Mia Makes: 2-Ingredient Sweet Potato Pancakes

It's been months since I'm stuck in a work-from-home situation, and I'm also seriously running out of #eatclean lunch ideas. These days I've been just chopping up anything I can find in the fridge (chicken breast or white fish, chickpeas, tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage, mushroom, broccoli etc) and just stir-frying them together with a pinch of salt, some pepper and a few (generous) squirts of sriracha sauce before piling them onto a plate alongside some steamed brown rice or sweet potato.
And then I though, if I can get a stack of pancakes by simply adding egg into mashed banana (recipe HERE), can I get some pancakes by adding egg to mashed sweet potatoes too?

So, let's find out!

To get a serving of 2 (thicc) pancakes, you'll need: 

1 small/medium sweet potato (about 130g)

1 large egg (~55g out of shell)

a pinch of salt

adapted from thekitchn.com

First up, wash and clean your sweet potato thoroughly if you wish to keep the skin on for the added nutrient. Otherwise, peel the potato and cut into smaller chunks such that they'll cook quicker. Steam the sweet potato until it's fork tender and then mash it up (with a fork or in a food processor) into puree. Leave the mashed sweet potato to cool down for a little before cracking in the egg and mixing until you get a thick paste. Add in a pinch of salt to taste.

Then, drop (and spread) the batter onto a heated and well greased frying pan and cook on low to medium heat until the bottom is set (took me about 3 to 4 minutes). Check by lifting the edges to see that it'll hold up and whether the cooked surface is browned to your liking, then carefully flip the pancake over (they're rather fragile and break apart quite easily) and cook on the other side until evenly browned.

And tadaa~ your healthy, flourless pancakes are done!

I ate mine alongside some black pepper baked fish and roasted vegetables with nutritional yeast. 

You cannot go wrong with roasting broccoli and tomatoes for your choice of vegetables for any meal of the day. 

Frankly speaking, texture wise I won't even call these a pancake... at all. In fact, if you don't mind being a little bit more generous with the oil during "frying", you'll end up with something more like a begedil or hashbrown. These "pancakes" are slightly crisp on the surface, but soft and mushy on the inside and taste exactly like sweet potato, so much so that I totally questioned myself on why I wasted so much time and effort (pre-steaming, mashing, mixing, and cooking again) to come up with the exact same taste I could have gotten with just steaming the sweet potato whole and just biting into it. 

But well, I guess it's all for the #eatingfortheinsta trend too, huh?

Till then,

Mia Foo

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#wellnesswednesday - What I eat in a day?

Last year, I embarked on a #eatclean diet (read about it HERE) and successfully lost about 8kg of fats. Previously while on a pretty restrictive, 21 days diet, I was eating about 1200 to 1300 kcals a day and obviously on a high calorie-deficit. Hence, the weight just came off like magic.

While some may tell you that calorie-counting is bullsh*t when it comes to weight loss, that's actually not true at all. Because a caloric deficit is what causing the weight loss. What's truly bullsh*t about calorie-counting is blindly looking at pure numbers (calorie count in each food you eat) and ignoring all your macro-nutrients and simply forgetting about the importance of a balanced diet.

For example, going for deli meat options instead of lean cuts of fresh meat just to save on that 60 kcals? No, please don't do that!

So while I've (almost) completely cut out refined sugar in my diet, I guess I'm still pretty much on a 15-85 diet, meaning 15% of the time I get to eat whatever my heart desires. Refined sugars included. That basically worked out to 1 cheat day in a week, which previously makes up about 2 meals. I've recently started eating 3 full meals for my Sunday cheatday due my revamped exercise routine, which added an hour's worth of badminton game with the BF in the late morning, hence I just felt that I earned an extra cheatmeal. #iexercisetoeatmore

First up, for my typical 3 meals on a non-cheatday:

For breakfast:
1 hardboiled egg
1 weetbix biscuit
OR
2 slices of 100% wholewheat bread
(not those fake extra soft 50% wholewheat)
1 tbsp peanut butter
OR
2 homebaked high protein doughnuts
1 tbsp peanut butter
WITH
1/4 cup blueberries
1/2 cup grapes
4 - 6 strawberries
Kopi C Kosong

For lunch:
1/2 cup brown rice
WITH
mixed rice dishes
(1 veg + 1 egg/tofu + 1 meat)
OR
a choice of filling soup
(usually lotus root pork ribs, white fungus chicken, or kimchi jjigae)

For mid-day snack:
1 mug of My Protein Hot Mocha
WITH
1 Nugo Smarte Carb Protein Bar

For dinner:
Homecooked dishes & Soup
(1 veg + 1 meat +1 seafood + Soup)

For evening snack:
1 to 2 servings of fruits
(kiwi, orange, apple, plum, tangerine, starfruit)
Protein Shake
(My Protein Total Protein + HL Milk)

Just eating these alone will get me about 1600s kcals, which according to my fitbit charge 2, is still on a pretty substantial caloric-deficit of up to 1000 kcals a day (on my most active, spinning day).
Hence, judging on the extra calories I've burnt while at gym for the day, I'll usually throw in more food over at the evening snack time slot, with more caloric dense food such as:

nuts or legumes
(peanuts, mixed nuts, almonds, walnuts, chickpeas)

chocolate
(I'm eating My Protein High Protein Chocolate)

cookies / biscuits
(Homebaked wholegrain & sugarless, or Khong Guan Marie Biscuit/Cream Crackers)

However, on my non-cheat days, I will still limit my daily caloric intake to a maximum of below 2000 kcals (I will hover in the 1900s on my spinning day, whereby I usually burn up to 2700 kcals according to fitbit) and hit my macro ratio of 4 (carbs) - 3.5 (fats) - 2.5 (protein). My ideal would be 5-3-2 or even 4-3-3, but... I love fats as much as I love carbs, so it's really kinda tough. :(

2700 - 1900s is a huge caloric deficit of 700+, and that's unhealthy, you might say. But I would advise that you do not be too obsessed on how much deficit or surplus you have on a day-to-day basis, but aim to even it out over the week and achieve your targeted deficit (or surplus, or break-even) as a weekly average.

My non-cheat days deficit ranges from a negligble 100+ kcals (usually on Saturdays, whereby I'm less active) to 700+ kcals. But on my Sunday cheatday *insert smirking face*, I usually eat all sorts of crap and can easily even out my 6 days of deficit by hitting up to more than 3000 kcals in a single day of eating when I burn at most 2000 kcals.

So, how do you eat to maintain a good health? Do share with me your eating habits down in the comment section below!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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#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

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#fitnessfriday - Mia's sustainable #eatclean diet plan for weight loss

Hello fellow fitness junkies! Since I missed my rare #wellnesswednesday moment, I shall turn this into a #fitnessfriday post instead. Do let me know which hashtag you prefer, yeah?

If you don't know me, then you must know that I've started gymming frequently (I usually do spinning, hot yoga and body balance, which is a mixture of taichi, yoga and pilates) more than 1 year (almost 2?) back and along the way I've also tried out various weight management programme, out of which my biggest failure being AgeLoc TR90 (my final post on it HERE).

Despite being physically active, I've never really managed to bring my weight down significantly as I couldn't keep my diet in check.

With a change in job, my gym days decreased significantly and I was eventually shocked out of my wits when I saw a number on the weighing scale which I've never seen before for my entire life.

That's it! I'm going on a diet!

After a few google searches on a certain 21 days detox diet programme that revolves around weeding, seeding and feeding, I decided to give it a shot.

The diet plan is a peculiar one, with specific can-eats and cannot-eats that changes each week, or rather with the can-eats adding on each week, spanning through 21 days. The first week was seemingly the most harsh, with the diet gradually easing up week by week.

So for day 1 to 7, it shall be the weeding week. whereby we weed out the bad bacteria, parasites, fungus and yeast through dietary changes. In order to achieve that, some major (and temporary) changes in our diet is inevitable.

During the weeding week, the following food shall be avoided where possible:

All sorts of (starchy) carbohydrates like rice, noodles, bread, pastries and potatoes.

Anything containing yeast

Anything with added sugar

Crustacean & Mollusks

(No seafood other than fish)

Deep-fried food

All dairy products

Alcohols

It's best to avoid coffee, but if you absolutely need it, limit yourself to just 1 cup a day.

My typical daily diet for the first week is as follow:

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, black coffee without sugar

Lunch: Yong Tau Foo (without noodles, minimal fish cakes)

Afternoon snack: 1 large apple or 1 medium banana

Dinner: Home-cooked stirfry vegetables with lean cuts of meat or fish (pan fried, or stirfry), kimchi

Supper: 2 servings of fruit (Eg. 1 kiwi, 1 small apple)

Daily water intake: 1.8 - 2.1L

Estimated daily calorie intake: 1000 - 1100 kcals

Being a sugar-addict, I thought the total omission of added sugar will be the most painful, but it turned out the omission of carbohydrates was more harsh on me. The first day was painful, and I was hungry half of the day (as I didn't prepare for afternoon snack at work). 2nd day onwards, I learnt my lesson and pack up 1 to 2 servings of fruits as snack to work and it got slightly better. However, I did notice that the usual hot yoga and body balance routines felt slightly more strenuous than it usually would be. And also, by the 3rd day, black coffee without sugar (Kopi O Kosong) tasted perfectly all right to me. I didn't expect myself to get used to a no added sugar diet this quickly.

Weight Loss after Week 1 - 2.3kg

Day 8 to 15 shall be the seeding week, whereby we inoculate the gut with beneficial bacteria.

During the seeding week, we introduce complex (clean) carbohydrates into the diet but still avoid the following food:

No refined carbohydrates like white rice, noodles, white bread, pastries.

Anything with added sugar

Deep-fried food

All dairy products

Alcohols

Limit to 1 cup of black coffee without sugar per day, and 2 servings of seafood (other than fish) in the week.

My typical daily diet for the 2nd week is as follow:

Breakfast: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 weet-bix, handful of blueberries & strawberries

Lunch: 1/2 serving (1/2 cup, cooked) red cargo rice marmite porridge, with choice of 2 stirfry vegetables and 1 stirfry lean meat.

I only cook my own porridge and buy the dishes from hawker centre.

Afternoon snack: 1 to 2 servings of fruits (usually apple and/or banana)

Dinner: Home-cooked stirfry vegetables with lean cuts of meat or fish (pan fried, or stirfry), kimchi

Supper: 1 to 2 servings of fruit (usually apple, orange, kiwi or cherries)

Daily water intake: 1.8 - 2.1L

Estimated daily calorie intake: +/- 1200 kcals

2nd week was quite a breeze as I've gotten used to the taste of red cargo rice during mid-week and having nothing sweet in my diet except for fruits felt perfectly normal.

Hot yoga and body balance sessions felt more manageable (though the burning sensation in my muscles still came quicker than usual) and I added in a session of spinning towards the end of the week and survived it.

Weight Loss after Week 2 - 0.4kg

(As I was on my period for this week, water retention could have affected my weight loss results)

Accumulated Weight Loss after 2 weeks - 2.7kg

Finally, day 16 to 21 will be the feeding week, whereby we feed the healthy bacteria and the entire body what it needs to heal itself.

During the feeding week, we introduce dairy products into the diet and also lifts the ban on deep-fried food and alcohols, but still avoid the following food:

No refined carbohydrates like white rice, noodles, white bread, pastries.

Anything with added sugar

My typical daily diet for the 3rd week is as follow:

Breakfast: 1 hard boiled egg + 1 weet-bix OR 1 steamed sweet potato, handful of blueberries/grapes & strawberries

Lunch: 1/2 serving (1/2 cup, cooked) red cargo rice, with choice of 2 stirfry vegetables and 1 stirfry lean meat OR 1 soup (Eg. slice fish soup or lotus root pork ribs soup)

I only cook my own rice and buy the dishes from hawker centre.

Afternoon snack: 1 to 2 servings of fruits (usually apple and/or banana)

Dinner: Home-cooked stirfry vegetables with lean cuts of meat or seafood (pan fried, or stirfry), kimchi

Supper: 1 to 2 servings of fruit (usually apple, orange, kiwi or nectarine), 1/4 to 1/2 cup HL low fat milk.

Daily water intake: 1.8 - 2.1L

Estimated daily calorie intake: +/- 1200 - 1300+ kcals

3rd week felt like an #eatclean diet has more or less been cultivated as I hardly crave for sugary food anymore, and naturally avoided deep fried food even thought the 'ban' was lifted. I also added an additional spinning session to the week (2 sessions of spinning, 1 hot yoga and 1 body balance) and didn't feel much fatigue during my exercises.

Weight Loss after Week 3 - 0.7kg

Accumulated Weight Loss after 3 weeks - 3.4 kg

You may think that 3.4kg in 3 weeks isn't all that impressive, but the important point to note is that this diet is sustainable as long as you do not let the glutton in you go out of control. Other than the first 1 or 2 days of the weeding week whereby I felt constant hunger from the lack of starchy carbohydrates (and without fruits at hand to fill my tummy), I was well fed and didn't feel starved or deprived at any time. 

I guess this will be my wordiest post ever and without a single photograph, so you weight loss hopefuls might already be seeing stars right now, so I shall end my wall of text here. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of this #eatclean weight loss diet plan (hopefully will be up next week!) whereby I will share my progress of this diet after the 3rd week. 

Hint: Cheat day coming up! 

To know more in-depth about the Weed-Seed-Feed Detox Diet, do check out the link HERE
For added boost in your weight loss results, you can also take the Advascience 21 Day Ultimate Cleanse (available HERE) along with this diet.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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