Comments on: A Healthy(ier) Lunch…

By: farida

farida — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:53:40 +0000

gee, everyone seems to be on a diet including me. thanks to all for their tips. It will be sooo difficult to cut back on the rice. :(.

By: Lilibeth

Lilibeth — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:58:04 +0000

Let me share with you Marketman how I lost weight many years ago. I used to wear a size 12 and went down to a size 5 and weighed 117 lbs. on a 5’5″ frame (I tried but could not go back to 98 lbs. when I was single), losing 45 lbs. in 3 months. This is what I did – I ate only 1 full meal a day which was lunch and had a cup of yogurt for lunch and another cup of yogurt for dinner snacking on bananas and drinking lots and lots of water when I got hungry and I did high impact aerobic exercise in the morning and jogging in the afternoon everyday. After losing 45 lbs., I went back to eating 3 full meals but switched to a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (could not give up cakes and ice cream) and continued exercising regularly and I did not gain a single pound even if I occasionally binged on desserts. I’ve also noticed that as the months went by, I lost my appetite for meat. After 2 years, I went back to eating meat but mostly seafood and chicken and lots of rice. Of course I went up to a size 8 and gained 20 lbs. and then I changed my diet again. Here it is – banana for breakfast, apple for lunch, salad with very little meat, if at all, for dinner, fruits and almonds throughout the day and exercised on weekdays. I lost 15 lbs. in 2 months. My triglycerides went down from 190 to 80, the doctor had to ask me what I did. I don’t like taking medication and I knew I could beat it by losing weight and eating healthy but I think the apple and almonds helped as I have researched online. I made this my emergency diet which I switch to when I need to lose a lot of weight. I have changed my lifestyle since then and this is my regular diet now – oatmeal for breakfast, lean chicken and 3 tablespoons of rice for lunch, and green salad topped with tuna or skinless chicken breast strips for dinner. Rice is really fattening for me so I limit it to 3 tablespoons. Btw, I feel very satisfied even with just a green salad because salad greens like lettuce are actually very filling. I went down to a size 6 and I have stuck to this diet for 2 years now. To be able to stick to this diet, here’s the trick: I go off the diet on weekends and eat whatever I like in moderation like callos (using your recipe of course which is so delicous) and cakes (I love to bake). I also work out in the gym everyday except weekends and pump heavy weights – 70 lbs. (it is supposed to burn calories plus the fact that it gives me beautiful muscles). The key is not to deprive yourself. When I feel like eating cinnabon on a weekday, I do eat one but that gets to be my lunch already. I also snack throughout the day on almonds and drink lots of water so come lunch or dinner, I am not really hungry so I don’t crave for calorie-laden food. When I see luscious food in your blog, I quickly chew on almonds and it takes away hunger pangs.I am sharing my experience because it really works. Determination is also very important. People were amazed how I lost 45 lbs. in 3 months and that was because I kept looking at myself in the mirror and did not like what I saw (I love to wear bikini in the beach and I had to stop when I gained weight) and convinced I had to do something about it. It is also not a temporary thing. It is a lifestyle change. You can’t simply go back to eating what you like and expect to remain fit and healthy. It is not going to happen. Don’t worry, it is hard at first, but after sometime, you get so used to it that after eating whatever you like in the weekend, you’re just longing to go back to fruits and vegetables on weekdays. I even get upset stomach if I eat too much meat on weekends. You will also have more energy to workout in the gym. Another bonus is the fantastic results of your lipid profile even if you binge every now and then. I definitely ate lots of unhealthy food during the holidays and had my lipid profile this month and doctor said it was still fantastic! Hope this helps.

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:24:14 +0000

Hi,
I’m on a diet too, because of all that eating I did from T/giving to New year. I have some tips for you that came from my internist doctor. Eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, skinless chicken breast, small portions of red meat and fish (not shell fish). Do not skip breakfast. Eat throughout the day but control your portions (“Portion Control”). By 6:00 p.m. you should already be done eating. This means that by 6:00 p.m. you have already eaten your dinner. According to my MD, after 6:00 p.m., our metabolism usually slows down in preparation for our nocturnal sleep. Eating dinner (a heavy one—steaks, etc.) after 6:00 p.m. will just turn to fat because our activities have already slowed down and so is our metabolism. This has worked for me. So far, since January 2, I have already lost 5.5 pounds for eating my dinner by 6:00 p.m. However, when I get hungry before I go to sleep, I drink a glass of non-fat (skim) milk or eat a banana or a snack of no more than 100 calories. I find it difficult to sleep on a hungry stomach. Hope this little tip would be of help to you. Good luck on your diet. I think you’ll win the bet.

By: Connie C

Connie C — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:47:14 +0000

Yes MM, imagine yourself as Ed B says, the dragon warrior who can survive on the “dew of a single ginko leaf and the energy of all the universe”…… of the netizen’s who visit your blog. Good Luck with your diet.

By: Mila

Mila — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:13:43 +0000

I lost 20 lbs in the first 4 months after I moved to China….
Seriously though, try adding a more rigorous aerobic exercise (boxing? those crazed cycling classes burn about 500 to 600 calories per hour) and add weight training. Cut out rice for a month and you’ll drop the weight if you don’t add any other substitute carbs. Men find it a lot easier to do that than women and all my male relatives who removed rice from their diet lost an average of 20 lbs in 3 to 4 months.
Good luck MM!

By: mojito drinker

mojito drinker — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:28:30 +0000

good luck mm! i’m trying to get rid of some holiday poundage as well…

By: Roelm

Roelm — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:54:47 +0000

Hi MM,

Don’t buy into that “low-fat diet” BS that mainstream nutritionists have been peddling. The main cause of obesity is the excess in carbohydrates. Lower the carbohydrates (sugar and starches) and most likely, within two weeks, you will find your pants too big for you. Hey, it worked for me. :)

Among the macronutrients, eat more fat and protein and lower the carbs. In practical terms, kumain ng mas maraming ulam at bawasan ang kanin, tinapay, cake, at mga may asukal na inumin. Too much carbs increases insulin levels which increase fat storage in the body and prevents body fat burning. By the way, excess carbohydrates are converted by the liver into palmitic acid (a fatty acid) and so increase fat reserves.

No need to starve while slimming down. Just change the macronutrient proportions. Although you may have carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms …

PS
Among the starch sources, contrary to some information out there, rice is better than wheat as wheat is a gluten grain containing a lot of pernicious anti-nutrients. A lot of the anti-nutrients are contained in the bran and the wheat germ. You may want to look up the terms, gliadin and wheat germ agglutinin.

By: gansilagan

gansilagan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:46:27 +0000

It seem like a lot of your readers, me included, want to lose weight and would want to join you in your “diet”. How about foregoing with the lechon and other super delicious blogs while we are at it. Maybe you can instead come up with equally delicious but healthier food alternatives like your post above to help us in our “diet”. How about it”?

By: Ed B.

Ed B. — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:02:30 +0000

“…OMG, what am I going to eat???”

“…the dew of a single Ginko leaf and the energy of the universe.” ^_^

By: myra_p

myra_p — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:19:27 +0000

MM, don’t worry about what you’re going to eat… Anyone who is fit knows the secret is exercise :) I eat everything in moderation but I run — guaranteed results without sacrificing food completely.

https://running.about.com/od/getstartedwithrunning/ht/getstarted.htm