So in case you were wondering how my diet was going, well, hmm. Not so well. And it’s all my husband’s fault, of course. Because as I’ve already mentioned before, he’s PURE EVIL.  

OMG. The worst.  

Anyway luckily I came upon this article in Women’s Health today, which included this infographic showing exactly how much you have to exercise to work off the calories from different types of yummy evil food.

Apparently, a study in Texas showed that just knowing calorie counts doesn’t always stop people from chowing down anyway. (Um, I think I’m proof of this.) But “when menus list how much exercise you’d have to do to work off each food, people order lower-calorie options.”

I totally get that.

So okay… let’s try this dieting thing again, with the help of this handy cheat-deterring chart. 

Wish me luck!  :)

So I’m back on a diet again (BOO!) which means I’m constantly on the lookout for ways to make myself feel less miserable about my breakup with food. Because really, food, I miss you. 

Anyway I found a few cool articles about different mind games you can play to make yourself eat less, and I figured I’d give them a try. Here are the 5 easiest ones:

1. Use smaller plates. Because of something called the Delboeuf Illusion,you end up serving yourself less, and your brain actually thinks you’re eating more.

This is actually not new information. I’ve known this forever but I never really paid attention to it. We all know it’s true though, right?

Big plates make you eat more. Small plates make you eat less. And small amounts of food served on big plates make you feel sad and slightly murderous… which is why I don’t get why some restaurants do that.  The other day I had lunch for the first time at 22 Prime, an award-winning steak place, and I was totally excited … and then my food came.

To be fair, it was actually a decent-sized portion (and tasty too) — but because it was smack in the rather lonely center of an enormous plate, my inner barbarian was like “ROAR!!! WHY FANCY RESTAURANTS NO GIVE MORE FOOD??? MOAR!!”

On the other hand before my seemingly-mini main course came, they served these 3 delicious dips first (I loved those) and the bread plates were kind of tiny, and I was like “OMG SO MUCH BREAD! SO MUCH YUMMY BREAD!!” even if I actually had only 1.5 slender pieces in total or something. 

So yeah, small plates are better. 

2. Pick plate colors to contrast with food. 

Again, this is another Delboeuf illusion thing, which I don’t totally understand, but apparently you end up serving yourself less if your food doesn’t blend in with the color of your plate. I’m guessing it’s because with contrasting plates, you see more clearly what a glutton you really are.

3. Use a bigger fork. 

Apparently, there’s a study that shows that if you eat with a bigger fork, you eat less. This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I’m willing to try it out.

Note: I think you have to be Filipino to get the joke in this drawing. Sorry, foreigners. And if you’re a Filipino who eats primarily with a spoon, this trick may not even apply. Sorry, Filipinos.

4. Never eat snacks straight from the package. Put them on a plate. 

Sadly, it seems there’s no way to win when it comes to snack packaging. We think that big bags of chips, for example, are evil because we’ll eat more, but it turns out that small packages play evil mind games too.  

Interesting research has shown that we tend not to eat to the bottom of a bag of chips or cookies if the bag appears to be too big—because we know that we’re obviously eating way, way more than a serving size. So we’ll stop ourselves early on. But when the bag is on the smaller side, our brains give us the go-ahead to munch our way through the whole thing. And that may mean eating more than we really want to. - Glamour.com

BAH! Evil.  So yeah, just put everything in small plates. With contrasting colors. And lastly…

5. Cut your food into smaller pieces. 

Again, there’s a study to back this, but it makes sense even without the research, right? Same thing - it’s an optical illusion, and it makes your brain think you’re eating more than you actually are. 

So there you go!  Just goes to show, really, that successful dieting is all in the mind. :)

Have a great day, everyone! :)

I just read the most fascinating article about how, if you’re an emotional eater, dieting is a total waste of time. Apparently, you need to do something else if you want to stop packing on the pounds. 

You can read the surprising solution in the article itself, but I think it’s important to figure out first if you actually are an emotional eater in the first place. Here are the 5 signs according to Sarah Jenks, founder of Live More, Weigh Less:

1. You eat when you’re not hungry.

2. You have food FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

3. You and your body are not such good friends.

4. You don’t want other people to really know what you eat.

5. You feel guilty for eating.

Umm, 4 out of 5 for me - because I really don’t care if people know what I’m eating. Or maybe 3.5 because I’ve been trying to be better friends with my body despite its shameless betrayal once I hit the mid-thirties. 

How did you score? Lemme know!  And if you’d like to find out what to do about it, go read Sarah’s article. 

Have a great day, everyone!

Holiday season is also wedding season in the Philippines, and every time I receive an invitation, I always say the same thing. 

And then I valiantly attempt to break up with food…

… for about five minutes.

I’m hopeless. 

This year I held out for a little longer than usual, but I finally caved on December 10th. (I only know the exact date because I tweeted my surrender.)

And since then, I have been COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!!!

My gluttony knows no bounds. It’s like by giving up I opened up some sort of food floodgate, and nothing - NOTHING!!! - can escape my voracious appetite. This was me after an alarmingly large lunch with some foreign guests yesterday.

Someone seriously has to stop me.

And we all know my husband is not the man for the job.

But whatevs, right? It’s the holidays. Or, as I prefer to call them now… the HOGGY DAYS. And until I get my new scale, food wins. 

What’s the yummiest thing YOU’VE eaten so far this season? Let me know in the comments. I’ll probably go find and devour it. :)

Enjoy your eating this weekend, friends. I know I will. :D

My friend Tina’s visiting from Belgium, so we met for dinner last night at Mamou — which I must say has the yummiest garlic and olive oil spaghetti on the planet.

What? I’m supposed to be on a diet, you say? Uh yeah, I kind of forgot about that for a while last night. Whatevs. That spaghetti is so worth it.

Anyway don’t worry. I REMEMBERED AGAIN.

See, we happened to see our friend Rajo at the next table and he came over to say hi since he hadn’t seen Tina in ages. And he was all “Gasp! You look fabulous!!” (which she does, by the way).

And then he said…

.. and suddenly sprung over to my side of the table to hide behind ME. 

(Okay he didn’t really say that but it was implied.)

So naturally I yelled, “Hey why’re you staying beside me??” (like I didn’t really know the answer) and he tactfully hopped over to more neutral territory. 

Maybe because my face looked something like this…

Fine, I’m exaggerating again. I was actually laughing. Rajo’s too adorable to roar at.

So anyway, OKAY, thanks for the reminder, Rajo. I’m officially back in the saddle of sugar-and-carb-free sadness.

Wish me luck. AGAIN. :)

So okay, big announcement… I’ve decided to get serious about my diet. Really.

Because if you’ve been reading the blog, you’ll know that all my “I’m on a diet” proclamations were pretty much a big JOKE.

But no, enough of that. I’m serious now. Because my indiscretions are starting to show.

And I hate when that happens. It’s not so much a matter of not fitting into clothes. I mean that’s precisely why I broke up with pants years ago.

Dresses are kinder.

The thing I really hate about having a tumescent tummy is that people either think I’m pregnant or remember that I’ve never gotten pregnant. And then they get all Nosy McBusyBody and start asking stupid questions.

I mean, really - do you think it’s wise to ask a fortysomething that? Really?? After she’s been married for ten years? Because at this point, the answer isn’t likely to be pretty… 

Or okay fine.. she could be trying to get preggo (and thus far, failing). So yeah, thanks for bringing it up. Whatever the case…it’s just AWKWARD. So why even ask?

But since I’m a (mostly) nice person, I usually just smile mysteriously and say “Hehe, we’ll see” or something similarly vague. But here’s what I’m really thinking inside.

But anyway, as usual, I digress. About that diet…

I’M DEAD SERIOUS!  I’ve already contacted my favorite doctor/cousin Martin for help…

(He’s actually an OB-GYN, but I think we’ve already established that I don’t give him a lot of business in that department — so it’s a good thing he’s useful in other ways.)

And once I get better (yup, still sick) and grab all the stuff he told me to buy, I’ll be SET! So please… don’t tempt me or I may have to kill you. 

I loved all the cooking convos that resulted from my Calamansi Muffin post, so I thought I’d do another recipe today. This one’s from Potluck (the Hidalgo family cookbook).

The original Macanese Minchi involves ground pork as well as ground beef, plus DEEP FRIED potatoes mixed in.. but please.. I’m on a diet… so let’s not even go there. Minchi without the pork and potatoes (let’s call it Minchi Light) is SO EASY to make, and if you use only 4 tbsp. of olive oil, a 100-gram (3.5 oz.) serving is only 236 calories.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Now listen up… This is a super simple dish but there are a couple of things you can do to transform it from “Meh..” to Marvelous:

1. Use good beef.

If you care about hidden fat content, don’t get pre-ground beef. Grab a slab of quality, unfatty sirloin, and ask the butcher to grind it for you.

2. Use EXTRA VIRGIN olive oil.

Prep should take about 3-5 minutes…

(One big onion should be enough, but feel free to use more.)

…And then you’re ready to cook!

When it’s done, kill the flame and let it sit (covered) for 5 minutes or so. You can add some more olive oil (and/or soy sauce) if you want to. 

And that’s it!

Fast, simple and YUMMEH. It’s idiot-proof, I tell you.

Minchi is usually eaten with illegal amounts of rice and maybe a few token vegetables (or fried eggs) — but since it looks rather boring, you may want to serve it in something pretty. Scoop out the insides of a few tomatoes or roasted peppers and stuff the Minchi in, or something like that. Up to you. Be creative.

These days though, since I’m trying to be good about the whole “rice is evil” thing, I mostly just have it with vegetables or use it in other, slightly more complicated recipes (like stuffed mushrooms and my fabulous frittatas). I’ll get to those eventually. In the meantime - ENJOY!

Notes for diet nerds:  

• If you want a lower sodium version, use 4 Tbsp Less Sodium Kikkoman + 2 Tbsp. Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of the 6 Tbsp regular Kikkoman.
• You can also use Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or coco sugar) instead of regular sugar… if you really want to.
• DON’T compromise on the olive oil. That’s what makes it yummy. Besides, olive oil is good for you. 

My MiL’s undergoing surgery tomorrow at Makati Med. Nothing major, but a surgery’s a surgery, so of course the hubby and I are a little stressed, and dealing with our worry in our own particular ways.

Yes, unfortunately, I do have a tendency to stress-eat. You know how when some people are sad or mad or stressed out, they can’t eat a thing?

Uh, yeah, can’t relate to that. Weirdos.

For me, stress = sudden starvation that must be satisfied. My work desk is witness to this. In fact I suspect it has an identity complex and thinks it’s actually a buffet table. 

My friends and family also know this about me (and the rest of my sibs, come to think of it). This is why when my Pop died last year, we got 700% more food gifts than flowers.

And they were 1000% appreciated, believe me.

So yeah, I guess it’s a family thing, though I don’t really remember how or when the stress-eating gene hit me in particular… Because back when I was a mopey kid, my mom actually had to FORCE me to eat.

In fact she even consulted my school nurse about my lack of appetite, and the nurse was all, “LOL! Oh relax, worrywart! She’ll eat on her own. Just wait and see.” 

Oh boy. Did she ever see. I hope we never run into that nurse, because I suspect I’ll hate her reaction when she sees me and realizes she was right.

Yeah well, whatever, Nurse KNOW-IT-ALL. Lucky guess. First of all, I’m Filipino. Secondly,  I come from foodie families on both sides. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out where that was going.

Anyway, no point worrying about it (that’ll probably just make me eat more). Also, it’s raining right now, and comfort food just became a must… so if my diet comes around looking for me, please relay this message:

I think I deserve a day off. :)