todays menu was a bit crazy...

no breakfast, since i went straigh to the pool after i woke up.
had one 580 cc of lemon drink = about 200 calories.
lunch: healthy portion of rice and sweet potatoes with boiled green beans, half a piece of pork, and half a piece of salted fish. (at this point i was still planning to maintain my stance of no junk food.)
one apple
then i caved....considering how i was going to start studying, i needed...energy. so biked to the 7-11 and bought a 900 cc green tea and (spur of the moment thing, i swear) one of those yogurt drinks because at the back of the green tea carton they teach you how to make your own yummy drink! duoduo green tea is good.) and i also bought a small pack of *gasp! cheetoes.
dinner: fish and rice with sweet potatoes.
snack of strawberry and chocolate wafer.
the end.
i have to say, im not that guilty anymore about indulging a bit on right-portioned snacks, since talking to an "expert" on health and exercise last night has enlightened me to the fact that i need to increase my workout frequency and time duration ( which i have been doing), and im not eating any more than i used to. so. as long as i keep working it, im bound to lose a bit of weight, right? right.

todays menu
breakfast: mayo spread sandwich (one third spoonful of mayo spread and two pieces of toast)
in between: latte with one pack of sugar
lunch: rice box, 700 cc of oolong tea, half sugar
in between: nothing! oh wait, three bites of dried fish snack. dangit! and it was before the gym too! but it helped, cuz i was getting hungry. hunger during workouts are never good.
dinner: one third soft guava, a bowl of salted green beans (yum!) three pieces of toast with some bits of braised pork, and one small can of black beans and sesame seed congee.
though ive told myself to start quitting tea with lunch, its so hard! its become staple for me. besides, it replenishes the water i lose through out the morning. so. i think i will keep having tea not necessarily everyday, but not rejecting it either. :)

food diary take 4

todays menu
breakfast: a bowl of apple and oatmeal.
lunch: one ricebox and a 700cc lemon green tea.
later on, an afternoon cafe mocha with a bit too much hersheys chocolate. but it was inevitable....
dinner: three small sweet potatoes with fish. twas yum.
the most successful meal here was dinner. not too much, yet very healthy. besides, ill be sleeping in three hours, so not much food is needed. just enough to curb the post swimming hunger. yay!

cutting straight to it...

todays menu...
breakfast: an apple and two bananas
desparately needed the caffiene: hot latte half sugar, then 5 cashew nuts to keep me energized as well. one thing about eating fruit for breakfast is that you get hungry at the most inconvenient time: eleven o clock. this is most annoying as i normally ignore the smie hunger. thenas time drags on to eleven thirty, im starving. so its either i wait painfully till lunch, which time can be tres volatile depending on the amount of customers , or i gobble something yummy but cant resist its yumminess so i take more portions than intended. its a lose-lose situation. i would eat oatmeal and apple for breakfast (it lasts way longer and is way healthier than bread) but it takes too much time to do about.
lunch: vegetables only and one baby portion of spaghetti.4 bites.
couple cashews again before i head to the pool.
dinner: this was a disaster. rice with taiwanese style braised pork (mum put sugar in it too!! no wonder it was irresistible) and alot of veggies. however, the veggies do not offset the rice with pork. sigh. and after swimming i had an apple (doesnt justify anything...)
and now, at 9 pm i am having a 700 cc iced green tea. half sugar.
overall, my menu today was not so satisfactory. trying to keep them non meal foods to the minimum. and even if its for a hunger boost, should be more healthy like...apples. cashew has more oil.
well, tomorrows a new day :D

food diary continues...

today was supposed to be get-off-work-right-on-time day, but alas, i went and stayed till 7: 22pm. but why? cuz i was working on this comic strip to promote our fantabulous EZ Cafe. its really cute! and working on projects that you like is, well, addicting. so managed to at least put them in order and such. (great thanks to lisas bday gift for me, i can now do anything and everything!!) ill post it up if i remember :P
anyways, moving on...to todays menu:
you will slowly realize that i actually eat alot of the same stuff everyday. its boring. oh wells.
breakfast: apple sandwich
in between this period, i had this urge to get a latte. since its so convenient, right?? well, i beat it down, after thinking about all the damage the 150 cc of WHOLE FAT milk can do to me (and this food diary).
lunch: half a rice box and two slices of cheese pizza. i have to explain. the cheese pizza is a new selection on our menu. so of COURSE i had to "experiment" and "test" the product. its a winner. YUM!
oh yeah, then yummy 20 nt drink.
dinner:the rest of my cold lunch box. three bites of lao po bing.
(i was really struggling with myself about dinner, since i was thinking, after working out, itd be late, so shouldnt really eat rice and all that, and should just eat fruit. but then i HATE wasting food. so thats that.)

todays menu was a bit weird. since i ate high calorie and unecessary food in adequate portions. however i still dont like it. i would prefer eating just more veggies and rice. sigh. will work on it.

there are...

priorities, and then there are priorities. theres this management thing i heard about that teaches people to categorize things into important and urgent, important but not urgent, not important but urgent, and not important and not urgent (but then why would it be listed?)anyway, its supposed to make you manage your time better. i have to say, it does help. but when you are ambivalent about what needs to be important or urgent, you cant take that first step into penning down something in any category, cuz youre still wondering. thats how i am. sometimes i think it is really hard to finalize what needs to be done first. for example, talking to parents. either a phone call or eating a meal with them. its not urgent, but its important. so whenever there is time. actually if it could become a regular thing, you should always sit down and hang out with your folks or talk to them. so there are these kind of things that are important but not urgent. reading, learning about the world, exercising, meditating (chi gong), these are things that build up. so you take it baby step at a time. which is also why it is so easy to skip. you always think, ill do it tomorrow. tomorrow might be the day you need it the most and you wouldnt even know it.
this is the hardest one to achieve. there are so many things i want to do, so that while im thinking about whether or not to do them, i waste away my time. at least its good that i know that now...sigh.

theres this thing i forgot to mention...

about the food diary. so apparently it seems to also have to work with adequate exercise (duh) and...yeah. regular habits.
lets see what was on today's menu:
breakfast: an apple sandwich (two slices of toast and one apple. this has got to be the best and healthiest of jelly sandwiches. couple years ago my brother (who is always telling me im fat) told me one of the ways to lose weight was eat fruit with bread/toast. i scorned the idea then and still bought butter spread and jam. now i totally get it. it tastes great, its fresh, and calorie wise, no guilt (other than sugar au natural ). slice the apple in flat pieces and there you have your "apple spread" goes well with mango, banana, and sweet kiwi too! (but apples me fave :P)
lunch: a rice box. yes, indeed, guilty as charged. but couldnt help it. i was working tres hard this morning. talked nonstop for two hours repeating myself with intro of the language center. so i deserved this soul food. haha. taiwanese soul food. and, then there was the yummy 15 nt drink. again. no guilt there :P
hey guess what? no in between snacks today!
dinner: adequate portion of rice with onions stir fried with canned tuna (yum!) and lightly stir fried cabbage with garlic.
two finger bananas, 10 wasabi coated cashews (i had to force meself to stop at 10) annnd maybe if i get the munchies later tonight, an apple!

so i have discovered, when you live on a students budget (or any kind of money saving budget actually) you get more creative and healthy with food!! apples and toast? my kinda breakfast for at least one year. and apples are cheap and fresh too! one for 10 nt. ill have two please! its been a while since ive started eating fruit everyday. and it feels better. to know that you are putting natural stuff into your body, better than before, anyway, when i didnt eat fruit everyday. so i recommend a fruit a day. minimum.
another incentive to really get serious and lose some jiggly tummy is that ive made a bet with this friend. he is trying to gain weight at the moment for a reason too long to explain. but bottom line is, he has to get back to regular weight eventually. actually, in 6 months. SO. since hes still putting on weight, i have the head start. so i should win, right?!?!?
its on!
ps. having weight loss buddy/ies is cool :D

so theres this study...

that showed people who kept a food diary six to seven days a week tended to lose double the weight than non diary keepers. hmmmm. i guess this is a good way to keep on updating this blog :P right.
so on todays menu:
breakfast: mayo sandwich (1/3 spoon of yummy salad spread with two pieces of toast.
lunch: tomato pasta (no meat! no cream! elbow pasta yum.)
one 600 cc of mango green tea (half sugar!!) (kinda guilty about that but oh wells...it was 15 nt!!!)
then i kinda dwindled and had me two chocolate chip cookies...(was never part of the plan!!)
dinner: rice with canned spicy tuna and stir fried cabbage.
one apple
one chinese pear
H2O!!!!!!!!!!!
funny how my justifications are all exclamated...but its true! aiyo. >.<

on a totally unrelated note...

so i have been thinking about the idea of keeping a written journal. its like that dieting resolution that you have at the beginning of each new year, and along with the excitement of it being a NEW YEAR, where old hopes and dreams can be revived and tried, you get ready. youre set. then you fail. although not as abrupt as these words may suggest. nevertheless, you gear up, and you do it steadily for a couple of weeks...then you think, ill do it tomorrow. and when tomorrow arrives, you think, ive done it pretty steadily for the past couple weeks, so i deserve a break....and then...the dwindling turns to..slacking off big time. then you totally forget about it until something like a person's blog, or the act of eating ice cream makes you suddenly realize that you havent been keeping up to par with your initial plan 10 months ago. (ACK!)
right-o. nuff said.

life, OH life....

so. life recently has been pretty chill. after all the banging and clanging of exitement, at the end of the day, one still has to return to silence and self.
so this new thing im trying out: less distraction, more production.
easier said than done, right? right.
another thing. dieting!!! vegetables and staples. swearing off sugar and spice and everything thats nice :( (for now)
hmmm. nothing much else to shaaare....work...im working right now! weekend work. blegh. the only thing i have to complain about is waking up in the morning. haha. however, imagine NOT waking up in the morning...hmmm. seems like i can never have enough sleep. 10 hours seem like 6 and i never get to sleep more than that...even on the weekends. sigh. but i guess thats good right? also, i have recently discovered that no matter how good natured i seem to be most of the time, i AM groggy in the morning. interesting thing to discover about self...
hmmm...what else..what else...been looking at costa rican schools....decent price. one month. however, im struggling between that...and belgium! (ok that might not be an option anyways, but its such a nice notion!! ) aiight back to reality...
nothings been ailing my mind lately...i guess thats fortunate. so, thats that. update of me life.

late night scare

so theres this cat. at least i HOPE its a cat. that groans always in the middle of the night when i happen to be asleep. nay, when EVERYONE happens to be asleep. and i say groan and not meow because meow is supposed to indicate a cute sound. but NAY, its more like a dead baby oofing its last breaths. so the first few nights when i heard it, i was like, wth!? then i calmed down because panicking almost always makes you do dumb things and makes the situation ten times worse than it really is, and since i have a semi balcony that anyone can climb onto, i figured i could be in some danger. at any rate, i calmed and lay really still, and strained my ears to listen to that horrible sound. at some point on the tenth groa/meow, a certain tenor of the sound betrayed that it really was a cat....mystery solved. whew.