Healthy Ways to Celebrate Vegetarian Festival

During the Vegetarian Festival, many people refrain from consuming animal meat, and pay more attention to their food. It is like they are detoxifying their body. However, majority of food consumed during the festival is made from carbs and fat. If you overconsume them, instead of becoming healthier, this way of eating may ruin your health such as gaining weight and triggering pot belly. Let’s see how to healthily celebrate the festival without gaining weight and feel the merit of giving up animal meat by eating healthy food in proper amount that will get you the all the essential nutrients with these 4 tips.

1. Get enough protein from various sources

Abstaining from meat consumption may cause insufficiency of protein and essential amino acids that our body cannot synthesize. Protein is main component of every cell in our body including muscle and skin. On average, we should consume about 50-60 grams of protein daily, or 0.8-1 gram of protein per 1 kg of body weight. So, during the Vegetarian Festival, you have to substitute meat protein with plant protein. Here are some examples of food high in protein per 100 grams:

Textured vegetable protein contains 49.76 grams of protein
Soy bean contains 37 grams of protein
Peanut contains 24 grams of protein
Almond contains 22 grams of protein
Tofu contains 8 grams of protein
Chia seed contains 5 grams of protein

We should consume enough protein because our body needs amino acids from the protein to repair tissues and build muscles, but our body cannot store protein as it does with fat in the form of triglyceride or carbohydrate in form of glycogen. We should therefore consume protein every day to support normal bodily functions. During the Vegetarian Festival, if you feel hungry during the day, you can choose to drink NESVITA Instant Cereal Beverage Soy Plus and Chai Seed or NESVITA Instant Germinated Riceberry Cereal Beverage as your afternoon treat to increase protein and fiber intake to keep your stomach filled.

2. Avoid deep-fried food, limit fat and sodium intake

One of the favorite menus during Vegetarian Festival is deep-fried food like taro fritters, corn fritters, deep-fried spring rolls, and deep-fried tofu. These snacks are pretty high in fat because they are as high in calories as main meals. In addition, meat analogues are often seasoned with artificial ingredients to be quite salty. These foods can lead to weight gain, but you can celebrate the festival without gaining weight by cooking the food yourself and using healthy cooking methods such as spicy salad mixing, roasting, boiling, and steaming. Limit your fat intake to be less than 30% of your daily energy requirement. Lightly season your food to bring out natural flavor of the ingredient by selecting naturally fermented soy sauce. Here are some Maggi vegetarian menus you can cook: tofu in red curry sauce, vegetarian meat stir-fried in yellow curry paste, roasted vegetarian chicken, and spicy stir-fired mushrooms with fingerroot. But if cooking your own food does not meet your lifestyle, you should consciously select low-fat food, avoid deep-fried food, lightly season or sauce your food, and avoid eating coconut-milk soup or soup with fat layering on top of it.

3. Avoid refined carbohydrate and focus on rainbow vegetables

Many of the vegetarian foods during Vegetarian Festival contain flours but we can select to consume unrefined flour or wholegrain and wholewheat flour which will keep your stomach filled longer, and they are also richer in vitamin and fiber. For example, brown rice has 10 times more vitamin B1 and 3 times more fiber than the white rice. Besides, this is a good chance for you to restore the balance of your digestive tract and detoxify your intestines with the consumption of fiber-rich vegetables. Vegetable should take up about half of each meal, or you should consume 400 grams of fruits and vegetables daily. Eat varieties of rainbow vegetables to get various nutrients and benefits from them. You will also get “phytonutrient” which helps reduce risk of developing illness. This will help you stay in shape and get complete benefits from the natural products.

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Green fruits and vegetables contain Chlorophyll, an important compound commonly found in spinach, broccoli, and Chinese broccoli which helps support vision and boost immunity.
Red fruits and vegetables contain Lycopene, an important nutrient commonly found in tomato, which helps reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer and benefit the skin.
Yellow and orange fruits and vegetables contains Beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A and Lutein, commonly found in carrot, pumpkin, and corn which is beneficial for the eyes in preventing and slowing down age-related macular degeneration
Purple fruits and vegetables contain Anthocyanin, an important compound commonly found in blueberry, blackberry, purple grape, and rice berry rice which helps improve blood circulation and enhance night vision.
White fruits and vegetables contain Xanthone, an important compound related to flavonoid and commonly found in banana and pear which has anti-inflammatory property and helps maintain level of blood sugar.

4. Exercise

These eating tips to celebrate Vegetarian Festival healthily should be accompanied with regular exercise like running and aerobic dancing. Or, you may utilize at-home online workout videos like Zumba dance and yoga. Here are some yoga poses to specifically help reduce waistline and help you stay focused better.

Child pose: first, sit on your heels with your back straight, keeping your knees together, breath out while bending forward and rest your head on the floor, stretch your arms forward as far away from your head as possible while resting your buttocks on your heels. Hold for 30 seconds and gently release the pose to get back the beginning position.
Bow pose: Lie flat on your stomach, then lift your upper body part and your legs up, leaving only your stomach resting on the floor, reach back with your hands and take hold of your feet. Take deep and long breath. Hold for 20 seconds (about 2 rounds of breathing in and out) then gently release the pose to get back to beginning position.
Boat pose: begin in seated position with straight back and stretch your legs forward. Breath in and lift your arms and leave them parallel to the floor. Then breath out and slowly lean back and contract your stomach, then elevate your legs to be above your head. Hold for 20 seconds (about 2 rounds of breathing in and out) then gently release the pose to get back to beginning position.

When you can practice these 3 yoga poses regularly, you can celebrate the Vegetarian Festival without gaining weight as they help support normal functions of digestive system, firm up abdominal muscle, relax your muscle from pain and aches, and improve ability to focus and reduce stress from practicing breath control. After yoga, you should drink enough water. You should also exercise regularly for 4-5 times a week.

Having enough sleep for 6-8 hours a day is also essential for hormonal functions within the body because when we do not get enough sleep, our body will produce less leptin (hormone that decreases your appetite) and insulin, resulting in increased appetite. This may lead to snacking and untimely hunger, maybe inducing late-night binge eating and thereby excess calories which will be stored as your body fat.

Even though the celebration period only lasts 9 days, it is a good beginning for you to regain the balance within your body with these healthy tips to celebrate Vegetarian Festival for everyone to take care of themselves all year longs to become physically and mentally healthy.

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