The days when being overweight was considered desirable are far gone! The desire to be skinny and healthy by both the old and young today have reached an all time high. Many spend thousands of Naira on Magic Teas, Pills and Shapers with the hopes of achieving their dream body.
In this article, I am going to share easy and realistic steps you can take today that will guarantee a healthier lifestyle. If you can make these changes daily, you will be closer to a healthier version of yourself than any tea or pill can promise you.
Remove Processed Sugar from Your Diet
This first step is the most important if you truly want to lose weight. It is no secret that processed sugar has been linked to many diseases, most popularly diabetes. However, in many cases, processed sugar also leads to weight gain.
There is a saying that Sweet Things Kill the Fastest, and this is the case with Sugar. A mere bottle of mineral contains more than 5 times the recommended daily sugar intake for an average adult. Therefore, it is very important to eliminate all carbonated drinks including soda, beer and even fruit juices made from concentrate and limit those even from fresh fruits. Fruits have a lot of natural sugars too, and while these are better for you than the processed kind, one has to be careful about their consumption.
Drink More Water
The human body tends to retain a lot of water when you are dehydrated thereby making you bloated or to appear bigger. For prime health, it is important to drink enough water, at least 3 litres daily for an average adult. Water has many healthy benefits such as detoxifying the body and aiding weight loss. Therefore, you should always reach for water more often.
Eat less Fried Foods
Most oils such as vegetable, groundnut or even palm oil are really high in saturated fat and therefore should be used sparingly if you are trying to loose weight. However, this is not the case with most fried foods.
By simply deep frying plantains or yams, you are adding up to 300-500 calories to an already carbohydrate loaded meal. This is will eventually lead to belly fat and weight gain in general. Therefore, instead of frying, one should always choose other options that require less oil such as grilling.
Eat Better Carbohydrates
Learning how to substitute carbohydrates is another key step that will aid your weight loss journey. Carbohydrates such as yam, white rice, cassava and white bread can be easily replaced with other complex carbohydrates such as sweet potato, oats, unripe plantains local unpolished rice and other whole food grains such as fonio(acha), sorghum, and others which are nutritionally superior to its starchy and white counterparts.
Watch your portion size
It is a proven fact that by simply eating less, you will lose weight. Generally, we have become accustomed to eating very large servings of food, particularly carbohydrate dense foods that form the staple Nigerian diet such as rice, yam, and several others.
To prevent weight, gain from excessive eating one can simply use a smaller plate to eat. This will reduce the amount of food you eat, and therefore help you lose weight as most people feel full after their first serving and are less likely to go for second servings.
Always remember the eat the smallest amount possible of pure carbohydrate foods.
TO BE CONTINUED…
NAZOM CHUKWUMA
Nazom is a healthy Nigerian food and lifestyle blogger. Nazomscorner is all about a lifestyle change that can help you and your family eat better quality foods, balanced and tasty meals made from pure unprocessed foods, live an active lifestyle through easy to moderate exercises that can be done anywhere at any time to help you get healthier and stronger. http://www.nazomscorner.com/ @Nazomscorner
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