My New Love

Rye Crackers!

Thursday:

8 AM: Milk and oatmeal with 2 small bananas and almonds
10 AM: Apple and almonds
12 PM: Beef with rice and half a veggie mataba
3 PM: Nesvita
5-7 PM: Gym
7.30 PM: Basil chicken with rice and half a som tum
9-10 PM: 7 dates

Friday:

8 AM: Milk and oatmeal with 2 small bananas and almonds
10 AM: 2 small bananas
12 PM: Lamb Sharworma (Israeli food), salad and eggplant dip
3.30 PM: Half a jelly donut and a small sausage roll (dammit! It's hard to say no when a friend offers it...)

Still Keeping Track

For today:

8 AM: Milk and oatmeal with two bananas and almonds
10 AM: Apple and almonds
12 PM: Broccoli with shrimp, som tum with shrimp, tofu and pork soup, Larb pork woon sen (shared with 3 others, no rice)
3 PM: Nesvita
6 PM: Ginger chicken with rice
9-10 PM: 2 mangoes and 4 dates

I have a teleconference call with people from New York tonight. I hate doing these calls...

Health Junkie

Keeping a food/fitness diary now. If anybody has suggestions on how to improve my eating habits or diet, please let me know. I'm going to do this for a while so please don't mind me.

Yesterday

8 AM: Oatmeal with two small bananas and almonds
10 AM: Apple and almonds
12 PM: Rice topped with a portion of vegetables, fish ball curry and pork/tofu
3 PM: Nesvita drink and almonds
5-6 PM: Gym
7.30 PM: Vegetables stir-fried dish (no rice)
9-10 PM: 4 dates, 2 pears, and 1 mango

Today

8 AM: Oatmeal with two small bananas and almonds
10 AM: Apple and almonds
12 PM: Som tum with eggs
3 PM: Smaller portion of oatmeal with almonds (no bananas)
5-7 PM: Gym
8 PM: Stir-fried vegetables and som tum (shared with Nick, no rice)
9-10 PM: two pears, 150 grams of Edamame Japanese peas, 4 dates

Snakes and Gym

I had another dream last night. I don't remember much except that there was a big snake in my dream.

Snake: To see a snake or be bitten by one in your dream, signifies hidden fears and worries that are threatening you. Your dream may be alerting you to something in your waking life that you are not aware of or that has not yet surfaced. Alternatively, the snake may be seen as phallic and thus symbolize temptation, dangerous and forbidden sexuality. If you are afraid of the snake, then it signifies your fears of sex, intimacy or commitment. The snake may also refer to a person around you who is callous, ruthless, and can't be trusted. As a positive symbol, snakes represent healing, transformation, knowledge and wisdom. It is indicative of self-renewal and positive changes.

I also just paid 18,500 baht for 24 classes of personal training at the gym. This comes to about 770 baht per class. Nick looked at me with disapproving looks when I told him what I did this morning.

I had a talk with my PT today and I really like him. He seems to listen to me and really knows what to do with regards to how I want my body to look. I was complaining to him that I've been gaining weight although I've been going to the gym frequently. He said that my progress has been good if I was a GUY!

Anyway, he wants me to focus on fat loss and toning instead of muscle building (I wasn't even focusing on that!) so he's going to build a program for me that uses free weights, cable, kinesis and power plates because it's more challenging. He was saying that although I'm gaining muscles, I'm also gaining fat so I need to reduce that.

I've never used a PT before so I guess I just want to try. I've been going to the gym but I don't really have any program and I've just been doing stuff randomly. Lets see my progress in 1-2 months! He also told me to stop eating at night :( and said that I can eat as much as I want during the day time but to stop after dinner. See the thing is, I really watch what I eat, but it's still not working. Last night I told my PT that I was eating cereal and he was saying I should stop because I shouldn't be eating that at night! Milk is OK, but not with cereal. *sigh* I asked him what fruits to eat at night and he suggested pears and watermelon.

Ahn wants to eat at Dubliners tonight... I hope they have something healthy there... I bet I'm just going to end up eating a burger.

2 KG of Muscle

Yup that's right, I gained two kg of muscles. I weighed myself yesterday and I'm now two kg heavier. I'm not sure if I should be happy? I mean, my fat decreased, I think I look the same, I can still fit in the jeans I bought months ago, but I'm two kg heavier! Noooo! I asked the personal trainer there what I should do to maintain the weight I had before but still keep my muscles and he suggested that I could watch what I eat more. He even remembers me at the gym and knows that I run everyday. Nick calls me the Speedy Kiwi because I run a lot and (probably) faster than most guys there. Nick's the Mighty Kiwi. Anyway, the personal trainer said that I may weigh more but I would look different than somebody who weighs the same as me but have more fat.

God I'm eating so much now ever since I've been going to the gym practically everyday. I wolf down bags of fruits and I snack a lot at night. I've decided to stop snacking at night (no more cereal, fruits, yoghurt, muesli, peanut butter, milk, etc). I'll just limit myself to one snack a night. I love the smell of oats. Nick and I finished the cookies I made for Valentine's Day. Yummy! It's good we didn't really have to fight over which cookies to eat because he liked the chocolate banana oatmeal ones while I liked the wholewheat oatmeal cookies.

Nick and I thought about joining a marathon. Not sure if there's going to be any in Bangkok?

Dr. Don the Chiropractor

So I went to see a chiropractor on Wednesday. His name's Dr. Don Nakaya and he's American/Japanese. I was googling up chiropractor in Thailand and most internet forums suggested him or Dr. Mark Leoni. Dr. Mark was quite expensive I think (2200 for the first visit and 1700 baht after). His office is located in Ekamai. Dr. Don was 1800 for the first visit and 1400 baht after. His office is closer to my place (Sukhumvit 23) so I chose that one instead. I'm still a bit hesitant about this whole chiropractor thing because I don't know whether this will actually cure my upper-back pain or not but I thought that I should give it a shot anyway.

It was still expensive I think. There was another place called DSpine on Thonglor that was cheaper but you have to pay like 12000 baht for 10 times at once. At the Doc's place, he asked me some questions about where I had the pain and felt the tightness. So far so good. He told me to lay down and then he ran some electric pulses through my neck. It really tickled at first and I couldn't help but giggle. It's suppose to help relax my muscles I think. After a good 10 minutes, he came back and started to crack my back. It felt great! He twisted my neck and hips also. It was kind of scary when he twisted my neck though. That man could've killed me! He also said that my left leg is 3 cm longer than my right leg! Interesting!

Anyway, the whole checkup took 20-30 minutes. It was so short! I really wanted him to do some more cracking or even massaging. He told me to come back in 2-3 days. I made an appointment for next Wednesday but I just remembered that I have to go to the SCAD volunteer orientation that evening. At first I thought of going there 2-3 more times just to see if it'll make my back better but I might not any more. It kind of felt the same as getting a Thai massage (the cracking that is). I might just wait and go see an osteopath in France when I go there with Nick this mid-July. He said he's really good and cost only 30 Euros.

I can't wait to go to France in the summer.

Running 30 Minutes

It felt so good to run for 30 minutes straight without stopping. I love the feeling of sweat dripping down my face, face flushed, body burning hot and my heart racing. I know, weird. I was never a runner and I preferred taking kickboxing, cycling or step classes instead because I get bored easily just running on a treadmill. Or even playing basketball or squash was more preferential than this. Still, I felt like it was an achievement of some sort. I'll fix an hour as my goal for the next month.

After college and coming back to Thailand, I haven't gone to the gym at all. But I started going again in March to True Fitness on Asoke Rd. It's not that bad although I miss the gym back at Penn State. Still, I think my two months of going to the gym is starting to pay off. It's great to feel healthier.