Food Diary

This morning a friend sent me a link to an article about food diary and how it helps to reduce weight. It's a good read but, eventhough I keep a personal journal (and a few other notebooks), keeping a dedicated food diary is not for me. I do write about what ate occasionally in my journal if it's interesting enough or if it's something different.

I tried this food diary "thing" before and I can only stick to the food diary for a few months before giving up, because I felt it became repetitious after some time.

Why?

I cook my own food, so I know what I put in my cooking. I generally plan my meal in advance. A typical meal has 3 dishes, One legume/bean based veggies like, French beans, Okra 9ladies fingers), Snake beans, bean sprouts ... etc. One leafy veggies (white or green) like cabbage, Bok Choy, Kailan ... etc. And 1 protein, tofu, chicken, fish or beef. I rarely go out for lunch so when I jot down what I ate everyday, the menu seems the same through out the week. I lose motivation to keep on jotting down my daily consumption because of this.

Also, I don't snack between meals. Instead, I replace my lunch with a light snack like homemade sandwiches I packed from home or fruits. So, I did not have anythig to write down in between meals.

I followed this type of diet, for more than 2 years now, eating more vegetable based food, but my weight loss has been very minimal. I am still as big as a cow!! ... I used to weigh 122kg a couple of years ago and the weight did drop to 108kg and has plateaued since early this year. In order to lose weight, I need more physical exercise which I know I really lack doing. I know I need to sweat the weight out, but still bogged with self made excuses .... sigh!!!

Not knowing the exact calorie content of the food I cook makes calorie counting useless, at least for me. How much calorie did I consume this morning? ...
- I mug coffee with artificial sweetener,
- 2 slices wholemeal toasts with last night's leftover chicken curry.
- 1 bowl of cucumber and mint raita, also leftover from last night. (love this simple salad, suitable anytime of the day. I'll post up the recipe someday)
Without knowing how much I consumed for breakfast, I am quite at loss as how much should I take for the rest of the day.

I am not saying the article is off the track or totally wrong, it's a good read and may be beneficial to lots of people. I am just sharing a personal point of view and experience, that I tried it and did not work very well for me.

Wet Tuesday Morning

Yesterday's rain carried on till this morning. As usual, my complaint is traffic congestion. A round trip to send my kids to school normally takes half an hour. This morning, it's been 70 minutes and I'm still in the car.

At this rate, I'll get home only at 8.30am and have to get ready for work and drive to my office. I'm going to be late today.

You can only plan for the day, but there are lots of external factors that could affect your initial planning.

I'm late. I'm late ... I'm late,I'm late, I'm late .....

Keynesian Paradox of Thrift at Work .....

Hungry ... I went out for lunch to a nearby restaurant where I usually get my regular fix of fried rice. The first thing that I noticed was the absence of the usual chatty voice of one of the waitresses. When asked, the owner said that she could not afford to pay the monthly salary of the waitress, so she had to let her go ... What happened?, I asked. The reply I got was just as I suspected. The owner of the restaurant said ever since the increase in fuel prices, she has been getting less and less customers. In order to cover the increase in fuel expenditure, her clients had to cut down on eating out. The regulars who often come for casual chit-chat over a few cups of teh tarik now do that at their own homes. I noticed a few of my colleagues bring in their own lunch to work, instead of going out to the restaurant for lunch. All these had reduced her overall operating income. Things were made worse when her cook demanded a higher salary to cover for his commuting cost due to the increased fuel cost. The restaurant owner had to increase the cook's salary, because without the cook, she would have no restaurant to manage. She had to pay more for a cook and covers the waitress part herself. One customer, sitting at a table adjacent to mine, overheard the conversation joined in the chat and said, "Sejak harga beras naik, nasik goreng Akak dah naik harga dari RM3.00 ke RM3.50 ... mana tahan!" (Since the price of rice went up, your fried rice is now up to RM3.50 from only RM3.00) , he said he had cut his lunch spending by half, only going out for lunch every other day. I understand how the restaurant owner is feeling right now ... confused, but she had to set her priorities, otherwise, she would be running her business at a loss. If this trend is true throughout the Malaysia economy, I fear a recession is not far ahead. As it is now, the government had cut down spending to ease their burden on fuel subsidy. Cancelled or deferred projects means a lot of businesses would be losing a lot of potential income, not to mention the negated employment opportunities. The company I worked in (automotive business) depends on the success of these business entrepreneurs and professionals. The more they earn, the more they'd spend on automobiles. If these people reduce their spending, my company would suffer a reduced income, and I could go the way of the waitress at the restaurant. This seems so familiar .... Keynesian Paradox of Thift at work???