FC

You are your food

The other day at dinner, a friend told me people are what they eat. Now I can't see unsee it. All of us each have our unique personalities, charming in our own ways. This friend of mine especially. He's a deep thinker. He's an artist. A creator. And this comes out completely in the Instagrams of his food. Simple, elegant, healthy, light. I look at his work, and that's what I see. Underneath it, there's this subtle complexity, of thought, of stuff only he knows about but makes the whole thing more cohesive, giving the whole thing a bigger point than the individual parts. I'm talking about his food and his work.

I look at another friend. She's an amazing cook. Her food is bursting with flavor and is beautiful to look at. You don't meet many people who put so much effort into the presentation of the food. I know I don't. But this is just like her and her work. She will do the work, but do the work so well, and consistently surprise you with the quality of her ideas.

Then I have my friends who don't cook at all. Some of these friends seem like live life by the minute. They work hard and they work fast and are very spontaneous. Makes sense, considering they have a million things going on at any given time. So when they're hungry, they go out and buy fast food or eat out at a restaurant. It's not that they're lazy, it's just not in their plans to make their own food. So it's more interesting to observe what they order out when they do that speaks to what kind of person they are.

There are the people who eat out often but still order the light, healthy dishes. There are those that eat the most hearty, guilty-pleasure ones. I think the first one takes a more peculiar person than the second, since I'm pretty sure it's always easier to order the fried chicken over the salad. But even more complex is how much someone eats in a sitting. There are those who will always clean up their plate. There are those who stop the instant they get the thought that they might be full. Now add in what someone orders for a drink. Beer? Wine? Cocktail? Whiskey?

Another thing about those who always eat out or not being picky about what they eat is it seems they don't have too many preferences in general. It's like the people who stick with the first thing they see or what's put in front of them, versus the people who are picky, in terms of food, and other things like say, clothes, tools, work, toys.

And it's not just what you eat. It's how you eat it. There are the slow eaters and fast eaters. Don't you think the slow eaters seem to have a little bit more on their mind? The fast eaters seem to be the ones that like to get to the talking. Both are awesome, of course.

So you can learn a lot about someone by their food habits: Do they bring in lunch or eat out most of the time? What do they eat? How do they eat it? How much?

Here's the really interesting part. It's what happens when people change their food habits. I've seen some people, when they started eating healthier, they began acting, living, speaking differently. I've seen couch potatoes with no energy turn into bright eyed talkatives with a spring in their step. I've seen reformed workaholics finally manage to take a break once in a while. I've seen people start to exercise after changing their diet.

What kind of impression are you giving off with the food you eat? What kind of person do you want to be? Start eating like one. It could start a chain reaction to affect every other part of your life.

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