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:

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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.