You Are What You Eat

Welcome back!

You would have often heard the phrase “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!”.

What does that mean to you?

For me, personally it means that what you feed or put inside your body, determines your mood, your energy levels, the condition of your skin, your health, and fitness and your appearance.

I also absolutely believe in the phrase ‘FOOD IS MEDICINE’.

The right food can keep you away from sickness and also heal you from sickness.

Wow!! FOOD! ………. Such an interesting topic with a million different viewpoints. There is so much hype, so much discussion, so many theories, so many different diets and so much confusion surrounding this topic.

Before I go ahead on this topic, let me tell you that I am NOT a Registered Nutritionist/Dietician. But, in the capacity of your Face Yoga Coach, I can tell you that what you eat makes a big difference to your skin, the health of your face and the way you age. To simply put it

GOOD FOOD = GOOD SKIN

All I want to do here is share with you my perspective on food and what has been working for me for decades now. I also want to caution you that this might not be something that will work for you or something I am prescribing. But my attempt is to get you to start thinking about the way you perceive food and find a diet that works best for you and your body.

I believe that food is a basic human need and hence, its best to keep it simple and straight forward. It should not be something hard to figure out.

Born into a vegetarian family, I have been a vegetarian all my life. So please excuse me for my ignorance in this topic when it comes to meat.

Some of my thoughts on food

1. Keep it Simple:

I don’t believe in any of the fancy diets in the market neither do I believe in the concept of seeing food as proteins, carbs and fats. All these things make food too complicated and hard to figure out. Food must be seen as fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, dairy and meat. If you take a look the food in my culture, which is Indian, our ancestors have already made perfect wholesome combinations of food that goes well together or compliments each other perfectly to offer a balanced nutrition. Now that takes me to the second point.

2. Choose foods closer to your culture:

I suggest making food choices that are closer to your culture and what your grandparents and great grandparents would eat before the processed food industries took over our lives. That’s the kind of food that is probably engraved in our genes and easier for our body to accept and process easily.

3. Natural Vs Processed:

There is another way I categorize my food and i.e Natural vs Processed.

THE CLOSER THE FOOD IS TO IT’S NATURAL FORM, THE BETTER IT IS FOR OUR BODIES.’

Moving towards healthier natural foods and avoiding unhealthy processed foods will accelerate your efforts in reaching your goal of looking and feeling your best.

For e.g.: I wouldn’t think twice before gorging up 3 mangoes, but I rarely eat cookies and doughnuts. Both have lots of sugar. But the source of sugar is important. One is a natural source and other one is processed and refined. Eating natural would also mean cooking more at home and more time and effort. But I am sure it’s so worth it.

4. No guilt – Follow the 80/20 Rule for Food.

As far as 80% of my food choices are healthy, I don’t worry or wallow in guilt about the 20% of times when I relax my rules to enjoy a treat. I eat what I like if I think it is healthy and natural.

Sometimes I also eat not so healthy food, but I really do not care about it as I know most of food I intake is healthy.

5. No Fad Diets

Going for these fad diets like keto might give amazing results instantly….but what happens is most of these diets are hard to stick to and once you give up…..you are back to square one or sometimes even worse. Now these are the things that I been personally following for years, and it has worked for me in keeping me fit and healthy. The things I mentioned above are also the things that I don’t have to force myself to do. It is something I am naturally inclined towards doing. That’s the reason I find it very easy to persist with. I value my body and I would like to treat it with respect.

But I don’t know you, your body, or your health condition. So, listen to your body and do what works for you keeping this as a basic guideline.

So, to summarize, this is what I can tell you…

Food is Personal

There is no one magic diet that works for all.

But there are certainly a few basic guidelines (which I have mentioned below) that you can chose to follow to come up with something that works for you. Find a diet,

• That includes mostly natural foods.

• Something that suits your body and lifestyle.

• Something that you can persist with for a lifetime.

• So, it’s all important to make sure it’s something that you like.

If you’re confused, try to refer back to what your grandparents ate. The key is I am repeating again……Find a healthy diet that suits ‘YOU’…..I mean ‘YOU’ and that works for ‘YOUR’ body.

General Food Guidelines:

• Foods to consume regularly: Seasonal fruits, seasonal vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, pulses and legumes, herbs and spices, fermented foods.

• Foods to Avoid: Refined sugar, alcohol, caffeine, carbonated drinks/pop, tobacco

• Foods to Reduce: Deep fried, refined, or processed food. (Chips, donuts, packaged foods)

PLEASE NOTE: I am not including food allergens like dairy, gluten, meat etc. as it varies for every individual.

So we just have 3 categories ……….Simple right?????

Now that we have tackled the phrase “You are what you eat”, let us look into another not so common phrase but plays a big role in your health and food habits, and that is ‘You are also how you eat’.

Stay tuned for my next blog and I will catch you there.