Health Blog by YinTeing

Continuation from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4…

Have to be honest and admit that everything was going on fine till…. I discovered that a newly opened restaurant new my office serves the most awesome tea with evaporated milk. It’s literally my favourite drink which I could not refuse. Nearby cafe and even the drink by the previous owner tasted bad.

For the past week, I found myself wondering to the cafe to pack the drink, followed by a sweet delicacy to go with it …after lunch. But I try to take a light lunch though. Well, I go in with my eyes open as I know how much sugar drinks and sweet stuff contribute to hidden calories.

As the result, the tummy’s here to stay despite the crunches that I have been faithfully doing even though I am grateful it did not balloned up at the rate I am eating. Today, my boss brought lots of delicious Deepavali goodies like muruku, ghee balls, cornflake cookies, coconut candies, etc. How could I resist, hee hee.

This evening, my dinner consist of fried seaweed and an Ensure drink.

My exercise program this morning:

• 1 hr yoga class
• 40 times crunches on the Swiss ball
• 20 min cardio (machine said I burned 250 kcal)
• Weights for legs and abdomen crunch- 25 times (using 25kg)
• 20 more crunches on the Swiss ball.
• Proper stretch down exercise.

It must be the effect of sugar, so yesterday I was feeling very tired and asked for extra time off during lunch (which I will pay back in hours) to exercise. What I did then:

• 5 min cardio warmup
• 40times crunches on the Swiss ball
• 15min on the treadmill
• 20times crunches again on the Swiss ball
• Warm down & stretching.

Eating too much sweet stuff is bad for my system. From last week till yesterday, I felt extra tired again. Perhaps I should start back weaning off processed sugar and starch completely again. See how first…

Next….Part 6, Part 7

We have the obvious food that many people had placed into the ’sin’ category, namely the 5 Cs: Cookies, Candies, Cakes, Chocolates & Chips. But anyone who had lost weight and maintained it for a long time will tell you that it’s okay to indulge once a while.

Today, I will not talk about those but instead, about other food that sabotage our best efforts to lose that tummy. Watch the portions that you are taking very carefully:
1. Peanut Butter
Whatever type, be it chunky, smooth, with sugar or no added sugar, peanut butter is seriously very fattening. You only need to eat about 2 tablespoons of it daily and you will be gaining weight in no time, even though with vigorous exercise. There are times that I am eating just right for weight loss as recommended in certain books. I reduced my sugar and starch intake but replaced them with peanut butter. And the most is about 2 tablespoons per day, considering I had cut down sugar, rice and white bread. Even with rigorous exercise, I could not reduce my tummy. And when I stopped taking peanut butter, my tummy grew flatter. When women asked me why they could not lose weight despite trying very hard, I asked them if peanut butter is in their food list. The answer is normally yes.

continue reading…

First, it’s ok to slip up once a while. Nobody’s perfect.

It does not mean we are useless or is a failure. Don’t hate yourself.

Before I started eating sensibly, I used to feel guilty about my sweet tooth and food addiction, not realising it is attributed to the way the food I take react in my body. Still, there will be times when we will be off our healthy eating plans. Just like last Thursday, my now ex-boss treat an entire team to a farewell lunch (thank goodness she is not leaving the company, but she is now going to manage a much bigger team- and make more positive difference in the lives of others). We ordered varieties of food and shared- this way, everyone gets to try out different types of dishes. Of course I can’t be that selfish to demand that everyone eat salad or some kind of healthy, boiled food in an expensive restaurant? And I wouldn’t because I am sure looking forward to pasta and pizza since I’ve not eaten them for a long time.

So we shared starters, pizzas, sweet curry mee, pasta, salad and finish it off with delicious desserts. Overall, the food’s excellent. After lunch, I chose the stairs over escalators on my way back to office. Then ate my grapefruit/fruits from my Tupperware and felt better- citrus really helps to make the carbo digestion better. Normally I notice that once I start taking processed rich carbo food, I would crave carbo for my next meal. And I did. I could not resist having Thai noddles for my dinner.

Since August, I have adopted a more moderate approach and allow myself little indulgences here and there. But I always either eat lots of fruits and vege right before or after the little indulgence. Then I also cut down my food portions later or increase my exercise. Allowing yourself to indulge once a while will prevent yourself from gorging food and throwing caution to the wind- in other words, it prevents major slip ups. Eat, enjoy but don’t gorge on food. This allow me to appreciate the food and value my boss’s kindness and generosity instead of feeling guilty after eating.

And I planned my exercise activity around my increased food intake:

• Thursday night it was Merdeka eve – could not make it to the gym
• Friday, woke up with a slight headache- normally happens when I take too much carbs the day before. Morning, went to the gym and did 1 hr cardio- burned about 500 calories. Did not do weights coz did not want to tire out my muscles.
• At night, did a yoga based exercise that my colleague downloaded for me- I just intend to watch the tape but as I loved the exercises, I ended up following a one hour tape.
• Today (Saturday), did about 1/2 hour cardio, followed by 1 hr yoga based exercise, then 15 min intensive jogging- to warm up the musles before weights. Did some weights for stomach and legs. Then 10 min cycling and end with streching to cool down.
• Tomorrow, planned to do longer lower intensity cardio (probably about 1.5 hrs) and weights for arms and stomach. Then short light cardio, followed by stretching.

When I exercise, I’ve learned to tune it to my body. I notice that this gives the best results. It’s important not to overtrain and overtax our muscles. This week, I am exploring on sustained exercising through lowering intensity.

Exercised for 1.5 hrs (yoga based exercise and cardio) in the morning.
Breakfast

• Nature’s Bake Wholemeal roll- 2 with stuff omellette.
• Omellette contents: 2 eggs (seasoned with light soya sauce and lots of pepper)- cooked with small bitter gourd, mushroom and fish paste. Then put in the bread with a bit of chili sauce.
• A cup of Nescafe 3-in-1 Breakfast

Snacks (last from morning till evening).
Prepared from:

• 1 grapefruit
• 1 orange
• some pumpkin seed
• about 6 dried apricots

Lunch

• 1 small pcs of small fried chicken (did not eat most of the skin)
• 1 pcs of taufu cooked with some oyster sauce (did not take the sauce)
• Ulam- raw cabbage, four-sided beans & 1/10 of a cucumber with sambal belacan
• Tempeh- but it’s sweet and I suspect the tempeh is fried
• I do not eat with any rice or noodles
• A cup of Nescafe 3-in-1 Breakfast

My colleague looked at my food and asked “is that enough? Wouldn’t you be hungry?” Well, with the fruit based snack, it last me till dinner time.

Dinner

• A slice of gardenia breakthru with the leftover omellette
• Mushroom cooked in black pepper sauce
• a pcs of Ayamas mushroom flavoured sausage
• a pcs of small sweet potato (orange coloured)
• fried egg white (without the yolk)
• some green veges- not sure what’s the name
• handful of longan
• 2 mangosteens
• about 6 pcs of durian (bad)

Today I did not have my lunch at the regular place- instead taking food from a mixed rice stall. The danger bout outside food is that it may be cooked with too much sugar (especially in the sauce and sambal) and too much of MSG. My lunch today had a lot of both.

Since I reduced table sugar and refined carbs, I do not suffer a huge effect (sugar high and sugar low). My intake of sugar is much from fruits (and yes, in my 3-in1 Nescafe which I am not giving up). Still, the MSG and sweet fried tempeh still make me slightly sluggish and tired. Also, I believe it will induce food craving- today I had overeaten at dinner.

After dinner, I feel asleep at the couch for I think 20 min, then got up and done some cane exercise (good to activate the lymphatic system).

Going to sleep shortly and the durian- it does make me feel a bit bloated. Well, going to sleep now. Goodnite.

Just came back from an absolutely great week in Penang. Met up with a very dear friend, and I was offerred the traditional Penang hospitality- taken to places where you can get real good food.

Penang’s food is really delicious.. so I figured since I am not a Penangnite and have no idea when I will be back, I should not pass the opportunity to savor all the delicacies that the beautiful island had to offer.

I am not a chau koay teow fan but I ate that about 3 times coz in Penang, they always give you 2 big juicy prawns in the koay teow. And the coffee and tea always taste delicious. The price is also really reasonable. Other good stuff are loh bak, toasted kaya bread, pau, chicken wings, pan mee, tim sum, nasi lemak, etc.

Discovered Coke Light (0 calories and no sugar) – bought the drink when I watched Spiderman 3 at the midnight show in Penang. It’s a great show, with a deeper look into personal relationship with an unexpected twist towards the ending. If you have not watch it, good idea to do so.

Tomorrow, the plan will be continued…. no carbs and low sugar. I am ready after rewarding myself.