Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

It's still Syawal, so I'd like to wish Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all. The raya season seems to skip me this year. By the time my wife, my child and I recovered from jet lag after returning from Malaysia, we didn't have time to make a 3-hour road trip to replenish our meat supply. I then had to leave to a conference in Louisville in Kentucky (where KFC was originated). As such, no open house this year.

My first raya in the States was 14 years ago during a winter break in January 2000. Fasting was easy then as Maghrib was around 4:30pm. I remember my buddy and I made a point to make sure that we were not going to be sad during our first raya away from our families - we made a big travel plan to Florida. To cover our expenses, we both worked from 9am to 5pm during the first two weeks of the break at an animal lab to feed and clean the areas where the university kept guinea pigs, rats, frogs etc. for medical experiments. With the money we saved, we bought air tickets to Orlando, DisneyWorld tickets and rent a car there. We stayed at a cheap hotel every 3 days or so and slept in the car at a rest area for the rest of the nights. We brought some serunding (dried beef) I cooked for the trip. After two weeks of travel and eating the same thing except 2-3 fish meals at McDonald's, I started to hate serunding, and until today I've not eaten it anymore.

I was able to celebrate raya in Malaysia again last year. This year, my summer schedule didn't permit me to stay longer in Malaysia, so I had a simple raya celebration in the States. My wife cooked rendang ayam and I cooked kuah kacang and nasi impit from scratch using ziploc (I forgot to buy the instant one). We went to the mosque for solat raya, and my child had some games with other kids and received some gifts there. That was it.

The night before raya, I happened to catch a rerun of a documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer. It talks about the scientific benefits of fasting and introduced the FastDiet concept where ones fast for two nonconsecutive days every week and eat whatever they want for the rest of the week. Its fasting concept is not necessarily the same as what Muslims do in Ramadan. In FastDiet, ones limit their calorie intake to 500cal for women and 600cal for men - about 1/3 of daily calorie intake. The main benefit is to maintain a healthy and longer life with low risk of diseases caused by over or unhealthy eating. I was so amazed that I bought a book about the diet in Amazon, finished it in a day, and plan to start practicing the FastDiet.

In fact today was my first day doing the FastDiet. I had some unsweetened green tea and water during the day, and had a 600cal dinner - griiled cod, stir-fried broccoli and carrot, some sliced tomatoes and one cup of rice.

I plan to test this concept on me for the next three months. I also hope to fully fast like in Ramadan every once a while, especially since it's still Syawal.

In theory, Muslims should get all the fasting benefits in Ramadan. However, especially in Malaysia, Ramadan has turned to be pesta makan or food festival. Pasar Ramadan and hotel buffet epitomize the phenomena. It's not unusual to actually gain weight when fasting in Malaysia. It is what it is, and I still wish I had longer Ramadan in Malaysia.