Super Pro-Active Approach Needed

If I have learnt anything this past 2 weeks, it's that it's not enough to want. You really have to go and do something. Make an effort. As I write this, the new pescetarian Mint Kit Kat is staring at me, daring me to eat it. After having bought it 4 days ago, it's been taunting me to give in and sink my teeth into its smooth fudge, crunchy and gooey yumminess. My tug-of-war with it needs to end very, very soon.

Anyway, back to the point. I've been getting worse recording what I eat on the fitness app. The food diary is completely out the window. My main excuse this week for not eating right is:
"But menu planning is so-o hard. I have no framework to refer to. How am I suppose to know what to eat or what not to eat? Just seeing all those stats aren't helping me." Well, the stats are not helping because I've NOT BEEN MAKING USE OF THEM AT ALL!  What a pathetic excuse for myself. "No framework", go look for something on the Internet! And if that fails, go pay a nutritionist to tell you what to eat! There's the framework right there!

The second excuse is that I'm moving toward vegetarianism/veganism. Ok, let's look at this. Basically,
 I don't want to support large-scale animal faming. When it comes to free-range animals, well, I've never been to the farm, so I don't know how "free-range" they are. Better to err on the safe side.

Being vegetarian is about not eating meat all of sorts, including seafood. (Those who eat seafood but not land animals are pescetarian). Being a vegan also includes not eating animal-derived products such as eggs and dairy. Technically it should probably also include honey, but I'm not going to go there yet. So the logic is: if I don't support animal-farming, I shouldn't also eat things derived from animals that are also part of the animal-farming system.

Now that we have that part cleared, the next thing is: am I ready to make a serious commitment to this?
It will certainly take a lot more work than just eating healthy. Am I ready to put in the amount of work needed? Bearing in mind, as I've learnt in the past two weeks, just avoid eating meat and counting calories is not enough to ensure a proper diet. At the rate I went last week, I'm going to have some health problems down the road. So am I truly ready? 

The answer is: I'm going to give it my best shot. Now that that's clear, here're the things I need to do: 

1) Learn more about nutrition and diet. Go pick up some books on the subject and read about it.
2) Have variety in my meals. Whatever I've eaten, if they're not leftovers, try not to eat the same ingredients again.
3) Allow myself two treats a week. Treats are defined as: anything chocolate-related, cakes, packaged snacks, and candy. This definition can be changed later. Since my week starts from Saturday to Friday, then one treat on Saturday, and one on Tuesday. Those are  treats days. It's not about stuffing my face. It's about having one bar of chocolate or one piece of cake. 
4) Make one pot of Chinese soup each week. I've been totally skimping out on this. None of that anymore. Drinking Chinese soups help prevent health problems, and they usually taste ok.
5) Make 3 smoothies each week. Try to keep them different from treats days. So maybe smoothie on Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. It helps to plan ahead what I want to drink. Gives myself a sense of anticipation.
6) Stick to the three-day-a-week gym thing. If I have some activities coming up, then consider two days in a row, or even going to gym in the morning. Definitely make an effort to go to gym at least once on the weekend. There are less people about and I like that.
7) Stick to the 2 litres of water a day plan. 

What can help is to put up a nutrition/treat calendar. Mark down the days I'm going to have the treats and what kind of treats I would like to have. Same thing with the smoothies. That will give me something to look forward to. That's important. It's going to help keep me going, especially on the days when I just want to opt out and think it's too much hard work. 

This is what the nutrition calendar/treats look like: 

The Special Events section is to note down anything not of the ordinary such as friend's birthday, trips made etc. Haven't quite decided yet what to write in the other days. Am sure something will come up eventually. 

Having gotten that settled, the next step is to simply list down all the ingredients I eat each day and with the three main nutrients associated with that ingredient. 

Here's an example: 

All foods probably have more than 3 nutrients. I'm simply narrowing it down and picking what the food is best associated for. Couldn't find anything on the beancurd skin, but it's similar to tofu. 

That way, even when I pick up food from the restaurant, I can still write down the ingredients, do a bit of nutrition fact-finding online, and have something to work on.

When it comes to menu-planning, I can pick three nutrients to focus on. This week, it's Calcium, Iron, and Protein. Then, I check in the nutrition chart which foods have any of these. Here's a list:

Protein:

Peas, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, tofu, grains, rice, oats, peanut butter, tahini. 

Calcium:

Green leafy veges, tofu, tahini, almonds, brasil nuts, figs, soy milk.

Iron:

Quinoa, molasses, beans and dark leafy veges, lentils, peas, and wheatgerm. 

Ok, now we're ready for menu-planning. I will take each of the ingredients in the Protein section as a basis for searching recipes to make. If the recipe has other ingredients that also has the other two nutrients, then great. If not, try to include other ingredients from the other 2 sections into this week's menu. 

The final step is to include the ingredients into the fitness app, not so much for the calories (which I still need to keep an eye on, but it's not that accurate so I will not live and die by it), but to see where the nutritions level are.

Alright, off to do my menu-planning. I will also try to post more often with what I ate. 

Some Attitudes Towards Food

Got a check-up for body fat today. This was the one-month-after appointment from last month, to see if any improvements were made. The results were a bit disappointing, but then, I did fall off the wagon for 2 weeks. All the more reason to get back on board. The next appointment should yield better results. 

An important thing I learnt today: how much calories I should be eating each meal to fulfill my target of 1200 - 1300 a day. 

Breakfast = 250 - 300 cal.

Lunch and dinner = 300 cal each meal

Snacks = 100 cal each, 2-3 times a day.

The reasoning with eating minimum 5 meals a day is to assure the body that I'm not going to starve itself, so it doesn't need to store fat. Apparently eating too few calories leads to starvation mode, which causes the body to react in the way mentioned above. Ergo, no weight loss. Maybe that could also be the reason the results today were what they were.

Having just finished watching the "What's Wrong With What We Eat" series on TED, it got me thinking. This thing about calories, why did it exist? Because people became more concerned about nutrition and they want to live healthy and have longevity. But I think, is it because we are actually disconnected with what we eat? That we don't know how to eat? That we are easily swayed by advertising and convenience? That we let our eyes decide what we should be feeding ourselves and not our stomaches that is actually doing the digestion? 

I realise my attitude about food has got to change. All along, my idea about food is simply something to stick into my body so that it will be able to function in good condition, leaving me the ability to do things I like, or go to work. Eating was something to be tolerated. Forget about cooking. It seemed like a terrible chore. So much work for 15 minutes of shoveling stuff into my mouth. And to have to do it three times a day? Lord! 

As I grow older, I realise that's simply not going to work. There's a flaw in that logic. My belief needs to change. Even if I've yet to learn to enjoy food, at least I can start with giving it some respect. The farmers work very hard to put the food on my table. This is also why I can't stand to throw food away, even if it has gone bad.

When I just started out on the cooking expedition, I had a poor idea of how long fresh food lasts, even in the fridge.  Since I did not cook them in time, they went bad, and I had to throw them out. It left a bad taste in my mouth. After a couple of times, I felt like a hypocrite. For that reason, I made a really conscious effort to make what I have in the fridge, and not buy so much each time. 

Having taken that decision, the next step is still menu-planning. I still find that to be a chore. Maybe I need to make it into some kind of a game. Find some way to encourage myself. Just saying that it will save me money is simply not enough. 

Another attitude I need to change is that when I am running low on funds for the week, my first reaction is to eat less. What can be more important in this world than feeding myself? That's the mindset I need to change. This is what I'm telling my body: 

My dear dear body, when push comes to shove, rest assured that I will no longer be elbowing you out of the way to feed some other less important desire. Your wellbeing comes first!

And The Results Show...

Finally, it's the time of reckoning. Here's what one week of eating looks like:

The numbers on the far right are the goals set by the Fitness app. Quick analysis:
1) Stay away from Polyunsaturated and Monounsaturated Fat.
2) Keep the sugar numbers low.
3) Slight increase in protein intake.
4) Need to bring the Calcium and Iron numbers up.
5) Hang on with the Vitamin A and C.

Calcium-rich foods I need to add to my diet this week:
Green leafy vege, tofu, tahini, almonds and brasil nuts, figs, soy milk

Iron-rich foods:
Quinoa, molasses, beans and dark leafy vege, lentils, peas, wheatgerm

Good! This gives me direction on what to eat / make for the week. :)

I have to admit, am still quite terrible with the procrastination of doing the food diary. I don't know if it's because of guilt ("I can do better but I'm not") or just plain laziness or both. In any case, I have to get my act together.

Here's the list of staples that should be in my food cupboard:

Chicken Broth
Beef Broth
Canned tomatoes
Tomato sauce
Tomato paste
Can/jar of marinara sauce
Canned beans: white, black, kidney, garbanzo
Tuna

More to follow in the next post.

Oh, there's a series of TED Talks about food that's quite good. Check them out when you have the time. The series is called: What's Wrong With What We Eat. http://www.ted.com/playlists/75/what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html

Restarting Again

Filled with good intentions and some determination to get started on the new program, the events in the last two weeks proved I was no match for external forces and influences. Two weeks ago, my birthday was celebrated twice, one of which involved a dinner outing and another involved a potluck dinner at my place, complete with cake. Last week, our company had a conference for customers. This means: buffet lunches and nice dinners throughout the week. Very bad news for my nutrition program.

Here are some of the difficulties I encountered in the past two weeks:

a) When dining out, a lot of dishes from various restaurants are not listed in the Fitness app I'm using to keep track of calories. Therefore, it's difficult to gauge how many calories I've eaten since I can't find the foods to key them in.  Key-in according to the ingredients? That would only give me a rough idea. Better than nothing?

b) There is a tendency to eat a bit more at a buffet. Not to the point of stuffing oneself until you can barely move, but I find I tend to go for seconds (or even thirds!), especially at a buffet that I didn't have to pay for. What this means is: I have to bear in mind my overall food goal and just train myself not to overeat.

c) Using the above as excuses is also a terrible thing.

I am not in a hurry to lose weight. I believe each one has his/her optimum weight. As long as you are comfortable, then it should not matter whether you are skinny or chubby. We need a certain amount of energy to do things, even if it's just sitting around watching tv. However, to eat just because we are bored is best avoided. Where I'm at now, I'm about 2-3 kgs away from my optimum weight range. As long as I'm conscious of this, losing weight (hopefully) wouldn't be such a chore.

That being said, I am suppose to workout at the gym 3 times a week. Again, due to the last two weeks' of socialising and activities, I've not managed to stick to this. I'm not proud of it, but I am ready to try again. Keep trying. That's what I tell myself, no matter how many times I fall off the wagon.

Money is another issue. I give myself a budget of $250/week for living expenses. This does not include rent and utilities, but it's pretty much for everything else. Clothes, facials, food, socialising, entertainment etc all fall under this budget. Within each category, I have a monthly budget too, so as not to overspend in certain areas. What this means is: if I bought a new dress, I would either have to put the entire amount into that week's budget, which means less on all other stuff, or spread it out throughout the month to lessen the burden. I tried to have items spread out in more than 2 months. It did not work very well.

Here's an example:
Total budget for the week: $250
Dress: $50
Facial: $35

The dress is sort of a one-time deal, and the facial occurs every month, so the balance for the week is $165. Assuming I have no plans to watch any movies or buy anything else, that's how much I have for food. With this amount, I can split it even further: 50% for groceries, the rest for dining out, which includes eating with friends. Therefore, the question becomes: how to eat in a nutritious manner with $82.50 (that I can control?) Eating out is a bit of a hit-and-miss with nutrition because it's harder to calculate. However, by being more selective about where I eat, maybe that can also be considered part of the equation? I will sort this out later.

One of the things I bought this week is a blender for fruit smoothies. Is there a quicker and easier way than to get my  3 servings of fruit in a day? However, although the money for the blender is spread out throughout the month, I also had to get some personal items, which have me ended up with $88.40 for food this week.

There are a few movies going on now for the French Film Festival. But with tickets at $16.50 a pop, I doubt I will be able to watch more than 1 movie a week. Probably not this week.

To be fair, a lot of people can probably feed a family of four with $88.40. They probably don't mind traveling to a far-off place to get cheap vegetables. I haven't given myself that option yet. So, based on what's in my fridge, my challenge is to be able to feed myself in as nutritious a manner as possible with the limited budget I have. The worst-case scenario is to overspend, and carry the excess over to next week's budget. I really try not to do that because it just means that every week I have less to spend. Simply not a good habit.

Going off topic a little, last night, at a party, some friends were commenting about the debt-crisis that's going on around the world. One of the comments was about the limit of interest in loans. Basically, people should not be made to pay too much more than what they borrowed. If not, by making minimum payment, they would never be rid of the debt. Conversely, I wonder: is it possible to limit the amount of debt someone can accumulate? For example, if you have a mortgage loan on a house, you can't take out a second mortgage or carry a loan for a boat. Or maybe even be prevented to have a credit card and use debit cards only? Would that help the debt-crisis?


Anyway, here's what I have in my fridge at the moment:
1 pack of vegetarian sausages - expiry date Feb 24 2013 - finish by this week
5 sticks of corn - steam them today for snacking throughout the week. Look for recipes that requires corn as an ingredient.
1 small jar of tomato paste
1 stick of carrot
3 small pots of mango-flavored yoghurt
half a medium pot of minced garlic

From the pantry:
7 small pieces of kumara (same family as the potatoes) - bought them to make curry. Look for recipes that requires kumara as an ingredient
1 pack of Maggi's Just One Pan Honey Soy Chicken Stirfry - can probably make this with the vegetarian sausages
1 pack of Malaysian Fish Curry sauce - use the vegetarian sausages for this too, plus the carrot
1/3 pack of red lentils
1/3 pack of bulghur wheat
1 box of couscous
1 pack of pasta
1 jar of branston pickles - tastes well with toasted bread
1 small bag of frozen hash browns
2 packs of instant noodles
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of Mexican fried beans
1 can of tomatoes
1 bag of pasta sauce
1 can of red salmon

Things don't seem too bad after all. Just get some veges and I might just make it this week!
In my next update, I'll share my food diary and nutrition chart. I'll also talk about the kinds of essential foods every kitchen should have (including one as bare as mine). This is a list given to my by the nutritionist I consulted. Another thing I will start doing is comparing grocery bills from different supermarkets.