Thursday, July 23, 2015

Master Cleanse Day 3.5

I woke up today feeling extremely fatigue, ceiling spinning, body stuck to my bed. Not a good feeling, perhaps due to exercise from yesterday. Throughout the day I was in range for nothing, moody, and unable to form decent conversions with people. To prevent my reputation at work from depleting even more, I stopped my cleanse at noon, and grabbed fruit salad and two bananas for lunch.

Now I am in the process of slowly introducing larger quantities of food into my diet. This includes gradually go up to normal size meals, avoiding over expanding my stomach by eating until full, and cutting out as much carbs as I can for a healthier diet.

Most people say that it is easy to gain back the weight after the cleanse, but as long as you exercise and eat right, that wouldn't be a concern.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Master Cleanse Day 3

Talking about food and hunger! It is restaurant week in DC soon and I've asked all my friends to go with me. I woke up this morning again with watery diarrhea, and notice that my face and hands are very dry. I am getting concerned about my water level, and considering just stop after Day 3. People report that they feel the chills and lack of energy while being on the master cleanse. I don't feel either. The only thing I feel is a subtle desire to eat food, kind of like a subtle ache during menstrual cycle. I skipped the salt water flush, because I just cannot handle the taste of salty water in the morning anymore.

The feeling of hunger comes and goes throughout the day, just like day 2. Occasionally I would need a bathroom break due to the lemonade and water I drank, but nothing inconvenient for any job. I weight myself on a scale, and realize that I lost 3 pounds in total already. The big loss in weight is most likely due to my large fat content in my body to start with. My body is still flabby since there is no muscle underneath.

With the dryness persisting on my skin, I have made the decision to terminate the master cleanse after day 4.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Master Cleanse Day 2

I woke up this morning with pain around the abdominal area -- sign of bowel movement. After a few turning and tossing in bed, I got up to the bathroom and let my colon do the job. Here goes another day of cleanse, and my excitement for the cleanse is gone. Because the salt water flushing from the day before was too much for me to handle, I reduced the portion size to 1/2 of recommended volume. By this time, I noticed dryness on my face -- a sign of dehydration from frequent bowel movement.

Surprisingly, I did not have the urge to eat anything. It's like I lost my appetite. I went on the whole morning without drinking any lemonade for calories, and drank only 4 cups in the afternoon. While I was wondering what happened to me and worry about signs of anorexia, I was pretty content with the rate that my body is burning fat. 

After work, I went for a shopping spree to diverge my attention from wanting to eat solid food again. Night time is when you have exhausted all of your mental power, so control on yourself is the hardest. I walked throughout Tysons Corner mall, tried on a couple dresses, and was VERY happy with the way my body looks now. I am in no way believe that I lost any weight by just doing 2 days of master cleanse, which once again confirm that body image is all subjective. 

I've only had 6 cups of liquid today, so I am more dehydrated than normal. I went to bed again after drinking laxative tea.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Master Cleanse Day 1

So I am starting on this Master Cleanse diet. It's a recommended 10 day diet to "detoxify" your body and lose weight. It consists of a salt water flush as breakfast, then a spicy lemonade drink that you can indulge yourself throughout the day, and end with a laxative tea right before you go to bed. It's summer, and I have a food baby, so I am getting an abortion.

My experience for the first day of the master cleanse is not pleasant. The salt water flush does not taste pleasant to the mouth. I have to drink water afterwards to make sure that I washed out the salt in my mouth. It takes about 30 minutes for the salt water to go through my system, and what I got was watery diarrhea. Throughout the day I drank 50oz of the lemonade while drooling over all of the solid food my coworkers were having. It was definitely torture, but I was able to hold it in.

As dinner time approaches, my urge to eat solid food, especially foods with strong tastes, such as steak, or lamb chop, intensifies. I have the urge to look at pictures of food, I went on Yelp and researched on restaurants that I want to try after I finished the master cleanse. After suppressing my desire to eat, I started looking for other things to do to diverge my attention from solid foods. I drank my laxative tea, and went to bed early.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Bubble Tea Recipe

There are different styles of bubble tea, each features a little twist in taste, level of bitterness, softness of bubbles within. It all depends on your preferences. Here is my own recipe for the classic hong-kong style bubble tea, you can try it and change the ratios of tea to milk according to your liking. Here we go:



Ingredients:

- half and half cream (you can replace with milk if you are going for low calorie)
- A bag of Lipton black tea
- honey
- instant bubbles (you can get those from Korean or Chinese supermarkets)

Recipe:

- boil water until it steams
- sip tea bag in water for 15 minutes
- mix half and half cream with black tea in a 1:1 ratio, throw in a few drops of honey, shake the mixture in a closed container like it's the end of the world to make milk tea
- cook instant bubbles according to given instruction (instant bubbles is normally nice and tender in 5 minutes in boiling water, to make bubbles sweeter, soak the bubbles in warm honey water)
- use strainer to strain out bubbles from liquid, then add into milk tea

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Just a few things about relationships

I was recently talking to a friend about some of the most difficult things about relationships, and here is what we've concluded:

- You cannot control what the other person thinks or do, even if you told your partner to do so.
- Communication is essential, no matter how small or big the problem is.
- It is easy to let emotions cloud your judgement, especially if your connection with one another is strong.
- A good relationship takes patience from both parties, but never tolerance.
- Reliance is a common but detrimental thing.
- A successful, healthy relationship needs work on yourself, not on the other.
- There were always clues that indicated the doom of your relationship, you just chose to ignore it.
- Women fall in love and fall out of it really quickly-- after 2 month out of any relationship with no contact, you will be at least emotionally stable.
- Do whatever it makes you feel good.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

My Log Theory - Materialism

There are times when I was heavily involved in getting luxury things in life. Blinded by my insecurities and lack of identities (although I still am to some degree), I only looked at brands. It was a period with no true happiness, a period when my mind is focused on physical things in front of me, also a period that my mind was focused on personal growth the least. Once my finance diminished, I went cold turkey. No more pretty clothing that looks unique and expensive, no more spas and nail treatments, no more bags and shoes with shiny stones. Looking in hindsight, I was glad I went back to normal. While it is true that obtaining things I've always wanted was temporaily satisfying, but in that point in time I was never as happy as I am right now - no money to spend, just wonderful people who understands me.

Even through a lot of people look at materialism as a leeway to show status, but it is more of a false facade of acted happiness. If you are in a state of mind that you look and drool over the nice cars and houses that people have, just know that the owner of those things might be so occupied with obtaining nicer things, that their mind have no time to spend to actually understand themselves and find true fulfillment in life.

Materialism is like a free floating log in an ocean that represents your true identity. If you cling on to it, you won't sink down to the bottom of the ocean. If you cling on to it long enough, you might even forget how to swim, and lose the ability to explore and discover yourself.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Del Frisco's in New York, New York

How many fancy, corporate level, over the top, traditional American restaurants are there in New York? Countless. Palm, Ruth's Chris, Cheesecake factory? Joking. You see men dressed up in suits, women in evening gowns, filled with artificial happiness and sense of entitlement. Call me insecure but I am not a fan of those places. I was unfortunate to be in one, and it happens to be Del Frisco's in New York. 


First of all, the location of this place is just gold. Located in the heart of major tourist destination and expensive office buildings, this place attracts lobbyists, investment bankers, and pretty people. You can argue that one of its more justifiable reason to charge sky high price for its food is the rental fee, which I deeply understand.


Inside of this restaurant is this dooming-yellowish-lighting-thing watching over us. I'm not sure why it is there, I don't like it. It's condescending floor to three-stories-tall ceiling windows certainly makes me feel like at home.


If you look outside the window, you see more cool office building architectures swimming in clouds of god-knows-what and kick-ass lighting effects. 


We ordered snow crabs. It was meh. I don't like snow crabs.


We ordered beef tartar. It was awesome. Crunchy bread, tender beef tartar mixed with just enough seasoning. Not too salty, not too light, just enough to be a good appetizer. 


This is what we went there for, the Wagyu long bone. It was the most expensive piece of meat I have ever had. And I certainly do not think that it is worth it. Yes that the texture of the steak is good, but I admit that I am not a steak pro, so that Wagyu tasted the same as my prime rib steak bought from Trader Joe's. However, this Wagyu does have complex layers of flavors on the outside that I am amazed to taste.


See that fancy service? I can feel that sense of entitlement just looking at this picture.


We also ordered lobster macaroni and cheese. It was meh. I don't like lobster. Oh and did I mention that they bring out over baked sizzling plates so it can keep your food warm? I burned my hand on it.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Pho 75 in Rosslyn, Virginia

This is one of those asian restaurants that avoids taxes by only accepting cash and no credit cards, but oh well if it is cheap, tasty, and offers large portions, we have no choice.

On a Sunday morning I woke up with an empty stomach and dry mouth. The number one thing that appeared in my brain to address my hunger issue is a large bowl of pho noodles that is filled with well boiled- msg filled beef broth, green onions, and random beef internal organs and briskets. Well, Pho 75 is the exact place to go in the DVM area. I have been to this place numerous times, but was not a single time disappointed. Yes their pho noodles are generic, but it can beat all the other pho noodle restaurants I have tried all over DC.


This bowl of goodness entails soft chewy rice noodles at the bottom, almost-done beef and green onions swimming on the surface of the soup, and broth that you cannot stop drinking because the glutamate just keeps on stimulating your happy nerves. It takes on average 10 minutes for me to finish one of these things - one of the most fulfilling 10 minutes of my life.