Getting Rid of Extra Pounds

Written on 3rd Oct, 2009

By

Sadaf Fayyaz

“What the hell is this? I just got this new fancy outfit and it doesn’t fit me now.” Just waking up from sleep and feeling hungry, this is what most people experience. The hectic life-style and luxury pastimes have really added some extra pounds to us. The biggest thing is office or PC work, where there is little physical movement involved. You are using your brain, but hardly any muscle or joints, except moving the mouse. The result is a stressful headache, migraine, or even joint pains. Even people below 25 years of age suffer from such health and strain related pains. The result is binge-eating and irregular food intakes, and lot of caffeine drinking, in form of rich and strong coffee or tea. Some folks get addicted to nicotine as well in order to release stress. But the headache and pain doesn’t go away.

A better and healthier life style definitely leads to a good mental and physical health. Switching to a healthier diet pattern is always an improved way. Extra pounds (with an exceeded BMI), which rate you overweight, will only give you fatigue and laziness. You will get nothing from these pounds. At times you feel very passive and don’t feel like playing or moving around a lot. Some overweight friends of mine complained about their weight. I suggested green and almost low-calorie salads like lettuce, celery, broccoli, cucumber and un-sweetened fruits, they became angry. “We can’t eat these things all the time, burger, pizza or pasta is a better option”. You simply can’t help out a person, who doesn’t want to be helped out. Our body absorbs and stores un-needed stuff in form of fat. Different people have multiple tendencies to store fat at different places. Usually the body problem areas store the biggest amount of fat.

It is a myth when some people say “We eat and don’t gain weight”. Their metabolism may be functioning better. I remember till my late teens, I had hoards of fat, and everyone used to make fun of me. Because at that time, there was little awareness and my mom usually used to fill up my stomach with high-calorie and fried foods. Because she thought oily food would make me healthy and active.

How you can toggle to a better and more elegant life-style? You seriously need to work out on many things, comprising your diet, drinking and activity levels. For example, if you are a sports person, you can eat a small plate of your favorite dessert or fruit. But if you keep sitting all the time and have almost zero-level activity, then your favorite dessert would add unnecessary calories to your body, without burning them. You can follow these simple tips:

1. Just have one cup of tea in the morning, and take Chinese green tea instead of creamier coffee and richly blended tea.

2. If you are not an ulcer patient, you can squeeze half a lemon in green tea. Its boosts your metabolism and enhances calorie burning process.

3. Reduce salt intake, because it retains water in your body, which results in weight gain. If you are a  high blood pressure patient, have little salt. We don’t put any salt in our food, my parents have maintained their weights, but I pour it on my food, because my blood pressure drops quickly.

4. Take plain lemonade 3-4 times a day. It cleans and burns the extra fat in your body and is a magnificent natural cleanser and detox. It cleans skin and nails as well, and works as a detoxifier too.

5. Avoid taking very refined flour items or glutton foods. Try brown/bran breads and fiber-rich foods in your diet. Heavy fiber foods clean your intestines and make your stomach filled. For example, if you eat a small bowl of sugar-coated roasted dry fruits, you will still feel hungry and feel like eating more. But if you eat a bowl of cabbage or lettuce, you won’t feel hungry at all.

6. If you love milk shakes and ice creams, use low fat milk in these.

7. Develop a taste for pulses, vegetables and low calorie fruits. 

8. Cook food on low flame and in steam, add spices like black pepper, dry coriander, basil leaves, bay leaves, parsley, rosemary, fenugreek seeds, black seeds, and paprika to your food. Use little oil and don’t overcook food.

9. Apple cider is an amazing thing to be added to every food recipe. If you have ulcer then don’t add it.

10. Try eating salads in natural form, without dressing them heavily with thick mayonnaise. You can use mustard or light olive oil for dressing, if you can’t eat them raw.

11. Completely avoid diet pills, laxatives and un-natural ways to lose pounds. You will regain weight if you stop using these things.

12. Whenever you have spare time, indulge into light activities like gardening, climbing stairs, mild walking or light yoga.

13. Have 6 mini meals in a day, instead of 2 big meals.

14. Substitute honey or brown sugar for white sugar in your tea or coffee. It is a natural sweetener, and burns fat too. 

15. Take foods that increase your metabolism and are easily digestible.

16. Avoid having snacks or fried foods in between the meals.

17. Try to eat the foods the way they are naturally. For example, bitter gourd is very good for sugar patients. I have my friends rubbing salt on it, to remove its bitterness and then cook it. What the use of bitter gourd then? I cook it as bitter as it is, without even removing the upper layer. I have seen people peeling off apples and then eating them. Same applies to brinjal as well: people remove the skin and then cook it, which is of no use.

18. Instead of heavy fizzy sugar drinks, switch to naturally squeezed juices. or earth drinks .The natural sugar doesn’t cause any harm to you.

19. Increase the activity level: For example if you have to go to the 3rd floor, use stairs instead of an elevator.

20. Have 7 hours of sleep daily, and avoid having tea or coffee before sleep since both keep you awake.

21. If you are a dry fruit lover, have unprocessed and unsalted natural sweet almonds and nuts. 

22. Avoid long hunger intervals.

...............You clothes will never get tight..........