Protein

I finally joined the crew who take protein powder. My excuse is that I'm going to Hawaii. But my coworker, Cheri, pointed it out more straightforwardly, "you just want to be naked." "No, maybe only topless", I said. So now, on the days I work out, I drink a protein shake which has about 20g of protein. But since I almost only do cardio, my chest has been the same as before.

It was T who got me into this protein business. I don't reckon where he picked up this idea originally. He does weights. And his protein powder is more concentrated than mine. So I do see his chest is getting bigger.

My attitude towards myself taking protein powder is mixed. On one hand, I cannot believe I joined the superficial gay trend: Work out, gain muscle, get attention. On the other hand, I got hooked, imaging myself someday to have a great body as the cover models do. Anyway, working out is not a bad thing. Until I got tired of this protein game, let me just enjoy my cardio classes and protein shake.

My diet had been carb based since I was little. My parents' kitchen table was like either steam bread+rice porridge+a vegetable dish or rice+noodle+a veggie dish. Veggie dish could be replaced by a salad or a egg dish. They didn't cook a lot of meat partly because I wasn't a big fan of it and partly because meat was expensive. So in my mind, whenever I miss my parents' cooking, I think of dishes like potato and eggplant, or tomato tofu, or egg and green pepper. The thing about carb based diet was that I got hungry very soon. Even though I ate two big steam breads and a rice porridge for breakfast, I was hungry when it was ten thirty in the morning.

I hadn't really thought about diet structure until I came to California. Here diet and health seems to be such a big thing. Every girl is reading the calorie info about the food they eat. Every girl, like Cheri, is on a diet, forever. You can find diet program on each major TV network everyday. Under influence like this, I learned to pay attention to my diet and gradually tried to switch to the "balanced diet", meaning not just taking carbs but also a fair amount of protein everyday.

According to some articles from internet, I should take about 56g of protein for my weight. Here is an example:

A cup of milk in breakfast: ~10g;

Orange chicken in lunch: ~15g;

Chicken salad for dinner: ~15g;

A yogurt: 6-9g;

Some nuts to make up the rest of the 56g.

Maybe this protein based diet is really working. I don't get hungry that often.

Or, it's just because I believed it has worked?