LLWT- 1 with Healthy Sugar Free Muffins!!

Let’s Lose Weight Together Part 1 (LLWT-1)

Sawan ka mahina – the rainy season is here. I don’t like it at all. This is the season my restaurants suffer the most in terms of business. This is the time when water seeps inside electrical equipment, leaving my base kitchen fridge less. The microbes are everywhere, everyone is either sneezing or coughing, or throwing food that was made in the morning, but gave way till the afternoon reached. So, my point being; I hate the season. There is absolutely nothing to like in the muddy water logged city that I live in, while it rains. The incessant traffic jams on the road doesn’t help either. After each shower, there is an addition of a pot hole on every road I travel. And not to mention, the abrupt waterfall and extreme panic of coming home to a flooded living room, just because the rain was too steep, and the drain pipe couldn’t handle the pressure. Sigh… I can continue complaining for another 2 pages.

But I assume, you aren’t reading to hear my rants about the Gaon I live in!! I guess you are reading to know the secret behind why I started abusing India’s most loved season, under the title ‘Let’s lose weight together.’ If you ever get the connection, let me know too... It might help me to understand why I am so erratic these days. But if you don’t, just continue reading as I am getting to the weight loss journey, starting now.

Thanks to my work, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to lose the extra kilograms that I gained since last year. My biggest problem is that I stress eat a lot, which makes it tremendously difficult to lose the weight. Obviously treading the weight loss path alone is rather difficult. So I had a genius idea to involve each one of you reading this article today, facing similar situations in life to come together, read and get inspired; and inspire me in the process.

A typical day for me starts with an action packed morning, leading to a stressful office day; lounging on to a traffic led evening- where I leave office to pick up my son and head back home. The night time sees me a bit relaxed, with family; either cooking a treat, or drinking a storm. My biggest challenges are these two aforementioned situations. It’s rather easy to reach up for a bottle of wine to unwind from the stressful day. And maybe, I did manage to gain all these extra kgs thanks to this one weakness in me. After consumption of alcohol, our bodies start experiencing a great depth of hunger. To satiate that hunger, we start off on the munching path which just piles on calories after calories in our body, unwanted and unreal. I can’t control my family’s urge to stack up deep fried farsaan in the cupboards. What I need to control is my urge into reaching out on to those snacks every now and then. So before, the issue mounts up to become a problem, let’s snip it in the bud. I am guilty of following this easy rather comforting lifestyle since a few months now. But better late than never. So here is my goal that I want to fix for me today, for the coming week.

Firstly, I am gonna restrict drinking high calorie drinks like wine completely. My voice has been soar for sometime now, and I need to get it back to sing my little guy lullaby. So for the next two weeks, if I drink, it’s either gonna be brandy with hot water, or just water. No wine shall pass through these lips, till my voice is back to normal.

Secondly, no deep fried food for the next two months consciously.

Thirdly, I need to get back into healthy 2 hour eating habit. 3 litres of water each day is not a problem for me at all, but if any of you are skimpy water-drinkers, please note that as well.

Obviously, these are difficult to follow in my life as I have too many distractions around me all the time. But the idea is to start amending any cheat I do with the next meal. So the amends for each chaet on the each goals would be-

Only twice in the week would I drink. And if I consume wine, then just once. Also, 2 glasses of water for each drink. Which would definitely cancel out the negative with a lot of positive.

Deep fried food should be accompanied with a lot of salad, before and after.

If ever I miss eating in the 2 hour mark, I will try not to eat 2 meals at the same time, substituting that meal with a lot of water.

So an ideal meal chart for me for the week would be-

Early morning – 500 ml lukewarm water followed with a bowl full of fresh fruits.

Intense activity                 (exercise)

Breakfast- a healthy combination of whole carbs with vegetables/egg. Eg-1 whole wheat veg sandwich or a roti-egg roll or oats upma with a lot of veggies and curd.

Mid-morning- Green tea with a healthy snack. Eg- 1 cream cracker biscuit or rasted chana or 5 pcs of soaked almond or this low calorie muffin.  

Lunch- would be a good mix of vegetables (cooked and/or raw) with whole carbohydrates. Eg- salad with ‘1 or 2 roti or boiled daliya’ and 1 - 2 bowl veg with 1/2 bowl curd/dal. If I choose to eat non veg, then I will cancel the carb and take 100 gms chicken/fish with 1-2 katori veg and salad.

Evening- green tea with 2 cream cracker biscuits or green tea with a small bowl roasted channa

Dinner- same as lunch just that I will try to go skimpy on the carbs. Eg-1 wheat chapatti with 1 or 2 bowl veg and Salad; or 50gms chicken/ fish with 1 or 2 bowl veg and salad.

Bedtime if hungry- 1 cup toned milk.

So I am aiming at following this diet for the next two weeks. It’s doable, in fact very easy too. But 1 of the weekends, I would like a treat of something sweetish that doesn’t harm my body so much. I will try to eat it more as a meal in itself as the mid-morning/evening snack, rather than an after meal dessert. Plus the sweet craving family of mine can’t be deprived of sweets for a whole 2 months, just because I am attempting to eat healthy. I know their urge in indulging into some sweets would lead them to a sweet shop, and that would be a nightmare for me. So here is a simple muffin recipe, which is refined flour free, butter free and most definitely sugar free in the most un-chemical way possible.

Ingredients

 ¾ cup whole wheat Flour

1 egg

½ cup Milk (any kind of Milk would work- coconut, almond, soya etc.)

2 tbsps. Maple Syrup or Honey

1 tbsp. Veg Oil

½ tsp. Vanilla Extract

¼ tsp. Baking Soda

Pinch of salt

2 Medium Bananas, roughly mashed

A handful of Dark Chocolate Chips

Method

It’s a rather easy way to make these super healthy muffins. All you do is combine all dry ingredients together in a bowl- flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Add the chocolate chips and coat it well.

In a measuring jug, dump in all the rest of the ingredients- egg, milk, honey, vanilla, oil and crushed banana. Mix well.

Now just combine the wet to the dry, and the batter is ready to be baked in a preheated oven of 180-200 degrees Celsius, for 15 minutes, or as long as it takes for a wooden toothpick inserted in the centre to come out clean. Cool and enjoy this treat for a day.

Basically the idea is to not starve you of your craving. If you crave something sweet, eat this. This batter will make only 6 muffins so it’s perfectly portion controlled.

So a best of luck to me and to you if you are with me in this ride. I starting today, and I have goal of losing 6 kgs within the next 2 months. Cheers!!