The festive season has started, and it’s time to celebrate parties, exchange sweets, and indulge in festive foods.
But what about the post-festive season weight gain?
“This Diwali season,”- Indulge in everything your love, and still stay in shape.
How? – Simple, start following these 6 Diwali Diet Tips and enjoy Diwali without compromising your health and fitness.
Six Diwali Diet Tips to Indulge in Festive Foods
1. Try Food Swaps
It’s never good to cut back on foods you love. Instead, try swapping unhealthy recipes or foods with a healthy version that will add some benefit to your body.
For example – Swap packaged & processed sugar sweets – like Rasgulla & Gulab Jamun with homemade jaggery sugar sweets – like Desi Ghee Panjiri Ladoo.
Some other ways to swap unhealthy foods with healthy foods are:
- Drink Beverages…but Homemade! Serve beverages like Lassi, Jal-Jeera, Badam Milk – Not carbonated soda or alcohol.
- Eat Staters…but baked! Switch deep fried party starters like Pakodas and Fitters with – Baked starter recipes like grilled paneer tikka and baked tandoori chicken.
- Pamper others…but with Goodness! Choose to gift dry fruits over – sweets or packaged foods.
2. Don’t Skip Meals
Many people believe that skipping meals is the best way to lose weight. However, skipping meals or following extreme fad diets only leads you to malnutrition, weakness, slow metabolism, and multiple-eating disorders.
So, please do not even think about skipping meals during the festive season. Enjoy eating everything you love, even if it’s sweet, but eat everything in moderation.
3. Practice Mindful Eating Habits
Too much of anything is bad. Overindulging in even healthy foods during the festive season can lead you to gain weight.
Therefore, practising mindful and good eating habits are necessary to fight your false food cravings and maintain a healthy weight.
Here are few mindful eating habits to maintain a healthy weight during the festive season:
- Eat-in small plates.
- Chew the food thoroughly.
- Eat with a calm mind, avoid eating in a hurry.
- Avoid distractions while eating. (like, T.V or Phone)
- Focus on the taste of food, not the variety or quantity.
- Don’t fill your stomach; eat a little less than your satiation.
4. Keep Up with Daily Exercise
Apart from taking care of your nutrition, you need to take care of your movement. Daily exercise for 45 to 60 minutes is the best way to shed some extra calories you gain after an indulging meal.
No matter how busy or occupied you are during the festive prep, you must take a few minutes for your body every day. Here are a few types of exercise routines to stay active and burn high calories during the festive season:
- 15 minutes HIIT
- 45-minutes Yoga
- 45-minutes Cycling
- 45-minutes Swimming
- 60-minutes Brisk Walking
- 60-minutes Strength Training
- 30-minutes Jogging or Running
Choose any one exercise routine as per your lifestyle allows you and stay consistent with your workout.
5. Take Proper Rest
From Diwali cleanliness to party decor arrangements, festival preparation can be exhausting. Often people get lost in the preparations, that they forget to even breathe, eat, and sleep properly.
This imbalance of lifestyle routine triggers stress and anxiety hormones. Making you more prone to overeating and insomnia. As a result, your body becomes more prone to weight gain.
If you feel extremely tired after Diwali preparations, make sure you take good deep sleep for a minimum of 8 hours daily.
6. Limit Alcohol and Sweet Beverage Intake
Alcohol is empty calories, and if you are trying to lose weight, you can boost your efforts by entirely cutting back on alcoholic drinks.
But, Diwali seems incomplete without a party, and the party seems incomplete without booze. Right?
The festive season can trigger emotions of joy and fun among friends and family. Also, there’s nothing wrong with drinking occasionally.
So, if you want to stay in shape and still enjoy alcohol, the solution is to watch out for the number and type of drinks you choose.
For example – A regular beer contains 150 calories for a 12-ounce (355 mL) glass. So, you can mindfully fit one to two beers glasses in occasionally. Make a plan before you drink, and track your alcohol’s calories while sticking to a few drinks.
The Key Takeaway
Make moderation and movement your key weight management mantra this Diwali season.
Avoid processed sugar and foods while making healthy swaps. Use healthy oil-free cooking methods like baking, steaming, or grilling and take proper rest during exhausting days.
Festivals are not about making compromises; eat everything that you love but eat more mindfully.
Allow this festival of lights, to add glow and radiance, not chubbiness, to your life.
Eat healthily, eat guilt-free, eat mindfully, and enjoy the festivities.
Wishing you and your family – “A Very Healthy & Prosperous Diwali!”