I’ve been dying to go climbing for ages but it’s hard to make time back in Bangkok. We used to go to Bangna pretty often before and ended up buying most of the equipment needed for wall climbing on a trip to Kiel last year. Climbing equipment is so cheap there! We got brands like La Sportiva and Black Diamond while we were there and I think it was around 30%+ cheaper than Norway. In Thailand… we just couldn’t find anything, and also I’m pretty sure it would be even more expensive than Norway as most of the imported goods are.
I think it all started back in Levanger on this climbing wall. I tried it out with my aunt and cousins a couple of years ago and just fell in love with the sport. It’s so much fun and there’s always a new challenge. I normally go on until I just can’t grip anymore. I’m super grateful my aunt is so sporty and into climbing otherwise I wouldn’t have had access to the wall back in the days and also that she would let me belay on the first day. Me and Tom have our own card back in Thailand too but back there we don’t climb and mount the top rope by ourself, if’s already up, so it’s much easier. Also the wall is a lot shorter.
This route was though! I’m pretty tall but I still had to make a jump here.
It’s still really good though and I will be using it again when I’m back once we’ve moved again and are getting settled. Until then I’ll just stick to the gym…if you are into climbing go check out their page Rock Domain on facebook.
bae ❤️
Talking about climbing and Thailand, please go to Railay beach and climb. It’s so pretty and chill and just so much fun to climb there. I only did half days as we increased the difficulty after every climb and my grip just dies after a while. It doesn’t matter how big the grips are…
Belaying happening. Can’t believe she trusts me…jk
I used the company Railay rock climbing and they were at that time (February 2014) located right at the beginning of walking street.
I better start off this post with something healthy…My new favourite protein flavour, MusclePharm choco peanut butter.
We’ve been eating out around 2-3 times a day since friday until we went to Norway yesterday so I don’t have any other photos than Iphone photos of food for you.. Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did eating this… it’s been ridiculous. You can say I’m one happy girl being off my diet. On friday we went to eat the Tomahawk steak at Opposite Mess Hall as my aunt and her boyfriend was in town and we finished the whole 1.4 kilos. It was so nice and tender argh so delicious. If you are a meat lover, and like your steak medium rare, get it! It was super yummy next to the patatas bravas and baguette with truffle butter. The baguette and truffle butter is off the hook btw. Too bad we didn’t get a photo as it was pretty dark and little space on the table. That place is always packed! Super sad they are closing the end of this month, but as I’ve understood it they are re-opening in Sathorn so it should be good.
Went to snapper for my lunch break on friday, they always have a small and fun appetizer before your meal.
So since last I wrote on the blog I finally dragged my butt to get my nails and lashes done. It looks pretty good actually, and I’ll show you all real soon. I got it all done at MBK. My nails at a little shop right between the art mall and MBK. At least I think it’s called the art mall. Got to check it again… but it’s in that area where you go on those escalators straight over a bridge, right next to the big Watsons. I think it’s on the second floor. I’m sorry guys, I got to check it again.
Tapas at viva21 in Thonglor.
Best fried fish I’ve had in Bangkok so far from New Zealand Snapper in soi 11.
The price is only 300 baht for OPI gel paint which is really cheap. Inside the mall the price is 700 baht, so watch out. I also got my lashes done a bit further inside and the price was a 1000 baht. It used to be 700 but they have upgraded their place a lot, so I’m thinking they need the money. I wanted a natural look so I went for small and medium lashes, but I feel like it’s a bit long for me. If I end up going again, I think I’ll only go for small/shorter ones.
This is the last time Tom gets to choose a pizza flavour…
On saturday… of course the last day before we had to leave. I thought my hair was cut a bit too straight, so I went to get my hair cut again to add more layers to it. It was the WORST decision ever. My hair is super short now, and I feel like I look like Billy Ray Cyrus. I also got a bit pissed as I tried to explain I did not want to cut it, only trim the ends to make it look less squared. She ended up laughing because she understood and was thinking I was freaking out too much, it’s true, I was… but she still managed to get it wrong. At least it’s fresh for when it’s going to grow out, but that’s going to take me a year. I’m considering hair extensions again.
I love wine connection, cheap italian food and wines and it tastes really good too!
Also… it was like double the price from last haircut and she didn’t even bother to style it or put any products in it afterwards. I’m pretty sure I’m never going back there. Unless I’m only washing my hair. I think this just proved that I either have to cut my own hair in the future or stick to the one and only place that I’ve been satisfied with in Bangkok, as every place has managed to get it wrong. Maybe I’m just too picky. Tom seems to think it’s every girls problem to get unsatisfied when they go to the hairdresser so maybe that’s just it?
My favourite dim sum in the world from Polo.
Ok, I can see the sun is out, so I’m heading out for some fresh air before we hit the gym. I’ll definitely be spending the following 4 days in Norway outside!!
Todays been one of those boring days just waiting for holiday. I know I keep bringing this up in pretty much every post lately, but I’m in desperate need of a holiday. Yes, I know I was in Norway last month, but that was only for around 5 days, and the flight was horrible and it was pretty much built around me going home to do an exam, so I wouldn’t call that…a holiday. I’m finally done with all the groundwork at work as well so I only have some admin stuff for the rest of the days and then we’re off. So sick of not being able to eat whatever I want as well, or maybe that’s just my cramps talking. Does anyone else have the same problem as I do, where feels like someone stabs you in the stomach while having protein shakes during your period? It sucks!!
I might have to skip the gym tomorrow, though it’s only for the best. I need to get my nails done before the travels, and I might even do my eyelashes, who bothers putting on mascara everyday while travelling? Or actually ever? They should last long this time, as I won’t go to the gym often and rub my eyes. I always do that. I’m one of those people who picks the lashes off and also pick the nail polish off, so maybe I should just forget about it. I should at least get gel nails like last time. That lasted me until- it grew out, and THEN I started picking it. Let’s see how my mood is tomorrow. I might be on an emotional carousel now.
I also had a haircut today during my break and it went super short, at least I feel it did. I kinda look like a toddler and want to colour my hair darker now, but, most likely I won’t be bothered. I never trust anyone to cut my hair so I normally do it myself. I started cutting of a chunk this morning thinking what the hell am I doing, and decided it was better I went to the hairdresser. I actually went to the lady in building where I work and just asked her to cut it straight, hoping for the best. And it was alright. Definitely worth 200 baht.
Tom’s choice of a “pose” I think it turned out pretty funny. At least my legs look long.
Ok guys, that’s enough of me complaining, I’m going to read up on some statistics now, and later we might watch some episodes of South Park and binge on some chicken salad and fruits for the calories we have left from today. Yay!
And again: for those of you liking the outfit it’s the Colour Block Dressfromsociety-A. Use my promo code “Anita20” for a 20% discount. This one if from a Korean brand called Lie, they have lots of fun and colourful pieces, take a look!
Hey lovlies. I thought I’d share my promo code with you guys if you are interested in getting something from Society-A. Simply enter promo code “anita20” at check-out and get 20% off your purchase.
Having my lunch break at work now looking through mails and browsing through facebook. It’s so cold at the office today. I’m actually sitting here in my fleece blanket. Today I got the travel itinerary for our New work trip and it’s looking awesome. We are set for a wine and cheese cruise at the Hudson river, a helicopter tour over New York, a guided SUV trip around the city, and I get to choose my own Borsalino hat.They’ve booked us a room at the Sanctuary hotel and we are super happy that they give out daily memberships to train at Equinox gym. Life is good. Sunday can you come already? I’m ready to start my holiday…
This week I’m doing a little collaboration with Society-Aon instagramso that’s happening. They have lots of fun, different and colourful clothes all made by leading Asian designers and labels and it’s definitely worth taking a look at. I’ll share some photos of their clothes every day this week for you guys to take a peek.
The clothes are made by nice fabrics and definitely of great quality. I like their unique pieces, it’s not like with other mainstream stores, where you can find the exact same thing in another shop. Maybe not the right fit for my body shape though.
This week will be cramped at work, hopefully I’ll be done with everything by the time I leave on Sunday. As I’m the only Norwegian person that works for our company I have to get everything out-of-the-way, so it won’t be on hold for another 3 weeks. At first I was doing my own campaign that I have been doing earlier but as we are rebranding, there is a lot of website content that needs to be done as well, so I have to go a bit back and forth trying to figure out the times and just getting it done. I haven’t really been having any long lunches lately, as that’s the prime time for my other campaign. Oh well, at least I get to control my own time for a while and it feels good to do something different.
It’s kind of good too to not have too long lunch breaks as it makes you tempted to go out and eat with the rest, and I honestly can’t choose what to eat at the moment. I know I’m going to gain some kilos on the trip so I just want to be as lean as I can for departure.
I threw a house party with the company and some other friends this weekend, and the drinking just went out of hand, haha. Scandinavian people loves to drink… followed by eating junk food so this was a bad cheat weekend for me. Me and Tom started off saturday with going to Victory Monument to have 5 bowls of boat noodles each. It didn’t make me any less hungry for when people came over, and after all the finger food, tacos and insane amounts of alcohol that went down as a result of losing in flip cup and beer pong, I decided it was a good idea for me to have some McDonald’s as everyone was ordering and there was nothing else open. 2 burgers, one fries, and a six-pack of nuggets with cheese dip later I thought I was going to explode.
The following day was no better, we went to our favourite chicken and Som Tam place on rama 9, called Gai Yang Rama 9 and had some chicken, som tam and other delicious isaan food of course I also had a Cha manao (Lemon ice tea) on the side.. and you know how bad Thai ice tea is, nice and FULL of sugar. We also ended the night with a steak each at Le Boeuf, that steak is just amazing. Needless to say, It was a great weekend, but… I have to get back to the dieting today.
I’m not saying this is a magical cure that will make you drop weight within a couple of days, maybe not even in a couple of weeks, but you WILL feel better, and you WILL look fitter if you follow all or even some of these. I’m not trying to push all this information on you, but I do have a lot of people asking me, so I thought I’d make you guys a list. Remember to be consistent this isn’t a one week mission.
Lift weights,I used to do Spinning, 30 minute abs classes, step and strength classes followed by working out with light weights on machines. I could even run 10km/h on the treadmill for 60 minutes. I would switch this around and stay in the gym for hours, without really seeing much result. I mean, yes I did tighten up, and yes my conditioning become a lot better, but it took me months to really see any result and it was minimal. Then, I started doing heavy weights after moving to Thailand. After around two months, I started seeing a body I had never seen before. Visible muscles and I was stronger than ever. This was so new and exciting and it soon became a lifestyle. I know it’s hard to get started but if you want someone to kick your butt in the beginning, Thailand has many affordable options for a private trainer. I also started up with one, using Bodycore Thailand. They have a 10 session deal, and definitely know what they are talking about.
Cut the alcohol When I first moved to Thailand I moved into a house with a bunch on 18-20 year old girls, all European and Scandinavian luk kruengs and we would party around 3 days a week. We were young ok… don’t blame us. I would still go to the gym and train with my trainer after… luckily he would cut me some slack and we started around 2 pm so this wasn’t a problem. But I could have definitely progressed a lot more both aesthetically and strength wise if I didn’t. Now that I drink maybe every second week or less, I’m definitely seeing more results and all in all feel a lot better. I hate being hung over, it ruins me for DAYS. I live with this Norwegian rule in my head that always makes me go overboard when I drink, it goes something along the lines of it being a waste to drink unless you’re getting wasted.
Count your calories!!! This one is so important, and is enough to already start seeing a huge difference. I know it’s boring and it takes time, but really, you will find it worth it. I’m not saying that this is something you should do everyday for the rest of your life because I sure know that I won’t, but, while you are trying to get your dream body for the beach or removing those few inches on your waist that came with the everyday binge of pizza and candies (we’ve all been there…)then you have to. It’s so easy to think that you are eating healthy or the right amount of calories, but you will be pretty shocked once you try counting. It’s always either too much or too little.There are also different ratios of carbs, fat and proteins you can follow and these are great to follow while counting calories. I use this amazing app called Myfitnesspal and it’s so easy to put your daily intake on it.You could estimate too, but it’s better to actually use a scale. Who knows exactly how 100 grams of chicken after it’s cooked looks like? Unless you’ve been counting earlier. After a while you kind of get the hang of it.. I also use this app by my old trainer Vishal, called Cals & macrosand it’s just perfect for calculating how much you should eat to maintain, gain or for weight loss. You should use this app (or something similar) to estimate what you need to consume, otherwise you are going to put a ridiculously low number and lose lots of weight in a couple of days, just to gain it again in a second. I’ve lost 3kgs in around 4 weeks of cutting, and I haven’t felt hungry or sad at all about my eating. I’ve just cut the crap and substituted it with proper food instead. Again remember to be consistent. You can’t just do this for a week and then start eating your maintenance calories. You will most likely gain the weight back this way.
Cook at home. It’s so much easier to count calories when you cook at home. You have to count in the fats and added fried stuff into the equation as well and I find it hard when a restaurant cooks it. It’s totally fine to eat out as well, don’t get sad. It’s just easier to drop weight knowing what goes in. Otherwise, if you don’t mind spending some extra money and want your meals planned and calories counted, use Healthbox then there’s no excuse! I found that it saved me lots of time.
High protein diet, I always make sure to get lots of protein, I eat around 1+g pr lbs of bodyweight. This might just be me, but I feel like my body is a lot firmer with enough protein intake. I’ve tried working out without the protein, and I feel my body gets soggy. I use the Thai brand Dymatize, and can recommend the whey strawberry flavour. I’ve recently tried out MusclePharm Chocolate peanut butter as well, and this is now one of my favourites.
Move around. Download a workout app. For those days you can’t be bothered to hit the gym, or is too busy with work, or even if you want an extra workout on top of your workout, tabata is amazing. It only takes around 4 minutes of your time, and makes you pretty tired. Me and Tom tries to do Tabata together as often as we can as a little extra workout or when we think we have over eaten, hehe. I also just downloaded this app called Seven, it’s free and gives you a pretty good seven minute home workout that you can easily do if you have a yoga mat and a chair. It gets easy after a while but then you can just add weights. You can also buy more workout programs from them, but I thought 2,5 usd is a bit harsh…
Eat salads. You can eat SO much salad and it still won’t be much over 100 calories. I love to add crispy salad, tomatoes, red onions, corn and bell pepper. You can top it with chicken breast to get your daily protein intake. But don’t be one of those idiots who puts fried chicken, or lots of cheese or dressing on the salad. If you do have to add cheese to be able to eat the salad, make sure you weigh it. If you don’t bother weighing it all the time, just find out how much is in one tbsp. I got one from Emborg with the lowest amount of calories possible and I still can’t put more than 20 grams in the salad, if I want my calories to be right. I’m not saying you can’t eat cheese, just eat it in moderation. Otherwise you could have eaten pretty much anything else and had the salad on the side. I do want to add one thing though, I find it ridiculous how all these products with lower calories are so expensive. If I wasn’t on a diet I would choose the normal option, not because I think it tastes better, but because I don’t want to pay double the price unless I absolutely have to. Talk about trying to help people out…
Buy healthy snacks. Before I would always snack on cookies and chips, I love chips, after my one week exchange program in Riga, I was called the snack girl, that’s how bad it is. I know I have to work extra hard if I want to eat that bag of chips, because I know, it WILL be a whole bag once I get started. If you do get hungry throughout the day, get carrots with dip, you can use greek yogurt and powder, or even low-fat sour cream if the rest of your day wasn’t high on fats. Fruits and berries are also delicious and high on vitamins and antioxidants, and so easy for us here in Thailand to find. Another snack I usually have and that I get full on is 0% fat yoghurt and oats. It’s super delicious. I use the yoghurt from Meiji, available at every seven eleven. Almonds is also a great substitute for chips, but trying to lose weight, you gotta be careful as they are really high on fats and calories.
Actually follow this. Don’t follow it and then add some unhealthy stuff on the side, that doesn’t help. I used to get a healthbox meal plan where I had everything counted for and I had someone ask me “is it guaranteed weight loss” I mean, it’s not going to happen within one day, but yes, you will lose weights if you cut your calories to the right amount for weight loss and stick to that. It’s not going to help you if you cheat yourself and have the healthy meals PLUS a bag of chips or a burger at McDonald’s. I get so annoyed at people that say they eat so little but still gain so much, No you don’t eat too little. It’s impossible that you keep gaining weight if you under eat. Just think about it. It might be that your portions are small, but the food you choose is sky-high in calories… or you’re just fooling yourself.
Will you be joining me to get your dream body? I’m only on it until the 20th of September, then I’m off to a 3 week binge in the US and Europe. Hopefully I’ll find a gym here… or I’ll be back as a lump and will need you guys to lecture me.
