Category: Eat Well

  • Why You Should Eat Well

    [wide]pumpkinmesclunsalad[/wide] In the last two months, all the prayer requests given to my cell group were mostly health-related. A few people I had spoken to were bogged down by a family member, relative or friend suffering from cancer. In fact, one of my friend’s father died from complications arising from surgery to remove his tumor recently, and another friend’s cousin, and well-loved socialite and lawyer, died two days ago from pancreatic cancer. She was 44.

    Moreover, the people I am praying for are now in Stage 4 and I’m scared as hell for them.

    It got me thinking about why people are getting cancer like a common cold, and dropping like flies in a very heartbreaking, painful way without hope. I don’t need to highlight how conventional medicine has failed to take a hold of cancer, as all you need to do is read up and talk to people who has/had family members with cancer. Current efforts have very low rates of success in saving people’s lives.

    What’s interesting is that we weren’t so ill-designed to just have cells mutate and fail to reach apoptosis stage, but we are seeing it happen all around us now. People didn’t drop like flies due to cancer 150 years ago. Cancer is really a modern disease, and I couldn’t help but look into what was different 150 years ago, and now.

    My huge body of research has pointed to toxins, nutritional deficiencies, and hormonal imbalance as the culprit of most of the ailments that haunt us all, including cancer.

    This brought me to look into our diets, both in the East and West. Bombing our bodies with processed foods that have preservatives, chemicals, and toxins may look harmless to you at the supermarket, but looking at the statistics, our modern diet tell a different story.

    It brought back memories of my own cancer scare. Being put under a CT scanner, injected a liquid that looks purple under x-ray, and also being told that I could have pancreatic cancer. Imagine that? In my late twenties.

    Forget about every herpes joke I ever cracked, cancer kills and that really put things in perspective for me.

    Thank God it was just a scare, and I didn’t have cancer.

    Just what are we exposing ourselves to, and what are we putting into our bodies?

    The scariest part is, you might be eating something that’s killing you thinking it’s good for you. So it is so important to educate yourself.

    In your quest to lose weight, more than anything, think about how to get and be healthy.

    For me, that includes cutting out as much processed foods as possible, and sticking with whole, organic, and clean foods as much as possible.

    It may be more expensive to eat clean and organic, but I’d rather be spending money on maintaining my health than to blow it on a designer bag and other luxuries I can live without.

    Why? Because you can always work to get things you want if you have health, but you can’t use things you have to get your health back.

    Eat well my friends.

    Stop smoking if you are currently smoking. Stop abusing alcohol if you are.

    Detox periodically. Think pure thoughts. Give a damn about yourself. Because one day, people you love will be put in a position to take care of you if you get really, really ill.

    I’m not saying that it’s a foolproof method to escape disease if you eat and live healthily, but at least take the responsibility to do something to strengthen your immunity. It’s not fair to let your ignorance be the reason you get ill.

    Mostly, it’s not fair to the people who love you, not physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially when you do get ill, or worse, die. It’s just heartbreaking.

    Think well. Feel well. Live well.

  • Blueberry-Banana Smoothie with Protein

    This high protein, nutritious, antioxidant-rich blueberry-banana smoothie is super-delicious! Plus, it lasted 3 hours before I got hungry for some solid food.

    blueberry1

    SERVES 2

    • 3/4 cup of blueberries
    • 1 medium ripe banana
    • 1 cup of plain unsweetened yogurt
    • 2 ice cubes
    • 1-2 tablespoons of protein powder
    • 1/2 cup soy, rice or almond milk
    • 1 tbsp of almond and flaxseed meal or LSA (linseed and almond meal)
    • A drop of Vanilla essence (optional)
    • 1 tsp of raw honey (optional)

    Instructions

    Throw all the ingredients above into a blender and blend. If the smoothie is too thick, just add a steady stream of soy, rice or almond milk to get it to the consistency you like, and enjoy.

  • Post Weight-Loss Experiment (I Was Right About Gluten)

    It’s August. A year exactly since I lost 12 kg and weighed 73 kg. The bad news is, since January 2013 I have gone back to a fairly normal way of eating, ingesting things that I was convinced was bad for me, but nevertheless wanted to prove myself wrong the second time around.

    993907_10152417293835995_1301715084_n
    Boy was I right the first time around. So I don’t weigh the svelt 68 kg anymore, but the good news is, I still weigh the same as I did a year ago after having lost 12kg. The miraculous part is, I have been stuffing myself like Empress Dowager for the past 7 months and been working out way too little.

    It is a wonder I am not back to being the 85kg fatty. God has been full of grace and good to me.

    So how do I feel about that? BAD. Very bad. I don’t mean the guilt of putting back 4kgs on since November 2012 (although there is some of that), but physically, I felt really sick being back on a diet that includes refined carbs, gluten, and msg-laden Asian food. “Unwell” would be a better word to describe how I felt back on the common diet.

    I wish it weren’t true. I wish I could eat all the French pastries as long as it’s a little morsel and go back to being a foodie, and everything will be fine as long as I watched my portions. Bullpoop. The thing with refined carbs is that one bite is never enough, and you just want to eat more and more of it. I’m sure the devil was given rights to wheat.

    I think if I don’t have full-on Celiac disease, at the very least I have a very visible form of gluten intolerance. The kind that a croissant a day can causes 3kgs of weight gain in a week. The kind that makes me bloated, unable to offload my bio-cargo normally, produce enough gas to power a village, and feel downright nervous, moody, anxious and just sickly.
    youtiao
    A few days ago, I saw these long Chinese fried donuts Youtiao or Cha Kuay at a local stall, and I just had to have it. It’s crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside, and it’s absolutely wonderful with a bit of coconut jam spread in between. What happened?

    5 minutes of pleasure, 4 days of suffering!

    My stomach bloated like an African child with beri-beri, and I had to do a detox on day 4 just to get it out of my system. You know what? Instant relief after I got it out.

    How could I have eaten so much of something that acts like a poison to my system? Why are such delicious things so bad for me?

    WHAT’S THE PLAN NOW?


    Well, it’s clear I can’t take wheat products without paying for it in the form of thunder thighs, pot bellies, and mood swings. So I will go back to what made me feel really good.

    A clean diet that is abundant in fresh fruits and vegetables (70% raw), with organic sources of protein. Sans-wheat and gluten-free. I’ll also step up with the exercise as I don’t feel good physically when I feel weak.

    There is a renewed private goal. This time around, I know what works and doesn’t work, and I’ll share that with you as I go through my journey.

    Wisdom: Believe in good things, be gentle with yourself when you mess up, get back on track, and do your best to live the life that makes you happiest. 🙂

  • Hi-Protein Strawberry-Banana-Orange Smoothie

    Some people wonder how in spite of having gone back to eating foods for earthlings, I am able to maintain my weight. You should know that for every plate of food I eat, I am eating half or less of the portion. (I’ll share more tips in time to come). Most importantly, two of my 3 meals a day consists of extremely healthy choices like this smoothie.

    dicho

    Hi-Protein Strawberry-Banana-Orange Smoothie Recipe

    2 SERVINGS


    • 5 frozen strawberries

    • 1 frozen medium banana

    • 1 cup fresh orange juice

    • 1 tbsp whey protein powder

    • 2 ice cubes

    • Some ice water (to control viscosity)

    INSTRUCTIONS

    Make orange juice separately in a juicer. Then add all ingredients in a blender (below), blend on medium to high speed.
    blender

    P/S: Add water to control desired thickness and sweetness.

    VOILA! Drink it with a straw immediately.

    [wide]strawberrybananaorange[/wide]

    This smoothie has potassium from bananas, vitamin C from the oranges and strawberries, and flavonoids that have anti-cancer properties.

    This is perfect as a light meal replacement, but you can’t only drink this 3 times a day for a whole month and expect to be a superfit superhero. It doesn’t work like that.

    Keeping a healthy diet is all about feeding a variety of different foods to your body, at the right time, in the right combination, over a period of time!