Rujuta Diwekar is India’s leading nutritionist and fitness expert who has many Bollywood celebs and business tycoons as her clients. Her client list includes the who’s who from all walks of life, like Kareena Kapoor, Anil Ambani, Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Saif Ali Khan, Karishma Kapoor, Richa Chadda and many more. She is the winner of ‘nutrition award’ from the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and also the best-selling author of many books and a diet and wellness guru. Her ideas are very simple but effective, and she has brought into limelight Indian superfoods like ghee, jaggery. She encourages people to include Indian food items into their diet. Since she helps one go on a healthy lifestyle, it’s easy to lose weight by following her diet plan. Read on further to know more about Rutuja Diwekar’s diet plan for weight loss.
Some Basic Tips by Rujuta Diwekar:
Here are some useful tips by Rutuja Diwekar when one goes on her 12 weeks fitness project:
- Do not start your day with tea or coffee. Instead, grab a banana or any fresh fruit or soaked almonds or nuts first and then pick your cup of tea or coffee. Also, she prefers masala chai over green tea as studies have proven that consuming green tea in the long run is not healthy.
- She strongly recommends every person (even people with diabetes, heart condition, obesity or blood pressure problem) consume 3-6 tsp of ghee per day without any fear or guilt.
- Avoid watching TV or using gadgets while eating as that leads to overeating without actually feeling full.
- Eat wholesome meal during 4-6 pm as your metabolism is at a high level during this time.
- Avoid sitting for prolonged time and move more as sitting is the new “smoking.”
- Rujuta suggests the rule of Pi – that is to exercise at least once in every 3.14 days. So a healthy diet for 22 days with 7 days of exercise in between is a good way to get back in shape.
- Food that has been overheated or over boiled will lose its natural nutrients. So try to have freshly prepared food for at least breakfast and dinner, even if you have to pack lunch to work. Also, prefer seasonal fruits and vegetables as they are very nutritious and free from chemicals in comparison to packaged or imported food items.
- Pick local produce over imported ones.
- Your brain will signal you as to how much to eat. So, eat using your mental map.
- Practice Surya Namaskar every day as it keeps your digestion good and mind calm.
- Have sherbets and other traditional drinks rather than cold drinks.
- Top three kitchen rules – avoid plastic, use an iron pan to heat and don’t use microwave.
- Include “kacchi ghani” oils and coconut for garnishing or for making chutney. Have cashews as mid meal or in milk at night will also benefit.
- Indulge in desi snacks, be it makhanas cooked in ghee or gond ke laddoo, avoid processed foods.
- Avoid low-fat crackers and processed foods.
- Rather than investing in exotic vegetables and products like quinoa, pick local food. For example, you can get the protein in quinoa in a glass of milk as well, so eat local and traditional food.
- Cut down on sugar intake, replacing sugar with artificial sweetener is not the right choice. Use jaggery instead of sugar.
- Whenever you eat in restaurants or at weddings, make smart choices by eating low-calorie foods.
Rujuta Diwekar’s Diet Plan:
Let’s take a look at Rujuta Diwekar Diet Plan:
1. Meal 1: Any one Seasonal Fruit/ Dry fruits/ 7-8 Soaked almonds (15 minutes after you wake up)
This will kick start your morning and boost your metabolism.
2. Meal 2 (Breakfast): Homemade breakfast with desi ghee (within 60-90 minutes of meal 1).
Few options are: Poha, Sambhar Wada, dosa, masala khichdi, idli, oats, with dry fruit, fresh fruits, berries. Also stuffed paratha and aloo paratha are also good options.
3. Meal 3 (Mid-Meal)P Something that you can carry easily (within 2-3 hours of breakfast): It can be a fruit, dry fruits, peanuts, coconut water. They help you out by cutting down your hunger and prevent snacking during lunch time.
4. Meal 4 (Lunch): One cup Rice or Roti+ Vegetable or Meat or dal with dahi, pickle and ghee (within 2-3 hours of meal 3). You can have seasonal vegetables and meat made in low masala content. Also, ghee helps in losing stubborn belly fat and pickle helps you maintain Vitamin B12 levels.
5. Meal 5 (Mid-meal): Anything seasonal like seasonal sherbet (a fruit based cooling drink or butter milk) and eat within 2-3 hours of lunch.
6. Meal 6 (Evening Snack): Wholesome meal similar to your breakfast or half of your lunch (between 4-6 pm). You can have Bhel or Jhaalmudi, Dosa, roti sabji, or poha.
7. Meal 7 (Dinner): Rice or millets such as foxtail millet, kodo millet dishses with ghee (2-3 hours before bedtime). Millets are a great source of protein and dietary fibres and have complex carbs that do not spike your insulin levels at once.
8. Meal 8 (Bedtime): Milk with Cashews, Gulkand, Chyavanprash, and Turmeric Milk (before you sleep and only if you are hungry): If you are lactose intolerant, you can skip turmeric milk or you can alternate it with soy or almond milk.
This is Rituja Diwekar’s simple 8 meal plans for a day. Also, you can make slight changes according to your taste. All of her tips are something doable and not that scary. So, it’s time we adopt simple changes for a healthier lifestyle.
