Healing from a Cold & Losing Weight Sanely

Two weeks ago, I came down with a cold. It was bad. Now, I am someone who avoids Western medicine if it can be helped. I don't like introducing foreign substances into my body (unless it's delicious food?) and frankly have more faith in the long-term goodness of eastern healing techniques. But I was desperate and I needed a quick fix so I succumbed to taking some flu pills. Then I remembered that I can boil some ginger with a small bark of cinnamon and drink it sweetened with muscovado or honey. So I did.

A friend of mine also recommended Banlangen Keli, which she says helped her with a cold before. So I asked my dad to buy some for me in Binondo since he was on his way there. Reading the information on the pack, it's supposed to work on balancing the warm and cold in my body/blood, reduce dry mouth, etc etc. So I opened 2 packs into a glass, put water and stir, just as you would instant coffee. It actually tastes pretty darn good. I like it. And it did relieve my clogged sinuses quickly.


Now you might wonder what all this has to do with losing weight. All this time I still ate without really thinking about any diet or about limiting my food intake. I did not deprive myself if I wanted to eat. However, I had been googling about traditional Chinese medicine and how to keep your body in balance. I was producing so much phlegm I wondered where it all came from. I found out that there were phlegm-producing foods that I should probably avoid - such as dairy, too much meat, white flour products and sugar. So for the next few days I ate a lot of fish and sauteed vegetables and minimized my meat intake, not that I really noticed (I still ate chocolates and generously buttered my toasted baguette slices). I was more concerned about keeping my body "in balance" but you know what? After a few days, I noticed that my shirts were looser. Hooray for Chinese medicine!

So now I'm trying to keep it up, minimizing meat intake, eating more veggies and seafood. I could go on a seafood diet for a long time. There's just so much seafood to eat, so little time :) But alas, my other family members at home like their meat, so I can't totally not cook meat at all. But I really have been cooking and eating more vegetables and seafood, which is good.

Also, according to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), you should avoid drinking cold drinks during mealtimes. The best temperature to digest that slush in your stomach is around 100F, and the more you are able to maintain that stomach temperature during digestion, the better digestion will be. So, if you must lose weight, do it sanely and deliciously with lots of seafood. Here are some dishes I can think of:

1. Nori-crusted salmon or tuna
2. Steamed tilapia with ginger soy sauce or with tausi, there are just endless variations (as much as possible, buy live tilapia)
3. Sweet and sour fish
4. Fish sticks or breaded fillets with dill caper sauce
5. Tuna or salmon teriyaki
6. Deep-fried Catfish (hito)
7. Dalag (snakehead) rolls (I saw this on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations Vietnam episode)
8. Shrimp - steamed, stuffed, fried, sauteed, baked, cocktail, with various sauces
9. Crabs - steamed, fried, baked
10. Assorted crustaceans and mollusks like tahong, halaan.. pitik, rock lobsters..