Alternative Instant Oatmeal with Asian Flavor

In a couple of previous posts, I espoused the benefits of adding oatmeal for a healthy diet. Instant oatmeal, specifically, is convenient to prepare and cooks quickly.

And who says you only take it for breakfast? Given its health benefits, I've learned to take oatmeal twice a day. It's very filling and you won't need to snack often.

I suppose there are dozens of ways to prepare instant oatmeal. There have to be. Plain old instant oatmeal gets bland fast and you quickly grow tired of it. Oatmeal manufacturers recognize this and put out several flavors out in the market.

Oatmeal and Oatbran

I posted an earlier entry on the benefits of oatmeal. Well, a few weeks after, I learned how satisfying oatmeal is that I sought other flavors.

I discovered that there are a few from Quaker Oats. There’s now Chicken Arroz Caldo, Chicken Mushroom Flavour and Fish and Onion Flavour. This is something I just learned recently coz we’re not really oatmeal eaters.

Now, I don’t have to eat as much rice coz it’s so filling. Hmmm, could this be a solution to the rice shortage?

Oatmeal for Health

It’s been a week already since I’ve been eating oatmeal on a daily basis. And I think I don’t eat as much anymore in my regular meals coz of the feeling of fullness. Add to that is the many benefits I’ve read from the net like:

If you are suffering with constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, hemorrhoids or with some life threatening problems like colon cancer and coronary heart disease then chances are that the culprit is low fibre diet.

It has been proved scientifically that a fibre rich diet helps in lowering cholesterol. It has been confirmed that high fibre diet also helps in cases of diabetes, obesity and cancer.

Oats are highly nutritious and filled with cholesterol fighting soluble fibre. Like other grains oats do not lose their nutrients even after being hulled and processed.

Hmmm. That sounds REALLY good. Here’s another:

Oatmeal, or porridge if you live outside the US or Canada, play a major role in our modern diet yet few seem to know the true health benefits it gives.

Oatmeal provides two of the required three daily servings of whole grains required in a healthy and balanced diet and this alone should help convince you to use it. However there is an added bonus because oatmeal (porridge) is the only whole grain recognized by the US FDA to help reduce cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.

There is also a school of thought that claims that by eating filling foods in the morning you actually suppress appetite later in the day and this makes oatmeal an ideal breakfast for weight-watchers.

Research clearly indicates:
People who eat breakfast, like a bowl of oatmeal for instance, tend to weigh less than those who skip it. Adults that eat cereals, cooked or cold, have a lower body mass index than those who eat a combinations of meat and eggs, or those who skip breakfast altogether.

Here are six benefits of oatmeal that you may not be aware of.
Most Pinoys are NOT regular oatmeal eaters so this definitely has potential in my diet.
And if you think you're limited to the usual flavors commercially available, you could even easily prepare some oatmeal with Asian flavors!

Lifestyle Change and Traffic Stress

Gulped 2 loads of water. One in breaststroke and another in butterfly. Did 3 sets of 50y Free, Back, Fly and Breast. I seem to have lost my blue coppertone sport. Did find 3 pcs of soap though.

On diet: I'm keeping with the veggie diet. I've not cut any break so far. I think I don't even need to coz I'm coming to work earlier now. It's because I no longer go swimming in the morning, but still leave the house at 6:30am. So I'm at the office now at 7:00am.

Now, it's good, no traffic to contend with. Diet now is mostly veggies but since I've not cut any breaks, I still tend to get 2 veggie dishes - sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening. I think the best arrangement would still to keep the 2 breaks, but keep them shorter, and more importantly, stick to 1 veggie dish. That may prove difficult though (the veggie dish part) because our cafeteria has limited creativity when it comes to cooking veggie dishes.

Am so delighted with the recent lab results. It was a great sense of relief and knowing it's not something like stones, appendicitis. or a needed operation. I'm still feeling some mild discomfort on ths same right spot though. But I still have around 7 more sachets of Psyllium to take. Hopefully, I'll be feeling much better after that. Actually, I'm contemplating on taking fiber on a regular basis too. Company doc (JP) said it helps take out excess carbohydrates and fats out of the system, or whatever that means. He also said buying it in powdered form (not in sachets) will be much cheaper.

After watching the Body Invaders series of Discovery Health on osteoarthritis, gout, weight control and many more, I'm now rethinking my lifestyle. That means diet, need for walking, maybe weight-lifting. I took on a lifestyle change many years ago (1995) to treat hypertension. Now, I'm for another lifestyle change. That means put in the minutes, put in the hours - for walking and swimming. Damned the work. It won't take care of me and my health. That is up to ME. I'm no longer taking some illness, or any discomfort , lightly. I feel something wrong, I'm doing everything to get it right. I'm at the age where I'll just have to take full advantage of our health benefits especially that is afforded by our HMO card (Medicard). Heck the company's paying for it! On food, I'm taking more caution with food, smelling it first, tasting it first. Unlike before when I thought I had a strong stomach that could take in anything. Now I'm taking Yakult too!

I mentioned to the company doc the issue of going away from my heart medication, Pritor, worried of long-term effects especially to the kidney. He said it even helps the kidney (really?), but that maybe I ought to see the cardiologist which he says comes once a month. Better check that out!

Stress: Ah, who needs it. Instead of passing through SLEX as I usually did, I drove to the national road to avoid the supposed traffic jam on SLEX. I heard it took Steve 2 hours to negotiate the traffic from the office to Alabang. And the drive through the national road? It took me an hour. Totally exasperating, as I kept mutterering to myself, "stupid tricycle and jeepney drivers!" Ugh. Next time I'll be bringing this stress thingie:


I bought this a long time ago from a Chinese shop at SM Southmall where they sell massagers and oils and pills and what have you. It has this embossed name "Safe Living" on one side and "SLM" on the other. It's like a spiked stress ball. But the nice thing about it is it gives (bendable) as it is crushed by the hand. It's like a sponge ball but it's made of rubberized plastic so it exerts pressure when squeezed. I took out the chain on one end (it's a keychain as shown) so that I can roll it around in my hand without being bothered by the chain. Maybe I could buy another one so I could massage both hands at the same time. But then, how will I hold the steering wheel?

Sore Back

Yesterday:
pc1/88/90-100
I'm beginning to like more and more this backstroke thing. Today I did several - like maybe 6! Corz they're only very short (12.5m), but still it feels good that I want to do them over and over. I'm already anticipating some full lengths 25m. I used the new green shorts today. It feels constricting after being so accustomed to the short old ones. It felt like I was swimming in cycling shorts (jammers) again!

I'm still having fruit after the swim instead of a half-rice meal. So far it's been okay, although I still have this tendency to eat a little more at the 10:30am break. I had an interesting discussion with Anthony about timed activities. Apparently for him he gets "pushed" by timing himself on bike runs. I said I don't feel the same way. If I get off too much from previous fast times, it gets a little depressing feeling all those gains are lost. What "pushes" me is the varied activity/ strokes I have in swimming. I just make it as fun as possible without the "competitive, yeah-I'm-there" attitude. And so far, it has worked well for me. I'm still in it and I think that's where fun and consistency rather than competitiveness has its advantage for fitness.

Today:
I felt good today. I did like 10 backstrokes and my traps at midback are getting sore already. I think I better start using a marker of sort while I do the backstroke. I don't wanna scrape skin off my arms/hands hitting the concrete deck. I've been thinking of getting a new water bottle (Sandra's been using mine) that's either yellow or red in color for added visibility. I'd rather have a bright color rather than the gray slippers I've been using.

Last Friday I sent an email to Lolet telling her of my intention to join the ACT Toastmasters Club. It'll be my first time to formally join a club outside the company. I just lost patience waiting for our own club to renew memberships. Plus, the recent delayed evaluation (2 weeks after speech delivery!) appear to be a bad omen. My first meeting with the club will be Thursday this week. So, we'll see how that goes. See all my Toastmasters Speeches online here!

Good Backstroke, Heavy Pool Weight!

I think I did 4 really good backstroke short lengths today. I've been attempting backstroke for a long time now but then my poor conditioning was getting in the way! Well, today I'm building this conditioning coz I'm not stopping to rest. No sir. By that I mean after a length I active rest using eggbeater kicks, never putting the feet on the floor.

I also did a couple of HUfree squares today - 1 clockwise (CW) and the other, counter clockwise (CCW). Here's how it's done for a CW square:

1. HUfree for 12.5m
2. At the end of the 12.5 turn counterclockwise (while treading).
3. Swim again HUfree for 12.5 and turn ccw at the end.
4. Continue doing this until a square is formed.

Do the reverse for a CCW square.

Today I also used the weight I built for treading exercises to strenghten the legs. Oh wow, it's heavy in the water! I could only manage half a short length with it and that's about 6m. After the very short workout I felt the burn in my quads. For a moment there I was thinking that I was carrying 2 5kg and not 2 5lb plates. Yah, it's silly and I was working out the math in my head like, this can't be JUST 10 lbs! I quickly raised the bag with the pool weight and rested it on the pool deck. I let out the water coz a lot has gone in. Then reality sunked in. Yup, it's ONLY 10 lbs and yes, it's THAT heavy. Ah well, it'll certainly take a LOT of practice. But heck, if others can do it, then so can I!

I need to rethink the old diet. I'm become so accustomed to the morning half-rice routine but I'm now considering stopping it. Maybe it's the better conditioning, but I'm not as tired and hungry as I was before. So, yesterday and today, I tried fruits instead. I had turnips (singkamas) yesterday and ripe mangoes today. It's tough yesterday coz I had a big rice serving for the morning lunch. But today, I managed with a half.