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.
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
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