Do Trending Facade Diets Really Work?

-By Huma Batool Nakvi

How annoying is it when that one person pulls out their phone to calculate the number of calories before starting their meal?

What started as a green diet revolution has evolved into a fashion trend in many societies. The unfortunate part is it makes people fall into believing misconceptions such as skipping meals is good for your diet. The fitness culture in todays world where people blindly follow the internet, has led to people believing in fabricated dieting habits. 

1. Gluten Free Desserts are healthier: Normal Desserts are not necessarily less healthier than Gluten Free ones as they may have increased calorie content leading to weight gain. Not to mention they’re already behind normal desserts when it comes to nutritional content. However, it is great for people diagnosed with celiac disease and who are gluten intolerant but if that’s not the case with you, feel free to have that chocolate brownie you’ve had your eyes on. 

2. Skipping meals is good for weight-loss: Ever heard the saying; “ Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a pauper”. What you’re eating is more important for health and fitness than when you’re eating it. Fitness is more about eating a balanced diet in moderation to replenish your body with the energy it needs through a nutritious meal depending on your job, lifestyle, and health/ fitness goals. 

3. Eating Healthy is Expensive: You don’t necessarily have to buy that fancy millet or asparagus you saw a Kardashian promoting in her story to be healthy. However, replacing those processed foods with fresh vegetables and fruits may cost you more. But so will the gym membership to get back in shape and not to mention the medical bills that one might incur due to the health risks that come with processed and unhealthy alternatives. 

4. Keto is the best way to burn fat. Ketogenic diet includes a diet consisting of high-fats, sufficient-proteins, and low-carbohydrates to force the body to burn fats instead of carbohydrates. This has helped a large amount of people to burn fat more affectively by fighting fire with fire. However since it was trending hot topic for so long, businesses and influencers were milking it to sell their diet plans, workout plans, and products. What didn't make their way to the headlines were a lot of the people's reviews who it didn't work for. Keto is not safe for those with any conditions involving their pancreas, liver, thyroid or gallbladder. 

In essence, consider a natural balance that works for you by your individual needs. One can try out and should experiment with diets to find out what works for them better than other. However, to live a high quality, fulfilled life you can't revolve your life around obsessions which cause you to constantly restrict yourself from harmless things. Constraint diets can also cause people eating disorders and social isolation. Facade diet trends could be good for business but everything is definitely not for everyone in this case.

10-minute stress relieving workouts you can do anywhere! -By Huma Batool Nakvi

 

Needless to say, this year has been stressful for everyone, so we'll be taking as well as sharing all the tips, tricks and hacks to release stress we can get our hands on. Be it meditation, or the physical exercises we'll be sharing here today to help you empty your thought to help you see things more clearly. According to research, a good sweat by getting a workout in your day helps fight fatigue and stress in your daily life. Here are 5 easy home workouts ranging from war-up cardio, core strengthening easy work outs to help relieve that slouch from sitting in the same position for hours, as well as those which target different muscle groups for an all around muscular activity that you can do whether you're at home, at work, or staying at a hotel. 

Your 10-minute workout routine:

Stationary jog

This is a good warm up to start your workout with. You perform a jogging motion like you would on a treadmill but standing in one place. Not only you don't even need a treadmill for this, it gets your blood pumping and activates your muscles. It is preferred that one does this before a proper stretching for workout because the warm up will prevent muscle injuries because there is a higher chance that  you pull a muscle while stretching too much in the beginning. Also because if you stretch before warming up, your muscles will relax and prevent them from getting activated which you would need while working out so in simple words, your muscles become lazy to function if you do stretches too much before working out. instead opt for a light stretch and then a warm up cardio in the start, and finally end with stretching. 

Push ups

This is a brilliant workout that merges your warm up cardio and actual workout where you activate different muscle groups specially your core, arms, and shoulders. This is a good workout for all age groups. 

                                                             

Squats

This can be done with or without weights. It's an excellent workout for those who don't walk enough during the day. It activates your quads, glutes, lower back, hamstrings and calves at the same time. Great for reducing thigh weight specially gained by sitting and not having been walking around during quarantine. 

  Twist crunches

For days when I've been sitting slouched working away all day, it's one of my favorite workouts to activate my core and strengthen my back and core muscles to make the aches go away!

                                       

Plank

A one minute plank is the perfect workout for strengthening your abdomen. It can be done in different variations such as a side plank or push up plank as shown below. It activates your core, back, arms, and leg muscles at the same time! A highly recommended exercise for those with a slouched tummy or posture.