Diet Actually...?

“Aku rasa aku kena diet la. Macam dah naik berat badan je. Ke penimbang ni rosak?”

“ Aku berikrar tak kan makan banyak lepas ni sbb aku nak diet!”

“Makan ke diet? Makan ke diet? Makan ke diet? Makan je laaaaa *omnomnom*”

Are you familiar with situation mention above? I guess, some of you would say yes (Including me, especially the third line...It is so me). People may think that diet is hard because they think they can’t eat or take the food they loved to eat. Can’t eat this, can’t eat that. So they end up giving up and there is no result in the end. So here I would love to share my thoughts regarding the true meaning of diet. =)

In Malaysia, we can refer to Malaysian Dietary Guidelines (MDG). This is like the basic or step-by-step for those who want to start on diet. You can Google it and you can read it for your additional info. To make it simple, the first main thing for those who really wants to diet is, eat variety of food within the recommended intake. Have you heard about food pyramid?

Above is the Malaysian Food Pyramid. Actually we have a lot of food pyramid from all over the world and some of them make it into food plate instead of pyramid. The key point here, you have to take variety of food from all the classes but it must be in the recommendation values. As you can see, there are stated 3 hidangan sehari, 2 hidangan sehari and so on. I will write more about servings in my next entry. You shall follow that. Do not be afraid to eat, as long as you follow the serving size. Let me give you a simple example. People say that eating green apple way better than eating red apple.

Okay, you can see that calories in medium green apples is lesser compared to calories in medium red apples.

So, refer to the pictures above, pada pendapat anda, mana yang lebih sihat? Siapa yang jawab epal hijau tu, dia salah. Remember, serving size is important! Walaupan kalori di dalam epal hijau lebih rendah berbanding dengan kalori di dalam epal merah, tapi kalau korang makan 3 epal hijau, kalori dia dah terlebih-lebih dah berbanding kalori sebiji epal merah. Got it readers? =)

Second, you have to be physically active. This my dear friends, many of us would say no. But listen to me, without being active, you will never ever reach your goal. Bukan susah pn nak bersukan.  Yang susah bila semua bagi alasan. And misconception about sports. Bila orang cakap 'bella dah kurus pn nak pergi jogging lg ke? Tinggal tulang la nnti', you get it all wrong there. Jogging or exercising is to help you to maintain your health status and make you fit. Getting thinner is the bonus you'll get (hash tag just saying...LOL) Orang selalu fikir bila bersenam (especially jogging), confirm akan kurus. Salah konsep tu. Biasanya jogging ni untuk jaga cardiovascular korang or in laymans term jaga kesihatan jantung korang tu. Tetapi bila activity ni dah jadi rutin harian, memang la korang akan nampak effect dia, which is weight loss. Tapi kalau bersenam pn seminggu sekali and just 15 minutes, do not expect to lose weight in a short period of time.  The concept is very simple. If the energy you consume (which is food) is the same as the energy you used (exercises, doing house chores, etc) you will maintain your body weight. Kalau korang makan 1500Kcal dan korang bersenam dan membakar dalam jumlah yang sama, 1500Kcal, korang rasa korang ada masalah tak nak melantak makanan kegemaran korang? Simple kan? Another situation, when people state that they don’t have time to do exercises. Those who works on Monday until Friday, you have Saturday and Sunday to at least do a simple workout such as jogging, brisk walking and cycling. Those who work 6 days per week and have shift, I suggest you can do very simple exercises such as take the stairs instead of elevator and walk more, ride less. Do not make things so complicated. Throw all your excuses and start to workout people! Kalau makcik pakcik tu pulak buat la senaman ringan. Berkebun, menyapu laman rumah, even doing house chores considers bersenam jugak tau! Jaga cucu pn boleh penat (especially bayi yang baru belajar merangkak. Penat orang tua tu kejar satu rumah!)

Last but least, to the group of people who always and loved to skip their meals by giving excuses they are on diet, stop it. Stop right away. Have you heard this quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a princess and dinner like a pauper.” NEVER skip your breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meals throughout the days.  As the day progresses, you should start to eat light and eat less carbohydrate near the evening. This helps your metabolism progressively continue to work. Try to maintain your eating schedule as fix as possible. Skipping meals just result your metabolism rate become lower. Not good!

There are so many ways to maintain your weight in healthy range but believe me, diet itself won’t work. You have to eat the right food, with the right portion at the right time and never leave physical activity. These are the correct combination and the real meaning of diet. I hope my entry helps you people in your eating pattern and diet. If there are any comments or questions, feel free to drop it at the comments column. If there are any info that you feel it is wrong, do let me know as well as I am still learning and I would like to gain knowledge as much as possible. Till then, see you on my next entry!