20 Tips to get fit before Diwali

With just a few days left for Diwali, we’re sure your plans for the festivities are in full swing. From gorgeous Diwali clothes that must fit you well to food that you are anxiously awaiting, the festivities don’t come without challenges.
But we have some good news for you. Even though it’s just a matter of two more weeks, you can look fitter with a few tricks in the bag.Here are 20 things you can do to get fit before Diwali; 20 tips that will help you look fitter and hotter this festive season! Let’s begin…
Sleep well every night: Sleeping right, on time and for the minimum 6-8 hours every night is crucial to how you look come festival time. Sleep well to avoid facial puffiness, aching limbs from poor rest and recovery after workouts, and to better digest your food for the next morning.
Plan a good strength and cardio combination workout with a professional trainer: Two weeks of regular workouts can help you trim the extra flab to a certain extent. You won’t lose weight, at least nothing more than 1-2 pounds (at best – the healthy way), but you won’t add any more fat to your body.
Commit to clocking 5-6 days at the gym every week: Depending on workout intensity, plan the workout days in advance and stick to them. Don’t skip a single workout. You’ll be amazed to notice how much better you look and feel within just two short weeks.
Eat clean: You need to stop eating some unhealthy foods, if you want to look your best in just two weeks. This means that fried foods, greasy snacks, high sugar foods, foods made with refined and processed flour are all banned. Avoid more than 2-3 helpings of high starch foods like white rice and potatoes during this phase as well.
Cut out the extra salt: Extra salt leads to extra water retention for most folks. Even if you’re one of the lucky few, avoid excess salt in food as it leeches nutrients from your bones.
Cut out white sugar: While a little bit of salt is okay in food, any amount of white sugar (beyond the 1 teaspoon per day recommended quantity) is too much. Not only does white sugar add unnecessary calories to your diet, it removes nutrients from your body, and adds no nutrients of its own.
Eat your vegetables: Even if you relax fruits in your daily diet, you can never let go of the vegetables. They’re an important food group and help trim the fat, quite literally. Include a portion of vegetables with each meal and snack. Some grilled tomatoes or raw carrots with breakfast, and stir fried side dishes with lunch and dinner go a long way. But remember; don’t kill them in the cooking pan.
Eat at least one fruit every day: Strict fitness diets sometimes forsake the extra fruit sugar and follow just one or no fruits for daily consumption. This, however, is debatable and has many different schools of thoughts and reasoning. You should eat some fruits for the antioxidants, flavinoids etc, but if you’re on a strict calorie count, then trade the extra fruits for vegetables. Either way, a single serving of an apple, papaya, or pomegranate will benefit you as a healthy snack that satiates you and keeps you away from unhealthy snacking.
Interval training: The traditional dictate of alternating one hour’s cardio and one hour’s weight training every week is currently up for questioning. Research has found that it isn’t the length of time that you exercise for, it is the kind of exercise you do and the intensity at which you do it that determines results. Therefore, invest in a good trainer as a resource for short bursts of interval training. A bonus: You might fall in love with this method of exercising and become committed to it for life, since it is immensely more involving and encouraging than hour after boring hour on the treadmill.
Drink water: And drink it in a clever way. Don’t wake up and guzzle two bottles of water, thinking that you’ve taken care of the ‘water thing’ for the whole day. Water is needed constantly, at regular intervals, through the day. Therefore, you will need to sip one cup (approximately 200ml) every 30-60 minutes all day. This will help digestion, energy and satiety.
Invest in some dark chocolate: We have good reason to believe that dark chocolate is beneficial to overall health. We have even more reason to believe that cravings set in all the time. To evade these cravings the healthy way, it is important to indulge in a small cube of dark chocolate after each meal. Dark chocolate’s properties of high antioxidants and good fats will keep you full for longer and satisfy that niggling and frequent sugar craving.
Take care of the protein intake: A two week fitness plan will be sorely incomplete without adequate complete protein to give you the recovery boost after each workout. Calculate your protein needs using the 0.8 to 2gms per bodyweight kilo range, depending on how heavy your workout is.
You might need a professional to help you with this if you’re a complete novice to gaming protein in your diet. Since you’re on a short schedule, aim for complete proteins. While lentils/legumes are decent enough in combination with grains like brown rice, they are not as beneficial as yogurt, lean animal protein, nuts, soybeans and other sources of complete protein. Therefore, switch to these sources for better results in the short term.
Don’t forget the good fats: If you’re wondering what any kind of fats are doing in a short, two week fitness plan, then you’re not entirely wrong. Yes, you need to control the calories and fats in this timeframe, but you need good fats to help you absorb nutrients from the other healthy foods you’re eating during this time.
The best way to satisfy your body’s need for good fats, without burdening your calorie tracker is to cook in healthy oils. Olive oil, canola oil, mustard oil are all fine. Even though coconut oil is healthy, it’s a little too high in fats for your short term needs right now, so focus on the leaner oils and add them to your daily cooking.
Don’t weigh yourself every day: The weighing scale will not budge in two weeks. The most you’ll see are a few pounds moving here or there. Instead, focus on how you feel, your skin quality, your hair and nails. These are what will visibly improve with your new eating and exercise routine. If you’ve never exercised before and/or eat fatty unhealthy foods daily, then you will notice some weight loss as your body will shed 1-2 kilos quite readily with the new lifestyle.
Quit smoking: Go cold turkey. Smoking damages your body in more ways than one. While its impact on weight control is indirect, it is quite prevalent. You cannot hope to regulate your digestion and sleep/energy patterns while puffing on cigarettes and harming your lung power in the bargain.
Find some peace of mind: Stress affects you in the short term as well. In fact, the most immediate outcome of stress is weight gain. You eat more, snack more, sleep less, internalize problems and hyperventilate – causing high hormone secretion.
This places stress on your body and as evolution will have it – this means that you will gain weight as your body stores fat in response. Here, the usual suspects come in handy – listen to music, watch a movie, meet a close friend, write a journal, practise slow breathing – do whatever it takes to get rid of extra debilitating stress in every day life.
Stay away from alcohol: Okay, a glass or two of red wine, or dram or two of whisky or brandy might be acceptable. But if one leads to 20, then you need to take a break from the spirits over the next two weeks. Reasons – extra sugar, hangover-induced munchies, and calorie-laden mixers.
Even low calorie drinks are banned if two weeks is all you’ve got, especially since alcohol consumption affects you in more than just the calorie way – it delays digestion of foods consumed, right before, during and right after. This means that your body ends up storing extra fat, and that spells weight gain.
Lay off the extra starch: Briefly mentioned earlier, this deserves a solo mention as well. Starchy foods like white rice and potatoes add to, what we call, ‘fake weight’, which essentially means bloating. Avoid these in this short two week run-down.
Change your eating utensils: Serve your food in smaller boxes and quarter plates. No two week fitness plan is complete without some cheats that trick your mind and stomach. Smaller eating utensils and darker coloured utensils are a great way to do this. Research says that if you eat on smaller plates with teaspoons, you’re less likely to load up with each serving. Additionally, dark crockery tends to help with portion control as it doesn’t let the food blend in with the plate’s background. Sounds weird? Try it and we guarantee better portions.
Don’t forget the sunscreen: The Indian sun is harsh and unforgiving. Don’t wait for the New Year to begin for all those daily beauty routine resolutions. Start with Diwali preparations. This applies to our male readers as well. Sunscreen is the best way to ensure that your skin stays smooth and supple well into December. Two weeks is a good time period to spruce up and benefit from your skin care and hair care routine.
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