Friday 2 September 2016

#fitnessfriday - Mia's sustainable #eatclean diet plan for weight loss (Part 2)

Previously in Part 1 of this #eatclean diet post, I've shared with you an extensive 21 days diet plan that's based on the idea of Weed-Seed-Feed detox diet, which has taken 3.4kg off my weighing scale.
And then you may ask, what's after the 21 days?

-credits to mqfactor.com-

To be honest, revert to your usual unhealthy
eating habits (eg. stuffing yourselves silly with sugar and fats) and you'll gain them all back in no time. But the idea of this #eatclean diet plan is, you shouldn't, because it takes us as short as 21 days to make or break a habit. Although.... well, some articles has debunk this myth and came up with a much longer time period of 66 days, but just for my case, these 21 days (compared with a significant results obtained to further fuel my motivation and belief in this diet plan) has worked wonders.

However, I still couldn't see myself on a diet that totally avoids refined carbohydrates and added sugar forever. There's also a risk of me losing the battle against my suppressed cravings and eventually losing it altogether. Hence, to keep my (probably) growing gluttony under control, I decided to add in a cheat day per week!

-credits to relatably.com-

And what's a better day than Sunday for some naughty indulgence? Well, it's also because Sundays are my sleep in days, so the craziest I can go is to have 2 full cheat meals instead of 3. 
Portion control, yeah? 
-credits to blitzyourbody.com-

A few pointers to know when adding in your cheat meals/cheat day are:

1. NO GUILT
Well, you've eaten clean for the past 6 days. I know, we don't rewards ourselves with food. We're not dogs. But heck, you earned the chance to satisfy your cravings. So savour it, and enjoy! If you're going to feel guilty after the indulgence, then you're totally missing the whole point of a cheat day.

2. PLAN YOUR INDULGENCE MEAL(S)
This might sounds crazy, almost like you're forcing yourself to eat clean for 6 days with the goal of an unhealthy eating day in mind. But no, you absolutely have to plan your cheat meal(s) beforehand! They should not be a spur of the moment decision, as you'll tend to overeat when your 'emotion' takes over and you'll start to lose focus on your healthy eating goals.

3. LIMIT YOUR CHEAT MEAL(S)
If you're born to be on team #eatclean and has minimal cravings, always, go ahead and limit yourself to just one cheat meal a week. If not, do limit it to 2 cheat meals a week (I usually do just brunch and dinner on my cheat days). Do not, I repeat, do not ever let your cheat meals turn into cheat days, which will eventually turn into cheat weeks and then into cheat months. 
A sensible diet is to always eat healthily with occasional indulgence, not the other way round.

4. PORTION CONTROL
Your cheat day is not your license to binge. 
Yes, it's cheat day so by all means indulge in some potato chips. But if it's stated 7 chips per serving, you eat just 7 chips and not the entire bag of 7 servings at one go just because it's cheat day. 
Doesn't work that way, sweetie. 

Well, I actually cheated for my first cheat meal and had it on the 21st day of my Weed-Seed-Feed diet.

Despite chomping down the entire deep fried battered chicken thigh that's bigger than my face and polishing off half of the crispy-fluffy waffles (I didn't touch the syrup though), I still managed to get a 0.7kg loss on my 3rd week's diet plan. :) 

But things got a little out of hand when I got to the 'true' cheat day on my 4th week.

First, I ate 1/2 a regular box of salted popcorn at Golden Village Cinema.

And then, lunch was more sodium from this bowl of yummy ramen at Menya Musashi.

Then it was half this bag of sugar coated churros with milk chocolate dip, along with half a bag of Chipster potato chips.
Dinner was Yu Tou Lu (fishhead steamboat) and marmite pork chop, which yet again, are sodium laden.
It was a total (refined) carbohydrates plus sodium overload in one day and the result was an almost 1kg weight gain from water retention the very next morning. Luckily, it normalised after 2 days and I actually lost another 0.4kg.

See my point about planning your indulgence meals beforehand and not just eating whatever you see?

My cheat day for my 5th week was definitely better, as I already had in mind what my indulgence for the week would be - WHITE RICE.


And so, brunch was sharing this huge plate of 3 Flame Monster Curry with the BF (I made a mental note eat less of the rice), followed by finishing 1/3 of a bowl of the Blackball Signature Grass Jelly dessert during mid afternoon, and finally Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken and a small piece of mashed banana filled prata for dinner at Old Town White Coffee.

Weight loss for week 5 is another 0.7kg, increasing my accumulated weight loss over 5 weeks to be 4.5kg.

So how's your #eatclean diet plan coming around? Do share your experiences with me in the comment board below! :)

Till then,
Mia Foo

23 comments:

  1. Ahhh. Cheat day, my favorite day of the week. I'm transitioning into a vegetarian and every Sunday is the only time I eat beef or pork in all three meals. And it makes me guilty and at the same time, it gives me pleasure. It's not bad to have one per week, so long as you know the limit for the goal you are looking forward to.

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    1. You are right! Once in while we need to pamper ourselves a bit

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    2. You are right! Once in while we need to pamper ourselves a bit

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  2. Wowowee. Good job! 4.5 kg is a lot! If there is one thing that I wish I did better in this year and last year, that would be keeping to my healthy lifestyle as planned. I went into some mean stress-eating last year and missed working out for a 1.5 months this year. However, I am back on track and I couldn't stress enough on the importance of portion control. I eat what I want but I watch the portion control. So far, so good.

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  3. Love your tips. I've always have problems with cheat meals . they would usually turn into cheat days. It's important to control that, as well as to meal prep :)

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  4. Wow! I admire your self discipline. Your blog is timely. I was on a diet then my cheat day became 'uncontrolled'. Emotions got in the way. Your article inspired me to get back on track.

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  5. Wow 3.4 KG! I've tried most fad diets obviously none of them work but one thing that worked for me is portion control, I can still eat what I want but in small portions

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  6. Haha... One good way is to cut down food reviews! I realised food reviews are the one that's pretty sinful. :P Look at your instagram and it will show!

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  7. Portion control is really important. I think people can pretty much anything if they knew how to limit themselves ;)

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  8. It really takes 21 days to create a habit. It's really important to be consistent with your diet and its also important to be happy with your diet to be sustainable.

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  9. It's nice to stick to a diet that you will be able to follow without putting too much stress on yourself. What's even better is allowing yourself a cheat day. It's good for motivation, really.

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  10. I never used to think about dieting because I had always been on the lean side. However lately as I am getting older, I am getting soft in the middle now with my sedentary lifestyle at work. I will have to embark on getting my belly firmed up again.

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  11. Health is wealth. It is good a balance and stick diet for well being and healthy body system. Thanks for sharing

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  12. I gried very hard to eat diet food but i cant coz i have a kid who needs gaining of weight

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  13. I was right where I wanted to be and then started slacking. It doesn't take long for it to come back, that's for sure.

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  14. It's so hard to maintain a diet if the food such as those in your photos are around. :( I guess now every thing depends on how disciplined you are. :D

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  15. Actually great points. Almost same happened with me. In a month I knocked of 3.2kg with a controlled diet with occasional cheats & indulgences.

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  16. I'm going on a 21-day diet myself but I'm still planning how I'll go about with it as I've been struggling with the discipline of it. And yes, I think the cheat day tricky!

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  17. great tips you gave here. All Your steps are genuine. Really helpful. Thanks for sharing. I'll keep in touch.

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  18. mmm cheat day is the only day I wake up excited for! great tips by the way, thank you for the advice x

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  19. This looks great. People should know that a healthy dieat plan is much more effective than starvation!

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  21. You did a wonderful thing and should be proud of yourself for sharing. Thank you! I am very happy to your post its a great post.
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