Are you under the false impression that you don't eat much, when in fact you do? Did you know that 'diet recall' goes a long way in helping you lose weight?
We bring you a series of excerpts from celeb nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar's well-received book Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight, which has already sold 10,000 copies within 20 days of hitting bookshelves (Also see Part I: Do you need to relearn your eating habits? and Part II: Fat plays a big role in our body).
The author is fitness guru to stars like Kareena Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma and in a two-part interview with rediff.com, Rujuta also discussed her career and mantras to stay fit.
Rujuta will also answer reader queries, you can address questions to her by clicking here.
Here are two sections from Chapter 5, Inculcating awareness.
Information without awareness is like riding a bike with the helmet on the handle. You have the right equipment but it's not in the right place. Useless. Just like the information that eating pizza, chips, chocolates, pastries will make you fat is not enough. What you need is awareness. To develop awareness, you need to start observing what you are doing.
Awareness comes when the mind is in a meditative state. Hmm...now how many times in the day do we catch ourselves in this meditative state? Almost never. A state of meditation is reached (okay for most of us reaching the meditative state in this life is almost impossible), or we can get closer to a meditative state, when we experience a certain amount of calmness in our mind. Many of us lead a life where we had to finish almost everything yesterday, where we are at every moment torn in between 2 or more things or people, where we just don't have the time to do or pursue anything that we evenly remotely love, and where stress is an inevitable part of our existence. How then can we go about cultivating awareness? Or is there no hope for us? No, there is hope. And it is called 'Diet recall' in the field of nutrition. A standardised (used world over) 24 hour diet recall requires you to write down everything that you eat and drink from the time you wake up till the time you sleep, along with time, quantity and a brief description of food. A 24 hour diet recall gives you and the nutritionist you are working with a good idea of what you eat at what time, your food likes and dislikes, your calorie and nutrient intake, etc...
Here are some sample diet and activity recall forms of some of my clients. I have tried to choose diet recalls so as to have a good representation of different professions. I then go on to dissect these recalls to identify patterns which are harmful and are obviously coming in the way of fat loss. Based on the diet recalls, I recommend some changes in their eating pattern, which will help them towards their goal. It might amuse you to see how other people really eat!
Sample diet and activity recalls for specific profiles:
Note: All the below diets are only indicative and not actual diets. These are changes that we can bring about in our life without the 'interference' of a nutritionist. Breaking down our diet based on the 4 common sense principles is not an alternative to going to an expert in nutrition science, but it provides for a strong foundation from where professional help can take off.
Profile 2: Lubna, 28 years old, banker
Subject
Lubna is from (where else, but) Kerala and currently living in the Middle East. A young girl of 28, she holds a good job with a bank (sorry, not as a nurse). She lives with her extended family but misses her immediate family. When in Kerala, Lubna ate much more than she eats now. But she never gained any weight. She had lustrous hair, glowing skin and regular periods. Three years away from home and she had gained 28 kilos! She never realised she was gaining weight, she was too busy managing her life and living alone in a new country. The lustre from her hair, the glow from her face, her confidence and the regularity of her periods had gone.
Evaluation of the recall
Now, this girl believes she's unnecessarily gaining weight. She thinks her diet is rich in lean proteins like fish and chicken and that she rarely has sweets. This is totally untrue if you look at her recall, she eats ice cream and kheer on Day 1 and cakes on the remaining days! But of course she is gaining weight because she is just so unaware of what she is doing. She has tried exercising and given up because 'It
doesn't work anyways.'
The most harmful things she is doing:
Not exercising. First things first, she needs to commit to some kind of exercise at least 3 to 4 days a week.
Lubna mostly eats chicken and fish, which is alright, but if it comes so late in the day then it just gets converted to fat because the body is really in no mood to digest and assimilate chicken and ice cream or fish and banana!
She does follow our principle of not waking up to tea or coffee but then doing anything in isolation is never enough. Here is the reason why she went on a diet with me.
Dear Ms Rujuta Diwekar,
Hi, my name is Lubna. I live in Dubai and am a big fan of Kareena Kapoor. I simply love her. And in Jab We Met she is sooo cute. I want to thank you for two things:
For making Kareena Kapoor so thin and sexy and also for helping me lose weight.
While researching on the internet I found out that Kareena is following your diet and doesn't have tea or coffee as the first thing in the morning. I idolise her and want to look like her so I stopped having bed tea. The result -- I lost 5 kilos in 2 months. But now my weight is stuck. Can you help me please?
As with Rohini, Lubna doesn't follow the 2nd, 3rd or the 4th principle. While she is at work she barely eats. After coming back home she hogs. Yet she believes that she is eating right. Now if you are wondering why she lost weight after quitting her chai as the wake up drink, here is the simple reason: it put her in touch with her hunger. So she started having breakfast, which helped to improve her metabolic rate.
My take
Now look at why she is gaining weight. This girl simply eats too much. But why? When she comes back from work she has nothing creative or interesting to do. She hasn't bothered cultivating any hobby or working out. So she is eating sweets for entertainment. (All girls do that and that makes them put on weight.) Interestingly, on the day that she goes to church there is no dessert in the night. Prayers are comforting. When you are already feeling happy with yourself you can do away with 'comfort food'. Eating food for entertainment is a sure shot way of getting fat. It's a much better idea to take part in some activity that is comforting. Praying, exercising, painting, singing, anything that suits your temperament. It doesn't just help you burn calories, it keeps you away from ingesting too many calories. Food is not for entertainment or to deal with boredom. Look at Lubna's diet recall. The girl consumes huge amounts of food at a time. One way of getting over boredom is to eat till your senses go numb. So along with changing her eating habits and exercising 3 times a week, Lubna will also need to cultivate hobbies so that she can utilise her spare time better. She can modify her diet as:
Meal 1 (6.30 am): Mango
Meal 2 (7.30 am): Porridge
Meal 3 (9.30 am): 1 chapati with omelette (roll and wrap in aluminium foil)
Meal 4 (11.30 am): yoghurt
Meal 5 (1.30 pm): 1 chapati and bhaji
Meal 6 (3.30 pm): A handful of nuts
Meal 7 (5 pm): 1 chapati and sabzi (after getting back from work)
Get some exercise or join some class -- do something productive by 6-6.30 pm.
Meal 8 (7.30 pm): brown rice, dal and fish (steamed or as curry)
Bedtime should be earlier by 10 to 10.30 pm, as Lubna gets up by 6 to 6.30 am. Good rest ensures that the body functions at its best and prevents frequent illnesses. (Lubna used to fall sick frequently, nothing serious but backaches, flus, coughs, colds, etc. Basically, poor immunity.)
Excerpted from Don't Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight, with permission from the publishers, Random House India.
Got a question? Ask Rujuta Diwekar
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Also see: Meet the lady behind Kareena's size zero
'It's a myth is that one needs to avoid calories'
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