Some thoughts after PCP

So, a couple of days after PCP, I tried to re adjust myself into a "normal" life, only realizing that it is not the same as it used to be. For example, my fingers got all puffy in the morning from the salt that I ate the previous day. It was not that salty because I cooked by myself using a moderate amount of ingredients. Behold the power of salt.

Still scared of eating lots of carbs. I'm sure my body is tend to save up lots of carbs as my DNA is programmed, which is haplogroup D, a branch originated from East Africa to Japan through Arabic peninsula and Iran over Russia. Japan had several famines in history and my ancestors survived those, remaining the memories of bearing up such hungers on the genes I inherited. There's no escape from a  program called DNA, just like you can't get your perfect 6 pack if you're designed to....unless you have a plastic surgery to suck your fat to form a perfect 6 pack performed in South Korea. BTW, you can find your own DNA journey at The Genographic Project at National Geographic, which I did a while ago.

Seeing many "healthy products" commercials, such as "have this juice if you're not having enough vegetables", I just think "eat more veggies then". So many catchy copies "this makes you healthy", "this helps you to be younger". So much to sell.  I'm sure it takes a great effort to consume veggies because everywhere you go, the cheap lunches you can find are mostly overloaded with carbs and fried foods. One of my friends says how come healthy meals are expensive. Somehow I see more round people in a cheap fast food restaurants. Do you see connections...? Spending on good food must be a lot less than spending on the medication which caused by eating crappy food, I assume, but people are tend to be short sighted. People can come up with so many excuses not to go for, rather than one good reason to execute it.

A TV show had a scene from Tonga that people eat ice cream on top of a loaf of bread. How many calories?? No wonder they are all large...

I now can feel my bowel movements. It's just like a baby wiggling in my tummy that I'm familiar with, but it is the bowel that's wiggling. Less visceral fat and lots of veggies made it possible, I guess.

And here're the before and after numbers:
Weight: 60.2kg -> 53.8kg
Body fat: 27.9% -> 22.5%
Visceral fat: 4.5% -> 2.5%
Basal metabolism: 1288 -> 1210
Muscle mass: 27.3% -> 29.4%
Subcutaneous fat: 20.6% -> 15.7%
BMI: 22.9 -> 20.5
Body age: 41 -> 33

I thank my husband and my kids for their cooperation and patience (!?) during the program. My husband helped me and guided me from time to time as he's done it, with an attitude of "yeah, been there, done that". As a picky eater, my daughter usually doesn't eat the most of the vegetables but helped me with eating just stems of broccoli whereas my son ate the bud part. She still asks me how come I'm not having an apple dinner. Sweet heart, these days are gone now, and I can eat a lot more now. My son keeps feeding me cherry tomato regardless my mouth is still full. And I thank Patrick! What have you done to us...:-) Also, for the PCPers in the same group, congratulations! And for those just started, keep it up! In 3 months, you'll be a totally different person!!

Just to get back to my routine, I boiled 4 broccoli and 10 eggs, and made a bowl of Tabouli with lots of cucumber and tomato with only lemon juice for flavor. Mushrooms, pumpkin, and okra are in the oven grilling. Ah, I feel comfortable seeing my fridge is filled with tapper wears with veggies.

So, what's my next endeavour will be....

Complete!

Before and After photo!

Also updated some photos from this morning at Patrick's.

Day 90

I just finished my very last work out, and after work out snack and night snack. I picked Day 11. The day we had the earthquake. Since that day, everything was like a ride on roller coaster. And now I'm here, completed the 90 days somehow. Although, I'm coming in to Patrick's tomorrow morning for weigh in and photos, so it's not completely over yet...

My shoulders are sore, and I would very much like to sleep tonight, so more tomorrow...

Day 89

I'm at my parents' with my kids since last night, as my husband is away for his own thing. My son's having mild fever from yesterday, I'm having trouble with sleep, as he keeps waking up at night....

Anyhow, gathered myself, and started with jump rope in the rain. The rainy season started in Tokyo. And the super sets. OMG. My shoulders/arms were all sore, and my tummy was in pain I was not sure if I could be functional the rest of the day.

Went to a local semi-farmers market. Everything is cheap! JPY60 for a broccoli! JPY80 for a lettuce! JPY100 for a huge zucchini! JPY100 for a package of mushroom! 2 baskets of veggies for JPY3,500!! Easily 1/3 of the price compare to Tokyo... So prepped these tons of veggies for the rest of the stay. Yeah!

Finished up with local hot spring, and a local soba noodle restaurant where I had bonito sashimi only while the kids and my parents are having home made soba. I off course had some veggies which I prepared to complete my dinner at home.

One more day...

Day 88

The number of V-sits I could do until failure is becoming smaller and smaller every day....

Day 87

Did jump rope and exercise after kids went to school. Oh my shoulders are in pain....

Tried to do another 2 sets of jump rope after they went to sleep, but my son became grumpy and started vomiting.... Joy of parenting. He was like this for a couple of hours from 10 pm, and I just gave up and went to sleep with him after he fell asleep finally on a couch.

Day 86

Now I’m sitting in front of a gym which has huge glass windows that you can see people working out. Instead of asking some staff’s time, my husband suggested to observe without doing anything but sipping coffee after our burrito lunch for the homework assignment. This gym is supposedly famous, or that’s what they sell, for the workout you should have a personal trainer the entire time, and every staff is wearing Target T-shirt. I won’t reveal the name of the gym but it may give you a hint if you know of Roppongi area well.

Anyhow, some interesting things are going on. The machines they have are all painted red, which seems like their theme color. One guy is busy pulling the machine which looks like, supposedly to work your shoulders, with his back and the entire body. I can see what he is doing. Pulling. Yes, pulling. The weight in front of him going up and down, that’s what he’s aiming at. PULLING. Too bad his targeted muscle is not working, really. Then he moved onto another machine, started PULLING again. Too bad, his fore arms aren’t working out which that machine is designed to if he uses correctly.

Another guy is on a treadmill, with a female trainer, running so badly. Isn’t she supposed to be teaching him how to run….?

A woman is giving a massage with a bar/stick to a guy who’s kind of buff but gut sticking out…. What does it do? She’s massaging him just like flattening cookie dough with rolling pin. Mmmm….

I see about 10 people there, but the most people are just chatting, drinking energy drink it “might help you burn calories”. This is more of the social space. Plus, this place is like a show case, to be seen place considering the location and the settings of glass walls all around you. People walking by or eating/drinking see you sweating, trying to be muscular, or showing off your sexy work out costume….

I never liked gym. Several times I joined, and I didn’t like waiting for a machine while some macho was checking his reflection on a mirror or just chatting about what protein he drinks, some old man trying to hit on a young female instructors, etc. Or just working on a cycling machine staring at a TV. Boring.

Anyhow, I like people watch and it was an interesting show, and it reminded me to stay away from a typical gym, especially this one....

Day 85

My shoulders are all sore from the exercise, and again I fell asleep on a couch for 15 min or so...!

Did the jump rope again in the morning and night 2 sets each. Burn, burn, burn....

And the count down starts! 5 days to go, people!!

Day 84

9 min is long! Did jump rope before breakfast, and again after kids went to sleep, 2 sets each, as I felt I was getting fat not having exercise... Also, my body is aching here and there, and I must be very tired, I fell asleep on a couch in the afternoon....! Call from my work woke me up.

The very last week is about to begin soon...

Day 83

Jump rope again with 3 sets and the exercise this morning before breakfast. As my husband won't be around today, I was in charge with kids, so I wanted to save some energy for the day.

Packed up sliced apples and lunch, etc., we went out, hoping the son would fall asleep soon, which failed. So, took bus up to Roppongi Hills, walked around, had an early lunch (kids had pizza), played at a toy store, checked out a new pet shop, etc., then the son fall asleep finally. By the time dark cloud approached, we decided to go home early. 10 min later at home, son woke up, grumpy, so laid on the futon with him and another grumpy kid, my daughter, we all fell asleep, for about an hour until she woke up in a dream, scared of the sound of rain.

So, didn't walk much as I expected, I did another 3 sets of jump ropes after everybody went to sleep, plus 8 min abs.

Good night!

Day 82

Did the jump rope 3 sets this morning, assuming I would be walking a lot with kids later the day.

Did laundry and the other house stuff, packed my lunch and off we went to Patrick's down in Yokohama by train. Luckily the son fell asleep on the train as he started his day early from 5 am as usual, I could have a photo and number check with Patrick.

Fat under skin went down by 07% from last week....! Double set of jump rope worked! Will see how far I can go the following week.

Day 81

Thanks to my son who woke me up this morning around 5, I managed to finish 6 sets of jump rope and exercise by the time we left for kid's school's sports day from 10 a.m. Nice weather, almost summerly. Plus kids insisted going to visit one of their best friends afterwords, we walked for 30 min or so to their place, hanged out for a while, then went back home before dinner. It made me, or us really tired from the all unusualness and lots of walking/moving around, kids getting upset for several times, and less breaks. Anyhow, managed to get home, heated up left overs, took bathe, and they both fell asleep reasonably quick. So, here I am enjoying my night snack fruits solo!

Day 80 lunch

Seasonal seafood: raw whitebait and shrimp for lunch. My favorite! Plus a plate of grilled veggie.

Did 6 sets of jump ropes, then the exercise, then 8 min abs like usual. Dips were killing me....! Spent almost a couple of hours...

Oh boy, 10 days to go.... Can't believe I've came to this far, after the earthquake and all that. 

Day 79

Did double set jump rope and exercise in the morning. Plaaaaaank...!!

The co-ope delivery arrived at noon, so prepared the veggies with oven, stove, etc. everything I had, and put in the containers. Felt good preparing but sadly it will be gone in a few days....

Day 78

Was so afraid of opening the new menu this morning. But first, I needed to eat because I was very hungry. Usual breakfast, sent off kids to school, then I started with my doubled jump rope again. It is very long, but I'm just telling myself that I can do this for another 2 weeks... And in the middle of the shoulder press, my band broke! It was a hand down from my husband so maybe it was time. Anyhow, I had a harder band so I used that one instead, and my shoulders hurt.... Even brushing my teeth are difficult....

Day 77

I had to take my kids to school this morning, I did my jump rope before lunch today. Again doubled the sets, so 7 min x 6! Will see how much it'll contribute...

As I didn't have dinner nor snack last night, I didn't feel sick this morning by eating a lot yesterday. Surely it was 2 meals worth lunch but it was very interesting to see how much food gets me going how long. And I can say now the veggie plate is my comfort food.

2 more weeks everyone...!

Day 76

So, in order to burn some more fat, I doubled the jump rope: 6 min x 6 sets. And abs til failure - thought could do forever, but collapsed at 170 at first, then 100, 80, 72, then 70.

It's another beautiful day, we went to Ginza for a long walk even before the stores were open. I actually didn't care about the stores, but rather just get out the house as kids were screaming, husband going crazy, and my parents around. Plus, decided to do my indulgence, something I used to love: buffet lunch at Mandarin Oriental Italian restaurant called Ventaglio. Made a reservation for the clan and walked to Nihombashi from Ginza.

So, here we are. I started with salad and the other veggies without thinking, and they had wonderful dishes. Had 2 trips back to the veggie island while kids were busy with pasta, then moved onto the main dishes table. The photo is one of the mains they had which I forgot the name, but I enjoyed it very much as I like mussel and snapper. They also had roast beef with truffle hazelnut sauce, and some beef stew. I only had 2 pieces of fussilli, I tried some of their tiny deserts to see how my body would react. Result: whipped cream and chocolate cake were NO as they made me mildly sick, jasmine tea jelly was great, and fruit tart was so tasty. And I finished the meal with cappuccino.

So, feeling guilty about eating that much, tried to contribute some calorie consumption by walking back from Nihombashi to Shimbashi via Ginza again.

It filled me up and I didn't even had dinner nor evening snack, as I was dog tired. I felt my body sunk to the mattress, then the next thing I know was my son waking up in the morning...!

Day 75

Used harder band for standing ovation this morning. I can feel the difference! And did I mention I hate plank? No way I can do one leg each...

It was a beautiful day today. Went to Ningyocho for a gift shopping, managed to walk through Amazake Yokocho which is one of the famous gourmet shopping streets in Tokyo, without buying any other than a meal for kids. We kept walking to Royal Park Hotel and had lunch buffet where I could eat lots of veggie and a slice of roast beef with only horse radish.

Went to Patrick's for photo and numbers (Thanks Patrick!), with my daughter as she changed her mind to come with me when I was about to leave. My fat under skin was 22.2. I need to cut 2% by the end of the PCP, so need to do more cardio exercise. Mmm.

The last indulgence, like a steak in the death row...? What should I do? Sushi, Korean BBQ, Steak and frits, Burrito, baguette and blue cheese...? Any of these aren't really calling somehow...

Day 74

Blogger was wired I couldn't update last night....

Anyhow, basically, my shoulders were quivering, leg ups are no more leg ups, but rather leg lifting after the 3rd set. It only gets harder....;-)

Today's fun part: my daughter had fever before lunch so I had to finish up quickly a lunch date with my husband, pick her up, went to see Dr., pick up prescription, come home, pick up my son at school, then I got an urgent request of procurement from the office before 5pm on FRIDAY, tried to catch a guy, requested for an approval from HQ in NZ which was already closed 3,4 hours ago, while my girl was crying from fever, my boy was screaming he was hungry, and me cooking dinner for them plus mine... LOTS going on. Murphy's Law.

Day 73

Triceps until failure - I could do 42 then 30, 25, 23, 21.... so I guess for this the band I use is the right one. And bicycle, I could barley pull up my legs up after the second set. My feet are a lot closer to the floor!

Day 72

Standing ovation until failure...! I could do about 120 at the first set, then the number decreased to 68, 50, 42, then 38. OMG. Everything after this hurts so much I again had troubles typing...

Grilled lots of veggie in the oven for some change. I find it is quite tiring eating all I want to eat veggies at each meal, and I feel like I became a horse...

Day 71

What's the deal Davinci until failure for 5 sets?! My shoulders are soooo sore.... Typing is a little difficult now....

Day 70

6 min is a bit long, but I know it will only get longer...

Day 68 & 69

Went to my parent's from last night for a couple nights with kids, so that I can give a break for my husband.  I did my exercise while my parents watching my kids, except the exercise on the day 69, which I saved after coming back to my home as I was afraid I would not be able to hold my kids during the trip back from the sore shoulders and arms.

I told my parents to cut carbs and eat more veggie at the beginning of their meal, and they lost about a couple of kg in 2 weeks. They're still obsessed eating a lot as they've told not to waste food during their early poor days. I bed it was a little annoying to them that me checking everything they eat. My humble contribution to them was to grill and steam lots of veggie, leaving in their fridge before departure.

Day 67

Did my exercise after sending off kids to school with their papa. OMG, almost the entire body is aching so bad, and I could barely do the V-sit, very much close to the "へ" (he, Japanese alphabet) not V.... Pretty much every thing I fail at the third set. I bet I'm doing it OK as it's designed that you fail....

Day 64 - 66

New week!

We were Osaka for 3 days vacation. Packed my food and exercise gear, stayed at Ritz. Did my exercises from 6 at the gym, people were wondering what I was up to since I did not touch any of those machines they equipped nicely but did jump rope in the corner, enjoyed breakfast buffet with all I want to eat veggie, had to skip those Osaka gourmet which are mainly made with flower dough base. Hit Universal Studio Japan on the second day with kids, again, food there was terrible, which was expected.

Anyhow, survived the trip, and am busy doing laundry....

Day 63

Only jump rope day! But 5 min is very long!

As kids' school is closed today, I left them with my mother at home and left for work for about 2 hours. They wore her out and she had to take a nap in the afternoon. So, I took them out after lunch, which I stuffed myself with lots of veggie and avocado. I've been very hungry at lunch time I can't believe.

No purposes but son insisted taking on a bus, we went to Ginza for walk. Nice warm day. Walked around until some girl screamed and woke my son up from his short nap, we hit Kimuraya for a bread snack. Everything looks beautiful but strangely I was not tempted at all. Everything looks just sugar bombs. They had a few bites and did not finish their bread which were Melon pan (melon bread) and chocolate bread with chocolate cream filled.

Had some ice coffee fix at Starbucks before taking bus ride back home, my kids again wanted another sugar bomb. Chocolate on a stick. OMG. They got sugar rush and had a major trouble sleeping tonight. Oh well...

Day 62

My son woke me up around 5:30 a.m. this morning, about an hour later than these past a few days... Still finished the exercise before breakfast around 7:00.

I've been doing fine with the first 2 sets of each exercise but then the 3rd and so on gets really hard and shaky...

Day 61

Breakfast: Omelet with nutmeg, bell pepper, broccoli, mini tomato, bread, and low fat milk.

Started the day early again, thanks to my son. Finished with exercise by 6:30 a.m. 

Day 60

It's already day 60, 30 days to go!

I started early today. My son woke me up around 4:45 a.m., and I finished the exercise by 6:30, even finished feeding him breakfast, before my husband and daughter got up.

Nice weather on a national holiday, we took a long walk back from Shibuya to Hiroo, including my son's nap and a coffee break at Starbucks. My daughter snatched my egg white...!

Lunch at Homework's: chicken Caesar salad. Needed some carbs, so bought a brown rice ball sold at National supermarket. I should load up some of the brown rice at home...

Day 59

Managed to finish the exercise. Got a little better with Kungfu sit ups and could do the first 2 sets OK, the rest were shaking....

Day 58

Did my exercise before laving the house, leg ups are so heavy...

Day 57

My son's been waking up reasonably early these days: 5:45 a.m. Fed my kids, saw them off to school, then I did my exercise. Lots of leg works made me sweat a lot. Can tell the difference of mainly shoulder/arm day and leg day by the speed of me start sweating. More muscle, more sweat. Interesting. Also made me a little bit less fat than yesterday :-)

Day 56

Did jump rope before breakfast. I feel I'm fat when I don't have exercise...

Day 55 - Indulgence #2

Did the exercise before breakfast in the morning, headed to Nishiazabu to meet up with a friend for lunch at Fiorenza. Here's my indulgence #2 - chicken liver pasta. I'm sure some of you don't like liver, but I love it. And I love this restaurant, too. They offer reasonable and good food even on Sundays. We enjoyed our lunch with a good friend, kids enjoyed their tomato sauce pasta. My jew husband didn't like it but it was my fix for another a month or so.

It was a beautiful weather and we went to park after the lunch, walked around the area, and went back to docomo shop again. Oh, the saga of my mobile phone. I had to let them ship it to LG for their check up, and I off course got a spare phone to take back home while they figure out what's wrong with it...

So, I skipped afternoon tea snack as I was still stuffed, and had dinner, then went to bed, skipped night time snack again...;-)

Day 54

My son woke up around 5 this Saturday morning.... I was dog tired last night, couldn't get up after putting kids to bed, I missed my evening snack.... So, I was very hungry this morning, had to eat first. Then did exercise. Leg ups are killing my back.

It rained all day, couldn't go out at all. So decided to bake some muffin for kids. I off course could enjoy the smell of baking, but that's about it...

I haven't had my indulgence as I can't really tell what I want. Strange but I don't have cravings for any particular food these days.

Day 53

Still mobile phone is not coming back, had to run to the docomo shop again this morning. Got a new battery though it won't charge up this time..... Had to go again in the evening, let them charge the battery, then pick it up again after picking up kids..... I've decided no more LG products.

Anyhow, exercise wise, my shoulders are sore, and thanks to the 3 trips to the docomo shop, I added some more walking for a day.

Day 52

My mobile phone dies last night and I haven't been able to take photos and upload on the blog.... already went twice to docomo shop (mobile carrier), even changed a phone itself, but it died again. Have to get a new battery first thing tomorrow..... garrrrr....

The pull ups are killing me....! I still can't do the regular pull ups and go with the incline ones, but still it's a lot.

Day 51 Lunch

Neba neba soba (sticky buckwheat noodle): buckwheat noodle, sea kelp, squid, shrimp, cucumber, long leak, and dried seaweed on top. 

Outside curl was a lot harder than it looks.

Day 50

Exercise after kids went to school. Davinci, there you were...!!  I weighed myself, and I lost almost 6 kg. My body weighs almost same as when I was in high school.

Wow, all you can eat vegi for lunch!?

Day 49

Strange to say this but I don't feel right if I did not do exercise now.... not that I enjoy it; it still is painful and troubles me with walking all day long.

Indulgence #2 - did not expect to have this opportunity so soon. What should I get this time? Think think think....

Day 48

My son woke up around 5:30 this morning, I could start my exercise around 6:00 after feeding him breakfast, then finished by 7:00. Good to start early.

Packed up my lunch (pasta with shrimp, bell pepper, roasted mushroom, broccoli, with thyme) and fruit snacks, we went to Asakusa. The station doesn't have elevators (or have to go to the other end of the station which is far from Sensoji, where the temple is), my husband had to carry two strollers up and down.  It was off course crowded as usual in Sunday, but very few tourists. Smell of sesame oil from tempra restaurants, sembei (rice crackers) with soy sauce, ningyo yaki (doll cake), all kinds of goodies smell were in the air....;-)

Had my lunch at the sample's food vendor area while kids were eating sausage from there, we went back home as kids were getting grumpy.

Cooked vegetables for next week while kids were napping.

Day 47 Lunch

Finally I could have my very own, alone lunch today. 

Cooked sardine with tomato, turnip and its green, bell pepper, and a slice of brown bread. Colorful like an Italian flag!

Day 47

Breakfast: sweet potato, asparagus, bell pepper, whole wheat bagel, and Greek yogurt with cinnamon and honey.

Finished exercise before breakfast! Kung fu sit up...!? I had to touch the ground every time not to swing.

Day 46

Today's discovery - mini bagel + low fat Greek yogurt = bagel + (almost) cream cheese.

Kids watched Ponyo at breakfast time, while eating bagel and ham just like Ponyo herself (Ponyo loves ham), it kept them busy, so I could do my jumps and exercises before my breakfast! Though Davinci killed my shoulders and it was soooo hard to push stroller in the afternoon. I also can not walk faster pushing it....!

My daughter's fever went down to almost normal, and I hope she can go back to school from next Monday. 

Day 45 lunch@park

It was a shame to stay home despite of such a beautiful, summary day today with a sick kid. So, packed up our lunch, put a sick kid on a stroller, off we went to a park to enjoy the almost ending cherry blossom. There are many people who had the same idea of having lunch outside, including a big group of school kids. 

Day 44

So, my daughter has a type B flue.... that means she has to stay home another 2 days after her fever goes down, which means I have to cancel all my appointments this week and stay home with her.... Joy of parenting. This is a challenge on top of the physical challenges of PCP exercises and the diet.

Day 43

Breakfast: avocado and boiled egg on toast, bell peppers, and low fat milk.

My daughter still has fever so had to stay home with her. Managed to finish the exercise while she becomes grumpy sometimes.... Maybe I need to take her to hospital tomorrow morning. 

Day 42

My daughter had fever this morning. Luckily I had my parents stayed over last night, left her with them, dashed to and from work in one hour to do some urgent stuff, and came back home to stay with her. 

She asked for chocolate chip mint ice cream which I couldn't find at any supermarkets nor convenient stores around in my neighborhood, I put her on a stroller and went for Buskin Robbins. 

It was such a beautiful day, perfect weather for cherry blossom watching. Some even started falling like snow, which is my favorite. It's so dramatic. 

For lunch, we went to Luca Deli in Hiroo. My kids' school cater lunch from them, and it's very good.  They have veggie dish, and the photo is the entree, vegetable pate. I off course had it without the sauce, and it was very good, and the portion was right. Purple sweet potato, pumpkin, string bean, lotus roots, tomato, and yellow zucchini, wrapped with leak. It came with carrot soup, which I had to pass, rosemary focaccia, italian salad without dressing, coffee and desert, which, again, I had to pass. It didn't have protein so I had some shrimp after we got home. 

Finished jump rope while my daughter was napping. I feel fat by not having the exercises though...

Day 41

Breakfast: boiled egg, mushroom, broccoli, turnip, pumpkin, bread, low fat milk, and low fat yogurt. 

Exercise in the morning before going out. I think I hurt my left thigh during the pistol squat.... oh no!

Went out to Akihabara with my family to help another family just moved from UK to get electrical appliances for their house. Didn't have much options at lunch unfortunately, we ended up at Tonkatsu (deep fried pork) which is the most NO-NO food on PCP. Luckily they had deep fried fish plate, so I had a salad and bread crust stripped fish, scalp, and one bite of shrimp before my son snatched it. It was sooo scary to put the fried food into my mouth although the oily parts are already taken off...!

Anyhow,  made my day with the other meals, I was so exhausted and put kids in bed before 8 pm. 

Tomorrow is just a jump rope day, yeah!

Day 40

Did my exercise in the morning, kids helped me in their own ways....

Went to a movie "King's speech" in the evening with my husband after leaving the kids to my parents. Very good movie, and several scenes made me cry as I have kids and imagined what he had been though in his early days.

BTW, the smell of caramel popcorn at the theater was a torture.

Day 39

Breakfast: tomato omelet, asparagus, whole wheat bread, and low fat milk.

Day 38

My shoulders are heavy from yesterday and now my thighs are in pain. Walking down and up the stairs of subway is painful.

Day 37

Shoulders work outs are  killing me....!

My husband made a video the other day. Me and my son exercising.

Day 36

Breakfast: carrot salad (carrot, lemon juice, white balsamic, and thyme), steamed leak and spinach, egg, mini bagel, and low fat milk.

Exercise - OMG! Pistol squat %$&'#"!? Bicycle, WF!?!?

Day 35

Walking up the stairs of Oedo line subway, people back in the days used to walk pretty much everywhere, but they didn't have such a deep subway systems, nor tall buildings you can't really take stairs up.... Due to the save on electricity consumption in Tokyo, almost the half or even 1/3 of the escalators/elevators/ticket machines, etc., are not working. So, you get to walk a lot more, and bonus burden to my legs...;-)

Day 34

Went to Patrick's for a quick photo shoot and check up. I'm so happy to see those numbers despite of the trip in US! Have to keep up on what I've been doing!!

Day 33

Breakfast: poached egg and asparagus on a toast, bell pepper, sweet potato, and low fat milk.

I've been really cold, probably because I'm losing fat in my body....? It reminds me one of the exhibitions at CA Science Center. It's an icy glacier wall with several insulations, which are cotton, fleece, hair, something like those, and FAT. If you have fat between your hand and the glacier, you don't feel it's cold at all. The power of fat. 

Day 32

Couldn't get up early this morning, did the exercise after kids left for pre school. I hate you, Davinci....! Also, tried the 8 Min Abs before evening snack. The core of my neck and head hurts. Maybe I'm doing it wrong or posture try to watch on the video was not helping.

Day 31

I couldn't have my night snack as I couldn't get up after putting kids in bed last night... So, I psyched myself up for early morning exercise at 5:30 a.m. And, the leg ups - I just could not do it after 2 sets. So, had to divide into 2 sets of remaining 2 sets, so 4 sets, to complete ;-)

Breakfast was a slimy quaternion of sea kelp, yam, okra, and mushroom which I found at a supermarket, with rice and onsen tamago ("hot spring egg", york is cooked and white is half cooked and soft).  I forgot to take a photo, and I'm sure it's really hard for the most people to imagine what the heck I was eating, but it was pretty good. Next time if I have a chance, I'll put it up.

Findings from the past a couple weeks:
1. The jeans I bought last week is already loose and falling.
2. My shoe size became 7 from 7&1/2, or only that the retail made the size slightly smaller so that the consumer won't feel bad about buying something in size M which is really size L...?
3. I miss fruit selection I had in West Coast.

Day 30

I made a perfect boiled egg! Others are spinach, asparagus, tomato, sweet potato, mini pitas, low-fat milk, and coffee.

I couldn't do chest dip; barely moved my shoulders to sink.... ouch! 

Day 29 - it will be a long day today

So, I was up since 3 a.m.ish this morning from the flight. 

Checked e-mail and got a menu for this week, and started the breakfast: tomato and egg, corn and whole grain tortilla, and low fat milk. 

While my husband took out kids to run errands, I run laundry machine 3 times and did the exercise. Davinci is my enemy now.

It's very interesting to see at supermarket that some isles were empty, and even the toilets didn't have toilet papers. What's up with the people buying THAT much of toilet papers?? Read somewhere that people tend to avoid row fish these days, and chicken meat supply tends to be running short due to the rolling black outs that factories can't operate preparing the chicken meat. Mmm, maybe that's why I see many "discount" red tags on fish packages. I should buy some more and just cook and freeze them. 

Kids started become grumpy after dinner around 5:30 p.m. I put them down around 6:30 p.m., then had my dinner of an apple, banana, egg white, and low fat milk. It looks more like a snack, rather than a dinner...

Anyhow, it's good to be back at home, and everything looks normal in Tokyo. I think I have to go down soon... oh, wait, have to have veggie snack before that!

Day 28 - home sweet home

So, we took flight back to home in Tokyo from LAX midnight. Jump rope was the only exercise for the day, which was huge relief in such a busy day. Loaded up the luggages, bathed kids, packed up my snacks and low fat milks for the flight, went out for dinner, and left for the airport. Kids off course became grumpy as they were too tired from waiting, we had to take a bus to the air plain, etc. But once we got on board, there was no way out. So, after 10 hours, with about 8 hours on and off sleep, I had a breakfast of bread, chicken to substitute egg, salad, and low fat milk.

Landed Tokyo around 4:45 a.m. Still dark, a lot less traffic, kind of surreal.

Day 27

Might be because of missing night snack, I was VERY hungry this morning. Did exercise before breakfast. Double Katana was so difficult.

Packed up my lunch and dinner before heading to airport to catch a flight to LAX. Then we are heading back to Tokyo Sunday midnight (technically Mon morning....). I miss Japanese food! Whole Foods and Farmer's Market, etc. healthy stuff are fun but there are so many choices, or too many.... I guess all are good but why do you want to eat Soy Jerky when you have an access to regular good tofu...? Or just have more option means a freedom of your eating...? Or simply it's part of a marketing...? Anyhow, the amount of products they have is overwhelming.

Day 26

Indulgence! How long was I waiting for this day! We were supposed to meet with a family friend over lunch, so I decided to have that my opportunity. We drove to friend's house and ordered Vietnamese food for lunch. It's less oily, lots of green and rice noodles, plus, tasted soooo goood!! So I think I had almost 2 meals amount (oops....) and felt pain in my stomach. It was a strange pain that my stomach could not get any bigger because of the muscle around it. And I felt so contempt after having good amount of carbs! It filled me up good I didn't become hungry until late in the evening. It was an experiment that how much carbs could get me going. Very interesting.

We also met up with another 2 families for dinner. I had my usual PCP dinner and one of the husbands even cooked me PCP dinner as he's done it last year (thank you, Todd!).

I was too tired from the day and fell asleep without evening snack...!

Day 25

It was a terrible rainy day today.

Tried a new item for breakfast - corn and whole grain tortilla with omelet, bell pepper, and broccoli. Not bad.

In the terrible rain, we went to a Farm Fair which had petting zoo, peek a compost (no, thank you.), promotion of less water use, etc. We were drenched head to toe. So, I was really cold for the entire day. Maybe it made me burn some more calories than usual, I was extra hungry and tired the rest of the day. Good that I had my exercise in the morning before breakfast, otherwise I wouldn't be able to finish it.

Lunch was at a sandwich restaurant at a mall. I had my lunch with me, left over from last night, all scaled, so felt comfortable what I was eating.

Dinner was chicken breast steamed with tomato and basil, asparagus, frilled zucchini and mushroom. Grilled mushroom was a success! Even non PCPer liked it.

Day 24

My son had good sleep last night thanks to medicine, and seems getting better.

Did the exercise before heading out in the morning. Shoulder press and plank are so hard, harder than it looks.... My shoulder were sore all day long.

Since my bra was getting loose (not very happy...?) so went to buy some at GAP Body. Asked a store person to measure my size because I don't know my size in inches (I live in Tokyo and use cm like the most of the other countries...). She was confused and tried to tell me that the one I was waring should have a size on a tag. Yes, it does, but it's in cm. I repeated this 4, 5 times, and said, I don't use inch, so I don't know my size then she gave me a very confused look. Anyhow, tried several sizes and found the right one, so it was OK. Whenever I have a mission, it always get very difficult somehow...

Found trout at Whole Foods, so steamed up with a little bit of balsamic vinegar for dinner. Yum!

Day 23

My son had a fever last night, and I didn't have enough sleep...

Had my usual breakfast, then did exercise. Everything is a little harder than before, and my back started hurting at the very last one, leg ups.... Couldn't move for a while afterwords.

Went out for shopping at Target (yeah!) and had lunch at a French bakery place. Chef's salad with two pieces of bread. And a couple of coffees. Since my kids snatched my ham, protein was too small .... Had a little more at dinner to catch up. Dinner was boiled shrimp, asparagus, portabella mushroom, and some steamed salmon which was a left over from last night.

Day 22

Woke up around 8, had breakfast: egg, bell pepper, cauliflower, asparagus, and pamper nickel whole grain toast, with low fat milk before taking a flight to Oakland from LAX.

Tried to have lunch at the airport - failure. So, I had some leftover veggies from the morning with a piece of pamper nickel whole grain bread and 3 shrimps, thinking I should catch up with more protein and some carbs after the arrival.

So, on the flight had fruit, and said no to the in flight snacks. People around me were inhaling those small packaged peanuts and whatnot with lots of soda/drinks. Oh my.

At the friend's house, I did jump rope. Still body is tired from the past 3 weeks, and took longer than the early days to finish.

Friend drove us to a supermarket for food supply. Bought low fat milk, fruit, some lean salmon (Coho Salmon) and some bell peppers, asparagus, etc. for dinner. Steamed it and this time I could use a scale (yea!) to actually weigh my food!! Feel so much better now that I know actually how much I eat.

Exercise before dinner was hard. Incline pull ups are very very difficult now.

And writing this blog while having a night snack with milk. Goood night!

Day 21

Woke up around 8:30, had egg, cauliflower, asparagus, bell pepper, pamper nickel whole grain toast, and low fat mil for breakfast.

It rained all day in LA today. Very first time having rain in LA for myself. So, roads are filled with water, accidents here and there because people are not used to rain. Couldn't do jump ropes in the outside, and did so in a small hallway of the front door, half got rained on....

Went to Natural History Museum of LA with kids and Gano and his daughter. Had lunch at cafe, but the food they had was awful - bunch of snacks, soda, juice, and pastries. I had salad but was too afraid to eat crap so had just some of it with a 1/2 slice of white bread.

Dinner was at El Coyote. Had a small salad: tomato, string beans, lettuce, beets, green peas. Then I had this  urge of needing to eat some more with carbs, which I haven't felt since I was breast feeding my babies. Probably because I didn't have enough carbs at lunch, I was so exhausted and my body needed to eat some more. It was not a cravings, it was an urge. Thought about not eating any further, then discussed with my husband who has done PCP last year said I should eat some if I feel I was really sick. And, yes, I was feeling sick. So, I didn't want to get sick, especially that I'm on a road, I had 2 pieces of shrimp fajita which had bell pepper and onion. The taste was very mild, not very salty, not too spicy, and no too oily, amazingly. So I highly recommend this restaurant if you have a chance to eat out in LA, when you are not on PCP.

So, I felt content and did not get upset with kids at all at night, whom had a big dessert of chocolate chip mint ice cream macaroon sandwich at milk.... I would be knocked out if I had any of these sweets.... ug!

Day 20

Woke up around 10:00 this morning, asparagus, tomato, egg, low fat milk, and brown rice for breakfast. Why is it so hard to find a normal milk in this country?? Everything as something and I don't know the difference of "free launch" or even eggs say "free cage", "V E +" and all kind of stuff. Or shopping at Whole Foods makes it difficult...?

Exercise late morning. Leg uuuuuups! My back hurts a little bit when I do this....

Went to another friend's house for lunch. They had BBQ so I had salad and turkey burger with 1/2 of whole grain buns. Turkey had some solt I guess but that was the most lean and no flavored meat I could get there....

Came back and had fruit snack.

Then dinner - cauliflower, asparagus, bell pepper, and shrimp. Shrimp tasted a little salty tonight....

Had fruit snack before going to bed.

I feel my body is tired, and air headed. Need some iron...?

Day 19

Woke up around 9:30, had breakfast - egg, broccoli, bell pepper, low fat milk, and brown rice.

Exercise before going for a walk to Farmer's Market. I could jump 404 straight yesterday but only 72 today...

Lunch at Farmer's Market again - 2 slices of turkey, green salad, and brown rice.

Bought a pair of jeans, one size smaller as the one I brought with me is falling, thanks to PCP...! I was not in the full shopping mode as what's happening back in Japan is still worrying, and everything, including being here is surreal.... Kids certainly enjoy being here. They spend a couple of hours riding on the trolley back and forth between Farmer's Market and The Grove.

Bought melon for snack. Very sweet. Great thing about being West Coast is you have variety of great fruits.

Walked back home, and cooked dinner again, Chicken Teriyaki and sesame broccoli for family, and steamed chicken breast, asparagus, and bell pepper for myself.

I could have some melon for evening snack before going to bed.

Not a bad day.

Day 18

Woke up around 9:30, had breakfast around 10:30. So little veggies the breakfast buffet had at hotel! Had some garnish veggies to make up my portion.

Another friend of ours offered to stay at his place, so he drove us to his place in the early afternoon. After we settled out stuff, we walked to Farmers Market for late lunch. Had shrimp salad with no dressing, and brown rice I brought from Tokyo again.

Looking around, the amount of food they offer you is HUGE! No wonder why people are big...

Did my exercise before cooking dinner. Shoulders!

Had some shopping at Whole Foods, and bought bunch of veggies and fruits. Cooked some dish for friend's family, and steamed veggie and shrimp for dinner.

Forgot to have night fruit snack...!

Day 17

Slept in til noon after kids woke up around 2 midnight last nigh, and went back to sleep around 5 am... So couldn't have breakfast this morning.

Our good friend in LA took us for lunch at Chuck E Cheese where kids can hang out. They had a salad bar so I had broccoli, lettuce, tomato, beets, and hard boiled egg with brown rice I took with me from Tokyo. It was my semi breakfast. I couldn't have low fat milk, but I'm sure I can make up with fat very easy.

Food there looked awful: fried food, lots of carb. "One more $ and you can have all you can eat salad bar". "No, single trip is just fine." Off course cashier looked very confused how come I wouldn't take such a bargain. People are mostly very large and round, seems like they're having short breath. Even my kids didn't eat their pizza which they usually eat, or simply they're busy with the machines they could play with.

Came back to hotel, did my exercise, davinci is killing... And had some fruits afterwords.

Dinner was Korean BBQ at Korean town, where another good friend of ours drove us to. Dropped carbs, and had broccoli, salad which had some dressing but not the oily one, lots of grilled mushrooms, and grilled shrimp and a couple of peaces of beef. Kids ate a lot there. Wonder because its a real food with variety of veggies and good shrimp?

Had a half of banana and 2 slices of apple for snack before going to bed.

How am I doing?

Day 16

OK, I'm in LA now with my family. My husband had a little bit of mental crises as things going on in Japan, at his work, etc., he decided to leave Tokyo for a while. I simply didn't want him to get worse, panic, and affect children, so we took a midnight flight from Haneda to LAX in the evening of 15th (actually the every early morning of 16th...). So, I did my exercise before we left home, packed up my exercise tools and fruits and brown rice and some veggies scaled and put in plastic bags, we headed to the airport.

Heard from my husband that Patrick said I could stop and start again when things calm down. Thought about it a little bit, but then when I was surrounded by those relatively big foreigners at the airport, and also here in LA, it even motivated me to keep on PCP. I forgot to pack a scale with me, so I have to guess how much I eat each time, and am skipping lunch as I'm jet lagged, but trying my best to keep on the program. The result might not be great as expected as I'm not strictly following Patrick's menu, but I just don't want to give up now.

How's everybody doing?

Day 15 - lunch

Shrimp, bell pepper, asparagus, and brown rice mixed with leak onion and a little big of chicken.

Day 15 - breakfast

Spinach omlet, carrot, turnip, brown rice, and low fat milk.

Day 14 - brekkie

Cafe au lait, egg with spinach, bell pepper, and carrots, and brown rice.
Survived two weeks. 10 weeks to go! 

Day 13 - Sunday evening

Trying to spend a day as usual as it has been in order not to scare kids. The elder one seems to sense that something is unusual, though, we try to stick to our routine....

Day 13 - lunch

Couscous, shrimp, tomato, bell pepper, and string beans.

Day 13 - breakfast

Spinach omelet, bell pepper, tortilla, and low fat milk.

Day 12 - lunch

Couscous, lam with thyme, carrot, romanesco, asparagus, and turnip.
Had cavings for red meat. I guess my body wants iron.

Day 12 - breakfast

Fried egg my son helped me with, bell pepper, asparagus, mushroom, brown rice milk porridge with cinnamon. 

Earthquake

Is everybody OK? God it was huge, the biggest one I've ever experienced in my life!

Day 11 - breakfast

Tomato omelet, spinach, burrito, and low fat milk.

Day 10 - Dinner

Steamed red snapper, onion, and mushroom, cauliflower romanesco, and brown rice.

I can't really lift my arms, and inner muscle of buttocks hurts... 

Day 10 - brekkie

Poached egg with asparagus, cauliflower romanesco, and bell pepper, crispy brown rice with cinnamon, and milk.  

Day 9 - dinner

Steamed bell pepper and mushroom, chicken and spinach salad with ginger flavor, and brown rice.

Day 9 - desk lunch

Rice salad with lemon flavor, shrimp, cauliflower romanesco, and tomato, and brown rice.

Day 9 - breakfast

Spinach nest egg and pan fried tomato sauce with black pepper, brown rice, and milk.

Day 8 - Dinner

Had a craving for red meat. So, seared tuna with black pepper, cauliflower romanesco, asparagus, carrot, and brown rice.

Day 8 - Desk lunch

Chicken, cauliflower romanesco, tomato, and brown rice.

Day 8 - 1st pcp meal

Milk, cauliflower romanesco, brown rice, and fried egg that my son broke.

Day 7

Thank GOD I can eat more from tomorrow!

I felt my body started resisting losing weight by not eating much these past a couple days. I lost only 1 kg anyway.

Day 6

Did the exercise while kids were trying to do the same with me, and I was trying hard not to smack them with jump rope.

I realized I was just too hungry to be upset with my kids when they go crazy, cry, etc. Maybe a good thing...?

Day 5

Did exercises in the morning before leaving for my home town with kids, as my husband was out for his own stuff from morning.

Back at home, looking at the dinner table with my parents, there's the diet I grew up with - lots of carbohydrate. Typical in the country side, it's how you treat guests with lots of food and tea/drinks. Remainder from the old days when they didn't have so much food like now, they still make you eat a lot. I explained to them that I'm on dient, and they stopped offering. Maybe they'll try PCP one day?

Day 4

I have difficulties walking.

My husband adjusted the length of jump rope, so it works a lot better now.

And my son discovered jumping on my tummy is fun... a little additional abs work. Thank you, I love you, too.

And I weighed myself, and I lost 1 kg.

Day 3

Irritation by hunger is a friend now, and something that's always there. I can tell when I should stop eating, too. Very interesting.

And my thighs are in pain, very hard to pick up kids...

Day 2

Just finished the exercise, and my thighs are sore...

Day 1

So, I think it went OK for Day 1. Busy enough at work to forget about the appetite. Had a half of sandwich for breakfast, half of Singapore chicken rice, and half of dinner with kids. Since the night time after kids go to sleep is the most quiet time I can have all by myself, I did the three exercises just about 10 min ago.

It's starting from TOMORROW!

Will I be sexy in 3 months?