time to start on any of the materials yet, but I will.

In case I start to procrastinate again... Let me set a target.

By the end of this week: At least 4 hours.

By the way, I have added a habit lists for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to the side of the blog, and also included a habit tracking Google calendar at the bottom of the blog. 

Let's hope these will keep me on track.

Time to rest for the night and hope the cold will go away~

Gaining fitness - Against the emerging muffin top and preparing for Spartan Race SG

Alright, I am done with my procrastination for now.
Let's get this project rolling~!

I shall start on the issue that is most pressing on my mind - physical well-being.
There are different aspects of physical well-being.
But I shall focus on just one aspect first, which is fitness.

So why is it the most pressing issue in my life now?
There are mainly two reasons.

Reason #1

After I came back from Switzerland in mid-July, I was caught up in work until the start of October.
Almost every day I was working OT until late at night, and I even burned my weekends in order to deliver my report in time. I didn't have much time to do anything else. And so, my physique went downhill. Before I knew it, my weight has climbed from the usual 66 kg (a bit fatter than my old self) to 69 kg (a lot fatter, and above my healthy BMI range). This kind of "extreme OT" period has happened before, but my physique has never really gone awry. My guess is that my age is catching up and my basal metabolic rate is not as high as before, so I can't burn as much fats as I did when I was younger by just sitting in front of the computer doing finger exercises.

I'm also getting comments that I looked fatter than before. Apparently it's quite obvious from the shape of my face. My dearest has also given her most polite feedback on my belly, which is like an emerging muffin top now. I told her I would do something about it.

In short, I'm getting FAT.

Reason #2

Few months back, I thought it would be fun to sign up for the inaugural Spartan Race Singapore that would be happening in mid-Nov.

Here's an introduction of the race that I have signed myself up for.

When I first told dearest that I signed up for this, I think her first thought was why would anyone put themselves up for such torture? haha.. but she understood why I took an interest in this. I remembered the days when I did my Standard Obstacles Course (SOC) in army, I really enjoyed doing the obstacles (but not the running). So to me, this Spartan Race would be like a giant playground. The government should build something like this in the neighbourhood. haha..

But the difficulty in completing the race can't be ignored.
The word "Spartan" in the name of the race is not there for show.
The 5 km run would be tough, and the obstacles would be tougher.
I know that I would be smiling at the end of it all because I have achieved something.
But I do not want myself to be thinking "why the hell did I pay $100+ for this???" when I'm in the middle of it, struggling towards the finishing line.
So, I better get prepared for what's coming in less than a month's time.
And after this, I shall call myself, a SPARTAN.

THE PLAN

I have came up with two approaches in the hope that I can lose weight (and my muffin top), and prep myself well before the anticipated tough race.

Approach #1

In view of the horrible haze that has engulfed the country since September, running outdoors seems to be more harmful to my health. There are some good days though, but most of the time it's not advisable to go out panting like a mad man. Therefore, I needed to find some exercises to do at home.

I have tried static exercises previously, but I'm always stuck with the few standard ones such as push-ups, sit-ups, plank, squats, etc. I searched around Google Play store and discovered this App called, Sworkit Lite - Workout Trainer.

At the start, I get to choose what kind of workout I want to do. After that, I get to select the duration of my workout. I like this app because it has a variety of exercises which are randomized each time I do my workout, and the app shows a demonstration of the exercise. So I'm not really stuck with the few exercises that I know.

My usual routine now goes like this

1. 5 min of Stretching (warm-up)
2. 5 min of Strength
3. 5 min of Cardio (starts to sweat a lot)
4. 5 min of Strength
5. 5 min of Cardio (feels like dying)
6. 5 min of Stretching (cool-down)

Total time: 30 minutes

Why 30 minutes?
Because I get a Gold medal in the app for doing 30 minutes or more in a single day. haha..

I like doing a variety of exercises in the comfort of my own room, without having the need to always plan specifically what kinds of exercises I need to do. There's still the custom workout option in the app next time if I want to develop my own routine, but right now I prefer the randomized function. There's also the paid version with more customization available, but I'm not willing to part with my $5.50 for this app. In fact, I'm so frugal (or stingy), I have not paid to use a single app in my whole life yet.

For anyone who happens to come across this post and is interested in the app, here's the link.

Approach #2

On good days when the climate is more forgiving, I go for a run at the stadium. I haven't done much running, because the climate is really shitty nowadays. But here's what I am planning to do.

1. Slow jog to the stadium and stretching (warm-up)
2. Interval training for 6 rounds around the track (run 1 round, rest. repeat)
3. Slow jog back home, and stretch (cool-down)

I probably can complete a round in 1m50s continuously, and still be able to last 6 rounds.
Any faster than that, I would probably be clocking more than 2m for the next round.

Running would really be important for me to get accustomed to the pace at the Spartan race. But news just came in yesterday that the haze may last till early next year because Indonesia has failed to extinguish the forest fire, and the hot spots are still growing in numbers. Hopefully the wind can help in getting some good days for me to run. And I wonder if the race would be cancelled if it gets too hazy that day.

Today seems like a fine evening to go for a run!
Unfortunately, I caught a cold since yesterday and is still recovering from it. =(

But, as part of my habit-building for my physical well-being, I shall strive to exercise every single day after I have recovered.

My ambivalent start

The thought of starting this blog has been floating in my mind for a while now. It wasn’t until my mum fell prey to a sudden attack of appendicitis, that I had some time away from work (and from play) to stop procrastinating, and actually execute this thought of mine. So, yup. Here it is.

The intention of starting this blog is to get me motivated to “live my life”. Hence, the title of the blog. As I entered adulthood, there are several changes that I want to implement in my life. But I never seem to be able to make a permanent change. I felt like I am just living everyday as they pass by me like clouds in the sky, thinking that there will be time, in future. But the hard truth is, I have limited time to do what I want in this lifetime. And if I just keep storing these thoughts in my mind instead of putting them into actions, they are not gonna happen. I don't want to live to an old age, filling my life with regrets as time-travel slowly to my death. I want to die knowing that I have done as much as I could, as many things as I wanted to; I want to feel that this journey of living (or to death, depending on how you see things) is a meaningful one.

The start of this huge and massive project as been an ambivalent decision. As much as I like the idea of starting a blog to organize all the ideas of change, I'm not 100% sure that creating this avenue is gonna help make them happen. My dearest had also reminded me that starting this blog is like putting another to-do item on my already long list. I would have to spend extra effort to maintain this blog, which could have been directed towards doing the tasks. That was certainly true, but the fact remains that I have tried diving into things, but they never really materialized to the extent I hope that I could achieve. Perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough, perhaps I wasn't that determined. In any case, the conclusion is, it didn't work. Therefore I'm exploring this avenue. Because, if I never try, I will never know.   

With that said, there are several matters that I want to address at this moment, and possibly the items on the list will add on in future. Some of them are about building habits, some of them are about filling the information gaps for me to make certain big or long-term decisions. After maybe 5 min of reorganizing these matters in my mind, I have broadly grouped them in the following 5 categories:

• Physical well-being
• Mental well-being
• Finance
• Aspirations
• Lifestyle

There could be more in the future, and maybe changes. But I shall stick with this one first.

Now, let me procrastinate on writing my next post while I take a short break.

:p