This summer, prevent weight gain with these Ayurvedic tips

The scorching summer heat can make a person feel sluggish, in turn causing them to skip their daily workouts. Add to that heavy meals and mindless binge eating. The result — undesirable weight gain. So what can you do?
🚨 Limited time offer | Express Premium with ad-lite for only Rs 2/day 👉🏽 Click here to subscribe 🚨
Don’t worry, as an Ayurvedic practitioner Dr. Dixa Bhavsar recently took to Instagram to share 5 tips that will help you control your summer weight.
Skip or have a light breakfast
During summer, the digestive capacity (agni) is relatively weak. Thus, having three large meals could lead to weight gain. As such, it’s best to skip breakfast if you’re not hungry in the morning, or eat very light foods like fruit, vegetable juices, or just nuts for breakfast.
Drink infused beverages and refreshing herbal teas
As the temperature rises, our body needs more water and cold drinks to maintain homeostasis. So be sure to drink plenty of naturally cooled water in earthenware pots, as well as refreshing herbal infused drinks like mint, cilantro and cucumber rather than carbonated drinks.
Sipping refreshing herbal teas like hibiscus, mint, cumin, fennel, coriander, chamomile, rose, lavender, brahmi will also help you maintain your weight.
Choose fruit over juice
Summer is known for many seasonal fruits, and we are often tempted to have milkshakes and Juice. But Ayurveda does not recommend combining fruits with milk (viruddha ahara). So, it is better to avoid having them together and instead drink milk at bedtime for a restful sleep and a refreshing effect; and eat fruit separately (either for breakfast or as a mid-day snack).
In addition, fruit juices contain less fibre, more sugar and more calories, and Ayurveda suggests having a healthy diet. So eat fruits (chewing them also allows them to be digested and metabolized optimally) rather than drinking juices.
Stop eating anything after dinner
In summer, the days are long and hot while the nights are short and cool. Thus, people tend to sleep late and sometimes even feel hungry after dinner, as the period between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. is pitta dominant and inflames the appetite. But having food at this time can cause indigestion and weight gain. It is best to have dinner before sunset or at 8 p.m. and avoid eating late at night.
If you are too hungry, drink ½ glass of cow’s milk at bedtime, which facilitates good sleep and even easy bowel movements the next morning.
stay active
It is obligatory to be gentle exercise daily (which does not exhaust you).
You can choose what you like like walking, dancing, practicing refreshing pranayamas, swimming, Pilates, cardio, yoga asanas, etc.
“Try to follow these 5 tips to avoid gaining weight during are. It also helps you lose the excess weight you gained by eating and resting more and being less physically active,” Dr. Bhavsar said.
The best of Express Premium



📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss the latest updates!