Can­di­da Khan

East­er Sun­day is fi­nal­ly here! It’s a joy­ful cel­e­bra­tion with dif­fer­ent de­li­cious foods af­ter weeks of Lent. Lent is a deeply sig­nif­i­cant sea­son in the Chris­t­ian cal­en­dar. Lent is a 40-day pe­ri­od of re­flec­tion, sac­ri­fice, and spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline ob­served by many Chris­tians in prepa­ra­tion for East­er. The usu­al type of fast­ing is giv­ing up meat or oth­er types of food. To pre­vent overindulging af­ter re­stric­tions dur­ing East­er, it’s im­por­tant to fo­cus on shift­ing the mind­set and idea of “good” and “bad” food. The goal is to pre­vent the feel­ing of guilt, overeat­ing and phys­i­cal dis­com­fort that might arise dur­ing this hol­i­day. As women, we may have more crav­ings, de­pend­ing on how our hor­mones are reg­u­lat­ing. Our fo­cus needs to be on a bal­anced ap­proach, health and well-be­ing, while ful­ly en­joy­ing East­er.

East­er meals should in­clude a pro­tein of choice, veg­eta­bles, com­plex car­bo­hy­drates and choco­late snacks. It’s about bal­ance over re­stric­tion. Prac­tis­ing mind­ful por­tion sizes and a va­ri­ety of colour­ful food groups is key.

Af­ter Lent, read­just­ing to cer­tain foods such as processed items, meat and sug­ar should be done with care. These tips can help your body to read­just for bet­ter di­ges­tion and full­ness:

1. Start with small­er por­tions

2. Slow down when eat­ing

3. In­clude more wa­ter, gin­ger tea and al­ka­line wa­ter dur­ing the day

Sta­bil­is­ing blood sug­ars, en­er­gy and weight can be man­aged with good qual­i­ty pro­tein such as eggs, fish, chick­en, turkey, legumes and com­plex car­bo­hy­drates such as ground pro­vi­sion, in­clud­ing sweet pota­to, yam, cas­sa­va and veg­eta­bles such as fresh sal­ad with let­tuce, toma­to and cu­cum­ber. Al­so try steamed veg­eta­bles such as broc­coli, car­rots, mush­rooms or cooked veg­eta­bles such as pump­kin. This re­duces the urge to overeat sug­ary treats lat­er in the day.

East­er can be as­so­ci­at­ed with many choco­late treats. How we in­clude it is im­por­tant. My sug­ges­tion is to in­clude it with a nu­tri­tious snack such as fruits, for ex­am­ple, a ba­nana. An­oth­er sug­ges­tion can be to en­joy them af­ter a bal­anced meal to re­duce crash­es.

An­oth­er habit that re­al­ly works for self-con­trol dur­ing this time is pos­i­tive self-talk. Re­mind your­self that you can spread out your favourite treats dur­ing the week and not feel re­strict­ed any­more. Hy­dra­tion is com­mon­ly over­looked, but it can sup­port di­ges­tion and help to reg­u­late crav­ings for bet­ter self-con­trol.

For women, it’s im­por­tant to con­sid­er the im­pact of food on hor­mones and en­er­gy lev­els. Large swings in blood sug­ar can af­fect mood, en­er­gy, and even crav­ings lat­er in the day. By fo­cus­ing on bal­anced meals that in­clude pro­tein, healthy car­bo­hy­drates, and fi­bre, you can main­tain more sta­ble en­er­gy and avoid the com­mon “crash” that fol­lows heavy, sug­ar-rich meals.

It’s vi­tal that we give our­selves per­mis­sion to en­joy the day. Food is not just fu­el—it’s al­so a source of plea­sure, cul­ture, and con­nec­tion. Shar­ing a meal with loved ones, en­joy­ing tra­di­tion­al dish­es, and cel­e­brat­ing the end of Lent are all mean­ing­ful ex­pe­ri­ences. Guilt has no place at the ta­ble. When you ap­proach East­er with a bal­anced mind­set, you cre­ate space for both en­joy­ment and nour­ish­ment.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc RD al­so known as Di­di is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­on­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di's Nu­tritri­on Con­sul­tan­cy | didis­nu­tri­tion­con­sul­tan­cy.com