Being A Little Paranoid About Food

I've been quietly dissecting all my food content recently. For most of the time I'll be on a purely clean eating stage. My supermarket trolley is only filled with health food unlike previously, it was filled with some instant noodles, snacks and all sorts of calorie laden food. Now there's only natural peanut butter, agave nectar to replace sugar, grapefruit, sweet potatoe for it complex carbs, all sorts of greens for my daily juicing routine and the list goes on. I've stopped eating plain white bread now, I go for wholemeal.

There are times that I simply refused to eat things that I don't know what it contained. I must know how the food is being prepared and what is being put into it. I don't know how others manage it but
it's the safest way for clean eating for me.
I do binge now and then during my cheat days but I still try to avoid simple carbs.

Being a pizza lover, I had learned how to make my own healthy pizza from a scratch. The dough is made from wholemeal flour and I used low fat mozzarella cheese. Now I can indulge in my favorite food minus guilt. Yum...Yum..

A Little Improvement Goes A Long Way

I can do HIIT for 20 mins straight and also weights training for 45 mins non-stop but never power walking. First, I have lousy stamina and secondly, I have attention spam of that 5 years old kid down the street. That's why I never like cardio based workout unless they are incorporated into my high intensity interval workout. It's more fun and I could see faster result this way.

Training this way build up muscle fast but doing crazy cardio can ensure fat loss. It's a dilemma for me now. I really dislike staying on the treadmill for 45 mins. Well, training both way has it's advantages. Cardio give me slim feminine physical meanwhile HIIT and weights training give me an Olympic worthy toned physical.

Actually I prefer the latter as its result is more prominent for a result oriented person like me That's why I always concentrate more on pumping iron while incorporating some cardio here and there. There's no way I can skip them as I will need to shed off those excess fat to really reveal those hard earned muscles.

For the first time since I started working out back in September 2012, I managed to finish my muscle activation workout for the day followed by 45 mins of power walking ( of course I had replenished my
amino acid supply before heading for the latter).

Really have to give myself a pat on the back this time. I must and I will work even harder in future to achieve my dream bod.

A Smoky Morning

Woke up at 6am this morning just to get to the Sepang International Circuit for a day fueled with Adrenaline rush.

Sound of cars zooming by, loud engines sound and those smell of tyres is still playing with my senses as I'm blogging this.

Feeling very exhausted after being in the track for so many rounds. I had to struggled during my hour drive back to KL.

But I'm really looking forward for the next round... Zzz

Day 5: Antagonistic Surprises From Slovenia to Austria

Must give myself a pat on the back for my efficient financial management skill. I managed to spent down to the last cent of my Kuna currency before we headed to the musical land of 'Sound Of Music'. A toast to it as we crosses the border.

En route to Austria, we stopped by Ljubljana in Slovenia for lunch. The weather was a bit warm here and the town is special in its own way with different architecture buildings of different styles evolving from it's own history.

There was this bus moving parallel to our coach where there was some kind of party going on inside. Everyone looked so high and there were even some naked lap dancers inside. WOW! And that's in the broad daylight. I wish we have that here too!

Lunch was superb and they served some wonderfully delicious Panna Cotta. Boy, how I love this dessert( not just Panna Cotta, I adored desserts!).

We continued our journey to Austria after wandering around this beautiful Slovenia town for a while. The weather was getting chilly as we are getting near and I've started layering myself with warm clothing. It was raining as we reached the town.

The musical ' The Sound of Music' is in our itinerary this evening accompanying our dinner. Remembering every words to the songs and singing along to them. It was fun.

The fun stopped when we reach the hotel. My luggage was locked inside the coach and I got trapped inside the elevator. Worst of all I saw something vividly dark moving above my bed in the middle of the night and I still don't know if it real or it was just a nightmare. Its not human, that I'm sure of. My room mate witnessed first hand how I screamed like one of the character in 'Pyscho'.

Eerie...creepy..scary...you name it, all rolled into one.

The hotel looks nice and the bed looks very comfy though...

4th: Back To Nature At Plitvicka

We headed to Plitvicka Jezera National Park in Croatia. It's consider one of the most beautiful natural site in Europe consisted of 16 interlinked lakes and a forest complex and not forgetting the numerous waterfalls around. There are variety of flora and fauna that made this beautiful place their home.

We hiked along the trails while enjoying the best view of this place has to offer. It was very tiring at some point but the lure of this place made me go on and on. I could have go back again and again if I have the chance again. Never been so close to Mother Nature in my love. This place is simply captivating.

Looking back while I'm blogging this almost one year too late, it seems worth all the hardships that I've been through.

Say Cheese!

It's something people avoid like plague during their slimming phase but it's something that I always go for my slimming phase. I love cheese! It's full of protein and protein is crucial for my current phase. A few of my favourites:

Goat cheese : Great for bread spread. Toss out the mayonaise and butter replace them with this wonderful creamy delight.

Parmesan : Grate it over the greens!

Chedda r: Good for heating. Melt it over some vegetarian burger or something.

Ricotta : A low-cal savior for the pasta lover like me.

Provolene : Goes well with deli meat.

Mozarella : My breakfast staple. I put them in my omelete and also my rolled oatmeal porridge.

Agave For My Sweet Tooth

I've been missing my daily coffee fix after being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism ( I do sneaked in a cup or two after some improvement on my condition). I maybe able to have it now and then but it's kinda guilt inducing with all those sugar being dissolved into it until I found out about this wonderful nectar from the agave plant. Feel so good to be able to indulge myself with coffee again and I read it somewhere that coffee can me go longer in the gym. And that's killing two birds with one stone

I found that agave nectar is a really good alternative to refined sugar and honey due to it's low GI value. It won't cause sudden insulin spike in our body, good for my slimming phase. It's taste is not as strong as maple syrup which makes it easier to pair with variety of food. The only thing is I can't use it in my baking as it will burn pretty fast compared with granuled sugar.