Weight Loss Motivation – Tips & Tricks

Below are some of the weight loss tips from Rujuta’s book ‘Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight’:

1. The weight that a weighing scale tells you is not your real status of health.

Our body weight is made up of 2 parts – the fat weight and the lean body weight. The former is the fat while the latter is the weight of our bones and muscles. A weighing scale the weight of the body and not the fat. For eg. Serena Williams weighs more than a FTV model but Serena is far fitter than the models.

2. If you must eat chips and fried foods make them at home and fry them.

You will use good oil and eat your food hot, so they will taste better and also be more nutritious. Since this is a long process you will land up doing this maybe once a fortnight or so.

3. Just as everyone is different, everyone’s diets have to be different too.

Don’t try someone else’s regime. Exercise is non-negotiable. Unless you exercise, you will never see enough of a result, despite all your good eating habits.

4. Be nice to your stomach.

If you want to lose weight, savour every bit of what you eat, slowly and mindfully, and you will naturally find your threshold. All you need to train yourself to do, is to be attentive to your stomach.

Read about Good Kerala Dishes here

5.  5 Basic Rules To Increase Nutrient Intake –

Eat food that is prepared fresh. Consume your food within 3 hours of cooking. Never deep freeze your food.

The smaller the number of people the food is cooked for, the better its nutrient level. More the people, the earlier you start preparing the food and the greater the quantity of the food, the more oil and heat it requires.

Eat your vegetables and fruits whole instead of cutting them into pieces, because you lose vitamins from the surface. The larger the exposed area, the more the loss of nutrients.

Remain loyal to your genes and eat what you have been eating since childhood. Right from the time you are in your mother’s womb, your body is used to eating, digesting and assimilating certain foods.

As much as possible, eat local produce and seasonal fruits. Mangoes are great in the summer. Eat them just once a day as a mini meal in themselves, and they will give you a season’s supply of antioxidants.

6. Compare the nutrient to calorie ratio.

A paneer parantha is always better than a pizza. When it comes to food, think of nutrients and not calories.

7. Carbs are very important for day to day activity.

So you should not cut down on carbs. In the absence of carbs, fat can not be utilized for energy. Point is to choose low carb food. Low carb foods are fibreous in nature. For eg. brown rice, jowar, bajra etc. For carbs that are high on GI (glycemic index) for eg. white rice, sugar, you must reduce the load. The best time to eat high GI food is post exercice.

8. When to eat fruits? –

as the first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or immediately after physical exercise. Any time aside from this, the body converts the fructose from the fruits into triglycerides. Have fruits as whole and not as juice.

9. We need protiens.

They provide our body with adequate amino acids. Proteins that should be eaten are – egg whites, milk products, lentils, sprouts, nuts and soy.

10. Fats are of two types –

Saturated (solid at room temperature) and Unsaturated (liquid at room temperature). In saturated fats, ghee and milk products is the best of all as it contains short chain fatty acids which are easy to digest and promote good health. Long chain fatty acids as found in animal fats damage cardiovascular health and are hard to digest.

11. Unsaturated fats are of three types –

Mono Unsaturated Fatty Acids (MUFA), Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA) and Trans fats. MUFA are in olive oil, rice bran oil and peanut oil and is great for moisturizing skin. PUFA comes in two forms – omega 3 and omega 6 and we all know the benefits of these.