Obesity :: Tips to keep your calories under control

Though we all love satiating our taste buds by eating all the goodies available, especially so in this festive season, we should be, at the same time, careful enough to choose what is right.

Here are a few handy tips to keep yourself in shape while you get going on those lip-smacking dishes.

* Rather than the calorie-packed items, go for low calorie food easily available in market, especially low calorie chocolates, cakes and cold drinks (diet cold drinks).

Few quick tips that ensure good health and a fit body:

* Choose whole grain cereals and pulses
* Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables
* Use sugar and salt in moderation
* Limit intake of tea/coffee
* Alcohol consumption in moderation
* Drink plenty of water
* See your doctor immediately if you feel you have suddenly started eating too less or too much. This maybe a warning sign to an impending disease.

Look for the Healthier Choices when Eating Out:

* Choose you restaurant carefully
* Have a light healthy home cooked snack (soup/ salad) before going out to curb your appetite
* While eating out, steamed or boiled milk rather than deep fried food could help you stay in shape.
* Make a meal from your appetizers (choose non-fried snacks)
* Consume condiments carefully (pickles, papads, chutneys, mayonniese are high in salt, sugar and calories)
* Eat slowly as it takes 20 mins. for your brain to realise that your stomach is full.
* Go easy on alcohol

Selecting Your Meal

* Be choosy when it comes to high fat items such as butter, cheese, cream, bacon, and nuts
* Avoid rich cuisine like Mughlai and related north Indian cuisine
* Start your meal with salad and a bowl of yoghurt, it leaves little space for fattening foods
* Let’s have a look at the menu various cuisines offer so that when you see any of these restaurants next, you would know what your health friendly menu should comprise of and what not:

* Choosing your health-friendly menu when at an Italian Restaurant
* Minestrone soup
* Avoid an oil spill
* Look for dishes flavoured with rosemary, basil, red peppers, artichokes, capers and lemon
* Avoid pastas stuffed with cheese
* Consider tomato-based dishes

Choosing your health-friendly menu when at a Chinese Restaurant
* Have green tea
* Using chopsticks will slow you down
* Start off with wonton, hot-and-sour or egg drop soup
* Ask to have your dish stir fried with less oil
* Go for steamed dumplings

Choosing your health-friendly menu when at a Mexican Restaurant
* Top everything with a helping of shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes and pour on the salsa
* Beware of tortilla-chip munching

* To avoid feeling deprived of all those mouth-watering delicacies, a bite or two of the regular stuffed pranthas/ choco-pies/ restricted tablespoons of desserts is affordable and recommendable.

* Besides the caution you must pay while eating out, a careful fitness regime could be your way to staying healthy.

Fitness must mean that you are:

* Able to perform your daily tasks vigorously and alertly with energy left over for enjoying leisure-time activities and meeting emergency demands.
* You feel physically charged and mentally relaxed.

To keep your good self fit, always remember the golden rule of FOUR:

* Walk 4km.
* for 40 min.
* 4 times a week

Make sure that you go for exercises that suit your demand and requirement:

* Choose exercise that is appropriate for your age, physical shape & general health.
* Recognize that you will only get benefits if you exercise regularly.
* Enjoy your exercise. Choose something that gives you a break & adds variety to the lifestyle.
* Aerobic exercises reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure & stress.
* Stretch Training can reduce the risk of osteoporosis & muscle wasting. Stretching dissipates lactic acid & increases flexibility thus reducing the risk of injury.

WINTER PROTOCOL WHILE YOU EXERCISE:

* Avoid early morning walks.
* Don’t walk against cold wind.
* Avoid heavy woolens.
* Face scarf in extreme cold.

Eating out is delightful, but staying fit is doubly so. The world loves a young and energetic person, and by keeping fit, that person could be – YOU!!!!


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