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| Enjoying a cup of tea with a pinch of honey in it. Photo Courtesy: Shikha Agarwal |
My weight was always an issue with me – as a child, I was thin, and then, right after my eleventh birthday, I started to gain weight. Over a single summer, I gained weight and went from being a rake to a plump, bespectacled girl with oily skin.
I am, by no means, thin. But I love my body now. At one point I did not. I went through crash diets virtually every week when I was in college, and university and would starve myself in order to be thinner.
It did not work. When I was super hungry, I would eat plenty of sweets in the middle of the night, and the weight shall once again climb up. It added to my despair like nothing else.
But then, I was told by my doctor that my hormones were sky high, and my blood pressure was fluctuating. These are some of the horrid side effects of crash dieting. The person who I consulted told me to follow a balanced diet, where I should eat everything in moderation, and also, not think too much about losing weight, but exercising every day to maintain a healthy life style. The one thing my doctor asked me to change was my habit of eating sugar. She suggested I shift to more natural forms of sugar – like using stevia or honey in place of sugar, and eating less sugar in general. She also asked me to have a teaspoon of honey mixed with a teaspoon of lemon in a glass of warm water every morning.
The diet she gave me did not exclude anything, but reduced my carb intake, and increased my protein and vegetable intake considerably. Previously, I would eat maybe 2-3 eggs a week. She raised it to 4-5 a week. She also encouraged me to have lean meat, like chicken breast, as well as grilled fish. Deep fried food gave way to stir fried, boiled, steamed and grilled food, and my plate started to get heaped with vegetables.
Honey was introduced as a sugar replacement. Slowly, I added it to many things I was making – from adding a sweet note to my grilled chicken, to putting some in my green tea, I was asked to add up to a tablespoon of honey a day, instead of sugar. This was a great change, as I could see my body look and feel much more fit.
To be fair, I never had the goal to lose weight. Rather, I wanted to be fit. The honey diet did just that. I also used it with lemon and Fuller’s earth on my skin as a pack, and it reduced my pimple issues considerably.
