A small fun activity for you all –
How much do you earn in a month, after all taxes, what comes into your bank account? Think of the figure in your head or write it down on a piece of paper. Say, you wrote $5000 or Rs. 50,000 or €5000.
Now, write down how much money you CAN spend in a month? Can you spend $7000, can you spend Rs. 50,100? I don’t think so.
Now, you might have some savings, write them down, let’s say you get $5000 per month, and you have around $150,000 in your bank savings account, saved over 7 years.
Can you buy a car worth $200,000 right now in cash? I don’t think so.
You might need to pay in installments and you can buy it, but you can not pay the full amount at this minute, can you?
So, what do you do? Do you still go about and purchase handbags worth $1500 every month, or rent an apartment worth $4000 per month, or buy a car with installment of $3000 each month? No, you don’t. You plan your finances and you buy what you can afford. You plan most purchases, and set a budget for expenses, savings etc? Or do you go out on pay-day and spend Rs.20,000 when the salary credited to your account was Rs.10,000?
If you forget credit cards for a minute, how can you physically even pay that amount? You can not.
If you can not spend a penny more than you get into your bank, so how can you consume more food than you body allows?
If I am not working enough to buy an Audi, I will not buy it. So, if I am not working enough to burn that cupcake from my body, I will not eat it.
I love food, I love that cupcake, and that cheesecake, the pizza, the chole bhature, the gulab jamun and the jalebi and that chicken biryani. Same way I also love the BMW X6 model, I love that sea view penthouse, I love that Louis Vuitton handbag.
But I don’t go out and spend my hard earned money on those, why?
I think the same way about the food I eat.
I post a lot about #CleanEating on my Instagram, where I share the healthy food I cook and hope to inspire some of you to do it too. And I feel so happy when my friends and followers get inspired or message me looking for motivation or ideas. But, at the same time I also get messages or comments from many saying that Why do I do this? Why do I ‘torture’ myself by eating the broccoli or the quinoa or the green smoothies.
I also have these conversations often with people wanting to get ‘slim’ or ‘healthy’ and at the same time saying, ‘I can’t leave my favorite food’ ‘We have only one life, why live it like this’ ‘I just can’t eat bland food’ ‘How can you eat bland food’ Some even believe that I need to learn cooking because I don’t know how to cook tasty food, they feel sympathy for me(& my husband) that we have to eat such bland food because I do not know how to cook ‘good food’. Now, I am not going to prove it to anyone about the taste of the food I CAN cook, because my family and friends who actually get to eat my food know well enough how good or bad it is. But, I do try to prove it to everyone on the internet how damn tasty healthy food is and how tasty you can make it(more on that later)! The point here is that I choose not to cook biryani or butter chicken or any fried food. I choose not to even buy refined flour, or frying oil, or frying utensils in my kitchen. I do indulge in these when I know I can afford to, when I have worked hard enough and have earned it.
To my knowledge, nobody in their right mind goes to a store and buys an expensive car impulsively when they don’t have the finances for it. They plan for it, they save for it, they are mindful of their expenses in day to day life, they keep track of every thing they spend to be aware of where the money is going.
The same way, I believe in being mindful of keeping track of everything I eat. If you offer me a cookie right now, I will do mental calculations to see if I can afford to eat this right now, and how I can compensate for it. Mindless eating is the root to every health problem, in my opinion.
If I am going on a trip where there will be added expenses for hotels and flights, I will make sure to control the other expenses before the trip. Same way, I will control what I eat before it as I know I will be indulging during the trip.
I am not perfect, nowhere close to being perfect. I am also not perfect in my expenses, often I buy that one expensive perfume or lipstick that I love, without any planning or tracking. Everyone does that and that’s normal human behavior. But, if I start buying those items every day, they will add up and make a huge dent in my bank account.
Same way, I have that one pizza or those cheesecake or chicken wings without any planning. But if I start doing that daily, it will all add up and cause me a health setback.
Another point here is your metabolism. I often hear the most common reason of not getting fit to be – he/she can eat whatever they want but if I eat only 1 pizza slice and I gain weight so I can’t do anything. I too am guilty of feeling bad about this very often.
I think of metabolism like inheritance. You inherit money or assets from your parents and ancestors. If someone inherits a million, they will spend accordingly, and if someone inherits 10,000 they will spend accordingly.
Your metabolism too is like that. There is no point in cribbing why someone else got a better metabolism and you did not. Instead, be aware of what your body can handle and nurture it accordingly. If you know you are going to gain weight if you eat more rice than 1 cup, then why are you eating it? Just because your friend’s body allows it, does not mean you should eat it too.
Bill Gates’ children might inherit millions in their account but those millions too will get over one day if used recklessly. To maintain that inheritance, children of the rich and famous make wise investments which enables them to lead that lavish life.
So if you got a good metabolism, great! But if not well maintained, a good metabolism can turn bad very quickly. Taking it for granted is not such a wise investment.
Bottom line of this long long post is – Understand your body, know what it needs to be healthy, be mindful of what you put into your body! 
P.S. Healthy food that tastes good coming soon
Source: Cupcake and last image from Google. All other images are my own and not for reproduction.
