Eat a balanced diet Archives

December 22, 2016 By Trupti Vyas (Pandya) 1 Comment

Be a happy and healthy eater

Weekend is getaway time with our family, friends or colleagues. Some people think after doing strenuous workouts and crash dieting it’s time to relax over the weekend and relaxing means literally binging on outside food. More often than not, the thought process is –‘its only today so let me indulge…..I will make up for this binging over the week by sipping a meal or two’.

When Monday arrives, they are guilty of having indulged over the weekend. One needs to stop and notice these chain of events. There has to be a change in the behavior. Individuals’ need to realize that indulging in binge eating for two days and then feeling guilty and trying to rectify the situation does not work.

Hence it is said that ‘Mindful Eating’ is a must and the best solution. Mindful eating teaches us to simply observe thoughts, feelings and cravings for food. It enable us to change our behavior while we maintain our sanity and happiness

Here are Some Mindful eating tips-–

Multi-tasking while eating or watching television while eating always causes distraction or causes hurried eating. So switch off your phone, TV and Computer before eating.
Preferably adopt the cross legged posture Or sit At your usual dining place.
Try to eat sitting cross legged. You can do this even while sitting on a chair. Sitting cross legged on the floor and eating meals is an age old technique from our grandma’s days. (This helps to blood flow to the stomach area)
Calm your mind and body then start eating your meal. When your mind is calm and composed, you release the right amount of digestive juices which gives you better digestion.
If you are stressed or guilty while eating -stress hormone called cortisol is released which lowers our metabolic rate, prevent fat burning and help convert food to fat.
Take deep breath, calm yourself and get settled before eating.

While Eating-

Don’t be in a rush while eating and try to get up fast.
Start eating (preferably with your hands) and eat slowly.
Chew your food slowly
Use your entire mouth and do not just chew from 1 side of your Jaw.
While you still have food in your mouth don’t pick up another morsel from your plate.
Keeping food ready in your hands or in a spoon means you are eating fast and will ultimately this could lead to overeating.
Eat with your senses and think about how the food is nourishing you from within.
Savor every bit of what you eat, slowly and mindfully and you will naturally find your threshold. So be silence and attentive while you eat.
Prepare Food in smaller quantity. If number of People are less it helps to prepare lesser quantity and better by retaining nutrient value.
Always eat food that is freshly prepared. One should consume food within 3 hours of Cooking.
Don’t deep freeze cooked food.
Try eating with your non-dominant hand. If you’re a righty, hold your fork in your left hand when lifting food to your mouth whenever you eat outside in restaurant or party
Whenever you get the craving for a sweet – before opening the fridge or cabinet for the same, take a deep breath and ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?” Do something else, like reading or going on a short walk as that will help you to avoid any emotional extra eating under stress.

Let’s start to enjoy eating food rather than think of it as a task to complete. Remind the body of its own intelligence and its ability to self-regulate for you! Cultivate a sustainable, balanced and healthy approach to the way we eat, the way we look, and the way we live.

May 4, 2015 By Dave Hellman 1 Comment

Autonomy + Motivation + Accountability = Wellness

Everyone knows the basics of healthy living. Eat a balanced diet. Exercise. Get a good night’s sleep. Not long ago, if you needed more guidance than that, you had to find an expert (books, physicians, etc.). They were the only ones with the tools and knowledge to help you. This was okay for people who had the time and resources to seek out that expertise but for most people it was a huge barrier. And when we’re looking to make changes in our behavior, barriers strip us of motivation.

Flash forward to the current day and we have a convergence of technologies that addresses some significant obstacles. These include:

Wearable Fitness Technology – Wristbands, watches, pendants, eyeglasses, and even clothing that can sense steps taken, quality of sleep, heart rate, and more.
Smartphone Apps – For detailed tracking of exercise, food and nutrients consumed, blood sugar level, etc.
Online Services – That were formerly only available to professionals such as genome testing, full lab panels and microbiome (gut bacteria) testing.
Internet of Things – Infrastructure that allows these technologies to talk with one another. Step on your scale and it updates the food diary on your smartphone tracker app with your weight.

The age of autonomy is here. No longer must we depend on experts to know where we stand health-wise. But is that enough? Apparently not. As noted in a previous post on this site, Rethink Wearable Tech…Fad or Future, despite the growing popularity of devices like Wearable Fitness Trackers, many people stop using them only a short time after they get them.

You see, technology hasn’t figured out when you need space and when you need a little nudge. It’s not very good at helping you explore why you’re stuck or why you sometimes regress. It does a bad job at changing and adapting with you. And, it doesn’t know how to link your goals for good health to your vision, your values. Technology is just clueless about motivation and accountability.

Enter the Health Coach. Health Coaches are the latest member of your wellness team. Unlike physicians whose role is to diagnose and prescribe, Health Coaches help you make the changes you want to make by stoking the fire you have within. And unlike Nutrition Counselors or Personal Trainers who hand over wellness plans and monitor compliance, Health Coaches partner with you to uncover the strategies that honor your values and lifestyle. They work with you to keep you accountable.

Health Coaches are experts in human behavioral change. They recognize that family, physicians, and employers may influence positive changes in health, but the real inspiration to move towards wellness has to come from you. Health coaches use a process that surfaces what is most important to you and links those values to the healthy behaviors and goals that matter most. This is where motivation comes from.

As you progress, your coach helps you create a plan to reach those goals. The emphasis on you is critical. The plan can’t be some cookie cutter nutrition or exercise program that the coach pulls from some file. It must be a customized plan that strikes a balance between flexibility, because “stuff happens,” and specificity so you can link your plan to your progress. Without a tailored plan, it’s difficult to hold yourself accountable.

Health Coaching is a new field. Research on its impact is just emerging but initial results are encouraging. These include:

And all of these studies took place prior to and without the benefit of the technologies mentioned earlier. When we combine the ability for technology to collect data in a transparent way with the skills and knowledge of a professionally trained Health Coach, some magic starts to happen. Health Coaches know you as a person and can figure out when you need space and when you need a little nudge. Health Coaches excel at helping people explore why they’re stuck or why they sometimes regress. Health Coaches understand that wellness goals must change and adapt as you change and adapt. And Health coaches know how to link your goals for good health to your vision, your values.

Technology provides you autonomy. Health Coaches honor that autonomy, inspire motivation, and maximize accountability. And this combination results in a happy, healthy, and productive life.