Food diary: you are what you eat

Eight Treasurers, what a great way to start off the year! I had this with jook (congee)

I was reading Phil Tajitsu Nash's column "Washington Journal" in Asian Week last week and something really hit home. The article was about Jimmy Meng and how he's fighting the food industry and diabetes.

I was like, "How's a politician fighting diabetes?". It seems that Meng is trying to address how what we eat, has a direct effect on our health. Sounds simple right? But think about it for a minute. How many of us has as our number one New Year's resolution "lose weight". As we all know, reality can come crashing through our fantasies pretty fast.

I used to go to the gym and laugh. I would see all these new people working out or attending the aerobics classes in January. I would make bets with my friends over how long these new people would last. How long till their "real life" becomes more of a priority compared to working out and "losing weight" becomes a fleeting memory.

I NEVER make New Year's resolutions anymore. It's really kind of stupid really. Why wait til the beginning of the year to make life changing decisions, only to convieniently forget them when they are no longer easy or urgent.

When did making ourselves better, not matter anymore?

So I try to make life decisions when they are the right decision for me at the time. I find that it is easier to keep, there is no pressure if I "slip", so consequently, I don't "slip". It's amazing what no pressure can do for a guy :)

Moving on to today's post. One of the things that this article mentions, is that Type 2 Diabetes is triggered by what you eat (diet) and what you do (exercise). This message never really hit home with me, till I read this article. I bumped into a high school classmate of mine on the streets one day when I was 27 years old (6 years ago). We were in SF's downtown and it was one of those "out of the blue" surprises that happen to my life. I saw my friend "Susan". We had originally met in a PSAT class in the Summer. During the class, we called ourselves the "4 Red Hot Chilli Peppers", because there were four of us in the group and we were hot! Oh, we all did really well in the class BTW.

So we were trying to catch up with each other, when Alice dropped a bombshell on me. She had diabetes. I was like, "Are you for real? You're my age! How can you have Diabetes?" That's when I told her that I worked for a doctor at Stanford, who studied Type 1 Diabetes. We went on just chatting and I looked at Alice closely. She looked like she was normal size, not too fat, not too thin, just normal. I always thought she looked great and told her so.

When I read this story, that conversation with Alice came back to me. There's a very real chance that I can develop Diabetes. I never really thought much about it, because I try to eat healthy and stay active, but my physical activity really went down when I hurt my back. Then once I had my jaw surgery, I felt something was off. Friends noticed that I look skinny. I didn't pay it much notice, but when I was weighed for the Project T interview, I was 145 pounds. I was normally 150 - 160 pounds. I was truly freaked out.

I decided that since I was not able to work out as much as I liked, I'll pay more attention to what I eat. Hopefully it will have an effect on me, by keeping me aware of what I'm eating.

So I am going to try and blog about every single thing that I eat for this year. This will help me stay healthy.

So expect a lot of pictures folks and enjoy the feast!

Breakfast or brunches,

Late night runs to KFC.

How do you measure?

AiYahh!