Make your healthy food interesting

Health and wellness expert Dr Namita Jain has authored several books that contain healthy recipes. Her twelfth bookgives healthy food recipes. Her recipes books have been read by famous personalities like Deepika Padukone, Saina Nehwal and Hema Malini. She gives insight into the importance of healthy lifestyle.

Excerpts from the interview
Why did you write recipe book being a wellness expert?
As a wellness professional no matter what you do, you are always advised to eat right, and I am always telling people to exercise, follow healthy diet, which is also my constant advice through all my books. Readers told me, you tell us to eat right but how do you make healthy soup, rice etc. and they asked me for recipes. After my eleventh book, I felt that this book must be dedicated to recipes.

Tell me about your fitness journey?
My fitness journey started as a sports enthusiast. I used to be a competitive swimmer and train for swimming and conduct competitions. Back then when I started they were not many people, experts and health gyms.I started studying on the subject because I needed to know how much exercise to do and right nutrition etc.

I also did my certification and once I was equipped with the knowledge there was nothing to stop me. Then, I started teaching classes and writing articles for newspapers and magazines. Now I am attached to a hospital and started doing books. It was more like one thing led to another, but nothing was planned.

How can one stick to a diet that has low fat?
Typically, low fat food sounds boring.So, I would say the first important thing is to identify your habits. For example, you can say I have a weakness for rice. If you have weakness for rice you can take it in a healthy way but do not cut it out. Make the rice preparation using less fat and cut back on the portion size;you would not have cut it out. We cannot make radical changes.

If we do it too fast and too soon, chances of drop out are very high. I would say listen to your body make changes gradually. The changes should be done in a way that your body and mind should adjust to it. If you don’t do that you wont last out. Embrace those changes as a part of your life style and then after two months make little more changes. Tell us some easy diet swaps that can help cut down on calories.

Here in this book you have a page which mentions ‘Full Art of Substitution’. For example, if you are having cheese you can have low fat cheese; and if you are used to fizzy drinks you can have some nimbupani; if you are having pizza you can make it healthy by using wheat base, less oil in the tomato puree, use vegetables, use low fat cheese and make it at home which is healthy. I even recommend mothers to make your dal bakhri with a crisp base and add the topping. You can find everything in the healthy swaps page.

Is there a certain eating pattern one must follow to lead a healthy lifestyle?
I will say you need to address your palate, if you do not address your palate it wont work. For example, I was talking to someone and she told me that her dietitian told her to have oats in the morning, but she could not, and felt bad about it. We have grown up in genetics of patterns eating normal food. I think within the patterns we need to refine and make changes and embrace them as a part of our lifestyle.

What are the three ingredients you think should be essential in one's diet?
I would say plan your diet, fit exercise in your schedule. It’s a lot to do with your mind and attitude. Be positive and believe in yourself.

Fitness and women
Today women need to look after themselves. Look at the multitasking role a womanhas to play.They need to manage themselves and be healthy and productive.

Diet and women
To get healthy results you should remember that it is 80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise. If you say you are walking for an hour and not dieting, then there would be no result. You need to watch both. Follow a diet, which is sensible and also exercise.

For women who have tobe in and out of the kitchen, I would tell them to be creative in your recipes and don’t make diet boring. Think of different ways to make your food healthy.

Three ingredients in our recipes
One, ensure that you have fruits and vegetables. Two - proteins like dal, paneer and sprouts. Three - your fats intake should be less