Navratri, the nine-day Hindu festival during which Goddess Durga is worshipped is finally here! Millions of Indians around the world are fasting, in fact, it is the time when fasting and feasting go hand-in-hand! Fasting helps you to cleanse our system and thus protects our body from various seasonal infections. During Navratri, we should ideally consume light and nutritious meal. But we tend to overindulge and end up feasting on high-calorie fried food. Am I right? If that is the case with you, here I am sharing the Navratri fasting diet plan, designed by Kareena Kapoor’s celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar. You can cook and enjoy this diet plan during Navratri without sabotaging your health goals.
In the post detailing the meal plan, Rujuta Diwekar who believes in eating locally grown foods has also explained the religious and nutritional significance of the Navratri fast. Let’s scroll down!
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Navratri Fasting Diet Plan
An eating plan for Navratri
- Meal one (on waking up) – Fresh fruit/ Handful of nuts/ Overnight soaked raisins with kesar
- 2nd Meal (breakfast) – Singhare ke pakode/ Sabudana khichdi/ Sweet potato with dahi/ Alu ki kheer/ Chana poori and halwa (on last day)
- 3rd Meal (lunch) – Rajgira or kuttu or singhare atta ki roti with Alu or arbi sabzi/ Makhane ki sabzi or Kuttu ki kadhi with samo chaawal / upasacha thalipeeth
- 4th Meal (dinner) – Samo chawal with dahi / Jhangora kheer / Paneer ki sabzi with kuttu or singhare or rajgira or banana flour ki roti
- Mid-meals – Fresh fruit/ Milkshake/ Chaas/ Shikanji/ kheer/ Shakarkandi ki chaat / Sabudana wada with dahi
It’s the time of the year when the end of Pitru paksha leads to the beginning of Navratri. Both, in their own way, are a means that use food or anna as a learning tool. Pitru Paksha is about charity and offering food to the ancestors who no longer live in their bodies and in the realm of our world. And Navratri, amongst many other things, is about staying disciplined with food to help nurture the creative and the feminine principle in our physical bodies.
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Significance Of Navratri
Navratri is of special significance to women as they are live expressions of the Divine Mother. I believe it is our culture or the Vedantic way of “feminism”, both fearless and joyful, in harmony with the dance of life. In a way, it teaches us that as women we must celebrate our lives every moment, and in every role, we take up. Whether we choose to express ourselves as forms of Annapurna, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Durga, Kali, we are all beautiful.
The food is “restricted” as a method of disciplining the senses. Nutritionally, it empowers the women with nutrients that make them not just physically stronger but helps bring about a balance at the neuro-transmitter and hormonal level too. It’s a “religious” method of teaching families that good physical health of the women and girls is of paramount importance to the wellbeing of communities and societies. It guides us to look after, nurture and create opportunities for women to express themselves freely versus suffocating them under the guise of “culture”, sabhyata or sanskriti.
This is a rough food plan but please make alterations to it based on the region you come from and according to what your grandmom approves 🙂
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NOTE
Make sure that your Navratri fasting diet plan must be tailor-made to fit your physiological needs, and in case you are suffering from any chronic diseases, get it designed by a certified dietitian or a clinical nutritionist only.