Crepes & Cream's sundae

I terribly miss Crepes & Cream's Very Very Berry sweet crepe. Their sundaes (picture above) are pretty awesome as well. My friends usually share one sundae because it's too big to eat solo.

What I've never tried are their savoury crepes -- are they good enough to eat as a meal? Low fat - high protein and all that?

Skinny Fat - How much to eat?

My body stopped losing fat in the past month: I got sick twice, then right after I recovered, I had a change of workout. Last month I trained with my awesome personal trainer three times a week (cardio not included, I do that on my own, of course) but after 3 months of working with her, I decided to finally get on with boxing since I've always wanted to try it. So the shift of sched now reflects: boxing 2-3 times a week in the morning, weights 2-3 times a week in the afternoon, regular 2-hour Group Exercise classes on Tuesdays (can't miss those out, too much fun).

At 4'11'' and 101 lbs, I was eating 1300calories a day -- it's a very restricted diet, but it's better than my original 800-900calories a day before I finally learned about proper nutrition. Also, I was still in my paranoid state so I based that on my worst RMR.

Activity Factor	Category	Definition	BMR	RMR
1.2	Sedentary	Little or no exercise and desk job	1516	1343
1.375	Lightly Active	Light exercise or sports 1-3 days a week	1737	1539
1.55	Moderately Active	Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days a week	1958	1734
1.725	Very Active	Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days a week	2179	1930
1.9	Extremely Active	Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job	2400	2126

1. Online BMR and RMR Calculator: http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php
2. Special thanks to http://tableizer.journalistopia.com/tableizer.php for converting my Excel spreadsheet to HTML table.

Based on the table above, in order to maintain my weight, given that I am moderately active (?), I need to eat 1958calories. That's a big jump from 1300calories so

Skinny Fat - Post Workout Dinner

Pic somewhat related.

There is a lot of materials online about post workout meals but it seems to contradict the recommended light/carb-tapered dinner I read from "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" by Tom Venuto. (Side note: awesome book) So I went ahead to "Ask Tom" and asked for the optimal post workout dinner for fat loss/muscle gain.

In less than 24 hours, I got the following reply on my mailbox:

Your post workout meal (or drink) is almost the same as your other meals, with a few minor adjustments.

First, eat immediately after your workout - never delay the post workout meal.

Its preferable to avoid high fat proteins like steak, salmon or ground beef post workout. Pick low fat or non fat proteins to speed digestion 

Letter to Red Ribbon

Dear Red Ribbon,

Can you please provide Nutrition Facts and calorie information on your wonderful products? That would be really helpful for people [like me] who want to fit your pastries into their daily calorie budget.

I find myself skipping your products altogether because I don't have any idea how much calories they cost me. This site says your Ensaimada costs 420 calories, which sounds too much.

P.S.
Did I mention your pastries are wonderful?

Love,
www.thingswelovetohate.com

Skinny Fat - Menstruation and Metabolism

Image Source: www.xmms.org

I myself was wondering if menstrual cycle has any effect on my metabolism. I wanted to know if intense food cravings (which I normally curb through small, planned, frequent meals) right before I get my period is detrimental to my diet program -- because I usually give in to these cravings although I still make sure I'm well within my calorie budget.

According to www.weightwatchers.com, there is actually an slight increase in metabolism right before the bleeding

Skinny Fat - Diet (Basic Points)

The worst mistake you can ever do, and which I did, is to eat too little.

That also translates to : yes, you have to know what your calorie budget is and how many calories your food costs you. I'm no nutrition expert and everything I know about counting calories, I got online.

The sites I frequent are:
www.tomvenuto.com -- I also read his Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle book.
www.livestrong.com
www.self.com

Basic important points:

• Calorie budget

Skinny Fat - My History

Correction. I was skinny fat. Now I'm within normal/ideal fat range.

History.
It has always bothered me why almost everyone saw me as a skinny little girl when I had a significant belly, which I often strategically hide with loose clothes to keep up with the image. Nevertheless, I never stopped wining about my belly and no one understood.

Intervention.
Then came the point when my boyfriend got tired of all the "why am I so fat??" comments.

Kuretake in Rockwell - get the bento box!

We finally had the courage to try out Kuretake, a high-end looking Japanese restaurant in Rockwell. It's right beside this really expensive restaurant called Oyster Bar -- that one we're still saving up (both money and courage) to afford.

Word is the Japanese chef in Kuretake came from Kimpura -- that owners of Kuretake built the restaurant to house this Kimpura chef master when Kimpura shut down (Kimpura still operates in Greenhills, they now have one in Trinoma, and they just launched a new branch in Greenbelt).

Anyway, more about Kuretake.
Yes, the Tempura is awesome.

The above picture shows:
(1) Solo Bento Box on the upper right corner,
(2) Special Bento Box on the lower half of the picture

The contents are...