If you always thought that dieting is boring, then think again! For here comes a quick-fix solution to make your edibles not only healthy but tasty to the tongue as well! So forget those steamed, insipid vegetables and a bowl of bland, fatless food.

Instead, welcome a regular regime of fresh, healthy eating with a generous dose of delicious ingredients. Further club this habit with a daily routine of suitable exercises and then you notice the inevitable change which you’ve always coveted for years.
“It is a myth that in order to shape up, one must starve or be on an austerity drive,” opines author Suman Agarwal, who also doubles up as a reputed dietician and nutritionist in her own right. To be fit as a fiddle and be in fine fettle, one should rather follow a customised programme, scientifically-designed to compliment each case history forwarded to the health guru-cum-fitness expert’s desk. “Hence, it’s better to bust all wrong notions and banish the same forever,” further suggests the enterprising founder of Selfcare, a health-clinic to reckon with in South Mumbai.
Her user-friendly book Unjunked — Healthy Eating for Weight Loss was recently unveiled in Kolkata at the Crossword Bookstore. The book takes a different look at the general way of eating and feeling which must change for good. The thick tome contains over 100 recipes to take care of every single meal of the day and every craving the consumer might have. Each recipe comes with a complete nutritional breakdown, as well as tips on ingredients and techniques which will induce a tendency of smart eating. The recipes compiled here necessarily cuts the extra flab of “junk” out of the fast-food and replace it with a salubrious platter of palate-pleasing entree and still help losing the weight, which is noteworthy. So whether it’s Mumbai’s quintessential pav bhaji from the Chaupati (famous sea-beach) that one irresistibly drools over or the scrumptious bread chaat of Kolkata which all gastronomes swear on, there’s no harm in enjoying a row of taste-bud teasing street grub. And of course, the favourite segment of desserts and mithais is always there to pamper one’s sweet-tooth.
A lover and proponent of quality, no non-fat food, this certified nutritionist from UK’s Oxford University and a qualified fitness trainer from the National Institute of Aerobics, Mumbai, makes a cautious statement that “when one extracts the fat from natural foods while cooking, then in go the chemicals which is detrimental to human health.”
A non-believer in 100 per cent work-out and dieting, Ms Suman firmly sticks to balancing the regimen to have room for everything. “Adopt a moderate approach to space out your daily routine which shouldn’t be a dull ritual but a thrilling, rejuvenating programme. I don’t recommend a diet-chart with complete boiled, spiceless fare like lentils, pulses, lots of green vegetables and fruit salads. I rather think that people should occasionally go out to dine and savour an eatery-meal. For instance, office-goers and entrepreneurs often have to consult company issues, net in their clients or discuss biz plans over corporate buffet lunches at a food-joint outside their office premises,” she ratifies. Having designed 10 dessert recipes with low-calorie content (ranging from 15 to 115 in one serving), the culinary exponent enthuses: “Well, you’ll be surprised to know that all goodies are made from sugar and in no way, are they fatless. And there in lies the trick. You see a particular method of preparation can work wonders on the taste-o-meter as well as on the stomach, thus retaining the value of nutrients in the eatables. However, syrupy gulab jamuns or succulent rasgullas, sandesh, ice-creams, pies and brownies are consciously avoided on the list, since they consist of high-calories varying from 250 to 500.”
Strictly prescribing not to gym or indulge into free-hand exercises over 75 minutes at a stretch, Suman offers that for weightlessness, a module of cardio, treadmill, cycling, a brisk walk or cross-training are efficacious. “See, inch-loss is definitely important for a strong metabolism and cardio vascular system,” she endorses her views.