EATING HABITS

This is me:
They said healthy foods are boring like vegetables, plain bread, sugar free and salt free foods – fine.  I eat a lot of boring foods but I don’t feel bored, in fact I feel full.  Ninety per cent of the foods I eat are vegetables.   Almost every day, it’s no way that I will miss vegetables.  I eat all the vegetables I know and I do not get tired eating them even I do it again and again, over and over again.  I get used of it, I think that is why.

I eat bread the old way.  I mean I want just plain bread, no need added flavoring or even without stuff or spreads.  If I want, I use peanut butter and it is very rare to use other spreads other than peanut butter.  I am not fan of cake, pastries, cookies, brownies, waffles, rolls, sandwiches, burgers, donuts, and other flavored breads that if I tried it is very seldom.  I just don’t like enhancing the taste or texture of the food that people considered bland without it.  Brown bread and wheat bread are costly but I am pleased enough with plain breads.

When it comes to beverages, I prefer just water.  In some unavoidable times I drink Colas, Sodas or some carbonated beverages but it happens once in a blue moon.  I don’t like the taste of liquor, when I drink I have to force myself and the next time I have to do it again will take maybe years.  Real fruit juices could be costly but if not from real fruits I would simply prefer water.  When it comes to coffee, I choose black coffee.  No sugar and no milk, just pure black coffee.  

No to ice cream, pies like pizza or apple, tacos, burgers, street foods, junk foods like chips and crackers, many comfort foods, desserts and delicatessens.  I am just not a fan of these foods that even offered to me I may not eat them.  If I may eat them it must be very seldom or rare and when I said seldom it is literally very seldom.  They are not my priority anyway like instant noodles and instant coffee because they taste salty and sweet. 

When it comes to meals and meats, I don’t like frankfurters (hotdog or sausages), pepperoni, meat loaf, luncheon meat, tapa, bacon, tocino, foot long.  For one major reason, they are so salty, I swear they are really salty.  Believe me.  I want chicken meat and I choose chicken breast.  They always said it is bland or tasteless but when your taste buds is not used to it, you will really have all reasons not to choose it.  I don’t like giblets and red meats like beef, pork, lambs, and etcetera.  I can eat them but again it is very rare.  It is not big deal anyway.  I do not get tired with sardines.  And when I cook my foods, I don’t use MSG (monosodium glutamate). 

And you will say my life is boring?  No, because I am happy doing all these.  You will only feel bored if you are sad.  And you may say I am missing the life?  I don’t think so if I can eat too the same sweet, salty and fats that other people are fond to eat.  What it differs is that it is not as often as those food trippers do.  I am not a health buff who measures the foods intake by the numbers, religiously follow the diet and reading the label of grocery items I buy.  I just simply avoid three main things – the sweet, salty and oily.

I am doing these not because I am sick but simply because I like it and I feel I am rewarded.  I feel am healthier than those 10 or 20 years younger than me and those in same age or a bit older than me.  At my age now, I enjoy the life without worrying my health.  I have no medical maintenance, no restricted foods, no gout, no arthritis, no rheumatism, no diabetes, no hypertension and no food supplement.  My weight is good, my BMI, fat mass and percentage, and heart rate are good.  And what it makes me even happier is that it makes me richer that I can enjoy my earnings to other interests.

If you feel you are not well once in a while every month due to temporary illness like cough, cold or fever, or if you think you get sick three times or more in a year, then I think it’s about time to change your eating hobbits.  True, you are really what you eat.  I also get sick but not every year in fact it takes one year or more when I fell sick and need bed rest.  On average, people can get sick three times a year but healthy people could be zero or twice.  And then unhappy people will still say no one is uncertain of our life that whether healthy or unhealthy everyone will get sick and die sooner or later.  But what makes it the different is the way how it comes, how it destroy you and the how it leaves you.

And this is not me:
In reality, these are how most Filipino people’s food habits.   During the first week of the month, it is okay to Jollibee.  It is just every other week anyway, alternating KFC or Mc Donald’s.  It is okay to fried rice in breakfast we need it for the day.  It is okay to Chicken Caldereta on Monday, Afritadang Baka on Tuesday, Chicken-Asado on Wednesday, Menudo on Thursday and Adobo on Friday because on Saturday it is a vegetable day.  There is dinner and drink in a friend’s thanksgiving on this weekend, he received his commission.

On the second week of the month, it’s just now to have hamburger it’s just once in a month.   Just now to fried chicken on Monday, Sinigang na Baka on Tuesday, Liempo on Wednesday, Embotido on Thursday, Crispy-pata on Friday – these are just for now, it can happen next month.  It’s vegetable week this Saturday.  On Sunday is my friend’s birthday party.  It is just once a year so it is definitely okay.  During the third week of the month, it is pizza once in a while.  Once a month pork steak on Monday, lechong-kawali on Tuesday, barbeque Wednesday, baked macaroni on Thursday and ice cream on Friday.  No worry, on Saturday it must be fish and vegetables.  On Sunday, it’s food trip day with cousins.

It is run out of the budget on the fourth week of the month so most likely it is fried egg, or maybe meat loaf, luncheon meat, or ham or maybe hotdog.   Instant noodles during the weekdays, or maybe fried fish, fried eggplant or anything express.  Come salary day, treat yourself to a nice food in restaurant.  And on the first week of the following month, it’s okay again to chicken on Monday, Afritadang Baka on Tuesday, on so on and so fort.

Putting those once a month altogether, you do not know how much you have a lot.  Putting all those small fats every day, when accrued is same as you take fats every month and the whole year.  Yes, it is right you eat fried chicken or maybe pork chop once in every month but the bottom line is you cannot deny that you are eating meat not once buy too much as a matter of fact it is almost everyday.  And then you’ll wonder why you often get sick while you are working out?

In this holiday season, surely we will encounter different invitations for various celebrations.  If you are taking care your daily eating habits, then you don’t have to worry on the effect of the holiday stress because most likely three or four days of foods celebration have no dramatic affect on your weight, blood sugar level, blood pressure, MBI, etcetera.  It will not abruptly affect your health – that is your reward.