Got nothing else to do last week so… I was busy planning for my Taiwan trip. And trying to lose some weight.
Week 2 of trying to limit myself to less than 2000 calories a day. Not easy but I’m learning.
First off, I adjusted my morning oats. I tried it both on milk no-chocolate oats and milk chocolate oats and I had to admit, I like the second mix more. It tastes like champorado to me. The only difference is I’m using low-fat milk, which is halfway between normal delicious milk and ass-backwards cowardly non-fat milk. No choice, it’s a concession.
So my morning oat mix now consists of:
- A teaspoon of Hershey’s 100% choco powder, non-sugar
- A tablespoon of my custom mix (see previous blog)
- 1 tablespoon of the Quakers 5 ancient grain mix
- 2 tablespoons of the rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon of the Quaker instant oats
- A dash of cinnamon
- A tiny pinch of salt
- A packet of Splenda, mixed in before serving
- A small handful of Tong Garden mixed nuts and berries (estimate 70g)
This new mix now is less than the previous incarnation, and tastes a bit different with the cinnamon. I’ll change it after June. I want the taste of old champorado, so when I drop by back home in the Philippines by June, I’ll find chocolate tablea that has a more cacao taste and no sugars. Hershey’s don’t have that homely taste.
The new mix also is around 3/5 the container now (as opposed to more than 3/4 last time). And I adjusted the hot water to help make it goopier when the milk gets in and sets in the fridge. Tried it for two days now and I’m OK with the output.
But still, fruits. I tried adding a whole banana last week and by God, I couldn’t make it work for me. The “banana split” flavor wasn’t good without sugar, and I’m trying to cut out sugar. But the tongue wants what it wants – flavor and sweetness. I might try freeze-dried apple chips and put it in the overnight oats to rehydrate, see if that helps.
I had a problem with the calorie-counting diet plan – I could only assume stuff if I ate outside. Mostly approximate. For cai png, I had one rice, two vegetable servings (I looked for the less greasy ones) and one meat serving. I avoided the fried or greasy ones and went for the steamed or the ones mixed with more vegetables. Thankfully, CNA had a calculator for cai png calories. Same with yong tau foo. Lucky that I found one that was within reasonable walking distance from Oxley Bizhub, but same thing, I had to approximate, and now refrain from drinking most of the soup.
If I had a lunch that I estimated to be calorie rich, for dinner I just go light. Two bananas did the trick.
Also for dinners, I tried to diversify some of my meals with hummus. Two circles of pita bread with almost a full serving of hummus was good enough for dinner. And they’re homemade. I use canned chickpeas for the thick aquafaba.
But I still like fried rice, so I still stick with 100g rice to use for fried rice dinner.
I haven’t weighed myself yet. I’m kind of optimistic but fearful. I gave the 235lb estimate to the podiatrist, but that was last year and I already knew in my head that by early April I was above 240. I won’t look yet, but I hope next week I might. But my pants are telling me I’m starting to lose some. Early April, my pants were almost tight fits, now they’re snug fits.
This weekend, I will come by Doujin Market at Singapore. Hopefully there’s some nice stuff there like t-shirts. And maybe just a few knickknacks to take home.
One thing I didn’t add in the previous blog about YouTube titles and thumbnails is that I absolutely hate having to avoid topics that could potentially direct the algorithm to show me shit videos of shitty influencers with even shittier takes on the subject.
Like for example, I will never use my main Google account to watch most YouTube videos about the recent UCLA protests, or the Russian-Ukraine war. Some of the accounts I subscribe to will talk about them, at least. But I don’t want to see CNN (or for example as I’m in Singapore, India Today or Malaysiakini) in my feed. Or more of influencers screaming horse manure into the air hoping people would click on their videos while being sponsored by VPNs or predatory mobile games. So to at least keep more up to date about the news subjects, I open up the Opera browser in my laptop and watch the videos there instead, anonymously. I do not trust the Chrome/Edge/Firefox private mode anymore. Opera is basically my “fall guy” browser.
As I detailed in my YouTube post, it took me years and self-curation to have my YouTube feed be what I want it to be. I wish there was an easier way to watch hot-button topics in YouTube without it fucking up my preferred recommendations list, but it is what it is. Fuck.
For my Taiwan trip, I have the general plan down pat yesterday, and paid for most of the necessities promptly before Klook’s discounts start to expire.
I did think about doing most of it on my own again, but the ones I really wanted to visit were too spread apart, the weather could be potentially troublesome and I also wanted to give my left foot a break.
So… my general plan is:
June 12: arrival at Taiwan from Singapore
This one’s a chill day. I will arrive in Taiwan in the afternoon and I booked a hotel at Ximending, so the likely plan for me is that I’ll just visit the nearest night market for dinner and call it a day, sleep early. Maybe weights or a light elliptical.
June 13: Klook guided day trip to Yehliu, Jiufen and Shifen
This one was a no-brainer for me. I did my research and Jiufen and Shifen were “highly recommended” to first-time visitors. The sights are going to be a painful pain in the ass if I did them on my own. Booked guided tour it was. So to maximize my tour, I booked the 8.45AM day trip that included a visit to Yehliu Geopark with the option for the Golden Waterfall. I also appended the add-on option for the ticket for Yehliu Geopark, plus insurance cover for the bus trip. Can’t be careful enough.
As this one will be dropped off at Taipei Main Station at around 6.30PM, I’ll just go back straight to the hotel and have a light workout before a light dinner and then sleep early.
June 14: Klook guided day trip to Beitou and Yangmingshan
This one, I debated internally whether to do it myself and just go to Beitou via train, or book another guided day trip. I slept on the decision over the weekend, and by Monday I booked it alongside the earlier tour to Jiufen and Shifen.
The main reason that swayed me to a guided tour was the projected weather. There was a non-negligible chance of raining on 13 and 14, so doing a tour by myself is not going to be ideal. But I really do want the hot spring bathing in Beitou. Oh well, save it for next time.
The added bonus of this tour is that the dropoff point will be the famed Shilin Night Market. So that will be dinner, then back to the hotel.
June 15: Self-tour day
This will be a chill self-done tour day. So my general itinerary will be around Taipei, with Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and Taipei 101. Those are the main two places I will definitely visit. I also bought a standalone ticket to the 89F and 101F of Taipei 101, for the afternoon.
There are two stops I might also go to if time and my foot permits: first will be the National Palace Museum, and for me, I like museums a lot. Second will be National Taiwan University’s gift shop. If they have tshirts, mugs or face towels, great. I’m definitely buying.
Dinner will be at Raohe Night Market, and troop back to the hotel.
I have no plans to overstuff this day. At most, just five places, at least it could be three.
June 16: Souvenir day
No more tours for this day, this will be for buying shit. Mostly anime merch, and fortunately Taipei has lots of them and Ximending has some of them, like Toranoana and Animate.
Then keychains, family gifts and souvenirs. Magnets maybe. I am planning to buy these in the guided tours, so if those end up sparse I’ll do it on this day.
June 17: flight to Manila from Taipei
Hopefully my dad can pick me up at the afternoon, or I will be in an ass of a time.
The only thing that worries me in going back home is that my diet will be out of control. I live in Manggahan and there’s no easy access to an Anytime Fitness gym.
I have to burn off the rice and dinuguan calories somehow. My dad cooks awesome dishes.
So maybe I’ll look for early morning gym runs, no choice but to book Grab taxis to the nearest Anytime Fitness in Fairview. If not possible, I’ll just do rounds in Fitness Boxing on the Switch.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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