Smart tips to Control and Manage Weight

Managing your body weight can be simple if we understand some principles of food management. Today we are living in an age of wise management of simply everything, so why not my body and food as well. If I am driving a car the first thing I check for is whether there is enough petrol in the tank to reach my destination. If the needle indicates that the petrol level is low, I would pull up at any petrol station, anywhere near by and fill up the petrol tank.

Similarly in our body there is a chemical in our brain called serotonin which is the energy inspector in our body’s and it sends a message out to look for food when the energy level is low. It is usually a very strong message and this cry usually over rides caution and intelligence. When this happens we will not consider what is right or what is good but we will want to eat anything, anywhere, immediately and most often eat the wrong things, tasty things, full of fat, deep fried, salty, sweet things, etc.

Weight control and weight reduction are best managed if we try to overcome this above explained system working inside us by firstly committing ourselves to eat every meal and never skip a meal – three times a day. Secondly we need to be committed to eating balanced meals. Today we are living in an age of fad diets. Some of the popular beliefs, which are nutritionally wrong are the belief of eating only fruits for breakfast.

Please note, fruits get digested in 20-30 minutes and within the next 1-2 hours your energy level will drop and you will end up snacking on a samosa or chips, etc., by 10 or 11am. Many skip lunch or only carry roti and sabji for lunch or eat a veg. sandwich. These items are mainly carbohydrate foods, which are digested in 1-2 hours and thereafter we will start feeling hungry and by evening we end up eating all kinds of snacks.

Similarly those who eat only soups and salad for dinner or only roti and sabji, at night, may feel hungry by bedtime and raid the refrigerator before sleeping. All three meals must be eaten and all these meals must be made up of carbohydrate i.e. bread, cereal, roti, or rice items combined with protein foods like milk, curd, egg white, dhal/pulse or poultry/fish, etc. Protein foods take four hours to be digested so they keep us from becoming hungry and snacking in between meals.

However eating only protein food and avoiding complex carbohydrates is equally dangerous as the carbohydrates are our main energy suppliers and those who avoid carbohydrates end up with sugar cravings and indulge in heavy sweets and chocolate intake. We advise that you eat all three balanced meals and include fruits in between meals. Fruits are the best snacks along with a glass or two of skimmed milk or curd. They are even safe to have at night if you are a late sleeper. Chocolates, cookies, chips, popcorn, etc. are the popular snacks which can seriously ruin all your weight control efforts.

Last but not the least, if you drink two and a half to three litres water throughout the day you will definitely snack less and be able to control your food intake much better.