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Whole 30 Complete!

By beakatude
on Mar 06, 2018
in projects, yum

Whole 30 is done and I celebrated with a walk to the local boba shop during lunch. I think I ended up with a good sugar high in the afternoon and it was so worth it.

Jes enjoyed a cold beer on his ride home on the ferry.

In the evening, we had hot pot and I enjoyed a glass of wine…aaaaahhhh.

Summary:

I have a greater appreciation of roasted vegetables.
I really know how to use a spiralizer now.
I lost 8 pounds.
I was dreaming a lot more than usual.
I didn’t crave sugar but realize there’s sugar in EVERYTHING that I usually eat.
I enjoy flavored sparkling water even more now and San Pellegrino drinks are WAY too sweet for me.
I didn’t notice much difference in my skin or energy level. Too bad.
Whole30 is very time consuming and our oven got a lot of love this past month. I also felt like I was either eating, planning, or cooking food.
In a bind, my go-to breakfast was a Lara Bar. Favorite flavor: Key Lime Pie!!
Would I do it again? Probably not.

Whole30 – Halfway Done

By beakatude
on Feb 19, 2018
in life, projects, yum

We are on Day 16 of Whole30 and it’s supposed to be downhill from here. So far, we’ve been surviving but I’m feeling a little bored of the food that I’m allowed to eat. Last week was also a little tough considering there was Valentine’s Day, Chinese New Year, and the long President’s Day weekend all in one week!

Here are some of the foods we made/ate this week:

Garlic shrimp over zucchini noodles…pretty good.

We’ve been eating a lot of roasted vegetables: brussel sprouts (above), cauliflower, broccoli, romanesco, kale, sweet potato, and regular potato.

I used the spiralizer on a regular potato and ended up with the end looking like a mushroom.

We roasted the potato noodles and they ended up tasting like shoestring fries. It worked well with the pot roast that Jes made for dinner.

One thing that is compliant is Kalua Pork!! It’s a great topping for salads or just over cabbage. It’s pretty satisfying but I do miss the rice and mac salad.

One day, we made bacon, lettuce, tomato, bacon wraps for lunch. With some of my homemade mayo, it was pretty tasty! Oh yeah, the only compliant bacon that we can eat is one made with no nitrates and no sugar. It is extremely hard to find bacon that’s made without sugar. I scoured Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Nob Hill Foods and ended up finding one at Safeway!!

Jesse also made some meatballs using almond flour as a substitute. Of course it had to be eaten over zucchini noodles and it was pretty painful watching the kids eat their spaghetti.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, we met up for dinner with Michelle, Vyl, and kids in the city. In preparation for dinner, Jes and I went to SuperDuper first to fill up on a bun-less burger with avocado and bacon. It was good but I missed the special sauce and ketchup. I also had to watch the kids eat the fries that I wasn’t allowed to eat. At dinner, the only thing I could eat was the steamed chicken. So sad…

Some of my favorite things I have been eating include:

avocado
homemade mayo (great for dipping cucumber slices or roasted cauliflower)
everything with hot sauce
SALT
roasted veggies

I also found a tasty almond butter at Trader Joe’s that’s made of just almonds and salt. It’s great for dipping apple slices.

So, I made it to the half-way mark and I’m looking forward to finishing these next two weeks. March 6th is gonna be awesome.

Whole30

By beakatude
on Feb 08, 2018
in life, projects, yum

I don’t exactly remember the conversation but one night I mentioned the Whole30 to Jes and he looked it up that night and didn’t say anything. The next day, he said he wanted to do it so I said “why not?” If he’s going to do it with me, it’ll be a little easier.

It’s basically a short-term challenge that allows your body to reset and somewhat detox from everyday food allergens and other things that could make you unhealthy without knowing it.

For 30 days, Jes and I will be eating mostly animal protein, lots of vegetables, fruit, and eggs. We are not allowed to have soy, dairy, sugar (except for what’s in fruit), legumes, wheat, rice, corn, or alcohol. We also have to cut out sulfites, MSG, and some other chemicals/ingredients that are found in food. As an Asian, I always thought the Whole30 was impossible for us because we can’t have RICE, WHEAT, or SOY! Well, we decided to do it just to prove we could and to see if it would actually make a difference.

It started on Super Bowl Sunday, which was a somewhat inconvenient day to start. When I think of Super Bowl, I think of bar food and alcohol. Well, alcohol was going to be out and we were going to have to figure out what to eat during the game. After returning home from Tahoe on Sunday afternoon, we unloaded the car, and then headed to Costco to stock up. We bought steaks, fish, lots of fruit and veggies, and eggs. I had to say “see ya later” to the booze aisle and made sure to bypass the snacks section. What’s hard is that the kids will continue eating all the stuff we aren’t allowed to eat. So, we had to buy the pretzels and other snacks that they love.

Anyway, we got home and started planning our dinner. Apparently, Whole30 has a recipe for buffalo wings!!! Frank’s Red Hot Sauce is Whole30 compliant (as are most hot sauces) and we can have butter as long as we take out the milk solids. So, Jes made some clarified butter and made us wings!!! It was so good and I didn’t miss the Ranch dressing as much as I thought I would. I think I missed the wine more.

By the way, we also bought a new TV at Costco. It’s 58 inches, inexpensive, and the technology is so much better than the one we bought 12 years ago.

It’s now Day 5 and it’s been ok. Here are some of the meals we’ve made:

Jes grilled some chicken breast for me the first night. I cut it up and added some roasted brussel sprouts. That was my lunch on Monday and it was pretty satisfying.

On Day 2, I made some of my own mayo using egg, salt, and oil oil.

On Day 3, I made a beef chili for dinner. Jes and I ate it over baked potato and I got a nod of approval from the picky husband. Woot!

On the same night, I used a spiralizer to make some zucchini noodles (aka zoodles). I added it to the top of the leftover chili for my lunch the next day. With couple minutes in the microwave, I had a pretty tasty lunch that was almost as good as spaghetti with meat sauce.

And this is my breakfast on most days. I made some pico de gallo on the first night so that I had some for every morning. We also bought a bag of avocados at Costco and they go a long way!

So now it’s Day 5 and it seems like Day 30 is so far away. I think our biggest challenge will be going out for Chinese New Year dinner with the Bangs and Sokol-Juns. I may have to eat some hard-boiled eggs beforehand and just feed the kids.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress! I found this funny calendar that seems to be pretty accurate so far…

My hope is that I sleep better, have more energy, have nicer skin, and it wouldn’t hurt if my clothes fit better.

Hong Kong Adventures – Part 5

By beakatude
on Dec 18, 2017
in family, outta here, yum

Each morning, we went up to the top floor for breakfast and we got a table with the best view today.

Later in the morning, we met up with Jason to hunt for the magical pineapple bun with butter inside.

We took a bunch of trains to cross the water and ended up in Kowloon.

Here’s the pineapple bun…so tasty.

This is the Hong Kong-style french toast with condensed milk on top and butter inside.

We also shared a bowl of instant noodles with mustard greens.

The kids were excited to have milk served in a glass bottle today.

We happened to also end up in the “pet district” where there was a street filled with pet stores. We stopped at one shop that hung tropical fish in bags on the wall.

The kids were getting hungry so we stopped at a McDonald’s to get some nuggets for Peanut and sauce for Brother.

Later in the day, Jes’ parents met up with us and we took a long stroll down the famous Nathan Road all the way back to the water front.

We stopped for a smoothie drink and then a spicy noodle house for a late lunch.

Their food was pretty good but service was a little too gruff for my taste.

Once we arrived at the waterfront, we found the Garden of Stars.

I had been in search of the Bruce Lee statue and was happy we found it! I had read that it was temporarily moved from its original spot due to renovations so I wasn’t sure where to look.

Before heading to the Star Ferry terminal, we went down to the waterfront for a few photos. It’s too bad the air quality wasn’t the best that day. I’m sure it’s gorgeous at night.

At the ferry terminal, there was only a 15-minute wait and the ride itself was just about 15 minutes long too!

Then we hopped on a double-decker bus back to our hotel.

Public transportation in Hong Kong is pretty awesome.

As an early dinner for the kids and a snack for us, we went to Din Tai Fung, which was located just downstairs from our hotel.

We also didn’t have the same crazy-long wait that we’re used to in LA.

After their dinner, the kids got a shower and changed into their pjs. Then we went up to the lounge for Happy Hour to wait for Jes’ parents to finish shopping before heading up to watch the kids for an hour or so.

Once the kids were in bed, we headed out to Times Square.

We stopped at a Peanuts display and took some pictures.

Finally, we found a place that served the pork belly that Jes had been looking for all week. It was a nice finish to our last full day in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Adventures – Part 4

By beakatude
on Dec 18, 2017
in family, outta here, yum

One afternoon, we took a long walk around the city with Jason. It was fun just wandering around taking in all the sights and sounds.

By the evening, the kids were tired and ended up taking a nap at Jes’ parents’ hotel.

Meanwhile, we did more exploring in search of a place to get new iPhone batteries and for some tasty snacks.

We ended up finding this noodle house where the boys each had a different version of their noodle soup.

By the time dinner rolled around, it was pretty late and the kids just kept sleeping. My left arm got quite a workout while I ate with one hand and held Peanut in the other.

Hong Kong Adventures – Part 3

By beakatude
on Dec 17, 2017
in family, outta here, weddings, yum

The wedding festivities started on Saturday morning and then there was a brunch the following morning. It was quite the shindig with so much going on.

In the morning, everyone met up at the hotel’s library for the games. The bridesmaids planned a bunch of games for the groom and his guys and much of it involved taking shots and humiliation.

Kelly sat in the other room and watched all the action from her phone.

Here’s Ellie and Amelia (flower girls) with their new cousin Rachel.

Right after the games, there was a tea ceremony.

Then we were all transported to the church in a parade of private buses.

The kids were all dressed up for the occasion.

Alvin arrived first and then Kelly followed in a separate car.

It was a long ceremony and Peanut was super antsy. Thanks to the baby app on my phone, we kept him one place.

After the wedding, we went back to the hotel to nap and then went back to the wedding hotel for the banquet. It was super fancy complete with booze stations and a ballroom decorated to the nines.

We managed to get family photo taken right before KK fell asleep in the middle of dinner.

After the dinner banquet, the party was continued right outside of the ballroom. There were drinking games, a dance floor, live band, and night market with lots of snacks.