Is it okay to be selfish?

Food has always been the most important part of our life. A good meal can bring us a healthy smile on our face. During this lockdown, I realized how much I have been addicted to street food and other fast foods. I have been craving big time for the street food in the lockdown but then it was not available. Therefore, I decided to learn cooking from many YouTube videos and somehow managed to cook really tasty foods. After the lockdown was removed from the country, we finally got the chance to eat our favorite dishes outside our closed walls. But, later I realized that I am gaining a lot of weight. My interest in cooking was still instigating me to try more new dishes which would be healthy as well as refreshing.

I planned a new diet plan and a workout plan for my day. I was a national level Judo player which is why I have always been inclined towards physical activities and fitness but at the same time, I enjoyed eating. But, this obesity caused a lot of pain which is when I planned to start my previous workout. Not only me, I could see a lot of people who became very much conscious about the food they eat, their health, fitness, etc.

Figure 1: Healthy breakfast as per the diet plan (Less ingredients available). P.C- Anshuman Biswal

I started following a lot of fitness influencers on YouTube who also gave many new recipes for maintaining a perfect diet and one can easily lose weight. But during the lockdown, the availability of food ingredients was very important. The lockdown had taught me how to live with the minimal stuff and still manage to stay fit. I changed my diet plans as per the availability of ingredients. Whenever the bread was not available, I managed my breakfast with some upma, or poha. But I try to arrange some bread and eggs for my breakfast. Sometimes, I managed my breakfast with some pancakes. I learnt a great thing in this lockdown that, if you truly and dedicatedly want something, you can definitely achieve it.

Figure 2: Homemade diet food on cheat day (As per ingredients available). P.C- Anshuman Biswal

Being in the containment zone where we were not allowed to step out of our houses, we could still manage to follow a healthy diet and lose enough weight. But, sometimes our paths are meant to be rough but we still have to find the way out. There were days when we were running out of certain ingredients and it was difficult to cook without those, I managed to feed my stomach with a healthy watermelon shake.

Figure 3: Melon shake with frozen water melon.

People became so conscious about their health, that the street foods are now less visited. The street foods are almost empty and not as crowded as it used to be. Most people started organic farming and eating only fresh vegetables with the fear of another disease which can again turn disastrous. This change in the human behavior has actually helped a lot of people to know their worth and run after their happiness rather than just going with the flow.

Being conscious about our health both physically and mentally is not selfishness, in fact for me I would call it self worth. And I feel it is the only thing which can give you happiness. Rather than finding your worth in other people’s life, it is essential to work on your own self.