Food, Will Power and a Problem of Excesses

What I already know about food, but seem to ignore everyday

After watching the “What the Health” documentary on January 1st, my resolve to live a healthy lifestyle has been reignited. Enter Intermittent fasting, where I give my liver a break for 18 hours each day, and eat only in a window of 12pm to 6pm.

However, just three days into it, I’m embarrassed to say that I’m struggling. Its a test in will power and because I’m American, its also a problem of excesses. An excess in readily available cheap and heavily processed food. Its no surprise that Developed countries have the highest rates of obesity in its poorest people and Developing countries in its richest people. Its so true with America and India respectively.

I don’t exercise on a daily basis. There’s no such thing as motivation according to Mel Robbins. But, I don’t even get to make myself count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, launch, like how she does.

I shouldn’t be feeding my body snacks and junk food bites at odd times of the day, but I’m used to doing it. I also have a need to measure my weight every two days. Before sleeping each night, I make sure I feel my girth with my palms and lament.

My French friend says that Americans are capable of eating icecream any time of the day, and anytime of the year. And it surprises me that Parisians have not started doing it. I know, Indians have. They can now eat pizza and icecream anywhere, on the road, in the malls, day and midnight.

• Anything the liver doesn’t recognize as food and deems foreign, it puts it aside to process later. Imagine a whole sea of processed food ingredient debris floating in your body.
• Our ancestors ate when they were hungry. And because we deemed that to be too cave man like, we structured and organized timings around food. For breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• Giving liver a break to process food and release toxins is one way of ensuring that toxins don’t stay back in the body and cause cancers.
• Its not entirely upto my will power, because the processed food industry manufactures its food in a way that’s highly addictive.
• The final food for the day should be consumed atleast 3 hours before bedtime. Blood that has been in the stomach digesting food has to finish its job there and go to the brain while the brain is still in the Alpha stage – the state of wakeful relaxation with closed eyes before we fall asleep. That way the brain gets a chance to clean toxins from its neurotransmitters while we’re sleeping.
• Food, according to Hinduism, is medicine.

As a mom, I walk the fine line between grabbing what’s convenient food, at the expense of unrecognizable ingredients and cooking morning and evening to put “real food” on the table. After all, isn’t nurturing, of the body and mind, the only gift I can give my children?

Are you on this food and health journey too? If yes, I strongly recommend watching “What the Health” if you want to know more about factory farming and the modern day food supply thanks to the heavily industrialized food manufacturing methods of our modern age.

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