Healthy Ramadan
Practice these 5 healthy ways to make your way to a healthy Ramadan
The month of Ramadan is fast approaching. For many Muslims around the world, this means a time to practice more patience, compassion, and moderation. Muslims observe Ramadan by fasting from dawn to dusk, limiting themselves from any form of temptation be it physical or mental.
Eve Writes | 29 April 2019
Health & Wellness : Get Healthy
During fasting, a Muslim doesn’t eat or drink for at least 12 hours. For some, this can be quite a challenge, especially if you’re on a diet or going through a health program. Your body can miss out on important nutrients and liquid, making you feel lethargic or dehydrated.
However, there are many benefits of fasting, as proven by many scientific studies. And even though you’re fasting, there are many ways for you to ensure you’re still fit and getting enough nutrients throughout Ramadan.
For this round of Get Healthy, About Eve is sharing with you the best ways for you to fast while being on diet and still making sure your body is getting all the nutrients it needs.
1. Understanding how fasting affects your body
When your body is not getting any supplement i.e. food and water, it will start to burn the stored fat and carbohydrates to provide you with the energy you need. We talk about your body burning stored fat in our caloric deficit diet article here. Your body also unable to store water so your kidney works hard to conserve as much water as possible. However, you will still lose water when you go to toilet or when you sweat. This is the reason many try to avoid extra activities during fasting so you’re not losing more water than your body can afford to.
This loss of water can cause mild headaches or lethargy among some of those who are fasting. Rest assured, these effects are not harmful to your body in most cases and will go away once your body is used to fasting, usually by the fourth or fifth day of Ramadan. While fasting is mandatory for all Muslims, Islam allows those who have medical conditions to skip fasting. So if you have a medical condition or tend to experience severe headache or lethargy during fasting, we recommend you to consult your doctor.
2. Fasting and dieting
There are many people who can lose weight during Ramadan because their body burns fat efficiently. However, if you’re on a diet program, you know that you will still need to eat because otherwise your body can still gain weight instead of losing.
Dieting while fasting is not as difficult as it sounds because even though you’re not eating during the times you’re most active, you can still make sure your body is getting enough nutrients, so you can help it burn fat more efficiently. If you think about it, being on diet while you’re fasting in Ramadan is no different than practicing intermittent fasting when you’re trying to lose weight.
In order to help sustain yourself throughout the day, you will take your suhoor before dawn. It’s important to make sure you’re eating the right kind of food during your suhoor because many people tend to take food with high fat or grease content, thinking it will make them feel full for the day as this food should be the energy they need.
While fatty and greasy food can make you feel full, it’s not the healthy option. Go instead for food that’s high in fiber such as fruits and vegetables, beans, breads, and grains. A simple salad with quinoa or couscous and nuts goes a long way in keeping you full compared to a hearty meal of nice and gravy chicken. It’s important to remember that just because you’re not eating for some 12 hours, it doesn’t mean you should eat more during suhoor or iftar.
3. Don't skip your workout
Many people tend to take a break from working out during Ramadan. Depending on your body and/or medical condition, working out during Ramadan should still continue but you can do it at a much more moderate pace and less strenuous.
If you have been working out for the past 11 months, it can either be a welcome to have that break or you will feel something is missing. To ensure your body is burning enough fat and keeping you healthy, you can opt for light workout after Taraweeh. By then your body has consumed enough water and food for it to be energized. Since working out cause you to lose water, it’s better to work out when you’re able to replenish the liquid. Plus, with your normal daily activity during the day, your body is getting the workout it needs without having to do your normal workout routine.
Suitable workout routines during Ramadan are brisk walk, light yoga, cycling, or light machine at the gym. These workout routines are not strenuous for you to perform during Ramadan, but you can definitely up the intensity as your body get more used to fasting.
4. Eat right for iftar
It’s understandable for us to want to eat almost all of our favorite food. What more in Malaysia there are many bazar Ramadhan all month long, selling the kind of food we sometimes only see once a year.
It’s okay to indulge yourself every once in a while, but other than keeping a healthy body, we also need to remember that Ramadan is a month where we practice self-control and moderation. While you can occasionally enjoy a sweet dessert like putu buluh or a tepung pelita, you need to make sure you’re eating the right kind of food when you iftar.
Maintaining a healthy diet even in the month of Ramadan is highly beneficial because your body will burn fat more efficiently and thus helping you to lose weight without having to feel hungry or lethargic even after you iftar. One of the best meals for you to have during iftar is dates and milk. Dates have high content of antioxidant therefore it will help replenish your body after many hours without food. It also contains low glycemic impact where it’s great in managing blood sugar level. Combined with milk, which contains calcium, riboflavin, and vitamin D, dates are perfect for iftar as you ease your body into eating heavier meals.
After dates and milk, you can have either soup with bread, or salad and grilled chicken. These meals will help restore your energy without making you feel stuffed. As much as these are the healthier options, remember to watch the portion. You may load up your plate because you feel hungry, but as we mentioned in our previous article, when you feel hungry, your body needs nutrients. So you can choose a meal that has combination of food with the proper amount of calories and nutrients.
5. Plan your meals
As with any good project, having a good plan is key. If losing weight is your personal project, then you will need to plan ahead for Ramadan too. Ensuring all your meals are planned reduces the chances of leaving your meals to chance and thus grabbing something and anything in the kitchen. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to make bad choices so having a proper meal plan goes a long way in making sure you’re sticking to your diet plan.
If planning one month ahead is too much work, you can plan your meals on weekly basis. Make a point to spend a few minutes over the weekend to list down meal plans for the coming week. Having a meal plan not only set your mind on what to achieve, it also helps you to plan your shopping and budget. Knowing exactly what to buy and how much to buy can help maintain a good financial. Many of us at About Eve who have meal plans by the week not only managed to lose weight more efficiently, but it also helped us to manage our finances better.
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Ramadan is a blessed month and each one of us find our blessings in different way. Remembering what the month is about and practicing moderation and self-control can help us to become better person as Ramadan offers the chance to cleanse our body both physically and mentally.
To help you get started on the meal plan, we’ll be sharing some recipes of our favorite fat-loss meals so watch this space!
