Coronavirus: how to avoid weight gain during confinement?

Coronavirus: how to avoid weight gain during confinement?

  

   Staying at home is no reason to be numb and cook all day. Especially sweets.

     To prevent weight gain at high speed during confinement, move and run away from the call of the fridge! Today, we have time: we stop eating already prepared dishes and take the time to concoct balanced recipes with our family.

how to maintain weight

     To do this, we control our quantities, we never get too much and we favor vegetables and seasonal produce (carrots, cabbage, radishes, asparagus, spinach, avocado, apple, kiwi, banana, grapefruit...).

     We also take the opportunity to vary our diet, listen to our bodies and take care of ourselves.

Eat slowly

     Eating slowly is important, it allows you to recognize the satiety threshold.

     When you eat too quickly, the message comes too late and you feel bloated, that's the Christmas meal effect! You have to listen to your body and stop eating when you're no longer hungry, a rule that is all the more important when you're confined and tend to sit in front of the television.

     At the moment we have time, the meal must last at least twenty minutes.

     So we try to eat in peace and quiet and at regular times. If we don't have a setting, the body has no rhythm. Chewing food well also helps to have good digestion.

     Stress tends to create bloating and digestive problems, this period of inactivity is an opportunity to take care of your intestines.

Take time to cook

     For all those who can't find anything left on the shelves, it's an opportunity to go back to basics and cook simple things: a dessert, homemade pie dough, milk semolina, vinaigrette, salmon-spinach lasagna or vegetable gratins.

     In this period of confinement, it is not recommended to go out every three days to buy fresh food, so you can use vegetables that have been frozen naturally, not cooked.

     They keep their vitamins and minerals and we think of favoring seasonal products.

     It is possible to freeze bread, this allows you to keep the food and only take out one or two slices when you need them.

     And now that everyone has pasta at home, whole wheat starchy foods should be preferred at lunchtime rather than in the evening, especially when you're inactive.

     It's not so much pasta that you should avoid, but everything that you tend to add on top: Gruyere cheese, parmesan cheese, fresh cream, bacon, tomato sauce.

     It is also important to control the quantity: between 120 and 150 grams for a healthy adult.

     Finally, don't only cook desserts: teach children that there is more to cooking than chocolate, alternate with homemade compote, plain shortbread, cottage cheese with fruit and think about reducing the amount of sugar in recipes.

Drawing up a shopping list

     Do not shop when you are hungry, this will avoid compulsive or even unnecessary purchases.

     Before going to the supermarket, carefully examine your cupboards to buy according to your needs.

     This is an important reflex to take when you are confined because you won't be able to go out again to fill in what's missing, hence the importance of making a list in advance.

     If you do your shopping well, you can last a fortnight. Above all, don't rob the stores: if you already have three packages of pasta or tins of green beans, there's no point in taking more.

     It's time to vary by choosing legumes such as lentils or chickpeas, which are sources of vitamins and minerals.

Avoid snacking

     The risk of containment is to get bogged down. Weight gain is dangerous for the health of both adults and young people.

     When we are tired, we secrete the hunger hormone, when we are fit, we secrete the satiety hormone. We must, therefore, take care of our sleep.

     Eat three to four meals a day, no more and above all do not snack.

     We opt for cooking without fat (papillote, grilled, water, steam). Those who have a barbecue, it's time to take it out! We use spices to give a taste, and we avoid sodas and fruit juices.

     The little trick is to note what you eat throughout the day, this is a safeguard and helps you keep control.

Engaging in physical activity

     I recommend half an hour of sport a day for an adult and three-quarters of an hour for a child.

     I know it's difficult to keep the little ones at home, but screens, which are a source of hunger, should be avoided at all costs.

     You can rely on online videos with initiations to yoga, making sure you have a qualified coach. Otherwise, even in a small apartment, you have to be clever.

     It is possible to create a mini sports course using the indoor furniture: slalom between chairs, crawl under a table, jump over a footstool or play a game of hiding and seek.

     This time given to us is a chance, we must use it to improvise small games and to get together as a family.

     Generally speaking, we must keep the children as busy as possible, forgetting about the screens: gardening, painting...

     Avoid shifting the rhythm of young people who will tend to watch series until late at night, get up late, snack all day. They're not on holiday and when they get back, it's going to sting! For adults, we do small exercises such as steps, cladding or going up and down the stairs.