Indian Buffet...what to eat?

I have to admit I went to an Indian Buffet today with my mom, but I still was pretty healthy minus all that oil they put in curries. The best thing about Indian food is that there are so many vegetables and chicken to choose from and it is easy to forego the rice and naan. That is exactly what I did. There were so many varieties of "subzis" and chicken that I only indulged in those. I had some black-eyed peas, tandoori chicken, and samples of the other subzies there like shai paneer, spinach, butter chicken, and mathi chicken. I have to admit the only carbs I did have were the ones in the chaat and the one bite of aloo bonda that my mom got. Usually at these places I love the gulab jamun or the jalebi but I decided that my sweet tooth would only be able to taste the fruit custard they had. Basically that was my one and only meal of the day and I am STILL full.

The satisfying delicious Indian Buffet

Damn, being cute sucks!

Read this article my friend sent me. I guess you'll get more attention if you're ugly then cute.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/sex/the-curse-of-being-cute-2439324/;_ylt=Ai8aHWqGILOJup8i6Co4ld2DbqU5

mmm Lettuce Wraps

The reason I didnt blog last week was because I thought I wasnt following my diet accordingly. I hung out with friends alot last week and that always involves some type of food. One day my friends and I decided to go to a Thai restaurant. It actually wasnt that bad now that I think about it. I had miso soup which pretty much has minimal carbs and I also had panang curry. The curry was amazing and one of my favorite thai dishes. Even though I claim I'm doing South Beach, I guess since I am not following it as strictly as I should, I'm basically just eating minimal amount of carbs that I can. Like with my panang curry, if I was following my diet strictly then I would have foregone the rice, but instead my food-loving self added half the serving of rice they gave me to my curry. Afterwards my friends and I decided to get coffee and there I got a Cafe Au Late and I added splenda in there to make it again minimally carbed.

The next time I went out to eat we went to RockBottom. This time I have to say I was really good. I scoped out the menu and the one thing that I found the most friendly towards my diet was the lettuce wraps. My favorite lettuce wraps are the ones at PF Changs but the ones here did not cut it. They weren't that good at all and in the chicken mixture they had lima beans (wtf?). So basically even though I tried to be healthy the meal wasnt good at all but hey atleast I tried.

I havent weighed myself today but tomorrow morning will be the day to see if I made my 2lb/week goal for last week. I am only 1/2 lb away from the last time I checked so hopefully itll be a whole 4lbs by tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! and I'll keep it updated on here.

The not-so-scumptious Lettuce Wraps at RockBottom

Celebrity Weight Loss

Today, when I took my sister to the dentist, I picked up People magazine. While I was browsing through it, I stumbled across a page showing the weightloss of Jennifer Hudson. It inspired me to blog about it and find recent celebrity weightlosses for inspiration.

Here's my first one...the lovely Jennifer Hudson.

Damn, she lost 80lbs and dropped 5 dresses sizes going from size 16 to 6. She mentions "I don't want to lose any more weight, and you're never going to see me skinny," and that is exactly how I feel. I am not aiming to be like model skinny but I want to come to a weight where I am happy with my body and for me that is 30lbs (well 27 from what I am now). She did this with Weight Watchers and exercising 5 times a week. For me, I need to incorporate more exercise into my life but that will soon be there as soon as school and skating start back up again. I think the exercising part along with my diet will sure help me reach my weight goals in no time (I hope).

While I was trying to find other celebrity weightlosses, I stumbled across this website: http://theskinnywebsite.com/site/category/celebrity-weight-loss/

Lebanese Traverna

Before I started this diet, I had bought a Groupon (on the request of my sister) a month ago. I didnt want it to expire so my mom had planned for the whole family to go today for lunch. Obviously, at such an upscale restaurant I wasnt going to get a carb-less dish but I picked one with the least amount of carbs. It's so wierd now though like I am beginning to feel so full after eating so much less. This place always serves pita bread while you wait and since it was so warm and fresh, I succumbed to temptation and just had once while on a normal day I would have probably had two. For my main course I got the chicken kabobs but it came with rice. It was soo goood! Their chicken is amazing because the spices and marinate are amazing. That was pretty much my only meal for the day along with coffee in the afternoon. I am writing this at like 10pm, 8hrs after I had it and I am still SO full. So worth it!

Juicy Kabobs! YUMM!

All Bets are On!

Last night me and my friend decided to make a bet. Our bet is for $100 on who will reach their goal weight by April 3, 2010. Her goal is to lose 20lbs by then but I am being a little bit more ambitious and want to lose 26lbs (going by the 2lb/week plan for 13 weeks) and be as close as I can be to my pre-college weight. If we both don't make the bet we're going to donate the money to charity and if we both get it then we'll plan a mini-fun weekend or a lavish dinner to celebrate our accomplishment. Having that much money on the line really motivates me and now I am so less prone to cheat. Everytime I want to cheat a little bit, I hold back and think about my goal and the prize at hand.

Again, being social and dieting is such a fail! I was pretty good today for breakfast I had a bowl of oatmeal and for lunch I had a salad. It was my usual balsamic vinegar salad and for some reason it kept me full for most of the day. I guess my appetite is decreasing slowly and I dont even realize it. Usually, I get hungry like a 3 to 4 hours later but today I didnt hungry until I was at dinner with my friends.

For dinner, I met up with one of my really good friends from college which I only see on rare occasions because she's in law school. We decided to go to an Italian place called Vapiannos. First of all Italian food has like no options for carb-less food because it was all pasta, pizza, or sandwiches. I really did not want another salad because I already had that for lunch. I decided out of the three the least carbs would be in the panini. So I got the panini with a Tomato soup on the side. Let me tell you that this meal was my big cheat for the day and was so not worth it. I would not recommend anyone to go here because the food quite frankly wasnt that good and not worth the price. I would rather have gotten a panini at Panera Bread. Atleast at dinner today, I didnt drink so that saved some carbs for the day.

Recap: Panini Bread was the only carb of the day! Whooo!

The so-not-worth-it Chicken Pesto Panini

10% there! but a bad bad day today :(

Today was a pretty bad day! Being social and hanging out with friends always takes a toll on this diet. For breakfast I was good and had my usual omelette. For lunch I promised to hang out with my twin and the only place we could find near her house was a Fuddruckers. So I went there and decided to have the Sliders but I only ate them with one of the breads and threw the other side away. So it was like an open sandwich. That still wasnt good enough because I should have not eaten either sides of the bread. =/ I must say that was pretty filling though because when I came home for dinner I wasnt hungry at all. My mom made me some mango lassi which is pretty healthy because it had a lot of yogurt in there but too much sugar content because of the mango.

I also hung out with my friends from high school today and we decided to go to a happy hour. Of course I can't go there and not drink so I got a frozen margarita which was also a poor decision. Oh well, I guess this can be my one bad day of the week. We also got appetizers but we shared and got pot stickers which seem like a healthy option since they are steamed.

Recap: HORRIBLE DAY!! Oh well....

No picture for today because too many bad things! :(

Another .5 lbs down!

I finally stepped on the scale once again. This is really my least favorite activity in the world especially after I gained all the weight in college and after working out for a continuous 3 months with a personal trainer this summer I lost no weight. I got the courage to weigh myself especially because I had to report it to my friend for our weekly weigh-in and to my surprise I was another 1/2 lb lighter! YAY for eating no to less carbs. I've realized I have to make this a permanent change in my life. I need to eat carbs as minimally as I can because they are a big killer for my body. I mean after I finish this diet and I can eat carbs again, I will but as minimal as possible.

Today was a pretty okay day as well. This morning I had an omelette and decided to mix things up. Instead of my usual green pepper, tomato, and onion omelette, I made one with spinach, mushrooms, red pepper, and feta cheese because of one of my friends suggestion. It was actually pretty good and resembled my frittata I had attempted two weeks ago.

For lunch today, I had the usual Balsamic vinegar salad talked about on the post before. When my mom came home and I made her afternoon tea I made some sips of it as well. She asked me to make freshly squeezed orange juice which I sipped on a bit while juicing it.

For dinner my sister and I enjoyed some Chipotle. We made it have as less carbs as possible and asked for no rice, fajita, beans, chicken, pico de gallo, hot salsa, corn (I could not forego those because my chipotle burrito bowl isnt a chipotle burrito bowl without it), sour cream, lettuce, and a bit of cheese. My usual burrito bowl but this time contained no rice. If you think about it a Chipotle burrito bowl is pretty healthy if you dont get the tortilla shell or the the rice. The only reason it has a lot of calories is because of the amount they give you as well as the beans because they are high in calories but not in carbs.

Recap: Yay! 1/2 lb down and its only the beginning of the week!

January 3

Today was a pretty okay day. For breakfast I had a small omelette with a slice of cheese that my dad left for me. It wasn't very appetizing because it didn't have any vegetables and was just plain. Eggs are like the only thing you can eat on this diet because it has no carbs and is straight up protein.

For lunch, I had my favorite salad with balsamic vinegar. It had lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and some sliced olives. It was pretty healthy all around but the dressing just had a bit more sugar than allowed on South Beach, but that's something I can't give up.

For my snack today, I had some paneer pakora and onion rings that my mom made. Before this comes off as a red flag, paneer is all dairy and the batter my mom uses is chick pea flour. The only harmful thing in this is the amount of oil it has because it obviously fried. On the grand scheme of things though this is a bit South Beach friendly because of the low carbs. I ate these with a cup of chai which contained a bit of sugar.

For a late dinner I only had mattar paneer. My mom made this the healthy way with no heavy cream and just strictly tomatoes and onions with different spices. Even though peas arent allowed on South Beach, I really had nothing else to eat so I had no choice. Peas are pretty healthy so I guess it's ok to let is slide. I ate this plain with no roti or rice. Even though it sucks, it's something that I need to get used to.

Recap: Okay day, but peas and pakora came in the way.

Paneer pakora battered with chick pea flour (besan)

Goals for 2011!

So a new year means new resolutions and time to make a difference that you couldnt do the year before. 2011 is even more special because it is a start of a new decade and will ultimately define my 20's. During this decade I will hopefully finish med school, get married, and hopefully by 2020 I'll have a family. Lets see where this decade takes me because I am ready for all the changes that are coming ahead of me. Having that said I need to take it one year at a time and think of the things that are most important to me this year.

1. Academics. First and foremost, I need to make big strides on the academic side of my life. Even though I technically graduated last semester, I am still taking 6 credits next semester just to raise my GPA to make me a more competitive applicant for med school. I hope to get a 4.0 which I think is definitely do-able considering the little coursework I will be having. Secondly, I need to raise that MCAT score. I made such big improvements the first time around and I hope to raise my score the same amount once again. I am shooting for a 34 (P12/V10/B12). I can definitely do it, but just need a lot of discipline and motivation once again. I've already made a plan for the next few weeks before my MCAT class starts. Let's hope this year continues my upward trend in my academic career. Also, I'm hoping I'll be able to finish my application and have everything submitted by beginning of June and finally get into A medical school by the end of this year and beginning of next year.

2. Lose Weight. Since now I'll be living at home and won't have to follow the diet of a college student. I hope this will make a huge difference on my weight loss endeavor. I hope to lose 20-30 lbs by following South Beach and cutting those carbs out of my diet. I hope this works and I return to my pre-college weight. It will be one hard journey but it is definitely attainable. My goal as of right now is to follow the 2lb a week plan and be at my goal weight in March or April. Let the pounds melt off!

3. Be Physically Active! Since I am at home again and have a car I hope to be physically active like I once was. I will still be doing skating until March or whenever the seasons ends for skating. I also contacted my dance teacher and am hoping to dance 1-2 times a week. These two activities are what defined my growing up and I hope to keep up with them in the next 1.5 years that I am in my area. I hope that I can find a job coaching skating as well so it'll force me to not be lazy and continue to skate. By the time the skating season ends, I want to get into Zumba again and do that atleast 3-4 times a week along with my other dance class. Dance and music have been such a passion of mine that whenever I hear music, I can't help but to move my feet to the beat.

4. Find a JOB! After June, when school will be officially over, I will need to get a job. I need to start looking during next semester so I have one lined up for the summer and onward. I hope to find a job with a decent pay so I can help my parents pay for my car even though they are paying for all of it and to save up money for my personal spending while I am in medical school. It will need to secure me a couple of thousand so it can last for four years.

5. Cut down Facebook/Gchat. I realized I am one of those people who spend way to many hours on both of these. I need to cut my hours spent on both of these significantly and make more of my free time. This should not be an issue when I make myself busy with school, mcats, and physical activeness.

Let's hope all my plans for the new year work so I become a more accomplished person than the last. Also, my stars in my Astrology reading said my time (dhasa) is about to improve starting March! YAY! Finally!

Time to Resume

So after Christmas I stopped updating because I wasnt following my diet at all. My mom was home for a week and she always took us out to eat or made some good food at home. I started to accumulate a lot of cheats and decided to let the diet go and start up again after the new year. Even though I stopped following the diet, I still was eating less carbs than before so it was still progress. Tomorrow it's time to weigh in again. One of my friend is doing a weekly weigh in so I'm joining her and we have to be honest with it. My weight updates will be on here as well starting tomorrow. We are trying to lose 2lbs a week so by the end of 3 months we'll be 24 pounds lighter! Hope this seriously works that way we'll be looking fiiiiiiine for spring break and be set for summer. (LOL).

Yesterday, January 2nd was a really good day and I felt like I was back on track. For lunch I had an Asian stirfry my mom made me. It included tofu, brocolli, mushrooms, zuchini, and some other vegetables I cannot remember. I had it without rice which made it even better!

For snack, I did have some chai which had some sugar in it and then my mom later made freshly squeezed orange juice which was hard to forego. I must say though that the OJ filled me up so much and it had so many good vitamins in there that it makes it really super healthy.

For dinner, my mom made some Cheele, there are daal pancakes which are strictly all protein. My aunt told me about these when she did South Beach a while ago. It was harder for her since shes vegetarian so she survived off of these. These a a great substitute for roti and are so filling. My mom put a little bit of paneer filling to make it tastier. Paneer is allowed in this diet just because its not carbs and is strictly dairy.

Recap: Very good day!

Daal Cheele a perfect fit for South Beach. So much protein in these little pancakes.