Sanity Preserved

This is my way of staying sane.. and hopefully healthy .

I read in yesterday’s paper that Dr Mahathir is 85 year old young because he exercises his mind through reading and writing. I am going to be 40 in two weeks’ time and I guess reading has always been more of a reward to me than simply a chore. Now writing to me is messy, such a hassle and too time consuming. When you have 6 kids, the only time it is natural to have a pen and a paper in your hands is when making a grocery list.

Reading about Dr Mahathir has stricken a chord some where in my brain. Ahh.. my brain.. haven’t been using that part of me for quite some time. That is not to say that taking care of 6 kids (5 still at home) is easy, but if any thing it is mind-numbing, in a big way. I salute the home makers who take care of their families, day in and day out, in complete sanity, never complaining, never expecting much in return for their sacrifice and martyrdom, and never giving in to the temptation and the lure of successful career outside home. If you are one of those rare gems, drop me a line. I want to personally hug you (and share some of my burden with you). The power that be should erect a statue of you and put it on the highest pedestal.

You’d have to be the sincerest person alive to be able to take on a responsibility such as that of raising kids, managing the household chores, groceries shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing, making sure the kids and husband have matching clean socks to wear, making sure the kids do their homework, making sure the kids have enough tools and accessories to do the homework, switching off the TV when the kids are supposed to do the homework, sending and fetching the kids from school and extra lessons around town, sorting the mail, sorting the clothing, breastfeeding the baby and still smiling when the husband and kids come home from the office/ school. I would love to be that rare gem.. the one that can do it all.. no maid.. no complaining.. without resorting to the “sorry Honey, I got headache tonight” routine .. I am hoping by writing I can get some of my sanity back and stop driving my dear husband up the wall too often. I am still keeping my once-a-week cleaning lady as a back-up but I am determined to make full-time home maker my yet another successful career.

So here I am, trying to transform the mess in my head into coherent thoughts that are fit to be written. I have been putting off writing because honestly, I don’t know what to write, or rather what’s worth to write. I asked my dear husband of 20 years what I should write and he, without batting his eyes, said nutrition. It goes to show you that in his head, wife and food are always in close proximity. You’ll think of one, you’ll think of the other. You crave for one and you can get satisfied by the other. That’s what I get for being his cook all these years.

Seriously, I am not going to write about nutrition. Food .. maybe, but nutrition.. no. Does anyone know anything about nutrition nowadays? One expert says one thing today, only to be challenged by another next week. Take coffee for example, I’ve been trying to quit my java habit for years now, because the experts are (were?) in the opinion that coffee is bad for women in their childbearing years. Coffee, or rather caffeine, they said, inhibits our body’s ability to absorb and utilize calcium. And together with oxalate and unused calcium, caffeine forms tiny crystals that lodge themselves in kidneys thus forming kidney stones. And just when I finally able to quit my addiction to coffee, Ms Maya Karin comes on billboards across the country and says coffee can actually make my skin prettier. Go figure. Really Maya? Is that the reason behind your great skin and hot figure? I am sure I have been drinking coffee a lot longer than Maya, but how come all I get are fine lines (not so fine, actually) and saggy figure? Needless to say, I am back drinking coffee, full force, Maya Karin’s brand of choice.

Now what’s the deal about fat? We were told to limit fat intake to no more that 20% daily in order to protect our heart. Now the experts are saying, reducing fat in our food is not only unhealthy, it can also make us lose some protection against certain cancer. In other words, which would you choose, cancer or cardiovascular disease? And protein.. Dr Atkin (bless his soul) wanted us to eat more of it but Harvey Diamond (Fit for life series) is adamantly opposed to it and now Dr Sears has come up with The Zone. I guess that’s good progress, but it’s not making our life any easier. What about carb? It used to be just simple and complex carb, now there are good carb and bad carb, low GI carb and high GI carb. As if that’s not complicated enough.. you’ll have to think about the GL of the carb you are eating. Even the Food Pyramid that we used to study in school is being challenged. I guess if Pluto can be stripped off its title as a planet, food pyramid can be tossed aside too. Speaking of titles being stripped, even celebrated datuks are fair game these days.

Blogging for the first time has made me two hours late for my lunch. And I am not hungry yet. I didn’t snack while blogging. And I even manage to nurse my 5-month old baby successfully, while I type using one finger at a time. At this rate, I might actually be able to shed my excess kg. I’ll count that as the blogging benefit. Now, if only I can decide what to write in my blog…