The Weight Loss Entry
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Bodycare, Food & Nosh
Aah so this is the entry everyone and their overweight uncles with beer bellies have been waiting for: How Ilyana Lost 25kg Without Losing Her Soul. Weight loss isn’t exactly rocket science but losing 25kg kinda makes me an unofficial expert in the field of calorie restriction so read this carefully and throw your Atkins Diet guidebooks in the bin cos weight loss tips like these don’t usually come for free.
Oh and because I don’t believe in going to extreme lengths for weight loss i.e starvation, this entry will be filled with yummeh food photos I illegally took at Carousel (photos aren’t allowed but they obviously don’t know who they’re dealing with, tsk) YES. A DIET ENTRY…WITH FOOD PHOTOS. I know, I know..I amaze myself sometimes.
I’ve always maintained a healthy weight since young, I don’t have skinny genes - I’m sorry it’s just not possible; I have boobs, an ass and I love my sushi too much to give it up for teeny tiny clothes. Everyone is probably going to expect some dramatic sob fest on the reasons behind my sudden 25kg weight gain but the answer is as easy and blunt as this: School sucks. I was really stressed up during my last year of school, we had our final project to complete and as I struggled with the many stipulated project deadlines, I turned to food for solace during the many long nights I had to stay awake to complete the project.
By the end of the final deadline, I was seriously overweight and I was living in grey sweats and giant sized tees…not a pretty sight. The worst thing was it didn’t register in my head that I had put on massive amounts of weight even though my thighs had grown to the size of a baby elephant, I was sadly living in denial until I asked my then-boyfriend, “Baby, do you think I’m fat?” and he couldn’t answer the question HAHAHHA SSSSHHHHHIIITTT.
When I first started out on a diet, I was really hard on myself. I was doing the Special K cereal thing where I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a small meal for lunch and another bowl of cereal for dinner. I did that for two weeks straight and I’m still amazed that I actually had the determination to eat nothing but cereal *shudders* I lost a kilo after two weeks but I felt miserable despite the weight loss and told myself there was no way in heck I was gonna live on cereal for the rest of my life which brings me to the REAL dieting portion of this entry. The following “rules” are just an accumulation of what I’ve been doing so far, they work really well for me and hopefully they’ll do the same for you.
Rule 1: Eat breakfast for god’s sake!
I’m not saying you should be eating eggs benedict for breakfast every single day because it’s not quite healthy but not eating breakfast at all is much worse. They’ve been saying that breakfast is the most important meal for centuries now and with good reason, it kicks start your metabolism and gives you the energy you need to kick start the day bla bla bla you know this guys, you’ve heard it so many times before so EAT BREAKFAST, IT IS GOOD FOR CHU. Er if you’re curious about what I always have for breakfast…I usually have a traditional chinese breakfast back when I was still working: chee cheong fun minus the black sauce or 2 steamed chicken buns/baos.
Rule 2: Don’t go overboard with the salads.
Everyone assumes they should be eating a lot of salads when they’re on a diet, there really is nothing wrong with salads or vegetables but just don’t expect to eat a plain salad and fill full the rest of the day. You. will. die. It’s not healthy to be living on vegetables alone raw or not, you should always have some protein mixed in to make it a complete meal. I’m not fond of salads but I thought I should write a little paragraph about this because I know people who think they can live on vegetables alone…and they’re not vegetarians so that’s just crossing the line between trying to eat healthy and starving.
Rule 3: Focus on what you CAN eat and stock up on the soba.
If I could pick a certain type of food that would be the key to my weight loss, it would be the humble soba noodle. All of you should know by now I’m absolutely fanatical about Japanese food and I realized with great haste after my disastrous 2 week cereal diet that restricting myself to a certain type of food was just not my thing. Not all food is made equal but most of them are good for you, you just have to pick the ones you like and shut the supermarket down by buying an entire year’s supply like what I did with the soba.
I LOVE SOBA. I still find it remarkable that something so easy to put together (boil the noodles, drain and eat it with the dipping sauce) would taste so…GLORIOUS. All that buckwheat fills you up real fast and keeps you full until the next meal. There are other ways to serve soba too, my eternal goddess Nigella has a yummy soba salad recipe up on the internets.
Rule 4: Raw fish makes white rice less evil.
Ok white rice isn’t really evil but when you pair it with rich, oily dishes and deep fried stuff, it just gets ugly. The thing about us Asians is that we LOVE rice as much as we love our grandmothers and I’m not saying you should stop eating rice altogether and in a perfect world, I would be pairing rice with healthy dishes like steamed vegetables, oven-baked chicken etc but pfft who has the time?! If you do, then good on ye girlfriend but I am now a full-time uni student and that leaves me with barely enough time to make a sandwich. The solution: JAPANESE FOOD.
The Japanese eat a lot of rice but they pair it with raw fish slices and if the dish is cooked at all, it’s usually sauteed or broiled lightly with soy/teriyaki sauce. I don’t eat rice very often but when I do, it’s usually when I’m eating Japanese food or when my dear mother decides to cook something that doesn’t have a bucket full of coconut milk.
Rule 4: Drink lots of tea!
LOL I didn’t have a photo of the tea I drank in the restaurant so this photo of the amazing green tea mousse cake I had would just have to suffice. I’m not going to elaborate on the benefits of tea (I don’t want to start sounding like an infomercial kthx) so BREW IT. DRINK IT. LOVE IT.
Rule 5: A little chocolate won’t harm you.
The more you deprive yourself of a certain food, the more you’d want to gorge on it so whatever your diet vice is, chocolate, gummy bears, ice cream, whatever - you can eat them all but in MODERATE amounts people. Ideally, you should aim for one cheat meal at the end of each week. You can eat whatever you want during a cheat meal because you deserve it!
Rule 6: Stop hating yourself.
If you’re not overweight, chances are you’re fine the way you are. Nobody’s perfect and everyone was born with different bodies so it really gets to me when my friends who are impossibly skinny whine and complain about how “fat” they are. They don’t eat (except the occasional plate of vegetables) and resort to extreme means in order to lose weight. They’re on a constant crash diet and it gets to a point where they are so steeped in delusion that they actually THINK they’re eating healthy. The best thing is after all that starving, they haven’t lost a single pound >_>
It’s okay if you want to drop a few pounds and cultivate better eating habits but DON’T GET OBSESSIVE. I’m sorry but losing 5 pounds will not drastically change your life and make you a rockstar with the boys (or the girls, whatever catches your fancy) as much as you think it will. I know, I’ve been there, dropped 55lbs and lived to tell u guys that STARVING DOES NOT WORK PEOPLE. This self-hate has got to stop! Recognize that you are amazing in your own way and learn to love your body because IT’S THE ONLY ONE YOU’VE GOT.
Ok I hope that’s answered some of your questions on how I lost weight, it’s the best diet in the world I think lol. Oh and as for exercise - I have a Wii Fit and I used to exercise for half an hour every morning…until I got lazy erk. I make sure I walk a lot though, window shopping is the best form of exercise 8D
Remember to love thyself and eat the damn cake. I’d be happy to answer any diet-related questions, just ask in the comments! ;D
Oh and this entry is going to be littered with grammatical errors I’m sure and I’m too exhausted to check for them (plus this entry is so overdue!!) so I’m going to apologise in advance.
ANDDD BEFORE I FORGET I RUN A BEAUTY BLOG: Make-up for my Carousel lunch was kept really basic because I had a pretty strong lipcolor on lol (OCC lip tar in Indashio, LOVE LOVE LOVE OMFG), did a lil’ flick trick with the eyeliner and La Femme’s Nectar Peach blush ;D
LIFE UPDATE: Uni just started a couple of days ago, this is my third week in Melbourne and everything’s going crazy fast! I’m thinking of taking Japanese as my second major but I’ll see how that goes. We had our first class today and I got my ass kicked a couple of times during the character writing session LOL oh but what fun! I’ll write more about Melbourne in my next entry, I hope everyone’s doing fine. I’m slowly catching up on all your past entries so expect comments by this week!
Tags: diet & health, nosh: Carousel
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