Archives for April 2015

April 30, 2015 By CHARMI GOGRI Leave a Comment

Stop feeding your emotions!!

Gone are those days when our ancestors considered food as a basic source for wellbeing. They used to EAT to LIVE, but things have changed thereafter and now it’s LIVE to EAT. Eating is more than something we do to nourish our bodies with vital nutrients. We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We now turn to food for comfort, stress relief, or as a reward. It’s like an activity we do out of habit, like nail biting, hair twirling, or finger tapping. Recent trends show that we habitually turn to food in response to certain emotions. Like for instance some have the habit of gorging on chocolates when they are sad or depressed. Whether you feel angry, sad, bored, or even excited—food can act as a buffer against these emotions.

Emotional eaters know that it’s easier to stuff down our feelings with each bite rather than spilling the emotions and create nuisance. Unfortunately, emotional eating doesn’t fix emotional problems. It usually makes you feel worse. Afterwards, not only does the original emotional issue remain, but you also feel guilty for having overeaten. Compounding the problem, you stop learning healthier ways to deal with your emotions, you have a hard time controlling your weight, and you feel increasingly powerless over both food and your feelings.

So coming to the point, where do you start if you want to stop eating emotionally?

But, before that ever wondered why we turn to food when emotionally distressed? Here is a short explanation to make you more aware. When we eat food, chemicals are released from the food in the body. These chemicals have a strong impact on our emotional health, since food and mood are intricately connected. We feel sadder when we’re hungry due to lack of neurochemicals in the brain. To elaborate, through eating we experience changes in serotonin, endorphins, and dopamine levels in our brain – all of which control our moods. Sugar, for example, causes serotonin in the brain which makes us feel more balanced and equitable. Anti-depressants uses this same chemical mechanism to improve moods. So coming back to point, How and what do we do to deal with this?

The first step is awareness, recognizing what triggers you to eat emotionally—and WHY?

As I mentioned earlier, People eat for many different reasons. What situations, places, or feelings make you reach for the comfort of food? Each time you reach for foods (or even feel a craving come on), ask yourself, “Am I really hungry or am I just responding to something else that is happening?” If hunger isn’t the reason, it’s not always easy to pinpoint the reason why you feel like eating. By tracking your food (and related notes) more regularly, you could notice trends, like a tendency to overeat on Mondays, for example, and then pinpoint your true feelings from there. Ask yourself what it is about Mondays that leads to overeating (Stress from getting the kids to school? Anger over going to a job you hate? or holiday deprived ?) Notice if you tend to munch in the evenings. Is it out of boredom, loneliness, anger, sadness, anxiety or an unhappy relationship? Once you identify your emotional eating triggers, the next step is identifying healthier ways to feed your feelings.

It’s not enough to understand the cycle of emotional eating or even to understand your triggers, we need to proceed to step 2 which explains you to feed your feelings better. In order to stop emotional eating, you have to find other ways to fulfill yourself emotionally. You need alternatives to food that you can turn to for emotional fulfillment.

Some alternatives you can test out are: Call someone who always makes you feel better, play with your pets or kids, or look at a favorite photo or cherished memento whenever you feel low, depressed or lonely. If you’re anxious, expend your nervous energy by dancing to your favorite song, squeezing a stress ball, or taking a brisk walk in fresh air. If you’re exhausted, treat yourself with a hot cup of tea, take a bath, go to a spa or massage, light some scented candles, wrap yourself in a warm blanket or take a break and enjoy the weekend getaway. If boredom kills you, read a good book, watch a comedy show, explore the outdoors, or turn to an activity you enjoy (woodworking, playing the guitar, shooting hoops, scrapbooking, etc)

Last step to deal emotional eating requires long term modification i.e. healthy lifestyle habits. When you’re physically strong, relaxed, and well rested, you’re better able to handle the stone and lime that life inevitably throws in your path. But, when you’re already exhausted and overwhelmed, any little hiccup has the potential to send you off the rails and straight towards the kitchen>> refrigerator>>food. Exercise, sleep, and other healthy lifestyle habits will help you get through difficult times without emotional eating. Make daily exercise a priority.

Physical activity does wonders for your mood and your energy levels, and it’s also a powerful stress reducer. Give yourself permission to take at least 30 minutes every day to relax, decompress, and unwind. This is your time to take a break from your responsibilities and recharge your batteries for the next day. Connect with others. Don’t underestimate the importance of close relationships and social activities. Spending time with positive people who enhance your life will help protect you from the negative effects of stress.

With an arsenal of activities you can do besides eating, trekking, journaling and distracting yourself in a positive way, you’ll overcome your emotional eating problems once and for all. You might not be successful every time, but if you accept your mistakes and move forward, continuing to work on your issues consider you’re on the right path to stop the emotional eating cycle.

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 Leave a 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 34 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!