Weight loss journey - Week 5

Week 5! C'mon this has to be better... I can do it! 

Wow, what a disappointing week 4...  You know what? I could spend my time complaining but I won't! Despite the fact that I gained 0.3 kg last week, I can actually feel a positive change in myself. My belly has shrunk quite a bit. You know that "pouch" that women tend to have? It's perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of, but as somebody who has endometriosis, it can get quite prominent to the point that it makes me look borderline pregnant. 🤦‍♀️ It's an actual nightmare for me so it became one of my biggest insecurities. Luckily, in my situation, the pouch is caused by a bloat, which can easily be fixed by finding the right diet, and doing this for the past 4 weeks has definitely helped a lot. My legs seems to be looking pretty decent too but I'm not sure whether it's a change in my body or my black leggings giving me a false sign lol. But then again, my jeans are loose again which is amazing news. Before I started this, most of my jeans were pretty tight. Not to the point that I can't fit in them, but definitely tighter than before. That has changed now! So the moral of the story is, even if you're not seeing desired numbers on your scale screen, take a look at what you're seeing in the mirror and overall wellbeing. I know I'm definitely changing for the better! 

Week 4 weight loss chart

Just looking at the chart above frustrates me a little bit not gonna lie lol. Look at this flat line! Frustrating as heck. I'm hoping that this week will be better. As mentioned at the end of the previous week's post, I've spoken to my friend about my lack bad habits of not drinking enough water and she gave me some advice on how to work on that. Throughout the day, as we do bits and bobs, maybe working or doing chores, it's a great habit to get into by drinking water between the little jobs that you do. So if you finished washing dishes - drink some water. You just folded the laundry - drink some water. And so on. I only just stated doing it so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully this will help the water retention that my body is dealing with right now. Contrary to what people might think, water retention doesn't happen when you drink a lot of water. Quite the opposite actually. When you don't drink enough water, your body panics and starts retaining it. So interesting! Also, contrary to popular belief, your body does not go into starvation mode and start retaining calories if you eat less calories than you normally do. As long as you cut your calories in a healthy way and still eat enough to get all your recommended minimum caloric intake you'll be perfectly fine!

Monthly weight loss chart

I have started this weight loss journey on the 8th November, so it's now been a month and it's interesting to look back on the monthly chart. It's been a pretty stable downwards line except for last week when it sort of went up a bit and now back down. It's still not back to the lowest point, which happened at the end of week 3 but hopefully the downwards line will continue steadily from now on, otherwise I'll lose my 💩.

 Week 5 Day 1

Weight: -0.2 kg (-0.2 kg weekly weight loss; -2.6 kg total weight loss).

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with 2 pork sausages, leftover pasta, broccoli, cherry tomatoes. 

Snack: 3 mini macarons. 

Lunch: homemade soup with a dollop of high protein greek yoghurt and soft boiled egg. 

Snack: 5 mini macarons. 

Dinner: mushroom gnocchi with preserved truffles and a glass of sauvignon blanc.

Total calories: ~1826 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

 Week 5 Day 2

Weight: +0.6 kg (+0.4 kg weekly weight gain; -2 kg total weight loss).

Breakfast: high protein granola with half banana, dried cranberries and oat milk.

Lunch: 2 pork sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed mushrooms, tomato and red bell pepper.

Week 5 Day 2 dinner

Dinner: mushroom noodles with sriracha peanut sauce and soft boiled eggs.

Snack: lobster cocktail crisps. 

Total calories: ~1549 kcal.

Workout: 50 minute workout session at the gym (elliptical, bench press, pec deck machine, chest press machine) ~197 kcal burned.

 Week 5 Day 3

Weight: +0.1 kg (+0.5 kg weekly weight gain; -1.9 kg total weight loss).

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with onion, mushrooms, tomato, 2 pork sausages and a little bit of ketchup.

Lunch: homemade veggie soup with fried egg.

Snack: a few mini macarons. 

Dinner: peanut butter noodles.

Total calories: ~1432 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

 Week 5 Day 4

Weight: +0.5 kg (+1 kg weekly weight gain; -1.4 kg total weight loss).

Breakfast: 2 pork sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed mushrooms, tomato, red bell pepper.

Lunch: a few goats cheese bonbons, 2 roasted potatoes and custard.

So I was once again running a private dinner event with my husband so all of those things mentioned above weren't actually consumed at the same time, okay? I wasn't dipping my potatoes into custard. 🤣🤣

Dinner: peanut butter noodles.

Total calories: ~1106 kcal.

Workout: no workout today but I walked a lot due to work.

 Week 5 Day 5

Weight: 0 kg (+1 kg weekly weight gain; -1.4 kg total weight loss).

Breakfast: leftover peanut butter noodles.

Snack: a few glasses of beer.

I ended up skipping lunch as I wasn't hungry at all and went to meet my friend at the pub instead lol. 

Dinner: spaghetti bolognese.

Total calories: ~1271 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

 Week 5 Day 6

Weight: 0 kg (+1 kg weekly weight gain; -1.4 kg total weight loss).

Breakfast: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of high protein yoghurt. 

Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 pork sausages, sautéed mushrooms, tomato.

Week 5 Day 6 Dinner

Dinner: surf and turf rice bowl (white sushi rice, pan seared salmon, ribeye steak, pak choi, radish, avocado).

Total calories: ~1374 kcal.

Workout: 40 minute workout session at the gym (10 minutes on elliptical, pull ups, lat pulldowns).

 Week 5 Day 7

Weight: -0.4 kg (+0.6 kg weekly weight gain; -1.8 kg total weight loss).

Snack: 2 digestive biscuits. 

Breakfast: leftover cooked pasta stirred fried with 2 pigs in blankets, mushrooms, green beans and 2 eggs.

Snack: 1 banana with peanut butter, apple cider at the pub. 

Lunch: Burrata with pigs in blankets, sautéed oyster mushrooms and 1/4 avocado.

Can you tell I'm eating leftovers? Lol. 

Dinner: homemade wonton soup.

Total calories:  ~1371 kcal

Workout: no workout today.

Week 5 weight chart

What can I say? It hasn't been the best week and I don't really know why. There were days when I wasn't eating the healthiest way and I did have a few beers but I've always stayed within my calorie range ~1850 kcal (+whatever burned during workout if needed). My husband says that it could be muscle. Because I'm definitely seeing my belly much smaller so there's no way that I have put on fat while living and eating like this. Once again, I'm thinking that it could be water issue? I haven't been drinking enough water which has been causing me some headaches. I have nobody else to blame but myself for that lol. But in the past few days I have been walking around with a pint of water in my hand while I'm around the house lol. Let's hope this helps?

My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)

Weight loss journey - Week 4

After a successful week 3, I'm back and ready to achieve even more! 

So, last week I managed to achieve an impressive 1.5 kg weight loss, which made my current weight loss rate on Happy Scale become 0.94 kg per week. After such impressive calculations, I'm being shown that I'll achieve my weight loss goal in 7 months, July 2024! Wow, that's really promising, since my weight loss goal is quite big. But we'll see! 

Week 3 weight loss chart

Loving the steep line on my weight loss chart. Not only I can see a difference on the scales, but I'm also seeing a difference on myself. My belly has shrunk massively. I'm not sure whether it's the extra water weight or the bloat. I bloat really easy since I have endometriosis. I can also be an emotional eater. I noticed that since I started eating much smaller portions and my stomach kinda shrank (probably to its normal size lol), I started listening to my body more. If I'm not feeling hungry, I simply don't eat. There's no point sticking to that strict frame that you HAVE to eat 3 meals a day, if your body can't tolerate it. Stick to what your body tells you.

Week 4 Day 1

Weight: +0.4 kg (+0.4 kg weekly total; -2.3 kg total).

Breakfast: kimchi sandwich (2 slices of buttered white bread, 1 Cumberland style plant based sausage from Tesco, a few leaves of spinach, generous bunch of homemade kimchi) with a bit of tomato ketchup.

Lunch: 2 slices of white bread with smoked salmon and cucumber.

Dinner: homemade spaghetti carbonara and a glass of ale.

Total calories: ~1284 kcal

Workout: no workout today.

Week 4 Day 2

Weight: +0.3 kg (+0.7 kg weekly total; -2 kg total).

Breakfast: leftover high protein noodles with miso aubergine and kimchi.

Snack: fresh croissant from Lidl. 

Lunch: 2 pork sausages, 2 eggs, 1 tomato, sautéed mushrooms.

Snack: couple pints of ale at the pub. 

Dinner: homemade spaghetti bolognese.

Total calories: ~1684 kcal.

Workout: 50 minute workout session at the gym (5 minutes on elliptical; assisted pull ups, bicep curls); ~220 kcal burned.

Week 4 Day 3

Weight: -0.6 kg (+0.1 kg weekly total; -2.6 kg total).

Breakfast: kimchi sandwich.

Lunch: 2 pork sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed mushrooms, 5 cherry tomatoes.

Snack: fresh pain au raisin from Lidl. 

Dinner: homemade spaghetti bolognese and mulled cider.

Total calories: ~1719 kcal.

Workout: 50 minute workout session at the gym (focusing on legs - deadlifts, RDLs, adductor machine, abductor machine, leg press); ~336 kcal burned.

Week 4 Day 4

Weight: +0.5 kg (+0.6 kg weekly total; -2.1 kg total).

I'm so done with this weight jumping. 🙃 The current weight loss chart has flatlined and my weight loss rate is in shambles. What is happening. 😭

Breakfast: 2 pork sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed mushrooms, spinach and cherry tomatoes.

Lunch: a small piece of mushrooms strudel. 

Once again husband and I were running a private event so didn't really have time to eat. 🥲 

Dinner: homemade spaghetti bolognese with homemade mulled cider.

Total calories: ~1205 kcal

Workout: no workout but many steps taking due to work.

Week 4 Day 5

Weight: 0 kg (+0.6 kg weekly total; -2.1 kg total).

Oh gosh this is like week 2 all over again. 🥲 Even Happy Scale can't make this look good. The weight loss has completely flatlined this week and weight loss rate is down to 0.61 kg per week. Weight loss goal is now predicted to happen in 11 months. Ugh this sucks!

Breakfast: banana, high protein granola, oat milk.

Lunch: 2 pork sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes. 

Dinner: homemade spaghetti bolognese; lemon tart for dessert; a glass of pale ale.

Total calories: ~1727 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 4 Day 6

Weight: 0 kg (+0.6 kg weekly total; -2.1 kg total).

Pre-breakfast: leftover spaghetti carbonara.

Right, so it's a bit of a weird one. I had a lot of errands to do in town and I was also helping friend collect her new puppy, so in the morning I had a quick bite of leftover spaghetti carbonara (only about 120 kcal worth) and had a proper breakfast when I came back home, that's why I called it pre-breakfast lol. Talking about pre-breakfast, this is actually something that my husband and I discuss on our A Pint Of Rice podcast, Breakfast episode lol. You can find us on any podcast platform you use!

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs with potato, plant based sausage, tomato and turkey.

Lunch: homemade spaghetti bolognese; lemon tart for dessert.

Dinner: high protein granola with banana and oat milk.

Total calories: ~1589 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 4 Day 7

Weight: -0.3 kg (+0.3 kg weekly total; -2.4 kg total).

Breakfast: leftover spaghetti carbonara with cheddar cheese.

Snack: maple pecan pastry while shopping. 

Lunch: homemade spaghetti bolognese.

You might be wondering why I'm eating so much bolognese... Well, Lawrence made a 4litre worth tub of bolognese so I'm kinda forced to lol but it's making me quite heavy and bloated so I think I need to go back to my soups lol... The beef mince he got was also super fatty so it's causing me heart burn. You'd think that heart burn is an older adult issue but I actually had it since I was a teenager... 🙃

Snack: maple pecan pastry, a few mini macarons.

Today was a damn mess. I was shopping for an upcoming event and running errands and my whole daily schedule ended up being a complete mess. So I ate lunch really late and wasn't hungry but then started craving sugar, which is bad. So I had a few snacks. This is probably my biggest slip up since the beginning of this lol. 

Total calories: ~1617 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

So, haven't had the best week. My weight has stalled and my current weight loss rate is 0.5 kg a week, which is technically what I initially have set up to do. Unfortunately, I have gained weight this week, although very little, which is not great, but I'm not too upset. I know my diet hasn't been very balanced this week. I've been eating a lot of fatty foods and definitely not drinking enough water. My friend has given me some tips and tricks on how to drink more water so I will be trying those out starting now! Week 5 better be a good one!

My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)

Adventures in Hong Kong! The Journey

If you're looking for recommendations on places to visit in Hong Kong or just want to see some cool stuff then the Hong Kong adventure posts are for you!~

When I re-started this blog a couple weeks ago, I did a thorough read through my old posts and confirmed my passion for adventure. Look, as a teenager and young adult I was full of drive to try new things, but either didn't have enough funds or time. After I moved to UK 10 years ago, I finally managed to visit a couple countries. I briefly visit Copenhagen, Denmark (which didn't leave the best impression on me...), and done a road trip across West of France. I'm not a person who is interested in travelling the world. I'll be honest, some countries I'm not interested at all. When I travel, I love to immerse myself in their culture, so if some country's culture is not my cup of tea I simply don't fancy going there. I don't think there's anything wrong with that as it's simply a preference. Social media has instilled this image in our heads that we MUST travel around the world, visit every country, just constantly be on the go. But in the real world, it's not quite that easy if you're not financially well off, or people simply do not have interest, as, let's be honest, it kinda sounds like a chore lol (as much as it is controversial to say lol).

My husband is originally from Hong Kong and he grew up there. So when we finally managed to travel to HK earlier this year, I was over the moon. We treated it as a honeymoon trip, even if it was 2 years late lol. I've got to meet some of his family, visit his favourite childhood locations and experience an amazing culture. 

Our favourite plushies always travel with us

It used to be so easy when we lived in Milton Keynes. London is just down the road and all airports are easily reachable. Over the years we moved around a couple of times for business and we're currently residing in Worcestershire. So nowadays Heathrow airport can be 2 hours + car drive away. 😩

I've never been on a long haul flight. My longest flight has always been UK - Lithuania / Lithuania - UK. Only 3.5 hours long! Barely any time to even get a drink! Not that I do anyway because purchasing anything on the plane is ridiculously expensive. 🙃

This wasn't our plane but it looked cool haha

Twelve hour flight sounds terrifying but free snacks, drinks (including alcohol) and 2 mealtimes really make up for it. Don't forget all the movies you can watch that haven't been placed on Netflix yet! 😂

A glass of Prosecco before takeoff

Ok, I can't say that everything was exactly perfect during the flight. We were located next to this makeshift wall that separated premium economy (where we were sitting) from business class and when the turbulence started, the separator broke and slammed down opening up the place. The turbulence was nothing like I've ever experienced before. It felt like we were falling down and I legit thought I was gonna die. The stewardess running around and trying to put the separator back up made everything look a lot worse because they couldn't stand properly and it looked like an emergency when it wasn't. My husband was asleep and everyone seemed chilled while I had streams of tears running down my face cos I was so scared lol. I could definitely tell that I was the only one there who has never experienced anything like this. 

One of the meals during the 12 hour flight

I've watched so many videos about plane food, I couldn't wait to try it myself. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I have heard that they have to salt the food a lot more to make it have taste, because our taste buds get affected by high altitude but honestly it was way too much. the prawn and corn salad thing seen in the photo above was ridiculously salty. I could barely finish it. Was I correct at the saltiness level or are my taste buds that sensitive to salt? Who knows lol.

Betsy craft beer by Gweilo brewery

Twelve hours on the plane was so exhausting, I couldn't wait to get off. But once I started seeing the mountains through the windows, I couldn't hold my excitement! I kept looking around but people weren't looking through the windows at all, which was shocking. I wanted to sit by the window to see everything but I was sitting in the middle. People were wasting such a precious opportunity. I'm definitely sitting by the window next time we're going to HK! 

Meal 2 during UK - HK flight

Actually the meals were really filling. We flew using Cathay Pacific and it was really decent. Next time we'll be using Economy class so we'll see if the meals are still alright. I loved the little jam jars and chocolates. I couldn't' even finish them all as I'm not used to eating so many sweet things for my meals! 

Mountains surrounding the International Hong Kong Airport

Landing in Hong Kong was like a dream. I know it might sound silly but it truly felt unreal. I've never left Europe so finally fulfilling my dream and coming to Asia at age 31 was something else. I tried to keep my cool because I didn't want my excitement to come across as odd and have border security detain me. 🤣 Luckily it all went perfectly fine. I was really looking forward getting a stamp in my passport because I've only been to Schengen zone countries so I never needed any visa or stamp, but unfortunately they have changed their system recently and you only get a little piece of paper with your details printed, as well as the date when you have to legally leave if you only come as a tourist. Hong Kong has different rules for different countries, but generally your stay is limited to somewhere between 1 and 6 months. Hopefully next time we can cross into China too and I can finally get my stamp lol. 

International Hong Kong Airport exit towards taxi car park

Make sure to follow my blog as I'll be posting a lot more adventures from Hong Kong and really cool locations to visit!~

My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)

Weight loss journey - Week 3

Well, last week was disappointing. Let's make this week a good one since week 2 was unsatisfactory lol~

Here we are, already at week 3. While week 1 was pretty decent, week 2 turned out to be a massive disappointment. Weight kept going up and down and only went down on the last day. Let's make sure things are a bit better this week. I think what I learnt from last week is to be mindful eating the last meal of the day. Keep on top of calories and don't eat too late, which is essential if you want to see a difference on the scale in the morning. 

Week 2 weight loss graph

As you can see, week 2 has had a rather flat line. I only lost 0.2 kg, which is hugely disappointing. So believe me, I'll be eating lots of soup this week lol.

Week 3 Day 1

Weight: 0 kg (0 kg weekly total; -1.2 kg total).

Breakfast: kimchi sandwich (2 slices of white bread, thin slice of spam, tomato, homemade kimchi wrapped in 2 beaten eggs, all cooked in a pan. I really need to make a separate post about it lol).

Lunch: homemade veggie soup with 2 plant based sausages and a dollop of soya yoghurt; 1 digestive biscuit, 1 clementine. 

Dinner: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt; 500ml lager.

Total calories: ~1155 kcal.

Workout: no workout.

Week 3 Day 2 

Weight: -0.6 kg (-0.6 kg weekly total; -1.8 kg total).

Breakfast: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt.

Snack: croissant.

Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 plant based sausages, 2 tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, yellow pepper.

Snack: banana with peanut butter. 

Dinner: white rice, 2 soft boiled eggs, wakame, homemade kimchi, tobiko, and a glass of ale.

Total calories: ~1479 kcal

Workout: 50 minute session at the gym (mix of elliptical, T-bar row, single arm lat pulldowns; ~216 kcal burned.  

Week 3 Day 3

Weight: 0 kg (-0.6 kg weekly total; -1.8 kg total).

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 pork sausages, tomato, sautéed spinach, red pepper.

Lunch: a small piece of turkey, 2 small roasted potatoes.

So, technically I skipped lunch because husband and I had a private chef event and we did not have time or ability to eat, so I munched on a couple of potatoes and turkey slice lol.

Cute dog at the client's house

Dinner: ramen noodles.

That's so unhealthy and 400+ calories in one pack. Not my usual choice of dinner but it took us an hour to get home after the event and we came home really late. Tiredness got the better of us. 😩

Total calories: ~1070 kcal.

Workout: no workout but done a lot of walking and lifting things around during the event. My workout watch estimated that I've burned ~300+ calories within the evening. 

Week 3 Day 4

Weight: -1 kg (-1.6 kg weekly total; -2.8 kg total).

OMG I can't believe I've lost one kilo overnight! I even had ramen around 1am last night. 🥲 I really thought this will ruin it. But crazily enough everything worked out amazing! Almost 3kg overall loss and I hit another milestone! Only 0.4 kg until Milestone 3. Really excited.

Milestone 2 reached on Happy Scale!

Current weight loss rate is 0.81 kg per week and the estimated goal reach is in 8 months. Getting there! 

Breakfast: 3/4 of a cup of roasted potatoes with 2 scrambled eggs, kimchi and a bit of tomato ketchup.

In the next couple of days I'll be eating weird stuff (as in, not my usual foods), because we have a lot of leftovers from the event and I don't believe in food waste lol. It is all pretty calorific so I'll just be eating small portions of things.  

Lunch: smoked salmon with Crème Fraîche and rocket mix on toast, Pommes Anna, small cube of stuffing (private event leftovers).

Dinner: lemon tart.

So, technically the lemon tart wasn't a dinner but a dessert after lunch. I just wasn't really hungry and didn't eat dinner lol. 

Total calories: ~1159 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 3 Day 5

Weight: +0.2 kg (-1.4 kg weekly total; -2.6 kg total).

Breakfast: 3/4 of a cup of roasted potatoes with 2 scrambled eggs, small cube of stuffing, tomato, kimchi and a bit of tomato ketchup.

Lunch: 3/4 of a cup of roasted potatoes with 2 scrambled eggs, small cube of stuffing, tomato, kimchi and a bit of tomato ketchup.

Dinner: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt and spring onions; a bottle of porter. 

Total calories: ~1012 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 3 Day 6

Weight: +0.6 kg (-0.8 kg weekly total; -2 kg total).

Breakfast: large Yorkshire pudding.

I was heading out to run some errands and didn't really have time to eat anything else, don't judge lol. 

Lunch: white rice with miso aubergine.

Snack: 2.5 pints of ale, curly fries with ketchup. 

Dinner: 1 clementine and 1 apple.

Total calories: ~1167 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 3 Day 7

Weight: -0.7 kg (-1.5 kg weekly total; -2.7 kg total).

Breakfast: peanut butter sesame noodles with tofu and kimchi.

Lunch: Pommes Anna, 2 fried eggs, small cube of stuffing, 2 roasted carrots; lemon tart with berry coulis.

Dinner: banana with peanut butter

Total calories: 1478 kcal

Workout: no workout today.

So, overall I've lost 1.5 kg this week, with the grand total of 2.7 kg loss. I take it as a great win and I'm very proud of myself, especially considering that I only lost 0.2 kg last week. I managed to achieve 1 milestone and my current weekly weight loss rate is 0.94 kg, which predicts that I'll reach my final goal in 7 months! Stay tuned for week 4! 

My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)

Weight loss journey - Week 2

Hello and welcome to Week 2 of my weight loss journey!~

So, after a pretty successful first week (1 kg weekly weight loss in a sustainable, no extreme calorie cuts is pretty good in my opinion), I'm back with week 2. Not gonna lie, coming back to blogging after a damn long time has really boosted my creative inspiration and documenting is holding me accountable so I can't drift too much as I'll have to write it down here. You can find my week 1 progress post here.

Week 1 Weight Chart

So, what you see above is last week's weight chart. The app I use is called Happy Scale and I've been using this for many years. Since 2019, to be precise (I'm not sponsored, I just love this app very much lol). It tracks your weight and shows you future predictions based on your current weight loss trends. You can set your own target and split your weight loss into smaller milestones. What's great is that the app calculates averages, therefore if your weight goes up and down (because it's normal and it happens a lot during weight loss), you will still be in the green because on average you are losing. Every time you have a new goal to work on, you can just hide old entries and start like it's new (that's why my chart only shows 7 entries). So the goal that I've set myself is to lose 0.5 kg per week (being realistic here, but obviously anything over that is a bonus!). But the app has made some calculations and my current rate is 0.8 kg per week, therefore I should reach my final goal in about 9 months (yikes lol). Anyway, if you'd like to check it out, here's their website: Happy Scale. Unfortunately, it's only available on iOS for now. 

Week 2 Day 1

Weight: no change (0 kg weekly total, -1 kg total). 

Breakfast: jollof rice with spinach and 2 eggs. 

Lunch: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt; banana with peanut butter.

Dinner: egg fried rice. 

Snack: mini scone with butter, apple. 

Total calories: ~1442 kcal

Workout: no workout today.

Week 2 Day 2

Weight: +0.2 kg (+0.2 kg weekly total, -0.8 kg total).

Breakfast: jollof rice with loads of spinach and 2 eggs.

Lunch: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt; banana with peanut butter.

I'm doing a pretty low calorie day today because I want to accelerate the losing a little bit. Also my husband is home for the weekend and if we decide to cook something nice, I can't resist it lmao. The macros for the day ended up quite high in carbs, but only cos of beans and potatoes in the soup. Either way, it's very good for you so there's no need to worry about a little bit of carbs. Also that soup fills me up so much, I can't believe it's so low in calories!

By the way, I'm tracking my macros and calories through MyFitnessPal (still, after many years lol). I'm using a free version. Since I'm not a body builder or anything like that I don't see the need to use full functions just for my personal non-professional use lol. 

Dinner: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt, homemade beer.

Total calories: ~1190 kcal

Just as I was typing how I'll be reducing calories, husband comes back and offers to have a glass of my homemade beer together (yes, I brew beer) and I simply can't resist haha. I still ate pretty well and stayed within the calorie range I planned to. 

Workout: no workout today.

Week 2 Day 3

Weight: -0.2 kg (no change in weekly total, -1 kg total).

Breakfast: oat porridge with peanut butter, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries and bee pollen. 

Week 2 Day 3 Breakfast

Husband made way too much porridge. Since I started tracking my food and reducing calories a week+ ago, I have a very little appetite so this was a huge bowl for me and I didn't feel hungry for 5 hours straight after eating this, which is honestly impressive. 🤣

Lunch: homemade veggie soup with 2 plant based sausages and a dollop of soya yoghurt.

Beans for a new batch of soup

I've just finished my last batch of soup I made a couple of days ago so I soaked a mixture of 4 dried peas and beans. First time using black beans. Didn't realise they dye other beans. My normally white cannellini beans are now purple. 🤣

Week 2 Day 3 Dinner

Dinner: a small ladle of new veggie soup to taste; egg noodles with spam, peppers and a side of homemade kimchi. 

Total calories: ~1036 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 2 Day 4

Weight: +0.4 kg (+0.4 kg weekly total; -0.6 kg total).

So, even though I ate quite a small amount of calories yesterday, I did gain, which is the result of me eating dinner really late. Something to watch out for in the future!  

Breakfast: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt.

Snack: croissant. 

Lunch: 2 plant based sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed spinach and mushrooms, tomato, chunky chips with some ketchup and mayo.

Here I started feeling some issues. I felt extremely bloated and heavy after eating this lunch. The issue is, that this used to be my normal lunch so I thought that this is probably just my endometriosis playing up but unfortunately, the heaviness lasted all day long. 

Snack: 2 pints of HPA ale at the pub.  

Not really a snack per se, but we do have to consider that alcohol contains quite a lot of calories. 

Dinner: homemade carbonara with mushrooms and spam; homemade tarte tatin aux pommes with vegan custard. 

This was so good. I haven't made carbonara for a while so made it too runny and didn't take any photos but it was delish. Husband made a homemade tarte tatin aux pommes, which is an upside down apple tart and it was so good. 🥲 Consumed way too many calories than it was planned but it's all worth it lol.

Total calories: ~1761 kcal

Workout: 50 minute session in the gym (a mixture of cardio on elliptical machine, barbel rows, curls, lat pulls). ~428 kcal burned.

Week 2 Day 5

Weight: -0.2 kg (+0.2 kg weekly total; -0.8 kg total).

Breakfast: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt. 

Lunch: 2 plant based sausages, 2 eggs, sautéed spinach and mushrooms, tomato, chunky chips with some ketchup and mayo.

So, once again, after eating exactly the same lunch as yesterday, I started feeling heaviness/upset stomach. After having a discussion about this with husband, we started suspecting chips. Basically after closing the last business, we had a lot of potato chips leftover, so we've been eating them to try and make some space in the freezer. Normally potato chips don't cause me such a reaction but I'm assuming that due to the fact that this lunch is normally quite filling in itself, the chips just kinda make everything too heavy and my body might be reacting badly. It's also important to note that I do have a sensitive stomach. So, from now on I won't be having any chips on my regular lunch and I'll see what comes out of it. What a learning experience... 🙃

Dinner: miso glazed aubergine, spam, sesame seaweed, homemade kimchi with white rice; homemade tart satin aux pommel with vegan custard; a glass of homemade ale. 

Total calories: ~1471 kcal.

Workout: 40 minute session in the gym (a mixture of cardio on elliptical machine, squats and hip thrusts. ~168 kcal burned.

Not very happy how this week is going to be honest. It's almost the end of 2nd week and I haven't made any progress at all. There were a couple of evenings where I ate quite late and a couple of days where I didn't make the healthiest choices. Even though the calories aren't high and they're definitely below my BMR (basic metabolic rate, a.k.a. calories that you body burns to function), I don't seem to be losing weight. What a learning curve. Even after so many years of trying different diets I'm still learning something new and trying to improve. I hope I'll see some results in a few days... 🙃

 

Week 2 Day 6

Weight: -0.1 kg (+0.1 kg weekly total; -0.9 kg total).

Breakfast: homemade veggie soup with 2 plant based sausages and a dollop of soya yoghurt. 

Snack: digestive biscuit. 

Week 2 Day 6 Lunch

Ok this sandwich is the best. I randomly came up with it using a traditional French omelette as an inspiration. Basically folding things into an egg. It's so filling and is only around 450 kcal. I might need to make a video about it at some point haha.

Lunch: kimchi sandwich. 

Snack: clementine and butterfly pea tea latte. 

Don't get too confused about the tea latte thing. It's simply this blue tea from flowers that I picked up in Hong Kong made with lots of milk haha. 

Ok tomorrow is the last weigh-in for Week 2 and I'm desperate to see some results. I'll need to be strategic for my dinner for Day 6 as I'm already at 991 kcal. At least I'm not feeling heavy and bloated today!

Dinner: white rice, soft boiled egg, kimchi.

Kimchi is loaded with good bacteria and is great for your gut. In fact, any fermented foods is really good for your gut, so I highly recommend adding that to your diet!  

Total calories: ~1298 kcal

Workout: no workout today but lots of housework to keep me moving lol.

 

Week 2 Day 7

Weight: -0.3 kg (-0.2 kg weekly total; -1.2 kg total).

Milestone 1 achieved!

Yay! Milestone 1 hit! Apologies about the hidden numbers. I will share it once I've achieved more, but at the moment I'm very self conscious about it. Happy Scale has a brilliant function where you can divide you main goal into smaller milestones. I basically used a lot of increments to make 30 milestones. Seems excessive but I need that hit of serotonin when I reach a milestone. And they're in rather small increments that the new dose of serotonin isn't that far away haha. That sounds like an addictive personality but as long as you stay on track and do it in a healthy way, you'll be fine.

Breakfast: kimchi sandwich.

Snack: 1 clementine and 2 digestive biscuits.  

Lunch: homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt. 

Dinner: small bowl of homemade veggie soup with a dollop of soya yoghurt; banana with peanut butter.

Probably had too much peanut butter to be honest, but I was feeling a little hungry and thought that after eating soup for lunch and dinner, I needed something a little bit more substantial. 

Total calories: ~1218 kcal.

Workout: no workout today.

Week 2 is officially over! Due to rubbish week, my weight loss rate has dropped to 0.53 kg instead of 1 kg like it was, which predicts milestone 2 to happen in 2 weeks which is definitely not good enough, so believe me, I'll be working hard to fix this next week! 

Read my week 3 progress here!~

My Podcast: A Pint Of Rice | My IG: Lina B 🦭

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)