Musings: Health and Strength

 I had an asthma attack for no apparent reason these last couple of days and have been trying really hard to maintain a normal functioning day yesterday with the minimum of medication.  It wasn't really particularly bad, but the wheezing got worse when I tried to move around a little bit.

There must have been something in the air, that caused an allergic reaction, certainly not something I ate, as I have been very careful about my food intake, lately.  I really have to find that something, and remove it from my environment.

That's the thing about food allergies that can become a matter of life and death.  I had required hospitalisation several times when I first came back to Malaysia for eating things that I wasn't supposed to.  Shellfish, beef, most types of preserved fish, and of course belacan.

Now I must avoid belacan at all costs, because even a little bit of that stuff would immediately within minutes create problems for me.  Same thing with the fish sauce normally used in Thai cooking.  Just a tiny bit would land me in hospital.  I don't care much for not being able to eat Thai food, but I do feel a bit annoyed having to avoid belacan as that is used so extensively in Malay cuisine, that avoiding it is almost like avoiding my Malay heritage.

To make matters worse, I am also photo-sensitive, so I have to slap on sunscreen every time I leave the house, which makes me look a bit sickly pale in the process.  I wish I could acquire that beautiful and glowing brown skin that people who spend time outdoors usually have, but alas, spending time outdoors without sunscreen would just give me severe sunburn.

And that is something I don't get, Asians' obsession with acquiring pale white skin.  I would seriously switch to a different channel whenever a skin-lightening product advertisement comes up on TV as I strongly believe such ads give all the wrong impression of what is beautiful and what is not.  

Girl, it doesn't matter if you have dark skin, as long as it is glowing with health, you don't need to lighten it.  

Eat well, exercise regularly, drink lots of plain water, utilise your brain fully, always think positive and when all else fails, have faith in the Almighty.  For me that's the key to health and strength, which are far more resilient than external shallow interpretation of feminine beauty that will fade with age.