Thursday, July 3, 2014

Cheat Day

I put too much salt in last night's soup so I threw it away. Almost tasted like broccoli soup simmered in sea salt water. That's unfortunate.

Breakfast: strawberry banana coco cream, almond milk with cocoa powder
Lunch: 1/2 burrito bowl chipotle with chicken, brown rice, corn, salsa, sour cream, chips, guacamole
Dinner: Probably same as above (minus the chips)

It's only been day 3 and I cheated already.

Thoughts:
Plan meals better. Be patient. It takes time for flavors to settle before I put another dash of salt. Eat a better breakfast. I've been doing liquid breakfast and it makes me hungry way before lunch time. I need to get back to eggs in the morning as I felt more energetic with that kind of breakfast.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

The beginning of a diet log

It's funny how seven years ago, I only used this blog to post one log, with a simple ^_^ smiley face. I'm not sure why; I can't recall. Seven years ago, I was 20 - jobless, student, home buddy, Naruto lover, Floridian. Now I have a degree, an engineering job, financially independent and Californian. And I still read Naruto manga. LOL Indeed I have come a long way.

While I can blab my way through talking about my personal life, the ups and downs of my job, how a lot of my friends are getting engaged/married/having babies (and complain or rejoice about how I'm not at that stage yet), daily routine, etc. I'd rather use this space for logging in food intake, as I try to do the...

Paleo Diet. haha

Last year, in late April, I finally decided to join a box and try Crossfit. I chose Crossfit 858 due to proximity to work and home, and the 5 star rating at Yelp. Everyone who went to that box was happy about the workouts and more importantly, the instructors were experienced and very particular with technique (less likely to get injured... hooray!). Although I'm last in class most times (-_-), I have improved in all aspects. I don't pause and walk a little bit about halfway through a 400m run. I can now front squat 100lbs compared to 25lbs a year ago, deadlift 165lbs from 35, jerk 85lbs from not being able to jerk bare 25lb bar, stringing 100 singles with ease from struggling to do 20 continuously, etc. There's no dispute, while the numbers are not the greatest, come on, you have to consider where I came from. I was a bigger wimpo then. Now, not so much. The numbers were incredibly low over a year ago due to my dormant lifestyle in my teens!

Physique wise, yes there were a few changes. Bigger thighs, bigger butt, bigger arms... I now have TRAPS! All these are good and satisfying changes. But my main goal is a leaner tummy and the absence of the muffin top. While I do have two lines or shadows if you will, one on each side, the middle part is still soft and not lean. It's not something that I like at all. But when my idol, Jackie Perez, posted on her IG a tbt photo from four years ago, I had a revelation. She was not as ripped as she is now and even had a little bit of a muffin top in those shorts. The main difference she says is... THE FOOD SHE EATS. She explains she did max efforts but the results didn't show. She is what she is now because of hard work and discipline with food.

Coming full circle... I want to write about my attempt at the Paleo diet. I will give try my best to adhere to its rules. Good bye rice, pasta, etc. I bid you farewell for the month of July, except for the occasional cheat where I'm-too-tired-to-cook-or-I-have-no-leftover day. I will try to keep these days at a minimum and will try to log my meals, recipe successes and mishaps, daily.

I started yesterday. So here we go.

July 1.
Breakfast: strawberry, frozen banana, coco cream, blitzed in food processor
Lunch: sinigang (vegetables, tilapia, in tamarind broth)
Dinner: sauteed mushrooms, butter chicken with coco cream

Today.
Breakfast: banana (horrible. I need to eat more but I was in a hurry, had to be at work by 8am)
Lunch: sauteed mushrooms and chicken leftover, eggplant
Dinner: Tried nomnom paleo's broccoli soup. It was bland at first but ended up putting too much salt to compensate for lack of flavor. It would have been fine with less. Mishap #1! Seems like I have to dilute soup with water for acceptable sodium level.

Last two days, I couldn't lay my hands off the coffee creamer for my free coffee at work.. I do know this is not good for me as the first ingredient says corn syrup solids.. I'm in dire need for a substitute. Help!

As a final note before signing off today, here is butter chicken. Not the most flattering picture but I can improve. It was a success at least, flavor wise. :) Will resume workouts next week as I'm recovering from a cold. I wouldn't want to spread germs at the box. Not cool.