Nutrition Week and Ganesha come together this time!!

What a coincidence! Nutrition Week and Lord Ganesha (who loves food) have come together this time! Nutrition week is celebrated from 1st to 7th September every year. Let us together make a resolution on this auspicious occasion that we would celebrate the entire year as a Nutrition Year and eat healthy, and so Live Healthy!!

It’s easy to indulge in a few extra sweets and other dishes during the festive season, so keeping yourself in check is essential if you don’t want any extra pounds making their way onto your waistline. If you have been investing the whole year in becoming more fit, you definitely don’t want those effort to go to waste.

So, here are some tips that you can follow to maintain the right balance while enjoying this festive season.

• Be Productive, Stay Active-

Celebrations are no excuse not to remain physically active so, do not miss your workouts. You can choose your favorite mode for staying active. You can either indulge yourself in household chores or you can go to the gym to burn those extra calories. Dancing, cycling, swimming, etc. are also great to keep the weight off the line.

• Control The Portion Size

Most people tend to binge on food during festivals. So try to keep the small serving on plates. Small portion size of fried snacks, sweets and other fatty preparations will help in keeping weight under control.

• Stay Hydrated

If you drink enough water, you won’t be tempted to snack as much and will have more energy to exercise. So, have a bottle of water near you always.

• Choose A Healthy Platter

Stick to a healthy platter of food when you are eating at home. Snack on fruits and vegetables, this way, you will give yourself a proper diet before indulging in festive food.

• Choose Healthy Sweets And Desserts

Prefer sweets like ladoos (suji, coconut etc), Kheer, Gajar (Carrot) or Doodhi (bottle gourd) halwa. They are nutrient dense and have fewer calories than fried sweets like Gulab jamun, Jalabi, Bundi items etc.

• Use Low Fat And Whole Ingredients
  

While preparing sweets at home, try using low fat products like skimmed milk and other dairy products.  Rather than refined sugar, and refined flour go for whole wheat flour, jaggery, dates etc. These days 'diet' sweets and ice creams are easily available in the market. Go for them and feel less guilty.

• Don’t go to an event starving hungry.

If you have an event coming up, eat something sustainable before you go, especially if it’s an event that is mainly finger food and snacking. Even though finger foods are small in size but they are loaded with high amount of calories, salt and sugar which are absolute no if one wants to stay fit.

• Improve your sleep.

Too little sleep can leave you stressed out and stressing out before bed can impede quality sleep. Create a sleep ritual where you shut off electronics an hour or two before bed, take a hot bath, and create ways to unwind.