Winters arrive with more craving, lesser activities and slower metabolism. Moreover it’s difficult to stop yourself with winter delicacies. Yes, you can hide your tummy under puffed jackets, but it will be challenging to expose yourself in coming springs. Generally it’s hard to shed off, what you have gained over the winter.I have maximum number of patients and queries who says that they have put on weight in winters. I being a medical nutritionist claim that Winters are the best time to lose weight. Let’s consciously work on choosing a right diet for winter season so that we do not put on any extra kilos on our body. I will tell you some tips to follow to keep yourself fit and healthy this winters.
Good Morning:
Start your day with a hot cup of tea. It should not be the regular milk tea but green tea/ chamomile tea/ Green Coffee. It will keep you energetic for the whole day and give you warmth in the cold morning without adding to the calories. You can choose from varieties of assortments of green tea available in the market these days so that you can wake up to a new taste every day.
Healthy Breakfast Options:
The most important meal of the day is the breakfast. It needs to be the healthiest meal as the breakfast keeps you going whole day. The regime of most of Indian households is to have Pranthas with lot of butter and ghee for breakfast during winters. Try avoiding these greasy options as much as possible and choose from the below stated healthy options:
Vegetable Poha ,Steamed idlis, Boiled Eggs, Dhoklas, Quinoa poha, Vegetable upama, Bajra tikki etc.
Munching time:
Winters are the time when we like to sit back in our warm quilts and enjoy munching the snacks that keep us warm. Instead of going for oily and fried food, keep some dry fruits handy so that you can have them whenever you feel hungry. But we need to choose them wisely as some of them have upper hand in nutritional value than others. Avoid Cashews and pistachios and take almonds more.
Include flax seeds (alsi ke beej), sunflower seeds and watermelon seeds in your cooking as they aid digestion.
Fruits are always the saviour:
One fruit in a day always helps in boosting immunity. Seasonal fruits like guava, oranges and amla are rich in Vitamin C. Guava are rich in Iron and are recognized as a perfect slimming snack because it has only 60 calories per serving. We can have carrot juice as it has the maximum nutritional value and is good for skin and vision.
Lunch Time:
Makki ki Roti and Sarson Ka saag make the best combination with the winter season. Also the green veggies like iron rich spinach with the wonderful benefits for eyes and health make winters even more special as they are this season’s speciality.
Evening Break:
Jump onto a yummy snack in the evening time to make the winters warmer and healthier. Start slurping down hot soups and you can choose from the wide variety as: Chicken/tomato/coriander/all veggie/mushroom/mixed bean/ broccoli etc. So, instead of hiding the extra kilos behind the extra layers of clothes, start following RIGHT DIET!!