The fitness project 2018 – Week 4 guideline

Firstly, I must thank you for the wonderful feedback you send me via Insta/ FB/ Twitter and email. Together we are moving towards improved metabolic health and thinner waists and week 4 guideline will ensure the momentum carries on.

You must have heard this – have a light dinner to lose weight. But how to make dinner light? Well, by eating something wholesome in the evening. This is the make or break meal, this decides whether you will have long lasting fitness or whether it will fizzle out in the next couple of weeks.

And this is the week 4 guideline – eat a wholesome meal between 4-6 pm in the evening.

Why?

Our hormone cortisol follows a natural cycle; it rises in the morning, allowing you to start fresh, clear bowels, etc., and drops in the evening, to allow for restful sleep in the night. That is why quality of sleep and waking up fresh is one of the health parameters we are tracking in this project. This tells us about your metabolic health, your immune response, your hormonal balance and your response to stress.

When we dont eat anything in the evening or kill our appetite with chai or coffee, our body works at producing more cortisol instead of reducing it. This will lead to –

– Overeating at dinner
– Poor sleep
– Slow digestion
– PCOD/ Thyroid issues
– Insulin insensitivity (leading to diabetes and many other lifestyle diseases)

How?

Some meal options for your 4-6 pm meal whether you are at work, on a train, in college, wherever –

1. Handful of groundnuts and chana – regulates appetite, prevents bloating and overeating at dinner time. Do this if you eat early dinners, before 8pm. Very good meal for diabetics, for PCOD and those with low energy levels in the day.

2. Jaggery, ghee and chapati – if you stay active, work away from home, eat dinner post 9pm and struggle to sleep well, suffer from constipation or have low Haemoglobin levels.

3. Poha/ Upma/ Dosa/ Egg toast/ homemade Khakra or Mathri/ homemade Goond or Besan laddoo – If your work load increases post evening or you have a party to attend or if you have frequent headaches, leg cramps, low immunity this is a good meal. And if none of the above is possible even a grilled vegetable and cheese sandwich, Mumbai ishtyle, will do.

4. Chaat / Samosa/ Street food – yes and this is a good time to have it, but only once a week. And the worst time to have chaat or street food is dinner.

In all cases, expect dinner quantity to naturally drop over the next 4-5 days. This is normal and an expected outcome.

Most important note – The 4-6 pm meal only happens if its planned in advance. Plan for your whole week today itself.

Week 3 tracking form is here –

You have been super impressive with filling weekly forms. Keep it up.

Week 1, 2 and 3 guidelines are here –

#RDfitnessproject2018 #Uncomplicatefitness