The Daily Growth Blog #34/365| Refresh Week: Fueling the body right
Food can make or break us. Literally and figuratively.
I used to fall sick quite often as a child. Every time I fell sick, my dad would take me to the doctor, who’d prescribe some medicines. I’d have those medicines, my body would invariably also have a fever and I’d get better in a few days with or without medicine.
This happened a lot - at least once every month, if not more. A cycle of sickness, medicine and getting better, slowly and steadily. Everyone thought I was just weak. (Even I thought I was weak — just look at me).
Slowly my mom started reading about Yoga, Ayurveda and Naturopathy. One day she came to me and said, “Listen Vineet, everything is linked to your stomach. If you can keep your stomach fine, you’ll not fall sick. Even if you fall sick, let your stomach rest and you’ll be better faster”.
I was intrigued. I trusted my mother above all else and knew that she wouldn’t share something of this magnitude without having studied it properly. I decided to ‘believe’ in this philosophy without asking too many questions.
That was the start of a deeper understanding of the body, overall. And the start of a fitter self. I began to understand my headaches, my common cold, muscle soreness after a fall and how my body healed.
This simple knowledge helped me tremendously. I was able to become a fitter person, almost overnight. No, not gym-fit but at least non-sick-fit. As soon as I started feeling a bit queasy, or felt that I was coming down with a cold or a cough, I’d take it a bit easy during lunch or dinner. Have porridge instead of Roti, Dal, Sabzi or skip that dessert I’d been craving for the whole day.
This really helped. It probably gave my body the energy to fight off whatever it was that was trying to wreak havoc inside. Energy saved in trying to digest something heavy could be expended in boosting the immune system. Made scientific and biological sense.
I’m still understanding various facets of my body but I have reached a point in life where I know, more or less, how it reacts and how I can keep it functioning optimally.
Context
Over the last few years, while I have understood when to give a break to my digestion, and also managed to stop over-eating completely (I never fill myself beyond 70%, no matter where I am, what I eat), I do feel the need to go deeper into nutrition. I need to take my food intake skills to the next level. I am serious, this is a real skill and I’m happy I have developed quite a bit of self control over the years but I do lose it every now and then.
Knowing what to eat, when to eat and how to eat in a more scientific manner, will help take me to the next level of understanding the body, as a machine. And how do I keep this machine functioning well, through adequate and appropriate fuel-intake.
Servicing & Repair
Beyond just self control, a carefully manipulated diet is something I’d like to get into, given that my surroundings are (more or less) under control now.
So there are two basic aspects to this ‘area of improvement’ —
1. Control my food intake in all situations, to ensure I am always getting up from a meal, slightly hungry.
2. Create a disciplined meal plan that helps me get to my ‘best body’.
While #1 is taken care of, and I have never had a bad day (except maybe Diwali 2021 when I hogged some extra sweets which took me to 90% of my stomach’s capacity), #2 is something I have to get kicking on. It is high time I got a hold of my weekly eating habits.
The world around is so convenient to do this now. Everything is available at our doorstep. Hence, there is no need to procrastinate on this. While a cheat meal here and there is good, I would like to build a mind that is disciplined enough to eat right, majority of the time.
This also translates into creating my ‘best body ever’ which requires me to wean off some fat from my tummy (a teeny weeny bit of it) and build a lot more muscle.
Over the last few weeks, in preparing for this ‘refresh’, I have spent time researching, tracking my calorie intake and being more mindful of what, how and when I eat. This coupled with a more disciplined meal plan, a fitness regime that is driven by my experiences (& mistakes), and a renewed sense of passion, should get me to where I want to get to, in a month or two.
Test Drive
Today is Wednesday. Wednesday is our weekly dinner date. Yashna and I will go have some nice Korean/Japanese food, at our regular haunt. We haven’t done this in quite some time because of a bit of travel. Excited for this and for my mall visit — Love going to malls. Just brings out the kind of happiness that people normally derive from hills or rivers or other forms of natural beauty. (What can I say, I am an artificial being).
Idling & Warmth
Ah, today I’m grateful for opportunity. There is so much opportunity in this world, it is so progressive and exciting to be alive today. I am thankful to my family (for the upbringing, love & support) and all the organizations that I’ve been fortunate enough to be associated with — for being there and for allowing someone like me to progress and become who I am today.
It’s such a wonderful feeling to be living in this world of opportunity and growth.
The Vineet of 2011 would never have imagined this for the Vineet of 2021. And I’m grateful to have been able to do something worthwhile with my time here.
Happy December!