Reading this post by @juliasaxena made me remember this line I read somewhere before: 

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

Adapting this phrase to the topic: everything we do now, we are borrowing from our future selves. Every bit of money we spend today, we borrowed from the future self who don’t have enough to buy something else that mattered. Every chocolate bar I eat, I’m borrowing a sense of well-being from my future self a few hours forward. Every workout I don’t go for, every run I forgo, every healthy bowl of salad I didn’t choose, I borrow from the health of my future self, 10 years into the future. Yes, 10 years. Because my habits are often 10 years behind my current age, that means for instance, I was eating like I’m in my 20s when I was in my 30s. 

And one thing that I hate doing, is to borrow anything from anyone. I try to accept help graciously when the situation calls for it, but deep down, I don’t like owing favours. And certainly on this topic, I don’t like to borrow anything from my future self. What can I do then?

Maybe, the way to overcome this is to leapfrog ahead in time, even further ahead of that future self. Every choice we make now has a future manifestation date (think of it as the opposite of expiry date). Eat in a way such that my future self in 10 years will thank me for it. That means making choices about eating now that is 20 years ahead. So that when the 10 year future self arrives, he had borrowed from the past self who was living in the future 20 years ahead than that future self 10 years ahead. Brain exploding yet? Haha mine is. 

Or perhaps something simpler to wrap our heads around - eating that chocolate bar that your future self in a few hours will regret. Perhaps, just living few hours ahead, in the present, would suffice. That means, your 3-hour future self needs to be here, now making that choice for you. 

No wonder they said time travel was confusing af. Now I know. ;D