The countdown to the year-end has begun … but have you
followed up and taken stock of your resolution to eat healthy? Well … I know what you are thinking …. it is easier said than done, right?! Although it might appear so, it is also equally about where there is a will there is a way.
New year resolutions are a promise. A promise you make to yourself. A
commitment which you make to yourself for a healthier, better tomorrow. Making a
new year resolution towards eating healthy is one such promise, you will never want
to break. We are what we eat. There is an oft repeated saying, ‘Jaiso khave ann,
waiso hove mann, jaiso piyo paani, waisi hove hai wani.’ Translated
this means, our minds and well-being exist in synchronization with what we eat and drink. So, why not sync in?
Our food is primarily categorized as: Saatvik, Rajasik and Tamasik. Saatvik food is healthy, wholesome and nutritious. Rajasik food has too much of salt, tamarind or bitterness; they are too hot, and produce much thirst and cause diseases. Tamasik food is indigestible and spoilt. According to well-founded sciences, the nature of food we eat determines the nature of our everyday behavioural patterns. There is this sort of a nexus: the belly-brain-heart nexus! This connection dominates your entire healthy eating regimen. Your brain’s commitment towards a healthy and disciplined diet has a long term impact on your digestive system and assimilation processes. This piques your interest?! Then let’s get started with our action plan!
At the onset we should ingrain a simple principal or mantra — If your gut is strong, your entire physique can endure some of the most challenging tasks in life.
1. Pen Your Plan
Sometimes it helps getting old school. Just get back to making a good old to do list charting out the plan. It will be better if you do it yourself instead of using an app to do it for you. This increases the level of involvement.
2. Make realistic targets
Don’t overload your plan with unrealistic expectations. Go step by step. In fact, take
baby steps towards your goal. Achievement of every small step towards your goal will
be comparatively easier and will always help you to stay motivated.
3. Schedule your meal timings
Often we focus only on what to eat and what not to eat. But turns out, what is most
important on the regimen of healthy eating is fixing up on the daily eating timings.
A fixed timetable for food intake helps the body to condition itself and produce the optimal amount of enzymes in a timely manner for proper digestion and assimilation
4. Create your weekly menu
Yes, understandable! It takes efforts! But it is worth every effort if it helps you to
shed off those extra kilos and look stunning, right? Plan up recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stock up your groceries for the same. This will give a kickstart to your healthy eating regimen and help you stay motivated right through. Needless to mention, you can pep up your meal plan with some exciting yet healthy recipes.
5. Take days off
Dont let your tastebuds be deprived of some treats once in a while. Relish on your
weekend plans of eating what you like once in a fortnight. Delight yourself on those
cheat days where you enjoy the freedom to eat what you like.
6. Monitor your progress periodically
Account for your achievements and areas where you might be lagging behind on a periodic basis – it might be weekly, fortnightly or any other time period you feel appropriate with regard to your plan & difficulty of your milestones / targets. In case natural phenomenon inspire you more you can even track progress with reference to natural periodic events like the changing cusps of the moon.
7. Visibly remind yourself about your goal
Put up a wallpaper across your devices; on the fridge and on your pin-up boards reflecting the target of your healthy eating regimen. Create a vision-board or a vision-book where you can put up pictures of your goal as images to invigorate your morale to make consistent efforts. Vision-boards can also be used to put up timely reminders!
Follow the above guidelines to build and stick to your nutrition and fitness plans. However you will be able to achieve your targets only with sincere and sustained efforts. Unfortunately there is no shortcut or quick hacks to health related things.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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