Meaning of Beauty

During my recent trip back, I observed closely at people passing me in the airport to see how healthly and youthful the average Malaysian looked. I was in for a shocked at what I saw. Out of about 100 people, only a handful looked healthy and had healthful appearing skin. In short, almost everyone looked like they are aging before their time.

And this morning in The Sun, Monday @ Feb 7^th, 2011 – Page 21, Beauty Section. 'Retailer targets 8-year olds. US retailer Walmart will release an all-natural, partially “anti-ageing” beauty line for tweens, called GeoGirl. Targetting 8 to 12-year-olds blah....blah.....'

I have nothing against make-up/cosmetic but isnt it too much to burden 'a small young girl' with 'the concept of beauty and not growing old'?

I am a strong advocate of 'beauty from within'. Aging is the natural process and we can age-gracefully by making wise choices about the food we eat and drink, what we think and how to respond to life's events.

Any thoughts?

Fettuccine Aglio Olio

My first cooked complete meal since April 24th, 2009. It’s good to be in the kitchen again.

The ingredients - olive oil, crushed garlic, cut dried & fresh chilies, chopped coriander.

Saute olive oil & garlic, later add in chopped coriander.
In a separate skillet, pan fry salmon (rubbed with black pepper & corse salt) - 3 mins each side.
Tomato puree with oilve oil and mixed herbs. Wholemeal pita bread, halved into 4 pcs.

Colourful salad - finely shredded red cabbage, sliced red onions, sliced yellow pepper, sliced cucumber, carrot, romaine lettuce & lettuce leaves, spinach leaves & cherry tomatoes with vinegar, ginger and thousand island dressing.

Table setting.Non-vegetarian for Gilbert. Full vegan dish for moi.
And Swiss choclates for dessert!
Having tough time to decide but at the end go for Mahony, Latee and Pistachio.

Kedgeree (from Khichuri)

The original Khichuri is easily digestible dish (no fish, meat or egg) that is beneficial for all constitutions. Westerners call it Kedgeree. Nigella replaces the earthier Indian flavours with the sharper ones of Thailand. A subtly spiced rice dish, almost original if I may say, but with extra vegetable, Mackerel and egg (my improvised version).

2 cups brown unpolished rice
4 cups water
1 small handful coriander leaves
½ tsp mineral salts (organic)
2 tsp ghee
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 big onion, finely sliced
5 shallots, finely sliced
½ tsp fresh turmeric (grated)
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp cumin powder
½ tsp whole cumin seed
½ tsp whole mustard seeds
½ tsp mild curry powder
1 pkt baby Kailan (organic)

2 pcs Mackerel
2 large eggs (free range)
4 stalks Coriander leaves

Wash rice and set aside.

Saute shallots, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, whole cumin seed, whole mustard seeds with ghee for a few minutes. Add rice and stir so that it’s all well coated. Transfer into the rice cooker with 4 cup of water and add salt.

Steam the Mackerel and flake it with the fork.

The eggs required for this dish need to be what French wall mollet – hard enough to peel but with a soft, oozing yolk. In order to achieve this, you must not harshly boil the egg but gently simmer them, then turn off the heat and leave and leave it in the water for a while. Mine did not turn out as expected!

Use clean pan, sauté sliced onion until soft with olive oil and add curry powder, cook for 2 – 3 minutes. Add in baby kalian and flaked Mackerel, toss quickly.

Add the rice and serve hot with eggs and coriander leaves.

A healthy meal in a pot, my dinner for last night. Very delicious actually. Try it out.

How to EAT SMARTER

Well, Chinese New Year is around the corner and as we all aware, its eating time! Let's eat smarter this year, the year of an OX.

For many people, learning to energy test the food changes their relationship to what they eat. Test to see if your body is going to like a particular food, not based on taste but either its increases or reduces your energy level.

Because preconceptions can affect an energy test, it is better not to try to guess what the results will be. Subtle energies are responsive to our thoughts, so clear the mind as as well as you can prior to conducting energy test. Drink water before the test as water conducts electricity, and dehydration inteferes with the flow of energy in your body.

1. Both of you take a deep breath.

2. The person being tested place one hand straight down the side of the body with thumb touching the outer thigh, palm facing to the back and fingers pointing down and the other touching/holding the food that she/he planning to eat.

3. The tester slips her/his palm (facing out) between the body and the arm, just above the wrist.

4. The tester then asks the person being tested to hold her/his arm firm, elbow straight (I often use words such as 'don't let me pull your arm away from your body').

5. With the hand and with pressure from one to two seconds, the tester slowly pulls the arm away from the body.

With neither person straining, the arm will either pull away relatively easily or it will feel locked in place. Do not struggle as this is not a competion nor it is about muscle strength; it's about energy flow.

If the person being tested feels she/he is losing her/his strength upon touching the food, indicates that her/his body vibration is not in harmony with the food vibration. This may mean :

a. the food is never good for you;

b. the food is not good for you right now or

c. you have an allergy to the food.

Always remember, one person's vitamin is another's poison.

Body Odour

Never before in my entire life have I perspired as much as I did in Yogyakarta and Bali recently. Where does BO come in? BO is most often caused by a combination of perspiration and bacteria.

Yes, we all suffer from it, one way or another.

Being a Yoga Teacher demands a fair share of physical ‘work out’ especially if we are teaching beginners. We are our own walking billboard! Simple basic ways that help me stays clean (and smells good) through-out the day.

Scrub. The most basic way to hold BO at bay; particularly in those areas of the body that are most likely to smell, such as armpits and groins. Remember that perspiration and bacteria both work night as well as day shifts, in my case, I always shower and change clothing (yes, including inner wear) before class starts.

Wash more than the body. We can wash till our skin puckers like a prune but we’ll still smell bad if our clothes aren’t clean.

Choose natural fabrics such as natural cotton absorb perspiration better than synthetic materials. The absorbed sweat is then free to evaporate from the fabric. Indian unpolished cotton is my favourite; rarely (almost never) wear branded attire such as Adidas or even Nike.

Anti-perspirants work for some people but I totally avoid it as they are basically ‘drugs’. Many anti-perspirants combine anti-perspirant with deodorant but deodorants themselves cannot control perspiration.

Le Crystal Natural is a chunk of mineral salts, formed into crystal, that helps keep bacteria under control without irritating the skin. I remember my mum used this and still using it!

Watch what we eat. Extracts of proteins and oils from certain food and spices in our body excretions and secretions for hours after eating them and can impart an odor. Fish, cumin, curry and garlic lead the list! Fish? Yeap, hard to swallow but its true.

Once a month, I pamper myself with ‘mandi rempah’- pandan leaves, limau purut, crush old ginger, rose and ‘bunga cina’ petals and a cup of Epsom salt.

What is DIET

Diet. Yes diet. What is the real meaning of DIET? Watch what you eat? Starve yourself? Watch your weight? Cut down the food intake? Which one?

There are many different types of diets available but the million $ question is, does it works? And many superstars; local, Hollywood or Bollywood, all swore by either Atkins diet, South Beach Diet, Cambridge diet, Blood type diet, G.I.Diet, Gluten Free Diet and etc. And somehow, we tend to follow what these superstars do or say; they get paid to ‘endorse’ each product and we buy the products just to look and be like them! Take good looks around us……..

The food that we eat supposedly provides raw materials and energy to power our extremely complex internal workings and the constant growth, repair and regeneration of our cells. But not anymore…..most people eat for comfort, yes ‘comfort food’.

I do not believe in living a life of total denial. I don’t feel guilty if I take a bite out of a Ramly burger; I don’t reprimand myself if I eat a bowl of bubur cha-cha; I haven’t vowed that a pack of RM2 nasi lemak will never pass my lips. Yet I do believe that eating any of these things excessively or regularly can be harmful to my body. My theory is that if I leave out the ‘very bad foods’, occasionally eat the ‘questionable foods’, and try to concentrate on eating the ‘healthy foods’, I’ll be ahead of the game by far. The secret – the key – is moderation and balance.

Eat to live and not live to eat.

Vegans? Vegetarians? Flexitarians?

Who are Vegans? Vegans are individual who eat no animal products whatsoever; eat strictly plant based food only. No to eggs and dairy products, as well as processed foods containing these or other animal derived ingredients such as gelatin. Most vegans also avoid the use of all products tested on animals, as well as animal-derived non food products, such as leather, fur and wool, whenever possible.

How about Vegetarians? Vegetarians, on the other hand eat no meat but take animal products such as eggs and dairy products.

Flexitarians? Flexitarians are semi-vegetarians, eating mainly vegetarians food, but do not entirely eliminate non-vegetarians food (such as meat/fish/seafood) from their diets.

Most of us are not aware that according to yogi diet, mushrooms are not in the menu, whereas the Chinese substitute mushrooms for garlic and onions. The reason being mushrooms do not received direct, primary energy from the sun, they grow in the shadow of others.

Most people think that a person must be a vegetarian/vegan to practice yoga, well the answer is no. But most yoga practitioners are either vegetarians or vegans or flexitarians. Why? Because we observe Ahimsa. What is Ahimsa?

Ahmisa basically means do no harm. Do No harm to ourselves. Do No harm to others. Mentally and Physically. Thoughts and Intentions. Words and Actions.

We can make a choice, and yes, we can make a difference.

Sensible is Best

It’s this time of the year again, holiday and makan time! And most of the practitioners will be complaining of too much food and too little yoga……..

I consider my body my most valuable possession – a machine, if you will and thus the food I put into it has to be the best of all possible fuels and nutrients. I choose to give my body nourishing food (of course with only an occasional sinful dish) rather than pollute it with what I consider to be ‘poisons’. After all, what’s the point of practicing yoga daily, making it look and feel the best it can, if I then ruin it with unhealthy food?

The food I digest affects my health, my energy, my temperament, my outlook on life. It also affects my body – how it looks, how it works, how it feels and how long it is going to be around.

We really are what we eat, in more ways than one. The choice, after all, is ours.