Optional Rice-not Dinner

Maia Estianty, the Indonesian singer, song writer and producer, said that she doesn't eat rice to keep in shape. I took pride in people saying I look like her, but I wasn't proud of my tummy at all, so quite foolishly, I followed what she said.

I've been hearing about this carbo diet thing, but I never really made time to research on it. I just jumped into some key points I read on an online woman's magazine: 1. eating all but rice will make your tummy flat; 2. It's not torturing at all, because it allows you to eat whenever you want. Then, I bumped into this lady, a middle-aged human resources director of a hotel I worked for. We shared a table in a lunch time when I saw that her plate was filled in quite abundance: chicken satays, beef curry, steamed vegetables, tofu, and not a single rice. And this lady looked elegantly slim. She went like that day by day: eat generously and stay slim.

This note is not meant to encourage women to do a certain type of diet. I was a scholar before, but I keep the ethics of not perceiving anything as truth without proper research and literature. Let's not go into that for now. I'm just going to say that I have formulated my own diet. I need to feel good for myself, and I guess I love myself too much to torture my body and risk ruining my mood even in the name of 'ideal shape'. I eat rice for lunch and anything but rice for dinner. I nearly got the tummy I've desired, and most importantly, I eat all I put on my plate. No leftover.