rice and life

It has long been my desire to have a work-life balance and as much as possible, Im always trying to avoid bringing home work stuff, much more writing about it to cap my night. But I am doing it now.

Rice. I just could not think my world without it. I grew up having rice three times a day, that is, every meal.    It's practically every Filipinos' must have on the table. Well, this explains why the Philippines is the biggest importer of rice in the entire universe! (This explains the energy, and well, the big tummies of many Pinoys...hehe).

Rice is life! And for the past days, well, make it year, my life has revolved around rice matters - from rice figures, demand, supply, and price, to rice traders, buyers, sellers, and what have yous. It's fun studying the industry, gaining a bit of knowledge how the market works, knowing who are the key players in the business, and just whacking your mind to coming up with new ideas for the next conference. Technically, I will be 4 rice conferences brighter after October! But how I will get by from now until the next one, that will remain as a surprise, and a big challenge!

As much as I love eating rice, I have to admit that cutting or skipping some rice cups (especially at night) has its wonders. You see, I have an active life - and by active I meant that I am involve in a couple of sports activities (dragonboating, circuit training, frisbee, and running) - but the extra inches on my tummy and hips (and arms and legs) just would not go away. This do not help either as I, most of the time, find myself eating more than what I should every after these activities. However, a friend (it's you F) told me to just skip dinner and just drink milk or eat fruits but both of which I do not fancy. I just could not give up dinner that's because I am most active after 6pm. So the best possible option for me is to just cut the rice. And it is working! :-) I can feel my waist losing some of the inches and it's not just my imagination because my other friends noticed it too.

So, if rice eaters can just skip 1 cup of rice a day, just imagine the amount of water we can save! Huh?! Well, this is another rice fact. I didn't know that for every kilo of rice, farmers need at least 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water to produce it! In Thailand, which by the way is the biggest exporter of rice, 70 percent of their water resource goes to agriculture, and only 4 percent is consumed by people. Imagine that! On average, each person (a rice eater) consumes about 54 kilos of rice a year. So say, if we just miss 1 cup of rice a day, and just consume 35 kilos, we can save up to 95,000 litres of water a year!

On the second thought, it is just me. For majority of people living in the lower income economies, rice is a staple food. At the end of the day, if we just take everything in moderation, everything will be alright. Just like life and the inches on my waist.