In my experience, there is one ‘no-brainer habit’ too good health. It is to cook as many meals as you can, for yourself. One should bear the responsibility for what goes into your body. Personally, this is not a power I am willing to give away.
If this way of living is a little new for you, start with planning for a week. What are your health goals? Also, touch base with the gourmet and taste lover in you. Are there any flavours you long for? Or are there any tastes that make you feel adventurous or satisfied? I am assuming you are already aware that flavours of junk food are not the only ones you enjoy. Introspect, list out the healthy, freshly-cooked, delicious food you love. Junk food can be an occasional treat and is to be had mindfully.
Now that you have a list ready, procure the best ingredients you can manage and afford. Choose local, and, as much as possible, buy vegetables, lentils, and legumes from farmers’ markets or the neighbourhood open markets. There’s a difference between touching and choosing the red carrots and buying them after seeing a picture of a carrot on your phone. It is a big compromise on living well. Try to be as involved as you can in your food life. Minimise anything that comes in jars, and plastics, and try to avoid anything with chemicals and preservatives.
I have friends who tell me that they don’t have time to cook or that they don’t enjoy cooking. These are people who are often successful career men and women. I also notice how this unintelligent prioritisation from intelligent people results in health problems. What you refuse to deal with inside you will definitely
manifest outside and will then add fear and discomfort to your life.
Start with simple recipes but use the freshest ingredients. Cooking is a joy. All your senses are used in the temple called the kitchen. Slicing a tomato with a sharp knife is a delight. Break a nutmeg and lose yourself in that fragrance. Chew a little cardamom. Delight in the redness of the Kashmiri chilli. Hear the mustard seeds splutter. And soon, a delicious, fragrant dish is ready. Set a place on the table with the best crockery and cutlery. Add some fresh flowers. You must treat yourself as the guest of honour, every day.
Eat slowly, marvelling each mouthful.
Why must you cook, you ask? So that you can personally check, control, and balance any oils, fats, and salts. And, of course, any nutrition-dense food. Only you know what you have eaten the day before and the week before, hence only you can choose nutrition accordingly. Slowly, this habit will become an extension of yourself and your now healthy and happy body. Cooking is powerful self-care; it is therapeutic. Love the most important person in your life, which is yourself.
Anupamaa Dayal
This fashion designer is about happy clothes and happy homes for happy women