Healthy Dieting

We've finally risen to the challenge and understood for ourselves the importance of maintaining good health. A great health means that we are using our bodies to the maximum capacity and making sure that we do not plague it with diseases and the like. In that quest then, most of us know that there has to be equal importance given to both exercising and dieting. The term 'dieting' is a very misleading word and some might take it to mean fad dieting or something similar. To avoid that confusion, we shall be calling it 'healthy dieting'. There is of course such a thing, and it focuses on losing weight or getting into the right weight for your age and height by following healthy ways of dieting. Let us understand what these entail and how to go about inculcating the same in your diet.

Dieting Tips

It is said that while exercising is important to maintain great health, the diet that we choose is probably more important. And including a healthy diet menu is the correct way to go about this. Let's give you some tips in a following a balanced and complete diet.

Balanced Diet
Foods from all 5 basic food groups need to be included in your diet. The body needs the different nutrients that are present in all these foods in order to carry out all the functions effectively and thereby maintain great health. Don't count the calories, just see that you include all the nutrients in your diet. Some of the healthy foods are whole grains, green leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, pulses and dairy.

How Much is Too Much?
Aim at eating 5-6 small meals in a day as opposed to 3 large ones. Our stomachs can digest food that amounts to about two fists put together at one time. In that way it digests the food effectively and there is no excess food that remains in the system. Every time you take a helping of food, deliberately take a lesser portion. Eat slowly by concentrating on the texture and flavors of the food. Chew more and take your time going through each meal, you'll notice that you don't need to eat as much as you thought you would.

Water
Water is an essential part of your diet, that we all know, but how important? Really, really important. Water helps to maintain the right pH balance of the body, it helps in flushing out the toxins and cleansing the waste material, it aids in digestion and in leading to bowel movements. One other important thing to keep in mind is that it is far more beneficial to have warm water than regular temperature or cold water. Cold water while eating, dissolves all the important acids that are produced by the stomach for the purpose of digestion, thus there are chances of indigestion.

When to Eat What
Along with eating the right kind of foods, it is also important to understand the ways in which the foods need to be eaten. Have a fruit just after you've woken up. This kick starts your metabolism. Then after an hour, have a heavy breakfast. Never skip breakfast 'coz that sends a signal to your system that it needs to store food for later and that's how you end up accumulating excess fat. If the breakfast is heavy, the lunch has to be lighter and the dinner really light. Ideally, one should have dinner by 7 pm and wait for at least 2 hours after dinner before you hit the bed.

Things to Avoid
Healthy dieting recipes do not have any room for processed foods, spicy and fatty foods as well as foods that are cooked in unsaturated oils. So also, ready to cook foods. All these foods have very little nutrition and are instead packed with saturated fats, excess salts, preservatives and sodium which lead to weight gain and heart problems.

Other Tips

• Cook your own food as far as possible. That way you know what goes into the food and can monitor it carefully. This will provide for healthy meals for dieting.
• Avoid snacking in between meals as far as possible.
• Try steaming, boiling and grilling meats instead of frying them.
• Try growing your own vegetables if you have the luxury of space. It is much healthier choice to make without the added preservatives.

Healthy dieting is not that tough once you get the basics right. Don't think of it as punishing yourself, instead think of it as a way to start loving your food again, understanding what you're putting into your system and taking responsibility for the consequences of it. Only when you make it a part of your lifestyle will this dieting work for you like it is supposed to.