We aren't what we eat

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had to choke down the phrase, “you are what you eat” so many times in my life that I found myself starting to repeat it. There’s some anatomical truth to it,¹ I guess, but I’ve found the old saw only truly useful when somebody eats a particularly odd sounding food.

“Dang, Jimmy. I never realized you’re a kumquat!”

At a deeper, spiritual level we most definitely are not what we eat.² The Lord Jesus taught this repeatedly:

Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.

We aren’t defined by our stomach.³ If there’s any singular body part that (metaphorically) defines us, it’s our heart. That’s why I much prefer this saying by Will Durant over the hackneyed, “you are what you eat”:

“We are what we repeatedly do."

Durant goes on to conclude:

“Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

I enjoy that thought too, but the first one is a meal unto itself. And it tracks:

If you repeatedly paint, you’re a painter
If you repeatedly talk a lot, you’re a talker
If you repeatedly cheat, you’re a cheater

It’s so simple it almost hurts. The best part: it’s actionable

If I am what I repeatedly do, then time, and how I choose to spend mine, is the most important resource about which I should concern myself.

If I want to redefine myself, I can simply⁴ spend my time repeatedly doing whatever it is I want to be defined as. For example, at some point in my life, I became a podcaster. This is how many people see me. I wasn’t a podcaster, then I repeatedly made podcasts, and now that’s part of my definition.

This is also a useful tool when judging myself,⁵ because I can make a list of my priorities and then a list of the things I’ve been repeatedly doing and quickly decide which priorities actually aren’t. Then try to adjust.

So, the next time I’m chowing down on a trash burger and somebody says, “you are what you eat.” I’ll reply:

“Nah, I am what I repeatedly do. And this is the only trash burger I’m eating. At least right now.”

It’s absolutely amazing how much junk our digestive systems can process. ↩︎
It saddens me that so many people are obsessed with the banalities of health food choice. There’s so much more to life than counting calories or ensuring your diet is GMO free. I know some people are forced to care about these things because of health defects, but there are far more of us choosing to make this a prominent aspect of our personality. ↩︎
Unless, of course, we let that aspect of our life define us ↩︎
“Simply”, not to be confused with “easily” ↩︎
One of Christianity’s calls is that of frequent, honest self-judgment. I’ve found this process hugely helpful in almost every area of life. So much so, that I submit it to you as a healthy practice even if you don’t follow Christ. ↩︎