Identifying healthy eating habits

You are what you eat. Public schools promote healthy eating habits. Growing up as a kid in an urban environment, I was aware of these few categories of food eaters: M-F

• Those who eat school food during the day and eat home cooked food at night
• Those who eat school food during the day and eat take outs/ dine in at night
• Those who eat outside of school purchased food during the day and home cooked food at night
• Those who eat outside of school purchased food during the day and eat take outs/ dine in at night
• Those who brings home prepped food to school for the day and eat home cooked food at night
• Those who brings home prepped food to school for the day and eat take outs/ dine in at night

And then for the weekends, it would be a variation of these:

• Home prepped / Home prepped / Home prepped
• Home prepped /Home Prepped / Dine in/Take out
• Home Prepped / Dine in/Take out / Dine in/Take out
• Dine in/Take out / Dine in/Take out / Dine in/Take out

Within the subsets of these meals eaten, I will furthermore label them as healthy or unhealthy options. With each of these options, I can also classify the process as slow food, moderately prepared food, or fast food. Yes, there may even be some quote and quote healthy foods within the fast food options; something like a salad.

What do these options mean?

What accepting these processes may mean about your choices subconsciously? I won’t explain moderate options as they are just in between the spectrums of healthy vs unhealthy and fast vs slow. Kind of understandable right?

Slow food healthy options consumes time and displays a heart for quality as a standard. Accuracy and precise order flow makes the right dishes. Kind of like having your own suit or dress tailored for you, preparing a meal addresses your own bodily needs; only you know yourself best after all. While healthy foods usually consists of taste I wouldn’t describe as flavorful, it does have its own personality that is good for you in the long run.

Fast food healthy options are rare. If we were to look at all the steps for slow food healthy options, the only step that we can minimize the most, in order for this to work out, is time (usually from having to cook something up). While keeping holding certain qualities, it does come with cons. The variety of food options within this category isn’t a lot. Aside from salads and sandwiches, there aren’t much to fulfill this.

Slow food unhealthy options is what your grandmother sometimes makes you to cheer you up. Or what you make for yourself? to cheer yourself up? It is not good for you. Not knowing what combinations of food falling into this category is ignorance. Refusing to accept that certain kind of food to actually fall into this category, after knowing, is foolish. But time is still a factor in this category. Why put in so much time to make something that is not good for health? Perhaps you are upset? Pros? Yes, quality through time. However, I would pay close attention to this category because, logically, it is a flag waiving for attention. Why? Putting in time and effort into anything is a positive trait. Having expectations and standards is good. The sensation of devouring the work put into it, is great! But the ultimate consequences coming after the health of a person; that is counterintuitive! Positive + Positive = Negative? Doesn’t seem right. If this option is chosen consistently, there may be underlying issues to address.

Fast food unhealthy options speaks for itself. When time minimizes, so does quality. Basically, the decisions are to adopt results to satisfy a necessity without a care for addressing bodily needs. Fool yourself once? It is ok. Fool yourself twice, Whatever. Fool yourself consistently? You fill in the words. This option exemplifies a lack care for how one chooses to face their everyday problems and will come with long term consequences.

Mostly, fast foods are fried. The faster it is fried, the more oil was used in the process. The more oil we consume, the more tiring we will feel. This is point one. Readily edible foods usually come in some form of preservatives. Preservatives are toxins to our liver. This is point two. We only have so much body energy a day, depending sleep and other lifestyle habits that may add on or take away energy from us. Other physical and mental exhaustions, the body organs also consumes energy to function, such as our liver. Eating the food in this option is going to ultimately make us tire out from depletion of energy; combining point one and point two, and is not a good decision. All decisions that follow after this option are built on top of a bad one to start off with.

Choosing food choices wisely

Regardless whether time is a factor or not resulting in which process we have decided, we still should ask ourselves if this is what we want. Philosophically, even though, food is a necessity, we can still want to eat certain foods that makes us feel great. If there is a will, there is a way. At the very least, I love to be leaning the healthy side as I do not want the feeling of tired after eating. Low body energy may be a sign of nutrient deficiency. A bit of everything is good. Balancing is the key but we need to be aware.

If what you eat is your choice, and by saying that those are your choices of food which fuels the rest of your day and everything else you do. This means in frequency, your life choices powered by “what you eat”. Do you care?