Lose weight and gain health!

Trying to get even a couple of kgs/pounds off the weighing scale will go a long way in your quest for a healthy life. Being overweight increases your risk of developing associated health risks like Heart disease,Diabetes,certain types of Cancer, Gout and many more lifestyle related diseases.
The best thing to do is to lose the extra weight and once that has been achieved try and maintain your weight close to the ideal body weight.
The surest way to lose weight is to follow a diet+ exercise regime simultaneously. Don't look at it as "being on a diet"(sounds more like a new year resolution, and we all know what happens to that!). Look at it as choosing or opting for a healthy lifestyle.
In all my years of consultation,I've realized that the main culprits for weight gain are:

• Bad choice of day to day foods,
• Excessive consumption of sugar/sweets,
• Excessive use of oil when cooking meals,
• No physical activity.

Here are a few tips:

1. Reduce total sugar consumption to just 2-3 teaspoons/day,
2. Use just 3 teaspoons of oil for your entire days cooking (get a good non-stick pan)
3. Include lots of vegetables(cooked and raw) at every meal time,
4. Eat at least 3-4 different fruits a day(snack on fruits),
5. Avoid fried foods and munchies (say no to chips,mixtures,pakodas/bhajjis,etc),
6. Don't skip a meal(esp.breakfast)-it'll only make you binge at your next meal,
   
7. Drink at least 10-12 glasses of water per day,
8. If you are a non-vegetarian,use lean/white meat(eg:egg whites,fish,skinned chicken),
   
9. Avoid carbonated beverages and juices which have added sugar,
10. Don't go grocery shopping on an empty stomach,
11. Don't keep high calorie foods(like chips,chocolates,etc) in the house.
    
12. Watch portion size while eating-just because the snack has been given the "healthy"rating, does not mean you can have unlimited servings of it.
13. Sticking to your diet the whole week does NOT qualify you to binge on all the restricted foods during the weekend.
14. Make a list of your favorite foods and pamper yourself with just 1 item per month.
15. And most important-Exercise for 1/2 an hour to one hour everyday.

I was asked to emphasize on tip no.6 by my friend Rohini Ghatpande, as she feels that most people think that they can skip meals and lose weight. Thanks Ro, have highlighted your point, hopefully the message will go home!!
For sample diets and healthy snack recipes,please go through my earlier posts.