Protein Loading anyone?

We’ve heard a lot about carbo loading for races but for people who want to lose weight… protein loading? Well, not really. It’s just that weight watches tend to stay away from carbs. There are popular diets like Southbeach and Atkin’s where they literally take out all the carbs and pack so much protein in the meal that some people I know actually had trouble with their kidneys after.

Today, I prepared my breakfast which consisted of a lot of protein. 4 pcs cinnamon french toast, smoked sausage and scrambled eggs. 

 

How to prepare

Ingredients:

1 large egg (scrambled)
2 slices of medium sized whole wheat bread
1/2 tbsp milk (can be non-fat)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp butter (or butter substitute)
smoked sausage

How to cook:

Whisk together the large egg, milk and salt. Then place the egg mixture onto a plate. Put slices  of the whole bread on the plate, allowing it to absorb the egg mixture. Wait 2-3 minutes then turn.

While allowing the bread to soak the egg mixture, preheat your non-stick pan on med-low heat and place one 1tsp of butter, making sure that the butter covers the pan evenly.

Before putting the soaked whole wheat bread slices, sprinkle it with ground cinnamon on top. Then place on the pan making sure the side with cinnamon is face down on the pan. Allow to cook for 2 minutes on one side, then before turning over, sprinkle the top again with ground cinnamon.

Eating Right for the New Year

Most of us forgot about training the holidays and went ahead enjoying the scrumptious food that was on the table. Calories and calories of food, rich with so many unwanted things like fat, salt or sugar.

As part of my new years re-resolution (since I’ve done it before but was just led astray), I’m going back to eating right and eating healthy.

NOTE: Video taken from RunnersWorld.Com

George Foreman is my cooking companion

After letting myself indulge over the Christmas break, I decided to get back to living healthy. And so I go back to my cooking companion, the “George Foreman Grilling Machine.”

I’ve been cooking almost everything on this thing from burgers [see recipe here] to cajun chicken, grilled fish and making sandwiches. This thing enables you to cook without oil and also takes out all the fatty juices you don’t need.

Hopefully, I stop gaining weight as I’ve already gained 10lbs since December started… Uh-oh!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

 

Changing my meal plan

I mentioned in my previous posts that I no longer diet and am just watchful of the portions and the types of food that I eat. In the past few months, I don’t feel as if I’ve lost any weight. Perhaps it is good if I’m on maintenance mode, but I still hope to shed more pounds as well as lose the fat around my midsection.

When I was talking to Taki after the One La Salle run, I mentioned that I stopped losing weight. He said that perhaps I was gaining muscle. It may be possible, but the fact remains, I still have a tummy that continues to bulge, no matter how slight.

So, after thinking about what I’ve been eating lately, I’ve decided to change my meal plan. Well, it’s similar to a diet, but it sounds less taxing. hehe!

I’m planning on lessening my carb intake, and consume more fiber-rich foods. Eating white rice, no matter how small the portion, is out of the question. I’ll also be staying away from Pastas and other foods which are high in carbs. I won’t be eliminating carbohydrates completely, just lessening them, so that I store less and burn more. We still need carbs to convert into energy just to be able to workout properly. We also need carbs for recovery. The only difference is, is it the kind of carbs that are easy to burn or easy to store?

My new meal plan will consist more of fruits and vegetables, less pork and beef (I’ll try to keep away from them as much as I can) and minimize also on sweets. Sometimes, I’m a sucker for chocolates and other pastries.

My target is to lose another 10-15 lbs OR… have a defined mid-section Coach, if you’re reading this, you now know my goal.

Altered recipes: Brown Rice Arroz Caldo & Chicken Gourmet Burger

A few months back, I posted two different recipes: Arroz Caldo and Mean & Lean Healthy Burger. Recently, I’ve felt that my weight is starting to creep back in or that my lack of exercise and training has lead me to deposit unwanted fat. So last week, I altered my Arroz Caldo recipe. Instead of using regular white rice (which I normally don’t eat), I changed it and used brown rice. I would not dare using red rice because it might end up looking like champorado! Haha! The result? A healthy and fiber rich snack/meal that tastes just as great! It’s also one way to carbo load before training or a race or as a recovery meal. It has the 60-40 carb-protien ratio. Just add more chicken. [Altered recipe at the end of this post]

The second recipe I altered was my Mean & Lean Healthy Burger. There are a lot of people who like burgers but then there are those who don’t eat, or at least try to stay away from beef and pork. Like Tricia C. who says that she doesn’t eat beef and pork… but eats crispy pata when she’s drunk! Haha! So to people like Tricia or other pescetarians out there (fish and chicken eaters), I subsituted the lean ground beef with ground chicken breast. [Altered recipe at the end of this post]

Dieting and Weight Loss

Earlier this morning after the race, I had breakfast with several people, most of whom were students of Coach Rio. At one point in the breakfast conversation, we started talking about dieting and weight loss. Of course, Coach was so proud of the progress that I’ve made and never fails to mention that I’ve lost 40-45 lbs and 7 inches off my waist. He then tells them to ask some tips on how I was able to lose all the weight.

As I came across this video online, I immediately remembered the best dieting and weight loss tips that I’ve been following. Here is the video…

Diet Book Author Advocates New ‘No Food Diet’

Hahaha! Did you have a good laugh? Dieting and weight loss, at least for me, is simple. I let go of the things that I knew was bad for me. I stayed away from oily food, fatty food, extremely sweet or rich food, food with articificial sweeteners, junk food (that’s why it’s called junk), fast food (yes, its one of the fastest ways to get FAT). I also had to eat in moderation. Gone are the binging days of stuffing myself with all sorts of food, no matter how tasty they were. I also stopped depriving myself by NOT skipping meals or eating so little that you feel as if you ate nothing at all.

Think of dieting not as a temporary thing, but a lifestyle change. When you go on a diet, make sure that it is something you can stick to. If you can’t stick to it, then it’s not a good diet. Haha… come to think of it, diet is not a good word at all… it actually spells out D-I-E with a cross (+) at the end… So when you DIET you are actually killing yourself Kidding.. But seriously, instead of dieting, I think of it as propoer nutrition.

These are the things that I do to keep myself or my weight in check:

• Stick to natural food, none of the artificial stuff
• Anything in excess is bad… food or alcohol
• Don’t binge. It’s not the end of the world. No one is out to get you.
• Eat only when  you’re hungry. If you’re staring at your refrigerator too long thinking of what to eat, you’re not hungry, you’re just craving.
• Eat a lot of times in a day but in small portions. I for one eat almost every 3 hours, but I make sure they’re either snacks or small meals. If I get hungry, I eat again.
• Keep junk food away from you. It’s hard when you are faced with so many temptations. Keep them in the pantry, or when visiting the grocery, skip the snacks/chips aisle, as well as the chocolates and candy.
• DON’T BE TOO UPTIGHT WITH YOUR DIET. You’ll just end up binging. The more you deprive yourself, the more you will come back.

Indulge… but not too much.

In my previous posts, I mentioned that Bob Harper of the Biggest Loser suggests having a cheat day once a week. The succeeding episode, he was getting mad at the members of his team for not eating too much. He said that when a person’s weight goes down, he needs to consume more carbs so that they’d have the energy to work out.

Last Thursday, that’s exactly what I did. I think the entire day, I ate and ate and ate. After training at ULTRA, I met up with a friend and we had breakfast at Heaven ‘n Eggs at Eastwood. I had a thai chicken omelet of sorts. It was really good. There chicken pieces, lots of veggies and nuts with this thai sauce. I forget what it was called.

Then afterwards, I went shopping at Greenhills. I was really enjoying myself. I was buying pants since all my pants have been falling already. And guess what, I now wear size 31’s Yeah! Hehe! I went all over the place, enjoying my new physique. It’s been almost 4 years since I last went shopping for clothes. I’d usually get new shoes or other stuff but never shirts, button downs or pants since I felt bad that they’re too big or that I’d lose weight eventually and it would just go to waste. Imagine, the last time I went shopping was to buy size 38 pants since nothing I had could fit me anymore… and a complete turnaround, I now buy size 31s since nothing I have fits me perfectly.

After shopping, I had a late lunch composed of Binagoongan, fresh lumpiang ubod and garlic rice. As I was ordering, Bob’s words were running through my head. You need to eat! And so I did. After that, I found myself to Robinson’s Galleria to meet up with another friend. Since he wasn’t out yet, I ended up walking around and came across Dairy Queen. Normally, I’d get the 12 or 20oz cup, but now, I’ve gotten used to small servings that I got the 9oz cup of the Mocha KitKat Blizzard. I felt I was already indulging.

From Robinson’s Galleria, we ended up in SM Mall of Asia for a meeting. We were at Seattle’s Best but since I felt I had gone over my limit for indulging, I just had water while everyone else had Mocha Fraps (which I think has over 500 calories or even more, per serving… evil fraps!). After the meeting, ended up in Pancake House. I just had a serving of salad. ( I should remember to get the names of what I order). It was Mexican or something like tacos. It had beans, chicken, corn and other Mexican ingredients.

That entire day, I did nothing but eat… but in moderation (I hope). Maybe I’d have to re-think my diet since I haven’t been losing any weight anymore but  I don’t think my training is getting any lighter. So it must be in the food that I eat and other nutrition.