This summer, prevent weight gain with these Ayurvedic tips

Worry not, as Ayurvedic practitioner Dr Dixa Bhavsar recently took to Instagram to share 5 tips that will help keep summer weight in check.

Skip or have a light breakfast

During summer, the digestive capacity (agni) is comparatively low. So, having three heavy meals could cause weight gain. As such, it’s best to either skip breakfast if you aren’t hungry in the morning, or have very light foods like fruits, vegetable juices, or just nuts for breakfast.

Drink infused drinks and cooling herbal teas

As the temperature rises, our body needs more water and cooling beverages to maintain homeostasis. So make sure you drink enough water that is naturally cooled in earthern pots, along with infused drinks made using cooling herbs like mint, coriander, and cucumber rather than carbonated drinks.

Sipping on cooling herbal teas like hibiscus, mint, cumin, fennel, coriander, chamomile, rose, lavender, brahmi will also help you maintain your weight.

Choose fruits over juices

Summer is known for many seasonal fruits, and we are often tempted to have milkshakes and fruit juices. But Ayurveda does not recommend combining fruits with milk (viruddha ahara). So, best to avoid having them together and instead have milk at bedtime for sound sleep and cooling effect; and have fruits separately (either as a breakfast or mid day snack).

Also, fruit juices contain less fibre, more sugar, and more calories, and Ayurveda suggests having wholesome food. So eat fruits (chewing them also helps digest and metabolise it optimally) rather than drinking juices.

Stop eating anything post-dinner

During summer, the days are long and hot while the nights are short and cool. So people tend to sleep late, and sometimes even feel hungry after dinner as the period between 10 pm to 2 am is pitta dominant and ignites appetite. But having food at that hour may cause indigestion and weight gain. It’s best to have dinner before sunset or by 8 pm, and avoid eating late at night.

If you’re too hungry, have ½ glass of cow milk at bedtime which facilitates good sleep and even easy bowel movement next morning.

Stay active

It is mandatory to do mild exercise daily (which doesn’t exhaust you).

You can choose whatever you like like walking, dancing, cooling pranayamas, swimming, Pilates, cardio, yoga asanas, etc.

“Try following these 5 tips to prevent weight gain during summers. It also helps you lose the excess weight you have gained due to eating and resting more and being less active physically,” said Dr Bhavsar.

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