Life Style: Four health tips to practice beyond Ramadan

LONDON: If you haven’t been the most health-conscious person during Ramadan, don’t fret as we still have approximately one week left of fasting until the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, meaning there’s still time to incorporate healthy habits into your daily routine.

Exercise

If you’re fasting during Ramadan, I wouldn’t advise setting new fitness goals, rather concentrate on overall health and maintenance. During Ramadan, many people have varying working hours and lifestyles, so it’s crucial to choose a time to exercise that works for you. I have found that training two hours after iftar is best because you’ll have fully digested your food and should feel energized by this time.

Diet

For good health and endurance, planning and knowing what to eat during non-fasting hours is critical. You should devote your time to consuming healthy, nutrient-dense, and minimally processed foods with an emphasis on protein to avoid muscle atrophy. Make sure you eat plenty of vegetables (green and leafy where possible) and high-protein foods like fish, chicken, turkey or steak. When your fast is set to begin in the very early hours, low glycemic carbohydrates such as oats, wholemeal pasta or brown rice as opposed to white are ideal and will help you feel fuller for longer.

Sleep

Getting enough sleep during Ramadan is of great importance for recovery and energy. Depending on your schedule and working week many may have a differing routine and find their quality of sleep has decreased. There are many ways to improve this aspect of your health. Putting away phones and laptops or any other screen will help, as the blue light from these devices confuses the body into thinking it’s still daytime. Also, making sure your room is dark while you wind down is important as this will increase the production of the hormone melatonin which helps regulate sleep. Keeping your room cool is also important, being too hot can cause night sweats that give you a poor quality of sleep. Being too cold is also not ideal as it forces your body to expend more energy to keep you warm. The ideal temperature for sleeping is between 16 and 19 degrees centigrade.

H20

Make sure you drink enough water and limit yourself to only this form of liquid during your non-fasting hours if possible. Coffee, tea and sugary drinks will only dehydrate you, so best to steer clear of them if you want to stay hydrated. It’s actually pretty tough to drink enough water during your non-fasting hours to compensate for fasting hours, so keep a bottle handy at all times.