What are your best healthy eating habits?
Since childhood, a Chinese proverb has been engraved on my heart: “Our bodies—every hair and bit of skin—are received from our parents. We must not presume to injure or wound them. This is the beginning of filial piety.”
Healthy eating thus became my aim. Yet I failed—not by choice, but by circumstance, owing to decades of irregular working hours throughout my career.
Since retirement, I have turned from unhealthy eating to healthy. Today I focus on a balanced diet, controlled portions, and proper hydration. But nutritional guidelines vary widely. What is truly best for me—or for anyone?
For me, simplicity. My diet is simple yet balanced: three meals a day, beginning with oatmeal, an egg, and fruit for breakfast; a light lunch; a small supper. My food includes assorted vegetables, two kinds of fruit, plain rice, and moderate fish, poultry, or lean meat. I prefer steaming or boiling, with three lows—salt, sugar, and fat—and rarely anything deep-fried. I drink two to three liters of water daily.
I believe a healthy diet keeps doctors away—and a happy heart belongs in the equation of the best eating habits. Therein lies my good health. As I practise, I am able to serve the needy longer. As I continue, I experience the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). Health, in other words, is not an end in itself; it is a means to service, and service in turn reveals the deeper blessing.
Moreover, keeping healthy habits—diet, sleep, and exercise—is a divine duty, for my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16–17).
For my readers, I hope the poem below guides your reflection on which habits truly guide your life. Eating habits, after all, are but one expression of a larger principle: what we repeatedly do, we become.
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“Habits—Good or Bad?”
To grow accustomed—this is the way of life.
Train up a child in the way he should go,
and even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Good habits formed in youth
make glad the evening of one’s days.
Heaven grows not old, but man does.
Heaven changes not, yet man must renew his mind.
To make a habit of renewing the mind—
this alone is the way of life.
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