Diet – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Low Carb Meals

I have cheat days over the weekends. But on weekdays, I try to stick to low-carb meals as best as I can.

I love breads but because they’re high in carbs, I eat half a slice (if thick) or a slice (if thin) and spread it with nuts or seeds spread like peanut butter, almond butter or black sesame paste. I always eat my carbs together with protein and fats to minimize blood-sugar spikes. Foods high in protein and fats help slow down the digestion of glucose, which helps stabilize blood sugar.

Having at least a serving of green veggies every day is a must. For convenience, I like buying ready-to-eat salads that are triple-washed. Though expensive, but I save on water and time. Thankfully our girls love raw salads too, especially Cass, who’s a health and fitness freak just like her mom. We add proteins and healthy fats such as avocado, eggs, cheese and nuts into our salads.

For meats, I love lean char siu, roast chicken breast, steamed kampung chicken, pork chops (my weakness) and fried fish (another kryptonite of mine!).

My kind of ideal meal would be a poke bowl composed of grilled fish or chicken breast, caulirice and loads of nuts, seeds, onions, garlic, seaweed and veggies. Cass is just like me and she loves poke bowl. Today I ordered Fish Bowl from Gardens Malls via Grab Food for lunch. Cass and I shared the bowl, with toppings of grilled miso salmon, seaweed salad, corns, wakame, seeds, nuts and loads of veggies. I had the rice replaced with caulirice.

Scrumptious low-carb caulirice poke bowl from Fish Bowl @ The Gardens Mall for lunch today.

Cass cooked this super big bowl of asam laksa konjac noodles and shared it with me on Saturday. She added Romaine lettuce, eggs, foo pei, and lobster balls. She also added a piece of plain Vit’s instant noodles. Thus, her XXL bowl was filled to the brim with noodles and ingredients! I only took the konjac noodles.

My dinner on Saturday – homecooked rice wine chicken with black fungus and ginger slices sans rice. I only remembered to snap a photo midway through enjoying my meal. It’s my favorite dish. The mil made the rice wine herself.

Breakfast with hubs on Saturday. We first had the famous kai si hor fun (chicken noodles) at Jalan San Peng and then segued over to Tiger Jit Singh Chapati (just next to the chicken noodles stall). He had chapati while I had my favorite Rava Thosai (only ate half). I love Thosais as they are lighter, less oily and not as cloy as other rotis.

No. of times viewed = 37

Low-Carb Meals

For people who don’t know me well, they think that I starve myself so that I look gaunt. There are some elderly relatives who always think that I don’t eat any food so that I look stick thin. So each time we meet up, they will comment about my weight and lecture me, duh 🙄 But I don’t do that, nor do I have bulimia. I eat almost everything that I crave but in moderate amounts. Plus I have good genes 😁 as both my parents are thin. My mum is super skinny as she has an ultra small tummy and is a small eater. However, she eats many meals a day and 99% of her meals are homecooked, nutritious and wholesome. So I think I have inherited her DNA as I’m also a very, very small eater but need to eat several small meals a day. Gone are the days when I could stuff myself at buffets till I felt like puking 🤢 😆. We hardly go for hotel buffets now as both hubs and I can’t gobble down so much food like how we used to two decades ago.

But I do miss having our weekly Sunday Japanese buffet lunch at Sheraton Subang and PJ Hilton when Alycia and Sherilyn were toddlers.

I don’t starve myself but I go for low-carb meals. But there are still people who think that low-carb meals are bad and insist that I eat rice and carbs as rice is a miracle, cure-all food 🤣. Anyway it’s my body and I do what’s best for myself. These people don’t know that I battled PCOS (an insulin disorder) for years yonks ago. And PCOS caused infertility and that was another battle that I had to go through. And they don’t know that my late maternal granny had diabetes, thus I have to watch my intake of carbs and sugar as diabetes is hereditary.

Anyway, I’ll do me 😀.

These are some of my low-carb meals. Nothing fancy schmancy but delish. Portion control is key in reducing / maintaining your weight.

Pork and fish soup with poached egg and raw kale, topped with lots of aromatic fried crispy garlic. Hubs bought pork & fish noodles for us and I omitted the noodles.

Low carb pancakes. Cass blended organic oats into oat flour and made a stack of these yummeh and low-carb pancakes. That stingy girl only gave me two pieces and that’s big deal already 🙄

Pork and soup (sans the noodles) with raw alfalfa and onion sprouts.

Substituted noodles with raw sprouts. You should try this, it’s very yummeh.

Air-fried pollock on a bed of blanched spinach.

Ba kut teh with raw baby spinach and a hardboiled egg.

Curry konjac noodles with foo pei, tofu fish balls, egg and broccoli.

While everyone had banana leave rice at Kanna Curry House, PJ on Merdeka Day, I omitted the rice and only ate the delicious curry veggies, fried fish, chicken curry and mutton curry.

Chinese cabbage soup with poached egg. Soup is made using dashi stock, boiled for 10 minutes. I made a big pot and chomped down everything by myself. I had this after Malaysia Day as I had an eating marathon with hubs at Pavillion Bukit Jalil on Malaysia Day and needed something clean and light the next day. The soup is oil-free.

No. of times viewed = 48

My Keto Meal

While I’m not a hardcore keto dieter, I have been a low-carb eater for over 20 years, ever since I was diagnosed with PCOS in the year 2000.

When I first started to be on a low-carb diet, I was hardcore. I printed out a list of foods with their carbohydrate weight and ensured that I stuck to a total carb of no more than 100gm a day. I would plan my low-carb meals everyday and had steely will power to stick to the regimen, on top of running twice a day – once at 5.30 a.m. and another time in the evening after work. It worked and my weight dropped steadily, though not easy for someone with PCOS.

Here’s another easy-peasy quicky keto meal that I had today – alfalfa, onion and chives sprouts with pork soup.

The pork soup was from the pork noodles that hubs bought yesterday. Today I heated up the pork soup and poured it over a huge bed of raw sprouts.

I chomped down the entire punnet of raw sprouts.

This is SO good! The hot flavorful pork soup with lots of pork lard infused every strand of sprout, making them so palatable, sans any taste of raw grass. Sprouts may not be for everyone because of the raw grassy taste but if you pair them with something flavorful like soups and a delightful salad dressing, you’ll be able to consume more of these tiny but mighty super food.

No. of times viewed = 58

Should You Do Intermittent Fasting During Menopause

If you’ve been researching different fasting schedules and started ordering your own intermittent fasting mints, chances are you’re interested in trying out intermittent fasting for yourself. However, if you’re currently going through menopause, you may have some questions as to whether fasting is helpful or even safe during this time. Menopause can come with a number of health challenges, from imbalanced hormones to symptoms such as hot flashes and more. However, in some cases, intermittent fasting could potentially help to ease those symptoms. If you’re wondering whether you should do intermittent fasting during menopause, here are the key facts to remember.

How Does Intermittent Fasting Help

When it comes to the connection between intermittent fasting and menopause, there are several potential benefits that could surprise you. Although you may already be aware that intermittent fasting can be part of a healthy lifestyle overall, you may not have known that:

It can help you learn to manage your hunger and approach your diet in a healthier way
It could encourage you to cut out junk foods and focus on eating a whole-foods-based diet complete with balanced food groups
It could help you drop extra weight gained due to menopause
It may help regulate your hormones to improve your mood and reduce hot flashes or other common signs of menopause

Tips For Making Intermittent Fasting Easier

If fasting for women’s health still sounds daunting to you, you may want to ease yourself into the fasting process by trying out different regimens to see which one works for you. For instance, you could:

Try fasting for 12 to 16 hours on alternate days throughout the week
Allow yourself to eat normally five days a week but only fast on the weekends
Conduct a full 24-hour fast just once a week

Even if you’re aware of the benefits of fasting during menopause, you may still need some extra motivation to stay on track during your first few fasts. In these cases, all it takes is a little bit of a routine adjustment to help you get excited about the fast again. If you find yourself getting discouraged, it may be helpful to:

Find distractions during fasting periods to avoid snacking and breaking your fast
Stay focused on your long-term goals and the benefits of fasting in order to keep up your motivation levels
Work out and do light weight-lifting while practicing intermittent fasting to make sure you don’t accidentally lose muscle mass
Try out a few types of intermittent fasting regimes before committing longer-term to find the one that works best for your body

No. of times viewed = 46

Simple Secrets To A Svelte Figure – Portion Control

For the past two months, I have brought almost ten of my old skirts and pants to the tailor to have the waist part tightened. I know that I’ve lost about 2kg since early this year. But what I didn’t realize was how much my waist has shrunk. It’s a frigging 3cm! No wonder my pants and skirts kept dropping off my waist and I thought that they have shrunk in our rather new washing machine that seems to spin rather wildly.

For the record, my waist is now 68cm, down from 71cm! This means I’m almost back to my pre-pre-pre-pregnancy waist and weight! I used to be 42~43kg before I became a mother.

Besides ramping up my 5-day a week exercise duration and intensity, I am back at cutting down bread and noodles. Another secret is portion control on food.

I share EVERYTHING that I eat with my daughters, hubs and mil. They are happy too as everyone is very, very cautious on their weight and sugar level at their age now!

In the trunk of my car, I have a tiffin carrier and multiple stainless steel food containers in various sizes. Whenever I eat out, I stash a food container in my tote bag or lug the 2-tier tiffin carrier along. When my dish arrives, I place half or three quarter of the food in the food container first before I dig into my portion. Thus, I only eat a quarter or half of what I’ve ordered. This way, I always leave the eatery feeling half full and without guilt!

This is what I had for lunch with the hubs at LDG yesterday ~ chicken chop.

Before digging into it, I quickly kept three quarter of it in a food container for Sherilyn who’s waiting for her lunch at home:

My lunch at PappaRich with Sherilyn earlier this week:

And I kept three quarter of the food in a food container, for Cass’ lunch later.

I don’t really snack in between meals and if I have to, my go-to snacks are always nuts, seeds, sugar-free skinny yoghurt, nut butters, organic milk kefir or organic almond milk with oat bran.

But I’m no angel, I still indulge in sinful carbs and my kryptonite is kuih-muih! 😆 But instead of stuffing the entire kuih into my mouth, I share half of it with my daughters.

Sahara is my current favorite brand of organic milk kefir, imported from Australia. It has assisted me greatly in my evacuation job every morning! Love the taste too.

No. of times viewed = 59

Keto Coconut Bread

I love bread but have for the past few months started to consume bread sparingly, as part of my low-carb diet for better health and for a trimmer bod. I only choose whole grain breads made with wholemeal flour and occasionally buy flour-free sprouted wheat bread.

I was really excited when I found out that my friend, Cynthia is selling keto coconut bread at her kopitiam. I sent in an order immediately and collected the delish bread the following week. The keto bread is pre-order and will only be made by the baker when there are orders.

To get the record straight, I am not on a keto diet. I don’t think I am disciplined enough to stick to a 100% keto-compliant diet nor can I stomach a 100% keto diet. Too much fats and meat make me feel sick. Rather, I am more towards adopting the Mediterranean Diet and I think that this flexible diet suits me rather well. I eat healthy carbs and still indulge in the occasional sinful fast carbs.

OK, back to the keto coconut bread! It’s made with coconut butter (Mana), eggs, Madagascar vanilla beans and Himalayan pink salt.

Price is RM20 a loaf (8 inch)

Texture of the coconut bread is like cake and best eaten when toasted.

I like to pair the toasted coconut bread with homemade pandan kaya or homemade peanut butter (salt, sugar and oil-free) with a small wedge of Whittaker’s almond chocolate toasted together. So lip-smacking good!

If you’re keen to order this keto coconut bread, do Whatsapp Cynthia at 016-229 1429 or drop by at her kopitiam at Kedai Makanan Kuen You. She makes keto pandan kaya and serves keto-compliant meals at her kopitiam too.

No. of times viewed = 67

How To Look And Feel Better With Natural Weight Loss Methods

Maintaining a healthy weight is important to your overall health. Obesity increases your risks for many health problems that can affect your quality of life. These health problems may include heart disease, stroke, depression, hypertension, diabetes and sleep apnea. However, if you want to lose weight, then you should make a lifestyle change. Read on to find out how to look and feel better with natural weight loss methods.

Eat A High Protein Diet
Protein is one of the most important nutrients for losing weight. It makes your body look better and helps while losing belly fat. If you eat a high protein diet, then you will boost your metabolism, change weight-regulating hormones and decrease your appetite. It allows you to lose weight without restricting your carbs, portions and calories.

The body burns calories when metabolizing and digesting protein that you eat. When eating a high protein diet, you can boost your metabolism by 80 to 100 calories per day. You can increase your protein intake by eating from the following food groups: meats, fish, eggs, dairy and legumes. Meats may include lean pork, beef, turkey and chicken.

appetizer, avocado, bread

Fish is another meat for a good source of protein. Good choices to eat are trout, haddock, sardines and salmon. You can add any type of eggs for protein intake. Other dairy may include yogurt, cheese and milk. Legumes are also a good source of protein, which may include lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans. If you are on a low carb diet, then you can eat fatty cuts of meat. People who are not on a low carb diet should eat leaner cuts of meats.

Eat Whole Single Ingredient Foods
Eating whole foods is one of the best ways to eat a healthier diet. It means the food is not processed, does not contain dangerous food additives and removes the industrialization process. For example, an apple is a whole single ingredient food. On the other hand, frozen chicken nuggets are the opposite and considered a processed food.

There are also many benefits to eating whole foods. Eating whole foods provide your body with the nutrients necessary for your body to function properly. If you eat whole foods, then you will lose weight naturally.

Woman Measuring Her Waist

Participate In Regular Cardio Exercises
Cardiovascular exercises are a good way to burn calories. These exercises also improve your physical and mental health. They can help with losing weight and decrease your risk factors for heart disease. Cardio exercises are effective at reducing the belly fat that accumulates around your organs as well. You can get started with cardio exercises by hiking, power walking, cycling, running and jogging.

Reduce Portion Sizes
It helps to invest into some smaller dinner plates. Some people tend to have the urge to fill the entire plate up with food. If you use a smaller plate, then you will probably eat less because it changes how you see portion sizes. Smaller plates give you the perception of eating more while reducing the amount of food you eat.

Add Resistance Exercises to Your Routine
A loss of muscle mass can occur when changing your diet. If you lose muscle, then you will start to burn fewer calories. It helps to add resistance exercises along with your cardiovascular exercises. Lifting weights is an example of a resistance exercise and with regular use can prevent you from losing muscle. It also helps you to look and feel better.

Three Women's Doing Exercises

Diets are temporary, which means the weight can come back. If you learn how to live a healthy lifestyle, then you can keep the weigh off permanently.

Image may contain: one or more people and stripes

No. of times viewed = 12

Healthy Diet

If working out and not eating your favorite treats doesn’t seem to pay off in your weight loss efforts, you may need to change a few habits. Exercise and making healthier eating choices are essential practical tips for weight management Nevada. Yet for many people, losing weight is not the problem. Keeping the pounds off is most challenging.

A vast majority manage to gain weight back within a few months or years. Still, all is not lost. With just a few simple lifestyle changes, your seemingly heroic efforts can lead to losing those extra pounds long-term.

Don’t Skip Meals
A reflexive response to losing weight is to avoid eating all together. Breakfast is the number one meal people incorrectly forego. While this may seem like a good solution, it actually works against any weight loss efforts. Three meals per day are essential because food fuels your body to work properly. Healthy snacks between meals are also important to manage your weight.

waffle

Eat Most Calories Early in Your Day
Because your body is a fuel-burning engine, it is a good idea to eat most calories during the first half of your day. Doing this can help you keep hunger under control and avoid those late night snack runs. Besides, you are most active during the day, which means you can burn calories that would otherwise go to sleep with you at night when you begin to feel sluggish.

plate lunch pork ginger and eggs

Eat Smaller Portions
Just because your body burns more calories during the day, this does not mean you should eat heavy meals. Stay calorie conscious about how much you are consuming as much as what you choose to eat.

Ideally, one-quarter of your plate should include a lean protein. Add unrefined grains to another quarter. The remaining half should consist of colorful vegetables.

Get a Double Dose of Fiber
Some people fail to consume the recommended daily dose of fiber. A good way to boost your amount of fiber is to eat whole wheat instead of white rice or pasta. Breads and cereals high in fiber are more good sources. You fill up faster when eating fiber, which helps to curb your hunger so you eat less.

With these and other lifestyle changes, it is equally important to be patient with yourself. Gaining weight is easier than losing, but it is not impossible. In time, your cravings for a successful weight level will override poor food choices. You will begin to see and feel confidence boosting results that improve your health.

No. of times viewed = 8

Determination And Hard Work To Stay Slim Again

As I was ransacking the storeroom to look for a Malay-English dictionary for Alycia last week, I stumbled upon some of the books that I had bought aeons ago on low-carb diet, including one on Atkins Diet. My attention diverted from the dictionary to the diet books immediately. I brought out the book on Atkins Diet from the storeroom and began to read. Reading the Atkin Diet book brought me back to the year 2001 when I was diagnosed with PCOS and had to battle weight gain and infertility.

Through my own research and reading, I managed to shed the 6kg that I had gained in 2 months as a result of PCOS. I also joined a low carb forum and several other PCOS forums to read experiences and stories of other sufferers. But I did not loose the 6kg in a month or two. It was through lots and lots of hard work, sacrifices, determination and about a year later that I managed to shed off the pounds I had gained. I had to give up many of my favorite food, comprising mainly of carbs like cakes, pastries, noodles and white flour products. Sacrificing my favorite food was secondary. It was the sheer determination of finding the time to exercise that was hard-hitting. I wonder if anyone could do what I did – I exercised twice a day though I held a job which required me to work long hours. I ran round the neighborhood at 6am every morning and even when it rained, with an umbrella in hand!

No. of times viewed = 301

The Ultimate Website For Health and Fitness Freaks

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of wellnessdaily.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ever since I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) almost 9 years ago, my life turned around (for the better, though I went through a lot of struggles) as I have learned to follow a disciplined exercise regime and eat a healthy diet. After the first diagnostic at the gynae’s office, my life revolves around surfing the internet for answers, treatments and natural remedies to help me overcome the disorder. That was how I transformed into a health freak. For those of you who suffer from PCOS, you will know that losing weight is the hardest thing to do. But with persistence, determination and sacrifices, I managed to lose the 6kg I gained due to PCOS, albeit it was slow.

During the height of my PCOS disorder, I had surfed hundreds of websites for answers and had printed articles from the internet that filled up more than 3 thick arch files! I found out that there is no cure for PCOS but the symptoms like weight gain, acne, infertility, among others can be treated. I also found out that with a healthy lifestyle, I can get relief for the symptoms. For example I need to exercise regularly and stay away from carbs and white flour products to lose weight. With regular exercise and cutting down on refined white flour products, the acne also went away.

If you are looking for a wellness website where you can get all the answers that you want from losing weight to staying fit, eating right, healthy recipes and much more, you must check out www.wellnessdaily.com. It’s really a neat and impressive website where you can get such interesting information as the best fat burning exercise, fitness for diabetics, low sodium recipes and much more. There are also news on coupons and ways to help you save money. Right now, there is a Twitter contest going on. All you have to do is to sign up at wellnessdaily.com and tweet about the site for a chance to win a WellnessDaily.com prize package which includes coupons for a year-long supply of Jennie-O Turkey Store products and a one-year gym membership valued at $1,250!

“Enter to win $ towards a gym membership & JENNIE-O turkey products. Just follow @wellness_daily & RT this! http://bit.ly/tbd123.”

This contest runs until March 10, so there really ain’t much time to waste. Check out the site now – it’s FOC to register. I won’t be surprised that after checking out wellnessdaily.com, you will find yourself dancing yourself to fitness or getting up at 5:30am everyday to work-out!

No. of times viewed = 250

Choosing The Best Diet Pill

A good friend of mine once bought a very expensive brand of diet pill to help her lose the 15kg that she had gained after the birth of her second baby. Whilst the diet pill had helped her shed some of the weight, one of the nasty side effects of the pill is that it caused her lots of flatulence, purging and embarrassing moments. Everyday when she was on the diet pill, she would purge after every meal. Sometimes she could not control herself and would dirty her pants . She got so fed up of the embarrassing moments that she stopped popping the diet pills.

There are hundreds or perhaps thousands of diet pills in the market. Before choosing a diet pill, it is advisable to consult your doctor first. You may also want to read up on some diet pill reviews at bestdietpills-1.com, a website that has information on the best diet pills and diet pills that work. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you here with a couple of YouTube videos on the best way to lose weight. These videos might give you some inspiration to lose weight if you’ve been in your weight-loss journey too.

“>

No. of times viewed = 191

A Diet That Lets You Eat Food You Enjoy And Yet Lose Weight

Eight years ago, when my weight skyrocketed from 43kg to 48kg in just two months, I knew that something was really wrong with my body. Though I went on a diet, my weight just couldn’t go down. That prompted me to consult a gynecologist who later diagnosed me as suffering from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a hormonal disorder and women who suffer from PCOS have a hard time controlling their weight. Many women who have PCOS are obese but thankfully I wasn’t. After tons of reading from the internet, I found out that PCOS sufferers are resistant to insulin. One of the ways to lose weight is to go on a high protein low carb diet and of course to exercise. Without any delay, I bought an Atkin’s Diet book, followed his diet strictly and exercised rigorously everyday without fail, rain or shine. Slowly but surely, my weight dropped and I continued to stick to a low carb high protein diet up until today.

After the birth of Baby C, my third child 4.5 months ago, my tummy now still looks as if I were 3 months pregnant. Despite exercising everyday, I have a tough time removing this ‘excess baggage’. That’s because I have a hard time staying away from carbs. Ever since I started breastfeeding Baby C, I have started to eat carbs again, thinking that breastfeeding will help me burn those extra calories. But in actual fact, I shouldn’t be eating more calories than my body can burn. All I need is perhaps an extra of 2 slices of bread a day to give me that extra calories for breastfeeding.

Today I discovered from The Fat Loss Guru that I can actually eat more and still lose fat! The Fat Loss Guru has strategies and tips in his book that will teach dieters how to continue eating many of the foods that we enjoy and experience permanent and lasting weight loss. There are also ways to manipulate our hormones to burn fat faster. His weight loss strategies are even better than the Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig diet. It is really great to know that his diet can also fix chronic illnesses like diabetes, adrenal fatigue, hormonal problems and much more. I am really tempted to purchase The Ultimate Diet Handbook, written by The Fat Loss Guru. His diet strategies sound pretty convincing to me. If I can lose weight and continue to eat food that I like, what is spending $39 on his diet handbook, right?

No. of times viewed = 1259