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I would for sure not want to miss this challenge of @NaturalMedicine - Write about YOUR Approach to Healthy Eating

Health is Wealth right? Our real Wealth.
How we will live from now on till the time we exist completely depends on how well we take care of our physical body. And taking care of physical body means taking care of what we feed in to our self and our lifestyle.

So let me share with you what my diet is like on a normal day and at large. Yes there are some exceptions of indulgences and the cheat days that I have, specially the weekend evenings. But then I also make it a point to make it up for the undisciplined days.

To start with, the one thing that I have been following since the past 20 years is the 16 Hour Intermittent fasting schedule. And my body has completely set into this routine. The only time this is not followed is the time when I am travelling. That too not the short holidays of 1 or 2 days. Only when I am on a long holiday out of Country then I skip this routine, because normally after the breakfast then you are out the whole day.
So other then that the 16 to 17hrs fasting is followed. My body is tuned to this cycle and I have seen good results in terms of good health. In the last many years, I do not even remember how many, I have not taken a single pill and I am close to 50, so that validates the effectiveness of my diet and lifestyle.

My ideal day starts at 07:30 a.m. and by 08:30 I am done with arranging the bed, bath and all set to start the day. From 08:30 to 09:30 a.m. is then time for my Meditation and Yoga which is also followed religiously. Once in a way if for any reason I am not able to do it, then it makes me feel lethargic. After that half an hour is relaxation time in which I have my herbal tea, which is home made with a mix of all the herbs, which helps building up immunity. I consume this tea 3 cups a day, One morning, one after lunch and one after dinner.

Then the day goes ahead with my normal daily chores and office work. Thankfully all my work is from home so that gives me space to do things at my pace and time.

Coming to my diet. I am into eating simple home made cooked food. The things that are strictly NO and out of my kitchen are vegetable oils, refined sugar, packed foods, frozen foods, all the ready to eat food items that comes with preservatives, junk food (chips, pastries, sweets), aerated drinks, canned juices, white bread, sweetened cereals, white noodles and pastas, pizza, candy bars, hot spices, and all of these type of items.

The things that are sometimes made are snacks and chappatis made from wheat. I normally prepare it from Rice flour or Millet, but sometimes we use wheat flour, specially when we have guest.

What stays in my kitchen
Fresh vegetables
Fresh Chicken and Meat, I look for farm fed meat and chicken but sometimes it's difficult to get so then I go for fresh meat and chicken sourced from local vendors.
Spices and Herbs to use for cooking
Ghee - All our food is cooked in ghee, including if we have to fry something. Lately we got a Airfryer so now the ghee consumption in frying items is reduced.
Fresh fruits
Refined sugar is replaced with coconut sugar

The list of NOs is very big in our kitchen then the YES. Till mid 90s in Mumbai city we never had any fast food restaurants and we never grew up eating burgers, pizza, KFC, MacD, or ever had coke, pepsi or the canned juices at home and to a very large extent I will say that I still live in that age. My hubby though he is very fond of KFC, so he is allowed to have that once in 6 months.

It's not that I have not indulged in these foods, but those were some ignorant days and now also as I mentioned once in a while I still do, but that once in a while is once in 3 to 4 mths. But here also somethings are absolutely cut off, like the aerated drinks, canned juices and ready to eat food items.

Our dinner gets done by 8 p.m. latest, except for weekends when we are normally out, or with friends. I prefer this disciplined lifestyle as I feel it has good benefits in the longer run.

In the last couple of years, even eating out we try to keep up with our diet by selecting restaurants that give healthy choices, or order food that is baked, grill, not spicy.

As I mentioned my daily diet is very simple, We have dal, rice and a vegetable or a meat dish along with it and fruits. I just have 2 whole meals in the day Lunch and Dinner, there is no in-between munching. Evening I have a glass of fresh coconut water or some fruits if I feel hungry. I normally stick to an Avocado for my evening hunger.
We majorly follow an autoimmune diet, specially because of my husband's autoimmune condition.

I do consume alcohol once in a while, a glass of wine or a vodka peg with lime water are my favorite choices. Nowadays you also get gluten free alcohol. A beer is also ok once in a while. My alcohol once in a while cycle is fortnightly :-) and limited to max 2 glasses.

Evening time an hour of walk time is again a mandatory regime. The days I am not able to go out, I take a walk in my corridor which is a good 200 steps one round, and I do around 25 rounds which gives me 5k steps.

Source

I ensure that everything that goes in my body, I am mindful about it and along with that a mindful life which is stress free, which is like sleeping well, not stressing out unnecessary, reading positive, spending as much time possible in nature.

A Holistic healthy life is just not about the right diet but also the other parts of your life. Your thoughts, lifestyle, emotions, everything matters to a healthy living. Toxic food and toxic lifestyle both can be harmful. You may age but the glow on your face should not fade is what I believe and that glow can stay even if you are 70 or 80, the overall body energy will clearly show up on our face.

My friends sometimes make fun of me that I am so stringent about all of this, but then time will tell who will have the last laugh. We should know where and when to pull back. We always do not need to stuff up our system, we need to give it equally enough time to digest. Listening to our body signals is very important, as far as your system can digest it is good, but the moment the body gives out some signals and triggers which are not comfortable feeling then one should understand the food is not good.

My motto with my diet is I Eat enough to Live energetically and not Live to Eat.

Thank you for visiting my blog. 👼🏻👼🏻💖💖🌹🌺🌸