my meeting with diet specialist update

*Here are the added diet tips. They are from my observation and various articles I read. I try to avoid all the technical terms and make it easiest to follow. Lucky you this is for free!! Hehe

1. Eat a big meal in the morning and eat less during dinner

You should always eat the healthiest meal in the morning, because your body absorbs it quicker. Keep unhealthy fried foods for afternoon or dinner time.

2. Eat dinner before six o'clock. This works for me, but sometimes when time don’t permit, I know many people who love to eat like at 1 am or midnight, so it doesn’t matter when you eat, but what matters is what you eat and in what amount.

3. Try not to eat fried foods (in oil) eat boiled or grilled meat,  fish, and vegetables. However, if you should have to eat fried foods, eat vegetables or fruits to absorb the fat afterwards

4. Eat vegetables and fruits with every meal. Always eat different vegetables with different colours every week.

5. Between meals, if you get hungry, take some fruits or a little snack (like nuts) wouldn't hurt

6. If you need to eat pizza, try bread with cheese and some tuna. Or if you really need a pizza, try thin crust. If you want to eat French Fries, eat them with salad, not another burger. Pin point what you like about fat foods and try to find another fat food that is less fat. For example if you like french fries (because you crave for oil or alt) you might just tried fried meat balls which should be less fat. (not sure about fried meat balls though, I just eat fish instead!)

7. If you are tired, eat fish or vegetables to boost energy

8. If you feel like you want to eat all the time, divide meals into five small meals a day -- for example, spinach in the morning, bananas and cantaloups, rice and some vegetables, sushi, then dinner just eat fish or once slice of whole wheat bread with cheese

9. Exercise at least three times a week, it is more effective to

choose the type of exercise you like. Don't stick to the gym if you can't go at least three times a week. Don't take swimming classes if you are scared of drowning. Don't take aerobics class if you don't like the restrained movements. Don't run if it makes you sick. The point is do sports you like!

10. After losing at least two kilos, give yourself a gift. The best is a new blouse or shirt or that trainer or tennis gear you've always wanted. This gift will make you want to be slimmer.

11. If you are fat, don’t wear too loose clothes. Try wearing a fitted shirt inside with a jacket outside so that you don’t conceal your weight that will remind you to lose weight.

12. Never say you’re too busy to exercise or get a healthy meal. Think about how much time and money you have to waste  in the hospital if you are unhealthy. Think about your friends, familiies, and people who care about you. If your entire family is facing the same problem, bring your family to a park!

13. If you are very busy always have a banana or healthy sandwich, fruits with you so you won’t have to eat a bigger meal when you are very very hungry.

14. Never starve yourself. If you do, in three months you will start overeating afterwards.

15. Do not eat when you are stressed out, doing that will make you want to eat when you are stressed, which is a lot of food.

16. If you have a healthy body which means you exercise regularly, get enough sleep, and don’t get stressed out too much, your body will tell you what to eat naturally. You just have to listen to it. Conversely, if you have an unhealthy body..meaning you never exercise, never sleep, always get stressed out, it will tell you to eat fatty foods and all things unnecessary because your whole body is messed up, so you can’t listen to that.

17. Don’t compare your body to others…you’re genetically different from everyone else. Your muscle mass, bones, and body is all different from everyone. Case in point, don’t expect to look like Paris Hilton if you were born with a lot of muscle mass. Kate Winslet, Drew Barrymore isn’t fat – they just have a different body than Paris Hilton or Kate Moss.

 18. Whoops what’s that? Drop it. Don’t eat infront of the computers, TV, or when you are reading a book. Why? When you do too many things at once, your brain gets messed up and they don’t digest properly.

 19. Don’t use the weighing scale all the time, as it pressures you to lose alot of fat. Just weigh at the end of the month. Conversely, just check out yourself in the mirror or as a good friend...it's easy to see if you lose weight or not.

 20. Have fun!

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After my brief interview with diet specialist (I am still keeping it a secret as I haven't written the article yet)  I came to an old conclusion...that the best way to be healthy is eat vegetables, fruits and sometimes other things you like to eat like meat, chicken, fish, eggs or whatever... Only once in a blue moon are you allowed to eat pizzas and burgers...And then with all that you have to exercise.

Seriously, there's no need to make things more complicated, but I guess there's still many people in the world who can't lose weight easily, so it's all good that there's diet specialists and people to help anyone whose in trouble.

It's really all in the attitude! one of my old English teachers told me years ago when discussing literature that dieting is a personal choice, it is your own will that makes you want to do something. I can't remember which literature we were discussing though. Perhaps Charles Dickens Hard Times

Photo by AFP

Serious stuff I learned today:

Eat four or five small meals a day. After asking the diet specialist why people think I am eating all the time, she answers that small meals actually means Yoghurt, nuts, or snack bar. Oops. So they call that 'small meals.'

Also exercising 30 minutes a day is enough...I actually spent like five hours last weekend on the gym (which is not a cool thing really, you're not supposed to tell anyone you spend too much time exercising, means you don't have a life..haha)

Right, exercising has become my big addiction these days...it's like I keep on going and going. It makes me feel really happy that I can smash a ball hard on the ground, or lift something up really heavily. It's almost like flying. (I can write poetry now, an ode to exercising)