The plan that worked for me...30Day Health Challenge

Lot of people were interested in knowing about my plan that I followed for last 30days, so sharing it in detail. You can also check out(https://mytrystwithpen.blogspot.com/2019/09/tips-for-healthy-diet.html?m=1) for a high level idea.

1. First thing that I have after waking up is lukewarm water. Now you can have jeera
water or honey lime water, watever suits you. I generally avoid having honey as the honey that you get in market is not really pure and has sugar added to it. But if you can get pure honey from somewhere then nothing like it.

2. Then I would have some fruit. Avoid citric fruits early in the morning and definitely avoid tea or coffee first thing in the morning.   You body needs something nutritive after a long night. Tea and coffee should anyways be consumed in very less quantity. I avoid citric fruit as it does not go well with my throat in the morning.

3. Then I would prepare breakfast(in reality most of the times step 1, 2 or 3 would be overlapping, so I would be having water and preparing breakfast or having apple and preparing breakfast) and move on to some exercise. Exercise would be some stretching exercises with some yoga poses or if not yoga then some medium paced aerobics. You can pick up any good aerobics video from youtube.30-40min is a good duration for aerobics. I could only manage 15-20min of exercise as my kid would be up. You can choose any form of exercise but try to keep it a mix. Also if you looking for weight loss, more cardio with some muscle strengthening will help.

4. After exercise, I will take a break for 15-20min, have water, feed my kid, catch my breath then would take shower.

5. For breakfast, I would have milk(without fail) with some dry fruits like almonds, walnuts, dry figs and dry dates. I would also add some protein powder and flax seed powder to the milk. Flax seed is loaded with nutrition, so I have roasted and grounded some, to be consumed with milk. This is the best form to consume flax seeds. You can also add other seeds like pumpkin, sesame seeds to your diet. I realised that the amount of protein that human body needs per kg of their weight is far more than what we consume. So I would have some protein based breakfast.
Some protein breakfast options-
a. Besan cheela or Moon daal cheela, I prepare it on my cast iron tawa so I would use some oil but trust me if you exercise well enough that much oil won't hurt. Infact teflon coated non stick pans would definitely hurt more, as those release toxins. Also the oil that I use is mustard oil. I am strictly against refined oils. Use coconut oil or ghee. Refined oils are just marketing gimmicks.
b. Unsweetened dhokla- use either besan or moong daal flour for making dhokla
c. Sprouts, I find it difficult to consume sprouts in raw form. So I boil it in a pan for 1-2min(do not pressure cook that will make it mushy and rip off the essential nutrients). This makes the sprouts soft and removes any risk of germs or pests growing. Now add some flavor, cumin powder or salt or lime or green chillies water you like and may be some vegetables or fruits to make it more interesting.
d. Chana chaat- soak chana overnight and boil it in the morning. Add some chopped vegetables or pomegranate and chaat masala to make it more tasty.
e. Grilled paneer- i would take .5-1 teaspoon olive oil and add salt and black pepper to it. Mix well and then brush it on the paneer slices. Now grill it for 15-20min. You can use the same paneer from sandwich or just have it as it is.
f. Paneer sandwich- keep it simple. Dont try to add those readymade sauces, as they contain additives.
g. Moong daal appe- just make these like rava appe. These are healthier.

Also instead of using readymade sauce or jam I would make some chutney coconut chutney or pudina or tomato chutney. Those are more healthier options. But if you have bp issues try to limit the usage of salt in your diet so basucally limit the intake of pickles, sauces and chutneys.

All this might sound like a wholesome breakfast and you need to have one. But in a hurry to office we always either skip that or have something from our canteen. I prefer to not eat out for the fact that I do not know what ingredients or what oil they actually use and how. Plus if you have been on this journey with me, you would have guessed by now that I love cooking.

6. I generally have breakfast around 8am and lunch by 1-2pm. So in between if I feel hungry, I have some fruit or something to drink, chaach, nariyal pani, sattu(I would add  some salt or jaggery). You can have milk or soup. Its totally upto you. But I do not have lassi as it has sugar and even to milk do not add sugar.

7.  Lunch would be multigrain roti(whole wheat, chana and soya, got it floured), salad(lots of it), curd or plain chaach, and some daal aur bhaaji. In between breakfast and lunch I would feed my kid, bathe her and play with her, prepare lunch and also do some cleaning. When you have a toddler you are always cleaning;) So all the household chores kept me active throughout the day. The same might work once I start going to office but I would find some way to work out. You can get up from your seat every now and then and walk, or walk while talking on phone.
a. For lunch 1 good hack is to first have lots of water 30min before lunch. Then start your lunch with salad. I used to have sprouts vegetable salad. So by the time you are done with salad, you are almost half full.
b. Have curd regularly, its really good. Avoid having flavored yogurts as they have added sugar and artificial flavors.
c. Try making your salads interesting and have bigger portion of salads and smaller portion of roti/sabji. But do not use things like mayonnaise for dressing.
d. For bhaaji I made small changes, I stopped using potato or any recipe that uses lot of oil or frying. Instead I chose other simpler recipes like cabbage poriyal instead of aaloo cabbage bhaaji or I would make shimla besan bhaaji instead or aaloo shimla or paneer bhurji instead of shahi paneer.

8. After lunch I would sleep for sometime. I know its not possible for all the office going folks but this is so essential as it just re-energises you for the rest of the day.

9. In the evenings at times I would take milk but mostly it would be roasted chana or makhana.

10. For dinner it will be either some daliya, khichdi with some soup or simply some roti sabji or daal. Try to keep dinner as very light and also do not have dinner very late in the evening. You need to have it atleast 2hrs before sleep. Also try doing some post dinner walk. Its a good relaxing exercise.  Do not be up till late light or else you will end up craving for some late night snacks.

Strict don'ts-
1. Avoid having sugar, as much as possible its nothing but white poison and its coming from somebody who has a sweet tooth. Sweets made at home are still sweets you cannot say its home made so its healthy no its not. Those are more hygienic but not more healthy.
2. Refined flour is another devil, as I always hear, but sewai or bhatura or cake or noodles or maggi was homemade. But that does not change the fact that its maida. It is not good for health.
3.Also another thing that I would hear is that we consume it in moderation. What is moderation? For somebody who can eat 1 cake in an entire day, half a cake would be consuming it in moderation. Its a subjective term there is no defined range of moderation.
4. Eating out was a strict no for me for these 30days or anything that came out of a box. I would instead carry a box of makhana or chana with me and have my meal once I am back home.
5. No fried food, no samosa, pakoras, kofte etc.
6. Do not over eat. Control your portions especially anything that has more carbs.