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Autonomy + Motivation + Accountability = Wellness

AutonomyPlusMotivation

Everyone knows the basics of healthy living. Eat a balanced diet. Exercise. Get a good night’s sleep. Not long ago, if you needed more guidance than that, you had to find an expert (books, physicians, etc.). They were the only ones with the tools and knowledge to help you. This was okay for people who had the time and resources to seek out that expertise but for most people it was a huge barrier. And when we’re looking to make changes in our behavior, barriers strip us of motivation.

Flash forward to the current day and we have a convergence of technologies that addresses some significant obstacles. These include:

  • Wearable Fitness Technology – Wristbands, watches, pendants, eyeglasses, and even clothing that can sense steps taken, quality of sleep, heart rate, and more.
  • Smartphone Apps – For detailed tracking of exercise, food and nutrients consumed, blood sugar level, etc.
  • Online Services – That were formerly only available to professionals such as genome testing, full lab panels and microbiome (gut bacteria) testing.
  • Internet of Things – Infrastructure that allows these technologies to talk with one another. Step on your scale and it updates the food diary on your smartphone tracker app with your weight.

The age of autonomy is here. No longer must we depend on experts to know where we stand health-wise. But is that enough? Apparently not. As noted in a previous post on this site, Rethink Wearable Tech…Fad or Future, despite the growing popularity of devices like Wearable Fitness Trackers, many people stop using them only a short time after they get them.

You see, technology hasn’t figured out when you need space and when you need a little nudge. It’s not very good at helping you explore why you’re stuck or why you sometimes regress. It does a bad job at changing and adapting with you. And, it doesn’t know how to link your goals for good health to your vision, your values. Technology is just clueless about motivation and accountability.

Enter the Health Coach. Health Coaches are the latest member of your wellness team. Unlike physicians whose role is to diagnose and prescribe, Health Coaches help you make the changes you want to make by stoking the fire you have within. And unlike Nutrition Counselors or Personal Trainers who hand over wellness plans and monitor compliance, Health Coaches partner with you to uncover the strategies that honor your values and lifestyle. They work with you to keep you accountable.

Health Coaches are experts in human behavioral change. They recognize that family, physicians, and employers may influence positive changes in health, but the real inspiration to move towards wellness has to come from you. Health coaches use a process that surfaces what is most important to you and links those values to the healthy behaviors and goals that matter most. This is where motivation comes from.

As you progress, your coach helps you create a plan to reach those goals. The emphasis on you is critical. The plan can’t be some cookie cutter nutrition or exercise program that the coach pulls from some file. It must be a customized plan that strikes a balance between flexibility, because “stuff happens,” and specificity so you can link your plan to your progress. Without a tailored plan, it’s difficult to hold yourself accountable.

Health Coaching is a new field. Research on its impact is just emerging but initial results are encouraging. These include:

And all of these studies took place prior to and without the benefit of the technologies mentioned earlier. When we combine the ability for technology to collect data in a transparent way with the skills and knowledge of a professionally trained Health Coach, some magic starts to happen. Health Coaches know you as a person and can figure out when you need space and when you need a little nudge. Health Coaches excel at helping people explore why they’re stuck or why they sometimes regress. Health Coaches understand that wellness goals must change and adapt as you change and adapt. And Health coaches know how to link your goals for good health to your vision, your values.

Technology provides you autonomy. Health Coaches honor that autonomy, inspire motivation, and maximize accountability. And this combination results in a happy, healthy, and productive life.

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How important is to know ‘Self Defence’?

Self-Defense

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.

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Should we brisk walk before the meal or after?

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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!

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TRANS FAT-The biggest enemy of your heart

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I have friends who binge all the time on deep fried chips/wafers.. Its their way to satisfy their hunger. I asked them if they were aware that of why these chips feel scrumptious and crispy. Their reply was who cares we are just happy that it tastes so good.

This is not the case with only my friends, most people never bother to find out what the chips is made of, what goes into make it so tasty and crispy. Instead of creating nutrition awareness, the gimmicks around it entice people and children to buy these crispies.

Nutritional labels are overlooked. Many people don’t know how to read the nutritional label and what do the fancy ingredients mean? Even if they know they will only look for major component such as carbs, proteins, fat what about the breakdown of these macro nutrients like sugars/fiber comes under carbs.

Likewise, saturated fats/trans fat/MUFA/PUFA is also part of the Fat group. These lip smacking wafers which most people and kids gorge on area red alert for your heart! That’s because of the TRANS FAT (Bad fat). Caution- It’s a major enemy of heart!

First let’s understand what is trans fat??

Most trans fat are artificially synthesized through an industrial process that adds hydrogen molecule to vegetable oil, which causes the oil to become solid at room temperature. This partially hydrogenated oil is less likely to spoil, so foods made with it have a longer shelf life. Some restaurants use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in their deep fryers, because it doesn’t have to be changed as often as do other oils. These fats are used in making c akes/pastries/puffs/rolls, margarine, doughnuts/wafers/chip/butter/margarine etc which provides empty calories (only calories and no nutrients).

Trans fat are inexpensive and gives a desired texture and taste to the item. (yes, you got it right.. the secret behind all these irresistible things is TRANS FATS!).

What does this trans fat do in the body?

Trans fat gets deposited in the arteries making them clogged. Clogged arteries are a sign of heart disease; they increase your risk of both heart attack and stroke. Here’s how it works: Trans fats raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol levels. This contributes to the buildup of fatty plaque in arteries and lowering of your good (HDL) cholesterol levels. Eating trans fats increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke. It’s also associated with a higher risk of developing type 2diabetes by increasing insulin resistance!

How can you limit your intake of Trans Fat?

Checking the nutrition label is very important.. When the Nutrition Facts label says a food contains 0 g of trans fat, but includes partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list, it means the food contains trans fat, but less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.  The daily limit intake of trans fat should be zero. If you are buying any fod packet, please check the nutritional label for trans fat.

Here are some alternative to Trans fat:

    • Keep the usage of butter/margarine at bay. Instead use ghar ka desi Ghee. 🙂
    • Choose to eat foods that contain healthier fats, such as nuts ( walnuts and almonds), seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, watermelon, flax seeds), olives and avocados.
    • Opt for Rice bran oil, Oilve oil, Soyabean oil and mustard oil. They are a good source of MUFA (good quality fat)
    • Choose low-fat or fat-free dairy products and lean cuts of meat and skinless poultry. Keep red meat at bay.
    • Get plenty of foods that are naturally low in fat and high on fiber, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

So, next time when you grab a packet of chips or wafers, remember the above points.

From Terminal Illness To Complete Wellness! Ananda Mukherjee Health Story

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