The festival of the year is right around the corner. The sky is clear blue, there is a floral aroma in the air, and everything is beautiful. Carefree of any work, these are the days when moments are created with your family and friends. However, this also is the time of the year when it’s all about food and booze, the ultimate cheat days. And, at the end of the 2 week holiday, you have gained weight somewhere around 3-5 kgs, hell, even more. For those who work out it’s a nightmare; muscles tend to shrink up, body stores a lot of fat, and all the hard work throughout the year goes down the drain. The cycle continues the next year, just like a hamster on a running wheel.
Let’s be honest, we all can relate to that. Finding a balance between fun and fitness is a big hurdle to overcome and there are almost no answers on how to stay fit during Dashain on the internet. That is why we are here to help.
Finding balance between two opposing sides is the solution to success in most cases. Just like to find savings you need to find the balance between your earning and expenditure, maintaining your weight has the same theory: find how much you eat and how much you spend in calories.
But, we’ve already talked about how to calculate calorie intake and expenditure. If you haven’t read it in our previous issues, it would be a great use of your time during the holidays to check it out.
Now, let’s start off with the drinks. Here, we are also including carbonated drinks and juices besides the exciting booze.

DRINKS
It’s that time of the year when you can drink all you want and nobody is gonna say a thing. But your body will speak for itself after a few days. Sore muscles and dehydration are bound to happen. Besides these, the body sores up and you look plumped.
An average 330ml beer consists of somewhere around 200 calories. And, since we are Nepalese, we don’t stop drinking until we feel tipsy. For an adult, who is familiar with beer, 3 bottles are enough to reach the woozy stage. This means, an adult beer drinker consumes somewhere around 600 calories in a day. Because drinking and driving is illegal and all work done drunk is a work done improperly. The only thing you can do is sleep or lay back and enjoy the day. Which mean, you are storing a large chunk of calories in the form of fats.
The same thing goes with any alcohol; average 200ml whiskey has 150 calories, average 200ml vodka has 411 calories and carbonated drink such as the 200ml Coke Cola has 86 calories. As most of us have a habit of consuming our alcohol mixed with carbonated drinks, this a recipe for disastrous obesity.
So how do you enjoy Dashain with your favorite drink? Here’s how. The first thing would be to calculate you daily calorie limit. The best way to find out your calorie limit is by simply using a calorie calculator on the web. After you find out your calorie limit per day, all you need to do is find how much calorie you intake in your drink. Some drinks might have calorie count on the label whereas for some need to be searched on the web. This can be a bit of a hassle, but it is completely worth it when it comes to tracking your weight as well as health.
We would recommend you to stay away from alcohol or carbonated drink as much as you can, but c’mon, its Dashain. So since you are going to do it anyway, you might as well do it properly i.e. by calculating calories, right?

FOOD
The delicious feast of Dashain is something that makes the holiday feel like a holiday. Khasi ko masu with chura, ghee bhat, fokso, bhutan, deep fried chicken, junk food and peanuts with beer and so much more. Every day there is something new to eat and the best part is each dish has its own unique taste. Never the less, almost all of them are in high calorie and probably the worst food that you can consume for your body. No wonder how scary the weight gains after these holidays can be.
Our previous articles featured how to manage these kinds of foods in your daily diet. Just to refresh, intermediate fasting IIFYM program are two true friends in these situations. Once again it’s good to let go sometimes and take a break from your strict diet. But in all consciousness, 2 weeks of bad food and reckless diet is something we ought to avoid.
For Dashain we specially recommend you to follow intermediate fasting. Since there is no exercise and lots of drink and food, intermediate fasting will help you a lot to maintain your weight. For those of you who don’t know what intermediate fasting is, it is an eating pattern where you split the hours you eat and fast in a 24 hours duration. The basic split is 16:8 ratios where you eat for 8 hours a day and fast for 16 hours. If you want to take it to next level you can choose 18:6 ratios. This diet is has no food restriction which why it is perfect for Dashain.

TO DO’s
Drink lemon and honey in the morning and before bed. This will help you maintain glycemic index and insulin level in your body.
Early morning jogging for 15 mins or more.
Drink a glass of water after every meal and alcohol.
While in an intermediate fasting you might feel hungry. Therefore, drink black coffee but without sugar. Using artificial sweetner such as sugarfree will be a wise thing to do.
While mixing carbonated drinks with alcohol, be sure to use zero sugar carbonated drinks.

WORDS: NISHANT M. PRADHAN