The China Diet: Week 1

 

It is vitally important to me that I start exercising. If the entire weekend spent "cheating" wasn't motivation enough to get my butt into gear here, maybe it's the fact that losing weight and fitting into my clothes has helped push me along that path more. But knowing that I'm still overweight and really in need of getting into shape hearkens in me the need to really go that extra mile - as it were.

Therefore, I'm really, really, really going to do this. And I really, really, really don't want to - but I am.

Day 1:

I woke up at 5:45 in the morning to do my morning routine, and most importantly, the reason I woke up at that ungodly hour was to exercise. And truthfully there is just never enough time in the morning for all the things that I have to do.

Let me break my morning down for everyone, because I know no one understands why I have to wake up so early if my job doesn't start until 9 AM.

I get up, make my coffee - this takes 10 minutes as I use an espresso maker imported from Italy and it takes a few minutes to heat up.

Afterward, I have my Bible study which can take around 40 minutes or so.

Then I make my lunch and breakfast for the day. This can take a good 15 minutes or just slightly longer.

Next, it's time to exercise.

The exercise routine that I put before myself this morning was 45 minutes, but I wanted to do more - it just sucks that I have a job. Just kidding. I'm very grateful I have my job, it just sucks that it's 30 minutes away from home, and therefore I have to leave earlier than I would like, forcing me to wake up so early to get everything done that needs to be done. I swear...I'm single, and yet I feel like I'm running a household full of kids and maintaining a full-time job.

My exercise routine consisted of stretching...then 30 minutes of high-impact walking on the treadmill, and then 10 minutes of sit-ups, lifting weights, push-ups and more stretching. Again, I wish I had time for more, but good grief...isn't 5:45 early enough?

After the workout, it was already 5 to 8:00, and I had to hustle in order to run out the door in 30 minutes. Shower, get dressed and makeup. Makeup, I will be honest, usually takes me about 20 minutes.

I grab all my stuff, keys included and rush out the door. Even waking up at 5:45 - I was still 5 minutes late to work. But that's because I had to stop to get gas. Even still...it's unbelievable.

Once I was an  hour into my work day, when 10 AM hit, I was ready to tear into my breakfast...which was cold by then.

Oatmeal with blueberries, cinnamon and almond milk

Lunch was delicious, if I do say so myself. The only type of steak I was able to find that was 100% grass-fed was NY Strip. The night before, I marinated the meat in soy sauce and sesame seeds.  In the morning, I had some leftover sushi rice from a few nights before, so I cooked it up with green onion, the steak, the marinade and grape seed oil. And voila! I had a certifiable Asian stir-fry.

Dinner was amazing, possibly even more so than the lunch had been.

Chicken breast cooked with bok choy, soy sauce, sesame seed oil, grape seed oil, sesame seeds, green onion and garlic.  I made some Jasmine rice on the side and mixed it into the dish after it was all done and it was brilliantly executed. I do have to say though, the sushi rice is much easier to prepare, but the Jasmine rice is lighter and in some ways worked so much better with this type of dish than the sushi rice would have.

The next day, I started all over again at 5:45 in the morning with my alarm sounding, and the sound of myself groaning. I did my Bible study, my workout and somehow even managed to make my lunch for the day and my breakfast.

However, at the recommendation of my colleague (who just happens to be a certified personal trainer), I ate half a cup of plain yogurt with a few blueberries thrown in before doing my workout. In the end, I still prefer working out on an empty stomach, but I understand why it's important to eat before exercising.

My actual breakfast, once I got to work, was a fruit "salad" of blueberries and grapes.

As a snack, I attempted to make baked soybeans the night before, but ended up burning them inadvertently...this is what they looked like prior to my baking them however:

For lunch, I had left over of the steak and rice I'd made the day before.

Dinner was left over of the bok choy chicken stir fry from the night before.


The next morning began as the previous two, with waking up early but only having enough time to do 25 minutes on the treadmill. The other elements of my workout were skipped as I would have been seriously late for work, and I couldn't do that.

For breakfast I made myself a smoothie, which turned out terribly...I'm not even going to add the photos here.

Lunch however, was delicious. I made ground chicken patties with rice. Make the jasmine rice ahead of time, add it to a mixture of 1 egg, salt and pepper, ground chicken and some diced up green onion (garlic optional) and boom! Fry them up with some grape seed oil...

Dinner was the last portion of the bok choy chicken stir fry...


Thursday morning I woke up once again at 5:45 got all my stuff done plus my full workout for the day. By the time I was dressed and ready to head out the door for work, I said aloud to myself, "I'm ready for a nap."

Lately, one coffee is not enough, but I am super grateful that on this diet I'm allowed to have some half and half in my coffee. I was dying before drinking it black each morning - yuk.

Breakfast was simple. Just some grapes...

Lunch was left over of the chicken patties with a kiwi as a snack...

Dinner was amazing...

Some steak with fresh mozzarella on top, rice on the side and a beer to go with it. I felt like a man.

Now, as I recall that evening, I went for a long walk with my friend...but I could be wrong. If that's the case, then I did two workouts, you might say. As we usually do about 2 miles together. This made the dinner all the more rewarding and enjoyable.

Friday morning, it was business as usual. That 5:45 AM alarm went off, and I jumped out of bed soon after. My workout was as it normally was, and a second coffee was again in my future by the time I got to work.

Breakfast was a cup of yogurt with some fresh blueberries...

Later, a snack was 3 sliced up kiwis...

And lunch was delicious, chicken breast with my own homemade soybean hummus....

Dinner was literally nothing special. I was not hungry, and nearly skipped eating altogether, but found myself getting a tiny bit peckish at around 10 o'clock, and because it was so late and I didn't want to eat anything too heavy, I had some grapes. That is all.

Saturday morning, I did not exercise, because my strategy has been to workout 5 days a week and take the weekends off. I rather enjoy this. Therefore I got to sleep in a little bit that morning and went to work with a nice breakfast. I was absolutely famished by 9:00 AM because I hadn't really eaten the night before...

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, half and half, mozzarella cheese and green onion...

Lunch was super simple. Left over chicken breast with the soybean hummus.

And the same for dinner...

Sunday was a bit more interesting...

Breakfast was heavenly. Steak and eggs...

I repeat: heavenly...

Lunch was very light as I was still full from breakfast even by about 3 pm.  Some fresh mozzarella with a little grape seed oil and pine nuts on top. A Chinese version, if you will, of Insalata Caprese.

Dinner was exceptionally good. I followed a recipe on the app "Tasty" to make a great mushroom risotto, but I obviously couldn't use all of the ingredients, and therefore substituted my own. Instead of writing out the recipe, I figure pictures are just as easy to understand...

For dessert, I had wanted to try something that I'd read about during my research. According to the internet, during the Tang Dynasty a delicacy for the upper classes, was cherries with soft cheese and a syrup made from cane sugar. Well, I recreated that using cherries, mascarpone cheese and I created a cherry sauce using the blender, cherries heated up on the stove with water and cane sugar...here is what it looked like, and yes, it was very good!

That's it for week 1, boys and girls...stay tuned for week 2 which is coming later today!

"The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them." - Romans 14:3