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.

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

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!

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!

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...

Christmas

The table...

For Christmas I went to Europe... I wasn't counting on dieting and I was expecting all kinds of havoc to run through my body.

It was nice to be back, and I did eat like a pig (actually, I ate like five pigs rolled up into one big pigzilla) and my weight will of course reflect two weeks of gluttony.