Progress pics and photo rant

Me: OK, go, take the pic…

Designated photographer: (SILENCE) Wait, I was recording!

Me: ¬¬’

Designated photographer: OK, 1, 2…3! *flash*

Me: OK, let me see it… What? But it doesn’t show… (LOOKS AT MIRROR, POINTS OUT BELLY TO FRIEND) But… do you see this? Or I is it just me who see it?

Designated photographer: The abs? Yeah, I see them too…

Me: But why I can’t see them in the pic?

Designated photographer: (SHRUGS) How am I supposed to know? I only came here because I was told there would be free beer…

–   o   –

Flashback a couple of days. I was in the drugstore and saw one of those scales that also measure your body fat. The kind that gives different readings if you drink a glass of water in between measurements. The kind you shouldn’t trust, EVER. Of course, I hopped on it. The first pic in this post is the results.

For the Americans, who insist on measuring stuff in Imperial nonsense, I translate:

Weight: 140,8 pounds

Height: 5,6 feet

% Body fat: 15,9%

Fat mass: 22,6 pounds

Lean mass: 118,6 pounds

BMI is normal, Body Fat % is actually below normal. Compared to who, I wonder.

So, about 4 days ago I ask a friend to take this pics, as you already read in the beggining. Here they are:

I said it before in other posts, I said it in the beggining of this one: I have a little more abs’ definition than what you see on the pics, damn it!!!  Today it hit me… maybe it’s the flash? Wait, the short video my friend recorded by accident didn’t have the flash lightening. So, of course, I uploaded the short, just-a-few-seconds vid for ya…

If you can’t see it, here are the two pics, the photo and the video thumbnail:

Without the flash, the shadow effect is clearly different. And this is with no special lights. But add the flash, and I lose abs definition because of it. Argh!

Anyways… there you have it. Progress pics at the beggining of 2012 (last year EVER).

Active Sunday&Monday with a Plank Challenge

Whoa! What a Sunday! I woke up early and after having a cup of a much needed Java I started a fire for a BBQ.

The meat was great! I invented a sauce for it: EVOO, vinegar, lemon juice, black peppe, garlic powder and Dijon mustard. It was GOOD.

After that I went to the public pool and let me tell ya, WOW. I’m not talking about the pool from the Y, where I count laps and wear funny googles. This is the pool where I spend all my summers while growing up. Thousands of memories in a body of water. And there are certain distances I could never swim in there because point A was so very far from point B. Except this Sunday I swam from point A to B and back to A!!! I’m getting better at this swimming thing 😀

After that I hit the weights and after that I recorded a little video. It started with Josie recording herself doing a plank. Then Susan did a video with a longer plank. One thing lead to another and bam! now everybody is planking their ass off LOL Anyway, enjoy my very first english spoken video post:

On Monday, I thought «Well, what if all the swimming and lifting wore me down yesterday? What if I can do a longer plank?» So, I tried again:

Yeah! Now I need to work on my form. I’m not done planking yet!

Muffins para el desayuno

Hace unos meses descubrí el sitio de SparkPeople. Básicamente en una comunidad gratis donde puedes ingresar tus comidas diarias para calcular las calorías y macronutrientes, hacer un blog, leer otros blogs, foros, etc. además de un portal secundario de recetas. Y allí encontré una receta de muffins o quequitos con harina integral y linaza que probé y me encantó. Son dulces, llenan bastante y hasta llevan almendras molidas. Les he puesta también arándanos y una frutilla congelada encima, los que se descongelan y cocinan en el horno!

Pero no fue hasta que vi en GreenLiteBites un video donde Roni, la autora de todas esas recetas, usaba algo llamado «applesauce» como sustituto del aceite en las recetas para hornear que se me ocurrió variar los ingredientes. Applesauce, obviamente, es salsa de manzanas, que lo gringos pueden comprar libremente en los supermercados. Pero acá en Chile, no hay.

El paso siguiente, obvio, era googlear «homemade applesauce». Me llevó a la página de pickyourown, donde explican cómo hacerla. Básicamente es sacarle el corazón a unas 3 manzanas, ponerlas en una olla, agregar muy poca agua (1 centímetro o dos) y dejar que hierva a fuego bajo hasta que las manzanas parezcan postre de hospital, más o menos 10 minutos. Agregar algo de canela y moler en la licuadora o con un mixer. El resultado es, a mis ojos, compota de manzana. No es necesario usar azúcar, si se usan manzanas rojas. Y lo mejor, el excedente se puede congelar!

Al usar esta compota de manzana en lugar del aceite se ahorran muchas calorías y no se nota la diferencia. Incluso la he ocupado para hacer recetas «de caja», ya saben, uno compra la caja en el supermercado y agrega un huevo y tanto de aceite y listo. Para freír, lamentablemente, no sirve 😦

Ocupé «azúcar light» en la receta, que es mitad azúcar normal y mitad sucralosa (1/4 de taza). Si no consiguen de ese tipo, se puede ocupar 1/2 taza de azúcar normal o integral o mezclada con melaza o lo que sea. No creo que suba tanto el valor calórico.

En fin, acá está el video, la receta se explica sola. Y de bonus una canción retro muy cool de fondo 🙂