Hello lovelies..
It’s that time again, where I feel the urge to write, and so I must write.
Today’s story is about how we as humans tend to always try to please others, EXCEPT ourselves.
We tend to bend over backwards just to make others accept us, like us, adore us, and when they don’t.. We end up frustrated, questioning our self value, not realizing in the first place, that what is making us feel unworthy, is our OWN thoughts, our own expectations, our own little movie we keep playing in our head.
Do you follow?
Today’s story is about how i am disappointed with a very bonafide magazine here in Indonesia, that turned an interview with me into a psychiatric point of view. Theirs!
It all started out with their reporter calling my manager to schedule an interview with me. These days, I don’t do a lot of interviews. After all my years as a public person ( i am a tv host, singer, actress turned health chef) I have learned that not all publicity is good. Especially those who send out reporters/ writers who do not really care what or who they are writing about. They just come unprepared, no research, nothing, and start firing away questions that are super boring and out of date. Don’t get me wrong, I have met dedicated writers/ reporters, but they are outnumbered by the the ignorant ones, so yeah, I selectively choose which media I talk to, to do us both a favor– to not waste each other’s time and energy. Fair enough, I think?
So after some resistance from me, because my schedule was pretty tight that day, I finally gave in, because this reporter was persistent.
We finally met, at my friend’s office, where I was having a meeting and managed to squeeze in time for her.
Interview went well. It was about my eating habits, and my health journey, bla bla bla.. She did surprise me with one question, though. She asked me if i have ever heard of the term orthorexia ? I said ” Yes, why?”
She answered casually ” Oh, we’re just writing a bit on that too in this article”
According to wikipedia:
Orthorexia Nervosapronunciation?] (also known as orthorexia) is a proposed eating disorder or mental disorder[1] characterized by an extreme or excessive preoccupation with avoiding foods perceived to be unhealthy.[2][3] The term orthorexia derives from the Greek ΞΏΟΞΈΞΏ- (ortho, “right” or “correct”), and ΟΟΞ΅ΞΎΞΉΟ (orexis, “appetite”), literally meaning ‘correct appetite’, but in practice meaning ‘correct diet’. It was introduced in 1997 by Steven Bratman, M.D., to be used as a parallel with other eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa. Orthorexia is not mentioned in the widely used DSM[a], but was coined by Bratman[4] who claims that in rare cases, this focus may turn into a fixation so extreme that it can lead to severe malnutrition or even death.[5] Even in less severe cases, the attempt to follow a diet that cannot provide adequate nourishment is said to lower self-esteem as the orthorexics blame themselves rather than their diets for their constant hunger and the resulting cravings for forbidden foods. [6]
Two weeks later, the magazine came out, and first of all, I was disappointed by a photograph of me from donkey’s ears ago! They did not even make an effort for a new photo of me! Gosh…
Second of all, the whole piece.
So initially the piece started out with the interview on me, and my journey, and personal thoughts, then just JUMPED on to the next paragraphs where it started to go deeper into orthorexia, the symptoms and causes and even fancy interviews with a doctor and psycologist. Of course i told them whole-heartedly about how I landed on a healthier diet. I always do things whole-heartedly. So back to the diet/ lifestyle, why I did it, when and why I decided to go to rawfood chef school in USA for deeper knowledge, how I kept learning even until today about health facts, myths and new ground breaking researches. Please note that although I am a certified rawfood vegan chef, I do not restrict my knowledge solely on rawfoods. I have taken health coach trainings online, I also believe in TCM( traditional chinese medicine), learning about ayurveda, and also it was through all my searching and ( too much) reading hahaha… I can say I found God.
Don’t be alarmed. I’m not going to go all preachy here. This is just a little a bit of my journey. Let’s just say, I’ve deepened my connection with the Divinity within me, eversince, while still learning everyday.
I guess this is just my path. Some people love cars, some, bags and shoes, some love guitar collecting, whereas me? I just love reading, learning, travelling and most of all I LOVE FOOD. And food has brought me a lot of joy, but also frustration and depression at the same time. How can that be? That will be another story, but it was the base of my (own)research. And I finally saw the importance of the Godly figure when looking at food. I finally understood what it was to listen to my body, because my body was actually a place where God resides through the soul i am. How prayer and meditation will keep that balance for me and only through this way, did I finally understand that overeating, no matter what your diet is, is just plain overeating from unattended emotional issues.
My journey took me to the road where I looked very deeply into each and every food I made, or was presented to me, wanting to know more about them. Were they organically grown? Were they locally sourced? Did they come from a processed facility where they were made ONE YEAR ago and only served to me NOW and considered safe because they were preserved with substances I could not even pronounce? Did they have colorinh on them? And if yes, from what? How were they cooked? Washed? Etc etc etc.. Yes, I was led through this path and I enjoyed EVERY single moment of learning about it, until I came to digest all these scientific knowledge with humility and wisdom only God can give me: you have control over NOTHING.
Long story short, I love the science part about everything in my food, but also kept in my head, my limitations as a simple human being, that in this life, I cannot control anything.
All i can do is, walk this path, and walk it with LOVE
If there is one thing i learned, i learned not to resist in life.Letting go, detach, has been my keyword this past one year, and I intend to keep on doing that.
INCLUDING, writing this post to finally detach from the results, whatever it may be, about my disappointment towards TEMPO magazine, especially edition #31 on a piece written about orthorexia.
This article included inserts on my health story. This article did NOT categorize me as someone with orthorexia, however, put me in the same article while only interviewing me about my thoughts and my personal stories about my daily food diet/lifestyle, and by doing so, this article can lead it’s readers to an irresponsible assumption that people who try to eat clean are mentally sick– in relation to my story.
If you feel you try to eat clean, i would like to hug you. It’s not an easy journey, especially here in Indonesia, land of the MSG. Just keep your balance, and be intuitive and concious, and loving, okay?
I do believe there are people with real issues, regarding this condition, orthorexia, and that doctors are probably trying to do their best to cure them, however inserting my story on my health journey, as if to say I am the accurate example of someone with orthorexia, is inappropriate.
I wrote this post, sincerely, to have my side of the story. This post is meant for people to understand what my side of the story is, as a person who did not know, the whole piece was on orthorexia. Had i known, i would have kindly refused the interview, as my only interest in health related interviews( as the reporter claimed it to be when she called my management) is to spread more word about #indonesiamakansayur a movement I founded almost 2 years ago now, about encouraging my fellow Indonesians to eat more plantbased wholefoods which are locally sourced as much as possible.
I detach myself from the results of that article, because I release what no longer serves me. I am enough. I do not need to always please other people:))
So okay.. Try to eat more plants( including fruits, nuts, seeds, etc) and stay away from too much packaged foods okay.. Yes, bread is packaged too haha.. Eat foods that are as CLOSE as possible to it’s natural form. Please follow @indonesia_makanasayur for more plantbased wholefoods info and where I hold my cooking classes!
Love you! Thanks for reading! You are enough for yourself, don’t go overboard to please other people. There are pictures below, by the way:)) after the indonesian version.
The Five Contemplations by Thich Nhat Hahn
1. This food is the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the sky, numerous living beings and much hard, loving work.
2. May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive it.
3. May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation.
4. May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that we reduce the suffering of living beings, preserve our planet, and reverse the process of global warming.
5. We accept this food so that we may nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, strengthen our community, and nourish our ideal of serving all living beings.
———-
Jadi ini versi bahasa indonesianya ya, kali-kali lebih sreg.
Udah baca bagian atas kan?
Intinya sih tentang bagaimana dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, kita sering memaksakan diri untuk selalu bisa membuat orang menyukai kita dan menerima kita. Padahal sering kali bukan itu kasusnya.
Seringkali, sebenarnya adalah pikiran-pikiran yang berenang-renang dalam otak kita yang membuat kita berpikir, bahwa kita yang apa adanya, tidak cukup untuk orang lain. Lalu, kenapa harus untuk orang lain sih? Saya adalah cukup untuk saya. Katakan itu berulang-ulang ya. Buat saya sih membantu untuk hidup apa adanya, dan belajar tidak perlu validasi orang lain.
Nah itu pembukanya ya. Kisah sebenarnya adalah kekecewaan saya pada sebuah majalah yang sangaaaaaat saya hormati selama ini. Selama kuliah aja dulu, saya sering menabung khusus untuk membeli majalah ini, karena menurut saya tulisannya sangat bermutu. Eh kok sekarang jadi gini yah?
Akhir2 ini memang saya cukup sulit ditemui wartawan. Karena pengalaman hidup mengajarkan kepada saya bahwa ternyata tidak semua publisitas itu baik yah? Hehe..
Banyak sih, bertemu teman2 penulis/ reporter yang luar biasa research dan gaya penulisannya, namun sayangnya, jumlah penulis seperti itu, kalah banyak dengan yang acuh, yang kerap kali mendatangi saya dengan pertanyaan yang itu-itu lagi karena memang tidak mengerjakan pe-er aja sih. Boro-boro pe-er. Belajar mengenali narasumber pun tidak, padahal sekarang kan zaman internet ya.
Intinya TEMPO edisi #31 menulis artikel tentang orthorexia. Nih ya saya kutip alias copy paste haha..
Orthorexia nervosa atau orthorexia adalah istilah non-medis dikenalkan pertama kali oleh Steven Bratman untuk menandai orang yang mengembangkan obsesi dengan makanan menghindari dianggap tidak sehat . Orthorexia nervosa diyakini sebuah gangguan mental . Bratman mengklaim bahwa dalam kasus yang jarang, fokus ini dapat berubah menjadi sebuah fiksasi sangat ekstrim yang dapat menyebabkan berat kekurangan gizi bahkan kematian.Bahkan dalam kasus yang kurang parah, upaya untuk mengikuti diet yang tidak dapat menyediakan makanan yang cukup dikatakan untuk menurunkan harga diri sebagai orthorexics menyalahkan diri sendiri daripada diet mereka kelaparan konstan mereka dan ngidam yang dihasilkan untuk makanan terlarang. ( copas dari pickyeaterclinic [dot] com)
Nah pada saat wawancara dengan saya, saya tidak tahu kalau tema besarnya adalah Orthorexia. Yang saya tahu adalah, saya akan diwawancarai seputar gaya hidup saya yang ternyata menurut orang-orang, sehat π asikkkkk..
Ya berceritalah saya, dari asal mulanya sampai ke bagaimana, hubungan saya dengan makanan, membawa saya lebih mengenal Tuhan.
Eh ini bukan khotbah. Tenang. Haha.
Saya hanya ingin berbagi bahwa tak satupun di dunia ini bisa kita kendalikan. Sehingga semua sains dan fakta juga riset yang saya baca tentang kesehatan dan pola makan sehat, semua berujung lagi pada keberserahan kita kepada sang Maha yang sebenarnya ada di dalam diri kita masing-masing. Bagi saya, mendengarkan tubuh anda, adalah sebenarnya mendengarkan apa yang sedang disampaikan oleh Penciptanya. Jika Tuhan ada di dalam diri anda, bukankah anda akan berusaha sebaik mungkin untuk memberikan yang terbaik untuk tubuh anda? Khususnya yang masuk lewat mulut, alias makanan yang saya bahas. Walaupun banyak hal lain yang bisa anda lakukan untuj tubuh anda, tempat bersemayamnya Tuhan ( yang saya percaya ya) .Untuk episode cerita yang ini, nanti ada postingan lain deh. Sekarang back to TEMPO lagi ya.
Intinya, artikel di edisi #31 itu dibuka dengan hasil wawancara dengan saya( yang pada saat itu hanya paham bahwa ini wawancara biasa seputar gaya hidup sehat saya) lalu dengan mudahnya di paragraf-paragraf berikutnya membahas tentang si Orthorexia ini.
Yang ingin saya sampaikan disini, hanyalah versi saya. Bahwasannya, jika dikemas dengan cara penulisan artikel di edisi #31 ini, membuat orang berasumsi bahwa saya salah satu contoh penderita orthorexia. Saya tidak sedang membuka debat disini, hanya saya kecewa karena cara penulisan seperti ini seakan-akan memberi label kepada saya dengan pilihan saya untuk selalu mencoba mendapatkan makanan terbaik baik tubuh saya, sesuatu yang akhir-akhir ini di instagram saya lihat ramai sebagai gaya hidup dengan tagar #cleaneating .
Dalam kamus saya sih, beda lagi ya.
Saya menganut #intuitiveeating dan #conciousliving sehingga apapun yang masuk ke dalam mulut saya, adalah sesuatu yang saya lakukan dengan sadar dan sebisa mungkin berdasarkan intuisi tubuh saya sendiri.
Kembali lagi, intinya, kita tidak bisa menyenangkan semua orang. Karena satu niatan baik untuk berbagi, dapat ditangkap sebagai suatu kelainan mental, seperti yang dibahas di artikel di TEMPO ini, jika dihubungkan dengan hasil wawancara dengan saya di awal artikel.
Saya menulis ini dengan segala ketulusan, agar yang membacanya dapat mencerna dengan baik maksudnya. Dan jika anda sekarang adalah seorang clean eater atau mungkin pelaku makan berkesadaran, saya ingin merangkul anda dan katakan, tidak ada yang salah dengan anda:)) setiap orang punya perjalanan hidup masing-masing.
Marilah kita berlatih sadar dan mendengarkan hati nurani dalam segala tindakan kita, apakah itu makan, minum, bekerja, menulis, berolahraga, menyetir, dst.
Niscaya ( edaaannnn … Gue bisa pake kata “niscaya” woohooo!! Hahaa) akan terasa lebih mudah menapaki hidup sambil bersyukur selalu.
Yuk ah, udahan ya. Sekian aja ceritanya. Sengaja saya tidak tulis langsung ke pihak majalah, karena saya sudah melepaskan diri dari reaksi kekecewaan saya di awal membaca tulisan ini. Saya sekarang lebih peduli tentang teman-teman lain yang membacanya dan sedikit bingung. Moga-moga sihhhhh nggak bingung lagi ya. Saya sih udah plong sekarang. Yeayyy!
Paling satu sih kalau boleh usul, mbok ya majalah tuh usaha kek, ya, naro foto saya yang bener yang up to date. Wong ngomongin kesehatan, kok fotonya stock lama zaman saya masih kurang tidur dan minum banyak gula dan soda tanpa berkesadaran.. Hahaha..
Yuk ah.. Mari kita lanjutkan hidup. Mari follow @indonesia_makansayur di instagram yuk.. Supaya lebih paham untuk makan lebih banyak lagi makanan berbasis tumbuhan (sayur, buah, biji-bijian, kecambah dst) yg sebisa mungkin lokal dan organik dehhhh. Karena organik berarti anda sudah ikut menyelamatkam bumi dari bahaya kimia yang meresap ke dalam tanah kita yang subur ini, dan lokal artinya gizi yang anda dapatkan dari makanan tersebut pun lebih kumplit plit plit ( karena nggak pake terbang asil dari negara jauh kaaan), juga hasil akhirnya, Indonesia bisa lebih maju dan makmur karena anda mendukung petani LOKAL! Ini negara agraris lohhhh… Ngapain sih ngimpor melulu?
Makan makanan yang sedekat mungkin dengan bentuk aslinya ya.. Iyaap.. Roti itu termasuk processed food.. Aslinya kan dari gandum! Hahah. Jarang-jarang aja makannya, dengarkan tubuh:))
Ini foto-foto yang berhasil saya kumpulkan ya. Dilihat yaaaaa.. Kalau mau baca, di-zoom. Tapi dicerna baik-baik, okeh?
Salam sayang selalu!!
NB: beras thailand banyak yang udah rekayasa genetika loh.. Hihi.. Beli yang organik lokal aja deh. Banyak kookkk…
Daagghh!!
This is the article with my out of date pic. Tsk!! Haha:))
Here’s a pic of just happy me! Haha!
sophienavita 