Week 12 Day 2 Results after 3 months

The weight loss is slowing down a tiny bit at this point... Well it is normal I guess. If you've watched The Biggest Loser on TV, the closer you get to your ideal weight, the harder it gets. I am just happy it is still going down! I have lost an additional 1.5lb over the last month, making the total at the 3 months mark 10.5lb lost (4.8kg).

I am now 63.5kg (140lb) for my 1.70m (5'7"). According to my mom, the "Asian standard" is to weight 10kg less than the last two digits of your height in meters... I should therefore aim for 60kg... I haven't weight that since high school but alright, let's give it a go...

Week 12 Day 2 Menu:

Lunch: approximately 195 calories
- 2 Gardein crispy tenders
- 1 medium artichoke
- 0.5 tbsp olive oil mayonnaise
- 1tbsp tomato basil sauce

Dinner: approximately 302 calories
- 6.4 oz pacific salmon sashimi
- 7 yum yum pickles
- 2 rice crackers

Total: 497 calories

Week 12 Day 1 Making light sunomono

Sunomono is a light sour cold salad that I love to eat in Japanese restaurants. Unfortunately, noodles always bring the calories count up, so I had to find some substitute. My brother told me about zero calories shirataki noodles. They are great for this recipe!

SHIRATAKI NOODLES
If you have never used shirataki noodles, they feel a little bit like tasteless hard jell-o in the shape of a noodle. They are sold in a pouch, preserved in a very stinky liquid that you should discard. Shirataki noodles will soak in any flavor and smell of your sauce or soup. To just get rid of the smell for a rather neutral recipe like sunomono, I boil the noodles in leftover artichoke water for 5mn. (PS: Since they soak in the liquid, artichoke water can turn them green)

LIGHT CRAB SUNOMONO:

Ingredients:
1 pack of shirataki noodles boiled in artichoke water
60g crabmeat
60g cucumber
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
2-3 tbsp of water (depending how sour you like it)

- Mix together the rice vinegar, the mirin and the water. This will be your sauce.
- Optional: if you like your cucumber to be sour as well, soak the cucumber in the sauce for an hour.
- Place the noodles, crabmeat and cucumber in a bowl.
- Pour over the sauce. Enjoy! One bowl has approximately 130 calories.

Menu Week 12 Day 1:

Breakfast: approximately 117 calories
- 1 medium artichoke
- 0.5tbsp light olive oil mayonnaise
- 2 korean rice crackers

Lunch: approximately 130 calories
- 1 light crab sunomono

Dinner: approximately 220 calories
- 1 italian tomato
- 1tsp dijon mustard
- 100g grilled beef tenderloin

Snack: approximately 67 calories
- 10 raw almonds

Total: 533 calories

Week 11 Day 2 Grilled chicken

On most work days, I keep my food crazily simple. I like to grill chicken with a bit of Herbes de Provence. It is as simple as it gets, and can easily be made a day ahead of time as it is still delicious once microwaved.

Menu Week 11 Day 2:

Lunch: approximately 258 calories
- 1 medium apple gala
- 150g boneless skinless chicken thigh with herbes de provence

Dinner: approximately 308 calories
- 1 medium apple gala
- 190g boneless skinless chicken thigh with herbes de provence

Total: 566 calories

Week 11 Day 1 Craving Maryland crabcakes

When I was studying in Maryland, there was that awesome crab cakes place called Faidley Seafood! My coresidents and I loved their crab cakes so much that we were eating them once a week! Good old days. I have yet to find another place that makes them as deliciously. Unfortunately, I am now very very far from Baltimore... so I had to create my own version.

While lining up to purchase their food, you could see all their cooks making the cakes, so I know the original Faidley crab cake, as delicious as it was, has tons of mayonnaise, contains saltine crackers, and is deep fried...  Here is my light take on it!

LIGHT MARYLAND CRAB CAKE:

Ingredients:
4 oz of crab meat
1 egg white
0.5 tbsp light olive oil mayonnaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp worcestershire sauce

- In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and the dijon mustard.
- In a different, bigger bowl, mix together the egg white and the worcestershire sauce.
- Add in the crab meat to the big bowl. Once fully mixed, add in the mayonnaise-dijon mustard mix.
- Make a nice tight lump and broil in the oven for 10-15 mn.
- Makes 1 serving clocking in about 150 calories. Enjoy!

Menu Week 11 Day 1:

Breakfast: 100 calories
- 1 Vita Top deep chocolate muffin top

Lunch: approximately 261 calories
- 110g Western Family BBQ pork back ribs, meat only
- 100g cucumber

Dinner: approximately 161 calories
- 1 light Maryland crab cake
- 1 italian tomato

Total: 522 calories

Week 10 Day 2 Fast food on the fast diet?

In case you find yourself on the road, and there is not seemingly healthy option around, here is what I usually do: I check my calories counter app, and try figuring out what would be the best option. Most big chains have some calories stats released for the public, so if you just enter your restaurant's name in the search field, you will see what are the good, the bad and the ugly options.

I just so happen to have a McDonalds very close to my house. Some days, I am just too exhausted to find the will to cook anything... Oh was I happy when I found out the kids Happy meals were actually not a bad option after some tweaking. So here is the result:

Menu Week 10 Day 1:

Lunch: approximately 154 calories
200g ong choy
1tsp chopped garlic
85g grilled firm tofu

Dinner: approximately 315 calories
4 chicken mcnuggets with 1 pack sweet n sour sauce
1 pack apple slice (no caramel sauce)
1 small apple juice

Snack: approximately 56 calories
1 Danino strawberry yogurt (leftover from the Happy Meal)
1 rice cracker

Total: 525 calories

Week 10 Day 1 Comfort foods...

Lunch: 160 calories
- Lean Cuisine chicken in wine sauce

Dinner: approximately 300 calories
Grilled cheese
- 2 slices of 12 grain bread
- 2 slices of Extra thin Kraft singles american cheese

Snack: approximately 16 calories
- 1 korean rice cracker

Total: 476 calories

Week 9 Day 2 Making low calories candies

One of my friends posted a recipe using gelatin and jell-o powder to create home made gummy candies. She said it was a great activity for her kids to enjoy and they loved the result. I had never used gelatin before, so I went to google to read about it. The reality is that since it is derived from animals, it is fairly high in calories. So I looked for a substitute and saw people suggesting agar powder. Now that is an ingredient that I know how to use and that has 0 calorie and a lot of fibers. Score!

So here is my recipe and the result!

AGAR JELL-O CANDIES

Ingredients:
- 1 box of your favorite sugar free jell-o flavor
- 1 pack of agar powder (usually 25g)
- 1 cup of water (a bit more if you don't have a super sweet tooth)

Stir the agar powder into the cup of water and bring to a boil.
When the mixture is boiling, slowing mix in the jell-o powder until it is all dissolved.
Pour into a big cake mold and leave on the counter to set. (Once brought to a boil, agar will set at room temperature. You can expedite the set by placing the mold in the fridge after the mixture has slightly cooled off)
Once it is fully set (roughly an hour), cut in small jelly bean size pieces. It usually gives me about 400 pieces. That means every 10 pieces is just 1 calorie :) Enjoy!

Menu Week 9 Day 2

Lunch: approximately 225 calories
- half avocado
- 1 can of crab

Dinner: approximately 279 calories
- 100g of bo la lot (beef wrapped in betel leaves)
- 60g pickled radish

Snacks throughout the day: 10 calories
- 100 agar-jell-o candies

Total: 514 calories

Week 9 Day 1 About "Pausing" the diet

As we are fast approaching the Holidays Season, I am finding it harder and harder to block two days a week for the Fast Diet. I am surrounded every day with cakes, donuts, chocolates brought in by merry patients and staff, so my will power is definitely put to the test... So for all of you who are thinking about this diet but want to postpone it for 2014, here is my own previous experience about pressing "pause" on the fast diet.

So last summer (I was at month 4 on the Fast Diet), I went back home for some vacation. Invariably, my parents would then be on a mission to cook and bake every single one of my favorite dishes. Add to that a moral obligation to go out and grab brunch or coffee with all my childhood friends one after another, and you have a near food catrastrophy. For my 2 weeks of vacations, I decided to pause the diet and see what happens.

The result: before the vacation, my weight was going down at a very slow pace of about 0.1kg (1/4 lb) per week. Coming back from vacation, my weight had gone up by 2lbs. I was a bit sad, but overall gaining 1lb per week of vacation eating everything you love isn't so bad... But I went right back on the Fast Diet after the vacation, and lost those 2lbs in 1 week! Better yet, my weight went further down by an extra 1/2 lb. I repeated the experience when I had to go for a one week work conference in the Fall, and the same thing happened. So this definitely set my mind that this was THE perfect diet for my lifestyle. So now, I am resolutely continuing on the Fast Diet, and I will pause it just for the 2 weeks of Christmas and New Year, and then get right back to it after the Holidays! No more guilt to enjoy these happy moments, just return to the Fast diet when the parties are over :)

Week 9 Day 1 Menu:

Lunch: 310 calories
- Lean Cuisine Meat Lasagna

Dinner: approximately 214 calories
- 6 oz of lettuce
- 5 cherry tomatoes
- 10g of cucumber
- 3 oz tuna sashimi
- 1tbsp ginger salad dressing

Total: 524 calories

Week 8 Day 2 Results after 2 months

So now is the time to check in for my results after 2 months on the Fast Diet! I have lost a total of 4.1kg (9lb) in 8 weeks on the diet and couldn't be happier!  Back then, when I reached that point around May, the warm weather was just starting to come back on the West Coast, so it was great motivation to continue on this diet to get an amazing body for short and t-shirt season! I also thought (with good reason!) that I needed a bit of a "buffer" looking forward to a vacation back home where my parents would spoil me rotten and cook every single meal from my childhood! More on that later...

Menu Week 8 Day 2


Breakfast: approximately 116 calories
- 50g (2 pieces) Gardein crispy tenders
- 1 korean rice cracker


Lunch: approximately 173 calories
- 100g of persimmon
- 50g (2 pieces) Gardein crispy tenders


Dinner: approximately 114 calories
- 1 can of snail sauteed with
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- served on 90g cucumber


Snack: approximately 80 calories
- 1 Yopa stirred greek strawberry cheesecake yogurt


Total for the day: 483 calories