Eat my way of cup meals

Losing weight has been a constant issue among all the people around the world. The haves have built up enough reserve to last rest of their winters. Millions of people are overweight and all of them are aware of the health concerns. Everything connected with losing weight is making money.  People are enrolling in to gyms, aerobics, yoga and swimming in the hope of losing weight. Certain foods are also bought in the hope of losing weight. The losing weight is a billion dollar business around the world.

              

 Life has become sedentary over years with very little physical exercise. People were not overweight in olden days as life styles involved physical work and walking.  Lack of physical work and walking among the middle class and above has caused an endemic of obesity. Along with the sedentary life style they are consuming enormous amount of food. They want to try every taste in the world.  Mixing of cultures and cuisines has made daily meals in to daily feast. People eat like there is no tomorrow and end up obese.

              
Right from childhood the amount of food consumed per session counts. We are advised to eat small quantities in multiple times.  Instead we eat large quantities in less number of times. The logic is simple. The stomach feels full at certain amount of filling. That message is transmitted to the brain when the stomach is adequately distended. Eating large quantities, in the long run causes stomach to expand. Expanded stomach needs larger amount of food to distend to a state, which in turn, sends a message to brain to say it is full. Invariably quantity increases over time and person has to eat much more to feel full. The large quantity which is consumed is not spent in terms energy. Over time this accumulates as fat.  Fat is an energy reservoir which is used to convert in to protein and carbohydrates when food is in short supply. This simple logic helps us that eating in small quantities goes a long way.

Eat my way is an idea I have been advising for people who want to lose weight, which I call Cup Meals. Losing weight or staying thin lies in eating less, more than going to gym or running miles. Remember all of us are ordinary people, not some fitness freaks or athletes. Ordinary person do not have to run or go to gym to stay healthy per se, while disorders require advice by the doctors.

Cup meals are nothing but a meal served like a plate meal, which is common in south Indian hotels.  All the food is served in cups in a plate. Routinely a meal in a south Indian hotel has two chapattis, or few pooris, a bowl of rice, two cups of vegetable dish, a rasam, cup of sambar, cup of curd, cup of butter milk and a sweet. When we eat a meal like this most of us feel full and stop. I would like you to implement this at home. You may not have all these every day, yet you can serve them like that.  The cups are served to a common person at home. You cannot serve very big bowl of rice or increase the number. It should cover all varieties, like vegetables, curd, rice and chapatis, so that protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals are covered. You can use your own variety.  

The idea is to eat all in moderate amount. Everything is measured in cups and put in the plate or the cups themselves are placed. And nobody gets a second serving, eat everything on the plate. At home you can add two more cups, a bowl of salad and a bowl of fruits. Regular fruits should not contain too much sugar.

Many people may find themselves, feeling hungry with this. Being used to eating lot of food over time, they need a lot to fill. At that time you need to fool your stomach. You need to fill up 
your stomach with food which is useless in terms up putting on weight. Drink one or two glasses of water while eating, which fills up or eat a fruit or a glass of juice after eating.  Use lot of water and thin buttermilk in filling up the stomach. Stomach has to be fooled with some filler which are worthless in putting on weight. There are many wonderful types of filler, like cucumber, carrot, guava, and many more which contain only fiber with less sugar. 

Bringing all the food on to the table is the worst thing to do. You tend to eat more with more servings, which is against my way. There is always something which is interesting which you tend to eat more than needed. That is what you should avoid. So stop bringing all the things cooked on to table. Cook formally, try things for occasions.  You do not party or feast every day. Food is for survival, not for partying, excess always kills you. You wear formal dress daily and dress to kill for a function. Food is eaten like that. Eat formally daily and eat to kill on an occasion.

Bringing up kids in this period is very difficult. So many things are happening in the world. Growing economy, extra money at our disposal is making kids obese. With few kids in the family, lot of pampering and over rewarding for the inefficiency of themselves, the parents are inadvertently killing them. They are getting obese, really obese; there is no way they are going get themselves fit in later life, when you have built them to be what they are. Recent generation do not even play outside the house. Parents are self obsessed, compensating a kid’s life with lot of food freebies.

I suggest you use my way, you fill up their plate in all combinations and tell them to eat. They cannot get out without finishing. Give them planned food, not over filling food. The problem I see in our people is that they tend to dump lot of food and force them to eat. Let them eat whatever they can, you make sure it has variety. Letting them eat what they like is the worst thing to do. Yes, they are your only kids and you want to give your best, at what cost ladies. They will eat anything, if you build them with hunger. A hungry kid can eat anything, so put out those things which they will refuse once they know the taste.

Other than eating my way, there is some basic minimal requirement to lose weight. That is some physical activity. You may not go on walks or running. Whatever you walk around in your life, do it briskly. Try to move more, more trips to kitchen to drink water are good enough. More trips around the house or in the house are better. Help around the house. Get in to any energy spending activity. Do everything yourself. Clean the house more often. Sort the house more often.

Losing weight my way is a gainer. You save lot of money. You have to cook less and you do not have to pay thousands in gym or weight reducing programe.  You’ll win, all you have to do is eat less. 
PS: All the photos were copied from Google search for illustrations only.
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