As a kid, my father would come home from work at 4.35pm. By 4.45, we would sit down for dinner. Call it early-bird but like clockwork, our evening dinnertime was set from Monday to Friday. On weekends, despite traveling or not having the normal routine, our stomachs would be growling loudly by 5pm!

This routine lasted for me all the way till college when maintaining this lifestyle seemed next to impossible. It’s a long road we travel sometimes to get back to where we started.

Over the last 6 years, my life has changed back into a routine where the timing of my meals are first priority and as a result, I’m now the healthiest I’ve been food-wise in a long time.

The key important factor for why we should eat on time is energy. The more consistent we are with our timings, the less work our body needs to do for energy. As an added benefit of this, our weight tends to become stable and we don’t have to partake in crash diets or fluctuate like a yo-yo with our size.

Of course, this may not happen overnight but we shouldn’t ever deprive our bodies of food if we feel hungry. But I guarantee you that if you actually set a schedule and follow it diligently for just one week, you’ll never feel hungry out of time.

It’s a terrible disservice we do to our bodies by not following some basic timing principles. We all make time to eat, so why not make that time in time with our bodies so our lives go smoother and far more healthily?

For me, having variety at my meals is what I look forward to most at my set mealtimes. I know no matter what I eat, I will be able to digest it because my body is equipped to handle it. It’s a luxury I get from being in control and letting food be a given that I am consciously thinking about at the start of my every day.

-Amit Vaidya

Amit Vaidya is the best-selling author of the memoir Holy Cancer and the upcoming Food Is Medicine cookbook series. He is the in-house health & wellness expert for Kapiva Ayurveda, advocating for the empowerment of all individuals to be in the driver’s seat of their own lives. He chronicles his life on Instagram under the handle @live4todayamit.

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