You should never go on diet and must follow a healthy lifestyle.

In the words of Nargis Fakhri, “You should never go on a diet and must follow a healthy lifestyle.” Though simple in sound, these words carry the weight of ancient wisdom—the wisdom of balance, patience, and reverence for the body. They call not for fleeting restraint but for a lifelong harmony between one’s desires and one’s duties. To “go on a diet” is to enter into a temporary struggle against oneself, but to “follow a healthy lifestyle” is to walk the eternal path of respect toward one’s being.

The ancients knew that the body is the temple of the soul—a sacred vessel through which all dreams, thoughts, and labors flow. When one starves the body in pursuit of appearance, one also starves the spirit that resides within. True beauty, they said, comes not from deprivation but from balance. The old healers of India taught through Ayurveda that the human form thrives not by denial but by alignment—with nature, with seasons, with one’s own inner rhythm. Thus, a healthy lifestyle is not an act of willpower but of wisdom—to eat in awareness, to move in joy, and to rest in gratitude.

Consider the story of Mahatma Gandhi, who understood the power of nourishment in all its forms. Though he fasted, he did not do so to punish the body, but to purify it. He knew that food was sacred, and that each meal carried within it the energy of life itself. Gandhi’s discipline was not that of a man at war with hunger, but of one at peace with it. His strength came not from starvation, but from balance—he listened to his body as one might listen to the song of the earth. This is the essence of a healthy lifestyle: not the denial of life, but its celebration in mindful moderation.

Those who chase the quick path—the crash diet, the miracle cure—often lose their way. They burn brightly for a moment and then fade, like a spark in the wind. But those who choose the slow and steady way of wellness, who treat their bodies with patience and kindness, become like the oak that stands for centuries. The lesson is not one of struggle, but of devotion. The body, when cared for lovingly, rewards its keeper with endurance, grace, and peace. Health is not a goal—it is a relationship, one that must be nurtured daily through small, sacred acts.

A healthy lifestyle is not built upon rigid rules but upon rhythm—the rhythm of sleep and waking, work and rest, hunger and satisfaction. It calls for the kind of awareness that the monks of ancient China practiced when they walked in silence through bamboo forests, breathing in tune with the wind. Each step was health. Each breath was nourishment. They did not count calories, nor measure meals; they simply lived in harmony with the flow of life itself. So too must we, in this modern world of noise and haste, return to that inner stillness, where health arises not from force but from alignment.

There is a heroism in caring for oneself with gentleness. To honor the body is to honor the divine spark that made it. To choose nourishment over punishment, balance over excess, and steadiness over obsession is to live in the way of the wise. As Nargis Fakhri reminds us, a healthy lifestyle is not a temporary condition—it is a lifelong pilgrimage. Every meal, every stretch, every breath becomes a prayer of gratitude to the miracle that is our existence.

So let this be the teaching carried forward: Never go on a diet; instead, build a life that needs no escape. Eat foods that give strength, move in ways that bring joy, rest as though your dreams depend upon it. Care for your body as you would care for a beloved friend—listen, respect, and cherish it. In doing so, you will discover not only health, but peace, and not only peace, but a deeper connection to the sacred rhythm of life itself. For those who live in balance live in freedom—and that is the truest nourishment of all.