Beware of these healthy foods

Chips, gooey desserts, anything that starts with fried — you know to fight off these calorie cows with a stick. What's tricky is that some foods with famously healthy reputations are actually worse for your weight than the snacks in vending machines and drive-throughs. We fill you in on what they are and why they keep you from hitting that golden number on the scale.

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P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 66 - Back & Biceps, Abs

Back and Biceps wasn't that bad actually, though I think my favorite is still Chest & Back. Back & Biceps is like a combination of Chest, Shoulders, Triceps with Shoulders & Arms and Chest & Back. It's a bit of everything from the other 3 resistance workouts, even though towards the end, it's a bit weird to do superman. I had to complement myself that I survived all superman sets and could lift up my arms and legs off from the floor without much problem. Does it mean my back get stronger as Tony mentioned? Oh well...

Majority of the time, I used 8 lbs dumbbells to do the arm workouts and blue resistance bands for the pull ups. Sometimes I wonder if I do the resistance bands correctly since I mostly felt the burn on my arms instead of my back. I felt stronger and majority of my sets were either 8, 10, or 12 with 8 lbs dumbbells. Some lifting I had to switch to 2 1/2 lbs. My left arm is much weaker than my right arm, which is normal, I think, since I'm right handed.

Taking the soy protein drink before the workout definitely gave me more strength to do the resistance workouts. Post workout, I gave Jay Robb chocolate whey protein a try, mixed into my plain soymilk. My impression? NASTY! *sorry Jay Robb, no offense!*
It didn't taste any chocolate flavor and I had this unpleasant after taste. The closest thing I could come up with is it had that beef/bone bone soup taste smell-like. It was my first time trying the whey protein and didn't get a good impression on it. Maybe it's the brand or maybe all whey protein taste like that? In the meantime I might stick to my soy protein and keep searching for the good whey protein taste.

I sped up through Abs and went on my own pace. I went faster and took less break and guess what, towards the end, I was so exhausted. I skipped Leg Climb since that was my least favorite and I don't really quite feel the burn and jumped to Mason's Twist with high speed. I still did 50 reps but twice of Tony's speed. It gave me a good sweat.

I brought lots of healthy snacks and food today for my daytime food. I sliced a huge carrots, 2 apples, and orange and 1/3 of papaya. I will have beef asparagus with white rice and 1/2 hard boiled egg as my lunch. Also I brought Jay Robb™ JayBar High-Protein Cashew Coconut bar as my snack.
For breakfast, I'll be having one plain bun and 1 slice of whole wheat banana bread.

Yoga X tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it!

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 62 - Kenpo X

I had to hold back a bit when doing Kenpo X so I won't make too much noise. Either way, I was still sweating a lot. After the workout, I had PowerBar Pure & Simple Long Lasting Energy Oatmeal Raisin flavor and a glass of soymilk with 2 1/2 scoops soy protein powder. It was a good after workout meal to give me that energy boost.

Yesterday, I had a really bad stomach cramp right after I ate my yogurt mixed with various dried fruits. I had to lie down a bit in my car after the cramp went away before I drove home from work. Not quite sure if the yogurt went bad or I had it at a wrong time. To be exact, I was having it during late afternoon, so my stomach wasn't quite empty. Anyway, no yogurt for me today, but here's my daytime food/snack list:

• 5 slices of cheese
• 1 1/4 cup box of table water crackers
• 1 Jay Robb™ High-Protein JayBar Fudge Brownie
• 2 apples -sliced
• 2 oranges - sliced
• 2 ripe bananas
• White rice with boiled bok choy and beef stew

Let's see if I can finish most of them.

P90X Lean Phase 3: Day 60 - Yoga X

Aah, the fated day 60 I have to take my progress picture. Unfortunately, I won't have the time until this coming Saturday, so stay tuned! I doubt there's much change from my day 30 picture.

Finished Yoga this morning and I was quite happy that I finally able to hold Half Moon pose a little longer, even though my other hand still touched the floor as an extra support (not barely touching the floor as Tony's gangs did) but at least I started to get a hang on it. Still no luck on Crane. Still have to work on my Chaturanga push up.

Breakfast was great. This time I mixed in 3 scoops of soy protein powder with a glass of plain soymilk. This time the chalky powder tasted stronger but I still finished it. I brought lots of food and snacks today.

Daytime food list:
2 slices of homemade whole wheat banana bread (not quick bread)
2 medium bananas
2 apples (sliced)
2 oranges (peeled)
1 cup low fat plain yogurt mixed with 3 scoops of soy protein powder (I might mix a bit too much, too chalky powder taste)
some left over whole wheat crackers - maybe eaten with the yogurt
White rice w/ braised soy sauce fish, boiled vegetables and tofu
1 soy protein bar (SoyJoy)
1 Kashi® GoLean® Protein & Fiber bar

Whew that's a lot of food! Let's see if I can finish them before getting off from work.

Of course I always remember to drink plenty of water throughout the day.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 56 - Rest or X Stretch

I can't do much today since I'll have to go to a wedding tonight and there are other bunch of stuff need to be taken care of. So today will be my Rest day from P90X.

Anyway I'll continue my food recap from yesterday, so here we go:

Lunch:

Nappa cabbage soup with shiitake mushroom and nappa cabbage
Boiled soy sauce egg
Left over mapo tofu from last night
Beef patties (homemade from scratch - yes I bought a meat cut and ground it myself with my butcher knife. A total man power ..haha)

I also made my whole wheat bread. Despite I forgot to add wheat gluten flour, it still turned out ok:

Afternoon snack:
1/2 Kashi® GoLean® Chewy Protein & Fiber bar

Late afternoon snack:
1 Kashi® GoLean® Crunchy Protein & Fiber bar

Dinner:
I went to the rehearsal dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was that typical 10 dishes banquet, so here we go:

 It was quite a lot of food so I only took small bites of everything. The last one was the dessert (mung bean soup), but it was so sweet I only took a sip and that was it. The tofu dish actually wasn't part of the banquet menu. It was part of the vegetarian dish for the vegetarians. I didn't take a picture of the fried rice, which was the last main dish since I didn't have it.

Small meals here and there and it's not as simple as I thought

Breakfast:

A glass of almond milk with cocoa powder & flaxseed meal
2 slices of whole wheat toast w/ PB
1 slice of layered cake that my mom made
1/2 Kashi® GoLean® Protein & Fiber bar (Chocolate Almond Toffee) - didn't have it - I was stuffed

Food of the day

Finally I found sometime to post my food of the day.

Lunch:

Boiled broccoli and bok choy with a bit of sesame oil and oyster sauce, stir fry cabbage in oyster sauce, mixed vegetable soup (same one from last night dinner), left over dim sum stuff from my brother, left over soy sauce hard boiled egg, steamed fish and I also had a bit of white rice.

Afternoon snack:

Carr's water crackers (5 pieces), 4 Tbsp low fat plain yogurt, golden raisins, dried apricots, 4 slices of cheddar cheese. Yum. Also I nibbled on 1/2 Kashi® GoLean® Chewy protein & fiber bar (not pictured)

Dinner:
Nothing can beat mapo tofu, boiled bok choy, 1 piece of whole wheat pita bread, an orange, and some bits of dried apricots and golden raisins (not pictured)...yum yum!

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 54 - Cardio X

Now I'm back at track! Finished Cardio X this morning, drenched in sweat as usual. Plyo sequence still kicked my ass that I could feel my heartbeat in my chest, but I didn't gasp for air to breathe. So I guess I'm still in my heart rate zone?

Anyway, I tried not to do too much Squat Xpress too fast to reduce the stress on my knees. They've been bothering me lately, but not too bad. I refuse to get injured when I'm getting closer to the end of the program.

I keep telling myself not to expect too much at the end of this program cause not everyone built the same. Even though I didn't really follow P90X diet to the T, I know I eat healthy stuff and stay away from junk food. Majority of my diet are homemade Asian cuisines, so it should be fine as long I keep the portion under control and I have a balanced meal of fiber/protein/carb.

Speaking of which, after the workout I tried Kashi® GoLean® Caramel Peanut Roll! protein & Fiber bar and it was AWESOME! It tastes better than the chewy one and to top it off it wasn't sweet at all!! The chewy bar is a bit too sweet on my taste buds but this one is the winner! I will definetly shop another different flavor for the Roll one. And of course I didn't forget to get my usual recovery drink.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 53 - X Stretch & Kenpo X (make up)

I finally managed to catch up with my workout this week. Since I took a week off from work, I didn't get up that early to do my workout. I had to drop off my parents and my uncle to the tour shuttle pick up this morning and came back and did Kenpo X. My parents will be on the tour to San Francisco and Yosemite for 3 days and 2 nights, so I can use my desktop computer for a bit.

I finished Kenpo around 9:30 am and took a shower and had a pretty late breakfast, like around 10 am. As usual, I had my almond milk with cocoa powder and flaxseed meal, 2 slices of whole wheat bread with PB and a bit pieces of naan bread.

Now onto the food part! Finally I can upload my food pictures again.
After late breakfast, K and I went to Walmart to shop some stuff for my parents to bring home and our household stuffs. After that we just walked around in the mall and did window shopping. It was a nice feel to walk at the mall during weekday. It wasn't that crowded and you could find parking very easily!

Since we had our breakfast quite late, we had lunch around 2:30 pm at Subway.
I ordered 6" turkey sandwich with 9 oat wheat bun with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, a bit of mustard, salt and pepper.

K also ordered mostly similar stuff as I had, except he had ham slices, some mayo and no salt, pepper and cucumbers.

After lunch, we went back to Walmart because I forgot to check out what brand of soy protein drinks that they carry. Unfortunately, I couldn't really find much option except for that EAS brand and it was pretty expensive compared to the regular whey protein drinks. In the end I ended up getting Kashi Go Lean® protein bars.

I bought 2 individual bars, but I stated to nibble the other one before I got a chance to take the picture. Couldn't help it, I was still a bit hungry even after I had that Subway sandwich. Did my stomach start to expand? :p

We got home and decided to catch up on 2 LOST episodes that we missed for the past 2 weeks. While watching, I was snacking on the 1/2 apple that my mom couldn't finish yesterday, and finishing up Kashi Go Lean bar that I ate earlier on the way home.

After we finished watching LOST, it was already around 7 pm, and we decided to heat up some left over stuff as our dinner. K had some bread and toasted 1 naan bread and a bowl of soup.

I had a bowl of mixed vegetable soup (nappa cabbage, lots of carrots, tomatoes, ginger and some fishcake), topped with fried onions that my mom made.

Seeing K enjoying his naan bread I couldn't help to nibble on it too. I had at least 1/2 of it.

What's the best to have after a dinner? Fruits!! Yup, that's my dessert. I don't have sweet tooth nor I like sweets, so fruits are the best bet for me. I had 2 oranges and they were so awesomely juicy and super sweet!! That surely filled me up. I didn't take the picture of the orange since I'm pretty sure you know how it looks like..haha.

I didn't have a chance to clean up the kitchen last night, so I made sometime to clean it up before doing X Stretch. It was awesome and for some reason I almost fell asleep when doing the stretch. It just felt so good, especially my left back shoulder has been feeling a little stiff lately. Those head rolls were such a relieve. I might want to do more of it. Additionally, my right shin also feels hurt lately. However, those haven't bother my performance yet but doesn't mean I should ignore it.

Speaking of which, I finally got my free soy protein coupon from Genisoy!

They're so awesome! I emailed them, asking if they could give me free sample for their soy protein drink since I read a lot of good things about it. They replied back since they don't have free samples, they willing to send me a coupon for 1 free soy protein shake. Woohoo!! I can't wait to try it! I am not a big fan of whey protein so I want to give this soy protein a try. Gotta have this protein drink if I want to build some lean muscle, right?


Anyway, it's a long post. And tomorrow I'll be doing Cardio X. After that, maybe I could give that Kashi Go Lean® protein bar a try.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 48 - Kenpo X

I feel I wasn't as intense doing Kenpo X today compare to last week, probably due to my lack of sleep. Some of my relatives came by to visit last night so I had to postpone my usual clean up until they left. Regardless, I still drenched so no complain here. I found it become more challenging to raise up my heart rate, especially at the beginning of Kenpo, when we were doing the punch series. My heart rate didn't go up until I reached to the kick series. I was starving after I finished the workout so I gulped down my usual "recovery drink" and ate 1 medium banana. Those bananas are getting riper so I better finish them off before they go bad.

Here's my day food for today

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter
• 2 chinese pastry puffs
• 2 medium bananas
• 3 sticks of carrots -cut into matchstick size
• left over hummus - I gotta make more later
• Boiled chinese broccoli, some steamed fish meat, steamed chicken meatball and some white rice (all in that rectangular container, sorry can't really see much)
• 2 peeled oranges & 6 oz. blueberries

Tomorrow is rest day and I'll get to sleep in a bit. And another exciting thing is I will be off from work for the whole next week so I can spend more time with my family and to top it off next week is P90X Phase 2 Recovery Week, so no resistance workouts *yay*. I don't have a particular plan with my parents yet but for sure I will bring them to Big Santa Anita Canyon, the hiking place that I used to go when the weather gets warmer. Another plan will be going to museums and parks.

EDITED @ 8:53PM
That Chinese pastry puff was not that good so I only ate 1/2 of it and tossed the rest. I didn't bother to eat the other one so I gave it to my brother after I got home. I only ate 1 banana, which was getting really ripe and couldn't eat the other one. Finished the oranges & the blueberry in the afternoon then munched on the carrot sticks after I got home, dipped into the hummus before dinner. I guess I brought a little too much food for my daytime meal..hehe.

Btw, my parents went to my relative's place this whole day so I had a regular dinner with my brother and my hubby.
Lightly fried tofu with oyster sauce & onions, mixed vegetable soup (bok choy, carrots, tomatoes and fish cakes) and left over soy sauce chicken & eggs.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 47 - Legs & Back, Abs

Legs & Back was great, despite I didn't get enough sleep last night (went to bed around 10:30 pm and got up around 11:30 pm because of some noises). Single leg wall squat was tough, but I managed to stay at least 5 seconds. Regular wall squat was ok, I was able to stay as long as Tony and his gangs.

Lately, I've been feeling sleepy during noon time, not sure if I didn't get enough sleep or I didn't have enough food intake. After the workout, I had the usual "recovery drink/meal" (not pictured) - 1 glass of almond milk with 1 tsp cocoa powder and 2 tsp of flaxseed meal and 1 medium banana.

Speaking of food, I decided to bring more small meals for me to eat throughout my day. So here they are:

• 2 slices of whole wheat bread (I made this last night, turned out great! Even parents love it!) with peanut butter
• 1 chinese pineapple cake (small cube box)
• 2 medium bananas
• Baked sweet potato slices, boiled broccoli, chicken meats, couple slices of potatoes
• 1 chinese pastry -not sure what exactly it is
• 2 peeled oranges & 8 oz. blueberries

All fit nicely in my little lunch bag :)

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 45 - Chest, Shoulders, Triceps & Abs

For those who live in Southern California, I'm sure you all felt the 4.4 earthquake this morning around 4 am (unless you are a super duper heavy sleeper).
The earthquake lasted around 15 seconds, felt pretty strong. Nothing damaged at my house, thank goodness. After the earthquake stopped, I decided to get up and get ready to do my P90X. Usually, I woke up around 4:30 am and started around 5 am. But it doesn't hurt to start earlier. That way I'll have an ample of time to shower, had a little bite then drive to work without any rush.

CST felt great, but I was still a big sucker for the push ups. I tried to switch the band to the blue one (medium) but it was a big mistake. I could barely lift it up and my form was all messed up, so I switched back to the red one (light). I couldn't do Scarecrow, because I had this sharp pain on my left arm whenever I lifted it up. My right arm was ok. Abs felt great. I kept my shoes on but I still followed the usual sequence. I wasn't quite in shape to mix up the sequence today. My right side abs was a bit sore from doing superman-banana on Sunday (Core) and Monday (Cardio X).

Breakfast was great. I was super hungry that I chowed down 1 banana and 1 pineapple shortbread cake and a cup of almond milk with flaxseed meal and cocoa powder. I brought lots of stuff for my daytime meal - lunch (rice with salmon cooked in lemon juice, stir fry asparagus, 1 banana, 1 apple, 1 roll of wheat french bread, a container of 2 oranges (peeled) and a handful of blueberries).

It's weekend again!

I got home a bit late because I stopped by VONS to get more almond milk. Dang, those things are good but so damn pricey! My brother was kind enough to bring home some Korean food for dinner so I didn't have to cook anything after I got home.

He got the spicy squid, spicy beef and those come with 2 side dishes kimchi and radish. The food was good but quite spicy and salty if you didn't have any rice. I took a bit of white rice just to dilute the spiciness. Afterwards, I nibbled some more wheat crackers dipped into the hummus.

Crazy of the egg whites

I don't think I get enough protein in my meal lately because of my laziness to cut the defrosted whole chicken, which has been sitting in my fridge since a couple days ago. So I decided to whip up some egg white omelet as part of my lunch tomorrow. I used 4 egg whites, a bit of garlic powder, dried parsley and about 2 tsp of flaxseed meal to add more fibers. I also pan fried 4 frozen Korean dumplings. There was a bit of boiled cabbages left from the dinner so I shuffled those in as well. To make it more colorful, I sauteed frozen veggies with some onions. And I also added the last batch of saute chopped potatoes that I made last night. Lastly, topped everything with organic ketchup, VOILA!

In addition, I will also have a banana afterward and 2 oranges as my afternoon snack. I can't wait to enjoy this lunch tomorrow!!


As for breakfast, it'll be the same thing as I had today.

Tomorrow dinner will be definitely better than these past 2 days. After dinner, I managed to take out that whole chicken, cut it in half and marinated with these seasonings: salt, brown sugar, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, turmeric, and black pepper, and I will bake it tomorrow.

Doesn't the color combination look lovely?

Anyway, gotta go to bed. Otherwise I won't be able to have enough energy to do some punches and kicking! Kenpo X, here I come!!!!

All about food

I finally made my own hummus today and it was SOO GOOD!! So good that I almost couldn't control myself to snack on the wheat crackers dipped into the hummus..YUM YUM. I know I am not supposed to eat too much carbohydrate during dinner time, but cracker is one of my weakness. I love anything that's crunchy, from the healthy apples to the worst potato chips..haha.

So I'm bringing these tomorrow as my snack. Maybe I should bring more hummus.

For dinner I made another soup with the last batch of the chicken stock that I made on Sunday. I put in the last 2 tomatoes, some cabbages and some Korean frozen dumplings. It was good. Also I sauteed some potatoes and baked the last batch of potato balls that I made on Sunday.

Tomorrow lunch I just bring the wonton soup and a banana.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 39 - Yoga

It was great as usual, still broke some sweat despite the chilly morning in LA. However, still couldn't hold Half Moon poses, crane and side torso twist.

I tried to drink almond milk without the cocoa powder, and it was OK. It has a little nutty taste, a slight almond smell and a bit sweet for my taste buds. I am not into sweet stuff so my standard of sweetness might considered to be bland for most people. But it was still good, pair up with a banana. I also brought 2 slices of whole wheat toast with PB to work. Tomorrow I might want to mix in the cocoa powder again in the almond milk. The bitterness of cocoa powder dilutes the sweetness of the almond milk.

As for lunch, I decided to bring the left over asparagus-tomato soup from last night and some left over asparagus mushroom chicken and a bit of rice. I might not be able to finish the rice.

For dinner, not sure for now.

Last night, I finally made my first egg white omelet (using 4 eggs) and ate it with the organic ketchup. It was good. And I also had a couple bowls of asparagus-tomato soup. So yummy!

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 38 - Chest, Shoulders, Tri & Abs

I got my glasses nose pad fixed so now I could see the CST workout more clearly. Besides last week I got up super late that I just had to rush through the CST.
I am still suck at my push ups even though I did them on my knees. Still couldn't do the single arm push up- could barely bent my arms.

As for the triceps reps, seems like I didn't push enough on my left arms cause I didn't feel that burn and muscle twitching as on my right arm. Red band was still my choice to do this workout even though on certain ones, I might be able to switch to the blue one. But since my bands only come with a pair of handle, it's quite a hassle to keep pausing the video and switching the handles to different bands.

Abs was fine, at least I didn't feel as wasted as before. For some reason, I might need to increase my intensity since I don't feel hurt anymore doing it. Don't get me wrong, I still felt the burn on my abs when doing the moves.

As my recovery drink, I had a glass of plain almond milk mixed with 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder. It's my first time trying the almond milk, and surprisingly, it was so good! I also had 1 banana in addition.

As for my breakfast at work, I brought my 2 slices homemade whole wheat toast, with peanut butter.

Lunch:
A bit of white rice, chicken asparagus with mushroom sauce, spinach-tomato soup in homemade chicken broth

Snack:
2 oranges

Dinner:
Not sure yet. Might be just some quick stuff like pot sticker and vegetables.

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 37 - Cardio X

I just noticed that my left ankle feels hurt when I try to point my toes. When did I sprained it, I'm not even sure either. When I did the Plyo part in Cardio X, I didn't feel hurt on either of my feet either. Anyway, it wasn't that bad.

As usual, Cardio X always makes me drenched in sweat all over. I even had to wipe off the sweat from my face to prevent it went into my eyes. Usually after did the first Plyo sequence, I always felt that I almost crashed and my performance got sloppy. This morning, I felt great, even though still did kinda sloppy Jump Shot for the 2nd sequence.

As my recovery meal/drink I had the usual stuff: a glass of plain soy milk mixed with 1 tsp cocoa powder & 1/2 tsp sugar and 1 medium banana.

For the breakfast at work, I brought a piece of wheat bun with nuts. It looks quite big, maybe I should just cut it in half, not finishing the whole thing. But who knows.

For lunch I just had a bunch of left over from yesterday's lunch.

I plan to make a vegetable soup with chicken stock that I made by boiling chicken bones last night and saute chicken with mushroom sauce. Yum!

P90X Lean Phase 2: Day 36 - Core Synergistics

I didn't get a good night sleep last night because I tried to sleep on the living room futon to train myself when my parents are here next week. It didn't work. I guess I still need to sleep on my own bed and in my own room.
Anyway, I still managed to do Core Syn, even though I am aware that I wasn't at my top performance. I even skipped the bonus round.

I am pretty happy with my new gym mat that I got from Amazon. It doesn't have a nice grip as my yoga mat, but for cushion, it's good enough. I could do banana roll and superman-banana without putting too much pressure on my hip bones.

Since I got up quite late today (around 8:30 am) I had my breakfast around 10:00 am. Maybe it should be considered as a brunch.
Here's what I had for breakfast:
2-3 slices whole wheat roll, 2 small pieces of ham & cheese sandwich, 2-3 cups of green tea.

Lunch:
- Grilled salmon with lemon zest sauce
- Stir fry spinach

Snack:
1 glass of fresh orange juice

Dinner:
Chicken pizza with naan bread as its crust. (I only have 2 small slices)
Toppings: Tomato sauce, tomato slices, sautee garlic chicken, mushrooms, green onions and herbs.
I don't have mozzarella cheese on hand so it's a no-cheese pizza.

Today's meal plan

Breakfast:
1 cup plain soy milk with 1 tsp cocoa powder and 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 ham & cheese sandwich - I know I'm bad but after that Kenpo, I was starving!!
2 slices of whole wheat bread with peanut butter spread

Lunch:
- White rice with lentils
- Chicken breast in lemon sauce
- Salad with mango chutney in lemon juice
- 1 big apple (might want to save this for my afternoon snack later)

Dinner:
TBA (my guess is probably similar to my lunch minus the rice)