Written By: Debjani Arora | Published : August 21, 2018 4:49 PM IST
Taking care of your skin to ensure you still stay glowing and bright can sometimes be a source of concern during Shravan. While fasting during Shravan, the skin gets affected as your diet goes haywire and your eating patterns and food choices start to differ from the other months. This over a period of time starts affecting the skin and hair. Here Dr Saumya Shetty Heggde, Dermatologist at Roots Skin Clinic, Mumbai talks to us how to keep our skin and hair healthy whilst maintaining proper blood sugar levels.
Observing fast, preparing sweet delicacies and enjoying them could be a part of fun during the festive season. But, at some point during the festive period, you may find that you have higher blood glucose levels than normal due to being less active than usual, overindulging or changing your routine. The symptoms of which could be general fatigue, excessive thirst, blurred vision, headaches, frequent peeing, weight loss, etc. This usually happens because of changes in the pattern and quantity of fluid and food intake during the fasting month and can lead to severe health complications. The idea of fasting is to flush the toxins from the body so avoid too many fried, oil rich foods when you break your fast.
Skincare while you are fasting
Lack of enough fluids and foods make the skin dehydrated, so avoid face scrubs and use a gentle cleanser only twice a day. Apply hyaluronic and rich moisture containing moisturizers frequently throughout the day. Though it is a rainy season, still don't forget your sunscreen even if you step out of your house. Some women experience dryness and dullness of lips during fasts. This is because we tend to drink less water during the day due to low nutrition. Avoid dark colour lipsticks. Coating the lips with almond oil or coconut oil at bedtime will make sure that you wake up with soft, pink lips. For the day, use a natural lip balm to lock in the moisture. Honey wax enriched lip balms are great to keep them soft and supple. Dark circles are a common problem during fasting so use nourishing eye creams containing phytopeptides, Q10 and Vit K to reduce and minimise dark circles.
Have plenty of fluids i.e. water, coconut water, fruits rich in water. This has two important benefits. One it will keep your body and skin well-hydrated, and second, it will help silence food cravings during odd hours. For flavour, drop a few basil leaves or a few cardamom seeds into a bottle of water. Other healthy drinks: green tea, fresh fruit juice, coconut water.
Watch what you eat while you are fasting
Many people eat a lot of sago (sabudana khichadi) or sabudanavada but many times its gives you blotting and heaviness. Other than that one can include healthy options like rajgirahlahi (Amaranth puffs) a wonder grain, chapattis from rajgirahatta or puffs with milk or laddoos out of it. Baked sweet potatoes which are naturally sweet in taste because of natural sugars present in it. These foods are slowly released into the blood and don't spike blood sugar levels. However, if you have diabetes then make sure you talk to your doctor and dietitian before going on a fast.
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