Healthy eating: What do I do with overweight?

We have just started a brand new year and little by little routine has been established again after a few days in which, we all, to a greater or lesser degree, have altered our daily rhythm overindulging in food.

Back to school for the children, back to the office… and back to face with the feared and honest scale, whilst still having in memory that dinner with school friends, the traditional company dinner and the family celebrations of these dates, making the first objective of the year to lose those extra kilos, which we are sure to have gained and concerned not to be able to hide.

As a starting point, and according to the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN), each Spaniard has gained, on average, between 2 and 4 kilos during these past holidays.

In the case of pregnant women, weight gain can be considered as normal, especially at this time. We should not give it more importance. On one side, perhaps they just put on weight due to the normal development of the pregnancy, being also increased by some excess in the feeding. If this increase of weight is excessive or uncomfortable for the woman, the best advice is to arrange a visit with the midwife, who will provide them with some healthy eating guidelines in order to adjust the weight adequately according to the stage of pregnancy.

The importance to follow healthy habits:
Acquiring certain habits can be beneficial to our health, both in short-term, for the improvement in the physical condition, and in long-term, as a disease prevention tool.

Generally, most experts agree on some basic guidelines recommended for this:

• To make 5 meals per day: it is important to distribute calories throughout the day, being breakfast, lunch and dinner the most important meals of the day, but without forgetting to eat something in the middle of the morning and mid-evening too.
• Start the day with a good breakfast: the combination of a dairy product, cereals and fruit will give us a good energy dose to face the day.
• Take 5 pieces of fruit or vegetable per day: these foods provide water, fiber and vitamins to our body. In addition, fiber has a satiating effect.
• Practice sports several times a week: it is not necessary to make big efforts, practicing 30 minutes every day or one hour several times a week may be enough.
• Drinking water: it is important to keep our body hydrated, being recommended to drink between two and three liters of water per day.
• Limit the consumption of soft drinks, sweets and fried foods: Their supply of sugar and fat for our organism is excessive, and in addition they are low-nutrient foods.
• If you have difficulty in losing weight, it is advisable to consult a health care professional: before trying to follow any strict diet on your own, seek advice from your doctor or go to a nutritionist, no one better than them to give you advice and the best solution.
• In case of “hunger attacks” choose skimmed dairy, fruits or cereal bars.
• Avoid “fad diets”. We cannot pretend to lose weight as quickly as we have gained it. Patience and perseverance.
• Moderate the consumption of alcohol, it has high calorie content.