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)