Ten commandments of weight loss, healthy eating and healthy living
1. Follow the principle of one unit at a time. Don't ever take a second helping of anything you decide to eat. Except vegetables don't eat two foods of the same type at one Meal. For example if you eat a simple meal of bread, meat and vegetables keep your brown rice or biryani for the next meal. And remember, no matter how far you are from the feeding of fullness you love, do not transgress the rule of one whole grain bread or roti. Thats how you practice restraint and can be successful in portion control.
2. Do eat three meals a day. Never skip a meal, specially breakfast. These are all important meals our bodies need them and if we make it feel bereft it becomes rebellion. Binging comes next. However, on some days a month or once or twice a week you can go on a detox diet or fast in whichever way suits you. But when you break your fast you must remember rule 1.
3. Maintain a gap of at least five hours between each meal of a day. This abstinence from food is a very good time to drink plenty of water and keep yourself hydrated. Sometimes, we confuse hunger for thirst. By following this rule you will respond to the need of the body appropriately.
4. You are allowed to snack between meals but only on fresh fruits and dry fruits. Actually that's how you can include fresh fruits and dry fruits in your intake. You get your omega 3 fatty acids that are good cholesterol for the essential functions from dried fruits.
5. Eat every thing in small portions. You don't know what all nutrition your body requires. Don't prohibit yourself on any of the five basic elements : fat, carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals. You need them all. So never go on a diet plan that allows unlimited quantities of one but prohibitive of the other. These are unnatural and impractical and comes packaged with bad health repercussions.
6. Draw your nutrients from natural sources to the best of your abilities. For instance your requirements for fatty acids can met by eating grilled fish, boiled meat or coconut, peanuts and cashews etc. And yes fat and sweets are not those evil Satans that they look like. Only if you draw your sugars from fruits and dried fruits like raisins, figs and prunes do include them. What you can not eat though is sweets, confectionery items, chocolates and desserts.
7. You are strictly prohibited from eating refined sugars, oils and carbs. Look into your breads, burgers and pizzas before you put down your whole grain roti and chicken curry for them. Pick up that home made pitcher of butter milk instead of the canned fruit juice or carbonated drink from the supermarket. The basmati rice too, with its aleurone layer removed in the rice mill and the empty calories packet that its grain is, also falls in the category of refined carb hence a strict no.
8. Eat dinner between sunset and the deep dark nightfall. Yiu are not allowed to snack between dinner and breakfast. The best you can do all night is take rest. That's what nights are for. Say goodnight to your popcorn bag and late night movie. Some sacrifice has to be made to achieve something desired. Believe me your body needs dinner after sunset. All diurnal animals do. Ever seen the birds eating frantically before retiring to the roost? you torture your digestion with a late night heavy dinner. It interferes with sleep, repair and rejuvenation. Taking a glass of milk before going to bed is a good idea but it does not suit every one. To each its own.
9. You need six to seven hours of sleep so catch up with it any how. Go to bed early and wake up early. This will enable you to have a 10 hour eating day with meals spaxed out and ending up having an early dinner. Remember, by sleeping in the morning you are missing out on precious hours of peak body mind activity. You can always take some time for a nap or siesta during the day and have another bout of working hard and concentrating with a fresh mind.
10. So much about eating and not eating but the number 10 has to go to exercise and keep moving. A 30 hour walk is ideal after every meal. So you are walking for 90 minutes. Double it up with some other wirk or recreational activity. You can talk while you walk, listen to an e book or the long report with tts, that you are not able to find time to read. Also intersperse your sitting or sedentary hours with some movement. Even a ten minutes stretching and bending is enough. So get up from your seat, take a wash if you need to and get the joints moving. If you do it 9 times a day, this amounts to 90 minutes a day. You sure don't have the time to spend 3 hrs a day at the gym. Not even for 5 day workout every week. But aggregated 180 minutes thence, seems doable. Every day, wherever you go, whether the machines are around or not.
Just a little planning and prioritizing will make it easy to be delivered. After all these are the 10 commandments and they are the only ones.
