Carbohydrate Diet Chart
Diet Chart * Wake up an hour before your regular rising time. For example, if you wake up at 9 A.M. on an ordinary day set your alarm to 8 A.M. and wake up at the first ring. * Drink at least two glasses of water BEFORE you brush your teeth. Have a glass of warm lemon water (sans the salt and sugar). * For your FIRST meal, stay away from tea, coffee, or a smoke. Eat a fruit that you like. If you continue to feel hungry, have a cup of cow milk (sweetened with organic jaggery). * For breakfast, choose a rich source of fiber. Choose between egg white (boiled or as an omelet), oats, muesli, upma (use semolina made out of wheat), pancakes (with whole-wheat flour), and chilla. Ideally, a cooked meal at this time works the best.
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If you choose to cook, make sure that you go easy on the oil, welcome vegetables and cereal with open arms, and chuck the table sugar and salt. Use organic jaggery and rock salt. Have a multivitamin tablet post your breakfast. You can brush your teeth now. * Now, make a tentative plan for the day. Divide the number of your working hours by two. The answer is the number of mini-meals you ought to be having (excluding your lunch, which should be FULL and not light).
For your mini-meals, choose between: * Yoghurt * Low-fat milk (sans sugar) * A cube of cheese/cottage cheese/tofu * Nutri-bar (not the first choice, but better than nothing at all) * A handful of peanuts (roasted) * A handful of raisins (excellent, if you are anemic) * A whole-wheat sandwich * Egg-white omelette (top it with onions and spinach) * Coconut water * Citrus fruits * Buttermilk * Soya milk * Protein shake (whey if possible, only ONE flat scoop to be mixed in water)
* Have your lunch as early as possible. Keep a target of 1 P.M. for lunch. Choose between roti or brown (if not that, at least boiled) rice as your primary carbohydrate source. To that, add a subji + dal + salad or chicken (if not that, fish or egg) + salad. This is also the time for your Omega-3 supplements. * Continue with your mini-meal ritual after lunch. * Try having dinner before 8 P.M. If not that, do not let your dinnertime hop beyond 9 P.M. For dinner, bring in the protein in larger quantities than the carbohydrates. Increase the portion of your fish or chicken (cooked using less oil) and reduce the portion of carbohydrates (like bread or rice).
If you feel hungry at a later hour, have either: * Salad * Cow milk * Soup * Dal * Sleep an hour earlier than your usual time. If sleep does not come easy, take 4 tablets each of Kali Phos 1M and Mag Phos 1 M (ask the homeopath for tissue remedy).
What you should know
Why get up early
In an ideal setting, you would wake up at (or at least close to) sunrise. Waking up that early means, you stand a better chance to savor the Vitamin D-rich rays of the early morning sun. Not to mention, waking up early fine-tunes your biological clock to work according to the rules of nature. Do you remember a particularly refreshing early morning walk? Go figure!
Why a nutritious first meal of the day
If all goes well, your last meal of the previous day should have been eaten at no later than 9 P.M. Assuming that you sleep for 8 hours at a stretch, you put your body in a starvation mode through the night. When you are asleep, an empty stomach does not hurt much. Your digestive system slows down (and hence gets rest), and so does the rest of your body. When you wake up, your body has still not *woken up*. A healthy dose of vitamins and minerals *wakes* up your body, but a dose of caffeine, nicotine, or tannin only *shocks* your body. Fruits work the best at this hour; for many people, the idea of a meal so early might not work. Eating a fruit is as easy as it can be!
How much sugar do you need?
On an average, you should not consume more than 2 teaspoons of processed sugar in a day. A good substitute for sugar is organic jaggery. Jaggery is as sweet as sugar, incredibly tasty, and beautifully loaded with iron.
The truth about sugar substitutes
If you belong to the aspartame or saccharine camp, you ought to think twice before renewing your membership. Sugar substitutes confuse your body; a substitute only lets your body feel momentarily happy with the sweet treat. Later, your body starts desiring a full and satiating meal because the substitute could not *fill* your stomach, and could not provide your body with calories. The result – your body demands calorie-rich food immediately. Approach these substitutes cautiously, not everyone can digest them successfully. If you must, opt for Stevia sugar.
Fat-free snack anyone?
A fat-free snack is just that; fat free. Meaning, it does little or no good for your body, nutritionally speaking. If you read the ingredients on a carton of a fat-free snack, you will notice that the calorific value might not be too low (if the carton boasts to be zero-calorie, dump it quick. You will set on a binge diet post this snack, just the way you would in case you consume too much of artificial sweeteners). A good idea is to choose a good-cholesterol snack, and consume it in smaller quantities.
The worst offender – fruit juice
One of the commonest mistakes we make is thinking that a glass of juice is a wealth of nutrition; it is actually exactly the opposite. Fruits are naturally more reactive to the oxygen content in air, and churning them into a juice means you allow a larger surface area of the fruit to be exposed to air. A juice also breaks down the essential structure of a fruit, and in turn, makes it less nutritious. A glass of juice is no more than a dose of sweet for your body. Your body is not equipped to identify where the glucose comes from; whether the source is sugar or a fruit. If you consume a fruit in the form of a juice, you have only increased the glucose level in your body. The nutrition angle is absolutely lost!
When to have a fruit
To put it in one line, only when your stomach is empty. That is why, a fruit makes a lovely first meal. Our body is capable of utilizing glucose, but sadly enough, it cannot identify the source for glucose. It treats the glucose derived out of sugar and fruit in exactly the same manner. Fruits normally contain a lot of fructose. When you eat a fruit at a time when you are not so hungry, your stomach does not break it down the way it should. All you get is a spike in your glucose levels.
A fruit works well in the early mornings and as a small meal post your workout.
Choose the right carbohydrates
If you are to aim for fitness, you ought not to starve your body of carbohydrates.
However, you need to choose with discretion; opt for carbohydrates with a low glycemic index (GI). GI is the property of a carbohydrate to be converted into blood sugar. A low GI indicates that a carbohydrate takes longer to be converted to sugar, thus implying that it is contains insoluble fiber that is tougher to break down (that’s good news, intestines need some exercise too). While consuming carbohydrates, watch out for the glycemic load (GL) too. Glycemic load accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food, and how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels. For instance, watermelon has a high GI – but a typical serving of watermelon does not actually contain much carbohydrate, so the glycemic effect of eating it (and therefore its GL) is …show more content…
low.
In short, eat carbohydrates in moderation, but do not give up on them. Go for the whole grain variants; consuming processed grains is a waste of time!
Buy only whole wheat
When you buy bread, you might be fooled into thinking that you are buying a whole-wheat variety when actually, you are not. Look for keywords like *wheat flour*, *smoothened flour*, *polished flour*, or some such. All these terms indicate that your loaf is full of refined flour. In fact, the word brown itself is a misnomer. In most cases, *brown* bread will have bleached refined flour and none of your whole-wheat flour. Only buy a loaf that claims to be whole wheat bread.
The truth about Whey
Whey has been at the receiving end of much assault. Whey is a form of protein that is derived from milk and is almost fat free. Most importantly, it is easy to break down. You can think of having a small scoop of whey in water as one of your mini-meals.
Choose the right protein
For a meat lover, the only known good sources of protein are chicken, fish, and eggs.
Avoid beef, cold cuts, lamb, and pork. The fatback in these types of meat is enough to put the advertising department at VLCC into extra work. Soya is beautiful too; it does not lead to impotency when consumed in moderation.
When is dessert time?
If you enjoy a serving of dessert, all you might have to do is change the time at which you have one. Eat a dessert as a mini-meal. Never have it post a meal; your body does not have the resources to break it down. Moreover, limit the number of times you feel like having a dessert. Oh, and watch the portion too.
When would you have soft drinks?
As a rule, soft drinks are best left on the shelves never to find a way in your refrigerator. Practically, they can still be accommodated I your life, but as mini-meals only. Never consume them in excess; they are absolutely not worth it!
Fit some alcohol in there too!
Alcohol they say could be avoided. However, it need not be. Your body treats alcohol as a foreign body, so a drink or two along with a meal is dangerous. Your body pulls up arms to fight the alcohol army, and in the process, fails to break down your meal. A good way to go about it is to have a mini-meal before a drink, and to pair your drink with
water.
If you choose to cook, make sure that you go easy on the oil, welcome vegetables and cereal with open arms, and chuck the table sugar and salt. Use organic jaggery and rock salt. Have a multivitamin tablet post your breakfast. You can brush your teeth now. * Now, make a tentative plan for the day. Divide the number of your working hours by two. The answer is the number of mini-meals you ought to be having (excluding your lunch, which should be FULL and not light).
For your mini-meals, choose between: * Yoghurt * Low-fat milk (sans sugar) * A cube of cheese/cottage cheese/tofu * Nutri-bar (not the first choice, but better than nothing at all) * A handful of peanuts (roasted) * A handful of raisins (excellent, if you are anemic) * A whole-wheat sandwich * Egg-white omelette (top it with onions and spinach) * Coconut water * Citrus fruits * Buttermilk * Soya milk * Protein shake (whey if possible, only ONE flat scoop to be mixed in water)
* Have your lunch as early as possible. Keep a target of 1 P.M. for lunch. Choose between roti or brown (if not that, at least boiled) rice as your primary carbohydrate source. To that, add a subji + dal + salad or chicken (if not that, fish or egg) + salad. This is also the time for your Omega-3 supplements. * Continue with your mini-meal ritual after lunch. * Try having dinner before 8 P.M. If not that, do not let your dinnertime hop beyond 9 P.M. For dinner, bring in the protein in larger quantities than the carbohydrates. Increase the portion of your fish or chicken (cooked using less oil) and reduce the portion of carbohydrates (like bread or rice).
If you feel hungry at a later hour, have either: * Salad * Cow milk * Soup * Dal * Sleep an hour earlier than your usual time. If sleep does not come easy, take 4 tablets each of Kali Phos 1M and Mag Phos 1 M (ask the homeopath for tissue remedy).
What you should know
Why get up early
In an ideal setting, you would wake up at (or at least close to) sunrise. Waking up that early means, you stand a better chance to savor the Vitamin D-rich rays of the early morning sun. Not to mention, waking up early fine-tunes your biological clock to work according to the rules of nature. Do you remember a particularly refreshing early morning walk? Go figure!
Why a nutritious first meal of the day
If all goes well, your last meal of the previous day should have been eaten at no later than 9 P.M. Assuming that you sleep for 8 hours at a stretch, you put your body in a starvation mode through the night. When you are asleep, an empty stomach does not hurt much. Your digestive system slows down (and hence gets rest), and so does the rest of your body. When you wake up, your body has still not *woken up*. A healthy dose of vitamins and minerals *wakes* up your body, but a dose of caffeine, nicotine, or tannin only *shocks* your body. Fruits work the best at this hour; for many people, the idea of a meal so early might not work. Eating a fruit is as easy as it can be!
How much sugar do you need?
On an average, you should not consume more than 2 teaspoons of processed sugar in a day. A good substitute for sugar is organic jaggery. Jaggery is as sweet as sugar, incredibly tasty, and beautifully loaded with iron.
The truth about sugar substitutes
If you belong to the aspartame or saccharine camp, you ought to think twice before renewing your membership. Sugar substitutes confuse your body; a substitute only lets your body feel momentarily happy with the sweet treat. Later, your body starts desiring a full and satiating meal because the substitute could not *fill* your stomach, and could not provide your body with calories. The result – your body demands calorie-rich food immediately. Approach these substitutes cautiously, not everyone can digest them successfully. If you must, opt for Stevia sugar.
Fat-free snack anyone?
A fat-free snack is just that; fat free. Meaning, it does little or no good for your body, nutritionally speaking. If you read the ingredients on a carton of a fat-free snack, you will notice that the calorific value might not be too low (if the carton boasts to be zero-calorie, dump it quick. You will set on a binge diet post this snack, just the way you would in case you consume too much of artificial sweeteners). A good idea is to choose a good-cholesterol snack, and consume it in smaller quantities.
The worst offender – fruit juice
One of the commonest mistakes we make is thinking that a glass of juice is a wealth of nutrition; it is actually exactly the opposite. Fruits are naturally more reactive to the oxygen content in air, and churning them into a juice means you allow a larger surface area of the fruit to be exposed to air. A juice also breaks down the essential structure of a fruit, and in turn, makes it less nutritious. A glass of juice is no more than a dose of sweet for your body. Your body is not equipped to identify where the glucose comes from; whether the source is sugar or a fruit. If you consume a fruit in the form of a juice, you have only increased the glucose level in your body. The nutrition angle is absolutely lost!
When to have a fruit
To put it in one line, only when your stomach is empty. That is why, a fruit makes a lovely first meal. Our body is capable of utilizing glucose, but sadly enough, it cannot identify the source for glucose. It treats the glucose derived out of sugar and fruit in exactly the same manner. Fruits normally contain a lot of fructose. When you eat a fruit at a time when you are not so hungry, your stomach does not break it down the way it should. All you get is a spike in your glucose levels.
A fruit works well in the early mornings and as a small meal post your workout.
Choose the right carbohydrates
If you are to aim for fitness, you ought not to starve your body of carbohydrates.
However, you need to choose with discretion; opt for carbohydrates with a low glycemic index (GI). GI is the property of a carbohydrate to be converted into blood sugar. A low GI indicates that a carbohydrate takes longer to be converted to sugar, thus implying that it is contains insoluble fiber that is tougher to break down (that’s good news, intestines need some exercise too). While consuming carbohydrates, watch out for the glycemic load (GL) too. Glycemic load accounts for how much carbohydrate is in the food, and how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels. For instance, watermelon has a high GI – but a typical serving of watermelon does not actually contain much carbohydrate, so the glycemic effect of eating it (and therefore its GL) is …show more content…
low.
In short, eat carbohydrates in moderation, but do not give up on them. Go for the whole grain variants; consuming processed grains is a waste of time!
Buy only whole wheat
When you buy bread, you might be fooled into thinking that you are buying a whole-wheat variety when actually, you are not. Look for keywords like *wheat flour*, *smoothened flour*, *polished flour*, or some such. All these terms indicate that your loaf is full of refined flour. In fact, the word brown itself is a misnomer. In most cases, *brown* bread will have bleached refined flour and none of your whole-wheat flour. Only buy a loaf that claims to be whole wheat bread.
The truth about Whey
Whey has been at the receiving end of much assault. Whey is a form of protein that is derived from milk and is almost fat free. Most importantly, it is easy to break down. You can think of having a small scoop of whey in water as one of your mini-meals.
Choose the right protein
For a meat lover, the only known good sources of protein are chicken, fish, and eggs.
Avoid beef, cold cuts, lamb, and pork. The fatback in these types of meat is enough to put the advertising department at VLCC into extra work. Soya is beautiful too; it does not lead to impotency when consumed in moderation.
When is dessert time?
If you enjoy a serving of dessert, all you might have to do is change the time at which you have one. Eat a dessert as a mini-meal. Never have it post a meal; your body does not have the resources to break it down. Moreover, limit the number of times you feel like having a dessert. Oh, and watch the portion too.
When would you have soft drinks?
As a rule, soft drinks are best left on the shelves never to find a way in your refrigerator. Practically, they can still be accommodated I your life, but as mini-meals only. Never consume them in excess; they are absolutely not worth it!
Fit some alcohol in there too!
Alcohol they say could be avoided. However, it need not be. Your body treats alcohol as a foreign body, so a drink or two along with a meal is dangerous. Your body pulls up arms to fight the alcohol army, and in the process, fails to break down your meal. A good way to go about it is to have a mini-meal before a drink, and to pair your drink with
water.