Archives for April 2015

April 29, 2015 By Satish Kurapaty Leave a Comment

Self Defense Part -2: How to get rid of holds

In my previous blog, I explained how to defend yourself from any external attack you may encounter and which are the most effective parts of the body you can hit to protect yourself.

Today, in this blog I will explain how to get rid if you are caught by someone or if someone holds you.

First and foremost draw attention to your situation by yelling and screaming.

If someone holds you from behind, then just drop all your weight. It will force them to drop you and be that much harder to carry your full weight.

Usually when someone catches you from behind they are going to have at least one of their hands in front of you. With one hand grab their index and the attacker’s middle finger and with your other hand grab the ring. Pull very hard in opposite directions. This is very painful to your attacker and should give you a chance to get away.

If someone holds your wrist and you are not able to escape, first thing you do is to rotate your hand from left to right, by doing this, the opposite person will lose his grip and you can escape.

If someone caught you from behind with both hands locked around your chest, but your hands are in the air, hit on the attacker’s neck with the edge of your elbow.

Press his forearm against your collarbone instead of trying to pull it directly off, which may be difficult if you are fighting with someone who is stronger than you. Put one hand above his elbow and one hand below it so your hands are on both sides of the elbow and one strong movement step and swing your entire body around like the arm is the hinge to your body’s screen door. This will help you get rid of the attacker and his head, ribs, and legs wide open to your counter attack.

If you are caught from behind put your hands on their head and drag your fingernails down until you find their ears. Catch the attacker’s ears and pull it down in a fast motion. If you do it slowly it will give an opportunity to the attacker to understand what is happening. But, if you do it fast enough with enough strength, you should be able to damage their ear.

Incase your hands are locked, jump slightly and do deep squats you will be able to escape or use your back head to hit on his nose.

If the attacker is trying to choke you by wrapping his arms around your neck, bring your foot forward and kick so hardly between the attacker’s ankle and mid-leg.

If you are hit, make sure that you are hitting back enough to defend yourself and to deliver a blow without being overly aggressive.

Try to disarm your attacker so that you have the opportunity to escape.

April 28, 2015 By Satish Kurapaty 1 Comment

How important is to know ‘Self Defence’?

Gone are the days when one felt safe in this country. Recently a childhood friend of mine was attacked by some robbers in the road. He was threatened at knife point and robbed.My friend was disappointed with himself because he just was unable to do fight for himself. Many like my friend have been in this unfortunate situation where they have been attacked or threatened by someone they don’t know. Or t time by someone they know. Some have suffered injury, have had broken bones and wounds and in some cases even died.

With increasing violence on men and women it has become very important to be more aware of our surroundings and the people around us. Today, the need to protect one is something everyone should take note of seriously. We all invest in health and nutrition and fitness programs, but it’s time to start thinking about defending our bodies as well.

Here is where I would recommend that each one of you should know self defense. We need to ask our self, are we in a position to defend ourselves and our loved ones if someone were to physically attack us? Self Defense is not confined to men alone. It has become imperative that both men and women should be able to defend themselves when in a tough situation.

According to me, the old adage ‘prevention is better than cure’ is the best self defence. We don’t know if someone is trying to attack us what is his or her motive behind the attack. Just follow general safety tips like being aware of your surroundings, walk in a known and in a well lit area, keep your keys in hand when you are about to reach your home or car.

There are many self defense classes today that one can join. But, in the eventuality that you are not able to take these classes, here are few tips I am sharing with you that will help you to defend yourself.

The first thing to bear in mind when someone attacks you is do not panic. When you don’t panic look into the eye of the attacker he will lose half his confidence.

Here are few dos you must know and can do.

The most effective body parts to hit are :-

Eyes- Poking the attacker’s eyes with your fingers, a pen or knuckles would be effective. Always have a pen as it works as a good defense to poke people. It will cause the attacker lot of pain and you can easily escape as his vision will blur and will not clear for couple of minutes.

Nose- If the attacker is close to you, use the edge of your palm to hit on his nose, push your body weight along with it while hitting with your palm as it will give more power to hit. Once you hit him he sure lose his balance and you will get an opportunity to escape.

Neck- The side of the neck is a good target to attack as this is where both the carotid artery and jugular vein are located. Hitting the side of the neck or pushing the side of the neck of the attacker hard with your palm can stun the attacker.

Knee- Knee is an ideal self-defense target. We can kick without our foot being grabbed. Kicking the side of the knee will cause injury to the attacker.

Sheen Bone: Kicking the attackers sheen with the tip of your shoes is equally painful and can put the attacker off balance

The above mentioned parts are the most sensitive to hit in any attacker. Having said that, we should also use our body parts such as the elbows, knees, hands, legs and head to hit the attacker.

Be extremely careful and cautious when you are away from home or town. If possible don’t have a fixed schedule of travelling and above all the most important thing is ‘NEVER PANIC’.

Await my next blog where I tell you how to get rid from the attacker’s holds.

April 27, 2015 By Shimpli Patil 38 Comments

Should we brisk walk before the meal or after?

As an adolescent, I was a victim of this common misconception that brisk walking immediately post meal helps burn calories. It’s quite natural to think that once we eat a meal and walk it out quickly, it will burn the calories that we just consumed. But hey! For that food to get converted into calories it requires a long process, which is called nothing but digestion. Unless and until we don’t let the food to get digested thoroughly, are we going to burn the calories? Obviously not!

Brisk walking post meal is a not a very good idea. It may cause acid reflux, ingestion or stomach upset. The reason is very simple- after the meal, our digestion process is all ready to go. Digestive juices are released in the stomach and intestine. This is the time when the stomach and intestine need most blood supply to carry on this process smoothly. Hence, the blood flow needs to be directed to this area for better digestion. If we perform any vigorous activity as simple as brisk walking after the meal, the blood circulation gets directed to our extremities which compromises the blood flow to the core region of the body, thus hampering the digestive processes.

Working out especially post dinner not only affects our digestion but may also postpone our sleep time. Workouts are a stress buster. Our body experiences an endorphin rush (feel good factor) after a nice cardio/strengthening session. Once we are on an endorphin high, we feel extremely elated and energized which tends to delay our sleep.

So what’s best for us? It’s always best to go for a brisk walk or any other workout before the meal (30 minutes prior or so). It exhausts our body’s energy stores which is then all set to fill up the stores again with a good meal. This reduces the chances of fat conversion during the meal as whatever we consume is utilized by the body cells for energy which leaves least for fat storage. In short, a pre meal workout fires up our body’s metabolism which therefore ensures better burn up of calories after we consume and digest the meal.

A similar point was proven by a 2006 study published in “Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism,” which says that people who walked prior to putting any food in their stomach and who walked hard enough to perspire burnt more fat than those who walked after eating.

Thus, it’s quite clear that in order to reap most benefits of brisk walking or other workouts, we need to schedule it prior to our meal. However, we can certainly go for a leisurely walk post meal, but again, not immediately. We can go after a 45 minutes gap. That is just to get over the bloat of eating way too much or to give your muscles a good stretch and it’s anytime a better option than promoting fat deposition by lying on the sofa watching TV. But remember, this should be a short 10-15 minute walk and not a long one.

Now that we have blown away the misconceptions, let’s implement the right thing and experience the change! Let’s Rock the pre-meal walk!

April 24, 2015 By Hardika Vira 3 Comments

5 WAYS TO BOOST METABOLISM

In so many years of my practice as a dietician consultant, I have seen people literally starving themselves to lose weight. But, what if I could convince you that without starving and just by eating healthy and your heart felt or more than what you generally eat, you can lose fats/ look more toned and reduce weight at the same time? You can achieve this by improving your basal metabolism.

What is basal metabolism?

It is the rate at which our body burns calories when even at rest. It includes calories burnt for the process of digestion, and carrying out basic functions of the body. Basically when you are not being physically active.

We have an assumption that exercising is the only way to improve metabolism. It is true but, there is loads to add to the list of foods that help improve metabolism like having small frequent meals i.e every 2.5-3 hours, quantity and quality of food consumed etc.

Today I will share 5 of easiest ways for the same

CONSUMING MORE FIBER RICH FOODS

Fiber is the undigestible material of the plant that provides bulk and adds satiety levels. When we include more fiber in the meals, our body takes more time and effort to break those fiber molecules thus spending/ burning more calories. There are 2 kinds of fibers, soluble and insoluble.

Here is a list of fiber rich foods: whole grains, bran, whole fruits, vegetables like carrots, cucumber, green leafy vegetables, cabbage, bell peppers, broccoli, etc., beans, nuts,

INCLUDE PROTEINS IN EACH MEAL

Proteins take more time to digest than carbs and hence the thermic effect of food i.e the calories that are burned during the digestion of proteins increases. Proteins also aids in functions of growth and development i.e. building muscles, growth and for wear and tear of the tissues used throughout the day this requires a lot of energy. Higher the muscle content in the body, higher is the metabolism.

Sources of proteins: Milk, paneer (cottage cheese), plain yoghurt, buttermilk, pulses, sprouts, soya, tofu, eggs, chicken, fish. Also lente carbs in chick peas (chhole) and kidney beans (rajma) keep you full for long time and helps increase the metabolis

DRINK PLENTY OF WATER

2/3^rd of your body is water. Muscles are approx 75% water and cells, bones, blood hold water and float in it.Basically it is required to carry out each and every biological function in the body. Thus when the body is in the state of dehydration, the metabolism slows down as the ability to generate energy and body’s ability to utilize fat as fuel is severely inhibited.

INCORPORATE SPICES IN THE MEALS-

Ginger (gingerols and capsaicin), garlic (allicin), cinnamon, pepper and chillies (capsaicin), turmeric(curcumin) etc. also known as hot spices are known to improve metabolism and also help in carrying other antioxidant functions.

OPT FOR GREEN TEA-

Green tea is rich in polyphenols like catechins and flavonoids which are antioxidants. It also contains caffeine in small amounts. Through few studies, it has been seen that green tea increases metabolism and rate of fat burning. But ensure that you consume a glass of water after every cup of green tea as the caffeine present in the green tea helps in dehydration of cells apart from giving a boost to metabolism.

The above ways are the some of the simplest ones which can be controlled/ practiced without any difficulty. Apart from these as mentioned above exercise helps improve metabolism. But, do you really know which one is more effective?

Combining strengthening exercises in the schedule will really help improve the metabolic rate for a longer duration until the repair/wear and tear of the broken muscles occur as compared to the cardio exercises which raises metabolic rate only for a limited period. It is always better to practice each on alternate days. Afterall, every exercise has its own benefits.