A Wednesday!

I fold my hands in prayer on this Guru Purnima. 🙏🏼

I am very humbled to have received such encouraging and warm comments on my first post. I can go on writing on how grateful I am to be here, to be able to share my thoughts and to know they are being read. I have always struggled to convey my thankfulness in precise words. Thank you all of you, really 🙏🏼

Preface:

I was writing the Part 2 of ‘A Heart That Only Knows to Give out Love’ when I continued on writing about my food choices, I thought it should not go on that post and created a new one here. This is something I keep pondering over and just shared here. I write about how I formed my food habit and how I am doing currently. I look forward to moving to a much healthier diet in future, for now this is how I eat.

Story:

I quit eating poultry and seafood when I was a little kid, following my father’s footstep. I started eating eggs for a small period of time on doctor’s recommendation. Then I was okay with eating products that contained eggs but no direct eggs. How very convenient! I am very fond of desserts and bakery produces, which generally have egg as an essential ingredient. For the longest time I was not able to make the stern decision of quitting eggs forever. There are 2 life incidents that helped me make this stern decision twice but I failed the third time as well. In all these years, I never touched meat though.

Start of 2020, I finally realized why I had taken the decision of not eating any poultry products, my decision was based on the following : “For my pleasures and taste, I do not warm to harm any animals”. I reconsidered my situation, can I live without eating eggs in a cold country? With limited food options for vegetarians? Yes, I can! I saw many who were surviving on vegetarian food with ease. I remembered the one time my father said “Go ahead and eat eggs, I am giving you the go ahead. I want you to have your proteins, you are living in a place where it snows more than half time of the year and you do not eat meat anyway.” I was a student then, living on my own for the first time and my family was super concerned as well as supportive of my choices. So after my first semester was done, I quit eating eggs forever. I told my parents that I have seen my friends survive and by now I have a hold on my lifestyle and cooking abilities. I am glad I could stick to my decision and will continue a vegetarian food intake for the rest of my life.

Slight digression:

I know following veganism is a much higher resolve to not harm any animals for pleasures of taste and otherwise. I am not a vegan, yet. Maybe one day I will follow that path, if my heart and mind is at it. For now, I believe in doing my best to bring harmony in this world and end cruelty against any living organism on earth. Honestly, I have nothing against people who do not follow vegetarianism either. My co-habitants and close friends have different food choices and I respect them. I have never told my friends to not eat their food on the same table as mine, if they are eating something I do not eat. In fact I tell them that it is okay that they are choosing to eat what they like and respecting my choices. I do not question you and you do not bother me, it’s simple! I believe that one make their own choices, if they want to change something and come asking me for advice, I will happily reason out the pros and cons with them. Otherwise, I am happy with my choices and do not bother about others’.

Now, the sad part is, I can not eat 75% of the dessert items in any deli or restaurant. I crave for my desserts and hence started making most of them at home. I already am a big fan of fruits, which helps in eating healthy sugar. I am also discovering vegan bakeries and places by the mercy of my dear friends’ endurance level to such food, lol! They do not taste so good, it is my own experience. I love my friends dearly for trying new things with me, we try to find economical options.

I have such a big sweet tooth that it started showing on my face and body, more so in the pandemic era. Nothing new for many like me, but I sincerely wanted to bring a body positive change in my life. What could I do? I was reading many articles by Swamiji and realized that taking an extreme step will never help me in the longer run. The change has to be gradual, slow but long lasting. So, I decided to pick a day in the week when I will not eat any sweet (containing sugar) food. I wrapped my head around it, thinking which day could work out best in my favour? Weekends, I will be out and would need a pink lemonade, ice creams or my favourite milkshakes and frappes! So I picked the most favourable day of the week for my resolve and it is in the title! I have continued this since late December, 2020. I have missed a couple of times as I simply forgot, only to be realized the moment I take 1-2 bites or sips of the food.

My learning has been, for an effective change, even a small effort matters. There is no 0 or 1 just yet, there is a lot in-between and most of us live in the grey area, with a resolve to become better by each passing day.