Week 2 - Muffin Top Challenge ( My Confession )

As I'm entering the week 2 for muffin top challenge, the challenge itself become tougher. And it's getting tougher to cut the carbs while you're on PMS. The urge to munch and eat a lot is increased. The body is bloating and nothing I feel beside feeling exhausted all the time.

Today,I cheated ( Yes..I confess ). I took so some potato crisps, not the whole portion, just tiny bit, and I had sugary meal on the way home. All of them satisfied me a lot and seriously divine!! Luckily I could stop myself not eating them too much.

However, this week is really challenging. I miss my Nescafe coffee so bad. I don't mind cut the carbs for the whole two weeks but my coffee?? Ohh..it's killing me! It's my toughest challenge. I haven't have my coffee for 2 weeks now. It's like missing your boyfriend unti it hurts ( okay I probably exagerrating ). Don't know what will I do if this challenge finally accomplished.

Well, anyway..my diet is not compeletely ruined, I had grilled chicked salad with avocado, kiwi fruit, and not to forget my fat fighther : Lemon Water!! Cheers!

Muffin Top Challenge - 3 Days Recap

Although I can't really put my progress in daily basis, I'm proudly announce that my waist line is slimmed down. I haven't measured yet, have my trousers as my bench mark. Most of them are loose already, I think I'm back to my normal size. Now, I don't need to squeeze my abs to button my trousers.

I still have more clothes to fit on before I actually stop my muffin top challenge program. It's still going on, until I can fit to all my old clothes.

During my challenge, I found three new besties, they are avocados, edamame and lemon. Boy, they are my savior. Everyday, I take lemon water and to make my meal fulfilling I add extra avocados. They are tasty and divine. Avocados are good for anything, mix with chicken, tossed in salad, or as a dip.
I take edamame as my snack or whenever I have crave to munch something.

As for lemon, it really helps me burn more fat and great thirst quencher. I still have 10 days to do low carb        ( limiting less than 100g each day ), by the time I finish with 2 weeks low carb, I will start gradually consume the good carbs.

Staying positive! Expect nothing but the result.

Going Bold for 2 Weeks Total Low Carb Diet - Day 1

After 1 week decreasing my carb intake to just 175g per day, I'm rising the bar to a very low carb diet for just 2 weeks.

Today is the first day, for the first time after years and years I give up my favorite Nescafe French Vanilla *ouch* . Very tough indeed, I feel soo sleepy. My brain is not connected to real world, I felt not awakened yet. I hope that's just my mind set. I don't feel hungry, just very sleepy because I have to really give up my Nescafe french vanilla.

For breakfast, I ate lettuce with pan seared beef patties, tofu cubes and beansprout. Quite fullfiling although I missed my coffee.

At snack time, I had raw carrot sticks, canned tuna and lettuce. Because I couldn't help myself not having coffee, I changed my coffee to just semi black coffee with no sugar, just some tiny drops of low fat milk. Oh boy..I'm awakened already.

My lunch meal still consist of high protein and no carb. It was only sauteed beansprout, spinach and tempeh. If I get hungry among the 3 main meal times, I just much peanuts or carrot sticks.

My first day on very low carb is quite daunting, but I stay positive and just get on with it.

My Guilt Free Snacks

Having an appetite like a wolf, I often get hungry in within 2 hours. And because I low food so much that I don't want to give up my food like that. So what to do ? I had done browsing and reading what food I can eat without gaining weight and deliciously fulfilling.  Here are my favorites :

1. Edamame

Boiled edamame have it cold or warm

Also popular with the name green soy bean, vegetable bean or beer bean whatever you want to name it has many health benefits and very easy to prepare ( with just 2 minutes to cook in boiling water ). The soybean is a complete protein containing isoflavones and filled with antioxidants. Edamame has no cholesterol, very little saturated fat and has higher protein than other soy beans.
Edamame is also great addition for your salad or side dish. I love the natural flavor of edamame so I won't add any flouring, not even salt.


2. Peanuts
When the needs of something crunchy, I munch for peanuts. The delicious taste and crunchy texture is the reason why I love this snack. Peanuts can lower your cholesterol level and low in carbohydrate.

3. Cheddar Cheese 
One slice of Kraft Cheddar Cheese can boost my energy before exercise. I often buy the single pack, because it's very easy to carry and can go with anything from just salad, tuna, beef and even fruit ( love the mixed taste of cheddar cheese and kiwi fruit ). If you miss the taste of dairy products then cheddar cheese is something you can grab.

4. Kiwi Fruit 
Seriously, I can never get enough with this fruit. I can have 2 kiwi fruits each day. Kiwi fruits is very rich in vitamin C, lower carbohydrates than apple (kiwi has 11g carbs and apple 16g of carbs ). The refreshing taste ( and little bit of sour ) really fits my taste bud. Beside high in vitamin C, Kiwi also another great source of antioxidants and potassium. Cut the kiwi into half and just scoop it out!


5. Apple

The old saying one apple a day keep a doctor away is really true. Consuming an apple each day can fight the bad cholesterol. The other benefit is apple can reduce the risk for breast cancer and colon cancer. The pectin in apples can lower the insulin level and may help for those who suffer diabetes.

6. Carrots 
Eat them raw or cook it into soup or toss them into salad, carrots is just good in any way. The sweet crunchy texture, high in beta carotene, respectable calcium content is top notch  for fat fighting. Recent research from Harvard University eating carrots five times a week, can decrease the risk of stroke.

So, there you are my favorite guilt free snacks to keep your body fueled. Have them in any way you like, but make sure to exclude sugar in the process and limit the salt.

My Week 1 Progress (3 Weeks Muffin Top Challenge )

I didn't realize it's been one week that I decided to back on my low carb diet and with well planned exercise. For the record, I'm really happy with my result. There's no significant result on the weight but I'm cheering for the 1.5cm disappearance of my muffin top! Woot..woot...

Though I've had done low card diet before, doing it again now is still a challenge for. The first day is the toughest of course, the second day my body start to adjust and the next days are just easier for me to do. On the day 1, I only consume 250g of carbs, next day I lowered down to 200g, on the next day 175g until now, I maintain to 175g of carbs each day.

I go to the gym 4 times in a week, with combination of weight training, running and dancing. If I don't have my dance class, I run for 3km if I have class, I don't do running. Saturdays is my cardio day, when I have 3.5 running and 2 dance classes ( with 2 hours rest before my dance classes ).

This result surely motivate me to do more. Get myself more active, learning the right techniques when doing weight training, eat more sensible food. By the way for the last one week I've been tracking my food intake on www.livestrong.com.

Since today ( Sunday ) is my whole day to rest my body, I limit my carbs intake just until 150g and more on protein.

I have 2 weeks to go to shed some kgs and banishing my muffin top. Wish me LUck!!

When Life Gives You Lemon..

Just simply squeeze it and make it into juice and if you are too lazy to squeeze a lemon then cut into 2-3 slices and make fresh lemon flavored water!

Daily consumption of lemon can make huge difference for your skin. It acts as anti-aging remedy and can remove wrinkles and blackheads ( bye bye expensive skin treatment ), lemon also contains vitamin B, riboflavin, calcium ( who would ever thought? ) and magnesium.

Lemon waters works like wonder to control your blood pressure consider the content of potassium in it. Lemon water can treat a person who is suffering from cold, flu or fever. It helps to break fever by increasing perspiration. The very best of lemon is it is good for weight loss !

If lemon is so good for you, how much you should drink ? It depends on you. If you are weigh less than 70kg, one ounce of lemon juice is enough for you. But if you are weigh than 70kg, it is preferred to consume 2 ounces lemon juice each day.

So, don't be afraid when life gives you lemon, simply cherish it!

How Far Would You Go To Lose Weight?

Yes..how far would you go to lose weight? Starving yourself ? Never ending exercise? and if you have extra money perhaps you would go for surgery to get rid off the fats. I think those that I mentioned above are the common examples how women is very determined to lose weight. And...I thought the things I mentioned are already extreme enough. I wouldn't go there,definitely not.

While I was browsing about diet trends, foods and exercise, I stumbled upon to more extreme diets that actually exist in this world. The articles and the video how these diets are really shocking. The shocking part is there are actually people who are doing it.

I put top two extreme thing that people will do to lose weight. First is HCG diet. When I read and watch the video on YouTube about this type of diet, I was dumbfounded..I was like..'seriously?' It's a hormone injection. But not just any hormone, but it's hormone from pregnant woman's urine *straight face*. So this diet only allows you to eat just 500 calories a day! And you inject this hormone to make your body thinks you are pregnant ? *please correct me if I'm wrong*

The second one is tongue patch diet. Now this is also interesting, would you dare yourself to have a mesh to be sewn on to your tongue? and you can only have liquid food? what if you want to eat solid food? Will you be craving some more? Again, in the name of losing weight many still doing it.

If we have given the opportunity to do the both in order losing weight, would you dare to try it? I would not if you ask me. No matter the temptation to lose weight fast, I'm not going to do it. Well, yes..I need some improvement in my other body parts, but I don't think to go that far, do I ?

Yes, would be nice if you are thin then you can wear anything. But then again, will you be willing to pay big bucks just for the numbers on the scale?

What matters is being healthy and by being healthy you can stay happy and positive!

Months, Weeks, Days, Hours, Minutes and Secondss

After months and weeks and days I haven't updated my blog with deepest sorry that I have to lose my title as "Suddenly Slimmer" and turn to "Suddenly Chubby" for couple of weeks. This happened because I'd been trying my old trousers again..and what came to surprise that they are all tighter than before. Well..I'm not supposed to be surprise if you see me eating like mad even though I still go to the gym for dance classes and running.

Just on Sunday, the force to getting back on track, eat the right food, planning my exercise, getting all motivated. and finding the spirit back. I'm back on doing researches about latest exercises, food, everything that I need to support me back as "Suddenly Slimmer".

So with motivation and determination as my allies, the journey is begun.

PS : this is not just for dieting and exercising but everything in life..