Tuesday 3 July 2012

Healthy and nutritious does not mean an "all you can eat" buffet: The importance of correct serving sizes

One of the traps I used to fall into was to eat humungous quantities of healthy food. Marie biscuits are famous for being low in calories, so why not go ahead and finish half a pack at night after dinner? Dates have potassium and iron, I would counsel myself as I inhaled 20-25 dates in one go. Hey, I am eating unsalted peanuts, so no sodium worries and it is a source of unsaturated fatty acids and a host of other nutrients, so I don't have to bother about how much I am eating, I would tell myself. No prizes for guessing that the weight remained right there or worse, even climbed up.

Also, natural (as opposed to processed) food does not mean that it can be had in any quantity.  I once happened to eat heavenly tasting fresh dates. I gorged on them like there was no tomorrow and calmed the doubts that crept up with the words that "hey, these are natural and fresh, how can that be bad for you?"

One of the reasons that causes people to eat huge quantities is that they are not eating food, but inhaling it. At least I did and still do that a lot. I have to constantly remind myself to  look at the food, take small quantities in my palm/fork/spoon, chew the food properly and only then swallow. I was once eating with a friend and I noticed that while I was on to my second helping of chapathis and curry after finishing the first two chapathis and curry, she was still breaking pieces from her first chapathi and had another chapathi and curry left on her plate. This alerted me to how quickly I eat.

Another reason why we lose sight of correct serving size is because we are not just eating but also doing other things while eating, such as reading (I am addicted to reading while eating, after years of living on my own) or watching TV or even having an interesting conversation. So, we cannot keep proper track of how much we are eating.  The famous nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar once advised that when we are eating, we should concentrate on eating. If you are pressed for time and do have to do something else, serve yourself the correct portions and do not take a second helping. That way, you will not eat more than you should eat.

Note to myself:  As a first step, get the correct serving sizes for rice, pasta, chapathis, dosas etc and review how much I eat.

On that note, here is my daily eats for 3 July 2012

Morning: 2 cups of coffee without sugar. 2 dosas with sambhar

Afternoon:  1 cup  maida Pasta with tuna&onion, 2 carrots, 3 dates, 1 marie biscuit, a wee bit of nutella

Evening: 25 salted cashew nuts and 10 unsalted roasted peanuts

dinner: 1 chapathi with 1 katori of chickpeas masala and half a pear

My exercise schedule:
45 mins of Leslie sansone's exercise at home video. I love this video, I feel so good after the exercise.

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