Weight gain woes

I’ve gained weight! It has only been a week and a half since I’ve began the 10k training and I’ve already gained 4 pounds! I have not been particularly eating any more food. In fact, I’ve been eating less junk food since the holidays AND I have been dramatically more active lately. My clothes seem to fit the same…then again I haven’t really been paying attention. I do notice that my calves and abs are toner than they have been these past couple of months. I guess the only reasonable explanation for the weight gain that I can think of is that I gained muscle mass. I should probably measure my body fat % again just to be sure.

The last time I checked my numbers was last December 10th (a month a couple of days ago). My body fat % back then was 21.8% and my weight was 130 lbs.

Could it be possible with just a week and a half’s time to gain so much muscle mass? Or did I really gain that much weight in one month? Or am I doing something wrong here. Any ideas?

Wednesday, January 12th:

Breakfast:

Oatmeal, splash of soy milk, banana, a drizzle of agave nectar, coconut flakes and coffee.

Lunch:

Sandwich: tofurky slices, mixed greens, mayo, tomato and cucumber slices. I added a couple of swabs of vegetable garden cream cheese. Delish.

Tuesday, January 11th:

Breakfast

I’ve been enjoying my mini tiramisu cakes (1 and a half mini slices to be exact) my sis’ got for me for my birthday last Sunday. They go great with a hot cup of coffee. I only wish I had more!

Lunches: Sandwiches.

This sandwich was from last Monday. It’s stuffed with Hickory Smoked Tofurky deli slices, mixed greens, tomato, mayo and a side of yellow gold fishies.

A whole sandwich (I ate the first half while the potatoes were cooking in the deep fryer). Must stop deep frying…. The deep fryer may be one huge contributing factor to my weight gain!

Sandwich ingredients were the same as mentioned above. Maybe a bit more mayo this time around.

Dinner:

Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl. It was torture some for me to follow the recipe exactly, but I did it (minus the avocado. Didn’t feel like paying $1.50 for just one). Spicy as promised… however, the dish was WAY too salty! Next time, I’m reducing the 1/2 cup of soy sauce called for in the recipe to 2 Tbsp. or 1/4 cup.

It looks so delicious. I would have given it a perfect 10 if it wasn’t so salty. We could have been great together. I could also have water weight as well. Note to self: drink more water!

The recipe called for soy sauce in the salad dressing. I was very reluctant to add soy sauce into a salad dressing. I mentioned it to Long and he made a face. Then I also made a face. We both made a face. We weren’t feeling the massive amount and awkward use of soy sauce…I mean I’ve heard of adding fish sauce or even vegetarian fish sauce, which has soy sauce as one of many ingredients, but straight up PURE soy sauce in a salad dressing!? We love soy sauce, but NOT THIS MUCH. If you’re going to make this recipe, I’d stick to the balsamic vinaigrette dressings. Then again, it’s always interesting to try anything once.

Random Photos:

on the drive to South Lake Tahoe

My birthday night. The scenery somehow reminds me of Nigella Lawson’s kitchen.

Loomis has the balloon tied to his collar. He was SO CUTE walking around with it. He kept looking up at it with confused expressions.

Oh and I never got to post about this lovely waffle from The Red Hut Cafe at South Lake Tahoe. The pecans were actually in the batter. Must recreate this!

 

 

 

10k-Training

January 10th:

Jillian Michael’s 2011 Jumpstart Diet Yoga Toners. If you haven’t tried these moves yet, you must do it soon! Getting in a good stretch while toning up. I love workout routines that multitask with your muscles.

January 11th:

30 min x-training with Just Dance 2. Today was raining, so I swapped today’s 2.5 mi run with tomorrow’s 30 min x-training.

January 12th:

Planned a 2.5 mi run easy run around the lake with the pups when Long gets off work.

My version Mi Quang Chay, Doggy pictures & Bikes, Bikes Bikes!

I seriously need to stop on this banana n chocolate on bread obsession ….…

It’s just oh SoOo good!

Mi Quang Chay.

I came up with my own meatless version of the traditional Vietnamese Mi Quang.

The trademark color of this noodle soup is credited to Tumeric. I like mine a little spicy, so I added a certain type of chili spice powder.

And the beautiful star anise among other ingredients…

toppings + Sriracha & Hoisin sauce

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…….

…………

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Random:

other than banana and chocolate, BAnana & AB makes me happy too.

Cute little apricots

coffee & tea

<3 <3 Long N Leng <3 <3

~~~Love Sunny Days~~~

@Biryani House in Berkeley, CA

***Chai***

***Channa Masala***

*** Aloo Palak***

***Vegetable Korma***

This was the definite star of the show today. Rich, creamy and full of spice. As I mentioned many times before, I am saddened by the fact that my favorite Indian restaurant, Sabina closed down. Ever since then I have yet to find a good vegetable korma. Biryani house has by far come the closest. In fact, the only reason why I come here is because of their Vegetable Korma. I just wish they would add some cashews though…

Long akA“Bob The Builder”:

When Long found an old bike frame from the public market about 2 months ago, he had an idea to build himself a bike (from scratch). That’s when he decided to sell his SUPER nice 2010 Specialized Allez bike throwback version. I told him he was crazy and not to sell it. It was a great bike! and I knew he loved it. I still do not know why he sold it….

I would include a picture of it, but he deleted pictures of it after posting on Craigslist (I just found this out right at this moment ). But here it is from the web. It looked exactly like this, all shiny and pristine!

[image source:]

After selling the bike, he had been trying to….actually I’m going to have him write his own words on this. It’s hard for me to describe and convey the pride that he must be feeling….

So first off…I really did like my Specialized Allez, especially since it was the throwback version. You had the beauty of the vintage look, but with all new components and parts. However, since I bike to work every day, and since my ride to work is all completely flat ground, I realized I never used the gears. Such a waste as the gears shift like a hot knife slicing through butter.

Anywho, so one day, I was roaming around the public market, I came across this Bianchi Celeste frame. All the vendor had was the frame, nothing else. No seat, no crank, no pedals, no wheels, even no handle bars. I was able to haggle the price down to $30 – a steal as these Bianchi frames run for much more. Well after I got the frame, that was about two months ago, I had been planning on building it up for my summer project.

Summer came two weeks ago, and I’ve basically spent most of my free time tinkering with it. I’ve never built an entire bike from scratch so this was a learning process. Finding the right parts for a cheap price was a little struggle, but surprisingly, the most difficult part of the entire process were the brakes. About a week ago I had actually finished putting the entire bike together, except for the brakes. I could and did take the bike around the neighborhood, but with no brakes I couldn’t stop. I spent about two days trying to put the brakes on myself, realizing I didn’t really have the right tools, so I called a quits and took it into a bike shop. So in theory, I didn’t build the whole bike myself – Mike’s Bikes in Berkeley put the brakes on for me!

After taking it on it’s first official ride with brakes yesterday (see pics below), I felt pretty happy about the entire process, however, now that it is all done I would have to say I will probably never build another bike from scratch again. Although, I wouldn’t mind building a bike for someone else. I think I’mma keep this bike for a real long time as it’s super light, super fast, and just my style.

He loves his bike! lol

My bike Adventure

It’s my turn to write about my little bike adventure. Below is a picture of me with my fourth bike. I first started off with a mountain bike, which was extremely heavy. I would not recommend for anyone to buy a mountain bike if you’re going to ride it solely in the city. I learned this the hard way. So, after much disappointment and struggle with the weight of the bike, I then switched to an older Trek Hybrid.

I immediately fell in love it’s lighter weight, but the bike was still not the right for me—it was too big. Then I got an old crickity hybrid Fuji that I was reluctant to give up. Although it made noise when I moved me bum and sounded like it was going to break any moment, I thought It was amazing! It rode perfectly. That is until Long did some tweaking on it and made it even lighter. Without my knowledge he switched it from a regular 7 rear gear with a total of 21 speeds to a 1 rear gear capable of going only 1 speed. He didn’t tell me, so when I took it to school one day, I was pleasantly surprised at how much faster I was going. It felt light as a feather. When I got back home, I asked him if he did anything to my bike, he replied, “whoa you noticed?” His surprise was due to the fact that I noticed the slight change in it’s weight. I guess I really knew the bike. Just thinking back on it, I’m missing it…. I hope that whoever has it now is taking good care of it….

Now, you might ask if I loved the bike so much, why did I sell it? Well, as the saying, “moving on to bigger and better things” goes, that’s exactly what I did. Well, except for the bigger part. haha. I did not realize the full potential of a woman’s bike until I took this beauty (KHS Flight 220) for a ride. All the other three bikes were men’s bikes. This KHS was made for a woman. Me, being a woman, found it extremely comfortable. Makes sense, it was made for my body. lol The frame was the lightest I have ever felt. The seat—OMG—the seat was PERFECTION! All of the other bikes had seats that were a little uncomfortable, but this one was very nice.

I part with some more random pictures of me with the pups!

Lulla! Always so happy. I absolutely <3 her.

Goofy Goofy Loomis always happy too! I didn’t realize how small (yet mostly 60 lbs of muscle) he was for a Labrador mix. So cute!

1 Year Anniversary

The morning of our 1 year anniversary didn’t started off as great with Loomis vomiting on the brand new rug we JUST bought a couple of days ago. He must have ate something he shouldn’t have, as usual. When I headed to feed the plants, I saw this cute little kitty basking away under the sunlight in Lulla’s lounge. What could it be about this bed that is so appealing? Dottie doesn’t even like the texture of the fabric! Could she be in there just to put her claim on it as Loomis tried to do? (I found Loomis in it later today again).

After Long  “walked the dogs” he came home with a bouquet of roses and Lindt chocolate truffles. (I made truffles for our wedding). So nice.

The flavors are White chocolate, milk, dark, orange, hazelnut and vanilla. We shared two pieces of the milk and hazelnut. for our wedding, I made white, milk, dark, orange, and hazelnut. 

Breakfast:

Was a big one. Good thing, I ate every single piece of the vegetarian bacon, hash browns, egg and English muffin + soymilk (Long ate the English muffin with almond butter) because the hike we went on this morning was nearly 2 hours!

Hiking

Here we are in the parking lot of Bort Meadow I took this picture in the Meadow. I tried to get them to focus on me, but I’m loving this picture much much more. I have to say that my photography skills are getting better and better. What would I produce if I had a high powered camera….?

Snacking

On the car ride home, I ate 1 medium banana and a honeycrisp apple. 15 minutes later I munched on cucumbers dipped into a slightly sweet soy sauce based sauce. I’ll have post recipe for the dip later.

If any of you are interested in making the Vegetarian Egg Rolls that I mentioned, here and here, it’s in my Recipes Page right under Vegan Egg Rolls. called Mama’s Specialty Egg Rolls. I have included a short tutorial to make it easier.

I then relaxed with a cup of hot chocolate:

about 12 oz. of soy milk

1 Tbsp. of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp. of sweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp. of granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. of semisweet chocolate chips

It wasn’t my best cup ever, but it hit the spot.

For dinner tonight we plan on heading out to San Francisco to an Indian restaurant to eat food that I have been craving for 4 years!

Don’t forget to sign up for the Salad Challenge if you haven’t already!I have not come up with the rules as of yet, but I would love to get your suggestions!

Please submit your suggestions  by WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6TH.

Last day to sign up: January 9th 10:00 pm

Challenge Officially starts: Sunday, January the 10th.

So far, there are 5 participants! Keep ‘em comin’!

Day 2 @ Melia Cabo Real

I am trying out this editor, Blogo, for Mac and I am not liking it much. When it downloads pictures, the pic doesn’t actually show up. It just displays and camera icon. Anyways….This is breakfast’s view everyday here at the resort we’re staying in. Beautiful isn’t it?

My breakfast (waffles, french toast, scrambled eggs, fried bananas, hashbrown cake) consisted mainly of carbs. I don’t think I should have ate so much. It’s sort of difficult to turn down food when it’s everywhere in front of you in buffet style everyday. You could even have alcohol in the morning if you really felt like it. haha. I am going to gain so much weight here.

Breakfast breads. I dipped in with a few bites. The breads here in Mexico aren’t too good. Makes sense….people eat tortillas here not cinnamon rolls, brioche etc…

After breakfast we went to chill at the pool with our glasses of orange juice.

Lunch: roasted veggies, black beans, green rice, and a cheese stuffed tomato.

chips and homemade salsa and peppers on the side. The food at the resort isn’t at all spicy! Long and I are dying for something spicy here!!

Dessert for lunch: crazy!! I can eat cake all day if I wanted to!!! the one with white frosting is a nut cake and the other I think is a mocha cake.

Here’s us just hanging out around the resort during the day.

One Year!

Today, June 6th, 2008 marks our one year marriage anniversary! Long surprised me with flowers last night at 12 midnight. Aweee too sweet!! The purple iris pictured below was just one type of flower from the assortment. Since our anniversary landed on a Sunday, we planned our anniversary trip this coming weekend. Can’t wait!! He also broke a rule that he wasn’t supposed to get me any gifts (see below). He already surprised me with books that I’ve been searching for. I’m not complaining though. I love it!

Breakfast:

Cereal with coffee

so pretty!

The gift was a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. We put it to good “juice” today by imitating a drink we had in Viet Nam. Fresh pineapple with oranges. (!!!!) CRAZY GOOD!

More tofu. this is crazy good too, can’t get enough of it!

Here’s a funny pic of Miss Dottie.

I tried a new type of greek yogurt from The Greek Gods. Ack! I’m not going to buying this brand anymore. It’s so gross.

A nectarine. I had two of ‘em

Soup! Rice and slimy soup that wasn’t slimy. Still very good.

More tofu. This time I took the tofu out from the sheets and cooked them separately. I fried them both, but patted dry oil as much as I could.

I’m using Window’s Live Writer and I think it is AMAZING! and I finally get to put borders around my pictures! My theme from wordpress didn’t allow it. Now I get the best of both worlds!