Tackle emotional cravings for food: Lose a kilo a week

Editor’s note: With our extremely busy schedules and the temptation of junk food all around, it has become increasingly difficult for us to count calories. All of has have signed up for an aerobics class or a gym membership only to go a couple of times and then call it a ‘sunk cost’ or we’ve gone on a crash diet that we googled, only to return to more binging. Nishi Grover, a dietician with thirty years experience and a clientele of hundreds, in her book Lose a Kilo a Week puts out all her tricks to reach the goal of a healthy and fit body. The good thing about her modus operandi to make you shed your extra kilos is that she concentrates on the emotional aspect of eating, especially in the India context where every social gathering and festival revolves around food. Grover, who has struggled with diabetes since childhood, has put down a week by week schedule for eating and exercise you can do at home. On the cycle of over eating: The social implications of over eating are very dangerous. What happens is that people eat a lot, grow fat, then feel uncomfortable with their bodies, which brings on insecurity; this often leads to rejection and ends up in the person seeking solace in more food. This is the vicious cycle of emotional over eating which is very hard to break, and many end up giving up on the fight with their lives. So why don’t we put an end to it? The answer is that we all want to, but we don’t because we are lazy, we have excuses and we don’t trust ourselves that we have it in us to do the job. [caption id=“attachment_587471” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The cover of Lose A Kilo A Week.[/caption] On food and India: In India, food has this exalted place in our lives. Mums overfeed kids; wives love to indulge their husbands; the in-laws get a kick in fattening up their daughters-in-law; and grandparents their grandkids. The words Aur Lijiye(have some more) ring through the dining rooms of this country like a common prayer for food. On how affluence affects our eating habits: It is ironic that in India, a country afflicted with poverty and malnourishment that obesity numbers are on a steep rise. And this is directly related to the economic boom that India is experiencing. India is already crazy about food without the unnecessary business of global food or fast food. With these extra temptations we have just made the task of staying thin and healthy that much more difficult. On the excuses that we make: How many times have you heard women complain that they have The Tendency (to gain weight)? That cheeky, proliferating and inexplicable disease that affects so many Indians.I try and ask people what they mean by it. What, pray tell, is this ‘tendency’? Does it brainwash you and tether you to the refrigerator or the cookie section of your larder that you have no control of what you are stuffing in yourself? If someone tells me that they have the tendency, I know my work is cut out for me, that there lies my challenge, that this one is going to come up with a host of other excuses during the weight loss programme, and that she loves chocolate more than she likes herself. On eating alone: Eat on your own till you have the will to continue without getting tempted when you see food. Eating with the family is going to be one big temptation with all the ‘please pass me the potatoes, the chicken, the pasta’. I have faith in will power, but if food is swung right under your nose 20 times during the course of a meal, even the devil will let you off the hook. On why her programme is successful: My clients swear by me and keep coming back because of this particular ethic — I show them how to eat right. The other factor is that I am strict and I chase them till I see results. People often forget that sometimes the answers lie in the simplest things. That the food you’re eating can make you fat and can also make you lose weight and bring happiness and well-being in your life.