Jump Starting 1

So yesterday, I started my exercise routine. I was on the elliptical for almost 20 minutes, then did several sets in the gym (hoping to tone these flabby arms) and gain muscles to help me lose unwanted weight. I also did crunches using my fit ball. I was done maybe within an hour or so. Note that I had to go down to the basement then back up for some baby intermissions LOL! I needed to puff (albuterol) right before and once during when I started coughing like a (mad) dog. This proved to be very helpful! However, now my bad knee is acting up. Grrr!

What did I eat yesterday? Hmmm....

• Brunch: A spoonful of greek strawberry yogurt, half egg, bits of bacon, pan de sal with butter, coffee with nonfat creamer.
• Late lunch was a whole lot of leftovers -- rice, bacon, coffee, yogurt, and I forgot.
• Dinner were leftovers too -- rice, pancit bihon, patatim (I know! LOL!)

Earlier today, I had:

• Breakfast: hot milk chocolate 
• Lunch: greek yogurt, salad with ginger dressing, cheese wontons, rice, lemongrass pork chops, california roll, miso soup (burp)
• Dinner: rice, roasted cornish hen with potatoes and carrots
• No exercise!

Hopefully I will just have desserts twice a week... to manage my sugar. Good luck to me!

Almost 150

The very reason this blog was made was to document my journey to reaching one hundred and fifty. That means my triglycerides better be 150 or below... and today, I am at 175! That's quite a dive from 700+ two months ago. I thank God for my medication (Lopid) which I take twice daily. 

Starter Kit

Okay, I haven't been exercising nor consciously eating well. However, after two months on medication I lost a good five pounds yehey! Now, I only have ten more to lose before I go back to my pre-pregnancy weight (two years ago). Well, a good fifteen would be nice to shed to get back into my old weight (a decade ago) before I became a mother. But the point really is to lower my triglycerides level to 150 or below. I have to wait another two weeks for the blood test results. 

I seriously need to jump start my exercise regimen. Maybe November will be a good month to kick off with, a challenge-full couple of months with all the holiday feasting! Let's see how I can hold up to that. I cannot for the life of me get into  my planned South Beach diet, I just seem to fail successfully. I don't know how I did it a couple of years ago. How did I manage to withdraw from sugar for two weeks? Seriously, how? Oh well...

Today, I woke up feeling refreshed compared to yesterday's blues. I took a quick shower and pretty much made myself up. I had a spoonful of Greek yogurt. Just that while feeding the little one. Then had a bowl of chicken tortilla soup (store bought from our grocery's deli) and a few saltine crackers. It seems light I know. But wait, I have a Halloween party to attend to in a few... so I shall see how much more I will stuff my belly with for today.

As to exercising, maybe I should get real. Perhaps doing cardio twice a day for fifteen minutes each would do wonders. Maybe I can stick with that, rather than an hour long exercise routine. I said to myself that once I discipline myself to sleeping earlier than usual, I may be able to discipline myself to exercise. And proudly so, I can sleep early now. Not because I am trying, but because I am just so exhausted when clock strikes at nine  in the evening. Other days I can stretch up to midnight and maybe a couple nights up to the wee hours, but I could not really tolerate it anymore.

So here I am, starting anew (again)! Hopefully the effects of exercise would go beyond lowering my triglycerides... make me feel and look good! Who does not want that, huh?

Rice Free

Chic-fil-A's Chargrilled and Fruit Salad

Picture above was lunch, along with a few sips of their chicken noodle soup. Yes, that was it! I did not finish the greens. I wasn't a fan of the way the chicken tastes like, much more the vinaigrette that came along with it. I savoured the fruits -- strawberries, apples, mandarin orange slices, and grapes! Oh I enjoyed the soup as well but had to share it with the little one hehehe!

I couldn't survive with this lunch at all! I was starving and my palate couldn't help but imagine bursting flavors and whatnots. I hoped for an Indian dinner. Although I am not sure how much calories there are in the chicken tikka masala with all its creamy and savory glory... Good thing the husband suggested we have Japanese instead. Oh my! Thank goodness for Asian flavors!

Had miso soup, shrimp tempura (I didn't care about the batter!), lemongrass chicken, gyoza (ah fried! grrr!), and my greens with the ginger dressing (alleluia, flavorful at last!)... very filling sans rice. I successfully ignored my craving for some coke, tang, and whatever drink besides water.

Could this be start? To that phase of eating consciously and wisely? To sometimes boring appetite? To bland-I'd rather just drink-no choice in the menu life? Ahhh, whatever it takes. Now, the challenge is to create wonderful dishes with just fish and chicken (and maybe sometimes shrimp), vegetables and spices.... Emphasis on fish! I have never been a friend of seafood. Why? Because I can't eat them, sometimes. It's itchy, it's stinky, it's not hypoallergenic. Oh well.

Btw, no exercise for today and oh brunch were two slices of toast with chicken salad and non fat milk. For dessert earlier in the evening, I had one little clementine to tame my about-to-be-harsh throat.

Tomorrow, I hope to be good... geesh as I type this I just remembered my medication (Lopid)! Got to take it! Darn! And why is Tang calling my name? Aigooo!

Wake Up Call!

A literal wake up call is what I got from my doctor yesterday afternoon. I was amidst a semi nap nursing a migraine, when the phone rang. "Your triglycerides are very high!", she said. WHAT? 700+ and the normal should be below 150?!  Oh no!!! 

I will be picking up my medications, perhaps tonight if it's ready. I will be taking Lopid to prevent my liver from producing too much triglycerides. I don't know why this happened to me? Sigh. 

I have been worried about my high triglycerides since 2007...  Two years ago, I successfully lowered it from 500+ to 200! That shrank my waistline and I dropped about thirteen pounds...  Got pregnant soon after, gave birth, and got pregnant again when I was about to take my medications to manage it. Now, it has increased way too much.

So what's my plan?

• 15 mins (at least) daily cardio
• medications twice daily
• fruits and vegetables
• white meat only (bye bye porky, bye bye moo)
• high fiber, whole grain (bye pastries)
• truvia instead of sugar
• non fat milk, yogurt
• egg whites only

Wish me luck!

Diet

And so I plan to go back into shape... hopefully lower my triglycerides... and not wear maternity clothes anymore!

I'm taking it one day at a time, especially I haven't really replenished the pantry. Cutting calories here and there, avoiding sugar if at all possible, and most of all -- MOVE!

Breakfast:

Green Tea w/Honey

Omelette w/non fat milk, parmesan cheese, and tomatoes

Lunch:

champorado!

chicken salad w/tomatoes and crackers

Snacks:

half a cup of chocolate milk

Dinner:

Shrimp Lo Mein

Orange Chicken

A little of salisbury steak and rice

Raspberry Juice

Midnight Snack:

Milk Tea

I feel terrible for not going to the gym... but honestly my body hurts because I carry Raio almost all day long! Oh well.... I hope running after Miro counts too...

The Sexy Back?

Today, I went to the gym for almost an hour. Fifteen minutes at the elliptical, ab work with a fitball, weights, and squats. My diet was no good.

breakfast: coffee with milk and sugar, cupcake

lunch: rice and salisbury steak

dinner: chicken tikka masala, nan, veggie samosa, chocolate milk

snacks: cupcakes and chocolate milk

Hopefully I can get back to South Beach diet pretty soon...

I hope to lose three inches by August!

And so it begins...

Today was a failure! Moments before I started this entry, I had potato rings, soda, and hopia! I didn't have any exercise... but I have a happy belly LOL!

Post-Baby #3

Last year, my annual lab tests showed that I still have high triglycerides. I was about to take prescription fish oil to manage it and get on with my goal to reaching a healthy 150 level of trig. However, lo and behold I got a huge surprise -- I was pregnant with my third child after only five months of giving birth to my second.

Fast forward, I now have baby ninja -- Raio! My third prince, after Kuya Akio and Kuya Miro, is a wonderful gift indeed...

Seriously, I need to get back into shape so I can handle all these hyperactive boys!