Are You Eating Right at Night?

Tips to Get Into Shape Faster

1. Commit yourself to at least 3 months of eating healthy and working out and you should definitely start seeing results.

2. If you can't afford a personal trainer, buddy up with a friend on the same plan. The process will be easier if you have someone there to keep you motivated and vice versa.

3. Even if you just start by walking around the block, you'll already be increasing your heart rate and burning those calories.

4. It's not so intimidating once you know what you're doing. Have someone show you the ropes and keep trying until you find what works best for you.

5. Sticking to the diet and exercise plan may start to become increasingly difficult. Try to stay in the game by keeping it fresh and interesting. One week try a spinning class, and the next time try yoga.

It doesn’t take too long for a craving to creep into your lifestyle and become an indispensable habit. It might even not interfere with your fitness when you are still young and agile. But with age, it’s bound to be held responsible for making you fat and unfit.

The Med Guru helps you in identify some of these potentially damaging eating habits, especially those that trigger at the fag end of the day.

1. Relationship Between Sleep, Food, and Weight Gain:
Your personal trainer at the gym must have advised you to get sufficient sleep at night. If you thought that was because you would feel energetic the next day to give your best shot at your workout session the next day, you are highly mistaken.

The reason behind this small but effective advice is the strong relationship between sufficient sleep and your body weight. Studies across the globe have established that a good night’s sleep is an essential prerequisite for shredding those extra kilos and also keeping diseases at bay.

So, where does food fit into this discussion about weight and sleep? Well, nutritionists believe what you eat could determine how peacefully you sleep at night. Therefore, consuming certain types of foods could hinder your ability to sleep well and hence be a major road block in your way to maintaining your weight and overall fitness.

2. Foods to Watch Out
Some foods are indeed capable of encumbering your sleep pattern and thus impede the process of weight loss. They could in fact, over the years be the culprit of your expanding waist line. Let’s identify these foods so that can be subsequently eliminated from the list of things you can nibble upon for your fourth meal before hitting the bed.

3. Spicy Tadka
Abolish food with loads of spices that you have fallen in love with over the years. Achaars, chutnis, and an extra helping of chilli tadka are a strict no…no too. Instead, adopt a more healthy and modest method of cooking, with minimal spices and seasoning, perhaps similar to that of the Jains.

In fact, Jains also tend to have the most ideal timing for dinner. If you could finish you dinner by 7:30/8 ish, your tummy too will have enough time digesting it.

4. The Three Cs
These three Cs, namely coffee, cola and chocolates are the worst enemies of sleep. There are other Cs too like candies, Ice creams. The caffeine present in these foods is the essential culprit and can keep you twisting and turning in bed all night. So, unless you have something worthwhile to do all night, stay away from caffeine after the clock strikes 2000 hrs.

• Ghee, Oil, or Butter
Oily and fried food including fried chicken or fish, bhajias, french fries, chips, and of course an extra helping of cheese can be potentially threatening to both your sleep and current dress size. Instead of these highly fattening foods, insist on having a dinner comprising of a few rotis, a vegetable and a sumptuous quantity of pulses.

• Sugar and Sweets
Sweets are an essential conclusion to a typical Indian dinner. But pledging to give this concluding ritual a miss could save you a lot of extra efforts the next day at your gym. Though you can have them once in a while, stop yourself from reaching for a few kaju katlis every day post dinner.

• Packaged, Ready to Eat Meals
These are a new rave amongst youngsters. All that you need to do is break open the packaging and microwave them for a minute or two and your dinner is ready.

Although ready to eat packaged foods could mean saving a lot of time and energy, they can cause immense damage to your system. Such foods are loaded with preservatives and artificial flavors that can play havoc once inside your digestive system.

Nothing can beat the taste of street side food, not can anything beat its damaging side-effects. So, reserve the chats, veg. manchurian, and chole bhaturas for lunch.