Friday, September 4, 2009

:: of food at home ::

I'm heading home to Singapore today. It's been a 14-month absence and my family and friends have not seen the new me. I was so excited to showcase the new me that I even got my eyebrows threaded beautifully at an Indian Supermarket. Hey, appearance matters!!!

Instead of hauling back the usual See's Candies loot for gifts, I stocked up on organic spices, tea, granola, dried fruits and nuts instead. Organic is spelled e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e in Singapore so hopefully it will be quite a treat.

For those who know - Singaporean hawker food is not known to be healthy. On the flip side, it's one of the best and most complex tasting foods out there. I don't think I'm going to go crazy like I normally do - in fact I'm trying to figure out how to maintain my style of eating so I don't upset the body too much. (Thank you mum for loaning me your blendtec while I'm there!!!) So I've narrowed down what I will eat at the hawker centers which largely centers around my favorites:
1. The quintessential Hainanese Chicken Rice. Most likely boon tiong kee. (At most 2 times)
2. Prawn mee soup, without the mee(noodles). The prawn broth is to die for. (Once only)
3. A night out at a "zi cha" where I will order my favorite "hot plate tofu" dish and allow myself to some salted fish fried rice and black hokkien mee. (Once only)
4. Yong Tau Fu - quite possibly the healthiest hawker food in Singapore. (At most 4 times)

All other meals? Cook at home or find some healthy organic cafe ($$$). I can do this!
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Thursday, September 3, 2009

:: how's it going? ::

So let's see... Since we packed up our life into boxes, I haven't really weighed myself. I've pretty much downsized to Size S/XS/2/4 for my tops and M/6/8 for my heavier bottom. I'm still not 100% lovin' my body yet(a 6 pack would be nice ;)) but I still feel great. Completed my longest run ever of 18 miles last week as part of marathon training. Running hills regularly at rancho now. So I guess it's going well!!!

Here's are some recent pictures though...



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:: brocolli stem soup ::


My latest discovery... making broccoli stalk soup. Oh my my ... so so good. I used Gordon Ramsey's recipe/method for the base but instead of using broccoli heads, I used stalk. All I needed was an uber powerful blender. Think of how nutrient dense this soup really is! I am wowed and it is so delicious.

Remember the key is in the method!!! Ingredients: Broccoli stalk, water and salt. :)

Gordon Ramsey's Broccoli Soup Method
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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

:: updates ::

I watched Julia & Julie last night and suddenly felt inspired to blog. It's been awhile, friends!

Nutrition
I feel like I've achieved nirvana in nutrition. I eat anything is fresh and natural. I stay away from boxed stuff with labels on them. I cook/prepare all my meals at home and when I can't avoid eating out, I tend to make the right ordering decisions. Yet i still indulge in the occasional founder's favorite at coldstone. I feel balanced. In fact, I no longer have a choice. We went to Gilroy on Sunday with my mother-in-law and there weren't many options for lunch. We ended up going to el pollo loco. Not too bad -grilled chicken and all. Within an hour, I was coughing for like hours. It stopped that night but still, there it was again, my body reacting to junk. Am I better off having my body immune to junk, like it used to? Nah, I don't think so. I would like to live a long and healthy life. :) (p.s. Julia Child pretty much cooked traditionally and lived to a ripe age of 92. Who said butter was bad for you again???)

Exercise
I'm doing the 'minimum' marathon training, definitely not going above and beyond but running 4x a week. I used to be able to work out every single day but there's something about this repetitive running that makes it just so boring that I dread doing more than I have to. Of course, I'm a lot busier these days with getting our house ready for move-in that I barely have time for anything else so I'm officially excused. I ran 18 miles last weekend - and it felt pretty good. I think I'll be able to complete the marathon on time. But quite honestly, I just can't wait for life to get back to normal when we officially move in. I'll be swinging my bell away in our backyard... :)

Evangelist
Julia Childs' book changed people's lives. That's what I want to do - cause change. I'll leave it at that for now. I'm heading back home to Singapore this weekend - my dad has not seen me since I changed my life around. I hope that he will see that the stroke he suffered was not for nothing. That he helped me live a long and healthy life.
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