Career bump up, leisure, dinning out and Chinese food

Time and again the pendulum oscillates between the worst and best of times. 

Perhaps, I hit the purple patch going into 2006, as Tajik Air plane landed on the Dubai airport tarmac. I had arrived with my completing half and the oh-so-lovely, irresistible bundle of joy. 

Its time to begin afresh after climbing over the worry wall of the disrupting, previous year. My new assignment at this fledgling organisation that we had setup, was as a profit centre head, generating my own business and income in the ratio 3:4 in my favour. Fair and equitable. 

I thrust myself for the company, considering it as my very own venture. At that stage, I had two huge life insurance cases that could supplement me for the year. Unfortunately, both were turned down by the insurance providing companies, considering the cases beyond their risk limits. Six months of perusing down the drain. However, another vertical striked me. A call from the Ol'Blighty! Marketing with an English associate for real estate development that's yet to be built.

Off plan investing for individual units in the development based in England. That literally saved the day for me. I promised something dazzling for my dearest half...solid gold bangles! And I made it good on the promise. 

The rolling had just begun. I put in some more insurance savings plans, adding referral verticals. Now, I was getting referral fees too.

Suddenly, there was a bump up in my income. For the first time it crossed the five figure threshold. 

Now, I had more leisure and money to celebrate the career traction. We were dinning out frequently. My superlative half had a liking for Chinese cuisine, not the authentic and original type, which possibly suited only the mainland Chinese taste buds.We preferred the Indianised version, a very common prevalence with the large South Asian diaspora. 

However, little did we realise that this version is possibly the unhealthiest like the American stylised Chinese cuisine. Full of sodium, brimming with fried oils and the notoriously menacing Ajino Moto or Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). It really created the dent in our weight reduction programme, proving harmful on the cholesterol and blood pressure side too.

This popular kind of Chinese food induces fattening, tilting the weighing scale on the heavier end.

A report in Medicircle.in/My Health/ 3rd April 2021 about Indian version of Chinese food served commonly in the streets states:

Indians have evolved the Indian version of Chinese food. This version is very much famous on Indian streets, especially in Mumbai. Indians like to use more spices as we have their richness. Most of the Chinese food sold in India is altered for Indian tastes which are spicier than the authentic version of Chinese food. Indian version of Chinese food is fattier because of extra spices and oils added to it. The authentic version of Chinese food is less spicy and simple.

Similar health issues crop up from consuming  the popular variation of Chinese food from cholesterol to acidity, bloating, hypertension to weight gain.In different words, serving the opposite cause to my endearing weight slashing persistence.

A common perception being that Western style foods are responsible for much of the lifestyle issues, against healthier Asian foods, is debunked from an investigative research about Asian foods published (3rd November, 2019) in The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, titled: Are Asian foods as "fattening" as western- styled  fast foods, by C.J.Henry, B.Kaur and R.Y.C.Quek. The study was undertaken in Singapore, which is a microcosm of Chinese, Malay and Indian cuisines that encompass 4.5 billion of earth's humanity. Excerpts from this study:

In Asia, the consumption of western-styled fast foods is widely perceived as the cause of the rise in obesity and chronic disease. Twenty-five of the most popular local Asian foods were compared for energy, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol with twenty-nine western-styled fast foods. The comparative analysis showed no significant difference in energy (p = 0.150) and total fat (p = 0.346) between the two food categories. These findings suggest that many local Asian foods contribute as much energy and total fat in a single meal as western-styled fast foods. Local Asian foods had greater amounts of sodium (p < 0.001), saturated fat (p = 0.007), and cholesterol (p = 0.009) than western-styled fast foods. The persistent presumption that the consumption of western-styled fast foods is the cause of obesity in Asia needs to be challenged. This observation that local Asian foods are as energy dense as western-styled fast foods, will enable us to redress the necessary strategies to address the Asian diet-health debate.

Yet, we could be careful and select healthier items from Chinese cuisine, as enlisted in the Nourish section of WebMD, titled: Best and worst Chinese dishes for your health, by P.Sachdev 6th March, 2022.

However, in those heady days, when your earnings trajectory rises by almost 50 to 100%, self gratification is the yearning, several notches ahead of your health concerns. Findings by Gallup poll results (December 7 to 16, 2016), embeds the conception that those earning  over US $5,000 per month, are more likely (72%) to opt for dinning in full service restaurants, over their lower income colleagues earning US$2,000 monthly (44%). 

Rollicking times on, even weekdays were used as getaways for dinning out especially Chinese, Indian, Arabic and what have you.In addition, food delivered at home topped up the bill.

The calorie overload was overwhelming, and any feeble attempts to nullify it by some pushups, squats or on spot jogging were too little and too far. 

Another offplan development came for marketing from Bradford, England, being built by the renowned Miller Homes.Ploughed in a full two to three months of my individual marketing efforts to rope in investors for 12 units. An English chap formed a team with me in my marketing campaign, which proved to be of no use, as I encountered headless chickens on the way, ending up splitting commissions with him.

Time for leisure pursuit after a hectic campaign. I started exploring offshore waters and far away lands for a first time visit outside Dubai, other than home shores and Kuwait. 

The treasure islands of Indian Ocean striked my attention, and Seychelles came up as an enchanting, touristic rendezvous.It was mesmerising with an enthralling lure for my little cutie. Glass bottomed boats going out in the clear, blue sea from where shoals of coloured fishes were visible for her to enjoy and learn about the wonders of the ocean. 

I contracted a local tourist agency for this exciting trip. Flight was booked through Qatar Airways, deposit given and visa formalities to be done. No Seychelles consulate or embassy in Dubai or UAE,  where would I get the visa then? The question indeed became perplexing. Lo behold! Seychelles is a visa free country.No barriers, you can just fly in and out, simple!

Unfortunately, had a bout of flu, but recovered fast, yet a persistent, low intensity headache continued.I tried to secure a quick relief, so our travel engagements are uninterrupted. However, the attending doctor couldn't grasp the problem, and I had to jettison our entire planned trip, forfeiting the whole deposit monies booked for the air tickets. 

Finally, I got rid of the nagging headache by steam inhalation..a simple solution that didn't occur to my mind, before being suggested by my father. 

Well, the trip ruined it was time to map out the year ahead.Lots of excitement and ultimately, traveling to a third country plus the additional journeying to attend a much awaited wedding, and a booster dose in the earnings trajectory, unveils the new year. Accompany me to the next chapter of this fairytale perseverance and unending faith in securing my chiseled, original self.

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Referencing:

https://medicircle.in/how-healthy-is-the-indian-version-of-chinese-food-being-served-as-a-street-food#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20Chinese%20food%20sold%20in%20India%20is%20altered,is%20less%20spicy%20and%20simple.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thehealthsite.com/diseases-conditions/side-effects-chinese-food-po815-322989/amp/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41430-019-0537-3

https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-best-worst-chinese

https://news.gallup.com/poll/201710/americans-dining-frequency-little-changed-2008.aspx