your body is not a checking account

Eating a healthy diet is not easy. We, humans, are complex beings. It doesn’t matter how much we educate ourselves about the fact that our main motive to eat is to fuel our bodies, we actually make our food choices based on their enjoyment factor. In fact, we find eating to be such an enjoyable experience that we plan ahead and choose in advance what meals we would be eating later during the day. We don’t shy from eating foods that tantalize our taste buds in the moment but don’t make us feel good afterward. Against our better judgment, we end up choosing momentary pleasures over long-term consequences.

We primarily view the food we eat as entertainment and with time cultivate a flawed mindset that eating healthy means eating unpleasant things. We can’t argue that in today’s fast-paced world, quick, unhealthy food has become one of the seductive entities that we can’t escape from no matter where we go. Many of us think that we can eat whatever we want as long as we can burn those calories off in the gym but trading pizzas and cheeseburgers for an extra half an hour at the fitness center misses the point of sustaining a healthy lifestyle. As JJ Virgin points out, “When you look at food as information, it connects the dots for you. You move past the archaic calories-in, calories-out bank account model for fat loss. Look at your body as a rather complex biochemistry lab, not a checking account.”