Tag: beauty

Day 29/28

For my last meal in Berkeley, I finally tried the deli I had mentioned in my first post of this series: The Butcher’s Son, an all-vegan sandwich shop! I had been eyeing their meatball and fried mozzarella sandwich for awhile, so I finally went and got it for lunch after a very active morning of moving all my stuff.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the mozzarella because it didn’t have much texture for my taste (or maybe I just don’t like fried things anymore?), but the meatballs and bacon macaroni salad on the side were amazing. Although, while eating the sandwich, I actually thought to myself, “I wish I were having baked potato rounds instead.” And I’m usually a huge junk food lover!

I also got a cronut there because I’d never had one and had never seen a vegan one before–I figured it was my only chance. It was so oily I could hardly take it.

So all in all, I think that The Butcher’s Son is a fantastic restaurant for people with normal tastes, but I just can’t stand too much oil anymore! And I’m actually very happy about this fact, because it means that my natural preferences have finally shifted towards healthy food! In high school, I had 3-4 Dr. Pepper sodas a day, and subsisted off of cookies and french fries–so this is an amazing change for me.

Simple, healthy, high carb food is what I crave these days! (Besides the occasional vegan pastry 😉 )   

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Macros: 70% carbs, 17% protein, 13% fat

Exercise: Walked 6.5 miles

Breakfast

• Blueberry banana oat smoothie
• Coldbrew coffee

Lunch

• Vegan meatball and fried mozzarella sandwich*
• Cronut*
• Caesar salad*
• Mango

Dinner

• Butter free, salt free pretzel (at airport)*
• Yukon gold potato rounds

Calories eaten: 2260 | Calories burned: 2310 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 28/28

I started off the day by packing up my apartment to move all my stuff into a storage unit for the summer.

And then I packed all afternoon. And then I packed til I went to bed. I packed for about 12 hours! I have too much stuff.

I also noticed something interesting: I was intending to eat a lot today since I had food to use up and figured I’d need a lot of fuel for moving all day. This is the first day in a long time I’ve consciously tried to make myself eat more, and it’s the first day in awhile I’ve ended up undereating! It’s like my body is some rebellious child 😛

I’m also going to add a day 29 tomorrow because I plan on eating some interesting things while moving! Then I’ll do a very wordy wrap up post to sum up my thoughts on this little challenge 🙂

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Macros: 76% carbs, 13% protein, 11% fat

Exercise: Walked 5 miles

Breakfast

• Mango berry acai bowl
• Coldbrew coffee

Lunch

• Baked russet rounds
• Baked sweet potato rounds

Second lunch (because I’m a hobbit now apparently)

• Carrot sushi bowl

Dinner

• Falafel with hummus, lettuce, tomato
• Cherry-mango-orange juice

Calories eaten: 1880 | Calories burned: 2110 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 27/28

Today I took my last final of my undergraduate career, played with squirrels with friends (and filmed some of it for my youtube channel!), did a graduation photoshoot, and went for dinner and vegan ice cream sandwiches with other friends!

It was a good last real day in Berkeley. (I say last “real” day because tomorrow is just packing, and I fly out the next day.)

And it was a rather high fat day at that. I probably should have made this a 26 day challenge 😉

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Macros: 69% carbs, 12% protein, 19% fat

Exercise: Walked 5.5 miles

Breakfast

• Strawberry mango oat smoothie
• Coldbrew coffee

Lunch

• Baked russet rounds
• Bell pepper romaine wraps

Dinner

• Peanut tofu noodles*
• Mint chocolate ice cream sandwich*

Calories eaten: 2360 | Calories burned: 2120 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 26/28

Three more days in Berkeley. So crazy!

I had another two shoots, and generally ran all over town doing various tasks. And studying for my final tomorrow–almost forgot about that 😛

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Macros: 71% carbs, 14% protein, 15% fat

Exercise: Biked 20 minutes, walked 5.5 miles

Breakfast

• Strawberry banana oat smoothie
• Coldbrew coffee

Lunch

• Baked russet rounds
• Bell pepper romaine wraps
• Walnuts

Photoshoot snack

• Mint clif bar

Dinner

• Falafel*, homemade hummus, romaine, tomato
• Orange-mango-cherry juice

Calories eaten: 2150 | Calories burned: 2025 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 25/28

I decided to make a fun breakfast (because what better day is there for fun breakfasts than Sunday/Mother’s day?), consisting of bacon made out of coconut shreds, which I ate on its own and put on top of plain fat-free whole wheat donuts. I also made some chocolate chip churro donuts which were good too, but I am seriously in love with coconut bacon donuts. I can see why maple bacon donuts have been all the rage lately!

Most of my post-donut day consisted of trying to battle my way through my seemingly endless list of tasks I have to do before moving out in 4 days (!), followed by 5 hours of photoshoots in the evening. All these shoots have been exhausting, but worth it: not only do I love being able to commemerate things for people using my camera, but these graduation photoshoots are paying for some of the furniture I’ll have to buy this September! 😀  

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Macros: 70% carbs, 12% protein, 18% fat

Exercise: Walked 4.5 miles

Breakfast

• Whole wheat fat free donuts
• Coconut “bacon”

Lunch

• Baked russet rounds
• English breakfast tea

Photoshoot snack

• Mint clif bar

Dinner

• Bell pepper wraps
• Baked russet rounds
• Orange-mango-cherry juice

Calories eaten: 2350 | Calories burned: 1940 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 24/28

Feeling back to my old self! I craved (and ate) potatoes all day.

And alluding to my last post: since I ate all those calories the last few days (like 2200+), I no longer crave any fats–just my good ol’ starches! It’s amazing how much nicer things are when I eat intuitively and let myself eat as much as I need (and as much fat as I crave)… unlike the old days, when it was a constant battle.  

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Macros: 81% carbs, 9% protein, 9% fat

Exercise: Biked 35 minutes, ran 40, walked 20

Breakfast

• Steel cut banana oats

Lunch

• Baked yukon gold rounds
• Mocha
• Blueberry nicecream

Snack pre-running:

• Mini potatoes

Dinner

• Navrattan korma
• Sweet potato wedges

Night snack

• Japanese sweet potato 

Calories eaten: 1800 | Calories burned: 1860 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 23/28

I got a blood test today out of curiosity about B12 and whatnot, so I had to skip breakfast–I didn’t end up getting to eat til noon! I survived just fine but it renewed my appreciation for the magic of breakfast.

Also, as for the ravenous hunger point I mentioned yesterday: after years of binging and restricting cycles, my body has a very specific, very strong reaction to losing weight: it craves fat with no off switch. It got to the point where any weight loss attempts ended with me being in a rut with my diet consisting of 70% fat in the form of compulsively eaten almond butter and chocolate chips while still trying to restrict calories.

I think that this experiment activated the same response, because I lost 2.5 lbs in the first week–I only have 25lbs of body fat total (according to body composition tests), so losing 10% of that in a short time span probably put my body in panic mode. My dietary fat intake has gone up as a result (I think my body just craves the most concentrated form of calories to regain the weight ASAP), and my overall calories have gone way up too–prepping this much food is just getting tiring!

After things settle down, I think I’ll just go back to my happy zone around 75% carbs, 12% fat, and 13% protein, with occasional very low fat days around 5%. I think that will be a nice equilibrium because I’ll lose a bit of weight on the 5% days, and keep my body from making me a ravenous beast by eating more normally the other days. If I were to try this higher carb experiment again, I would make myself eat more calories at the beginning to make sure I don’t lose too much weight, so I don’t turn on my emergency fat-craving setting!

If you have excess weight to lose, I am completely confident that a very low fat diet would work just fine for you. In fact, this diet worked too well for me in terms of weight loss considering how little I have to lose, which is why it activated the same defense mechanisms that my past calorie restriction used to!

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Macros: 70% carbs, 12% protein, 18% fat

Exercise: Biked 35 minutes

Breakfast

• Steel cut banana oats
• Irish breakfast tea

Lunch

• Walnuts
• Baked russet rounds

Dinner

• Lentil veggie soup
• Japanese sweet potato

Calories eaten: 2060 | Calories burned: 1560 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 22/28

I woke up with hip pain just as bad as yesterday and it worsened throughout the day, which was demoralizing, to say the least. Even standing hurts! And the weird thing is, it came on after taking more rest days than usual…

And interestingly enough, my toe is healing shockingly fast. Perhaps it’s thank to all these nutrient dense plant foods?

Today was the poster session day for the psych department, where I presented a poster on my thesis study! I’m now officially done with all things thesis-related, and it feels good. (Also, they had free food including bread and grapes. I’d say that’s a win-win.)

Also, I ate a ridiculous amount today, and I feel much better now in the appetite department. But more on that tomorrow!

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Macros: 76% carbs, 13% protein, 11% fat

Exercise: Biked 40 minutes

Breakfast

• Chocolate chip pancakes with banana
• Puerh tea

Lunch

• Cauliflower rice teriyaki bowl
• Baked yukon gold rounds
• Mocha nicecream

Snack at event

• 2 slices of bread
• Raspberry juice

Dinner

• Seitan burger
• Apple with dates
• Japanese sweet potato

Calories eaten: 2650 | Calories burned: 1800 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 21/28

My run of bad luck with random injuries continues: I started getting some pretty intense hip pain similar to the one that put me out of commission last spring. But this time it’s in the other hip. I didn’t notice anything until the two photoshoots I had at night, at which point walking became painful–I didn’t even run or do anything that would warrant an injury.

Apparently I am now prone to walking injuries. Peachy.

(The hip pain is in the same leg as Sunday’s toe incident, so my theory is that I’m altering my gait to avoid toe pain and that has resulted in a stress injury to the hip!)

I really hope I can run tomorrow… 😦

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Macros: 76% carbs, 13% protein, 11% fat

Exercise: Walked 5 miles

Breakfast

• Blueberry banana oat smoothie
• Coldbrew coffee

Snack

• Dates

Lunch

• Cauliflower red pepper mac n cheeze
• Baked yukon gold rounds

Snack before photoshoots

• Chocolate nicecream

Dinner

• Roasted russet with pinto hummus

Calories eaten: 2320 | Calories burned: 1870 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche

Day 20/28

Today around noon, I had one of the most intense cravings I’ve had throughout these last 20 days. And it was for…

Potatoes.

Baked yukon gold potatoes, to be exact. I didn’t even want condiments, just salt and pepper. So I went home and made them right away, and the only issue was having to wait 20 minutes while they baked.

It was strange, but it was great, because potatoes are one of the healthiest foods possible anyway! (Have you seen that micronutrient content?)

I was also generally ravenously hungry the rest of the day, and mostly wanted more potatoes! I have a feeling the sudden hunger might signal that my body is fighting off a virus, since my roommate has been really sick and coughing everywhere lately. (Unfortunately some of them aren’t too keen on washing their hands, even after using the bathroom…)

   

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Macros: 75% carbs, 15% protein, 10% fat

Exercise: biked 15 minutes, hour long lifting session

Breakfast

• Apple pie grape nuts
• Coldbrew coffee

Snack

• Dates with cocoa

Lunch

• Oil free baked yukon gold rounds
• Chocolate nicecream

Dinner

• Seitan burger with russet fries
• Apple

Night

• Baked sweet potato

Calories eaten: 2250 | Calories burned: 1750 (according to Fitbit data)

(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )

Thanks for reading!

Miche