How to "Enjoy Tet Holiday Without Ever Worrying About Getting Sick?"

During Tet holiday, traditionally, many Vietnamese families prepare plenty of food, fruits, beer, wine, etc…to hope for a full and better year. By contrast, people do exercise less (just visiting relatives or resting) so they consume less energy. Daily routines such as: eating, drinking, sleeping, exercising,…are changed. Unfortunately, these changes negatively affect people’s health and weight. So, how to "Enjoy Tet Holiday Without Ever Worrying About Getting Sick?"

1. Eating more vegetables, fruits and nuts

Eating variety of vegetables is good for your health, especially in holidays. You can boil or steam vegetables. You also should replace familiar ones by bamboo shoots, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant,…which contain lots of fiber and help to reduce negative effects of fat from meats, banh chung, banh tet,….Another indispensable one is mushroom, which contain very little calories but much vitamin B. You can eat this kind of food comfortably without worrying about ganing weight.

About fruits, you should choose low-sugar ones such as apples, papayas, oranges,…to implement vitamins and fresh your body after parties.

Nuts, seeds are listed in nutrient dense foods list and to increase your appetite, you can use nuts with a hot cup of tea. You should eat 30-50gr per day to control your weight effectively. For example, watermelon seeds contain protid – an essential nutrient for the nerve system and the development of blood, bones and muscle. Eating some watermelon seeds everyday might help to increase your memory and prevent you from coronary heart disease. Besides, pumpkin seeds contain nutrients that are good for the immune system and help you sleep well. Sunflower seeds might slow down aging and enhance the development of neurology cells, while cashew nuts prevent you from coronary heart diseases, good for blood sugar and decrease the risk of stroke.

2. Drinking enough water

We usually forget to drink water on Tet holiday because of busy activities. To ensure that you get enough water for your body, please don’t forget to drink enough 2 liters per day. In addition, you should not consume too much salt.

3. Eating in moderation

The secret of enjoying Tet holiday without worrying about gaining weight is that instead of eating too much one kind of food, let’s enjoy variety of food but with a reasonable quantity. Specifically:

Banh chung, banh tet: traditional foods with meats, sticky rice and full of energy. In a meal (such as breakfast), you should only use 200gr (equivalent to about 1/8 of the cake) with a little ‘dua muoi’ and it’s not necessary to consume other starch sources like rice, bread,…

To limit fat absorption from some traditional dishes in Tet such as: braised pork with bamboo shoots, stewed meat with egg,…. you should eat those dishes with boiled vegetables, dua hanh, dua chua,…

Chicken is the best dish to control weight, but it will be better for you to choose the lean part instead of skin or fat. 

Eating more fish will help you appetizing because Tet holiday dishes are often greasy.

Gio lua, gio thu contains too much salt and energy so you should eat in moderation.

Cakes are indispensable food in Tet. You can eat cookies, chocolate but not over 100gr/day. More ideally, choosing low-sugar fruits instead of cakes.  

Jams: Low-energy jams are more prefer than high-energy ones such as: ginger jam,… but in moderation as well.  

4. Doing exercise

Energy is not managed for a balanced during Tet. Therefore, fat is accumulated gradually in our body as white fat and it concentrates mainly around the viscera, under the skin and the waist, which make our body fatter and fatter. That’s why you need to keep doing exercise everyday in Tet, such as: walking at least 30 minutes in the morning, going upstairs or downstairs, walking after a meal, etc.

5. Changing habits

Houseswives are often trying to consume all leftover foods, reheating them many times or storing them in the fridge day by day. However, these actions accidentally increase the fat, sugar, salt, etc in leftover foods and make our body fatter with high risk of heart diseases, blood pressure and blood sugar diseases.  

To make Tet becomes more meaningful in both physically and spiritually, each person need to control the weight effectively through a balance nutritional diet combined with a healthy lifestyle, avoid gaining weight to ensure a new year with good health, happiness and prosperity.