Chinese Food

[Curveegrrl]

I went out for dinner last night with some colleagues. It was really nice to see everyone. Previously I taught at the main office/school of my company, where (mostly adults) come for private lessons. But now that I am working at a junior high school, I don't get to see everyone very often.

Anyhoo, we went for Chinese food. I think I did pretty well. I passed on the rice of course, and dessert. I avoided anything labled "sweet and sour" or with sauces that looked toooooo syrupy. I had lots of veggies and some different meats. I drank lots of water.

But I'm still wary. I'm sure there were some thinckeners in . . . well, just about everything. And some things were probably sweetened too. Nothing tasted sweet per se, but . . . they put sugar in a lot of stuff over here.

So damage control right? I took a pass on the Round 2 party to go drinking. I came home and took another walk. If my body is thinking about slipping from fat burning mode to carb burning mode...then I wanna burn those carbs as quickly as possible. And the calories that came with them! I had an extra litre of water, and trundled off for a good night's sleep. I'll also try to up my water and exercise today.

Get thee behind me Size 24s!

[Satin_Teardrops]

Good for you on the extra walk and water!!

[MontanaRebel]

Yeah what she said ^^^^^^ Johnny :guns

[FightingTheFight]

That funny, A chinese food place in Japan...how do you tell the difference?

[tickletussler]

My suggestion is to avoid Chinese food completely... unless you make your own.

Just about all Chinese foods have one of the following in their dishes:
- cornstarch to thicken sauce or give a crispy coating to meats
- sugar in sauces eg hoisin sauce, plum sauce, peking sauce, lemon sauce, satay sauce etc etc
- use too much soy sauce ie 1 tablespoon soy = 1g carbs
- MSG: flavour enhancer that causes thirst, headaches etc

If you ask them to cook your foods without any of the above, you might as well have gone somewhere else and ordered steak/seafood with your 3 veg.

[Mary-chan]

Congrats on your damage control!!

I know that is the hardest thing, trying to eat well but never being sure of what ingredients are used to cook the meat. Even when I'm eating what I'm supposed to at restaurants, there's always a big question mark looming over the meal!

Keep up the good work

[bizzlekitty]

Good for you on the self-control! I think you made wise choices in the circumstances you were in.

I miss Chinese food, as it's like the one type of restaurant that really isn't Atkins friendly. Pretty much every other type I've gone to, you can find Atkins-suitable things to eat.

[Miss Phode]

Hey Curvee,

Was Chinese food in Japan anything like American/Canadian chinese food? I know that traditional Chinese food is nothing like we're used to in the US. I had Dim Sum one time with my mom and her friend from Hong Kong, and let me tell you, fried rice, crab rangoon, egg rolls, and sweet and sour chicken were NOT on the menu. What we did eat was steamed shrimp, with the heads still attatched. Anita, (mom's asian friend) ate the shells that were on the shrimp. She does not peel them. Some sort of chinese dumpling, that was nothing like pot stickers, rice steamed inside banana leaves (i think) with pork, and these bread roll things, that had some sort of bbq meat inside.

What was chinese like in Japan?

[Curveegrrl]

Chinese food here is really different from the stuff at home. It still might not be as "authentic" as it would be in someone's home in China, but it's a sight closer to "authentic" than what I'd find in most Canadian restaurants. I always think that calling the food in most Chinese restaurants in Canada "Chinese Food" is like walking into a McDonalds and saying "Ahhh...American Food." It's just not the best example for the genre.

The types of vegetables were different than anything I've seen on a Canadian menue. The sauces were not nearly as thick. There wasn't fried rice (at least, not that anyone in our party ordered), just steamed.　　We had fried pot stickers too (called gyoza in Japan...don't know the Chinese name tho) but I passed on those. Everything was spiced differently. It was really nice food!

But I'm sure there were still thickeners in everything. sigh.

On the bright side, my damage control seems to have done the trick. I'm down another pound this morning from when I weighed myself on Saturday morning! Yay!