TGIF everyone. I hope this is a good day for me. I was able to follow my diet until dinner time. I started off with a bag of tempura seaweed , then wasabi seaweed, then a lot of thin wheat crackers, then some cooked vegetables, some sweet buns, some samplings at Costco.  Oh man oh man! I think my belly was going to burst!  The reason why I was eating non-stop is I was craving for REAL food. I need some real cooked food. I need to calm down when I eat. I was not thinking last night, I was stressed, I was tired.
Anyway, today is a new day. I am going to start with my "Master Cleanse" today. I will go to take some naps before I go to work. I don't want to get overly tired and over eat at work.
I am not going to eat at all. All I will do at work is to drink some tea. 
I have to promise myself, I am not eating today.  I will only drink my lemon/ceyenne pepper/maple syrup.

For this Master Cleanse, you will need:

2 Tablespoons of organic lemon Juice (about 1/2 a Lemon)

2 Tablespoons of Organic grade B maple syrup (not the commercial maple flavored syrup you use on pancakes)

1/10 Teaspoon Cayenne pepper powder

Ten ounces of filtered water

I am going to drink up to 4 cups of this. This will help me to cleanse all my toxin out.
In addition to that, I will be drinking decaffinated Green Tea or water for the entire day. I want to flush everything out.
I will write on this blog again tomorrow and see if I can achieve this detox for at least 2 days!

Some sort of reminders...

Last night I just downloaded a free copy of the Lose weight without dieting. The animal Kingdom way. This is a very interesting book. I just had this downloaded to my cell phone kindle app yesterday and I had to keep reading and reading until I fell asleep. The interesting points that this book raised about are: -Sometimes we eat not because we are hungry, we might dehydrated. So drink some water and wait for 7 minutes and see if you really need the food. -it is good to keep a eating diary because you want to see what causes you to over eat. Most of the time we eat for emotional reasons. -stay away from the TV when we eat. We have to make an effort in setting up our tables and put the forks and knives on our plates to eat. The reason? We want to make it a hassle to eat so we will eat less often. You know how we like to pick up hot dogs or chips on our way to work and start munching them in our cars! Sometimes we forget our dangerous "eat" driving is! We can gain weight from doing that! -don't eat if you are tired because we all seem to overeat at the end of day being tired from work and school. So in order to start my little food diary, I have just downloaded this free app from the "Android Market". It is called the "Calorie Counter by FatSecret" This is the best app that you can find to keep track of your weight as well as what you eat everyday. All you have to do is scan the label on the food that you eat or search for the name of your food and the app will be able to tell you how many calories you have eaten. I encourage everyone to download this app and the free book that I mentioned. You will see how much you can keep track of what you eat and keep your weight off.

A big meal a week does not hurt me!

For the entire week, I was pretty good with what I ate.  I stayed on track and tried not to eat anything fattening.  My dinner actually included 3 oz meat (either fish, red meat, chicken)every night and then a lot of salad and one kind of fruit. Since the Honey Crisp Apples were in season, I had been eating them for late snack last week. They were so crispy and sweet!

So when Saturday came, I decided to cheat.  My hubby and I went to the "Fine" Mexican restaurant, Cristina's (I guess that what they label their restaurant). To me, Cristina's is a Tex/Mex restaurant and never authentic.  In my opinion, if I want to eat Authentic Mexican food, I will need to go back to California.

We arrived at Cristina's around 4pm and the first thing the server asked was, "Do you want a skinny Margarita?"  I was thinking to myself, "Yes but No!"  I know those skinny Margarita can be deceiving. It can still worth up to 100 calories and more so instead of wasting my calories intake on one drink, I ordered a diet coke.  And for my lunch, I went all out.  I ordered a steak fajitas. 

My order came within 10 minutes. The steak fajitas was marinated in really good tasting spice. I don't know what spices they used but I know it was unhealthy. The grease on the steak was dripping from my fork.

To my surprise, I finished the entire steak! Yes, I did!  It was my fault and part of my hubby's fault.  He said that we had to drive directly from the restaurant to our church because we were already close by the highway and we were not going home to drop off the food. Since I didn't want to leave my leftover in the car, I would rather just finish all of it.

One thing that I have learned from my previous eating experience is never deprive myself.  If I am cheating once a week, I might as well treat myself and be happy.  So I picked the steak fajitas to be my main "cheat" food.   In addition to that, I ate some rice, pico de gallo, gaucamole and 3 tortillas too. Just because they were soooooo good.  I left the beans untouched.  Those beans were very fattening and not my favorite.

Steak Fajitas - served hot and mouth watering!

I left my beans alone!

After all these fattening food, I went right to church. I prayed for God's help for me to digest all the food that I had!!!! : ) Then when I got home, it was my bootcamp time. I was discipline enough to get on my jump rope and jumped for 35 minutes with my favorite show playing on the TV.
35 minutes didn't feel as long as I thought before. Maybe I am used to the jump rope routine. Whenever, I don't have any bootcamp in the morning and if I happen to eat a lot that day, I jump rope. Jumping can help with our core, stability and balance.  It also helps with our bone growth.
Think about all the benefits that you can eat from just jumping 10 minutes- 20 minutes - 30 minutes!
Your heart is bumping quickly when you jump rope and that really helps to lower your cholesterol!
It is a cheap cardio exercise that you can do at home.  I usually do it on my tile floor and with my fan blowing at my back.  I love the breeze while I am exercising.  With your flavorite show playing on TV, it is really hard to tell that you have been working out for a while!  One thing that I really have to recommend though is this special jump rope that I have.  You will never trip on this when you use this.  Dr Vonda Wright Thrive jump rope without rope
And this is Dr. Vonda Wright talking about how to prevent Osteoporosis (which my mom has been diagnosis for years)  Great info for us - women!

By the way, I have to update you all on how I do after my cheat day last Saturday.  I feel great and I am still feeling great right now (Monday morning)!
I did not even gain a pound after eating all those delicious Fajitas steaks!
I tried to eat very little on Sunday to balance out what I did on Saturday and my rope skipping did help a lot!  I am planning on eating healthy again for the rest of the week and then I might even be able to cheat a little by Saturday or Sunday.
I think I am treating myself right!  This is the way to do it girl!


Best books for women's health.

So like I promise, I am going to share another healthy breakfast recipe.
This is so simple and even healthier than the spicy oatmeal that I just blogged about.

It is the banana flexseed protein shake.
This is another breakfast item that can make you feel full for the entire morning.  Sometimes if I want to go light on my dinner, I like to drink one of these and I will be good for the entire night.

Here is the recipe for the Banana Flexseed Protein Shake:

Ingredients:

6 oz of water
1 medium size ripped banana (cut into smaller pieces)
3 tablespoons of Flexseeds.
1 teaspoon of Grade A Maple Syrup (prefer organic)
1 Scoop of protein shake powder ( I use Twinlab 100% Whey protein Fuel, Strawberry Smash flavor)


First put 6 oz of water and cut banana in the blender for a few minutes until they are all blended.
Then put the rest of the ingredients and turn on the blender again.
When they are all mixed up, pour the shake out and enjoy!

Here is another day that I failed with my diet.

Yesterday I just got a great recipe for beef stews so I started making it while my kids were in the Faith Formation with my hubby.  It took me about an hour to simmer the beef stews and they turned out to be very tasty.  In addition to that, I also cooked some rice so that the sauce from the beef stews could mix in it.

When I started serving the beef stews to my family, I also started to cheat. I decided to taste the beef stews.  Once I started, I could not stop myself from eating. Since the beef stews were so tasty, I needed some rice to go with them.  So there I go again,  eating and eating non-stop.  I probably ate 1.5 bowl of rice with a lot of beef stews.  My family loved the beef stews but they didn't eat quite as much as I did. I guess I was so craving for beef.  I couldn't help myself.
I guess it is okay. I will eat less today and try to balance the whole week out. 
My only concern now is Saturday dinner. My hubby and I are planning on eating out at Cristina's for dinner. I will probably eat their steak fajitas which are perfectly marinated with the best spices every time I go there.  I will not eat today. I will drink a lot of liquid to make up for the salty dinner that I had yesterday.

On a lighter note, I want to share two great breakfast recipes that I did over the last few days.
The first one is my favorite "Spicy Oatmeal". I know it sounds strange but people in Hong Kong do eat their Oatmeal by adding salt or beef to it.  It is like porridge but this is a fat burning, healthy oatmeal that tasted like porridge and loaded with fiber.

Spicy Oatmeal recipe (1 serving): 
1/2 cup of oatmeal (not instant)
1 medium bowl of water
A few organic cilantros
1 tablespoon of Ceyanne Pepper (add more if you like spicy food)
A few organic chinese green onions (cut into small pieces)
1/4 teaspoon of salt & 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of chicken or vegetable bouillon

1. Boil water until it bubbles up, then put all the ingredients except for the cilantros in the pot.
2. Stir until all ingredients are mixed in.
3. Put Cilantros on top of the hot oatmeal and serve!

You may notice that I am using organic for all the vegetables that I put in my oatmeal.  The reason for that is I only use organic for food that do not have shells or skin.  In other words, I do not want to eat any fertilizers and get poison everyday.  One organic fruit that I highly recommend is strawberry.  For some reason, they taste better and sweeter.  I just don't understand why.

I like this recipe because of how filling it is.  You will feel full for your entire morning if you eat one bowl of this spicy oatmeal.  In addition to that, Ceyanne pepper is known to be fat burning.  The more you eat, the more fat you will be able to burn. And of course, if you have peptic ulcer or frequent heart burn, I will not recommend you to eat too much spicy food such as the ceyanne pepper.

This is the Chicken Flavor Bouillon that I use.  Please go easy on that.  It gives extra flavor to your food but it is not good to add too much sodium to your food.

Add everything when the water turns bubbly.

Organic Green Onion

The healthy and unhealthy food that I made this week. : ) & : (

After the Belly Blast, I really feel that I need a break.  So last night I decided to follow the recipe from the #1 New York Times Bestseller, The Pinoeer Woman Cooks recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.
I made the famous Ree Drummond Cinnamon Rolls. Yes, I did it.
I started cooking at 7:30pm and finished at 10:30pm.  I thought I could resist and sweet scent of butter and cinnamon.  And of course, I couldn't. I ended up eating a whole entire 4 x 4 cinnamon roll at 11pm last night!  I still cannot believe it! After I finishing eating, I went on the scale. It was the scariest moment of my life.  I gained 2 pounds right after eating that 4 x 4 cinnamon roll!
After eating that big cinnamon roll, I went right to sleep. I did not exercise at all because I know it is useless at this point. I will have to make it up the next day.

So today, I only drink some diet green tea and I ate a banana earlier in the morning to keep me going.
One thing I found out that really affect my diet is MY SLEEP. If I have less than 7 hours of sleep, I will crave for food.  Bad food.  I am determine not to eat for a day. And just go for my detox again.
It does help. I feel like I have more energy. I clean out my guts.

I think this is about at least 1,000 calories and it added 2 pounds to my body. 

Now here is the good stuff. I also made a healthy dish this week.  This is a real easy recipe and everyone can make it.
I made the mushroom & baby corn soy wrap and they were so delicious and filling.
I used the soy paper that I got from the Chinese grocery.  These soy paper can be stored in the freezer, it is just like the wonton wrap.  When you are ready to make the wrap, you can simply take the soy paper out from the freezer and thaw it  in the refrigerator for a day.
For ingredients, I used the Japanese shitake for my mushroom and baby corn in a can and also to add a little spice to it, I used a little bit of cilantro. 

The instruction is as simple as can be.  I started off with the Swanson Vegetable broth.  Just a little bit will be fine, as long as the mushroom, cilantro and baby corns are being half covered, it should be good. Then just boil the mushroom, cilantro and baby corns (I only used half of a can) until they are soft.  After that, drain the mushroom, cilantro and mini corns and wait for them to cool down a bit.

Then cut the soy wrap to a square shape like 6 x 6 size.  Place the mushroom and baby corns inside the soy wrap and wrap them like how you would have folded an envelope. Notice that you don't have to seal the opening with egg yolk or water.  Just simply tug the opening to the bottom of the wrap.  And have your wrap sat right on top of the opening. It will stay intact after you bake it.  After wrapping all the mushroom and mini corns, you can put them on a greased foil paper on top of a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes at 375 degree.  Watch the wraps turning brown. Take them out of the oven and don't let them burn. Every oven is different, please make sure that you watch the wraps closely.   Take them out promptly if they look crispy.  My rule of thumb is take them out when you start smelling the good scent of mushroom!
I made about 8 soy wraps out of what ingredients I had on hand.  They were absolutely healthy and delicious. I think  8 wraps is about 500 calories or less.  They made a really good dinner for dieters like me! 

I won the Belly Blast contest!!!!

This is just amazing. I cannot believe it. This morning the bootcamp owner came over to our bootcamp site to annouce that I am, yes. I am the winner for the Belly Blast Contest.  I lost 12 pounds over 21 days.
I lost 10 % of my body weight.  I won free bootcamp sessions, custom portraiture, spa gift certificate, house cleaning service, free hair waxing service, hair salon certifcation.....

I am just thrill to know that I am the winner.  I can tell you one thing.  If you set your goal and work on it, you can do it!  That's what happened to me. I stayed focus and worked on my goal and I won!
I hope my kids will learn from my experience and work as hard as I do too! 
It is really worth it! 

After work, my hubby called and he said, "What are we going to eat to celebrate today?"
I said, "All you can eat Sushi!!!"  I know it is going to be damaging to my diet but who cares.  If I can go that far to lose all those weight, I know I can keep it off.  

So at the sushi bar, I ate 2 plates of "healthy roll" (I really can't tell how healthy it is because it has all these assorted raw fish and spicy sauce on top)2 miso soup, a plate of teriyaki chicken. Oh man, I was full!  I felt like I gained 10 pounds back.  Anyway, I did not eat my dinner after that, I only drank some green tea and I am now getting ready to sleep.... zzzzz .  I know I am going to sleep tight because I will not wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how much weight I have to lose in order to win the belly blast.  I have already won MYSELF And OTHERS!