“The reason I’ve come to see you is because there must a way to lose weight without completely ruining my life.”
These were the words of Wanjiku, a 35-year-old working mother of two, who, by her own admission, had tried everything.
Most
recently, it was the starvation diet: she would eat nothing until she
felt like she was going to pass out, and then, she’d have a couple of
slices of cucumber or apple.
She
lasted six days on the diet, before she polished off a whole 200-gram
bar of chocolate. She came to see me knowing that a viable long-term
solution was the only alternative.
Here’s my advice to her:
Eat a better breakfast
Wanjiku’s
breakfast of choice was tea and toast (and sometimes biscuits). But by
mid-morning, she’d find herself snacking on a samosa or mandazi.
As
studies have confirmed time and again, by adding some protein, she’d
feel fuller and greatly reduce the likelihood not just of mid-morning
snacking, but also of eating badly over the course of the rest of the
day.
Wanjiku said she could easily
scramble a couple of eggs, and even add a handful of spinach, to sit on
top of a slice of wholemeal toast.
The
alternative was cinnamon porridge with apple and nuts. On the days she
was literally running out of the house, I suggested an apple with a
couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter (apples contain non-digestible
obesity-fighting compounds making them much better than cereal).
Get smart with your drinks
Most
fizzy drinks contain about 30 grams, or six of teaspoons of sugar, per
bottle – and we all know that excess sugar in the body turns to fat
(juice is equally bad).
Add to that,
the sugar in Wanjiku’s daily four cups of tea. While Wanjku was happy to
forgo the colas, she wasn’t as happy to part with her chai and
negotiated to still have it, but without the sugar. I still had to say
no.
You see, tea is also a diuretic and a stimulant (as is coffee), which means that it would hinder her weight loss efforts.
Diuretics
speed water loss from the body and when the body perceives a water
shortage, the metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories) slows
down.
Tea’s stimulant effect means
that if the liver was spending it’s time more involved in blood sugar
control, weight loss would have to take a back seat. That’s why two
litres of water, either straight up or in herbal teas, was the only
solution.
No comments:
Post a Comment