Diwali survival guide: Here’s how to party hard and not gain weight

Moderation during the festivities will ensure you don’t need a post Diwali detox.

Overeating, over drinking or going completely sleepless creates toxicity for your mind and body, and hence the need to fall back upon a detox diet post Diwali. Moderation during the festivities will ensure you don’t need a post Diwali detox, say experts.

* Start your day with a teaspoon of gulkand (or a teaspoonful of gulkand mixed in milk). Rich in probiotic bacteria, gulkand works at enhancing your gut flora and thereby curbs acidity, constipation, bloating and makes your belly look flatter and thinner.

* In the middle of all the preparations, cooking, shopping and socialising, take out time to eat. Starving during the day and binging at dinner represents the classical fasting and feasting behaviour. Eating every 2-3 hours will make sure you don’t end up feeling bloated, acidic, dull or tired. In short, you end up not needing a post-Diwali detox.

Homemade sweets are nutrient dense and regulate our blood sugars.

* Stick to eating traditional homemade sweets, laddoos, halwas, barfis etc. Made at home the traditional way, they are nutrient dense and regulate our blood sugars. As a result of which you don’t crave and reach out for a bar of chocolate loaded with harmful preservatives and sugars.

Stick to eating traditional homemade sweets, laddoos, halwas, barfis etc.

* Avoid the packaged/processed ones since they are loaded with trans fats and high GI carbs, both of which together make for a lethal combination.

* If drinking till the crack of dawn makes your Diwali night come alive, ensure you sip on it slow. “Mindful drinking” will ensure you do not end up drinking too much.

* Ensure that you are not on an empty stomach. Eat a good wholesome meal before leaving home like poha, upma, cheese toast, khakra ghee etc.

* Do not mix your drinks.

Drink enough water throughout the day and between your drinks.

* Eat deep fried snacks/starters or good fats like cheese along with your drinks as it will help to form a thin lining in the stomach to digest the alcohol easily and prevent you from having a bad hangover the next day.

* Drink enough water throughout the day and between your drinks.

– Inputs from Munmun Ganeriwal, nutritionist, fitness consultant and founder of Yuktahaar and Tapasya Mundra, nutritionist and health coach.