Healthy living is the everyday not just a 2 week fast and then binge eating junk again. But I know it works for some people who need a tastebud reset and stuff like that, so- whatever floats your boat! :). However, I really rather you stop telling yourself you will eat better and cleaner 'tomorrow' or 'monday' or sometime in the future. Life is NOW. Make the commitment to health now. You can eat one less cookie NOW. You don't need to binge now and start on a Monday. Life does not always begin on a clean slate. (Advice I wished I listened to when I was 18 :/)
Anyway!
This is roughly what I ate from Sunday to Thursday after the horrendous bloating. Please note that eating like that everyday will yield you great results but if you have true belly fat to lose, it's definitely not going to take just 4 days! Weight that is lost slowly wouldn't be put on so fast as well. So eat right and lose weight slowly and healthily! Don't rush perfection! (Hehhheh)
I don't have a lot of pictures but here's roughly how it went:
I always start the day off with warm lemon water when I have lemons in the house or I remember to buy them. I feel it's just so cleansing and really resets your tastebuds so you don't crave sweet things. Water is hard to drink in the morning for some people as they don't like the feeling of their stomach expanding. But I drink a lot of water everyday so it's fine for me :)Due to the renovations, I had no kitchen equipment. I had no sieve or anything with which to wash my quinoa so I laboriously washed it in this rubbishy thing I found in some cupboard that hadn't be taped up and boxed away. It was so small and could wash so little but I was so grateful for it. *Seriously, the renovation taught me to appreciate a lot!) I also still had an oven so I baked the mushrooms and cheese.
The picture you see in the bottom right hand corner is my breakfast and take away lunch. -
One green smoothie- a blend of frozen banana, spinach, oatbran, almond milk, chia seeds for a power packed quick and easy yummy breakfast on the go (seriously, blending has changed my life- and my boyfriend's! haha)
A lunch box consisting of- salmon spiced with chili flakes, baby portobello and cheese, broccoli and quinoa. I cooked the quinoa in low sodium chicken broth and the cheese on the mushroom is salty as well. Other than that, everything was cooked without oil or salt and so was a great balance of flavours.
If you are interested- this is how you can cook quinoa and how it looks like. I used a 3 mix quinoa.
It wasn't easy eating my lunch while everyone else had Indian food though! I happen to really love Indian food haha :) But I wanted even more this time to nourish my body with fiber and nutrients I knew it had been missing out for a week.
Posted this on instagram that day! Haha! #storyofmylife indeed. Most people often ask me how I deal with being anti social if I bring my own food. WHY MUST BE ANTI SOCIAL?? You can still eat your food with them! The conversation around that table wasn't any less or I didn't feel bad or anything. Don't worry, nobody is really judging you except yourself :) At most, you'll get some good natured jibes and curious looks as you open your lunch box. haha Lots of people also ask how I can eat my 'plain' food while they eat such good rich food and I must admit, I used to love such rich food but honestly, I don't find them indulgent these days anymore. My tastebuds have changed so much that eating a lot of such food is honestly quite torturous so I really don't feel left out eating my own food. This is from a girl who used to eat 3 fast food meals a day! Everyone has hope! :)
As for the rest of the week, I'm sorry I really don't have many other pictures but I would eat meals from cedele, and my family had a meal out at a czechar place. I would just go along and eat but just a smaller portion of rice and veg and beancurd and the pork ribs I took only 1. I'm used to a lot of food though because most of the food I eat take up a lot of space in my tummy but are not calorie dense so when I eat too little, I cannot sleep! To curb it, I drank my green smoothie blend to up the fiber for the day when I felt like I was not getting enough nutrients. I also continued to bring out a lunch box for lunch and/or dinner. OH OH! and if you go to the hawker center with friends and you don't want to feel left out when getting a drink- oolong tea is my drink of choice other than water because it has zero sugar in it. Zero calories! Tea by itself has no calories and a whole host of benefits so when you drink canned tea like the pokka green tea, you're basically just drinking a lot of sugar!
Some homecooked wholemeal pasta, green juice, (I try to stay away from the very sweet pure fruit variety) and no sugar soya bean are a couple of my favorite drinks aside from water (my ultimate favourite)
Fortune Centre at Bugis is a great place to find low salt, low oil food in Singapore :) Slightly higher than hawker prices but not very wallet busting as well :) I was lucky to be around that area that day.
If you noticed, these food are not low in calories but they are big on nutrition. I can eat 1500- 2000 calories of good nutrition vs 800 calories of poor nutrition (chips, fried rice etc) and feel better than the low caloried diet. Seriously, if you are on a restricted low caloried diet, come off it now- it will only destroy your metabolism.
I can't just do a small salad a day to detox because they are honestly too little for me and I will crave and binge (especially at night :/). However, only veg and fruits can give you a reasonable amt of nutrients so I always make sure to blend up a nutritious and filling veg smoothie drink in the morning (unpictured because it's such a habit) It was all I could do as my kitchen was still unavailable and I only had a blender to work with. As my taste buds resettled and my appetite got smaller (gosh, hawker food makes you crave so badly), my stomach shrank back to normal and my facial glow came back as well.I also drank lots of water and ended the night with a happy calming blend of hot goodness :)
The only place that I felt marketed itself as 'healthy' but I felt was not healthy at all was surprisingly, Soup Spoon. This is of course, my own humble opinion. But would you please look at the sad sad state of that wrap? And what's with the paltry salad leaves? :( The pumpkin soup was also surprisingly salty (?!) I am sorry to say but while I feel that the concept of the place is really good and while I love that the chef creates it herself and offers Singaporeans fresh healthy options, this is one place I would not be going back soon again. Food cannot just be 'healthy'. It has to be nourishing for both the body and the soul. Real food should make you feel alive and happy and ready to take on the world. A couple of wet leaves and a dried out falafel in an obviously reheated- by- microwave- wrap does not qualify on my list as 'nourishing' no matter how 'healthy' it might be.
Alright, so this is what I ate for the 4 days and actually, what I usually eat. Basically thick oatbran vegetable smoothies in the morning for a nutrient punch, then a homemade lunchbox for lunch, snacks will be fruit or leftover from my lunchbox and dinner was probably cedele or some other healthy eating place. It was such a relief for my tastebuds honestly. I instagram what I eat on a daily basis but I'll try to collate it during the weekend for people who don't have instagram. Really hope this shows you that healthy eating is not about restriction and eating as little as possible. Real food, eating a wide variety, lots of produce, some meat, reasonable portions, less salt, less oil and time spent doing worthy things in life, getting enough rest, drinking enough water, - it's a whole sustainable package!
Keep healthy and loving!
Grace :)
