10 Top Weight Loss Tips From My 96 Year Old Grandma!

A few dear readers of wildturmeric blog were asking me effective and natural tips for weight loss and I wanted to share the weight loss advice that I have been getting from my elders from my young age. I know many of you would be wondering about the title, the word patti vaithiyam is a Tamil word for grandmas remedy and patti vaithiyam for weight loss means grandmas tips for weight loss. These tips truly are advise that I have been hearing from my grandmothers from my young age and so I wanted to name it so.

Few years before my grandma passed away, I was reading out loud a column written by a famous nutritionist regarding weight loss to my grandma. After hearing it for some time, my grandma slowly shook her head and said unbelievably,”But these are advise every elders in the family normally give!”. Yes it was, almost every weight loss tip the nutritionist gave were the ones that I have been hearing from my grandmother all my life.

Weight Loss Supplements & Drinks:

Nowadays we see attractive advertisements like “Lose 10 kg in 2 months with this weight loss drink”. When we lose more than 1/2 to a kilo a week, all we are losing is precious muscle especially if we don’t exercise. As a person who loves herbs, I can confidently say that there is no herb that will magically melt the fat away.

Yes, some herbs do help improve metabolism and thereby aid weight loss but only if accompanied by healthy diet and regular exercise. That is why many people get disappointed when they go on these unrealistic programs. Please be very very careful and research well before following any diet especially ones that are too restrictive and ones that uses ingredients that you are not used to.

Weight Loss Diets:

Also be wary of weight loss diets that make one consume large quantities of only certain ingredients. It is popularly promoted for drastic weight loss nowadays. Drastic weight loss will cause more harm than good, you will be left with sagging skin, excess body fat and low body muscle.

You will never hear such quick fixes if you listened to the advise of our elders. Their advise for attaining healthy weight has stood the test of time and will never harm us. Though you will not see drastic weight loss immediately, you will see results over time and the results will be permanent.

Also weight loss is effortless when we follow these timeless advises and in my humble opinion, weight loss should happen naturally and effortlessly without us losing our sleep for it. These tips will not only aid weight loss, it will also improve our health greatly.

10 Top Patti Vaithiyam Tips For Weight Loss From Tamil Nadu:

1. Eat a Healthy Breakfast:

Staying in empty stomach in the morning for long periods of time is always frowned upon by my elders. If you go to any home in our village, you will always be offered some thing to eat if they come to know that you have not had breakfast along with a kind advice that you should not remain in empty stomach for so long.

I find eating fresh and wholesome traditional breakfast in the morning keeps me energized and prevents me from snacking in between which is one of the main reasons for piling on unnecessary pounds.

2. Eat Wholesome Foods Cooked At Home:

This is an other other habit that my grandma always insisted that we follow. You will be surprised if I tell you that I have never seen my grandma eat out in the hotels even once.

When we were younger and were traveling, we used to take a cook along and cook on the way. We never used to get any stomach problems at all even when we were traveling for days together. When she got older and stopped traveling, she used to take home cooked meals with her for her day trips outside.

Home cooked meals made the traditional way are full of fiber, low in fat and high in nutrition. Traditional home cooked meals will also keep one satiated for a very long time which is the main key for effortless weight loss.

3. Drink Plenty Of Water:

Drinking plenty of water keeps our metabolism going and also flushes our system of toxins. I never used to drink water regularly and till today, I struggle with drinking sufficient water. But whenever I drink plenty of water throughout the day, I feel energetic and never ever have false hunger pangs.

My grandma always used to advise that since we are spending so much time outside, we should make double sure that we drink plenty of water. Please try your best to drink plenty of water throughout the day without fail and you will start seeing positive difference very soon.

4. Include Metabolism Boosting Ingredients in Your Diet:

Certain ingredients boosts our metabolism and aids weight loss naturally. The 2 most common ingredients recommended for boosting metabolism are horse gram and kudampuli and you can read how to use them for aiding weight loss here and here.

Here in my place, we make horse gram mash and rasam for lunch often as every one in my family love it. For people trying to lose weight, it is always recommend for lunch at least two times a week. An other ingredient that aids natural weight loss is turmeric tea.

Apart from adding turmeric in daily cooking, drinking it the form of tea also boosts metabolism. In both the pictures, you can see horse gram, kudampuli (black elongated one in the picture and turmeric), all three ingredients used for weight loss.

5. Never Eat or Limit Processed Foods To a Bare Minimum:

This is an other advise that I have been hearing from my young age. I am smiling as I am writing this because even yesterday, my son wanted a prepackaged cocoa milk from the market. After reading the ingredients in the back of the pack, I showed him the list of artificial flavorings, preservatives and added color (even for a cocoa drink which indicates how much low amount of cocoa is really in there) mentioned in the pack.

To my great joy he asked me to make it at home. As promised, I made him chocolate milkshake at home with organic grass fed cows milk and good dark cocoa and he really did like it a lot. Many prepackaged foods says on the label that it contains no fat and that they are low in calories.

But to make it taste good so many harmful ingredients and chemicals are added which does so much  harm to our body. Eating them on a daily basis are one of the main reasons for weight gain, also they usually never satisfy us leading us to eat more of it again and again.

6. Get Regular Daily Exercise:

Getting some form of exercise will improve metabolism and our mood, motivate us to eat healthy and also improve the blood circulation. When we were younger, we were always encouraged to play outside every single day. We children used to gather in a common place and spend our time playing for hours together.

Elders used to go of to the farm everyday and they usually will be back only in the evenings. Even lunch will be sent to the farm and women used to do all the household work. Doing some form of exercise that we love consistently everyday will lead to healthy weight loss.

Please be careful before following any diet plan that says weight loss without exercise. The sooner we accept that there is no short cut to permanent weight loss, the faster we will start exercising and eating healthy.

7. Eat When Hungry:

This is an other habit my grandma followed all her life, she remained slim all her life without much of an effort. If for whatever reason, she was not hungry she will not eat at all however delicious the food.

All my elders follow a ritual before eating, they always said their prayers before eating, sat cross legged and had freshly prepared home cooked food once hungry. Daily following this single tip alone will help in weight loss greatly. Try your best to eat only when hungry for a few days and over time it will become a life long habit.

8. Focus On The Quality Rather Than Calories:

Of course our elders didn’t know anything about calories which is a good thing because eating a food based on calories alone is not a good thing. I have heard many of my family members claim after a long travel that they were longing to get back home for a simple homemade curd rice.

That is because all homemade foods are prepared with not only fresh ingredients but also with lot of love and in my humble opinion that can be never measured with numbers. When I was a beginner cook 20 years back, my aunt used to say to add a dash of love in every recipe.

Traditional recipes prepared at home will not only result in weight loss, it will also give us a strong healthy body. Always focus on the quality and the way it is prepared rather than how many calories are in the dish.

9. Sleep And Rest Well:

This is an other advise that I have been hearing from my young age. Few years back when television was not widely available, the whole village will got to sleep by 9’o clock. When I was newly married, villagers used to gather after a long day of work and sing devotional songs and then go to sleep.

It used to be so peaceful to listen to the songs before going to sleep. Back then only few houses had televisions and also there were only very few television programs. But now everything has changed, we watch television programs till late in the light and wake up groggy due to lack of sleep.

Sleep deprivation has been proven again and again to be one of the main reasons for weight gain as our metabolism slows down and we also make very bad food choices. When sleep deprived, we always tend to opt for caffeine or high sugary foods so please try your best to get good nights rest…

10. Reduce Stress:

Stress is one of the main culprits for weight gain. Stress not only results in weight gain, it also reduces immunity resulting in frequent health problems. That is why when we are stressed, we get common illnesses like cold and cough very very often.

When we are stressed the first thing that affects us is our relationship with food, we either over eat or under eat. Both over eating and under eating leads to weight gain. When we under eat our meals we always reach out for high fat sugary snacks and caffeine to get going.

Taking time to spend some time with people we love, doing hobbies that relax us, listening to good music, reading great books, spending time in nature will all relax us. Also traditional practices like oil bath and body massage will greatly reduce stress, if done regularly.