Your diet comes first daily. What’s cooking in your kitchen? Though all of 2020 and now in the second quarter of 2021, buying groceries was a little hard in lockdown, sure, sure you were able to buy some for your pantry.
Let’s discuss our diet tips for the coming months and plan nutritious meals everyday for your family.
Having young children and seniors at home requires good planning for you.
Particularly, if you are working on weight loss in this lockdown period, you need extra care in a healthy diet plan.
#1. Plan a Nutritious Meal for your Family
Nutritious meal includes – lentils, pulses, vegetables, meat, bread, fruits, milk and nuts.
Adding one or more of these to your meal energizes your body and builds resistance which keeps you healthy.
Prepare a Weekly meal plan.
Sometimes, you try to prepare a meal according to the available vegetables in your refrigerator.
However, with these as well, you can check a day in advance and prepare your recipe.
It is also good to reduce the use of excessive oil or butter and stay to the minimum.
Thus, you will be able to save more while following healthy cooking preparations.
#2. Rice Based Breakfast
In South India, there are plenty of choices for rice based breakfast. They come out very delicious, tasty and nutritious.
Children love these rice-based breakfast preparations and they are very light to digest.
Let’s quickly see what they are:
Lemon Rice
Lemon has cooling properties and offers plenty of Vitamin C to fight against cold, cough and strengthens immune system.
Lemons are easily available and these are affordable compared to other vegetables.
Prepare lemon rice at once a week with green chillies, curry leaves, nuts, chana dal, coriander, cumin powder, turmeric, asafoetida, and salt.
It is a very popular recipe and does not take much time to prepare.
Freshly prepared lemon rice in the morning is a healthy breakfast.
There are other rice-based breakfasts that include –
Pongal
Kichdi
Tomato rice
Veg rice
Coconut rice
Coriander rice
Mint rice
And many more.
Try each one at a time. Test and see how your family likes it.
Ensure to use all the ingredients to enhance the nutrition value and also the taste.
#3. Wheat flour based Lunch
Add fresh rotis, parathas, and kachoris to your weekly meal plan.
Children love these.
There are plenty of options in preparing plain rotis. You can add butter, ghee, milk to make them soft and smooth.
Wheat has carbohydrates, protein and vitamins.
They help in adding energy.
Add vegetables like potatoes, carrot, beets and herbs like spinach, mint, coriander and add a lot of nutrition value to your diet.
#4. Add Milk and Fruits
You know it. Milk brings instant energy. Practice the intake of a cup of milk for you and your family as it is a great energy booster.
Add chocolate powder and fruits to make smoothies and milkshakes.
These are excellent cool summer drinks.
A combination of fruits added in milk can not only enhance the taste, but also adds more nutrients to the smoothie.
#5. Green Herbs
Do you add green herbs to your cooking? These are excellent adding not only vitamins, but also these are excellent for your skin.
Use plenty of coriander, mint, curry leaves, spinach and other green herbs.
Use them for garnishing, preparation of curries, and even in fresh juices.
#6. Potatoes
Love potatoes for their soft and sweet taste?
These are all time favorite for many and is also available in every season.
Coming at an affordable cost, keeping plenty of potatoes at home can give you many ideas on cooking.
Cooked directly or as an add on vegetable, potatoes give a lot of space as taste enhancer and help in snacks and appetizers.
Adding potatoes to your daily meal is an excellent way to keep in good health.
#7. Beets & Carrots
Some prefer to make fresh juice and smoothies with beets and carrots while others prefer to add them in salads, curries and in veg preparations.
Beets and carrots are available in all seasons and keeping a pack of them at home help you in meal preparation.
#8. Cucumber
Cucumbers can be added in salads, smoothies and even in curry preparations. Children love cucumbers.
Slice in every meal and serve with sprinkled chat masala. It tastes really good.
#9. Onion
Do you love onions? In everyday cooking, onions are used heavily by many as are full of vitamins, immune health and much more.
If you use onions on a regular basis, it not only adds to your good health, but it is also a stress buster and keeps you absolutely in good appetite.
#10. Ginger & Garlic
Ginger drink, garlic chutney or garlic in curries, is commonly in use in everyday cooking and these are great in kitchen.
Used in every meal preparation, ginger offers a control in the overall health and even mitigates the risk of falling ill.
Similarly garlic is a great immunity booster and used in cooking, it retains its health properties. It works as a medicine for weight loss as well.
#11. Weight loss Tips.
Next are you working on your weight loss? Especially during lockdown period, it must have been hard to keep a control on diet.
It’s a difficult practice to stay away from your diet and do intermittant fasting or sometimes avoiding some of your favorite meals.
Though this appears as a lot of hard work to do, you can do a little bit of planning.
But how would you take up that weight loss diet planning.
Here are some tips:
- Drink plenty of water through the day. Summer or any other season, drinking plenty of water does you a lot of good.
- Add salads to your morning breakfast. Carrots, cucumbers, beets, zucchini, tomatoes.
- Scrambled egg with spinach. This is best for your tea or coffee time in the morning. Continue to have this along with a bread toast.
- Avoid deep fried or flour-based foods.
- Take plenty of walk for at least 30 minutes (nearly 5000 steps or more) or make it to 10000 steps per day.
- Add plenty of lentils, protein-based pulses to your diet. They add to your energy levels.
During lock down, keeping a control on diet is a difficult task, but with little effort, you can always take up one at a time and achieve little by little.
Set daily targets
Many say – I’m not able to achieve my daily targets in spite of my hard work. What do I do?
Did you know what Quora says about weight loss diet? Let’s take a look.
Sure you must be thinking a lot during lockdown period asking yourself – will I be able to lose any weight during this lockdown?
This questions keeps working on your and you look for answers online.
Sure, many have tried and some failed and others were successful.
But experts say, it all starts with your mind. If you are self-motivated, you are good to do and nothing can stop you.
Weight loss diet, exercise, your well-being, mental and emotional health and your overall good health, contributes a lot to your good health.
The more careful you are, the better is your health. However, weight loss works steadily and you cannot get rid all of the extra kilos just in a month, but it works steadily.
What can you do about it?
Start with a detailed plan and stick to your schedules.
Will diet be all of my help if I count my calories?
Sure, it will.
Schedule a timeline for weight loss and follow a specific diet table.
Follow the guidelines of your dietician.
Check the progress at intervals.
Never be disheartened. But be courageous and work on it.
#12. Questions to ask yourself about your weight loss plan
Remember, you are your best guide, though friends, family, experts and specialists try to help you.
On a daily basis, ask just one question and here are 31 questions to ask yourself for a month. Keeping your goal towards weight loss, this is a preparation towards getting back to normal weight. You know, it takes time, but one step every day.
Keep a journal for 31 days and write your answer to every question.
Day 1: What can I do today keep myself happy?
Day 2: How can I make someone happy?
Day 3: What is my favorite thing?
Day 4: What are my favorite foods?
Day 5: When did I first taste my favorite food?
Day 6: What are my favorite working hours?
Day 7: What are my achievements so far?
Day 8: Who are my best friends?
Day 9: How can I surprise my best friend on his/her birthday?
Day 10: What keeps me happy all the time?
Day 11: What is my monthly goal?
Day 12: What is that one thing that can help me in weight loss?
Day 13: What foods help me in weight loss?
Day 14: What changes are required in my diet timings?
Day 15: Am I walking 10,000 steps a day?
Day 16: What are my working hours?
Day 17: How many hours am I sleeping?
Day 18: Am I counting my calories?
Day 19: When shall I plan my weight loss diet?
Day 20: When shall I check for the progress on my weight loss plan?
Day 21: What did my dietician advise me?
Day 22: Am I happy today?
Day 23: How many kilos I want to lose?
Day 24: What is my current BMI and how much should it be?
Day 25: When will I get my accurate weight?
Day 26: How successful am I in my weight loss workout?
Day 27: Who helped me in my weight loss program?
Day 28: How much time did it take to lose weight for me?
Day 29: Am I with my weight loss results?
Day 30: What is my goal for the next month?
Day 31: What improvements I have to make next month?
These monthly questions come with a purpose. You can write your answer in your phone or maintain a journal.
It is your reference guide.
Take a new challenge everyday and achieve on it little by little.
Never put too much force on yourself with heavy rules. But be considerate and take care of yourself very well.
#13. Think like a healer
Imagine you are healed from that excess weight and feel that you are alright. Experience that moment of happiness.
#14. Stay away from anxiety
Try and get busy. Avoid anxiety, stress and insomnia.
Conclusion
Daily meal preparations are part of your chores at home. Planning comes as a requirement and is also one of the essentials. The more you plan, the better is your meal and it allows your family to enjoy your food. However, when you are dealing with weight loss as a challenge, accept the fact that it is a major hurdle for you, but just a transformation that you are looking for from being obese to normal. Add foods that contribute to weight loss and enjoy your meal.
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