Stay Fit Fridays-7 Dieting Mistakes You Should Avoid, By Dr. Anjali Hooda
Ever wondered why you don’t seem to meet up your weekly weight loss goals…. after having followed a not so tasty diet plan and almost draining yourself in those cardio/strength sessions. Every Monday morning you still fall short of few hundred grams of the expected weight loss…!!
Here’s how you could identify common glitches… correct them and find yourself more inspired and encouraged towards losing the remaining extra kilos…!!
Keep Eating a “Singular Activity”
Eating in peace with all the focus on your plate helps you sense the feeling of fullness…. or what we call satiety. Watching television, talking over phone and working on laptop while eating…, can lead to improper chewing and eating more than required. Mindful consumption of meals favours sensitization of ‘satiety clues’ and you know exactly where to stop eating.
Don’t Purchase your diet… Prepare it…!!
Often in morning rush hours…, we choose processed/ready to eat foods like corn flakes, oats, whole grain bread, and sometimes even tea and crackers as breakfast options. Although these constitute a handy option and the nutrient content seems to be similar to home cooked foods but eventually they have a higher glycemic index and lower fibre and protein content. Try limiting these to 2-3 times per week and opting for simple home-made recipies that suffice your nutrient requirement.
Distribute your food evenly
The key to weight loss without loss of health lies in creating a balance of nutrients or types of food. The more balanced a meal, the better and steady is release of nutrients into the blood stream. One must include at least one combination of cereal and legume, cereal and pulse or cereal and milk for your main meals while keeping the raw fruit/vegetable portions for in between snacking.
Avoid eating and drinking at the same time
Glugging water and other beverages while eating or immediately after meals reduces the efficacy of digestion and absorption process due to dilution of the digestive juices released in stomach. Digestion becomes prolonged and the absorption is also not that great. Take plenty of fluids all the day round but remember to exempt from them during meals.
Drinking calories v/s eating them
Substituting your meals with a glass of milk or taking fruit juices in place of fruits don’t add much of a benefit to your health. Doing so, you might end up adding almost equal or even extra calories to your diet while going deficient in terms of other nutrients. A glass of 200ml 3% milk gives you almost equal calories as a well balanced meal and no where matches the satiety level of a meal. A glass of orange juice surely gives you higher amount of vitamins and minerals than a whole orange… but it also has sugars (fructose) from 3-4 oranges and absolutely no fibre…!!
Go individual
A universal diet or a diet that works for all is yet to be discovered. The fact that every individual is different and so is its response to any particular practice holds a lot of evidence. Identify your body’s responses and analyse them to understand what suits you the best. Diet and exercise regimes should be tailor-made…, not copied and followed simply because it did benefit your friend or relative.
Set realistic, “health-happy” goals
After having made one or all of the aforementioned corrections…, most importantly remember that there is a certain amount of weight that one should aim at losing over a period of time. Achieving jaw-dropping weight loss in a short span of time (10-12 weeks) might create a story line for you but the health risks it poses are too many…, plus the ‘yo-yo effect’ that makes you gain weight as quickly and more than you actually lost.
-Do it the right way.., as being slim has become a little outdated. Staying healthy is the new cool…!!
