Simple Eating Plan to Help You Lose Weight

Due to requests from many friends, I have decided to post up a healthy food plan for everyone to follow. Lot of people tell me that the exercises I prescribe are exellent, but it would be much better if I tied it up with a great eating plan as well. People want to know what they should eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner in order to see weight loss without having to starve themselves. So due to popular request, here is a simple eating plan for all. This plan is designed to help you lose weight. If you want to gain weight, then that is a whole different story� maybe I will cover that some time later. But here it is.

Before getting into the basics of the eating plan, just want to lay down a few ground rules.

1) Stick to the 3 meals prescribed below and only eat that. Don�t stray from it and munch anything in between. Yes, I am aware that dieticians are screaming for people to eat 6 small meals instead of 3 big meals. But I noticed, most people tend to overeat (meaning 6 big portions) when allowed to eat 6 times a day. So first master 3 meals a day, and then we will progress to the 6 meal plan later.
2) With that being said, it doesn�t pay to skip meals either. Stick to your 3 meals no matter what.
3) Keep your sweet drinks to a minimum. Biggest problem I notice among most Malaysians � �I don�t eat rice, I don�t eat roti canai� how come still fat?� Then I find out 1 cup of coffee in the morning, 1 cup of Milo during meeting, 1 cup of teh ais during lunch, 1 teh tarik in the evening, 1 sirap bandung for dinner. If you add up all the calories there, it's nearly 1000 Kcal. Not saying no sweet drinks, just try to keep it to 2 if you can.
4) Snacking � This is one of the biggest culprits for people gaining weight. Whatever you do, please do not snack between meals. The worst thing to snack on is potato chips and sorts, which does not fill you up but super high in calories. If you must snack, snack on healthy things like fruits, whole meal crackers etc.
5) If you must indulge in anything that isn't healthy, do it right after your workout. This way you get to minimize the damage to your waist line.
6) Never binge eat. Some people who go for lunch or dinner late, tend to binge eat because they are extra hungry. Stay focused on how much you would normally eat and stick to it. Never over eat.
7) Progressively try to reduce your food intake as you move along. A good benchmark is to cut down every month. Cut down your food quantity by about 5% to 10% every month until you finally reach your goal. So cut it down, maintain that new portion size for one month and the cut it down again.

OK now that I got the ground rules out of the way, here is what you should be eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The size of the portion will depend on you. So start off by eating the quantity you would normally eat, and then try to reduce it slowly every month.

Breakfast
1) Sandwich using whole meal bread. Load up on the vege�s that go on sandwiches such as tomatoes, onions and salad. Cut back on condiments especially margarine & mayonaise and avoid fried fillings and of course, stay away from cheese if you can. Examples of good sandwich fillings � ham, tuna, egg, de-boned tandoori chicken (left over from dinner the previous day)
2) Cereal � The more grains it has, the better. One of the worst cereal to eat is corn flakes and those other kid cereals like Koko Crunch, Fruit Loops and Honey Star.
3) Half boiled eggs � just add a dash of kicap and pepper for taste.

Lunch
1) Mixed rice � whether it is Malay, Chinese or Indian mixed rice, your rice portion should only be as big as your clenched fist. Load up on vege as much as you can. Avoid deep fried dishes
2) Chapati with curry of your choice
3) Subway Sandwich
4) Roasted meats � Eg, Ayamas Roaster, Kenny Rogers
5) Thosai (some places have thosai telur and thosai sardin. These are fine too)
6) Grilled Fish / Chicken or Steaks
7) Chicken Rice � The trick here is to eat less of the rice and more of the chicken. Remember, the rice portion should be the size of your clenched fist.
8) Simple rule � Avoid all goreng-goreng foods. From poori to fried chicken to fried rice to french fires. If it�s fried, you should avoid it.

Dinner
1) Salad � you can either make your own, or if you go out, order a salad for dinner. If you are eating out, always always get them to serve the dressing separately.
2) Fruits � Cut up some of you favourite fruits and fill up on these healthy food. Avoid Durian and watermelons. You can even make a fruit rojak if you like. Just buy the sauce, but use it sparingly.
3) Thosai
4) Tandoori Chicken
5) Sandwiches � same as the breakfast menu
6) Home Made Pasta � I will feature a recipe for you to try soon
7) Home Made burgers
8) Home made Roast meat
9) Taufu Bakar

The foods above are just a guide on what kinds of food you should be eating. Feel free to mix and match. If you can avoid all variety of fried foods and food heavy on simple carbohydrates you will be about 70% safe already, which is a lot already. Pair this up with a good work out routine, and you will be able to see the fat just melt away. Try it out and see. Of course there are loads of other healthy options out there, so please share if you think of any. Look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions for other healthy eating options.

Trip to Sabah 2

Being enchanted with our first trip to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah earlier this year, when my sister and brother in law recommended a family trip to Sabah, I was all for it. This time it wasn�t just me and wifey. It was me, wifey, my mom, sister & her husband, her husband�s mom and of course my 2 nieces. Never been on a holiday with so many people, so the change was refreshing and of course, I enjoyed my time with my nieces as well.

We stayed at Le Meridien in KK, which is a newer hotel� hence needless to stay, it was still in mint condition and it really was worth every ringgit we paid. I know this hotel is a bit pricey and when my sister first recommended it, I wasn�t sure if I could comfortably manage it. But then I managed to get a discounted rate from the hotel�s website itself � pay for 2 nights, and the 3rd night is free. The room per night is RM 375 per night, but with the offer, I paid RM 750 for 3 nights� quite a bargain if you ask me. Forgot to take some pictures of the lobby, but I did manage to snap some pics of the room. The one thing I absolutely loved about the room and wished more hotels would follow � a DVD player in the room. So you are not solely stuck to ASTRO�s sucky collection of movies which are repeated 700 times a day. We actually went down to a shopping complex to buy some DVDs so that we can watch them at night.

The waterfront bar and restaurants were just a stone�s throw away from our hotel� so that was really great. Only thing I missed was a 7-11. If it had that, it would have made it perfect. So most nights we had dinner at the water front restaurants and some drinks after, all at the water front. It was really cool.

The main reason we chose KK was because my brother-in-law wanted to participate in 10km run which was taking place in KK. I spent most of my time swimming, watching TV and just lazing around. We did do an island hop on our second last day and we visited Pulau Manukan and Mamutik. We only went to 2 this time, as we were going with my nieces and we didn�t want it to be too taxing. Turns out, my nieces are absolute water bums just like me. Won�t talk much about the water in the islands, as I mentioned in my earlier posting it was crystal clear and probably cleaner than your tap water.
One of the other activities which we did want to do was visit the Orang Utan sanctuary, but the Taxi ride was RM 80 one way and the admission was RM 65 per person� pretty steep if you ask me. So we skipped that activity totally. Oh which reminds me. Another one thing I don�t like about KK is the taxi service. It�s a flat rate of RM 10 anyway in the city area, RM 30 to the airport and RM 80 for anywhere beyond that distance. Its really pricey and I think our tourism ministry or transportation ministry should look into this. Sabah is a great place to visit but the one thing that will drive tourists away� is this.

If anyone is planning a trip to KK anytime soon, let me know. Will save you a lot of time of researching where to go and what to do. But I highly recommend this holiday destination to anyone who loves the sea. Look forward to hearing your comments on this.

Salsa Dip - A Healthy Snack

My office had a pot luck lunch yesterday and we all made different dishes to bring in. I made what I like to call Nacho El Grande (a pile of Nacho chips covered in Salsa sauce, chicken and cheese and baked till the cheese melts). Everyone in the office loved it. OK not the healthiest thing in the world to be eating, but every once in while, its OK.

What I want to share with everyone is my recipe for Salsa � main reason being that is actually an extremely healthy dip for chips. Its almost all vegetables� hence its even good for you. Surprising no one promotes this as a health food item. The Nacho chips itself may be high in calorie but you can switch it to healthy alternatives like Papadam which also goes great with the Salsa. You can microwave the papadam (about 30 to 40 seconds on high) till it becomes crispy. It will be very dry, but it will be healthier than deep frying it. Another healthy option is to use tortilla bread and just toast them in your convection owen till it becomes hard. Then just break it up and you have tortilla chips. The Nacho chips you buy in the packet has 500 calories per 100g and 29 g of fat per 100g as well� so not the best of options if you want to go healthy. Safer to go with the suggestions above.

If you are going to use a dip, this is the healthiest dip out there and it tastes great. You can also use this salsa for your cooking to add that Mexican zing to any dish. So the possibilities are endless.

So here�s how you make it.

Salsa Ingredients:
1. Red Onion
2. Capsicum (green)
3. Garlic
4. Tomato
5. Tomato Puree
6. Tomato Ketchup (little bit)
7. Jalapeno
8. Chilli powder / chili flakes
9. Salt
10. White Pepper
11. Lime

Method
Finely chop up items 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7. For item 7, you only need the the Jalapeno slices. Use a fork to dig it out of the jar so you don�t take any vinegar. You don�t need the vinegar for this. The portions should be 1 portion Jalapeno and garlic, 2 portions of Onion & capsicum and 4 portions of tomatoes. Do note blend these items as it will taste different. I was lazy once and tried blending it and it tasted horrid.
Put all this chopped items in a bowl. Pour a little bit of ketchup and double the amount of tomato puree. So if you put in one table spoon of ketchup, add in 2 table spoons of tomato puree. Mix everything up till it�s evenly mixed. Add in some salt and pepper to taste as well as some chilli powder to give it a little bite.
Give it a quick taste. You should be able to taste the combination of all the chopped ingredients. If any of the ingredients taste overpowering, throw in little more chopped tomatoes to dull it. If you feel you would like a certain taste to be more prominent, throw in more of those ingredients.
Finally, squeeze in a bit of lime juice at the end for that tang which just makes it taste like salsa. I normally only use about half a lime or less, so don�t go overboard or all you will tastes is lime.

So there you have it. It�s really simple, tastes great and sure beats the heck of buying imported salsa which costs about RM 10 or more for one small bottle. Kimball or Maggi has salsa which is cheaper, but that is just sweet and does not taste like authentic salsa.

Give this recipe a try and see. If anyone has any other secret salsa recipes or other suggestions of what you can replace the chips with, please do share. As usual, look forward to hearing your comments.