Shorts season is here! With summer temperatures hitting scorching new highs, looking your svelte best has never been so important. Try these simple diet tweaks for a slimmer you this summer :
Five cups of green tea: Sure, we have all heard of the skinny-making properties of this magical brew, but did you know that it takes five cups a day to make you thinner? If you are drinking green tea, make sure you are not sabotaging yourself by adding sugar to it.
Tea experts recommend drinking your healthful cuppa without sugar to appreciate the fine flavour of a good green tea. Orange Pekoe is a particularly nice blend for people who like delicately-flavoured teas. Plain green tea too blah for you?
Try flavours such as mint, jasmine, chamomile or lemon to up the flavour quotient without adding extra calories.
Another big bonus - green tea is a fantastic stress-buster. And we all know that stress makes you fat.
So make me-time even more soothing with a steaming mug of green tea by your side. Good for your mind and your body...can you say win/win?
Steamed, not fried: Love momos? Pick the steamed version of these now-ubiquitous dumplings over the fried variety. Whether it is Chinese dimsums, Sikkimese momos or Polish pierogis, dumplings are a great addition to your diet. Pair steamed dumplings with a clear soup for a light lunch or dinner, or have them solo with a spicy dip for a satisfying snack.
South Indian cuisine, too, offers a lovely range of steamed food, from idlis and kozakottai to lesser-known delicacies such as the Ganesh Chaturthi special of savoury uppu kozakottai and ammuni kozakottai. Gujarati cuisine, too, offers several varieties of dhoklas, including the protein-rich khaman dhokla and khandvi – great for people on a low-carb diet!
Nothing from a packet: Walk down the supermarket aisle for exercise, grab a pack of instant noodles and ka-ching! That is dinner sorted. If you don’t mind muffin-tops, that is.
Even the innocent-seeming bag of air-popped instant snacks is loaded with double the amount of salt you need in one day. Not to mention a huge list of unpronounceable chemicals that will mess with your body’s ability to keep its fat-production under control. Even ‘healthy’ packaged food often comes with high calorie-counts, so don’t take short-cuts!
Dessert-downsizing: They are tiny, they are trendy, and they are totally adorable! The new wave of micro-desserts come in itty-bitty French portion sizes, so you can indulge in your fave sweet treat without swallowing enough calories for the whole day in one fell swoop. From mini-cupcakes, shot-glass mousses and teensy tartlets to microwave mug cakes for one, baby tiramisus and petite cookies, fashionistas and foodies alike have given micro-desserts a big thumbs-up. Think moderation, not deprivation!
Whether it is life, work or weight-management, it is often the little, everyday changes that give you big results. So go on, do your bit!
