I'm back :P

So yeah, I got off track.
Didn't derail per se, but I stopped caring so much about the diet... But I actually miss the happiness of seeing results and being able to commit, so I'm back!

I'm 100% back on MFP, logging everything I eat. It's more difficult this time around because I've really taken to eating more natural food, so that means I have to weigh each individual ingredient... I often do forget to do that.

I've been taking lunch to work on most days, getting comments on how

• yummy
• weird
• unusual
• exotic
• creative
• healthy

my food is. I've found that if it doesn't make me save money it at least stops me from going to the convenience store so often, and I avoid the temptations :)

I've also started walking almost every evening, about 30 to 50 minutes a night on a 60-65% heart rate, hopefully that'll help the weight loss. Next week I hit the gym again, but I am thinking of calling it quits there, I've found that outdoor exercise is more fun and I can adapt it to my schedule!

I actually don't have a goal weight at the moment. Of course the nice 60kg number is still in my head, but I'm just looking to be healthier and hotter!!!

It's been almost a year since I started, and although my lowest weight was back in April, I feel I've come a long way and acquired so much more knowledge and respect for my body as a life tool.

Anyway, let's see how it goes!

Moza... Ehla!

In my last post, I mentioned I had some mint leaves growing... I also grow basil. That stuff grows out of control!!!

I actually don't eat enough of it to be honest, at least I don't seem to be able to eat it at the rate it grows. It also dawned on me that I'm growing herbs on my balcony in Tokyo... And there was a nuclear accident in the north of the country. I was getting myself worked up over it, if my herbs were healthy for consumption that is, but considering most of our vegetables come from Japan, we're f*cked anyway, and there seems to be no problem with the stuff that's pretty far away from the plant, but we can't really know for sure... Even last week there was a man selling really cheap peaches outside the train station (300yen for 5 big ones, I usually buy 3 small peaches for that price), and I wanted to buy them but then I didn't know where they were from and if they were from an area close to Fukushima, he probably wouldn't tell me anyway, so I didn't even stop to check them out properly. I digress...

So in an attempt to use my "home-grown" herbs, I ruffled up this as a late evening snack:

Tomato
Fresh mozzarella
Basil
pepper and salt

Loves it!!!! The BF also loves it, so I only get to eat half of it. I know I keep on going on about it, but good (western) food is such a ripoff in Japan... When I was in university I'd eat fresh cheese all the time, here it's a weekly thing because 100grams of that cheese costs 300yen (about 4USD).

On another basil note, a few weeks ago I  made some pesto using LOADS of basil, some mozzarella cheese, natural yoghurt, olive oil, garlic and a bit more seasoning. It was good but the garlic was a bit of overkill, as were the calories from the pasta. I'll try it again soon, but I'll try to substitute the pasta for something else, I wonder if the Shirataki (angel noodles) will do.

Strawberry Mint

As the weather (humidity!!!) goes up, my energy levels go down...

In Japan we have to save energy now, because most of the nuclear reactors are turned off... So the AC isn't used as much as it could be.

Anyway, I've been growing mint on my balcony (and some other stuff), let's face it, I started growing it for the Mojitos. Fresh mint is difficult to find and terribly expensive. Anyway, I haven't had a mojito in over a month now, so the mint plant is kind of becoming a small shrub! I started thinking of how I could use it, besides for mint tea.

Solution?

I got some frozen strawberries, non fat natural yoghurt, and a few mint leaves and... Voilá!

I also added some powdered collagen, just to get a boost for my skin and stuff.

Do you want it bad enough?

Like all of us, I sometimes lose motivation and seem to forget what I'm working for...

This always motivates me:

<iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lsSC2vx7zFQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Snack it

So last weekend was a long one :D

Saturday was one of those days when... Well you know, you crawl out of bed at 11. (Actually it was 2pm but I'm kinda embarrassed to say it).

I had my all bran breakfast and cleaned the house a bit. At around 16:30 and after seeing my boyfriend go through two (2!!!) packs of potato chips while he played the PS, I was getting a bit hungry. The problem was I was getting one of those sweet attack moments, you know?

My solution?

One apple
+-13 grams of walnuts
one teaspoon of raw organic honey
Mix and enjoy :D

Yummy!!!

Mix and enjoy :D

The dress that doesn't fit

That epic moment when you buy a gorgeous dress online and it fits your waist and hips but doesn't fit you around the breast area!

Fortunately/Unfortunately I never lose too much in this area, and being top heavy is not something I am happy about. Must be weird for women who don't have big boobs, but I tell you know, having to carry this shit around is not all it's cracked up to be.

Anyway, maybe if I lose 10lbs or so it might actually fit. Let's wait and see!

In the Summer time...

I'm still alive and definitely kicking ;D

Weight wise no changes (not gaining is good, but not losing isn't in line with my goals!), but since May work piled up... Luckily now we are officially in Summer mode :D That means less work and really icky hot & humid weather. Yuck!

Anyway, now that I'm able to get back home at a decent time, I've been taking better care of my food choices and preparing the next day a whole lot better. I was eating veggie omelets for breakfast everyday until the beginning of June and when I went for my check-up, I was told I have high cholesterol... I was a bit miffed to be honest, I generally eat healthy food and I sure as hell eat better than pretty much everyone else around me, so I was pissed to have 282, which is really, REALLY high. So since then I've cut back on the loaded breakkies, which is sad because I did find that a nice big breakfast kept me going until lunch without the stomach rumblings... Which have returned since I left my omelets :(

So now I've had to reorganize my whole food intake, and I've made a few changes, notable in the breakfast department. Now I eat this everyday:

I'm not happy about the sugar content... Does anyone know of a high fiber breakfast that has no added sugar?!

I'm not taking the challenge or whatever, I just thought I'd give it a go for a while. It's really expensive in Japan though! OMG! First they sell it in packs of 235grams (WTF?!) and then it costs about 300 yen (Almost 4 USD). So now my breakfasts consist of 40grams of this, 200ml of 0.1% fat milk which adds up to around 200kcal. I also eat a piece of fruit (apple, banana, orange, kiwi) and if I feel like it I might add a small dose of crappy carbs like a toast of a cracotte. That keeps me going until 1pm, but to be honest I do feel hungry around 11.30... I'll give my body a bit longer to adapt to the new breakfast, or I was thinking of eating the crappy carb later in the morning, but because of my braces it's a pain to remove them for mini snacks and for a 10minute break.

I'm pretty much settling down to my new routine now, I went to Zumba on Wednesday (Yayay!) and I even took a co-worker with me for her to see what I was always rambling about. On Thursday I went to the pool but only stayed for 40 minutes... I'm going to look into doing different exercises instead of just sticking my zumba and running.

Getting In Line

I've been absent, but I'm not off the diet wagon.

I went on vacation to one of those gorgeous places you see in magazines, and it was EPIC! So was the weight gain. Then I came back and got overloaded with work, which seems to be the theme for the next few weeks.

But the real news is... Wait for it... I GOT MY BRACES!

So these are my new invisalign braces.

As you can see I have a colossal gaps between my teeth, and hopefully in 50 weeks I'll be able to smile and be proud :) I'll add a counter somewhere, cuz I'm really looking forward to having a better smile!

Hopefully this will also help with my diet, because I have to take them off before eating, and it's a bit of a pain in that place. No more snacking for me :D

Anyway, I have loads of cool stuff to post about, so I'll be a good blogger from now on, promise!

Salad

I have no idea what the calorie count, all I know is... It's effing good. I eat this type of salad several times a week.

What's in it?

• lettuce
• carrot
• tomato
• sweetcorn
• cucumber
• red peppers
• fresh parsley

For the dressing I crush a garlic clove, add extra virgin olive oil, cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar and salt.

Forget love - I'd rather fall in chocolate!

So you know sometimes you feel the need... The need for creamy hot chocolate?

I do. Now while on an "ideal diet" you'd never have this, I'm not on a diet, I'm in a lifestyle change. So yeah, sometimes I get to eat stuff that I shouldn't.

Low fat milk: 225ml 92 calories

Chocolate powder: 8.5gr 34 calories

Mini Marshmallows: (based on weight) 25 calories

Total: 151calories of yummy

Actually, this is just a "cheap" version of something I really, really love...

But calorie wise I'm not sure if it's better. These come in individual packs with mini marshmallows... They have 121 calories and A LOT of sugar. But you can just add water and they are still good (add milk and it's better, add milk and crea... I digress)

I prefer my version because I can increase or decrease the caloric value as I see fit or to be within a daily limit (add water instead of milk, or 50/50), I can add less cocoa, no marshmallows. That and it's cheaper. Either way, it's a good way to end the day when you've got a few calories to spend and feel like a semi-guilty snack.

Fish Sausage?!

As I am sure many will know, eating on the run is one of the main challenges of any diet.

Go to any convenience store and you'll find plenty of sandwiches, cookies, chocolates, crisps and other things that I SHOULD AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!

In fact, if you haven't prepared your food for the day, it's difficult to make good choices.

That's why I'm always on the lookout for healthy snacks that are low in carbs, calories and sugar.

I'd seen these around before...

おさかなソーセージ (Fish Sausage)

A FISH SAUSAGE?! I was reluctant to buy these for a long time, I mean... URGH!

This week they were on sale, and I thought... Alright then, let's go.

Guess what? It's actually good! Very eatable! And after researching about them, I've found that they are egg free, high in Calcium, have no conservatives or colouring AND they can be stored at room temperature. I'm a fan

1 Sausage/75grams

• Energy: 129kcal
• Carbs: 10.3gr
• Protein: 6.7gr
• Fat: 6.8gr

Already added to MFP!

Romanesco broccoli

I was coming home the other day and I noticed the weirdest thing in the veggie shop...

It was so weird, I actually tool a picture!

Anyway, I took note of the Japanese name (ロマネスコ) and later googled it, to figure out what it was, if was eatable and if I could use in my diet :D

I discovered it's actually not that uncommon, it's called Romanesco broccoli and wikipedia filled me in on the rest.
Unfortunately for me though, the next day it wasn't there...

15% weight loss achieved!

So it's been a long time coming and... FINALLY I've reached my 15% weight loss.

Without any further ado, I present you the 15% progress shots

Endulge in a Bounty by Atkins?!

After last week's post, I thought I'd do the same thing with the other Atkins Endulge bars I bought.
THEY ARE ALSO OMFG DELICIOUS. In fact, I prefer these... :) Not least because they are bigger, but because I find that these are similar to the original they are imitating (Bounty much?).

But I wonder if the contents and ingredients does justice to the hype and price...

So once again, I've decided to do a comparison between the Atkins version and the real Bounty.

This time I'm so sure about the data, the Mars website doesn't have nutritional info on it's chocolate... WTF?


                                    Atkins 40 grams            Bounty 34 grams           So Atkins...

Calories                            170Kcal                        189.5Kcal                  -19.5Kcal
  Calories from fat             110Kcal                          82Kcal                      +28Kcal
     Total fat                          12g                                  9.1g                       +2.9Kcal
     Saturated fat                   10g                                    7g                           +3grams
Cholesterol                          0mg                                3.5mg                        -3.5mg
Sodium                               65mg                              38.6mg                      +26.4mg
Total Carbohydrate             19g                                 25.3g                          -6.3g
   Dietary Fiber                     9g                                   1.4g                          +7.6g
   Sugars                                1g                                19.6g                          -18.6g
Protein                                  5g                                  1.4g                           +3.6g

So, what do you think?

Endulge in a Snickers by Atkins?!

I bought these over a month ago, along with another version.
THEY ARE OMFG DELICIOUS.

Having said that, are they diet material?

I've decided to do a comparison between the Atkins version and the real Snickers, because basically this is a Snickers knock off.

In the interest of fairness, I've actually done the math so that one serving of Atkins (34grams) had the same weight as the Snickers. So I used data from the Snickers 2 to go, 47grams 2 servings. Of course it's still not perfect, because of the chocolate covering and blablabla...


                                    Atkins 34 grams            Snickers 34 grams           So Atkins...

Calories                            130Kcal                        159.2Kcal                  -29.2Kcal
  Calories from fat              80Kcal                          72Kcal                        -8Kcal
     Total fat                           8g                                  8g                              same
     Saturated fat                    4g                                  2.6g                      +1.4grams
Cholesterol                        <5mg                                3.6mg                    negligible
Sodium                               70mg                              83.2mg                       -6.8mg
Total Carbohydrate             17g                                 20.3g                          -3.3g
   Dietary Fiber                     6g                                   0.5g                          +5.5g
   Sugars                                1g                                16.6g                          -15.6g
Protein                                  5g                                  2.9g                           +2.1g

So, what do you think?
Is it worth it? Should we just avoid chocolate all together? These snacks aren't on the cheap side...

Yummy Skewers

Here's something we love to eat at home:

Skewers with onion, chicken breast, spring onion, pumpkin and garlic. I don't add any seasoning.

 I'm not sure about the calorie count, but It should be little more than the chicken, all the other things are very low calorie.

This with some tasty salad makes for a yummy dinner :) I also take it to work in my lunch box, but I remove the food from the skewers first!

My dinners and I...

I actually don't follow recipes in the kitchen, I just throw whatever I have into the pan and voilá!

Since I've started my diet my dinners are rather routine and boring. It's basically pretty much always the same thing: I'll each vegetables (sometimes with meat/fish) and usually a salad.

Now my vegetable mix is far from rocket science, it's just a "vegetable mix".

It became an issue when some colleagues asked me what I put into my "veggie mix" and I really didn't remember...

This was still cooking, but it's... Onion, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt, spring onion, tomato, celery, eggplant, green beans,  asparagus, konnyaku, carrot, parsely and soy sprouts. Later I add herbs.

Some people have commented that it's too expensive to buy some of these veggies, which might be true depending on several issues, such as food budget, where you live, where you buy them from, how many people you are feeding, how much you eat... But I don't find it too bad. I do however understand the financial issue, in fact the main reason I stopped juicing fruit was because it was too expensive.