Low Carb My Way!

My first encounter with low carb diet was when I was trying to lose weight. I've done different types of diets and even tried some diet pills. They didn't workout well. I met my trainer and he suggested me to do low carb. So, that time I looked and searched whole informations about low carb.

When it comes to low carb, we always refer to Atkins diet. But I'm not a total fan of Atkins Diet but I'm a big fan of low carb diet. My low carb diet is modification from Atkins, South Beach or any other low carb diets. I do admend some of Atkins rule in low carb and alter it to my own calorie needs and activities. I'm quite active person, 5 times a week in the gym and I do half marathon 3 times a week.


So, as for my low carb is nothing but eating plan. And low carb doesn't mean I eat nothing but fats and proteins. I'm just consuming fewer carbs than other people. I eliminate almost all simple carbs except fruits, and fruits I only take low sugar and medium sugar fruits such as apple, pear, strawberry or avocado. I really go low on sugar intake. Put away all those sugary drinks and switch to total water, sometimes I mix it with lemon slices to vary.

Low carb my way is more eliminate all the bad carbs such as noodle, white rice, potatoes, starchy food, even to brown rice. For breakfast, I consume a low carb biscuits. Afterwards, I minimize my carb intake.  For energy boost before running or workout just apple and cheese string.         

It's very easy to do, I don't time when I have to eat. Whenever I'm hungry,I eat ( low carb of course ). Just take it easy, low carb is not that hard. Do it your own way because you know yourself better.

Happy Low Carbing!

What's In The Diet Pills ?

Many of you who have overweight or obesity problem must have tried diet pills. I have to confess, that I have used different type of diet pills, not just pills, the slimming tea, and even laxative. Anything that says "melt away the pounds", "fat burner" I would buy it. Did they work? Yes, but only for short term! When I stopped consuming those pills, I gained more weight and my body become resistant to the pills.

The funny thing is, I lost weight by doing low carb which I design to my own need. So, I came to a conclusion, the actual fat burners are come from real food!

Herbal diet pills, even though they are "all natural" can have potentially dangerous side effects depending upon their ingredients. "Herbal" does not necessarily means "safe".

However, I still curious what's inside the diet pills. Why they can make promises losing weight so quick? When you read the ingredients are you familiar with the names ? Most diet pills mainly contain of these ingredients below :

1. Orlistat ( Xenical ) - is used as fat blockers and remove excess fats through the intestines. These drugs also reduce the body's absorption of essential vitamins and nutrients.

2. Sibutramine - normally used as appetite suppressants stimulate the sympathetic nervouse system, which can raise blood pressure and heart rate.

3. Ephedrine - Many use this drug as dietary supplement to purpose weigh loss and body building. Consuming too much of this drug will cause stroke, and heart attack.

4. Norepinephrine and epinephrine - are chemicals that dictate metabolic responses within the body, such as oxygen release in muscles, blood vessel dilation and constriction and raising blood pressure. They are commonly used to treat depression.

( In my opinion )these drugs probably consumed to maintain "the happy feeling" so we can stick to our exercise.

Surely, diet pills are not a magic solution for weight loss. If you can eat real food why bother taking diet pills?

Abs Are Made in The Kitchen Not in The Gym

The title above is inspired by one of Dave Zinczenko's tweets ( he's Men's and Women's Health Editor), and somewhat true. It's a wake up call for everyone who is doing hundreds of crunches for flatter abs, and yet still wondering why those fats still hanging happily in your belly. 

Doing too many crunches at the expense of other, more comprehensive movements can lead to the dreaded “aerobic abs.”  That’s the term celebrity trainer Steve Maresca coined to describe the distended stomachs of those who focus only on the rectus abdominus muscles targeted by sit-ups and crunches. 

Thousand times of crunches and longer core exercises won't make your abs flat if you don't eat the right food. Now, the right food sure comes from the kitchen right? So, what to eat ? 

Start cooking low carb food, embrace the good fat such as; olive oil, avocado, fish etc, avoid deep fried food as often as possible and try to reduce the sodium intake. 

The man made his points though, I don't do much sit-ups ( 20 reps maximum ) for the last 4 years, I'm more focus on the food intake, how my food is prepared. I need to know what ingredients are in my food. I spend a long time doing my grocery because reading all the nutrition facts. When the food contains a lot of carbohydrates, sugars and sodium, I skip them. 

The Flat abs starts in the kitchen! 

I'd Rather Be Low Carber Eater Than Burning Calories

When you consuming something, especially food that contain trans fat, sugar and salt, ever thought how to get rid of the calories that stay in your belly? or the effect caused after you consume them?  I don't mean to scare people off, but seriously when you find out how much calories you have taken and the effort to lose them, it's probably won't worth at all. 

Here are some rough examples  and the estimated of calories you'll consume :

• Muffin : 1 muffin is equal to 300-350 calories, 43.1 gram carbohydrates, 22.7 gram sugars. 
• Donut : 1 original donut is sames as 200 - 250 calories, 39 gram carbohydrates and 18 gram sugars. Bear in mind that the numbers of calories, carbohydrates and sugars are increase along with the type of glazing. If you take jelly glazed donut, the calorie intake will reach to 350 calories per 1 donut. 
• Cookie : 1 cookie carries 66 calories, 8.4 gram carbohydrates, and 3.5 gram of sugars. Yes, it's only 1 cookie, can you imagine if you eat up until 10 cookie chips? Just multiply the numbers !
• Noodles : A 160gram of noodle contain 221 calories, 40.3 carbohydrates and 0.6 gram of sugars.
• Croissant : 1 plain croissant is equal to 270 calories, 28 gram carbohydrates and 4gram of sugar

Now let's calculate how much effort you have to do when you eat the food above : To burn 300 calories you need to run at least 5km with average pace of 8.5km/hour, do 45 minutes of high intensity aerobic and the tough deal is even 500 times of crunches will not make the calories to go away instantly. 

Having one donuts will have to run
5km with pace 8.5km/hour

Just another note, the healthy daily intake for carbohydrate is 300 gram/day                              ( that's maximum ! ). I mention the sugars on purpose, because sugar is type of simple carbohydrate. So,if you eat 1 muffin for breakfast, the total carbohydrate that you have eaten will be 65.8gram. Now,in order to lose weight, you need to reduce your carbohydrate intake to 100-200gram each day. If you have just one muffin in the morning, it will only leaves you to 35-135gram carbohydrate (hmm...not really a good news eh? ). 

The more calories you take, the harder you have to exercise. If you have exercise too hard, will cause you over training, and not good for your body. 

Conclusion ? Yes, I'd rather be low carber than I have to work hard on burning calories. I want to maximize my training by limiting my carbohydrates intake. If you don't fancy a gym, reducing carbohydrates will help your diet. 

Healthy Food Gone Bad

I was strolling the supermarket yesterday, I was hungry and I was looking for some energy booster as I was going to exercise. I needed something fulfilling, yet still in low carb. And what I found out was not appealing at all..

The healthy foods that suppose to support our diet can go bad for us. We all know carrots, apple, peanuts, lemon, fish, chicken breast, oats, grains, shrimps and even water are really good for us.  What make them bad is the additional ingredients. The number one is sugar, sugar can be used as preservatives or flavor enhancer. Sugar is easily absorb by the body, and change into energy. I've seen power bars that claimed to be good for you, but contain lots of sugar. Yes, it is really powerful before you go exercise, but when checking Another example is oat biscuits. We all know oat is good carbohydrate and high in fibre, but then the manufacturer add some sugar in it, then the oat biscuit become dangerous for your health.

As for drinks, I see many packaged drinks are loaded with sugar. Especially green tea drinks. Yes, green tea is very good, rich in nutrients, works as antioxidant but then the sad thing is the manufacturer add more sugar in it. So, the green tea which suppose to give us all the benefits turn into guilty drink, because the added sugar.

I had to put away the muesli bar and green tea, I looked for another option, peanuts and pumpkin seeds. Again, I was disappointed when I read the nutrition fact on the back, sadly the manufacturer put sugar and salt in it. Even the peanuts now have great deal of carbs.

Secondly, is salt. Same as sugar, salt is often used as preservative and give flavor to food. But when you have it too much, your blood pressure will increase. The high sodium food can be found on canned food or processed food.

Thirdly, deep fried food. Anything that goes too much will ruin your health and diet. I love dory fish so much, but when you fry it in deep oil or make it into fish and chips, your good fat turn into bad fat ( trans fat ).

So, let's maintain our food healthy and eat wisely. Cut back the sugars and salt. Might taste bland, but your body and taste bud will adjust. Make sure you read the nutrition facts before you buy anything.

At the end I bought apples and mini Babybel cheese and they are worked like a charm.

Hello Again Low Carb

Low carb post workout meal : stir fry veggie, egg, plain
yoghurt with fresh fruits

From all the diet types I have tried, low carb is the one works best for me. Because I still can eat 4-6 times each, no hunger, no sorrow and yet I lose weight. Whenever, I feel to flatten my stomach, or gain weight, I simply cut the carbs, eat plenty of good protein and of course exercise 3 times a week. 


The trick to be succesful low carb is cut the sugar and sodium, which is quite tough because they are hidden in processed foods, drinks and claimed low fat. Being low carber, you have be good friends with the good fat, such as butter, olive oil,etc. Your other best friend doing low carb is proteins, swap your mash potatoes, rice and other carbs with proteins to fill you up. To be really honest when it comes to food, protein and fat are the best mix. Fat makes your food tasty without have to add sugar or salt. 


So, does low carb can be successful if you have sweet tooth ? Nothing is impossible, so the answer even if you have sweet tooth, low carb can be your success diet. How ? I chew on carrots for something sweet, or I'll blend plain yoghurt with kiwi fruit and strawberry. Have the sweet taste from fresh fruits, especially low carb fruits such as apple, kiwi, and berries. You may have little twist with oranges or grapefruits. Another trick is you can take dark chocolate to satisfy your sweet tooth. 

Have these yummy food without worries! 

The great thing about low carb is you can modify your own meal, not much of restriction and you don't need to count your calorie intake. What I do is limited the carb intake which is not more than 150g/ day. 


Being low carber, it is something for long term not just temporary. It's changing a habit, breaking the ice and exploring something new. After 4 years as low carber, it's much easier to control the craving, more sensitive towards sugar and salt. Whoever invented this diet, I salute you. It's the best diet ever! 

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.

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!

Challenging Myself

Having new love for running, I am very keen to educate myself the whole thing about running. For example, what food is best to consume before running and after running, how to run for longer duration without getting exhausted, how to avoid injury during running and still many more. I do really visual myself to be a better runner.

Another goal is..my holiday to Bali which is in 4 weeks time. The bikini body program is starting already. It's still contains running and weight training. To avoid over training, I have to sacrifice one of dancing days. It's sad, but I only miss 1 dancing day and hopefully it will work as expected.

Today, as I have done some researches and some recipes, I've made work out plans, eating plans and even resting plans. So basically, today is the official kick off for the challenge.

How Can I Resist Burger King?

Call it as guilty pleasure. Last night, after 2 hours of exercise and 1 body combat class, the power of Burger King was calling me. My feet instantly moving to the restaurant.

Yep, I know..it should've been exercise first then have those junk food. But, I haven't have junk food for 2 months now. So I guess it's alright *justifying myself mode*

I know too that Burger King is not a healthy choice for dinner. It's high in sugar ( free flow of frozen coke, with same price ),high in simple carbohydrates, high in fat, high sodium. None of them are good for the body.

In my defense, now I go to the gym 5 times a week. So having guilty pleasure it's fine once and a while. As long not everyday or every week..make it like every month or so.

You're Going To Get Beat Up Along The Way

Life is not a success-only journey. You're going to get beat up along the way

I found this quote while writing my journal, then on the way to the gym, I thought that this quote can be applicable on losing weight or keeping fit. Well, it's not literally that you'll get beat up during your losing weight process or maintaining you weight until you have bruises and stuffs.

Here's the thing, after the long hours of exercise and training, I attained my losing weight goal. But turn out it's just one success, it must be followed by maintaining it, and that's what I interpretation of "to get beat up along the way. "

How so? Because maintaining my success story is the hardest part. Imagine when I hit the plateau. Imagine when I'm soooo lazy to go to the gym, no motivation. Imagine when my crave for fatty food is extremely high.

The journey of losing weight and/or keeping fit doesn't stop just when we reached one success. Just consider we have reached one level then we continue to the next level. Another challenges come along. And that's the time for you to get beat up along the way.

But that's not you should worry, take it as a challenge, take it as "the rainbow" of your keeping fit journey.

Diet with Patience

Our patience will achieve more than our force

-Edmund Burke-

For almost couple of weeks, I've been taught the art of patience, including about food. I'm a woman with huge apetite of eating. I'm also an emotional eater. As for this year, I made a promise to myself that my fasting should be better than last year.

So far, I have lost 2 days of fasting due to my bad sore throat. However, I learn really valuable things. I thought I could never live during this fasting month. I thought I would fail again. More temptations to just swallow those food.

But you know, as time to break the fasting comes, all those foods who seem calling me to eat taste ordinary. And I'm telling to myself "Hey..that wasn't so bad after all".

It takes a courage to be patient in dieting. Patience to wait for the result. Patience to resist all the temptations ( fatty food, deep fried etc ). We may fall during our patience, and when you fall you don't stay on the ground but get up and find that patience within you. If it applies in everyday living then it should apply in dieting as well.

Hmmm....

Hmmm..yeaahh...my diet seems falling apart. Overeating is clinging over me. I can't resist the food around and this holiday I have more eating buddies. I'm too scared to look the scale. I'm still going to the gym 3 times a week. But it looks thats not enough. I'm overeating!!

Tonight, I'm determined to start my diet by cutting the carbs but ummm..how can I resist this kung pao chicked with fried rice ??Hmm..start tomorrow perhaps?

Cupcakes : Not Good As It Looks

Cupcakes are everywhere these days. From birthdays to just a thank you symbol. I got some cupcakes as christmas gifts, my students gave away cupcakes as goodie bag.

Cupcakes come in different decorations, relatively inexpensive and many of them are so pretty and cute that it is a shame if you eat it. Here, I found some facts which might stop you to eat them :

1. A cupcake is equivalent to 3 slices of pizza ( ouch )
2. In general, one cupcake consists of 25o calories

3. A cupcake is high in sugar and high in carbs ( do you know what it means right ?)

4. Since a cupcake is high in sugar, so I can assume that a cupcake is nothing but an empty calorie.

Well,I hope the 4 facts above might give a second or third though to consume them. If you fancy to have cupcake/s,it would be wise to exercise in the next day ^-^

The Greatest Wealth

How do you measure your wealth? By diamonds and gold ? Money in the bank? Some people call happiness is the wealth.

For me health is my wealth. You might want to argue with being happy. This is my argument; can you find happiness if you are not healthy? Think a lot of things you can do when you are healthy and think again if you got cancer, what can you do? Mind cancer, how about just cold?

Can you enjoy your life? Can you feel the sun? Can you reach your goals?

If you are healthy, means you are happy. Why? In order to achieve healthy life are exercise, balanced diet and enough rest. When you exercise your body produces endorphine, a natural morphine. Eating the right food, you are putting natural vitamins, natural immune system and detoxicating your body. When you get enough rest, you feel relaxed and recharged.

If you are healthy, you will be able to attain your dreams, you will be able to pass all the troubles in life means you will be happy.

Even we have all the money in the world, but if we just able to lie down in bed with nothing to do. Will you be able to enjoy your wealth? Take vacation, eat fancy food or just shopping ? If you are sick, don't you think your money just goes to the doctor, hospital fee, medicines etc?

We often forget to value health as our investment to live our life. Instead we often torturing our body with toxic. Remember sickness comes because our own fault, we invite the virus or the bacteria to ourselves instead building a fort for our body.

It's never wrong to enjoy life while you are young, but it is always right to enjoy your life in healthy way.

So be healthy and be wealthy..

To Diet For

When you hear the word diet, what comes in your mind? How would you define a diet ?
Before, my definition of diet was skipping meals, restricted food intake and any effort to lose weight.

I met a girl last night in a gathering, she's been smoking and skipping meal just to lose weight. She said it was her diet. I wanted to be preachy about it, but it's her decision..just feel pitty.

Diet for me now is feeding your body with right nutrients in order to make myself healthier. Not just number on the scale or doing a yo yo diet.

A diet should be not a quick fix to reach your so called ideal weight but it should be a change of lifestyle, a change of to healthy eating habit.

DietWeightLoss-O-dRama

A looking back over my shoulder of my weight loss drama. I never thought losing weight could be so much drama. But do you feel the same?
Do you feel when something bad hit you and nothing you want to do beside eat fatty food and feel sorry for yourself? Moi..Been there...

Don't you think my weight loss now came easy..I had my ups and downs. I had frustration with my diet, when the scale wouldn't go to the left. When I had break up, when I things just didnt right.

Whether you realize it or not, dieting and weight loss somehow has effect on you psychologically. That's my personal opinion after everything I've been through.

It's all about mindset and yourself. The success of diet and weight loss not because of top personal trainer and top nutrionist. But it's in you.

YOU ARE THE KEY! yes...you are the one who determine your own success. When you lose the spirit nothing you can do beside whip yourself to go back on track. I know it's hard, especially if you are grieving but just do it.

It's happenning to me now. I'm having a painful broken heart and boy how I want to eat all those fatty food! Well I did though, but still in manageable portion and today I just got back from gym instead of feeling sorry for myself.

By the way, a little tip...if you just broke up...join boxing class, trust me you will feel a lot better. Today I had body combat class and I thought of his face during punching and kicking..you know what...IT FELT GOOD!!!

So, again...the success is within YOU!

Common Faux Pas When You Exercise

Exercise looks very easy to do, you go to the gym to exercise, do weight training and join the aerobic classes. But how come you're still not getting the result you desire ?
Check out the common mistakes below and perhaps you've done the same thing.

• Too eager,too excited and too soon : This usually happen to people who want to lose weight fast and looking for quick fix. They have the tendency to exercise frequently and excessively and they don't know their fitness level. It is important to find the right balance to ensure that your body gets necessary rest.
• Improper Technique : Perfecting proper weight training techniques can be difficult. There are an infinite number of incorrect ways to complete the moves. Without proper guidance, it is easy to perform exercises incorrectly. This can easily lead to injuries.
• Wrong Type of Workout : Where did you learn your exercise? Just watching from people? mouth to mouth?common myths? When I didn't see any result from my exercise, I decided to seek professional help and which was very helpful.
• Not Eating Right : Diet and exercise are like the referee and his whistle it connects with each other. Many people are in denial about the foods they eat and especially the quantity consumed
• Fixtating On The Scale : We often see our results just from the scale only, but you might want to change the way you think. Try to measure your success with your blood preassure, your increased endurance and your fitness level.

Starting Low Carb Diet

When my trainer asked me to do low carb diet to lose weight, I was shocked and hesitated. To be honest I'm not a good dieter and wasn't ready to give up my favorite food.

So, as a newbie, I started to browse the net everything I need to know about low carb and let me share my tips as low carb dieter :

• Don't go extreme : means don't totally eliminate the carbs from your diet, have healthy with high fibre for breakfast. In the beginning I only crossed carbs for dinner only and gradually reduced the carbs for lunch.


• Educate yourself : find as many information about low carb and pick the one which suits you best.


• Get support : be with positive people since you are changing you life style.


• Go for protein and good fat


• Last but not least...exercise!!

I've been a low carb dieter for one year but the flexible one even when the time my goal was to lose weight.