I know, it’s been a long time! Last time I had just returned from Hollywood, and to say the least, the world has changed since then.
So, to start off on a good note, I’m doing a Barebells giveaway for my Bangkok followers. Since it was my birthday a few days ago, I wanted to celebrate with you guys and give one lucky person a full box of my favourite Barebells protein bars.
For those of you who don’t know, Barebells is a guilt-free protein snack brand from Sweden and they have finally launched in Thailand.
I’ve loved this brand ever since I first tried it in Norway and I’m stoked that Barebells have finally launched in Thailand. Go check them on Instagram here. I’m lucky to be one of their brand ambassadors, so you’ll see a lot more of this brand and what they are up to on all my channels!
If you would like to take part, you still have until 8th of June, that’s 5 more days to go! All you have to do is go to my Instagram profile @anitabye, find this photo and like it, tag 2 of your besties that you would like to share a Barebells protein bar with and follow @barebells.thailand!
I’ve started working as a boxing instructor at Bangkok’s first boutique boxing studio. We opened just 3 months ago and are located at Seenspace in Thonglor 13. We’re also the first studio in Bangkok to use aqua boxing bags!
The studio is called KNOCKOUT Boxing Studio and combines western style boxing with a HIIT type of floor work. We’ll have you work 4 rounds, starting on the bags, followed by a floor work section (all instructors have their own style of floor work) and then we repeat that order one more time. So all in all, 2 rounds on the bags, 2 rounds on the floor, alternating between both of them. The workout itself is around 45 minutes in total.
All the boxing is to the beat so you can expect great music and some sick drops. Our lighting system is also off the chain, so much fun. Like a mini EDM festival!
We started preparing already in March so safe to say, I’ve gotten several hours of Western Boxing under my belt now. It’s really fun and it was definitely challenging learning all the new types of movement, and although my technique is still far from perfect I can throw some mean punches I wasn’t able to prior.
We are still not operating on full schedule, but we do have classes every day of the week with one morning class and two classes in the evening on weekdays, and lunch time classes on the weekends. I’m doing 3-4 classes a week, and so is Tom so try catch one of our classes one day.
You can find the schedule on KnockoutBKK IG, we rotate the schedule so even if you have set times you can train, you get to try out different instructors.
We also have a buy1get1 offer for all first timers!
If you would like to make a booking, the best channels to do so is MINDBODY app, Classpass or on Line
Happy to tell you guys that me and Tom are now officially working with one of our favourite protein bar brands, Naked Fit Fuel. We are joining their team as their new brand ambassadors. So excited to see what this can bring for both parts and I’m positive we can make a great team.
Being their brand ambassador of course means I can give my readers a discount so if you would like to make an order for some amazing natural protein bars and protein cookies in Thailand use my code NFFANITA or use this link and the code will automatically be added at check-out. There is of course also an option to order the protein bars world wide but just keep in mind that they might arrive slightly misshaped due to the heat… though this will not have any effect of the taste or nutrients in the bar.
Perfect on-the-go snack!
My favourite flavours:
Protein Bars:
Banana
Goji-nuts-seeds
Peanut butter brownie
Protein Cookies:
Banana
Strawberry
Black sesame
Matcha
If you’re looking for a yummy more healthy snack to replace your sweets, but not too worried about it being super high protein, the cookies are the right choice for you. It’s that yummy that it has replaced my cookie and late night ice cream consumption and I can’t complain getting an extra 12 grams of protein in.
Though if you have troubles hitting your your daily protein requirements and don’t want to have shakes or tons of chicken every day, it can be great with something a bit higher in protein, which is where the bars are great with 20g+ of protein.
I’m still super jet lagged from our Norway trip and haven’t been able to get back to my routines yet. We are still awake until 4 am and waking up at noon. I need to fix this. Easier said than done! So glad to have Guavapass available, there’a literally no excuse as there’s always one workout or another available at most hours. It’s also super helpful to easily see what’s available on the app. I love being able to switch the work out around from day to day. Right now I am loving Base. I’ll make you guys a must-try list of my top 5-10 Guavapass gyms soon!
After reading about increasing your greens for better health and watching tons of documentaries about the food industry with a specific focus on the meat industry, I made it a goal for 2017 to consume less meat and animal products. Especially dairy! I think cutting down on dairy was the hardest part for me, especially since I like to have my daily protein shakes which is made out of Whey (my usual choice). I’m totally with scientists or nutritionists when they are saying that we do not need the excessive amounts of protein that we pack ourselves with (1 g pr. pound as many fitness people live by), but I just don’t feel like I am getting the results that I want when I’m not. A high protein diet (for me) definitely speeds up my diet or building muscles, giving me more of the “hard” body that I like for myself. Cutting down on animal produced protein did introduce me to my all time favourite breakfast. Frozen Acai pulp, 98% mango juice, frozen peach and vegan pea protein, please try it. You will become addicted! It also helped me stop feeling bloated as I get from having whey protein shake. Warning. I did hate the vegan protein in the beginning as I just drank it clean with water…
Pumpkin soup with “cheese” bread, creamy pumpkin soup, whole grain rice with veggies and pasta with vegan bolognese sauce, couldn’t taste the difference!
Cutting down on meat and dairy started to become easy so I wanted to challenge myself. My main inspiration for this was (some of which are mentioned earlier):
Because I wanted to eat more greens
Because of the animals. If you have watched Gokja you must have felt bad at some point for eating meat, at least I did…
Because I’ve been surrounded by people who for some reason hates vegans and reading negative comments online about vegans (this goes both ways) but seeing this is such a big thing in our society, I wanted to put myself in their shoes. Also because I started to become one of those people myself, being prejudice about something I had never tried myself or even tried to understand.
I wanted to see if I felt better, my health, body and honestly if I felt less quilt for some reason.
Also I thought it would be a great way to learn how to cook with more vegetables and find yummy new recipes.
Being born in Norway also makes you appreciate Mother Nature, and I wanted to try to live a more sustainable life for mother earth. Cowspiracy definitely played a big role in that.
Tofu tast, almost same as egg I tell ya!
Then it came to the point where I decided to go 2 days a week without any meat. A good way to remember this was Meatless Monday and Vegan Wednesday. Vegetarian is easy guys (don’t take that literally), but vegan is hard, as it requires a lot of planning as a newbie.
On Meatless Mondays I would cook full grain rice and all the yummy veggies I could think of, and I actually started cooking with vegetables I would never normally buy, which was really fun. And there are so many Thai spices, sauces and chillies to play around with, but some of them you cannot use for vegan days as they contain fish sauce. It was also easy because I could have eggs, cheese, butter, whey protein and all kinds of bread. Vegan Wednesdays made me have to look at every list of ingredients and also make everything from scratch. Which was, in many ways a good thing. I knew EXACTLY what went into my food. The only thing I found hard was meeting my protein goal. I Always made sure to log everything I ate on both Vegan and Vegetarian days and I was quite happy to see I always met my fiber requirements which I’ve always had a problem with. Also on vegan days, your body feels really good. I don’t know if it’s because of the quilt or just because of all the greens, or maybe it’s the whole non-dairy diet. But I felt good!
Raw spring rolls with nuts, raisins, seeds and salty sauce.
The only bad part is trying to make time to cook all the food for the day and being able to make it a sustainable thing in your daily life. Because I honestly felt like I only got the benefit of feeling extra good on the day where I went all vegan. I know it’s weird to claim that from only a day in the week, but you should try it yourself. Right now I’m only eating one vegan/vegetarian meal a day and rest with meals containing meat and shakes. And it’s not the same, but it’s what I have time to during office hours. Again this might point back to the part where I was being more picky about the ingredients when having to be all vegan. Try it and see for yourself.
Vegan Mexican. Who would have though Mexican could taste so amazing without any cheese or sour cream?! It was spicy too!
I’ll definitely try getting back to that routine. I think it will be much easier as there are many great vegan and vegetarian options in Bangkok now. I tried out Pranaa food which is a Plant based whole food deliver in Bangkok. I had them deliver the food to my office every day for a week, and I was so surprised at how many recipes you can come up with without any animal products.
Amazing juices, vegan enchiladas, rice and mushroom, different styles of Dhal, Vegan Thai food options, vegetarian spring rolls, pastas/spaghetti with sauce, bread with different kinds of spread. If you wanna try out being a vegan for a week, or only for a day, this company is highly recommended. Not only does it not contain animal products, but there are also no oils or MSG used. You can check their menu on their Facebook page, they do fresh daily deliveries with 1 meal, 1 snack and one shake or you can do the whole day package with 2 meals.
After years of doing strength training I’ve decided to do something different. I’ve always seen cardio, high reps and running as a challenge, and never really focused on those parts at all, unless it was for aesthetics. My “strength” training the past year was more in the direction of a lean body accompanied with a more calorie restricted diet, not really with any purpose at all. Just looking somewhat fit. That being said, this period has been much more enjoyable than when I was just focusing on the numbers and being stronger everyday. Because that also meant hitting the right macros. It takes time which I haven’t had much of lately. I think losing weight is a lot easier than gaining weight in the right way. Gaining requires a lot of counting calories and (for me) loosing weight can be as easy as cutting out egg yolks, fats and treats while increasing my protein intake. But remember, every body works differently! The main reason for this change is that the Spartan race is coming to Thailand in September and I’ll be joining it! I’ve just started Guava Pass again to try improve my cardio with HIIT classes and boot camps and wow, I’m in bad shape. I’m positive we’ll have some fun though and I’m actually quite excited for it! 3.5 months to go!
If you are thinking about joining the Spartan race, use my code “anitabye” when you sign up to get a better price.
