Rice Inflation

Rice inflation. This is bad. I know a while ago I lamented the fact that my favourite pita bread has gone on a price hike due to inflation of wheat prices. But of course, it only hit me when I went to the grocery store to actually replenish my usual stash of pita bread.

Same thing with the rice. Only this time, I am more troubled because I eat more rice than I do bread. And if I am troubled, how are the poor, especially those in developing countries dealing with the price increases?

I have been reading loads of articles on rice inflation, about how it has been affecting rice eating countries in the developing world like Thailand, India and African nations. I knew that there was nothing funny about it - hungry people not being able to afford their staple food item is just plain scary. But it didn't hit home till recently.

Just last week, I drove to the local Indian store get basmati rice. But the prices seemed to me rather prohibitive, so I skipped on buying the basmati rice. I am a rice-eater, but my daily rice of choice is Thai jasmine rice, and I use basmati only for briyanis (and I only cook briyanis occasionally).

Today, I went to Shaws to get my jasmine rice. Imagine my surprise when I saw the prices! It was a 10% price hike, from the last time I bought rice from Shaws, about two months ago. And back then, there was also a 10% price hike. I spent some time studying the prices. In addition to my usual Thai jasmine rice, other kinds of rice also had price hikes; basmati rice from India had the highest price hike. A 10 lbs bag was selling now for $23. Imagine that.

Hmmm, I wonder if the Indian restaurants are now increasing the price of their briyanis. I'd bet they are.

Toxic People

Sometimes you will encounter people in your life who seem to have been put in your life's path just to torment you. They will bring you down, and then take perverse delight in making you feel like the stupidest person in this world, the most ugliest, the most unwanted and the most depressed. They will be the ones to see doom and gloom all over the place, lurking at every corner, and so thwart your attempts to be happy. They are the ones who will be obstacles to the very things you want from your life. Yet you may blame your bad luck in meeting such people, but not do a single thing to change the situation, to rid such toxic people from your life. The worse thing you can do is to tolerate toxic people in the hopes that they will become less toxic because they never will. And sooner or later you might start believing them - that you are indeed worthless.

Too many people end up in such situations, caught up in toxic friendships and relationships, believing the worst of themselves. Horror of horrors, if the person who is most toxic to you is also the person who is supposed to be your best friend, or your partner. For that person, knowing all of your weaknesses, would have the best ammunition available to cut you down. If the said person does that constantly, then he or she is nothing more than a devil.

How to know when you're entering a toxic relationship with someone? This is what I have concluded from my own experience: It begins when nasty words are exchanged constantly. For example, when you are spending money and making the effort to place a long distance call just to hear someone's voice, and he snaps at you like a bull dog (hmm, how about this "what do you want me to eat, rocks, stupid?". Or when someone asserts that you are the sole reason for the lack of direction in a certain person's life. Or that they have been short changed by surrounding themselves with people intellectually inferior to themselves. These are the stuff that poisons the minds of all involved, making it difficult for there to be trust and support. When one can't trust or ask for support from their friends or partners, then it signals a huge problem. And you're better off alone, or with someone else.

Life is much too short to live in toxicity. And I've accepted that I've wasted many good years already.

Fat Loss 4 Idiots

I know I have said somewhere on my blog that fat people bother me because the extra weight they carry, to me, signifies a lack of control over their lives. But contrary to what some people imagine, I am not at all against or discriminatory against fat people. In fact, a really good friend of mine from my schooling days has been obese all her life. But that has not stopped me from being a good friend to her! Even if I wished she was thinner (ie visibly more in charge of her life), it is the person she is inside that matters more to me.

Still, it was a wonderful day indeed when she called me and told me about this online program, Fat Loss 4 Idiots, which she has been on. She has been on a secret mission to lose all that extra weight and she was actually making it happen this time. The reason why she did not tell me about her plans was that she has tried multiple online programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, and she had failed. Not this time. And the proof was in the photos she sent me - she looked so much slimmer. She told me that she has lost 30 pounds in 30 days!


Amazing! I don't usually buy into all of these weight loss gimmicks - I believe in hard work and proper diet. But then again, I have been trying to lose my extra 5 pounds for ages by pounding away at the gym for 1 hour, three times a week, and not seeing any real difference. So my friend's recent photos of her slimmer self was the motivating factor.

I got myself into the program - and I recommend it! The site itself is cool - attractive colourful cartoons, and it explains things in an easy to understand manner reminiscent of the XX for Dummies book series. But there is nothing idiotic about the subject matter.


Actually, this program may be more beneficial to those of us trying to lose some weight rather than for the grossly overweight - the program targets 9 pounds in 11 days, and focuses on the food we eat rather than exercise. Those who have to lose a lot of weight should incorporate exercise routines as well, but that is not the focus here. Nevertheless, it does contain valuable information on food intake, which the grossly overweight could use. For the rest of us, sometimes it is changing what we eat rather than those extra hours at the gym that will help us lose that tough bit of extra pounds we need to.

Excerpt of the type of information proposed in the program:

"You are overweight for the most simple of reasons -- because you're eating the wrong foods, the wrong types of calories per meal, and you're also eating meals in the wrong patterns each day. Think closely about what we're about to tell you, since it's going to change the way you think about dieting. FOOD is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills, because the FOOD that you eat can either make you THIN or FAT. You don't get fat because of a lack of exercising, that's a myth. You get fat because you don't eat the right foods at the right intervals each day. Also, the pattern that you choose to eat your meals each day is more powerful than any prescription weight loss pills. This is true because your body is like an "engine" and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals each day, and if you don't eat the right foods at the right times then it won't burn those calories -- and you'll wind up storing those calories as fat tissue. (Hint: You need to eat more than 3 times per day to lose weight, but we'll show you the details later).You have gotten overweight by eating the wrong foods, that much is a fact. And guess what? You can get SLIM by eating the RIGHT FOODS at the RIGHT INTERVALS each day. It's not really any more complicated than that, and the way to start losing weight has nothing to do with starving yourself or jogging ".

And I liked their list of Top Fat Burning Foods! Not bad at all :)