pranay, Author at Starmark

Positive Habits of Successful Gym-Goers That You Need to Adopt ASAP

Imbibe a healthy lifestyle by adopting these habits of successful gym-goers and see for yourself the positivity that they bring in your life.

The difference between a successful and an unsuccessful person lies in the act of discipline, or the lack of it. And getting into a disciplined lifestyle takes place when you imbibe healthy and positive habits. The same is true in the world of fitness. Today, we are going to discuss some of the highly-effective habits of successful gym-goers that are not only going to elevate your fitness level but are also going to bring an overall upliftment to your whole persona. Let’s get to know what they are.

5 Healthy Habits of Successful Gym-Goers

We are certain that almost all of us have faced the situation of hitting a gym and getting intimidated by the perfect bodies and envious determination of the people around us. Well, you need to understand that the people, who you are getting overwhelmed from, also started from scratch. There is no magic elixir that people drink to get the body that they are in. All of these come by adopting positive changes.

These habits of successful gym-goers are simpler to execute than you probably think them to be. At the same time, their effectiveness are endless. So, without any further ado, let’s imbibe them into our lifestyle.

Set up Your Goals

Habits of successful gym-goers - Set up Goals

Before we explain this, we just want to say that there is nothing wrong about joining a gym out of impulse. One doesn’t need to have diary-maintained goals and schedules like that of an Olympic athlete. However, having a framework would accelerate the rate of your success.

Therefore, our list of healthy habits of successful gym-goers has to start with setting up of individual goals. Ask yourself what you want to achieve from the workout sessions you are doing. What is your goal, why is it your goal and how do you plan to achieve it. The answers to ‘what’ and ‘why’ will be answered by you and answer to ‘how’ can be answered by speaking to your gym trainer.

Alongside that, it will be helpful if you chart out a schedule for your workout. This way, a sense of regularity will be instilled in your biological clock and you will be more successful.

Understand the Limits of Your Body

Next up on our list of healthy habits of successful gym-goers is the ability to understand your body. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is acceptable and is needed to strengthen your body but overtraining can have disastrous results.

Therefore, do not overestimate the capabilities of your body. There’s only so much that you can do. In the same line of thought, don’t compare yourself with others. Everyone’s body is different and their goals might also be different. What has worked for them might not work for you. When your body demands rest, give it the rest it needs. You don’t want to end up in the emergency room by training too much or overestimating your power.

Take Adequate Rest

This is very much in line with our previous point. No matter how much you train yourself, you would not be able to see the results if you don’t provide your body with the rest it needs.

Your muscles need adequate rest to grow and develop. Thus, make sure that you sleep for eight hours a day. Stop binge-watching programmes too late at night. Don’t expose yourself to blue-light (TV, computer, mobile) at least an hour before bed. Make sure your bed is clean and sorted. Have a slow-digesting meal at night. All these would help you sleep better.

Instead of sleeping for a few hours twice or thrice in a day, aim for having a long sleep at night.

Pay Attention to Your Nutritional Intake

Speaking of food, it is of utmost importance what you eat before a workout and after a workout session. Many people misconstrue the term diet. They feel that in order to lose weight and gain muscle, they either have to starve themselves and eat too much respectively. Well, they can’t be any more wrong.

Having a healthy and nutrition-filled diet is one of the significant habits of successful gym-goers. If you want to have a fit body, you need to watch what you put in your mouth. Your diet has to be rich in protein, vitamins, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Furthermore, having long breaks between two meals can have a negative impact on your ability to perform. This is why you need to crunch on healthy snacks between two meals. Speak to a nutritionist or your personal trainer if you are confused as to how to eat healthily.

In addition, don’t forget to hydrate yourself throughout the day. You need to drink around 2-3 litres of water every day since a lot of moisture is anyways lost in the form of urine and sweat.

Have Fun with Your Workout Regime

Habits of successful gym-goers - Have fun

Last but certainly not least, it is very important that you have fun with your workout session. No matter how intense they are, have a positive attitude while hitting the gym. Instead of pressurising yourself by constantly comparing yourself to others and trying to mirror them, try to improve from your current self.

Listen to music and have a positive thought process while working out. This will invariably contribute towards your happiness. And we all know that a happy soul is a guide to a healthy lifestyle. Enjoy your workout session and look forward to them instead of dreading them. Remember to workout not because you hate your body, but because you love it.

Summary

As you see, fitness freaks are not rocket scientists. They just incorporate positive changes in their lives which give them the immense success needed to reach the zenith of fitness. By adopting the aforementioned healthy habits of successful gym-goers in your lifestyle, you increase your chances of success in the arena of fitness and you will find yourself to be healthier and fitter than before.

Diet or Exercise: Which is More Important for Fat Loss?

Take a look at our pragmatic approach as we try and figure out which helps in losing fat more effectively – Diet or exercise?

When it comes to fat loss methods, people think of either diet or exercise. But, which is better at effectively losing fat easily and quickly? What is the ratio of attention you need to pay to both of these sectors in your attempt to lose weight? Can you rely on only one of them or do you need the help of both to reach the ideal weight?

We uncover the answers to all these questions and more as we try and figure out the implications of both of them in weight loss. Stick around to find out.

Diet or Exercise – The Better Method to Lose Fat

The truth of the matter is that people put too much focus on debating which is better – diet or exercise. There needs to be an equilibrium between the two.

In the year 1994, Scientists at the Brown Medical School and University of Colorado established the National Weight Control Registry and in their research, they found that only 1 per cent of Americans were able to stay within their ideal weight range by relying on exercise alone. The same research also showed that 10 per cent people were able to stay in shape by relying on their diet while a whopping 89 per cent of the respondents were able to keep off weight by relying on both exercises and diet.

You would often find people who have been unable to lose weight despite exercising for hours. On the other end of the spectrum, some people keep on adding weight despite maintaining a strict dietary plan. It has been seen that a healthy diet and workout regimes have a symbiotic relationship. The benefits of one are magnified by the inclusion of the other. So, it goes without saying that you need to rely on both of them if you aim to lose weight.

Let us now take some time to individually assess the impact of both exercises and diet on weight loss. This would help you understand their impact from an isolated point of view before understanding what combining both of them would do for you.

Impact of Exercises on Weight Loss

Exercises have stood the test of time in the arena of weight loss due to their effectiveness in burning fats. They help in building strong muscles. Since your muscles take much less space than the fats in your body, you are able to stay in shape.

In addition, when you exercise regularly, you would experience a boost in your metabolism. As such, you will be able to burn calories all day long. This is what is amazing about a workout regime. Of course, the type of exercises that you include determines the level of control you would have in your weight loss.

Ideally, a diverse workout is key to losing fat. This is why you should include stretching (which helps in improving flexibility), cardio exercises (for boosting the health of your heart), functional fitness exercises (for improving your body balance), and resistance training exercises (for increasing your overall body strength).

Furthermore, there are so many different positive attributes associated with exercises. Major among them include a lesser risk of stroke and diabetes, strengthening bone, improving appearance, increasing mental sharpness, reducing depression, reducing blood sugar, boosting self-esteem, improving sleep pattern and sex drive, among others.

Impact of a Healthy Diet on Weight Loss

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that what you put in your mouth largely dictates the shape of your body. It takes a few moments to intake hundreds of calories that would take several hours to burn off. For instance, it takes you probably two minutes to finish a sugary snack that has around 150 calories. To burn it off, you need to walk for at least 30 minutes.

A common misconception that people have about dieting is that they make it synonymous with starving. This couldn’t be any more wrong. A proper diet regime would never demand you to starve yourself. It is about choosing the right type of food, checking the quantity of food, keeping a watch on the process of cooking the food, and maintaining a proper time to eat your food.

In fact, you can eat large portions of food and still stay in your ideal weight range. Of course, these large portions of food must be of fresh fruits and vegetables, water-rich whole grains such as brown rice and hot cereals, legumes such as pinto beans and black beans, starchy vegetables such as yams, corn, and potatoes, non-fat dairy products and leans animal foods such as white poultry, bison, or seafood.

You might find it fascinating that the type and quantity of food you eat before and after a workout regime can have a pivotal role in maximizing the benefits of exercises.

Diet or Exercise – Bottom Line

For long-term results, you need to both include a healthy diet and indulge in a proper workout regime. We understand that it might seem a bit intimidating initially, especially the amount of commitment you think you need to make for investing in both the arenas. But trust us! They are much easier to get into than you think.

You don’t need to go from zero to hundred at one go. It is a gradual process and within no time you would find yourself getting acclimated with the flow of both of them. Speak to a physical trainer and a nutritionist regarding your health and what you want to achieve. They would be able to recommend you a chart of exercises and food respectively that would suit you. Simply copying what others are doing is not ideal as these things can be extremely subjective.

So, don’t debate as to which one to pick – diet or exercise. Simply incorporate them both in your lifestyle and see the changes for yourself.

Is it Safe to Exercise during Menstrual Cycle?

Are you wondering whether to workout while having your periods or not? Find out whether it is safe to exercise during menstrual cycle or not.

There have been several debates as to whether one should exercise during menstrual cycle or not. People have pointed out at the advantages and disadvantages for the same. But having an opinion that has been derived from a medical standpoint after going through several studies is what we need to find the truth.

And that is exactly what we plan to do today in our article. For those of you who are unsure as to whether you should or should not exercise during menstrual cycle, you have landed at the perfect place. We are going to take a pragmatic approach and look at the various implications of exercises during periods before coming to our conclusion. Let’s see where we ultimately land.

Benefits of Exercise during Menstrual Cycle

When you are having your periods, it is one of the most vulnerable moments for you. Most of you prefer retiring to your couch instead of doing some intense workout regime. And that is completely natural and understandable.

But contrary to popular belief, exercise during menstrual cycle can bring you a bunch of benefits. Yes, you heard that right! You don’t necessarily have to skip your workout regime during this specific time of the month. Of course, the intensity and type of workout that you perform during periods will change. More on that later!

But first, we are going to take a look at the benefits of exercise during menstrual cycle.

Taps into Your Endorphins

Endorphins are the happy hormones that make you feel better. If you exercise during menstrual cycle, then it helps in releasing this hormone. They also boost your overall energy, thereby decreasing any feelings of lethargy that you might experience at this point. In addition, endorphins also soothe any pain, ache, or cramps that you have during this stage.

Enhances Your Mood

Exercises perk up your mood during periods, thereby keeping you relaxed and happy. And we all know that happy soul is a healthy soul. They will help in eliminating any feelings of anger, sadness or irritably.

Helps Avoid Painful Periods

Many women experience painful periods, which is known as dysmenorrhea in the medical world. This makes periods extremely uncomfortable for them. It has seen that light exercise during menstrual cycle can help decrease the pain at this period.

Lowers the Symptoms of PMS

If you frequently experience mood swings and fatigue during periods or in the days leading up to periods, then it is a good idea to do some light aerobic exercises. They would help you in lowering these symptoms.

Boosts Your Strength

Performing light exercises during periods can give you the much-needed strength and power that you need to at this stage. As we stated earlier, this would, in turn, help you in avoiding the fatigue that you often feel during periods.

Regulates Irregular Periods

Light physical activities can help bring your menstrual cycle back on track if you have irregular periods. We recommend you combine a healthy diet with light exercises in the days leading up to your periods to combat any issue pertaining to irregular periods. Include papaya, parsley, and pineapples since they act as emmenagogue and help in kickstarting a late or irregular period.

Types of Exercises to Perform during Menstrual Cycle

With the benefits of exercise during menstrual cycle now known, let us help you identify which specific exercise you should perform here.

Yoga

Yoga and Pilates can help you in relaxing your body in the days leading up to your period. They would aid you in decreasing the symptoms of breast tenderness, soreness, muscular fatigue and cramping. Balance-based exercises that allow you to focus on breathing and make you work at your own pace are ideal in this scenario.

Light Cardio

Exercise during Menstrual Cycle - Walking

Light cardiovascular or aerobic exercises can go a long way in giving boosting your endorphins and keeping you active as much as necessary. They help in eliminating any feeling of fatigue that many often experience at this stage. Simple walking or light jogging can suffice here.

Low-volume Strength-based Training

Try and include low-volume strength-based training while you are on your periods as it will help you in regaining the strength and power that you might lose due to the pain involved with periods. Make sure the training is nowhere close to an intense experience. It would also aid you in improving muscle flexibility.

Tips to Keep in Mind While Doing Exercise during Menstrual Cycle

Before we head out, let us give you some helpful tips related to our subject today.

Taking a hot bath during periods would help in relaxing your boy and in avoiding muscle spasms.
Alternate between using an ice pack and a heating pad on your abdomen to soothe any soreness or cramps.
Constipation, diarrhoea, and nausea can cause hormonal fluctuation during periods. As such, it is extremely important to keep yourself hydrated. Limit your intake of dehydrating beverages such as energy drinks, coffee, and alcohol, and instead go for water.
Avoid any endurance-based training or any exercise that are too intense by nature.
Do not lift any heavy weights.
Listen to your body. When your body is telling you to rest, you should take rest. End of discussion.

Summary

From a hormonal standpoint, the menstrual cycle is an extremely complicated time. During the entire tenure of your menstrual cycle, both your estrogen and progesterone are at their lowest levels. Stopping yourself from working out isn’t a solution. This is a time to look for new workout routines.

Light exercises such a low-volume strength-based training, Yoga, Pilates, light aerobics, light cardio, etc. can help in decreasing pain associate with periods. They would give you the much-needed relaxation and strength that you need during menstrual cycles. With that being said, don’t over-exercise since too much intensity can do more harm than good to you.

The Most Common Weight Lifting Mistakes That You Need to Avoid

Take a look into some of the weight lifting mistakes that people commit while doing strength-based training and learn how to avoid them.

Strength-based training is one of the major sectors of fitness that draws the interests of millions of people worldwide. Weight lifting is synonymous in this field. The benefits that this form of training brings with itself are numerous.

But, as with any other forms of exercises, there are various risks with weight lifting. If you are not careful, then they can cause serious hazards to your health. Today, we are shifting our focus into some of the most common weight lifting mistakes that people commit. We are also going to suggest you the ways as to how you can avoid them. So, keep on reading if you want to stay on the safe side.

Weight Lifting Mistakes That Can Cause Serious Damage

It is not that experts never make any mistakes, but it is no surprise that it is the beginners who often commit the weight lifting mistakes more. The reason is that when you are starting strength-based training, you have so much information in front of you that it can be a bit overwhelming. The adrenaline rush that you experience because of the excitement during the initial days can often blind you from focusing on correcting your mistakes.

Our list has been designed to aid you in avoiding these mistakes. Not only we will help you correct the technicalities, but we will also talk about gym etiquettes, rest, and overall diet. Let’s begin.

Not Setting Boundaries

When you hit a gym, you might feel a bit anxious looking at the intense workout regime of people around you. You might even feel embarrassed as to how light the weights you are picking in comparison to others. Don’t be!

Remember, you are there to train yourself; you aren’t there to impress others. Everyone has to go through a gradual change. The people you see around you also started their experience moving from light to heavy weight. So, do not overtrain and set proper boundaries for yourself.

Not Maintaining a Fixed Fitness Regime

Weight lifting mistakes - Uneven routine

Having a pre-defined workout regime helps you be in control of your fitness. Not having one is one of the most common workout mistakes you can make. You should accept the fact that you won’t be able to perform every single type of exercise under the sun. And that is completely okay!

Talk to your physical trainer or gym instructor regarding your health and what you want to achieve from working out. Based on your condition and goals, they would be able to give a regime that will best suit you. These regimes might change as you progress, but sticking with them for the time being would be of great help to you.

Avoiding Warm-up Exercises

Weight lifting mistakes - Not warming up

Most exercise-related injuries occur due to the lack of warm-ups beforehand. They not only help stretch your muscles, but they also are responsible for boosting your heart rate up which eventually allows the blood to reach the various muscles in your body.

All these play a vital role in avoiding injuries. So, no matter how late you are or how time-restrained your schedule is, you can’t afford to skip warming up. In fact, we would say that if you really don’t have time to warm up, then avoid working out that day completely.

Starving

Next up on our list of the most common workout mistakes concerns your diet. Some people think while training that they have to starve themselves out. Well, you can’t be more wrong!

Your eating habits would greatly contribute to your overall success and failure. Talk to your physical trainer, doctor or nutritionist and help chart out a proper, healthy balanced diet. Learn about the foods that you should consume before and after working out. Give your body the nutrition it needs to grow healthily.

Not Taking Adequate Rest

No matter how much you workout, but if you don’t rest well, you won’t see the results. This is because the muscles in your body need 24-48 hours to recover after a workout session.

Of course, the intensity and type of exercise govern how much rest you would need. So, don’t skip sleeping and allow your body to relax. Adequate rest would aid you in stimulating growth. Rest also helps in strengthening your muscles further. So, don’t commit the weight lifting mistake of skipping rest.

Working Out While Being Injured or Sick

Working out doesn’t mean that you have to punish your body. It should be a healthy process. You need to understand that there will be days when your body can’t afford to workout, either due to some injury or some illness. This is completely natural. After all, no one is a superhero who is immune to injuries or illness.

If you continue to workout while being injured or ill, you will further deteriorate your health and might have to stop working out on a permanent basis. So, taking a small break is not bad. Always look for the bigger picture.

Using Too Many Reps

Another common weight lifting mistake that people make in an attempt to gain muscles quickly is that they add too many reps to their workout regime. If you keep on doing more reps than you have been instructed, you are going to make yourself vulnerable to injuries.

Ideally, five reps of each exercise will suffice in helping you reach where you want to reach. The most important factor is to take the advice of your physical trainer.

Summary

It is natural to commit weight lifting mistake, especially if you are a beginner. Don’t let your enthusiasm be your downfall. Excitement and eagerness are always good but you need to have an awareness of your body. Talk to your nutritionist, doctor and physical trainer and set boundaries. This would help you in avoiding injuries and having a healthy workout routine.

Health is wealth. In an attempt to boost your strength, don’t compromise with your health. Keep in mind the aforementioned points and try to avoid committing them. Stay health, workout healthy!

Best Biceps Exercises That You Need to Familiarise Yourself with ASAP

If you want to get those strong muscles for boosting your strength, then you need to take a look at our guide of the best biceps exercises.

Pumping up biceps continue to remain one of the top-most priority of fitness enthusiasts across the globe. Whether it is for strengthening them or flexing them or to improve their overall appearance, people work their sweat out to boost their biceps.

Therefore, we have decided to help you learn the five most important biceps exercise that would do wonders to your arms. Keep on reading to find out about them.

Best Biceps Exercises for You

Your biceps are nothing but a large muscle group on the frontal part of your upper arm. They help you in flexing your elbow and in rotating your forearm. With the help of biceps exercise, you can improve your strength, stability, muscle mass, and appearance. The following exercises would convert your fitness level from generic to biceps-oriented.

Concentration Curl

First up on our list of best biceps exercises is the concentration curl. It is an isolated bicep exercise that helps you to focus solely on building muscle mass to your upper arm’s core section. For this, you would need a dumbbell and while using heavy weights is always encouraging, the main point here is to pay attention to the act of contraction.

To perform this exercise, you first need to sit on a bench by spreading your legs. You then need to rest your arms (that is holding the dumbbell) on the same side leg. Make sure it is just beneath your knee and the weight is hanging between your two legs. Proceed to place your off-hand on your thigh. This would help you in keeping your torso stable and upright. Slowly, curl the weight up. Pause for a second and then squeeze your biceps at the top.

Next, you need to slowly reverse the movement to return to start. Make sure to repeat it on the opposite side as well.

Chin-Up

One of the most common biceps exercises, chin-ups may not necessarily isolate your biceps, but they surely train them hard. In here, you need to use your shoulders, arms, back, along with your biceps to pull your entire bodyweight from a bar. It greatly contributes to your serious upper-body strength.

To perform this exercise, you need to, first of all, find a chin-up bar. You then need to grab it by maintaining a shoulder-width underhand grip. Make sure to hand at your arm’s length. Proceed to squeeze your shoulder blades back and down. You also need to bend your elbows and bring the top of your chest to the bar. Wait for a few second and then gently lower yourself down to the starting position.

Spider Curl

Spider curls help in strengthening your arms by making use of smart positioning. A key note that you need to bear in mind while performing this exercise is the weight of the dumbbell. It is recommended to pick a lighter weight than you usually pick. This will enable you to handle the complete challenge.

To perform this biceps exercise, you need to grab a dumbbell and sit on an incline bench facing forward. Next, you have to squeeze your bicep in order to curl the dumbbell way up in a clean form. Be sure to move only at the elbow. After that, move your shoulder out of the equation. You can do this by keeping your back engaged.

Standing Barbell Curl

Standing barbell curl can be regarded as one of the most basic, yet effective biceps exercise out there. Barbells help you in strengthening your arms evenly and simultaneously. The position of your grip allows you to work on the various parts of your muscles.

In order to perform standing barbell curls, you need to grab the barbell with an underhand grip. Make sure that your hands are positioned as wide as your hips. To focus on the inner portion of the biceps, you need to take a wider grip. Else, if you want to focus on the outer part of your biceps, then you have to bring your hands closer together.

Begin by holding the bar at hip height. Contract your biceps and squeeze your core to curl the bar up to shoulder height. Be sure to squeeze your biceps at the top of the movement. After that, gently lower your weight back to the starting position. You need to ensure that you control the weight all throughout the process. Your feet must be solidly planted during the entire tenure of the exercise. Make sure not to use your hips to lift the weight under any circumstance.

Standing Resistance Band Hammer Curl

For our next biceps exercise, we need you to put down the dumbbells and barbells and pick up some resistance bands. These bands help you in working through the entire range of motion by providing resistance through the unconventional part of the exercise alongside the curl lift. Brachialis is a type of lower muscle that helps in making your arms look thick. In this exercise, the hammer grip puts the focus on the brachialis.

To perform standing resistance band hammer curl, you have to step on the centre of a resistance band. Grip one end of the implement in each hand. Try to hold the resistance band with your palms being parallel to each other.

Next, you need to curl your hands towards your shoulders and squeeze your biceps at the top of the movement. Proceed to lower your hands back down the sides. Be sure to maintain tension on the band. Your elbows must be stable and stay in position at your sides throughout the movement.

Summary

Biceps exercises are not there to merely beautify you. They are responsible for increasing your strength and stability. These aforementioned exercises can serve as the basis of your biceps-training workout regime.

Remember to warm up beforehand and don’t forget to squeeze at the top of each muscle contraction. In addition, take adequate rest so that your muscles are able to benefit from the exercise you are performing. Be safe and be healthy!

How to Aim for a Healthy Diet?

Starting a diet is easy, but maintaining it, is not. This is about to change when you follow a flexible plan for a healthy diet. Take a look.

It goes without saying that a healthy diet is an absolute necessity for your overall well-being. From keeping your organs functional to keeping you away from various chronic diseases, a healthy diet checks all the boxes for a wholesome life.

What you eat, how you eat, and when you eat are some of the biggest factors that govern your health. Almost all of us have, at some point in our lives, decided to incorporate changes in our diet. It is also true that many of us have failed to do achieve our diet plan. We plan to change that narrative. Find out how we plan to do so.

Tips to Achieve a Healthy Diet Plan

From the numerous research and studies that we have conducted, we have found that the single biggest factor as to why people fail to maintain their diet plan is because they put a huge target in front of them. This is why we decided to suggest small changes instead of a major or dramatic diet plan.

We don’t think that you have to follow a high-end or a stringent diet to stay healthy. Our plan is quite flexible and achievable that makes sure you stay healthy without binding you with chains. Wondering how?

Time for us to put together the basics of a healthy diet for you.

The Essence of Wholesomeness

Carbohydrates comprise a major portion of our diet. This is why it is quite fitting that we start the healthy diet plan with a small change in the type of bread that we eat, which is a major source of carb.

We recommend you to pick wholegrain bread instead of refined-grain bread because of the health benefits that the former brings with itself. Not only it lowers the risk of cancer, heart diseases and type 2 diabetes, but it is also rich in zinc, manganese, magnesium, iron, vitamin B, and fibre.

Moreover, wholegrain bread tastes better than refined ones.

Egging it in the Morning

Eggs are a great source of high-quality proteins. They are also rich in other essential nutrients that are not found in other food items, such as choline.

Having eggs in the morning for breakfast is extremely healthy as they give you a feeling of fullness. As such, you are less likely to consume calories in the following hours, thereby aiding you in weight loss. So, instead of only cereals or croissants, pick eggs for your breakfast. Another great thing about eggs is that you can cook them in a dozen different ways. Therefore, you will never get bored.

Baked over Fried

Most people love eating grilled, fried, deep-fried, and broiled food. However, they can be extremely unhealthy as their preparation process leads to the formation of several toxic compounds such as Advanced Glycation End-products (AGEs), Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs), and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). These can lead to several heart diseases and even cancer.

Thus, we suggest you to go for food items that are prepared through baking, poaching, boiling, stewing, or slow-cooking. And by the way, you can choose fried food every now and then as occasional treats.

Go Green

A healthy diet is incomplete without the inclusion of green vegetables. Many people don’t like them, but they have to be included if you want to stay healthy.

It is ideal if you make the green foods as part of your starters. This way, it is ensured that you are consuming them when you are at your hungriest self and eating less of other less-healthy food later.

In addition, eating green veggies before carbs have beneficial effects on blood sugar levels. So, they are mandatory for people with diabetes.

Ode to the Greek Yoghurt

If you want to consume yoghurt, then we suggest you select Greek yoghurt over regular yoghurt because the former is creamier and thicker than the latter. Greek yoghurt has a higher portion of protein and fat as well. It also helps in boosting your immunity, thereby protecting you from various diseases.

As such, you end up feeling fuller after consuming it. It will help you in managing your appetite and consuming fewer calories overall. Try to pick the non-flavoured ones as they have added sugar and unhealthy ingredients in them.

Chew Fruits over Drinking Them

We all know fruits are a must for a healthy diet, but how you consume them can play a vital role. Fruits contain fibres and other essential plant compounds. This is why the natural sugar content of fruits can be digested easily without causing major spikes in blood sugar levels.

The same is not true for fruit juices. In fact, many of them are not even made from real fruits and contain sugar and concentrates. Also, fruits juices contain a lot of preservatives that should be avoided as much as possible.

Black it up

We know how much people love their caffeine beverages. Coffee is an ideal source of antioxidants than help control liver diseases, diabetes, and mental illness.

However, consuming coffee with heavy cream, syrup, sugar, milk or other sweeteners is of no use as they have unwanted calorie content.

So, try to drink black coffee instead. At first, it might be difficult. So, go for gradual changes instead of dramatic ones. Slowly and steadily, cut off milk and sugar from your coffee every day.

Keep it Hydrated

No matter how much effort you make in putting together a healthy diet, it would be of no use if you don’t hydrate yourself enough.

Water helps in weight maintenance and burning calories. Drinking water before a meal can also aid you in your calorie intake. Most importantly, you need to remember that no other beverage can substitute water as water is free of calories and sugar content.

Summary

While picking a healthy diet, you need to remember that you need to allow your body to slowly adapt to the changes. This way, you would be able to maintain your diet. The goal is to aim for small changes which you can achieve.

So, include green veggies, black coffee, eggs, wholegrain bread, and Greek yoghurt in your diet. Check fruits instead of drinking fruit juices. Go for baked foods over fried ones. Hydrate yourself.

Lastly, watch the pace at which you are eating. Always chew your foods properly instead of gulping them down hastily. Not only would it help in easy digestion, but it would also lower the number of calories.