Marie’s Ultimate Paleo Dorm Salad

Juggling the stresses of college and nutrition is tough – especially if time is of the essence. Which is why I’ve invented this salad to last me a week in the dorm.

For preparations, I started browsing the vegetable section of my grocery to find the ideal ingredients for the salad. Here’s what I bought:

• 1 big cabbage I actually made a mistake of buying cabbage instead of lettuce. Facepalm
• 4 pcs of cucumbers
• 4 pcs of carrots
• 2 stalks (?) of brocolli
• 2 Fuji Apples
• 1 pack of grapes
• 250g pack of raisins
• Teriyaki sauce this was really more of an experiment since I don’t like the salad dressings and I LOVE teriyaki

After preparing everything, and as I’m writing this down, I realize everything I bought can fit SIXTEEN meals! And I plan to eat this every breakfast and dinner!

Now here’s the challenge. I don’t own a microwave, I don’t have a stove. And so far, I only have a water heater (because COFFEE). It’s my first time doing this so I really used up my Trust me I’m an Engineer(ing student) tactics and actually used my water heater to steam up the carrots and brocolli!

 Boiling some brocolli in my water heater. I bet my coffee would taste like brocolli from now on…

I then chopped up the cabbage, sliced the cucumbers, brocolli and carrots, and placed them in different containers to store in the fridge.

So each salad consists of the following:

Marie’s Ultimate Paleo Dorm Salad  

• 1/16 of a cabbage (chopped up) (I sliced the cabbage into half the chopped one half, and got a quarter from what was chopped off)
• 1/4 cucumber
• 1/4 carrots
• 1/4 brocolli
• drizzle with teriyaki sauce
• option to add tuna

Total calories: 79 calories (+tuna)

For the snacks, I have three options:
Option 1: 30g raisins – 100 calories
Option 2: 1 banana – 110 calories
Option 3: 1/8 of an apple + about 10 pcs of grapes – 25 calories

And now it looks so idealistic since it’s so low! And this is why I have trust issues HAHA!

Let’s see in the future if this works! See ya!
Cheers,

Marie!

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IM EATING

It’s 11:32 PM here and I’m really really tired, but I’ll try my best to make the last two blog posts for the day.

Today, my calorie counter was EXTREMELY LOW, and it won’t even show me its featured “Your weight in 5 weeks” since my calorie count was low. I don’t know what to feel since I already feel full yet if I don’t eat more, I’m afraid my metabolism would go lower. Plus I still am not impressed about calorie counting since I think there’s a lot of inaccuracies there since I live in the Philippines (with lots of cultural foods not listed in their database).

My eating time’s were also very weird since I had my breakfast at around 11am, my lunch at 2pm, and dinner at 6pm. Yet, the articles I’ve read regarding the Paleo Diet says nothing about eating time so maybe it’s okay? (uh-oh).

So without further ado, here’s my meal plan:

Breakfast:
Javita Burn + Control Coffee – 11 calories
Fresh Tuna and Egg Salad [7-eleven] – 218 calories

Lunch:

  Lumpiang Togue [bought from the supermarket stalls] – 65 calories

*Lumpiang Togue is somehow ground meat and bean sprouts wrapped inside fried spring rolls

Dinner:
Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet [Classic Savory] – 186 calories

Total: 480 calories

I’m so excited to try my new salad since I’ve already done my grocery for the week! Let’s see if something changes 🙂

Till next time!
Cheers,
Marie

A good way to end a bad day

I’m finally inside my room! But I still can’t shake the fact that I wasted so much to something that was opened in around 30 seconds. Yes, that’s how easy it was to open my door!

After I got reunited with my room interior, I took a quick bath, changed into some decent clothes and then proceed to going to a mall for a certain skin procedure that I’m not quite ready to share yet. I also had a lot of personal errands to do: get one of my bags’ zipper fixed, buy some make-up (like I even do make up HAHA) for some performances (I’m a dancer in my university), and also, do some grocery shopping for my Paleo Dorm Diet.

It was already 3PM when I finished with my skin procedure appointment and I immediately went to the department store to buy my make up.

At this point, I’d like to share to you that as part of my Self Improvement Journey, I challenged myself to smile ALL the time! This also includes having an uplifting tone (as opposed to the normal deep snob tone I do), and try not to judge other mall-goers (which, believe me, was really one heck of challenge HAHA).

CAN I JUST SAY HOW COSTLY IT IS TO BE BEAUTIFUL?!?! I mean, … I don’t know I’m speechless about how much I spent today! 

 On the other hand, LEG MAKE UP! I’m reallllly happy right now! As a dancer with lots of bruises and scars, this is a LIFE SAVER!

After buying all those make up (that hopefully hopefully hopefully would work wonders on my face), I noticed that the mall’s department store had this promo that if you have a P1000.00 single receipt, you’ll have a free serving of Classic Savory’s sweet and sour fish fillet + iced tea (no rice though which was PERFECT).

I was so excited because yay free dinner and was planning to have it as take out for my dinner tonight in the dorm but the waitress said it’s only for dine in customers.

Frugality kicked in and, well, guess who (finally) ate alone in public today because it’s free dinner!!! And mind you, I never eat alone in public (So much for slef esteem right? HAHA!)

  Surprisingly, it was a really fun experience, having a bill of Php0.00! The staff there were also very nice a friendly! Although, there was this one waiter who was extremely friendly, and I felt so awkward and everything so I just did small talk with him! This is the part where I tell you guys that during my conversation with that waiter, my mindset was that he liked me and I know that’s really gross and I’m such a feeler and ugh I hate myself for thinking that!!!

After “paying” the bill, I was ready to go home. I opted for a cab ride home but decided against it as it’s really expensive and maybe I could use the exercise since I didn’t have the chance to have one today (read: Locked Out of Heaven (aka my room)). So I walked to the main highway, which is about i-really-dont-have-an-idea-how-to-describe-this-distance-since-I-dont-know-how-to-count-blocks, and took a jeepney ride home. Piece of advice, don’t do this if you’re carrying four bags of grocery alone. But hey, I survived so maybe you can do it! Haha!

Today definitely ended on a positive note! As soon as I got home, I prepared the salad that I’d soon be devouring (which I will discuss in the next post).

But definitely, the highlight of this day was the reactions of the different people that I’ve interacted with, after I decided to smile at them and focus on my journey to self improvement. The cashiers were nice, the assistants were very thoughtful, and it really helped me on thinking about positive things!

This might also be a social experiment (considering I am rather an analytical type of person). And it all concludes by the concept of the golden rule: Do unto others what you want others to do to you!

June 30, 2015 – improved

Cheers,
Marie

Locked out of Heaven (aka my room)

So today I got locked out of my room. Just my luck, really.

I don’t know, but this has already been like a routine in my life… I do something productive, I start changing myself for the better the BOOM something totally negative happens to me. I now realize why I end up not havong changed anything in my life: that there’s this attitude slash phenomenon that when something bad happens, we tend to just YOLO around because something bad happens.

Don’t get me? Think of it this way.

You’ve tried dieting for about 5-6days now and you’ve been really really strict with it and you’ve maybe seen some changes in your weight (which I highly think is just water weight) but then your friends invite you to eat out. And it’s pizza. Heaven-sent double crusted pizza. PIZZA. Now you just can’t seem to resist eating one teeny tiny slice and because we have this mindset that we do deserve this teeny tiny slice of heaven. But then it became two, now three slices. AND YOU’RE WAY PAST YOUR CALORIE LIMIT NOW. You probably think you should stop, right? WRONG. We’ve all been there, and most of the time, we’d simply eat more and think that we’ll go back to dieting the next day, thinking nothing has changed. BUT EVERYTHING CHANGES.

We tend to crave more, eat more, and we feel so bloated and heavy that it’s hard to exercise. And, in the end, we quit everything because “this diet doesn’t work”

So now, let’s relate this to my present scenario. It’s 9AM, I head to my college gymnasium for some exercise. When I got there, I fished my bag for my ID and…

It wasn’t there.

Coincidentally, my keys were attached to my ID sling. Just my luck oh my gosh I am such a klutz! I actually went back to my room and was severely hoping that i became a klutz again and forgot to lock my door. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as clumsy as I thought.

  Got my shoes on and I was so ready for a good workout! (Maybe I can do cardio while running in hallway? Haha!)

Now, I do have some spare keys. One was with my sister, but she was still at home, in a different city than where I was. The other one was with my cousin, who unfortunately forgot the keys in her house and can’t be back till night time. So okay, I won’t be expecting any help from those two.

My last option was to get a locksmith, so I asked the guard of my building and he says the management knows one that costs four hundred and fifty freaking pesos!!! And mind you, thats already about five meals!

Frugality kicked in and I absolutely tried EVERYTHING except get a locksmith. (I even considered sleeping over at a friend’s house just to wait for my cousin to get the keys)

Okay, breaking: While writing this post (in my phone, mind you), i’m actually sitting in front of my door just to get a signal from the wifi HAHAHA and just now a guard actually came to me because he saw me in the CCTV. Can I just say how embarrassing this is?!?

Okay, back to the story. I refuse to believe that a locksmith costs P450 so I took matters to my own hands and searched for one in the internet, I only called one to ask for their service fee and it only costs P285!!! I know I should asked around more but I was already nearing my phone’s credit limit to calls!

And now, here I am, writing this post to pass the time. Maybe I should start learning how to lockpick? Maybe. But for now, i’d focus of fitness first 😉 till next time!

Cheers,

Marie

June 29, 2015

Only my fourth blog post and I’m already really really tired. Who knew blogging could be so stressful? HAHA! It feels like all the words have already been sucked out of me and I’ve become really really quiet, and I am never quiet.

Anyway, this is my exercise routine for the road to fitness! insert muscle emoji here

Today, I went to my university’s gymnasium to exercise. Considering I didn’t want to enroll myself in any gym anymore (in order to save up), I decided to make use of the facilities around me.

It’s still summer here, and most of the people are either in their summer classes or vacation (or rotting at home like what I used to be), so I had the oval all to myself, which was perfect since I am so insecure when I exercise.

I had full cardio for 15 minutes running at 10.5mins per km, which burned me about 70 calories (WHAT). Then had brisk walking for 10 more minutes somewhere in between that 15 minute sprint.

I then proceeded(is this a word?) with doing flexibility, and gymnastics… AND I WAS SO THRILLED TO DO A BACKBEND RECOVER WITHOUT MUCH PAIN! I also went on with cartwheels, one handed cartwheels, and practiced of achieving my aerial (which, I might say is hard when you have noone to spot you)

Ended my workout sessions with some splits, and of course, a photo to commemorate the moment (well, just a photo of my shoes HAHA)

Cheers,

Marie

Starting Out: My Paleo College Diet

I actually don’t suggest you follow this because I had a lot of cheats this day… And it’s my first day doing the diet. HAHAHA Oh, life.

Anyway, I started out by installing some apps on my phone, to fully help me and motivate me to do this diet. The one I usually use is My Fitness Pal. It’s a great calorie counter, though it tends to omit some food in my country 😦 Boohoo. So I tend to eyeball it instead (which I probably wouldn’t suggest. You know what? I suggest you skip this post HAHA).

Living in the dorm means that you really, really, really have limited food options, and I haven’t had the time to do grocery shopping this week (since I just came back last Saturday) so I had to make do with dear old 7-eleven.

Now, before you say Oh-oh, there are actually some food there that I think have some nutritional value. So now let’s take a look at my meal plan.

Breakfast:

• Fresh Tuna and Egg Salad [7-eleven] – 218 calories
• Javita Burn and Control Coffee – 11 calories

Snacks:

• Leche Flan aka Vanilla Egg Custard [7-eleven] – 195 calories

[See this is why I don’t like buying at 7-eleven, I was so tempted to buy theseee huhu and I hate the fact that I don’t regret buying this :]

Lunch:   

• Beef Tapa and Sauteed Spinach with Barbeque Sauce [Food Stand at my school] – 264 calories
• Red Rice (this is included in the meal that I bought with the Beef Tapa but I only ate half of the rice) – 124 calories

Dinner:  

• Chicken Leg with 1/4 cup of rice – 220 calories

[I was about to buy another of 7-eleven’s salads but they ran out (and I went through 2 different stores, too) so I had to go with their Fried Chicken. The rice came with the chicken and it was too salty so I can’t resist the urge to eat some rice though…]

My total for today was 1,033 calories which is nice, considering that I had to eat that Leche Flan… the app said women need to have a food intake of 1000-1200 calories a day so that was great considering I was in the range of it.

Now, the Paleo Diet strictly says that we should avoid rice, wheat, etc. However, I do not feel the slight regret of eating rice since its my first day and we cant simply have that radical change, or can we? I still hope this works though! Tomorrow, I’ll do my grocery shopping already and maybe my diet will change… who knows? Haha! Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Marie

The Blogging Challenge

I’m really surprised how easy it is for me to create blog posts. I know there’s only been two posts but I really wonder how come I can make a 600-word blog post in 15 minutes as compared to a 500 word essay in two hours…

Wondering aside, I now present The Blogging Challenge. Similar to those workout challenges (read: The 30 days squat challenge) or the diet challenges, I plan to have a blog post everyday in order for me to reflect on what I have done for the day.

I also do not know the psychology for this but I really thing blogging about my weight loss journey would be extremely helpful (hopefully).

So now WHY blog? I actually spent over an hour thinking about this… and here are my four three main goals for blogging.

1. College + Fitness. I basically have described this earlier in this post. I really do plan that we could still stay(be) fit in college.

2. The Road to Self Improvement. AKA No more rants, no more negative thoughts, and practicing my inner kindness.

3. This is really something unnecessary but in case my blog goes viral, people can share things here HAHA. wow.

4. FOR THE FAME AND FORTUNE. Which probably would never happen.

And that, my dear readers, is why I decide to blog (I had a lot to say than this in my mind though but I got discouraged because I CANNOT GET HOW WORDPRESS FORMATS THEIR POSTS UGH [and thus I have already failed at goal number 2])

That’s it for now!

Cheers,

Marie

I should make a blog.

Never have I ever thought of pursuing a blog.

There were too many reasons like, I was too obsessive compulsive. If I were to make a blog, it has to be perfect. The theme should be great, the writing should be amazing, and for me, that’s just too much work. I also thought having a blog was too cheesy, as I wasn’t the kind of girl who talks about their feelings. I also have this anxiety issue where if my real life friends would see this, I’m afraid they’ll make fun of me (and probably, at this point, they’re already judging me).

Yet, here I am, writing my first ever blog post. Fascinating how this idea just casually popped into my mind three hours ago.

See, I started going to the gym last month. It wasn’t really a “because I want to lose weight” action but more of a “I HAVE NOTHING TO DO OVER THE SUMMER!”, but the weight loss idea is still there somewhere. I actually wanted to lose weight since ever five years ago, and sometimes, I did try doing those crazy diets, but eventually failing. Which led me to being full blast YOLO  with my body.

But hey, tomorrow’s a new day, right? So now, after countless efforts of trying and trying and trying to lose weight, and asking myself numerous times why I COULDN’T lose weight when in fact I’ve read A LOT of blogs that has already posted their before and after photos of weight transformation, and even copying all their weird tactics to lose weight, I now realize that thing I’ve been missing out — a blog.

And so, this blog was born – in the hopes that maybe the movement of my fingertips as they graced around the keyboard would be the key to losing all those pounds. Also, for those who know me in real life, please note that I don’t intent to share this blog!!! Please please please don’t tell other people about this (and thus, anxiety kicks in). Who knows, maybe I’ll have the courage to go public with my friends, but for now, this is all I can afford.

And if you happen to be a complete stranger to me, then just your luck for finding this blog. Haha!

Anyway, this is all for now since I really think it’s too long to read. Wish me luck (yeah, I’m actually talking to no audience though…)

Cheers,

Marie