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| Having salads 30 minutes prior to major meals can also curb appetite and make weight loss goals easier to achieve. |
A
healthy lifestyle doesn’t necessarily require major changes in diet and
fitness. Make these small changes in your daily routine to get leaner and
healthier.
Let’s face it, we are bombarded with advice from all sides on
how to eat healthy and exercise. But after the trial period, it can seem like a
chore to shop for ‘superfoods’ or hit the treadmill regularly.
But lifestyle changes need
not always be time-consuming, or require you to splurge. Instead, you need to
focus on setting small, tangible goals over the long run. 10 simple tweaks to
your daily routine to feel healthier:
Chew your food well
This is the easiest and most
effective way to conquer gut issues. 70% of our immunity lies in our gut. So
better the digestion, healthier is the gut. Due to a fast-paced lifestyle, we
rarely pay attention to chewing food, but this important habit can help resolve
digestive issues like flatulence, burping and indigestion.
Remember, digestion starts right from the mouth and just chewing
food thoroughly and being mindful of what you eat can help food become your
greatest medicine.
Go off white poisons
A simple change in your
kitchen ingredients can help you manage blood pressure or blood sugar
fluctuations. Just say no to white sugar, salt, and refined flour.
Instead, switch to healthier options, such as pink salt/rock salt, organic
jaggery, and unpasteurised honey or manuka honey. You don’t even have to
compromise on the taste.
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| Replace regular tea with green tea, and kombucha tea which are rich in antioxidants. |
Healthy beverages
You can also replace
regular tea with green tea, and kombucha tea which are rich in
antioxidants. Fermented tea also helps healthy gut bacteria to flourish. You
can also replace regular milk with coconut or almond milk to overcome lactose
intolerance and reduce inflammatory foods going in the system.
Make the plate colourful
Add dark-coloured fruits
and vegetables to your meal to boost levels of antioxidants. Such foods
combat cellular damage caused by free radicals and produced during various body
processes. Having salads 30 minutes prior to major meals can also curb appetite
and make weight loss goals easier to achieve along with adding roughage to the
food to help better excretion of waste.
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| It’s important to hydrate before, during and post a workout to replenish lost electrolytes. |
The art of drinking water
Drinking water at the right
time and quantity is crucial for good health. Water should never be drank
immediately after a meal. Instead, a gap of 45 minutes to an hour should be
maintained as drinking water immediately afterwards prevent absorption of
nutrients. It’s also important to hydrate before, during and post a workout to
replenish lost electrolytes.
Similarly, detox water (water
infused with fruits or herbs) can flush toxins, keep the body adequately
alkaline, control flatulence, acidity, and prevent indigestion. These detox
drinks can be sipped through the day to add to your total water intake.
Stay fit while travelling
For individuals who travel
frequently, it’s important to stay fit and not deviate from the fitness
routine. Stick to general guidelines like using the wait time at the airport to
walk around, not leaving home without eating a meal so that one doesn’t feel
tempted to eat at food counters and following the GPRS mantra (grilled,
poached, roasted steamed/stir-fry) while ordering food at restaurants.
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| Just 10 minutes of chair workouts can help you stay active, as well as avoid aches and pains that arise from sitting for long. |
Do chair workouts at work
If you start early for work
and are tired by day-end to hit the gym, learn some easy chair workouts to
practice while you are sitting in office. Just 10 minutes of this will help you
stay active, as well as avoid aches and pains that arise from sitting for long,
as well as improve circulation and posture. Stretches like shoulder rotation,
arm rotation, ankle rotation, and push-ups done keeping the desk as support is
a great way to stay active.
Walk after your meal
For those who don’t find time
for physical activities, walking 10 minutes after each meal can help you get
fit. On an average, we eat 5-6 meals a day, so walking 10 minutes 5-6 times
would make it to 50-60 minutes of total activity in a day, which will keep you
healthy, improve digestion, and keep joints supple.
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| Keep a gap of two hours between dinner and sleep to avoid acidity, heart burn and acid reflux. |
Keep a gap between dinner and sleep
Keep a gap of two hours between
dinner and sleep to avoid acidity, heart burn and acid reflux. Meals that are
eaten close to bedtime can affect quality of sleep as foods rich in proteins,
spices, and oil interfere in deep sleep and may lead to chain reactions that
cause fat storage. So to stay healthy, eat a light dinner.
Learn to de-stress
Try Pranayama or deep
breathing, take up a hobby, go on a short vacation or meet friends to
de-stress. De-stressing helps in lowering stress hormones, soothing nerves
and relaxing tense muscles. Organs like the heart and intestine are also
muscles, so stress can impact them in the same way as other skeletal muscles.
Simple deep breathing exercises are a great way to feel fresh and get vital
oxygen.
