Ramadan is almost here and we want to help you approach your fast this year with mindfulness, discipline, and awareness. Perhaps it can even be an opportunity to focus on living a healthy and balanced lifestyle through a more mindful approach to eating, and to better prepare you for fasting, we have put together a few ways that can prepare your body for fasting. By planning and adjusting your routine before the fasting starts, it will be easier to kick any cravings, making the transition a whole lot easier.
Here are our tips:
Portion control — In these days before Ramadan, it’s important to reduce your portion sizes. Some may think splurging on food before fasting begins to sort of ‘stock up’, but this is exactly what not to do. The aim here is to reduce your appetite and hunger for larger quantities of food, ultimately helping your body transition to fasting in a healthy way.
Start eating your breakfast earlier — By getting your body use to eating breakfast earlier than usual, the transition won’t feel so strange for your metabolism. So start putting your alarm on a little earlier each morning, and even if you’re not hungry, eat. You want to trigger your stomach into understanding your new routine and when to expect food.
Don’t snack — If you are a hard-core lover of snacks (even those healthy ones!), then Ramadan can prove challenging. So just like with breakfast, you want to reset your stomach and mind now in the lead up to Ramadan, so try to stick to only three nutritious meals a day. This will help you lose the desire for these little goodies throughout the day, and your body will begin to not to expect them in your routine.
Step away from the coffee — Caffeine withdrawal, it’s a thing. And if you are a: ‘multiple cups of coffee’ kind of person, that headache will feel much worse while you’re fasting if you haven’t prepared your body in advance. If cutting down on your favourite cuppa seems impossible, then start small and work your way up. First, reduce your coffee intake to only one cup a day (somewhere mid-day not first thing in the morning), and maybe even switch to decaffeinated coffee. And ultimately, finish with cutting it out of your day all together.
Stock up on your groceries now — Prepare now while you are still hyped up and full of energy. Shop and stock up on nutritious foods that can be served at Suhoor or Iftar times so that you’re not so tempted by those hunger driven guilty pleasures later. Plan what foods are best to have for breakfast, find the recipes and stock up on the ingredients, this way you will leave less to temptation and you can make sure that cravings won’t hinder what your body actually needs while fasting.
If you feel that you need help or accountability throughout this Ramadan, and really want to make it your healthiest Ramadan EVER, get in touch with us via email us or call on +9714 344 7333 to see how we can help!
