Month: November 2020

Living in the the Western world means food scarcity is hardly an issue. The abundance of food we have, we can easily take it for granted.

We buy food, we consume food and we dispose of food. This is a typical cycle of a food journey in many households.

The majority of people I know eat three meals a day. I used to be one of them, too. When I still lived at home with mum and dad over a decade ago, I never had to worry about cooking. All I did was turning up at meal times.

Then one day my lifestyle changed. I bought a place, I moved out, I had a mortgage to pay, I had to do my own grocery shopping and all that. Say hello to crunch time! For a year or two, I still managed to eat three meals a day, but as life got tougher, it became increasingly difficult for me to keep up with all the logistics that came along with it.

So, I decided to make things easier – Why don’t I just skip one meal and only eat two meals a day? – lunch and dinner or breakfast and dinner, whichever suits me that day.

I admit, it was purely out of laziness why I made this change. Some of my colleague noticed that I wasn’t eating at work and asked me why, my answer was always the same – I just can’t be bothered.

It’s amazing how our bodies can quickly adapt and adjust to a new routine if we persist long enough. Of course, I did feel hungry at times especially in the very beginning when I was trying it out but somehow I managed to work around it. It’s funny how laziness can also work for you, rather than against you in some rare cases. This is definitely one of them.

The reason why I continue my two-meals-per-day eating plan is because it fits into my lifestyle well. I don’t need to shop as often, I don’t spend as much time and money on food preparations as often. I know this is not for everyone but as a time poor person, I’m loving it.

What about health? Has my health been impacted upon as a result of it? Well, none of tests and checks I have done suggest I need to increase food consumption. So, I’m happy to leave it at that.

Nowadays I stay at home a lot more, the amount of calories I will require on a daily basis is probably less than when I was a full time employee working in the corporate world. I don’t know why it is but every time after breakfast, my energy begins to wane rapidly. I simply sit there and can’t stop yawning. It annoys me when I am not productive.

Lately, by that I means in the last two weeks, I started to make a further change on my diet – something even more drastic – skipping breakfast every other day. That is to say, one day I will only have one meal – dinner, the next day I will have two meals – breakfast and dinner.

Since putting this plan into practice, I’ve seen an increase on my energy level.

I don’t need medical evidence to tell me why I no longer feel too tired or too lethargic to do anything. Giving it time, a human body will present itself as a living proof. As I write this, I have only drunk water since I woke up today. Well into the night, I feel I’m still at my peak – my thinking is clear, my mind is responsive and my body is active.

The benefits of fasting are well documented. Everyone has different dietary needs depending on their own situations or personal preferences. There’s no one size fits all. As a grown adult, fasting is a choice I made for myself.

As I am about to wrap up this post, it’s also about time to finish fasting. I am very much looking forward to my dinner time tonight and when I have it, I know I will be full of gratitude and appreciation…

It’s hard to say No except when you say it to yourself.

In the past two weeks we had a few good days of rain. The upside was that it made staying home extra appealing. The downside was that it could derail your usual routine, for example, in my case it was the morning exercise routine.

I was having one of those days – my motivation was running low. I just didn’t feel like doing it. The excuse I gave myself was: it’s raining outside. Of course, weather permitting or not, there’s a way around it. Not all forms of exercise require you to venture outside or use gym equipment. There’re plenty of other choices. Use imagination and creativity. That’s why they’re there for.

I nearly succeeded in talking myself out of it. But I stepped back, took a brief moment to ask myself this: Why did I even do it in the first place and why have I kept it up since? The answer was short and sweet: For the health benefits.

A simple act of asking myself why set the next trajectory in motion. I no longer needed motivation or any convincing evidence to exercise. I got the answer of why I’ve continued up to that point.

Before I knew it, I was walking out the door, jumping straight into doing my daily stretching routine in the rain! Well, it wasn’t too bad. I only got slightly wet. I didn’t care if it was a stupid thing to do. There’s something about rain that is quite romantic – it cleanses you. It raises your game.

That’s the thing, when you’ve formed a good habit of doing something regularly like exercise, it’ll become automatic going forward, your body needs it like fish needs water. You don’t question it again and again. But life isn’t always smooth sailing. There’ll be a time when don’t feel like it. Missing once or twice is no big deal. No one is keeping score anyway. Be aware! Soon enough, it’ll be a downward spiral or a vicious cycle. A bad habit is waving at you, luring you to the other end.

What do you value most at this stage of life? I’m someone who takes pride in self care and good health. To maintain it is non-negotiable. I like what someone said on a podcast the other day: When you don’t make a decision yourself, your body will make it for you. It can’t be more true!

I admit I’m not always on the right track. Every now and then, I’ll come up with some excuses of not doing it. A quick Q an A time with self can help turn things around. By asking yourself why, it leads you to knowing why, by knowing why, it leads you to doing why…