To boost your immunity, enrich your diet with protein-rich food, fluids and electrolytes

Those of you who are my regular readers of the blog know that I have always been very health conscious. I have been regularly sharing my fitness stories on the blog and social media.  A healthy diet, a regular routine with adequate exercise and a healthy sleep pattern have been my priorities always. However, over a period of time, household chores have increased many- fold and my family needs my constant attention more than ever. To keep up and do my best at all that I do for myself and my family, I realised I needed adequate strength and immunity.

So, here are a few measures I implemented –

Workout to Keep Illness Away

The first thing that I did was to sign up for online training with my fitness trainer to help me exercise regularly at home by myself. Also, once I started exercising, I became more mindful of the food I consumed. Though the unhealthy snacking habits stopped, I still needed to plan my diet well too.

One big question that is common for most of us in current times is –

How to Boost your immunity with a rich diet in India?

Here are the answers that I found useful.

Have A Good Quality Diet With All The Essential Nutrients

With the onset of monsoon, seasonal infections surge; so, a healthy diet comprising all the essential nutrients is required to support our immune health.

Our diet should be a healthy mix of the 7 key nutrients such as Proteins, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin D, Zinc, Fluids and Electrolytes.

Use Healthy Eating Plate As A Guide

I started using the healthy eating plate as a guide while planning my meals.

• Half of my plate consists of vegetables and fruits. I focus on eating fruits and vegetables in varied colours.
• One-fourth of my plate consists of whole grains. I avoid eating all-purpose flour/ refined flour and always use whole wheat as a substitute.
• One-fourth of my plate consists of proteins. As I am a vegetarian so the main source is legumes and beans. I also include nuts in my daily intake.
• I use groundnut oil, sunflower oil, ghee for cooking and I use olive oil in salads. These are essential fats that a body requires. However, avoid too much deep-fried food.
• I am a coffee lover but I wanted to limit my dairy intake as I was feeling bloated and having gastric troubles so I have just recently moved to have black coffee before my workout. This has made my sugar intake limited too. I avoid fruit juices; I would rather eat fruit.
• Another important tip I learnt a few days back about daily water intake which I would like to share here. So mostly, we have heard that we should have 8 glasses of water daily but there are many factors associated with water intake and the requirement of daily water intake depends on the individual’s needs. So, I might need 10 glasses but someone would need 8. One of the reasons for this is the absorption of fluids in our body. We need to check the colour of urine to determine our water intake. If it’s clear, it means you are having enough fluids required by the body. The darker the colour, the requirement increases. So, observe for a few days and determine your water intake.

Immune System Supporting Nutrients

While I incorporated these essential changes in my food intake, I also know that it’s hard to get enough of all the immune system supporting nutrients you need from your diet alone. As I turned 40 this year, I realised that I needed to build more strength in my bones and muscles too as my body requirements will begin to change.

I am drinking Ensure since the beginning of the year and it has helped me a lot. Drinking Ensure was a convenient way to help improve my immunity and overall health. Ensure contains 11 immunity nutrients that help create new immunity cells in the body. It contains an adequate quantity of protein that is an essential macronutrient for the creation of antibodies and immune system cells. Drinking this supplement regularly helps my body fight illnesses and deliver my best at all that I do.

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Meditation and Yoga For A Peaceful Mind

Along with physical exercises, I have also started focusing on Yoga and meditation. Every day, before I sleep, I play soothing music and try to meditate. This daily routine is helping me tremendously to bring my mind to peace in recent times.

I have incorporated these changes since quite some time now and it has helped me in a big way. I am positively motivated because I am feeling secure that the necessary dietary and lifestyle changes will strengthen my immunity and overall health.

What changes have you incorporated to boost immunity? Do share in comments so we can together build a stronger and healthier nation by sharing our ideas. #StrongerTogether

 

Source: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/