Monday 24 October 2011

Falling off the wagon


I don’t believe that a week has come and gone and I have done nothing but sleep. After seeing my final results from my first week of exercise I seemed to just halt. I guess I thought that I would have lost more than I did overall. Though I am still glad that I had lost some weight.

This week has just felt like I was acting like some kind of sleep controlled depressed person. I somehow couldn’t go to sleep prior to 3am and when ever I woke up I went back to sleep to finish the dream I was having and ended up waking in the early afternoons. This ended up blowing all the good work of eating at least 6 meals a day that I had been doing and also reduced my water intake. I don’t know how to explain how all this just came about this week but it was just a blah week of nothing but sleeping.

Towards the end of the week, I started waking up to myself and tried to break this 3am bedtime cycle and sleeping throughout the day. First few attempts didn’t work but I seem to be waking up between 7 to 8 am now. I just need to actually get out of bed and not go back to sleep afterwards.

After a day of eating a Jack’s pack for 2 (Hungry Jacks Whooper burger, Grilled Chicken burger, medium fries and chocolate sundae) for my brunch/afternoon tea I started wanting to get back into the swing of things and get back on the wagon to being healthy again. I started looking for ways of being more motivated to move around and found some YouTube videos but all I did was thinking of doing the exercise and that was it. I did nothing more.

I know that once I get back into it I will be fine but I just can’t seem to get rid of this funk.

Would love to hear your motivational advice.

Weight & measurements update


A week ago I started out at 96.2kg. After 3 days of eating only protein I weighed 92.9kg (a loss of 3.3kg).

Now that the week has gone by the numbers can be revealed and I am now 94.5kg. This is a gain of 1.6kg after incorporating carbohydrates in the form of veggies and bread in the morning and an overall loss of 1.7kg.

I think instead of thinking negatively I am going to try and be happy that the needle is moving in the downward direction.

Here are measurement updates and photos:



I have noticed that my stomach region doesn’t feel as big and bloated as it did previously. The jeans that I wear feel large around my upper thighs and also around the buttock area. There’s still a long way to go but hopefully I’ll get there by January.



So since starting I have lost an overall 11.5 cm. The areas that have dramatically decreased are my hips with a loss of 4cm and chest with a loss of 2.5cm.

Goals for November

This post was originally entitled Goals for the remainder of October and it has now come to the end of October and the page remained blank. I think to keep myself going I should set some goals that I want to achieve.

Here are a list of the goals that I want to have had achieved by the end of November:

  1. Eat at least 6 small meals every day of November.
  2. Do a daily morning treadmill meal workout of at least 45 mins prior to breakfast.
  3. Have 2 days a week of no carbs.
  4. Commence the Couch to 5Km running program.
  5. Walk at least 10km a day with a rest day.
  6. Hit target of 10,000 steps at least 5 days a week.
  7. Eat at least half a plate of vegetables for dinner at least 3 times a week.
  8. Do at least 30 mins of the cardio Twister 3 times a week.
  9. Record and monitor meals eaten throughout the month.
  10. Lose 10Kg and an overall of 10cm throughout my body.
Can’t wait for November to start J

Sunday 23 October 2011

Low carb & sugar supermarket purchases review


During my week of introducing good carbohydrates into my eating from my carb detox I went on a bit of a shopping rampage to find low carbohydrate and sugar items. At first it was to find dessert items such as sugar free lollies, etc and after a few days of eating salads and watching Nigella make a carrot cake, I was obsessed with finding a low carb and sugar version. I found a few and bought the ingredients (have yet to make the cake) and while shopping I cam across the Low Joule Lemon Cordial.







The cordial is lemon flavoured and has less than 1 gram of carbohydrates and sugar. I thought I would try it seeing since it was on special and to my surprise it was delish! Nice lemony flavour without being sweet. Since there are no indication on the label that it is all natural lemons, it does make me wonder what I’m really drinking but I try not to ponder on that too much. For me this is a great alternative for when water just doesn’t it. For others this may be a good replacement to a soft drink full of sugar.

I did notice that the cordial flavouring tends to go to the bottom of the glass while drinking. I have noticed this on two occasions as I took a while to finish my glass (about 20 mins while eating).

I also bought some Weight Watchers Jelly after finding one sachet from the kitchen cupboard. Had a lovely raspberry flavoured jelly and bought two more sachets and two strawberry jelly sachets. Since there’s only 9 calories for the entire sachet I am going to use this as my dessert craving replacement.






I would love to know if you have come across a good food item or drink that has been low carb and low on sugar.

Foods eaten throughout the first week


After the detox I mainly incorporated salads back into my diet as the weather was still lukewarmish and alternating between hot foods like veggies.

Here are photos of the meals that I had eaten.



Short Soup (Wonton Soup) with chilli sauce for lunch


Smoked Trout with mixed lettuce and thousand island dressing for dinner


Steamed broccoli and cauliflower, poached garlic fish and lettuce with vinaigrette dressing for dinner


Hot salami slices as a snack


Turkey slices as a snack


Eggs and salami microwaved into an omelette for breakfast


Slice of toast, 2 poached eggs and 2 slices of light ham for breakfast


Poached garlic fish, lentil soup and a half slice of naan bread for dinner


Mango and passionfruit yoghurt


Weight Watchers Raspberry Jelly


Here’s a yummy steak salad recipe that I concocted.

A large bowl with balsamic vinegar filling the base of the bowl.




Mix in a spoon full of minced garlic and ginger mixed from a jar.




Heat a pan or skillet with some olive oil and cook steak to your liking. 






As I like mine medium rare I cooked it for a minute on the first side and 30 second on the second and turned the stove off (the remaining heat from the stove and the pan will do the rest of the cooking).




I added some mixed summer salads to my flavoured balsamic dressing and mixed well to ensure that all the leaves were well coated with the dressing.

I took the steak out of the pan and voila!!! A yummy lunch.

Alternative motivation & inspiration


After the detox, I found it hard to keep up not being so strict any more and I found that I was slacking in terms of exercise and eating. I remembered that a while back (years) that I had downloaded the Coach to 5Km podcast from iTunes and decided to go on a bit of a browse to see if there was something there that would keep me motivated to not lie on the couch as much.

After searching for about an hour I was downloaded quite a lot of things, such as music for running to keep me motivate while on the treadmill (I am not a runner but it’s good to walk to funky beats to make you walk that additional Km).

I also found a very interesting and educational podcast called Cut the Fat. It talks about how to lose fat from your body instead of weight and also how to understand your body in doing this change.

It was quite interesting and the two speakers on the podcasts are professionals (one is a female body builder and the other a trained nutritionist). It’s very informative and I encourage you to download it and listen to while exercising.

I have also been using an Australian government funded program called Swap It which emphasizes on not eliminating all things bad at once but simply swapping it for a healthier alternative. For example, instead of having a large pasta swap it for a smaller portion and add a serve of veggies. The program can be downloaded onto your iPhone and you then just simply select what you want to swap and add them to your reminder list at a particular time slot. The only flaw with this program is that you can easily ignore the reminders and continue with your bad habits but the program does keep you in check with a weekly progress of how you did at swapping your normal routine for a healthier routine.

If you have ways to keep yourself motivated throughout your weightloss journey I would love to hear from them.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Weight Loss Phase


The second phase of the program is concentrated on weight loss. An individual can remain in this for their own desired length of time or until that individual has reached their goal weight.

This phase consists on using the stored within body as a form of fuel. Foods eaten will be in low carbohydrate (in the form of vegetables, salad and fruits) and exercise will remain as is and aiming in achieving 10,000 steps daily.

Meals are to remain at 6 meals a day. The change that’s being incorporated is that carbohydrates can be eaten at the main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). The choice of carbohydrates is important. Things such as bread or fruit can only be eaten at breakfast. Unlimited amounts of vegetables (with the exception of starchy vegetables) and salads can be eaten for lunches and dinners. A protein of the size of your fist is to be eaten at all main meals. Snacks are to remain as protein only.

After being on the weight loss phase for at least 3 to 5 days, a free day can be had where anything can be eaten for 2 mains meals such as lunch and dinner. Snacks are to remain as protein only. The day following the free day needs to be a protein only day. By doing this process it will keep your metabolism guessing and continually burning.

I will be posting what I have eaten on a weekly basis and will post tips and challenges as much as I can.

If you have previously undertaken something similar please let me know you went.

Review of Phase 1: Carbohydrate Detox


Wow! I don’t believe that I was able to last 3 days without any vegetables, fruits, sweets, bread and rice. I am so proud of myself for being to keep up with the first stage of the program. Also, I am proud that I did not succumb to the norm and cave in and listen to that little voice in my head that normal tempts me.

I have to say so far I haven’t had many cravings. In one of my earlier posts I did mention how I was offered a fun sized Mars bar and was very tempted to eat it but now I walk past those Mars bars and don’t even think about them. I guess my mentality has changed over the last few days and I am both mentally and physically ready to lose this excess weight that I have been carrying around.

So this morning, I quite eagerly walked to the bathroom and had a showdown stare with the bathroom scales. I hopped on and thought the scale may have been a bit off (mind you this a digital scale). I hopped off and hopped back on and I had the same results.

Weight prior to detox: 96.2kg

Weight post detox: 92.9kg

I lost 3.3kg over 3 days. I am still quite speechless over that number but in a good way. I am very intrigued at the total amount will be by the end of the week.

Day 3 of Carbohydrate Detox


Today was not a good day at all!!!

I have slept for only 2 hours as I had church at 9:30am. I didn’t have time to eat breakfast or even have a sip of water. After church I finally got to enjoy my breakfast and I was so hungry. I test-drove making scrambled eggs made in the microwave and it turned out pretty good and tasted yummy.



Snacks for the day were tuna in springwater and my prediction was almost on par, my excited has definitely gone each time I see that it’s time to eat tuna again. But I am going to keep it as my snack food as it’s very low on calories and good source of protein.



Lunch was a quarter thigh BBQ chicken (take out).



After lunch I was fighting to not fall asleep as I was so tired. So I hoped onto the treadmill for an hour and ate some chicken tenders with chilli sauce afterwards. I unfortunately succumb to sleep after that and woke up about 7:30pm.



Had some steamed fish balls and chilli with soy sauce for dinner and watched a movie and hit the hay. Only did 2,460 steps, which was quite disappointing.



I am sooo looking forward to being able to eat some vegetables and lettuce. I will be weighing in tomorrow to see how much I have lost since beginning the detox. Can’t wait to see the results.

Day 2 of Carbohydrate Detox


Unlike the day before I was able to wake up earlier today (8:30 am) but getting out of bed was more of a challenge. I unfortunately was stuck in a loop of watching the Late late show with Craig Fergusson on YouTube and got out of bed at 11am.

Ate 2 poached eggs with salt and pepper and hopped onto the treadmill afterwards as I was determined to reach my 10,000 steps goal. I was able to do 4km within an hour.



Ate my tuna in springwater as my snack and walked another 4km on the treadmill.



I was in attendance to one of my little cousin’s birthday party that took place at Hungry Jacks. I had to ensure that I did not look at any photos of the burgers to tempt myself but I did go there with a clear mind that I would not be eating anything including cake. Very proud of myself for being able to be this strong.

Since I started the day quite late (again) it was dinnertime when it came for me to eat lunch.

Dinner was take out grilled fish, with seafood salad and 1 and a half calamari rings with fresh squeezed lemon juice. It was so good as it has been quite some time since I had fish.



After that meal I relaxed a little and as it was getting late I thought that I would consume 2 cans of tuna as 2 separate snacks with at least an hour in between and skipped dinner.

While relaxing I had been very engrossed in looking at some gymnastics competitions and some workout videos on YouTube and unfortunately that keep going until the wee hours of the morning (6:10am).

Although going to bed that late is never a good thing but I am so proud of myself for reaching my steps goal. I ended up walking 10,268 steps. Yay for me.

Sunday 9 October 2011

Day 1 of Carbohydrate Detox


Day 1 started out well with a lovely breakfast of 2 poached eggs with salt and pepper at the very early hours of 11am.


Yes, I had slept in on my very first day of a lifestyle change. How behind I was, I kept thinking. As always that bad cop voice kept reassuring me that there were plenty of hours to go and not to stress about it too. So while eating my breakfast I started reading about how the blogging world operated as I’m a newbie and commenced writing my second and third blog which surprisingly took quite some time to write as I tend to constantly re-edit my sentences.

Throughout that time I had consumed my first snack of the day. A can of Japanese style flavoured tuna. (Completely forgot to take a photo).

As I looked at the contents of the can I was hoping that it would taste as nice as the photo on the jacket of the can. To my surprise it wasn’t too bad, not earth shatteringly tasty nor did it taste like dry wall.

Once I had put the finishing touches onto my second blog, I looked at the clock and to my surprise it was 4pm already. Not long till dinner, I thought to myself. So I russelled up some yummy fish balls clear soup with chilli sauce added to it. As you can I see I have a bit of a substance abuse with chilli. Our relationship started out at the inedible stage and progress to an experimental one which back then was like having the flames of hell in my mouth. Now I'm a  complete addict and I'm forever seeking that kick and extra zing that you get when you add chilli to food.



[For those of you who do not know what fish balls are; let me just say that they are not testicles of fish lol, I mean look at the size of these fish balls lol. I think the best way to describe it is that fish balls are an Asian product which consist of fish flakes being mashed up with shallots into a ball.]

By 6pm I had a few errands to run and ended up having my second snack, a can of tuna in springwater.


This will be my snack for the next few days as there are quite a few cans in the kitchen cabinet and the flavoured tuna cans seem to have disappeared. I have a feeling that springwater won’t be tasting all that great by day 3 lol.

Since I had my snack so late, dinner would have to be postponed until a few hours later. After looking at my pedometer and seeing the shock horror of having only completed 1,000 or so steps I decided to hop onto the treadmill for an hour.

After a lovely shower it was time to eat my dinner. By then it was nearing on 9.30pm. Roast chicken thigh here I come.


You can tell I wanted to eat as I completely forgot to take a photo and you are now looking at the aftermath.

What proceeded were a few hours of relaxation followed by my last snack of the day prior to going to bed, good old tuna in springwater.

I am very proud of myself for resisting my first temptation; a fun size Mars bar that was offered to me. It was very tempting and once I layed eyes on that Mars bar the inner battle began. The good little voice was telling me that I should not give in and that it was not worth it but the bad little voice inside my head already had a good rebuttal and was stating that I should reward myself for successfully completing my first day and that I could burn it off tomorrow during my walking.

At that point I decided to concentrate on the movie I was watching and popped a sugar free mint into my mouth and pretended like that fun size Mars bar was not on the coffee table where the person that had offered it to me had left it.

As I crawled into bed and removed my pedometer, an ickyness came over me as I knew I was well off from 10,000 steps. My grand total for the day was 4,331 steps.

I guess my goal for day 2 is to get out of bed a lot earlier and to move my jelly a lot more to reach my step goal lol.








Carbohydrate Detox Phase



The program I am undertaking commences with a detox. The detox consists of eliminating complex (vegetables) and simple carbohydrates (sweets, bread, etc) from all meals for 3 days. By doing so the program claims that it will deplete your body of stored carbs and reprogram your metabolism by consuming 3 meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) and 3 snacks of protein only foods. The program also states that will re-regulate your body from caving into cravings as it won’t be feeling that hunger as food is being digested very 3 or so hours and thus regulating insulin levels within the bloodstream (which is a big plus for me since this is one of my desired end goals).

The program also mentions that 2 to 3 litres of water is to be consumed throughout the 3 days of detoxing and also to keep up exercising aka reaching a target of 10,000 steps.

Let’s see if I can resist temptation of avoiding rice (main staple of my diet for dinner due to my background) and sweets.

I will be postings a day by day update of how my avoidance of carbohydrates is treating me over the 3 days.

If you have previously undertaken something similar please let me know you went.

Friday 7 October 2011

A blueprint of how to commence my search to the skinnier me along with a before photo and measurements



No more excuses of starting the diet on Monday, I’m starting today and I’m not starting a diet more so a change in lifestyle.

Today I embarked on a lifestyle change program, which has been promoted throughout Australia for a few years now and has had quite a great deal of success (shall remain nameless for now).

The program consists of three phases;

  1. A detox phase
  2. A weight loss phase
  3. A weight maintenance phase.
* Further information on each phase will be provided as I go through the program along with diary updates of how they affected me, along with photos of foods eaten.

The program also consists of undertaking physical activity in the form of walking with a pedometer and achieving at least 10,000 steps on a daily basis. I believe this will be my biggest challenge as laying down on a couch is more comfortable than watching a show while walking on a treadmill. I will also be aiming at consuming 2 to 3 litres of water daily.

This morning I had to face the music and find some courage deep down to take a photo of how I currently look and my measurements. Here are my stats:

Weight: 96.2 kg




Going forth I will post the progress of my stats on a weekly basis.

A truthful confession


The truth. What is the truth?

The meaning of truth is a fact or reality. The fact is that we all know the truth to weight loss, eat healthy foods and exercise regularly.  As they say reduce energy intake and increase energy expenditure. But the reality is that although we all know this truth we ignore it. We all seek for a holy grail of weight loss, a miracle cure that will bypass all this hard work. Because deep down we don’t want to commit to this truth because the modern world has taught us that life nowadays is all about convenience and making things easier for oneself.

My truth is that I am smart, too smart for my own wellbeing. I know what I should be eating and that I should really get off the couch and move but I choose not to do it. The scary part is that it’s a calculated choice that I consciously made. An inner debate within myself, the defender aka the good cop, who is trying to fight a losing battle of constantly trying to get me to eat healthily and do the right thing. Then there’s the temptater aka the bad cop, who is constantly refuting alternative scenarios of things that I could be enjoying instead of doing the right thing. For example, instead of eating a lovely grilled chilled breast I could be a yummy grilled chicken burger from Hungry Jacks and instead of walking my adorable dog I could be laying on the couch with him enjoying an action movie.

The only time I have been able to embrace the good cop character has been when I have been completely committed and dedicated to the cause of losing weight and most of the time it has been all for the wrong reasons (unhealthy competition between friends, to try and keep a boyfriend, to try and get a boyfriend, to fit into a dress for a wedding, etc).

This time it has to be about me.

As I said before I am too smart for my own wellbeing and that’s how things get taken for granted and abused. Well I have accomplished at doing that very well. While at the doctor for a blood test to check if I had a virus that was causing some bowel problems, the results came back clear with a resistance on my insulin level. As the doctor put it, my insulin release was a bit lazy. How fitting, not only was I lazy but that proved that my pancreas too was lazy.

I was advised by the doctor to reduce my intake of carbohydrates to regulate the insulin release so that it would not lead to a complete shutdown in production, in other words diabetes. As I am still young (27 years old) and that it is early stages this can be reversed. I was told this approximately 3 months ago.

Since then I have tried numerous times to reduce my intake of carbohydrates only to be beaten by my own bad cop and give in to the idea of my cravings.  I am hoping that by being truthful in my blog that I will understand why I always seem to listen to the bad cop and almost never to the good cop. Also I hope that I will have your support on this weight loss journey and be able to get off the highway to diabetestown.

The search begins...

What is the search for this thinner person that is conceived in the mind all about and why do we keep looking?


I have been on this journey and have embraced both ends of the spectrum. I have been my thinnest and my heaviest,only to restart the cycle yet again.


What drives us to stay on this never ending roller-coaster?


This blog is the beginning of my new expedition to the skinner me. Its purpose is to record my journey of successes and tribulations, for me to be truthful to myself (both physically and emotionally) and be accountable for my actions or lack thereof.


The goal of this journey is to lose 30 kilos by 15 January 2012 and also to have a clearer understanding as to why purchasing a ticket to the never ending roller-coaster of fat and thin is stuck on repeat.