@Bilqees 17 December 2021

Easy on the food.

Hello everyone. I trust you all are doing OK. Am not your regular TGIF girl,lol. I prefer to stay indoors and bask in my fantasy world on Fridays and on weekend. I have been immersed in a book all morning, titled the **atomic** **habits**, **authored** by James clear. One of my big sis @Talecharm promised it would be a good read, so I tried it out. I was so engrossed that I totally forgot about lunch and its almost 5pm in my part of the world. I was about to about to tuck in a decent meal when I recall that I haven't written an article for the day. My appetite vanished immediately and I grabbed my phone. I have always been this way. Whenever I remember an important task, then no matter how hungry I was, I won't be able to eat until I have completed my stint. Even when preparing for an examination or test, I study on an empty stomach. This is because if I stuff myself up before studies, my body would feel dense and i wouldn't be able to read for as long as I had initially planned before getting tired. I also understand difficult concept faster and generate new ideas when am hungry than when filled. Needless to say, I have a firm grip on my appetite. When I was much more younger, I had been a foodie just like every other kids. I would always ask dad or mom to buy me every candy, biscuits or chocolates I see on the way. As a result I became a chubby-tubby little girl. When I completed my elementary school, my parents thought it wise that I continue my high school education in a boarding school. I think that was were I learned discipline and how to cut down on my food intake. If you attended a boarding school, you would agree with me that the food ration is much lower than that of our parents house. And ofcourse, the meals are not as delicious like mom's. Most times it is usually tasteless and sometimes unwholesome as your teeth would continually clash with little pebbles while chewing. This can be very exasperating. No need to mention that you would have to wait for almost half an hour on a queue before it gets to your turn to be served. Somedays, I skip lunch or dinner ehrn I feel too tired to stand in a queue after a lengthy lesson or after a cumbersome test. Passing through these experiences regularly for almost six years made me indifferent towards food. Each time mom comes visiting, she would lament that I kept losing weight. But she never failed to notice the focus, courage, perseverance,tenacity and strength of character written all over my face. She realized that all these qualities were head and shoulders above gluttony and this made her proud of me. Thank God I never developed ulcer which today, is very common among young people that attended boarding schools in my country By the time i was in my year one in the university, I cared less about food as i only ate twice a day. I never skipped breakfast though. It was the most important meal of the day and everyone knows that. I had this room mate who was a glutton. Infact, that was an understatement, she could eat for Africa. Whenever, I return to our room, I always find her eating, eighty percent of the time . If it were cooked meals , i wouldnt be more bothered, but she is fond of consuming junks and carbonated drinks. Even when outside, she would always chow down these processed foods on the way. She could gulp down an average of two bottles of coke per day. As a result, her stomach looked baggy and enormous for a young girl of her age. As expected, she looked older than her age. One night, she rushed into the room crying. I allowed her to finish and afterwards asked her what had happened. She told me that her boyfriend had broken up with her. He complained that she eats too much and finds that disgusting. I felt sorry for her. One would have thought she would have been wiser after the break up by curtailing her eating habits. But that wasn't the case, as a matter of fact, She binged on food with full force more than ever before that I began to fear for her health. That was when I realized that gluttony was actually a psychological disorder or an illness. Depression pushed her to seek solace in consuming more food which was actually what she had always been addicted to. Jus like how a smoker would consume more packets of cigarettes than usual when he's heartbroken or depressed. One day, we heard that a friend of ours was Ill and had undergone surgery. So, me and my room mate went to pay her a visit at the hospital. After the visit, we decided to tour the hospital. An idea occurred to me,I deliberately lead her to the diabetes ward. The patients who had chronic diabetes were looking gaunt and wasted. My room mate was obviously more shocked than I was, and she was moved to tears. On our way back, I kindly explained to her that if she doesn't cut down on her excessive consumption of soft drinks and other junks, ten to fifteen years from now, she might find herself in the same condition as those patients in the diabetes ward. "If you spend an average of 300 naira a day on coke, that means in a month you would have spent 3000 naira. Then after a year, it would be 109,500 naira". and ofcourse she had been addicted to coke and processed foods too for more than a year. I further explained that the monies spent on these viands would be enough for you to start a business after school, invest in crytocurrency, or even invest in your family's future. This means that you are gradually but surely eating your health and wealth away. She was dumbfounded by this analysis and for the rest of the day, she was in a melancholic mood. I told her that whenever she feels the urge for compulsive eating, and thinks that she cant control it, she should opt from fruits and vegetables instead of succumbing to packaged foods. Fruits and vegetables are more helpful to the body because our body actually needs them more than these junks which would even cause serious metabollic damages when consumed over a long period of time. I even advised her to seek for spiritual help if she she can because gluttony is among the seven deadly sins and its capable of ruining a person. Thank you all for taking your time to read . Sending my love to my sponsors @Theblackdoll @Kushyzee @Mictorrani and big brother and sister @Olasquare @Princessbusayo **CONCLUSION** Carbohydrates can be addictive.This is because it stimulates the brain to release serotonin which is a "feel good" chemical. Am this gives an ephemeral pleasure to our body system. It makes us crave for more serotonin which in turn leads us to more consumption of junks,then we become hooked. This can be very dangerous as a person would now be more interested in eating more than the accomplishment of any other goal in life.