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Indulge: Eat Without Feeling Guilty!

food

Ever since I have started health counselling, I have met at least 8 out of 10 people who go through a guilt factor after having eaten foods that they love the most.. Some of these people literally hate themselves for having done that. For most of these individuals an  outing/ family occasion/weekend/holiday means more worry about weight and less enjoyment.

Some of them miss meeting their friends and have stopped living their life because they don’t want to indulge while they are out.

Are you one of them?

If you are then, you must know that worry puts you and your body through stress and stress releases a hormone called cortisol which in turn promotes fat storage in our body. It increases the heart rate and breathing too. All of this can make one sick.

Cortisol makes you depressed and creates an imbalance in the biochemical reactions of the body. If you are worried about your health and weight, you must also be aware of the connection between the body and your mind. Our emotions share biochemical links with our digestive, nervous, endocrine and the immune system.

You must keep your negative thoughts and guilt away, else it will add up to stress. Your body will not be able to digest the food when you are very stressed! It’s like trying to stop a bull when he gets out of control.  It’s just a’int going to happen. Everyone has one weakness in food it could be a brownie, an ice cream cake, cheese cake, Pizzas, burgers and the likes that can make you go off track. For me it’s the brownie cake and oh yes how can I forget Pizzas! If one keeps feeling guilty about these foods one in a way then guilt is going to take the pleasure out of eating.

I would say eating without guilt is the key to keeping yourself healthy. It’s about enjoyment, spending time with family and at the same time having a balance  in everything you do. One should not worry unless you know you are eating extra everyday.

You must remember that there are no bad foods, there are just poor habits.

If you can form good habits over a period of time, eventually you will build a healthier you and start eating in moderation without guilt.

Here are some tips to eat guilt free and keep yourself in shape:

* Eat a bowl of salad before heading for a dine out as it will add on to the fiber in take, so while you enjoy family favorite, fiber will help you keep full for longer time.

*Enjoy your favorite food, savor it, eat mindfully, slow eating will automatically lead to portion control.

*Hydrate your body cells well, the craving for junk might be just that your body is thirsty.

*Moderation is the key.

*Don’t forget to add greens along with your favorite food.

*One meal or one food doesn’t make you healthy or unhealthy, worry is less healthier.

* Emotions are important, try to build good connect with people around you and contribute to the society, that will help you keep yourself positive and increase your serotonin levels. (The feel good hormone), in a way you are doing good to yourself while doing good to others.

*Remember a workout is not about just going to gym, it’s about doing what you love, it can be  dancing, chasing dog,washing car,gardening, cycling, have a life out of weight loss.

*Sleep well it will help restoring mind and body.

* Emotional eating due to stress is a part of life, try to reduce it by getting into hobbies, if you are finding it difficult to manage, relaxation techniques like breathing,meditation and yoga will help,feel good about yourself,live this moment, try to focus on present.

*Try adding food instead of subtracting and starving yourself, eating at regular interval helps your body boost metabolism.

*Slurp your juicy favorite fruits in the first half of the day when you are going to party out.

*Try switching from beer/diet sodas to wine.

*Go walking when the weather’s nice and you are looking pretty, enjoy the wind that shall make you move.

*Share your meals with your partner/friend so that you don’t stuff yourself.

*Don’t worry if you overeat a little, make sure of regular exercise and balancing out meals.

I would say shed off the guilt and move on!

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CARBOHYDRATES’- Seven Engines of POWER SUPPLY

carbohydrates

Carbohydrates is the first source of energy to the body. It is one of the most important major nutrients, which also means we need it in major quantity. Thus, recommended to have about 60% in our daily food intake. It has one of the best advantages to our overall health.

  1. Provides Energy: Our body requires energy to do even simple activity like moving from one place to another and carbohydrates helps us in that. So whichever the activity is walking, running, playing a sport, working in office or writing a blog –all require energy.
  2. Elevates mood: Carbohydrates help you release Serotonin in our body which in turn will elevate your mood and give you the feel good factor. Remember the feeling when you have a spoonful of Dal rice or Hot phulka with vegetable when you are super hungry, exactly the same feeling. You feel relaxed and calm.
  3. Muscle Recovery: Talking about muscle doesn’t mean only sports person require them. We all have muscles in our body that go through wear and tear with our daily activities too. Thus, we all need this wonder nutrient to recover our muscles, as they need to restore their deposits in form of Glycogen( stored form of glucose)
  4. Helps prevent disease: The fibre that comes with this carbohydrates help us prevent many diseases like Diabetes, Hypertension, Heart problems , Constipation and many more.
  5. Weight loss: This point may grab your attention, as it really helps in losing your weight indirectly. When we have the much needed carbohydrates, the body will not take up protein as a source of energy to work, thus avoiding muscle loss and in turn keeping the body’ metabolism high.

Carbohydrate intake-> Protein Sparing-> Muscle intact-> Metabolism high-> Burn more fat -> Weight loss.

One more reason being, the slow release carbohydrates helps in slow release of insulin in body, which in turn can avoid weight gain.

  1. Good Memory: Glucose is the key brain fuel, which comes from carbohydrates and various studies have also shown that people who have a regular intake of carbohydrates have a better memory than the ones who avoid it.
  2. Fuel for fitness: Sports person, runners, people doing regular exercises, they all need carbohydrates as the first source of fuel before, during and after the activity. As the body will use it the most and they can’t afford to lose muscle as a source of energy. If the body loses a lot of muscle, the joint strengthening is compromised leading to injury.

There are various such benefits of carbohydrates which we miss by avoiding them in our daily intake. Carbohydrates have a bad name in weight loss industry, as they say excess of it will make you put on fat, well anything of that sort happens.

So my suggestion is do not avoid carbs. It has such an important role to play in our healthy and fitter lifestyle.

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Diets or Lifestyle – Your Choice?

diet

I have always believed that dieting does not work.  In this blog today, I would like to share some amazing facts on how diets don’t work and what really does make all the difference in this weight loss game.

The basic difference between a diet mentality and a lifestyle mentality is simply a matter of perspective. Having the right perspective may not make tofu taste better than chocolate, but it can make all the difference in the world when it comes to achieving your goals and avoiding unnecessary suffering along the way and hanging onto your achievements over the long haul.

A diet is all about numbers—the number on the scale and the number of calories you eat and burn. Success is defined in terms of how well you stick to your numbers.

A lifestyle change is all about you. It’s about lining up your eating and physical activity with your real goals and desires. Success is defined in terms of how these changes make you feel about yourself.

The diet mentality assumes that reaching a certain weight is the key to finding happiness and solving other problems. That’s why messing up the numbers on any given day can be so upsetting—it means you’ve messed up on just about everything that really matters.

The lifestyle approach assumes that being overweight is usually the result of other problems, not the cause. Addressing these problems directly is the best way to solve both the problems themselves and your weight issues.

You can do this by focusing on many things, not just the numbers on the scale or the Nutrition Tracker. Numbers only tell a small part of the story, and “bad” numbers often provide good clues into areas that need attention.

Going on a diet involves an external and temporary change in eating technique. You start counting and measuring, and you stop eating some foods and substitute others, based on the rules of whatever diet plan you are using. Maybe you can throw in some exercise to burn a few extra calories. You assume that it’s the technique that produces the results, not you.

The results of a diet are external; if you’re lucky, you may change on the outside—but not on the inside. Once you reach your goal weight, you don’t need the technique anymore, and things gradually go back to “normal.” So does your weight….. And, of course, all the problems you hoped the weight loss would solve are still there.Making a lifestyle change involves an internal and permanent change in your relationship with food, eating, and physical activity. You recognize that the primary problem isn’t what you eat, or even how much you eat, but how and why you eat.

Eating mindlessly and impulsively (without intention or awareness) and/or using food to manage your emotions and distract yourself from unpleasant thoughts—this is what really needs to change.

Learning to take good care of yourself emotionally, physically, and spiritually—so that you don’t want to use eating to solve problems it is really the lifestyle change that matters and is a lifelong learning process that is constantly changing as your needs and circumstances change. This doesn’t mean the surface level things don’t matter.

Clearly, controlling how much and what you eat is vital, and caring how you look is a great motivator. The key to both permanent weight loss and feeling satisfied and happy with yourself and your life is to take personal responsibility for what you can control, and let go of everything else.

And when you rely too much on external (diet) tools, techniques, and rules to determine your behavior, you are turning over your personal responsibility to the tools and techniques.

If you find yourself frequently losing motivation or feeling powerless to control your own behavior, it’s probably because you’re counting on the tools to do your part of the work for you.

You’re the only one who can decide what’s right for you; only you can change your attitude and perspective to match your personal reality.

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Apple Cider Vinegar and its 6 Health Benefits

apple-cider-vinegerWe all know what’s an apple and what is vinegar! But, have you given a thought to what if both apple and vinegr are blended, how would it taste?

An unusual combination called Apple cider vinegar (ACV), is unheard by most of us! It’s yet to gain importance in today’s world! Hence, I decided to write what it is and how it is beneficial!

ACV is a type of vinegar, made from apple. Unpasteurized organic ACV contains mother of vinegar. Mother of the vinegar is packed with benificial enzymes, pectins and minerals. It is said that the benefits of ACV comes from it’s mother. It is made by crushing apples and squeezing out the liquid.

Bacteria and Yeast are added to the liquid to start the alcoholic fermentation process, and the sugars  turn into alcohol. In a second fermentation process, the alcohol is converted into vinegar by acetic acid-forming bacteria (acetobacter). Acetic acid and malic acid give vinegar its sour taste.

Benefits:

  1. Improves digestion: If you’re planning on indulging in a meal that you expect might not get along very well with your stomach, ACV would definitely help. It has anti bacterial properties which helps in preventing UTI (urinary tract infection)

Dosage: one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar mixed with one teaspoon of honey in a glass of warm water 30 minutes before you dine.

  1. Improves insulin sensitivity in diabetes: Several studies have shown its positive effect on blood glucose levels; a 2007 study with type-2 diabetes patients was found to be success

Dosage: 2 tbsps of ACV in the morning have lowered glucose level by 4 to 6 percent

3.Brighten skin: Many who suffer from skin problems psoriasis and eczema to dry skin and blemishes, praise apple cider vinegar for reducing inflammation and generally minimizing problems.

Tip: Try dabbing it on affected areas with a cotton ball.

  1. Aids in weight loss: Apple cider vinegar’s acetic acid has been shown in studiesto suppress the accumulation of body fat and liver lipids. Its pectin content is also considered to slightly reduce your body’s ability to absorb fat.

When you have an apple cider vinegar drink before a meal it not only improves digestion, it also reduces your hunger levels which can only be beneficial for losing weight.

Dosage: 1 tablespoon in a large glass of water before each meal is the recommended dosage.

  1. Bad Breath: The natural acids in real apple cider vinegar, like acetic and malic acid, can reduce the bacteria in your mouth that cause bad breath.

Dosage: Add one tablespoon to a third of a cup of water and gargle for around 20 seconds to minimize bad breath

6.Detoxification: Apple cider vinegar is a popular ingredient in detoxification of body, specially liver.

Dosage: One tablespoon of ACV in a large glass of water before each meal is often recommended as an effective dosage for daily detoxification.

Also, you can add ACV to salad dressings, marination, soups and stew! By now, I am sure you have understood the motherly benefits of ACV.

 

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