Lately, I’ve been more conscious about my health and have been obsessing over nutrition. I will never say goodbye to my delicious poutine (nomnomnom) but I limit when I have it and try to consume more foods with higher nutritional value. I don’t care about weight loss so I’m not strict with my diet but it’s good to know what’s good and bad for you.
- 5-6 small meals a day! Meals should be small enough so you’ll feel hungry 2-3 hours later, this way you won’t feel hungry as often and end up eating junk.
- NEVER EVER skip meals (especially breakfast). It’ll just take you back a step (or two), mess up your metabolism and you’ll probably make up for that skipped meal by eating more later on. You’ll also have a harder time controlling cravings if you’re low in calories. Set your cellphone alarm to remind yourself to eat if you need to.
Sometimes breakfast is the most exciting part of my day when I’m deciding what to put in my oatmeal in the morning. Sad, isn’t it? But it’s so fun and so nom.
- Breakfast and/or your post-workout meals should be the biggest meals of your day.
- Never cut carbohydrates completely from your diet. Your body needs it for energy especially if you work out. Instead, limit carbs to breakfast or pre/post work out meals.
Complex carbs (whole grains, oatmeal, potatoes, spinach…) are good for you because they’re rich in nutrients and vitamins, help stabilize blood sugar and take longer to breakdown therefore satisfying your hunger.
Simple carbs breaks down faster, are less satisfying and more fattening. They come in 2 groups: bad/processed (white flour, candy, pop) and good/natural (apples, berries, peaches). A good time to eat a simple carb is right before/after a work out (the good kind of course).
- Eat your vegetables! They are high in fibre and make you feel full. A fab dieting trick is to eat a salad before dinner so you’ll be less likely to pig out on other things.
- Eat protein in every meal to increase metabolism, preserve muscles and to feel full. Examples of food high in protein are eggs, yogurt, nuts, fish, chicken, milk, rice, tofu and beans.
- The percentage of protein/carbs/fats you should eat daily depends on your body and your fitness goals so consult a qualified nutrition. If you ask me, I might tell you to eat poutine every day.
- Replace whites with browns/whole-grains (eg. bread, pasta, rice, etc). …BUT the only “white” thing I eat and will NEVER give up is white rice. Seriously… you should never tell an Asian to give up white rice.
- Eat fruits to satisfy your sweet craving. Fruits are the shit.
- Eating after [insert time] will make you gain weight is a myth! It doesn’t matter when you eat but how many calories you’ve consumed that day. The key is to choose healthier foods; leaner meats and veggies and avoid carbs/fats when eating at night.
- Lots and LOTS of water. How many times have we all heard this?
- Start with baby steps. For example, drink diet coke instead of coke, then try cutting out diet coke and replace with water, etc.
- Exercise!! Diet and exercise go hand-in-hand. You won’t reach your goals doing only one.
You don’t have to be extremely strict with your diet unless you’re a body builder or your health is in danger because of your weight… in fact I feel bad for all those exercise “gurus” who are always preaching that you should eat chicken breast every day (and probably pretending that they do too). This is coming from someone who HATES chicken breast, but what’s life without good food? Eat what you want (in moderation), get all your nutrients, fulfill your daily calorie intake, exercise and you’ll be fine. It sounds intimidating but once you start, it’s actually hard to get back into the really bad junk/processed foods and an unhealthy lifestyle. Of course, you have to treat yourself to cheat meals once in a while and they’ll taste better too. 
I’m either going to watch 
– I have to give credit to Gertrude Chandler Warner for getting me into reading. My sister and I discovered these books at the library when we went to the kids’ “chapter books” section for the first time (!!!) when we were 6/7 and we use to grab as many as we can off the shelves to bring home. The piles were like taller than us! I use think that living the life of Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny, being orphans and solving mysteries was THE shit. Sigh.
– Cam use to be my idol because I thought having a camera-like memory was so awesome. Funny thing is that I remember loving these books but I don’t remember any of them at all along with Sideways Stories From Wayside School and that one about the figure skaters.
– I’ve always loved horses growing up so naturally, I read The Saddle Club. I got turned off after watching the TV show though because none of the characters were how I imagined them to look like. Does that make me sound shallow?
– I remember being 8 and couldn’t wait to turn 13 because the girls in the BSC were. When I did turn 13, I realized it wasn’t that great AND I had to take the bus everywhere because my parents wouldn’t drive me around anymore. Public transportation sucks ass and being 13 is so overrated.
Hot Pot. All hail cold weather… the time for hot pot is arriving!! Well, we do it in the summer anyway but it’s funner and cozier doing it in the winter. The only downside of it is the clean up but thank god for all the all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurants in Richmond.
(Ken Follett). I finally got around to reading this book (sequel to 
) and can’t believe it’s over! I hope Follett continues the Kingsbridge legacy. Five stars. Has anyone read any of his other books? Are they good?
