On July 29, 2019, I decided to start my own healthy living trial called “The Eight-Hours Meals” after hearing about “The Cruise Control Diet“, author Jorge Cruise. The Eight-Hours Meals definite as follow:
- Pick an eight-hours duration that works for your Work-and-Life Balance schedules
- During the eight-hours period, eat your 3 meals (breakfast, lunch, & dinner) Snack is optional
- Each meal is up to you to define. My suggestion is to look for food that you believe is good for you. If you don’t know, read a book on nutrition
- Exercise 3 times a week that fit your schedules
- Set a goal for this trial
- Track your progress and compare your results
Benefit: By controlling the time you eat, you will be able to manage your weight and live a healthy lifestyle. Keep It Simple.
For me, I will do a 30 days trial of The Eight-Hours Meals. 29-Jul-2019 to 26-Aug-2019.
* My eight-hours duration is 12 PM – 8 PM | No eating between 8:01 PM – 11:59 AM
* M1: Morning water, coffee, & vitamins, M2: Lunch, M3: Dinner, & Snacks in between as needed
* My goal is to lose the fat donut around my waist. It is not to get six-pack abs but just tone up a little bite
* I will track my eating time, what I ate, and how my body & mind adjust to this new plan. I am not tracking weight loss because that is the icing on the cake.
Conclusion of my “The Eight-Hours Meals” 30 days trial
Overall, this is a great program for me because it fitted into my current work-and-life balance schedules and saved a lot of morning times. I purposely ate not so healthy food (ice cream, fast food, etc.) to see I still lose weights and I did. I got a good result to reduce my waist fat & got tone abs (overall 8 lbs in 30 days). I would breakdown this program as follow:
* PROs & CONs
* Who should and should not do this program?
* 21/90 to live an active lifestyle
PROs
* Easy program to follow
* Save a lot of times in the morning because all you need is coffee and water
* No need to change your current food choices and diet plan
* Encourage you to exercise or be active
* Get good result after 30 days
CONs
* You will get headaches, hunger, and uncomfortable feeling for the first week
* You will get dry-mouth through-out the trial period
* If you lose weights too fast, you will see your extra skin wrinkles
* You will feel light-headed every-now-and-then
* You will have to workout 3 times a week (Running, Walking, Gym weight training, some form out exercises that fit into your schedule)
Who should do this program?
* Couch potato people have fat donut waistlines and want to lose them
* Active people have fat donut waistlines & tried every diet and/or program. None of their diets or programs helped to reduce the fat donut waistlines
* Active people want to tone up their abs
* A Half marathon, 10K, or 5K runners benefit the most for this program, however, you need to remember not to eat before or after your run until it is your scheduled eating time
Who should not do this program?
* People have no stomach fat to lose
* Ultrarunner or doing ultra training. It is not good to run 20 miles or 30 miles on an empty stomach with just water
* Extreme overweight people because you need a doctor and professional trainer to help them
* If you are not a self-starter or self-motivated, you should not do this program. On-and-off during the trial period will be bad for your result
21/90 to live an active lifestyle
* It takes 21 days to change your habits and 90 days to change your habits to lifestyle.
With that said, by 21 days of my trial, I adapted this new program habits. I am sure that after the 90 days, this will be my normal lifestyle. Last words, I would highly recommend you do this trial. What do you have to lose?
My Eight-Hours Meals daily tracker
Day 30: Monday, 26-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Stir-fried the leftover beef and chicken. Chips & guacamole, a peach, a mango, Nestle Drumstick ice cream, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade Teriyaki Pork Donburi with lettuce & cherry tomatoes, water
How are you feeling? Recovery from Santa Rosa Marathon on Sunday. Right leg calf swelled and was able to hop around the house
Exercise: No exercise
Wake up at 6:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10 PM
Weights: 148 lbs (Transferred fat from the waist area to muscles in the shoulder, back, & chest)
Day 29: Sunday, 25-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Jack-in-box burger, fries, and coke soda; Post marathon, I ate 2 pancakes with syrup, blueberry, and a lot of sample beers, and water
M3: Dinner: Roasted chicken, a mango, a peach, water
How are you feeling? No hungry at the beginning of the race. I didn’t take any GU or electrolyte except water until mile 17. I told vitamins during that period of time. I started with a sore right leg calf. I was fine until mile 12. Between mile 18 through 22, I did a lot of walking and jogging. At mile 22, I took 3 Motrin and the calf pain went away. I was able to run and finished strong. However, I paid for the prize afterward. Finish time was 5 hrs & 16 minutes.
Exercise: Santa Rosa Marathon
Wake up at 2:00 AM
Go to sleep at 9:30 PM
Weights: 144 lbs
Day 28: Saturday, 24-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Vietnamese sandwich, a beer, an apple, and water
M3: Dinner: Panda express rice and two items
How are you feeling? No hungry
Exercise: 6.25 miles solo run to test out my right leg calf. It was sore after I ran
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 9:00 PM
Weights: 147 lbs
Day 27: Friday, 23-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: lunch at work (American), cookie, fries, water
M3: Dinner: Skip dinner, water
How are you feeling? No hungry due to a busy work schedule
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Pull day)
Wake up at 5:15 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: 145 lbs
Day 26: Thursday, 22-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: lunch at work (Italian), cookie, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade Teriyaki Pork Donburi with lettuce & cherry tomatoes, water
How are you feeling? No hungry due to a busy work schedule
Exercise: No exercise
Wake up at 6:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: 149 lbs
Day 25: Wednesday, 21-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: lunch at work (Burrito), water
M3: Dinner: Homemade spaghetti & meatball, water
How are you feeling? No hungry due to a busy work schedule
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Superset push day)
Wake up at 5:45 AM
Go to sleep at 11:00 PM
Weights: 147 lbs
Day 24: Tuesday, 20-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: lunch at work (Indian), water
M3: Dinner: Ramen 101, black garlic noodles, water
How are you feeling? No hungry due to a busy work schedule
Exercise: Morning gym workout (compound-set pull day)
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: 144 lbs
Day 23: Monday, 19-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: lunch at work (Burger & fries), water
M3: Dinner: Homemade pork stew, water
How are you feeling? No hungry due to a busy work schedule
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Superset push day)
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: 145 lbs
Day 22: Sunday, 18-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: lee sandwich
M3: Dinner: Roast chicken
How are you feeling? A little hungry after workout. On the scale, my weight remained the same or flux between 143 lbs to 147 lbs. However, I saw my stomach transformation from fat inside my donut area were no longer there and I saw my donut skin bums as hold my stomach. After this trial, I can start working on my donut area to tone it up.
Exercise: morning guy workout (Super-sets (pull+push))
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 AM
Weights: 144 lbs
Day 21: Saturday, 17-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: One Vietnamese spring roll, 1/4 roast chicken, a french pastry, one beer, water
M3: Dinner: Leftover 1/4 roast chicken, one spring roll, a peach, a mango, water
How are you feeling? I was very hungry after my morning run. The coffee & water kept the hunger away
Exercise: Saturday morning trail group run (9.8 miles) with no water, no GU, or any supplement. No water after as well until 10 AM. Right leg calf soreness continued. Did 30 minutes leg booth compression and helped reduce right leg calf soreness.
Wake up at 5:40 AM
Go to sleep at 11 PM
Weights: Brought the weigh scale. 145 lbs
Day 20: Friday, 16-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade stir-fried beef, bell pepper, onion, celery, and 3 eggs white, with avocado spinach sauce. Snack: Chips, one banana, one peach, water
M3: Dinner: Light dinner with mango, banana, chips, water
How are you feeling? Normal. Don’t notice any hunger. At dinner time, 6 PM, I was not hungry so I just had fruit & chip
Exercise: morning gym workout (Push Day) with heavier weights, water
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:00 PM
Weights: No scale so I didn’t weigh myself
Day 18: Thursday, 15-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: 3 Leftover homemade chicken fajita, water, banana. Snack: Nestle Drumstick ice cream, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade Avocado, spinach, mint, and lemon sauce with pasta and roast chicken, water
How are you feeling? Normal. Busy with works so by noon I was hungry
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Pull Day), water
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 9:45 PM
Weights: No scale so I didn’t weigh myself
Day 18: Wednesday, 14-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: 3 Leftover homemade beef fajita, water, banana
M3: Dinner: Homemade Chinese pork stew with rice, egg, and broccoli, water
How are you feeling? Normal. I didn’t notice any hunger. The water and coffee helped me to keep my hungry feeling away
Exercise: Short morning gym workout (Push Day), water
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 10:45 PM
Weights: order weigh scale so I didn’t weigh myself
Day 17: Tuesday, 13-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade 5 eggs white, shrimps, corn, celery, and butter, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade beef and chicken fajita, water
How are you feeling? Normal. Loving this plan
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Pull Day), water
Wake up at 5:45 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: no scale so I didn’t weigh myself
Day 16: Monday, 12-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade salad with tomatoes & leftover chicken, and beef, Apple sausage w/bread, and water. Snack: Homemade pineapple, orange juice, small banana smoothie
M3: Dinner: Homemade Chinese fried rice with Shrimp, Spam, Chinese sausage, corn, eggs, zucchini, and crab sauce, water
How are you feeling? Normal. Adapted this new plan.
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Push Day), water. Right calf soreness almost is gone. No more sharp pain on my left foot 4th toe
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 11 PM
Weights: I forgot to weigh myself before eating lunch
Day 15: Sunday, 11-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Leftover homemade avocado pasta with chicken, 4 pieces of garlic pieces of bread, water. Snack: T4 avocado smoothie, 1/2 basil popcorn chicken
M3: Dinner: Koja Kitchen Togo – Beef Taco, homemade chicken soup 1 & 1/2 cups, water
How are you feeling? No hunger and felt full in the morning. During my run this morning, my lung felt the burn after the 7th-mile marker. I am preparing my body & mind for next Sunday the Santa Rosa Marathon. My goal next week is finishing under 4 hrs 30 minutes.
Exercise: Morning road run in Livermore, 12.7 miles, water, and no GU or any hydration supplement. Right calf soreness, Left foot 4th toe sharp pain. I will use compression Leg boots to recovery. 30 minutes on level 8, 20 minutes on level 9. Right leg calf soreness reduced to walking without pain.
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: I forgot to weigh myself before eating lunch
Day 14: Saturday, 10-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Leftover Homemade Teriyaki Pork Donburi with lettuce & cherry tomatoes, water, one banana, 1/2 apple
M3: Dinner: Homemade avocado pasta, 3 pieces of garlic pieces of bread, water
How are you feeling?
Exercise: Morning trail group run in Livermore. 9.87 miles, water, and no GU or any hydration supplement. Evening gym workouts (Pull day), water
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 11:30 PM
Weights: 144 lbs @ 12 PM before eating lunch
Day 13: Friday, 9-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade Teriyaki Pork Donburi with lettuce & cherry tomatoes, Nestle Drumstick ice cream, water
M3: Dinner: Small sticky rice with chicken and Chinese sausage, banana, water
How are you feeling? Woke up with a headache because Project at works had been a delay so I worked longer hours and not drinking enough water
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Push Day), water
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 11 PM
Weights: 145 lbs @ 12 PM before eating lunch
Day 12: Thursday, 8-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Korean bbq with spaghetti noodle leftover, Nestle Drumstick ice cream, chip & guacamole, water
M3: Dinner: Binh mi (Vietnamese vermicelli noodles with grill pork & shrimp) from Lee’s sandwich Togo, water
How are you feeling? The new normal and loving the plan. I am not thinking about food or hungry except adding this entry
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Pull Day), water, and garage works
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 11:00 PM
Weights: 148 lbs after a full dinner
Day 10: Wednesday, 7-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade ham, eggs, cheese, lettuce, & tomatoes sandwich, water, chips & guacamole, Nestle Drumstick ice cream, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade french bean & sausage, Korean ground beef, rice, & water
How are you feeling? Had a headache at 11 am because I didn’t drink enough water throughout the morning
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Push Day), water. Evening batting cage, water
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 9:45 PM
Weights: 147 lbs after a full dinner
Day 9: Tuesday, 6-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Leftover beef stew with spaghetti noodle, 2 cookies, & a Nestle Drumstick ice cream, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade two Bulgogi Onigirazu (seaweed, sweet rice, spam, & veggie), water
How are you feeling? Woke up late so no running today. Did the gym workout
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Pull Day), water
Wake up at 6:00 AM
Go to sleep at 9:30 PM
Weights: 148 lbs after a full dinner
Day 8: Monday, 5-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Sauces Restuarant – half-rack bbq rib and a cup casserole sweet potatoes, water
M3: Dinner: Sweet Tomatoes – salad, chicken soup, Nestle Drumstick ice cream, water
How are you feeling? My body and mind adjusted to the new plan. Starting tomorrow, I will start my morning run training and evening gym workout or softball practice. Let’s see how my body adjusts to an additional workout session.
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Push Day), water
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 11:00 PM
Weights: 148 lbs after a full dinner
Day 7: Sunday, 4-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade beef stew with two slices of bread (leftover), a small salad, one cookie, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade spaghetti with meatballs, a handful of grapes, water
How are you feeling? Adopted the new plan as normal. No hungry or headache. Since I am more active on the weekend, I was eating large meals for lunch and dinner.
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Pull Day), water. Clean up the back yard.
Wake up at 5:00 AM
Go to sleep at 9:00 PM
Weights: 148 lbs after a full dinner
Day 6: Saturday, 3-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: small ham & cheese sandwich, homemade eggs & sausage burrito, a banana, two cups pineapple, one cup watermelon, three Donsuemor Traditional French Madeleines, Asian orange fruit drink, and a lot of water
M3: Dinner: Pho Saigon and ate Vietnamese rice plate (Com Doi Biet) & Fried egg rolls, water
How are you feeling? I was really hungry at around 11:00 am. I drank a lot of water. At noon, I ate a huge lunch. I had a big headache and took a 3 hrs nag after lunch. My body & mind were back to normal around 5 pm.
Exercise: Volunteering at Brazen Summer Breeze race from 5:30 am – 11:30 am. I walked about 3 miles, a lot of water to make my hunger go away
Wake up at 4:00 AM
Go to sleep at 10:00 PM
Weights: 147 lbs after a full dinner
Day 5: Friday, 2-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: 2 hot dogs, a small salad, a few slices of garlic bread, water
M3: Dinner: Ate out but don’t recall what I ate
How are you feeling? This new plan is now my new normal. I am not thinking about food anymore until noon. Whenever I felt hungry, I just drink water and my hunger went away.
Exercise: Morning gym workout (Push day), water
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:15 PM
Weights: 148 lbs after a full dinner
Day 4: Thursday, 1-AUG-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Homemade beef stew with bread (Leftover), handfull of chips. half mango, water
M3: Dinner: Koja Kitchen, Beef Taco and Kamikaze fries, water
How are you feeling? No more feeling hungry and getting onboard with this new plan. Can’t believe that I am losing 1 lb per day
Exercise: double workouts
* Morning gym workout (Pull day), water
* Evening 5K run
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:00 PM
Weights: 148 lbs after a full dinner
Day 3: Wednesday, 31-JUL-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: Roast chicken salad, chips, one banana, half mango, water
M3: Dinner: Chipotle, beef burrito bowl, water
How are you feeling? I am not feeling hungry but my stomach made a lot of noise. LOL! No headache. My body is definitely adjusting to my new plan
Exercise: morning gym workout (push day), water
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 11:00 PM
Weights: 149 lbs after a full dinner
Day 2: Tuesday, 30-JUL-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: steak salad, chips & guacamole, one apple, hand-full grapes, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade Asian beef stew with bread, water
How are you feeling? I am not hungry in the morning. However, by 10:30 AM, I felt a small headache as well as hungry.
Exercise: Evening softball batting practice, water
Wake up at 6:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:45 PM
Weights: 150 lbs after a full dinner
Day 1: Monday, 29-JUL-2019
M1: Water, morning coffee, & vitamins
M2: Lunch: two hot dogs, chips & guacamole, water
M3: Dinner: Homemade Chinese Fried Rice, water
Snack: Homemade mango smooth, 2 bananas, two pineapple fruit cups
How are you feeling? No hungry throughout the night
Exercise: evening gym workout (Pull day), water
Wake up at 5:30 AM
Go to sleep at 10:30 PM
Weights: 152 lbs after pacing Full San Francisco Marathon on Sunday, 28-JUL
The photos were taken on Monday, 5-AUG-2019
Workout: Pull Day
* 10 minutes walk/run on the treadmill with max incline (15), speed 2 to 3, heart rate 110 to 140
* Free weights pull exercise (Shoulders, triceps, biceps)
* Machine pull exercise (Back, Chest)
* Side-to-side abs workout
* Pull-ups workout
* Plyometric bench workout
Workout: Push Day
* 10 minutes walk/run on the treadmill with max incline (15), speed 2 to 3, heart rate 110 to 140
* Free weights push exercise (Shoulders, triceps, biceps)
* Machine push exercise (Back, Chest)
* Side-to-side abs workout
* Pull-ups workout
Website or book to read & educate yourself
* The Cruise Control Diet
* Intermittent Fasting 101 — The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
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