Week 1 Lesson: Do Not Judge

Week 1 in Singapore has been eventful. Settling into the new house, getting it painted, internet enabled, phone numbers changed and all the small jobs that pyramid into one seemingly-unsurmountable mountain. Thankfully, everything is getting sorted slowly and hopefully Week 2 or atleast Week 3 should be easier.

One of my biggest challenges has been to adjust to a life without the five helpers I am used to, back home. Someone to wash the dishes, someone mopping the floor, a cook, a nanny, clothes washer, car washer, gardener, clothes ironing person…phew.. Ok, we’re a spoilt bunch. Thus, when Week 1 involved days filled with cooking, washing, cleaning and babysitting, it is but obvious they were fairly frustrating.

But this post is not about that. It is about food choices. I used to pride myself on my ability to make sound and balanced food choices, which helped me maintain myself and yet keep me nourished and healthy. I can go on to say that subconsciously I may also have judged people who did not make good food choices, and then would lament about how it is tough to stay in shape.

That is till I moved here. And I realised the value of my cook back home. Let me explain.

Since the scandal last year about bread and the preservatives used in it, I almost completely switched from it. Breakfast would either be parathas (with barely any oil but some malai atop) or poha, etc. These, my friend, are VERY labour intensive recipes, and ones that I really am not in the mood to cook early in the morning. So, I find myself at a loss when I cook breakfast these days. It doesn’t stop there. Cheese is something I only indulged in when I ate out, same for butter. I would try to avoid processed meats like salami and sausages after WHO classified them as carcinogenic. Preferred phulka over white rice. No ready to eat foods for their obnoxiously high salt content, no cereals as they were full of added sugars, no ketchup for the same reason and the list goes on. So, my daily food was fairly healthy, well balanced and full of nutrients. Having said that, I never kept away from any type of food and ate everything from chole bhature to deep fried samosas. Just not on a daily basis.

NOW, it is a struggle. Pasta doesn’t taste half as good unless you put in copious amounts of Parmesan. Bread is difficult to avoid, so I try to buy wholemeal and from a small bakery which wouldn’t use preservatives. There is no way on earth that I am gundoing aata so there go all the parathas and chappatis. 

Thus, it would be safe to say that eating healthy is a struggle when you don’t have the luxury of a cook making it for you. I will no longer be so quick to judge. Having said that, it is still possible. You just need to spend more time in the fresh section of the supermarket and give the frozen aisle a miss (as tempting as it is to pop a pizza into the oven for dinner). Let’s see how long my patience lasts. Till then…I’m off to the kitchen to attempt making dal in the rice cooker (but that’s for the next post). Until later….