Category: Health

Posted on

Destination – Poem about life

In the bustle of city Singapore,
I sit in my corner, feeling forlorn,
History leaves a rustle long gone,
in place are places and people mourned.

Now the hustle never seems to cease,
A constant hum that never gives peace,
I hold still, on to beauty that passed,
on to joyful quiet it once brought last.

The world, the hustle, the life goes on,
still my heart remains in days long gone,
As I sit here in this busy city,
I hold on tight to my fading memories.

– Destination, by Why Keen

This poem was inspired by something I read on Facebook by Michael Han.

He was referencing an article he read, and this was what he wrote :-

What is the foundation of a good life, money? Enough of it to live a good life? In abundance of it to live an even better life? Or, maybe it’s just an insurance for a rainy day? Because perpetual poverty can crush souls and break up families.

Surely, you can be poor and be happy, but no harm being wealthy and happy, right? Better still, be rich, happy and surrounded by life-affirming relationship. Maybe you can’t have it all, but I trust if you have life-affirming relationships, you are always rich and happy. Definitions may vary, but contentment is its defining mark. It’s the common thread that runs thru it all.

Today’s article is however about loneliness. Yet, they are all connected. It’s titled “Old and lovely after a successful career, and even when living with family.” Curious?

Well, Mr Liu’s life is featured. He retired at 76. He “took great pride in providing a comfortable life for his wife and two sons. But he said life did not turn out the way he wanted.”

“His son was failing at work and his one relationship with his wife was strained. Unable to connect with his family members, Mr Liu became extremely lonely. He blames his younger self for prioritising work and not building a good relationship with his wife and children.”

I think it’s more complicated than what is described. The journey of a life allows for many u-turns and detours and ventures into our own dark woods. We are often lost for a purpose, even if we have not figure it all out yet.

I can’t comment much on Mr Liu’s life because he lived it in a way he knows best at the time where threats and opportunities avail themselves. He made his bed with those choices and he has to sleep on it. But having said that, one can still get a new bed, regardless of age; maybe not one so large and grand that it is often colder and quieter than it’s hoped to be.

Nevertheless, he has got a point for self-introspection when he blamed his younger self for prioritising work and not building a good relationship. I guess when we are young, we chase the wind and rush towards the shimmering mirage. It’s the thrill of the chase, ambition uncaged.

We thought we have it all covered. It’s all neatly planned out. We were so sure we were on track. We were also so busy in the sinking ditches, fighting for survival – before battling with our ego and pride – that we didn’t have the time to look up to the light of a better life when we retire.

Yet time waits for no man or woman. When we are old, we look back and mourn for lost time, for seasons that could have been spent less on chasing the wind and more on farming the land.

Alas, Aristotle once said: “The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.”

And the issue is, when you are in it, especially when you just started out, you can’t see clearly. It’s like being masked with narrow slits for eyes and you can only see but a slice of reality. We are very much like horses with blinders at both sides, only hearing the chanting of the crowd to finish first, to beat the rest.

The thrill of the chase, the rush and the climb is not always what we imagine it to be. When we arrive at the top, it may just be a place far lonelier than we can imagine. A place all the money in the world cannot console or reassure.

Going back to the article, the authors concluded with this: “Tackling loneliness is fundamentally a question about what makes our life worth living to ourselves and others, and whether we can create opportunities to build our own interests throughout our lives.”

But I believe these interests we build for ourselves have to be one that we readily share with others, keeping them in mind, and always deepening the connection as we journey along. That is what Aristotle means when he said that “wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.”

This also include the acquisition of power and fame. For if they are not instrumental to something else, but an end in itself, we will always struggle to reconcile what has been with what is. It’s lonely at the top.

Let me end with the words of the late Professor David Foster Wallace. He described the Western modern culture as such: –

“Extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdom, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it.”

“But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying.”

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

Read that again. Let it sink in. You may just find your point of infection in your currently planned trajectory of life, whichever season you are in. Cheers.

Reference :- Original post by Michael Han on Facebook

Posted on

How I Fast for Longevity – It’s Not as Hard as You Think!

I’ve tried various diets over the years, but I always found them to be troublesome, expensive, and painful.

Most of the time, it was difficult to find diets which tasted good. When the food tasted good, it would be expensive and unsustainable. Hence, there were many layers of pain associated with complicated diets, and I hated it.

Diets == Pain To Me

Let me describe how I got on the path of fasting in 4 stages :-

Stage 1 – Make a Long-term Pact with Yourself

The first step to fasting is to have compassion for yourself. I recently wrote about how we all have a “Shadow Self” and to be successful at fasting, I needed to get mine, as I call him, fully aligned on the journey.

Me and my Shadow Self

What I did was make a pact with my Shadow Self, agreeing to allow him small breaks whenever he wanted. The goal was to develop the habit of fasting while allowing little breaks along the way.

Think of habits like the current of a river, constantly flowing in the same direction and steadily moving towards a destination. Individual actions are like rocks in the river, causing small ripples but not able to change the overall direction or force of the current. Just as a few rocks won’t divert the river from its course, a few counter-actions won’t break the power of a strong habit.

However, if enough rocks accumulate, they can create a dam that alters the flow of the river, just as consistent counter-actions can eventually weaken a habit’s hold. Ultimately, it’s the strength and direction of the current (or habit) that determines the destination, while individual rocks (or actions) have a limited impact on the final outcome.

For good habits, like exercising regularly or eating less sweet stuff, deviating once or twice and resting for one day out of the week from a regular run, or eating that ice cream cone that I crave once in a while, would not affect the result by much.

Conversely, bad actions are fine as long as you do not turn them into a habit. For example, I have smoked socially with friends before, but only once a month, and never again until one year later. Each time I smoke may not do good for my lungs, but it is not really that bad in the long run.

Stage 2 – “Three Meals a Day is Enough!”

At 42, I remember a time when our parents insisted that we ate only three meals a day. If we asked for snacks before dinner, our mom would say, “No! Dinner time already!” After dinner, she would say, “You just ate!” 

The only legal times we could snack were tea time, which would happen between 3-5 pm, a small window. Most of the time, we would just skip that.

Convenience stalls were not readily available in Singapore in the 60s

For our parents’ generation, it was even harder to get snacks due to families being less affluent then, and the fact that it wasn’t as easy to get food. There were no supermarkets or 7-11 then. Hence, people were slimmer and fitter back then.

Then, as we got more affluent, we started to eat more. And somehow, there was a trend of eating many smaller meals throughout the day. It was supposed to help us control our weight. That led to children being encouraged to snack often, especially before activities. And we were told, “How to study if you haven’t had a healthy snack?”

But little did we know, we were actually getting our bodies in a constant state of being fed. This means our body rarely needs to use fat as an alternate source of fuel. I will write more about ketosis in another post, but basically what happens is that our bodies would not switch primary source of fuel from glucose to fats unless we go through at least 12 hours of not eating.

Hence, step one is to just maintain having regular meals, 3 times a day as was the “original way”. Then, have a 12 hours of fasting in between, which is usually easy because we would be sleeping most of it.

We have our dinners, and end before 8pm, then have breakfast, literally, we break fast, 12 hours later, at around 8am.

So that was what I did first, which meant cutting Netflix snacks which I used to have with my wife. I must say, this wasn’t easy. But I did this with compassion again, which meant that I would indulge once in a while. When we go watch a movie in the theatres, we would still get pop corn, even soft drinks are allowed, so my roommate was kept happy and satisfied.

Stage 3 – “16:8”

After getting used to eating regular meals, I realized that sometimes, even when feeling hungry, I could delay breakfast enough to skip it and only have lunch. This meant breaking my fast at 12 pm and fasting again after dinner at 8 pm.

I was doing what is popularly known as the “16:8” fast, which is a 16 hour fasting period, followed by a window of 8 hours of eating.

It’s easy, you probably have skipped a meal when busy before

When I was busy at work and did this, I felt hungry, but it was bearable. I started doing this more regularly, but I only did it from Monday to Friday, then went back to regular meals during the weekends. I also allowed myself to eat anything I wanted within the 8-hour window of eating from 12 pm to 8 pm. That meant char kway teow, ice cream, ice kachang – you name it, I took it.

Overall, it was a sweet deal for my “Shadow Friend”, and we easily got used to the 16:8 schedule without any pain at all.

Stage 4 – 80-hour fast

After watching the documentary by Chris Hemsworth, I wondered if I could fast for four full days like he did since I could already fast for 16 hours without any problems.

So I tried it, and it was an interesting experience, to say the least. Although I made it through safely, I did have to overcome some difficulties, which I’ll share in a future post.

However, I can say with certainty that the only reason it worked was because I fasted with compassion for myself.

Thank you for following me through this long post! It is much longer than I expected! As usual, however, I need to qualify that I am not a medical doctor, but merely following up with the research I read and heard about, and then testing these on myself. Do check with your doctor, especially if you have any health conditions before embarking on this exciting journey of fasting!

Posted on

The Science Behind Fasting – Science Alert

What you see here is a plate of my favourite food in the whole wide world, wanton noodles from Ho Seng Kee, a one-of-a-kind, hand-made duck egg noodle dish from Johor Bahru that has had their recipe passed down three generations. This bowl of noodles bring me back to my childhood, instantly. This bowl of noodles can’t be too healthy, what with the oil, and the meat, and the lack of vegetables.

It is not being able to eat food like this that made my life a living hell when I tried to stick to low-carbs diet, and high-fat, high protein diets. I’ve tried them all. At one point in time, I replaced carbs with beans. Beans are rich in fiber and protein and produce a lower insulin response than noodles or rice, so with my fatty liver result from my blood test, I thought that this was something I had to do.

I would rather be fat … than have to put myself through THIS

In a previous post, I shared why I started fasting. To recap, fasting is not a diet; while diets control what you eat, fasting controls when you eat. I will continue to use the word “fasting,” which includes intermittent fasting, to describe an eating pattern that involves alternating periods of eating and fasting. The length of your fast definitely affects the results, but more on that later.

Thor, or rather, the actor Chris Hemsworth’s documentary “Limitless,” taught me that fasting has several benefits. In essence, it boils down to two magic words, Ketosis, and Autophagy.

1. ketosis (i.e. use fat for fuel rather than glucose)

Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body uses fat as its main fuel source instead of glucose¹. If this doesn’t sound new, it might be because you might have heard of people following high-fat ketogenic diets (“Keto diet”), they are essentially trying to do the same thing.

The difference is that Keto diet requires you to follow a diet which are very specific, including Fatty fish like salmon, full-fat cheese, low-carb vegetables like spinach and cauliflower, and NO food with carbohydrates like noodles and rice! (Bye bye Ho Seng Kee noodles! Bye bye sweet childhood!)

Fasting, however, triggers ketosis regardless of WHAT you eat, just because you choose WHEN to eat.

So how does ketosis work?

When we eat, our stomach produces glucose, and our liver stores excess glucose (by default, 20% is stored, regardless of how much we eat!) as glycogen. When glucose levels drop with fasting, the liver converts glycogen into glucose and releases it. After the stored glucose is depleted, the liver breaks down fat to make a substance known as ketones to provide energy. This process is known as ketosis.

Ketosis may have benefits for weight loss, blood sugar management, and epilepsy. However, ketosis can also have negative side effects, especially at the start, and may not be suitable for everyone. Another caveat, is that the long-term effects of ketosis are unclear¹.

However, one side effect is increased autophagy.

Niji-Midjourney’s interpretation of the word “autophagy”

2. autophagy (i.e. getting rid of old cells and dysfunctional cell parts)

Autophagy comes from ancient greek words, meaning “self-devouring”.

This is a natural process where your body cleans out damaged cells and generates new ones. Our body is doing this all the time, but research suggests that fasting for 12-24 hours could make it occur more.

So if you recall, the liver usually releases glucose when you are not fasting? When fasting, the liver would have to break down fat for energy?

What happens for the rest of the body? Imagine your blood stream happily filled with glucose all the time, your cells in your entire body do not need to work very hard to be “happy”. When we apply stress to the entire system by not providing food, your body is triggered into a “survival mode” and would draw down its resources. So ketosis occurs, your body starts using fats as the main fuel source, and then eventually autophagy, useless parts are recycled for rebuilding.

Hence autophagy can help reduce inflammation (i.e. natural immune response to diseases), and clears out protein aggregates, which may be associated with several neurodegenerative diseases.

What this might mean is that autophagy might lower the rates of cancer, heart disease, and brain diseases like Alzheimer’s!

Some caveats are that only a handful of studies measuring fasting and autophagy exist in humans, probably because it is not easy to measure the effects of autophagy. (You probably need to extract cells to observe and compare with a control group. Sounds like a painful experiment when done on humans!)

So there you have it. The reason for this post was my being triggered when questioned if the science was sound behind fasting on social media. In truth, the effects of fasting sound like magic even now. I am still screaming “Why did NO ONE TELL ME!!??” in my head every time.

However, I am fully convinced, not only because Chris Hemsworth says so, or National Geographic says so, or even because a lot of doctors on YouTube say so, but because I went and did my due diligence by tracing their sources down first before being fully convinced. The sources are found at the end of the article! Moreover, I tested this on myself! 16kg lighter, and still perfectly happy, is that not enough evidence?

Even so, I still need to state that I am not a doctor, and you should only follow what I did if you have checked with your doctor that fasting is safe for you first!

Sources :

Ketosis: Definition, Benefits, Downsides, and More – Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-ketosis Accessed 28/04/2023.
Is Ketosis Safe and Does It Have Side Effects? – Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ketosis-safety-and-side-effects Accessed 28/04/2023.
Is It Good for Your Body to Be in Ketosis? – MedicineNet. https://www.medicinenet.com/is_it_good_for_your_body_to_be_in_ketosis/article.htm Accessed 28/04/2023.
A Keto Diet for Beginners: The #1 Ketogenic Guide – Diet Doctor. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto Accessed 28/04/2023.
Ketosis: Definition, Benefits & Side Effects – Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.orghealth/articles/24003-ketosis Accessed 28/04/2023.
Neuronal Autophagy: Characteristic Features and Roles in … – PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33875624/ Accessed 28/04/2023.
Autophagy in Neurons – PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31340124/ Accessed 28/04/2023.
Autophagy in Neuronal Development and Plasticity – ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166223620301673 Accessed 28/04/2023.
The contribution of altered neuronal autophagy to neurodegeneration …. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163725822000729 Accessed 28/04/2023.
How Long Do You Have To Fast Before You Reach Autophagy.
Autophagy: What You Should Know Before Starting Your Fast – InsideTracker. https://blog.insidetracker.com/autophagy-know-before-starting-fast Accessed 28/04/2023.
The effect of fasting or calorie restriction on autophagy … – PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30172870/ Accessed 28/04/2023.
Research on intermittent fasting shows health benefits. https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/research-intermittent-fasting-shows-health-benefits Accessed 28/04/2023.

Posted on

“Pain is part of life but suffering is an option”

I saw this quote by Tony Robbins, which reminded me about how true it was.

Have you ever felt like you’re constantly caught up in a never-ending cycle of pain and suffering?

That was how it felt when I left The Royal Singapore. I was left with a deep feeling of loss and betrayal. I had poured my heart and soul into that role, and in return, I felt like I had been taken advantage of and my abilities as a leader were called into question.

It was painful, and at first, I was consumed by my suffering. I couldn’t eat or sleep, and my mind was constantly racing with thoughts of what I could have done differently. But then, along with the thoughts was a reminder that pain is part of life, but suffering is an option.

I realized that the pain I was feeling was a natural part of life. It’s okay to feel sad, angry, or disappointed when something doesn’t go the way we planned. But suffering is different. Suffering is the story we tell ourselves about the pain we’re feeling. It’s the constant replaying of the same negative thoughts and emotions over and over again.

I can decide to stay in that state of suffering, but I made the choice not to.

I decided to take action and focus on what I could control. I started to look for new job opportunities and worked on rebuilding my confidence. It wasn’t easy, but I knew that I had to keep moving forward.

Looking back, I’m glad that I didn’t let my pain turn into suffering. I “surrendered” to the pain and then took steps to move past it. It’s a lesson that I carry with me to this day. Pain is a natural part of life, but suffering is optional.

We have the power to choose how we respond to the challenges that come our way. However, I would like to remind you that I found that it was not helpful to blame our previous selves for suffering either. It was a part of our journey to learn more about ourselves. By saying we “can choose” not to suffer, we should also remember and understand that our previous selves didn’t really have a choice back then.

Posted on

the simplest diet ever … 2 kg lost in 2 weeks.

I was just shooting with Kelvin Koh at a wedding, 2 and a half weeks ago, and just offered him a drink.

“No, thanks Why Keen, I am trying this new diet.”

That was how it started. The premise, which he shared with me throughout the rest of the day, was simple. According to the book Sweet Poison, by David Gillespie, fructose, a seemingly harmless sugar, is messing up with our body’s ability to tell us that it is full, and reducing the consumption of this sugar type, would produce drastic results, ceteris paribus (all things remaining equal).

Fructose is found naturally in a lot of fruits, and with glucose, forms half of sucrose, or the refined sugar which we eat. Basically, glucose good, fructose bad.

The “Sweet Poison” diet, according to Kelvin, was just a 3 week to a month detoxification process where we take as little fructose as possible. Which means that we can still take our char kway teows, our pastas, our pizzas, and chicken wings, and chicken rice. Just stay away from Coca Cola, cakes, cookies and ice cream.

You better believe that I am taking that “challenge”!

“It is not even a challenge at all!” I remembered thinking.

Kelvin also mentioned that (remember, at this time, I haven’t even read the book!) after 3 weeks, we can go back to trying sweet stuff again, but by then, our body would be able to tell that certain things are too sweet. By then, our bodies would also be able to signal to the brain when we had enough food, and to stop us from eating more than we should.

So I tried the diet first, without reading the book, because it seemed so simple. Of course, I did try to find the book, but found it very hard to get a copy from either Kino or Borders, but then thought of finding the ebook instead, since I am reading books on my Iphone most of the time anyway, and found it at Kobo, an online store with a free Iphone app, here’s a link to the book :-
Sweet Poison

When I read into it deeper, eventually, I found out much more from the research that David Gillespie did on the effects of fructose in our diet. The famous Atkin’s diet, (zero carbohydrates) and other diets, (zero fat, only salad) all work to a certain extent, but he felt that there was something wrong somehow. These are the major food types, and our bodies need sugar, protein and fat to operate properly, so why should we need to stop eating any one of these types to stay lean?

He eventually found that huge amounts of refined fructose was cause, and he backed it up with a lot of research data. But I think most of all, I tried it, and the effects are quite apparent. In order to remain fair, I maintained all else the same, I didn’t increase my exercise regime, nor eat any less of anything else, so that I can prove to myself if this diet works. But I think if I had repeated what I learnt from “Slow Burn” too, the effects would have been much more profound!

More on that later!