How to keep your new year diet resolution with your Nigerian foods (2023) - Eat what you love and still lose weight

Every year we make New Year’s Resolutions for our careers, our personal lives and diets. Sometimes we keep them, and sometimes we let them go. Let’s make it all the way with them this year.

To help with accomplishing your diet goals, we are sharing some tips and Nigerian foods  to help support your New Year diet goal. Loosing weight necessarily doesn't mean giving up on the foods you love or grew up with. Infact, giving up all your favorite foods and adopting new cuisines is not sustainable. 

It is also important to note that many of our African cuisines are healthy. Now let's start with some tips to remember

1. Sometimes, your favorite comfort foods just need a small tweak here and there to become healthier. For example, you could consider adjusting how you cook certain ingredients: Instead of deep-frying foods, try air-frying them.

2. When making dietary changes, start small and set a few realistic goals. In the long run, you'll have better self-esteem and more self-confidence as you see results

3. Losing weight means changing up your routine. Whether you’re cooking healthier foods at home or heading to the gym, it’s important to have a plan. Schedule time for meal planning, cooking, working out at home, or attending fitness classes at the gym.
4. Have an accountability partner to hold you accountable for your “no more pop or sugar” and finding a gym/work-out buddy can help you stay consistent with your workouts. Look for someone who shares your resolution and work towards your goals together.

5. Turn your weight loss resolution into a SMART goal. A SMART goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. It’s best to just pick one or two resolutions at a time so you don’t become overwhelmed. Example: I will make my lunch every day instead of dining out.

    

Including these tasty, satisfying foods throughout the week can help supercharge your weight-loss efforts.

1. Peppered Goat Meat - Peppered goat meat, or Asun, is one delicious meal that can help with weight loss. Goat meat has zero carbs and is a healthier alternative to beef or pork.
2. Native Jollof Rice - This typical African-tasting meal is made with  Ofada rice or cauliflower for a low-carb option, but that does not subtract anything from its delicious taste. Other ingredients include locust beans (iru), smoked catfish, palm oil, and spices. This meal is also known as  palm oil rice.
3. Cabbage Fufu - One substitute for the starchy, high carbs meals on keto is cabbage fufu. it is made primarily from green cabbage and psyllium. You can enjoy cabbage fufu with tasty soups like Egusi Soup or Ogbono soup.
4. Efo riro ( Spinach Stew) - This stew is made with a generous amount of spinach vegetable,  goat meat, chicken, smoked catfish, palm oil, broth, and spices. The soup goes well with plain cauliflower rice or low-carb fufu dishes like Cabbage & coconut fufu or Cabbage fufu.
5. Ogbono Soup - In Nigeria, draw soup is another way of saying the soup is slippery and has a mucilaginous texture. Ogbono soup is made from ground African mango seeds. This soup can be enjoyed on a low-carb diet due to its high protein and high fat content. This tasty and nutritious soup goes so well with low-carb fufu recipes.
6. Ofada rice - According to the study, Ofada rice has lower energy and carbohydrate content than white rice, this explains why it is more suitable for weight loss than white rice.
7. Other vegetable soups such as bitter leaf soup, Oha soup, efo riro, citrus  are also low in calories and  contain plenty of fiber, which aids weight loss.

The bottom line is, it possible to continue to eat the foods you love and lose weight; it just comes down to balance. Choosing to follow deprivation diets and avoiding all your favorite foods will only lead to weight regain when you can no longer resist the cake. Let's get  it this year 2023!