The Big Wedding!

Saturday was my niece’s wedding!  It was a big fancy affair in Boston.  The weather was perfect and the bride and groom were very happy.  My brother (father of the bride) spent the whole last year trying to convince Erin to go to Las Vegas and elope and came up with a cheaper alternative to all of her wedding ideas. That was all to no avail as the wedding was in a beautiful location right on the Boston Harbor with all the accoutrements. 
 
Everything was excellent – the company, food and entertainment.  A good time was had by all.

When I started going to Dana Farber for my cancer care in January, I said to myself that if they said I needed surgery, I would have it because the people I have spoken with who are carcinoid patients from Dana Farber are not always recommended for surgery, as they are at some other places.  When they did recommend me for surgery last April, I said that I would like to hold off on that until after my niece’s wedding in August.  Both Drs. Chan and Clancy thought that I should do it sooner.   I needed to get myself comfortable with the concept of surgery and I wanted to be in good condition for Erin’s wedding so that I did not take any undue attention away from the bride by being sick Aunt Beth.  I also did not want to have surgery in the summer when a lot of medical personnel are new in their roles and/or on vacation.  Since I am asymptomatic, I figured it would be ok.  So far so good.  Today I came back to work and one of my coworkers asked me what I will be doing now that the wedding is over and I said focusing on my upcoming surgery – not quite as fun!

At the wedding, several people came up to me and started asking questions about my cancer.  These were people I did not know or knew only as acquaintances.  I was not really in the mood to talk about my cancer at the wedding.  I deferred the cancer talk and changed the subject.  Since I have a small family, they must have figured that I was the Aunt with cancer.   Ugh…

So, while Erin and John are honeymooning in Europe, I will start thinking about listening to those calming meditations about reframing my thoughts to a more positive place and positioning myself for surgical success.  My pre-op appointment is on September 6^thso that’s my next engagement before the surgery.  Here’s to keeping myself calm and serene in the upcoming weeks.

 

 

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Health & Nutrition - Taco-tomato beef minced

I would love to take this opportunity to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for your support, I am extremely honoured to be an inspiration and I will try my best to share as much as I can too. These comments always make my day and keep me motivated, thank you guys!

As mentioned last week, I have one last recipe from the ingredients that I had bought to share. I would like to make the point across that eating-as-clean-as-you-can and calorie-counting do not mean that your food cannot be yummy and delicious. What you can do to make your food "cleaner" is to add or prepare your seasoning (which I will be attempting soon), use no salt no sugar, and little oil. Healthy/clean food, to me, is a form of indulgence too.

Have fun with your cooking and do share with me your favourite recipes! 

Here's how I prepared my Taco-tomato beef minced. 

Ingredients used:

Always note that everything must be consumed in moderation, no matter how nutritious that food is!

- Olive oil (as usual)
- 3 mini peppers
- 1 medium-sized tomato
- 100g of lean minced beef
- 60g of asparagus
- 3 fresh mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon of taco sauce
- 1 teaspoon of homemade ground garlic
- 1 teaspoon of homemade ground onions

1. Chop the ingredients to your desired sizes - this time round I chopped the asparagus too, leaving the tips as they are.

2. Instead of cooking the beef first, I added the chopped tomatoes first and pan-fried them with the garlic and onions - I wanted the tomatoes to soften and become gravy-like. Then, I added the peppers for the same reason.

3. I added the mushrooms after.

4. Only after all the ingredients are slightly soft, I added the beef in to slowly let the flavour seep into the meat as they get cooked - not sure if this is the best way to let the beef absorb the flavours from the tomatoes and peppers though.

5. The only ingredient I like slightly crunchier, I added the asparagus last.

6. VOILA! Here you go, craving satisfied with the tomato-gravy and I cleared all the ingredients I bought.

Hope you guys like this version too. I welcome feedback so do leave a comment or email me if you wanna share anything. I'm in the midst of preparing my next post on body fat percentage and how weight is not the best indication of your fitness level. Do stay tuned!

Here's what I had been up to:

Never seen myself having so many veins

Under good lighting

Had fun taking photos of my ootd which happens every sunday :)

This smoothie is a mixture of 2 strawberries, 1 kiwi and a banana, very very yummy!

What I had last evening

In case you are not following me on IG, this was part of my legs workout yesterday

Do follow me on IG if you haven't okay? @limaranagustina

Have a great week ahead everyone! Remember to stay tuned for the next post! :)

 

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Health and Nutrition - Taco beef with peppers & asparagus

Well, before I start sharing my recipe, please do take note that I CANNOT cook for a living. HAHA. I cook only because I want to be able to know how much of all the ingredients I put into my body. If you have a better suggestion on how I should cook this, PLEASE do let me know because I'm not sure if this is the best way to cook, but I know I took less than 15 minutes to prepare this quickie. So, enjoy!

What you will need:
- LITTLE bit of olive oil (I estimate. heh)
- 30g of asparagus
- 3 pieces of mini peppers
-100g of lean minced beef
- 1 tablespoon of hot taco sauce
- Garlic salt (can do without)
- All purpose seasoning (can do without)

Got everything from Cold Storage - Asparagus, lean minced beef, sweet mini peppers, Hot Taco sauce (because I was craving mexican), garlic salt and all purpose seasoning

So how did I get all the portions as mentioned above?
1. I portioned the beef into 3 segments since the net weight is 312g and expiring 23rd Aug 2013, so I have about 100g of lean minced beef per day for cooking. Then I portioned the sweet mini peppers into 3 days too. As for the asparagus, I divided what I bought into 6 portions of approx. 30g each. Okay, the reason why I have to do all these portioning is to know how much I eat (everything in moderation, no matter how beneficial something is), and it's much easier for me to key into my calorie counter app (My Fitness Pal). This is how it looks like.

2. Next, cut/chop (whatever you call it) the ingredients to as small or as big as you want, making sure you wash them before you starting the cutting/chopping. For those who know me well enough, I HATED eating veg and ermmm, I still am very picky about the types of veg I eat but I usually force them down and have the least favourite food first before the meat. But wait, I love peppers and asparagus now because of their benefits (will go to that later).

3. Heat up a frying pan till it's hot enough. Now, pour about a tablespoon of olive oil into a frying pan and spread the oil. Once the oil is hot, put in the minced beef and fry till about half-cooked. Put in your favourite seasoning (doesn't have to be taco) and then the peppers. The reason why I put in the peppers earlier is because I like to eat the peppers softer and I want my beef to absorb the fragrance from the peppers. Fry until the beef is fully cooked or when the peppers are soft.

4. Last step, take out the cooked beef and peppers and serve them on a plate, then put the asparagus in and fry till brown (you can choose to take them out earlier) or when they are soft.

TADAH! Easy peasy right? I used less than 15 minutes to prepare this fuss-free meal and gobbled everything up in 5 minutes. Tastes yummy and looks so colourful! Go ahead and try on your own, get your favourite seasoning, or do without.

Let me share with you why I chose peppers and asparagus (besides the fact that I am picky with veg so I chose only the ones I like).
Asparagus:

• is a very good source of fiber, folate, vitamins A, C, E and K, as well as chromium (a trace mineral that enhances the ability of insulin to transport glucose from the bloodstream into cells)
• prevents cancer - a particularly rich source of glutathione, a detoxifying compound that helps break down carcinogens and other harmful compounds like free radicals
• is filled with antioxidants!
• helps in water retention - contains high levels of the amino acid asparagine, which serves as a natural diuretic, and increased urination not only releases fluid but helps rid the body of excess salts
• is an anti-aging property!!

Sweet mini peppers:

• is high in vitamin A, B-complex and C
• is filled with iron, copper, zinc, potassium, manganese, magnesium, and selenium. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Selenium is an anti-oxidant micro-mineral that acts as a co-factor for enzyme, superoxide dismutase

Here's also what I have been up to in pictures, just in case you have not been following me on IG. Follow me on twitter and IG if you have not, @limaranagustina, I update regularly! :)

MIL cooked yummy and healthy food, loads to learn from! A portion of everything good, not too much, not too little. :)

I put chia seeds in my water to drink everyday and I try to drink at least 2 bottles of this 1.5litres (SO difficult I swear, keep hydrating your body because the more you drink, the more you drain!)

One of my morning feeds

Bendover row on Tuesday - new PR yippeee!

One of my evening (fasting hours) feeds

This morning's smoothie which tasted SOOOOO heavenly

Week 1 - abs are flatter but still gathering fats, keep getting at it!!

Today - still trying to get this 145lbs deadlift right and good, with an aggravated ankle (URGH!)

TGIF tomorrow so enjoy the weekend after! I hope you like my recipe and do follow me on IG if you haven't, for LIVE updates (if you are not afraid of the spamming). HURHUR. Hydrate and eat well everyone! :)

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Health & Nutrition - The reality of food

I hate to break this news but since I started calorie-counting and looking up what I really eat and their nutritional value, I was appalled with the facts about the foods that I have been feeding myself and how ignorant we have all been regarding the foods we have been eating.

Here are some very good examples which I wanna share. I have always thought that eggs are good because of the protein content and that everyone else who are building muscles and eating clean are adding a lot of eggs in their diets. So as I was doing the math and finding out more about eggs, I found that eggs have very high fat content. While you can get a good 6g of protein from eggs and it tastes yummy (at least to me and my gym buddies), there is actually about 4-4.5g of fats in each egg you consume. It all comes from the yolk, of course but having said that, you will be getting only half the amount of protein if you were to remove the yolk. SAD TRUTH I know.

Credits to nutritiondata.self.com

Another fact that I will wanna share is about Avocados. Avocados are highly beneficial in boosting good cholesterol in your body, they provide all 18 essential amino acids necessary for the body to form a complete protein, help prevent or mitigate against both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, offer powerful anti-inflammatory benefits and lower risks of getting heart diseases. BUT, the matter of fact is that it is still high in fat and carb content. I was shocked after I made my morning avocado juice with a whole avocado because I exceeded my daily fat content in just one meal and it was the first meal of the day! Solution: eat 1/4 to 1/2 for breakfast ONLY - try to have foods that are high in fats and carbs as early in the day as possible.

Credits to nutritiondata.self.com

These are just 2 of the examples that I have found and I'll be updating if I find out more. Also, I'm doing this because I'm doing a caloric deficit to my diet right now so I need to know exactly what I put into my body. I'm not trying to encourage anybody to avoid taking eggs and/or avocados because they are very beneficial to your body. What I'm trying to emphases here is that, you will have to take every food in moderation, no matter how beneficial the food is to our body. This could be the reason why I don't see results having altered my diet so much previously, I was eating too much of the "good" food. Bottomline is, don't just take advises from people and take them for real, if you are really serious and passionate about something, go research and find out more yourself. Personally I do give a lot of advises, telling people I know to eat clean and healthy, etc. But PLEASE do not take my word for it. I'm still learning and exploring, though I love to share. (:

So, here's what I have been up to, in pictures. 

Rowed 45 mins, completed 6.234km on Friday

Having watermelon juice on my way home after training

Jason says this is the greatest fruit God created, I agreed!

Blueberries & banana smoothie for breakfast

Of course, not forgetting milk, plain yogurt and 1 scoop of protein

My current state - Week 0

What I do on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, honing my skills for the love of Netball

Today - having lunch after mass in the freaking weather

Mandatory ootd shot while waiting for the car engine to warm up

Well, my dinner has become more exotic - these are fruits that I never liked, besides the apple

What I took home after today's homily by Fr Derrick - very powerful, hitting me right at the spot. Love the part he talks about likening our lives to silver-refining.  There is a reason why God throws us in the fire and there are obstacles in our lives, it is like putting the silver in and out of the furnace countlessly, to get rid of the impurities. God will know when he takes the silver (us) out of the furnace and sees His own reflection in us, only then we will be perfect and flawless, rid of impurities. Such a beautiful homily!

Have a blessed week ahead everyone! Good night!

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