Breakfast
American: Addicted to chocolate flavoured cornflakes or brightly coloured fruity chunks floating in a bowl of milk?

Who wouldn’t want to wake up to that! Mix flavour with fibre to add that health factor. Just cut your portion of sugary flakes by half and substitute with fibre  filled muesli or good old puffed jowar cereal or any other multi-grain cereal.

Doesn’t suit your palate? Then try mixing in slices of fresh banana or apples.

Both these deliver a surge of fibre and potassium that will give your body the boost it needs after eight hours of no-food.

Down it all with a hot cuppa of tea or coffee.

Desi: Enjoy a piping hot bowl of upma and simply replace a portion of sooji (semolina) with soya granules for added protein. Throw in some peanuts and add flavour with vegetables such as peas (Vitamin K), carrots (Vitamin A), corn (thiamine and niacin) and green chillies (Vitamin B) as they are high in fibre and will keep you fuller for longer.

Wash it all down with a glass of buttermilk and you’ve got yourself a total of just 135 Kcal. Want to bring it down a notch?

Omit the peanuts and cook the upma in a non-stick pan. Add crushed mint leaves and some jeera to the buttermilk to aid digestion and add a tangy flavour.

Total count: 105 Kcal; a traditional upma and buttermilk meal is 150 Kcal. You just lost 45 calories without lifting a finger!

Lunch
Gujarati thali: A crunchy kachori, a super-soft dhokla, a thepla, a bowl of khichdi topped with a spoonful of ghee, dal, vegetables and of course a bowl of almond halwa and chaas to wash it all down.

Your total intake — a whooping 1405 Kcal. A few small changes, without giving up any of these items, could bring your calorie intake down several notches. Beat the heat and the calories with some more buttermilk.

You’ll also be getting added potassium, Vitamin B12 and calcium. Cut by quarter the portion of almond halwa and opt for a smaller kachori. Give the tadka in the dal a miss. And now you’ve managed to cut down on 200 Kcal. 

If you think you can skip the sweets altogether as also the kachori, you’d manage to bring your calorie count down to a total of 980 Kcal provided you also cut the thepla intake by half and switch khichdi with boiled rice sans ghee.

Chole bhature: Two bhaturas with one medium-sized bowl of chole and two spoons of green chutney totals 627K cal.

Get healthier by opting for one bhatura and one kulcha. Mix sooji and wholegrain atta to the maida to up your fibre intake.

Heat the oil well before frying the bhaturas to cut down oil absorption. Dab the excess oil off the bhatura with a soft tissue.

Also, go easy on the potatoes in the chole. Spoon them out and give them a skip altogether if you can.

Evening snack
Bhajiyas: Make them with a combination filling of potatoes, soya and wheat flour for more fibre. 

Bhel: Add a cup of sprouts and use baked sev and puri. Use roasted peanuts for protein.

French fries: Boil the potatoes slightly, slice and lightly toss in oil. Use a non-stick pan and garnish with herbs and low-fat sauces.

Cold coffee with sandwiches: Use skimmed milk to bring down 310 Kcal for 250 ml to 230 Kcal.

Swap mayonnaise with yoghurt spread to get extra calcium and avoid unhealthy trans-fats.

Go with whole wheat bread which is fibre-rich and some vegetables. 

Dinner
Paneer/Chicken masala: Make paneer out of skimmed milk. Skip the butter for both dishes. Replace naan with whole wheat tandoori rotis and bid ta-ta to butter again.

Opt for kadhai chicken with loads of vegetables — not only will you be consuming energy giving carbs, you’ll also be knocking off extra calories. 

While a small dish of paneer butter masala and naan is a total of 340 Kcal and butter chicken and naan is 305 Kcal, you’ve brought it down to 190 Kcal and 265 Kcal respectively.

Pasta: Use wheat-based pasta and low-fat cheese or home-made white sauce. Red sauce is better than white as tomatoes are rich in anti-oxidants and reduce your calorie intake.

Avoid garlic bread with cheese or butter. Instead flavour liberally with oregano or chilli flakes.  

(Neesha Bukht is registered dietician and ISSA trainer attached to Talwalkars, Bandra, Mumbai)