TRA Class Notes - Week 1

Date:  Nov 4, 2012

I have been on this TRA 3-3-3-3 diet for 13 days.  I started with an official record of 89.9kg (but I know my true weight has been 92kg, on that day of enrolment I actually skipped breakfast and lunch, hahaha, that is why is lighter...)

Surprise… on record… that is 4.1kg lesser.  Unofficial record, it is about 6.2kg.  That is good.  And I know the exercise I do is burning my fat, and the breakfast I ate, is actually helping me to build my muscle.  :)  So, I have to keep up the good work.  And I really hope to see that I can go below 80kg for this exercise.  :)

This is Dr. James Chia.  And he is good.  This is what he taught us...

1.  You have 1.5hr to eat your breakfast after you wake up.  So, I usually wake up at 5:30am in the morning, and cook my breakfast and eat it before 6pm.  That is fine because it is within 1.5hr.  Nothing wrong there.  And immediately I go do my exercise.

2.  Between breakfast to lunch, it has to be within 5 hours.  I see a problem, no wonder, my stomach is hungry.  I ate my lunch around 12 or 1am.  And that is way beyond 5 hours.  So, I need to trick my brain and body to think that I have something to eat, and I cannot let my body to go hungry.  So, I think I will eat a snake around 10-11am next week.  Otherwise, by the time I ate lunch, it will be too late.

3.  Between lunch and dinner, it has to be within 5 hours again.  Again, after I had my lunch at 1pm.  If I manage to eat my dinner at 6-7pm, I guess that is All right.  So, I simply have to watch out and introduce another snack time.  Remember, you cannot let your body hunger.

4.  After you had dinner, by right, you need 4 hours to let your body rest and digest all the food.  So, try to sleep around 10-11pm.  This one I am OK I think.

And how do we eat?  We must follow this sequence.  Fruits - Veggie - Protein and Carbo.  Every single meal.  Key concepts are...

1.  Fruit is easily rotten.  Cut out an apple, and leave it expose.  10 minutes you will see the "free radicals" attacking the apple.

2.  Fruits are easily digest.  Usually can take less than 30 minutes to digest.

3.  Same as veggie.  Easy to digest.

4.  Protein and carbo usually takes 2-3 hours to digest.

5.  So, the sequence of eating is very important.  If you eat the carbo and protein first, then, you eat fruits and veggies.  Then, your stomach will need the fruits to queue a little bit longer before it can get to them and digest them.  So, if the fruits queue behind the protein and carbo, they may need to wait 2 hours for the protein and carbo to be absorbed.  So, by the time fruits get there, the fruits already become rotten.  And the vitamins values will dimisnised.

6.  You need to chew your apple.  Apple juice does not work!  When you chew, chew for 20min, your brain will release saliva and produce a certain enzyme.  And this enzyme will make you full, and tricking your brain so that you don't have to urge to eat more.  So chew fruits is important.

Other notes:

1.  So, in order to make this diet work, basically, you need to input lesser than your output.

2.  You cannot go starve.  If you starve, then your body will need sugar.  And this will make metabolism go slow, and when that happens, your body will STORE FATS!  Wow, I have been doing this all wrong.  I always empty stomach and go ride my bicycle for 20KM every day.  No wonder I felt so tired after the cycling.

3.  If you take salad, you need to take 2x palm size of salad.  because salad are raw veggies, usually they takes up more space.

4.  Most of us under-eat protein.  So, you must less the skin, less the bones in order to count as a fist size protein meal.

5.  Try to take WHITE meat.  Occasional still can eat red meat.

6.  For fruits, take those can chew one.  And take those that has lesser sugar.  

7.  You can eat more veggies, but not those tempura one.

8.  The reason why we take Trim Shake at night time is because we wanted smaller dinner in the diet plan.

9.  If you are hungry, no food, your metabolism will go down.  And you will start store FAT.  And the fat you are storing is the V-Fat.  Which is bad for your heart.

10.  how much water do you need?  For me… 87kg x 2ml x 24hr + 500 = 4.7L of water.  Wow, that is a lot of water to drink, but I think I might have drank that much.  Usually you drink 2/3 water when you wake up until dinner.  and then 1/3 of water after dinner before sleep.

11.  Eat carbo to build muscles.  

12.  Take note that exercise in a diet plan has only 10% of effect.  That is why exercise usually are not important.  But daily exercise, such as take stairs, park car further and walk is important.

OK.  No alcohol.  I got it.  hahahahaha

Perhaps the most important message is… you do not have to stave to be on diet.  In fact, you can eat as per normal, but choose your food correctly.

Here are some example...

veggie, bread… apple.

Wow… rice, lots of chicken (fist size) veggies and 2 apples.

Again, veggies, chicken, braised eggs and tofu.  and Apple.

That is awfully lots of veggies and meat in the rice.  hahaha

That is really good salad with Trim Shake.

After seeing all these examples… it really makes me think whether I under eat or not?  ahhaa

Exercise is 10%, but still is needed.  To build muscle.

Next week class is at Zhou's Kitchen.  We are going to a restaurant and Dr. James will teach us how to eat in the restaurant.  WOW.  That is important.