28 Day Diet - Day 12

After a week of, not necessarily bland food, but non-spicy fare, it was time to heat things up. I decided to make a spicy sardine sambal. Sambal is a thick saucy gravy where chillies are the star of the dish. I opened a tin of sardine in tomato gravy and cooked it with two large onions, five cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of extra spicy chilli paste and, to thicken the gravy, two tablespoons of tomato sauce. There was a definite kick from the chili paste.

To tamper down the spiciness of the dish, I made a simple vegetable dish of shredded cabbage and finely chopped long beans which I stir fried in half a small shallot. When it was half cooked, I broke an egg into it and gave it a good mix. Walla, a quick, easy and healthy vegetable dish. I especially added the egg to cut the heat from the sardine sambal for my son.

As I said before, I am not one to cook seperate meals for everyone. So the boys had it with rice and I, sticking to my diet, had it with a couple of slices of bread.

28 Day Diet - Day 10 & 11

I have just finished preping for tonight's roast chicken leg dinner. I have two pieces of medium sized chicken legs for my boys. I am forgoing the meat. For the side, I am being generous with the vegetables. I have a whole head (medium sized) of broccoli and cauliflower, three big carrots and two cups full of snow peas. I intend to roast everything together in a baking tray with two medium sized onions and a whole clove of garlic. That's a veggie loaded dish that makes my day.

I guess I am making up for yesterday. Although I had a healthy breakfast of hard boiled eggs, I was exhausted and hungry after a long morning of spring cleaning. You know how dangerous that can be. I was weak with hunger and feeling shaky on my feet, so I heated up my mum's yummy vegetarian taufu curry from the other day. and had it with two rice spoonfulls of 'puttu'. Puttu os a traditional preparation of rice flour which is steamed until its cooked. Carbs, I know. My bad. I made up for it by having a steamed vegetarian spring roll for dinner.

So today, I am going to be good. A bowl of plain, boiled chickpeas for breakfast, leftover vegetable soup for lunch, and for dinner, I'll have a share of those lovely roast vegetables.

28 Day Diet - Day 8 & 9

It's becoming challenging to think of what to cook. If it was just my meals, it would be easy. However, I have to think of hubby and kiddo. So I decided to make at least one dish that we could share together (which is usually a vegetarian dish), and another that they could enjoy by themselves. This also helps them feel like they are not being put on a diet. It's a win win situation really as, in the end, they have at least one dish which is healthy.

So yesterday, I made a vegetable stew with broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, dried taufu and a little bit of Soo Hoon noodles mixed in for texture. In addition, for the boys, I made chicken drummets in ginger and dark soy sauce. It was lovely.

Today the boys are having a treat. I am a little jealous (ok, alot jealous) as my mum is sending over an indian feast and I don't want to break my diet. She mentioned green dhal, mashed brinjal, taufu curry and some other yummy dishes. We'll wait and see as I am to pick it up later. The dishes are all vegetarian and it goes so well with rice. If anything, I may just have the taufu curry with bread. It will still be yummy as it's mum's cooking anyway.

Let me tell you about breakfast. Yesterday I had plain corn flakes with low fat milk for breakfast, and for lunch, I had a couple of wheat cream crackers and a slice of cheese. Today, I had chick peas (boiled in salt water) for breakfast, and later I will have a couple of boiled eggs with sausages cut and mixed into it. Yum.

28 Day Diet - Day 6 & 7

I am proud that I was good with food this weekend. I satisfied my cravings for fried chicken wings (4 pieces) for lunch yesterday and made up for it by having a small tuna salad for dinner.

Lunch on Sunday's is usually an elaborate affair with too much food. I had 1 1/2 chapatis with two vegetarian side dishes. It was just perfect. For dinner, it was one KFC burger (minus the mayo) with no side dishes. It was not the healthiest choice, but it was either that, or wan ton noodles. Carbohidrate wise, the burger was better.

So todate, I have gone 7 days with no rice and with just 1 slice of whole wheat bread. That's a great week, if i say so myself.

28 Day Diet - Day 4 & 5

Yesterday was a good day for greens. It was possible for me to load up on salads as my hubby had a dinner meeting and was not joining us for our evening meal.

So I decided to have a tuna salad (iceberg lettuce, yellow onions and tuna, minus the dressing) for lunch. I had planned to be more adventurous for dinner but got lazy and settled on an egg salad (iceberg lettuce and boiled eggs, minus the dressing). I know, boring, but I was just not in the mood to make anything else and I had already washed the salad during lunch. So there. In all, two good, albeit simple, salad meals.

Don't worry, I did not forget to feed my son. There was no way he was going to have a salad with me. So I took down the leftover vegetable soup from Monday night, reheated it, added a portion of egg noodles, and once it was cooked, finished it off with a beaten egg to bring it all together and make the soup creamy. It was a winner.

Today is Day 5 and it's also a Friday. On Friday's, we sometimes have special dishes that are heavier than the usual meals cooked during the week night. This time, however, we decided to stick with the diet to compensate for whatever indulgence we may give in to over the weekend. I for one am craving fried chicken wings!

So tonight, the menu is: Grilled fish steak marinated with just salt, pepper and paprika. It will be served with steamed broccoli and cauliflower and flavoured with garlic infused olive oil. To bring the flavours together, I will squeeze some lemon over the fish before serving. Sounds yum? I am planning to serve the same for my son, but will add a couple of slices of garlic bread to make him happy.

28 Day Diet - Day 3

I did make a third dish last night. I took some of the extra bock choy I had left over and together with spring onions made a tasty omlette. It completed the meal perfectly. More importantly, hubby did not go foraging in the kitchen later in the night.

Today is a full day for me so I won't be cooking our evening meal. Hubby will pick up dinner and he gave me a choice between bak kut teh and Subway sandwiches. He was brave to go along with my choice for Subway, although he drew a line at getting a grilled chicken salad like me. Nevertheless, a brave soul.

The funny thing about this 28 day diet of mine is that, it looks like I've inadvertantly roped in my hubby and son into it as well. I guess we could all stand to loose a bit of weight and get healthier. It really is fun doing it together.

28 Day Diet - Day 2

Last night's dinner was interesting. My hubby decided to join me in having the vegetarian soup on its own. A first for a man who is an absolute carnivour. My son had it with a small portion of rice. I was so proud of them as they were open to the idea of detoxifying after a week of indulgent meals. The outcome: (1) Hubby made himself a late night snack of fried egg sandwich. Alas, he got hungry. (2) Both of them had a really good potty session (twice each) this morning. Verdict: Feeling gooood!

For tonight's meal, I plan to make a warm Chinese salad of bok choy, crunchy snow peas and small chunks of chicken breasts flavoured with white onions, garlic and sesame seed oil. I will also steam a block of Japanese soft taufu in sweet soy sauce, sprinkled with spring onions. I am wondering if that's enough for my man or should I make a third dish?

I have continued with drinking my plain youghurt, lemon water and low fat milk. I had my one cup of coffee in the morning and for breakfast, I had a mug of plain corn flakes with low fat milk.

28 Day Diet - Day 1

So I have started the countdown. No more excuses. No more procrastinating. No more giving in to cravings or temptation, or at least, I will try very hard not to. These next 28 days are all up to me.

I am only kicking myself, hard, for breaking the food plan diet I was on until a few weeks back. I was doing so well, had noticebly lost weight and felt absolutely great. For some reason I 'fell of the wagon', so to speak. I am one of those unfortunate souls who piles on the pounds prettily easily.

So to ensure that I get back in shape, these 28 days will be my turning point. If I do good, my reward will be to enjoy the coming vakay feeling faboulously wonderful about myself.  I want to feel and look healthy and sexy. I want to feel confident with my body instead of hiding it behind a colourful sarong, like I normally tend to do.

Today's menu is a lovely soup with lots of vegetables (celery, carrots, chinese cabbage), mushrooms (oyster, inoki) and soft taufu cooked in a broth flavoured with onions, ginger and oyster sauce. I will have a bowl of this hearty soup on its own, but my family will have it with a serving of rice.

For the rest of the day, I will be sticking with plain yougurt drinks, low fat milk, a tea pot full of lemon in hot water and boiled eggs if I get really hungry. I did not have any breakfast today other than my one cup of coffee. Bad move, I know, as I am feeling hungry now. I will have to correct that tomorrow.

So this is the plan for day one. I will let you know if I nibble on anything else. Wish me luck.

He's Earned It!

My son will remember 11th November, 2012, perhaps forever. My little boy had his first real taste of achievement when he earned his Black Belt in Taekwondo. He walked tall, he was proud. I am glad I talked him into sticking with it when he felt demotivated. It was worth seeing his self-esteem bloom.