New Eating Habits

I mentioned before that I started up a new eating habit a few months ago...last August, actually. So I've been at it for awhile now and it's doing me a lot of good in terms of surviving the midday without any breaks, should such a thing happen as it often does at the hospital. Once upon a time I used to be at the point of starvation sometimes because I wouldn't get the time to eat some food until later on in the afternoon.

My diet used to consist of a protein shake in the morning and taking my daily supplements @ 7 AM...sometimes 6:15 AM. That would keep me full until about 10-11:30 AM and then I'd start to get hungry. That's a bit of a problem when you're on ward rounds or in clinic until, say 12:30-1:30 PM because the concentration starts to waver until it's gone entirely.

Some yummy food an Aunt of mine cooked up a few months ago =)

Starting August, while I was on one of my lighter rotations, Family Medicine, I decided to try something a little different. There's a girl in my class who would eat food for breakfast (a full meal), followed by a large apple for lunch and then some cereal or something a bit breakfasty for dinner. Yeah, she had a very backwards way of eating but it worked for her. I got tired of getting so hungry in the middle of the day and recalled that whenever I went to New York, I would be stuffed full of dim sum and other such wonderful foods for breakfast and would make it through the day without getting hungry until dinner sometimes! Breakfast would be at about 10 AM though, so that contributed to the delayed need for food.

Using this as my basis, I decided I'd start eating what was supposed to be my lunch for breakfast (along with my daily supplements as well). And it works like a charm! The starvation, virtually gone...hunger pangs occasionally strike me after 12 depending on how heavy the meal was but it's certainly an improvement on the 10 AM hunger pangs. Around midday, or a little after, or whenever I do get the chance, I have myself a nice healthy snack...be it fruit or a cereal bar. Of course, throughout the day, I drink water, replenishing my hydration and keeping the hunger away as well (it works!). This is usually followed up by dinner...another full meal, usually sometime within the range of 5:30-6:30 PM. And that's it!

The whole new diet routine seems to be working out quite well for me over the past months and I have few complaints about it. Hopefully it'll carry me through my final year of medical school and my 12-month internship. The routine is often slightly altered on days off though. And recently, I've been thinking about how many calories I'm consuming during my days because I've noticed that I feel a little more tired for no particular reason. For that reason, I downloaded this wonderful app for my iPad 2 called MyFitnessPal.

MyFitnessPal is actually quite handy...it gave me an idea of how many calories is ideal for my consumption per day according to my age, sex, working lifestyle (super active, sedentary and everything in between), etc...mine is about 1700. I only just downloaded it the other night but I've been under the number so far. Hmm. Gotta fix that up. It's actually a pretty neat app. I like how it works...it gives you food searches, with a fairly large database, so you can have an estimated calorie intake according to your meals. And if you can't find the food or snack in the database, you can add it manually or just simply input the calories if you know the number already. It pretty much acts as a food journal as well. You never really notice just how much or how little you're eating until you make a note of it somewhere.

Here's my calorie count for the past two days (since downloading the app). When you complete your log for the day, it gives you an estimate of how much you would weight if you were to use x-amount of calories every day. Pretty cool.

The app is available for iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices. Or, you can check out their website if you've got none of them.

So I'll make use of it a little more and see where I can adjust so that I'm getting my daily requirements and not tiring myself out and slowing down my body functions...that would be a bit on the counterproductive side of things!

Pop It

I like my popcorn one of three ways: hot and buttery, hot and salty or hot and cheesy. Either way, I like it hot but why does it have to cool down so quickly? As a result, I've rarely purchased hot popcorn from our theatre in Barbados and so, I rarely purchase popcorn at all.

Thanks to my little kernel incident last November, I've become pretty cautious of popcorn. I take my time chewing one by one little by little. Chew chew chew...there's no need to rush down popcorn. When it gets cold, it gets cold...I prefer it hot but I'll eat it anyways. Food is food...who's to complain? =)

I say all this now to make absolutely no valid point. Just a random post about popcorn. Yum.

Bird's Nest Soup

Many people have had a thing or two to say about a wonderful Asian delicacy that I had while I was in Hong Kong: bird saliva...or more commonly called bird's nest soup. Everyone's had this to say about it: "Ew!" or "Yuck!" and other such related terms.

This lovely bird on the left is called a swiftlet (no need to get into it's scientific name because it's super long) and it is in its nest. The nest of a swiftlet is made, not of twigs, branches and leaves, but of it's saliva. At certain times of the year, this little bird's salivary glands expand and produces copious amounts of saliva. This produces thicker, stronger nests which are harvested 3 times a year.

The bird's nest has a number of benefits on one's health (plus, it's yummy). To keep it's health benefits short and simple, the bird's nest:

• facilitates growth
• replenishes strength and vital energy
• increases immunity (thereby allowing for a speedy recovery from illness)
• regulates endocrine function
• enhances metabolism
• moisturises the skin

Bird's nest is expensive but contains numerous health benefits without tasting like medicine. It can be served with milk, rock sugar, oatmeal or may be served in a chicken broth or congee.

While the bird's nest is made from the saliva of the swiftlet and used as a soup, I don't see why it should be so...gross to think of as a source of food and nutrition. It is just like any other animal product. Milk, too, is produced within an animal yet we all drink it without a second thought.

If you're interested in reading up more on the bird's nest, be sure to check out this site: Natural Nest

Eat Good Food!

Tofu! and Chinese Cabbage! and Cucumbers (an unnecessary accessory to the meal)!

I LOVE tofu...love it, love it, love it! Me loves me veggies too =D Chinese cabbage is good stuff but I don't particularly like foods that require me to chew excessively =\ It was delicious though.

Either way, you probably think the whippets look a lot yummier =P

Dinner was awesome tonight. Loved it.

Whippets

.Marshmallow, cookie and dark chocolatey goodness.

Delicious little snacks! I saw it in the supermarket the other day and just HAD to try it. As soon as I saw it, I was imagining how it tasted...how could I not buy a box? So soft and light and delightful!

Yummmm =]

Shades of Grey

Grey's all over the place today. I had an Ultrasonography lecture today and it was fairly interesting...listened to only half of it. I also had an ultrasonography lecture on Wednesday, except that one was at the hospital and it was late =[ All I learned from it is that it takes some real skills to be able to tell what's what when you're doing an ultrasound O.O Sometimes you can't even make out what's what even when they point it out to you...sometimes you can. Can you tell that the ultrasound picture is a liver? =O It's one of the few that I can make stuff out in haha.

The lecturer also brought along an ultrasound machine so she had some people volunteer to be used =) I volunteered my upper limb for viewing =D I thought it was really neat watching the muscles and tendons moved as I moved my shoulder and elbow. And it was even cooler when she showed my brachial artery and followed it up to the axilla. And I learned that veins collapse quite easily so if you press down too hard with the probe you won't see the vein. I also learned that when you hold your breath, blood flow stops in the veins due to the pressure in the lungs preventing the flow. I can't remember the name she told us though =(

My mom didn't make lunch today so I went ahead and bought myself a Chicken & Potato Roti from Chefette. Not anything like a real roti or anything though. Nothing beats the genuine stuff =D When I got home and spoke to my friend, I started thinking that I should've gotten some popcorn chicken from KFC instead since I can't recall ever having it before...oh well, next time! I think this is the most junk food I've had for awhile...

This afternoon decided that it wanted to be rainy! And the rain just couldn't wait till I got home to spread its terror...just before I got to the bank *sigh* At least the temperature is much cooler now =] But lots of heavy rain! And this island floods too easily but I blame the people who constructed our roads, they're made in such a way that it collects water much quicker than it should.

And I came home to find sheep in the plot of land behind my house! Well it's not the first time, but I think it's been awhile. There were only 2 of them...sometimes there are way way way more lol. Poor sheep...standing out in the rain.