The Healthy Diet + Healthy Malaysians

Beware : this will be a medium to long post..

By now, I guess most of us know that the mention of the word diet ,or the term “I’m on a diet” does not mean “I need to lose weight.” It means I have to achieve a well-balanced and healthy diet. Diet as in taking care of my nutrition intake , the food value, and balancing my input (calories) and output (how much energy I burn in  day), and ensuring I don’t eat. excessively. And of course, eating right. Hence, “I am on a diet, I need to eat less” is wrong.  I can still be eating less but that doesn’t guarantee that what I am eating is good and beneficial for me.

Here are some quick tips which I have been applying . Easy to apply. Cheap and practical. You will require your own little research and reading in case you can’t or don’t see the significance of these tips. There are plenty of articles and even videos on nutrition and healthy diet that you can benefit from. So here :

– A glass of water before I sleep, and a glass of water after I wake up

– Avoid eating after 8pm (practise makes perfect)

– Fruits for every meal, or as snack in between meal (a must !!)

– YES to FRESHly squeezed fruit juice. No added sugar please ! NO to canned/carton juice.. 😦

– NO to coffee, and NO to tea (Because I don’t need them, and I don’t believe I can get any healthier by consuming them daily!). Safer with plain water. (healthier too)

– NO to teh tarik (not that you need them, but you chose to be faithful your daily ritual WITHOUT thinking of the health consequences of containing to much sugar in your system)

– NO to traditional kuehs (the super sweet ones).. you practice it during the off-raya season, and APPLY it during the raya season.. and no, you tak rugi ok. Stop thinking that our health can ‘pakai buang ‘…wear and tear ada lah !! the healthier you EAT and LIVE, the better you maintain your physical and psychological health

– Make my own Milo, no sugar, no milk (i hardly drink Milo anyways..). The moment you order any sugary drinks at the mamak…you can imagine already how much sugar/condensed milk they put !

– NO to ANY sweet drinks from the mamak, be it the Milo, fruit juice (they put A LOT of air gula lah! unless you request for no added sugar)

– NO to potato chips, preserved/dried fruits

– YES to stir fried/steamed vege and NO to layu, dead sayur /vege!

-NO to Coke/Pepsi and fizzy drinks. If you go to McDonalds, an take the Value Meal, change the fizzy drinks to a less sweeter drink.. I always change mine to Milo..

– its the quality , not necessarily the quantity. so its ok to eat like a Malay once in a while (I mean rice + the oily gravy). We do need some oil..but not too much plz..!

-CUT DOWN the processed + dead food. NOTE : Not all processed food are unhealthy. The unhealthy ones here:

Processed food that may not be as healthy as fresh foods include:

• canned foods with lots of sodium
• white breads and pastas made with refined white flour, which are not as healthy as those made with whole grains
• packaged high-calorie snack foods, like chips and cheese snacks
• high-fat convenience foods, like cans of ravioli
• frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners
• packaged cakes and cookies
• boxed meal mixes
• sugary breakfast cereals
• processed meats

Dead what…? Dead food

The rule here is easy: The more milled, cooked, and dried-out a product is, the deader it is. Items that fall into the crispy/crunchy category are particularly dead !

Condiments are dead food as well.. ; salt, vinegar, sauce, flavouring, chili/tomato sauce etc..

Know your food and Up your nutritional knowledge of the food you eat. You are, what you eat.

Bad eating pattern/habit :

1)SKIPPING BREAKFAST. You skip this meal, it WON’T help with your weight loss. It slows down your metabolism and trigger binge eating later if not snacking

2)EATING LATE AT NIGHT. You should not give any excuse for yourselves to allow this..!

3)SNACKING IN BETWEEN MEALS. You won’t R.I.P. by not keeping any snack at home. Snacking with live and healthy food : OK..e.g. fruits. NOT OK: Potato ships, Mars, Snickers

4)FAST FOOD CULTURE. Urban life kills you in the most subtle way.. just beware aight..

5)NOT SETTING A LIMIT TO OPEN HOUSES. So satisfying the host is more important than your health ? (ultimately your life)

6)STILL HAVING THAT COFFEE+DOUGHNUT/MINUM PETANG CULTURE.. Long gone are the days of minum petang..coffee and kueh. banish it. Just eat what you need.

7)NOT INCLUDING ENOUGH GREENS, FRUITS, AND FIBER IN YOUR DIET. The next lunch break you get, DO look for restaurants which serve freshly prepared greens !!!!

And again, you gotta be flexible with your diet. If you’re working out more, obviously you need to increase your calorie intake. Go easy and gradual if you really want to achieve a healthier diet. No point of suddenly putting yourself into a strict diet only to maintain it for 1-2  weeks before going back your rebellious, i dont care and i’-dont-go-to-university’ kind of diet..! Maggi Mee hari2 beb.. Murah,sedap, senang nak masak and can eat in front of the tv.. lol..last bit goes to explain how ignorant some of us are when it comes in taking care what’s most precious and dear to us.

Cooking in  ‘abundance’ for the family doesn’t necessarily translate to ‘I love my family’. It simply says, ‘I love my family, and thus I have to feed them. By feeding them I satisfy them.. Their happiness is my bundle of joy‘.. errr..ok…but for how long..? Until you notice your 10 year old boy gaining weight rapidly.. ? Until your husband complain one night that he feels some tightness in his chest and have difficulty in breathing.. or till you find yourself panting even to walk up the stairs.. Till somebody says to you ‘Kak, kenapa ur family semua sihat2?”(why are all your family members ‘healthy?’) (or too healthy..)

Health is not just about the food. It involves lifestyle ; the duration of sleep, pressure from work, the amount of stress , etc.  I found this Diet Guideline designed for Malaysians. It was developed and published by the Nutrition Society of Malaysia in 2000 as an effort to promote healthy eating 😛 Do take a look and feel free to print the pdf. file. Will be very Very beneficial for ya !

The pdf file here.  Their website here

More nutrition researches compiled in the Malaysian Journal of Nutrition (MJN) here

Some nutritional ramblings

p.s. : it worries me that my guy friends (same age/1, 2 years older than me) are already buncit. (prononunced ‘boon-chate’), meaning pot-bellied Having secured your career and establishing should never serve as an excuse of saying that you don’t have time to take care of your health..! I wonder if they feel proud of this extra pounds they carry in front of them..

p.s. : it worries me that my girl friends, colleagues/peers are able to hide but feel comfortable of that weight gain they feel around their arms, waist line and thighs.. the ones younger than me are…very sihat ! lets not judge here aight. if they were not comfortable.. it is natural for them to worry and take the necessary steps to lose some weight !

p.s. : the infamous Malay catch phrase to excuse one self from engaging in a healthy lifestyle ‘Pakcik dah tua dah..’..or ‘Makcik dah tua dah..’.. since I’m in the sports scene, I would dare say to them..err..hello..you’re only 35..or ..you’re only 43.. look at my friend , IM Patsy Yap is in her 60s by the way..so shame on our dear friends who are not even in their mid 30s, 40s, 50s…and yet claiming they’re too old to be doing some sports/exercise. Muda2 dulu boleh la..(konon..) but sorry, excuse dah tak boleh pakai la pakcik,makcik.

The next time there’s a 3k or 5k walk, do , oh please do..INVITE your folks , family members, and friends to join. Baby steps ok. It’s not easy to educate people.. and I’m saying its not easy to make them learn. If they don’t learn, there won’t be any change. Let’s start with ourselves first.. then those around us. 🙂 I am happy to see more and more youngsters and oldsters taking part in sporting events. Keep it up ! It is our responsibility to spread this awareness of a healthier lifestyle

Body movements, psychology and such

No offense to any one..BUT have you ever noticed the way some Malaysian ladies, whether university students/office workers, walk ?.. Ever heard of this word ‘melenggang’ ? Why do you think they melenggang..? Are their self-esteem and body factor affecting this trait..? Do they walk like that for a purpose..? Intentionally? Can they walk faster? or just cant be bothered ? Is it a pride or some kind of status symbol to be walking this way..? What’s the psychology behind walking style?  You can tell when you’re walking with a Type A personality. You can”t keep up !! When a type A walks with a Type B personality, the type A have difficulty slowing down ! Is  ‘melenggang’ merely a result of their own observation of  other walking styles as they grow ‘older’? does it have to do anything with their body size? that they don’t like those excess fat in their triceps, abs, glutes and abs to jiggle so much and thus walking ‘gracefully’ behind the loose clothes can ‘hide’ this..? humm.. is this why they don’t do exercise..? i hope not.. Malaysian women, we can do better than this !!

These are just ideas. or rather, my curiosity on why some women melenggang ! Not a hypothesis, and obviously not a theory.. I don’t remember observing a healthy lady walking melenggang before..or is it just happened to be a ‘culture’ for these people to walk melenggang.. or is it because of their body mass they’re walking like this. there’s no harm to observe. That’s what science is all about anyways..

Just came to mind : will upload a mini video project here.. observing how people…eat..and walk ! Malaysian context aight. (watch this space..)

Summary

Eating healthy is about keeping  the BALANCE, MODERATION and VARIETY. And of course, taking the effort to know what exactly we’re eating. Physical fitness comes hand in hand with healthy eating. Look up, read up. Malaysians, we  need to up our nutritional awareness. Never too young or too old for this ok.

Patsy Yap, Rahim and missJeweLz

Patsy Yap is in her 60s !!!!!!!!! And she has completed Ironman Langkawi more times than I have. Er…what is Ironman again ? its the king of triathlon .. just a short swim of 3.8km, a nice spin of 180km and a jog of only 42km.

Malaysian ladies ?

We need more and more of you to join us !!! 🙂

Age is never a barrier. Let’s stop this -ve culture of thinking that you’re too old for anything !!

Malaysian sizes ?

We also need more and more of you to join us !! 🙂

Size is never a barrier. Let’s stop this stigma. Release that mental block !

Malaysia : The Future Generation