A big hello from New York! I’m still a little jet-lagged but am thrilled to be here. The two weeks I had in Tokyo were just too short to do everything I wanted, including preparing blog posts, so I’m just winging while I travel for the next four weeks.
It’s been a while since I did a Food For Beauty post. In fact, those of you who followed my juicing days may be wondering if I’m still into it. The answer is yes, I still juice and make green smoothies daily (check out my juice/salad ebooks in the sidebar on the right hand side) but my eating habits have changed somewhat in the past six months or so. My outlook on that has also changed and perhaps the one thing I can take away from my rollercoaster journey for the past three years is that even as an adult, your body keeps changing so the way you eat changes to adapt to that.
Right now, I’m what you call a pescitarian, or a vegetarian who eats fish. I’ve become uncomfortable with labels but it’s a convenient box to put into without having to explain too much. At the moment, it feels right. I don’t seem to get these huge hunger pangs when I was purely vegetarian, and prior to that, a raw vegan. I also lost a teensy bit of weight without even trying because I naturally began reducing my carb intake.
In fact, my (overly) enthusiastic push to get lean for my wedding somehow turned me off strict regimes, food and exercise-wise. I’m consuming slightly more unhealthy foods more often which help me feel more relaxed socially. This may sound incredibly weird to you but I think my problem was that I was too obsessed with obtaining some kind of unreachable healthy pure state which led me to consistently deny myself the pleasure of food.
In fact, the only “rule” I stick to now is that I eat till I’m satisfied, not full, not bursting out of my pants. I try not to feel bad about wasting food because I wouldn’t feel good after anyway, which is in itself a “waste”, too.
Without further ado, let me show you how I eat these days with pictures…
One of my fave breakfasts is to sip on a green juice while nibbling on a fruit salad, while watching YouTube beauty gurus.
Although I’m not a strict veggie gal anymore, I am still drawn to vegan food and products. when I went to NYC two weeks ago, I had these delicious vegan cupcakes from Babycakes NYC. My other fave is Sunwarrior Brown Rice Protein Powder which is great in smoothies.
I love making my own coconut kefir yogurt. I just use kefir powder and mix it up with a packet of coconut milk and ferment the mixture for 24 hours in my trusty yogurt maker. I’ve always been a fan of probiotics in my diet.
Although I used to eat a salad practically everyday for lunch, I began adding cooked grains and beans, or even a tuna wrap, to be my mid-day fuel. I may or may not have a salad or I might have a green smoothie to get some fresh veggies into my system for the day.
I also eased back into eating tofu. I’m quite embarrassed to admit this but I had a strong fear of soy products after I read endless blogs and articles on the negative effects of soy. In a nutshell, the naturally occurring estrogen would wreak havoc your hormonal balance.
Personally I have had experience with weight gain and abnormal puffiness from overeating soy (two soy milk smoothies, a large block of tofu at least daily), and when I stopped, all these symptoms went away.
However, the reason why I am harping on such a small point is that I think balance is key to one’s health AND happiness. I eat tofu maybe once or twice a week and may even indulge in a soy chai latte once in a while. I haven’t experienced the same negative effects like before but I still do hold the opinion that TOO MUCH of anything, even food that is perceived as healthy, is bad.
I began using my oven a lot and like making mixed bean patties to eat with quinoa or brown rice. I have no fixed recipe and just throw in chickpeas or white beans or kidney beans with celery, onion, garlic, or whatever veggies I have on hand, give them a whirl in my food processor and shape them into patties before popping them into the oven.
I started adding a bit of cheese to my diet now. I’m lactose intolerant but not severely so. I just avoid large quantities and full cream anything. I have become very partial to these mini cheesy quiche muffins as a brunch option at home.
And waffles….I got a waffle maker to make decadent waffles with strawberries and maple syrup. I have these maybe once a fortnight as a sweet breakfast on the weekend.
And lastly, I don’t have any rules concerning the consumption of fish. I just go with what I feel like. Sometimes I may have sushi for lunch, or a piece of grilled salmon for dinner. Or I may not even have any for several days. I tend to eat more seafood when I travel but would prefer just fish fillets if I am at home.
So that’s it – I try to incorporate fresh raw veggies and fruit with a mix of vegetarian and fish meals. I feel like this is my “balance” but I won’t be surprised if this changes in time too.
What’s your food philosophy like?
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I thought I would share with you my supplement regime because I think it has really made such a difference to my skin. But before I plunge into it proper, I would like to preface this by saying that I didn’t take any of these under any medical guidance, I just did some research on the Internet, and gave it a go. Also, I think the cause of my acne was due to the fact that I stopped taking birth control pills (which I had been consuming for over 6.5 years before I stopped in late June 2010).
My skin is still far from perfect but I stopped getting monstrous breakouts and it has stabilized and is much more predictable. I still get some acne during the time of the month but my skin has been pretty alright. I don’t think it would ever return to its acne-free state when I was on the pill because I think the pill actually decreases sebum production so I think what I’m experiencing now is my natural state — oily, dehydrated skin.
Anyway, in order to help keep zits and hormonal changes in check, I take the following:
♥ Zinc: If you are familiar with getting acne, you would probably know that zinc helps to prevent and heal acne. I only take a 10mg tablet per day and I have read that zinc works great with vitamin C which also helps stave off the flu.
♥ Dong Quai: This is actually a Chinese herb that has been used for centuries by women facing fertility problems. This herb helps to regulate your hormones and I picked this up in forums where women who stopped the pill recommended taking dong quai to get their cycles back on track. Though I need to point out that my cycle has never really been out of whack so I took this to just balance out my “raging” hormones.
♥ Vegetarian Acidophilus: Now I know I’m a veggie gal and you might think I’m recommending this just based on the fact I don’t eat meat but I have actually read that dairy can make acne worse because it contains a load of hormones. Even before I knew that, for years I tried not to consume dairy not just because I’m mildly lactose intolerant but also because I noticed a decrease in getting skin conditions like eczema and other various mysterious bumps and rashes on my body. So I go by the rule of thumb that too much dairy can stress your skin so I try to avoid it as much as I can.
♥ Milk Thistle: I think this herb combined with dong quai has made great strides in improving my skin. Apparently, milk thistle increases the production of bile which helps to break down the amount of testosterone which causes acne.
On top of taking these supplements daily, I also pop a multi-vitamin tablet that contains vitamin B which again helps to prevent acne by way of reducing inflammation in the skin. All in all, I’ve been taking this combination for almost a year now and it took about two months for my skin to show visible signs of stabilizing — I still got some acne and it took another few months on top of that for my skin to stop breaking out twice a month (I’m not sure why but it happened every two weeks). I felt like I had everything pretty much under control by June this year.
Another dietary change I made was to cut down drastically on refined carbs and gluten, but I didn’t do that specifically to target my acne, but as a general health strategy for skin and weight maintenance, as I feel that gluten can be the root of many skin conditions (you can read about the link between acne and gluten here).
I hope you found this useful and do you have any supplements you would like to share that is great for skin?
*Please note I’m not an expert on this topic and these conclusions were based on my personal experience and research.
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Today’s theme for my food and fitness journal is to keep yourself motivated by working out with a buddy or in a group. As much as I love my solitude and the efficiency of doing my own workouts, I still really dig working out in a group and this wins hands down in re-lighting my fire.
What do I mean by that? I’m someone who likes variety so if I stick to doing the same routine over and over, I tend to get less motivated and find it harder to mentally get in the mood for my workout, so I pop over to FAB Academy in Roppongi for a class or two occasionally.
This journal was written on August 25th when I had a Sweat ‘Til You Drop class.
Morning: Green juice made of cabbage, grapefruit, spinach, celery — I wouldn’t recommend this but this was all I had for a juice
Late morning: Soaked oats with chia seeds, blueberries, banana, raisins and peanut butter
Lunch: socca with a fried egg which was chased by a green smoothie made of spinach, mango, and banana
What is socca (read more here)? Basically it is a chickpea flour pancake that is eaten in Spain, I believe. I love this because it is gluten free and it gives me a different texture besides rice or beans.
Recipe (in a small mixing bowl):
1 cup chickpea (or garbanzo) flour
1 tsp olive oil
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup water
Use a whisk to mix it all up until it looks smooth like pancake batter. Heat up a pan on low and add a small coin-sized amount of olive oil. Pour the batter in and tear up rosemary leaves to scatter on top of the socca.
I like eating this with a fried egg or grilled mushrooms. Mmmmmmmmm…it’s not fluffy like a pancake but it has a density that I sometimes crave. The rosemary makes it so fragrant and it really does make or break socca. Plain socca is really kind of boring so do add other herbs or spices to make it rock…
It was a busy day so instead of munching my way through a salad, I chose to blend up my greens instead. Quick and easy – woohoo!
Late afternoon snack: chocolate protein smoothie with hemp powder, cocoa powder, frozen banana, Sun Warrior brown rice protein (vanilla), cinnamon, almond milk, dates.
7pm: Sweat ‘Til You Dtop class at FAB
Post-class snack: Tiny avocado pineapple salad at Mid-Town Park
10pm: Leftover brown rice gluten free pasta stir-fry with shiitake mushrooms, Chinese greens, garlic, tomato, green onion, and egg
Emotions:
It felt like a very reluctant sort of day which I had to talk myself into studying Japanese and attending class but somehow felt very alert and present and laughed a lot during class. Afterwards, I was energized and looked forward to my bootcamp class in the evening — I got to see my friends and it felt good to be out of the house.
But it was a very intense session with resistance training. This class usually has more cardio but there was more muscular work involved that evening using bands and balls. I knew I was going to hurt the next day but I know that’s a sign of a great workout! My spirits were definitely boosted just by the fact that I was going to be in a group doing something fun. I would highly recommend you joining a class if you feel like you are in an exercise rut.
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Hi my lovelies, I cannot help but feel time is indeed rushing by and my wedding will be here before I know it. It certainly feels it is the great motivator behind trying to get fit and sexy.
I’ve been a huge fan of Tracy Anderson’s workout DVDs but I felt something was just not going well — I was getting bored with the same movements. I enjoy the resistance training sessions which have more variety but the cardio part is the same. I tried to change things up by using her earlier Dance Cardio workout but I’ve had it for over 18 months now and it’s getting harder and harder to do the same stuff repeatedly.
So I’ve jumped into doing short but intense interval training sessions on Bodytock.tv (link here) on days that I’m not working out to Tracy Anderson’s Metamorphosis.
Bodyrock.tv site has gained such a huge following in just a couple of years and the at-home workouts are tailored to be done in a limited space, i.e. the living room. The appeal of a 12-minute workout is alluring for those who are pressed for time.
But I must stress that it does take time to get familiar with the Bodyrock workouts and 12 minutes may stretch to over 30 minutes factoring time to watch Zusanna’s moves (her body is such an inspiration and it makes me want to work harder!). I also didn’t have a Gymboss timer (a timer that you can set to the length of time you want to do your interval training, eg 30 seconds of push ups, 10 seconds rest, then 30 seconds crunches etc) so I was counting reps instead which took longer as well.
Onto the journal taken on Aug 18 2011 now…
9am Two glasses of water (was incredibly thirsty that morning) and one glass of green juice (pear, kiwi, lemon, celery, watercress — I sipped this throughout the day since I made a huge four-glass batch)
130pm Quinoa salad (recipe can be found in my 7-Day Salad Handbook E-Book) with baby leaves, cherry tomatoes, shredded carrot, raisins, avocado, red onion, drizzled with a lovely basil dressing
Now the title is a bit misleading because I didn’t actually work out on Sunday but I wanted to put this one up anyway to show you that I do eat differently on the weekends, compared to my weekdays. I also wanted to stress on the importance of resting if you had a workout the day before.
I am all for working out daily but if my body is aching, I would prefer to rest because 1) it is pure misery to put your body through more stress in a weakened state 2) you could injure yourself more easily. I have done this time and time again so I gladly take a rest day after a workout day.
1130am a bowl of Go Raw (Apple & Cinnamon) cereal with cashew milk, blueberries, banana, and raisins
2pm Green smoothie: apple, mango, spinach, parsley
3pm White bean rosemary tomato filling with shredded carrot and cucumber on a whole wheat wrap (had two of these babies). This was so good and I bet this would be great as a pasta sauce.
Oh yeeeeeah…
Recipe for sauce (in a high-speed blender):
1 tomato
1/2 red capsicum
1 clove garlic
1/2 white onion
1/2 water
Pour sauce into a pot and add the following:
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Dash of sea salt and black pepper
Sprinkle of Mexican chilli powder
1/2 tsp of cumin
1/2 tsp of paprika
2 stalks of fresh rosemary
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups cooked white beans (you can use canned but I soak mine overnight and boil them for two hours in my Shuttle Chef. I know this sounds tedious but I always do a huge batch at once so I always have cooked beans on hand through the week)
Simmer for 5 minutes and it’s done! Add whatever veggies you like and wrap it up like a taco.
The view from our small cruise boat floating off the coast of Odaiba, a small reclaimed island near Tokyo Bay.
6-730pm BBQ cruise around Tokyo Bay. Since I was the only veggie onboard, I brought my own tofu and asparagus to grill, chowed down on some yakisoba (Japanese fried noodles), and salad. I also nibbled on potato chips, watermelon, and a tiny cream puff.
10pm The fiance went, “Since we ate carbs on the cruise, we breached our diet. So shall we have some ice-cream?” LOL – and I had a small serving of Haagan Daz strawberry ice-cream.
Sounds like a lot? Yeah, I tend to indulge on the weekend but since I’m on a “trying not to expand” diet, I try to only indulge on either Saturday or Sunday and not both days. I think it’s also necessary to have a cheat day to “rest” from a strict regime because a human being has only so much will power.
How often do you workout/rest? Do you give yourself a cheat day or would you rather be strict all the way till you reach your goal?
PS: Don’t forget to put your name down for my 3rd anniversary giveaway (three winners will be picked so the chances of winning are pretty high!)
Thank you so much to those who put their names down for my Anniversary/Birthday “3″ Giveaway — I’m loving your feedback and am taking them all into consideration. I like it that my blog evolves in this interactive way. If you haven’t joined my giveaway, it’s here (three winners to be picked; a mix of my fave Japanese beauty goodies).
I thought I would post a day of eats and exercise for those of you who are curious about how I approach diet and fitness. I’ve long believed that achieving outer beauty has a lot to do with what you eat and how you move; but it is also so connected to how you feel. Emotions, food, and physical well-being are crucial to how balanced (or not) you are health and beauty-wise, so I hope you enjoy this new addition to the blog.
Today’s meals..
10am: Four cups* green melon and spinach smoothie
1230pm: Soaked oats in mix of hemp and walnut milk, blueberries, banana, raisins with a dollop of chocolate peanut butter (I use Peanut Butter & Co.’s Dark Chocolate Dreams – it’s to-die-for). I soak my oats for about 2-3 hours which is enough for me, though some folks do it overnight.
330pm: Green savoury soup (or smoothie if you will). It was a mix of a large tomato, one cucumber, one celery stalk, handful of parsley, one garlic clove, juice of half a lemon, dash of sea salt, dill, and cayenne pepper, and a cup of water, sprinkled with a tablespoon of dulse flakes ( a type of seaweed). If it sounds muddy, it actually was. I should’ve injected it with more sweetness like carrot juice or orange juice. I won’t put a picture here because it might scare some people away.
440pm: Work out with Tracy Anderson’s Metamorphosis Abcentric DVD (review on her previous workout book/DVD, The 30-Day Method, is here) which starts off with 30 minutes of dance cardio and then 30 minutes of resistance training — review coming soon!
620pm: Chocolate smoothie with one frozen banana, hemp milk, cocoa powder, Sun Warrior Brown Rice Protein, two dates, a dash of maca, cinnamon, and vanilla essence — this was so yummy; felt like a treat rather than a post-workout protein shake.
930pm: Bowl of gluten-free fettucine with shiitake mushrooms, onion, garlic, bean sprouts, Chinese greens, a boiled egg in a herbal Chinese shoyu sauce (shoyu, sesame oil, cloves, star anise and cinnamon).
*I mean cups in terms of measuring cups and not drinking glasses or what not so it doesn’t look as much as it is.
Emotions: I slept well the night before so I woke up rested and raring to start the day. I occasionally get such starts which I’m trying to encourage because there are mornings which I feel foggy and it takes me an hour to shake off sleepiness. Time flew by because work was busy but I felt efficient and calm though I could do without checking Facebook so often.
I’m putting more pressure on myself to work out 3-4 times a week because of my impending nuptials in Sept this year — I felt really reluctant today despite the great energy levels I had earlier on in the day. It was strange and I think it was more of a mental block than a physical one. I really wanted to blog instead – honest! I told myself I had to get it in because I can’t work out tomorrow because of several appointments. But I got off my butt and felt enthused about sweating it out 20 minutes into the cardio. Usually it takes me about 10 minutes to forget my reluctance so today was quite challenging.
I’m quite calm and patient today in terms of interacting with others so I would say it was a pretty balanced day for me — no real dramas; no junk food; got in my workout; procrastinated a little bit but overall pretty good.
Good night!
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Hello makeup maniacs, I’m going back to my roots and did a juice video for old times’ sake. I love using whatever is in my fridge and I came up with this one by accident.
The ruby red shade and cubes of ice floating in this glass of thirst-quenching goodness just made me go aaaahhhh…It’s steamy hot in Tokyo so I’ve been right into my juices and smoothies to keep hydrated and healthy.
I also filmed a video on how to make this red juice. On hindsight, I would recommend pink grapefruit if you want to achieve that pure red colour but white grapefruit works just as well taste-wise but could come out a little muddy. I think at the end of the day, flavour trumps looks for me. How about you?
Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
1 grapefruit
1 carrot
1 celery stalk (including leaves)
1/2 head of chicory leaves
1 cup water
Add ice and slurp this baby up.
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I’m really on a roll with videos recently…. I thought that since I’m such a big believer in eating well for your health and skin, it’s time that I show you what I eat in any given week. I chose a Wednesday and a Sunday as examples because I eat quite differently on the weekend compared to my weekday habits.
I try to eat a lot of fresh, raw fruit and veggies from Monday to Friday but on the weekend, I tend to be more instinctive and just have whatever I feel like.
While it’s important to pay attention to what you put in your body, it’s a shame to be too anal and paranoid so you should let loose once in a while. I believe in eating healthy but it must be delicious because if it doesn’t taste good to you, you would not continue consuming it.
Thanks for watching!
What would you like to see on future Beauty Box TV episodes?
Hi everyone, how was your weekend? Mine was a rather quiet one with a dim sum lunch on Saturday and a long run with friends on Sunday. I needed the downtime to decompress and rest — I loved taking my time to wake up, read, watch J-dramas and catch up on Project Runway Season 8…
You guys know that I’m big on nutrition for beauty and health so today I’m going to talk about salads. Remember my great post-holiday detox plan? I ended up noshing on tons of smoothies, juices, salads from then till now (it’s been a month). I feel lighter, lost two pounds (toxins, hopefully?), and reduced the puffiness in my face. Fresh fruit, greens, and vegetables will give you a radiant glow — there’s no doubt about this.
But to the cursory passer-by, they might go, “God, you poor thing. Why are you torturing yourself like that?”
Hey gorgeous people, it’s mid-week and I’m just getting into the groove of my schedule. Alas, my summer travels have come to an end and I’m badly in need of some self-pampering.
But first, let me show you my mini-holiday haul. As a general rule, I try not to shop while travelling — I usually have no space in one small carry-on luggage, plus beauty products tend to be liquid so that makes things difficult if you don’t plan to check-in your luggage. And I really want to just buy products when I need them, too. Why don’t I just put a halo over my head right now, you must be wondering! Well, I used to hoard beauty products like no tomorrow so it’s an on-going resolution to live light.
But I broke a couple of rules when I was transiting at the Dubai International Airport en route to Singapore from Moscow.
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