On a Plateau

After successfully losing 5 lbs in 3 weeks, I suddenly found my weighing scale stuck to 124.6 lbs no more, no less! It has been this way for 2-3 weeks already (i stopped updating our progress sheet because I keep forgetting so the time length is not as acurate!) and I assume this is the dreaded Weight Loss Plateau. This is the point where one normally gives up on healthy dieting because it seems a lost cause anyway. But no, it just means your body is working properly, because this is our body's survival instinct in case of famine to slow down metabolism and store fats. 

This is my favorite part because it means I have to eat more! yipee! Eat more food for one week to tell my body that there's no famine (just don't overdo it or else you'll yoyo). Plus I have read that I have to increase my protein intake to boost up the metabolism, you can either eat 2 boiled eggs first thing in the morning or like me, I drink a glass of protein shake a day before my breakfast. I don't miss my half-a-grapefruit before meals because it's a very effective and natural metabolism booster (and yummy too!).

You also have to add resistance in your workout and exercise routine. In my case I have not been able to go to the gym because my son has been absent from school for an eye allergy, so I am a full time nanny with no selfie time now but I have added more running time by chasing two active toddlers in the playground, carrying my little one to reach the monkey bars and walking around the hilly neighborhood pushing our dual stroller. I guess it's fair to say that qualifies as resistance cross fit training eh? ;p

After two weeks the weighing scale finally moved to 123.6!

Being the Best

One afternoon my eldest son came home from school with his drawings, he showed me these:

Instead of saying the usual "good job baby!", I couldn't quite bring myself to praise him as I knew they weren't his best works. As a mother I could imagine him hands under the chin, bored and lazily and mindlessly doodling on his paper, he is young but I think there's no other best time to tell him the truth. I was angry and with that I said, "what's this? these are garbage! I can't accept this!" with puppy eyes he asked "why mom?", I figured I need to explain, "because I know this is your lazy work, this is just kuris-kuris(nonsense doodles) and I'm not happy with this because I know you can do better but you're just lazy!". He was about to cry, I know I was harsh but sometimes you need to be one when you want to correct a certain attitude, "my work is not garbage mommy." tears falling, "yes it is and I want to know why you just kuris-kuris your paper? WHY?" and he answered "because I want to finish fast so I can play". See? I knew it!

This started our daily supplemental tutoring, we set aside 15 minutes to teach him how to hold the pencil, the colors to write and draw properly. I saw his tendencies to rush and I just found an opportunity to teach him a lesson that I hope and pray will be instilled in him until adulthood. A disclaimer: I am not an achiever like how I wanted him to be, but any parent would want his child to do better right? 

During our lesson time I taught him that it's okay to be a little slow as long as it's your best work, now he has a mantra or a motto of "slowly but the best" while tracing or coloring to remind him not to rush. Even in the playground when he's trying to climb a monkey bar, designed for 5 yrs old, for the first time and he loses patience every time he falls, I just remind him of "slowly but the best" to help him focus. Before going to school I will continue to remind him to do good, "do you know that you are smart? be the best okay?", "yes mommy! be the best!".

To tell the truth, 3 years in parenthood and I'm still clueless of what I am doing, I'm not sure if what I did is 100% effective, imagine I have to wait for at least 15 years to see if what I'm doing now is the right thing! But I see improvements in his works, when he shows me his work from school he'd always ask, "it's not garbage mommy? is it the best?" assuring me that he gets my point and of course as a positive reinforcement I made a special wall in the house for his works.

Every morning that I'm greeted with this wall, I just keep a little prayer of "dear God, I hope I'm doing the right thing.".

No Meal Plan

A friend asked me for a sample meal plan that she can follow for her baby, I laughed, how I wished I am that organized to have a meal plan. Everyday, I just open the ref get whatever is edible for my little tots then toss, mix and serve. I just make sure that I always have vegetables and meat in the ref so whatever I can grab is good for them. No junkies, no instant food so I won't have a choice of opening a baby food jar to serve. 

This is how I usually cook a meal for my baby. Made this for lunch, when my 3 year old was in daycare so I only needed to cook for my 16 month old baby. Opened the ref, found leftover shrimps from dinner and a uncooked Broccoli.

Heat the pan with oil. Toss the shrimp and broccoli.

Hmm... it won't hurt to add egg for more protein.

Mix in the rice from last night's dinner.

voila! instant but healthy lunch!

yummy?

Sustainable Diet

I made a deal with a friend that by December or was it September(?), we're gonna lose 8 kilos or about 17 lbs. Prize at stake is a Pandora bracelet to motivate us.. who wouldn't want that? and of course who wouldn't want a sexy bodeh?

It's not our first attempt to lose weight, I personally tried the starving diet, no food after 6 diet, the brown rice diet etc, etc.. but the problem with that is I lose n lbs but I get hungry, go back to pigging out and gain 2n lbs. It's like a yoyo. 

My husband who had successfully lost a lot of weight (he had to due to his fatty liver, but now he's free from maintenance meds and clear from fatty liver) and has maintained it until now, suggested that I do a Sustainable Diet. Well, I thought he read it somewhere but since none of my friends know about it, I think he just coined the term. Sustainable Diet means a way to lose weight in a way that you can make into a lifestyle, in tagalog "kaya mong panindigan". This way, your weight won't yoyo, in this diet there's no cheat days too but there's no starvation involved either.

My friend and I even have a shared Google Doc Spreadsheet to track our progress. I started at 129 lbs and after 3 weeks I'm down to 124.6 lbs! When I went to Forever21 I was surprised that from size L I can already fit to size S! Plus I bought a pair of pants two sizes smaller. Not bad for a diet that doesn't make me crazy hungry. I'm still a long way to the 17 lbs target, I don't even know if at my age I can still reach that goal but finding an effective way to lose weight already makes me happy, I will just work hard on making this a sustainable one.

What did I do?

1. Goodbye Junkfoods - This is the hardest part of it all, I love chips and corn puffs these are my vices. Do you know that I can consume one pack of Trader Joe's Corn Puffs(as big as a Lay's) or one regular can of Pringles in just one sitting? This is where self-discipline came into play, I didn't stop eating them but I cut down from eating everyday to twice a week and instead of munching on one bag while watching TV, I just put the suggested one serving in a bowl. When it's finished, it's finished no going back for more.
2. Fruits as Snack - I turned to fruits to replace my junkfoods. These days I munch on Grapefruits which I read helps in boosting your metabolism. I didn't like it at first but I kept buying from different stores until I found one that sells a good variety, I now buy from Mollie Stones. I fell inlove with Trader Joe's Valencia Oranges too! gosh they are so sweet and juicy. 
   
3. Read and Research - I believe there's science in dieting so I read about how our body and metabolism works, husband reads about it too so he shared some info to me I learned that at my age, we burn protein faster than carbs. For a filipino this can be really difficult as rice makes 90% of our meals, again I had to keep my eye to the goal, I HAVE to go extra easy on rice if I want to lose weight and there's no other way. Also, starving yourself doesn't work because it will only make your body signal your brain for more food (thus the yoyo effect). You need to eat but the right foods.
4. Meal Planning - It's important that you watch your calories intake like a hawk if you're serious about losing weight and if you're not active as an athlete. I started limiting my diet to 1000 calories per day and I list down my the calories from breakfast to dinner. But I noticed my milk supply is affected as my calorie intake decreases so I stayed within the normal limit for women of about 1200 to 1400 calories and nothing more. With meal planning you get to plan what you're going to eat for breakfast or lunch when you know you have a buffet dinner to attend to. Learn to love salad to compensate for a big lunch or dinner because veggies are free food, meaning you can eat as much veggies as you want without hurting your calorie budget. Husband and I love to throw in some Smoked Salmon and nuts for protein to our salads. Example of my calorie budget:
                    Coffee - 0
                    2 packets sugar - 10 cal
                    1 tsp creamer - 10 cal
                    2 toasted bread - 120 cal
                    1 tbsp Biscoff spread - 90 cal
                    TOTAL breakfast - 230 cal


                    Barley Tea - 0
                    Chicken Burritos - 350 cal
                    TOTAL breakfast - 350 cal


                     1 Apple with light caramel dip - 80 cal
                     TOTAL snacks - 80 cal


                      1/2 cup brown rice - 110 cal
                      salmon steak - 250 cal (according to the recipe book)
                      TOTAL dinner - 360 cal


                    GRAND TOTAL = 1020 calories


5. Goodbye Pork, Hello Fish and Chicken and sometimes Steak - This is more for health issues than weight loss. We're pork-less for about three months now, we only had lechon, pork binagoongan, lechon kawali when we had visitors because simply, it's more fun to feast on them with friends. :)
6. Goodbye Juice, hello tea - We stopped drinking Coke a long time ago, I like Trader Joe's lemonade but because I need to limit the calories, I make my own Lemon Water and brew Barley Tea. This way I'm sure it's truly sugar-free, it doesn't take a lot of time to slice lemons and toss it to a pitcher with water, and you can buy Barley tea for hot and cold water at Japanese grocery. Husband likes Naked Juice but I prefer eating real fruits. Twice a week we go for our favorite Jamba Juice go lite.
   
7. Exercise! Exercise! - I try to squeeze in gym time even if I only have 30 minutes per day, when husband comes home from work I asked him to watch the stove and the kids so I can run to the gym in the next building and hit the treadmill while waiting for our dinner to cook. I only get to burn a mere 150 cal max but it's okay, it's better than nothing right? I also need to improve my cardio if I want to keep up with active boy toddlers.  During kids' nap time I do the Core Rhythm exercise by following the video I bought from manong dibidibidi. I never thought a P35 dvd can become so useful. 
   
   
   

And that's it! I don't claim this to be the holy grail of dieting but the bottom line is find a system that can work with your lifestyle. Like you can't go on a starving diet if you're a programmer/software engineer because you need a full stomach to work your brain and you can't go for Nothing-after-six if your work shift begins at 8pm. South Beach or Paleo diet don't work for me because I can't cook a different menu for me and the kids, the husband. Because dinner is a family thing for us, I need to cook a proper supper and I just have a light lunch and breakfast. I can't have Cheat Days because I can be weak and I have a tendency to overdo it, so I allow myself to eat what I want any day as long as I adjust my other meals accordingly. That is Sustainable Diet. :)

I will update if I am able to get my Pandora bracelet, husband thinks I have to change it to a more realistic goal, but we never know right? ;p 

         

Back to Blogging!

I used to be a diligent blogger during my single lady days, if adsense had been invented then I would have earned enough for my favorite past time at that time-- shopping. My husband has been urging me to create one again, a friend said instead of putting my thoughts in facebook, why not go back to blogging. The thing is a blog takes time to write while checking Facebook news feed, posting pics and writing a status only take a few minutes in between raising kids and keeping the house clean and bright.  Believe it or not, an easy 30 minute concentration time for some is a luxury for a mom like me.

But I have a lot of thoughts going on that I want to put on words, and I want a location to keep my recipes without having to go through my Timeline to find it. So here I am blogging again! I promise myself to find time to improve this, and put all my treasured recipes here.

Time's up!