Hello everyone, hope all of you are doing good and are keeping healthy and happy. The colder months can pose challenges for the elders when it comes to maintaining good health and immunity. Let us see what can you do to follow a nutrition dense vegetarian diet plan for 40 plus people. Also included are some useful tips which can be easily included in the diet plan. These simple tipe will boost your immunity and health.
Small frequent meals
- Eat small frequent meals to get continuous supply of energy
- This will also ensure that your digestive system at any given point is not stressed at all
- When you eat very heavy 2-3 meals in a day, it takes a toll on your diegstive system
- This also leads to you eating a lot junk food in between meals
Starting your day
- Start your day with 2-3 glasses of lukewarm water
- This ensures that your system is up and about in the morning
- Warm water is the best drink your body get can get to start up
Tea / coffee
- Make sure you don’t consume tea / coffee for atleast 90 minutes when you wake up
- Tea / coffee shouldn’t be acting as a stimulant for your body to kick start
- Build your body’s natural ability to kick start, get up and get going
First snack
- Have something within 40 minutes of waking up
- You can consume soaked nuts and dry fruits as your first snack as these are a rich source of energy
- 5-6 almonds, 1-2 walnuts and a piece of soaked kubani / fig should be sufficient for your body’s first snack
Breakfast
- You should have your breakfast about an hour after having your first small meal
- Make sure you have something light yet nutritious for breakfast
- Poha, idli, besan chilla are some great options for breakfast
Snacks
- Instead of readymade snacks, have slightly cooked veggies or fruits for snacks
- Keep a gap of atleast two hours between the meals
- Avoid consuming too much tea specially with meals as it obstructs the absorption of nutrients from the food
- Adding immunity boosting supplements is a very good andd healthy option
Lunch
- For lunch, have a wholesome meal but do mind the portion size
- You can have roti (millet or multigrain) or rice with good portion of dal and sabzi
- Make sure you include probiotics in diet to support digestion
- These probiotics can be curd / buttermilk etc
Greens
- Don’t forget to include greens in your diet on a daily basis
- Include spinach, bathua and methi etc in your diet
- You can have greens in saag, roti, soups, smoothie, chilla, pulao etc
Herbal tea
- One more must include ingredient in your diet is herbal tea
- Herbal tea boosts your energy and also improves diegstion post meals
Between meals
- Don’t ignore the 4-6 pm hunger pangs
- Have an homemade pinni or panjiri to get the extra winter nutrients
Early dinner
- Dinner should be consumed atleast 2-3 hours before bedtime
- Include soups, veggies and good qualtiy protein for dinner
- Consume food which is low in the glycemic index
Bedtime drink
- Consume a nutritious bed time drink before you call it off for the day
- Turmeric black pepper milk is one good option for the bedtime drink
Additional tips
- Stay hydrated at all times
- Stay active and avoid being lazy for long hours
- Dedicate atleast 30 minutes daily for your workouts or brisk walks
- Include strength training in your routine to retain muscle mass