I joined 40 days challenge without meat :D

On the 10^th February 2016 I started my challenge in collaboration with Dagen Zonder Vlees. The story goes when I got invited in a Facebook event from AEGEE – Leuven. In the event, they wrote interesting description:

(c) AEGEE Leuven

“In Belgium, there is a campaign running from February 10th to March 26th to eat less meat for 40 days. The campaign is called 'Days Without Meat', or DWM, and it is set to raise awareness about the impact of our eating habits on the environment. As a bunch of committed young AEGEEans, this is also our duty! You don't have to be an AEGEEan thought to be aware and committed: support AEGEE and support the environment with us!”

(c) Dagen Zonder Vlees

I join the campaign by signed in on the website of Dagen Zonder Vlees and join their AEGEE group.

The procedure is very easy and I did it on my mobile phone.

Their idea is very easy and simple but hard to apply. That is to eat LESS meat and fish for 40 days. It is not to make you completely vegetarian or so (but if you can why not :) ), it is a common challenge for sustainable eating habits. 

I am doing the challenge for the environmental impact, to reduce my carbon footprint and to be friendlier to the earth. This idea goes together with my new habit of quitting plastic. And you know what?? It’s been almost 1 month now I don’t buy anything that have or package in plastic (HORAAYYY!!!).

Source: Pinterest

Some of you maybe confuse. How come reducing meat consumption can lead to reduction of carbon footprint and makes you before friendlier with environment?

It is because meat consumption is among one of the main cause of climate change. Here is why: Livestock emits more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector by emitting methane gas to the atmosphere. Besides that, it is also not sustainable. To grow one cow for meat, you need a lot of water and soy while with the same amount of food you can feed more people on earth.

soruce: google.com

Source: google.com

Besides eating less meet, there is additional challenge. Everyday you can tick the box if you manage to fulfil the challenge.

1.     Challenge 1: I did not eat any meat or fish today

2.     Challenge 2: Today, I only ate seasonal vegetables

3.     Challenge 3: I did not throw away any food today

4.     Challenge 4: Today, I did not buy any food in disposable containers

Source: Dagen Zonder Vlees

I am super excited with this challenge. I will try to keep up with all of the additional challenges. For me, the forth challenge is quite easy since I quit using plastic packaging and bought my food in market or bulk shop or in recyclable container (paper bag, glass jar, cloth)

Today (12 February 2016) just 3 days doing the challenge, I already safe water that can me used for 31 times showering!!! (to see my update for this challenge, you can scroll down to the bottom of this blog and see my progression) :)

If you want to join the challenge, you can just sign in or just do it :)

Like me living without plastic, it is very hard in the beginning, but once you get it, it is very nice lifestyle.

(c) Dagen Zonder Vlees

I cut my hair SHORT!!!

Hi everyone!!

Yes, last week, I cut my hair short. I mean the shortest for the past 17 years of my life. A lot of people love the way I look now. But also a lot of them feel disappointed that I cut my beautiful long hair (including my mom). And some said that I am selfish and don’t appreciate my thick long hair.

my hair after 1 year without brushing it. (Left: before brushing; right: after brushing)

the back side of the hair after brushing

Okay now I will tell you why I cut my hair. The only reason why I cut my hair is because I want to donate my hair. I did my research from November 2015 until December 2015 about this. I found a website from Netherland Haarstichting which is a not-for-profit, charitable organization. The Hair Foundation was formed to inform, assist and support people suffering from hair loss (due to cancer), hair problems and hair diseases.

I decided at that time that I will donate my hair. So I search for some hair salon in my area that cooperates with this foundation. I found one called ‘City Hairshop’ in Nijmegen-Oost. They provide the service and will send the hair, so you don’t have to be worry. Besides that, they also give you 50% discount if you donate your hair. The business is a family business, so in a way, I also support local business.

I cut my hair on 2^nd February 2016. Initially I want to cut it in January, but I had too much things to do at that moment.

So I went to the salon 1 week before, and ask them if they can cut my hair. What is important in here, is that they need 30 cm of my hair. In the beginning they thought that I don’t have enough hair (I was wearing jacket and tucked my hair inside my jacket) and the moment I show them my hair they said, it will be good :D

I am super happy!! This is my first time cutting my hair short. Thus, I need 1 week to mentally prepare for this.

This is something huge for me since I was always have a long hair. But the social, environmental and monetary benefit of cutting my hair thrilled me and too sweet to be rejected.

What is cool about it are:

1. My hair will be made into wig. THIS IS SUPER COOL!!
2. I will have short hair that allow me to be more mobile (I dunno how many times my long hair got caught into something).
3. I can do MMA (Mixed Martial Art) easier since the struggle to pull up my hair is not as crazy as with long hair.
4. Less water, shampoo needed so I will take quicker shower and safe more water and hair treatment stuff.
5. Short hair is very easy to style.
6. And now I grew to like it with a lot of positive feedback from people.

I am 100% supporting you guys if you want to donate your hair! And you can go to the same hair salon that I went to or you can search some salon in your area that cooperates with the haarstichting. You can also cut your hair and send it via post mail to them. There are endless possibilities.

The Update: 1 week after I cut my hair, I received an email that they received my hair. HORAYYY!!! 

With this new hair, I will start my new 2016!

Short hair and zero plastic waste :D

New start in 2014-2015

Hi everyone!!!

its been a long time I did not write or update anything on this blog.

The reason is simple yet complicated, I was and still am BUSY.

A lot of things happened this year. so I will give you a summary about what happened.

1. My P90X and Insanity journey ended and it was amazing. 

 

During this journey I lost almost 12 kg of weight. And I feel so powerful. I become super energetic, never feel too tired anymore and I got addicted to workout or sport :D

for the story and how I can do this, I will make another post about it :)

2. I started to do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

So after I conquered P90X and Insanity. I want to do a workout that is also useful. Voila! I started BJJ after lots of trial class in different types of workout :D

 

Yeah right! (Source: google)

3. I could not get a good job after I got my Bachelor degree

  Seriously, this period of time is super suck!

I hate myself and I hate my life. I was very lazy and was not motivated enough to find a job that fits with my degree :(

4. I started to do Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

BJJ fee getting to my nerve because I could not find a decent job. So I start to do something that has BJJ elements in it. I chose MMA from the Radboud University Sportcentrum because it is cheap and I still can train ^_^

5. I am in love with MMA

After I followed some beginner courses and some training. I seriously got addicted to train. I will try to train at least 2 times per week for MMA and the rest is cardio and weight. 

Besides that, I have booked the dojo in my spare time to just practice some techniques.

6. I decided to start Master study in Medical Epigenomics

  Yes! after 1 year not really knowing what to do, I decided that I will do a master study. The Medical epigenomics area is quite broad and I like the component of molecular interactions and genetics in it (although I am not fan of bioinformatics).

At the moment, I am following some bachelor courses (pre-master) to refresh my knowledge and get myself ready for the Master study.

7. I broke up with the love of my life

You know, relationship goes both ways. It is like communication. So the interaction has to be both ways. I have to let him go because I really want him to be happy. 

But it hurts, so much. But life must go on.

 

8. Fall into depression (again) 

Breaking up is the shittiest thing that happened this year. It is the tragedy of my life. I could not sleep, I have difficulties to do anything. Everything was horrible and I hate my life. I hate the fact that I love him too much until it hurts so much.

 

  Until this day, every time I see picture of us, or stuff that has story about us, I cannot help myself and I suddenly cried and I feel suddenly the world does not have oxygen.

 I am trying to be stronger and put a fake smile on my face. Because the other people do not deserve to suffer or pity me because of my tragedy. 

9. Decided to invest my sadness to get busy with my sport.

 

  Sport is the best way to overcome sadness or depression. and I chose to invest my energy on it instead of falling into the hole of depression.

10. Start following Judo, Boxing and Kick Boxing course at the University

 

Love concurred.  For now my love for the sport concurred my heart. I trained 5-6 days a week. this training is not just MMA training but also some boxing and judo. I also do some cardio, like running and swimming to increase my endurance. I still do some weight lifting sometimes but the frequency got lower :P

11. Get over sadness and start announcing in Radio PPI Dunia again

 So I started announcing again and now you can listen to me in the Movie program called Layar Tancap.
You can check on www.radioppidunia.org to online stream my program. I am the host of the program. It is in Indonesian Language and if you want to check on the movies that got reviewed, you can check the blog of Layar Tancap

12. Overcome several workout injuries.

Stained my ankle, wrist several times and the newest one is an overstretch elbow. I am super glad that I always try to train responsible so I wont injure others or get injured.
update: recently i got black eye by accident :p

13. Realized that friends are family that you choose

 

 

14. Learn to be grateful and understand that life must go on and I am awesome!

 

Another thing is that I want to start doing Insanity again and loss more weight also get better in grappling because if it is possible, I want to join a grappling tournament next year in 2016 ^_^ 

also I need to start do more routine training after 2 months of almost no training due to elbow injury.

 

Studentenkerk bukan sekedar gereja

Utrecht, Juli 2014 – Tak terasa sepuluh hari pertama Ramadhan telah kulewati. Entah mengapa ramadhan kali ini tidak terasa seberat yang ku kira. Maklum untuk tahun ini memang bulan ramadhan bertepatan dengan puncak musim panas di negeri kincir angin ini, karena itu aku sangka akan sangat berat perjuangannya. Tapi mungkin karena sudah terbiasa berpuasa 18-19 jam sehari, aku jadi tidak terlalu merasa lelah yang luar biasa. 

Tak terasa tahun ini merupakan ramadhan ke-limaku di Belanda dan akan menjadi lebaran kelimaku disini pula. Sungguh sedih rasanya mengingat merayakan lebaran sendirian di negeri orang. Tidak ada ibu yang memelukmu dan memasakkan masakan khas Lebaran, tidak ada ayah yang setiap mau lebaran selalu disibukkan dengan kesibukan rumah karena orang yang biasanya membantu kami membersihkan rumah pasti mudik. Tidak ada adik yang selalu usil dan selalu dapat uang THR lebih dari aku (alasannya sih udah gede, tapi bukannya kalau sudah gede THRnya kudu dibanyakin ya? Hahaha). Setelah 4 tahun lamanya ku berjuang di negara dingin ini, rasa rindu itupun semakin memuncak. Kesibukanku mengerjakan tugas akhir yang membuatku lupa untuk memasak hidangan buka puasa membuatku rindu dengan rumah. Karena kalau di rumah pasti ada yang ngingetin makan, ada yang masakin dan ada yang merhatiin.

Kawan, kuliah diluar negeri itu memang nikmat. Tapi dibalik kenikmatan itu, ada pengorbanan yang harus siap kau berikan. Mulai dari yang sepeleh hingga yang besar. Mulai dari rindu masakan mama sampai tidak bisa datang ke acara pernikahan atau bahkan pemakaman sanak kerabat. Kalau kabar duka datang, hanya satu yang bisa kita lakukan, tunduk sujud kepada Tuhan dan melantunkan do’a-do’a untuk yang tercinta. Pada akhirnya ibadahlah yang membuatku merasa dekat dengan rumah.

Belanda merupakan negara yang sangat membebaskan warna negaranya untuk menjadi dirinya sendiri. Dalam alasan agama, Belanda pun negara yang cukup diverse. Ada yang katolik, protestant, hindu, budha, islam, atheist, agnostic, dsb. Yang aku liat sampai sekarang, semuanya hidup rukun dan tidak ada saling cela atau saling hina. Karena banyak orang berpikiran bahwa hidupmu adalah hidupmu dan hidupku adalah hidupku. 

Sebagai seorang anak internasional kadang terbersit rasa terasingkan. Yah, tau lah kalau di Indonesia pasti dari tetangga yang satu ke tetangga yang lain saling tahu apa yang terjadi di tetangga itu. Tapi entah aku merasa nyaman tinggal di sini karena orang tidak akan menilai kamu dari materi ataupun gaya busanamu tapi lebih ke pribadi kamu. 

Di negara inilah aku menemukan keluarga baruku. di sini, temanmu adalah keluargamu. karena merekalah yang ada disana ketika kamu sakit ataupun ketika kamu senang. Rata-rata aku berteman dengan sesama Indonesia dan teman-teman International. mungkin karena ada kesamaan rasa satu sama lain (sama-sama sendiri, jauh dari keluarga dan butuh keluarga baru). Orang-orang inilah yang mewarnai hari-hariku. Mereka pun berasal dari negara, budaya, dan adat istiadat yang berbeda. Agama merekapun berbeda-beda. 

Di tempatku mencari ilmu, Nijmegen, ada satu gedung yang dinamakan “Studentenkerk” a.k.a. Gereja Student. Tapi jangan salah, walaupun namanya studentenkerk, didalamnya tidak hanya ada tempat peribadatan umat kristian, tapi juga ada tempat untuk diskusi, makan bersama (dapur yang cukup besar), tempat meditasi dan juga tempat ibadah untuk umat muslim. 

Ya, di dalam studentenkerk, ada satu ruangan yang lumayan besar dan didedikasikan untuk mahasiswa yang beragama Islam. Ruangan itu lumayan luas dan dibagi menjadi 2 dengan kain pembatas untuk memisahkan tempat perempuan dan tempat laki-laki. Selain itu, ada 2 kamar mandi dan tempat wudlu terpisah (untuk perempuan dan laki-laki). Tempat wudlu-nya tidak seperti yang ada di Indonesia. Disini modelnya seperti di Arab atau Turki. Dimana waktu kamu berwudlu kamu duduk. Selain itu disediakan satu kamar mandi yang tidak jauh dari tempat ber-wudlu. Tempatnya pun dijaga kebersihannya. Tidak ada lumut ataupun sudut-sudut yang kusam. Selain kran berwudlu, disana juga disediakan tissue untuk mengeringkan diri sehingga mukenah yang akan kamu gunakan tidak lembab dan mudah berjamur. Serta juga sabun untuk mencuci tangan dan beberapa sendal. Ruangan sholat juga dilengkapi dengan lampu yang bisa diatur intensitas cahayanya. Selain itu ada pula pemanas ruangan, sehinggu pada saat musim dingin, kita masih bisa beribadah dengan nyaman. Ruangan ini juga dilengkapi dengan Al-Qur'an, tasbih, dan buku - buku bertema islam yang kebanyakan berbahasa Belanda.

Studentenkerk, Nijmegen

(kanan) tempat sholat, (Kiri) tempat untuk Wudlu

Taukah kau kawan, bahwa busana sholat untuk negara lain itu berbeda dengan Indonesia. misalnya di Turki ataupun Maroko. Perempuannya tidak perlu menggunakan mukenah, karena rata-rata baju yang mereka gunakan sudah sesuai dengan ketentuan busana sholat. sehingga merekapun sholat dengan baju yang mereka kenakan. selain itu ada juga perbedaan kecil yang bisa kamu temukan dengan tata cara sholat dari setiap negara. Dalam hal ini aku tidak mempermasalahkan hal itu, karena toh semua yang menilai Allah. Aku melihat ini sebagai suatu keindahan dan kebesaran Allah atas ciptaannya. Aku pernah dengar bahwa manusia memang diciptakan Allah dengan segala perbedaannya dan keunikannya, berbangsa-bangsa dan bersuku-suku sehingga kita bisa belajar antara satu sama lain. Di negara Orange ini aku menyaksikan keindahan itu. Bagaikan mini Ka'bah hehehe

Begitulah cerita Ramadhanku untuk hari ini, kulanjutkan esok ya kawan.

whole pack of chocolate peanut...I need billenkoek

Confession people,

I ate the whole pack of chocolate-coated peanuts just in 2 days...I am so sorry but I need them...I am gonna have my exam soon, so I study hard and my brain need a lot of sugar hehehehe

okay, that was just excuse, real reason, I just love them and yeah, I think my diet failed bcz of this...
anyway, I am going to be a better person and eat less peanuts and workout more.

nice evening all

and I did abs today..horaayyyy ^^

half leg and back -_-"

okay, as I told you yesterday, I want to workout in the morning. I did that, but I almost passed out. so instead of doing full video, I just did half of it cz I don't want to passed out and late to go to office.

this morning I skip my scamble spinach and move to bread with lots of peanut butter. I was almost late, so I grab sandwich and ride my bike to the office.
I got nothing to do now because I am still waiting for my plate. so that's why I write this.
my plan for this afternoon: repeate the workout and do abs. hopefully it will work as I plan.

gotta go to study now. no plate, I still can study for my exam on monday ^^

extra failed yoga X

damn,
I hate myself...today I can not finish my yoga exercise cz I was just too exhausted...FYI, I didn't workout in the morning...so I workout after I finish my intern...bad I idea..tomorrow I want to start workout in the morning after breakfast...or before??or I will eat something bfore workout...I need to move on!!!!!
I can't just give up

btw, my exam is coming...so yeah, wish me luck ^^