I ate rice and ice cream to lose fat
The biggest misconceptions you hear to lose body fat is to cut down on rice and stop eating sugar products. In today’s world where majority of population is suffering with obesity, people are taking too complicated steps — stressing themselves with fad diets, calorie restrictions and high intensity exercises only to put more stress on their mind and body. Of course you get short term results but in the long term you will have side effects.
Your goal should be lose excess body fat, not lose body weight, cause in this process you might also put on muscle and gain some healthy weight. The best way to track your fat loss progress is just by assessing yourself in the mirror regularly, in this progress you will eventually realize when you burn out that excess belly fat.
Everybody knows the most important thing to build a healthy body depends entirely on your diet aided by adequate exercise. The biggest blunder majority of us commit is by tracking calories and eating very less restricting our body to less nutrients and affecting the body in a negative way. Yes you will lose weight when you eat less but you also lose out healthy muscle mass in your body during this process. The key to maintain a healthy body is to maintain a healthy lifestyle — PERIOD. Now what is healthy lifestyle? It is quite simple — Eat home cooked food, exercise atleast an hour everyday, sleep 7–8 hours and stay away from stress.
If you have been eating rice from your childhood, you need to continue with the same food everyday. Our bodies get accustomed to the food we have been eating since prolonged time, it is not rice make you fat but the processed junk food and oily food you have outdoors which affects you. Processed foods like your biscuits, chips, noodles,etc are simple carbs which provide less nutrients and take lot of time to digest are very unhealthy for you where as complex carbs like rice, roti, fruits, vegetables are easy to digest and provide good amount of nutrition to your body. Also the healthy food you eat should be in moderation, cause if you overburden your digestive system, it will in adversely affect your health.
Our body requires equal amounts of carbs, fats, protein and vitamins to stay fit and healthy. All these nutrients are available in simple foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. You don’t need to burden yourself with all those juices, salads and detox drinks to stay healthy. Simple home made food which is available cheaply is enough to keep you fit and going.
The corona lockdown has been a blessing in disguise for me to finally move away from junk food, start losing my belly fat and build myself to my fittest form. I have designed a simple diet plan with easily accessible foods which can be followed through life time without missing out your favorite dishes. I still continue to have my favourite ice creams twice a week and kept losing fat all this time. The key here is to follow the circadian rhythm which means that we should have our meals only when the sun is out and finish your last meal before sunset. You cannot have anything in the fasting period except water; start with 12 hr fasting period and gradually move to 14–16 hrs based on your comfort level.
My lifestyle plan during this lockdown:
6:30–7AM — 30 Mins of Pranayama (Type of Yoga focused on breath work and controls stress effectively)
9–10 AM — Honey Lemon water with soaked Chia seeds followed by a bowl of fruits(Any three variety)
10–11 AM — Bowl of sprouts with 8 Soaked Almonds, 3 Soaked Walnuts. Cup of coffee with added milk, jaggery powder and coconut oil. (This is my favourite one as coffee with coconut oil combines to burn fat)
12:30 PM — Bowl of Cucumber, Carrot, Beetroot (or) Juice them
1:30 PM — Rice, 2 Curries, Curd (Just cut down on rice and eat more curry, your choice of curries can be anything but just limit to oil intake)
4-4:30 PM — Any fruit preferably Banana, Mango to fuel energy for workout
5 PM — 1 Hour of intense body weight workout for 5 days and Yoga for 2 days.
6–6:30 PM — Handful of Dates, Chikki, 2 Boiled Eggs (or) Glass of Sattu ( Best replacement for protein shake)
7–7:30 PM — Same as lunch without Curd ( Try to eat just 70–80% of your lunch intake)
We all humans have sugar cravings and feel like having some junk food, just don’t restrict and stress yourself. You can have desserts if you wish to in the afternoons or have chicken biryani for your lunch but always keep your dinner light. Also don’t feel guilty once you had it cause the more you stress, the more fat you put on.
Many of us got worried during lockdown that staying at home with minimal movement and no access to gyms will make us fat but all you need is a yoga mat and your own body weight to workout intensively. Thanks to the digital access we have today, there are lot of mediums providing online classes to workout at home. I have personally followed CULT FIT which has different programs like Boxing, Dance, Yoga, Body weight workouts. Just don’t follow the same schedule everyday and keep switching your areas of interest to keep away boredom.
Your body is the only thing you are born with and die with, everything else in life is temporary; it’s time you realize the importance of a healthy body and change your lifestyle to life a happy life until your last breath.
Eat Smart, Move More, Sleep Right and Breath Deep — Luke Coutinho
