What Does a Healthy Lifestyle Really Mean?

 Many people think that a healthy lifestyle means giving up rice, following a keto diet, losing weight, reversing diabetes, and fixing fatty liver.

But if you live this way all the time, life can become miserable.

You force yourself to walk for 15 minutes, do five minutes of light exercise at the gym, and then proudly tell everyone, “I just came back from the gym.”

If someone asks me what the number-one food is, I would say that there are two approaches to a healthy lifestyle.

One approach is to make your lifestyle healthy.

The other is to make your healthy lifestyle so restrictive that your entire life becomes miserable.

So what should we actually do?

A lot of people think that being healthy means they can no longer eat roti. Absolutely not! You can eat roti.

Many people also believe that they must stop eating rice. They think that their entire life will now be about restrictions.

That is not true.

Restrictions can be a small part of a healthy lifestyle, but a healthy lifestyle does not mean living a life of constant restrictions.

Some people will tell you that you must follow a keto diet. Others will recommend a Mediterranean diet or some special diet followed by people in another country.

But you do not necessarily need to copy the diet of another country to live a healthy life.

Our own traditional foods can also be some of the most enjoyable and nutritious foods in the world.

The important thing is to eat them properly and manage the portions.

That is the real essence of a healthy lifestyle, but unfortunately, many people misunderstand it.

People are being confused, and they are becoming unnecessarily worried about food.

I have previously explained that a keto diet can help some people lose weight and may improve conditions such as diabetes and fatty liver.

However, if a diet makes a person constantly irritated, unhappy, and miserable, then what is the point?

You may use a particular diet temporarily—for 10 days, 15 days, or perhaps a month—as an experiment or as part of a specific plan.

But you cannot necessarily live permanently in an extreme dietary state.

A healthy lifestyle is about understanding yourself and learning how to live a healthy, happy, and enjoyable life while reducing the risk of disease.

We do not necessarily need to abandon our traditional foods.

We can eat our traditional foods—we simply need to learn how to eat them and how much to eat.

A healthy lifestyle revolves around three major things:

1. Food
2. Physical activity
3. Mindset

These three things are extremely important.

Stress Is Also Extremely Important

Mental stress can have a major impact on your life.

You can eat the best food in the world and exercise as much as you want, but if you are constantly stressed, your quality of life can suffer.

Sometimes people become so afraid of becoming unhealthy that even the process of trying to become healthy becomes a source of stress.

They constantly think:

“I shouldn't eat this.”

“I shouldn't eat that.”

“I must exercise.”

“I must lose weight.”

This can turn a healthy lifestyle into a miserable lifestyle.

Over the years, I have learned that you need to plan your 24 hours properly.

It is not only important to know how to cook food. It is even more important to know what you put on your plate and how much you put on it.

Your meal plate is more important than simply knowing how to prepare the meal.

Once you learn how to build a balanced plate, you can make almost any food in front of you healthier through better portions and combinations.

Our Traditional Food

Let's talk about food.

Our region has been blessed with sunlight, fertile land, and water. Agriculture is essentially about converting the energy of sunlight into food.

In the past, people did not have modern machinery. Most of the work was done through physical labor.

Because people worked physically hard, their food was also designed around their energy needs.

Dairy products were an important part of the traditional diet.

People who performed heavy physical work or practiced wrestling often consumed large quantities of milk, yogurt, butter, and other dairy products.

After that came roti, meat, vegetables, and other traditional foods.

People would eat a substantial breakfast and then spend many hours doing physical work.

For lunch, they might eat roti with pickles, curry, eggplant, or other vegetables.

In the evening, they might sit together, roast grains, and eat them either sweet or salty.

At night, they might have a glass of lassi or milk with roti and then go to sleep after Isha prayer.

This was the traditional routine in many homes.

Food also changed according to the season.

In winter, people prepared foods such as panjeeri and halwa.

In summer, foods such as eggplant bharta, pumpkin, and other seasonal vegetables were common.

These were traditional foods, and many of them were natural and nutritious.

But there was one very important thing accompanying this diet:

People were physically active.

They worked for many hours in the fields and performed physically demanding tasks.

What Changed in Modern Life?

Then things started changing.

Modern facilities and machines gradually reduced the amount of physical work people had to do.

Tractors replaced a lot of manual farm work.

People moved into cities.

They began sitting in air-conditioned offices.

Our homes, workplaces, hospitals, and shopping centers became temperature-controlled.

We became less exposed to natural heat and cold.

In the past, people walked.

They rode bicycles.

They traveled on horses and carts.

These activities naturally required physical effort.

Today, cars and other forms of transportation have reduced the need for physical activity.

Our jobs have also changed.

Instead of working in fields, many people now spend hours sitting in front of computers.

Physical activity has decreased dramatically.

The problem is that our food habits did not decrease along with our physical activity.

Think about it this way:

If your car used to travel 100 kilometers every day, you needed to fill the tank with a certain amount of fuel.

But if your car now travels only two or three kilometers a day, you would not need the same amount of fuel.

The same principle applies to the human body.

When physical activity decreases, our energy requirements also decrease.

But what did we do?

We continued eating the same foods—or sometimes even more.

We continued eating parathas, roti, rice, sweets, halwa, biscuits, and other calorie-dense foods even though our physical activity had dramatically decreased.

Our bodies were no longer using the same amount of energy.

This imbalance can eventually contribute to problems such as excess weight and insulin resistance.

The problem is not simply one particular food.

The problem is often too much food combined with too little physical activity.

Do We Need to Give Up Carbohydrates Completely?

No.

We should not become so afraid of carbohydrates that we completely eliminate them.

Instead, we should learn how to choose and prepare our traditional foods wisely.

We have many traditional foods that can be incorporated into a balanced diet.

For example, aloo chana and chana chaat can be nutritious options when prepared properly.

You can reduce the amount of potato and add chickpeas, onion, tomato, mint, tamarind, and yogurt.

Instead of adding unnecessary sugar, you can use natural ingredients to improve the flavor.

Aloo chana can actually be a delicious and satisfying traditional salad.

Many people have been taught that a salad means nothing more than sliced cucumber, carrots, and radishes.

But that's not necessarily true.

Aloo chana can also be made into a delicious salad.

There is no rule that healthy food has to be boring.

The goal is to make healthy food enjoyable.

Dahi Bhallay

Another traditional option is dahi bhallay.

Look at what is actually in the dish.

A significant part can be salad ingredients such as onion.

Chickpea flour or lentils can provide protein and other nutrients.

The bhallay can be made from gram flour or lentils.

You can prepare them at home using good-quality cooking ingredients.

Then add natural yogurt.

Yogurt provides protein and is also a dairy food.

With yogurt, lentils, onions, and other vegetables, you can create a satisfying and nutritious meal.

The important thing is to pay attention to the ingredients and the quantities.

Missi Roti

Another excellent traditional food is missi roti.

Instead of making plain wheat roti, you can add gram flour, onion, pomegranate seeds, and spices.

This creates a more nutritious and flavorful traditional bread.

It contains wheat flour along with gram flour and other ingredients such as onion and pomegranate.

It is much more interesting than simply eating plain refined flour products.

Tikka and Protein-Rich Foods

Another option is tikka.

Tikka can provide a good amount of protein.

Protein is important for maintaining muscles and supporting the body's tissues.

Foods containing protein and nutrients that support collagen production can also contribute to healthy skin, hair, and nails.

A balanced diet can help support the body's natural repair processes.

Paya

Another traditional food is paya, or beef trotters.

Paya is a traditional, protein-rich food and can be part of a balanced diet when eaten in appropriate portions.

Our traditional foods are not automatically unhealthy.

We should not unnecessarily become afraid of them.

The important thing is to understand the food, control the portions, prepare it properly, and match our food intake with our physical activity.

The Real Meaning of a Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle does not mean giving up every food you enjoy.

It does not mean spending your entire life on extreme diets.

It does not mean being afraid of roti, rice, or traditional foods.

A healthy lifestyle means creating a balance between:

Food + Physical Activity + Mindset

Eat sensible portions.

Stay physically active.

Manage your stress.

Enjoy your food.

And most importantly, make your healthy lifestyle something you can actually maintain for the long term.

The goal is not to make your life miserable in the name of health.

The goal is to become healthier while still enjoying your life.