猪杂面线 at Zion Riverside Food Centre

I had a session of yoga today at Affinity Yoga at the branch at River Valley. Awesome place to do yoga but as usual, I am struggling with a lot of the poses due to my inflexibility. But I believe that I am getting more and more flexible as time passes. Yoga really helps to improve my flexibility, strengthen and lengthen your muscles. For girls that love the look of long legs, go try yoga. 

After yoga, I went to Zion Riverside Food Centre for my lunch. I was very surprised that the food centre is not full as there are a lot of good food in this place. 

 

This particular store #13 that sells pig organs soup caught my eye because I have not found another stall that can compete with the one in Ghim Moh Food Centre so I tried their Pig Organ Mee Sua. 

The broth is good but I think is loaded with a tad bit too much of MSG. The pig liver is very nicely cook. Usually, I do not like the taste of pig liver but this pig liver is cooked so well such that is not too powdery or not too rubbery. The rest of the ingredients are very good as well but I find that the mee sua is cooked for a bit too long. 

All in all, I still think the pig organ soup in Ghim Moh Food Centre is better but I will definitely come to Zion Riverside Food Centre to try the other stalls like the chicken rice store and the char kuay teow. 

One thing I am happy today:

YOGA!

lserl

Day 18: Eating Raw

Looking at my lunch today which is duck rice suddenly made me think that my food looks terrible. It is just a bunch of brownish-looking food that does not look appetizing at all. Not only does it look unappetizing, it is also not healthy. I am eating this because this is what was leftover from yesterday's dinner which is also duck rice and I will be eating it again tonight as duck noodle. This made me thought that I should probably start eating raw. 

Eating raw means eating food that are not processed or cooked under very high temperatures because these 2 kinds of processing causes the food to degrade and not have the nutrients that they should originally have. Of course, I am not asking you to eat meats raw because eating raw usually refers to eating fruits and vegetables. These colorful foods will instantly light up your day and probably you will feel satisfied because these food have a large volume but have lesser amount of calories which mean that you can actually eat more of it. 

One other good reason to start eating raw is it will help you to detox and to get rid of any unwanted items in your system. This is because eating raw is easier on our digestive system, it allows our digestive system concentrate on the "dirty" things in our tract and removing them. You will probably feel lighter after the detox. Probably I should start on a 1 week detox and see if it works. Do any of you have an idea on what to do for a detox session? Please share if you do have. 

That's all!

Bye!

|ser|

Day 13: Does Mom's Cooking Makes You Fat?

This is what my dinner for today look like. Sorry for not uploading the actual photo because the picture just do not want to upload onto the internet. Today I had the super sinful but super tasty nasi lemak that my mom cooked. I bet some of us will have this problem when dieting especially when mom cooks because it is not nice to reject the food that your mom cooks. Judging by my mom, I assume that everyone's mom will be like 多吃 多吃 (eat more) every time she cooks. How to diet like this? This is especially so for me since I will eat my mom's dinner almost every night since she is a housewife. This is where I have to think of ways to reduce my calories using creative ways. 

1. Reduce rice intake. For some nights, I do not eat rice at all and of course, mom will nag. But since there are so much other dishes, you will definitely be full with just the dishes.
2. Psycho your mom. Educate or nag your mom and say some things are not so healthy so must eat less. In this way, not only it can help your dieting, it can keep your family healthy too.
3. Ask mom for dinner menu and adjust your calorie intake in the morning. If you know that you are going to have a big meal in the evening, reduce your calorie intake by taking in more vegetables and fruits to have the "full" feeling to last you throughout the day. DO NOT skip meals. Skipping meals will cost you to go to starvation mode and thus metabolism will be reduced. So DO NOT skip meals. 
4. Cook for the family. Since you are cooking, you can control the ingredients that are going to be in the food. And therefore, you can make the meals healthier. 

Such a sinful dinner tonight. I better do some exercises now.

Bye!

|ser|

Day 12: Food Diary

Source

Do you have a food diary? I just started mine about a few days ago and have been very religious in updating it. The point of having a food diary is to keep track of what you have been eating daily so that you will not overeat and have a well-balanced diet. I used to have a food diary but once I stopped using it, I started to eat without thinking and this is why I am going back to having a new food diary at My Fitness Pal. Make sure your food diary shows you the amount of calories, carbohydrates, sugars, protein, fats, salt and calcium that you have consumed. These few parameters are the basic requirements that your body needs. Other requirements such as vitamins and minerals should be provided for if your meals are rich in vegetables and fruits. 

Some points to take note to have a good food diary:

1. Be religious to your food diary.
   Make sure to update it EVERYDAY. In that way, you will be able to keep track of your meals and make sure you do not step over the allowed intake everyday.
2. Be truthful to your food diary.
   What purpose is the food diary if you are not truthful to it? Do not lie to your food diary and if you have eaten something sinful, write it in so that you will take note of it and not eat so much of it in the future. 
3. It is okay to exceed the required amount.
   Lets' say that you have exceeded the calorie amount for today. It is okay for you to do that. Do not fret too much about it. Read into your food diary and find out the reason and work on it. It may be because the day require too much of your own physical energy and therefore you consume more food. Do not stress too much when you exceeded your calorie intake. 
4. Do not starve yourself for one day and think it will be okay for you to indulge the next day.
   If you starve yourself, your body goes into the starvation mode in which the metabolism slows down. When food comes into the body, the body will store these food as fats so as to prepare the body for another starvation period. 
5. Find a buddy to do this together with you.
   By finding somebody to track your diet together with you, you will have someone who keep you on schedule and to nag you regarding your diet. It will of course be more fun to have someone to go through the diet journey with you. 

Go and create your own food diary. Enjoy!

Bye!

|ser|

Day 11: Snacking

HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL HINDIS!

On a side note, today's topic is on snacking which is especially prevalent during festivals and I am guilty to mindless snacking like many other people but I am trying hard to curb this habit and make it a healthy one instead. 

One of the few main reasons of snacking is because of stress. Some people tend to eat more when they are stress to make themselves feel better but in fact, it is making themselves worst in the long run. Luckily, I am the kind that do not eat when stress (which probably is not a good thing either). 

Another reason is what is known as mindless snacking in which I am highly guilty of. This means that you are eating for no reason whatsoever. You are actually not hungry, not craving for anything but you just automatically reach out for a snack as if you are programmed to do so. This is probably due to habit. You are probably so used to eating something at a certain time (eg. supper) or when doing a certain thing (eg. watching tv, movies) such that you must have something to snack on. As for me, I tend to snack when I have nothing to do or am doing mindless things like watching dramas. Having nothing to do is another big reason for people to snack because it takes up your time. 

Let see what are the few ways that I deemed to be useful to curb mindless snacking. 

1. Keep yourself occupied and focus.
   By keeping yourself occupied, you are keeping your mind away from any food thoughts. Your mind will be focus on the things you have to complete. Making a to-do-list for work and when you are back home will hopefully keep your mind off food and on the things you want or have to do. 
2. Keep food away from you.
   This is especially so in the office. If your office have a pantry or a food corner or you have a stash of snacks at hand, keep them away from you. By not looking at food, you have even lesser chances of wanting to eat them. This is to make food less convenient for you to reach for it and hopefully to reduce the times that you want to snack. 
3. Get healthy alternatives of snack
   If you really have to snack so as to keep your energy up, get healthy snacks instead of chips and biscuits which are high in fats and refined sugar. Get snacks that can keep your blood sugar level constant and thus will not make you to reach out for more food especially during the afternoon after lunch. 

These are a few snacks that I would like to snack on.

1. Granola without any milk or anything else. (100 grams per serving)
   I love to snack on these crunchy bits of granola which can provide me with fiber, complex carbohydrates and enough energy to last me to the next meal. Granola gives enough satisfaction through the crunch that it have which can be a substitute for people who enjoy crispy chips. 
2. Fruits/vegetables (1 serving of fruit/vegetable)
   Fruits are sweet and can be crunchy or juicy and best of all, it is a snack with few calories and is healthy. A medium size apple is just about 70 calories and a pear is about 80 calories. Why not switch your snack option to fruits and vegetables and you can get the satisfaction and also the vitamins and minerals in it. 
3. Baked tortilla chips with cottage cheese dipping (1 sliced of tortilla with 30 grams cottage cheese)
   If you are the kind that enjoys salty food, you will like this snack option. Bake your own tortilla chips using fresh corn or any wholewheat tortilla with a drizzle of olive oil and some spices (optional). If you require any dipping, use cottage cheese dipping instead of any other processed cheese as it is healthier and contains lesser amount of calories and fats. 

Hope you enjoy your version of healthy snacks and do not go back on mindless snacking.

Bye!

|ser|

Day 8: Convenience

I know I said in my previous post that I am going for interval training today but I only ran for 30 minutes due to my flu. I will probably update it tomorrow.

Source

Convenience can kill! I saw a colleague of mine going into the pantry to the vending machine to get a can of Coca Cola Zero and a packet of M&Ms at 3pm on Friday. Is the high accessibility of these "rubbish" food making us fat and unhealthy? 

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel very hungry and there is nothing to eat at home? So your solution is most probably to get some food outside but because of food delivery, you do not have to step out of the house to buy food. Due to this convenience, most of the food you buy from food delivery will be fast food which are very unhealthy. Even if you went out and eat, the food outside will mostly be unhealthy as well. The healthiest food is probably home-cooked food made from unprocessed foods. However, this to many people is not convenient, is not fast enough. Thus, to them, the extra time that gained from buying outside food outweigh the health benefits of home-cooked food. 

So start with cooking your own meal at home with this simple recipe I am showing you below. This meal can be for lunch or dinner and is packed with healthy ingredients. It will also make you feel full for at least 4 hours due to the complex carbohydrates in this meal. And best of all, it is simple and fast. 

Chicken, mushroom and tomato pasta (1 serving)

1 handful of dry Wholewheat Fusilli / Penne pasta

1 Tomato, diced

1/8 Onion, diced

100g minced chicken breast meat (or 1/2 chicken breast mince with food processor)

2 fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/2 tsp oil, preferably olive oil if not any vegetable oil

50ml water/stock

1 tsp tomato paste

Salt & pepper to taste

1. Boil a pot of water and salt it well to cook the pasta as stated on the package. 
2. Saute the onion over hot oil till onion soften. 
3. Add in the minced chicken breast meat and mushroom and cook it till almost done.
4. Add in the tomatoes, tomato paste and water/stock. Let the mixture come up to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. 
5. Taste the sauce for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Mix in the pasta and you are done. 

Hope you have fun cooking your own meal. 

Bye!

|ser|

Day 7: 1 WEEK DOWN!

Is already one week after I have started my 99 Days Plan. And I am suddenly down with sore throat today. Spam water and green tea like crazy for the whole of today. Luckily for me, I am much better now although I am rather lifeless during work today. 

Exercise

My aim of doing 3 hours of exercise per week seems to much for me to handle currently. I am only doing about 1.5 hours this week with 1 session of jogging and 2 sessions of toning exercises. Maybe that is why I am sick now because of lack of exercise. I have not done any interval training but will be aiming to do that tomorrow (if I am well) and perhaps I would share my interval training schedule tomorrow. 

I think I would need to be more motivated and make it a habit to exercise during my free time instead of just lazing around and watching shows which is not productive at all. I am very impressed with people that manage to get their butt out of their house to go exercise after going back from work in the evening. I need to find ways to motivate myself to exercise!

Food

I have not had any fried food and have been drinking green tea every weekday during work. But I did consumed sweets =( I try to reduce my guilt by choosing sugar-free options as I still require a small amount of sweets to keep my hunger pangs at bay during work especially from 3pm onwards. This is because I do not want to get any other things to eat as I want to reduce my calorie intake. I will limit myself to only 1 piece of sweet but I still feel a little guilty of that. I should look out for more healthy but convenient snacks to relieve myself of hunger pangs and to keep my metabolism kicking. 

One thing that I am very happy about is that I manage to cut back eating at night. I started to eat at night after about 9pm on most nights after starting work. This is when I feel that I am starting to get fats accumulating around the tummy. Now that I manage to stop any food intake after 9pm, I actually feel lighter physcially even though my weight did not change. Hopefully, this good habit can last throughout my life.

Bye!
|ser|