Simple Health Tips

Most of us aspire to lead a balanced and a healthy lifestyle, but don’t know where to start. Use these suggestions to help.

Balance it out: The easiest way to maintain an ideal weight is to balance the calories we consume with our workout. Balancing calories means following a healthy diet that contains all the food groups, making sure it is colored and varied to avoid losing interest, and also giving your body all the important nutritional elements, such as vitamins and minerals.

Organize your meals: Organizing your daily meals is very important for maintaining an ideal weight. It is recommended that you eat controlled quantities in all the 3 main meals. Skipping one meal will make you feel more starved and may cause you to eat a larger portion in the next meal.

Eat light and eat right: Start your day with a minimum of a glass of water, warm water with lemon and honey will be good. Breakfast should include a bowl of oatmeal with nuts and a spoonful of flaxseeds; scrambled eggs with a piece of wholegrain toast, or muesli with yoghurt and berries.

Snack it out: As mentioned before, eating a snack between your main meals can prevent you from overeating in the next meal. Examples of snacks are fresh or dried fruits, vegetable slices, such as carrots or cucumbers, raw nuts (unsalted – a handful) or milk (low-fat), and some dairy products or a dark chocolate (30 grams) which is the amount allowed per person per day. Always remember that even if your options are healthy, do not take excess quantities of them.

Eat slowly: Take time to savor every mouthful of your food – opt for smaller bites and chewing slowly. The brain takes around 15-20 minutes to realize that your stomach is full, meaning by dessert time you are unlikely to overeat.

(Credit: Dr. Anita Das Gupta, Clinical Dietitian at Burjeel Hospital)