Celebrations with Balance

The grand Indian festival season is here in full swing. After the stress and hustle of daily living, trying to stick with routines and regimes, festivals bring in a much-needed period of responsible togetherness, positivity, and bonding. Indians show love, care, happiness, appreciation, respect all through food. And festivals bring large amounts of all of it. A continuous supply of delicacies and temptations are the centrepiece of our celebrations.

Easy to break your discipline and give into them?

Let me give you a few guidelines to follow so as to enjoy the festivals as well as not be ridden with guilt and worry affecting your well-being.

Start Early: Normally preparations for a festival start several weeks in advance with sprucing up of homes, planning meals, buying gifts etc. Similarly, start prepping your body to enjoy with balance, a couple of weeks in advance. Plan your day to include physical activity and healthy meals as often as possible.

Portions Sizes: Watch what you eat and how much you eat. Be more vigilant and careful of the quantity and quality or type of food you consume a couple of weeks leading up to the festivities. Use smaller plates, eat when hungry and drink more fluids. This ensures the body functions well; gut is rested, and excretion of toxins and wastes happens timely from one’s body. Not only will this help with improving your metabolism, but this will also help improve your skin, giving that beautiful glow before the actual festivities.

Include Protein: Festive food often includes a lot of deep fried or sugar rich items. All those foods which in the normal routine, one might stay away from or indulge in, in moderation. One easy method to balance these indulgences and watch the total calorie intake, is to ensure that you add a good source of protein to each meal. Also, opt for substitutes to refined sugar like jaggery, honey, stevia, dates and for refined flour substitute with whole wheat, local millets, multigrain or coconut, almond based flours.

Plan your food: Plan your festival food menu in advance so that you can integrate comparatively healthier options and give a twist to the traditional combinations. For example, include a lentil or legume-based salad as a side dish with a black currant vinegar dressing, serve spiced Sattu or Kokum based beverage instead of alcohol or sugar laden ones, end your meals with a glass of spiced buttermilk instead of coffee or wine.

Remain Active: One may not find enough time during the festival days to dedicate to their regular exercise or physical activity routines. Hence, it would be smarter to not miss out on them in the weeks leading up to the festivals. During the festive days, try to move around as much as possible.

Get your Sleep: Sleep is a precious activity important to maintain one’s vitality as well as vivaciousness. And sleep is also, most often the element that gets compromised the most. Lack of sleep is going to contribute to feelings of fatigue and tiredness and even being irritable apart from improper bowel movements, weight gain and puffiness. And on one wants those especially on festive days.

Nisha’s Nutri- Nuggets: Start your day with a tablespoon of Gulkand with a glass of water to which a couple of teaspoons of sweet basil or Sabza seeds are added. This will not only serve as an excellent probiotic, enhancing your gut flora, but also cool your system, increase gut motility, and keep bloating and acidity away. Also, end the day with a cup of haldi doodh with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg powder each to help you get a good night’s sleep. Remember to keep sipping on water through the day. You can add a few mint leaves or a slice or two of lemon or orange to give that extra refreshing feeling. Ginger slices added to this water will help reduce the indigestion and flatulence associated with overeating.

Festivals are an occasion to rejoice and let our hair down in every sense, just remember to do so with two important words in mind – Balance and Moderation!