By Bhavna Malhotra, Consultant – Nutrition & Lifestyle
bhavna.nutritionqueries@
A smartphone with a camera in our hands 24×7 has made clicking selfies a normal part of the day. This is positive to an extent as we have developed self-love but we constantly walk on the tight rope of self-love and self-obsession. When the filters fail us in a bid to look perfect we focus on making our bodies perfect with strict/ obsessive diets.
With the current tide of extreme diets and fancy diets are we focussing too much on the outer appearance and forgetting the basic need of inner fulfilment, peace and nourishment which is the main purpose of feeding ourselves?
Now try to remember the last time you were following a very strict diet with only proteins or a high-fat diet. Were you planning the next meal all the time? Were you stressed about sourcing the right foods when you attended a social gathering or visited someone’s place? Were you obsessively checking your weight every day even on your vacation? Were you just obsessed with the size of the next dress that you’ll buy? Did you stop eating with family at mealtimes just to keep up with your diet?
If the answer to these questions is yes, then let’s take a step back and look deeper within at how it was affecting you socially, emotionally and personally without you even noticing it because you were just stuck on that elusive number on the scale. The constant stress of sourcing the right foods for your diet regime was taking all the pleasure out of the social gatherings and family outings. You could see people around enjoying and celebrating but you couldn’t connect. You stopped eating meals with family as it meant fighting temptations. It left you eating alone which can be daunting. Food no longer meant peaceful mealtimes with friends and family but it became just a science of losing weight. You did feel good about the number on the scale or the size of the dress but you stopped noticing the happiness you were missing out on.
Having self-control has always been appreciated in our culture. Our ancient scriptures talk about fasting and avoiding of tamsik foods to achieve good health. In fact, given the times we live in with all the junk food around following a sane, healthy diet itself requires self-control. So am I contradicting myself? No, here the key word is ‘control’ and we do not want to cross the thin line between control and ‘over control’! A good, healthy diet should fit your lifestyle like an old shoe. It should be tailor-made to your schedules, eating habits and most importantly close to your culture. A diet which is not alien to you would not alienate you.
After all, food is not just a means to fill our bellies but a celebration in itself. It is a beautiful thread that can bring families and friends together. Food can be an expression of love when you cook it for your loved ones, it can be an expression of joy when you make that fancy dessert for your child, it can be an expression of peace when you just sit together at the end of the day and have a lovely meal with your family. So control your food but do not let it control you!!
