food resolutions

First week of the year's almost over! I'm back in Brisbane and spent the rest of the week at work where people were talking about how much they ate over the holidays and how they need to cut down on sugar, and food in general. I didn't dare check how much I weighed after the break, I just know for sure I gained weight. It didn't surprise me that the first few sessions at the gym were tough. Towards the end of my first spin class for the year I almost passed out. I remember sleeping very well that night (knocked out at 10pm!). The first body pump class I had in a while felt like the longest class ever! Needless to say, at the end of it, my left leg was shaking and my body's still sore (after attending another one today). Thank goodness for yoga I got the much needed stretch (and also for our back massager at home). :D

I guess it's only fitting (and cliche!) that for my first post for 2012, I'm gonna talk about my resolutions. Not really resolutions per se cos I've been doing these things since last year. This is more like a note to myself. Like taking my vitamins and supplements which I forget on some days, I tend to stray from doing tasks I've set out to do. For now, I'm only going to list just 2 things I have to be adamant about - and it's regarding my diet. Here goes!

1. Rid my diet of wheat (or gluten) and dairy. I seriously have to do something about being inflammatory-prone. I've read this warning about gluten and dairy on a number of health books and the acupuncturist who treat me (who's also a nutritionist) also suggested that I try to eat less of these stuff. In the past two years I've met friends who are allergic to gluten, and it's sad when we can't eat the same food (especially yummy food!). Though I don't get an upset stomach when I eat gluten, it's a high inflammatory food which I need less of.

Dairy on the other hand is as ubiquitous (at least in my diet) as wheat. As Julie Powell (Amy Adams in the movie Julie and Julia) said, "Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter." Raymund and I were grocery-shopping the other day when I grabbed a 500g butter. He wanted me to bake cookies but was surprised that there's so much butter needed for it. I remember telling my colleague when asked what's in the cream puff I brought over to the office, "butter, sugar, cream, basically everything that's bad for you". This is why as much as I love how they taste, I can't get myself to eat a lot.

2. Eat low GI food. A skinny bitch is someone who doesn't just check the calorie content, she scans the whole nutrition information - I've read this or something along these lines in the book Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin. I used to eat lots of low calorie snacks that were high in sugar - I still didn't have the book then. Sugar took its toll on me and now I'm trying to eat less chocolate (really tough!) and switch to low GI fruits (no more bananas).

So while I only have two things I vow to work on, they're actually quite difficult for someone like me who's not used to eating lots of vegetables and love sweets and cream-based stuff. I really need to wish myself luck and lots of determination to succeed in this. As for my resolve, I'm taking baby steps (you'll see an example later how!). I've switched to eating omelette or cereal for breakfast (wheat free, low GI, and unfortunately a bit more expensive!) - no more jam on toast, I try to eat veggies like cauliflower and asparagus with meat instead of rice, and I've been drinking stuff that are high in antioxidants and more alkaline (glad I actually understand these concepts from my chemistry classes).

Here's the choco lava cake I baked today. There's not much 'lava' in there actually but it sort of melts in your mouth and Raymund liked it so I guess it's a quite a hit. :D Pros: gluten-free. Cons: Sugar + butter. As I said, baby steps. :)

I only used half of the ingredients so I only got to fill up 3 of my ramekins.

The finished product with ice cream of course. Note to self: buy an ice cream scoop for better food presentation. :p