It’s not a secret that I love to eat, and I do get satisfied going to a restaurant as long as the food is good and I leave there with a full stomach. With that said, it’s not often I find restaurants worth mentioning to my nearest and dearest, or restaurants that I’m a frequent visitor of. I love trying out new places, and the odds of me revisiting that restaurants are mostly up to convenience. I love steak, that’s not a secret. I love it so much it’s one of my favourite things to eat. When I used to live in Spain, it was so easy to find a nice steak place but here in Thailand not so. I do have to admit there are a lot of new delicious steak places popping up in Bangkok though, and I’ve found a couple that I wouldn’t want to live without. Number one is Le Boeuf.
They serve a perfectly cooked steak topped with their secret sauce recipe. I swear, the sauce is so nice and salty and a perfect addition the steak. And it doesn’t stop there, you also get an unlimited serving of golden fries on the side. And I don’t even really like fries, and especially not next to my fries, but this is gold!! I normally only get one serving of fries though as we always order one platter of steak each. We made the mistake of only getting one for share the first time and it was one awkward dinner… just kidding.
So if you are looking for a delicious piece of meat for a decent price, Le boeuf the place to go, ok… now I’m hungry.
Amsterdam was shorts and sweet. We had one night and two (almost) full days in the city. I’ve been to Amsterdam before, but this time I really fell in love with the city. It’s such a free place compared to Norway and Thailand, but it’s not in any way more chaotic or less safe for that matter.Actually I felt incredibly safe there even at night time walking around the red light district and dark alleys. I love how they have amazing food EVERYWHERE and how easy accessible it is. You can jump on the bus/tram/ferry and get pretty much anywhere you want for a good price. In Norway it costs me the same amount to take the train to the airport, as it costed me for a full day card in Amsterdam. I ACTUALLY felt like the reason they have public transportation was to save the environment. In Norway it’s actually cheaper to take your own car most places than taking the train…
Enough moaning about my own country. We have decided we will be moving to Amsterdam some time in the future though. Not forever, but at least for half a year or a full year… Can’t wait!
Love my forever travel partner <3
5 things you have to do while you’re in Amsterdam:
Heineken experience, it was so much fun, and you actually learn interesting things about how Heineken been become what we know today.
As you can see I was pretty tipsy already. What a fun tour!
Canal cruise. It was so, so, but it is really nice to go on the canal and learn about the city. You could just go on a little canoe as a couple too, I’m sure that would be nice aswell. My friends went on their own paddle boat once, and apparently this was not a good idea as you have to steer yourself around and between the bigger boats.
Coffee shop. You can’t go to Amsterdam as a youngster and not visit the coffee shops. It’s so weird to see people just sitting there smoking weed like it’s normal. Also their menu’s with herbal tea’s and joints like you were ordering a cappuccino. I’m not saying you should smoke, just have a look. 🙂
Visit the Van Gogh museum. I can’t believe I got to see the beautiful paintings that I learnt and read about in school. Until January you also get to see Edvard Munch’s masterpieces at the museum.
Super yummy, we went for the spicy sauce. Yes… I know I look like a toddler, but I can’t talk about the best fries in the world without showing a photo
Vlaams Friethuis.I don’t even like french fries, but these were crispy, salty and golden. And you get to choose your topping from over a dozen sauces.
Where to stay? We stayed at the Ibis right next to the Amsterdam Centraal station. The hotel wasn’t super fancy but the location was great. We could get pretty much anywhere from our hotel, and it was only one train away from the airport. Don’t expect an early check-in though, the hotel is PACKED.
Pretty much where we lived. Right next to Amsterdam centraal. Of course I was holding food there. Best baguett EVER.
Tips: If you are planning to do the same activities as us, make sure you get anIAMSTERDAMcity card, it includes unlimited train, ferry and tram rides, and also free access to the Van Gogh museum, the lovers canal cruise and more! You’ll save loads of money.
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!!
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.
Yesterday we went to celebrate a friends birthday at Viva 21 in Thonglor , it’s safe to say that lots of food and drinks were consumed so today was a chill day. I’ve actually never been at any of the Viva restaurants/bars, but only heard good things and I got a positive impression after last night. The decor is nice and trendy and the food was pretty good too. I would love to go check out the Viva 8 at JJ Market and Viva Aviv by the river, as people are raving about these.
The plan was for us to go to the travel fair at Queen Sirikit today followed by some food and shopping at farmers market by the river, but we ended up skipping the farmers market and went to the one outside Emquartier instead, as Tom wanted to show me some goodies he had found in Zara first.
This lemonade was super nice and fresh, I need to learn how to make my own lemonade, so I don’t have to drink syrup…
There was a little weekend market outside Emquartier so I did my shopping there, finding some delicious smoked duck from Vivin, and some natural granola from Skinni Bears, I can’t wait to try these as I’m swearing to salads as one of my daily meals hence the duck. I’m also using greek yoghurt or non-fat yoghurt as a snack, so I think some granola will do the trick. I love how they also had an option without butter.
I also tried the ramen burger that people have been going crazy over, and I have to say, I was not impressed. I don’t know where the problem was because I liked the noodle, beef, cheese AND bacon, it was just the combination of it all that put me off. I definitely would recommend people to try it though, you might find a place in your heart for it as so many others have.
With all the toppings possible, noodles, bacon, cheese and beef…
We later made it to the travels fair which is one of our favourite fairs of all times, today was the last time so you guys will just have to wait a few months for the next one. There’s lots of inspiration and tips for travels there, there are also lots of great deals, you just have to look carefully as some of them are pretty much the same as you can find on Agoda.
Hahaha happy little babies. Winning rules.
As we both love water parks and theme parks, it was no shock that we ended up getting a ticket to Cartoon Network waterpark. I even ended up winning us a yearly pass to the waterpark, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be back a couple of times. I was actually hoping for the pizza set but what the heck. We also got something that seems to be an awesome beer festival in Kanchanaburi called Craft’n Roll. Needless to say there will be free flow of craft beers, and the idea is that you get handed one beer glass that you take around to the different stations to get a refill. I can also see lots of American junk food on the menu, so I think the event will be a winner. The music is played by Thai bands and I’m super excited for this. The beer carniva named Craft’n Roll will be held around the grounds of Mida resort, so we got a tent stay there as well. The tent has an aircon, so it won’t be as hardcore as festivals normal are, but I would say it’s much needed here in Thailand. Are some of you thinking about going to the beer festival in Kanchanaburi? The event will be held on the 12th of December!
Since I quit virgin active due to travelling and us moving back to Sukhumvit and most likely going back to smart fitness, I’ve actually been dieting. I know… me dieting sounds absurd but I’ve actually been quite OK at it. I started cooking at home and counting calories a week ago, and it’s been going pretty well. But I wanted a little break from it. Dieting is quite a hassle, especially when you work full time. It’s not only the cooking and cleaning up afterwards, you also have to count the calories and macros. It’s fine if you make simple dishes, but for me who likes a lot of flavours and variation it gets quite time consuming.
First meal day, so exited for the rest. There’s another box in the bag. I like the clean and earthy presentation.
But for now, starting from today I’m using health box for a week to try it out. I’m already after day one feeling like I’m saving a lot of time. No dishes, no need to count calories, just get it delivered straight to my door for lunch. I’ve ordered the two meals a day plan, and each of my meals are around 500 calories. I also have a snack box on 200 calories that I’m eating on workout days. In addition I have shakes before/after workout and before bedtime incase you think it sounds like little. They have 3 different plans, one for weight loss, one for healthy eating and the one I chose; the fitness training program. You give them your height, weight and age and tell them what you want to obtain and how much activity you do daily and they will tell you how much you should eat.
For my fitness program the ratio of Carb: Protein: Fat is 40:35:25.
I think for next week I will make everything on sunday and box it and count it already then. I just want my abs for when we are beaching it up in Spain next month. Agh, we’ve been working so much lately it’s going to be amazing having 3 weeks off just chilling, eating, exploring, and having bottles after bottles of wine. I’m on cloud nine thinking about it.
It’s true… they are making it too easy, saves you so much time. The fruit box was today’s snack box and contained around 190 calories. Nice, fresh and organic.
Todays lunch; chicken nicoise salad, the chicken was a bit dry, but the dinner really made up for it!
So far it’s all been quite nice, and I’ll let you know more once I’ve tried it out a bit longer. It’s so hard to find healthy food in Bangkok, so I think this might be a hit for a lot of people. The price is pretty decent too compared to Absolute Fit Food. And nutrition value is good compared to Polpa which has 19g in one meal. And that’s the low fat meal.
Tom is already on his 2nd week of health box and he is sure he wants to go on with it for a while. I think it’s a nice break from the kitchen but I don’t think I will be doing it for more than a week or when I’m really busy. Or will I also get hooked?
