This write up is just a collection of things that worked for me to develop better eating habits and getting into the right mindset for a healthier life.
I am not really going to suggest an ideal diet plan, as there really isn’t one.
But, I will share what I learnt regarding building better habits that would lead to a healthier lifestyle.
Dieting: The usual story
- Pick a diet.
- Stick to it for a week.
- Lose a few pounds
- Celebrate :)
- ...
- ..
- 2 weeks later, we’re back to our usual weight :-/
- The biggest reason we fail with most diets is that, it is just simply hard for our body to change our eating habits drastically all of a sudden and is very easy to get to failure mode.
- Even if we did succeed with our extreme will — it wasn’t probably the most enjoyable experience for our body. We might end up losing weight over a 2 week diet and might gain it back once we get back to eating usually. This approach takes a toll on our mind and body.
Better approach:
The best way to do this is to form better habits slowly and gradually such that that it doesn’t really take a huge toll on your mental strength — but just a result of you gaining confidence and building up on it slowly.
‘Dieting’ in the classical sense is often used in the connotation of eating healthy tasteless food just to hit our weight loss goals — that we wouldn’t normally enjoy . It doesn’t have to be so. There are a lot of really healthy foods/recipes out there and unless you are looking to be the fittest person on earth, slowly tweaking your daily diet with healthier options is more than enough to hit our fitness goals. I’ll share a few pointers.
Eliminate the bad foods one by one
Change one thing at a time, make it a consistent habit and be patient.
The key is to start small.
- Identify foods in your diet that you know are fatty or unhealthy and try to remove one of them from your diet for a few weeks. Let’s say soda or pizza or unhealthy office snack. Choose something that you are confident of removing from your diet and sticking to it. This builds a mini habit and sticking to it, builds confidence. Now you can move on to bigger things next and tweak your diet slowly. Your body/mind won’t realize the pain with your gradually changing diet and will respond well.
- This approach worked well for me. I stopped eating pizza for a month — said ‘No’ whenever I was offered. Beyond 2 months — your body doesn’t crave for it anymore and now it’s a lot more easier to keep up the streak. Without even you realizing how hard it might have been — you have a new habit of not eating junk food (pizza in this case). This gives you a huge confidence boost.
Foods I eliminated
- Pizza/bagel and all other junk food at office with excess sugar.
- Soda (drink plain water instead)
Choose a big challenge once you have built up on the smaller ones:
- Eliminating rice (don’t get me wrong — rice is not bad). But, I knew that cutting down on just this one thing would help towards my calorie deficit to lose weight and also avoid food coma. There are other foods to get in your carbs which I’ll mention later.
- I made this a mini habit — which eventually became a habit. I had rice only 3 times in 10 months and all of them were during social gatherings. You really don’t want to say a hard NO when it is made by your friends/family. So, that’s fine :)
- It doesn’t really take a huge effort to do this if you learnt to say no for a month. Since you started small, your body get’s easier on you after a month.
Key takeaways
- Start small — Remove bad food habits one by one and build confidence.
- You might not really see a huge change in your physique, but you’re laying the foundation to a proper nutrition.
- It’s important to remember that during this process that you don’t have to be ‘perfect’ to be successful. You’ll miss a few days due to tricky situations, you’re going to eat some junk food and it’s OK. It’s like taking a vacation, you still get back to work once done, often well-rested and with a rejuvenated sense of purpose and focus. The more time you spend ‘thinking‘ about all the bad food you ate, or the exercise you missed, the lower your mindset will be, for longer, delaying the results you’re looking for.
Including healthier foods
- Drink lots of water
Water does not have some magical property that burns fat, but it definitely helps you with your weight-loss efforts. Staying hydrated could help you avoid overeating. A lot of people confuse thirst for hunger — so they’ll tend to eat rather than drink water. Also, water aids in digestion. - Eat lots of fruits and vegetables (whole foods)
At first add in fruits or vegetables that you might like and slowly you can tweak yourself to move on to better alternatives you are not used to. Trust me, your body adapts well. I hate kale/broccoli — after a month of eating whole foods I added it to my meal, it wasn’t that bad anymore.
Be sure to get protein in your diet.
- Your body needs protein to repair and promote the growth of cells, tissues, and organs. Some studies suggest that if you don’t get enough protein, it weakens your heart, lungs, and immune system and slows growth.
Veg: Green peas, Quinoa, Nuts, Edamame, Chickpeas, Soy
Meat: Chicken breast (it’s all that I had). Also, turkey if you like it. - Include low fat dairy
Dairy foods are an excellent source of calcium, which your body needs to keep your bones and teeth strong and healthy. When combined with vitamin D, calcium can help prevent bone loss at older age. They are also an excellent source of essential minerals such as magnesium and potassium.
Things to know:
- Don’t starve — Keep eating 3 meals a day. Some of them eat 6 small meals a day too, if that works with your schedule.
- Maintain a good balance of carbs/proteins and essential fats in your diet. You need all of them for healthy functioning.
For carbs: Sweet potatoes, Green peas, Bananas, Chickpeas, low fat yoghurt mixed with nuts. - Try to cut down on frozen/processed food. They aren’t really that healthy.
Eat Healthy for Life
No harm in having a treat once in awhile or during special occasions. But overall, watch what you eat and choose healthy foods most of the time, you will feel healthier, have more energy, and be happier.
Exercise/ Workouts
This is something I am going to leave it open to you :)
Figure out what you love — could be something fun like zumba, a sport like badminton, something more intense like crossfit or just plain running. But it’s necessary to start off with something you like to do :)
It’s always advisable to consult with a trainer to know your body’s strengths/weaknesses before picking the right routine. Choosing the right routine depends a lot on the goals you want to achieve.
I personally love crossfit because it is short (15 mins warm up, 20 min skill training, 20 min workout), highly intense and constantly varied. It involves cardio, weight training and gymnastics thereby working every muscle in your body. My goal was to be fit, develop enough stamina to do any kind of physical activity with ease (be it hiking, soccer, surfing, backpacking etc) and look athletic without getting jacked — Crossfit fit in perfectly. It’s important to figure out your goals and choose your workouts based on it. So, try out a few things and pick one that you enjoy doing and is easily accessible to you.
Also, remember — with workouts there is no such thing as area focused weight loss. Working out your abs won’t necessarily reduce your belly fat. It will strengthen your ab muscles, yes — but not necessarily reduce your waistline.
Another important factor in becoming healthier/fit is getting enough rest and sleep. Even with the very best diet and fitness routine, if sleep is off, you’re wrecked. Most studies show somewhere between 7–9 hours per night as ideal for most.
Trust me, few months down the lane you’ll know more about your body/mind that you’ll start tweaking all the parameters better and figure out a good routine which you really don’t have to force it upon yourself, but instead enjoy. One fine day, you’ll end up surprising yourself just like I did.
Being fit and healthy is nothing more than a solid routine. Once you get to prioritize it in life, choices become easier.
Feel free to add in any comments/questions. Always happy to share more.
