The lean, thin look of Angelina Jolie may fascinate you. But you will be surprised to note that her diet hardly consists of carbs! Moreover, when she was pregnant with Brad Pitt's twins, she went on continuing with the same dietary routine and left Pitt utterly tensed. But experts have opined that a diet without carbs is unhealthy. Eating a lot of carbs may load you with calories, but eating healthy carbs will allow you to meet your weight loss goals.
Here are top 8 tips for low carb eating:
- Choose Complex Carbs: Include more of complex carbs through whole grains like brown rice, oats, whole wheat, barley, whole wheat pasta and whole wheat breads. These whole grains are complex carbs containing plenty of fiber. Intake of these foods will facilitate the weight loss process.
- Increase Protein Intake: Proteins help to get the feeling of satiety. They stabilize the blood sugar level and control your cravings. You can include more of low fat dairy products, lean meats, beans, legumes and a total of around 50 gram protein per day.
- Go High on High Fiber Food: Having raw salads with your meals and with a good amount of fruits will ensure an increased fiber intake in the diet. Green leafy vegetables are rich in minerals and they help in certain health conditions like blood pressure and diabetes. Being high in fiber, they also aid in weight loss. Besides fruits and veggies, you can add flaxseeds, fenugreek (methi) seeds, sprouts and whole grains to your meals.
- Watch Your Fat: You need to avoid all trans fats. This means that you have to stay away from fast foods and deep fried foods like fries, cutlets, cheese sticks and pakodas. Try to consume the monounsaturated fats (present in olive oil, peanut oil and mustard seed oil) as they help in limiting your carb intake and in bringing the feeling of satiety. Avoid saturated fats (present in butter, ghee and margarine).
- Become a Wise Eater: Most people have a misconception that excluding desserts completely from the diet will allow them to lead a healthy life. In actuality, it's not about omission, but about choosing your food correctly without depriving yourself! All you need to do is to eat in limitation. Every food, when eaten in limitation, can only benefit your health while undesirable consequences begin to appear once you stop watching your portion intakes. Staying within the limits helps in controlling and maintaining weight apart from helping in avoiding sugar hikes and in maintaining stabilized blood sugar levels. So eat wisely and be healthy.
- Do Regular Exercises: After years and years of researches, experts have claimed that any person who is regular in his exercise has an overall better health in comparison to a person who doesn't exercise. Exercise helps in maintaining a good body weight, it keeps blood sugar levels under control and aids in the better functioning of the heart and other organs. You can increase your carb allowance window by exercising.
- Avoid Binging: Most of the snacks that we binge on are carbs, whether it is a chocolate, a candy, pastries, chips or fries! If we learn to avoid binging, we will be successful in cutting down on a lot of unwanted carbs. Try to eat your meals in time and most importantly, eat in regular intervals. A gap of more than 4 hours between your meals will make your hunger take a hike and you will jump to take all the unhealthy foods!
- Balance it Out: If you happen to go heavy on your meal either due to a social gathering or a festival or any such occasion where you don't have much control over your food, then you must balance it out well to avoid sugar splurges in blood. There is nothing wrong in going light once in a while! A complete fruit diet for a meal or just milk and cereals are not bad options!
Extreme diets are harmful and no one will encourage you to take Jolie's path! Jolie looks deadly gorgeous, but the way she has carved out her figure, draws numerous controversies! Carbs are not bad, provided you take the healthy ones! There are numerous roads that lead to the same goal or destination and you need to make a wise choice.
