Rising From The Ashes: How Cheaper Labor Is Able To Send A Child To University?

Many people would not believe and rather laugh when we are talking about how cheaper labor has the ability to send a child to university. However, it is the reality that no one could not deny when my father who was cheaper labor in a factory could send me to the university. Let's see what my father did in order to prepare for my future.

Once, our life was in the golden age where we did not have to worry about daily necessities, health care, education tuition fees, and retirement; everything was under control until someday all those we had was gone in the glimpse of eyes. We did not expect the nightmare would happen and we did not prepare for the worst day either. The direct effect was that my future education suddenly just disappeared in the thin air. My dream to study at a university looked impossible. That was the reality that I had to embrace. I could not see my path, my future anymore. Everything was burned into the ashes.

To be honest, I did not know what to do as I was just 9 years old student in 5th grade when my father had been busy fighting for his right in court. He did not have any interest in my academics anymore as he needed to focus on his case. Every day, for about a year (until I graduated from primary school), the only thing that caught his eyes was the pile of paper. Nobody talked about what my next study should be as I would finish my primary soon. Since then, I had made my move by deciding my life including my education future, and how I earned money to save my study.

After a year, no matter how tough my father was to win the case, he gave it up as "they" threatened him; if the target was him, he would fight until the end, however "their" aim was my future. My father was a tough cookie, he would never give up so easily, however, if something targeted his children's future, it became a different story where he needed to save his children first on top of anything even though he would be lost anything that he built from about 20 years career. Therefore, my father pulled off his confident moves, gave everything "they" wanted. Since then, he worked as cheaper labor in a factory in our neighborhood. Although the money that he earn was only about $ 4 a month, he hold to this faith. Why? The reason was he had believed that every small step we start would bring us to the next steps. My father resumed his job at almost 40 years old and he did great!

The first thing after my father lost everything, immediately he made a move by asking our family friend if any job vacancy. He would like to take it as long as a permanent job even though the salary was the worst part. Why he was willing to take the cheapest occupation when nobody avoid it? In the beginning, he had no choice, the second was to have a permanent job much better rather than wander around aka jobless. One of those people who choose to become jobless was his brother and drop-out teenagers in our neighborhood. They would rather be jobless and did nothing than take this filthy job; working in the worst smell environment, needed physical and mental strength. Most people do not see what he saw. He had a long-term plan when he took the job. You will see later what were the benefits that my father obtained by keeping this worst job. 

After taking the worst job where no one was not interested in it, the second move was to settle down the goats. What did it mean? he decided to rise the goats. After his shift at work was over, he went to find grass by riding an old bicycle. In total, he rode his bike for 20 km and more a day as he also jump on his bike for work every day. While many people were commuting by local bus or transportation or rather buy a motorcycle by credit and pay installments each month, my father chose to ride the bicycle every day. The first reason was to save money, the second reason was that buying something with installment was not his cup of tea. Rule number one in his life was that "do not buy something that we could not afford."  Additionally, it was not only goats in our back yards, my father had also risen hen and roaster, duck as well. Whenever we needed quick money that day, we just sold one of our roasters or hen. Moreover, the hens provided the egg supplies. On the special occasion, cooking the chicken menu without spending money as we had plenty of chicken in the backyard. 

Another pertinent thing is that my father did the gardening. People might think that gardening is just a hobby to fill their spare time.  On the contrary, this "hobby" thing became my father's side job as he could earn some money from whatever he grew in the garden and yards. The fruit and plants that helped us a lot were jackfruit, lemon, lime, pineapple, and cassava. Those fruits had economic values that whether we sold them or barter them with other food sources we needed one example was that by bartering jackfruit with tempeh, vegetables, and other ingredients. And you want not to believe that my father managed to buy a crop field even after losing his decent job. How? He planted cassavas in the one side garden of our house. Each year this small farm made an excellent harvest where within 2 years the money from this cassava was enough to buy crop field. Thanks to my father's gardening skills, my brother and I also enjoyed the abundance of fruits from our own garden such as mango, pineapple, soursop, guava, rambutan, starfruit, jackfruit. Moreover, we could also cook something from our garden for instance boiled cassava, fried cassava, any snacks from cassava, dishes that were made from young jackfruit, young papaya, or cassava leaves dish. Anything from our yards and garden was useful to fill our stomachs. Well, what I can say, although we had not much money yet we were happy. 

Other skills that my father developed to help our difficult life were the ability to color and cut hair. My brother and I had never gone to the salon to have hair cutting since my father could do it at home. In addition, he was also able to color and cut his own hair. I have always wondered until these days, how does he do it? 🤔 I have tried it at home too, yet the result is not that great. Besides having hairdresser skills, day by day he was an expert to repair bicycles so that we did not need to spend money on them whenever our bicycles broke. In my opinion, this is a good lesson where we have to learn many things in this life. Who's knows, it could be useful in the future in order to survive in this world. Other skills were he was able to make simple furniture and made a piece of art.

many people thought that my father was only a worker and not able to do business. In contrast, he opened a small business at home when I was in my second year of high school. Of course, he did not have any time left to handle the business as his plate was full, so that his partner had to take of it and he helped to find the materials. What business it was? We made handmade flour crackers, banana & cassava crackers. With this business, we did not too much worry about daily expenses. Therefore, even though my father's monthly salary was not enough to make living for a month, this business covered those lacks in the household needed. When talking about business, after losing his decent job, my father made a small investment in a business that had been handled by a new citizen in our hometown, and they were the couple who gave me school assistance monthly since I was in the first year of secondary school. So both my father and the couple got the benefits from the business relationship, we called it a partnership even though my father invested a small amount of money in this business compared to how big that business was. So, my school assistance was related to the business partnership? Yes! My father got his revenue each month and the business owner added some money to help my school situation (monthly tuition fee, pocket money, or transportation). 

Now the big enquire is that how those things were able to send me to university. The worst job that my father took, at first, it looked useless as the monthly salary was not enough to make living. But, the factory gave my father 20 or 25 kg of white rice each month since the first time he joined the factory. How hard our life was, as long as we had enough rice at home, we were grateful and joyful; we just needed to barter jackfruit, lemon, lime, and a big pack of banana crackers and flour crackers with tempeh, vegetables, some treats. Fortunately, my father could eat freely at work as the factory had a canteen for the worker. For this reason, he did not need to spend money to buy meals in the workplace like before. Another intriguing thing was my father often brought back home leftovers from the factory's canteen, sometimes 1 portion or 2 portions meals. Many people who avoided this job might be thinking that free rice, free meals at work, and leftover foods were not worth compared to the daunting tasks at work. However, my father was grateful and I was happy for him. For us, all those small perks sounded good enough to keep us stay alive day by day.  

Indeed, from the first year of joining this particular factory, my father's wage was only $ 4 a month. However, after a few years, the wage was increased by around $ 40 a month. It was when I started my first year in the university which meant this salary could cover my cost of living in the city on another island. Meanwhile, money from a business partnership was able to cover daily expenses for three people in the household (my father, his partner, and my brother) and other things. Besides providing my cost of living, each year my father paid my rent room directly for a year. Where did my father get the money to pay for my rent room? He sold a goat to do it. My father's goat was an excellent breed, he called them Australian goats, no wonder the price had always been higher in the market. 

Now, how about my tuition fees at university? Most people in my hometown were scared when talking about university. Everybody knows even until this day that sending a child to university needs a big fish and golden egg (a big money). Therefore, only children who were born into silver spoon would get degrees from the university and have a bright future. However, my father changed that mindset by breaking those walls; he was a game-changer!🤩 I am proud of him!👍👊 Not everyone in my hometown has the courage and is brave enough like my father. Believe it or not, among the children in my hometown who succeeded in studying at university were only a few at the time. Mostly drop out from secondary school or high school even though their parent were able to send them to university. They did not believe that school is important to upgrade our life in the future. They thought school was only a waste of money and time. Back to the topic, where did my father get the money to pay my tuition fees? My father was a good planner, every step he made, each of them had one goal; the goal was to save money month by month before the time to pay my tuition fees, he sit back tightly. From crop field, sold some goats, business, little by little he accounted the money wisely and made such meticulous plan. Yeah, sometimes he borrowed some money from the community and paid it for a few months. That's the only debt he took. After all, he had never had been in a debt in his life.

That is what my father did to preparing my university study. I realized that my father cared about my study when he stood behind me to support my decision to study at university. Everybody was against him and hated me. However, one of his colleagues at work followed my father's step by working on something else after the work shift was over for instance driving a trishaw, raising goats. He wanted his twin child to follow my step by studying at university, getting a degree, and changing the future to a bright one. The cheapest labor became a role model for another labor to change the future; that is my father!😍🤩💪

If you have been told that 11 years old me would study at university in the famous city for study in our nation, and get a Bachelor's degree, no one wants not to believe it. But the reality is the opposite as my father sent me off to study at university in another province where this city is the famous city in our nation to study. I do still remember, everyone got jealous and busy told my father to pull off his decision as they consider that sending me to university was only a waste of money. But after seeing me succeed in my academics, some crawled to follow my steps or asked their children to study at university. Unfortunately, what they got is far below their expectation where none of them get the achievements like I was. 

One day, my father met someone that he knew from his old company somewhere where my father sent off me to go back to the city where I studied. While he was talking with this person with lots of big smiles, confidence, and proudly standing, that person often looked at me and perhaps this person felt surreal about what he heard from my father's mouth. I sit about 2-3 meters from them and I did not clear what were they talking about. However, looking at that person's facial reactions, it was obviously clear that my father talked about me that I was good at academics. Well, it was the right time to send a message to "them" who framed my father that my father survived, did great, his child great at academics, study at university, and have a big dream. 

If my father were still around today, he would be proud that my brother has also finished school even though he has a down syndrome child. Furthermore, he would enjoy his retirement life with joy. I bet he would go on vacation each year and open a flower shop. He loved art, and I would like to send him to learn painting. My father's achievement surpasses and beyond any rich people in our village; he should be proud of it now.🌈🤗

Note:

• Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Do not copy this article without permission

Start Your Healthy Lifestyle From Small Things At Home

 

The Journey of Ichi's Family: sweetener to substitute sugar - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Changing a healthy lifestyle is quite challenging for some people. While others are confused where do they start? In this article, I want to discuss ways to begin healthy habits in our daily basis life which is from small things that we can do at home.

I have begun to be aware of my cooking ingredients since I moved to Singapore about 9 years ago. I was perplexed when the first time I did grocery shopping at one of the hypermarkets. I had never seen numerous varieties of cooking oil before when I lived in Indonesia's capital city. I needed to keep up my mind with this new lifestyle; trying to understand what exactly it is about. Then I realized, this is what we call changing habits to get a better life which means a healthy body.

I reckon some people from the place I come from asked me, why I still eat spinach, kangkong, tempeh, tofu, sweet potato, sweet potato leaves, et cetera. They wondered with the life that I have today, why I eat those "kampoeng" (village) foods. In my hometown, those foods are only consumed by people who live in poverty. Maybe I should be grateful when my father lost everything and our life upside down. Because of that tragedy, I had kept my profile low including on foods as my family needed to save money. My brain had been trained to save money and not spend it on fancy meals. This habit stays with me until today where I choose to keep "kampoeng" lifestyle which leads me towards healthy eating. 

To alter a lifestyle is not easy. However, we can start with small things in our regular life such as food ingredients and home activities. One by one to eliminate unhealthy elements in our foods so that we can prepare healthy meals. What are those ingredients? in addition, doing home activities even though a small step would help us to change our habit onto healthy one. Let's check it out!

1. Think About Reducing Salt

Salt is an essential ingredient in cooking. Therefore people use it in every dish they prepare to give it a taste. From vegetable, meat, and fish, all those food sources need the touch of salt to make them delectable along with other seasons. Without salt, even though we add lots of varieties of spices, our foods would definitely be awful. 

As we grow to become adults, we need to consider finding solutions to the salt that we used to. If you do google, you would find that WHO recommends adults only need to consume less than 5 g per day. The reason is to low the risk of some health issues, one of those problems is high blood pressure where it could lead us to get a stroke and any disease in the future. Low-sodium salt is the choice to take the first step onto healthy life. Nowadays, it is easy to find this stuff in the grocery store. The salt factory looks conscious to give the customer choices which one they want. And I hope you are one of those customers who choose low-sodium salt. Or if you are not able to find low-sodium salt, reducing your common salt when preparing food is the best way. Hence, be better to get used to eating less salt.

The Journey of Ichi's Family: low-sodium salt that I choose - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

We have been choosing low-sodium salt for my cooking ingredients for the past few years. I do not remember the exact year, in 2015 my guess. But one thing is for sure it has been years now. This is not a marketing article, I just want to show you my salt choice is Pan Salt. You can choose low-sodium salt from any brand that is available in the grocery store nearby your home.

2. Mind To Replace Your Sugar

I have believed that everybody loves sweets to indulge their tongue, and another enjoys drinking tea or coffee in the morning and evening to unwind the day after work. Despite all whatever the reason, start to consider substituting sugar with sweetener will treat your body much better. 

Have you ever felt sleepy after lunch? Then you think you need a cup of coffee to keep your eye open. After drinking a cup of coffee your sleepiness is gone and you say, "Coffee is my savior, I do not feel sleepy!" Well, in my opinion, you are misunderstood. When you feel sleepy after lunch, it is a sign that your body craves more sugar which means your body has already consumed too much sugar and it causes sleepiness after eating your lunch. And I believe, in a day you are not only drinking a cup of coffee but it could also 2 glasses or more, in addition, you take desserts and any drinks for example coke. Wow, it looks like we store a mountain of sugar if we stay on this path. Therefore, we need to change our habits by substituting sugar with sweeteners such as stevia. You can see the first picture in this article, that is my choice.

The Journey of Ichi's Family: I choose products with this label; sugar below 5% - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Personally, since moved to Singapore years ago, I have started to consider our sugar consumption. It leads me to cook without add sugar to my dish. If you are following Ichi's Fusion Recipes, it is rare to find my recipes use some sugar in them. My habit is the opposite in most Indonesian recipes where sugar is a part of the ingredients in almost every dish.

If you look at my kitchen cupboard, you can not find any sign of sugar in it because I substitute sugar with sweetener stevia. Furthermore, instead of having dessert like a slice of cake, eat chocolate, pudding, et cetera, I choose to eat a wide variety of fruit daily after meals, usually, lunch and dinner. 

The Journey of Ichi's Family: read the label carefully, how much total sugar is in it - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Besides replacing sugar with sweeteners, we also need to be aware of how much sugar is in drinks. We have to check it before buy them, see and read carefully the total of sugar on the label. Here in Singapore, we can choose products with a red triagle label; this is a sign for a healthier choice including drinks.

The Journey of Ichi's Family: a red triangle is a sign of healthier choice - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti 

As we grow adults, we need to consider how much sugar intake per day. In Singapore, about 9 to 11 teaspoons per day for adults. You can imagine if we take morning coffee, afternoon coffee, in addition, eat sweets and dessert, then drinks, we store bad news for our body in the future for example diabetes. Start to substitute sugar in your coffee or tea, choose a healthier choice drink before it is too late. A happy life is having a healthy body. 

3. Substituting Cooking oil

As I mentioned above that I was wondering why lots of varieties of cooking oil in Singapore. Back then where the place I come from, nobody talks about healthy cooking oil. People just buy regular cooking oil that is sold in the market. I do still remember the cooking oil that I used to buy in the market was had a slimy texture, the color was almost brown, and had white sandy residue in it. Moreover, we, villagers, used to reuse cooking oil leftover over and over. Yeah, no wonder my father had high cholesterol and other health issues such as high blood pressure. 

 After moving abroad, I have been learning how to choose healthy ingredients for my meals at home. One of them is cooking oil that use almost daily. For me, it doesn't matter what brand is it, the most important thing is what kind of cooking oil I pick. In this case, I take canola oil, sunflower oil, or olive oil.

Olive oil is the best one to cook with. However, for me, the only problem is the price. Olive oil is pricey in Singapore. Therefore, I pick canola oil for my cooking which is affordable. Moreover, the canola oil has a red triangle label which means a healthier choice. 

The Journey of Ichi Family: The red triangle label on the canola oil that I use for my cooking - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Another point is that I eliminate margarine from my cooking ingredient. Like many Indonesian, I loved to add margarine for some recipes for instance fried rice and for other purposes. Nowadays, I just simply substitute it with butter to saute. 

4. Choose Your Carbs Wisely

The reason why I include carbs in this article is that rice is an essential element in most Asian meals. I am original from Indonesia, however, rice was not the main component in our daily life as most villagers lived in poverty. Many used to cook cassava and corn rice (rice made from corn) for carbs in the meal, and made snacks from cassava as well. Other sources of carbs were sweet potato and some kind like yam. Those sources are definitely a healthy choice rather than common white rice. Sadly, the new generation in my hometown has forgotten about this knowledge that their parents and grandparents taught them. 

I heard once where one relative who had diabetes. Instead of eating white rice, the doctor recommended substitute white rice with corn rice. Unfortunately, this person felt unpleasant about it and made so many complaints. The point is that white rice contains sugar. By eating 3 times meals daily with white rice on the plate, in addition, drinking coffee and tea along, this habit will lead to a chronic health issue such as diabetes.

I have been changing my lifestyle since years ago when we lived in Indonesia's capital city. First, I switched from white rice to red rice. After moved to Singapore, still had red or brown rice and white rice once in a while until someday I chose Japanese rice (short-grain white rice). Since 2016 (I do not remember much) I have been trying to eat varieties of carbs for instance potato, noodles, and sweet potato. It has been a few years now, and I feel great. And from July 2021, I removed rice from my menu completely. The reason why I do not eat Japanese rice again anymore is that my stomach is upset every time I consume rice.

5. Reducing Coconut Milk

As someone who was born and grew up on one of Indonesia Island, I used to eat food that contain coconut milk. Indonesian loves coconut milk to enrich the flavor of the curry recipes for instance cooking young jack fruit, cassava leaves, spinach, chicken, meat, fish, et cetera. Even though it caused me a stomach issue, I had still eaten those dishes for years until I moved to Singapore. Moving abroad makes me concern about what kind of foods we eat daily.

The Journey of Ichi's Family: I eat foods that contain coconut milk and cooking cream once in a while - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

One day, a local (Singaporean) said to me, "I have seen you too often pour coconut milk into your dish. It is bad for our health. we usually substitute coconut milk with milk. Do not eat too much food that contains coconut milk."  It was a good lesson for me. Might be it sounded irritated as back then in Indonesia, no one talked about how bad coconut milk is. However, I took it seriously since it relates to our health issue, having high cholesterol is not good. I do remember that my father had high cholesterol which was led him couldn't move sometimes because his knees were in pain. Since then, I have been trying to avoid coconut milk. Once a month to eat this particular dish is enough for me, well...in many cases, I do not prepare a dish with coconut milk in it for a few months. Yes, I add cooking cream into my recipes once in a while. Do I substitute coconut milk with cooking cream? Yes, however, it doesn't mean cooking cream is greater than coconut milk. The best way just does not too often eat food that contains those ingredients. 

6. Stop Using MSG

Believe me, back then in my hometown, people added Monosodium glutamate (MSG) in every single dish they cooked at home, including my father's partner. It was an essential ingredient as many thought that MSG enhanced flavor in any food. Even though I had a bad condition where I got tonsillitis and was banned to eat any food that contain MSG, still my father's partner did not remove this ingredient from her cooking. As result, I became picky and sometimes I just ate white rice with dark soy and traditional crackers. When I ate home meals that contained MSG, my tonsillitis came back again, and again. I know the cause of tonsillitis is a virus or bacteria that we get from others. Regardless of whether there is any relation between MSG and tonsillitis, that was what I experienced at the time. 

Is that soo bad to add MSG in our cooking recipes? In nature, we can find MSG in tomatoes, and mushrooms, and it is not bad at all as we consume tomatoes and mushrooms. However, I would rather avoid this unnatural MSG that is sold in the grocery store as I experienced a very bad health issue in the past. I also read the label before buy ingredients since it is crucial to choose the right ingredients.

As a result, after recovered from tonsillitis, my body had been trained to identify MSG. Nowadays, I am sensitive to this ingredient, MSG. When I eat something from outside which means buy foods from the food court or eatery, even though they say no MSG, but my body is able to identify this bad element. Just 15 to 30 minutes while eating, I can feel a little sore throat, coughing. Or when I take a snack that has no MSG on the label, if I suddenly get those symptoms, it means the snack has MSG in it.  

7. Elevate Your Vegetable and Fruit Consumption

In the beginning, I decided to cook our own meals were to save money. But later I found out that homemade food is healthier than buy from food stalls as we can pick the ingredients by ourselves and we well know during the cooking processing. On top of that, home cooking is much better because we can add a wide range of varieties of vegetables as much we want. From broccoli, french bean, cabbage, kale, carrot, wong bok, spinach, kangkong, pea sprout, bean sprout, cauliflower, brinjal, et cetera! In addition, start to consume fruit in our daily life. For me personally, instead of having a slice of cake, I would grab an orange or an apple. If I feel a little hungry before dinner or lunch, I choose a banana to comfort my stomach. That is a mountain of vitamins and minerals sources, isn't it? 

The Journey of Ichi's Family: I keep my kampoeng lifestyle by eating vegetable soup and fried tempeh - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

However, I find some people have struggled to alter their habits towards healthy eating. In that case, if you do not keen on broccoli, for example, try to find a way how to cook it in your style by using ingredients you like. In the past, brinjal, french bean, and any stir fry vegetable were not my cup of tea. The reason was that my father's partner put MSG and overcooked. Nowadays, those vegetables are always on the menu. The key is that I found how to cook them in my style.

8. Doing Home Exercises

Do you agree that doing house chores is part of the exercise? Some people find that exercise at the gym is fascinating. However, some people struggle to make a living; join a particular club like that is definitely lavish. For me, personally, spend lots of money to join a gym club member is not my thing. Yeah, you can call me cheapo. 

As far as I can see, for the past years after getting married, I have always needed lots of energy to do household works; from grocery shopping, mopping, cleaning the kitchen, do the laundry, gardening, et cetera. It means we can start to do work out by moving our body at home. Or you can buy a bicycle, and jump on your bike whenever you go out. 

Before the COVID-19 crisis, I used to walk to the market almost daily to buy many things in the morning. From our flat to the market nearby is about more than 600 m. In the market, I walked around from one shop to another for at least 45 minutes, then walk home and my hands carried heavy bags. In some cases, I went back to the market in the evening to buy something again. Or once a while my husband and I walked to the market that was almost 1 KM from our block to buy specific items. That is the good thing living in Singapore where the walk is most likely our routine like many neighbors here.

While at home, I had been doing house chores including gardening by myself. Luckily, due to the COVID-19 situation, I get help from my husband as he works from home so that I can take a rest for a while. 

Just change small things at home by doing house chores would give us some benefits. It does not only alter our habits to become neat people but makes our bodies move. By taking this a small step at least we train our body to work out.

9. Stop Smoking

At first, my father was a smoker. However, after I made a complaint as he enjoyed the cigarette at home, I had never seen him light up the cigarette at home anymore; I did not know in the office. After he was just cheaper labor, the only thing in his head was to save money to send me to the university. Yes, he stopped smoking! Smoking was like burning money for him. You can imagine, how much money you spend a month to buy cigarettes? For my father, instead of burning money, he chose to save it for his children's future. Furthermore, it is good to save money in the bank rather than store illness; smoking means store chronic health issues. That was my father. And now I am a married woman, does my husband a smoker; he is not a smoker either. Like my father, he said that smoking is like burning money. Instead of buying cigarettes, we can use that money to buy fish such as salmon. Salmon is good for our health, or to buy fruit. Isn't that far greater and a wise choice?  Therefore, there are no benefits to smoking every day. What we would get by smoking 3-4 times or more a day is just stockpiling illness. When you get lung cancer or another disease your finances will be broken. I had a relative who are a smoker since a teenager. After getting married he was happy to have a son. However, his son has a lung condition where he must go to the hospital each month and the bill is pricey. The effect to become a smoker is not hurting ourselves but the people around us. Think about that.

Something that bothering my head; I have seen lots of people go to the gym but they take cigarettes after their gym session is over. Another funny thing is that when I went to the market or park, I have met some people do jogging. On my way home, I can see the same people who do jogging but now they are smoking on the side street. I just do not understand what are they thinking. It is clear that their aim is to get an excellent appearance, compliment, and attract women or men. It looks healthy and has an amazing body shape yet there is chronic disease inside an exquisite body.

We can start our healthy lifestyle with small things at home by changing our habits step by step. Reducing salt, replace sugar, change cooking oil, choosing carbs wisely, do not too often eating food that contains coconut milk, stop using MSG, eat more vegetables and fruit, moving your body by doing house chores, stop smoking. It might just be simple things, however, if you commit to altering your habit towards a healthy one, you will find out later that those small steps would give you benefits for your body.

Note:

• Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Do not copy this article without permission
• Do not reuse these photographs anywhere else without permission