Grate the egg whites. Mix milk and flour in pan and keep to boil. Add all the ingredients. Now apply this mixture generously on bread slices. Grill it in the oven till crispy. Cut and serve.
Here you go – 5 unhealthy foods that need to kick the curb and be eliminated from your daily diet, RIGHT NOW –
1. DIET SODA When it comes to the calorie count, the diet version may turn out to be a better option than drinking sugar loaded aerated drinks. But artificial sugars and caffeine isn’t something we must consume regularly or get addicted to just because it is zero in calories and does not hinder our weight loss efforts. It does a lot of harm to your body in several other ways.
Swap with: Plain soda Still keeping the carbonated fizz and the zero calorie lure alive, a can of plain soda deletes the negatives of caffeine and aspartame. You tives of caffeine and aspartam could add a bit of flavour to i by squeezing lime or adding some chopped fruits like berries, oranges, melons, mint or celery leaves.
2. MAYONNAISE If you are happily throwing in mayonnaise into your salads and sandwiches thinking it brings in taste and variety, you may as well be clogging your arteries with sticky lard.
Swap with: Hung curd Take some fresh homemade yogurt or the tetra pack slim curd and drain out the excess water through a muslin cloth. Now, flavour this as per taste to make spreads you can add ground or fresh basil and sun dried tomatoes, garlic and onion, roasted peppers and olive, coriander and mint or any of your favorite combo.
3. FLAVOURED YOGURT Something that is actually very healthy can be easily turned into an absolutely unhealthy food item simply by adding loads of sugar, cream and artificial flavours. Yes, I am talking about yogurt. Why turn this healthy probiotic snack (which it is originally famous for) into a dessert item? If you are using flavoured yogurt as an alternative to ice-creams and pastries, it is definitely a wiser option but if it’s stocked in the fridge as a healthy, low calorie, portable snack, get rid of it rightaway.
Swap with: Plain yogurt Flavour it yourself with some chopped fresh fruits like berries, grapes, peach, cherries or any fruit you like. You can even stir it well (it turns creamy) and freeze for a while to get store-like frozen yogurt, but with higher nutrition quotient! 4. MARGARINE Marketed as a healthier option to butter, margarine is anything but that. It is loaded with partially hydrogenated fat which increases the LDL (bad) cholesterol and thus increases the risk of heart diseases and inflammation, a known trigger to premature aging.
Swap with: Fresh mint-coriander mint-coriand chutney Packed with antioxidants like vitamin C, E and low in calories to al calories to almost negligible, this spread will add more taste and health to any sandwich as compared to margarine. To add more proteins to this spread, you can add to it some chana or nuts like peanuts or pine nuts. or nuts like peanuts or pine nuts.
5. PICKLES They add a dash of spice and flavour to your daily meals, thus helping break monotony of everyday cooking styles. But remember, that along with its ichness in taste, pickles are a high source of oil and sodium. The additional oil (since cooked meals have already exhausted your daily oil quota) plays havoc with our lipid profile and ts a load on the heart, and the puts a load on the heart, and the excess sodium (since our meals already take care of our daily salt requirements) spoils the electrolyte balance and thus affects blood pressure.
Swap with: Fresh, homemade oil-free pickles Vegetables such as cucumber, carrots, cauliflower, chillies and onions can be made into water, vinegar or brine based `pickles’. These pickles do not last for months together (since they lack the oil as a preservative) and thus should be consumed soon. They can be refrigerated for longer shelf life, but it’s advisable to make smaller quantities and finish them faster. Do note that brine is high in sodium, so do not consume it daily.
This year, let’s try making a different set of health resolutions different because their approach will be changed though the objective is still the same -a healthier, thinner, fitter, happier you. We’re in the second month now. Pay attention.
Start on January 1
DON’T AIM TO BE SOMEONE ELSE
Please remember that actors, models and sport stars get the best out of the bodies that they either have been blessed with; or are working very hard upon, with expert guidance every second. Your body is unique, your body is yours. Appreciate every feature, wrinkle and line it’s god’s gift to you. Enjoy it, revel in it and be the best you can be.
PLAN YOUR EXERCISE
Most resolutions just stay on paper because their foundations are weak. Get a clear conception of what you’re about to begin. It is this first step where most people falter. If you haven’t been exercising for years, aiming to show up at the gym every day is more than a little ambitious.Set exercise goals that you’re confident of achieving. A good place to start would be to clock three to four hours of exercise a week. This gives you the scope to break up your exercise regime into smaller capsules, depending on your specific body needs and time available to you. Be the architect of your workout it usually takes just one missed workout for you to feel as if you have failed your purpose.
WRITE A FOOD DAIRY
When you get into the practice of writing down every single thing you eat -whether it’s a piece of fruit or what you ate at dinner -it makes you accountable. The diary works both as your conscience and guide. If you are not losing weight at the pace you want to, just turn the pages of your diary and you’ll find the honest answer. You cannot fool yourself.
PLAN YOUR `ME’TIME
Stress can kill even the best motivation to get fit. In the madness of our lives, we forget what we are eating, ignore meal times and often use food to combat stress. If you want to stay on track, make a plan to manage your stress in ways that don’t invite food as the chief guest. Engage in relaxation activities, whether it’s a hot bath, a massage, a trip to the spa, meditation, deep breathing or shopping! Unplug, disconnect, rejuvenate even if it’s for 15 to 20 minutes a day.
SLEEP WELL TO BE FIT AND SLIM
Your body does not just run on food, water and air. Sleep is a vital component of its functioning.Without adequate sleep (average of seven to eight hours a day), you are setting yourself up for trouble. In my experience, most people who drop their resolutions midway are sleep-deprived. Depression, irritability, reduced brain function, memory loss are all results of not getting enough sleep. Innumerable studies over the years have shown the definite link between sleep deprivation and weight gain. But still, so many of us just do not pay enough attention to our sleep pattern.
Seemingly innocuous, flour has im mense power. Embedded in each grain are nutrients impatiently waiting to jump out and help your body combat diseases, and support you with your personal health goals. But how do you choose bread that’s good for you?
Different flours have different powers.Let’s sift through the grain.
WHEAT-BASED FLOURS
Most of the wheat or atta used in Indian cooking is culled from the semi-hard wheat varieties or durum that are easily available, versatile, power-packed, tasty and good for you. Atta, cracked wheatlapsi fada and semolina sooji are all high-fibre, and are sources of both healthy carbs and fats. They have been associated with the reduction of bad cholesterol and high blood pressure and mitigate the risk of diabetes as well.While it is true that maida or refined flour -also part of the wheat family -has less fibre than its cousins, that doesn’t mean it’s fattening. The only difference is that it goes through your body faster and does not require as many calories to digest it digestion also burns calories. However, all wheat-based flours have gluten. So, those with gluten allergies need to take note.
MILLET-BASED FLOURS
Flours from the millet family (millet is a small-seeded grass) are gluten-free. If you have gluten allergy, the millet family can be your choice of flours. Jowar, and its close relative, bajra, both belong to the millet family. Jowar lowers the risk of heart diseases as well as cholesterol. It also has cancer-fighting properties because of the presence of antioxidants, and brims with protein, calcium and iron. Bajra is a great source of energy, aids diges tion, is good for the heart, and with its ability to increase insulin sensitivity, is also great for diabetics.
RAJGIRA AMARANTH FLOUR
The Indian kin to the superfood quinoa, this flour -made from the seeds of the amaranth plant -is a tasty non-gluten option. Rajgira has high iron, calcium, protein and antioxidant levels. Since it retains the hull during the process of making atta, the nutrients are retained.
RICE FLOUR
Used a great deal in Southeast Asian cooking and in Indian dishes, like neer dosa, rice flour is good for those with gluten intolerance.
SOY FLOUR
Soy beans are ground to make soy flour, which comes in full fat and low fat op tions. It bursts with vitamins and minerals, and is also one of the best vegetarian sources of Omega-3 fatty acids. Soy protein is great for women post menopause and also for elderly women.
QUINOA FLOUR
Quinoa is a 100 per cent vegetarian reference protein which means that all the protein present in it is absorbed by the body. The only other food that does this is egg white, a non vegetarian option. The flour can be made at home simply by mashing up the quinoa and using the powder for any dish.
Ultimately, it’s how you treat your flour that takes away or adds to its benefits. Bathing it in ghee, oil or sugar will cancel most of its benefits.
If your blood pressure consistently starts to hit the roof, check if you have hypertension. Hypertension is when an individual suffers from consistent high blood pressure; even when he’s resting. While hypertension on its own doesn’t necessarily produce symptoms, this condition could lead to a number of related health problems over time to include heart diseases and stroke. So, while you may still need to sort this condition out medically, you’d be surprised at how effectively hypertension can be dealt with nutritionally.
So many conditions -ranging from diabetes and obesity to heart diseases -can be managed and even cured by the food we eat. While a balanced diet works to ensure that your overall health is well managed, for hypertension, you have to take extra care. In other words, it’s time to get hyper about the following:
REDUCING SODIUM
Sodium, or salt, increases blood pressure. If you have been diagnosed with hypertension, cut down on your salt intake. And it’s not just the obvious addition of salt to your daily cooking.Even packaged and processed foods come with their own sodium content. Read the nutritional label to en sure that the intake is permissible.Sometimes, sodium content can mask itself in the form of com pounds like sodium benzoate (a commonly used food preservative). Check if any ingredient has the word `sodium’ before it, and avoid those. To manage hyper tension, the recommended sodium intake per day should not exceed 1,500 mg or 1.5 gm, which is about half a teaspoon. You may also need to watch out for high-sugar beverages and foods, which impact your blood pressure as well.
POTASSIUM AND MAGNESIUM
Where there is low sodium, there is also high potassium and magnesium.Potassium is actually present in tiny quantities in certain fruits and vegetables. Your body only needs these small quantities, and introducing foods with potassium will help reduce hypertension. Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of potassium and magnesium. Bananas, muskmelon, plums and peaches are a superb source of potassium; plus, they are cheap and easy to carry around for a healthy mid-day snack. Potatoes are high in magnesium and potassium.Leafy vegetables also help manage hypertension beautifully.
WHOLE GRAINS
In addition to the above, eat more whole grains, fat-free or low-fat dairy products, poultry, beans, nuts, seeds, fish and veg etable oils. I would also recommend a glass of raw vegetable juice (juice of three or more types of vegetables) blended coarsely in a blender, not a juicer. Drink up im mediately once a day to pave the way for good health.
FRESH FOOD
Buy fresh foods, chuck canned food, eat at home rather than dining out, and you may soon reach a day when your hypertension just disappears! Cutting down on processed foods, snacks and fast food in general is essential. Watch out for canned goods and cured meats too; they could have high sodium con tent because of the way they are preserved or prepared. And word to the wise: if you are going all out on salads, try and avoid salad dressings that are high in fat and sodium.
This could be a setback for your sodium management.
Dietary approaches to manage hypertension are highly recommended because of how easily accessible these foods are. A healthy, balanced diet will also help you be in better shape.
Mother of Ahaana, 10 and Amaira, 7 The toughest thing about being a mother: Constantly trying to be a better one. When you’re a working mother, you feel guilty. So you try harder and pack more in, and that’s something I always find challenging.Also, battling with guilt is a tough task. At work, you are worrying about your kids and when you are with your kids, you’re stressed about work. But, in the end, guilt makes you work harder and magically makes things work.
Mantra to staying fit post childbirth: Eating right and exercising. There’s no magic wand or simple formula.
My fitness regimen: Right now, I am focusing on strengthening and toning my muscles. Post-pregnancy, you are left with a lot of loose muscles. I do core strengthening, ab exercises, mix of pilates with exercise-ball, plank and resistance-band workouts three times a week.
Five must-have foods post childbirth: Have good protein like egg whites. Wheatgrass juice is a must. Carbs are not your enemy; if you avoid them to l o s e weight, you won’t have the energy to take care of your baby. Fats are not your enemy either.Have healthy fats like Omega-3 fatty acids found in flaxseeds, almonds and fish.Take supple Take supplements if you don’t eat these on a daily basis.Stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables because they are loaded with disease-fighting and anti-aging antioxidants.
Foods to avoid: Foods high in sugar and fat. Whatever unhealthy stuff you eat is passed on to the baby because breastmilk is the only source of nutrition for them.
Foods to retain good skin and hair: Vegetable juice works wonders. Toss three different raw veggies in a blender (not juicer), season and drink. Avoid excess sugar, it’s an aging food. Eat egg whites for good hair.
Dealing with hormonal changes: Razor-sharp focus keeps my mind stay strong. Raising my kids well is my final goal and I try not to get distracted.
Inculcating good eating habits in children: Instead of force feeding them, try to use informative tools.
Deliver logic with love in a language that they under stand. For exam ple, I often tell my daughters what to eat if they want their hair to grow as long as Rapunzel’s.
They relate to what I say.
My comfort food: A big slice of chilled, baked Philadelphia Blueberry cheesecake.
It’s my ultimate indulgence.
My favourite work out music: Any hot Bollywood track; I am too filmi.
My fitness icon: My husband, Ravi. He’s a fitness freak. Earlier, I’d only focus on eating right but post-pregnancy, I’ve incorporated his way as well, which is more exercise-friendly.
In the ultimate battle of the bulge lies the ultimate roadblock your mind. How you think about weight loss is as important, if not more, than eating healthy, exercising and counting those calories. Unless there’s a medical reason for it, weight loss rarely happens by accident it’s a strategy, a deliberate set of actions designed to attain a particular goal. And every goal starts in your mind. Based on my work with thousands of clients, here are two of the biggest mind blocks that come between you and a thinner you.
THE THIN MINDSET
Don’t get me wrong: I am not talking about wanting to be thin; that’s a separate conversation entirely.When I refer to The Thin Mindset, I am simply talking of how people track their weight loss progress.I’ll tell you what I mean: Kartik was a 34-year-old banker, who had lost 16 kilos but had a goal of losing 20. Despite following my programme, he had reached -as weight loss sometimes does -a plateau; and the weighing scale was taking a bit of time to dip further. He came in one afternoon saying, “I am doing everything right but I’ve lost just a kilo this entire month. I still have three to go.“ Now, here’s someone who lost a whopping 16 kilos but because of his `Thin Mindset’, instead of focusing on how far he’d come, he was obsessed with how far he had to go. When you have a Thin Mindset, you tend to compare your progress against the end goal. So if you have 30 kilos to lose, and you lose 5, you don’t think `I am five kilos thinner’, you think, I have 25 kilos to go, and it’s a long way.
There’s a tendency to measure your progress against the end result (which is imaginary) instead of the current result (which is real). Celebrate every single bit of weight you lose. Instead of focusing on being thin, celebrate being thinner than you were a few weeks before. Replace the Thin Mindset with the Thinner Mindset and make that your focus when you are trying to shed those kilos. Because no matter how you look at it, losing is losing.
THE ALL OR NOTHING MINDSET
It usually starts with a muffin. Or a few peanuts. And suddenly, 30 minutes later, you have scarfed down a bar of chocolate, a bag of chips and a thick chocolate milk shake. And you don’t even know how it happened. The `All or Nothing’ mindset is the feeling that since the diet has been `broken’, you may as well give up for the day, start again tomorrow, and eat everything in your path right now because `it doesn’t count’. Well, it does. Every little thing you eat counts.
Let’s look at it this way. You have a set of six beautiful tea cups. You broke one by accident. What do you do?
Do you break the other five be cause you have broken one? No, right? The `All or Nothing’ mindset is like shattering all six cups because you broke one.
Instead, salvage the damage.
There’s no need to pile on 2,000 extra calories because you’ve slipped. Slipping is human and no one is perfect. Accept your little imperfections, and learn to move on from them.
It’s one of the best things you could do for yourself and your body.
The chance to sample different cuisines from different parts of the world can be as exciting as seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Northern Lights. But nobody wants to come back from a vacation all happy and then cry about not fitting into their clothes. Sometimes, you can’t tell what’s on a menu in a foreign country. Here’s a guide to choose better.
ITALIAN
Order these: Minestrone soup, chicken masala, grilled white meats (like chicken or fish), leafy salads, pasta (in tomato or marinara sauce with little olive oil and no cheese), cappuccino with skimmed milk and fruit sorbets (with no added flavours or syrups).
Skip these: Caeser salad, pasta in alfredo or bolognese sauces (or anything in a white sauce), lasanga, ravioli, cannelloni, fried calamari or anything fried, gelato, tiramisu, anything in `parmigiana’ (it’s loaded with cheese).
CHINESE
Order these: Chicken prawn vegetable suimai, seafood or vegetable cheung fun, prawn chicken vegetable dim sum, steamed bread or mushroom chicken bun, tom yum soup, wanton soup, chicken vegetable noodle soup, steamed rice, soft stewed rice with vegetables, soft stewed noodles, steamed prawns in lemon sauce, steamed fish in soya, ginger and spring onions, chicken prawn exotic vegetables in hunan or oyster sauces.
Skip these: Fried wantons, steamed dim sum in chilli oil, Peking duck, pork bun, salt and pepper fried chilli prawns, fried chilli chicken, sesame prawn toast, Szechwan chicken, chicken fish vegetarian manchurian, spare ribs, kung pao chicken potato, chowmein, lomein, anything with the word `golden’ or `crispy’ in it as that means it is fried.
JAPANESE
Order these: Sushi especially nigiri sushi (rice and seaweed) made with cooked crabs, salmon, bass, yellowtail, tuna, squid, scrambled eggs, tofu or vegetables, sashimi, maki rolls (raw salmon, tuna, squid or prawn) with no cheese, miso soup, oshinko, steamed edamame, teppanyaki dishes (prepared with no oil), sukiyaki dishes (cooked at the table and you can supervise the oil content), okonomiyaki pizza, broiled sea bass (or any fishseafood) with soya or ginger sauce, ocha or green tea, soba noodles.
Skip these: Tempura, dragon rolls, chicken teriyaki, yakitori, fried dumpling or gyoza, ramen noodles, breaded chicken katsu, green asparagus tempura or sautéed with soya butter, foie gras teppanyaki, sake.
MEDITERRANEAN
Order these: Baba ghanoush (without extra olive oil), hummus, tzatziki, Greek salad and horiatiki salads (with reduced feta cheese and dressing on the side), souvlaki, dolmades, keftedes (baked, not fried).
Skip these: Moussaka, pastitsio, spanakopita, deep fried calamari, tiropita, falafels, red pepper feta, saganaki cheese, gyro platter, baklava, baklava cheesecake.
Carry nuts and fresh fruit with you wherever you go, and steal in quick snack breaks which will help keep your blood sugar stable and make you less prone to stuffing yourself with sugary pies. And stay hydrated: the hunger and thirst centres in your brains are so closely located next to each other, sometimes you crave food when all you want is water.
Weight gain is a little like that small pile of unattended laundry on your chair. Left alone, it’ll just stay there and pile up day after day. If you think you’ve gained weight during Diwali, don’t panic. But deal with it before the fat starts to accumulate.
DON’T STARVE…
That’s the fundamental lesson you need to remember. Don’t deprive your body of nutrition by starving yourself with drastic diets. Instead of losing fat, starvation ensures your body loses muscle. Muscle loss leads to more fat storage, which is why you always gain the weight you lose right after a crash diet. Food is the only thing that fuels your body and is your friend not your enemy.
…EAT SMART
Eat simple and smart during your detox phase. Shore up on simple proteins like sprouts and egg whites.Have 4-5 servings of fruit per day (100 gm of fruit per time), and eat and drink your veggies prepared without much oil, or as juice. But whatever you do, don’t forget to break up your meals into smaller ones. Eat every two hours. Like walking or running, digestion also burns calories and eating smaller meals frequently means that your body keeps burning, burning, burning.
…BUT DON’T LOSE THE OIL
Don’t cut oil out entirely because you’d be depriving your body of essential fatty acids. The lack of fatty acids dries up your skin, apart from other adverse effects. In this detox phase, include one teaspoon of oil in your cooking through the day.
STEP UP THE EXERCISE
Get to know your treadmill a little better. In addition to eating right, one hour of explosive exercise is what you need. You can walk, run, cycle, go on the elliptical but whatever you do, don’t forget cardio during this phase. Sweat it off.
SLEEP
Catch up on your sleep. Your body needs food, water and sleep for effective functioning. And fat burning and metabolising food is a part of its functioning. Studies have shown the strong link between weight gain and sleep deprivation. Snooze to lose.DRINK In this phase, drink about three to four litres of water. You could also mix it up by including other beneficial hydrants like coconut water, chaas and nimbu pani. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
How much detox you need depends on how much you have abused your body. If you have binged for four days, detox for the same amount or a week, and so on.
But don’t overdo it, and trust your body during this process.
2. MAYONNAISE If you are happily throwing in mayonnaise into your salads and sandwiches thinking it brings in taste and variety, you may as well be clogging your arteries with sticky lard.
3. FLAVOURED YOGURT Something that is actually very healthy can be easily turned into an absolutely unhealthy food item simply by adding loads of sugar, cream and artificial flavours. Yes, I am talking about yogurt. Why turn this healthy probiotic snack (which it is originally famous for) into a dessert item? If you are using flavoured yogurt as an alternative to ice-creams and pastries, it is definitely a wiser option but if it’s stocked in the fridge as a healthy, low calorie, portable snack, get rid of it rightaway.
4. MARGARINE Marketed as a healthier option to butter, margarine is anything but that. It is loaded with partially hydrogenated fat which increases the LDL (bad) cholesterol and thus increases the risk of heart diseases and inflammation, a known trigger to premature aging.
5. PICKLES They add a dash of spice and flavour to your daily meals, thus helping break monotony of everyday cooking styles. But remember, that along with its ichness in taste, pickles are a high source of oil and sodium. The additional oil (since cooked meals have already exhausted your daily oil quota) plays havoc with our lipid profile and ts a load on the heart, and the puts a load on the heart, and the excess sodium (since our meals already take care of our daily salt requirements) spoils the electrolyte balance and thus affects blood pressure.
