Category Archives: food

live

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You know it’s funny how life just seems to take over, the diet becomes secondary to everything else. These days are the best when food is about fuel and life is about living. There are no urges to munch on all the bad stuff in the fridge. You just seem to float.

This week has been filled with those days. I have eaten well, perfectly actually, I haven’t craved junk or felt dishearten.

I’ve just lived.

I must be honest, I haven’t been to gym yet this week but this isn’t due to any fault of my own.  Life just got in the way. But you know what it’s ok. 3 days of gym isn’t going to make a huge difference I’m just going to go the rest of the week and the weekend. But you know what I love going to gym on Saturdays, the gym is always so quiet and I can take my time.

As to my weight, I really don’t know if I’m up or down. I’ve got a feeling I’m down, but I’m not sure if I’m down as much as I would like. Hmmmm… I have decided to wait till Friday to weigh myself. Because Friday… I’m going to see Steve!!! Now going to see Steve means it’s time for me to show my results. He will adapt my diet accordingly and measure my body fat %. He can then also work out if I’ve gained muscle and lost fat or lost fat or lost fat and muscle.

I really am hoping to be 4kgs down (in fat) from when I last saw him (4 weeks ago) .  I won’t really know until I go see him because my lean muscle mass could be up which means the number on the scale is wrong.

Another thing is, I feel I need to speak to him about is setting some proper goals for me.  I need to get some advice on my target weight and my target body bat percentage. I am thinking that when I get to my target weight I should get some personal training sessions to help me tone up and get ready for summer (:

Heres to a perfect Thursday and Friday and a fantastic rest of week (:

Noodles and nutrition

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Life in Africa is tough; it’s hard to make enough money to support youself. I work as a receptionist so money is tight at times. It is unfortunately one of those times. Its 3 days till pay day. I need to survive today, Tuesday, Wednesday and most properly half of Thursday.

Now the problem comes in that with my diet I need to eat certain foods, I need to have yogurt and eggs and veggies.  I really don’t feel comfortable eating anything off my diet. My diet is 1250 cals at the moment and I am no stranger to calorie counting, so I could instead of having my healthy lunch I could have 2 minute noodles or a small packet of chips (crisps).

But the thing that most people don’t realise is calorie counting is only half of what dieting is really about. Nutrition is the far more important other half. You need to eat a diet contain protein, loads of veggies, yogurt and a small portion of carbs.

Now I’ve notice a lot of people try and go vegetarian to lose weight, this is ok but you need to keep your protein intake up, you really can’t expect to lose weight and build healthy muscle if you don’t have enough protein. Protein powders are an excellent option to all you. For me I use Whey Protein.  It’s incredibly yum as an added bonus.

Now back to the noodles, I can’t afford to go and get my normal foods, so what do I do? It’s a question I’m sure a lot of people suffer with. If I can’t afford to eat healthy today should I rather not eat?

Just say no!!

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well as much as David and  i don’t do the valentines day chocolates and treats, this don’t stop the rest of the people around me getting them. i must say i have said no to all the offerings so far today.

the first was chocolate marble squares which looked a little like this :

this photo is just a representation, in fact the ones at work looked better than this. i managed to say no. that saying know was pretty easy as it was around lunch time and i had a Delicious mince and butternut dish to eat instead of a over sweet snack that i would regret later.

The second was the most beautiful cupcake. this cupcake was specifically given to me so i had to accept it. Damn it. well i took the cupcake and i put it aside on my desk.

it really did look amazing, but i didnt eat it. it was hard but i gave it to someone else in the office who could use a few extra calories. but take a look at how yum it looks :

So very proud of myself i must say.

hope everyone else is being as strong .

 

(:

CHOCOLATE ?

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Well today is Valentine’s Day, as we all know this day is about love, treats and spending time with the special people in our lives. I am very lucky to have an amazing boyfriend who treats me like a princess.  But thing is we don’t do the cheesy side to Valentine’s Day. We don’t buy presents and we don’t do chocolates. For us this day is about so much more. We take it as an opportunity to treat ourselves to a nice evening together. We decided this year to do it on Sunday; I mean who really wants to go out on a Tuesday night anyway. This Sunday we went for sushi. Oh gosh yes I ate sushi until I couldn’t move. It was truly a sinful day, but hey it’s a special occasion.

Oh and let’s not forget those amazing frozen Margaritas! Hmmmmm YUM.

You know what I really don’t regret all the food and alcohol I consumed it was all worth it .  Life is too short to be perfect all the time. Life is about living and enjoying those special days with the people that we love.  You only live once so you have to make it count in the end.

Hope you all are doing the same, go out and live a little. (:

Surving the festive Season..

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Well hello there everyone, it has been a while since my last confession. In fact it has been 2 weeks!! Oops, but hey who can blame me, IVE BEEN ON “HOLIDAY” well to start off this festive season has been the best yet. I ate as much as I wanted on Christmas and Boxing Day. I ate and drank until I couldn’t anymore on New Year’s.  It was brilliant.

I told myself that I could eat as much as I wanted on this days as long as I stuck to my diet the rest of the time. To be honest I wasn’t perfect. I still indulged in a few cheeky meals in-between. It’s hard not to when family come to visit or take you to a sushi restaurant.

I am pleased to announce that somehow, even though I wasn’t perfect I’ve still managed to drop a 1 KG this festive session. YAY for Dom (: (: (: (:

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS: 6.4 kgs

I must admit that I do have a secret weapon, I waitressed quiet abit over the last 2 weeks. Would means I was burning off quiet abit of calories. So I guess that made up for any over eating.

Since it is a new Years (which means some new year’s Resolutions)

So here are mine:

  1. Book flights to go backpacking in Thailand.
  2. Pass all 9 of my Varsity subjects
  3. Get down to my goal weight by David’s birthday (22nd July) and there after increase my lean muscle mass till I’m happy. Then focus on maintenance
  4. Keep on seeing Steve
  5. See my Best friend Monique – even though she is in New Zealand, where there is a will there is a way.
  6. Decided what I want to do with my life.
  7. Increase my dress collection from 37 – 50 dress (basically buy myself a new dress once a month.
  8. STOP BITING NAILS
  9. Turn my flat from a mess into a home.
  10. Spend more time outside.
  11. Give up on the binge.
  12. Live a little more while spending a lot less
  13. Make more time for family.
  14. Tell my mom I love her everyday

So next year when its 2013, I’m going to look back on this and be like wow! I did all that!!!

I’m hoping Anyway (:

Tips for fat free cooking and eating:

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Use tomatoes puree: this is an essential item in my shopping list, you tomatoes puree is very very low in calories. It is amazing with mince, chicken curry and veggies.  Tonight I plan to make an amazing veggie bake. Look out for recipe tomorrow. (:

It’s all in the spice: I am a curry addict. Seriously, I have a problem. I eat hot sauce with every meal, so for me I tend to eat mince curry for lunch and chicken curry for dinner. Now spices are generally considered as ‘free’ but look out for curry powder that contains yeast and added sugar. Stay away from curry paste as it contains quiet a lot of oil and preservatives.

Olive oil isn’t that good for you: a lot of people assume that olive oil is good to cook with, but as a matter of fact when you heat olive oil you change it, it turns from a good fat to a bad fat, so add olive oil after to your food. YUM

No stick is best: invest in a really nice non-stick pan this way cooking will be way easier and so will the clean up.

Keep veggies crisp: this is one that I tend not to follow, for me there is nothing better than mushy veggies, but the thing is when you over cook veggies they tend to lose a lot of nutrients, so rather keep them crispy.

Keep it lean: when it comes to meat always keep it lean or extra lean. Meat contains saturated fats which is one of the fats you need to keep on the low side. So rather look out for lean meats. When it comes to chicken , always go for skin-less chicken breast or buy chicken breasts with the skin on and just remove the skin when you cook it.

Learn to love the simple things: The thing with fat free cooking is that it can be somewhat bland. But don’t disappear. You will learn to love these foods. They really aren’t that bad. Your taste buds will adapt and soon you won’t want to eat oily foods or sugar stuff. Just give it a little time.

When in doubt leave it out: this is a really good rule to live by, the problem with going to a restaurant or to friends houses is you tend to be confronted lot of temptation. The thing to remember is to eat things that you know what they are. Stay away from pastas, pizzas, burgers, wraps, smoothies and cocktails. Rather go for things that you know what they contain. Like a chicken or tuna salad. But always remember to ask for grilled chicken and salad dressing on the side. If you are at a friend’s house and they only have burgers then don’t eat the burger. Because really it’s your own fault for not being prepared. You know better. And if it is a truly desperate situation, I’m sure there must be something else you can eat in the fridge. Or just take a trip to the shop. There is no excuse for bad eating.

Mom is not the word: never trust your mom to prepare your food for you. It’s simply your mommy loves you but sometimes they can be abit clue-less when it comes to your diet. So either you prepare your food yourself or give your mom strict instructions on how you want your food prepared. Always remember that just because you are on diet doesn’t mean everyone else has to be on it too, So stick to things everyone enjoys like Roast chicken is normally a safe bet. Just remember to stick to the breast and do not eat the skin.

10 ways to stay on diet

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For me losing weight is the easy part, when the kgs drop they drop quickly, then it suddenly stops and I lose motivation. Or I start to feel so good about the fact I’m losing weight I lose focus on my diet.

So I’ve come with ways I’m hoping to keep the motivation going.

1.       The scale isn’t always right – this is a really problem with dieters, we all tend to jump on that scale and if it’s up we are sad, it is down we are happy. But what we don’t realise is the scale isn’t ALWAYS RIGHT.  Our weight fluctuates all the time depending on water retention and hormones.

2.      Muscle weighs more than fat – The best measure of weight lose is your body fat percentage and centimetres.  If you do a lot of training you will pick up muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. It really is that simple. If you don’t have a way to measure you body fat percentage then measure yourself every week or 2 weeks with a tape measure and that is where you really see the results.

3.       You don’t deserve all that chocolate –  The truth of the matter is once in a while sure eat a chocolate, but don’t make it into a habit,  and when you do have that chocolate have and really enjoy it. Once that chocolate is done its time to move on with your diet.

4.       Learn your triggers – Being on diet means you are depriving yourself of most of your favourite things and unfortunately these things became triggers.  They become the binge trigger.  It’s a terrible thing, having a binge is terribly depressing and destructive. So learn what your triggers are and stay away from them.

 5.       Change our environment – for me this is a biggie, I work  on weekends as a waitress and  they always have the most amazing staff meals where I work, even more amazing when they are served at 11pm and you are starving hungry. So now what I do is I tell them not to make me a staff meal anymore, thus I don’t even have the option to eat it. So the truth of the story is change the way you do things and stay away from those environments that lead to over eating.

 6.       Preparation is everything – the biggest excuse for breaking of diets is: BUT there wasn’t anything else for me to eat. Such utter crap, there is no excuse for eating badly; the trick is to always be prepared. Last night when I got home I made my dinner and lunch in one go so right now in my bag I have lunch, a snack, and some protein shake. So I don’t have to worry about trying to find something for lunch I already have it.

7.       Be prepared for a cheat day – at some point or another you will have to cheat on your diet, it might be your birthday or Christmas.  So work hard the week before, but in a few extra gym sessions and then go enjoy these days, eat drink and be merry. But the next day get back on it and don’t feel guilty!!

8.        Set goals and rewards - it’s simple if you do well you deserve a treat, NOT FOOD but something else.  I must for me it’s always a new dress. There is nothing better than a new dress in my perception. Another good reward is stuff that actually helps you lose weight like an exercise machine or a few sessions with a personal trainer. These things can be pricey so if you are not dedicated it is a waste of money. So rather use it as a reward because then you know you have put the work in to begin with.

9.       Keep a food diary or a cheat list – I used to keep a food diary but I found it pretty tedious most of the time, but when I start cheating I start writing. So I keep a food diary to keep me on track when I feel my motivation dipping. I have started a cheat list though, so every time a have a little slip up I write it down. Those I am acknowledging it and I can move forward.

10.   See a specialist – this is perhaps the easiest way to stay on diet. I am referring to going to see Dietitian, nutritionist or a personal trainer. I really feel that if you want results quickly and steadily these people can really be of help. They can measure your body fat percentage, give you a diet to suit you and motivate you to carry on going. If money is an issue that find a dieting partner to keep you motivated.

So there are some tips to help you along the way!

 

 

 

Weigh-day everyday

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Like most dieters I tend to weigh myself once a week,  I’ve always been that way and it is the way recommended by most of the doctors/ dietitians I have been to. I still do feel that it is a good idea to only weigh you once a week.  But I’m thinking maybe that because it’s always been that that way, I don’t know any different and I’ve never done any different.

so…  for the sake of science and experimentation I will be for the next 5 weeks weighing myself at least 5 days a week. I always said I was willing to try anything so I’m going to try this approach. I will also be graphing it on a pretty little graph every time I weigh myself, just to keep track of everything.

This really is an experiment to see the fluctuations weight goes through.  Is it really true that water retention and hormones play a huge part in weight? When I have a fat day am I really just retaining water? There are lots of questions I’m hoping this will answer

I am however pretty worried actually, I’m scared that doing this is going to have a huge impact on my moods. I am one of those people that my happiness depends on the number that that scale takes.

On the positive side, maybe by seeing that number everyday it will remind me of my goals and why I am doing this. Only time will tell. (:

Here is the first successful weigh day everyday achievement. I weighed myself this morning and I’m 2. 1 kgs down from yesterday!!!

So.. I am thinking that yesterday I was retaining alot of water, from all the drinking and eating, now that I’ve back on diet my body is getting rid of all that excess water. That’s the theory I’m sticking with.

HIS BRINGS MY TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS TO:

5.1kgs (11.2 pounds)

I’m pretty impressive actually; in fact I’m super stoked. It has given me the motivation to continue and strive to get to my goals.

Yay for Dom!

oh and i still haven’t had coke zero… its easier to say no (:

Life really is too short to be hungry all the time

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So I’ve been abit absent of late, I’ve been going through that patch where you really don’t give a shit about anything. Been feeling like all I want is to be normal and have fun and not worry about anything.

And you know what I’ve really had fun; I’ve been eating pizza, drinking beer and doing some serious drunken munching (the best kind). Basically I’ve been having far too much fun for my own good.  It’s been almost two weeks that I really have not taken this whole diet seriously.

But hey, that’s life right, I’m not going to feel bad about it or worry about it continually it has happened and the only way to move is forward. Its only 38days till Christmas and I really want to look extra amazing for Christmas. I mean it’s the time of year when all the family get together and I want to look just as good as before. I mean I’m feeling pretty fantastic about myself at the moment.

I’m not obsessed with this whole diet business. I do still want the changes I set out to achieve but I am not willing to change my lifestyle to get there.

Life really is too short to be hungry all the time.

So yesterday I decided to stick to my plan, a new diet with no preservatives. Yesterday was a bit of a challenge. All I wanted to drink was coke zero. Especially in the evening while I was watching TV. It was actually pretty much torture (I’m not being dramatic). It’s pretty scary actually; No matter how much water I drank I still craved coke zero. Makes me think what’s actually in that stuff that makes me want to drink it.

Yikes.

I’m still going to try finding some alternatives to coke zero, think some homemade ice teas would be a good idea..

But yes yesterday was the start of a whole new adventure. So to make the beginning of something new I decided to jump on the scale. I did it this morning in fact. Ok so I’m 1.5 kgs up, But really…. considering all the shit I’m been putting in my face that really isn’t bad.

I don’t even feel guilty about it. I’m seeing it as the past and I’ve got a whole future to get to where I want to be.

Last Christmas… i will get there again soon (:

Saying no to sushi!

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Ok so I don’t know why people have this perception that sushi is healthy, but if you really think about it sushi really isn’t that good for you at all, I mean really?? Sushi rice is rice, plain and simple; to make it worst there is loads of sugar added to this rice to make it stick together.

If you are a person who can have a few pieces of sushi and be satisfied with that then go for it. It isn’t that bad then. But for me sushi is a gate way to more and more sushi. I can’t just have 6 pieces and be done with it, I need more. I want more and I expect more than that.

People say, oh why don’t you just eat sashimi… REALLY!! For me the whole point of sushi is Japanese mayo and sticky rice. Not the raw fish part. In fact I stay clear of the raw fish part, it’s a little gross to me.

Take a look at the calorie contact of sushi per roll ( 6 -8 pieces)

Avocado Roll
140 calories / Fat: 5.7g / Carbs: 28g / Protein: 2g

California Roll

255 calories / Fat: 7g / Carbs: 38g / Protein: 9g

Cucumber Roll
145 calories / Fat: 0g / Carbs: 30g / Protein: 6g

Spicy Tuna Roll
290 calories / Fat: 11g / Carbs: 26g / Protein: 24g

Shrimp Tempura Roll
508 calories / Fat: 21g / Carbs: 64g / Protein: 20g

Salmon & Avocado Roll
304 calories / Fat: 8.7 / Carbs: 42g / Protein: 13g

Taken from: http://lena-m.hubpages.com/hub/Calories-in-Sushi

So as you can see it isn’t that bad, but these are all the lower fat variety, not the fashion sandwiches or salmon roses, these are the best type in my book so its still something that I stay away from because I simply just cant get enough of it.

The reason why I’m having a little moment is today at work is SUSHI –FRIDAY… I mean seriously everyone ordered sushi except me today. I mean take a look at all this sushi!!!

thanks to rose for the photo

And I must say I’m pretty proud of myself. Instead I had a healthy chicken and Thai noodle dish that I made for myself. I did however steal a salmon rose from one of the girls at work.. Let’s just say it was actually far from impressive. So I’m so glad I didn’t give into the temptation to order. My lunch was actually way more enjoyable (:

Heres to a healthy weekend (: