Be Fit With Me Week 1 – Eating And Drinking

I am starting with a fitness program where I will share a fitness routine comprising of cardio and strength training. I will also be discussing about nutrition and eating strategies. I will also be sharing a few easy to achieve goals of the week which will be related to nutrition or fitness or both. The readers are asked to closely follow these tips and bring change into their lifestyles, by practicing these tips on a daily basis. Initially you will be making a conscious effort to incorporate these changes or – Be Fit Mantras – but after a few days it will develop instinctively. I promise to go slow at a comfortable pace.

Pointers for the Food Intake this week:

1. Always eat within 10 min of waking up in morning,
2. Drink at least 2 liters of water.

Always eat with 10 min of waking up in morning: 
Rujukta Diwekar, in her book “Don’t Lose Your Mind Lose Your Weight”, explains –“Never wake up to tea and coffee. Instead eat real food within 10 – 15 min of waking up”.
When we sleep blood sugar level goes low, in morning liver stores are almost empty, low blood sugar level is the reason we feel “low” in morning. If we don’t eat, body starts breaking muscles to keep sugar from going low. So it is necessary to eat, which keeps body from breaking down the muscles and reducing our Lean body Mass. Muscles are the fat burners in our body so we can’t let them waste.  We should eat food which increases sugar slowly n steadily and it preps up the body for bearing stress.

All of you who don’t feel like eating in the morning have a slow metabolism and an inefficient digestive system. Numerous studies have proved that eating a healthy breakfast in the morning leads to an increased metabolic rate, which keeps you active throughout the day.
Do not start a day with tea or coffee- caffeine is to be blamed here, it increases blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate and makes body stressed or we as we want “kicked”.  But has zero nutrition. It masks hunger which is reason why morning tea/coffee can make us go long without having breakfast. This result in eating more later, our body wants nutrients the “masking” effect of caffeine leaves it demanding for more nutrients later.

What should be the Strategy:

Rujukta Diwekar suggests starting the day with a fruit. For all the busy people out there who don’t have the time to cook instantly, fruits come as a very handy option. Fruits have fructose which is a very simple form of sugar and it increases the blood sugar level slowly. Then later within one hour or so have a fiber rich diet- anything you like roti sabzi, sandwich dosa, idly, upma, poha, oats, or muesli.

My take on this Strategy:

I have been following this rule from last one year without fail, and since then I haven’t had any morning which went low. My sleeping pattern (I am working on it and it has improved considerably) is very erratic and mostly dependent on my husband’s working hours and typically I have a very busy morning, waking up and straight into kitchen making breakfast and packing lunch. Earlier, this was the most tedious task for me in the entire day, as I use to feel low and groggy, and had an unavoidable need for a cup of tea to make myself useful. But as I incorporated this rule, my mornings are very lively and energetic. I not only finish my tasks with ease and comfort but also I am ready to take on the day. My strategy – I am a firm believer in goodness of protein so I start my day with 6-7 almonds and Water. This provides me protein, essential fats and keeps me fuller for longer. Water hydrates me from the long drought period of night. I like to switch almonds with walnuts or pistachios, or fruits like an apple (which I normally cut into pieces and keep them beside to eat while I m cooking), or a banana, carrot sticks or any fruit which can be easily consumed without much fuss. I avoid grapes at this time as somehow they make me a little acidic in the mornings.  Then I eat my breakfast, along with my hubby, usually it will be eggs (in any form, for me it will be two egg whites and one yellow) or Poha, sprouts or anything that fresh and home cooked, when in hurry I even like taking plain curd with some fruits (well in western countries they call it fruit yoghurt, this would be my version of that).

Follow these simple tips:

• Don’t start your day with tea/ coffee.
• Eat in at least 10 or say 30 min of getting up. You can have any fruit or any nuts (not roaster, no salt, not fried, just plain raw nuts). Don’t add any salt or chat masala to these. If it’s not possible for you to eat almonds and walnut just replace it with peanuts, they are perfect replacements. Eat about 2-3 tbsp peanuts.
• This is treated as Meal 1 of a six meals a day plan.
• Eat breakfast within 1 hr of the first meal. Other than any option stated earlier in the article, you can eat anything healthy but avoid anything deep – fried like samosa, bhaji etc. If you eat at office, go for omelets or eggs or any home cooked vegetable chapatti roll etc.
• Drink at least 2 liters of water every day (will discuss it in upcoming article).
• Consciously make an effort to follow the above goal for a healthier lifestyle.