HEALTHY YOU = HEALTHY SOUL + HEALTHY MIND + HEALTHY BODY
Let me start with a very famous saying of a German philosopher, Ludwig FeuerbachI “We are what we Eat”. Though I do not confer with Ludwig’s interpretation of it but none the less, this five word sentence can have a very powerful impact on your lifestyle if viewed through the prism of Vedic culture.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic we have all lived through the times of ever growing culture to eat out, snack on processed food and relish the fast food. This pandemic forced all of us to stay indoors and eat a home cooked food everyday as there was no option to be lazy. But out of all this madness, the positive that I see that most of us started to understand the importance of home cooked food. In this blog I will tell you why pandemic or no pandemic, we should all make home cooked food part of our daily lifestyle as it is the food for our soul.
Even before I write a word of advice, I should confess that my husband and I were foodies and we just loved exploring restaurants whenever we had an opportunity to do so. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of having good(by our pre-enlightenment definition) food served by restaurants providing awesome experiences. We used to have stockpile of snacks and packaged food available at our home at any given point of time. This slowly and steadily creeped into our mindset turning us lazy enough(hope my in-laws are not reading 😉 ) to opt for ready to eat or outside food. The result was a no-brainer guess, increasing body dimensions and increasing force of gravity on us.
People who know me or follow my blogs or YouTube channel or my Facebook page, know about me that I was not born neither grew up as a cooking enthusiast and hence, I hardly spent time in kitchen. This was mostly because it never dawned on me that cooking can actually lead to a healthier lifestyle. Then how did it come to me? Unfortunately I did not have those eureka moment but had to learn and understand this the hard way and that is why I think it makes sense. The ball started rolling post my torrid experience of suffering through Typhoid. The illness grounded me for couple of months with food restrictions, another few months to help me recover. It was an horrible experience, but again the positive that I drew out of it was that, I stopped taking what I eat for granted. I realised the importance of food in my life, and understood how by making few conscious changes in the way we cook food we can lead a healthy lifestyle. This was the result of me being able to see food more consciously from health aspect. I will tell you about the taste aspect in a while.
So, my journey towards a healthy lifestyle has been no less than a rollercoaster ride and the one which really scares the shit out of you. The first step that I took was, I became seriously conscious about everything I was eating. I made simple and boiled food part of my daily lifestyle. But when I said my journey was a rollercoaster ride, I meant it, as soon as I recovered from the blows of Typhoid I came to know about the stones in my gall bladder. I was still pondering over the advice to get operated and then all sorts of unwarranted advice from the pseudo doctors who come as family and friends that how getting it operated at the earliest is the only way out. In mids’t of all this fuss there was a good news, that I was expecting.
We all know(men not included) about the cravings one has during their pregnancy. But with me, things were different. I was so serious about having healthy food to ensure that gall bladder stones do not lead to any complications during my pregnancy, that I decided to have only home cooked simple food. Every one asked me about my cravings but to their astonishment, I was not craving for any unhealthy or outside food.
And after giving birth to my bulk of joy, I decided on one thing that giving my child a healthy lifestyle will be my number one priority. So now I had to improvise in my cooking to make it healthy and relishing at the same time. That is how my experiments with food started and I started enjoying cooking new recipes so that I can make healthy and delicious food for my child. Read my previous sentence again, you will notice the “and” is the only highlighted word, as it is the most important of all as it just shoots away any possibility of “or” there.
I now know my experiments were successful and I have won the battle as my son who is now 5 years of age, eats all varieties of vegetables and fruits and his favourite food is “home cooked food”. Making those subtle changes in the cooking ingredients, tweaking recipes to cater to both health and taste, and concentrating more on nutritional delivery through food were my weapons of choice.
When I say lifestyle, I look at it from a 360 degree perspective. So the homemade food not only helps in getting our body healthier but is good for our soul and economy as well.
I noticed that when we cook food at home with a pure heart of providing health and nutrition to our family members, there is a very special bond that is created between the family members and it leads to a positive environment in the house. When all family members sit together and have their meal together which is full of the positive energy from the love and affection of the person cooking, it leads to a happy and healthy mind. People are also more careful towards the food and there is low wastage of food as it is prepared as per the taste and appetite of the family members. Moreover, if it is healthy and delicious it will cut down the wastage of food.
It also gives an opportunity for the other members of your family to get involved in the process of cooking, which leads to healthy nurturing of relationship and value the food in their plate as they have been part of it. With this in mind, I have been involving my son in cooking activities. Though he just turned 5, he helps me with plucking leaves, rolling chapatis, getting things from the refrigerator, getting vegetables etc. I also take his help in few cleaning activities which makes him cautious towards cleanliness and other stuff.
Another benefit of it is, that this will ensure that he does not grow up with the mindset that only girls should spend time in the kitchen but rather appreciate and consider it as a basic survival skill which each one us should learn and thus irrespective of the gender one should know how to cook. So while cooking food I always have my commando helping me to achieve our mission of healthy lifestyle.
I will urge you to also cook homemade meals as often as possible and involve as many members of your family in the process(forget about the saying too many cooks spoil the broth) so that you cook as a team and enjoy the outcome as a family. Well all said and done, indulging yourself in the culinary experience outside your home once in a week or two won’t count for an unhealthy lifestyle as by making homemade food your priority on all other days you have already boarded yourself on a journey of healthy lifestyle.
So, the equation mentioned above. Hence Proved.. 🙂
Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu