It is my goal to lose weight without starving,

or depriving myself of the food that I love.

To be honest, I have been a pleasantly plum child, a young person and as an adult, too. I have been shamed because of my weight. I wasn’t particularly fat, but bigger than most of my peers. We are talking about 50+ years ago, so everyone was slim.

Although I am heavier, I could run, jump and skip well. I was a scholl athlete and won prizes in school sports and have represented my team in sports. I have also represented my school in inter-school sports. I was overweight and very much healthier than my ‘normal’ peers.

I did a lot of diets to try to get to a ‘normal’ weight. I like to eat. In fact, I can safely say that most overweight people like to eat, for whatever reason. To cut a long story short, you will understand the frustration of not being normal.

I tried many diets, and even got to the  point that I lost my hair, my nails became brittle and I stopped menstruating! That was how determined I was. I was always feeling cold. That was when I was in my late teens and twenties. I was slim, but I could not reach the ‘normal weight’, the recommended weight by medical publications.

When I came to the UK as a student, I put on 30 pounds in a few months! And that stayed with me and when I returned to Malaysia, it was a struggle to maintain my healthy weight again.

This round in the UK, after joining Weight Watchers, I managed to reach my goal weight. Being an over-achiever, I set my goal as something quite difficult to reach. I know I do not lose weight easily, and that was the main reason to set the goal weight. So I gave myself a lot of stress.

So far, my weight goes up and down, but I have sort of  maintain it to a reasonable range. I now have to accept that I will never be in the range below BMI 25, which is considered as healthy and normal.

Click here for the BMI Calculator.

Now I try to rationalise ( a nicer term for giving up) that I should not stress myself. I try to change what I eat.

Here is a replacement for rice. I tried it years ago, and I did not quite like it as it has a smell. I made pizza with it as well. Just a few week ago, I tried it again and I am not sure why the smell is not so strong.

I usually buy a big head and grate it. Microwave it, portion it and freeze the extra. I have tried making fried rice with it. It is ok. It is ok to replace half the rice with it and fry as usual. I treat it exactly like rice. It goes well with curries as the strong spice flavour masks the cruciferous smell.

Here is the simple imitation rice.

I hope you enjoy this and try it out.

Let me know how it goes.

Please like and share if you find it useful. Do share the link instead of cut and paste.

Until the next recipe, enjoy and have a great day.

Penang Lassie