Health & Nutrition - The reality of food

I hate to break this news but since I started calorie-counting and looking up what I really eat and their nutritional value, I was appalled with the facts about the foods that I have been feeding myself and how ignorant we have all been regarding the foods we have been eating.

Here are some very good examples which I wanna share. I have always thought that eggs are good because of the protein content and that everyone else who are building muscles and eating clean are adding a lot of eggs in their diets. So as I was doing the math and finding out more about eggs, I found that eggs have very high fat content. While you can get a good 6g of protein from eggs and it tastes yummy (at least to me and my gym buddies), there is actually about 4-4.5g of fats in each egg you consume. It all comes from the yolk, of course but having said that, you will be getting only half the amount of protein if you were to remove the yolk. SAD TRUTH I know.

Credits to nutritiondata.self.com

Another fact that I will wanna share is about Avocados. Avocados are highly beneficial in boosting good cholesterol in your body, they provide all 18 essential amino acids necessary for the body to form a complete protein, help prevent or mitigate against both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, offer powerful anti-inflammatory benefits and lower risks of getting heart diseases. BUT, the matter of fact is that it is still high in fat and carb content. I was shocked after I made my morning avocado juice with a whole avocado because I exceeded my daily fat content in just one meal and it was the first meal of the day! Solution: eat 1/4 to 1/2 for breakfast ONLY - try to have foods that are high in fats and carbs as early in the day as possible.

Credits to nutritiondata.self.com

These are just 2 of the examples that I have found and I'll be updating if I find out more. Also, I'm doing this because I'm doing a caloric deficit to my diet right now so I need to know exactly what I put into my body. I'm not trying to encourage anybody to avoid taking eggs and/or avocados because they are very beneficial to your body. What I'm trying to emphases here is that, you will have to take every food in moderation, no matter how beneficial the food is to our body. This could be the reason why I don't see results having altered my diet so much previously, I was eating too much of the "good" food. Bottomline is, don't just take advises from people and take them for real, if you are really serious and passionate about something, go research and find out more yourself. Personally I do give a lot of advises, telling people I know to eat clean and healthy, etc. But PLEASE do not take my word for it. I'm still learning and exploring, though I love to share. (:

So, here's what I have been up to, in pictures. 

Rowed 45 mins, completed 6.234km on Friday

Having watermelon juice on my way home after training

Jason says this is the greatest fruit God created, I agreed!

Blueberries & banana smoothie for breakfast

Of course, not forgetting milk, plain yogurt and 1 scoop of protein

My current state - Week 0

What I do on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, honing my skills for the love of Netball

Today - having lunch after mass in the freaking weather

Mandatory ootd shot while waiting for the car engine to warm up

Well, my dinner has become more exotic - these are fruits that I never liked, besides the apple

What I took home after today's homily by Fr Derrick - very powerful, hitting me right at the spot. Love the part he talks about likening our lives to silver-refining.  There is a reason why God throws us in the fire and there are obstacles in our lives, it is like putting the silver in and out of the furnace countlessly, to get rid of the impurities. God will know when he takes the silver (us) out of the furnace and sees His own reflection in us, only then we will be perfect and flawless, rid of impurities. Such a beautiful homily!

Have a blessed week ahead everyone! Good night!

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Health and Fitness - The greatest fear

I have been very busy running around this week, which is good especially now that I'm unemployed, the least I can do is to keep my days busy and productive.

Confession: After about 2 years of training, the greatest fear of stagnation finally occurred to me, which is very very bad. I cleaned out my diet so much, worked out as hard or even harder now, but there's still something wrong somewhere that caused me to retain that amount of fats. SO, I'm going to be a real testimony of IF (Intermittent Fasting or you can also call it Intermittent Feeding), together with Edric and Jen (@thefitbean), I'm going to track my progress for 10 weeks, however I'll be doing IF for the rest of my life after the 10 weeks, still keeping my feeding during the 8 hours as clean-paleolithic as possible. I hope to achieve this before the baby comes into the picture (Hurhur, I know Jason is waiting for that to happen soooon). I will try to take photos of what I eat during the feeding hours and what kind of liquid diet I take during the fasting hours and I hope to be able to see improvement!

I get a lot of emails (Thank you for the emails, keep them coming!) asking questions regarding the type of diet and workout since I started writing and I must emphasise that whatever I suggest may not be the best way to attain your fitness goals. You need to read up and play around with what you think may work for you. It takes years of experience, sometimes, to even try to find out what body type you are, genuinely understanding your body and how it reacts to different diet and workout. The bottomline is, don't give up! If you fail (which I do and my gym buddies too), pick yourself up, learnt what works for you and what doesn't, and start all over again. If you feel the need to correct your form and need to start with light weights, accept it and start over again because you know that you will definitely be stronger and wiser than the first round. One diet may work for me but may not work for you, and you need to recognise what your body needs as a basic, and then work your diet into your lifestyle around the basics that your body needs. Your body is unique, as your character and personality are.

I hope everyone gets what I'm trying to say :/ I'm still learning too so please don't quote me. I'm still exploring what works best for me and it's going to be a lifelong journey! Buck up and don't give up!

I'd love to share this video that Jason got me watching, about Steve Cook explaining how to plan and grocery-shop and what he does when he's preparing to get lean for a show. Enjoy and learn as much as you can! Simply click on the title if you need to enlarge.

Backtrack to what happened last Sunday afternoon, we attended Houston's 1st Birthday party and here are some of the photos I got. He's such a love!!

Have a good rest everyone and I'll be back soon to cover more on the IF I'll be going through. All the best to me! It's FRIDAY tomorrow!

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Life & Love - My birthday week

Birthday celebrations kickstarted on tuesday with Jason. We had our workout in the morning before we head to Ikoi for lunch. Having heard so much raves about the buffet, we finally decided to give it a shot. The place looked like a flashback from the 90s and besides the staff, who were conversing in Mandarin and minimal English, everything else looks retro and Japanese (seen in jap dramas though I've not been to Japan. hurhur).

Started with the sashimi and we ordered almost 10 servings of salmon.

We started ordering cooked food after we were finished with the raw ones and found out that they were not worth the sinning at all! We could not bring ourselves to finish the cooked ones and left feeling only satisfied with all the sashimi we had. The soups were very good though! 

Went for an interview on Wednesday morning, followed by gym, before going back to freshen up to meet the RB girls! Been so long since we last caught up with each other. We had a great gossiping session (signs of aging)!

Yes, I had salmon sashimi again the following day. HUR

Almond ebi temppura which tasted soooo good!

Geri left for her flight after dinner so we adjourned to tcc for cakes, coffee and more gossipping!

Thursday was spent with dear Jessline @jesslinet, whom was my gym buddy and shopping companion for the day. Thanks for taking time off just for me and thanks so much for the pretty gift babe! <3

Had our post-workout meal at CBTL and had salmon again! You guys should try this if you haven't, Coffee Bean now serves all-day breakfast and this is my favourite, salmon scramble! It costs us $9.10 with a mug of tea. 

Thursday night, Jason and his gang of brothers picked me up at 10pm after finishing off work the entire day. We started our adventure to the end of Singapore, tip of Johor Bahru for our long-awaited ktv session. Had a quick meal after the long drive in and off we go to ktv! The night ended early in the morning and it's been such a long time since we stayed up late. Thanks once again guys for being so sweet!

We slept in on the actual day and went straight to the gym after lunch with my in-laws. Finished our session, had dinner, headed home to rest while Jason watches NDP and at almost 7pm, we went to the fitness corner for my birthday wod just because I wasn't satisfied with the first session I had in the gym. SOOO MUCH LOVE from the guys!

JJ doing a perfect toe-to-bar

I ended my week with a short workout yesterday with Jason in the gym. It was supposed to be a rest-day but we were determined to do something light and quick to burn off the lunch we had a Houston's 1st Birthday party so we rowed on the rowing machine for 30 mins and did 30 cleans and 30 thrusters with some abs exercises.

To sum up my birthday week, I managed to do everything I wanted to, still working out and keeping working out as my priority before I start enjoying my birthday. YOU are the only one who can make the difference in your own life because you decide how you want to prioritise your life. I am also proud to have a mother who does yoga and pilates at least 5-6 times a week, and a grandmother who never fails to do her workout early in the mornings so there is no reason for me to slacken. It's never too late to start and it'll never be too late to put health and fitness as one of your priority in your lifestyle habits so start now if you haven't! The beginning of change is challenging but once you get into it, your life will change for the better!

Have a great week ahead everyone! :)

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