Chez Guido | I Spit Hot Fire

Shrinkage is a Terrible Thing

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

Originally, a friend and I had planned to go on the maple syrup diet as soon as I got back to Vietnam. But when I got to the US and was discussing it with Emil, he labeled it as just another BS fad diet.

For once I decided to listen to him and not do it, though I did want to try maybe a vegetarian diet for a while.

My friend, at that point, decided to start it while I was away.

When I came back, I noticed:

He definitely dropped a good amount of weight in only 10 days
He was also super hungry the whole time, but he was able to handle it mentally (I don’t think most people have the self-control to stick with it)
He felt less sluggish after the diet and he thinks his skin is a lot better. I don’t disagree.

So there’s an example of the maple syrup diet in case you want to be like Beyonce and try it out.

He finished right as I came back, and to ease integration (your stomach basically can’t handle food right after such a diet) into the normal world of fatty and meaty delights, decided to go a week or so doing just Vegetarian.

I joined in, and here’s my story:

Day 1: Saturday

I flew back to Vietnam this day, had nothing to eat during the entire trip, totaling nearly 28 hours without food. Not a bad start. Going over a day without food was fairly simple, I think I could have done 2 full days if I really wanted to, but I didn’t.

Day 2: Sunday

Lunch: Now back in Vietnam (got home around 12PM), had a tomato and salad mix. Small amounts of tofu as well
Dinner: Mix of vegetables, rice, tofu, and corn (from the can)

Day 3: Monday

Breakfast:Basically, half a French baguette. Some orange juice (freshly squeezes) before I left for work.
Lunch: Here, I technically cheated. I ordered a nicoise salad (lettuce, onions, peppers) with light amounts of tuna and sliced boiled eggs from Chez Guido. No dressing. There aren’t so many options in Saigon that I could have gone to considering my needs for price and convenience. Also had a couple of bananas and minestrone soup, which I think is tomato based soup with pasta, mushrooms, and small vegetables like peas and chopped carrots.
Dinner: Went with Hai/Jimmy/others to a vegetarian place.Unfortunately, everyone was more into tofu that tasted like meat versus just ordering heavy vegetables (my preference). Had an orange juice.
- From Jimmy’s Twitter: Nhà hàng chay Hoa ??ng, 38 Hu?nh Kh??ng Ninh, Q.1. Get Gà rôti bánh bao chiên and Ch? b?p Hoa ??ng, Vegetarian V?t is always good too

Day 4: Tuesday

Breakfast: An entire baguette this time
Lunch: Minestrone soup and stir-fry vegetables. And the banana.
Snack: had another third of a baguette
Dinner: Rice/vegetables, a little tofu.
- At this point, I was thinking, if I am not losing weight this way, then it is amazing/impossible that I am not 250 pounds normally (I’m probably 155 or so pre-diet)
- Each meal, was definitely left a little empty, and was trying to eat healthy, not just vegetarian but unhealthy. No processed food, lighter meals, still doing normal work and crunches every other day.
- I work normally, feel fine, just a little bit empty and hungry at all times
- Keep in mind I drink a good amount of water as well, I believe at around 2.5 liters per day, which as Google tells me is:

Day 5: Wednesday

In thinking about diets, If I ever did a diet, I always wanted to go back down to around 145 pounds, which I haven’t been in about 6 years. When I was at Berkeley, I once gained 20 pounds in a matter of 4-6 months because I didn’t know I could gain weight, I just kept eating and seriously, eating. I never was able to get my old weight after I realized I was balloon, though I think I have been 150 pounds in Vietnam at times. I hadn’t weighed myself in a long time, but I would think maybe I was 160 before the diet (I ate well in the US), but if optimistic, I would hope I was actually closer to 155.
On another tangent, Americans eat way more food than Vietnamese people. It is almost sickening how many calories people consume, and how super size is considered a good thing. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I leaved in Vietnam for a while and then came back to the US to realize how much food we actually (and I used to) eat.
Breakfast: Nothing. Did crunches in the morning
Lunch: Some kind of vegetarian Penne along with some grapefruit and the now-standard Minestrone
Dinner: spicy Korean noodles with egg omelet slices (friend started integrating small amounts of egg into die, will add cheese in a few days)
I kind of feel between lunch and dinner, got a whole ton of calories from the carbs, definitely wasn’t feeling as light in terms of the meals as the other days
Would really like some KFC right about now

Day 6: Thursday

Crunches in the morning
Breakfast: nothing
Lunch: decided to go with the nicoise salad from Monday again- less carbs and calories I think versus the pastas, also had the Minestrone soup and 2 bananas
Dinner: rice + vegetables + tofu + watermelon

Day 7: Friday

Breakfast: nothing
Lunch: I found out Chez Guido has vegetarian fried rice! It’s not that great though (and you have to ask for it, it’s not on the menu)
Dinner: small amount of rice + bean curd (which is not tofu?) + watermelon
only got halfway through 8 minute abs

Day 8: Saturday

Craving for churros and turkey
Breakfast: an apple
Dribbled a basketball and walked around for an hr, crunches in the morning
Lunch: went for Japanese, got curry noodles (with potatoes and carrots)
Dinner: Half a medium vegetarian pizza at Pizza Hut, a half piece of garlic bread and some French fries

Day 9: Sunday

Breakfast: none
Lunch: a small black bean/tomato/lettuce salad with OK
Dinner: Jin’s fusion Chinese noodle/Italian tomatoes, olive oil
Ran around (1/3 mile at most, and walked (maybe totaled 3/4 to 1 mile)

Day 10: Monday

Crunches before breakfast
Breakfast: grilled cheese, fries, and orange juice
Lunch: SEMPLICE PANINI (Mozzarella, Tomato, Basilic, Olive oil . Phô – mai, Cà chua, lá Húng qu?, d?u Oliu.) and Cream of Vegetable Soup.
The soup sucked, too thick for me, but the Panini was excellent- the cheese had a lot to do with it, but this was the best thing I’ve had on the diet.
Dinner: Rice + vegetables + watermelon

Day 11: Tuesday

Crunches before breakfast
Breakfast: a croissant and piece of garlic bread for Tous Le Jours (yum!) (Tous Les Jours, 180 Hai Bà Tr?ng, qu?n 1, TP.HCM)
Lunch: Panini and Minestrone Soup
Dinner: Rice + Rau Muon (Called Morning Glory I think) + Salad + Tomatoes + 1 small burrito

Day 12: Wednesday

Crunches in the morning
Breakfast: nothing
Lunch: Panini and 2 Bananas + Orange Juice
Am now tired of the Panini
Dinner: multi-grain bread + vegetables + watermelon

Day 13: Thursday

Morning Crunches
Breakfast: nothing
Lunch: Panini and Minestrone
Dinner: some kind spicy bean soup at a Korean place- it was actually a meat bean soup, so I had to remove the big chunks of meat out, but I know there were a bunch of small bits left it. I blame Eric on this one, he told me to get it and he knew I was doing vegetarian as well. Eat some lettuce/carrot pieces as well

Day 14: Friday

No Crunches
No Breakfast
Lunch: Panini + Minestrone + Bananas
Dinner: some vegetables, some tofu, some watermelon

Finale: Saturday!

Finally 2 full weeks since I left the US, and my first official meat meal was:

Pho! Well I admit, I wanted to do something light, though I won’t deny that getting a KFC bucket came to mind as well.

Well, this post is quite long, and only interesting to me, so I’ll summarize with some last points:

Places to Eat:

Chez Guido in TPHCM: delivery food service, good stuff, worth getting
Tous Le Jours: 180 Hai Bà Tr?ng, qu?n 1, TP.HCM, good bread (and pastry products), excellent price (I don’t say that in Vietnam about western-quality goods very often, perhaps this is the first time, even) (http://dulich.tuoitre.com.vn/tianyon/Index.aspx?ArticleID=206058&ChannelID=217)
Nhà hàng chay Hoa ??ng: 38 Hu?nh Kh??ng Ninh, Q.1. Get Gà rôti bánh bao chiên and Ch? b?p Hoa ??ng, Vegetarian V?t is always good too (Nice vegetarian place, feels a little high end but not really expensive, if you’re a foreigner)

Notes Post Diet:

It’s now Tuesday as I’m finalizing this. I haven’t gorged myself on meat yet, though I did go to Pizza Hut with friends over the weekend for lunch and got some meaty pizzas. Even that night however, I went back to vegetarian.
Not so into eating meat anymore, in the sense of course I’d love it, but could handle one meat meal a day, and one vegetarian a day- I’d like to see how I do
In terms of health, I am guess I did lose some weight, but hard to say how much and if it is obvious I thinned out
The hardest thing about the diet was no so much couldn’t handle not eating meat, but what-to-eat, especially since I live with friends at the moment and live with them. If I lived at home, I could (or would be forced to, to be more precise) just go to the market, select some noodles and vegetables and fruits and go off on that the whole time.