There’s one common trend or habit that I can’t help noticing amongst foodies, including me. We’ll get up in the morning and promise to eat healthy, we’ll go out in the evening and won’t be able to resist the junkiest food, and crib about it after we’ve had it. Let me be honest, it’s hard (on the verge of being impossible) to resist the food that you like, which in most cases is not textbook healthy. Eating healthy is as much a fad as is eating out. It seems that all of us are nutritionists without a formal degree and some of us know more than the qualified dieticians. Eating wisdom is palpable especially amongst women. They can oft be heard saying, “Don’t eat after 8”, “eat salad once a day,” “eat one fruit a day”, “don’t eat McDonald’s or Domino’s”, whilst they would be fantasising hot chocolate fudge and all their wisdom would dissolve in the deepest subconscious when the sinful bite of chocolate would strike the greedy palates.
Moving beyond criticising women, I have recently experienced a shift from “live to eat” to “eat to live”. This does not mean that I only drink fresh juice and eat beetroot all the time. It’s making simple changes, understanding your body type, respecting your body, and keeping it fit to perform your day to day operations and also sleep well. It certainly means eating out and eating junk, but not an overdrive of any one kind of diet. Well, it means eating frugally, eating when you are hungry, when you get a signal from your body that it needs to be nourished. It means eating a healthy and filling breakfast, lunch and an on-time dinner. Also, getting rid of alcohol, at least on weekdays, or resorting to healthy red wine.
“Eating to live” is a tough but blissful exercise. Whilst the initial resistance is punishing, the results can be rewarding. With time, there is lesser urge to ‘overeat’ and eat junk food. However, I allow myself one indulgence a day, which could be a cup of strong coffee, or an ice cream, cheesy sandwich, just so that joy of eating is not killed. It also makes me value this kind of food more, and I have started relishing it all the more. When I order a pizza now, it feels like a treasure to me, and I often take a lot of time finishing because I want to relish each bite.
On the other hand, I have developed taste for some food that was earlier not a part of my eating habit, like Tulsi tea with honey (instead of caffeine-rich beverages) , egg white (sometimes I put a bit of butter to add to taste), red wine (instead of whiskey or beer), etc. If I manage to leave my stomach a bit empty after meals, I feel lighter and more active through the day.
What inspires me to “eat to live” mode is not weight loss, since that happens with other contributions like exercise. The feel good factor of eating right is astounding but happens when you sustain with eating to live on a longer period than a motivation for few days.
If you want to switch from “live to eat” to “eat to live” then you will need to make affirmative changes to the way you eat.
#1 Compulsively buy healthy food. If your refrigerator is stuffed with fresh fruits and vegetables then you would be compelled to finish them than go out and eat. Do that every evening while coming back from work.
#2 Remember your resolution. This is where most of us give up. Some like to put this message on the wallpaper of their desktops or mobile phones, some like a gentle reminder from their peers, colleagues. I remember having a friend who wanted to quit smoking. To do that, he challenged his colleagues at work that whosoever caught him with a cigarette in and around office will get an instant reward of Rs. 100.
# 3 Eat Slow. Eating slow does wonders to us. If we chew the food right and eat it in a relaxed manner we will always digest the food better. Eating slow does not usually happen with sinful food where our animal instincts find an outlet.
# 4 Exercise. If you exercise regularly and reap the benefits, you would not want to ruin the effort by having unhealthy stuff.
# 5 Eat light @ night. This is the trump card. If you eat light and early in the evening, then you will always have stomach for a filling breakfast, which always tends to be the healthiest meal of the day.
Eating to Live is a long term investment and can keep you away from a lot of ailments such as diabetes, strokes, digestive disorders, dysfunctions and malnutrition. In my case, my body took a long time getting used to the mode and I have had problems with digestion. There were other aspects like going to bed psychologically hungry, not having eaten something that stuffs the stomach. From what I have heard and read, Eating to Live can be a habit only if practised religiously. So, next time you cross Domino’s, don’t let a picture of cheesy pizza appear on your mind, instead picture the perfect health of yours and worship it by sticking to Eating to Live mode.
Image: grancengamour.com
