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| A random picture of my tomato vines! |
I don’t much know or care about these ‘they-s’ we always refer to, but they say that in winter you make your summer body. It could be ‘you’ who can agree or disagree, but I am going with it for the simple reason that soon the warming protection of an over the top jacket is going to go, and we would end up with a flabby arm in a sleeveless dress, showing unflatteringly. So here is our ‘Lets Lose Weight Together’ winter series to get you up and tidy for the coming seasons!
Now if someone isn’t familiar with our earlier series, than a link is embossed for you to check it out. That series did pretty well on my
blog, and if emails are to be believed, many came forward to tell me how it
helped them achieve a good weight. That time, a couple of years ago, natural
sciences told us that 2-hour-eating pattern was the healthiest way to life!!
But as Darwin stated, evolution happened in the sector of natural sciences; and
scientists claim that they have found a better solution of weight loss in the
form of intermittent fasting. Now I am as confused as you are, but more and
more I read about IF, I become more and more certain that it must be a healthy
pattern of eating. Now let’s give it to our ancestors, in the name of religion,
they did devise this healthy alternative lifestyle in the way of Ramadan, where
you fast for most hours with just a small period of time allotted to feasting.
But the non inclusion of water is still a problem, and that gets eliminated in
the Intermittent fasting pattern of eating. Similarly, in our Hindu tradition, especially
in Bengal, we have ‘uposh’ till the
time we offer our prayers to Ma Durga, which is exactly what we do in Intermittent
fasting. We fast till 11 am, and then start eating and continue eating till 9
pm. The only way ‘uposh’ is different
to our fast is that, we don’t start our day eating deep fried dough and potato curry!
So, I have decided to test this scientifically proven method
of eating and write about my journey for the others to get benefited from. I
start today, that is the 12th of February, with a 12 hour fasting to
12 hour eating window. I have always had little meals, which lately weren’t so
little which obviously led me to gain a couple of kgs. My idea is to lose just
about 3 to 4 kgs, following this way of eating, and then be able to maintain
this for the rest of my life! But then again, you never know because losing and
gaining weight is so much a part of the recent lifestyle, that we are prisoners
of. Yet, I am confident that by Holi, when the sweaters go away, I should not
feel too bad about looking in the mirror, especially since I have not exercised
seriously since the smog hit Delhi.
My eating pattern would look a lot like so-
Waking up at 6.30 – 7 am to 500 ml of lemon and ginger
steeped water.
By 7.30, to have a cup of coffee, that I am not too happy of
having on an empty stomach, but really, I cant do with out it anyways. I don’t
add any sugar or milk to it.
8 am – a brisk walk for 30 minutes, followed by some fresh
veggies shopping for the day. I try to buy things, to be eaten just in that
day.
9 am- I will break my fast with a bowl of fruits
By 10, a fibre -rich breakfast
1 pm, a fibre rich balanced lunch which should have all
components of nutrition, including carbohydrates.
4 pm – 100 gms of fruits once again
6 pm tea and a handful of roasted Bengal gram, or chana
chapta jor garam
8 pm – dinner which will not include carbohydrates, but is
large portions of vegetables and lean protein.
By 9 pm, I stop eating, only to have a cup of warm cinnamon
water before bed time, about `10.30 types.
By 11, I should snooze!
Now, this is wat I am going to be following, and by no means
I am a nutritionist who can try devise meal charts for people apart from
family. Yet, if you so wish to follow me on this journey, then please do write
in a comment to encourage me to go further up on the road! But before you do,
you need to know of these pointers-
- 1. I do this 12 hour fasting for a week, and then I would gradually increase the time to hit a ratio of 16:8 hours!
- 2. For the first 2 days, I will have some sort of carbohydrates in the night, and then would I try to eliminate it and see how much I feel hungry the next morning. Again, all this pattern of eating should definitely include my comfort. And so, I will take it as it goes, and write about it the next week.
- 3. Sugar, I can eliminate, and so I will. But I would continue having some processed stuff, especially wine, because I can’t dine without wine! And no point trying.. HIC! HIC!
So, here you go. Extremely candid confessions made. Now lets
see, how we fare on this pattern of eating. Cheers!!
P.S. - no recipes this time..
