«We deserve more respectable dining places in our country», — Interview with Zarrina Slamkulova

 

ZHIBEK: Good afternoon! It is always a pleasure to talk with such interesting, beautiful and stylish persons as you are. Please tell us why did you decide to take part running in marathon – was it a friend’s push or children’s idea? Is marathon for you a onetime chance to support the healthy spirit and body? 

ZARRINA: Good afternoon!  This marathon is a first experience for me and my husband, however, I am afraid, we will start becoming the usual participants from now on. Our family is always For active lifestyle in any form! Fitness, bikes, skiing, snowboard, skating, tennis – these sports are well practiced in our family. It is our lifestyle. As one of wise persons said: “Do not bring up your children, you should bring up yourself, since our children will become the same as we are”. Trying to develop different skills in ourselves, we hope that our children will take the best from us.

 
ZHIBEK: Please tell us about you and your family. You have a large family, how do you manage finding the time for yourself? 
 
ZARRINA: Well, I guess it can be said that I am all round person, with higher legal education and MBA with focus in Marketing and PR; but most importantly I am a Mom of three wonderful and smart kids. We have a big family, since beside me, my husband and children, we have always close relatives together: elder children of my brother, aunts, daughter-in-law. We have rather large and noisy family!) I always try to find the time for myself, since self-development, sport, beauty salon visits shall not be ignored even if you are a Mom of a large family.

ZHIBEK:  Do you cook at home or prefer visiting café and restaurants? What is your favorite dish, and do you have your own made dish, which is favored by your family?  
ZARRINA: I am healthy food follower which I am trying to introduce to my kids. We always have a healthy breakfast full of healthy carbohydrates, protein and fibre. During work days it is hard to have a lunch all together, though husband is always trying to come home for lunch. Dinner is some kind of tradition where everyone can share the news and talk. Usually I cook myself, sometimes my relatives help me – fortunately, everyone knows other’s taste preferences. One of favorite dishes in our family are lasagna, solyanka soup and, certainly, Olivier salad. My family is such a sweet tooth, so deserts is a must! I bake a lot, however I try to put less sugar or avoid it at all together with unhealthy carbs. We do visit restaurants, but mostly during the weekends. I prefer visiting restaurants abroad:)

ZHIBEK: What is healthy dining in your opinion? And how expensive is it – to eat healthy nowadays? Since there is a stereotype that eating healthy food is always more expensive, which I guess explains why people visit various so called “unhealthy” dining places.
ZARRINA: There is such a variety of products on the market and dining places that it is very easy to be the healthy dining follower – you just need having some strong internal motivation. The proverb “I am what I eat” is, in my opinion, real and working. Usually people visiting “unhealthy” dining places just do not wish to change a habit, that’s it. However, if there is still a strong wish to eat hamburger, it can be easily cooked at home – at least you will know what is inside of it for sure.

ZHIBEK: Do many of your acquaintances take care of themselves, pay attention to the nutrition of the menu choice in café and restaurants?  
ZARRINA: Fortunately, nowadays the information is much more accessible, and even may be not all of my friends prefer healthy dining, but I see the positive dynamic and change in this issue. I am very happy about it, since it is always sad when I come to school to my older son – how many overweight kids there are! Drinking sodas with unknown composition, eating fast food, all this is an excessive amount of unnecessary calories. Plus do not forget how much time children spend at computers in internet, not being friends with sport! This becomes a real problem now. I hope that soon parents will start seeing this problem and start taking action, starting from integrating healthy dining at home for themselves and kids. Certainly, then it will evolve a useful habit to be aware of amount of consumed calories.

ZHIBEK: DiningSmart wishes to call upon real client-oriented café and restaurants with the request to provide clients information what they really pay for and take care of their health. How demanded is it in your view?
ZARRINA: Your initiative is tremendously useful for our society! I am, for example, very concerned with the usage of sunflower or vegetable oil – where is the guarantee that it is being used once and only? If our café and restaurants realize that the client shall first of all trust the dining place, and then we can provide the opinion about a certain level of the place! I do think that we deserve more respectable dining places in our country.
ZHIBEK: Thank you a lot for interesting talk! 
 
Interview led by Zhibek Karamanova. www.DiningSmart.com
It is not allowed to copy and publish this article without indicating the reference to this web site.