Culture

I’m a Chinese. For those non-Asians, we sort of originated from China and are very well known for cooking. Since Chinese cuisines have many styles and variations, this is where the problem starts. When you have choices, you tend to try. Trying is the problem here. Hopefully staying and cooking on my own can solve this issue.

Besides those domestic issues you have the social culture at large. This is where your parks, towns, states, countries and world falls into. These are influenced by sustained product marketing. Look at Cokd and McG (sure hope they don’t sue me for affecting their market share..:D ) for example, 100 years of promoting their product as hip and convenient is surely a brainwash, and an effective one.

To keep it short, below are the top 10 food to stay away from your daily diet. This list is for those who wish to improve (i think most will use the word “sacrifice”) their diet for a better health and a stunning body. After all, when all else fails, you only have your body to count on.

Top 10 Food To Stay Away From Your Daily Diet

1. Sugar Water

By sugar water I mean everything which is on sale besides bottled mineral water and green tea. A can of soft drink contains 16.5 teaspoons of sugar. Can you believe that? Try eating 16.5 teaspoons of sugar accompanied by warm water, it is inconsumable. How has technology made it so easy to consume sugar nowadays.

If you really need some taste, green tea is the best alternative that I can find so far. You can opt for soy drinks too but most on the market are too sweet to be of actual benefits, keep looking.

2. Rice (especially nasi lemak)

I’ve reduced my rice intake by 80% since a few months ago and I don’t see any different on my body weight at all, so I’ve come to a conclusion that rice is not needed in my diet. Try to reduce your rice intake, especially nasi lemak. They ain’t called “fat rice” for nothing.

http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/restaurants/pantry/nasi-lemak.aspx
http://www.malaysia-hotels.net/food_dining/malay-food.html

3. Cut Down On Meat

I was a pure meat eater previously so I know how it is. Try to do your part instead of indirectly causing the slaughter of animals. Animal lovers who eat meat? Yeah right. Take fish instead if you wish to start things off slowly because they don’t cry while being butchered, it can really heal your conscience, seriously.

4. Bread ,Buns and Donuts

Hoho! I called them the deadly trinity! Enough said. If you must, choose whole wheat bread instead of white bread.

5. Junk Food (sweets, crackers, fries, cakes, chips, nuts, etc..)

They come in all ways and seems to appear always. Just choose and eat wisely. I found the low fat raw almond nuts to be quite inviting sometimes, just don’t chew off the whole packet!

6. Alcohol (beer, wines, liquor)

You’ll be safe if you are able to prevent yourself from crossing the thin line between casual drinking and senseless drinking. I couldn’t, which was why I ended up shying away from most drinking gatherings. The word “health” gets a whole new meaning after a few shots of liquor.

7. Chocolate and Ice Creams

They should belong to the junk food categories but I gave them a special slot since they were once my favourite food. When I was a kid I swore to never turn down any chocolate and ice cream offers. Looks like it doesn’t turn out well.

8. Caffeine

I was thinking of taking less coffee but caffeine is the culprit here. Checkout the link below for more details on the pros and cons of caffeine :

http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?id=1378

9. Whipped Cream As Toppings

Any kind of whipped cream as topping is a sin. Get it and you’ll be whipped.

10. Milk
This one is kind of personal. I’ve had stomach discomfort for many years and I struggled to find the cause. Since replacing milk with my protein supplement, the uneasiness seemed to disappear. I also read that 75% of the world’s population has problems digesting cow’s milk, maybe that could be your problem too?

Now I ate less than 50% of the portion that I used to eat 2 years ago and I’m feeling better than ever and I believe that things can only be better!

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Since my last entry in January, I’ve experienced and gone through some major tuning in both my sleep cycles and also my diet. For a start, my personal trainer’s recommendation of 4 days training per week almost destroyed my physical body. How is that so? It took me almost 3 months to realize it! I’ll explain.

Personal Training

For those who’ve been through the personal trainer’s torture, you will understand the true meaning when I say that they DO push you to the LIMIT! Not able to turn your steering wheel properly, not able to scrub your back during shower and unable to walk straight are common side effects. The first month was bad, returning to workout after a year’s break was painful. I quickly adjusted having a 3 days per week workout and an extra day with my trainer. I started off by taking GNC Pro Performance® Mass XXX™, a weight gain supplement since they are having a buy 1 get 1 free promotion at the time.

It increases my weight from 65 to 70kg from the 2 X 6lb(s) container in the course of 3 months. The taste (both chocolate and vanilla) was not great but it worked, I guess.

The 2nd and 3rd month were the same but I can see and feel that I’m having results, weighing more and growing stronger knowing that I’m carrying heavier weights. At this moment, I started to feel lethargic during work as I go to work after workout in the morning. It got worse from week to week until I fell sick at the end of the 3rd month of workout in March. That really surprised me as I rarely get sick. With the fact that I’m exercising regularly it made it even more difficult for me to find the cause of my sickness. I took a week’s off from gym to recover and I continued my usual workout routine after that.

The Transition

I resigned at the end of April. Having the knowledge that I might need to work late in the future, I’ve decided to have a normal sleeping cycle (12.30am to 7.30am) compared to previously. During this period I finished my weight gain and my trainer adviced me to take MuscleTech® Nitro-Tech Hardcore, a protein supplement.

I would really recommend this if you plan to build you body. Besides the protein it has enough nutrients for your body. You can practically drink a scoop of this and forget everything else for your breakfast. It tastes good too, both chocolate and vanilla. I’m taking 2 scoops during workout day (1 before and 1 after workout) and 1 scoop for breakfast during non-workout days. Most importantly, drink with cold water as hot water will kill off the protein.

I’ve been consistently having my 4 days workout (sometimes 5 days when I can make it!) throughout April and May until I broke down again during the last week of May. This time it freaked me out, getting sick twice in 3 months is unacceptable. Something is very wrong! As with the first, I could not find any reason apart from the rigorous training schedule. So I have no choice but to reduce the frequency to 3 times a week. I took 2 weeks off from training to fully recover. Few weeks down the road as more projects came in I dropped my frequency to twice a week. I’m free from sickness since then..

Listen To Your Body

I’m sure you have experienced a different feeling after eating some particular food, be it spicy, sour, sweet or whatever. Observe and pay attention to your body before, during and after eating and see how your body respond. Most of the time your body will be telling you something, it just depends on how you respond to it. Whatever you do, just treat your body well because your life depends on it, naturally.

I’m quite proud of my body overall but I always feel ashamed every time I’m able to squeeze a chunk of fat from the area around my abs. I did some observation and research on my eating pattern and I found out the cause. I will reveal this in my next article…

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1. Being An Early Riser

Penang is one of the most developed island in Malaysia. It was announced as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2008. Besides being one of the most popular historical cities in Malaysia, it is also a food heaven. Me and my friends ate practically everything we can set our eyes on! As usual, we went to a few visiting spots and the highlight would be Bukit Genting. Besides it being my first visit I also enjoyed the sunset styled Thai food.

All in all it was a great trip! Or so it seems…

Losing Hunger

I went to work the next day. During lunch, my colleagues noticed that I ate less than usual. My usual would be twice their portion so it was quite obvious. I told them that my stomach might still be digesting the food from Penang.

I went back home feeling tired. It got worse during dinner time, I had no appetite and started to have cold sweat. Those symptoms reminded me of the worse food poisoning that I had few years back. I slept real early that night.

To my surprise, nothing happened when I woke up in the next morning. Except one thing, I’m still not hungry. I haven’t eaten anything since lunch the day before. At that point, I’m freaking out. As a big eater, that never happened before in my entire life! I decided to see the doctor. He couldn’t find anything wrong with me and gave me some salt sachet to help restore my body’s proper electrolyte balance and vitamin C tablets.

It took around a week or 7 days for me to get accustomed to the new food requirements. If my previous level of hunger is placed on a scale of 1 to 10. I would say the highest achievable level of hunger after losing hunger would be on the scale of 3. In other words, I don’t feel hungry anymore. Scary huh?

I’ve always wanted to try being a vegetarian as part of my self development exercise. I never got to do it due to my enormous appetite for food and also being a meat lover. Since I’ve already accepted the fate of losing the sensation of hunger, perhaps this is the best timing to be a vegetarian.

Vegetarian Detox

To tell you the truth, the first few weeks after losing hunger really felt like I don’t need food for survival. I felt that having enough fluids is enough for my daily diet. I’ve even contemplated on the idea to go on a fluid diet and see how long I can survive. If losing hunger was the first wave, I’ve even considered the possibility of a second wave where I will lose the need for liquids. I think my fascination in Breatharianism and Sun Gazing is taking its toll.

I ended up eating for the sake of eating, just to prevent myself from collapsing. 5 years ago I will consider myself being vegetarian a joke because I was such a pure meat lover. So pure to a state where I can eat only meat in meals, I can even skip drinking water. So I’m considering this a divine intervention.

Going vegetarian was quite easy without the hunger factor but a few detox symptoms can be observed. My head felt foggy or floaty after the 2nd day. Minor flu started on the 3rd day, it was not serious enough for me to apply sick leave but irritating enough to affect your daily job. I would say that the cumulative effects of these detox symptoms decreased my efficiency by 20%. All detox symptoms, mental fogginess and minor flu was gone after 2 weeks on a vegetarian diet.

Pros And Cons Of Being A Social Omnivore

Pros

- Preventing heart diseases or diseases in particular

I consider myself very healthy, judging from the average of 1 medical leave day per year for the past 5 years. Since my father died of cancer, I have no idea if I am inheriting it in my genes as well,  so I am a very health conscious person as a result of that. Better safe than well, dead.. right?

From the many articles I’ve read, reducing the consumption of meat will reduce the level of saturated fat and cholesterol in your body which will prevent the blockages in the arteries that will lead to a heart attack. I can’t really prove this one but so far my diet hasn’t failed me.

- Save the animals

It removed the dread that I sometimes get when eating meat, it’s more joyful now knowing that I don’t kill on a daily basis. You might not know what the animals that you eat has to go through in life to end up in your plate. Without much imagination I can guess that it isn’t pleasurable or fun to be put into this world and be eaten before their premature death.

I’ve even heard some people declared that they are animal lovers but they still eat meat. How unconscious can they be? I mean, it’s okay to eat meat. Do whatever you want with your life, I’m a supporter of free will, but please don’t contradict yourself.

- Help reduce waste

Since turning vegetarian I don’t need to dispose of animal wastes like bones, heads (as a kid I do eat chicken brain) , etc anymore.

- Losing fat

It was very difficult for me to reduce stomach flabs with my enormous appetite before. So turning vegetarian has given me a second chance in eliminating stomach flabs.

- Breaking addiction

Besides the health and social reasons, going vegetarian is also a test for me to overcome addiction, the addiction to meat. I’ve seen friend’s and colleague’s mixed results in quitting smoking, most of them failed, unfortunately. Since I’m not a smoker I need to give myself similar challenge. Breaking the addiction to meat sounded difficult, so I took it.

Cons

- Social outcast

Only about 2% of the people I know are vegetarian. So it’s a real challenge for me to keep up with this practice. So in order for me to “blend in”, I allowed myself to eat meat during social gatherings. On average I eat meat about once a week.

- Stereotype

Most of the people have a stereotype about vegetarians looking pale, weak & sickly. I really have no comments on this but I will go on a weight training schedule for the next 6 months to see if I end up pale and weak. Most of the time I learn from personal experiences and I find these stereotypes highly inaccurate.

Darwin’s Theory And Vegetarianism

Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. His theory :

As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.

Being a social omnivore for 3 months now, I began to imagine what would be the next step in human evolution. I consider Darwin’s theory observed the physical side of evolution and I think we’ve almost reached a stage of perfection, judging from our current physical ability and the number of World Records being broken every year in sports. If our physical structure has been evolving through natural selection all this while, I think the next step in mental or spiritual evolution will be based on conscious choice.

If nature chose the more resilient species to survive, I think now it has reached a stage where we must dictate our next evolution as nature is dwindling down in numbers, so to speak. Using our diet as an example, humans are omnivores by nature but herbivors by choice. It is really interesting if we would choose to be herbivors as a species as a solution to the impending global disaster such as global warming.

Is This Permanent?

I really have no idea if this is permanent and I have no idea if I will turn full vegetarian, vegan or even a raw foodist in the future. Being a pure meat lover is definitely a no. Most probably I will stick to my current eating habit for awhile, eating meat socially or being a social omnivore. But one thing is certain, I will surely aim to improve as time goes by, definitely by conscious choice..

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