So, I wasn't getting much of a movement and exercise. Therefore, yoga turned out to the best solution under the given conditions.
Today I want to talk about the other things that I have incorporated in my diet and lifestyle to loose weight.
At present my baby is 1.5 years old and I continue to shed kilos after kilos and look my best self like I was in my 20s.
I was nearly 85-87 kgs in my 38 weeks of pregnancy. And now I am 62 kgs. How it happened?
Lets begin..
1. Avoid Sugar
Sugar is something that has been criticised for providing a boost of calories and eventually make people gain weight.
Thankfully, I knew about this years back and started to train my palate towards non-sugary items.
My avoidance of sugar is not new and did not start with pregnancy self-care. It has been more than 10 years that I avoid sugar in a variety of manners everyday.
I do not take sugar in my tea and coffee or any other beverages. I am a pure tea and coffee lover. And, I consume atleast 2-3 cups daily. That doesn't mean I go for sugar substitutes. When I say no sugar it means, I take bland hot and cold beverages.
I have trained my palate to like tea and coffee that are unsweetened.
If its juices of any kind, I do not sweeten to make it more tasty.
Same goes for breakfast bowls like milk-cornflakes and milk-oats. There is no sugar to sweeten my breakfast and make them yummy.
It might sound weird but it takes practice to love unsweetened dishes in which normally you would add sugar. I might add fruits and dates. But not with the intention to make breakfast sweet.
You need to understand that the whole purpose of sweetening meals and beverages is to make the food tasty. And so, if you give up that goal then you will realise that sugar plays no role. And definitely no role nutrition-wise.
Moreover, I particularly avoid preparing dishes that make use of sugar like pancakes, kheer (rice pudding), malpua, French toast with maple or caramel syrup, muffins, etc. for regular breakfast or snacks.
Having said all of this, I do consume sugar in other forms and its hard to avoid sweet foods completely. For instance, I am an Indian and we get a lot of sweetmeats (meethai) as gifts when guests visit us or during festivals. With truckloads of sweets, chocolates, cakes in fridge, I and my husband are bound to eat it and finish it off. Secondly, sometimes I would eat jam and bread. Jam is all sugar.
So, these are ways in which I do take sugar in my diet. However, the daily percentage of sugary food intake is 20. So, I am not doing 100% sugar avoidance and 80% is absolutely fine in my case to make me continue to loose weight.
2. Stop Buying Junk
I purposely do not buy, stock, use and eat stuffs that are fattening or high on calories.
So, foods that are high on sugar or high on fats or both are ones I avoid during shopping for my kitchen.
So, foods that are high on sugar or high on fats or both are ones I avoid during shopping for my kitchen.
On any normal day, one wouldn't find items in my house like instant noodles, pasta, mayonnaise, chocolate spreads, Nutella, cheese/mayonnaise-based sandwich spreads, puffs and patties, pakora/fritters being fried, etc.
Both I and my husband make a conscious decision to not buy and keep in our kitchen pantry such stuffs which after we eat we will regret.
This is a great way for those who have no self-control.
What happens is that when you are hungry and you have none of the above mentioned food items at home, you wont loose patience and eat it. You will begin to chop some cucumbers and tomatoes and layer it in between bread with salt and pepper and make a healthy sandwich.
Some years back, I would love to stock in my fridge and pantry all the yummy food items and saw myself grabbing them to eat instead of fruits and vegetables. I never made an effort to cook something low-calorie. In the end, I just started gaining a lot of weight.
3. Make Eating Out/Takeaway a Luxury
Another decision I took that mixes food and lifestyle is turning something that was usual/regular in my lifestyle into a luxury.
So, things like pasta, lasagna, burgers, pizza, pastries, fried chicken, cinnabuns, waffles or even store-bought cappuccino on the go, are all now a luxury for me. And, I treat all of them like that. Its not everyday that I would order something from outside and eat.
We make it like a once a week affair or even less when we eat restaurant food. We treat that food as if we are celebrating something.
Even trips to a mall or any place outside, make it a point to eat well from home. This way you wont be relying on a lunch or dinner outside. I feel that no matter how conscious you are, at the time of ordering food in a restaurant, you will always go for fancy, junk and yummy stuff which is not possible to recreate at home.
So, these are my 3 tips on loosing and maintaining weight for not just post-partum phase but anytime you decide to do something healthy for yourself. They are not easy tips and will take practice.
Click to read : Fitness Journey Part 1
Click to read : Fitness Journey Part 1
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