It’s no secret that obesity is a problem round the world. And it’s also no secret that some people can sure seem to abuse their bodies, eating the wrong foods, smoking and even practicing illegal drug abuse, and yet their bodies are much slimmer and healthier than those of people who regularly try to eat the right foods and get the right amount of exercise.
Yet medical science today still has no one-size-fits-all cure for obesity. What they can offer, though, are a variety of helpful hints ad tips that do help a lot of people, depending upon their genetic makeup, and physical environment and other factors.
1) Exercising before you eat can make you hungry. So exercise AFTER you eat; afterwards is when your body has to work harder digesting the food, too.
2) Don’t skip breakfast – or any other meal. Your body often goes 12 hours without food since your last meal or snack (and often from the day before) and it needs fuel. Plus when you skip meals, the natural tendency is to over eat to make up for it and also not face starvation.
3) Eat a maximum of four egg yolks in a week.
4) Drink skim milk instead of other types, to cut back on fats.
5) Remember these shopping tips: don’t shop when you’re hungry, always shop from a prepared list and no impulse buying (that goes for convenient grocery items on the end of aisles and in check out lines!)
6) If you eat while you are in front of the television, measure out your foods first so they you don’t mindlessly much away and overdo it. In other words, no carrying along an entire bag of chips that can turn into trough eating.
7) Instead of butter and margarine, experiment with apple butter and other healthy fruit alternatives.
8) Fruit juices can be very sweet and high in sugar content, so water them down before drinking them.
9) Add more fish to you diet, fish not prepared with batter and breading that is. Fish has omega 3 fatty acids which help reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. So add fish to your weekly diet, at least twice a week is best.
10) Experiment regularly with new recipes so you add new food and experience in your meal planning. Eating the same old things like hamburgers and pizza can equal boredom and cause overeating to try to get your fill for something more.
11) Add more veggies into you daily eating. Try new dips, sauces and fun ways to cook and serve them.
12) Fresh veggies don’t stay fresh too long. And that can be a difficult dilemma for those who don’t have a lot of time to shop. So try adding a quick veggies stop in weekly with a special errand so that you stop at a local farm market or at least the produce section once a week: combine this trip with your weekly bank deposit or post office visit, for example.
13) Practice alternative cooking means than frying: broiling, microwave, steaming, crock pot with rack, toaster oven with rack, grilling, etc.
14) Substitute water for beverages at home and when eating out, even diet drinks. Plenty of fast food joints and good restaurants serve flavored waters. Ask for lemon, if nothing else, in your water. And stock up on lemons and limes at home. Skip the diet pop.
15) Experiment with new veggies, dressings, nuts and fruits in salads to make your meals more interesting, tasty and varied. Try home-made salad dressing recipes, different colored peppers, dried and fresh fruits, different types of lettuce and other goodies.
16) Choose wheat bread over white.
17) Substitute applesauce for oil in baking recipes.
18) Use non-stick no-fat and low-fat cooking sprays instead of adding greasing. And bake on cooking sheets covered with aluminum foil, then sprayed fist, for easy clean up. Place a cooking rack on top of the cookie sheet, too, for allowing fat to drip off meats.
19) Forget about super-sizing. No one needs that much food, especially junk food. Get smaller services and do ask for them. If you don’t ask or you just say something like, “I’ll have a coke and fries” with that, they’ll automatically super-size everything unless you say SMALL with coke and fries when you order. So re-learn how to order and do it!
20) Use portion control, at home and outside the home. No one says you have to eat a whole sandwich, for example, especially if your work is sitting behind a computer where you aren’t doing heavy lifting or anything. So save half your sandwich for another day. Ditto with eating out. Ask for a doggie bag WITH your food order. Then split up your meal and take half of it home for later.
You can also ask for a child’s portion or order an appetizer in place of a regular adult meal. So experiment and watch not only calories and fat, but money you save.
21) When you order out, order your dressing to be off to the side. Some places like Wendy’s are known to load on the mayo, tarter sauce and other toppings. And you don’t need all that fat. So get your toppings off to the side and add them yourself sparingly.
22) Bake with cocoa instead of chocolate; for example use 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder for each ounce of unsweetened chocolate.
23) Substitute nonfat or low fat yogurt for sour cream in salad dressings and other recipes.
24) Add some flavor to low fat and no fat recipes and food choices to make them more appealing: herbs and spices like garlic, basil, ginger, onion or onion powder, oregano and tarragon. Look in cookbooks and also try your own combinations.
Healthy Recipes
Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 3 cups Cauliflower, grated
- 3 Green onions, chopped
- 4 Cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp Low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp Garlic salt
- 3 Eggs, beaten
- Oil
- 4 cups Rice
Preparation
In a large pan, heat enough oil to cover bottom of pan. Fry minced garlic and onions (white bulbs, not green stems) for 2 min. Add grated cauliflower and fry 5 min, while you stir constantly. Next add soy sauce, garlic salt, green onion stems and stir until mixed. Place all off to the side of pan. Then scramble eggs, adding a little more oil if needed, in the empty side of pan until it’s done, yet still moist. Then stir the eggs into the rice mixture and remove from heat. Makes two servings in approximately 15 minutes.
Mixed Vegetable Variety
Ingredients:
- Large tomato
- White pumpkin
- Onion
- Carrot
- Potato small
- 3 cups Water
(Pressure-cook all the above ingredients and keep it aside)
- Carrot
- Capsicum
- Spring onion sprig
- Cabbage leaves
(Chop all these vegetables)
Plus:
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Boiled, drain pasta (any kind like: noodles, macaroni, spaghetti, etc.)
- 2 tbsp Red garlic sauce
- ½ tsp Ginger grated
- 1 tbsp Tomato ketchup
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Preparation
Blend the above pressure-cooked vegetables in a mixer and strain. The heat butter in a pan, add ginger and stir. Mix in the chopped vegetables and stir-fry the mixture for approx. 3 minutes. Mix in pureed stock and bring to a boil. Add all of the other ingredients, then stir and simmer for roughly 3 minutes. Makes two servings in approximately 15 minutes.
Banana Power
Ingredients:
- 4 Ripe bananas
- 1 tsp Lemon juice
- 1 tsp Oil
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 2 tbsp Sesame seeds
Preparation
Brush peeled bananas with oil, and then with lemon juice. Place them in oiled baking pan and drizzle them with honey and then sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Broil all for about 6 minutes until heated throughout and browned, and until the sesame seeds toasted. Makes two servings in approximately 15 minutes.
Healthy Chocolate Shake
Mix in blender:
- ¼ cup Cream
- ¼ cup Cottage cheese (optional)
- ¼ cup Egg substitute
- ½ cup Water – ½ cup
- 1 tbsp
- 2 tbsp sugar substitute
- 2 tbsp Low carb protein powder
Preparation
Blend a few minutes until all is well mixed, and then add up to 8 ice cubes, blending one in at a time. A super drink for two in approximately 10 minutes.
Healthy Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 9 spinach leaves
- 5 leaves just below cauliflower
- 3 coriander leaves
- 1 small onion
- 1 Stalk of celery
- 1 tbsp Ginger peeled and crushed
- 1 clove Garlic crushed
- 1 tsp Corn flour
- ¼ Dried red chilly crushed
- ½ tsp Sugar
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp Soya sauce
- ½ tsp Oil
- 21/2 cups Water
Preparation
Clean all vegetables and stems. Chop vegetables making them into thin slanted slivers. Heat the oil in a pan and add ginger garlic. Sauté for one minute. Next add vegetables and stir fry until tender. Then add water and bring to a boil. Mix in corn flour with 1/2 cup cold water, then add to soup. Stir continuously until it comes to a boil, then add the salt, sugar, chilly and soy sauce. Boil until it thickens. Serve fresh and hot. Makes two servings in approximately 15 minutes
