Treat food as fuel, not as culture.
As a Malaysian foodie, I took pride in my country’s food culture which has made Singaporeans envious of us to the point where they unabashedly claimed ownership of some of their neighboring country’s foods.
Well, you Singaporeans, unfortunately, can’t claim the Sarawak Laksa, which the late Anthony Bourdain proudly called the “breakfast of the gods”. You can’t claim it because Sarawak is not even a part of your tiny little country.
Hard pill to swallow, right? I know. Get over it.
I’m kidding. I like Singapore, some parts of it at least.
Anyway, I’m not here to bash Singaporeans. I’m here to bash myself and society in general for sabotaging my diet for the past couple of years.
Here’s some backstory:
Ever since I moved back to Malaysia from Germany in early 2020, I went back to my good ol’ dangerous foodie habits.
I ate the breakfast of the gods almost every day. I drank alcohol and got stupid drunk almost every week. I ate almost every meal with sugar-laden beverages. Basically, the food temptation was really bad.
It got to a point where my doctor told me that if I kept going with this train wreck of a diet, he gave me a guarantee that I’ll get gout.
Cue the horror music, please.
It was no one’s fault but mine obviously. But, I knew I had to do something about my weight. Ironically, it wasn’t because of the doctor’s gout warning that made me become healthier. It was calisthenics.
Within 5 months, I was able to bounce back with a six-pack:
So how did I manage to successfully undo my poor diet that had almost cost my health?
Well, apart from doing more physical activity, I also flipped my eating habits around. I stopped eating junk food. I quit drinking. I also haven’t had Sarawak Laksa ever since. I probably will soon, but I’m trying to not wake the devil up.
I know some of you might be thinking:
Seriously, how did you do it?
Well, part of the solution was to rethink food as fuel. Not food as culture.
When I say “fuel”, I’m referring to the good kind of fuel: whole foods.
Let me explain further:
On social media, it’s very common to see people posting a platter of ribs, sausages, pizzas, burgers, fries, and captioning them with “#nomnom” or “#life”.
In my opinion, it all stemmed from the subliminal food porn culture that glorifies gluttony under the guise of being “#relatable” with everyone else. Don’t get me wrong, I was also part of the problem. All of us were.
Even the famous boyband from South Korea, BTS was also part of the problem at one point, unbeknownst to them probably.
For example, last year, the United Nations have invited all nations and urged them to discuss climate change policies. Even more, the UN had also invited BTS to speak about the message of self-love and self-care.
Yet no one batted an eyelid about the fact that BTS had once collaborated with McDonald's. How do all these connect with United Nations’ climate change discussion? Well, McDonald’s has a reputation for greenwashing despite their “efforts” in reducing meat-based food production in their so-called battle against climate change.
Behind the smoke and mirrors, it’s all part of the food industry’s brilliant marketing strategy to sell more and more processed food to the masses while still getting away with it. Of course, BTS weren’t the only celebrities who had collaborated with McDonald’s but the intention was clear.
By the way, I don’t want to get all political and get the backlash from BTS fans. Even if I did receive some, I don’t give a flying frick.
In the end, you get my point — the food industry wins every time.
Are You On Diet?
The moment when we say want to eat healthily, people snickered and they instantly labeled it as “dieting”.
Since when were health-conscious people got treated as second-class citizens?
Diet and nutrition are supposed to nourish us by providing us with the necessary materials for repairing our cells, improving our immune system while lowering our chances of getting cancer and inflammation.
Whole foods and mindful eating can do that for us. Yet, as I said, the food industry wins every time.
Seriously, why can’t we keep our nutrition simple? I mean, take my approach to pre-workout supplements for example.
Contrary to weight lifting gym bros, I don’t go around carrying my protein shake like a badge. I don’t take any supplements such as whey protein, creatine, or turpentine (kidding). Yet everywhere you will see fitness people swear by these supplements as if there are no other alternatives.
Don’t get me wrong, gym bros. I do acknowledge that supplements are great and beneficial for achieving great results in hypertrophy and maximizing strength.
But, what if hypertrophy wasn’t my main focus? I just want to be strong while being able to wear clothes comfortably and not accidentally rip them apart because of my bulging biceps.
So here are my pre-workout alternatives:
They’re basically coffee and bananas.
That’s it.
Coffee and bananas were more than enough to get my workout momentum going. Yet, not a lot of people from the fitness community talk about these kinds of alternatives. Instead, we see more and more fitness influencers selling their own brand of expensive tub of supplements and people buy it anyway. Why? Because protein shake has a become a fitness culture.
Eat To Beat Diseases
With all that being said, can we still win the fight against the food industry and the stubborn food culture? Honestly, I don’t know.
The thing is I’m not trying to tell people what to eat or what to do. I’m not telling them to restrict their diet either and deprive them of the luxury of enjoying foods they like to eat. I myself sometimes would eat nachos every month so I wouldn’t say I’m the holiest of holy.
All I wanted is to highlight the biggest misconception of what diet and nutrition should mean to us.
Just like what Dr. William Li would advise, we should eat to beat diseases instead of inflaming them.
I don’t really care about the fact that I can’t muster enough people to get away from processed food and the ever-present food porn culture.
All I care about is what foods I put in my mouth. So, returning back to the question of how did I undo my poor diet, all I did was:
- Try to eat whole foods regularly
- Keep mindfully eating and
- Keep the nutrition simple
So far, they worked like a charm. Try it yourself.
Thanks for reading and I hope that was a fun and informative read! Once again, be sure to leave a CLAP and hit the FOLLOW button for more!!
