Forced

My mum said:

Mak nak ko sebelum balik Kuantan, makan nasi sekali.

Baikkkkk....

I'll start my seventh week (starting 2nd of July) of abstinence from rice in my daily meal with Nasi Lemak cooked by Emak and that's going to be the first time ever since I started the change of dietary intake. Hehe..

Aku bukan anak yang menderhaka.

Apart from that, as a show of how eager I am to go to Bandung with Angklung Club for the festival, everyday I spend at least an hour listening to the mp3 of Terajana and Poco Poco while imagining that there's angklung in my hand. Can uh?

Angklung Again...

What is the difference between attending workshop/talk/program that attracts your attention and the one that does not? Yes, you don’t fall asleep!

That’s exactly what happened to me last Monday when I went to a workshop organized by Angklung Club IIUM where the night before I only had a 4-hour sleep which is typically not sufficient for my body to recover the energy. But since the inputs gotten from the workshop are basically interesting and really into me, I had fun with them and I didn’t fall asleep throughout the day.

The inputs are generally all about angklung; the history, the development, the types etc. All these while, what I knew when I played angklung was just to shake it. But after the workshop, I appreciate the uniqueness of angklung as another type of musical instruments. Moreover, I am grateful for being introduced with this great creation of Allah called bamboo that has various usages from food to musical instrument. Besides that, now I realize that bamboo is like coconut; the older it is, the better it will be. Older angklung sounds better than the new ones and even the process to make it takes years for it to sound right in tune. Subhanallah...

Besides that, the workshop was also as a preparation before Angklung Club members are sent to Bandung this early of September to take part in a festival held there. As far as I know, I’m also listed for that matter but the distance between Gombak and Kuantan is a major problem because we need to practice in group because this type of angklung we play is about performing as one group. And this time, what makes it more challenging is that we need to memorize the notes instead of seeing it during performing. But after all, I think I won’t mind if I need to go to Gombak every weekend just to practice with the rest of the members, Pak Dadang and Cikgu Zahir. Please don’t exclude me!!! I want to go to Bandung too!!! Wish us all the best ya? Amin...


The OBGYN members from Bandung performed that day and it was amazing!

Although the songs played that day were not familiar to my ears but they sounded great! I enjoyed it very much.

Their sarong is a very characteristic of them. Although it looks cliche, but still it's nice. So what?
More info about the workshop and the performance a day before (I don’t like to talk about this for few reasons), visit angklung club’s blog.
Read also: AWI's (angklung-web-institute) website.

The Change

It’s almost one month that my tongue hasn’t had any contact with rice. I’ve been motivated through my readings that people who actually avoid rice from their intakes would have their weight decreased. To name few; Awal Shaari, Aznil Nawawi, Ziana Zain and Dafi AF5. And they who I am referring to are celebrities who have reason for doing that; they must look good in the television, or more precisely in shape enough to look good in front of camera. But how about me? Do I have any cameras to stand in front of them, or do I have any people to look me in the television? Absolutely no. However this change of diet of mine is due to the awareness of how far my body has been from the healthy BMI range.

Let me reveal this. My height is about 1.80m while my previous weight before I started this change of dietary intake was 90kg or ++. Thus, the BMI value would yield 27.778 (weight in kg divided by height in meter to the power of 2) which is in the range of fat people. The fit people have BMI values within 20-25. Therefore, for me to reach at least 25, I have to decrease my weight up to 81kg, which is to some people still sounds scary. However, taking into account my height, it is considerably fit.

For the benefit of monitoring my weight, I’ve bought a scale. I’ve measured my current weight; it is 88kg, which means I’ve fruitfully reduced about 2kg for one-month avoidance of rice. But back to the main topic, is rice the absolute culprit?

Actually, rice contains complex carbohydrates which will yield a lot of glucose after being digested. Thus, foods containing complex carbohydrates like rice must go through levels of processes which take time before the yielded glucose can be actually used up to produce energy, and most importantly the digestion usually produces extra glucose. It is this extra glucose which will eventually be converted into fat for energy storage if they are not used. That’s the basic idea of how rice makes people fat. However it has to be stressed here; rice is NOT the mere culprit but since it is the most common meal for Malaysians, it has to be listed as one of the culprits though.

However again, it’s not all about the meal, but the energy use also. It is as simple as this; 1. Input More, Output Less = Fat
2. Input More, Output More = No Change
3. Input Less, Output More = Thin
where the input is the meal intake, while the output is anything that uses the products from the digested meal such as working, thinking, and exercising. If you eat more but you do activity less, how do you expect you will be thin? So to accelerate reducing my weight, I do some light exercises like sit-ups and lifting weighs. Owh... it’s not so accelerating considering only 2kg per month, but I believe I’m not torturing my body so much with this change.

With this change also, there are some social changes and conflicts occurred. For example, my mom continuously pleads me to eat rice but I have to refuse and that hurts her. She can’t stand it seeing me not eating rice. So does my abah. Poor mak and abah, but please understand me. Besides that, I who are not used to consuming biscuits, have change. I buy hi-fibre biscuits and to replace glucose intake, I choose fruits, breads and chocolates. Yummy! And how about seeing me doing sit-ups previously? Hell no! I used to considering my daily works as ample enough to replace the exercise, which was actually only an excuse to keep the “mim alif lam sin”. Hoho...

Along this period, I only miss nasi goreng kampong which is my favorite meal, but not nasi putih to accompany the lauk-pauk and vegetables for my lunch. Owh ya, I don’t take heavy meals for dinner also. Sometimes it’s only a cup of tea and a bar of chocolate. I hope I can continue this “revolution” for few months more before I can actually taste rice again. Hoho... sorry rice. We’ll see other time ya?



Do you have any advise for me regarding this change of diet? I would love to hear it. Let's be supportive!

My toes are big enough to cover the scale aren't them?

See... 98 88kg.

Bloggers Gathering @KLCC

It was my first meeting with Syifa and Hazlyn.
It was Kak Ila’s first meeting with Wawa.
It was Wawa’s first meeting with everyone except me.
And we are all bloggers! It was our mini-reunion, should I say.

Planned by Kak Ila as big boss of the meeting, she aimed at two objectives: to gather her fellow blogging members and to teach her using the public transports i.e. KTM Komuter and Putra LRT to bring us to KLCC. The “us” was also including Kak Ila’s cute but aggressive son and daughter, Syamil and Hasya respectively. I was the one responsible for Kak Ila’s later aim as I am quite familiar with the public transport as compared to Kak Ila who allegedly had only once used the Komuter and never for Putra LRT.

Along the day, we had fun chatting, playing with Kak Ila’s children and not least knowing each other more indirectly. Now I know that Syifa is sooo talkative while Hazlyn is not. Meanwhile, Wawa as I already know her; Wawa is Wawa with her cute big laugh. For your information oh dear Kak Ila, Hazlyn and Syifa, u haven’t listened to her best “rendition”. You should be regretful for not listening to that on our last meeting! ;p Kidding Wawa, but you know what, that what makes you unique and people would remember you strongly for that reason I believe.

After this first gathering, I’m looking forward for another one, two or more. And I hope I can see more of my fellow blogging members face to face later when you come home ok? Although I’ve been thrown to hidden and demoted campus there at Kuantan, it’s not a reason to avoid gathering like this. It’s because I believe, the more friends I have, the more meaningful my life.


Present from Syifa. TQ very much Syifa~

Syifa met her friend.

Hasya, Kak Ila's daughter. I'm quite shocked that she can actually project a very high pitch voice!

So bored standing in the train, so i snap snap and snap...

Syifa, as you wish~

For some reason, I failed in all my trials to secretly (or candidly) capture Hazlyn's face. Argh!

Syamil, he's so manja with his mom~