The Desi Fitness Forum - Rejuvenate yourself!

So its Diwali (or Deepavali) time and you're seeing so many sweets in front of you. How do you avoid putting on all those calories? Is it OK to eat all those sugar loaded sweets? What should my approach be? Will my diet be right? Am I getting too many calories? These are some of the questions that come to our mind. Well these seven tips will help make your Diwali binge a true feast!

1. Firstly, don't think too much about calories during the few days of Diwali. Its a time to celebrate with friends and family. Enjoy life!
2. Since you already know that during Diwali you are going to eat a lot of sweets and fried food, cleanse your body by having a sweet ginger paste called 'legium' or 'laigium' - that's what its called in Tamil. The ginger and jaggery paste must be consumed on an empty stomach. I personally love the taste of it and its a good tonic.
3. If you're seriously watching calories - Choose dry fruits over deep fried sweets like Gulab Jamun. Choose relatively less sweet sweets like Kaju Katli (Kaju Barfi).
4. Eat slowly and have fewer servings of many items - that way you will avoid risking a sugar rush from a particularly sweet product.
5. Since most people eat vegetarian food during Diwali, the only option to avoid an overdose of carbohydrates is to eat less and mix up your food with vegetarian proteins. eg: Idly sambhar makes a delicious Diwali breakfast!
6. When cooking food, use mono saturated oil like Canola oil. Avoid olive oil for deep frying. Use sugar blends like Splenda instead of sugar. You can also use jaggery. Use low fat or fat free milk instead of full fat milk. These will reduce the calories in sweets up to a whopping 80%.
7. Weigh yourself before Diwali so you know how much you have gained. You will definitely gain weight during Diwali days! The delicious food items are irresistible to all of us!

Happy Diwali and enjoy yourselves! We'll be back with a post Diwali six week plan to get you back in shape!