We were getting a lot of requests for a ready reckoner or quick do’s and don’ts for losing weight and improving the overall health, so here goes our small list of things that will help you all in getting a fitter and healthier body

1. Don’t eat in front of the television (TV): sounds familiar, a common advise given and seldom implemented. But we will tell you why it is important to STOP eating in front of TV

• you tend to snack more
• you tend to prolong your eating time till the program that you are watching therefore increasing your food intake
• you eat mechanically as your mind is on the program on the television, so you keep consuming and the feeling of satiety doesn’t register with you.

2. Eat as slow as possible: By this we mean that chew your food properly and just don’t hog it down. Our brain takes around 20 minutes to send a signal to our stomach saying that it is now full so it is upto us on how much and what type of food to consume within this time frame, eating fast leads to consumption of more food and more unnecessary calories too.
3. Avoid processed foods: Processed foods like chips, packaged fruit juices, vending machine sandwiches, candies, biscuits, rolls etc have refined sugar and fructose. They carry no nutritious value but are high in bad carbohydrates and fat. Check the label of these foods and try and avoid foods which have ingredients like maltose, sugar syrup, corn syrup, molasses, dextrose etc as these are nothing but refined sugar. Similarly cold cuts are very high in sodium which promotes water retention in the body which is not a desirable state.
4. Make soup consumption a must: Soups are healthy, have nutrients and are filling. Moreover it takes time to consume a bowl of soup so largely post your soup consumption you may not have a desire for a full course meal thereby helping you lose weight. Soups are nutrient rich and if fortified with boiled vegetables are a full meal in themselves.
5. Prepare your food instead of buying from the shelf: A burger can be consumed within five minutes and is laden with bad carbs (carbohydrates), also, you would end up consuming fries, cola etc with it as the food is tasty, appetizing looking and available. On the other hand vegetables, grilled chicken, lentils and legumes all need to be prepared. They are filling and you take time eating them. So you consume less and whatever you consume is healthy and good for you, so get in the habit of preparing your food.
6. Don’t starve: Quitting food or going hungry is no solution, rather body ends up storing whatever you eat as fat since it goes into a self preservation mode. Eat just; eat healthy. Eat at regular intervals, so you don’t overeat and your appetite is always satiated and body also adapts itself to a consistent inflow of food. It will boost your metabolism too, and therefore, we are stressing it again -don’t go on a starvation at all, it is detrimental to your overall health.
7. Exercise portion control: There are times when you cannot really have the food of your choice or you may be at a party with mouth watering food. Eat the food, that is what food is for. Enjoy yourself but a word of caution- limit your portions. Eat everything that you want but have small portions of them. Don’t go all-out gorging, take it slow and easy, enjoy the taste and aroma but keep the portion size small.
8. The water therapy: You would be surprised to know that body consumes calories in digesting water whereby water itself carries no calories. Also cold water makes you burn even more calories as body has to work more to bring it to body temperature so water is a wonder food which cleanses your system of impurities, keeps the kidneys in working order and also makes you burn calories.Water not only helps in your weight management, it is beneficial for  your skin, it fights infection, gets your body rid of toxins and it prevents constipation.

9. It is recommended that you should have

• One large glass of water around 500 ml the moment you get up in the morning. it boosts your metabolism.
• one glass of water (300 ml)30 minutes before the breakfast
• one glass of water post every tea/coffee

10. The food break up: The calorie consumption pattern should ideally conform to a blend of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. We should try and constitute each serving with 65% of carbohydrates, 15% of Proteins and around 20% of fats. Try and space it with around 25% calories in breakfast, 50% in lunch and 25% in dinner.
11. No substitute for exercise: Whatever may be the diet, if you don’t exercise it is not going to be of much benefit to you. Exercising not only accelerates weight loss but also keeps your body in working order. It exercises your muscles, gives you a natural high, gets you the clean fresh air and exhilarates your body and mind.

You don’t have to do cardio or heavy gymming if you can’t at this point in time, just WALK, yes you read it right WALK. Our bodies store energy in our liver which is for our consumption, this energy store gets used by us and is replenished by our bodies. Now, the key is to walk more than this energy store because once this store exhausts which usually happen in 30-40 minutes, then body uses FAT (stored energy) to convert to energy for our use. This is where your fat deposits come into the play and the fat gets used which over a period of time shrinks the fat cells and you not only lose weight but also inches from your body.

It is advisable to do brisk walking which is actually walking at a speed which is more than 3.5 km/hr. At this speed body performs at its optimum level and fat burning probability increases.

Please note: Don’t over exert yourself, your speed should be just short of being exhausting because it you stress yourself too much, the proteins in the muscles start getting utilized instead of the fat deposits which is not desirable, so walk at your optimum speed and gradually with time increase it.