In fact it has almost been a year since the last post. I guess the muay thai focus of this blog sort of kept me from posting any updates. That's not to say I haven't been training, just that's its not as interesting as doing it in Thailand. When I returned from Thailand, I started training at a gym that I really loved. August of last year it closed and I've since been training at another gym closer to home, but that I don't enjoy as much. It's resulted in me going from training 3-4 times a week to about 1-2. Regardless, I think I might start putting up some posts on other topics and maybe try to diversify this place a little.
I think the next post will be about painting the exterior of our house. Boring, I know, but I feel that we have learned a lot of valuable information and lessons along the way that would have been helpful had we known going in. So maybe it will be useful information for someone in the internet somewhere maybe looking for tips or ideas going into a similar project.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Friday, June 29, 2012
Eating Is a Pain in the Ass
Title says it all really, but let me expand a little. Cooking sucks and takes too much time, grocery shopping is a chore, trying to eat healthy is tiresome and boring, eating out is expensive, etc. etc. If I had the option, I would take a pill everyday that satisfies my hunger and meets all my nutritional needs. Having to eat is a real drag.
So what has led me to this rant? A little over a month ago I was thinking about my diet and how about 80-90% of my daily caloric intake comes from grains, legumes and sugars. Pretty much a lot of carbs. This was due in large part to the fact that I had been vegan/vegetarian for around 12 years, and I had become accustomed to eating a lot of grains and soy based veggie products. So I decided to basically do a 180 with my diet. I decided to go on the Paleo diet for 5 weeks. For those unfamiliar, Paleo diet is a diet loosely based on what our Paleolithic ancestors ate. Pretty much a lot of vegetables, fruits, eggs, nuts, seeds, and meat. No dairy, grains, legumes, sugars, or highly processed foods.
I wasn't really trying to lose weight with this diet, even though a lot of people do, but I wanted to see how my body would respond to a much lower carb intake (coming mostly from fuits & veggies) and also improve my daily incorporation of vegetables into every meal. This diet would also require meat consumption levels that I probably hadn't seen since I became a vegan/straightedge/hardcore warrior at age 16. Before going to Thailand last year, I had begun to eat some meat again, but not a lot. Basically just re-testing the waters to see what I had been missing out on, if anything. While in Thailand, I pretty much ate everything, because most vegetarian food there is pretty insipid and they also use fish sauce in everything (it's their salt). I was, therefore, fairly prepared for 5 weeks of pretty heavy meat eating.
I'm now down to my last few days of my 5 week Paleo challenge and here's what I found:
I'm still trying to figure out how to take the paleo diet and incorporate it into a more vegetarian-ish diet. I have serious reservations about eating factory farmed meat; not only is it terrible for the animals, but also the environment. However, it is probably more environmentally (and economically) responsible for me to buy grass fed meat from the local farmers market than it is to buy some shitty soy-based Morningstar Farms veggie burgers made by the Kellogg corporation. There's plenty of science to support the deleterious effect our massive soy production is having on the Earth's Nitrogen cycle (a lot of which is probably fed to factory farmed animals, another reason not to eat them). Of course the real problem behind all this is the Earth's immense human population. The need to feed so many people is what is ultimately killing our planet. STOP breeding people! Seriously.
I'm ranting again. Sorry. My plan from here is to set a weekly budget (I can't be spending over $400 dollars a month on food like i did this past one!) and use it to load up on fruits and veggies at the farmers market. Anything left over I will use to buy grass-fed meat. This will ensure that most of my food is responsibly and locally raised and grown. I will obviously have to supplement with some store bought things like oils, nuts and seeds. And cheat meals every once in a while of course.
I'll end this tome with some pics of some things I made while eating paleo for those who don't like to read.
Also, I don't have a picture, but these were the best paleo pancakes I tried. Full fat coconut milk is a great idea not only in pancakes, but it is super delicious on top of them!
So what has led me to this rant? A little over a month ago I was thinking about my diet and how about 80-90% of my daily caloric intake comes from grains, legumes and sugars. Pretty much a lot of carbs. This was due in large part to the fact that I had been vegan/vegetarian for around 12 years, and I had become accustomed to eating a lot of grains and soy based veggie products. So I decided to basically do a 180 with my diet. I decided to go on the Paleo diet for 5 weeks. For those unfamiliar, Paleo diet is a diet loosely based on what our Paleolithic ancestors ate. Pretty much a lot of vegetables, fruits, eggs, nuts, seeds, and meat. No dairy, grains, legumes, sugars, or highly processed foods.
I wasn't really trying to lose weight with this diet, even though a lot of people do, but I wanted to see how my body would respond to a much lower carb intake (coming mostly from fuits & veggies) and also improve my daily incorporation of vegetables into every meal. This diet would also require meat consumption levels that I probably hadn't seen since I became a vegan/straightedge/hardcore warrior at age 16. Before going to Thailand last year, I had begun to eat some meat again, but not a lot. Basically just re-testing the waters to see what I had been missing out on, if anything. While in Thailand, I pretty much ate everything, because most vegetarian food there is pretty insipid and they also use fish sauce in everything (it's their salt). I was, therefore, fairly prepared for 5 weeks of pretty heavy meat eating.
I'm now down to my last few days of my 5 week Paleo challenge and here's what I found:
- I ended up losing a whopping 0.6 pounds, which is fine as I wasn't hoping to lose weight as I'm 5'10" and around 150. I did, however, lose about 1.5-2% body fat, so I leaned up a little. (Disclaimer: my scale could be full of shit on that, but I've been using it for 3 years and try to make sure I take measurements consistently in terms of time, hydration, etc.)
- Eating Paleo is really expensive! This is especially true if you are trying to eat grass-fed & free range meat like a lot of Paleo advocates advocate. You also end up cooking with lots of coconut and almond products (oils, butters, flours, etc.) which aren't cheap like their grain/legume counterparts.
- My energy levels seemed fine even though I'm assuming I was taking in a lot less carbs. I could get through my 2 mile run followed by a 1-1.5 hour Muay Thai session just fine. Where I did notice a difference was in my Sunday long runs (6-8 miles). I can normally do these runs in the 7-7:30 minute/mile pace. While on paleo diet, these runs were a lot harder, and i was generally in the 7:40-8:00 range.
- Incorporating vegetables into breakfast is a real challenge. I mean, who the hell wants to eat spinach at 7:30 in the morning? I crave sweets badly in the morning. Sausage & kale scramble is really good though. Hat tip to Chow Bella.
- Making your own condiments is super easy and they are better for you. See links below pictures for the recipes I used.
- Eating out on the paleo diet is WAY harder than it is as a vegetarian or even vegan.
- Being off of refined sugars for 5 weeks did not do much to curb my sweet tooth. I was born to eat sugar and will crave it no matter what. ugh.
- This diet has forced me to think a lot about how much vegetable matter I consume and ways to incorporate vegetables into every meal. That is a good thing. I've also learned a lot about nutrition and food politics.
I'm still trying to figure out how to take the paleo diet and incorporate it into a more vegetarian-ish diet. I have serious reservations about eating factory farmed meat; not only is it terrible for the animals, but also the environment. However, it is probably more environmentally (and economically) responsible for me to buy grass fed meat from the local farmers market than it is to buy some shitty soy-based Morningstar Farms veggie burgers made by the Kellogg corporation. There's plenty of science to support the deleterious effect our massive soy production is having on the Earth's Nitrogen cycle (a lot of which is probably fed to factory farmed animals, another reason not to eat them). Of course the real problem behind all this is the Earth's immense human population. The need to feed so many people is what is ultimately killing our planet. STOP breeding people! Seriously.
I'm ranting again. Sorry. My plan from here is to set a weekly budget (I can't be spending over $400 dollars a month on food like i did this past one!) and use it to load up on fruits and veggies at the farmers market. Anything left over I will use to buy grass-fed meat. This will ensure that most of my food is responsibly and locally raised and grown. I will obviously have to supplement with some store bought things like oils, nuts and seeds. And cheat meals every once in a while of course.
I'll end this tome with some pics of some things I made while eating paleo for those who don't like to read.
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| Pork loins with sauted cabbage. |
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| What I would often eat for lunch. |
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| I ate this as an egg alternative breakfast. From Everyday Paleo. |
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| Pork Basil Burgers & homemade garlic basil mayo with sweet potato fries & homemade ketchup. |
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| Double Chocolate Banana Nut Brownie Muffins |
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| Burger on a Paleo Bun with a pile of steamed broccoli and green beans. |
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Pornsaneh and Yodkhoopon Sitmonchai Documentary
Posting to this blog probably won't help get the word out to more than two people, but what the hell. Here's the bit from my facebook page:
Friday, October 14, 2011
Three Weeks At Sitmonchai Gym
So I've been back from Thailand for about a month now, and I haven't written a thing about my 3 weeks at Sitmonchai. It's not that I didn't enjoy my time at Sitmonchai, in was in fact an amazing time filled with great people, food and training. I think part of me was pissed that my laptop broke the day before I got to Sitmonchai and I couldn't blog about my experiences real time. Then I got home and was too lazy to write about everything. But I'll just blame it on the fact that I've spend the last month working on the sweet video below, ha. So instead of retelling all the stories from my 3 weeks at Sitmonchai, you can just watch said professional video to catch all the highlights. I wish I had taken more video and photos, but oh well. If you've got some free time and are interested, Jake and Brendan who were at Sitmonchai the whole time i was, wrote a great account here. The subtitle to their blog sums up Sitmonchai perfectly: "In the town of Thamaka, located in the Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand - there is a family built on dance moves, great cooking and savage leg kicks."
I miss everyone at Sitmonchai a lot, and wish they weren't on the other side of the world so that visiting more frequently was easier. I didn't get to say a proper goodbye and thank you to everyone, as I left mid-day Monday when everyone was out or asleep. I had been battling a flu/cold the last week, and I felt myself starting to get feverish, so I wanted to get into Bangkok where I'd be staying 3 nights at a hotel before leaving Thailand. By the time I got to Bangkok I was bedridden with a fever for 2 days, and the hot shower felt so good on my aching chilled body. Anyway, I can't thank everyone at Sitmonchai enough for being such great hosts and treating me like part of the family for 3 weeks. I can't wait to get back...
I miss everyone at Sitmonchai a lot, and wish they weren't on the other side of the world so that visiting more frequently was easier. I didn't get to say a proper goodbye and thank you to everyone, as I left mid-day Monday when everyone was out or asleep. I had been battling a flu/cold the last week, and I felt myself starting to get feverish, so I wanted to get into Bangkok where I'd be staying 3 nights at a hotel before leaving Thailand. By the time I got to Bangkok I was bedridden with a fever for 2 days, and the hot shower felt so good on my aching chilled body. Anyway, I can't thank everyone at Sitmonchai enough for being such great hosts and treating me like part of the family for 3 weeks. I can't wait to get back...
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Fish Garden, Food, and Traning Footage
Fish Garden
One of the other foreigners here at Kittana told me about a fish garden about 1km up the canal. Yesterday afternoon I decided to walk up and check it out. I don't know if garden is the appropriate word, it is basically just a feeding ground for fat ass spoiled catfish. It's on the grounds of a temple, and I think they use the sale of bread for feeding the fish as a way to raise money.
Food
While walking back along the street to the gym I heard a little boy say 'pad thai,' so of course I had to stop and order a plate of $1 pad thai for myself. I've also been eying up these pastries that one of the street vendors by the gym sells so I decided to get one. 10 baht for a warm delicious pastry filled with some banana custard. For dinner at the gym we ordered delivery bbq. The driver shows up on a scooter and brings you two mini grills, charcoal, meat, broth, veggies and sauces. The grill top has a channel around the outside to heat the broth and veggies while the meat gets cooked in the middle. I failed to get a picture, but here is one.
Seeing as how I missed AM training this morning and half of PM due to diarrhea, I probably shouldn't have eaten all that stuff, especially the spicy thai bbq and cabbage, but I feel fine today, had solid poops, and actually ran 7miles before training this morning.
Training Footage
Here's what you've all been waiting for. It seems all I've been writing about is food lately, and to prove I'm not just eating myself fat, I decided to get some training footage. So, here I am after a week and a half at Kittana.
Finally, my laptop took the shit yesterday and so my blogging career may be cut short on this trip. Maybe I'll find a solution, but if not, updates will be rare here.
One of the other foreigners here at Kittana told me about a fish garden about 1km up the canal. Yesterday afternoon I decided to walk up and check it out. I don't know if garden is the appropriate word, it is basically just a feeding ground for fat ass spoiled catfish. It's on the grounds of a temple, and I think they use the sale of bread for feeding the fish as a way to raise money.
Food
While walking back along the street to the gym I heard a little boy say 'pad thai,' so of course I had to stop and order a plate of $1 pad thai for myself. I've also been eying up these pastries that one of the street vendors by the gym sells so I decided to get one. 10 baht for a warm delicious pastry filled with some banana custard. For dinner at the gym we ordered delivery bbq. The driver shows up on a scooter and brings you two mini grills, charcoal, meat, broth, veggies and sauces. The grill top has a channel around the outside to heat the broth and veggies while the meat gets cooked in the middle. I failed to get a picture, but here is one.
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| Pad Thai Cart |
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| Banana Custard filled Pastry |
Training Footage
Here's what you've all been waiting for. It seems all I've been writing about is food lately, and to prove I'm not just eating myself fat, I decided to get some training footage. So, here I am after a week and a half at Kittana.
Finally, my laptop took the shit yesterday and so my blogging career may be cut short on this trip. Maybe I'll find a solution, but if not, updates will be rare here.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
My New Favorite Restaurant
I've really come to enjoy my temporary neighborhood here at On Nut 65. There's a lot of great little shops, food stalls, and restaurants. There's no foreigners here, so the prices are even cheaper than if you were in central Bangkok. Between training sessions on Monday the trainers took me to the little restaurant that is at the end of the gravel road that the gym is on. Actually I don't know if it even qualifies as a restaurant because there is no menu; they only serve one dish. In fact, I don't even know the name or if it even has one.
It doesn't look like much, and the whole place is made of corrugated metal, but who gives a shit, the food is amazing. What you get when you sit down is a bowl of coconut curry broth with some noodles and meat or fish if you want it. Spread out along the table is an array of fresh vegetables that you can add to your bowl as you like. Everything from green beans, cucumber, cabbage, sprouts, and other stuff that I have no clue what it is. (I actually have no clue what half the fruits and vegetables I'm eating in Thailand are)
If you want dessert, they do have that. It's a Thai snow cone thing, but way better than any snow cone back home. First you choose what you want at the bottom of your bowl; they have different flavored jelly cube things, beans, fruit pieces and more. Then they put a block of ice through the shaver on top of that. Finally they put on the flavored syrup and some creamy frosting type stuff. Needless to say, I eat one of these everyday between training sessions.
The best part? The coconut curry soup with unlimited vegetables costs 20 baht or $0.66, the icy desert is 10 baht, $0.33. Lunch and desert for $1.
The two owners are super nice to me, and they seem to enjoy explaining to the other customers that I'm in Thailand to train Muay Thai. At least that's what I'm assuming, because the only words I understand them saying is Muay Thai. But the woman sitting beside me today spoke some English and asked me about the gym, where I was from and how long I was saying. It makes me feel special even though they're probably just talking about what a stupid gringo I am.
One last reason why I like to eat here is the two guys pictured below. They're probably just strays, but they are always at the restaurant when I go. I love orange tabbies, and these two are especially cute.
Gym Flooding
As I write this, it is currently raining and has been for a couple hours now. The flooding here at the gym is reaching biblical proportions. The owners got a water pump, but after running for 24hrs, it made no difference. This is a wetland, and you're not going to lower the water table by moving the water around. They did finally get some sandbags down around the gym and pumped the water out which worked, but this evenings rain has erased all progress. Here's a picture from yesterday afternoon. I might be filling sand bags tomorrow instead of hitting punching bags. Oh well, they're probably both a good workout.
Muay Thai Shorts
Finally, if you love Muay Thai, then you love Muay Thai shorts. There's also no such thing as boring Muay Thai shorts, or at least there shouldn't be. The flashier the better. I decided to pick up a pair of Kittana shorts as a souvenir of my time here. And here they are:
It doesn't look like much, and the whole place is made of corrugated metal, but who gives a shit, the food is amazing. What you get when you sit down is a bowl of coconut curry broth with some noodles and meat or fish if you want it. Spread out along the table is an array of fresh vegetables that you can add to your bowl as you like. Everything from green beans, cucumber, cabbage, sprouts, and other stuff that I have no clue what it is. (I actually have no clue what half the fruits and vegetables I'm eating in Thailand are)
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| The fresh vegetable spread. |
The best part? The coconut curry soup with unlimited vegetables costs 20 baht or $0.66, the icy desert is 10 baht, $0.33. Lunch and desert for $1.
The two owners are super nice to me, and they seem to enjoy explaining to the other customers that I'm in Thailand to train Muay Thai. At least that's what I'm assuming, because the only words I understand them saying is Muay Thai. But the woman sitting beside me today spoke some English and asked me about the gym, where I was from and how long I was saying. It makes me feel special even though they're probably just talking about what a stupid gringo I am.
One last reason why I like to eat here is the two guys pictured below. They're probably just strays, but they are always at the restaurant when I go. I love orange tabbies, and these two are especially cute.
Gym Flooding
As I write this, it is currently raining and has been for a couple hours now. The flooding here at the gym is reaching biblical proportions. The owners got a water pump, but after running for 24hrs, it made no difference. This is a wetland, and you're not going to lower the water table by moving the water around. They did finally get some sandbags down around the gym and pumped the water out which worked, but this evenings rain has erased all progress. Here's a picture from yesterday afternoon. I might be filling sand bags tomorrow instead of hitting punching bags. Oh well, they're probably both a good workout.
Muay Thai Shorts
Finally, if you love Muay Thai, then you love Muay Thai shorts. There's also no such thing as boring Muay Thai shorts, or at least there shouldn't be. The flashier the better. I decided to pick up a pair of Kittana shorts as a souvenir of my time here. And here they are:
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Flooded out of Training?
This is the view from the stoop of my room. A pretty large storm hit Bangkok last night, and we got tons of rain. I think it started raining lightly around 4pm when I started training. By 6:30 it was a torrential downpour, and it was still coming down when I went to bed at about 9pm. I haven't been over to the gym area yet, but I can see there is plenty of standing water in it. I guess if I can get into the ring I can get some pad rounds. Again, this is what you get for building in a wetland.
The last couple days of training have been good. Morning sessions I have all to myself, which is like having my own private gym and personal trainers. The trainers have even begun dropping the F word, and as soon as the 13th. Its a completely ridiculous idea. I've trained a total of 2 weeks this entire year, my defense and clinching are shit, and I've got baby soft shins. Not gonna happen.
I've gotten into a better routine where I'm not sleeping between morning and afternoon sessions. I think that may have been due to jet lag. Now I usually go to sleep around 9pm and get up at 5. I have plenty of energy, and not sleeping between sessions has given me a chance to get out and explore the neighborhood and hang out with the trainers/staff. I even went for a run before my morning session yesterday, 4.5miles (7.2km), instead of my usually 20 minutes of skipping rope. I think I'm going to run 3 times a week and skip rope the other 3. Too much running will burn out my calves, and I'm still planning to run my first half marathon in November.
Coming up, my new favorite restaurant, stay tuned...
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