Getting Started 2:

Congratulations!
So you've made the decision to love yourself and fuel your body right. You've got a plan and you're all fired up (don't you love new beginnings :) )  but... where do you start?
Here's 10 things I recommend:

1. Clear out all the nutritionally empty food from your kitchen cabinets/ fridge.
Be heartless. take a large trash bag and get rid of everything in your cabinets and fridge that wouldn't provide your body with the nutrition it needs. This can be your large stash of potato chips, chocolate bars, sweets. Keep the wholegrains, the clean proteins like eggs and meat and fish, the vegetables and fruits. If it isn't there, it's much easier to eat healthy.
2. Learn to read labels. 
There are a million websites on the internet dedicated to teaching you to eat well. The number one thing i really advise you to steer clear of is sugar. When you are ready, you can read articles on the web about high blood glucose levels and their contribution to obesity, heart disease, diabetes etc. Understand that it's not just white sugar alone but white products such as white flour, bread, rice that all raise your blood sugar levels without any sort of nutritional boost at all. Learn to read labels to steer clear of any kind of High Fructose Corn Syrup or chemical additives that end with '-ose' like dextrose and maltose. Also, if you can't pronounce it on the ingredient list, it's probably not good for you. The best would be to eat food that don't even come with a label. Zucchinis, apples and oranges are eat as it is. No packaging, no labels, just fresh wholesome food just as nature intended.
3. Make wise choices
Want to eat Bak Kut Teh? sure! Laksa? Sure! Just eat a smaller portion or make healthy swaps such as brown rice for your Bak Kut Teh instead of the white rice. Swap sugary drinks for green tea and plain water or naturally flavoured water just a lemon water etc. Always try to choose wholegrains, fruits, vegetables, lean meats. You should ever feel deprived or starve yourself. This is not a diet. It is a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life.
4. Learn to cook
The only way you would be able to control what you eat is if you know what is going into your food and only you can control that. No need for fancy dishes. Learn to make omelettes, hardboiled eggs. learn to use the rice cooker to make brown rice, learn to fry up vegetables. It's as simple as heating up a pan and watching the veggies get smaller and smaller in a few seconds. No culinary degree required. Search the internet for healthy recipes and healthy swaps and make healthier versions of your favorite food.
5. Bring a lunchbox with you
In line with learning how to cook, bringing a lunch box out with you helps you to regulate what you eat. The food in Singapore, while yummilicious, is really high in (bad) fats, salt and sugar. A meal at a hawker center can weigh in at almost 700 calories, of which is made up mostly of empty carbohydrates. (think meepok)
6. Learn to assess your meal in terms of nutritional content and composition
A typical meal in Singapore is way too carb heavy. Take for instance my favorite meepok. It is 50% simple carbohydrates (noodles), 40% un-useful fat from the bakchor and 10% protein. (percentages are my own eyeballed estimates). This is great if you are going to do a highly aerobic intense exercise after but if you are just a desk bound student/ office worker, it's just going to raise your blood sugar levels and make you feel sleepy and drowsy post meal when your insulin crashes after. If i eat meepok, i normally half the amount of noodles I eat, add more meat etc to rebalance the composition of the meal. I try to make every meal 40% complex carbs (vegetables, wholegrains etc), 40% protein (eggs, meat, seafood, legumes) and 20% fat (olive oil, avocados, coconut oil) It is important not to cut out any of the food groups and terribly important to eat fat. if you want to lose fat, you HAVE to eat GOOD FATS. i cannot stress this enough. Coconut is my favorite source of fat though I love avocados as well. Steer clear away from the fat/ sodium in instant noodles or fried food and load up more on the good kinds of fat from salmon, coconut, nuts and oils.
7. Drink water
Drink lots of it. It's really good for you and keeps you from eating mindlessly when you are not really hungry. Your body sends you hunger signals when you are really thirsty. So drink water first. and lots of it, through the day.
8. Stay strong and believe in yourself. 
Only you alone know what is good for your body. No diet book or plan or blog can tell you what's best for your body. There will be an overwhelming amount of information out there in regard to what's good for you. There is the paleo lifestyles that advocates butter and bacon and cutting out all carbs and legumes, there is the only carbs diet, the no fruits diet, the lots of fruits diet, there are a million things out there and it can get very scary but only you know what's good for you. Experiment a little. see howyour body performs. For myself, i cannot live without carbs and while lots of people say the fructose in fruits is terrible, I eat lots of fruits and wholegrains and lean protein. Do what works for you, trust yourself. Also when you start eating healthily, everybody is going to have something to say. They might give you well meaning advice, like cut out ALL CARBS. Or they might pressure you to eat a bit of chocolate and not be a spoilsport. Going to grandma's house might be tough because grandma is going to be heartbroken you no longer wolf down her shrimp tempura like you once did. I have been asked on numerous occassions "wah! why so healthy?!" when i pile my plate high with fruits, yoghurt, wholegrains and eggs at a buffet table. Does nobody else think it's a bit funny that I shock people when I eat healthy but nobody gets any comments when they don't eat healthy? Shouldn't it be the other way round?! So stay strong, believe in yourself and understand that sometimes a piece of chocolate is what your soul needs (or maybe not).

9.  Understand that it's not "failure" when you eat a "forbidden" food.
There is no such thing as a "forbidden food". Stop categorizing food and cutting out specific foods. Eat them if you want to, don't eat them because you don't want to. And you don't want to because there is so much gorgeously unprocessed food out there for you though if you do want to.. why not? Just make a mindful choice and enjoy whatever you choose in a moderate portion
10. Reward yourself
Don't' reward yourself with food. you are not a pet. Indulge yourself with some shopping, a massage, a movie, time with friends. Have fun with your meals, Enjoy life.