Module 2: Building of

healthy lifestyles for

better future
Developing A Healthy Diet For Good
Health
• Prefer homemade foods against fast food.
• Avoid junk foods as they are a major cause of obesity.
• Eat raw fruits and vegetables whenever possible. It is even preferable to have
fruits and raw vegetables instead of munching on snacks.
• Limit consumption of sugar and unhealthy processed foods.
• Keep your salt intake to less than 5 grams per day as it helps to prevent
hypertension, and reduces the risk of heart disease. Prefer iodized salt.
• Avoid trans fats that is found in processed food, fast food, snacks, fried food,
frozen pizza and cookies.
• Serve yourself small portions of high calorie foods and large portions of healthy
foods like vegetables, salads and soups.
• Good nutrition need not always be expensive. You can get all the nutrients from
low cost foods items as well like beans and lentils, eggs, jaggery, seasonal fresh
fruits and ...
• Don’t be choosy over the foods you eat. It might relish your taste buds but it
would lead to imbalanced nutrition.
• Eat fresh foods with the minimum of processing.
• Eat raw vegetables whenever possible. If you need to cook them, use as little
water as possible because many nutrients are destroyed by heat or boiled water.
• Eat fruits and vegetables with skins (apart from carrots, which can absorb toxins
from the soil). Wash them thoroughly first.
• Don't cut, wash or soak fruits and vegetables until you are ready to eat them.
• Avoid replacing meals with snack foods.
Nutritional guidelines for good health
wellness, obesity and its management
Obesity is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity
isn't just a cosmetic concern. It's a medical problem that increases the risk of
other diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood
pressure and certain cancers.
there are genetic, behavioral, metabolic and hormonal influences on body
weight, obesity occurs when you take in more calories than you burn through
normal daily activities and exercise. Your body stores these excess calories as
fat.
 Risk factors
Obesity usually results from a combination of causes and contributing factors:
Family inheritance and influences
The genes you inherit from your parents may affect the amount of body fat you store, and
where that fat is distributed. Genetics may also play a role in how efficiently your body
converts food into energy, how your body regulates your appetite and how your body
burns calories during exercise.
Lifestyle choices
• Unhealthy diet. A diet that's high in calories, lacking in fruits and vegetables, full of fast
food, and laden with high-calorie beverages and oversized portions contributes to weight
gain.
• Liquid calories. People can drink many calories without feeling full, especially calories
from alcohol. Other high-calorie beverages, such as sugared soft drinks, can contribute to
significant weight gain.
• Inactivity. If you have a sedentary lifestyle, you can easily take in more calories every day
than you burn through exercise and routine daily activities. Looking at computer, tablet
and phone screens is a sedentary activity. The number of hours spent in front of a screen
is highly associated with weight gain.
Certain diseases and medications
Some medications can lead to weight gain if you don't compensate through diet or activity.
These medications include some antidepressants, anti-seizure medications, diabetes
medications, antipsychotic medications and steroids.

Social and economic issues

Social and economic factors are linked to obesity. Avoiding obesity is difficult if you don't have
safe areas to walk or exercise. Similarly, you may not have been taught healthy ways of
cooking, or you may not have access to healthier foods. In addition, the people you spend time
with may influence your weight — you're more likely to develop obesity if you have friends or
relatives with obesity.
Age
Obesity can occur at any age, even in young children. But as you age, hormonal changes and a
less active lifestyle increase your risk of obesity. In addition, the amount of muscle in your
body tends to decrease with age. Generally, lower muscle mass leads to a decrease in
metabolism. These changes also reduce calorie needs and can make it harder to keep off
excess weight. If you don't consciously control what you eat and become more physically
active as you age, you'll likely gain weight.
 Other factors
• Pregnancy. Weight gain is common during pregnancy. Some women find this weight
difficult to lose after the baby is born. This weight gain may contribute to the development
of obesity in women.
• Quitting smoking. Quitting smoking is often associated with weight gain. And for some, it
can lead to enough weight gain to qualify as obesity. Often, this happens as people use
food to cope with smoking withdrawal. In the long run, however, quitting smoking is still a
greater benefit to your health than is continuing to smoke. Your doctor can help you
prevent weight gain after quitting smoking.
• Lack of sleep. Not getting enough sleep or getting too much sleep can cause changes in
hormones that increase appetite. You may also crave foods high in calories and
carbohydrates, which can contribute to weight gain.
• Stress. Many external factors that affect mood and well-being may contribute to obesity.
People often seek more high-calorie food when experiencing stressful situations.
• Microbiome. Your gut bacteria are affected by what you eat and may contribute to weight
gain or difficulty losing weight.
How to manage obesity?
1. Include all macronutrients
Your meals should comprise carbohydrates (carbs), proteins, and fats but in the right proportions.
Target to get not more than 50% of your energy intake from carbs, 20%-25% from proteins, and the
remaining 25%-30% from fats. Vitamins are important to carry out metabolic actions.
2. Replace simple carbs with complex carbs
Substitute refined and processed foods such as cookies, biscuits, and table sugar with whole grains,
oats, lentils, and pulses. Go for the least processed options.
3. Add a variety of fruits and vegetables to your meals
Have three to four servings of vegetables and one to two servings of fruits every day. You may consider
one full apple as one serving.
4. Consume 1g-1.5g of protein per kg of your body weight each day
Good protein intake is important especially when you are trying to lose weight. Ensure that the majority
of your protein intake comes from lean protein sources such as skinless chicken, seafood, eggs, and
legumes.
5. Include unsaturated fats in your daily diet intake
Broadly, the two types of fats are saturated and unsaturated fats. Foods like butter, cheese, biscuits,
red meat, and fried foods tend to be high in saturated fat. Sources of unsaturated fats include almonds,
fenugreek (methi) seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower oil, peanut oil, avocado oil, and olive oil.
Restrict intake of aerated beverages and beverages that contain added sugars
Almost all aerated drinks and juices available in tetra packs contain added sugar.
You can also replace sugary beverages with water to stay well-hydrated and avoid
the additional calorie intake.
7. Practice portion control
This is the technique of choosing the right portion sizes of foods to avoid
overeating and excess calorie intake. You may apply portion control to homemade
foods, foods you consume at a restaurant, and packaged food.
8. Be consistent
Shedding those extra kilos is not an overnight process. Weight loss happens over a
period of time and consistency in your healthy eating habits is key to achieving your
goal. Maintain a food diary and consciously write down what you eat every day as
this will help identify where you’re going right and what you need to change.
Eating Disorders
What is an eating Disorder?

Eating disorders are serious conditions related to persistent eating behaviors

that negatively impact your health, your emotions and your ability to function in
important areas of life. The most common eating disorders are anorexia
nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.

People with bulimia may secretly binge — eating large amounts of food with a
loss of control over the eating — and then purge, trying to get rid of the extra
calories in an unhealthy way.
To get rid of calories and prevent weight gain, people with bulimia may use
different methods. For example, you may regularly self-induce vomiting or
misuse laxatives, weight-loss supplements, diuretics or enemas after bingeing.
Or you may use other ways to rid yourself of calories and prevent weight gain,
such as fasting, strict dieting or excessive exercise.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that makes people lose more weight
than is considered healthy for their age and height.
Persons with this disorder may have an intense fear of weight gain, even when
they are underweight. They may diet or exercise too much, or use other
methods to lose weight.
Binge eating is a disorder involving frequent consumption of large amounts of
food, and uncontrollable eating.
The main difference between binge eating disorder and bulimia, is that
unlike bulimia, where a person will consume a large quantity of food then
subsequently undergo activities to purge the food, those who suffer
from binge eating disorder do not try to compensate overeating with purging or
laxatives.
Fitness components

Cardiovascular Endurance
Cardiovascular endurance is your lungs and heart’s ability to sustain you during
a workout. In other words, your heart and lungs provide your body with the
necessary amount of oxygen it needs for the task at hand. This endurance will
ensure that your heart and lungs are capable of working together at full capacity
to achieve success during exercises such as swimming, jogging, running, cycling,
and other forms of fitness that employ your cardiovascular system.
Muscular Strength
Muscular strength is the amount of force your muscles produce to lift and carry
heavy objects. Without it, your body will not have the power it needs to handle
daily physical demands. As a result, your body will become weak and more
prone to injury. To rectify this, train with heavy weights. Exercises such as the
bench press and squats are very effective.
Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance is your ability to sustain power for an extended period
of time. Put differently, it is whether or not your body can continuously and
successfully perform contractions. If you struggle to lift or carry weights for
longer than a few minutes, you will need to boost your muscular endurance.
You can do so by commencing your training with light weights and, as the
muscle fibers activate, you will be able to progress to heavier weights.
Flexibility
Flexibility is a vital component of fitness as it will aid in maintaining your agility
as you age. Flexibility is the body’s ability to move its joints and muscles within
the available range of motion. This component often gets overlooked; however,
it is extremely important otherwise, your muscles and joints will become stiff
and have limited movement. This will make you more prone to injury.
Flexibility must be implemented as a significant part of your daily workout. In
fact, you should end any workout by stretching the muscles and joints that were
in use. Test your flexibility by attempting to touch your toes and observing the
resistance in your hamstrings.
Body Fat Composition
Body fat composition is a component of fitness that refers to the amount of fat
mass compared to lean muscle mass, bone, and organs. To qualify as ‘fit,’ the
ideal body composition for men should be lower than 17% whereas, for women,
it should be lower than 24%. However, the majority of men fall within the range
of 18% to 24% body fat and women between 25% to 31%. Body fat
measurement is best determined by underwater weighing which is considered
the gold standard for its accuracy.
All 5 of these fitness components must be used to gain a comprehensive view
of your strength, endurance, and overall health. As such, make sure that you are
performing the right workouts to cover each component in your fitness session.
With enough time and perseverance, you will finally be able to revel in the joys of
maintaining a healthy body.
THANK YOU