I've had a few readers asking about the Jon Gabriel Method and I thought I'd share my experiences in a post.
I liked the book very much, and it's not about a strict diet that wouldn't fit into a regular lifestyle. To a large extent it is not just the food but also about emotions and how they do play out physically (as a 'spare tyre' for example).
How I've incorporated Jon Gabriel's teachings into my life
- I have my probiotics first thing when I wake up in the morning. If you're in Malaysia, I recommend getting the Bio-Life brand one (the one which they keep in the fridge). This is with a huge glass of water (at least 500 ml). This tends to help me also 'go' almost immediately. Even without the probiotics, I aim for the water first thing when I wake up and this really gets the system 'moving'.
- For bread, I only eat sprouted grain bread which is difficult to find but I have managed to the get the Adventist Bakery ones at places like Cold Storage. The bread keeps for abour 3 months if you freeze it so I normally get a couple of loafs and freeze it.
- I'm aiming for a mainly vegetable diet and as much as possible, raw. The idea is to get as much vegetables into your diet as possible. This is not as difficult to achieve as it sounds.
At home, it's easy, I prepare salads; as colorful as possible. I'm not a huge fan of the leafy veges like lettuce, cabbage so I use a lot of cucumber (the japanese ones), peppers (I love the yellow and orange ones), tomatoes (normally baby tomatoes), carrot (which I normally grate), celery (cut into fine pieces), and if I can get them, baby spinach, corn, etc.
As for dressing, now this can be a mine trap if you love dressings like 1000 island, and all those fat-laden ones. I normally get the Japanese dressings. They're much lighter, especially the ones from soya, it's very liquidy and will flavour your whole salad with just very little.
Of course, I'm Malaysian, so we can't live with salad all the time and I also don't want my mind to think I'm trying to starve it and so that it goes into starvation mode. One of the main 'tricks' I use is to purchase my favourite curries, normally the ones which are drier like rendang. Chicken rendang, mutton curry (from the indian shop), beef rendang, etc. I buy one serving, normally about 4 -5 pieces of meat. I use about 2 chunks per meal and what I do with this is cut up the meat (using a scissors) into small chunks and then mix it into my salads. It gives a nice local flavour; my taste buds are appeased and the flavour of the meat and sauce acts like my salad dressing!
Other times, what I do add to my salads are tuna (in spring water), salmon and bacon. It all gives flavour. You can also add half boiled eggs to a salad and the runny texture acts as a dressing too.
- Flaxseed. Jon Gabriel talks about getting flaxseed into the diet as it contains a high level of omega-3s and also protein and fibre. I get the organic ones from the supermarket and grind them up every week or so and in most of my meals (at home), I add about a tablespoon. There's no strong flavour but it gives a nice nutty crunch.
- Sugar. Of course, the idea is to minimise your intake of sugar, especially the refine kind. Jon is OK with Xylitol, which is a sugar substitute. Personally I don't like sugar substitutes so I'd rather cut down on the sugar intake. This means the teh tarik kurang manis (less sugar) or NOT ordering the teh tarik but going for something like fruit juice with no sugar. The best alternative I've found, especially at the mamak is ordering fresh coconut which is as natural as you can get.
- Visualisation. I listen to Jon's CD almost every night before going to bed. I also celebrate all the nice parts of my body, instead of focusing on all the not so nice parts. You can also use teachings from the Law of Attraction to help with achieving "My Ideal Body". Visit http://www.lawofattractionbook.com/ for more information.
I have also incorporated other learnings into my lifestyle i.e. food combining. Basically, the rules are:
Vegetables + Meat only
Vegetables + Rice, noodles or carbos only
Don't mix meat and carbo.
Yes, difficult as it sounds, I mean nasi lemak ayam is about rice and chicken, but I cut down the portion of rice and increase the portion of cucumbers. This is the reason why when I eat out, it's normally rice and veges only.
When I make lasagna, there's only 1 layer of meat and the rest are vegetables. Or I've sometimes substituted the meat for mushroom.
Eating Out and the Jon Gabriel Method
At the Indian shop, I go for the capati or thosai, no more roti canai as much as possible. I would eat this with the chutney and curries but as much as possible, no meat. Tandoori and naan are out of the equation now as it's the worst possible combination for me. I also try to avoid the fried stuff as much as posssible. Fried food is never good as we don't know what oils they use.
At the Chinese hawker, I either go for the rice or porridge and you can choose all the various vegetable dishes to go with it or noodles, eliminating the meat. No more fried kueh teow, etc.
At the Malay shops, it's much easier. There's normally ulam (malay salad) somewhere and that becomes my best friend. It's either ulam and rice or ulam and meat, normally I opt for ulam and rice and other vegetables / tofu dishes.
Other shops:
Last night I ate at a steamboat restaurant where you can order your own individual portions. I opted for the vegetarian meal which had loads of mushrooms and veges and ordered another portion of vegetables.
At places like TGIF or Chilli's, I opt for the salads with the dressing on the side. This can be with or without meat. If choosing a meat, opt for the ones which are grilled vs the fried.
For me, the aim is to eat as much vegetables as possible so think like a vegetarian but you can add some meat here and there.
I've minimised my consumption of rice, noodles, pasta, etc. If I eat rice at home, I have the multigrain or brown rice, no more white rice.
Eating Times
Get as much heavy eating as possible done during the early part of the day. A heavy supper is evil. Years ago, I used to eat supper almost every night; the mee mamak washed down with teh tarik (not 1 but a couple), sharing satay or a roti tissue as well .. it's no wonder that in that one year I put on about 10kg!
Now my 'supper' is limited to a drink with friends, normally a lime juice or coconut. I do get a craving for teh tarik which I don't stop myself from having but not every time.
The idea is not to 'starve' your body and block the cravings, just find creative ways to give in to your cravings. But, you will find that the more veges you consume, eventually, you won't crave meat so much or other sweet stuff.
Exercise
I'll be the first to admit I'm not a huge exercise person. So I'm 'cheating' and going to sit at the FIR sauna every 2 days. If you want to know more about the sauna, go to http://www.zazenhealthsolutions.com/ They have about 30 branches around Malaysia and each sitting is about RM12-15. Might sound costly but since I've minimised the Starbuck's coffee, that's where the 'coffee money' is going to! In half hour, I'm sweating bucketloads, burning 900 calories, get my Vitamin D from the Far Infra and also some time to myself. There's a CD in the cabin, which I use to play visualisation or meditation CDs.
Since embarking on this new lifestyle (about 3 months ago), I haven't really lost weight, only about 1.5kg but I can feel my body being stronger and all my clothes are getting looser, which is the most important part. Friends have commented that I've lost weight (which I haven't really but I guess the fat is either turning into muscle or being re-allocated around my body).
I liked the book very much, and it's not about a strict diet that wouldn't fit into a regular lifestyle. To a large extent it is not just the food but also about emotions and how they do play out physically (as a 'spare tyre' for example).
How I've incorporated Jon Gabriel's teachings into my life
- I have my probiotics first thing when I wake up in the morning. If you're in Malaysia, I recommend getting the Bio-Life brand one (the one which they keep in the fridge). This is with a huge glass of water (at least 500 ml). This tends to help me also 'go' almost immediately. Even without the probiotics, I aim for the water first thing when I wake up and this really gets the system 'moving'.
- For bread, I only eat sprouted grain bread which is difficult to find but I have managed to the get the Adventist Bakery ones at places like Cold Storage. The bread keeps for abour 3 months if you freeze it so I normally get a couple of loafs and freeze it.
- I'm aiming for a mainly vegetable diet and as much as possible, raw. The idea is to get as much vegetables into your diet as possible. This is not as difficult to achieve as it sounds.
At home, it's easy, I prepare salads; as colorful as possible. I'm not a huge fan of the leafy veges like lettuce, cabbage so I use a lot of cucumber (the japanese ones), peppers (I love the yellow and orange ones), tomatoes (normally baby tomatoes), carrot (which I normally grate), celery (cut into fine pieces), and if I can get them, baby spinach, corn, etc.
As for dressing, now this can be a mine trap if you love dressings like 1000 island, and all those fat-laden ones. I normally get the Japanese dressings. They're much lighter, especially the ones from soya, it's very liquidy and will flavour your whole salad with just very little.
Of course, I'm Malaysian, so we can't live with salad all the time and I also don't want my mind to think I'm trying to starve it and so that it goes into starvation mode. One of the main 'tricks' I use is to purchase my favourite curries, normally the ones which are drier like rendang. Chicken rendang, mutton curry (from the indian shop), beef rendang, etc. I buy one serving, normally about 4 -5 pieces of meat. I use about 2 chunks per meal and what I do with this is cut up the meat (using a scissors) into small chunks and then mix it into my salads. It gives a nice local flavour; my taste buds are appeased and the flavour of the meat and sauce acts like my salad dressing!
Other times, what I do add to my salads are tuna (in spring water), salmon and bacon. It all gives flavour. You can also add half boiled eggs to a salad and the runny texture acts as a dressing too.
- Flaxseed. Jon Gabriel talks about getting flaxseed into the diet as it contains a high level of omega-3s and also protein and fibre. I get the organic ones from the supermarket and grind them up every week or so and in most of my meals (at home), I add about a tablespoon. There's no strong flavour but it gives a nice nutty crunch.
- Sugar. Of course, the idea is to minimise your intake of sugar, especially the refine kind. Jon is OK with Xylitol, which is a sugar substitute. Personally I don't like sugar substitutes so I'd rather cut down on the sugar intake. This means the teh tarik kurang manis (less sugar) or NOT ordering the teh tarik but going for something like fruit juice with no sugar. The best alternative I've found, especially at the mamak is ordering fresh coconut which is as natural as you can get.
- Visualisation. I listen to Jon's CD almost every night before going to bed. I also celebrate all the nice parts of my body, instead of focusing on all the not so nice parts. You can also use teachings from the Law of Attraction to help with achieving "My Ideal Body". Visit http://www.lawofattractionbook.com/ for more information.
I have also incorporated other learnings into my lifestyle i.e. food combining. Basically, the rules are:
Vegetables + Meat only
Vegetables + Rice, noodles or carbos only
Don't mix meat and carbo.
Yes, difficult as it sounds, I mean nasi lemak ayam is about rice and chicken, but I cut down the portion of rice and increase the portion of cucumbers. This is the reason why when I eat out, it's normally rice and veges only.
When I make lasagna, there's only 1 layer of meat and the rest are vegetables. Or I've sometimes substituted the meat for mushroom.
Eating Out and the Jon Gabriel Method
At the Indian shop, I go for the capati or thosai, no more roti canai as much as possible. I would eat this with the chutney and curries but as much as possible, no meat. Tandoori and naan are out of the equation now as it's the worst possible combination for me. I also try to avoid the fried stuff as much as posssible. Fried food is never good as we don't know what oils they use.
At the Chinese hawker, I either go for the rice or porridge and you can choose all the various vegetable dishes to go with it or noodles, eliminating the meat. No more fried kueh teow, etc.
At the Malay shops, it's much easier. There's normally ulam (malay salad) somewhere and that becomes my best friend. It's either ulam and rice or ulam and meat, normally I opt for ulam and rice and other vegetables / tofu dishes.
Other shops:
Last night I ate at a steamboat restaurant where you can order your own individual portions. I opted for the vegetarian meal which had loads of mushrooms and veges and ordered another portion of vegetables.
At places like TGIF or Chilli's, I opt for the salads with the dressing on the side. This can be with or without meat. If choosing a meat, opt for the ones which are grilled vs the fried.
For me, the aim is to eat as much vegetables as possible so think like a vegetarian but you can add some meat here and there.
I've minimised my consumption of rice, noodles, pasta, etc. If I eat rice at home, I have the multigrain or brown rice, no more white rice.
Eating Times
Get as much heavy eating as possible done during the early part of the day. A heavy supper is evil. Years ago, I used to eat supper almost every night; the mee mamak washed down with teh tarik (not 1 but a couple), sharing satay or a roti tissue as well .. it's no wonder that in that one year I put on about 10kg!
Now my 'supper' is limited to a drink with friends, normally a lime juice or coconut. I do get a craving for teh tarik which I don't stop myself from having but not every time.
The idea is not to 'starve' your body and block the cravings, just find creative ways to give in to your cravings. But, you will find that the more veges you consume, eventually, you won't crave meat so much or other sweet stuff.
Exercise
I'll be the first to admit I'm not a huge exercise person. So I'm 'cheating' and going to sit at the FIR sauna every 2 days. If you want to know more about the sauna, go to http://www.zazenhealthsolutions.com/ They have about 30 branches around Malaysia and each sitting is about RM12-15. Might sound costly but since I've minimised the Starbuck's coffee, that's where the 'coffee money' is going to! In half hour, I'm sweating bucketloads, burning 900 calories, get my Vitamin D from the Far Infra and also some time to myself. There's a CD in the cabin, which I use to play visualisation or meditation CDs.
Since embarking on this new lifestyle (about 3 months ago), I haven't really lost weight, only about 1.5kg but I can feel my body being stronger and all my clothes are getting looser, which is the most important part. Friends have commented that I've lost weight (which I haven't really but I guess the fat is either turning into muscle or being re-allocated around my body).
I recommend reading the book if you haven't already. I can't find it in Malaysia so I got a friend to get it from Australia. Or you can buy it at Amazon. Click on this link for the book.
Hope this helps. Do drop me a note if you want to know more. And do share with other readers if you are also practicing this method.
After breakfast, we decided to take a walk around the Pulau Tikus marketplace. I love going to markets; the sounds, the sights, the smells. Seeing it was about 2 weeks before Chinese New Year, the market was bustling more than average.
The taste was interesting, it was mainly slices of sweet potatoe with curry powder, encased in curry puff pastry. The pickled onions also added an interesting texture and taste to the snack.
This section of Padang Brown (the Chinese section) is opened mainly between 2-6pm. After that, it's closed and the other Indian/Muslim section is opened in th evenings.
