Eating in Sabah Without Giving Up Nasi Lemak

Oct 9

9 min read

中文摘要在文末

Nobody has ever succeeded at this by eating salad in a country where the food is this good.

I'm serious. I've watched patients try. They decide that from Monday they'll eat clean, they last about eleven days, and then there's a family gathering and the whole thing collapses along with their confidence. So let me describe how we actually approach food, which is nothing like that.

The first thing to understand: on this programme, your food volume is largely handled for you. The medication controls appetite, so you're not fighting portion sizes. That frees us up to work on something more useful — what you eat rather than how much.

And we change it gradually, over the adaptation and burning phases. Not all at once on day one.

Stage one: just notice

The first thing I ask is deliberately undemanding.

Pay attention to what your body feels and needs now that you've started.

That's it. No rules yet. Because things have changed and you need to observe them before you can respond to them. When are you actually hungry? When are you eating out of habit? What time of day is hardest? Which situations reliably make you want something?

Most people have never really looked. And you can't work with a pattern you haven't seen.

Stage two: find your dopamine, and keep it

This follows on from what I describe as the body-mind separation.

Your appetite goes quiet on the medication, but you don't only eat for calories. You eat for enjoyment — pleasure, comfort, reward, routine. That doesn't switch off just because you're not hungry, and pretending otherwise is how people white-knuckle it for two months and then break.

So instead of removing the enjoyment, we find a version of it that survives.

I ask patients: what's your happy thing? What do you genuinely look forward to?

I had a patient whose happy thing was eating eggs. Genuinely — eggs made her happy. That's a wonderful answer, because it's healthy, high in protein, cheap and sustainable. We didn't need to change a thing.

Another patient's happy thing was Coke. Not so wonderful. So we switched to Coke Zero. Is that ideal? No. Is it far better than a can of sugar every day, and did it survive as an actual habit? Yes on both counts.

That second example is the one I want you to notice. The goal isn't the perfect answer. It's a sustainable one. A slightly compromised swap you'll keep doing beats an ideal change you'll abandon in three weeks.

Stage three: calorie density

Now we get to the concept that does the most work.

Because appetite is controlled for you, volume isn't your main problem — density is.

Two plates can look identical and be several hundred calories apart. If what you're eating is calorie-dense, you can genuinely eat less and still struggle to lose weight, and this is where people get frustrated and conclude the medication has stopped working.

So we spend time on recognising density. Fried versus not. Rich, oily and coconut-heavy versus plain. Sauces, dressings, and the things poured over food that nobody counts. Sweet drinks, which are the purest form of calorie density there is — substantial calories, zero fullness, and consumed almost unconsciously.

You don't need to become a calculator. You need to be able to look at a plate and know roughly where the calories are hiding.

Stage four: the protein formula

This is the most practically useful thing I teach, and it takes about a minute to learn.

You're reading a nutrition label. You want to know whether this food is a good protein source.

Take the grams of protein per serving, multiply by 10, and compare it to the kilocalories per serving.

You want that figure to be close to, or above, the calorie count.

Some examples.

A serving with 120 kcal and 6 g of protein: 6 × 10 = 60, against 120 kcal. Half. Not a good protein source.

Eggs: roughly 65 kcal for about 6 g of protein. 6 × 10 = 60, against 65 kcal. Almost exactly equivalent. Excellent.

Chicken breast: around 200 kcal for about 40 g of protein. 40 × 10 = 400, against 200 kcal.

Twice the calorie count. Outstanding — which is why chicken breast has the reputation it does.

Once you know this, you can assess any packaged food in the supermarket in about five seconds.

And the exercise itself is educational — you'll be surprised what fails, including several things marketed as health foods.

Then start replacing your household staples with higher-protein options. Not a special diet. The same meals, built from better-scoring components. This is the change that persists after the programme ends, because it doesn't feel like being on anything.

Protein matters especially here because we're actively protecting your muscle while you lose fat. This is the food half of that work; the resistance training is the other half.

Stage five: your emergency food

The last thing we work out together, and one of the most protective.

There will be moments. You'll feel like giving up, or you'll be genuinely very hungry, or you'll be sad, or the day will have gone badly and you'll want to eat something about it.

Those moments are going to happen. Planning as though they won't is how people get ambushed.

So we decide in advance: what's your emergency food? Something you find genuinely acceptable — you have to actually want it, or you won't reach for it — but which isn't too damaging. Something available, easy, requiring no preparation and no decisions at the moment you're least able to make good ones.

Then you keep it stocked.

This isn't a failure plan. It's the opposite. It's recognising that difficult moments are part of the process, and having something decided in advance so the moment doesn't decide for you.

Now: actual Sabah food

Here's where a lot of advice becomes useless, because it's written by people who don't eat here.

My approach is to look at your food with you and work out which parts are actually the problem. Because it's rarely the whole dish. Usually one or two components are doing most of the damage while everything else is fine.

Take nasi lemak, since it's the obvious example.

People assume the answer is "stop eating nasi lemak," which nobody in Sabah is going to do sustainably. But look at what's actually driving the calories: the lemak — the coconut cream in the rice — and the fried skin on the chicken.

The rest of it is reasonable. The chicken underneath is protein. The egg is protein. The cucumber is fine. The sambal is a small amount.

So: plain white rice instead of the coconut rice, and tear the skin off the fried chicken. You've removed the bulk of the problem and you're still eating nasi lemak. It's still recognisably the thing you wanted.

That logic transfers. What's the calorie driver here, and can I modify just that? Teh tarik — it's the condensed milk and sugar, not the tea. Roti canai — it's the ghee and the frying. Mee goreng — it's the oil.

There are almost always options. The point is to make you aware of where the calories actually are, so you can make a conscious decision rather than either eating in ignorance or avoiding the food entirely.

Eating with other people

This is the part that trips people up more than the food itself, and it's specific to living here.

You'll be at a family gathering, a kampung visit, a wedding, a company dinner. Someone will have cooked. Declining food is not a neutral act in Sabah — it carries meaning, and in many families it reads as rejecting the person rather than the dish.

I don't think the answer is announcing that you're on a programme and refusing everything. That makes it everyone's business and creates exactly the social friction that makes people quit.

What actually works, in my experience:

Take the food. Take a smaller portion, or take it and eat some of it. On this programme your appetite is genuinely reduced, so eating modestly usually looks natural rather than pointed.

Apply the component logic. At a buffet or a family spread, you're choosing from many dishes. Go heavier on the protein dishes, lighter on the fried and the coconut-rich ones. Nobody notices what you selected.

Watch the drinks. Sweet drinks flow constantly at gatherings and they're pure density with no fullness. This is often the single biggest and least noticed contributor at a social meal.

Don't turn one meal into a verdict on yourself. A single heavy meal is not going to undo months of work. What does damage is the reasoning afterwards — the "I've ruined it, may as well give up" spiral, which costs far more than the meal did. One meal is one meal.

What we don't do

I don't hand out a meal plan. I've never seen one work beyond a few weeks, because it isn't your food, isn't your household, isn't your budget, and doesn't survive a single unexpected invitation.

I also don't ban foods. Banning creates preoccupation, and preoccupation creates the exact behaviour you're trying to avoid.

What we do instead is build up your ability to look at any plate, anywhere, and make a reasonable decision. That's what you'll still have in five years.

We work through all of this during the weekly reviews, gradually, adapted to what you actually eat. Not from a leaflet.

Klinik Dr Tan, Lot 27, Ground Floor, Block D, Lintas Square, Kota Kinabalu. WhatsApp 017-234 7328. Appointments preferred.

Book a consultation with Dr. Tan — Book Online or WhatsApp 017-234 7328.

简要说明

我是陈医生，亚庇 Lintas Square 的 Klinik Dr Tan。

没有人能靠在马来西亚吃沙拉成功。 在这个计划里，食物的分量已经由药物帮你控制了，所以我们把重点放在吃什么，而不是吃多少。而且是在适应期和燃烧期里逐步改变，不是第一天全部改。

第一步：只要留意。 开始用药后，注意身体的感觉和需求。什么时候真的饿？什么时候只是习惯？一天里哪个时段最难？看不见的模式是没办法处理的。

第二步：找到你的「快乐来源」并保留它。 现代人吃东西不只为了热量，也为了享受。与其把享受拿掉，不如找一个能存活下来的版本。我有位病人的快乐是吃蛋——很好，健康、高蛋白、可持续，不用改。另一位的快乐是喝可乐——那就换成无糖可乐。理想吗？不。但比每天一罐糖水好得多，而且真的维持下来了。重点不是完美的答案，是可持续的答案。

第三步：热量密度。 因为分量已经被控制，你的问题不是体积，是密度。两盘看起来一样的食物可能差几百卡。炸的 vs 非炸的、浓油椰浆的 vs 清淡的、酱料淋汁，还有甜饮料——热量密度最高的形式：热量实在，饱足感为零，而且几乎在无意识中喝掉。

第四步：蛋白质公式（最实用，一分钟学会）

看营养标签时：把每份的蛋白质克数乘以10，再跟每份的卡路里比较。 要找接近或超过卡路里的。

120 kcal、6g 蛋白质 → 6×10=60，对比120。只有一半，不是好的蛋白质来源。
鸡蛋：约65 kcal、约6g 蛋白质 → 60 对比 65。几乎相等，很好。
鸡胸肉：约200 kcal、约40g 蛋白质 → 400 对比 200。两倍，非常好。

学会之后，在超市五秒钟就能判断任何包装食品。然后开始把家里的主食换成高蛋白的选项——不是特别的饮食法，是同样的餐点用更好的材料。这个改变在疗程结束后会继续存在，因为它不像在「执行什么计划」。

第五步：你的「紧急食物」。 一定会有那些时刻——很饿、很累、心情不好、想放弃。假装不会发生，就会被突袭。所以事先决定：什么是你的紧急食物？你真的愿意吃（不然你不会去拿），但又不会太糟；容易取得、不用准备、不需要在你最没判断力的时候做决定。然后把它备好。这不是失败计划，正好相反。

沙巴的食物：重点是找出哪一部分才是问题——通常不是整道菜，而是其中一两个成分。

以椰浆饭为例：热量主要来自饭里的椰浆（lemak）和炸鸡的皮。底下的鸡肉是蛋白质，蛋是蛋白质，黄瓜没问题。所以：换成白饭，把炸鸡皮撕掉——你去掉了大部分问题，而它仍然是椰浆饭。

同样的逻辑：拉茶的问题是炼奶和糖，不是茶；印度煎饼是酥油和油炸；炒面是油。几乎总有选项。

跟别人一起吃饭：在沙巴，拒绝食物不是中性的举动，很多家庭会理解成拒绝那个人。我不建议宣布自己在做疗程然后什么都不吃。实际有效的做法：拿，但拿少一点（在这个计划里你食欲确实降低，吃得少看起来很自然）；用成分逻辑挑菜（多拿蛋白质菜色，少拿油炸和椰浆重的）；注意饮料（聚会时甜饮不断，是最大也最少人注意的来源）；不要把一餐变成对自己的判决——一顿大餐不会毁掉几个月的努力，真正伤害人的是之后「反正毁了，干脆放弃」的想法。