Eat More, Weigh Less

Okay, so you tried going on a fast, pledged on drinking only green tea for the rest of your life, made and broke the New Year resolution of losing weight. The list goes on and on. A visit to the shopping mall is good to lose calories as we window shop. However, looking at the skinny models, zero size jeans, and short skirts can also make you depressed enough for the rest of the day or two.

That is the time when you get determined to eat healthy, go to the gym, workout and lose weight. Unfortunately, the busy schedules, house chores, weekend parties and guests leave you with little time for rest. Hence, the resolution to lose weight takes a backseat until your next visit to the shopping mall to buy a dress or trousers.

We all know that what we eat makes what we look. Loading yourself with high calorie food for seven days a week can lead you towards obesity, unless you are some person skinny who would not put on weight forever. Lucky you, but then you would not be reading this article for sure.

So for the not so lucky of us, I would like to share my experience of losing weight the right way and not gaining it again. It might sound funny, impossible or another story of diet supplements, fasting, and hunger-killing products. Absolutely not, in fact, I tried simple techniques that I read and put into practice.

It is very important that you eat right and eat what you want. Else, you would crash your diet and binge, leading to more calories and more numbers on the next trip to a weighing machine. The day should begin right with a healthy breakfast. Try to substitute your regular milk with low fat milk, go for decaffeinated coffee instead of the regular coffee. Also try to use a substitute for sugar, go for Equal sugar sachets or honey. It makes your coffee, tea or lime juice more tasty and healthy and zero calories.

Try opting for brown bread instead of white bread and avoid egg yolks while making omelets. If you like boiled eggs avoid the yellows and have 2 whole eggs but no yellow. We all love to have toasted bread with butter, in such case; you can choose to eat butter with low fat and low cholesterol. These are readily available in any grocery store nearby.

Done with the breakfast, full with coffee, eggs, cereal and bread; carry some organic orange juice with you to work. So, when stuck in traffic and you feel like craving for food, you can sip some healthy orange or mixed fruit juice. You can also carry a fruit with you on your way to work. They a good detox, give you beautiful skin and fill your tummy. No one hates fruits and you have a wide choice too, from apples, pears, plums, berries to banana, mangoes, peaches and melons; you can eat a fruit of your choice after or in between your meal.

For lunch, try to substitute white rice with brown rice, some lentils, soup, salad and yogurt. I make myself whole wheat rotis (similar to tortillas, but healthier). It is a simple recipe; all you need is 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 3 pinches of salt and some water to make dough in the food processor. Once done, make small balls and make a roti out of each ball of dough (shaped like tortilla) and roast it on the pan with no oil or butter. You can have it with black beans, stir fried vegetables or with boiled lentils.

For an evening snack, you could have brown bread sandwiches with a filling of salad mix you get in the grocery stores. Use some ranch dressing to make it tasty. If you like nuts, you could have some peanuts, almonds or hazel nuts and a cup of milk or coffee. You could also eat salt free biscuits as a snack with your cup of milk, tea or coffee.

For dinners, you could choose to have your favorite cheese macaroni, just try to substitute whole milk with low fat milk, low fat cheese and whole wheat macaroni while making your dish. Try to have a hot tomato soup with a small bowl of salad with a dressing of your choice.

Being a vegetarian, I could choose to go organic. If you eat meat, there are lots of healthy options available on the internet with recipes to cook easy and low fat non- vegetarian diet. Browsing through a book in the library, I learnt that organic vegetables are the best detox diet as they do not contain chemicals and pesticides.

Organic vegetables also take lesser time to cook and taste great. You can choose from okra, cauliflower, cabbage, green bell peppers, beets or any vegetable. Over the weekend, you could take a binge into your favorite pizza or a burger with fries and some fresh fruit juice. We all know that sodas are bad for health, including the diet coke or Pepsi. Hence, it is better to avoid them or have a coke once a month.

Another important thing, how much ever you hate it is the golden word "workout." Every person needs some sort of exercise at least 4 days a week. Well, you eat everyday and put on calories, hence, you need to work out to cut them too. Try to join a gym that has sauna, where you can sweat and detox yourself the easier way.

Half an hour of aerobics or treadmill and sometime in the swimming pool and the sauna can make you look slimmer, younger and beautiful. It results in great skin and lustrous hair too. In a month or two you can see those wrinkles taking a fade and the acne and spots vanishing too. If you are interested in music or reading, grab your ipod or the latest novel and head to the gym. Read or listen to music as you work out and you would not realize how time flies by.

Another trip to the library and I got enlightened about how healthy leafy vegetables are. So I include boiled spinach with lentils for lunch. Celery, spinach, kale, herbs are all great for your tummy. They are natural products that have chlorophyll content, great to oxidize yourself. You can also make green smoothies instead of having fruit juice every day.

Mix some celery, orange juice, a banana and some water. Alternatively, try blending some Romaine lettuce, red grapes, orange juice, a banana and some water. These smoothies not only taste great but also make you feel fresh and healthy. You end up with great skin and feel lot more energetic.

I personally go to the gym for two hours a day, five days a week, eat lot of veggies, salads, cucumbers, fruits for the weekdays along with whole wheat rotis and egg whites. For the weekends, no diet restrictions and no gym, but we do go for a walk, hike, jog or bike.

At the end of the day, you should not feel hungry while you sleep nor should you over eat. Both cases are bad for health. So how much is too much? It is said that after a meal, you should leave yourself feeling a teeny bit hungry. This space allows your digestive system to easily digest your food. It also keeps you from feeling lethargic and lazy. Avoid sitting constantly or sleeping immediately after a meal. Try going for a walk after lunch and dinner. Your pet would be a lot happier to accompany you too.

All these tips should make you feel great over the time. We need to remember that Rome was not built in a day though it was destroyed a lot earlier. This means that good healthy diet might take some time to show the result but keeps you from gaining soon. A crash diet could gain more than what was lost.