My silent observation - we so easily change our curtains, furniture, home, jobs - but when it comes to change in diet (for the betterment of your health), we resist change. Not only resist, but scorn at it and defend by saying ``doctors do not say so.'
There's a saying `you are what you eat.' This is so very true, as I've been experiencing it, since the last two decades, and more so now, when I got afflicted with Diabetes. Also, my question to doctors and people who blindly believe that medicines and insulin is the way to control Diabetes - why is it that despite that, you blood sugar levels keep fluctuating up and down? Why is it that the medical fraternity talks about complications due to medicines taken for this disease and yet does not feel it fit to tell the people the scores of research being undertaken by American universities, proving the power of diet to control/eliminate Diabetes? Will patients wake up and introspect? I will come to this topic in my subsequent posts.
So, my diet is wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free.
Important Points:
1. Try to have 90% natural foods until lunch time; 10% can be cooked food.
2. Try not to have carbohydrates at all until lunch time
3. Chew whatever you eat. Never be in a hurry to eat. Even if you have the right food, it will be futile if you just gulp your food. It is a good idea to sit in front of the TV and enjoy your programme while you chew your food. It relaxes you. Need not stiffly sit on a dining table - keeping up the stiff tradition of the British legacy, alive. I sit cross legged on the carpet, in front of the TV and have my dinner. Real relaxation. For breakfast, I sit on the sofa and watch the morning news or some music channel. I don't budge from there for at least 20 minutes.I feel so pampered! Mobile calls can wait and even the cook who may need some ingredient or some advice, can wait! And the doorbell can be opened by someone else. Ha, ha!
4. Drink water only when you are thirsty. I have observed, sometimes I finish the entire one litre of water in 3 to 4 hours, sometimes I have just one-fourth of it in the entire day. It depends on your thirst. Dr Sukhatme has taught me that water does not only mean water -there is so much water even in the food you eat - be it dal, chapati (water in the dough), tea and so on. I have experimented with drinking those 5 or 8 litres a day because some dietitian said so and my hunger and metabolism went for a six! Also, don't gulp water. Sip by sip please.
5. Think before you eat. Build up a portion of your brain with foods you can eat for Diabetes. That should serve as your Template. When food comes in front of you, immediately refer to that template and ask yourself, should you eat it? That way, you will realise that you will eat only that what you truly enjoy. I know now that I always hated pav wadas, samosas, puffed patties, pizzas and burgers but used to just thoughtless have them because it is a craze and people everywhere around you were having it. Now, I am very strict with myself and enjoy that self-discipline, for I used to mindlessly eat and then repent - now, once it goes inside your stomach, you cannot even take it out!
6. Your mouth is your Security Guard. With gated communities, we now have secure housing societies, at the mouth of which are security guards and technology gadgets to filter and scan visitors. But ironically, within us, we have put our most important Security Guard, The Mouth, to perpetual sleep. This is the biggest cause of Diabetes (as per my observation). All visitors to the stomach (food that is) are not checked and worked upon by our mouth - leading to the Great Overload in the Stomach. Awaken your mouth - ask it to allow visitors (food) that its boss (the stomach) can handle and make it easy for its boss (stomach) to deal well with the visitors (food) by chewing it and then sending it to the boss. No sending it to the boss, in bulk quality and bulk quantity please In short, this point is an extension of chewing your food
7. Pay no attention to cynics. You will be ridiculed, made to feel like an illiterate. Suniye sabki, kariye manki (listen to all, hear your mind and intellect). After all, you cannot take Diabetes lying down, you cannot push it under the carpet. You have to act and you have to get rid of it. YOU JUST HAVE TO. It is a big warning for you. For me, I felt my intellectual abilities would be snatched away from me if I relied on medicines. I am a writer and want to write till I die. Imagine my profession and passion being affected by this idiotic disease? That was the first reason why wanted to shun medicines and welcome diet change.
8. You need not go vegetarian. Though it is highly recommended that you go vegetarian, I have found for myself that non-veg tikkas, tandoori chicken and eggs help in maintaining my diet and sugar levels particularly if you are travelling to other places or partying. You just have these so you avoid any gravies and carbohydrates successfully. I had gone to Port Blair for six days and I stayed on boiled eggs for breakfast, tandoori chicken for lunch and fish curry with salad for dinner (of course with a bit of salads and vegetables to accompany) and I was delighted to find that my sugar levels - fasting as well as PP - were totally normal, in fact on the downside, in fact. I feel there is no fun if you have to give up just everything - you will then find it torturous to follow a diet. You should self-experiment and find out what is good and happy for you. Cheers
Here is my diet for the day, generally, sometimes it may vary. I wake up very early so here is how it goes:
3 a m: Tea with Coconut Milk
6 am: Smoothie
7.30 a m: Nitric Oxide salad
9.30 am: Any dosa out of protein - Chana dal besan, chilkewali moong dal, soaked and ground, (That is if I am still hungry after the Nitric Oxide salad)
10 am: Tea with Coconut Milk
11.30 am: Green Tea or Black Coffee
Between 1 pm and 2 pm Lunch - Rainbow Salad or One Bhakri with a good portion of one vegetable and good portion of dal.
4 pm: Tea with Coconut Milk
5-5.30 pm: A fruit or Dhokla or roasted groundnuts or chana.
8 pm: Dudhi (bottle gourd) and carrot soup
8.30 pm: Dinner comprising brown rice, dal and two vegetables. (Depends on my hunger)
When I go out for parties, I have a soup, snacks comprising chicken, Fish tikkas - that is enough to fill me up.
Tomorrow: I shall share some recipes - like Coconut Milk Tea, Smoothie, Nitric Oxide Salad, Rainbow Salad.
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