Question

Navratri Special - How to Fast the Healthy Way?

Dt.Nidhi Sawhney · Accepted Answer

The Hindu women of India become so much stressed during the time of navratri as they want to look good, fit and slim. Many women start to put in effort to look slim and fit and they start to reduce their weight very early in advance. There are two concerns regarding fasting and feasting.

A lot of energy is required and consumed to enjoy and have fun during any kind of celebration during the time of Navratri festivals. Fasting helps to prove all the efforts that you have put in for the reduction of your body weight.

There are certain easy and very fruitful ways to fast during the time of Navratri and following these steps will help you store the energy that you can utilize for enjoying during the feast of the navratri festival. All the people have a different approach to fasting during the time of navratri and there are only a handful of people who do not eat anything at all.

For making your fasting very fruitful and pleasant and enjoy the festival happily, you should make sure that you follow the steps given below:

You should keep yourself hydrated by drinking an adequate amount of water or you can get yourself skimmed milk to drink and to keep yourself hydrated. You can also drink milkshakes or fresh fruit juices which will help you to be hydrated and they all fulfill the nutrition and energy demand of your body. This also helps in the flushing out of the harmful toxins from the body.
You should consume some other healthy options for your body like soups of bottle gourd or pumpkin, herbal teas, lime juices or coconut water which helps you to stay hydrated, active and lose weight as well.
Because of an empty stomach you can develop a condition of acidity and to avoid this condition you should eat dry fruits, nuts and seeds on an interval of 2 to 3 hours. Eating them provides you with a sufficient amount of energy and also helps you in controlling the food cravings and hunger pangs.
You can make yourself feel refreshed and gain energy by the consumption of raita or yogurt. You can also replace kheer (which has a high amount of calories in it because of the presence of milk and sugar) with food items like fruit flavored yogurt or curd.
Most people who are fasting like to eat sabudana. Sabudana is considered as a great source of energy and a great energy booster because of the presence of carbohydrates in them. If you want to have a food item which is made up of sabudana and is healthy, you can make its khichdi or kheer over the oily food items like papad or tikkis.
Drinking milk is also a healthy food item to include in your diet. You can take skimmed milk instead of whole cream milk as it has less cream which means there is a very low amount of calories present in it.
You can make your fasting better during the nine days of Navratri by following a particular and different diet plan for all 9 days. The diet plan for:

Day 1
On the first day, you can have an apple soya shake prepared along with chia seeds for breakfast and later in the middle of the morning you can drink coconut water to keep yourself hydrated. While having lunch, you can have sauteed paneer (around 30 grams in weight) along with apple and after the completion of lunch you should take green tea or lassi. Before you take or eat your dinner you should eat a fruit and in the dinner you should eat a potato which is boiled once along with sauteed spinach.

Day 2
On the second day, you can have a banana shake which is prepared along with chia seeds for breakfast and later in the middle of the morning you can drink coconut water to keep yourself hydrated. While having lunch, you can have fruit raita and after the completion of lunch you should take green tea. Before you eat your dinner you should eat a salad made up of cucumber and in the dinner you should eat a chapati which is made in less oil.

Day 3
On the third day, you can have a papaya and paneer for breakfast and later in the middle of the morning you can drink coconut water. At lunch, you can have boiled potato along with the choice of your vegetable and after lunch you should take kheera raita. Before you eat your dinner you should eat a cucumber salad and in the dinner you can drink banana and strawberry smoothie.

Day 4
On the fourth you can take a fruit shake prepared along with chia seeds and 5 to 6 almonds for breakfast and in the middle of the morning you can drink green tea with water. At lunch, you can have samak rice with salad and vegetables and after the completion of lunch you should take green tea and in the evening you can have baked chips with green tea or tea. At dinner, you can have soup made of pumpkin with a fruit or bottle gourd with a vegetable.

Day 5
On the fifth day, you can have strawberry shake with chia seeds and 3 to 4 almonds for breakfast and later in the middle of the morning you can drink lemon water with a fruit. While having lunch, you can eat sabudana tikki which is baked along with curd and vegetables and after lunch you can take green tea or tea. In the evening, you can have roasted namkeen or makhana with tea or green tea and at dinner, you should eat salad along with a bowl of vegetables.

Day 6
On the sixth day, you can have skimmed milk with fruits and in the middle of the morning you can drink coconut water with oranges. At lunch, you can eat chapati made of kuttu atta with vegetables, salad and raita and after lunch you should take green tea or tea. In the evening, you can have tea or green tea with roasted namkeen or makhana and at dinner, you can have milk with fruit.

Day 7
On the seventh day you can have fruit with milk for breakfast and later in the middle of the morning you can drink coconut water with fruit. At lunch, you can eat salad with samak khichdi and after lunch you should take green tea or tea. In the evening, you can have tea or green tea with roasted namkeen or makhana and at dinner you can eat vegetables and paneer tikka.

Day 8
On the eighth day, you can have almonds and makhana porridge for breakfast. At lunch, you can have sauteed palak paneer and after lunch you can have green tea or tea. In the evening, you can have a bowl of fruits and at dinner you can eat sweet potato chaat.

Day 9
On the final day of navratri you can have almond milk for breakfast and later in the middle of the morning you can drink fresh orange juice. At lunch, you can have pomegranate and pineapple raita. Before dinner, you can have green tea and at dinner you can have samak rice pulao.

Conclusion
You can enjoy your navratri to the fullest and take great care of your health and lose weight too if you follow all these steps and suggestions for this navratri while fasting.

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