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)

Show review - Doona! (Netflix)

 Did I binge this show? Yes. Am I frustrated? Also yes.

* * * Please be aware that there will be spoilers here as I do not watch what I say, especially if I'm ranting lol. Make sure that you're okay with spoilers or come back after you've finished watching the show. * * *

Doona! poster

So for the couple of weeks I've been watching a new Netflix show - Doona! It's a Korean drama that was released on October 20th, 2023, so only a few weeks ago. It has 9 episodes, each around 45 minutes long. It has hit top 10 lists in 67 countries, which is pretty impressive. Although, nowadays Korean obsession has hit the whole world like a storm so it's not that unpredictable. I'm reminiscing of the days 10+ years ago when I had interest in Korean culture and people wouldn't really say much about it. Nowadays people just make silly comments once they find out "Oh So YoU'rE oBsEsSeD wItH bTs ThEn? 🥴" - No, I actually don't really listen to them, I simply have different interests than yours, surprise. 🙄

I'm not really that surprised about the success of this show, considering the main actor is Bae Suzy, a member of the now disbanded Kpop girl group miss A. I was actually a fan of that group, since it was so different at the time (2010), especially their debut song. So pretty sad they've finished their career as a group. 🥲 

Kpop girl group - miss A

Suzy was definitely one of the most popular members of the group towards the end of miss A's reign and the group was often labeled as "Suzy and friends", this usually occurs when one member of the group becomes significantly more famous and having a much larger fanbase than the rest. I am not into digging too much about the intricacies of Kpop (I rarely read into idol's personal lives), so I can't give you much more in terms of knowledge or perspective. If you're interested to find out more, you can read an interesting thread about it on Reddit. 

Doona! poster

Yays of the show: 

• If you watch K-dramas, you know how notorious they can be when it comes to product placement. If the drama is extremely well anticipated and got good investors, you bet you'll see product placement from episode 1 onwards. Thing is, when it happens they're not even subtle about this. You'll get full on 5 minutes of different angles and sometimes even "how to use" section or even discussion between characters. Please make it stop. 🥲 Surprisingly I didn't see (potentially, unless I missed) any of that. I was slightly concerned at the beginning of it, when the male protagonist first moves to his shared apartment and finally sits on his bed and grabs some juice/vitamin (?) drink and mentions the flavour. I was slightly confused on the purpose of that scene but we didn't get a full on shot of the product he was drinking so even if it was a product placement, I can let this one go lol.

• Realistic relationship scenes. I can't believe we are finally seeing more and more realistic relationships in Korean dramas. I'm so tired of the fish lips and dry kisses. "Oh, I'm so passionate about this girl, I'm burning with love and desire, let me just touch my dead, motionless lips onto hers with my eyes wide open". Yeah... That's definitely what happens... 😐 Well, surprisingly Doona! offers a pretty good look into realistic passionate relationships with ACTUAL decent kissing scenes. Maybe just tone down on the extremely OTT overdub of the kissing sounds. As somebody who despises ASMR this sounded like nails on the chalkboard to me. 🤣

• Talking about the issues within the entertainment business - manipulative managers, extreme binding contracts, destructive scandals, family issues.

Nays of the show:

I'm sorry but what the heck is that ending??? Here I was, eating my breakfast and before I even took 3 bites the show was finished?! I didn't even realise I was watching the last episode! I was so confused, I thought maybe there was a glitch and there is another episode still, but nah, that was it. So then I went on Google trying to find out whether there's more episodes coming in the next weeks or what, because you can't tell me that's it. I can accept the fact if it doesn't get renewed for season 2 as it's such a common occurrence but you can't tell me that the writers decided "yeah this ending will do". I even read some articles stating that it had a "bittersweet conclusion". What conclusion exactly? Ok so the main characters can't/won't be together for whatever reason, and then they pass each other while in different country on business trip. The end. Eh??? That is neither bittersweet nor conclusion. I don't care what anybody says. 🙃 This felt so unfinished and unresolved! Look, I'm not opposed to some good old bittersweet cliffhanger to finish the story forever, the situation where you kinda have to create your own ending and ponder the character's lives. But this is just not it, no. 

The show wasn't on the top of my list anyway, considering some recent stuff that I've loved like "The Glory" or "Mask Girl". So at least I've expected some sort of resolution, a more defined ending. Call me fussy if you like. 🙃 

Ah, I'm just a little bit disappointed. I need to find something new to watch. So I started watching another K-drama called "Agency" and I'm already not sure lol. Within the first 15 minutes we had 2 very obvious product placements. Ah, please tell me this will get better and wish me luck. 🙃

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

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)

Weight loss journey - Week 1

Keeping with the traditional from 8+ years ago, here I am with another dieting journey. Kinda same but so much better this time!

So over the years I've been struggling with my weight. It seems like no matter what I do I just need to watch myself all the damn time. I cannot let myself go at all because I'll just gain weight. Sometimes it makes it seem like if I'll gain weight from drinking water. It's ridiculous (hello, body dysmorphia).  Throughout these 8 years of me being away from blogging I've tried so many diets and workouts and I think I came to the conclusion that my genetics are basically crap. I'm currently biggest I've ever been and I cannot stand myself (did I mention body dysmorphia?). It seems like I'll never be able to just chill and I pretty much need to watch what I eat 24/7 and do workouts every single day. So that's what I'll be doing now and I'll be sharing my progress with you. 

Something to note is that within last 3 years I was also diagnosed with endometriosis. To really simplify it, it's a chronic illness that messes up your hormones, causes pain and can mess your body up massively. I don't have a proper confirmation because of how under-researched this illness is, but I'm pretty certain it is also making my weight control much more difficult.

Also to note, I won't be going on any super crazy diets. I had a look at my last diet post on here from 2015 and I was a little bit scared how some days I was eating as little as ~700kcal. No wonder I was complaining about fatigue. Wtf... 🙃

Sooo...this time I'll try doing something a bit more sustainable. I'll try doing a more drastic calorie cut on some days and having more normal meals on others. This will depend on my activity levels - if I'm just working on the computer I'll probably eat less, but if I'm moving around a lot, I'll eat more. The idea is to get into a habit of being mindful and making it into a long term thing. 

If you think about doing a calorie deficit diet, pls pls pls make sure that you're not overdoing it. Especially if you're doing it for more than 2 days. It can really hurt you so please be careful and look after yourself. A great way to get a guideline on your calorie cut is finding out your BMR - basal metabolic rate. It's basically how many calories you'll burn even if you did absolutely nothing. You can calculate it yourself using a formula but it's much easier to just use one of the many calculators online. I found out that my BMR is ~1800kcal a day. Once you do that you can easily just take away 100-300kcal for a safe weight loss. Try not to go below 1200kcal as it can really affect your body. I am not a dietician. I have got a nutrition certification but I'm not confident on actually doing the nutrition work professionally on others lol. Most of the knowledge I have is through the many years of research and testing the theories on myself. 

So after getting all of this off my chest, follow my first week journey below! 

Week 1 Day 1

Week 1 Day 1 Breakfast

 

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, 0.75 cup of egg fried rice, 5 cherry tomatoes, 1 nori sheet, 1 spring onion.

Snack : 2 mini scones with butter, 2 digestive biscuits. 

So I skipped lunch today because I sort of got busy during the day and when I finally started getting hungry it was a little bit too close to dinner so I just decided to skip it and have only dinner so I don't overdo with calories. I did have 2 mini scones and 2 biscuits in-between so I wasn't completely starving myself lol. 

Dinner: Egg noodles with beef and mushrooms in soy, hoisin and oyster sauce; mini scone.

Total calories: ~1239 kcal 

Workout: 18 minutes of Kiat Jud Tai Chinese workout ~126 kcal burned. 

Week 1 Day 2

Weight:  -0.1kg

As much as I would love to see an instant change (especially after quite a low calorie amount yesterday), it's not gonna happen overnight so I'm just keeping positive. Also don't forget to drink enough water! I definitely haven't yesterday. When you're dehydrated your body can actually start storing water in your body which will make you weigh more and look bloated! 

Feeling pretty good today but also my biceps are dead sore lol. The exercise that I've done yesterday involved a lot of arm action. Not sure why my biceps in particular would feel sore but then again, I'm not too knowledgable about workouts lol. I just follow the instructions haha.

Week 1 Day 2 Breakfast

Breakfast: 1/2 banana, 125g soya yogurt, 45g high protein granola, 2 tsp sunflower seeds.

Lunch: 2 white bread toasts with kimchi, pumpkin seeds, sunflowers seeds and 2 eggs.

Dinner: Ramen noodles with beef and mushrooms in soy, hoisin and oyster sauce, 330ml can Brewdog Elvis Juice.

Total calories: ~1410 kcal

Workout:  16 minutes of Kiat Jud Tai workout and 8 minutes of ab workout ~105 kcal burned.

Any of the home workouts I've done are simply Youtube workouts. They work great!

Week 1 Day 3

Weight: no change.

So normally when I start a restrictive calorie diet I get really upset when I don't lose any weight but this time it's actually different because before I started this diet I've been doing these Chinese workouts (they're on YouTube) and even though I can't see any difference on scales I can definitely feel it! I feel more energetic and stronger and can definitely feel the effects the next day (my biceps are on fire lol). It's a win for me so I'll definitely take it!

Breakfast: a very small (probably only 1/4) leftover portion of last night's noodles.

I had things to do this morning so had a quick bite of leftovers and left the house. Just over 200 kcal. After running errands hubs and I popped to the gym. There's no need to go to the gym to lose weight. You can easily do that using Youtube workout videos and phone apps. I do like weight lifting and building strength so enjoy a trip to the gym a few times a week.

Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.

Dinner: roasted beef with jollof rice.

Total calories: ~1823 kcal

So today I went to the pub with hubs, which is why the calorie count is higher than my goal. This is not something I recommend and you should definitely watch what you eat and reduce/eliminate alcohol from your diet but I believe that being realistic is important and I wouldn't want to lie to people who are possibly trying to achieve the same thing as me. 😉 I think being realistic about different lifestyles is more important, especially when trying to create a sustainable, long term diet. 

Workout: 50 minute session at the gym (a mixture of cardio on the elliptical machine, pull ups machine, seated row machine and curls) ~300 kcal burned.

Week 1 Day 4

Weight: -0.6 kg (-0.7 kg total) 

Surprisingly enough I did lose weight even though I had a pub session lol yay! 

Breakfast: 1/2 banana, a few black grapes, sunflower seeds, high protein granola and soya yoghurt. 

Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.

Snack: 1 Royal Gala apple. 

Dinner: roasted beef with jollof rice.

Total calories: ~1512 kcal

Workouts: 50 minute session at the gym (a mixture of cardio on the elliptical machine, deadlifts, RDLs, grip training and lunges) ~209 kcal burned.

The day went pretty well apart from the headache due to last night's drinks lol.

Week 1 Day 5

Weight: no change (-0.7 kg total)

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.

Snack:  mini scone with butter.

Lunch: roasted beef with jollof rice, 1 digestive biscuit.

Dinner: homemade flatbread with Sriracha mayo, roasted beef and spinach.

Total calories: ~1754 kcal

Workouts: no workout today.

Week 1 Day 6

Weight: +0.6 kg (-0.1 kg total)

Not too worried about this one. I've seen this happen in the past. Weight often goes up and down, it's just the matter of staying on track and being resilient. 

Breakfast: Oat porridge with peanut butter, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Lunch: 2 eggs, 2 sausages, tomato, 1/2 avocado, 1/3 cup sautéed mushrooms and spinach, a few chips with a small amount of ketchup and mayo.

Dinner: bulgogi beef with white rice.

Total calories: ~1248 kcal 

Workouts: 50 minute session at the gym (a mixture of cardio on the elliptical machine, shoulder press and dips) ~203 kcal burned. 

Week 1 Day 7

Weight: -0.9 kg (1 kg total)

See? Told you lol. 

So yesterday I had some health issues and due to nausea I'm taking it slow today. I won't be eating much but because I want to make sure I'm getting a decent amount of nutrients I've made a nice vegetable soup. 2 ladles worth of soup is only 75 calories but 3.6 g of protein since I've added bunch of different beans and peas. I do need to eat more soup so that sorts it lol.

Breakfast: Jollof rice with spinach and 2 boiled eggs.

Week 1 Day 7 lunch

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

Dinner: egg fried rice (or more like bin rice since I just used whatever leftovers and veg I had in the fridge lol).

Total calories: 1287 kcal

Workouts: no workout today because I'm not feeling well. ☹️

Aaaaand week 1 is over! I think I've done really well. It was pretty effortless and I think it's a very sustainable way to lose weight. I'll be continuing this and documenting my progress. It's a great way to track your success and keep your accountability in place. This is what I've missed when I was looking at people's weight loss stories. A lot of the stories I've read had very minimal documentation or unsustainable methods. I hope you enjoy this, let me know if you have any questions in the comments below and I'll update you all on my progress in a week's time! 

Read my Week 2 journey here. 

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

Byeee~

Lina (Rinatsu)

Experiencing discrimination in the UK

We have a lot to catch up on, so why not start with something that happened most recently?

One of the reasons for coming back to blogging is my craving for creative work. For the past few months I had to abandon everything because my husband and I started a new business together. As we have worked in hospitality for many years, and been in higher up, management positions in the past, as well as having a drive for business (we also ran a business together in the past), we decided to have a go at running a pub. To save ourselves from too much risk we decided to get into a special "partnership" agreement with a massive PLC brewery (although it's not really a brewery anymore, more like a corporation that manages real estate), let's call it M (I'm not trying to hide anything, we haven't signed any NDAs, I simply don't want to mention any specific names for the sake of my own peace). 

We decided to take on a pub that was in desperate need of new management. It's an amazing 600 years old Grade II listed building and was in the most beautiful village we've ever seen. The village the pub was in was rated as the poshest village in the country by The Telegraph, and they were spot on. We thought it was a great location, and surely being in a posh place means lots of polite, well mannered people, that will help us create a great atmosphere for everyone. Well, we couldn't have been more wrong...

Let's get one thing out of the way - we've done so well. In the matter of almost 3 months we've managed to build the reputation back up, pretty much double the profits and create a great atmosphere for the visitors, as well as staff. But we were absolutely destroyed. Both mentally and physically. For almost 3 months straight we worked nonstop. Can you imagine working 3 months straight, doing 14-16 hour days with not a single day off? I can not only imagine it, but I've lived through it. It was hell. We simply couldn't find staff. We had plenty of young students and casual staff who wanted to work, but we couldn't find anybody who treated hospitality as a serious job. Oh, how the times have changed from when I worked as a simple waitress many years ago in a restaurant. Plentiful of staff - full time, part time, casual. Whatever you want! Oh, you're leaving? That's ok cos we'll have somebody else replacing you tomorrow lol. I'm not saying it's good, as there was a lot of competition for jobs before Brexit but now you don't even have the workforce at all. What is better? Definitely not this what we have now...

But the thing that hurt me the most was the mistreatment I've received from people...

I know my beer and I understand it. I'm not some top class expert in every single thing and I'm open to learning new things (which I do), but the fact that men wouldn't accept my word or wouldn't trust my recommendations, constantly talking over me was ridiculous. Mate, you do realise I'm the one who orders this beer, tries it, does the research, cleans the lines, looks after the cellar? I was the only one in the pub that had knowledge to do all of that and more. Your beer belly does not define your knowledge, or even intelligence, and yet here we are, dealing with the audacity...

It wasn't just the ignorant men that made my life living hell. Ever since Brexit happened in this country something changed. People became much more hostile. I'm fluent in English. I barely speak my first language on a day to day basis, as I do not have any Lithuanian family or friends around and I find it easier to express myself in English. Yes, I have an accent because I came to this country as an adult. I'll always have an accent and I'm okay with it. I don't feel the need to go to accent classes or whatever to change it because my pronunciation is great and everybody understands me. 🤷‍♀️ Well, that's not what some Brits think. You have an accent? You must be an idiot unintelligent person! The amount of times I've had people slow down their speech as soon as they heard my accent is actually insane. If don't speak a lot people don't even notice my accent! But no, those pesky "r" rolls, and undefined "v"s and "w"s means I'm dumb clueless, of course! 

"What made you come to Europe?" - I've lived in Europe all my life. "Do you like it here?" - It's okay. "Only ok???!!!". These are only some of the legitimate questions I've gotten. The "what made you come to Europe" actually made me speechless for a second lol.

Look, I get it, this might not sound like a lot because I'm retelling things that happened months ago. As always, my trauma response is to slowly delete the events from my memories so all I have left is the very uncomfortable and hurtful feeling, which will happen eventually lol. I wish these things were discussed more widely, that's why I need to share this. The British are always put on such a high pedestal, as such a perfect country yet the members of the society are often racist and xenophobic. It's not a perfect country - far from it, just look at the news. We're allowed to criticise the government but we should also be looking at the people. What happened? I've been here 10 years - that's a whole damn decade. I felt more at home when I had a stronger accent and worked rubbish jobs to survive in my early 20s. I'm now in my 30s, with an extensive CV and experience, yet I feel more out of place than I've ever been.

"Don't like it here? Why don't you leave??" - a common expression from a regular Brit. You know what, mate? It's a good shout, I might do in a few years, who knows where my life will take me. Don't get me wrong, I've met hundreds of amazing people throughout this decade. But this experience was like a concentrated version of all the hatred people have to offer, which really left a bad mark on my soul. I'll rise above it, as always, I just didn't deserve this experience, that's all. Nobody does and nobody will. 

But for the time being I'll stay here, in the UK, mind my own business, as usual, and see what life has got to offer because the country is not completely 💩 yet and there's still some nice people around. Peace. ✌️

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

See you soon~

Lina (Rinatsu)