7 Keys to health and slim figure

Do have breakfast!

Possible drawbacks:

you don’t have breakfast at all (you just have a tea or a coffee)
you have breakfast but it’s not substantial (your breakfast should be 35-40 % of day food)
you don’t have vegetables for breakfast (it’s enough to add some lettuce or cucumber to your sandwich)

Do you have breakfast every morning? What do you prefer to have?

Write a list of food that you should buy for a week.

You shouldn’t forget the most important things:

5-7 kg fruit and vegetables (fresh or frozen)
700-1000 gr meat and fish (chicken fillet, salmon, lean beef, veal, pork or mutton)
6 eggs
1 kg cereals and pasta (oats, buckwheat, rice and millet)
a lot of dairy (skim milk, yoghurt, cottage cheese and cheese made of skim milk)
a little bit of sweets (mostly black chocolate, dried fruit and ice-cream)

How much of these do you eat? What are your favorite products? What do you like and dislike? What do you never eat?

Remember about proportions.

Well-balanced diet must consist of the right proportion of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. 50% of your ration must be raw, boiled or steamed vegetables and fresh fruit: 25% of it protein food such as meat, fish, fowl, eggs, beans: and the last 25% must be potatoes, cereals, pasta and forget about buns, sweet, biscuits.

How balanced is your everyday diet? How should you change it in order to make it well-proportioned?

Be careful at having snack.

Having right eating habits, still you might consume more calories than you need by having snack. When you think that you are hungry, at first drink a glass of water, maybe you just confuse hunger with being thirsty.

If water is not enough, then follow these two rules:

place everything that you eat on the plate (never eat from the can, packet or box or you’ll never know how much you’ve eaten. Put everything on the plate; this way you’ll be able to control the amount of food that you’re going to consume)
never combine eating with any other activity (when you watch TV or read a book, you’ll eat more than enough as you don’t understand if you are full or not. You just keep on eating)

Do you have snacks? What do you eat when you feel hungry and it’s not lunch or dinner time yet? Do you usually eat when you are really hungry or you might eat just to keep your friends company, or when you feel depressed or maybe happy?

Learn how to stop.

Try to stop eating before you feel full. The feeling of satiation will come right after it. It takes time for the impulse that says that you’re full enough to get from the stomach to your brain. If you chew the food carefully, you’ll eat only half of the dish but will feel satiation.

How fast do you eat? Are you usually the first or the last to finish your meal?

Choose lean meat.

Good protein food is not only chicken and fish. Any kind of meat is good for health.

Follow the rules:

the meat should be lean, i.e. without fat
it must be boiled, roasted, grilled or barbecued but never fried
your steak mustn’t be large, your day size must look like a bar of chocolate.

Do you prefer meat or fish? What kind of meat or fish do you usually have?

Don’t starve.

Strict diets are harmful for your health. You shouldn’t starve, but you should be aware of what you eat.

reduce your carbohydrates intake (in order to lose weight it is necessary to cut down your daily value for 10-20%. Stop eating sweets, white bread and buns. Having snack, eat fruit and vegetables. Vegetables are more preferable as they have a lot of vitamins but less sugar. If you have choice between an apple, an orange and berries, choose berries)
buy your food at the local market (eat more seasonal fruit and vegetables, berries and greens. Choose fresh meat and fish, not frozen one)

Do you have your secrets how to lose or gain weight?