Diet realization…

What I realized last night was….

my diet.

It did and didn’t change all at the same time. Was it on purpose? Nope.

Sitting down attacking my pan-seared chicken breast and salad with homemade dressing, that’s when it hit me.

Over here I tend to eat pretty healthy in general. I ate ok back home too. I bought a ton of fresh veggies and fruits back home from the flea market on the weekends. Thing is we did a lot more fried food, there was sometimes gravy involved. We had smoked meats of all kinds. I ate tons of bread. I had easy access to fast food restaurants. Didn’t help I had a car to drive to multiple restaurants if I wanted to. Another downfall…Krispy Kreme. Not living far from one back home was dangerous. Didn’t help that it was on my way home from college every single day. Once that HOT NOW light came on, try to not get me in that drive-thru. All my favorite places were not far, so I could go whenever I pleased basically.

Here? My store is next door. There’s a market multiple days of the week where you can go and get fresh things too. I don’t go to restaurants unless it’s a staff dinner or I’m in Seoul. I don’t drive here. I have to walk, take the subway, hop a bus, or hail a taxi. Even so I don’t really go to fast food restaurants. I’ve been to burger king twice,  KFC once, and McDonald’s once since I came here in 2013. In 2012 it was Popeyes twice and McDonald’s once. Those were basically right there from campus ok Popeyes was on campus, yet I didn’t bother with them much. 

The restaurants I do go to have fresh healthy food, so it’s not really a worry for me when eating it. Not like I worry anyways. I’m the girl that still eats cake. But fast-food? Here in Yangpyeong? There’s no McDonald’s, KFC, Popeyes, or Burger King. We have a Domino’s and Pizza Hut. Heck Pizza Hut just came a few months ago. There are other “fast-food” restaurants around but I don’t even bother. It’s quicker for me to cook then to even attempt to walk, point to order/broken Konglish, wait for my food, and walk back. Domino’s has seen me a good bit and Pizza Hut twice. So yeah. No point really.

 Granted now I will have the occasional fried chicken and french fries (fried). I started eating rice at home a bit more normally and bread, but still not as much as I use to back home in the US. I use to kill it with toast and butter back home. I’m talking like 4+ slices in one sitting. There’s no need for that. 

Though now that I bought my little oven, I’ve been doing a lot of baking. Yes, cakes and muffins are definitely in there. I’ve been baking more chicken, potatoes, fries, mac and cheese, and basically anything else.  Not going to lie, fries out the oven are dangerous. Love them so much. Might never go back to frying them. 

Even before my oven, I did a lot of pan-searing or soup making.

Also, I tend to eat A LOT of chicken breasts. But I only do one for a meal and then the rest of my plate is basically vegetables. Maybe like 75% of my plate is. Especially when it’s warm. I don’t want a lot of meat. I crave things like salad and stuff. Though I make my own salad dressing since I’m picky and on top of it I won’t eat any that are mayonnaise based. I eat a lot of sweet potatoes too. Even increased my intake of carrots, even if they have to be cooked some. Tomatoes too. I normally don’t eat tomatoes too often. I’m thinking about trying broccoli again. I don’t like it but I don’t hate it either. So why not? What do I do for dessert? If I have any 90% of the time it’s fruits. The occasional cake or icecream happens too.

I’ve been eating pasta a good bit recently but it’s whole wheat. My flour is wheat flour for goodness sakes. So my cakes and muffins are made with wheat flour too. My salt is solar roasted salt. I remember wondering “where’s regular plain salt?” 

I cook at least 95% of my meals at home. I learn how to make things that I don’t want to buy or can’t find. Most of the time I just want to know how to make it and it ends up being cheaper and healthier anyways. 

A main thing. I try not to eat after 6:30, 7 at the latest. If it’s the weekend and I’m out, then I let it be and try to eat something light before I go to sleep. But if I’m at home, even on the weekends I stick to eating before 6:30. I tend not to have anything but water afterwards. Maybe a fruit or something and that’s it. I don’t even know why I do it. Granted I was going to sleep at 9:30 all before but now I can be up until the next morning and still keep to this schedule. 

I don’t drink as much soda as I use to either. I use to drink a ton of soda. Here I can go awhile without soda and not even realize it. I allow myself to have some during the weekends sometimes. Having more than 20oz tends to mess with me though. It bothers my stomach, making me feel crappy and bloated. Which is amazing because back home I had way more than 20oz in a day. So, I tend to drink a lot of water, teas, juices, and lemonade. The hotter it gets the more I just go for just plain water, tea or lemonade. Screw everything else, that’s all I want.

I realized that rice and bread makes me feel heavy. Beef too. I love beef but I have to space out when I have it or I will feel awful. 

I noticed back home I didn’t like a ton of junk food. Here it got even worse. They don’t even have the huge family size bags of chips, they have normal sized bags. Actually a bit smaller. Like the grab sized bags and I still can only eat a few chips. I also don’t like many chips (flavors) in general. I’ve tried plenty and liked only 2 kinds. Even so I can’t eat them often or I grow to dislike them. Got to the point I just make my own.

I guess being here has made me listen to my body more. Which is a good thing. I’m eating a lot healthier naturally. It just happened I didn’t sit there and think “oh I need to eat better.” it was more “My body doesn’t seem to like this, I guess I should try something lighter. Ok, that seems better.” I don’t stop myself from having something that I want healthy or not. I just tend to go towards the good stuff.

Like tonight I’m thinking about trying this  baked honey garlic chicken recipe. Maybe some baked fries on the side and salad. 

http://damndelicious.net/2014/07/25/baked-honey-garlic-chicken/

Anyways time to go. Until next time~