You asked these questions on my Instagram stories:
How good are you at being mindful of what you eat?
Like keeping the right portion vs too much.
I almost eat the same things every day and have a very regular routine. I don’t get tired of them because I think they taste amazing. I weigh and portion out my chicken breast before I freeze them so I know that I can just have 1 pack per meal.
I do this because I’m actually really bad at resisting temptation. I don’t have cravings but when my mom puts food in front of me it makes me want to eat it. If I have my meal planned out, I have to finish it. I’m usually very satiated after that and would be able to easily avoid eating crap.
Some of you may already know that I can actually eat a lot, so I sometimes overeat but only on cheat days.
What to do about a sweet tooth?
I don’t have a sweet tooth so this one is a bit hard for me to answer.
Try replacing sugar with erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol commonly used as sugar substitute. It has the same texture and sweetness as sugar and yields the exact same result in recipes, except it has zero calories. This is my go-to sugar replacement when baking. Eryhtritol is a sugar alcohol that is 99% processed by your kidneys and does not reach your lower intestines, which means that it does not cause bloating. You can get this at stores that sells baking ingredients, they'll tell you that it's for diabetics. Seriously, there's nothing wrong with eating things that are typically considered to be for diabetics. That means that they are better for your insulin sensitivity, which is honestly what we are after. You can also find it on PChome and Momo. I got mine from The EU Pantry.
Whey protein powder is also amazing for making keto protein cakes, waffles, or other desserts. I particularly love the cakes made with MD OKINAWA Brown Sugar. (Enter ‘getshredded’ at checkout for NTD$50 off on orders over NTD$500.) Ares likes the protein cakes I make using MyProtein blueberry cheesecake. We both think you should steer clear from MyProtein Pineapple which tastes awful no matter what I do to it. And my good friend has informed me that MyProtein Minted Chocolate is disgustingly sweet.
I love drinking sugary drinks, what should I do?
A lot of people like drinking sweet beverages, I think it would be great to also replace them with whey protein shakes. I recommend Muscledream Classic Chocolate for chocolate milk lovers, Uji Matcha for matcha latte lovers, and British Milk Tea for milk tea lovers. (Enter ‘getshredded’ at checkout for NTD$50 off on orders over NTD$500.)
For juice lovers, I recommend that you eat fruit instead of drinking juice. It's a lot more satiating and contains more dietary fiber. It's also quite unlikely for you to get fake and unnatural fruit, while store-bought juice is often watered down with added sugar. Fruit still contains a considerable amount of carbs and fructose, so just control the proportions.
Do you eat/snack often in small portions or do internment fasting?
I asked this as I know it differs especially if a person is diabetic.
Fasting is actually beneficial for people of all body types, especially people who are type-two diabetic. It helps regulate insulin levels and increases insulin sensitivity. Having bad insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance, is the precursor to type-two diabetes. Insulin is also one of the main hormones that causes you to store fat.
16-8 to 18-6 intermittent fasting fits very perfectly into my schedule. I usually have my first meal at 13:00 and don’t eat after 21:00. Sometimes I stop eating at 20:00 or even 18:00, depending on how full I feel that day. I’m not always extremely strict and I don’t force myself to do intermittent fasting, it just kind of happens. I sometimes make sure that I am not intermittent fasting so that my body doesn’t get too used to it.
A side note for girls, I consciously avoid fasting for over 15-16 hours the week before and during my period to maintain healthy estrogen levels. During this period of time, our bodies are also more prone to breaking down muscle rather than burning fat when we are out of fuel, which is not ideal. The best diet during this time would be to go strictly keto (net carbs less than 50g per day) without fasting so that our bodies have enough fuel at all times, but have to break down fat rather than easily getting glucose from carbs.
Do you count macros?
I don’t. I did it for a short period of time to get a grasp on how much I need to eat in a day but mostly I listen to my body. I eat when I am hungry, make sure I’m having protein, and stay away from refined carbs.
Keeping track of your protein, net carbs, and fat intake is actually really beneficial, especially at the beginning of your diet adjustment. It helps you understand what your body needs. You will also discover that you don't always feel more satiated when you eat more, but when you eat right.
Some people might also find that recording what you eat helps with portion control, which is good. Just don't count calories, Ares said he thinks that it leads to a bad relationship with food, which is literally what I wrote about my high school self in my diary. Back then, I was obsessively counting calories and constantly weighing myself, about 5-10 times a day. Now I weigh myself twice a day. Once before in the morning when I get up and once at night before bed.
How often do you have cheat days?
Usually once a week. A lot of times I don't feel like having cheat food at all so I skip, but once a week, I'd still eat a bit more than other days. I don't do this on purpose but it does have health benefits. The food that I usually eat are very satiating and if you do count calories you might notice that even though I am not hungry, the calories would often be a few hundred less than my basal metabolism. Eating too little would sometimes lead to your metabolism throttling, having a cheat meal here and there or a high day once a week could really help kick off your metabolism and make sure that your body doesn't get too comfortable.
My body actually really dislikes it when I eat crap nowadays. I would feel more tired, constantly thirsty, and I often go to the bathroom shortly after. I can just feel my body resisting it, like, "what is this garbage?" And trying to get rid of it as soon as possible. Ares is the same, or worse. On crappy cheat days, he gets really sleepy after we eat and would quickly go to the bathroom within 30 minutes to an hour. I think it's the body equivalent of people getting used to luxurious stuff and becoming no longer able to tolerate cheap things. Except it is cheap and easy to keep a healthy diet.
How much time do you spend working out everyday?
About 20-30 minutes.
When I was really trying to lose weight, I did 10 minutes of high-intensity interval training before my first meal. Then I did 20-40 minutes of resistance training after my first meal, focusing on my glutes and a bit of abs. I really don’t like splitting my training into two though, so now I just do them all at once before my first meal. The workout menu has not changed.
I usually do burpees, mountain climber variation, and jump squats for HIIT.
For resistance training, I use a 90lb resistance band, two 6lb soft weights, and my dog (that fatty polar bear weights about 17-18lbs). For glutes, I do swivel raises using the resistance band and glute bridges with abduction using the resistance band with the two soft weights plus my dog as weights. For abs, I do cross sit-ups with the resistance band around my thighs, Russian twists holding my soft weights, and reverse crunches. Recently, I’ve started doing push-up variations to train my upper chest as well. My fellow ladies of the itty bitty titty committee will understand. I will share my results and upper chest workout in a few months.
Do you take any supplements?
Yes, I take a Women's Multivitamin from Rainbow Light, 1 zinc capsule from Swanson, and 1 krill oil capsule from Swanson per day. I add 1 pack of collagen from Milocolla and 1 pack of burner dietary fiber to my protein shake.
I drink whey protein from Muscledream (read my whey protein brands comparison here) because the flavors are delicious and it dissolves very well. Plus it’s much cheaper than Optimal Nutrition or MyProtein. There's also the discount code ‘getshredded’ which gives you NTD$50 off on orders over NTD$500. Just don't log in when you place the order! The code can only be used once per account but I noticed I can check out as a guest and just use it forever. My personal favorite for shake is MD Oolong Tea, Ares likes MyProtein Salted Caramel and Optimal Nutrition Cookie and Creme.
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